Well, we sure aren’t going to talk about the government. (Sorry, iTunes randomly kicked up Pop Song ’89 from R.E.M. a minute ago and its lyrics are jumping through my head.)
Anyway, this has been a nice weekend. It was off to a bad start—really bad stomach cramps kept me up most of Thursday night/Friday morning, which was unpleasant and exhausting. I ended up staying home from work, although I did polish off some revisions to a course for Julie before going back to sleep for a couple of hours. Had a nice night on the town out with a bunch of the guys; saw some old friends I haven’t run into for ages, made some new ones as well. My pretty bad alcohol tolerance (which has been getting worse and worse since mid-2001 when marathon training started and I stopped drinking on Friday nights, and then even moreso after dropping all that weight in 2004) wasn’t helped by having almost no food in my stomach thanks to the earlier-mentioned cramps, and I can only imagine that I made a blithering fool of myself. Still, if you’re going to do so, being in a bar with friends who are also drinking is absolutely the way to do it.
(When the dust settled, I walked over to Charlie’s to see how painting an accent wall in his condo was coming along; he drove me home although by that point it’d been long enough I was stone-cold sober, but why risk an accident?)
Saturday was primarily a couple of errands in the morning (the Home Depot paint counter at 11am can best be described as chaos, hold the theory) and Chip’s tree-decorating party in the evening, which was fun. It also reminds me that I need to get my own Christmas tree, now that everything is re-arranged so I have room once more. Hopefully later this week.
Then today was the start of my winter running program, which is using “explosive running” (sounds like a different kind of stomach ailment if you ask me) and focuses on shorter distances. It was a low-key but good start to the program; I’m really excited about future weekend installments. (And in the future I will make sure to remember that it starts at 8:30am and not 8:00am. Oops.) Add in a brunch, and finally carting the old bookcases out of my place, and life is pretty good.
It is, however, clearly winter in the DC area. This morning for my running program I had on long running pants (which I bought at the OBX Marathon expo and are fantastic; they’re tapered so they stay much closer to the legs and keep you warmer, while not ever turning into tights), a short-sleeved shirt, a long-sleeved shirt over it, and then a jacket over that. (Plus gloves and a hat.) The jacket came off once we got warmed up, but towards the end of our cool-down stretching it had to come back on. It’s just the right kind of winter weather, too; cold but not frigid, just that sort of snap on your face that lets you know you’re alive and the seasons have shifted again.
(If I need an extra barometer of the weather changing, it would be my calves itching this morning. If I have to start applying the lotion to the arms and legs, it is definitely winter.)
Oh, last but not least? Apparently, you better all lock up your Christmas tree stands if you have them, because otherwise I will come in and steal them out of your houses. Even if the stand is in fact mine and has my name on it. I learn something new every day, myself. Christmas tree stands, here I come!
I bought some ‘Almost Tights’ and they sound much like what you bought at OBX. I love mine too… In fact, I have been hoping to score an inexpensive pair somewhere, but so far stuff like marathon entries and shoes (of all things) have kept my Running budget pretty lean.
The Lowe’s paint counter has the same thing… either there is no one there or the whole city is there wanting custom colors! Oi!
tree-decorating party… okay… sounds like a neat idea. I’d be interested in what the “rules” are.
At the instigation of the kids, we put our big tree up ludicrously early this year – yesterday, in fact.
Already I feel a little foolish whenever I See anyone looking in our front window 🙂
Terry — I actually contacted the manufacturer to figure out exactly which pants I have from them! Turns out the pants I had were made for one store in particular(?!?) but that the same fit with a slightly different fabric is generally available. So now I’m going to see if I can find those pants locally and buy another pair, they’re so good.
Generally speaking, it’s a combination of getting a chance to show people your ornaments and make the decorating a festive event. I’ve never had one myself (although when I had roommates we would decorate the tree together while Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special would air in the background) but it’s fun. Especially if there are cookies involved.
Stuart — I dunno, I think any time between December 1st and 24th is fair game. It’s only when you’ve put up the tree in November that things are horribly off-kilter…