My day...

...started out with my 3.5 year old niece, Evie coming over.  Julie is out of town and Mike had to work for a few days, so they asked if I could tend Evie while Mike was at work.

She got here about 8 o'clock and we had breakfast of Lucky Charms.  Next she helped me feed the kitties and feed Chewy.  After that we went out and fed the chickens and gathered eggs.  It was cute to listen to her questions.  She wanted to see Fuzzy.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that Fuzzy died, so I told her we gave Fuzzy away to someone who could take better care of her.  I felt bad fibbing to her, but I didn't want to ruin a bad day.  Sometimes, white lies are okay...I guess.

We came back inside and by then Grampa was up.  She helped me get his socks on and get him his medicines.  Grampa wanted an English muffin with butter, so Evie helped me with that too.  I let her put the muffins in the toaster, but then I took them out when they were done.  I got the butter out and put it on the muffins and she spread it for me.  She did a really good job.  After we got Grampa all settled in we went and played with the trains.

We had fun playing with the trains, but when she got tired of them we went and did some coloring.  I colored Dora while she colored Lightening McQueen.

Next we read some stories and then more trains.  We were playing with the trains when Mike showed up to pick her up.

Mike asked me if I would be willing to tend her again in the future, I said I'd be happy too as long as there is nothing going on with Grampa.  I think she might be over next week.  YAY!!

I love my Miss Evie.

Me and my monkey (fiction)

Me and my monkey

There’s a monkey sitting in the corner watching me.  Really, there is. 

 I woke up this morning to find him staring at me.  He’s kind of cute.  He, well I think it’s a he, is a rusty shade of orange.  He has fuzzy hair that surrounds a soft tan face with small brown eyes.  He looks like an oversized stuffed animal. However, he’s alive. I know he’s alive because he makes a soft grunting noise every now and then.

I watch him as he watches me.  He scratches his bum and flicks his tail.  His eyes never leave me and he never leaves his spot in the corner.

How did this monkey end up in the corner of my room?  I don’t know, but for now I’ll just keep watching my monkey.  

 My monkey and me.

What have I gotten myself into...

Mike and I used to run fairly regularly. Frequently enough, so that we could do a couple of two mile races at the Foggy Bottoms Race in Ferndale.  The last time we ran regularly was probably two years ago.  Long enough ago that the running muscles, the heart and the lungs are way out of shape.

Because of the lack of training, what Mike said this weekend surprised the heck out of me. He piped up and said, "I want to run a half marathon next summer."  The first thought that went through my mind was, "He's freakin nuts".  The next thought was, "why not?".

Yesterday we began our training.  We walked/ran 1.2 miles.  We went from our house to Utah Avenue and back.  That's not much of a distance and I think we did 50:50 ratio of walking to running.  It took us 21.10 minutes to do this distance.  Slow, I know, but hey for the first day, I'm pretty happy. I have to admit it felt really good to be moving again.  I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be when we got back.  A nice soak in a warm bath tub, a spray of muscle rub on my calves, and I felt pretty darned good.

Today I still feel good.

Our plan is to cross train on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays we will do a 10 minute walk/run.  On Sundays is the long run.  This next week it will be a distance of 1.5 miles.

As the weeks go along we will increase training times and distances.  According to the training guides this should have us ready for a half marathon easily by next summer.  That I will believe when I see.

15 minutes of ickiness

Yesterday, did not quite start out the way I wanted it too.

As I was coming downstairs, the kitties decided they wanted to run full force down the stairs.  That was all well and good, but they also decided that going through my legs was a wonderful idea.  Well, it wasn't so wonderful for me.  I was carrying my laptop.  To keep my balance, I dropped my laptop.  I stood dumbfounded as I watched it bounced not down one stair, but down four stairs.  A loud gasp escaped my mouth.  I hurried down the stairs and picked up my beloved laptop. I inspected it and didn't see any external damage. So, I walked over to the chair, sat it down, and opened it up.  Pushing the start button, I hoped for the best.  While it was going through the boot up process I decided to go to another chore.

I walked into the laundry room and scooped up all the dirty kitty litter.  Even though they tripped me, they do deserve to have a clean potty.  After I got it all nice and clean and all the odoriferous stuff put in a plastic bag, I picked the plastic bag up off the floor.  At this point the bottom of the plastic bag decided to rip out.  All the nastiness I had scooped up was now scattered all over my laundry room floor.  I grabbed the broom, cleaned it all up again and re-bagged it.  As I was walking back through the house with the double bagged doodies, I noticed one of the cats had vomited on the hallway floor.

After depositing the bag of poop in the wheelie bin, I went and got the carpet cleaning equipment.  I cleaned the vomit up, bagged it up, and headed back to the wheelie bin.

As I deposited the bag of puke in the wheelie bin, I looked outside only to find that the dog had not just chewed up a doggie bed, but had annihilated it.  The insides were scattered all over the back yard.  It looked a bomb of green fluff had gone off.  What made it bad, was this wasn't even her bed she had destroyed.  It belonged to Bella who we had been doggy sitting the previous week.  Sigh.  At that point, I gave up.

On the upside, the computer survived.