tap, tap...is this thing on?

Is anyone out there? Remember me, that blogger who used to blog nearly every day? Yeah, I'm still alive. Apparently I took a week long hiatus without realizing it. I suppose you could say life is pretty freaking busy right now, huh?

Let's play catch up, shall we?

1. A few weekends ago I got on one of my cleaning kicks and scrubbed our place top to bottom. Because my mother-in-law has mad housekeeping skills [the woman scrubs the inside of her oven all the time, and cleans their coffee pot with vinegar each week!] I sometimes feel inspired. After all, we live right above her display of perfection so it makes our flat seem like a pig sty in comparison.

So I tried to emulate my mother-in-law with her "soapy water and bucket trick" for the floors. I suppose Nate found this amusing and decided to take pictures of me without my consent.


When I noticed him snapping away like the paparazzi, I asked what he was doing. He replied, "Taking pictures of this for your blog." Wow! He's come a long way, folks.

2. Henry got his monthly haircut but something went horridly wrong. Can you notice the difference?

Before:

And After:



He has a rat tail, a worm, a little stump, whatever you want to call it! The horror! His once long and luxurious locks [ahem, maybe they were a little ratty looking?] are gone all because of a wicked matted mess. We are getting used to his new tail but it was quite startling at first. I think he digs it, though.

3. I purchased a dress for the third and final wedding. I went with Ebay and got my first love, Lydia, in black for $120 [originally $250]. No, it's not the greatest deal ever but I love it and decided I needed a fabulous LBD. I think this fits the bill!

4. Fun with the mail:
A. Brigid's album arrived!
B. One of my many dorky PT magazines actually looks quite interesting this time:

5. I had my blood drawn for a health and wellness test at work. The biyatch totally blew my vein as you can see:

As Nate pointed out, this picture did not turn out very well and I waited a few days too long for the true hideousness. So I photoshopped my version of the bruise for you fair readers. This is how it FELT at least:
What, you don't think that looks realistic? Please. At if that isn't dramatic enough, I walked around the hospital with an ice pack on my arm the day of the blood draw. So sue me.

6. On a more serious note, the marathon is less than two weeks away. And I'm FREAKING OUT. Especially because my running partner might be down for the count. Poor Nate hasn't had the best of luck with training, considering that he has to study every night after school and many hours each weekend. His ankle immediately started hurting him after our 22.5 mile run and it really hasn't gotten better. Well, I take that back---it gets much better when he doesn't run for a few days, but as soon as he tries to run again it gets bad. So bad that he told me it feels like his Achilles tendon might rupture.

You don't have to be a medical person to know that would be very bad. It's not worth it, in my opinion, to get seriously injured over a stupid marathon. It's not life and death, we have plenty of running years left in our old and crumbling bodies, and right now Nate's priority is school--not marathoning. Of course Nate is a stubborn Type A like his wife and doesn't like to give up on anything, so he's not totally counting himself out just yet. He will see how it treats him this week and then make a decision. I'm sad to possibly lose him as a running partner---crossing the finish line together has been our goal since we started this training back in May. But running in a full marathon was my idea and I'm still going to do it no matter what.

I cannot believe it's only 11 days away. Barf. I'm scared.