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By kilax, March 19, 2016 6:44 am

My bathtub is sitting there, just waiting to be used! Eek! Soon, my lovely.

Our carpenter found some interesting stuff when he was demolishing the bathroom:

That octagon shape? It’s likely framing for what used to be a window, like this:

Octagon windows on our garage (this picture also features our new gutters!)

The bathroom wall is suspiciously thick, so we’re thinking what is our foyer now used to be an exterior patio or porch. That would (kind of?) explain why the storage room below the foyer is so odd, and all the elevation changes (steps) in the house.

I wish we had more of the history of the house! Finding clues like this is fun, too, though!

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By kilax, March 18, 2016 4:12 am

The other day I was venting to a coworker about someone. “Why do they always contact me to ask for things? I am not even the point of contact for this project!”

“Honestly, Kim?” they replied, “I think it’s because you respond so immediately.”

EEK. G-U-I-L-T-Y!!!

I do respond rapidly. I am always in a hurry to respond to emails. Especially with that person – I just wanted to respond and quit thinking about them bugging me.

I LIVE to see this message. Ha.

But he was right – me doing that was making it worse for me, in the long run.

So, I will be less available.

I need to do this across ALL facets of my life.

I don’t handle having a long to-do list very well. I handle it in the sense that I get stuff done, and don’t procrastinate… but it makes me SO anxious. I am always yearning for a clean slate. I feel like when I get there, I can breathe. I can relax. Everything is done.

But, we all know, everything is NEVER done! That’s impossible.

I need to get comfortable with having things sitting on my to-do list (and emails left unresponded to!). In a sense, buying a house has sorta helped with that. There is so much to do, and no way to do it all at once, so it makes us prioritize and focus on the now – and let the other things be (although, we still keep talking about them…).

And I try to do this at work. I make a list and prioritize and do things in order. BUT I JUST WANT THAT LIST TO BE CLEAR! (then people keep giving me work because I got the other stuff done – slow down, Kim). Sigh. I think the email is a good place to start with this.

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By kilax, March 17, 2016 11:02 am

• Do you have a content proof reader for your blog posts? Mine lately is my snister. I just send her the post in an email with the subject line “too whiny?” She always says no, but sometimes I never publish the post. It feels good to write it and get it out. But it doesn’t need to be shared (here).
• After a few nights of bad sleep because we were constantly getting up to push the sump pump float down, we finally slept well last night – because we had the sump pumps fixed. Yay! Steven bought new equipment Tuesday and we were going to put it in ourselves, but there happened to be a plumber at the house yesterday working on something else – so why not have him do it? I am very happy Steven made the executive decision to pay him for the install! The plumber had all the tools and materials there and I am sure it saved us a lot of time (and maybe some frustration, ha).
• Guess what Steven found in the sump pump yesterday? Ha. He said this guy tried to jump out!

• The other day a friend asked me if stretching and foam rolling is how I stay injury free, with the amount of miles I run (she felt like she had an injury coming on and wanted to know what I do). The truth is, I don’t stretch or foam roll, like I should. But I do strength train three times a week and am diligent about cross training and rest days (and active recovery). AND (and I forgot to share this with her) – changing my shoes out when my legs start to feel wonky.
• And… it’s actually time for a shoe refresh. I am currently rotating between six pairs (plus speed and trail shoes), and I think three need to go. I have four pairs on standby, and for whatever reason, Zappos sent me a $25 credit, so I just got these (below) to add to my collection. This is probably the first time in a long time I’ve had the more updated version of my shoes – I am usually in the old model for a loooong time (because it’s cheaper and I go through shoes so fast). Squeee! Exciting!

• I have drooled over Moxie Cycling gear for a long time, but have never purchased anything. I was dreaming again, and looking at their sizing chart, and I have to say, I LOVE how they have different body shapes for their models! Awesome!
• I am itching to hang some artwork/my jewelry holders in the house! But it’s not a priority at this time. Maybe when my snister visits? For now, having some stuff propped up on shelves will have to do!

Ha ha, you can’t tell cause I cropped it, but Data is pretty high up. Brat!!!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 90

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By kilax, March 17, 2016 5:42 am

As a kid, I would worry about getting pinched on St. Patrick’s Day if I didn’t wear green. So to this day, I try to have some green in my outfit for the holiday.

Does this necklace count?! (Edited to add: one row is green)

I didn’t even know what the pinching tradition came from until I asked Google this morning:

The tradition was popularized by Irish immigrants in the United States, who believed that wearing green made you invisible to leprechauns, fairy creatures who would pinch anyone they could see. Pinching those who didn’t wear green was meant to remind them that leprechauns could sneak up at any time.

Wait. Does this mean leprechauns are bad?! I thought they would lead me to a pot of gold?!

As a kid, I did not know that St. Patrick’s Day is a drinking holiday! Geesh! I didn’t even really figure it out until college was almost over (I know, I know – I only went to a bar once in college, and only to a few parties my freshman year).

I was out in Chicago on spring break my final year of college and had a Saturday job interview. I took the train to the city for the interview. That Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day. And riding the train (and I am sure it’s this way in any major city on this holiday) was quite the experience. But I got the job (and learned to avoid taking the train the Saturday around St. Patrick’s Day). Ha!

Comments (28)

By kilax, March 16, 2016 4:42 am

Allow me to introduce you to the creepiest room in the house:

We affectionately call it “the kill room.”

But it’s so fun to sing in there! Ha!

And that is NOT what it looks like now!

Who knows what this room was. A bomb shelter? A cellar? It’s right under our foyer and has hella thick walls and isn’t useful for much other than storage (and playing around with the echo). So we decided to make it a storage room. First though, a few changes.

Dad and Steven power washed it on February 7th, which helped a ton:

Already looking better!

Steven ordered* Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield Basement Floor Coating to cover the floors, walls and ceiling. That required a bit of prep work, before we could paint (here’s their how to video).

First, Steven got all the random pieces of concrete off the surfaces of the room, using a hammer and chisel. There were pieces stuck on the floors, walls and ceiling.

On February 24th, we used Rust-Oleum EPOXYShield Concrete Patch to patch some of the cracks and fill in ridges/divots on the walls.

Hence the spots in the photos below!

Then the real fun began… We spent about four hours on February 27th rinsing the walls – getting more chunks (and stains) off with steel brushes,

then using a concrete etch to clean all the surfaces to prepare them to receive the paint.

The picture on the right is so much darker because we had to take the installed light out of the room to do this part of the project, and use a floor lamp!

Each surface received the etch,

it sat on the surface for 1-2 minutes, then we scrubbed it with a brush,

then rinsed and squeegeed each surface THREE TIMES each. Hence it taking four hours.

But! By the end, the water we squeegeed out was coming off clear (it was important the room be very clean so the paint would adhere). Yay!

Then we waited for it to dry out. We put a dehumidifier in the room and ran it for a few days. On March 4th, we taped a piece of plastic on the floor to test and see if any condensation showed up…

… nope! All good! Ready to paint!

I vacuumed the room March 12th (unfortunately, we didn’t have a big time chunk in our schedule to start painting until then!) and we got to painting! You simply pour part A in to part B, stir it for three minutes, then let it sit for thirty minutes before painting.

We started with the ceiling (ouch – my shoulders!) so any drips on the floor or walls would be painted over later. One set of this paint is supposed to be enough for 250 square feet, and our room is 9’x13’x7′, so we got two sets, hoping that would just be enough.

The first can covered all of the ceiling and the front and back walls (and took us about two hours to paint).

The second can covered most of the rest of the walls (and took a bit less time – just under two hours).

We wondered if a second coat of paint would cover the glossy concrete patches, but we didn’t care enough to find out.

And we ran out of paint. Luckily, Menards (we got the first two sets on Amazon) had it in stock so we got some to finish up painting on March 13th! (Note: there are specific instructions for mixing multiple sets of this paint to make sure the coloring matches, but we mixed one set at at time – they seem to match fine, and it’s a dark storage room – it’s not as important as painting an open space that gets natural daylight/viewed often.)

The floor was really easy to paint compared to the other surfaces, because it was smooth. We spent a lot of time (and extra paint – we used the entire third can) covering up all the bumps and divots on the ceiling and walls (in hindsight, spraying would probably be more effective than using a roller and brush for this type of surface)! Finishing up the walls and floors took us just over an hour.

And the best part about the floor? Doing the “sprinkles”!!!

You paint in roughly 4’x4′ areas, then throw the “sprinkles” on!

This looks goofy because it’s drying.

All painted!

The best part finally arrived yesterday – (after vacuuming up, again) we got to put the shelves in! Basements flood, and we know that ours definitely has, so we want to get things a bit off the floor and in plastic bins. This is one step closer to getting there!

There’s one shelf in the back,

three on the left,

and two on the right.

I can’t wait to start putting all our plastic bins in there! I love organizing! That’s been one of my favorite parts of moving – unpacking and organizing (I’d rather unpack, than pack).

Why’d we go to so much work prepping this room for storage? Because we’re gonna live here forever and we want shiz done right. And, we don’t want the storage room to be gross and creepy. Just creepy. It will be less creepy when we install overhead lights. Soon…

*This means we paid for it. This is not a sponsored post. We bought all this shiz ourselves. I am calling out the brands and showing pictures of what we used for future reference, nothing else.

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By kilax, March 15, 2016 12:26 pm

I didn’t bother getting a 2016 desktop calendar in December or January since it would’ve just been another thing to pack up during the move. But I missed having a page-a-day calendar. So moving weekend (February 7), I saw this one on sale at Menards for hella cheap and picked it up!

My mom was in town, and we went through each page until we got to the current date. Steven showed up for the end of that reading session, and we all discussed which quotes we liked enough to remember or actually think about (and which were horrible and made no sense to us). And I saved my favorites*:

Click to see larger

Since we had so much fun reading through them together (and, to be annoying), I now take a picture of the calendar each day and text it to them. Ha!

Sometimes we discuss them, but so far, there haven’t been a ton of memorable ones.

It wasn’t until today that I actually found another quote worth saving:

It’s no surprise to me that the quotes I like the most are about being passionate, enthusiastic, and making your own happiness! I hope there are some other good ones in there. As cheesy as it is, I look forward to texting them the photo each morning! I will have to find something good for next year. Muah ha ha.

*Which I can now recycle since I have a photo of them, here

Another page-a-day calendar story – years ago, I bought my dad’s mom the Bad Cats page-a-day calendar. She loved it so much I got it for her the next year, and the year after that. And so on. She likes to save the funniest pages and take to the vet to show them** (then apparently the vet keeps them and passes them on to someone else until they’ve made their rounds – fun!).

Anyway, we switch which family we see on Christmas each year, and see the other family in January. The first time we did that, and I saw her in January, she was worried I didn’t get her the calendar and went out and bought one on her own! Ha! I did have one for her and gifted it to my dad, instead. This year, I let her know I would definitely get it for her, and mailed it in advance to get there mid December. She has her page-a-day calendar routine, too!

**She does this with the animal cards I send her, too.

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By kilax, March 15, 2016 6:25 am

Critter eviction is well underway at our house:

• We caught one mouse and the traps are still out
• The cage is set up for the flying squirrels

• And now we’ve got these guys…

Hopefully they’ll be easier to “evict.” Ha ha.

Steven found them in the sump pump late Sunday night. Steven made many visits to the sump pump that night because the float kept getting stuck, then the pump kept running, which made a very loud noise. Add that to another list of things to fix! (We actually have two sump pumps – one that goes in to the yard and one that goes in to the septic system – both need some work, of course.)

I really wonder what critter will show up next. I feel like I’m posting something about them here every few days! We haven’t seen Peoples (that’s what Data calls his friend) in awhile…

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By kilax, March 14, 2016 6:29 am

In the last four months I’ve run PRs (personal records) in the 5K, 10K and marathon… and there’s another distance I want to go after – the half marathon!

My half marathon PR is 1:51:15 from the Wisconsin Half Marathon in 2013. Old, right?

I was hoping* I’d be ready for a half marathon PR attempt in early April, before it gets too humid here (although EVERY day is unpredictable, weather-wise, ha), but that’s just not gonna happen – there’s not enough time.

I think I’ll give it a shot at the Wisconsin Half Marathon on May 7.  Even though, you know, I haven’t had a good race there since 2013. Due to weather… and being overweight. At least I can control one of those things (I’m talking about the weather, obviously)!

But beyond the weather “risk” (which is true to every race), this race has many pros: I’ve run it every year and am familiar with the course. It’s well organized. It’s hella close to where I live now. I know a lot of people running it, every year. On race day, I’ll care more about how Rachel** does than I do (which takes pressure off me). And if the weather is complete crap, I’ll bag my goal, save it for the fall, and run for fun. It’s only running.

Although, I should probably decide on a goal pace, other than just the goal of a PR. That makes training a bit easier. Ha!

And don’t forget, if you are interested in this half or the marathon, you can use the code WMKIM16 for $5 off (register here)***.

*Cause, you know… hope is what gets you ready for a race, Kim. NOT!
**I’ve been writing her training plans since January, with this race being her goal half.
***I receive a free entry to this race if ten people use my code. And I actually got my free entry in advance, this year. A little history as to why I have my own code – I reached out to this race about starting an ambassador program in 2012 because I love the race so much and wanted to encourage people to run it! They didn’t want to start a program but gave me a code to use for the 2013 race, with the rule of getting ten people to use it. And this is my fourth year with a code, and the same rule. I doubt I will ask for a code next year, and will just sign up at early registration. The race is cheap, and they give out so many codes now, it’s actually not as easy to get ten people to use it as it was before!

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By kilax, March 13, 2016 4:51 pm

Highlight of the Week: My three year Efit anniversary! Lots of runs!

Monday | March 7, 2016: 6 m run + 7 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 59°/60°, Time: 50:20, Pace: 8:23 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good, hot, thirsty
Loc: to VP Woods, Temp: 63°/60°, Time: 1:02:41, Pace: 8:57 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good, understandably tired
Strength: one dumbbell circuit, body weight circuit, boxing with pads, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | March 8, 2016: 7 m run
Loc: to VP Woods, Temp: 58°/58°, Time: 1:06:29, Pace: 9:30 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: okay, but too warm!
Wednesday | March 9, 2016: rest
Thursday | March 10, 2016: 6 m run (incl. 4×400, 2×800) + 20 mins strength
Loc: hood, Temp: 44°/42°, Time: 49:33, Pace: 8:15 avg, Difficulty: medium/hard, Felt: good minus heartburn
Friday | March 11, 2016: teaching strength class + 10 m ride (w/Tina) + 12 m run
Strength: one dumbbell circuit, body weight circuit, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Rollins Savanna/Millennium Trail, Temp: 31°/31°, Time: 56:51, Pace: 10.6 mph Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, cold toes!
Loc: to McClory and back, Temp: 42°/40°, Time: 146:29, Pace: 8:52, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good minus heartburn
Saturday | March 12, 2016: 6 m run + teaching fitness boxing
Loc: hood, Temp: 29°/38°, Time: 53:26, Pace: 8:54 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: boxing and Lebert/body weight, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | March 13, 2016: 8 m run
Loc: to VP Woods, Temp: 46°/44°, Time: 1:10:23, Pace: 8:48 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, minus that wind!

Notes:

• This is the first year since running the New York City Marathon in 2011 that I didn’t enter the lottery – I kind of forgot about it! Then I saw people posting that they got in (or not) on Facebook on Tuesday. Aww. It’s such a great race!. I’m excited for the people who get to run it!
• I’ve seen some other people running on some of my routes! This makes me feel better – that other people think the routes are safe enough to run, and that I am not the only one annoying drivers by running in the shoulder.
• Dad, Will, Julie (Will’s sister) and I all registered for Day 7 (Saturday) of RAGBRAI this week. YAY! I am hoping Gina and Andrew will sign up, too!
• Ahh, DST. You effer. Is everyone else ready to be completely messed up for two weeks while we get used to the time change?
• I was planning to hit 60 running miles this week but I woke up with a massive headache on Sunday – probably from the shift in weather, and maybe from the paint fumes on Saturday – and had to get extra sleep to get rid of it. So I cut my run back due to (even more!) lost time. Maybe I can try for 60 again this month (although I have a lot more commute days in the next two weeks so that will be tricky!).
• Steven put the TV up in the workout room this weekend! The room is close to being “finished” (for now). I am looking forward to showing it, when it is!

Link to Training Week 333

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By kilax, March 12, 2016 6:52 am

For the past three nights, Data has had a late night date with his new friend, and I finally got a picture of them together:

They decided to bring the party outside our bedroom window last night – that raccoon was VERY close to us, ha!

As long as that raccoon stays out of our attic and doesn’t destroy anything… he is welcome to visit. But that he’s hanging out on the second floor balcony has me a bit suspicious.

Sorry for all the odd reflections – flash was the only way to capture him!

It’s funny that Data doesn’t have the same reaction to the raccoon as he does to Denali or the deer. He growls at them (and hisses at Denali and tries to swat him/her), but he sings his excited “bird” song to this raccoon and chases it around like they’re playing. I wonder how many more late night dates they’ll have.

Data seems to be settling in to the new house quite well! He’s been eating like normal and using his litter box regularly since we moved in. He’s found all the sunny spots to lay,

and since I took him outside for the first time this week, he’s been crying to go out every day. I see lots of walks in our future.

He does seem to be spending A LOT of time sleeping in the bedroom… and I wondered if he was depressed or something. Then I remembered he’s a cat. And that the bedroom is a safe spot during all the construction on the house! He hasn’t hidden under the bed in a long time, so that’s good!