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I Have Nothing to Say

Or nothing worth expanding into its own post anyhow. Here’s what’s going on:

  1. Ben has been sick for like 2 weeks … we finally took him to the pediatrician and she thinks he’s just unlucky and caught back to back illnesses. Matt isn’t feeling too well either.
  2. I’ve been working a lot. No real complaints, but I’m not quite as much fun when I’ve got work on the brain 24/7.
  3. I forgot to buy onions last week. There are a lot of things that are pretty hard to cook without onions. Just saying.
  4. I’m really really tired. Ben keeps waking up in the middle of the night and I don’t think any of us has gotten more than about 3 hours of sleep at a time in 2 weeks. It’s a bit like having a newborn again. But at least he can use the toilet!
  5. It’s getting cold and I can’t find one of my favorite jackets.
  6. I’m seriously sick of politics. And I’m sick of how it invades EVERYTHING. Like Facebook, and my answering machine and my mailbox!!
  7. Been reading such good books lately.  Joshilyn Jackson is awesome. Check her stuff out – you’ll thank me later
  8. OMG seriously with the tired. I am starting to wonder if I have mono or chronic wasting disease or something.
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Mussel Night

One of the best things about being married to my husband is what we call the “cockamamie scheme.” One of his go-to lines is “I’ve done crazier.” That should give you an idea of what life with him is like. Anyhow, when we were at Whole Foods last weekend, we noticed they had mussels on sale and when Matt chatted up the fishmonger, he learned that they were having a sale all week and would be flying in fresh PEI Mussels daily. Since our kids have decided they LOVE mussels, Matt decided we had to have a mussel night. Thus, I found myself on Wednesday at lunch hour at Whole Foods, buying them out of mussels. Continue reading “Mussel Night”

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Crockpot Apples

It’s FALL! In addition to the fall colors and cool running weather, we have of course been chowing down on our share of “fall” foods. Pumpkin pasta, butternut squash, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin oatmeal, pork ragu, tea and plenty of apples. With soups, in salads, for snacks. And on Sunday, we came home from Sunflower Market with an entire tote bag full  of apples because both Jonathan and Granny Smith apples were on sale! 49c/lb! We paid under $6 for a whole tote bag FULL of apples. Continue reading “Crockpot Apples”

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Galloping in Golden

Boys and Girls Port-a-Potties

This morning was the Golden Gallop, a race in a nearby burb that supports local schools. The course (and cause) have bumped around a lot over the past few years. The first time we ran the Gallop, it was a 10K and you did two loops of the same course (never my favorite). But now it’s changed and it’s 5.28 miles (a mile is 5280 ft) and it’s a loop course going from downtown and back.

Matt and I signed up for it a while ago. You always know that the weather in Denver in October is unpredictable at best, but you always hope for the best and really this wasn’t too bad – just COLD – but at least it wasn’t rainy like yesterday. Matt unfortunately, woke up with an upset stomach (really upset) and it didn’t calm down by the time we met up with friends at their house.

So after hmming and hawing, I decided to go ahead without him. I’m never much for hilly courses (I run a lot of treadmill and suburban streets), but this was nice for a hilly course in that it started up and finished down. A couple miles into the course, with the sun shining on me, I had to pull my sweatshirt off and carry it. Luckily my friend and his boys rode up on their bikes a mile or so before the end and took it off my hands. I could have made it but I was glad to be rid of it too. I was also glad I’d packed my inhaler in the little pack I carry my phone in – for whatever reason, I had to puff on it twice during the race. On Friday, I ran 4+ miles without a puff.

Today, my race outfit was pink. I frequently wear pink without a specific reason, but today, I wore pink in honor of my friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. Race for the Cure was today and I would have loved to have joined her team, but this had come up first, so I wore pink in her honor instead.

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The Color Red

Two stories involving the color red:

Story #1 – Tabby: So I lay out an outfit for Tabby almost every night. Last night it was her red Harajuku Mini top and a pair of yoga-style capris. I also laid out socks and underwear, but not shoes. So she got dressed this AM and I encouraged her to wear some tennis shoes since Thursday is running club day. But she, of course, wanted to wear the sparkly shoes that my mom got her. They’re pretty good school shoes with rubbery bottoms and all, but they’re not great for running. But if Tabby makes a stand anywhere, it’s on footwear. She loves shoes and tennies aren’t really her idea of high fashion. Suddenly, I remembered the red sparkle cons I’d bought her when she was around 2 yrs old. I loved them, but the only size they had them in was 13 (she was probably a 7 or 8 at the time). They were on sale, so I bought them anyhow and kept them until her foot hit the magic number. Unfortunately, that was late last spring. Not a lot of call for red sparkle cons in the summer months (4th of July primarily). But luckily her feet do not grow like they once did and so she donned the shoes this AM and couldn’t have looked cuter. She informed me that they are her new favorites since they are sparkly AND red (her favorite color).

Story #2 – Ben: Last night, everyone went to bed without much incident. They kids were tired and we got home way late. Ben has had a little cold and he has been waking up occasionally when he coughs a bunch. Usually he either goes back to sleep on his own or he just needs a pat on his back. But last night all hell broke loose over a red blanky. Ben has quite a few beloved blankies. None of them is red. Yet last night, after I stumbled half awake into his room, he repeatedly requested his “red blanky.” I offered up every blanky at hand (quite a few: brown, blue, Buzz, little Buzz, Buzz sheet) and after the Buzz sheet was offered, he seemed happy enough. So I started back to bed. I’d just gotten comfortable when he started screaming again. I went back in and he made the same red blanky request. I wondered if he meant the large blanket we keep in the popup. It’s never on his bed, but it is on ours and he comes to snuggle with us sometimes, so I suggested this and he vehemently insisted that it was HIS red blanky, not some other popup blanky. Finally, I turned on the light and asked him to point to something red. He pointed to the nearest GREEN thing and my mystery was solved. He has a very much beloved GREEN blanky which I quickly found for him and derailed BenCON 5. The whole thing is puzzling though because he definitely knows his colors. I can only assume he was in as much of a stupor as I was.

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On Overwhelm

I’m pretty sure I look like that bike.

I’m kind of on overwhelm right now. It’s been a huge week for me at work. And even when the huge things weren’t happening, lots of teeny things were happening all at once. Plop that on a background where my darling hubby is traveling for work and I’m one hot mess. So I am phoning it in this week.

I served the kids frozen meatballs (I did nuke them first) topped with marinara (from the jar – there is no other kind at my house). They liked it so much they’re having it again for lunch today.

I am having the kids do every little thing I can think for them to do … putting Loki in his box in the morning and taking him back out, getting the mail from the mailbox, unloading the silverware basket, ferrying objects upstairs and downstairs, feeding the dog various leftovers from our fridge which are not technically spoiled yet, just a bit past their prime, etc. Dang they’re useful.

I was pretty peeved when I noticed that they moved pizza and applesauce day from Friday to TUESDAY (i.e. yesterday, i.e. we already missed it) at Ben’s school, but Tabby will be more than happy when she learns that I am allowing her to purchase hot lunch on Friday.

Tabby has climbing class tonight and while she is there and Ben is at child-mind, I am going to swim with some girlfriends. I honestly don’t care if we swim or sit in the hot tub, but it will be relaxing and nice. Afterwards, it will be late and we will be totally off our schedule so we’re either going thru the drivethru or we’re eating the meatballs and marinara again.

The house looks like someone tossed it looking for drug money.

I’ve had some pretty good victories this week though, plenty at work, but some on the homefront too. I haven’t missed a workout yet, even if my run this AM was a paltry 25 minutes. The kids are happy and arguably healthier than when they were turned over to me (Ben is almost over his cold). I have remembered everything the kids have needed for school, including random things like picture day forms and an apple.

I would never want to do this on my own, but it’s nice to know I can handle it.

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Adieu to Camping

After a crazy week, we set off on Thursday night for our final round of camping for the season – at Mueller State Park. Of course we got going late, but luckily the camping spot was only a couple of hours away and even with some stops, we made pretty good time. We couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like we’d still get to see most of the pretty fall color. Despite the chilly weather, we were snug and warm in our camper!

The next morning, we made some pancakes and then started driving around to check out the scenery we’d missed in the dark. We drove through town and were immediately sidetracked by a dinosaur museum and spent the next couple of hours there, doing everything dino. The museum is primarily a working dinosaur lab and they have sent dino skeletons all over the world. The kids were enthralled by their specimens and our bizarre tour guide. Continue reading “Adieu to Camping”

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Menu and Workout Plan Monday

Wait, is it Friday yet? Just Monday? Carp!

I don’t usually do this, but lately we had some miscues on what was going on with dinner, so I thought I’d take a mo and post about our menu plan for the week and that way Matt and I both have the links we need to get started and anyone out there who reads this (hi Mom!) gets some recipe links too.

And on the flip side, here’s my workout plan for the week.

  • a run that somehow never materialized (my bad)
  • Monday: bootcamp – this is already (THANK GOD) done, we did “The Beginning” which was 2 rounds 6 exercises (Burpees, Wall Ball, SDHP, Toes to Bar, Box Jump, Push Press) for 45 seconds AMRAP and then a 10 min time limit to do 20 or 30 of each. I did not finish. But I did do max weights/height (50+ for pushpress, 40+ for SDHP, 20″ for box jump, 1/3 of my height).
  • Tuesday: run 3-4 miles in the AM
  • Wednesday: bootcamp, and maybe run in the evening w/a friend
  • Thursday: bootcamp!
  • Friday: hoping for a run around the campground
  • Saturday: hiking
  • Sunday: TBD
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Server Rebuild

A week or so ago, a nasty power surge hit our neighborhood and unfortunately, despite the fact that our server (yes, we’re nerds, we know, we have badges) was plugged into a surge protector, it was irreparably damaged. Boo. Aside from the fact that we didn’t want to pay to rebuild it, we didn’t want to take the time either. But we need our server, so we really didn’t have much choice but to rebuild.

To make it easier on Matt, who is the primary computer builder at our house these days (once upon a time I was a pretty good computer builder myself, but I have not kept up on my hardware knowledge, and these days it falls to Matt), we setup the build in the dining room.

This way he could check on the progress of things and keep tabs on the build while still being available for our normal weekend family life.

And of course, use my favorite salad bowl to hold cables.

And of course, like so many other things, we viewed it as a good opportunity to introduce the kids to a part of the geekdom over which we reign. They got to see the insides of the computer and had a brief explanation of what the parts do and a fairly stern lecture about touching anything, particularly the attached keyboard lest they accidentally escape out of a long process. Overall, it was fairly successful – Ben had a bit more trouble keeping his mitts off the whole fascinating scene, but he only killed one incredibly long process, so not too bad.

Of course having the dining room occupied meant we ate ALL of our family meals at the coffee table, including the messiest breakfast in the world, Berry French toast. OY. So glad I spent an hour on Friday cleaning the floor. Grand idea. Not.

Unfortunately, the server build did not go entirely smoothly and it is still on the dining room table but it must be moved tomorrow in anticipation of the cleaning faeries that will visit us on Tuesday morning. Hopefully the alternative parts will arrive quickly.