Whew! What a week!

I know I promised late last week that I would update you on what has been going on, but my hectic life continued on through the weekend. Get your coffee ready and settle in. Here's a breakdown of what I've been doing:

Sunday - This was my birthday. I tell you that not for congratulations (or condolences) but because it coincides with Labor Day. Because it coincides with Labor Day, and because I am the party planner for Memorial Day and Labor Day in my family, I generally throw a Labor Day/birthday party. The birthdays also include my sister (who's birthday is the day before mine), my Father (who's birthday is 4 days after mine), and Superman (who's birthday is the same day as my Father's).

So Sunday we had a party. Friends and family came, everyone bearing food. I have only one rule about my parties. They are pot luck, but don't ask me what to bring. Just bring something. If we have 15 types of potato salad, I'm happy. I love potato salad! If all we have is desert, oh well. We all get stuffed on desert. I provide meat and soda. Somehow it always works out.

I would post pictures, but I didn't take any because I was too busy having fun. Superman didn't take any, because he manned the grill. He cooked up burgers, chicken, and his specialty salmon. YUM! We set up outside with the understanding that it might rain, and sure enough about 4pm the clouds opened. After determining the rain really was going to come down, we all moved into my tiny little house. I like to say it's the size of a postage stamp. 5 people makes it feel crowded. We probably had 15.

Somehow a game of charades broke out, which was hilarious. After that, we hooked up the karaoke machine. Superman is fond of saying "every party devolves into a karaoke party." It is certainly true with my group of friends. We sang for hours. Ninja showed up just as most everyone was leaving. In the end I had Ninja, his Penguin, my Emergency Back-up Son (a best friend of both my boys, who spent a great deal of time at my house throughout high school) and his girlfriend. We played Apples to Apples for a few hours. Well, everyone but the Penguin played Apples to Apples. While we played, she did drew all over Ninja's back with a Sharpie marker.

My Emergency Back-Up Son

Monday - I had a paper to write. I did take some time off to spend a few hours with my sister-in-law. She's going through some stuff, and I was happy to lend an ear and a shoulder. I truly enjoy getting one-on-one time with family members I don't normally have a chance to talk with. My sister-in-law and I have a history of shared milestone events. We went skydiving together. We went to the Spencer Tunic installation together. We went clubbing together. Beyond that, we haven't spent much time together outside of family events, so coffee was good.

Tuesday - I was back at my parents, preparing the living room and back bedroom for cable. My parents have decided to hard wire every room in house, as a selling point and just in case they decide they want a television somewhere they currently do not. I prepared the basement rafters to run the new cable through. Actually running the cable will have to wait for a sunny day (most likely tomorrow).

Wednesday - I refinishing the ceiling in the back bedroom. This, I have pictures of:

Everything had to be moved to one side of the room
and covered with plastic

The mud and broom/brush I used

Technique

After completing the back bedroom, I went home and tried out my new Nike GPS. I had 400s on the training schedule, and decided to just dive in where I was supposed to be even though I hadn't run for 2 weeks. The 400s went well enough, considering.

Thursday - The schedule said hillwork, so I spent some of Wednesday evening trying to figure out where I could find a hill. I finally decided on the driveway to the rapid station, which goes below the street above.

This is about a mile and a quarter into the park, which gave me a good warm-up/cooldown distance. I sprinted up the driveway, then jogged back down. Caught my breath, and repeated. I decided to play with the new GPS, which I had set for quarter mile intervals from Tuesday's run. Apparently you can't reset things on the fly, only on the computer. So I ran up, jogged down, and ran around the parking lot until I'd reached a quarter mile. Then next time I ran up, jogged down, ran up, jogged down... Overall it was not a consistent workout, but I knew I'd worked muscles in my thighs and hips.

Afterward, I went to my parents' to texture the front bedroom ceiling.  This ceiling had the most water damage, which is coming back to haunt me now. The old ceiling paint has separated from the plaster where it got wet. It wasn't much of a problem when I just painted over everything, but now I am adding wet plaster, with a motion that pulls at the plaster and paint slightly. It is pulling the paint down. This means I have to go back over everything after it dries, scrape away the loose paint, and re-apply the texture. That is also on the agenda for tomorrow.

Thursday happened to be Superman's (and my Dad's) birthday. I took Superman out to dinner and we spent the evening together. I did homework while he poured over our new Netflix account. Apparently they have the entirety of Futurama available for streaming, which apparently makes Superman very happy. When Superman's happy, I'm happy.

Friday - I spent time Friday with my niece, the oldest of my brother's children. This was good in the same way spending time with my sister-in-law was good. I don't get that one-on-one often. The visit turned into a quest for a Starbucks, which was entertaining. I know they say there are Starbucks in the bathroom of other Starbucks, but there really are very few in my area. We thought there was one at the nearby mall, but it had closed. So we went to the other mall, where she thought she remembered one, but she was mistaken. So we went to a shopping center. She was certain they had a Starbucks, but it took a while to find so I kept accusing her (in complete jest) of lying to me. We did finally find one, and I had the soy chai latte I'd been craving all day. The plan was just to talk, and throughout our adventure, that's what we did.

Saturday - I was supposed to run 8 miles. Superman and I set our alarms to run 8 miles before he had to go to work. When the alarms went off, the sky had opened in what sounded like a torrential downpour. I had not packed the appropriate running gear for that type of weather, so rolled over and went back to sleep. I could always do the 8 miles on Monday.

Aunt Gertie rolled into town Friday night, visiting from Florida for the weekend to help celebrate my Dad's birthday. He turned 70 this year, and we children decided he needed a larger than normal celebration. I had a paper to write, so when I woke up (again) Saturday I focused on that.

Once all responsibilities were attended, I headed over to the Energizer Bunny's, where Aunt Gertie was staying. There was a pirate party going on all weekend over there. Aunt Gertie had brought the kids (ages 8, 6, and 4) pirate hats, and developed an ongoing pirate story that involved all three as "dread captains." I became Dread Captain One-Armed Jan, who flew the Jolly Roger on my black ship when I arrived to let them know I was friend and not foe. I still got shot with a "darnit" (foam dart) gun. The 4 year old told me I was supposed to like being shot. 

I spent the rest of the day (and well into the night) hanging with and catching up with my sisters.

Sunday - This was the big party day, but first I had a long run to attend to. I'd missed Saturday's run, but was not going to miss the long run. I'm not sure why I decided the first long run in several weeks should be the one where I start playing with my fuel plan. There is some heated discussion going on about whether runners really need to fuel, and how much. Superman (who doesn't fuel on the run) read an article saying just the fact of taking a sweet liquid into your mouth would convince your body to produce energy, even if you spit that liquid out instead of swallowing. I decided maybe I'd been over-fueling, and prepared my fuel concoction with one less Gu than normal.

The run started out well. Even having to climb our way out from the depression I live in, we were hitting high 11 and low 12-minute miles. I was fine until about mile 6, where I started flagging. By mile 7 I could see the wall. By mile 8 I had my nose up against it, and by mile 10 I was banging my head against the wall. The only time I walked was about 30 feet at mile 11. Then I pulled up my big girl pants and put my stubborn on for the last mile. It was a very difficult run though, that I feel today.

After the run and an ice bath, I was back over at Energizer Bunny's to hang out and get ready for the party. We had reservations at my parents' favorite restaurant, with the understanding we were bringing a cake, decorations, party favors, and at least 20 people. My Aunt and Uncle arrived, as well as a few of my Dad's friends.

the Birthday Boy

This is the only picture I have that came out, though I know Superman and my mother have additional images I will receive later. Suffice it to say we took over the place, and the party was a success.

Afterward, I hung out with Aunt Gertie and Big Bro until well after midnight. I learn so many family stories when we get together like this, and I love it!

So that was my week last week. I did not go swimming this morning as my schedule dictated, because I met up with Aunt Gertie for lunch before she hopped on her motorcycle for the 1,000 mile trip back to Florida. I have not yet run the 8 miles I was supposed to run Saturday, and I may not run them at all. I still have another paper to write today, as well as class participation to accomplish. Those 2 have to happen before I can even think about getting my run on.

And this had to happen as well. Now I'm all caught up, and can move forward.

And no, I did not forget...