Spouses 101

Bill was in the law school musical, (post to come) and while he was away for many hours at rehearsal, I watched a lot of shows that I'm not allowed to watch when he is home. Such as Little People Big World (I couldn't stop crying when their family friend passed away, so sad), John and Kate Plus 8 (yes, I love TLC), next on the list of banned shows was Dogs 101 on Animal Planet. I don't know if this show is necessarily banned, but I never watch it when Bill is home. When he is home, we do constructive stuff like play Rock Band, you know, have fun, because we are fun.
So the next day, I was talking to A, my co-worker about how Bill is such a great house spouse. He shops, he cleans, and does laundry. And she was like "wow, how did you manage that?" And at that moment, my brain reverted to Dogs 101, when they featured the Weimaraner. They said "Training isn't negotiable. Must be trained, and you must start early!" And I responded back to A, "you must train them, and you must do it early on."
I'm not saying my husband of almost 4 years is a Weimaraner, but I think they are onto something. But don't worry, Bill has me trained too. I know how to turn his frown upside down - with a Coke. I learned this early on. And he HATES having the sheets tucked into the mattress at the foot of the bed.
So I would like to purpose a new show to TLC (seems more humane than Animal Planet) Spouses 101. Good idea? No?

Running Update

It's time for my weekly update. This week I did 53.2 miles, and let me tell you, this was a hard week. I have pretty much gone to bed around 9:30 every night because I can't stay awake any longer. Anyway, I had a great week nonetheless, and managed to do my long run outside despite the snow. Oh and I ran with a club again in a hilly suburb and it was fantastic. I really have nothing else to say except that you should check out this link. It is pretty funny.

Celebrity Gossip

This Just in:

Kelly Clarkson Makes It Known That Celebrities Have Cellulite

Cramping My Style

I was going to post this yesterday, but I ran out of time. So the President was in the neighborhood all weekend. He was a pain in the butt. They closed off the street runs in front of his house (coincidentally, the same street we live on) to all parking for 3 days. And in place of parking, there were cop cars planted every 100 meters down the road, until you get to the concrete barricade that starts 2 blocks from his house, at that point, there are way more cops/secret service.
Anyway, I went to the gym on Monday morning as usual, and secret service starts infiltrating the the place, they set up security cameras and sent the dogs around to sniff the equipment. And then they called us all out (right in the middle of my set) and we are wanded...is that the correct term? Metal detected? I don't know. Yeah, I'm standing there with my arms and legs spread out and the dang metal detector goes off when it hits my shorts. Dang it, my ipod. I stick it in the elastic from my shorts, stupid arm band broke and I haven't replace it. I show him the ipod, and I go back to my workout.
So then later, around 8:19 AM, the President is done working out (he came after I left), so the motorcade gets into formation. You wouldn't believe all the secret service cars that came out of hiding to get into formation. They stopped all traffic, and of course the locals are honking their hearts out at the secret service. You've got to love the local south siders. A few minutes later, the motorcade takes off, including the ambulance that always comes to the gym with him, you know, just in case. So here is a picture of the motorcade blocking traffic and making me late to work, because of course the buses are re-routed when he decides to workout. Sorry the picture sucks, the cameras on cell phones, though convenient, just aren't that good.
The point is, "Mr. President, you are cramping my style, would you please stay in D.C.? Thanks."

Running Update

I had a fantastic week of running. This weeks mileage was 51 miles!! I was pretty excited about breaking 50 miles this week, especially since my program calls for 2 rest days a week. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be down below 50 for a few weeks. Anyway, I did my long run outside at this place called Morton Arboretum, which is about a 45 minute drive out to the suburbs. But it was great. There are two loops you can do, one loop that is 4.5 miles with hills and another that is 3 miles with harder hills. I was very pleased with the run, I felt great, I held a great pace the whole time, and I ran with a doctor from work and her running club. And the weather wasn't too bad, about 34 degrees. Anyway, I like running again.
This week was also great because I bought "The Stick" from a friend at work who had an extra. See picture below. You all might be skeptical, and I was too (especially because they are expensive)but it is great. It is great after a long run and you calves are aching and you can't find anyone to massage your legs. I used it after my long run, and my legs felt way better then they normally do. I'm a believer. Bill should be glad I have one so that he doesn't have to rub down my legs. But he still gets to do my blistered feet. You win some, you lose some.As for this final picture, I was googling the stick and it came up with this picture of a fish. It is so big, I had to post it. Enjoy

My Random Thoughts

Last night was the law school auction. It has an official name, but I can't remember what it is. CLI or something.
Here is Bill, the bid for a dinner at a professors house with a private chef went for around $2,000. A little out of our price range.
Here is a picture that I have on my computer. I thought I would share it with you, you might have already seen it. We were at the Grand Canyon.
My final random thought is.........skinny girls. Don't you just hate them? Hate might be too strong of a word, so let me rephrase that. Don't you think they are obnoxious. I'm talking about those skinny girls that brag about how skinny they are. For example, girl on a running forum said "I only weigh a buck (100 lbs), so I'm not going to go run when the wind is 50 mph, it might blow me away (giggle giggle)!" Hu, who cares how much you weigh? Why would you volunteer that information? Or there are the girls who talk about how small they are and how hard it is to find clothes. I think some girls use their size as a safety topic. You know, awkward silence, so they talk about "because I'm so small" or "I'm so skinny and I can't gain weight..... giggle giggle". Well listen up skeletors, nobody wants to hear about how you can't find clothes that are small enough for you or how you you can't put on weight. Shop in the kids section.So this is the end of my random thoughts, I'm sorry if you think I'm a horrible person.

Running Update

It's time for the weekly update. This week I put in 44.7 miles in, I was hoping for a few more, but oh well. Yesterday it was 57 degrees out and so I ran my long run outside and it was glorious!!!!
Well, it was glorious except for the fact that the snow that had been on the ground since Christmas time was finally melt, thus the trail was flooded in some areas. Oh well, it was still worth it.

I downloaded my Garmin onto Bill's computer and I had 1,336.72 miles on it. That is a lot of miles, and that only has warm weather miles on it. I can't wait for warm weather again.

A Day in My Life

Today I featuring...my life in photos. All of you that live far away, well know you can be with me, in photo proxy. Unfortunately, you will see that my life is pretty uneventful, so uneventful, that my pictures drop off towards the end, so I'll fill you in with words.

So, I present to you "A Day in My Life"

Wake up early, today is was 5:24, some days I wake up later, it just depends on my run for the day.

Get on the treadmill, I had to crank out 10 miles. afterwords, I'll get home around 7 and get ready for work

Hop on the CTA for work and get there around 8:30 AM

Work hard for the money, so hard for the money (no I'm not a slob, I was just working on a big project, ahem)

Continue working hard for the money with A., my coworker

Walk across campus to the bus stop at about 5. Don't you love that the sun is still out. Oh hallelujah!

High for the day was 10ish. I'm not sure, but it was cold. I'm still walking to the bus stop.

Take bus home, see previous bus picture. Get off bus and walk by cars covered with poop. Our car is one of them, but not shown in the picture.

Cass is waiting for me when I get home. He jumps on my shoulder and walks around the apartment with me for a bit.
Sorry no pictures of dinner, I cooked an acorn squash, it was underwhelming. Bill was at the "midway" dinner, since he is midway through law school.

Went to Stich n'Chat, (if you want to put it nicely.) where I worked on my next project....a knitted bikini. Oh lala!!

Pattern found in this book. Just kidding, I'm making a hat for Bill, hopefully I'll have it done before summer.

And then, I went home at around 10 pm, to find Bill locked out of the apartment. Awesome. And went to bed at about 11.

There you have it. I hope you enjoyed your day with me. You should do this too, I want to see what everyones day is like. Come on, you know you want too. It is so fun.

Ummmmmm.......Falafel

Last week, Bill and I went to this new restaurant called Chickpea. It is a Palestinian restaurant and it was might tasty. It was good for so many reasons.
#1. The falafel sandwich was delicious and only $4.
#2. They have movie posters all over the restaurant all in Arabic. (See picture of Bill with Coke sign in the background, this was the only non movie poster, but it was fitting for Bill).
#3. Free pinball machine...........for real.
#4. The restaurant chef is the mother of the owner. She came over and chatted with us for a bit.
#5. The lamb kabob and Tabbouleh were really good too.

Okay, that is enough for now. But the place was tasty and I feel the need for falafel ASAP. I'm just spreading the word, because the bird is the word, and this place was great.

Running Update

Lake Shore trail, obviously people are a lot more covered up, and lots of runners, a few cyclists

This week was a rest week, and it was definitely needed. My total mileage came to 38.4, it should have been a few miles less, but I did some hill repeats in the parking garage of my building. You do what you have to do when it is negative degrees outside. The best part about this week, was that yesterday it was warm outside. The high was 34ish degrees, so I decided to do my long run outside. The temp when I did my run was about 20 degrees with a windchill of about 15, it was warm enough (until I had to run into the wind, boo). But it was liberating, it made me remember that I don't hate running, I just hate treadmills.
And finally, I got a new pair of shoes, Asics Landreth 5. I have a couple of pairs that I rotate through, but one pair was making my arch hurt. At first I thought it was plantar fasciitis, but I stopped wearing them, and haven't had any problems since. I suppose that will give me something to look forward to, since I have a long set for tomorrow.