Gosh, it’s been too long since I posted an update on our cats. Ha.
Apollo and Starbuck still need voices. We have well defined voices for Data and Khali (and had one for Snow, too), but Apollo and Starbuck’s still haven’t come to us yet. Which makes it hard for us to communicate for them.
We also do not have songs for them yet. Yes, Data and Khali each have (several) songs. I’ve sung a few things to them, about themselves, but I don’t think it’s gonna stick.
Ha, Khali was running around like crazy and Apollo’s tail got super puffy!
In the training I was in at work this week, we had to say something we like to do for fun during an introduction, and I totally said “play with my new kittens.” Happily, I got an “aww” response.
Apparently four cats is the amount you need to have to call them each other’s names. I mainly accidentally call the girls each other’s names. Sometimes I almost even call them by their mother’s name – Athena!
Apollo and Khali
Apollo is a total crier for attention (and food!). Yesterday he was crying out from another room during a conference call and my boss goes “is that one of your new babies?” Luckily, it was an internal call, and my boss is totally cool. Oh, Apollo.
Steven sends me pictures of the cats and I sometimes can’t tell them apart if I can only see their face!
I thought this was Apollo at first. It’s not!
Data is STILL in the sink from last weekend (when he moved there from the tub). We got him some new meds (hemp oil) to try, per the recommendation of our vet. I hope it helps. Some of our friends have used it for their pets and said it has! But he’s really declining physically – losing a lot of weight and muscle mass. We’re very concerned and have an appointment for him at the veterinarian next week.
I received two new Starbucks “Been There” mugs as gifts in the past few weeks! Gina got me Colorado, and Bobbi got me Arizona! Thank you, ladies! And since I’ve visited those states, I can use them (as opposed to waiting until I’ve gone there to use them <— just my own silly rules)!
I finished Not Tonight, Josephine and started the novel A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out, about a twenty-eight year old working in public relations, who gets a special assignment that makes her question if she wants to be a sellout anymore, or follow her passion and be a writer (maybe – I am only a couple of chapters in but that is what I am guessing it’s about from the description). Whoa. The writing is so smart, clever, current, and relevant, that I feel like there’s actually something to get out of every sentence. So I’m enjoying it, but the level of concentration is kind of wearing me out! I did enjoy Not Tonight, Josephine. I loved the author’s sense of humor!
I was so relaxed on vacation that I let my almost three year Duolingo streak lapse! I felt upset for a few minutes, then felt strangely free. Ha. (Only Bethany will care about this!)
Ugh, then I missed “free” Shitterfly magnet day after vacation – when I have so many pics I want to make in to magnets! I turned off my Shitterfly Facebook notifications and saw it the day after on Facebook. Luckily “free” magnets come once a month. You guys know I love my (custom & regular!) magnets.
Since I was planning on getting myself a mani for my birthday, then my coworker treated me, I can get one more… right? (Okay, let’s admit – this is a slippery slope of going back to getting them 1.5 times a month. I’m only trying not to since I bought a car this year and that wasn’t in my imaginary budget.) ANYWAY. I decided to get one nail a lighter shade than the rest, and meh, I don’t like it! Regrets!
From the OPI Peru Collection – Grandma Kissed A Gaucho and Don’t Toot My Flute, my previous mani was Alpaca My Bags
I got a bill from my doctor, and was surprised to see my health care provider didn’t pay any of my visit fees. So I called the doctor and they said my provider said they don’t have me in the system. Which is odd, because I was checking the system while on the call, and it showed me as current. At first, the doctor told me to call my provider and see what was up… until we talked further and they realized they sent the bill to the wrong location. SIGH. Always question your health care bills, folks! I’m lucky I don’t have many and can KIND OF keep it straight. I can’t imagine dealing with a lot of them, or with a family’s. They make that sh*t so effing complicated.
And today I have to go back to the doctor because they screwed up a test from last time. Sigh. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to adult today!
This ended up being more about weight than I expected, so skip if that’s something you try to avoid reading about.
It’s been almost two months since I wrote that I was considering running the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon the first weekend of October. I can now say that definitely WON’T be happening. I’ve been running a decent amount this summer, averaging just under 40 miles a week, but my nutrition is off! I’ve put on some summer weight, and since I’d like to weigh less than I did to run a marathon than when I wrote that post two months ago, that means I have some diet* work to do!
I’m not super discouraged I’ve gained weight. My yo-yo cycle usually has me gaining weight from May until October each year (and losing from October until February). So that I only ate somewhat poorly for two months (June and July) is an improvement for me. How’s that for a positive spin? And maybe I will do even better next year! <— I am really good at going easy on myself.
So what’s coming up with running? I’m signed up for the Madison Mini Marathon (a half) this Saturday, and the Gear Western Country Half Marathon in Long Lake, MN on October 13th. Both races will be run “for fun” with no time goal. I’m not focusing on speed right now – I’m just running easy summer miles! So not short races for me!
Speaking of (hot) summer miles – I was talking to a friend who works at a school last night and she said she’s ready for summer weather to be over when she goes back to work. I told her I’m always ready for it to be over after my birthday (last day of July)/river trip. So August usually feels pretty miserable to me – I’m so over it by then! I’m handling it well this year (mostly by ignoring it and not dwelling on it, a great way to handle any problem, ha) but I do fantasize a bit about fall running when I see leaves on the ground!
When I say the word “diet,” I mean “what I eat.” I am not “going on a diet.” I don’t do that.
I had big plans for this weekend! Plans of doing ALL THE EXERCISE!!! Steven was out of town with his fraternity brothers, and I imagined myself filling free moments with running, biking, AND swimming.
But two things happened.
First, I had a headache most of Saturday. One that felt like it could turn in to a migraine. So after I finished work and errands for the day, I needed to take a nap – NOT spend time in the sun on my bike, or with goggles on my head in the water. Ugh.
SECOND! And this is a nice surprise – I want to spend as much time with the kittens as possible. Well, that part is NOT the surprise. The surprise is that having them is really making me want to slooooooooooow down. I hate having my schedule filled with back-to-back-to-back things and being busy, but I do tend to do that to myself. With the kittens though, I keep thinking about how they’ll only be little for so long, and I want to absorb all of it! Plus, this weekend, with Steven gone, if I left, I would put them in the guest bedroom, and I want them to be able to roam the house! So, yeah – another mostly chill weekend!
FRIDAY!
On Friday I ate an early dinner and ran after. Then spent forever on the phone with Starbucks to find out why someone didn’t receive an e-giftcard I sent them the day before. If YOU ever have this problem, call this number – 877-496-3731 – NOT the number on their website. Sigh, it took forever just to get that info (then they fixed it immediately, thankfully!).
I also did the fun task of going through old cards, letters, and postcards, and deciding which ones to keep, which to recycle, and which to scan. The use of the word “fun” is not sarcasm – this was FUN for me. Although it made me a bit sad, as some of the correspondence was three years old (oops, need to do this more often), and it made me think about how some people were doing better back then.
SATURDAY!
I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache and took medicine. Then woke up with a headache and took more. Then went on a run to see if that helped. Nope.
So I went to the Efit Games and felt bad to have a grimace on my face from time to time from my head pain. I didn’t want to be whiny about it, but I did let people know that was why I was feeling that way so they wouldn’t think I was just making a b*tchy face!
Efit trainers!
I wanted to go home and sleep right after, but I had scheduled Walmart Grocery pick-up. Sigh. Trying to be efficient bit me in the butt.
I still got a lot done that morning (see above where I mentioned back-to-back-to-back stupidity):
Got gas
Dropped off dry-cleaning
Did Walmart pick-up
Went to
Target
Bath & Body Works (I had free item coupons and got some birthday gifts)
I bet you can’t tell what my favorite scent is!
Aldi
Okay, I got Starbucks too, hoping the caffeine would help my headache!
Traffic was a bit nutso. It seems like the county/cities are rushing to get road work finished before school starts or something, and LOTS of roads were under construction. Getting to Aldi was particularly annoying, as I got off one street because of construction, then the street I went to was randomly closed for a festival (???), then the only street left to take was under construction. Sigh. More headache medicine.
I was so happy to finally get home, put away groceries, make lunch, finish watching 17 Again, then take a nap.
Then it was another quiet night! I wrapped some gifts,
watched 50 Shades Freed (How could this movie be SOOO bad?! Oh! Because the source material is!!! Ha!), played with the kitties, saw a cat that looked JUST LIKE SNOW in the backyard (and felt sad), took Data outside to see how he liked that (he did), then tried to go to bed.
I heard horrible screaming from the guest bedroom after I put the kitties in there, and opened the door to tell them to chill out, and saw that Apollo was all tangled up in a cord and was being choked. I worked as fast as I could to untangle him, thinking I would have to run for scissors, but I was able to get him out.
Photo from calmer times the day before
I felt horrible, and spent too long thinking about how bad that would have been had I not been home to hear him. I put away all the corded toys and made sure the toys left out seemed “safe,” then talked out loud to myself telling myself not to waste time thinking about “what if” or to feel guilty, but that didn’t really work.
I tried to shift my mind to positive thoughts, like the beach vacation my parents and snis and her family are on, and that sort of helped, but I just felt sh*tty. I called my snis and was able to fall asleep (much later than I wanted) after talking to her about it.
SUNDAY!
I imagined I would sleep in Sunday but the cats had other plans! I woke up to what sounded like water running and felt super confused as I was the only one home. Oh. That was Data having a major poop accident in the bathroom. Sigh. Poor guy.
So early Sunday morning was spent on cat cleanup and feeding and playing duty. I also did some laundry, tidied up, and prepped produce for the week.
Then ran.
Then cleaned some more when I got back. And made lunch and tried to watch The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on Netflix, but silly me, it was Crazy Kitty Time, and I couldn’t focus!
Watching Apollo be crazy
So we played for a bit, I cleaned some more, did some more laundry (CHORES!!!!!!!!!) then made this banana cake recipe, AGAIN, this time in cupcake form. This is my third time making this recipe and it’s delish. See upcoming Tuesday post about how I have gained weight this summer, muah ha ha.
Watching for Daddy to get home
Steven got home in the late afternoon and I spent the rest of the evening chatting with him about his trip, doing a few more chores, and watching that Netflix movie! I enjoyed the movie. I heard about it at the library, because they had a copy of the book and it said something on the cover about being a movie on Netflix. I picked the book up to see if I wanted to read it, but when I saw it was all back-and-forth letters, the format turned me off! I wonder if they ever actually get together (face-to-face) in the book (like they do in the movie). I am guessing the movie might have changed a few things (to make it watchable!).
There was some Crazy Kitty Time during the second attempt to watch the movie, too. Khali wants to be in on the action too (by observing and swatting from time to time), which makes me glad. It feels like she is spending more time around us now that the kittens are here.
Highlight of the Week: Getting to run so much while on work travel.
Monday | August 6, 2018: 5 m run + 5 m run Loc: Jeffersonville to Louisville and back, Temp: 75°/73°, Time: 48:58, Pace: 9:47 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, sad one pedestrian bridge was closed
Loc: Jeffersonville to Louisville and back, Temp: 86°/84°, Time: 50:31, Pace: 10:05 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: full from dinner, but okay! Tuesday | August 7, 2018: 3 m run Loc: Ohio River Greenway, Temp: 75°/76°, Time: 30:43, Pace: 10:13 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: tired at first, then fine Wednesday | August 8, 2018: rest Thursday | August 9, 2018: 4 m run Loc: hood, Temp: 70°/71°, Time: 37:41, Pace: 9:25 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, running in the rain Friday | August 10, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,176 yd swim + 7.5 m run Strength: BOSU and med balls, Felt: good, hot
Loc: FitNation, Time: 25:07, Pace: 2:08 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 77°/76°, Time: 1:18:17, Pace: 10:26 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: thirsty, a bit blah & sluggish Saturday | August 11, 2018: 4 m run + Efit Games Loc: hood, Temp: 64°/63°, Time: 41:36, Pace: 10:23 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: still sluggish Sunday | August 12, 2018: 12 m run Loc: DPRT/Kilbourne loop, Temp: 68°/78°, Time: 2:10:06, Pace: 10:50 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good!
Notes:
I’m grateful I could fit in three runs while on travel this week. I think the Louisville waterfront park is great and would love to run more there. When I was logging my Monday night run, I saw it was my first run (starting) after 6:00 pm all year. I wonder if I’ll have many more night runs.
My Thursday run window coincided with a severe thunderstorm warning which meant the temperature dropped, yay! I got soaked, and ran up and down our street to stay close to home.
The fitness studio I work for held our second annual “Efit Games” on Saturday. There were six teams of four, and ten events – things like bucket carry, tug-of-war, push-ups, ball toss, etc. My boss organizes it all and we just show up and have fun! And we did! Except I had a bad headache that up-down events made worse. But I powered through, and my team ended up placing third!
Man, I was SORE when I woke up Sunday, which I expected. It was mostly upper body – I was surprised it wasn’t my calves – I could feel them locking up during tug-of-war, so badly that they were shaking after.
Everyone got an “Efit Games” shirt, and for the first time of me going to/working at Efit, racerback tanks were offered! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those are my preferred style! I hope we order more. And since I had that style on, several people commented on my tattoo (it’s covered otherwise)!
My method for dealing with the heat and humidity this summer has been to ignore it. I go out for my run with a lot of water, choose shady routes, etc. But I try not to dwell on it before or during the run because it is what it is! So when I have a crappy run like I did Friday night, I forget that weather might be part of that until after I am done. Then think, “oh! yeah!” Ha.
Alright, I haven’t ridden my bike in two weeks. And done a speed workout in maybe three or more. It’s time to fit those things back in!
I have a whole list of more substantial blog posts ideas but it’s just that – a list of ideas! So you get fluff for your Friday (um, not that this blog is EVER more than that!)
I received some iTunes giftcards for my birthday so you know what that means – it’s back to buying songs*, baby!
I have a huge list of songs I want to buy, but the song I’m listening to on repeat is one that wasn’t even on my list – I saw it on the iTunes Top Songs List <— so basic
Imagine Dragons, “Natural” <— even more basic but whatever – I like popular music!!!
*Yes, yes, I know there are many streaming applications I can use “for free,” including Amazon Music, which I have, but do not use. I buy my music. And deal with the POS that is iTunes.
And more fluff – cat pics! I know that’s why you’re really here!
Kitty update! They’ve almost been home a week! We’re letting them explore more rooms, which they love (they still sleep in a closed in room at night, mostly for safety from our second floor drop to the living room). Khali likes to be near them, and they like to follow her around. There is still some slapping and interesting noises between those three, but things seem to be getting more friendly and less “get off my turf”! Happily, Khali’s personality is staying the same, and she isn’t regressing back to her scared stray cat “I don’t trust you” behavior. Phew.
The second picture in this series is of Apollo getting smacked.
Data is STILL in the bathtub. We can take him out and walk around with him, but he always goes back to the bathtub. He’s still eating and going to the bathroom fine (well, what qualifies as fine for him now), but isn’t he bored out of his freaking mind in there?! Also, I’d like to use all the awesome spa stuff I got for my birthday (he’s occupying the only bathtub in the house)!!!!! His regular vet was off when we took him in last week – I wonder if he’d have a better analysis, or if we do just need some anxiety meds for Data?
I wish there was a way to prevent sad animal stories from being shared by people in my feed on Facebook (I do tell Facebook I don’t want to see it) and from showing up in my RSS news feeds. Ugh. I’d rather see stories like this.
Rachel and I decided to run the Madison Mini Marathon next Saturday for a birthday celebration together. Yay!
Gah, I’ve felt like a zombie most mornings this summer, and my diet is definitely to blame! I’m so ready to have a normal schedule and get back in to a routine!
I’m currently reading Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America, a book about the (British) author’s travels across the US in the 2000. Gina read it and liked it so she gave me a copy for my birthday. The author is humorous and I’m learning more about US geography (and getting some travel ideas, too)! I’m enjoying it!
Speaking of books, something strange has been happening at my library, where the books I have that are eligible for renewal are somehow already renewed by their due date without me doing anything. I wonder what the hell is going on. Of course, this did NOT happen with The Last Time I Lied, which is newer, and was not eligible for renewal, and I did not have time to finish. Sad face. I put in a hold request for it.
I will finish with a Photoshop rant. For some reason, the quality of my “save for web” settings keeps getting changed from maximum to medium. And I don’t notice it until I upload the images here and see how pixelated they are, after I’ve closed them in Photoshop. So I have to reopen them and resave them at a higher resolution. Wah wah wah. And yeah, I tried to figure out how to stop this! I just need to remember to make sure it’s at maximum each time I use it!
The name of my iPhone shows up when it connects to my car. I thought it would be really humorous to change the name of it, and see when Steven noticed.
Naturally, I changed it to “Kimberly’s Butt.”*
And it never showed up! My car still says “Connected to Kimberly’s iPhon.”**
What a letdown.
I left it as is, and kind of forgot about it, so there have been a couple of funny occurrences.
We were at the beach and Dad wanted to connect to my portable speaker via bluetooth. But first, Steve and Gina’s watches showed up as options on his phone. Then, “Kimberly’s Butt.” My Dad got a kick out of it. I’m glad to be making him proud, as an adult. (The speaker finally showed up when I unconnected my phone, duh.)
Then I was at the airport yesterday, using my phone as a hotspot***. A couple sat down next to me and asked “Are you Kimberly?” I told them I am, and they said “Kimberly’s Butt showed up on our phones!”
Ha! Ha ha ha! I’m not sure if it showed up as a recommended hotspot or in iPhone sharing or whatever it is called but they got a kick out of it. They were sure I wouldn’t admit to being Kimberly. Oh sure, I will. No shame!
Although I did lie and tell them I was waiting for my husband to notice it before I changed it. That’s not true. He noticed it when it was mentioned at the beach and rolled his eyes!!!
*It’s strange I didn’t use my standard “P+O-O=P”
**Ha, “iPhon” (missing the e) is what made us talk about changing it to start
***Sigh. The airport yesterday. I spent A LOT of time on my computer because I got there at 2:30 pm for a 5:30 pm flight (my meetings ended early). It was $75 to check in to an earlier flight and that isn’t an appropriate way to spend work money, so I waited for my flight, which was delayed several times and finally left three hours late, which got me home at 10:00 pm instead of 7:00 pm. I still safely got home (yay!) but I reached my breaking point of sitting in the airport with about an hour and a half left to wait. I just wanted to be home! And to NOT be exhausted today, which I now am, but whatever. At least the Louisville airport is super chill (not crowded) and it was a relaxing-as-can-be delay – I did some work, caught up on a few blogs, read, and listened to some podcasts.
I’ve completely forgotten about my vegan donut goal (to have a vegan donut in each state) this summer. Oops! The last time I updated my donut chart was in May, in Cleveland!
I thought I would remedy that while close to Louisville – surely there has to be some vegan friendly bakeries.
And there are! But they were all closed on Monday, or opened too late on Tuesday (the two days I’m here). I saw one place opened at 6:30 am Tuesday, and when I called them at 7:30 am to confirm they actually have vegan donuts (because websites RARELY seem to say they do – you have to look for reviews or Instagram or whatever), they were already sold out! D’oh! I should have tried harder. Instead of going to get donuts at 6:30 am, I was running. Bad Kim.
Maybe next time. I have a horrible feeling I will be back here for work. Ugh.
I did check out a vegetarian/vegan restaurant – Heart & Soy. The food photographed well, but I tried a new-to-me curry dish and didn’t care for it. I especially didn’t care for it on my run right after. Ha!
Not related, but here are photos Steven sent me of the babies while I was (still am) gone!
Ha, this one (above) of Apollo makes me laugh so hard!
Did anyone else sing “oh, there goes gravity” after reading that title?
This weekend was my attempt to get my life and our house back in order before leaving for a work trip Sunday afternoon. I was kind of successful!
FRIDAY!
On Friday we ran errands (GROCERIES!!!), picked up a (free for my birthday!) pizza, and played with Apollo and Starbuck. We were going to watch a movie, but before we knew it, it was 10:00! Time flies when you’re playing with kittens!
SATURDAY!
I did not get up early and work out Saturday morning… I got up and played with the kittens! <— recurring theme
I taught fitness boxing, ran after, then spent most of the afternoon cleaning the house. And taking kitten pictures.
Jen, Troy, and Declan came over to celebrate my birthday/catch up. We ate Chinese food, and… played with the kittens!
SUNDAY!
I was hoping I’d somehow wake up full of energy and want to do a long run, but nope. Exhausted. So I got out of bed and played with the kittens.
We made breakfast and I prepped some of the produce for the week,
then packed and took care of things around the house. And played with the kittens (including Khali – I’ve been making sure to play with her every time she sees us with the kittens! Data is still hanging out in the bathtub.).
I did take a thirty minute nap (with the kittens!) before it was time to leave for the airport at 3:00. Then you know, blah blah blah, crowded airport, delayed flight, got to my hotel at 9:45 and hadn’t had dinner yet, late night, etc.
I’m in Jeffersonville, IN (via Louisville, KY) for work until Tuesday afternoon. I actually visited this town three times in the summer of 2011, and am not too thrilled to be back (for work)! But I remember I enjoyed running here, so I’m looking forward to that.
Hi! I'm Kim, a 34-year-old living in Chicagoland with my husband, Steven, and our cats, Khali, Apollo, and Starbuck. I work in the design industry (architecture), follow a vegan lifestyle, am addicted to running, and am an ACE certified personal trainer (working at Essential Fitness, LLC ("Efit"))! I write about a variety of topics, and consider this a "life" blog - a place I can share anything that's on my mind. Please visit the "About" page to get a better idea of who I am! :-)
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