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By kilax, July 26, 2018 6:39 am

• My birthday is next week, so I am treating myself and my bestie coworker is treating me to a manicure today!!! How sweet!
• As a present, I bought myself two pairs of running shoes. Because of my extreme supination, my running shoes only last to 200 miles IF I’m lucky. And I run around 1,500-2,000 miles a year, so I need 8-10 pairs a year. I was telling my snis all this and she asked me to estimate how much I’ve spent on running shoes this year, which inspired me to start tracking it (and back track it) so I don’t get tooooooo ridiculous with how many shoes I keep around.
• Sad news – last week there was a fire at a famous landmark near us, the Pyramid House. The humans in the family got out okay, but one dog did not, and four fire fighters were injured. I’ve heard there was over three million dollars in damage, and that the family plans to rebuild – but that could just be a rumor. See more here (pdf here) if you’re interested.
• I finished My Fight/Your Fight and am now reading The Last Time I Lied, the second book by Riley Sager (I read his first book, Final Girls, this month too!). It was interesting reading My Fight/Your Fight with Rousey saying she was never going to lose a fight, but to know that she did right after the book was published. I hope she writes another book in a few years about how that affected her and if it changed her mentality!

• This guy showed up Tuesday! And according to my brother, his name is Hector! Seeing him really made me want to open the cat house back up (<— searching for that link brought up a lot of Snow pictures and upset me a bit).

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 188

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By kilax, July 25, 2018 12:27 pm

4 things people comment on when they see me in the summer

1. The amount of scars on my legs*
2. How dark my skin is
3. My funky tan lines
   
4. All my mosquito bites

I know I have more skin showing in the summer so these things are more apparent, but, come on people, do you need to say something?

4 things annoying me at work right now

1. When someone modifies the agenda to shorten the lunch break
2. When someone argues with me about doing something THEY were supposed to do
3. When I’m left off a meeting to review something I designed
4. People sharing personal information they shouldn’t

Thankfully I’m off for a few days starting tomorrow! I need a break!

4 “tricks” I use

1. Put your pet’s food in a boot tray so the spills/messiness are contained
   

   I’m not messy; I’m a lady

2. Put important dates in your calendar and set up reminders – people are super touched when you remember!
3. I’ve mentioned this before, but use body glide to prevent summer chafing when you wear dresses and skirts
4. Don’t think you’re gonna make your step goal for the day? Modify it to a lower number for that day only and keep the steak going! Ha! Muah ha ha. Hee hee.

Ha, not “life hacks,” but I had to share, especially the last one.

4 of my “special” “talents”

1. Taking super speedy showers
2. Remembering names and dates
3. Navigation/knowing where I am
4. Photoshop

I’ve found myself saying “it’s one of my special talents” a bit lately, so I had to put those here!

*Last year, someone asked what all the scars on my leg were from, and I said all the mosquito bites I picked as a kid and as an adult. I said “I wish I would have listened to my mom and not picked them!” Then this person called their child over, pointed at my legs and said “this is why you shouldn’t pick your mosquito bites!”… so happy to be an example… … …

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By kilax, July 24, 2018 6:29 am

One happy, one sad with a happy ending, one wtf is he doing, and one wtf is wrong with me.

One happy story

Athena, mother to our kitties, is in her forever home at Bobbi’s! She went home yesterday and is adapting well. I can’t stop smiling when I look at the pictures of her chilling in her new home! And I can’t stop asking Bobbi “how’s she doing now?” “now?” “what’s she doing?” Ha ha.

One sad with a happy ending story

This one is about amphibians so skip it if you want!

When I ride my bike in the basement, I often see shadows and movement in the window well. I assumed it was chipmunks climbing in and out (sigh) then one day I saw this guy hanging out and realized it was frogs!

I thought nothing of it until the next time I noticed a frog was in there and was trying to climb out and kept falling. So after I got off my bike I went outside and got two frogs out of there, and saw that there were several frog carcasses.

Ugh, I felt horrible that they were getting trapped in there and dying. (I think they’re climbing around in the hostas around the window well and fall in). So we put a “ramp” in for them to climb out, and I’ve been checking each day for trapped frogs. So far, so good.

One wtf is he doing story

I think Data is taking playing “the floor is lava” game to an extreme. For a few weeks, he’s been obsessed with sitting on tables and counters. And recently, he’s been trying to move from one raised surface to another without touching the ground. When he does touch the hardwood or tile floor on our first floor, he can only stand it for a little bit before bolting upstairs and getting on the bed.

Sigh.

The internet theorizes he is avoiding the floor because of fleas (nope), or he’s scared of something. He has been hiding in the closet a lot more than normal. Nothing seems to be wrong with his feet (that the floor would be bothering him). Poor dude. Thankfully, he is still going to the bathroom in the boxes on the first floor, but we had to move his food upstairs so he can eat off of the carpet (because he wouldn’t eat off the hardwood floors in the kitchen). If this continues, I’ll call the vet to see if he has any theories about what is going on.

One wtf is wrong with me story

Last night Khali was sitting on the carpeted stairs and I went to walk down them to pet her and fell and slid down several of the stairs on the outside of my left leg and the inside of my right one. Sigh. I have carpet burn, scrapes, and lumps under where I hit the steps. Oh, and did I mention it freaking HURT? I went to bed in pain. I feel better today, but pretty beat up. (Luckily I did not land on Khali – she ran up the stairs as I fell down, and is fine.)

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By kilax, July 23, 2018 6:21 am

Whoa, I was L-A-Z-Y this weekend! I enjoyed being lazy, but did think I was going to get a few more chores done… oops.

FRIDAY!

Friday started out crappy. I had a bad headache due to the pressure drop,

and was mostly out of commission. I told Steven french fries would make me feel better (???) so we went to White Castle to pick up some of their Impossible Burger sliders and fries.

This is only my second time EVER getting White Castle (the first time was also at this location). Question – is the service always so slow? It took fifteen minutes to get our four sliders and one order of fries. The first time we went it took about twenty minutes.

The sliders were good though! And the cold, thirty-minute old french fries did “help” my headache. We ate at home and watched the new Tomb Raider, which I was surprised to enjoy after all the bad reviews it got.

And the best part of Friday? The female kittens got fixed and the veterinarian said they were doing well!

SATURDAY!

I started Saturday with a short run and ride, then ran errands, then mostly chilled after. We finished watching Rock of Ages, made lunch, watched an episode of Mad Men, then I told Steven I was going to take a “disco nap” so I could stay up late that night at a party. Ha! (But really, it was necessary.)

I had made a hair cut appointment for before the party, hoping I’d be happy enough with the blowout to not have to do anything to my hair, but it looked flat to me. So I put on my big girl pants and located my curling iron (which I apparently have not used in the two years and five months we’ve lived in this house) and attempted to style my hair.

I NEVER style my hair. It’s either in a messy “bun” (not really a bun), a ponytail, or straightened. So I felt super proud of myself for attempting to, and not giving up. (I’m not saying it looked great, I’m just proud I TRIED.)

The party we went to was at our veterinarian’s office to celebrate their twenty-five year anniversary. We’ve been clients there for thirteen years, as long as we’ve had Data! There was food, speeches, dancing, and an open bar.

We sat with another client couple, and the wife was from Ames, Iowa, the town where we both went to college. So we chatted with them a TON, and of course, have some connections back in Ames, and locally.

We also visited the kittens while we were there (they’re ready to come home, but with our schedules, we can’t bring them home until August 2nd)!!! They seem SO BIG.

And I danced a bit while Steven chatted with some folks. We had a fun time and were heading out when the party ended at 11:00, then realized someone with a stick-shift car needed a ride home and Steven was the only one there who can drive a stick, so we ended up staying later and not getting back to our house until close to 1:00. I think we went to bed at 2:00. Eek!

SUNDAY!

So I kind of wasted away my Sunday after going to be so late and getting such odd sleep. I woke up at 7:00, was up for over an hour, then slept until 9:30. Whoa!

I finally got my butt out the door for a run, then we had lunch and watched Run All Night, had a FaceTime call with Gina and Steve to talk about RAGBRAI stuff, and mostly lounged and did a few minor chores that day/night. Again, oops! But I am glad we didn’t have any plans because I was out of it most of the day. Eh, it happens. There will be more productive days ahead.

Oh, and I don’t think I mentioned the party was outside… and I had my bug spray with me and forgot to use it right away. Sigh. My feet and ankles itch so bad.

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By kilax, July 19, 2018 6:00 am

• I talked to the veterinarian on Tuesday and the females kittens haven’t been spayed yet – besides the restriction of weighing five pounds or more, they’re also trying to fit them in the pro bono surgery schedule. That’s okay with me. At this point we can’t bring them home until August 1st or 2nd due to travel anyway.
• The kittens are getting so big! They look huge in this photo Bobbi sent me from visiting them Tuesday!

I put white stars by the kittens that are ours. The other two are actually going to one family as well! The two others from the litter are already home. 

• All my current library books are non-fiction. I wonder how many of these I’ll make it through. My Fight/Your Fight and Chasing Excellence had a similar tone (which makes sense, one is about CrossFit, and one is about Ronda Rousey) – that being the best requires 100% dedication and sacrifice. I abandoned Chasing Excellence, but am enjoying My Fight/Your Fight.

• I thought I was picking up our next Book Club for Two book, Extreme Ownership, yesterday, but for some reason, the library canceled my hold, after it said it was being shipped. Wah. (I just requested it again…)
• Other people’s dreams are boring, but I have to share this one. Ha. I was in a Mad Men-esque office, and an important client was coming in. For some reason, I had on my “run all the miles, eat all the tacos” shirt. So I asked Joan (from the show) if I could go home and change in to a dress. She was very annoyed/upset with me.

• I should have added this to my Tuesday complaint post, but Google Gmail, how much longer are you going to have “contacts” under your left side drop down menu, if it just tells people to use the right side menu? Just take it away from the left side! That will teach me faster! (Maybe this is fixed in the new Gmail, which I am not using, since it doesn’t have Labs.)

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 187

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By kilax, July 18, 2018 6:26 am

It’s time to celebrate, fellow hot dog lovers*, it’s National Hot Dog Day**!

And it’s time for me to tell another story about how slow I am.

When I was driving to the city on Sunday, I saw a few electronic tollway signs that said “no texting, no speeding, no ketchup.”

photo from here, I did NOT take a photo of the sign

I totally was NOT getting the “no ketchup” part.

So I told Steven about it, and he’s like, “yeah, because they don’t put ketchup on their hot dogs in Chicago?” (And I was driving in Chicagoland.)

So much duh, Kim. So. Much. Duh.

And now that I get it, I find it very humorous they put that on a sign. And wonder how many out-of-towners it confused.

I have not had a proper Chicago dog this year – all of mine have been in Wisconsin or at home. Soon… Soon.

*Last week someone told me they went to a ballgame and I asked if they got a hot dog, and they said they didn’t want to eat lips and a$$. To which I suggested, “get the vegan hot dog!” So, to clarify, I’m a lover of vegan hot dogs.
**Did anyone celebrate National French Fry Day last Friday? And wasn’t it recently National Ice Cream Day? Gotta love these made up holidays!

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By kilax, July 16, 2018 6:21 am

FRIDAY!

Friday started out awesome because I finally visited Bobbi’s pool for the first this season! Woo hoo! I didn’t run over, but hopefully I’ll be able to later this summer (I have a pool bag there with my suit in it and everything!).

After that refreshing dip (it was in the 90s!), Steven and I went to visit the kittens. We talked with a technician more and it turns out they want the females to weigh five pounds before spaying them. Safety first! They think that may be this week, but who knows! Mama cat got spayed that day… but she can’t go home until all the kittens do.

We ran a Kohl’s errand after, then made a late dinner and watched part of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. We had just watched the original the week before, so we were keeping the series going! The original is more subtle with the animal violence compared to the second one, and especially when compared to Jurassic World. We thought Jurassic World was so violent and disturbing, there’s no way we’re seeing the one that’s out now. (Keep in mind, we’re vegan and vegetarian for animal rights reasons, so we don’t stomach violence, even against dinosaurs, well.)

SATURDAY!

I woke up to rain Saturday morning but was determined to do my tempo run, so I went to the trail, which would slow me down, but shield me from some of the rain.

That morning, I prepped veggies for the week, and made this banana cake from an account instagram suggested to me. It turned out SO GOOD (I had to use a different cream cheese recipe due to not having Tofutti at home – I won’t use it again).

We finished The Lost World at lunch, then I took a 1.5 hour nap. WINNING! After my nap, I ran some errands (where I ran in to Bobbi & fam, ha), watched part of Spirit of the Marathon II, made dinner with Steven, and spent a lot of time prepping for a bike ride Sunday.

Gosh, rides are SO. MUCH. WORK. to prep for. Especially when you are traveling to ride/not riding from your house. Preparing for this ride was like preparing for RAGBRAI, since I was also driving quite a ways to ride, then riding a similar distance, and needing to make sure I packed everything (thing I almost forgot and remembered in the morning – Body Glide)!

SUNDAY!

But the prep (and early morning!) was worth it for the fun day we had! I picked xaarlin up at 6:00 am and we headed to DeKalb for the Biking with Beanzie event. It’s an organized (and supported!) ride offering several distances – 25, 46, 64, 80, and 101. Xaarlin is training for an Ironman, and I have a 70+ mile ride at RAGBRAI, so I suggested we ride together as a late birthday celebration for her!

We arrived after 7:00, signed up (and got a fun tie-dye shirt), set up our bikes, and got on our way. The long drive out there meant we were out of Chicagoland and most of our ride would be on country roads where it was safe for us to ride next to one another and chat (I wear a mirror so we can watch for cars and move over well before they got near… said mirror broke as I put it on in the morning but I rigged it on my glasses for the day).

I wonder if the sky inspired the color for the shirt?

So that’s what we did! Pedaled and chatted and stopped at the aid stations every ten to fifteen miles. And the ride flew by (we rode 67 miles)! I usually bonk or get annoyed with the noise from the wind in the last part of my rides, but that didn’t happen with xaarlin – I think because I was eating and drinking a lot more due to the event being supported, and our chatting distracted me from the wind noise. Yay!

I picked this event because it was on a date that worked for both of us, and had NO idea who Beanzie was or what the event was about! We kept seeing funny “Beanzie” directional signs on the course (which was very well marked) – Beanzie in different movie posters, or famous scenes, or as a famous person. And we kept wondering “WHO IS BEANZIE?!”

And guess what? I still don’t really know – it’s hard to find the origin story online. There was a printed recent article from a newspaper at the event that mentioned Beanzie is a guy’s nickname who liked to ride in DeKalb with friends and they had the idea to start this ride to benefit the Kiwanis Mission. So… there ya go?! Updated to add: xaarlin sent me some more info and I was able to find this! The group wanted a unique name for their ride so they used one of the founder’s nicknames.  

It’s definitely well done though! We both said we’d do it again. And I LOVED that we got to use the high school showers to clean off after the ride. I felt like a new person (and realized I did a REALLY bad job applying sunscreen, sigh)!

After we cleaned up, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant, then drove back to the city, then I drove home! It was a long day, but a lot of fun!

When I got home, Steven helped me unpack and put everything away, which took almost as much time as packing! Then we did some chores, ate dinner, watched part of Jurassic Park III (we’re on a roll) and called it a night.

I definitely feel ready for RAGBRAI after doing this long ride! Yay!

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By kilax, July 14, 2018 10:51 am

We still suck at using Redbox. This movie probably wasn’t worth watching once, let alone having it for ten days. 

Well, it’s been long enough that this happened that I now laugh about it, so I am ready to share it as a PSA!

As you know, Redbox charges you by day, for how long you have their movies. So ideally, you pick it up one day, and return it the next. It’s a pita to go pick up a movie (and return it!), but we watch a lot of movies, and so many of them are BAD that I’d rather spend less money to watch a disk, then pay $5+ to watch on demand (or pay less but watch with commercials, yuck). Anyway.

So, on April 29th we rented The Commuter. We put it in the car to return on April 30th. We also turned in the car to the dealership for work on April 30th, and did not get it back until May 8th. On May 9th, when I got home, and was taking things out of the trunk, I decided to throw out the trash bag the dealership left in my car, then realized it had a few of my things in it… including The Commuter.

W
T
F

We never returned it on the 30th. It slipped through the seat of the car and we forgot, only for it to be found when they were working on my car, and held hostage in the car for nine days at the dealership (I kind of wished they would have called me and told me…).

So when I finally returned it on May 9th, we paid $20 total for renting it – $2 for each day, because you know, we had upgraded to the blu-ray. That $20 kind of stung, but hey, at least I looked in that garbage bag and didn’t just throw it away!

So! Don’t make the same mistake as me!

This turned us off Redbox for a while, and we finally started using it again. And almost forgot to return our disk this week within the one day time frame. What is wrong with us?! Ha ha ha.

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By kilax, July 12, 2018 6:30 am

• So, it turns out the female kittens are NOT getting spayed this week, because they don’t weigh enough. I feel stupid for getting so excited about them coming home this week. That’ll teach me!
• Last week, Steven heard a mention of an office I designed for a public figure on NPR! I thought that was cool! NPR didn’t mention me, or where I work, but it’s awesome that the office is getting recognition at all.
• We were invited to a semi-formal event next weekend! I’m looking forward to dressing up and even made an appointment for my hair!

I should probably wear something I already own. So far I am looking at these two black dresses, which seem appropriate, but are too big, or these two colored dresses, which I am not sure about, but fit.

• I finished Let Your Mind Run last week, and Final Girls (per Stephany’s recommendation!) yesterday. I’ll definitely be reading Let Your Mind Run again, and highlighting and taking more away from it. I enjoyed Final Girls (except the gory parts), especially when it picked up pace at the end. It kept me engaged in the last third, with its twists and turns, and revealing more of the main character’s history.

• Now I have four non-fiction books from the library to pick my next read!
• I was so excited when I saw this sign Monday night! I love raspberries! How did I only buy six containers?!

• Khali was super in to A Quiet Place. I think it’s because she sat right by the speaker, and the movie was mostly quiet, until it wasn’t. Ha.

• It blows my mind that I still have panicked dreams about packing up and leaving Rome, despite not having lived there in twelve years!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 186

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By kilax, July 11, 2018 12:53 pm

… I have all my weekends planned out through August.

… I’m tired every day because I’m so busy and staying up later/waking up earlier. I JUST WANT TO NAP.

… An 80 degree day with a breeze and low dew point feels heavenly.

… I’m only wearing skirts and dresses to work.

… I’m already looking forward to fall!

… I fantasize about cycling when I’m running (and running while I’m cycling).

… My tan lines are SO ridiculous.

… Reading a book in the hammock sounds lovely.

… I CRAVE the beach/pool.

… An ice cold lemonade sounds so good.

… As does a hot dog.

… Grilling still feels like a treat!

… I’m covered in mosquito bites. NOT! We had our yard professionally sprayed so I don’t have as many bites as usual. Woot!

… I’m feeling like it’s flying by too fast!

… Making a list form blog post is very appealing…

Just your typical summer (except the grilling – that’s new to this year)!