i'm back

total miles run in september = 87.75

that's right. the boot is off. the healing is almost over. and mostly, i'm back pounding the pavement. (with a little less pounding and a little more resting this time.)

next weekend, my long run will be an 8-miler.

and now, another installment of what i learned this week.

1. i really, really like cursive. the band. not the type of handwriting. i got straight c's in handwriting in grade school. i write in chicken scratch. but i jam to cursive.

2. yellow jackets are not bees at all. they are in the wasp family. german yellow jackets like to live inside the walls of my house. and heaven forbid they ever nest there again, i may have to take out a second mortgage to pay for their removal.

3. i'm a much stronger runner now that i've been "training" other parts of my body like my core and my arms and back. i also enjoy running more when i can just relax and have fun while doing it. this helps in the "don't overdo it" department.

4. i have no idea how to pick colors for the exterior of my home. i don't know the difference between warm and cool colors. i don't understand why the wedgewood blue shutters won't go with the tawny taupe walls and ibis white trim. thank goodness i work with art directors. all of my color issues are solved. i do wonder what they think about my clothing color choices though.

5. the organic sweet cream butter from whole foods is dangerous. so dangerous that i may have gone through a stick of it last week. just me. i put it on soy crisps, which i'm sure discounts the nutritional benefits in the soy. it's so good. i just can't say no.

honey, next time, let's use our shop vac

we had a little bee problem. this is where the bees were getting in. we had used wood putty to fill the hole, but the bees found a way through. so, we called this bee keeping company.

the company representative came out to take a look. his first plan of action was to duct tape the suction end of a shop vac to our house.

there he is, explaining that the shop vac gets the bees mad and makes them come out of the hole.

once the vac had done its magic, he used a crowbar to remove the cedar shakes. go get 'em!


he put gloves on for this part because he said he could tell the bees were angry by the way they were flying. he didn't want to get stung. although, he left his bee keeper suit in the van, which made me kind of mad because the pictures would have been way cooler if he had put it on.

he found the hive here. it probably had 2,000 bees in it. and lots of larva.

he kept using that shop vac.

and there it is. the hive on the ground. and also some siding and insulation.

he put on a hoodie to protect his arms. nick suggested it.

and here is the hole in our house sans bee hive. so, for $650.00 we got rid of the bees by the professional methods of a shopvac, a crowbar and a $42 can of smoke.


i'm thinking about taking bee keeping up on a freelance basis.

one rocky weekend

so, rocky came over. and he terrorized gus. poor gus. rocky was so cute walking up to our house. only he was not the dog in the picture. no way. he was a fat pug and he sounded like a pig. but he was cute and fun and then he saw gus. and in the hour he was over, he chased gus at full speed around the yard, around the house and around the couch. he also would go behind gus and push his face underneath him so that gus' hind legs were over rocky's ears. then, while sporting the LARGEST red rocket i have seen, rocky licked poor gus' private parts.

we are not getting rocky.

we do have bees living in the walls of our house. good thing we're getting new fiber cement siding. we were walking the siding guy around the house and noticed a hole in the cedar. and bees were going in and out of it like they owned the place. gus is allergic to bees - remember the puffy face episode a year ago? so, we sprayed bee killer into the hole and patched it closed. (when i say 'we,' what i'm really saying is 'nick.')

so, the problem seemed to be solved until saturday night when i noticed a bee on the wall of the bedroom. and then another. and then another. and then i heard the buzzing. inside the wall. we had trapped the bees and they had nowhere to go but to find a tiny hole somewhere and enter our bedroom to die.

so we slept elsewhere and i had nightmares about bees and what they can do. i mean, haven't you seen "My Girl?" McCulley Culkin was toast.

so, yesterday, we bought caulk. and we caulked anywhere on the windows where a bee could get through. and so far today, we've only found one inside. i am SO ready to get the new siding.

little buddy and the bubonic plague

This is Rocky. He is coming over to meet us on Saturday. We're thinking about adopting him. How cute is he?!?!




Who watched Grey's Anatomy last night? It was great. I mean, it did go a little bit overbored in the heavy issues arena. I was totally jiving with the plot line until the introduction of the bubonic plague sub-plot. The bubonic plague? Come ON writers!! Seriously. But that wasn't enough to sway my love for all things Grey. I will be watching it weekly. Counting down the days till next Thursday.

ah, television

studio 60 on the sunset strip. this will be a great show. i may be hooked already.

and lest we not forget, grey's anatomy premiers thursday night.

rock on television, rock the heck on.

the pee fart

okay, ladies. you know what i'm talking about. you sit down to pee and then, whoops, out comes a fart. and even if it is tiny and smells like roses, it still seems louder than life because of the echo the toilet creates.

that's fine. really. until you're in a public restroom at work or somewhere and you and the only other person in the bathroom said hello to eachother before entering the stalls. that means that if one of you accidentally pee farts, the other one will know beyond a shadow of a doubt who the gass passer is.

if you are lucky enough to get into the bathroom and into a stall without being noticed and you accidentally pee fart, the correct procedure is to wait until everyone who is in the bathroom has finished thier business and left the facilities before emmerging from behind the stall door of shame.

but not if you've already been seen. not then. then you have to hold in your giggles and your mortified expression. and you have to face the other person. the person who heard it all.

i've been on both sides of the pee fart. and neither side is pretty.

men, do you go through this, too? or is it like a badge of honor resulting in well-wishing and promotions?

i might be slightly insane

every day when i get out of the shower, gus has usually gone back to bed. this means, he's in my bed all cute and sleeping in my covers. okay, typically the bedroom light is off. if i turn it on, gus usually wakes up and looks at me. the thoughts i project into his head that i believe he is thinking go something like this "okay, mom, i'm trying to sleep. can you turn of that damn light and let me sleep while you get ready for a hard day of work."

yeah.

so, today, i got out of the shower and went into the bedroom. only unlike on other days, today, the light was on. gus was kind of just laying there with this look on his face. and honest-to-god, this is what i thought, "why didn't gussy just turn the light off?"

yeah.

insane.

the battle of the floodlights and other harrowing tales.

We have a 500 watt floodlight in the backyard. At night, you could find a dropped earring in the blades of grass. It’s that bright. And I love it.

I also love to leave it on until morning. Because it makes me feel safer. And I like to look out every once in a while and make sure things look in order. You know, the tree is still there, the grass is still there and the bunny rabbits are still there.

Okay, so after about a month of leaving it on, I noticed an annoying glare coming into our bedroom window. Nick came in just as I had noticed it and said “Honey, I think they have that light on because of us.”

You see, our neighbors behind us apparently have the same sort of floodlight. And they had it turned on. At 11 p.m. And they didn’t turn it off all night.

We turned ours off though. We got the point. We felt badly. And the next night, both backyards were dark again. I guess they won the battle of the floodlights. Too bad we don’t even know their names.

Just about the same time as the floodlight episode, Gus started puking again. Twice a day. All his food. There on the floor. It’s a beautiful thing. So beautiful that I have to look away and have Nick clean it up. I decided it was the dog food’s fault, so I spent 30 minutes preparing Gus his “sick doggy” meal. It’s basically cooked ground beef, white rice and cottage cheese all mixed up into a nasty dog casserole. He also got to drink Gatorade. He was in doggy heaven. He loved being fed food that was in one of my “people pots,” he loved eating food normally eaten by “humans” and basically, he probably loved not throwing it up. After two days of nonsense, I threw the dog stroganoff away, and gave him his regular food again. Last night, he threw it up. I wonder if he did it on purpose.

He also ran in from pooping yesterday and I noticed some leftover residue on his cute little behind. So, I grabbed a paper towel to get at it and it wouldn’t come off. It was stringy and stuck. And I fear it was a tape worm. So, I pulled it out and threw it away and I asked myself how I am so okay pulling nastiness out of my dog’s butt, but how I can’t stand to even be near his puke? It’s a mystery even to me.

this

this is the background on nick's new toy. his cell phone. doesn't gus look statuesque?

wherein nick's day was made.

Before we bought our house, nick and I turned off our cell phones. For good. That was three and a half years ago. We wanted to save money for more important things like a mortgage and food. A year ago, after a two and a half year hiatus, I reentered the world of wireless. And being the good husband that he is, Nick waited patiently for his turn to jump on the same old bandwagon and also bought me an I-Pod Nano. He’s great, right? Well, he finally got his turn Saturday.

The entire event of going to the cell phone store and getting the phone he wanted made him giddy. He was glowing and bouncing and in a hurry to get there. Once there, he immediately chose the phone he wanted that triples as a PDA and an MP3 player, and then we chose the service agreement we wanted. The whole time, I was sitting there, talking to the sales guy, making the big decisions, and nick was just pretty much glowing in the moment. The cutest, best part of the entire experience happened as follows:

So, we’re sitting there at the consul, and the guy is reading us the contract, you know, making sure we knew what we signed up for. He’s going through how many minutes we get per month and how much it costs if we go over. He tells us how much Internet service costs per month and he’s really trying to up-sell us. So, he turns to a capricious Nick and says “So, do you want to send text messages?” To which Nick replies “YEAH!!” and then I kind of chuckled and was like “Hey, honey, that costs more.” To which he replied “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here.” We regretfully declined the text messaging feature and the Internet and anything else they tried to get us to sign away two years of our life on. And we signed the contract and were on our merry way. Nick is now connected and I don’t believe he has stopped looking at his new phone since he first picked it up. I think he’s smitten.

caught red-handed with greasy fingers.

So I’m on this whole organic food kick, right? And it was going really well until Nick bought white chocolate m&m’s and my mom brought over homemade salsa and Fritos. Screw the salsa, I’ve totally binged on the Fritos, which I’m convinced I could live on if I truly had to. I must have eaten my weight in them yesterday. But that’s not all. In between balancing the chips out with a healthy whole grain organic bread sandwich with an egg (a complete source of protein), hummus, cucumber and tomato and a healthy dinner of organic beans and rice, I indulged in several handfuls of candy-coated white chocolaty goodness. Yeah. So what have I learned? I can’t have Fritos anywhere near me. I have absolutely no discipline if they are in the picture. My will power to “just say no” is worthless. I am a slave to the fried delights. A slave.

fortitude

She waits for autumn
when the sky darkens earlier
and the leaves ripen
to shades of red and hues of gold.
She waits for yards to be set
on hot pink fire
and for driveways to be cloaked in blood orange.
For nights with breezes that cut
deep.
For a chill that is the reason
wool coats exist-
and goulashes
and turtlenecks
and mittens.
Because autumn leads to winter
and winter means snow
white
cold
covering
thick
snow
that makes even the darkest night
brighter.

a september tailgate

it's september and that means it's time for college football. we went to the game in columbia this weekend. nick's grandpa and uncle were there, too.

and rob. he was there, too.
and paula. paula and rob were good at flipping the meat.

i made pasta salad with sundried tomatoes. cilantro, garilc and parmesan.

nick and i brought light pink chairs. paula and i sat in them.

the grill was hot and this sandwich got burned. and so did murray state. go tigers.

gus butt

we had just returned from a walk, and gus was worn out. he likes to sleep on our butts. i like it, because it keeps me warm.