Now: Apparently not the time to get up early

Not the time to get up early - because I haven't successfully done it since last Friday.  So, not a whole lot of running going on right now.  I did 'run' 9 miles tonight, 3.2 with a teammate from team:work and the rest on an elliptical.  Now I'm sitting on the couch drinking a beer and it's the first time all day I've felt relaxed.  Let me tell you about some nice music that could relax you too (since I don't have much else to say)

• When I Fall - Lizz Wright.  I feel like I mentioned this one before once.
• Hit the Ground - Lizz Wright, apparently I have a new favorite artist.  Not sure where I found her, I think a song played at the end of some TV show I watch and then I found more on GrooveShark.
• I'd Rather be With You - Joshua Radin.  It almost sounds like a country song but is pleasantly not.
• Undiscovered - James Morrison, my current anthem.  I'm not lost, just undiscovered.

Firefox: Why?

Someone explain to me, when I'm using Blogger in Firefox and I go to add an image, I get this:

Just look for a minute

When I go to add images in the Chrome browser, I get the correct dialogue box, looks like this:

See how there's a button to "choose files" so I can tell the dialogue what to upload to my blog?  Don't you think that would work much better.

Seriously. Someone explain why Firefox started to fail. It used to work fine. (For those of you who are real nerds, it was in both Firefox 3.* and Firefox 4, with and without some Greasemonkey scripts running on that page.)

In which you can take your snow and STUFF IT

I am so over this winter, it's 82 inches of snow, and the record flooding that is and will continue to ensue as a result.  You know why?  Cause I can't freaking run!  This last snow fall was "it's 31* and this snow is wet, heavy, and icy" kind.  And the residents of the Twin Cities, along with MnDOT and plows from most municipalities just decided not to do snow removal of any kind.  Seriously.  So there's no running outside.  Happily, almost without me noticing it, one of my Team:Work teammates has become my running buddy at the gym.  (I think I've mentioned a time or two how the track is like the pit of despair but it's not so bad with company.)

Tuesday was the busiest day of my life, possibly the most productive I've ever had at my current job.  (Hilariously it was the day that proved my heart is made of stone.)  At the end of the day I ran my co-worker around the track and sang to her.  (That's kind of a joke, when she gets out of breath I sing songs to take her mind off things.)

Wednesday morning I woke up to this:

Just why?  It took minutes to get the snow off my car.  It was that wet and heavy.

Here's what the suck will look like for the day

And a close up shot of the suck in the Twin Cities

Wednesday was also the day they thought it would be fun to do Laughter Yoga at work. So not for introverts. It was like an hour of torture.  Although with the best of intentions.  Then we had lunch to celebrate Social work month.  Things got even crazier.

Live long and prosper!

Shortly after that I left work because between 8am and 1:30pm, my car turned back into this:

Today, I worked a full day. It was fascinating to see what our plow guy did to our lot at work. When you see where he put the snow piles it was like "yeah, that's one place you could have left the snow but it's in like four spots now". I did run tonight.

The plan for tomorrow is go to the gym, come back home and log onto a webex training and conference call, then let the weekend begin.

Picture Saturday

Minnehaha Creek - moving waters melt

Possibly the brightest thing I saw all day.  Winter seems to wash out all the colors in the city.

On Minnehaha Parkway by Lake Nokomis - cool view of downtown between the  trees.

On the beach at Lake Nokomis - still waters are still frozen

Another view of Minnehaha creek, where I spent most of the day

Giant puddle on the way home - Minnesota means "sky tinted waters", just saying.

Best lattes in the world.

An unavoidably large pothole at Nokomis Ave and Minneahaha Parkway.  I thought it was the biggest one in the world.

Until I saw this impressively large and deep pothole on 15th ave on the way home.

Just glad I didn't fall in that last pothole.

On the road to back to humanity

The plague has hit my office.  Seriously.  It's been bad, some people with fever recurring after it's been gone for a day or two, some who've lost their voices, and today a social worker told me, in all seriousness, "Liz, you've lost weight since you were sick" (with the implied 'that's not an acceptable method of weight loss).

My colleague is correct.  I have had no appetite.  None.  It's all the gunk draining out of my sinuses making me mildly ishy inside.  Monday I worked eight hours.  (Good job.)  Tuesday I made it six hours and then came home and laid in bed the rest of the day and night.  I called it relapse prevention.  The problem was I didn't want to eat lunch so then I just felt weak and tired.

Today I knew I needed to eat, and I needed to eat actual food with vitamins and minerals.  I had a bowl of yogurt and granola with a banana for breakfast.  I ate about half of it.  (No, that's good.)  I had a burrito for lunch.  (Beans and corn and rice.  Good veggies no matter what you say.)  I ate over half of it.

Then I went for a run with Team:Work.  My boss asked me how it felt to be out.  "It feels like home".  It also calmed my stomach down.  When I got home I tried a raspberry smoothie.  I did not make it half way.  Oh well, breakfast and lunch were good at least.

I am still coughing a lot, a little nervous for a grown up run tomorrow morning.  There may be a 'save yourself' moment in this run where others go on ahead.  Running tonight felt good so I'm hoping for the same treatment tomorrow.  I also want you to know that my PINK shoes feel fantastic.  It just feels like I finally have the right shoes for the way I run now.  Nice.

Here's some music for you to enjoy since I don't have any pretty pictures:

• Stay the Night - James Blunt
• Ladies and Gentlemen - Saliva, strictly a running song.
• When I Fall - Lizz Wright, possibly one of my new favorite artists; she's been heavy on my playlist at GrooveShark.
• I'm Tore Down - Eric Clapton, recently reminded of the awesomeness of this song.
• Fountain - Sara Lov all that anyone ever has for you are the things you reflect back to them.

Observations from my first trip outside in four days

I haven't been outside since last Wednesday.  Seriously.  That's how sick I was.  And lucky that Amanda brought food.  Today marked 24 hours of being fever free so I went to the gym, just so they could scan my card for the good behavior discount and then got Chinese food.  Here's what I noticed

• Some of the snow has melted
• More snow has also fallen, as I observe a thin but pristine white layer of snow over all this stuff
• Some potholes were filled in, including some of the monsters along 31st street.
• More potholes seem to have formed, 42nd St and Chicago Ave, and other monsters along 31st street come to mind.
• There sure are a lot of people at the gym. Why?!?
• My ears are still clogged and I find hot wonton soup to be the best antidote in the world.  My stomach is still refusing medicine.

Taking a pause while recovering from the plague

Wednesday: Longest day ever at work.  I had to go to a training that was, um, irrelevant.  Then I had to lead a training.  I got a really nice compliment on the training I lead though.  All through the day I'm thinking why does my throat hurt?  By the end of the day I was also thinking I swear I have a fever.  I was so tired and felt so crappy that I didn't even take my temperature, I just went straight for the nyquil.

Thursday: Very early in the morning I realized that one dose of nyquil wasn't going to get me through the night.  Sometime after that, whoa, 102*, this thing is for real.  I spent most of the day on the couch.  Amanda brought rations including jello, oranges and popsicles.  Sometime Thursday night I had to take more drugs which my stomach didn't like.  The only thing my stomach would tolerate was the jello.  Thank goodness for Amanda.  I hate jello.  Never thought there would be a time it was acceptable. 

Friday: Oh good.  I'm still sick.  At some point I called work and got someone to water my plants.  Also, I swear I agreed to run some race in Kansas.  I'll find out more about that later.  I have no real memory from the fever frying my brain. Also, it burns my chest every single time I cough.  This shit is in my lungs.

Saturday: Woke up and took ibuprofen.  My stomach hates me.  No, seriously.  I think my stomach would like me to be drug free and suffer the fever pain for a little while.  The ibuprofen helped though because I felt well enough to load the dishwasher and take a shower.  Still left to do is strip the bed and put on new sheets.  I'm saving laundry for tomorrow.  I'm coughing less, believing more in the power of jello.

More snow - so we don't run out

Let the snow continue.  Remember last March when we had a drought?  All the puddles dried up and there was all this awesome running?  Yeah, me neither.

Land of 10,000 Puddles

Saturday morning brought the sobering realization that I hadn't been grocery shopping and had no food for breakfast.  Luckily I wasn't really hungry so I had pretend food and called it good.  Don't ask.

The forecast called for clouds all day, but the temperatures were supposed to be much closer to freezing than they'd been most of the week.  Remember the second day of March when it was -10*?  Once I opened my curtains (well after breakfast) I realized the 'clouds' portion of the forecast was completely incorrect.

Around 2pm I headed out for what I meant to be a 5 mile run.  (Where the hell can I go that will be five miles and not suck due to snow and ice?)  Ultimately it turned out to be about a 7 mile run, thrilled that I didn't die somewhere around mile 6.  I actually didn't realize how long it was until I got back and measured on a website.

I went on side streets around Lake Hiawatha to Minnehaha Parkway.  The Parkway was actually the biggest suckfest of the run because it was the only part I had to be on sidewalks that were shoveled by homeowners (the other sidewalks on this route are city park responsibility).  There were some big iceflows and some big puddles.  BIG.  I headed by Minnehaha Park and decided to stop and turn around when I got to the river.  (Who knew it was that far away?)

On the way back, instead of taking the parkway I took the actual Minnehaha trail which is maintained by the city.  Hilariously the first part of the trail was basically only groomed for snowshoeing.  (Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what 'groomed for snowshoeing' means.)  So I was back in the road for another little while but the road was nice and clear so I was fine.

I had a couple moments of "oh, that's a new song on my iPod.  Nice."  The best surprises were Forever Young - Rod Stewart which always reminds me of being on this bus near the Vietnam/Cambodia border and It's a New Day - Will.i.am which made me think of the most recent presidential election and my current life.

I wished I had my camera on the run. The creek is starting to melt.  Between the ducks (not even the stupid Canada Geese but actual ducks) and the sun glinting off the water, it was gorgeous.

I looked like a crayola crayon today.  There's just no other description for it.  It's a nice yellow hat though.

I'm wearing my new shoes.  There's no good words for exactly the degree of PINK they are.  I assure you, this photo doesn't quite do them justice.

After running I headed over to see my pooky bear.  She took me to Target so I could run errands (meaning so I could get Diet Pepsi) and then we headed over to Chili's so she could kill her gift card. A good time was had by all.

Not all of that alcohol is hers.  Apparently classic margaritas are always (meaning "every time we go") a two for one special.  Nice.

Friday - work

Friday was my last day of working on Fridays.  I'm switching my four day weeks back to Monday through Thursday.  Working so late I was the last person at the office on Fridays was more than I could bear.

Practicing my stealth skills - see how the Pepsi logo obscures the reflection of my face

Friday morning was a training - clearly I had some free time to take photos of pepsi cans and my shoes

I did actually make it to the office on Friday between training and a meeting at an agency about two blocks from said office.  After the meeting I badly needed food.  I headed up to Punch Pizza and finished up some paperwork while enjoying some awesome food *ahem* carbs; while enjoying some awesome carbs.

This place has the only pizza on the planet that I actually want.  Mmmm.

My pizza had arugula, goat cheese and prosciutto

My pizza is gone.

As per my usual, after work on Friday I was completely exhausted and didn't want to do anything. I could've gone to the gym, could've gone grocery shopping, could've done a few other things and chose to done of them at all. Instead I laid on my couch until moving to bed.

Bolder Options Thursday

Thursday morning I woke up and ran with the St Paul girls.  Have to get out before the weather starts right?  When I got back to my car, I saw these drops on the windshield and thought: Seriously.  Was it snowing while we were running and I didn't even notice?  Apparently so.  That was about all we got that day.

After running I had the longest day ever at work.  10.5 hours is a really long day. 

Then I headed over to Summit Brewery for a Bolder Options volunteer mixer that was doubling as a team Ragnar reunion and 2011 planning session.  Did I mention we were at a brewery?

I'm a Pilsner girl most of the time.

Let the scheming begin...

They have this thing called an 'oatmeal stout'.  I swear it's like a latte meets beer in a totally awesome way.

Beer goggles - literal interpretation

I am a Runner-Sicle

6:55am: Why is my alarm making noise?
7am: Start working - from my living room
8ish: Leave for a non-mandatory training in downtown St Paul.
Shortly after that: There was a train crossing the tracks on Shepard so I couldn't take a left in the normal place.  I went up one intersection and discovered the underpass was closed.  Why?! 
1.5 miles later: Do you know how far you have to go on this road before there's another place to turn around?  Turning around was ultimately a fail because everyone else had the same idea.
Some time later: I abandoned the training and headed in to my office.  Where I worked forever.

Sprout greets me at my office.  He looks really good.  Here's how he looked last week for a point of reference.

1130am: A walk to the Co op would be nice.
1135am: Arrived safely at Co op after realizing several homeowners and business owners on West 7th have failed to shovel their sidewalks.  Fail for me too right?
Work a bunch more
5pm: The happy revival of Team:Work.  Wow!  That wind is really something.  We ran intervals. It was COLD.  I had no plan today, other than a route that would allow us to safely run on the road.  Today will help me decide what to do for next week.  I think we need intervals and a race to work towards.  My goal for the entire year is to make the Monster Dash Half Marathon our A-race for the year.  I'm not sure I have them all convinced.  I mean it's March right?  Look at all the time we have to train.

See that sunshine up ahead?  Me too.

Winter running in Minnesota - how many layers do you wear?

After 6pm Home.  I want to watch old episodes of Bones and not think about anything.