I'm Back!

Way-ell. Long time no see, huh?

Sorry about that, folks. Things have been crazy at work and I didn't have any time during the days last week to write. And when I came home, more often than not, I ended up putting in a few hours of work as soon as dinner was through. I'd like to believe you were all distraught without my regular posts, but something tells me you managed just fine. :)

It was a little difficult for me not to be able to blog last week because I had a lot I wanted to share. I kept drafting posts in my head on my runs or as I performed the more mindless tasks at work, but they never had a chance to materialize.

So here are my updates:

1. Work
I've been creating an internal website for our department. This is why things have been so crazy; it's an all-hands-on-deck sort of thing and I ended up taking the lead on this initiative (you're not supposed to bash coworkers online, so I won't get into why this was necessary). It's been a challenging project, mostly because I have absolutely no experience with SharePoint Designer (or, hell, SharePoint in the browser). I've done a little digital illustration for this, but since logos and graphics aren't very high priority and my department doesn't possess any great graphics programs, I've had to work on this at home. On my time. And it takes forever because I'm brand new to vector art. Here's an in-progress drawing:

I need to add shadows and depth this this graphic, which I started to do last Thursday...but then the program crashed and I lost 2.75 hours of work. I posted about it on Facebook, hoping that sharing my frustration would make me feel better. But it was almost worse when I got a comment from one of Pete's friends, "Ctrl + S every 15-20 minutes." Ooohh. I really wanted to respond with, "REALLY??? How did I not know about this wondrous command called SAVE? You have revolutionized my world, Sir!" But that didn't seem fair. I mean, I just knew when I made my status update that someone would write something like that, even though EVERYONE knows you're supposed to save constantly and NO ONE remembers to. So instead, I went on a 4-mile run the next morning.

2. Running
The pent-up frustration from the night before led to one of my best runs ever--four miles in 42 minutes. That's an average pace of 10:29 min/mile. It was also my third four-mile run that week. I'm really trying to push on pace and distance. The Warrior Dash is coming up and Pete informed me a few weeks ago that he wasn't able to register in our time slot, so he's starting an hour after us. I have no idea how long the Dash normally takes, but a friend of mine who ran the MN one in July said it took her a little over an hour. If it takes me that long, Pete will miss witnessing my jump over fire. Which isn't a huge deal, but it is. So I'm going to be push push pushing on my runs until September.

3. Cosmo
Has developed a penchant for digging holes, bless his little heart. He also went in for his "big boy" operation today. The vet called Pete and told him that Cosmo was out of surgery (at like 11 today), and doing fine. He's going to be sore and a little groggy this week. I'm working from home tomorrow and Thursday to keep an eye on him.
Also, we're thinking about training Cosmo to be a therapy dog. I really want to get back into volunteering--aside from teaching at church, I haven't done much since I left Madison and quit the Optimists (like I did a whole lot of good through them anyway). I would love love love to work with sick kids, so I started poking around on the St. Jude website. I saw a snippet about therapy dogs and it got the ol' wheels spinning. All we have to do is solidify the training we've already done with Cosmo and then go through an evaluation. And wait until he's a year old. So that's one of our goals for the next six months.

4. Friends (part 1)
She JUST posted on Facebook this morning, so anyone who reads this blog and cares probably already knows, but I found out last week that one of my good friends (and bridesmaids) is pregnant. I can't even begin to express how happy I am for her. And I'm so frigging excited to meet this kid. Gillian, my friend, is brilliant. And hilarious. And so is her husband, Clint. Gillian was one of my many inspirations for losing weight--and an important one at that. When I first met her, she probably weighed close to 250 pounds. Over the next two years, she shrank down to about 155--and she's pretty tall, maybe 5'7"/5'8". I know this might get a little long, but I have two stories for you:

Gillian and Clint Discover the Baby
It had been a fun night of drinking (Gillian is an avid fan of beer and whisky), and Gillian and Clint just weren't ready to pack it in yet. "I kind of want some Southern Comfort," Gillian said to Clint.
"OK, let's hit up the liquor store," replied Clint.
"We should also get a pregnancy test," said Gillian, "Because I've felt a little crampy tonight."
"OK," said Clint, "Where should we go first? Target or the liquor store?" said Clint.
"Probably the liquor store," said Gillian.
"Well, Probably Target," said Clint.
A little while later, Gillian walked out of her bathroom and said to Clint, "Well I guess we don't have to run to the liquor store."

Melora Talks to the Baby
Gillian and Clint were visiting his brother down in Alabama. One day, they went to the beach, with their nieces. One of the girls, Melora, ran up to Gillian from the water and said, "Auntie Gillian? Can I talk to the baby?"
"Well, sure," said Gillian. "It's pretty little, but I think the baby can hear you."
"Should I tell the baby I love it?" Asked Melora.
"Yeah, you can tell the baby you love it."
"Should I say 'toilet'?"
"What? You want to say 'toilet' to the baby?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I guess you can say 'toilet,'but I don't know if the baby will know what that is."
"A toilet is where you go poop and pee, Auntie Gillian."
---
When Clint and Gillian leave for work in the morning, Clint tells Gillian he loves her and says, "I'll see you later," then leans down close to her belly and says, "And as for you: Toilet."

5. Friends (part 2)
Pete and I went to Des Moines this past weekend for a friend's wedding. Pete got to witness downtown Des Moines for the first time this weekend. All six buildings. (I kid, I kid!). It was so fun to see everyone, but it made me seriously sad that I moved away and missed our senior year at Drake. I promised the McNurleners that I'll be visiting sometime soon...after all our already-scheduled trips.

6. Weigh-in
Last Wednesday's weigh-in was a disappointment: I gained a pound. It wasn't that devastating, however, because I kind of expected it. I lost two pounds the week before, and I always have a gain following such an excellent loss. I do feel bloated lately, and not very excited to stay on plan. I did not track the day of the wedding, and I feel very guilty about that. It's so hard to stay on plan when you're traveling and eating out. I was complaining to Pete yesterday that I just wish I could trust my instincts with eating only what I need and my body to do what it needs to do with the food I eat. I'm sick of writing everything down and tallying everything up. I think I need a kick in the pants.

OK. That was my (long) update. I plan to get back to regular posts this week, so hopefully we won't have to sit through something like this again! Thanks for your patience!

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