Life can be crazy

I feel like my life is pulling me in lots and lots of directions.

And my exercise routine is suffering. I don't want it to, but seems like I have too much going on, between the travel, the voulnteer work, the travel, the spending quality time with hubby, family and friends, the travel, the laundry and housework, etc.

I'm signed up to run a half marathon on the 4th of July. I was pretty excited to do so, and had a training plan put together, but I've skipped a lot of the runs. Or shortened them.... and did a 150 mile bike ride during the middle of the training.

I know I will finish, but I don't think it's going to be pretty. As in, I will probably average 12 minute miles. And I know I can do better. That's the frustrating part.

I'm in Harvey, ND right now. I know, where is that? It's 70 miles south east of Minot. I will be getting up to run tomorrow morning but I don't want to over-do it.

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On the diet front - I'm trying a couple of things.

number one - I am not eating in any vehicles. One of my downfalls is mindlessly munching while I am driving down the road. Seriously. I CAN take some time to pull over somewhere and eat. I managed an 8 hour drive yesterday without snacking. It can be done. (for clarification, this does not include drinks or gum - but the drinks must be low/no calorie, as in coffee or diet soda)

number two - I read something about a "no S" diet. No sugar. No snacks. No seconds. Except for days that start in "s". (S can also mean a special occasion.) It's more about being mindful of your eating, and cutting down on some of the crap and sweets that just contribute to cravings and crap eating. But it lets you live your life.

Last night I actually had a fairly decent meal in Minot, at Perkins. It was a grilled chicken breast with mushrooms and swiss cheese, on a bed of rice, with two sides (I chose broccoli and spinich). And the veggies were honestly good. I tend to avoid restaurants like that... but food like that might make me change my mind.

On that note, it's off to the hotel... where there is no internet. Guess I will watch the movie I have with me, and work on an afgahn for one of the four sets of friends that are getting married in October. Yes. Four October weddings....

~a

Sometimes I really wonder

I wonder about my husband, or more accurately, what he really thinks.

I accused him of having ADD the other day. I asked him if we could make a deal - I would cook him some dinner (I had already eaten) if he would work on clearing off the dining room table. He agreed, or more accurately, he didn't say "no". So I'm getting things prepped to cook, and he disappears. I find him on the computer... checking e-mail.

So I herded him back to the table.

About 10 minutes later, he was back at the computer - he had found a membership renewal that was due that day or the following day that he asked me if I had paid it - I said I hadn't gotten to it yet, so there he was doing that.

I asked him why it was so difficult to spend 25 minutes doing one task. I told him that I knew it wasn't something that he enjoyed doing - but really, I don't really enjoy washing dishes or scrubbing toilets... but I do that. I think he got the point, because he went back to work.

____________

Yesterday, I got a call in the morning, to see if he had left the two containers of leftovers at the house, because he couldn't find them when he arrived at work.

They weren't at home, and they weren't with him.

I think he put them on the back of the truck while he opened the door, and they are now somewhere along the side of the road.

____________

And yesterday evening I offered to make him somthing for dinner before I had to leave for a meeting. He said no, because he wasn't hungry.

Gave him some options, told him what was there to make.

I get home, he has gone to Subway. Which I had headed him off the night before saying that we had food in the house. Seriously. We have bread. We have cheese. We have tomatos. We have all that stuff. But no. Mr. Instant gratification cannot make himself a sandwich.

_______________

So I got up and made him pasta with spagetti sauce this morning to take for lunch. Becuause he no longer has leftovers - they are on the side of the road.

I tell him
"I must love you"

He says
"I think you just want me to eat food we already have in the house"

I ask
"so how does buying yourself fast food help you to save money for that certain item you want?"

With his head down:
"it doesn't"

_____________

I get frustrated with him... but I still somehow love him. Sometimes I wonder why, but he has his moments.

~a

It was just too cute not to share

“Trespasser” rescued from CP track
Waddler gets away safe and sound.

When S&C Maintainer Ian McLarty was hi-rail testing on the Broadview Subdivision, he noticed a family of waterfowl crossing our right of way. Just as they were about to finish crossing safely, Ian overheard a "chirping" sound and noticed one of the siblings got stuck. With some gentle assistance via "a little push" the family was reunited.


And they lived quackily ever after…

A day off

Of work that is...

It's Good Friday, and it is oneo of our holidays for the year, so the plan is to get in a long bike ride, then to sit in front of my computer and work on Jaycee awards.

On the food front... I have logged food since Saturday. (Okay, so I need to go back and log my food for yesterday - but it will be done).

I even logged all of the food I ate on Wednesday. It was not one of my finer moments. I was traveling, and I had packed food for myself, healthy stuff for on the road, but the entire day I felt hungry. And I hate it when that happens. I tried to be "good", I honestly did - even passed up more unhealthy stuff at the gas station for a single serve package of baked chips. But when I got home at 8:30pm, after 7 straight hours in the car, I caved: Ice Cream (I went back for seconds on that), Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and lots of chips and salsa.

The success is that I logged it all.

And, I got up the next morning and went for a run before work. Of course with spring allergies, I couldn't breathe. I did a bit of walking on my 2.5 mile loop, because I was gasping for oxygen. Love the weather, but hate the crap in the air!!!

Last night, I was at an event that was sponsored by the Friends of the St. Paul Library, and there is a black and white photo exhibit at the James J Hill library in downtown St. Paul, and I have to say that the photos are absolutely and completely amazing. Like as I was looking at the photos, and going to the next, it took my breath away and gave me goose bumps.

On that note, it's a Friday off of work, but I still have things to do!

~a

Just another week

But I think this last week was better than the week before.

Friday was kind of an "ugg" time for me. I worked pouring wine at a wine tasting. And at the end, my feet were killing me. Yes, I was standing on a tile floor, and wearing heels, but yanno, I don't like it!

After picking up my husband from the convention center, we decided to just go home and not out to the bar with the "group" but he still wanted something to eat. So I asked him to get me something too... so he got me a large fries from McDonalds. Which I proceeded to eat the whole thing at 10pm - then off to bed. Not one of my wisest choices.

Saturday, meeting my running group, I just was not having a wonderful day, or so I thought at the time. I did go out and run 4.5 miles, but my heart was not all in it. But, even with a couple of walk breaks, it took me 53 minutes to run that 4.5 (okay, actually 4.6), and when I was running, my Garmin told me that I was running sub 11 miles. I just need some sort of plan. When I have a plan laid out in front of me, I am more motivated to exercise. So it needs to happen.... and I talked to my running coach, and she will be working with me to put together a plan. I am doing the MS150 in June, and a half marathon in July.

And after the food debacle on Friday, I decided I need to change that behavior too. Contemplated doing South Beach again, but I knew I was probably going to attend a pancake breakfast on Sunday.... I know. Excuses.

On Saturday, I started useing an application on my iPod touch again. It's called Lose It! And it is a program where you can log food/calories and exercise. And when I am using it, I seem to do better. I HATE logging food, but I have pretty much come to the conclusion that this is what needs to happen to have my life (hello carbs), not have to figure points, and I already carry the tools with me.

Not to say that I will always be perfect. But if I want to lose the weight, I need to do better.

And this morning, the scale showed that I was down 1 pound from last Monday.

Baby steps. Accountability. And a plan.

Sounds simple, right?
~a

Fessing up

I'm scruffing the floor with my toe, and hanging my head.

As with quite a number of other "healthy" initiatives, I have not kept up with the latest initiative, namely the exercise thing.

It's just been a half-assed effort, and I am finding reasons and excuses to park my bottom on the couch in the living room, in front of the television.

So here's a couple of the excuses:
1. A vacation trip to Los Vegas. We walked and walked and walked. The mornings I got up to run, about 2 in the afternoon I was about ready to sit for a couple of hours, because I was so exhausted.
2. Daylight savings. I prefer to get up in the morning and exercise, but an hour earlier???? Yep. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened.

I feel like I have kind of failed. And it makes me both sad and angry, all at the same time.

I should know what I need to do. In fact I'm pretty sure I do know what to do. I just have to stop making excuses and do it.

On a related note, I've kind of accepted the fact that I am the size that I am. I bought myself some new pants and jeans in a larger size, and put all of the stuff that is now two sizes too small in a box. Perhaps if I'm not miserable in my clothing, and I feel better about how I look, that will help to motivate me.

It's the start of a new week. Time to start fresh again, and do the things that need to be done.

~a

Status Update

Wednesday - got up at the hotel, got in 3 miles on the treadmill
Thursday - at home, worked out on the bike in the basement
Friday - at home before my 7:30 am conference call, did 30 minutes on the bike in the basement
Saturday - in Kansas City, ran 5 miles.

Sunday - a day of rest. You know that the 40 days of Lent does not include Sundays, right?

Thursday was an incredibly busy day at work. I was trying to get everything done to be able to "take the day off" on Friday, as I had worked my holiday on Monday. I had gotten into the office at 7:30am, had two off-site meetings, back in the office, phone calls, reports, etc. Left the office about 5:30, headed home to get things in order for my 6:30 Jaycee meeting. Frazzled was an understatement.

Friday I drove down to Kansas City. Along the way I took two conference calls, then ran into weather that was pretty much complete crap. And to top it off, just before I got into Missouri, the car started making a strange rattling noise, and I could feel a bit of a shaking. When I pulled into a rest area, I looked under the car, and the skid plate on the front of the car had come loose and was dragging. I called triple A, who told me that all they could do was have it towed somewhere. So I got out the jack, and lifted up the front of the car to see if I could remove it. Of course I didn't have the right tool.... went and asked the guy who was running a snowblower there if he had a hex nut driver. He wasn't sure what that was....

Anyway, as he went to go look for some tools, a nice young man who was driving by asked if I needed any help, so I took him up on his offer - the snowblower guy came by with a tool kit that had some allen wrenches, and the other young man pulled out a floor mat to lay on, and took out the three screws that remained holding on the skid plate.

It took me about 12 hours with all of the trials and tribulations to make the drive to KC, when in good conditions, you can make it in a little under 8.

I was in Kansas to attend a baby shower for a friend that I have known since Jr High. It was good to see her - she's 40 and having her first child, so being there was also interesting. My sister was there also, she is worried that our friend is not prepared enough... she's due at the end of March, but they still had not gotten the bed moved out of the bedroom that is going to be the nursery, we put togheter the crib and the pack and play, and I guess my sister took her shopping and made her purchase a number of other items she needs. Not that I know these things, as I've never had babies...

And the drive back home today was also interesting. Through most of Missouri, I was driving about 40 mph on the freeway, the roads were slushy/icy/snowy and not fun at all.

I do have to brag about my husband, though - when I called him as I was leaving, I asked him what was for dinner. So he spent the day preparing me a meal: Bruchetta as an appetizer, salad, lasagne (meat lasagne for him, veggie lasagne with whole wheat noodles for me), garlic bread, and Creme Brulee for desert.

Probably didn't need all of the calories, but I was not going to turn it down!

I'll be back burning calories in the morning!

~a

The power of 40

Hi.

I thought I should probably write something again.

You can tell I haven't been in the groove lately. As in, when I feel like things are going well, I feel good about myself, and I'm actually eating right and exercising on a regular basis, I have a tendancy to write.

So I'm making a committment to myself.

To the power of 40.

40's just a number, right? 40 - that's how old I will be this year. 40 - that's about how many pounds I would like to lose (of course I'll take the 25-30 that I gained in the last couple of years.) 40 - that's how many days there are of Lent.

So here's the plan:

For the 40 days of Lent, I plan to exercise at least 20 minutes a day. And that means each day, not 40 every other day (even though it would fit into the theme of "40"). And as I can, I will try to update here on how things are going.

~a

Did you know I ran a marathon?

I did.

That was me, crossing the finish line, hugging my husband with the "official" clock reading something line 5 hours and 25 minutes.

(And I say "official" clock, as it wasn't the big clock hanging over the finish line - that crapped out at 4 hours and 72 minutes... so they had another clock that they had taken from hear the beginning of the 10-mile race set up right next to the finish line - I know these things, as my husband runs the clock at the finish line.)

And how do I feel about it?

Honestly? Kind of ambivalent. Isn't that a funny sentiment? But that's it folks - my feelings are kind of, been there, done that. Crazy that 6 months of training will get you a feeling that is best described as "eh". I thought I would feel different, like I had really accomplished something, but .... you get the picture.

I guess it comes from having the IT band problems through the last half of the race, and all of the walking I had to do because of the pain. I really wanted to RUN the marathon. Not walk more than a quarter of it. Maybe that's it. I know I can get a better time, but I don't really want to spend the time training for another marathon. I want to run because I enjoy running.

I guess it's back to the short races, like 10K's and half marathons. Now I just have to get off my ass and get back running.

Minnesota weather - can you please help me out?

~a

New shoes

I got myself a new pair of running shoes on Tuesday, but that's not the really interesting part of the story....

So, Curtis (my stepson) is in town, between his AIT and his assigned duty station in Texas. and he wated to see us, go out to dinner, that sort of thing, and in talking to him I mentioned that I needed to get a new pair of running shoes. He said that he needed a new pair too, so we made some plans to go shoe shopping before we went out to dinner.

I took him to a local running store, where I just happened to have a 25% discount coupon, which turns into 30% if you donate a pair of old shoes so he could be fitted. We get there, and I know exactly what I want, but say that Curt needs to be fitted. I should also mention that he is wearing his army uniform, and he was very cute walking around the store...

So we start talking about what he has had and what he would like. I say that we got him a pair of Asics in December, a stability shoe. Curt says that he wears a 9.5. I pipe in and say that the shoes we bought him were a 10.5. The lady helping us has him walk a bit to see how he walks to get him in the right type of shoe, then goes to get three different brands of shoes for him to try on. In a 10.5. As he is trying on shoes, I am talking to him about how he sould really get some good socks along with the running shoes, because socks really do make a world of difference. The store helper agreed with me.

After Curt had decided on a pair of shoes, a pair of Saucony's this time, she says to him: "if you like this shoe, but don't remember what kind it is, we keep the information in our store computer, so you can just tell your mom to pick you up another pair of shoes".

Yep. I'm a mom. I guess it had to happen sometime.

~a

Work

So I was intereviewed at work, about a visit we made to another railroad, and they sure made me sound good!

Sharing industry best practices makes railway operations safer for all

It is common practice for railway companies to share industry best-practices -especially those that work to improve the safety of our employees and the communities that are close to railway tracks. One such instance recently happened on August 18 and 19 when Norfolk Southern hosted CP in a benchmarking session designed to identify best practices and areas of improvement.

Some of the areas that were covered included:
* Management/Supervisor accountabilities and responsibilities related to safety
* Proven safety practices to lessen train accident and personal injury frequencies * Practices and rules used to prevent collisions between on-track maintenance equipment

CP shone brightly with respect to the quality of our safety programs and processes. One area of opportunity was in the consistent delivery and execution of safety programs and processes. This is currently being reviewed and will be incorporated into our 2010 Safety Plans. "Having the chance to observe Norfolk Southern's industry-leading safety practices and processes was reassuring in that our focus on safety is very similar. While NS has the lowest frequency of personal injuries, we know that with time and consistent effort and dedication, CP too, can attain similar levels," explained Anneke S, safety advisor, based out of St. Paul, MN.

"Fundamentally, all railways are similar in that they try to do everything possible to ensure the safety, health and well-being of their employees. At CP, we will continue doing what we've always done: strive to do better." Working together and sharing best-practices not only benefits our employees with safer working conditions, it also makes the communities along our right of way safer. S added, "the sessions are about everyone sharing information and helping each other out -they're not about being critical, or laying blame; ultimately, these sessions exist to make the work environment safer for everyone, regardless of which company you work for. In the end, it's not about us vs. them; its about the railway industry being safer as a whole."

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thought I would share...
~a

Dear Blog

No, I am not breaking up with you... it's just been a long time, and I thought it was time to spend a little time here.

One of the reasons I have stopped chatting, is that I feel like I don't have a lot to say.

Of course another reason is that I have cheated on you a bit, with that thing called "Facebook".

So what has been going on? Really, this and that. Seems like my time gets put somewhere or another...

But really my life as of late, has consistede of mainly three things: Work, Running, and Jaycees.

Work:
It's been busy. My counterpart in the U.S. decided to go back to his old job, so I have been trying to do some work on that service area, and keeping tabs and calm the two people that they have working a temporary assignment in our department. And they keep throwing more projects at me. And my managers have finally decided to take my advise, and have me help them out with their incident investigations. Shocker of shockers - do it right the first time!

Running:
Had a bit of a time there... the right knee has given me problems the last couple of weeks. Did a killer of a run about 5 weeks ago. 18 miles, in stinkin' hot humid weather. I was that girl with a fork in me, I was DONE. So much so that I managed to FORGET MY iPOD on the ground at the place where the running group meets. Luckly, one of my friends noticed it and I got it back. That would have put a topper on the day, let me tell you!

But back to the knee. Had a 19-mile run set up with folks from our group, doing a fair portion of the marathon route, for traning and all that sort of thing. My knee started giving me problems at about mile 14 or 15, but I preservered. At about mile 16, where some fabulous ladies from the running group had set up a water/encouragement stop, I debated if I should continue or not. And I did. The last mile was killer. Until my whole knee went kind of numb. But I got to 19 miles. I could have gone further, had it not been for the knee. It stiffened up, so I took it easy that week, and then I tried to run 12 on my birthday, the 5th of September. Not good. Ran 6 walked 3. Went to visit the chiropractor, who told me he could get me in shape to run the marathon... it was an IT band problem.

So, I've been seeing him 2 or so times a week, and I've kept exercising and running. The only thing that bothers me, is that I wasn't able to get in that 20-miler I should have done last week. I feel right now that I started my taper too early, and I'm not gonna be able to do as well as I should.

Saturday, when we were up at Lake Itasca, I went out for a long run - after doing a pretty good 5-miler on Friday. I did about 10.5 miles. Was expecting to do 12-15 miles, but holy hannah... the hills. I ran on the bike path.... I was thinking "bike path I run on those all the time... 12 should be easy peasy" but this was not your rails to trails path. It was a path in a state park where the lake was formed by glaciers. Hills, hills, with a side of hills. But that day, in addition to the run, we hiked at least 4 miles, and went up the stairs to look out the top of a fire tower.

Jaycees:
Since I'm on the board this year, I've kind of felt that I have needed to participate in more events than I have in the past couple of years. Not a bad thing, but it takes up time. And next year, I will probably be busier, since I will be the Administrative Vice President. (Basically the President's bitch, or right hand man, whatever you prefer.) I felt kind of guilty not volunteering at an event this weekend, but I gave up last weekend's activities and running for convention...

Throw in the mix some assorted projects: gardening, canning, freezing vegetables, doing some alterations on a frend's bridesmaid dress, working on an afgahn for a friend's wedding, and general houscleaning, and that is what I have been doing.

Yep. And starting to get a little freaked out.

The marathon is in two weeks.
~a

I've been boring lately

Seems like all I have been doing is going to work, exercising, and doing stuff with the Jaycees.

The workouts have been going pretty well. I like to tell people that I'm on the 6-month plan for the marathon.... which is true, since I have had a training plan for a couple of months now, and have been mostly following it...

This week, I flip-flopped a couple of the workouts - I wanted to run with one of the TC marathon sponsored running events for National Running Day, so I headed out to join the event at Como at 6pm.

The group started out slower, but built up to doing about 9:30 miles, and I kept up around the lake for the first lap, slowed down for about half the lake, then found another group of poeple that I ended up talking to, and did 9.5 to 10 minute miles... when all was said and done, I averaged 10 minute miles. Not too shabby for me!

And tonight, I rode my bicycle to book club. And I took the long way there, because I wanted to get in more of a workout. So I put in about 10.5 miles tonight on the bike. 50 minutes or so... I guess I supposed to do some "intensity" workouts (pedal hard for 1 min, recover for 2 min, etc.) but I find that really hard to do when I am out on the trails and city streets, with stopsigns and hills!

I'm also trying to use a new program I downloaded on my i-Pod, which lets me track calories and exercise, and gives me a calorie goal for every day so I can try and lose about a pound a week, since I managed to eat mindlessly enough for too long to gain 5 pounds.

I know 5 pounds isn't much, but when you are running, it is! I seem to be using the program (since Tuesday) and we will see what happens. At least it will make me eat enough calories... like last night, seeing that I hadn't had nearly enough, I had some milk and an oat muffin. It made me much more satisfied, and I think helps me to stay on track better.

We'll see what next week brings, right?

~a

garbage in, garbage out

You know, if you eat all sorts of crap, your workouts turn to complete crap.

That happened last week on Thursday. It sucked. Big time.

After a day of eating all sorts of candy, empty carbs, etc. I decided it was time to get out and run... So I geared up and headed out the door. The first mile wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good. Then I started pushing the pace a bit (as that is what my training plan calls for...) and ran to a nearby park. Considered stopping at the conviently located port-a-pottie, but decided against it, and kept running.

In hindsite, that was a bad choice.

After about 2.5 miles... I coudn't run any more. As in, my body was telling me that I needed to get myself to a bathroom, and to be quick about it. So I had to walk carefully home the rest of the way.

Eric asked how the run went...

My reply?
"Crappy, literally."

Good times.
~a

the power of 10

10 years ago. May 7th, 1999.

It was a Friday. I was moved into my first house, which I had offically bought on April 15th, and I decided to go to the Jaycee event, the first ever Meet and Greet (basically a happy hour...)

While there, I asked a guy, who I thought was kind of cute and nice, to be my partner in a game of darts. I had met him in July, when he was looking for volunteers to do crowd control at the marathon, as he was a course marshall. He had come to my "I have a house but no furniture" party on the day I closed. I asked him to play darts.

And one thing led to another...

And we've been married now for 7 years. It will be 8 in September.

Happy Anniversary to us!

~a

over doing it

So last Saturday, I had a pretty full day scheduled. And wanting to get in my long run in the morning, I headed out the door at 6:30am. The plan was for 8miles.

4 miles in, at the turn-around point, I decided to run a loop, rather than an out and back. But I didn't realize that the street that I took to do said loop, weaved around quite a bit. My 8-mile run turned into a 9-mile run. Quite unintentionally...

So my timing was off for the next place I had to be - helping out with a garden/grounds cleanup at a local community center. It's a project that I have chaired in the past, and the person who was in charge didn't really do much, so I felt like I was in charge again. So there was about 2 1/2 hours of pretty active "gardening" involved.

After that, it was off to a friend's house to help her with cleaning up her yard/pool/patio. She had been in an accident last fall, and is not able to do as much physical work as she used to, since she is still recovering from the head injury.

Eric and I came home after that, rested a bit, then headed out to a friend's birthday party. It was a pretty full day, to say the least.

So what did I do on Sunday?

Went for a 30 mile bike ride.

Yep. 'Cause I'm kinda insane.

~a

And so it begins

Last Friday, I registered for the Twin Cities Marathon. It's in the works, baby!

Saturday, I was scheduled to run 9 miles. And suprisingly, I did! Wasn't really feeling it when I got there in the morning, but decided to head out and see how I felt, it was going to be an out and back run. Ran the first 3.5 with a couple of women who were going to do 7, then actally caught up with another group that I knew was planning 9. We were pacing somewhere around 11 minute miles, which felt really comfortable, and I was good with that.

Turned around, we were all chatting and having a good time, and at about mile 6, I decided I wanted to push it a little more. I pretty much finished up the last couple of miles doing a 10 minute mile pace. Which pretty much made my day. And the best part: I was totally good the rest of the day - a lot of times when I do longer runs, I tend to crash and nap in the afternoon - and I didn't do that! Score!

I have a good training plan put together, which will encorporate both bicycling and running. I just have to prepare myself when I travel to put the bike in the back of the truck! Totally didn't get in the mid-week bicycle ride this week.

~~~~~~
On assorted other news - my mom and aunt met with my grandmother's doctor, and after grandma had told us that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's I guess the meeting went really well - if she does indeed have Alzheimer's, it is in the very beginning stages, and should be controlled with the medication she is now on. I hate to say it, but this grandmother has always been a bit of a confused lady, and what probably happened when the Dr. initially talked to her was that she told Grandma that it was possible that it was Alzheimer's.... and all she heard or understood was that it WAS Alzheimer's.

~~~~~~
I'm frustrated with Eric. I feel like the cranky mom more and more lately.... pick up your stuff, put your laundry away, and quit spending money you don't have. I got mad at him again last night... a couple of weeks ago, he spent about $500 on some more "fishing" items. Out of the joint account. Money that I had counted on to pay some bills. So I had to do some financial tap dancing, again. I was traveling at the time, and when I saw it on the bank statement, I spent about 20 minutes "yelling" at him on the phone (If you know me, I get more and more quiet when I'm angry...) with me basically telling him: Quit. Spending. Money. You. Don't. Have. And last week, he put another $150 on a credit card I had told him not to use anymore. So he paid $90 on the balance... It keeps going the wrong way. And I don't know what to do. And it seems that he just can't return any of the stuff he bought. How convenient.

So right now, I have a bunch of Post-it notes with the amounts we owe in diffrent areas (truck, boat, HELOC, Credit Cards) and they are on the bedroom mirror. So he can have a reality check on what we actually owe, instead of him having no clue, since he doesn't ever think about it.

And the credit cards are all put away, and hidden where he doesn't know where they are. Same with the "emergency" stash that he keeps dipping into because he is overspending his weekly "allowance". Yes, my husband has an allowance. It was one of the ways that we decided would help him manage money - I have no say about what he spends that on... because you have to have some money for that sort of thing...

Can you tell I'm about at the end of my rope? I told him last night I was thinking about disowning him. (Somewhat in jest... but you know....) He and his ex-wife many years ago went through a bankrupcy. You would think he would not want to go there again, and I'm scared that we are headed there if I don't get things under control.

On that note, I need to shower and go to work - We owe, we owe so off to work I go.

~a

A plan

My running coach sent me a training plan for the next three months. I didn't have the nerve to open it up to look at it. I think I'm kinda scared. But I am gonna look at it. And follow it.

Related to that... it was a long day, but I didn't let that be an excuse not to exercise. Even after getting in my truck at 6:15 this morning, driving 2.5 hours for a day of work meetings (form 9 to 4) then driving back and getting home, oddly at about 6:15 this evening. I put on my running clothes and went out. the thought in my head was an easy 3. Which actually turned into 4 miles. And even though I was trying to sit back and not push it.... I averaged 10:21 miles.

Sa-weet!

I feel like I have just been a bit of a lump lately, and I needed that.

On that note, time to hit the shower.
~a

Baby's got a new pair of shoes

I bought two new pairs of shoes this weekend, actually. A new pair of running shoes, because I'm gonna need them for marathon training, and our running group got a wonderful discount at the store we were at on Saturday.

And a pair of bicycling shoes. And pedals. Anneke has finally gone clipless, after talking about it for about two years. Eric and I brought my bike to the store on Sunday for them to put on the new pedals, and to have them show me how to get in and out of them on their trainer. Then they had me ride for a bit (on the trainer) and checked the fit of the bike, and looked at the adjustment of the seat and handlebars. And it was spot on. I guess I did something right!!!!

This weekend, I started over, or recommitted, or whatever you want to call it. The scale was creeping up to a scarier place, and it had to stop. I actually spent a lot of time in the kitchen this weekend, cooking, cleaning, prepping food, and getting rid of some of the crap I have around. I tell ya, sometimes it's hard to stay on track when your husband can pretty much eat whatever he wants with no ill effects.

And I will have a new training plan on Saturday, so there's no looking back.

~a

greetings and salutations

It's definately been a week.

Went for a great run last Monday after work... went and explored another park in my area, and got in about 3 miles. Felt great.

Then the plague set in. Headache, sneezy, stuffed up. Can we say YUK! And I just was feeling sluggish all week.

Good news is that I got up to meet my running group on Saturday morning. I wasn't sure how things would go, but figured if nothing else, I would walk. I ran. Set the pace for the 4 of us in the group, probably doing 11 to 11 1/2 minute miles. And when we had gone about 3.5 miles, we were back a Lake Como, and I decided to kick it up a step. 10 minute miles. For a mile and a half.

Not bad for the sicko who hadn't run since Monday!

I talked to the running coach of the group, and we are going to work on putting together a 6-month plan with the goal of running the Twin Cities Marathon in the fall. We'll put together a 3-month plan, encorporating some bicycling in it (to help prevent another knee injury), then will do a 3-month marathon training plan starting in July. It's gonna happen.

Other than that, things have been kind of quiet around here... work keeps throwing meetings and activities at me that are in town, and I have not gone out of town for work since the beginning of February. I spent two weeks jetting about the country for "fun" but it's been kind of weird not to have gone anywhere for work. And my boss is in town this week, and using my company vehicle to save on rental car costs, so I'm in town all week too. I'm sure things will be starting up soon, but I'm enjoying my time at home!

Eating has been kind of okay - I'm back to almost where I was before all of the vacation. The past two days I have been doing well with all Phase 2 south beach foods, but then I have book club tonight, and I am not sure what will be served. Gotta work it into real life, right? I'll accept it, and move on, and get up and exercise in the morning. No biggie.

On that note, gotta get moving and out of the house.
~a