Reviewed.com Rock-Off

Yes, this is where I work. There was a rock-off this week where my coworkers split into bands (drums, guitar, and bass). I missed the competition, which is probably just fine seeing as I haven't played a video game since playing Sega in elementary school. But I did catch a little jam session on lunch hour.

The Good and the Bad

We went to the zoo on Black Friday and checked out all the animals (and sat on a giant globe). Bruce liked the snakes most of all. The next day we went shopping early in the morning and the store we wanted wasn't open quite yet, so we went to PetSmart and checked out the fish there. We've also been watching the first Planet Earth DVD, so now Bruce loves polar bears and elephants.

The pictures of Bruce by the train tracks are from Wednesday. We watched one train before he went to the sitter's and I went to work.

We had an interesting Monday morning. Scott woke up around 5:30 because there were some guys yelling in the parking lot outside our window. When I got up at 5:55, there was an ambulance and a few police cars. I figured if the cops were there, then the situation - whatever it was - was under control, so I went for my run. When I got back 40 minutes later, there was blood all over our entryway. It hadn't dried, so I got blood on my hands and gloves because it was on the door handle. Nasty. I was really sicked out, so Scott went down and sanitized the door handles but left the rest of the crime scene in tact. That didn't get cleaned up for several hours, but someone was kind enough to put up a sign: "Look out for blood on the floor." It turned out it was some guys from another building in the complex (the injured one just came into our entryway because it was closest). Not sure what they were fighting about, but let's hope it was completely random and won't happen again!

New Running Shoes

Here is Scott preparing his awesome turkey on Thanksgiving morning.

And I finally got myself some shoes. I wore down my old New Balance 767s until they were nearly smooth on the bottom. Hooray for new cushiony shoes!

Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving! We had some friends from church come over to share in our feast. Scott made a fabulous turkey and some fancy bacon-apple stuffing. I made butter horn rolls, candied sweet potatoes, and blackberry cheesecake. Bruce made the apple pie (with a tiny bit of help). We also put out tofu sausages, corn, and pineapple. Our friends brought rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Yummy! We made a ton of food - and somehow it has already disappeared for the most part.

Bruce hardly ate anything with friends over. He wanted to play the whole day. Just before bed time he requested some macaroni and cheese. With all the good food in the house, he wants mac and cheese?! We gave it to him, and he ate tons.

It snowed for the first time this week. There was about a half-inch on the ground for three hours before it melted. Bruce and I put on our winter gear and headed outdoors to play in it. It wasn't enough to make snowballs, but it was good enough to make footprints in.

The last picture is of the dishwasher spewing bubbles. Apparently this is why there is a market for dishwasher-specific soap. Do not use liquid dish soap in a dishwasher. This is what happens.

Another Random Update

Bruce was just jumping on the couch (time-out material) and half-landed on the armrest, bumping his little bum. He ran up to me and said "Mommy, I hurt my bum. Kiss it?" Um, no.

Scott went backpacking last weekend with some Scouts from church. From Scott's tales, it sounds like the boys showed up in hoodies and jeans to hike up a mountain. Scott rationed out his frosted animal crackers and granola bars so all the boys made it back alive.

Bruce and I went to an old mill that was having a fall open house. I think we were the only people there under 60. We took a tour and checked out all the tools, then sat down and watched live jazz music. I sat down, anyways. Bruce danced. The longer we stayed, the more comfortable we got. The band played "Route 66" and afterwards said something about the little guy dancing in the aisle probably has enough energy to run down Route 66. After awhile, the guitarist let Bruce come up and strum the guitar in between songs. Bruce loved it - but then he didn't want to do anything else but that. He started getting closer and closer to the guitarist while he was playing, so I finally picked him up and left. It was nice while it lasted though.

New England Fall

Fall in New England is great. The leaves are still colorful! Bruce and I have been on a few walks and runs to check out/jump in the leaves. The other day we ran to a park and played for awhile. Bruce discovered a kid-sized table and bench and started calling it a "restaurant." I whipped out my trusty pack of Curious George fruit snacks and we had a fine meal right there.

Bruce has been sick this week. He had a fever last week and then developed a nasty cough and snotty nose. We took him to the doctor and she diagnosed him with a nasty cold and double ear infections. She gave us antibiotics in the form of chewable tablets because I told her Bruce hates liquid medicine and Bruce hates me after I give it to him.

Surprisingly, Bruce has been eating the medicine without too much hassle. I do have to sing and dance the "Crunchy Song," something I made up that is so ridiculously silly that he can't concentrate on how gross the medicine actually is. It's working though, so silly I must be.

This last picture is a lovely one of Scott hard at work curing Alzheimer's disease. With headphones. And a lovely smile. Way too late at night. In the word of that little scary cartoon lady on this kitschy digital camera image effect: "Wow!!"

Playing with Trains

Bruce had his friend over the other day. They share much better than they did even a few weeks ago. Bruce's friend wore his Halloween costume over: he was a knight. Bruce is wearing a slip around his shoulders. He has a bit of a fetish with silky stuff, so I finally surrendered my slip rather than have him parade around in my other unmentionables.

And this is without caffeine...

This is Bruce waking up from his nap. I was working on a camera when he was sleeping, then I heard "hello? HELLO?" come from behind his door. This is what I saw when I walked in...

Drooling in NYC

I had a weekend full of running nerdy-ness. I drove down to New York City on Saturday morning with some of my GBTC teammates. We left really early - early enough that we got there at 7:30 to watch the start of the men's Olympic Trials Marathon. The marathon ran loops around Central Park, so we got ourselves in the middle of the loop and then ran from side to side so we could see the runners about every 2.5 miles. We ran back and forth for 2+ hours, and it did not get old. Watching wicked fast runners is ridiculously intense fun. For me, anyway. Probably not everyone, including Bruce and Scott. They stayed home on Saturday and made cupcakes, watched a construction site, and went to the store to buy a new train.

This marathon determined next year's Olympic team to run in Beijing. Only the top three guys get that honor, so the pressure was on in the race. This race was loaded too: half the guys were national championships at some distance. By the end, it was Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Brian Sell that made the team. Just after the race, we found out that Ryan Shay (the guy in the middle of the photo) had collapsed and died just after mile 5. We didn't see it, but it put a damper on everyone's spirits. The guy is one of the fittest athletes out there! It's so tragic. Even worse, he just got married this past summer to Alicia Craig, a pro runner who graduated from Stanford a few years ago. Just imagine being Ryan Hall and winning the Trials Marathon after a blazing fast pace and a huge lead, slapping hands with spectators in the last mile and pumping his fists at the finish - only to find out a few minutes after his win that one of his best friends died. Hall and Shay trained together for a season or two, and Hall's wife was a bridesmaid at Shay's wedding. It was a bittersweet day for me just watching; it's hard to imagine what those guys are feeling. I think everyone there was feeling a bit too mortal.

After watching the marathon, my teammates and I headed to Van Cortlandt Park for a cross country race. It was a 5k, which felt short after watching a race go on for a few hours. I ran a decent time and my team even came home with the victory, so we were pleased.