Tragedy!

Oh, oh, the humanity.  My iPod is dead.  The little nano is the definitely the iPod that's taken the most abuse over the years, and I'm including the one I threw in ice water several times.

Now, on to my weekend:

Friday I worked because I'm a team player.  Actually, I showed up at work, conquered my email Inbox and then had to leave the office to fix an issue we're having with a remote access/wireless card.  I was not required to come back.

 
I took a walk around Lakes Nokomis and Hiawatha where there are still thin ice signs that the fisherman are ignoring.  The city is ignoring them too because they're starting with the hockey rinks.  Qat Lady and I hit the Cleveland Wok for dinner.  As always, my goal was to have a dinner entirely of fried food.

Saturday started with a fantastic run with Running Beth along the Liz Loop.  I don't think we'd had a Liz Loop maybe all year.  (It's been rough.)  I, um, medicated my stomach before the run which turned out to be awesome.  I thought I'd be dying by the end of the run but I felt great.  Beth's dog was mildly tortured by running past the off-leash dog park and not getting to play but he was fine as well.  I was thrilled to learn my body will still move 7 miles without too much protest.  Maybe this Flying Pig thing could work?

I spent most of the afternoon on the couch.

Saturday evening was quite interesting.  I mentioned over Christmas I went to my parents "church".  The old minister (Reverend? What's the difference?) from that place in Cincinnati is now at a church (again, I use the term loosely; faith community might be better) up here.  Everyone kept asking how he was. 

I got a wild hair up my ass and decided to see the New Year's Eve service at this place in Golden Valley where Reverend is now.  The service was a 'burning bowl' ceremony.  Flash paper is involved and perhaps the funniest moment of the entire year was when this tween-age kid in front of me (there were five tween-age boys sitting in front of me all night) says to the other four "flash paper burns longer if you lick it".

Although the most random event was when this women sits down next to me about 10 minutes into the service.

Lady: Is anyone sitting here?
Me: No, go ahead.  ::Stops, looks at woman::  Is your name Catherine?
Lady/Catherine: Yes.
Me: Did you used to work at the Youth Science Center?  ::Totally staring by this point::
Catherine: Yes.
Me: My name is Liz, I used to work with you.  Do you remember me?

Totally random.  This lady had, shall we say, a bad exit from the museum.  (I'm thinking it was about grant money, not job performance?)  Her husband has since got a job in California that he loves and she comes back and forth.  We talked for a long time after the service catching up.  Totally random.

Catherine and I both said hi to Reverend after the service.  He remembered the one time he met me several years ago, right when he'd moved up here so WIN for him I say.  He totally remembered my parents as well, which was unsurprising but very nice.

At the end of the service snow was coming down hard so I opted to go straight home instead of my Pooky bear's for glogg.  I went about 40mph on the express ways.  The roads hadn't iced over yet, it was just hard to see because the snow flakes were the size of pizzas.

Sunday I woke up late, had breakfast even later and then spent the morning and part of the afternoon in my PJs.

I hit the gym around 2:30p and found out just how iced over the roads and sidewalks really were.  Wow.  I tried to replicate the treadmill workout from last week but didn't quite do as well.  I didn't make it the full hour, only lasted about 45 minutes.  I walked on the treadmill and did the rowing machine too.  It's the last day of calm before the January Gym Crazies really descend on the place in full force.

The sadness in my day occurred when I got on the treadmill and tried to turn on my iPod.  No success.  The treadmill actually has an adapter for iPods so you can control playlist and volume with the big machine buttons and the treadmill couldn't wake the iPod either.  Oh dear.  I had my phone with me which also has music on it so I resolved to work out and then investigate later.  At home I tried with the computer, the dock, and just a USB plugged into the wall.  iPod will not wake. 

I got this guy in 2007 and took it with me on 90% of my runs and gym workouts between then and now.  This photo was taken a couple years ago, when the top to the iPod started coming off.  Seriously.  I beat the hell out of this thing.

I cleaned a little when I got home and then talked to the parents.  I think it's weird I didn't tell them about seeing Reverend last night, but I'm also okay with it.  I totally did not want the discussion.  Mom was busy watching that new show on ABC about the fairy tales (if it's not Castle I'm totally not paying attention) so we didn't really talk too long anyways.  Dad just wanted to know if I knew what happened to the wheat berries.