Salute when you address that boy

This week has been fraught with occasions and activities.

But firstly, I didn’t mention last week that Cody has been accepted into the Navy. When I say accepted, he didn’t enlist exactly, he applied for a program that pays his medical school bills  in return for 4 years of service when he is done. We are very happy about this. I can’t wait to see him in uniform. Although that may be some time.

This is the best I could do as Cody does not like to be interrupted to have his picture taken while sitting around doing nothing. Anyway, congratulations.

Last week we had the meet and greet at the 2100, which continues to have a life of its own. Seriously.

So for a couple of hours everyone in the building walked around and toured the area. I have already worked both upstairs and down, so I just toured for the social benefits and to enter my name for prizes. Did I mention the theme was Wizard of Oz, and we followed the “yellow brick road” up and down and all around?

Then, just to top off the day, we had a group picture with everyone in the bldg. And look who helped out-

The Rochester Fire dept ladder brigade. So that Nick could get up in the bucket and take our picture aerially

 

Ahh, our tax dollars at work. Gotta love Olmsted County.

Mary K came out to watch the festivities and get her picture taken. I took her picture and told her I’d blog her. Notice that she is at a distance because when I told her I’d take her picture she said she would physically hurt me if I got anywhere near her with my camera.

9 weeks ago Mary had her hip replaced and look how good she is doing. Pretty soon she’ll lose the cane. Personally, I’ll be happy because she can be a little scary waving that thing around.

Anyway, she was not at all into being blogged. I explained that she needed to embrace her inner blog worthiness, and then pointed out that Laura has more than accepted her role as blog muse. See? Look at this

Look closely

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.

Let’s compare

Okay. I think I have made my point here.

So after we burned our retinas standing out there for 1/2 hour or so, they drew for prizes (I didn’t win) and then back to work. By which time it was almost time to go. I love a productive day.

Sunday was the Med City Marathon which is not going to get much mention because I did so incredibly badly. Really. I trained and felt so good about it. I love the course and have run it a couple of times. But when I got up in the morning I didn’t feel so well. And it reflected in my time, which was 22 minutes slower than last year. I had no strength and had to walk. I was too hot too. But I think that was a by product of feeling so crappy.

But I have a couple of pictures.

Cute Patty was there. So we got what is becoming our pre race ritual picture.

I lined up

I finished

And that’s that. I am still in mourning for my lost time. Laura volunteered and was posted about a mile before the finish. It would have been better to have a picture of her than of me.

Dave was kind enough to tell me that  a big fat guy finished before me, and that everyone I knew there finished before me, and possibly Mary Kraft and her cane had a better time.

I will not speak of this again.

I think part of the problem was that the Hillbillies next door messed with my feng shui.

I came home on Saturday afternoon to find this lovely addition to the view out the back

Lovely isn’t it?

Here’s a closer look. All I can say is f*#>ing Hillbillies. Dave says that it isn’t so bad, and he is looking forward to the grass growing up underneath to complete the picture.

In the big picture, it is sort of hidden. I can’t believe I can’t put a shed out back, but this thing can sit out there. Well, I hope the Jed, Granny, Jethro and Ellie Mae enjoy it.

I had some fun with Kitten. She has become my cat blog muse.

Kitten being pensive

Kitten being playful

Kitten close up.

And then I took one of Dave, out of sheer boredom, and I was testing new batteries for the big camera.

And that is the ups and downs of last week. The weather has cooled off and it rained a little, got the flowers planted and the veggies in the raised bed. Pictures next week.

It’s heating up

So, now that it’s May the temperature has soared to the 90’s, with air so thick one almost has to swim through it. However, I have central air. Blessed, central air. I spend my first six years in Minnesota without it. One gets very creative when there is no central air. Hopefully, the weekend it is supposed to cool and dry off. I have a 1/2 marathon to compete in on Sunday, and I don’t think running when the starting temp is 75 with 70% humidity is so much fun.

But there was some spring like weather that has brought my perennials out.

That’s a rose bush on the left, and then some Johnny Jump Ups (I think they are violas) and a cone flower and some weird flowers that look like this.

 

I don’t know what they are but I like them.

                               

My perennial garden in the back is coming up too.

That yellow in the front is this

Wheeeee! My heads are ready to keep watch for the summer.

Thimbleberries 09 quilt is finished and to the quilt store for quilting.

Okay, this is the first attempt at a picture. And people ask me why it takes so long to blog.

This is better. Although I still have a cat I can’t get rid of.

We had the Stay out of the Sun Run last Friday. I took 2nd in my age group. I ran the 10 K (6.2 miles) in 52.47 minutes. I lost a bit of time up the last big hills. I hate to finish that way.

We didn’t only race, though. First we had a group picture of melanoma survivors. I was all over that-hey, I didn’t have half my face removed for nothing!

Then there were bagpipers.

Then we lined up for the start.

OK, the guy in the blue shirt to the left is a guy I know from running group. Then me waving. Then behind me, the girl in the grey shirt is Nanci and next to her in pink is Katrina. They are thinking about making devil horns behind my head, but Dave couldn’t capture that image. This is as close as we get.

There were quite a few people that I knew who ran. Here we are at the finish.

Am I the only one who sweats? From left is Kris, me, Patty,  Cathy (she works in Community Well with me) Nanci, Julie, and standing on the end is Katrina. We all work for Olmsted County somehow.

Then, as I was waiting around-look who I found

Kathy Hovell!!! The one and only. Who has been in the blog before. This time she was running, but I think in the past she’s been predominately featured as race support.

Either way, I was mighty glad to see her.

Kitten says-Enjoy the week.

Pi-vot!

Well, I can honestly say that I am tired, burnt out, a shell of a person today. I think it is a telling thing when the people around you are asking when your next vacation is. And suggesting that, perhaps, you could take a few days off. And that is what they are saying to my face. God knows what’s going on when I’m not in the office. Although the straight jacket that appeared yesterday out of nowhere is somewhat disturbing.

But life goes on, and some things will never, ever change, no matter how beat up I may be. And one of them is the penchant that Laura and I have for getting up to mischief. I’m not sure we mean to, but there you have it. Somehow trouble just seems to follow us around.

What we did was this.

First of all, Laura (“I MAKE money when I shop”) found an auction that was selling office furniture. And, coincidentally, I needed a bookshelf. And we were off. Laura bid on these and won them for 15 dollars, which I thought was a steal.

It is actually a set-two of them. How incredibly exciting. Laura got some other stuff that was pretty cool, especially this table-sorry for the blurry pictures.

But I digress.

So we got the bookcases, one of which I needed quite badly to put in a secret location where I spend a LOT of time and people are trying to have me committed by suggesting a “vacation” (insert Generose here). However, at this secret location I have not been told that I can actually have a bookcase like this in the building area. However, and this is important, I have NOT been told I can’t have it either. So do you see the moral and ethical dilemma that Laura and I had when I saw these bookcases and knew they would fit perfectly, and would satisfy Laura’s unquenchable thirst for getting a deal?

And so we were off. First hurdle, however, was the car. Although I knew the dimensions would fit perfectly in the top secret location, the car? Not so much.

However, after much sweating and making Laura hold the heavy end while we repeatedly and loudly told each other to pi-VOT, we managed to put one in the car and transport it to location X.

Laura thought this was a great picture so I will include it, but she didn’t let me take a picture of her. Although, if I had thought of it first, I could have taken it while I had her trapped balancing the end on the back seat. Dang.

Of course, when we got to the place that shall not be named, we got in the back door and Laura said “We should have gone in the other way so we could go directly to the elevator” (hint hint). I had a rather blank look because I don’t think in my whole life long, in about a zillion moves, have I ever not had to manually carry furniture up stairs. So we got to the elevator and looked at each other like we were Einstein or something, and then couldn’t get our keys to work to get the thing to actually go up to the second floor. And then we were a bit worried about getting the door back open. Holy Locked In the Elevator with Contraband Furniture Batman! Well, we escaped and carried the shelf up a flight or two and offloaded it into my space where it fit perfectly AND held all my books and stuff.

I’d show you a picture, but, well, you know. It’s a secret.

Dave is #1

This weekend we took off on Friday for a long weekend up to the north woods in Wisconsin. Eagle River to be exact.

This is a fuzzy map to show you the 296 or so miles we drove.

We drove there to do the Journey’s Marathon Half Marathon Powerwalk.

So off we went. Dave hurried me Friday morning and I wasn’t as prepared for a trip as I usually am. Think not enough food or coffee on the trip. We did stop and refill the coffee, and Dave got some new shoes and wind pants which obviously gave him lightening speed.

So we managed. The weather, however, wasn’t quite as cooperative.

For all of March and April without snow, or maybe even freezing temps, last weekend it decided to snow, and freeze. So, as we drove along, it started to look like this.

It’s getting a little bit snowy and gray out. And the snow is starting to stick a little bit on the grass there. But we pushed on.

We stayed at the Eagle River Inn.

                            This is what it looks like on a nice day.

When we got there, it was more like this.

Hard to see exactly-maybe a close up

See the snow?

But we settled in. I did remember one important thing….

Yeah, uh huh. Dave is mentally preparing for the 13.1 mile walk. He also beat my score on Bejeweled, and then commented that it was ironic that he would beat me on my computer. Ok.

On Friday the view out the back looked like this

And when we got up Saturday, it looked like this.

So we decided to wear long underwear. We caught the bus and got a ride to the start.

In spite of the snow, people were in good moods and it was quite spectacular, out there in the woods.

We enjoyed it.

 

There were people in shorts and tee shirts too, but they were runners. Hopefully, they generated enough heat to last through the several temperate zones on the course.

So, off we went.

The course was really pretty, walking through the woods. We saw all sorts of sights.

Notice, sort of sunny, kind of cloudy, and of course, a little windy and snowy.

Can you see the blowy snow?

Anyway, as we got towards the finish, it got a little nicer and sunnier, because the sun always shines on the finish line.

WooHoo-we are done!

We returned to the hotel for a much needed sit down, and then went to the buffet dinner. While enjoying a cool margarita we ran into this guy who ran  the marathon in a mouse suit. We know this because he passed us. Not sure why he was in a mouse suit, but he still had the hat with him so he kindly posed with me for posterity.

He probably thought I was nuts too.

The next morning, the day dawned clear and sunny. Of course.

And when we checked the results, we saw this

Journey's Marathon 2010

Power Walk 13.1 Miles

May 8, 2010 in Eagle River, WI

Dave Melde 

division place:
1 out of 4

time:
3:12:27

pace:
14:41

Look at that-Dave is first in his age division! We set a blistering pace (almost literally) and took 24 minutes off our total time (from our last powerwalk in Sept), and 2 minutes off our pace. Man.

It was quite the weekend.

And it was a Happy Mother’s Day too.