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By kilax, October 2, 2018 6:18 am

Yay! Data’s portrait that snis ordered from dimdi* arrived a lot sooner than I expected! What a great Monday surprise. I love it and was so excited to hang it last night! Thank you, Snistina!

Dimdi based her painting on this photo of Data from when he was two or three, and added his bowtie and changed his tail, per our request.

After Data died, I was looking through his old photos and it became extremely apparent how much weight he’d lost and how unhealthy he was compared to when he was a young lad. Some weight loss is natural for older cats, but his was extreme. Seeing that made me feel better, like we made the right decision to say goodbye when we did. It also made me feel better when people commented on that too – that he didn’t look as healthy as he used to. We knew he was unhealthy, but it wasn’t so starkly obvious living with him declining a bit day by day, as it was seeing those photos. Anyway. I was hoping I wouldn’t talk about this as much in October, as it’s been four weeks, but here I am, still talking about it!!! I guess I need to.

I love having Data and Snow in the kitchen/dining room with us. That’s a good spot for Data, as he’d always jump up on project peninsula**, even though he wasn’t supposed to. Starbuck has become fond of counter surfing lately. Steven said she got on the counter and walked on to the cutting board while he was using it to make dinner last night. Oh, kitties. You little turds.

One last thing – Khali wants to show you her “I’m a lady” pose:

Just kidding. Don’t tell her I posted that here. She’s very proper and wouldn’t be happy.

*Do I still have to say stuff is not sponsored? This is not sponsored.
**That’s what we call that surface, because when we do projects, that’s where all the tools end up, sigh (I moved some to take that photo). Steven used to call it project island, but I pointed out it’s NOT an island, so it became project peninsula.

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By kilax, October 1, 2018 6:25 am

We had a fun and productive weekend! Yay!

FRIDAY!

On Friday we took a lovely nap after work with the babies,

then went on a walk in our local forest preserve.

We received these cute custom ornaments from my second cousin Denise on Friday! I put magnets on the back so I can enjoy them until we have a Christmas tree (and you know they are going to be on my fridge all year long).

Dinner was a  Boca “turkey” burger (are these new? or had I just not seen them before? I really like them!), while we watched the HORRIBLE movie, Rumor Has It. Horrible. So. Bad. Icky. I don’t really care for Jennifer Aniston, so that didn’t help.

SATURDAY!

I forced myself to sleep in Saturday (meaning, not getting up when my body wanted to at 4:00, and again at 5:00), since we had plans to go out that night. I thought I had all this time before teaching (and did things like write a blog post and buy our A Star is Born tickets), then had a blog issue and was all of a sudden scrambling to get out the door! Oops!

I taught Fitness Boxing then did my speedwork for the week. Yay for doing it on its own, and not making it part of my Sunday long run because I’m lazy!

We watched part of season 2 of The Good Place with lunch, then I organized and tidied up the house a bit.

In the evening we went to Milwaukee with Bobbi and John. We took them to one of our favorite restaurants, the Palomino Bar, which has vegan versions of many of the dishes. We got fried pickles to share, and I got the hot fried chicken. Bobbi and John really liked their dishes, and it made me happy they did! (I never know when I take someone to a place where I like the vegan food and they order meat dishes.)

Once we decided to go to the Palomino Bar earlier in the week, I had been thinking about how I was going to get a slice of their vegan cake. I was suspicious when I walked in Saturday and the dessert cooler wasn’t there. The waiter confirmed they no longer have their vegan cake (they’d have it brought in, but not sell enough before it went bad). NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Steven was sweet and looked up a local ice cream place that had vegan options, Babe’s Ice Cream, and lo and behold, when I walked in the door I saw THIS SIGN:

I got so excited, I jumped inside and said (okay, yelled) “VEGAN CAKE!!!” really loud and about gave the server a heart attack. I really freaked her out. And felt bad. But also, very happy they had vegan cake. Sorry, lady – I was genuinely excited.

So I had a small slice of cake, and part of an ice cream sandwich, and some of Steven’s ice cream. The cake wasn’t as good as what they had (brought-in) to the Palomino Bar, but it was nice to have that option.

After that we checked out the “Kwaktoberfest” at Cafe Hollander. It’s was a Belgian twist on Oktoberfest, so… can I say that I went to my first Oktoberfest, or not? Ha. Either way, we tried a few of the beers and hung out, and had a good time chatting and joking. At one point, I was laughing so hard at Bobbi and John’s Super Trooper 2 impersonation that my face hurt!

We had such a fun night out! It was great to catch up, and drink a little, and be a bit goofy. And I love going to Milwaukee. It’s so easy to get around, and park, etc. Although, it did rain the entire ride home, like the last time we went to Milwaukee with Bobbi and John!

SUNDAY!

Being up late + drinking = I needed to get a bit more sleep on Saturday night. I got just under 8 hours and woke up too late to do a long run, so did a quick ride on my bike, ran errands, ate lunch and finished season 2 of The Good Place with Steven, then hung up some fall decorations, and did a few tidying up chores before we went toaster oven shopping.

I added the pumpkin banner and lights. My snis helped me pick them out (we were in separate Targets at the same time)!

Steven added this paper towel roll, battery organizer, and bag holder to our linen closet! These things were just loose on the shelves in there before. Yay for more organized shelf space!

I was pretty pooped when we got home. I did some food prep, blog stuff, sous chefing, and Sunday evening chores and that was it. We started watching Phantom Thread, but ugh, not sure I am going to be able to finish that one! Too slow for me.

RANDOM CAT PICS!

Steven sent me this picture of the cats Saturday morning, saying “that squirrel thinks he’s their friend.”

What squirrel?

Oh my gosh. Yes, he does think that!

Bobbi gave us a stash of milk/Gatorade rings for the cats. Ha. They destroyed half of them in a day.

If I fits!

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By kilax, September 29, 2018 8:15 am

How is Monday October 1?!

Our October is going to be nutso, but in a good way. I’m excited for all our fun plans! Here’s what I’m looking forward to (in mostly chronological order):

• Putting all my fall decorations out
• Hanging up Data’s custom water color portrait
• Gina and family visiting (and doing fall and running activities!)
• Seeing A Star is Born
• The crazy hobby-horse half marathon (no, I haven’t practiced running with one!)
• Seeing my family at a wedding
• Anne and Terry visiting (and maybe going to the Dungeon of Doom?! AHH!!!)
• Christina and family visiting (and doing Halloween/fall activities and house projects!)
• Comfortable running temps
• Playing with the kittens and (most of) our guests meeting them for the first time!

What’s on YOUR list?!

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By kilax, September 28, 2018 7:53 am

Let’s do a random update on cat stuff!

• We’re trying out this grass litter – we wanted something better for the cats, and for the environment. So far, so good! (My goodness, there are SO many kinds of cat litters to choose from! I got grass because it seems most natural to what they’d use outside, I mean, besides filling their box with dirt.)

What a good model! As I was bringing the litter in for this pic I said to Khali “if I bring this in will you go model by it for me?!” Of course she will – cats have to check out anything “new” in a room!

• Khali is totally in the big sister groove and especially loves on Apollo (still haven’t caught them all cuddled up yet though – maybe when it gets colder). I’m so glad we already had the kittens around when we said goodbye to Data so she didn’t have to be super lonely.

• Apollo pants when he exercises really hard. You can listen to a short clip of it here (turn your speakers up!). I don’t think it’s entirely normal so we’ll keep an eye on that.
• Apollo looks like he has striped pants on from the right angle. Ha! GOSH THAT BIG BOTTOM. The kittens are growing so fast!

• In the photo above, Apollo is sitting on a brand new Halloween-themed cat house that Jen, Troy, and Declan brought over last night! Last year I got them a little cardboard house from Aldi and they loved it (we still have it out but they’ve torn it apart) so I know they are going to love this (and that I will keep it out until they destroy it, heh)!

• Christina ordered us a Data painting, similar to the one we have of Snow, and I can’t wait for it to come and put them both up!

• We’ve received so many thoughtful Data cards and gifts. These gestures make me feel better, and I love seeing little reminders of him around the house (and on my wrist and in my purse).

• This post is missing a picture of Starbuck! Here’s a cute “usie” Steven took of the two of them last week. Starbuck loves her daddy! She follows Steven around in the morning when he’s getting ready. It’s adorable.

• Updated to add – I learned today that kittens lose their teeth (after I found one). TMYK!

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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, September 26, 2018 4:01 pm

Every time I wear this shirt, I think about the time someone asked me if I was pregnant, while wearing it.

I had a necklace on, but it broke. Womp womp.

I also think, geesh, I’ve had this blouse a long time. I hold on to clothing items (that I actually wear) forever (which is okay, except it’s like “is Kim wearing the polka dot blouse again?!”). Especially running things – I find what I love, and buy as much as I can. I don’t try new things or update my wardrobe often, and this sometimes backfires when I need to replace something, and it’s no longer in stock. I do NOT like to research and try out new things when I have something that worked and just needs to be replaced.

My city run at lunch break was interesting… I got yelled at (you dumb b*tch!) in two separate occasions for using the crosswalk – when I had the walk sign. Oh, Chicago. I also almost got hit later on, by a taxi running a red, after I had already waited for several cars to run the red before I used the crosswalk (again, with a walk sign). Typical. Infuriating.

My out and back away from traffic was peaceful, at least.

I also helped a tourist by giving them directions in Spanish, so that balanced out my run and made me feel neutral (rather than 100% pissed at the idiots, or 100% warm and fuzzy for helping someone).

Neutral/going through the motions describes me lately. And numb. I’m still sad about Data, and have a little crying outburst most days (DO NOT READ THE RAINBOW BRIDGE LETTER FROM THE VET OMG), but I get through the days. I have fun. I’m cheerful around people. I get my work done. But I do want to spend a lot of time napping. This will even out soon. Or I’ll want to nap every day for the rest of my life (<— more likely).

Work. I realized last week that I feel lonely at work (and wrote a whole post about it but this paragraph will suffice). I spend so much time in my own little world, working on my solo projects, and my team doesn’t communicate about what we’re up to, unless we have an issue or something interesting comes up. It feels odd to spend forty+ hours a week on something and not talk about it much (at work or outside of work), even though I don’t love it/am not passionate about it. I have a big desire this year for people to ask me questions. <— needy (and this is not a need for attention, but a need for my life to feel witnessed, outside of my marriage).

And to end on a funny (sad?) note from my day, I realized when I got to work that most of my food was peanut butter – I had oatmeal with peanut butter, peanut butter crackers, peanuts, a peanut butter sandwich, a peanut butter cup, and a peanut butter CLIF bar. Oops. I won’t be doing that again. (I also had some fruit, phew, and will have to eat all my veggies with dinner muah ha ha.)

NEED MOAR PB!!!! AND MOAR CARBS!!!

Since I am talking about food… someone recently asked me how I lost weight last year. It was not by eating peanut butter items all day long. I told them I stopped binge-eating things, only ate when I was actually hungry, and had one serving at dinner. What I forgot to mention to them was that I worked out a sh*t ton. Oops. But really, for most people, losing weight is about cleaning up their diet, anyway.

Thanks for reading my stream of consciousness post!

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By kilax, September 24, 2018 6:02 am

We had a productive weekend, and I feel good about that! Tired, but good!

We have guests coming in October (three of the four weekends!) and I want our house to look a little more “put together.”* Which for me, means organizing, purging, and MY FAVORITE THING – HANGING FRAMES!

I am not sure what it is about permanently hanging our framed art/photos that makes my heart SO happy, but it does. It really does.

These frames have been sitting on top of the book shelves around my desk since February 2016 – they look a lot better hung! Please disregard the sloppy shelves and desk – I haven’t tidied those up yet.

We also tidied up the office (obviously not shown), cleaned all the windows (inside and out), took apart the oven hood to clean, mowed the yard, fixed a tile on the roof, and sealed up some holes that bees were getting in to our house through. And did our normal weekend chores and errands. And researched new toaster ovens since someone accidentally started it on fire.

I found this gem in the office. Seems like Steven was meant to be a vegetarian. 

Gosh, it doesn’t sound like much when I list it out, but it took up a huge chunk of our weekend.

There was ONE special errand – Steven went to Milwaukee to get coffee beans and stopped and picked up vegan donuts!!! It was pretty awesome to come back from my long run Sunday and know that donuts would be at the house soon.

We watched Pitch Perfect 3 (Friday night) (again!), The Shape of Water (Saturday night) (luckily my snis had warned me about the cat scene, so we fast forwarded through that), part of The Family Man** (Sunday night), and several episodes of The Good Place (Saturday and Sunday lunch).

Kitties sleeping between us on the couch while we watched The Family Man.

I read a tiny bit of a new book this weekend about a pregnant lady, and subsequently had dreams that I had children (but somehow didn’t remember birthing them). I also dreamt that my house filled up with water, so, thank you, Shape of Water. This is why I can’t watch graphic stuff – my dreams are very influence-able. And on that boring note, Happy Monday! Five more days until the weekend!

(The title is a lie! Here are some cat pics. Both kittens are becoming lap cats, which makes me very happy!)

*Funny enough, the last guest of the month, my snis, would be SO helpful with getting the house put together… but she is visiting last!
**Steven was watching a Nic Cage interview and it made him want to watch a Nic Cage movie, and that is what we picked from Netflix…

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By kilax, September 20, 2018 6:18 am

• I finished Aurora. The ending was a let down, but I’m glad I read it, because it had a lot of interesting concepts. Now I’m reading Reborn on the Run, which is such an easy (and not always well written) read, compared to Aurora. I haven’t had to look up a single word yet! Ha!

• We finished Mad Men this week. What show will we start during lunch break today? Jack Ryan? Sharp Objects? We’ve watched a few episodes of Jack Ryan and it may be too graphic for me.
• I got an email last week about the Wisconsin Half Marathon registration opening and immediately found myself registering. What?! How does that happen? Looking at my records, I did the exact same thing last year. That turned out well, at least.
• Improvements continue on our street! It doesn’t look like the paved shoulder is going to be as wide as in my wildest imagination, but I will take anything I can get!

• We have an exciting end of the year coming up – lots of visitors and travel! Woo hoo!
• Yesterday Shitterfly had FREE unlimited magnets (up to 9,999 magnets… so not really unlimited, come on), but… they weren’t the size I order. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. That’s okay. I didn’t have anything in my “magnets to make” folder anyway.
• I miss Data greeting me at the door when I come home.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 195

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By kilax, September 19, 2018 12:55 pm

Over five years ago I wrote about* how short periods of “in-between” time between activities made me feel anxious. That it was not enough time to relax, and not enough time to start a new activity.

That anxiety is still a thing for me, only now, I don’t give myself as much free time between activities. Which sometimes works and sometimes backfires (like when I am rushing to take a shower and get somewhere after a run taking longer than I thought it would).

An article showed up in Feedly last week “Want to be more productive? Try skipping the schedule,” (pdf here) citing a few studies that show how people feel like they have less “usable” minutes in an open time block before an appointment/event.

We believe that when there’s an appointment looming, we direct our attention to it, whether it’s mentally preparing for it or simply dreading it. This makes the future appointment feel more substantial; as a result, the time interval leading up to the scheduled activity feels limited and insufficient.

YES. THANK YOU INTERNET FOR BEING MY THERAPIST AND EXPLAINING MY ANXIETY TO ME.

The author suggests keeping this in mind to fight “time famine” (the feeling of having too much to do without enough time to do it) – to remember that small things can be done in what appears to be a shortened amount of useful time before an event. Or that a task can be started and finished later**. And to schedule events back to back so you have a larger chunk of open time later. <— that method does actually work for me. Most of the time.

I’m not sharing this to start a contest of who is the busiest! Just that wow, for once, the studies quoted in an article are actually believable to me. I totally feel this way before an appointment. Do you?

*Several of the comments on that post were from people asking me what “in-between” time is, saying they never have “downtime.” Don’t be an arse. You know what I mean, and even if your day is packed, you probably have it.
**Ha, this does NOT work for many personalities – starting something and finishing it later. But it’s an idea. 

No related picture. So here are the kitties!

Sometimes I sit like a hooman der derr der.

Comments (10)

By kilax, September 17, 2018 12:45 pm

My weekend was spent doing VERY important things. VERY.

Like photoshopping our friend Troy’s head on this body, then putting it on this machine. Ha.

This was a special request from his wife, Jen, to send to friends they play this game with.

And eating LOTS of these cookie bars that Steven made (he made them vegan by using an egg replacer).

And watching Steven hang up some things in the house. Go Steven go!

I hang things up using 3M strips, then when they fall down, we use real nails/screws

And spending time with the kittens on the hammock.

And napping with them.

This is how I wake up at night – Starbuck next to me, Apollo between my legs, Khali at my feet

And going to Jen and Troy’s son’s birthday party!

I wasn’t a lump for the entire weekend. I taught a class, did errands, did some chores, exercised, blah blah blah.

But I mostly just ate and hung with Steven and the kitties. And got about half of my to do list done. And that’s fine!

But I do need to get my ish together. I have two more free weekends until we have guests coming and I’d like my house to be “Grandma Level Clean” for them!