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!
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.
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!
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).
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.)
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!
We visited the kittens tonight! All six of them have been claimed for adoption, and just the mama cat needs a home now. She’s such a sweetie. I hope the right person finds her!
I’m enjoying reading Deena Kastor’s story in her book, Let Your Mind Run. I can tell it’s a book I’ll read again, and I love that having my own copy means I can highlight it! (You’re not supposed to do that with library books, right? ha)
Data seems to be doing better! We both think he looks bigger, and he’s been play fighting with Khali more (he hadn’t been for about a month). Yay!
We visited the kittens again on Tuesday! The ones with orange collars are the ones we plan to adopt. And if that all brown one in the bottom picture doesn’t have a home, I bet it will end up at our house…
I was deemed “ineligible” for the job I applied for at work. No interview for me. My boss offered to help the next time I apply though (and would have helped before if I had thought to ask). Hopefully it doesn’t take a year or more for positions to open again…
Bobbi shared this photo with me that the Duluth News Tribune posted from the beginning of Grandma’s Marathon (that I am in – can you find me?). So yeah, just a little crowded at the start, but nothing unusual for a marathon. I obviously need to work on running around/next to people.
I am still reading California but really want to start Let Your Mind Run, which Mica sent me as a surprise!!! Thanks, Mica!
And with that, I am going to head out for my first post-marathon run. My quads feel good, and we’ll see how the knee feels!
I downloaded Bad Wolves’ cover of “Zombie” yesterday and ended up down a rabbit hole of googling about the Cranberries. I like the homage of their music video to the original.
Does anyone else who uses iTunes to make playlists want to vent with me about how annoying it is, and how it doesn’t sync half the time (and overwrites your computer with old playlists from your phone)? Or am I the only one still using iTunes?!
This article (pdf here) about the movie The Truman Show is interesting. It’s the twenty year anniversary of the show, and they’re reflecting on how when they made the show it blew their mind that people would be interested in watching what a total stranger is up to all day… fast forward twenty years, and that is a lot of the entertainment business, with reality shows and social media!
There’s not enough pictures to break up all this text, so here’s one Steven sent me when he was picking up meds for Data at the vet’s office yesterday.
I finished reading Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, and didn’t care for it. It’s well written/researched, and has a plethora of studies referenced, but didn’t do it for me. There was one MAJOR happy outcome of reading it though! The book mentions the swirl and spit sports drink study that Runner’s World has been touting for years, usually as advice to lose weight (grrrr, so messed up). The study was done to find out why we get benefits immediately from a carbohydrate sports drinks, before they enter the bloodstream – not to come up with silly ways to cut on calories. It’s because as soon as you have the drink in your mouth, parts of your brain react to it, and immediately act as if you’d taken in the carbohydrates, whether you ingest it or not. This is the data Runner’s World was using to give their stupid advice, but I hadn’t seen it in this unadulterated form. I’m glad the study was done for legitimate scientific reasons, and it’s just Runner’s World spinning it strangely.
I started reading Bart Yasso’s Run Forever… but when I got it from the library I could tell I wouldn’t care for it. It’s an advice book, on how to, you guessed it, RUN FOREVER! There was nothing new in there for me. I mostly skimmed it, and returned it. I’m not really in to advice books right now.
So now I am reading the hard copy of Artemis (I had the digital version on my phone but prefer hard copy). Steven finished the audio copy yesterday. I am behind in Book Club for Two!
The last time I shared this chart, it had a slight incline at the end. Ideally, it would still be gently sloping down, but if I can maintain my weight during this very busy month, I will be glad!
We had our yard and house sprayed for bugs last Saturday, and the spray left the windows SUPER streaky. Ick! Luckily, I have tons of anxious taper energy and could spend a few hours cleaning them yesterday after work. Ha! I’m actually glad I’m so busy this weekend and the weekdays leading to the marathon so I don’t think as much about how little I am running.
We got some news back on Data and he definitely has a malabsorption issue and will be needing treatment. I’m feeling worried and sad that he is not well, and will share more details when I am up to it! P.S. He pooped in the foyer two more times since yesterday. Sigh. But once in the box today. P.P.S. His behavior is normal beyond the poop issues. And playing with his sister less.
Steven had this visitor yesterday morning! I am sad I missed her!
I finished Station Eleven last week. I was sad when it was over! What a great read! Definitely one of my favorites of this year (and maybe all time?).
I was excited to start Endure, a non-fiction book about the “limits” of human endurance (spoiler: it’s mostly mental), but so far, it really feels like How Bad Do You Want It? Part II. I loved How Bad Do You Want It? (so much that I’ve read it several times), but I don’t see myself doing that with this book – so far it’s a bit too, hmm, “study” based for me. Maybe it’ll get better!
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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