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By kilax, September 27, 2018 6:50 am

• We’re going on a trip! Can you guess where?! HUGE thanks to Mica for helping us with our tickets!

• I finished Reborn on the Run and started A River of Stars, but didn’t make it very far before it was due at the library. It was well written, but I wasn’t really rooting for the main character, so I don’t think I’ll put a hold on it to finish it. I picked up a new novel, The Ensemble.

• We are joining the 21st Century and getting TSA Pre✓next week. I’m going to be traveling more for work (and have two personal trips coming up), and hope it will save me a little time and hassle. HOPE, ha.
• I got to trade in my huge laptop (required for the detail I was on earlier this year) in for a smaller one yesterday and YAY!!! It weighs a few pounds less, and takes up much less space in my backpack. WOOT.
• Ugh, I was bummed when Jordan Hasay dropped out of the Chicago Marathon, and now Amy Cragg too?! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I am excited Gwen Jorgensen is running, but was really excited about Hasay and Cragg.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 196

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By kilax, August 21, 2018 5:58 am

I’m a lucky gal – I got to see three of my girlfriends this weekend! I’ve been feeling lonely lately, and it was good for me to connect and share with them.

THURSDAY!

I’m starting my weekend recap with Thursday because Anne spent the night! She was in Chicago for a conference that ended that day, and instead of going home, she hung out with me and Steven (and our fur babies). I appreciate her traveling up from the city to spend time with us!

We got Chinese take-out and ate and chatted. I feel like we still have so much catching up to do! We email a lot, and text a bit, but nothing beats face-to-face time.

FRIDAY!

On Friday Anne came with me to the 5:00 am strength class, and we ran after. Then she left for Columbus. Sad face! But I’m grateful for our time together!

Apollo helped Anne with her towels

In the afternoon I drove to Rachel’s house. I got to meet her newest cat (!!!), Nala, and we hung for a bit then went to the expo.

We both commented on how they make you walk by ALL of the vendor booths to pick up your bib and shirt, but we both also ended up buying a few things (for ourselves and gifts) after we picked up our stuff. Ha! They got us!

A bell we knew we wouldn’t be ringing

We went to Fuego, a Spanish restaurant in Madison, for dinner. They have a full vegan menu, and a full meat menu too. We decided to get vegan stuff and split it all.

We thought the tapas were the best – guacamole and salsa, and patatas bravas (fried spicy potatoes). We got the chile relleno and paella for our main courses, and didn’t like them as much! The chile relleno didn’t have much flavor other than spicy, and the paella was deconstructed and had a huge freakin’ eggplant in it that tasted way too earthy to me! Gag! I enjoyed trying something new though, and the opportunity to have so many choices!

The paella – the best part was the crunchy bread dipped in the savory broth

Of course, we got drinks too, and cake (mango coconut) to celebrate Rachel’s birthday!

After checking in our hotel, we went to Dane Dances on the Monona Terrace rooftop, where Rachel’s coworker’s group (well, one of a few that he’s in) Orquesta Sal Sol del Mad was playing! I enjoyed their salsa style music, and thought it was fun when they covered a pop song – it made the song even better (or helped the song if I didn’t like it – I’m looking at you Ed Sheeran)! We danced until they ended their set then got a drink with her coworker.

And went to bed close to midnight! On the night before a half! But we were running for fun so I totally wasn’t concerned.

SATURDAY!

On Saturday we ran the half marathon, had an interesting experience at the Farmers’ Market, and shopped/ate on State Street.

We were planning on having ice cream for lunch <— adulting!, but when we walked by Ian’s, we had to stop in for a slice. Ian’s is one of the very few places I like to get pizza, because they have so many vegan options (surprise surprise, pizza isn’t very fun when you’re vegan, unless the place caters to that diet!).

My jaw hit the ground when I saw they had three vegan slices ready to order (I thought I’d have to wait for a custom order) and one of them was mac n’ cheese. While we had been standing in line, staring at all the ready-made pizzas, I told Rachel mac n’ cheese was what I would get if it was vegan. So, that they had it?! BEST. DAY. EVER. Dreams do come true!!! Here’s a horrible photo that makes it look completely unappetizing:

We shopped a bit after pizza (gah, so many fun shops on State Street!) then got rolled ice cream. We had walked by the rolled ice cream shop on the way back from the race and didn’t have enough cash with us to get any, so that’s when we planned to go back for lunch, because, again, adulting. It was my first time trying rolled ice cream and I liked it! Watching them make it was a lot of fun.

We headed back to Rachel’s after that. I hung for a short bit then drove home. I could tell I was going to be tired when we were riding back to her place and I sure was on my drive. Eek. Too. Much. Fun. (really, too. little. sleep.)

Since this post is recap style, I’m saying more about what we did and not really explaining how nice it was to be together for a chunk of time catching up, but also, hanging out and making NEW memories. We’re typically together for only a few hours and trying to cram in as much catch up as we can!

I admire Rachel – she’s got a lot going on, and she has her sh*t together, and goes after what she wants. She’s actually very good at adulting, beyond our initial plan to have ice cream for lunch. Ha. And talking personal and work things out with her this weekend gave me some insight. Yay, friend time!

I spent the rest of Saturday night hanging with Steven and the cats. We made dinner and watched an episode of Mad Men (we just started season six).

SUNDAY!

I was lazy on Sunday. I got up at 5:00 and fed the cats, then went back to bed until 7:00 (!!!), and ran errands from 9:00-11:30. Errands were frustrating and I kept telling myself “these are small things that don’t matter,” but I’m in a state where I’m just waiting for one small thing to make me crack and lose my sh*t and it almost happened but didn’t. Phew.

We had lunch together and Bobbi and her girls came over after to play with the kitties (and talk to us too, ha). It was fun sharing cat stories – their cat is our kittens’ mother! We want to socialize Apollo and Starbuck with lots of people so they aren’t shy/scared, so I keep inviting people over to meet them. Come on over!!!

They were pooped after playing with their visitors!

We took Data out for a walk in our yard in the afternoon. He’s still playing the floor is lava game inside, but seems completely fine outside, so we stayed out there for about an hour. When we came in, he didn’t immediately run back to the bathroom sink – he hung out with us for a few hours!  Is this progress?! It made me so happy to have him hanging with us again (he did go back to the sink at the end of the night). He has an appointment with the vet today – we are concerned he’s losing weight too fast.

Steven was craving corn on the cob so we made that part of our dinner, and watched Avengers: Infinity War. And that was my Sunday, besides a few chores, and a lot of kitty time!

Random cute cat pics from the weekend:

We got this tent out of storage and it ended up being very popular!

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By kilax, August 8, 2018 6:13 am

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.

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By kilax, August 7, 2018 2:33 pm

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!

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By kilax, August 6, 2018 4:19 am

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.

I hung this caricature up while I was cleaning.

Look! Apollo’s toe beans are multi-colored!

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.

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By kilax, August 4, 2018 1:23 pm

I’ve been visiting Guttenberg, Iowa, on the Mississippi River, since birth. It’s where my family goes to relax – to boat, go to the beach, and to eat entirely too much food. This is the fifth year in a row that la otra familia – Gina, Steve, and Luca – have joined us for vacation there!

Our annual river trip with la otra familia trip flew by! We arrived in Guttenberg last Saturday night, and left Wednesday afternoon.

FRIDAY!

Steven and I headed out of town around 1:00 pm on Friday, and made our way to Davenport, where Gina and fam were meeting us so that we could leave our car there and ride back to (near) Iowa City with them. Yay, RAGBRAI logistics! We had an easy drive in, and kind of wished we were spending more time in Davenport – it looked like a neat city!

We drove by the finish line for the Bix 7 (a popular 7-mile race) and it dawned on me that RAGBRAI finished in Davenport on the same morning as the Bix 7. Whoa, logistics nightmare much? I knew we’d be arriving there well after the race was over though, ha.

We rode back to Iowa City and got some Mediterranean food, then went back to our hotel to meal plan and make a (huge) shopping list for the week.

SATURDAY!

Dad, Gina, Steven, and I rode RAGBRAI, while Steven, Mom and Luca had some adventures of their own! After dropping us off, they stopped at Hurts Donuts (the home of Steven’s favorite glazed donut) in Iowa City,

then dropped Gina and Steve’s car off in Davenport, then went out to lunch in Dubuque, then picked up all our groceries for the next 3.5 days. It was Steven’s idea for the three of them to drop the car then go get groceries, and that REALLY helped the overall schedule. I had planned on grocery shopping after the ride, but Steven hypothesized I wouldn’t feel like it, and he was right! It was such a help to have them do that!

They drove on to Guttenberg and checked in to Gina and Steve’s rental and dropped off all the groceries then hung out until we got there. We all had pizza together that night and shared stories from our day with each other. It was fun to hear what they were up to!

SUNDAY!

Sunday was a typical river day. Gina and I did a long-ish run in the morning with Dad (on his bike) then we packed all our food and gear up for a trip to the beach!

Running up the hill to meet Gina!

I gave Gina a unicorn floatie for her birthday, and we had a blast trying to get on and off it, and seeing how many adults we could fit on it. I think (I know, actually, because someone said something) the people on the beach enjoyed watching us fall off, and all the little girls were making home alone faces and saying “Look! A unicorn!”

Matching hats from Gina!

After beach time, we had dinner at Gina and Steve’s rental. The owner of the rental left some sweet corn from his farm and it was amazing! The rest of dinner was too, but the corn stole the show. Hashtag Iowa.

MONDAY!

Steve and I ran a bit with Dad Monday morning, then Steven and Steve did some work, while Gina, Luca and I hiked the trail behind their rental. The rental house was on the bluff overlooking town, and the trail went straight in to town. I was expecting single track, but it was actually groomed with grass, then dirt, then rocks. It was an easy hike.

While in town we went to the aquarium and lock and dam (where we watched part of a barge go through!). We saw a large sign for things to do in Clayton County at the aquarium, and Spook Cave caught our interest. Then we heard a raving review for it from a 3 and 5-year-old at the lock and dam, so we knew we had to go! After lunch, we headed there!

Bones – one of the cats who lives at the cave/campground!

I wish I could give you the history of the cave, but I didn’t retain much of it (by my own fault – our tour guide was great). What I thought was cool was that you tour the cave on a boat, and have to duck a lot to avoid hitting your head on the cave walls. And we all enjoyed that it was 47° in there!

We checked out the town of McGregor for a bit after our tour. Unfortunately, a lot of the shops were closed (we got there too late), but we still had fun!

We all had dinner together at Gina and Steve’s again, and yes, the sweet corn stole the show. AGAIN. (But I tried red sauce enchiladas for the first time and liked them! We always do green sauce at home!)

TUESDAY!

Tuesday was my thirty-fourth birthday. All I wanted to do was run and go to the beach. And not do any dishes.

And I got my wish (minus a few dishes)! I ran with Dad up to Gina’s place, then ran with her a bit, then we all went to the beach and had it all to ourselves for a few hours, which is a treat!

I made sure to eat really crappy junky food for my birthday – a macaroni and cheese burger for lunch and nachos for dinner (which makes it sound like a love cheese, but that is not the case, ha).

My mom made me a coconut pineapple cake for my birthday, which we ate at Grandma’s. I opened gifts there too.

WEDNESDAY!

Wednesday was our last day. We made our traditional big breakfast (the other days we did quick stuff like cereal, pop-tarts, bars, and fruit), took our family photos,

packed up, and headed out!

Ha. It totally sounds like we did nothing on this trip, but we were hanging out all day, not taking naps, often cooking and cleaning, and packing things up and unpacking, and helping with the water toys where we could … we were super tired each night! But in a good way. It was a lot of fun! I felt like I got to relax and unplug and shut off from the world for a few days, which I needed. I was feeling pretty stabby and agitated about work before I left, so it was good to take a break. Then come back to chaos. But oh well!

And I say this every year but I LOVE how our families mesh so well together. Gina is like a sister to me, and she and Steve and Luca treat my parents like they’re their parents/grandparents. I recognize what a rare thing that is to have such a big group get along and want to spend days on days together and I’m  grateful for it. I love sharing my childhood vacation spot with them, and love that they want to spend two days driving to it (and back home, eek), and look forward to it all year like I do! Love love love!!! Can’t wait for River Trip 2019!

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By kilax, June 25, 2018 6:30 am

Last full weekend of June, first full weekend of summer! Let’s do some summer-y things!

FRIDAY!

On Friday night we used our summer bowling passes for the first time! And realized Friday night is not the best night to go bowling (duh, Kim) – note taken. We also had El Famous for dinner, cause it’s right there, so why not?!

SATURDAY!

We drove to Waupaca, Wisconsin on Saturday morning to spend the day/night with Rachel and Kevin at a cottage on Rainbow Lake. The cottage has been in Rachel’s friend’s Kim’s family for almost one hundred years! I was hoping Kim would be there too and she was! YAY!!!!!

Rachel sandwich! Kim, Rachel, Kim (me)

We spent the day playing in the water, boating, and eating. There was lots of good conversation, and LOTS of goofing off. A perfect summer day in my book!

Steven, me, Kevin, Rachel

I enjoyed ignoring my phone and only took it out to take a few photos (and to text with Bobbi about the cats, since she was cat sitting)!

SUNDAY!

Rachel and Kevin kept telling us how beautiful the sunrises are off the lake! I grabbed a photo of it… then went back to bed. Yassssssssssss.

Rachel and I ran (yay!), made breakfast, then we all went on a boat ride,

and we left around noon. We encountered typical Sunday traffic in Wisconsin, so the drive home took longer than on the way there because of idiotic (don’t even get me started) construction and traffic. Ugh.

But we had a relaxing evening! We did a few chores, watched an episode of Mad Men, made a lasagna casserole for dinner (aka, when you want lasagna but don’t have the right noodles), watched a bit of W. and called it a night!

I’m glad we got to see and experience cottage life! Rachel’s been telling me about going there for years, and I totally get why she loves it! It’s such a relaxing, slow-paced place.

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By kilax, June 18, 2018 6:01 am

I had an amazingly fulfilling weekend abounding in enjoyable conversation, silly jokes, and encouragement. Typically, being around people all the time for a few days in a row emotionally drains me, but not when it’s the right people. It was a pleasure the entire weekend with great people – my great people!

FRIDAY!

Bobbi and Riyanti picked me up at 5:30 am on Friday, and Bobbi drove us to Duluth (thanks, Bobbi!!!). It’s been FOREVER since I’ve seen Riyanti, and Bobbi and I haven’t spent much time together recently either, so the trip flew by because we were gabbing the whole time. We only stopped twice and were in town by noon. Woo hoo! (And thanks for letting me crash your drive to Duluth, ladies!)

We met a college friend of mine, Jessica, at her office to pick up bleacher passes that she had for the race (for Bobbi, Riyanti, and their friends to use to spectate after they ran the half!). And we all went to Pizza Luce for lunch. Bobbi and I ate there when we road-tripped to Minneapolis a few years back and I thought she’d mentioned then that they were in Duluth, too. I was so happy they were. They have a ton of vegan options and my pizza was delicious!!!

I got “The Rustler” – “topped with mock duck, pineapple, banana peppers, red onion, cheddar and mozzarella on BBQ/red sauce.”

While we were getting ready to order, it started storming like crazy outside and the power flickered on and off a few times. Bobbi had warned me how nutso the weather is in Duluth (how rapidly it changes), but I had to experience it to understand it.

Me, Riyanti, Bobbi, and Jessica

It was nice to catch up with Jessica, and I appreciated that Bobbi and Riyanti were easy-going about the day’s schedule (when they didn’t have to be, and still had the expo to go to, and a 5K to run that night!).

We went to the expo and it was crazy-crowded like Bobbi warned me it would be. We ran in to the friends Bobbi and Riyanti were staying with, and chatted with them for a while. Then as we were walking to the expo, we walked by Kara Goucher and I impulsively said “Hey, Kara!” Gosh, what a dork. She said “hey” back. Face. Palm.

Bobbi, me, Rityani, Kelly, and Carly with “Grandma”!

I struggled with the crowds at the expo and felt my heart rate go up, and the blood drain out of my face. I just tried to stay out of people’s way!

Gina and her friends, Bob and Jessica (a different Jessica!), who I was staying with, were still around the expo, so when we were done, Bobbi and Riyanti dropped me off and I left with Gina and her crew to go back to the rental house.

Gina found a gorgeous house to rent in the woods, northeast of downtown (thank you, Gina, for coordinating all that!). It was calm and relaxing, and perfect for this weekend – we could “cook” (aka, heat up food), wash our stinky clothes, relax without hotel noise, and spread out. The house had a huge workshop outside and seemed to be on a few acres. Steven would have loved it!

I got to share a room with Gina! And Fred, the fish.

We spent the evening catching up and discussing race strategy. Then it was lights out for an early wake-up call!

SATURDAY!

On Saturday, the four of us ran the marathon! And they all had great races, yay!

Bobbi and her friends used the bleacher passes and were waiting for me to cross the finish, which I greatly appreciate, because they were cold, and I took longer than I thought I would. My tracker actually showed I stopped so Bobbi texted me during the race to make sure I was okay. I felt bad making her worry, but also appreciated her concern. (Yeah, lots of use of the word “appreciate” in this post – I think that was my word for the weekend!)

Bobbi and Riyanti also had stomach issues during their races, so I asked if they thought it was something we all ate on Friday – maybe Pizza Luce? They theorized it was the fiber in the Triscuits we had on the car ride up. That very well could be. Oops. Sigh. Triscuits are now known as “Trouble-Maker Triscuits” to us three.

Gina, Bob, Jessica and I made the long walk to the car after the race, and went straight back to our rental house to clean up and chill out. I loved hearing about everyone’s races, and appreciated how encouraging they were to me about mine. People had been telling me what I did was “badass,” which was nice, but it helped to share the disappointment with people who had run the same distance at the same race as me, and could understand exactly what I was saying about the race, and commiserate about their past marathon struggles. The marathon is a long distance and you never know what will happen on race day!

A side note: someone asked me if I thought about stopping earlier to get my knee looked at, instead of at mile 23 (when the fall happened at mile .25). I did. But every sign I passed for a medic said “Drop off or medical help” and I was worried I would drop out. Also, the stops were a bit off course and I didn’t want to add that much extra to my overall mileage. Ha. When I did finally stop, it wasn’t an official medic, it was the Navy volunteers. They, and the medics at the end, both told me they had way less people visiting than usual because the weather was so good. Yay! I’m glad it was and so many people had great races!!!

After we all cleaned up, we went out for an early dinner. Gina found a place in town that had some vegan options (fried avocado yasssss!!!)! Gina always takes care of me, and I appreciate it (there’s that word again!).

When we got back, we watched some of the Chris Mocko Show on YouTube, enjoyed ice cream we picked up after dinner, and later watched the Breaking Two documentary (so good!). We spent the evening chatting about the race and life, and I felt very in the moment and lucky to be spending time with caring, thoughtful people.

Me, Jessica, Bob, and Gina

During they evening, they all worked together to bandage up my knee (Jessica is a nurse, woot!) and all “signed” it. Ha!

SUNDAY!

I thought my body would let me sleep in on Sunday! Not so much – I was up shortly after 5:00. But that’s okay, because it meant I had more time to chat with Gina, Bob, and Jessica before we left.

Bobbi and Riyanti picked me up at 8:30 am, the same time Gina, Bob, and Jessica had to drive back to Minneapolis to catch their flight.

Bobbi, Riyanti and I had breakfast, then headed out at 10:00 am. And had a HELLA hard time getting out of Superior, Wisconsin. Sigh. The north section of the highway we needed to take through most of Wisconsin was being shut down for flash flooding (see article here) with no detour set up. We tried simple/close detours on our own, but the back roads were already flooded!

We came up with a longer detour route, and had to drive through two instances of low moving water to even do that. Eek. The detour we took ended up adding about an hour and a half on to our already long drive, and we weren’t thrilled, but made the best of it, and were happy to be together for it! Although, I would say I definitely got a bit slap happy. It was hot out (mid 90s) and every time we got out of the car, I felt sicker (with a headache). But I didn’t get sick (throw up) in the car, so that’s a win!

I enjoyed hearing about their races. They did the 5K/half marathon challenge and enjoyed it (minus the re-route at the end of the course due to construction), and had a good time staying with their friends! Bobbi and Riyanti were super sweet about my crap race and told me they were crying when they saw me run in holding hands with Bob, because they were so happy I was finishing with a good friend and not out there alone. I was extremely grateful for that, too.

Bobbi dropped me off at 6:45 pm! What a long day. And again, thanks to her for doing all the driving.

Steven had dinner ready to go and we ate and watched a bit of Mad Men then did our Sunday evening chores and went to bed. I tried to minimize the amount of times I had to go up and down the stairs, because that isn’t going so well (normal post-marathon quad soreness).

I was telling my college friend Jessica about my race on Saturday, and she said she understood why I enjoy running when I have such a good support group, and how cool that is. It really IS cool. And makes my heart happy. Despite the race not going so great, I still had an amazing weekend and am grateful I got to have all of those meaningful (and silly!) conversations!!!

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By kilax, June 6, 2018 12:38 pm

A friend of mine is on an amazing anniversary trip in Spain right now and it’s making me think of how I’d LOVE to go back there, especially with Steven (who’s never been). So I pulled up my pictures from my first trip there and HOLY SHEET how has it been sixteen* years (to the date)?! HOW.

In Toledo, España with Dad

Once a crazy cat lady, always a crazy cat lady

Time flies… with too little travel!!! We’re in a spot right now (and have been for years) where the majority of our travel is small trips to see friends and family (because time and $$$). And that’s totally cool! But we’d love to see more of the world… someday.

*Ha, I originally erroneously wrote twelve years. No. MOAR years.

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By kilax, June 4, 2018 6:07 am

This was our weekend of seeing ALL THE FAMILY! We had a great time, but boy, was I exhausted getting up today!

FRIDAY!

On Friday we drove to Guttenberg, Iowa in the late afternoon. We stopped for dinner and split “fajitas for two” at Los Aztecas, which was really sides for two and fajitas for four. Or six. We had A LOT leftover!

SATURDAY!

On Saturday I woke up to an amazing sunrise over the Mississippi River.

I ran, then we checked out the farmers market, and visited my mom’s mom!

After our visit, we changed in to our wedding clothes and headed to the wedding. We stopped for lunch in Decorah, Iowa, and after lunch, I had an amazing house blend chai at Magpie Coffeehouse. If you ever find yourself there, try it!

The wedding was at a barn in Chatfield, Minnesota. We drove in to Chatfield and were surprised Google Maps was telling us the wedding was still twenty minutes away. Ha, that was because we had some zig-zagging to do on paved country roads, then had to drive on dirt roads for about five minutes to get to the barn back in the woods!

It was a gorgeous location out in the country! This barn exists because the owner’s daughter wanted to have a barn wedding and renting one seemed more expensive to him than building one, so he just built it! And now they rent it out a few times a year. The bride and groom found out about it through the groom’s sister attending an event there.

The wedding was for my dad’s cousin’s daughter, so… my second cousin’s daughter. We’re close with this particular second cousin because he lives near us, but also because he’s awesome. We love spending time with him and his two siblings and their spouses for the same reason, so we were excited to catch up with everyone!

Gene (Grandma’s brother), Grandma, Larry (second cousin Denise’s husband), Denise, Doug (second cousin), Jill (Doug’s wife), Steven, me, Ian (second cousin Drew’s son), Drew (father of the bride), and Diana (mother of the bride)

And I got to see my mom because she was my grandma’s plus one! Yay!

They had planned to have the wedding outdoors but set up inside in case it rained – good thing they did – there were two downpours during the wedding! That’s good luck, right?

It was a pleasant evening to be outside, and a neat venue! We had fun chatting with everyone, and lasted until almost ten o’clock! Woot!

We got to our hotel and it was pretty noisy and I was worried I wasn’t going to sleep. Um, nope. I was exhausted and got just over eight hours! Woo hoo!

SUNDAY!

On Sunday I went for a short run in Rochester, Minnesota. Props to Rochester for having their trail system so well marked out!

We met Steven’s cousin Jana and her family for lunch at Forager (a brewery and restaurant), then visited their house. They bought their home about four years ago and had to completely gut it, so of course, a lot of lunch talk was home construction stories, which we always enjoy!

We can’t even remember the last time we saw Jana and her family, so it was great to catch up and see how they are doing, and to see their beautiful home!

After visiting them, we briefly stopped by my college friend Allison’s house to say hello before heading out of town. She saw I was in town on social media, and commented on how she lived nearby. I had completely forgotten she lived there and was glad she said something so we could say hello! I haven’t seen her since a classmate’s wedding several years ago. Cliché, but time sure does fly!

We headed straight home, and didn’t stop once during the four and a half hour drive. The drive is mostly through Wisconsin, and, ugh. It’s a pretty drive, that’s for sure, but it’s four lane highway (two lanes each side) and drivers just don’t seem to know that the left lane is for passing. It was a stressful, unnecessarily congested drive. I felt stressed out when I got home, and I didn’t even drive!

We spent our few hours before bed doing some chores, and I tried to get ready for the week – I have some extra office days this week that required, well, extra prep. And yeah. Exhausted today! But grateful we got to see so many loved ones this weekend. Although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling a bit quiet now!