Bullet-time

The last few days, in bullet format:
- Friday after work - yoga, dinner, and then took the girl on a promised errand. EAR PIERCING. The first ear went fine. The second took some discussion, but we eventually left with both ears pierced, no tears, no blood, and a very happy little girl. Holy crap, shes braver than I ever was. I was 14 before i got mine done...
- Friday night, got home from ear piercing so exhausted that the whole house was in bed and asleep before 9:30. Yeah, the grown-ups too. Which probably directly caused...
- Saturday morning, 2:15am. Wide awake. No one was on Facebook or playing wwf, I'm not in the middle of any captivating book, and tv just sounded too boring, so I started thinking about stuff that needed to happen this weekend. Which led directly to...
- Complete redecorating of the kiddos bathroom. Yes, it's needed it for awhile. The toilet paper holder is mostly broken, both towel racks have come off the wall (did someone hang off these suckers or something?), the bathtub drain was clogged, and it was generally nonfunctional. And the duck theme, while totally adorable and awesome, is a bit outdated for my grade schoolers. So I spent the time between 2:30 and 5am Saturday morning planning their bathroom.
- Saturday morning - sleep till 9, bagels, run into my mom at Wal-Mart, she takes the kiddos (the kiddos basically jumped in her cart and begged) and j and I hit Bed Bath and Beyond, Home Depot, Garden Ridge, and probably somewhere else that I'm forgetting. The credit card was screaming, but we got a new shower curtain, shower rod (the cool curved kind), floor mats, towel racks, clothes hamper, shower caddies, and towel hooks for the kiddo bathroom. It took ALL DAY.
- Saturday afternoon, I dismantled the kids' bathroom, then went to a fundraiser art thing where we drank wine and attempted to paint. The wine was yummy. We're not going to discuss my "art". Let's just say that the title of the piece we were painting, "Curious Yellow Bird" was more apt then they knew.
- Today, we did the laundry/clean house thing, and hit Lowes for some paint and a few final things for the bathroom. Yes, I can't redo a room without painting it, and this room NEEDS it. Caught up with my in laws, cooked up some dinner, and finished the weekend with a 5 mile run in this finally-finally-finally cooler weather. And now? Holy crap it's Sunday night. Hello Monday - I'm not really ready for you, but I guess that doesn't matter.

Oh, and below are some "before" type pictures. Hopefully I'll have the "after" by the end of next weekend.

Almost Friday

Another busy week, almost over. I managed a three miler last night, first midweek run in awhile. My legs argued a bit, but they'll deal. I realized a few days ago that my current pair of running shoes has over 400 miles on them - d'oh! Time to get a new pair or two, the last thing I need is an injury during ramp up time.

I also managed a tennis match on Tuesday night, and hope to get another run in tonight, but we'll see how the legs feel.

Another crazy school year is gearing up, so we'll have gymnastics and baseball soon enough to go with our homework mix. No wonder I fell asleep before 10 last night - the anticipation is killing me!

Fall???

Managed to get in 4 miles this morning, and I'll be damned if I didn't find my legs somewhere in the first mile. Maybe it was because the temperature was under a bazillion degrees, maybe it was because the humidity was less then a million percent, or maybe it was because I finally threw some new music on the shuffle. Whatever it was, I'm not questioning. It worked, and it was the first really enjoyable run I've had in a long time. Not that I've been running that much or anything, but it was nice to remember how much I enjoy a good run.

The new tunes are key; I should know this by now. I ran entirely to new stuff today, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Good thing j's been on a downloading spree lately! Amazon loves us, I'm sure.

As I was running, it occurred to me that this is definitely a "weekend warrior" kinda weekend. A short run (2.5 miles) and an hour of yoga on Friday, nearly 4 miles of hiking yesterday, and a good fast (for me) 4 miler today. Even if I have trouble moving for the next days, it was totally worth it. So looking forward to some cooler weather in the (hopefully) very near future. One of these days I'll decide which races I'm doing this fall. There are three halves to choose from, one of which (fayetteville half) I've already committed to do with a friend. There's also one in Jonesboro in September and one in Conway in October. I'd be lucky to be ready for one in September, but the October one is quite possible. Maybe I'll manage to find some sort of training rhythm soon...

Pinnacle - Quarry Trail

Yesterday was a perfect day for a hike! Low humidity, temperature around 80 at the start, fantastic. I think we ended up hiking and walking somewhere around 3.75 miles, after which I took the boy to a Jump Zone party. To say he got his fill of exercise yesterday is probably an understatement. He also learned what happens when you get dogpiled by a bunch of girls - fortunately, the tooth was a baby tooth and already loose, but B was the life of the party for a few minutes. To his credit, getting a tooth knocked out hardly phased him. He took a few drinks of water, gave me the tooth, and went back to running around like a maniac. Awesome.

Today, I need a long run, the girl wants to get her ears pierced, and the boy has a friend coming over. J has also entered into a pretzel making foray (not complaining), so we have good snackage around the house. Oh, and we finished off the day last night watching meteors from the hammock, drink in hand - at least, till we started falling asleep around 10:30. Ahhhh, the perils of getting older...

Saturday hiking

Off to pinnacle today to hike. I managed to squeeze in both a short run (2.5) and 1 hour of yoga last night, so my legs are already talking to me. The 2.5 miles, albeit in 98 degrees, still spoke volumes about my conditioning - or lack thereof. "Long" runs have to start this weekend, though, so that ought to improve quickly. Pictures to come later of Pinnacle...wish us luck!

Cooler?

It finally rained yesterday. It has probably been nearly two months - no exaggeration - since we've gotten that kind of rain. We've had a couple of showers, but otherwise we've had days of 100+ weather and no rain. The trees around here are losing their leaves and many have died. Hopefully the pattern is about to change, we really need the rain! This morning, it's actually really nice on the porch - low 70s, cool breeze - is this really Arkansas?

It IS supposed to get cooler this weekend, so I'm trying to figure out where and if I want to take the kiddos hiking. Pretty sure I want to go somewhere, just an issue of where. It's sad when low 90s for a high sounds absolute divine, but after this summer, I'd take a few weeks at that temp with no argument at all.

Maybe I'll try for a longer run this weekend too. It's time to ramp it up, and I think cooler weather will help with motivation. I've got several audiobooks that are waiting in the wings, maybe I'll get started on one of those today and give myself an extra reason to run.

Mobile

My tennis team and I headed down to Mobile this past weekend for a tennis tournament. I learned a good lesson: I should consider playing more than just doubles before this tournament if I have a hope of appearing like I have any idea AT ALL how to play singles. I haven't lost a singles match that badly in years. I'm still smarting from that loss, but made up for it the next day by winning a doubles match. So it wasn't completely embarrassing...

So now that tennis is out of the way, it's back to the racing calendar. I'm trying to find a race - and a motivation to train. So far, I haven't hit on the right thing, but it will come. The cooler weather will help, and getting settled into out school routine should also help. There's a half at the end of October in Conway that just gives me time to get some good training in, and the buildup for the LR Marathon starts this week. It may be time to update my music selection and consider some new shoes...if that's what it takes to get back to the running, so be it.

Political Ranting

I don't do politics very well. Most of the time, folks are pretty ingrained in their beliefs and I don't have much desire to try to change their minds. People are going to believe different things, and that's fine.

What drives me slightly nuts is the notion that some of these beliefs are "informed" when in fact, they are repetitions of whatever the talking heads are saying at the moment. But I have no control over whether people - including myself - think for themselves or decide its easier to just agree with whatever they are hearing at the moment, with disregard for the facts. It gets even more interesting when some facts - such as the transcript of what a talking head actually said on his show - disappear. But I digress.

What really drives me crazy, though, is the idea that the METHOD used by these talking heads is somehow the right method of discussion, regardless of the topic. I'm not really talking about the mainstream news or the shows that actually talk about issues. I'm talking about the "entertainment" folks who spout off what they "know" with outrage and disbelief - the Rush Limbaughs, and whoever his equivalent is on the left. I avoid talking heads - they drive me nuts, so I have no idea who it is on the left, but I'm sure there are a few.

I've been told that people know these folks are more for entertainment, and we don't take them seriously, so we should ignore what they say. And that is probably true. They generally are talking out of their ass, and if they aren't, its too hard and takes too much of my time to separate the truth from the outrage.

But how is the method they are using appropriate for any kind of discussion? How does the typical cycle of, "express outrage and disbelief, attack other side, and defend ludicrous argument like your life depends on it" ever get you anywhere?

It's not the content. It's the tone, the manner, the blind following that "we are right, the other side is wrong, and showing up in the middle for a calm, rational discussion based on facts is the stupidest thing I ever heard of."

For entertainment, I get that this works great and reels in the hapless listeners. But when that method, that tone, and that cycle invades real life? Then it crosses the line from entertainment and becomes something a lot more insidious. Guns and murders are one method of violence in the media, but I think there's a pretty good argument that these talking heads are as much a menace to our society as any overt kind of violence, because people forget how to think for themselves, and start to believe that this method of discussion is valid and appropriate, when in fact all it does is create further rifts and a bunch of sheep. And solves nothing.

Stepping off soapbox. For now.

Today's Adventure: Biking

Well, not too much of an adventure, but a great workout. J and I and a friend of ours hit the river trail around 8:30 this morning (no thanks to the belly aching by yours truly, who really did not want to get out of bed).

We started at the Arkansas Queen, a boat along the Arkansas River shore in North Little Rock. From there, we road down to the Big Dam Bridge, over that monster, and then on out to Two Rivers park. We paused briefly for a break, then turned around and came back. Overall, 23 miles at just under 15mph. Fantastic ride, but I'm not sure how much good I'm gonna be for the rest of the day. All I want to do is eat popcorn, drink a coke, and watch the Olympics. Since when do my kids need school clothes anyway!

On a funny note, somewhere around mile 10, I started craving biscuits and gravy. No clue why, but after 23 miles, I didn't feel too badly about the below treat!

Petit Jean - Cedar Falls Trail

Yesterday morning, we rounded up the kids, jumped in the car with some friends, and headed an hour northwest to Petit Jean state park. I think I may have camped up there once, but have never been hiking. Yesterday was the day to fix that. Also, In an effort to get the kiddos more used to doing the 'nature' thing, we've been trying to do more hikes, but that means getting up EARLY in the morning right now. Arkansas has apparently confused its identity with Arizona - understandable, considering how many people have trouble with postal abbreviations. However, I could really do without the incredibly dry, intense, relentless heat. Holy crap, autumn needs to get here.

ANYWHO. With the high supposed to be well over 100, we hit the road about 7:30 (after the obligatory bagel stop) and started our hike around 9. Amazingly, it really wasn't that hot - I didn't break a sweat until after we'd finished our initial trek out there and were on the way back.

The waterfall we hiked to was pretty cool, even considering the lack of rainfall in, oh, over a month and the 100+ degree weather we've had all summer. There was still some water falling over the cliff, and the surrounding bluffs were amazing. We managed to catch sight of a water moccasin, several cool bugs, lots of fish and minnows, and a few deer, including a faun. Overall, the girl - the most likely critic - deemed the outing a success.

We finished the hike with some outstanding burgers in Conway and then a few hours of quiet time. Great way to spend a Saturday!