Comments (15)

By kilax, August 8, 2016 1:03 pm

Our pond is still disappearing! Everything that is muddy in this photo used to be covered in water (so, really, the entire photo)!

Soon, it will be gone, and the ducks won’t visit anymore. Sadness.

See the ducks in the photo?! When you compare this photo to the ones in this post, you can see how much the pond has gone down.

And, I won’t get to play with my remote controlled boat on it! Sigh, I had big plans for that. Ha.

For my birthday (July 31) I asked for a remote controlled boat for the pond. Steven gave it to me when we were at the Mississippi River and it was so much fun to play with up there.

Teaching Luca how to drive the boat.

I hope we get some rain so I can play with it here. And so we don’t have a giant mud pit in our yard.

Comments (4)

By kilax, August 7, 2016 9:17 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running with Gina and Dad!

Monday | August 1, 2016: rest
Tuesday | August 2, 2016: 4 m run (w/Gina and Dad (on bike))
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 71°/74°, Time: 38:21, Pace: 9:35 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Wednesday | August 3, 2016: 5 m run (incl. 12×1:00) + 10 m ride + 10 mins strength
Loc: hood, Temp: 84°/84°, Time: 49:49, Pace: 9:58 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: hot and heavy
Indoor Ride Time: 42:01, Pace: 14.3 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | August 4, 2016: rest (ceiling demolition work)
Friday | August 5, 2016: teaching strength class + 800 m swim (25m breastroke/25m freestyle x16, w/Anne) + attic work
Strength: plates and cards, Difficulty: medium, Felt: okay
Loc: Grayslake Pool, Time: 22:04, Pace: 2:29 min/100m, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | August 6, 2016: rest (ceiling work)
Sunday | August 7, 2016: rest (ceiling work)

Notes:

• For a second I was excited to be in August and one month closer to September (and AUTUMN!) until I remembered that we have nasty humid days in to October sometimes. Ha. Hopefully some nice cooler days are peppered in with those.
• Ugh, this week. I did house work for four days straight and did NOT have time to work out! I hope I have more free time next week.

Link to Training Week 354

Comments (5)

By kilax, August 6, 2016 9:37 pm

Even when I find a space (three, actually) between rafters full of squirrel nests, I still don’t get mad at the animals. What is wrong with me?

I found those yesterday. We’ve been finding LOTS of interesting damage, which (among other things) is setting us back with our timeline. Like this pipe, that was cut, but left open to the outside, and let water run down our master bedroom wall. Also, carpenter ants did some work on that beam:

Steven and friends cut out more of the wall and replaced the header and studs today. We’re also replacing a bit of wood in the attic that was damaged by animals.

Those rascals.

It’s good we’ve taken the ceiling out to take care of this now. I’d rather get it taken care of, than have it get worse down the road!

We also removed a damaged part of our dining room ceiling, which I forgot was on our scope of work until Steven reminded me. There’s so much going on to keep track of!

Ceiling removed behind plastic. Excuse the mess on the table!

Poor Data. He keeps trying to run through the dining room (we have a full path through all our rooms on the first floor) and getting trapped in the plastic! Er… just a few more weeks like this Data, then we’ll have our house back…

Comments (11)

By kilax, August 5, 2016 6:58 am

Man! My arms were sore at strength class this morning! Ha!

We demolished almost all of the second floor ceiling yesterday, and got a ton out of the ceiling (can lights, etc.)… and this was all after a morning of moving the furniture out and putting up plastic to protect the carpet and walls.

Master bedroom

Guest bedroom

Hallway

I had to work a half day, and do today too, but luckily, we have help – because there is no way Steven and I could get this done on our own.

Oh, sorry, Steven, Data and me. Data is very helpful.

Not surprisingly, we’re discovering more (than planned) damaged things that need to be replaced. I demolished the entire linen closet (including the walls, not just the ceiling) because it was in bad shape. Check out the ceiling, ew:

And also not surprising, we’ve found some interesting things, like the linen closet walls being full of pieces of drywall. Okay, that’s one way to do backing…

Hopefully we get a lot done today and don’t get much further off schedule! We need to try to have everything done by Sunday night so the contractors can put the new ceiling in on Monday!

Comments (12)

By kilax, August 4, 2016 6:15 am

But just down to our first floor/basement. Demolishing the second floor ceiling requires removing EVERYTHING from the second floor, hence, why our basement looks like a consignment shop:

Thank goodness we have a basement at all, to put all this stuff in!

So here’s the (condensed, I left some things off) plan:

Thursday
move furniture off second floor
remove ceiling fans, can light trim kits
remove ceiling
remove can lights, ducts & vents, insulation
vacuum attic, clean soiled spots
remove screws/nails/glue from bottom of joists

Friday
repair electrical wiring
install 3-way switch for master bedroom fan (it’s never worked)
install new ducts, vents & duct insulation

Saturday
install new can lights
install new joist in basement

Sunday
all the stuff that didn’t get done and a few other extra projects

That’s a lot to do – wish us luck! We will have some extra hands on and off throughout the project, thankfully!

Comments (18)

By kilax, August 3, 2016 12:48 pm

I seriously didn’t realize how bad my racerback tan lines were until I saw this photo my mom took on Monday:

Eek!

It may be time to look in to a strapless running stop and bra… because I know sunscreen/running in the dark aren’t going to happen. Oh, or maybe just a racerback swimming suit?! Derrr…

And we won’t even talk about the horrible tan lines on my legs. Because booty running shorts are not for me.

Comments (9)

By kilax, August 2, 2016 9:07 pm

Highlight of the Week: Riding Day 7 of RAGBRAI with my family!

Monday | July 25, 2016: 5 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 83°/83°, Time: 48:23, Pace: 9:40 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good!
Strength: resistance bands and mixed mode, Difficulty: easy, Felt: goood
Tuesday | July 26, 2016: 5 m run (incl. 6×400) + 10 m ride
Loc: hood, Temp: 82°/81°, Time: 47:27, Pace: 9:29 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: hiccupy then okay then barfy
Indoor Bike Time: 36:24, Pace: 16.5 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great – bike just tuned up
Wednesday | July 27, 2016: rest
Thursday | July 28, 2016: 10 m ride + 5 m run
Indoor Ride Time: 38:38, Pace: 15.6 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 68°/72°, Time: 46:16, Pace: 9:15 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, knees a bit sore (odd)
Friday | July 29, 2016: teaching strength class + 800 m swim (25m breastroke/25m freestyle x16, w/Anne) + 2 m run
Strength: plates and cards (core), Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake Outdoor Pool, Temp (air): 70°/70°, Time: 21:11, Pace: 2:22 min/100 m, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 73°/74°, Time: 18:49, Pace: 9:24 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt:good, gross from chlorine sweat
Saturday | July 30, 2016: RABGRAI Day 7 (49.8 miles, w/Dad, Gina, Will, Julie & Ashleigh)
Loc: Washington, IA to Muscatine, IA, Temp: 70°/81°, Time: 3:50:00, Pace: 13.0 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | July 31, 2016: 5 m run (w/Steve)
Loc: Guttenberg, Temp: 64°/64°, Time: 47:12, Pace: 9:26 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good

Notes:t

• I rode Day 7 of RAGBRAI with my dad, my brother-in-law, his sister and her daughter, and my bestie Gina, and it was SUCH a blast. We’re already talking about riding a day again next year. I can’t wait to go through all the photos and put my recap together! (I really hope I have time to do that this week – it’s going to be nuts catching up at work then tearing apart our second floor ceiling and doing all that work.)
• Time for the July recap! In July I ran 155 miles, cycled 139.05 miles (9 indoor rides, 1 outdoor ride) and swam laps 5 times. I taught 9 strength classes and 1 fitness boxing class, and did 1 strength session at home. My coldest outdoor run was 56°F and my warmest was 87°F.
• I am excited that I consistently swam every Friday in July. The pool has a punch card where after you pay for five swims you get a free one – that will be the next one I do!

Link to Training Week 353

Comments (3)

By kilax, July 29, 2016 12:50 pm

Finally!

The week felt so long even though I was really busy at work. It probably felt that way because I was watching the RAGBRAI Facebook page and getting all jacked up and excited about it! I can’t wait to see what Gina thinks of the ride!

Comments (12)

By kilax, July 28, 2016 6:23 am

• Hummingbirds have been hanging out by the flowers growing out of the hastas! Exciting! I should put out a legit feeder for them. They’re so fun to watch. Here’s a super awesome photo I took of one (circled in red, in case you can’t find it, ha):

• We had friends over last weekend and I was excited to use our new lawn furniture and eat lunch outside! Only, all you had to do was step outside to start dripping in sweat. So… we ate inside. Ha. But I am happy we got some outdoor seating. Hopefully we will have some opportunities to use it next month.

• I finished knitting a bunch of wash cloths. I thought about saving them for housewarming gifts, but decided to mail them to my Grandma to sell at her church’s farmers market booth. The pattern is ZickZack.

• Shelley helped me pick out needles to start knitting socks! August is going to be busy with house projects, so I hope I can give it a try in September.
• I’m sad to be missing the Movin’ Shoes Full Moon Run (5K) tonight in Madison with Rachel! We’ve run it the last three years together! But it just doesn’t make sense with my schedule this year. I hope she has a great race!!!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 103