Saturday Linkfest

It's a good think it's cold out because bacon (like a bacon cheeseburger) sounds really good right now and I'm too cold to move. Here's what I'll be looking at instead:

Health related news:

• Who Cares? Apparently, the federal government does.


• Ever hear of couples divorcing so one is eligible for Medicaid? Me too. But as soon as I saw the headline, I knew there's a way to get Medicaid without getting a divorce because I work with the same waivers in Minnesota.


• Apparently it's a surprise to some that 20% of the population has a personality disorder but I've known it for a while. Just to be clear, personality disorders cannot be cured and in most cases insurance won't cover treatment for a personality disorder precisely because it can't be cured or changed.


• December 1st is World AIDS Day. This year President Bush was recognized for my favorite thing his administration has done in eight years. I think we'll cure AIDS in my lifetime and it will be the biggest thing my generation gets to experience.

Poverty:

• Life expectancies for people with a mental illness are shockingly lower than the rest of the population and poverty is partially to blame.


• Still think poverty isn't a social problem that's tearing us up? A kid who lives in a low-income home has a brain that operates roughly the same as an adult with a brain injury because of the environment they live in. Ridiculous.

For Minnesota:

• First, the ridiculous: Apparently we've found a new form of sexual harassment.


• On the other hand, We're the fourth healthiest state overall. Congratulations Minnesota!

Food: (Did I mention the Bacon Cheeseburger?)

• I'm so happy to learn that Butter is better than margarine because I find the fake stuff disgusting and try to avoid it.


• I love the comment that said Something wrong just happened because that's how I felt watching this video. It is totally safe for work but may make you feel like you're hearts collapsing.

And the other stuff:

• I think we've covered my voting preferences and history, But you can learn more in general here and share your thoughts if you want to.


• And the 10 Best Lifehacks of 2008. We haven't even finished December yet. Patience my friend.

Liz Trains for a Marathon

I was getting ready to write this post and was shocked to learn I'd been at this for three weeks already. I ran yesterday and today.
Miles Friday: 4.0
Miles Saturday: 2.8
Miles this week: 16.8
Goal miles: 16.0

Did I mention that today I ran outside. Around Lake Nokomis. It was quite windy. I'm thinking about running outside tomorrow too. It's nice to have that big hot tub at the Y as a reward when running outside in the middle of winter. It's also nice to have a reward that's not food and doesn't cost money.

Amanda and Kelly and I went to the No Coast Craft Show which was actually only my second time in the Midtown Global Market. I really enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed that I could buy earrings at this place. I'm one of the gazillion people with a nickel allergy. (If it's the most common form of dermatitis, it begs the question why the stuff is still used in earrings anyways.) There was one artist who actually had her earrings marked so I knew which ones were safe to buy. I got two really cool pairs. I'm excited because I love earrings and they're really hard for me to buy.

I'm thinking about getting my Christmas tree down. This year I'm ridiculously early and I actually have presents I could put out around it. I'm also thinking about dinner. Not sure what I should do about that. I don't think I can go outside again.

No one knows what I was thinking this morning: Liz Trains for a Marathon

No one knows what I was thinking this morning. Even I was shocked by my decision to run another five miles. But I got through it ok. I'm still a little behind on my running for the week, but it's possible for me to catch up tomorrow. It's been hard to run two days in a row at the Y this whole time. I'm not sure why. I think it's something of a mental block. But I'm going to try my best. So, for the record:

Mileage today: 5.0
Miles this week: 10.0
Goal mileage: 16.0

Liz Trains for a Marathon

Getting back on track for training: Basically, I didn't run Sunday and I should have and I was too exhausted to do it on Monday. So, I ran Sunday's run today, I think I'll do today's run tomorrow and then be back on track for Thursday.

Miles today: 5.0
Miles this week: 5.0
Goal mileage: 16.0

I think the hardest part of this is the amount of running and the distances that I'm probably going to wind up doing inside. I was impressed that I could do a five mile run inside. Although running for an hour around a track might be about my limit.

Tomorrow I get to go to work late so I'm going to sit in the hot tub after I run. What a great reward.

Update from Saturday: Liz Trains for A Marathon

I'm not sure if I accomplished my running goal this week or not. For the record:
Mileage today: 5...., it was over 5 miles for sure.
Mileage this week: 15 plus miles
Goal Mileage: 15

So why didn't I reach my goal? I was supposed to run four times this week, I only ran three. Not sure bout that.

What else did I do? After I ran we went to my cousins Car Museum (no, seriously) to take family Christmas pictures. I'm so glad I don't regularly take pictures of kids. It's like herding cats. What's the car museum? It's an extended (and I do mean large) garage off the end of her house. It's used for entertaining, I can only assume so that people stay out of the family home.

Then we had a graduation party and birthday party for my cousin's son. There were lots of fun things to do at Kris' Rec Center. We ate, we played on the "jumper", on which I can still do a front flip. I didn't try a back flip but that would have been cool. We also played video games and Uno. No one went in the pool although I think so people did work out.

Then, I did a ride along with another cousin who is a police officer. That was interesting. It's actually probably the most time I've spent with him, well, ever. He's a really nice guy, although I wouldn't want to be pulled over by him. Or any of the other officers.

After that I fixed one of my aunt's computers so she can pay her bills online. Vista really does suck.

The Angel on my Other Shoulder

This year, I'm especially thankful for...

• Finding that one last thing at my parents house that I would have been sad to loose. What was it? A statue I got in Malawi. I forgot I owned it. I saw it, grabbed it, and realized I was about to leave that house for the last time. That was emotional.


• The farm. I love going down to the farm in Kentucky. That's what we always used to do for Thanksgiving, and it really felt like Thanksgiving to be back. Minneapolis is my home but I do love Kentucky.


• The hot tub at the farm. It's Kentucky but they're not hillbillies.


• My job. I love what I do, and I enjoy my colleagues as well. I think I'm pretty lucky in that respect.


• My awesome friends and family. I can't name you all, but if you're reading this blog, you are included.


• So many more things...

And now, a special tribute to my friend Jenny. I'd tell you Jenny's last name but that's a subject of some debate at the moment. You may remember me going home for Jenny's wedding in June (and a certain attic cleaning incident at the same time). Apparently Jenny is rather attached to her current last name and would like to keep and use Doug's last name with a hyphen. I've only heard one side of the story but it sounds like Doug is hurt that his name alone isn't satisfactory to Jenny. In the mean time, nothing has been done and Jenny's maiden name continues on as it always has (or that's how I understand it). Kelly, I think you should tell Jenny how long it actually takes to get your name changed so that she can have it done before they retire.

Why do I want to thank Jenny? Because, someone finally has a small glimpse of what my life was like for, well, ever.

Today Mom, Jenny and I took a walk at California Woods (where I used to work) and then had lunch. Then we went back home because I wanted Jenny to see the awesome job I did on the attic earlier and the follow up job my parents had done in moving stuff. (They really did do a good job. It's almost totally empty now.) Jenny and I were just hanging out so I offered to box some stuff up for Mom. And the three of us got to work on the cookbooks. Apparently Dad had already gone through the cookbooks, and while he claimed to have ditched some, that clearly wasn't true. So Mom authorized the purge of several more. She did a really good job of throwing things out.

And then Dad walked in, and looked longingly at the bags we'd just labeled "Good Will" and "Library Sale", and continued to gaze longingly at the bags despite my reassurance that Mom had authorized all decisions about cookbooks. Now, I'm pretty clear on my feelings towards Mom's hoarding, but she does a really good job of throwing some things away, especially things that can legitimately be useful to others. So when I saw the look on Dad's face as he gazed at these bags, I called out his true identity to the entire room. Remember, he claimed to have gotten rid of the cookbooks they no longer used. When it comes to clutter crap hoarding Dad is really a lion in sheep's clothing. He's the reason they keep so much stuff that's useful but not in use.

Next, Mom asked us to clean off the top shelf of the kitchen pantry, which is when I proclaimed to Jenny that the tides were about to change, there would now be a complete role reversal. Mom would assume the role of Hoarder in Chief and Dad would be the one advocating some semblance of reason.

It was about then that I pulled the first of several half used packages of paper cups off the shelf. Jenny said, "I don't think they make this color any more". I don't think they ever made that color Jenny, but thanks for being nice about it. And then I started pulling the plastic forks, more cups, plates, more forks, plates, cups, napkins, more forks, and more plates off the shelf. Jenny would dutifully take these things out of my hands, lay them on the table to be packed and return to where I was standing on the chair, at which point she would give me a look that said, "you know this is crazy, right?" Followed by a look that possibly said, "no, seriously, this is crazy, why are you cooperating with them?"

Next I found a plastic bag full of what could charitably be called tuppeware. It's really old take out containers and yogurt cups Mom wanted to keep in case she needed to put something in a container for someone else to take home. For that need to arise, we'd actually have to have company in the house which is a whole separate blog post. I tried to persuade Mom that perhaps it wasn't worth the effort or space to move these things to the new house. Mom assured me that these pieces of crap wastes of space gently used, ever so fragile, good for five more seconds of use, food containers could be stored in the new garage. Want to know why you don't have house guests? You think it's ok to put their food in a container you store in the garage.

There are no words for the look on Jenny's face at that point but I'm so happy someone else got to experience a little bit of what my life was like as a kid. All these things were happening that I knew were crazy and Mom (and sometimes Dad) went to great lengths to assure me that this craziness was quite normal and I had a bad attitude for complaining about it. It's like I finally had the little angel on my other shoulder assuring me that these things were, in fact, crazy and I was the only sane person in the room.

So this Thanksgiving, I'm especially thankful for the angel on my other shoulder. It's such a relief to have you there.

Happy Thanksgiving (and Liz Trains for a Marathon)

I'm writing this Thursday morning (Happy Thanksgiving!) although my internet connection is somewhat in doubt so it's not clear when I'll actually be posting. I'm also writing this in a plain text editor (see my previous comment about the internet connection) so I have no idea how it will look when I copy it onto my blog.

Yesterday, I had every intention of getting up and going to the gym. I did not. I didn't go Tuesday either. Or Monday. One of my goals with this whole "Liz Trains for a Marathon" thing is to run consistently over the course of the month, even at ahem uncomfortable times. It's a work in progress. This month, I made one five mile run I probably wouldn't have last month.

The drive was, well, I'm really not a fan of driving in, around, or near Chicago. Other than that stretch, it was fine. There were these two crazy merges, one on I-90 and one on I-39 within a couple miles of each other and traffic was less than thrilled about it. This might be one nice thing that comes of me going to Indiana for part of this trip. I don't have to come home that way. Traffic was equally screwed up on the other side of the road.

For most of the trip, I listened to an audio book. Perhaps you've heard of it, Dreams of my Father. I really didn't think I would enjoy listening to a book while I was driving. Usually I prefer to dance and sing at the top of my lungs. It keeps me active and engaged in driving. But I absolutely fell in love with this book. If you've been living under a rock, Dreams of my Father is the first book President-Elect Obama wrote. He wrote it right after he was elected editor of the Harvard Law Review. And of course, he reads the book himself. Thank goodness too, it would be really distracting if it was someone else's voice. Some passages of the book are really eerie, in hind sight. There's one part in particular about moving to Chicago right after the first black mayor was elected and how the white and black communities in Chicago reacted. Although possibly my favorite part was when he realized how his (white) mother saw African children. I loved that part of the book because that's how I see Africa too. When I arrived in Cincinnati last night, I'd just gotten to the part where he meets Rev. Jeremiah Wright for the first time. He'd already applied to law school (glad I know how that turned out), but hadn't heard back yet. Anyways, it's a book I could really get into.

Last night I stayed up and talked with my parents for a while before bed. That was nice, to actually visit with them.

This morning, I did, in fact, get up and run. I went to a bike/running path and ran a little over 5 miles. Go Lizzie. I was supposed to run four times this week, instead I think I may do three runs and cover the same mileage. I'm not sure if that's cheating or not. So, for the record:
Miles today: 5.3 (I'm guessing on the .3, it was over 5, that's kind of a low estimate really)
Miles this week: 10.3
Goal Mileage this week: 15

When people ask me...

When people ask me what my blog is about, I will now direct them to this picture. Hee hee. It's wrong but it's so right at the same time.

In the mean time, let me show you what I've been reading:

• Someone made a list of Republicans they didn't like. While I'm not surprised at the top pick, I am happy they can recognize a true accomplishment of the administration that doesn't often get recognized. Possibly one other thing to add would be President Bush's State of the Union speech where he said that members of the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps contribute to the country the same as the military and Americans should spend two years of their lives volunteering for their country. To anyone who is a Republican or likes Republicans, I didn't really read the rest of the list and I don't care too much what it says.


• Keeping up the "government" theme, our elected officials can't pass US History despite making it quite often and the follow up, I got 87% on the test, you should try it.


• Since I work in health care, I feel like I have a pretty clear understanding of what happens when you have private insurance and what happens when you have a single payer (read: Medicare) system. Health care is a big topic and it will be for some time to come, so here's some things you should know about our system.


• Will the smoking ban in Minnesota help you live? Apparently it's more likely to help if you were exposed to a lot of second hand smoke in the past. Even Ohio has a statewide smoking ban now. Ohio, as in the place right next to Kentucky where they grow the tobacco.


• How smart are your colleagues? Is anyone else alarmed at where protective services fall relative to the people they protect? Anyone?

Liz Trains for a Marathon

Yesterday. Liz trained for a marathon yesterday. Today, I took a break.
Miles Sunday: 5
Miles for the week: 5
Goal mileage: 15

Actually, I'm supposed to run 4 days this week, 4 miles 3 days and 3 miles the last day, plus a 5 mile run next Sunday (while I'm trying to drive from Indiana to Minneapolis). So it was nice to put in an extra mile yesterday.

Other accomplishments from yesterday:

• I fixed a leaky faucet Amanda basically fixed a leaky faucet for me but I did have the foresight to invite her over and promise her food, so in some way, I contributed to making my home better. And, amazingly, it only took one trip to the hardware store.


• Laundry. I did laundry. It sounds small...


• Vacuuming. That sounds even more ludicrous but given the recent bed bug issue, it's even more necessary. And I hardly ever do it.


• Shopping, including toys for the toy drive at the YWCA.

All in all, it was a productive weekend. Which explains why I'm so tired now I guess.

Liz Trains for a Marathon

Miles today: 3.0
Miles this week: 14.3
Goal mileage: 14.0

What I learned so far:

• I like having a schedule laid out, and trusting that it's there. I like being able to think, "ok, all I have to do is worry about today" and trust the plan. It helps me stay focused.


• Check outside before choosing running apparel. I'm notoriously bad at this one and it's the reason I wind up running in the rain so frequently. Apparently, it snowed overnight. I was going to run outside. I decided my shoes would get too wet and went to the Y. (I don't have that luxury on weekdays when I have limited time to run and get to work.) I'll still try to run outside tomorrow.

I'm still trying to work out my travel and running schedule. I'm scheduled to run 5 miles next Sunday which isn't a super long run, but I don't think I'll be able to do it and then drive home. I might have to put that run sometime earlier this week. Wednesday morning before I drive may be free.

I'm also trying to work out the rest of my Thanksgiving plans. As you know from previous years, I usually go to my aunt and unlces in Ft Wayne Indiana which I typically enjoy. But this year, Dad didn't want to go up there because he has too much work to do on the house(s) or some such nonsense. I was really sad to miss that part of the holidays. I think I've created a plan that my parents may or may not (probably not) like. I'm going to drive down to Cincinnati and spend Thanksgiving and the next day with them, then drive up to Ft Wayne and spend a day there and then drive home. Going up to Ft Wayne doesn't really take time off the drive back to Minnesota, but it doesn't add time either, especially if I get through Chicago nice and early.

Still listening to Rhythm of the Saints and loving it.

From the land of links

• What's one of the annoying things my parents do? (My dad is particularly guilty of this.) He'll be talking on the phone to me and say, "Oh can you look up...." some random thing that's not related to what we're talking about, or anything we/I care about. Basically, I'm his secretary. Too bad I can't use this gem on him. It's just slightly too passive aggressive (or downright rude) for the family.


• Great opening line to the article, just if you need a laugh. It reminds me of the time Amanda said Bonsai trees were "pruned within an inch of their lives".


• I love with when Nike (we employ children in third-world-countries for obscenely low wages) and Starbucks (our coffee is fair trade and we just joined [Product]Red) can agree on something. Way to go.


• I can't believe a study where a survey was sent to over 300,000 people and only 12,000 actually responded is being paraded around CNN as news. Just. plain. wrong. And I went to college twice just to make sure.


• As if we needed another reason to like marijuana.


• Who are the 100 greatest singers of all time. I thought about who I would have put on there, maybe Joss Stone and Michael Buble but they're both really new.


• What have we learned from our most recent election? Poor white people who live in all white areas of otherwise diverse states, and poor white people who live in poorly educated states... Well, that punch line is so obvious I'll just let you read the story.


• To all of you who are actually a member of any of these religions, I hope you have a sense of humor because this is equal parts funny and true.

Liz Trains for a Marathon

I wonder how many posts will have this same title by the time I'm done. I can't count that high. But I am still on this whole train-for-a-marathon idea.

Miles today: 3.0
Miles this week: 11.3
Goal mileage for the week: 14

Today I ran intervals (run 1 lap, walk 1/2 lap) until the total distance I covered was 3 miles. Intervals are good because they make me run really fast. Besides just completing a marathon, I'm hoping that my times in shorter races get faster over the year. I'm ok running intervals. At first I wasn't sure if it was cheating or not. I've decided not.

Lessons Learned:

• I can't believe I did 3 miles worth of that interval. Usually I'm dying after way less than that.


• The hot tub remains an awesome reward. There was a really hot guy tonight swimming in the pool and I had a great view.


• I can run even when I feel like crap. On a fairly regular cycle, I get really tired and don't want to do anything. Usually at times like these, I don't run because I think it's an impossibility given how tired I am. Nice to know that's not true.


• Running at night is OK.

Liz Trains for a Marathon

Miles today: 4.0
Miles this week: 8.3
Goal mileage for the week: 14

Lessons learned:

• Apparently, I can run 4 miles around a track without stopping. Who knew? It got hard to run around the track at the Y for long periods because I was so used to running sprints and intervals on it. I'm getting used to running in circles for long periods of time again.


• Running on a track when it's [sort of] busy is fun, all those people keep me entertained.


• Paul Simon's The Obvious Child from Rhythm of the Saints is a great song and needs to appear on all of my exercise playlists.


• When I wait 'till the evening to run, I feel like a lazy failure all day. That sounds a little a lot melodramatic. I like to run or exercise in the morning, so when I don't, I feel like I've skipped a day, even though I haven't really.


• The hot tub is the best reward ever after a run. I'm glad I've finally found a reward that doesn't involve food.


• The hot tub is significantly less crowded on weeknights than on Sunday morning.

Tuesday Linkfest

For Bloggers:

• What are the 10 most annoying phrases in the world? I'd like to add "empowerment" to the list please.


• And, just in case you didn't get the point, here's 20 more phrases not to use.

Things I find entertaining:

• Ever wanted to be a drummer? My parents wouldn't let me have a drum set either. Here's a new possibility to realize your dreams.


• The saving grace of migraines?


• For people outside of Cincinnati: Cincinnati's magnet school system is excellent, but the enrollment process is a bit screwed up. My parents didn't have to camp out to get me into a magnet school but it was only on a technicality.


• Having lived in Africa and on a ship, I've lived with way less technology than in my current lifestyle. But I can't imagine being forced to live without it when everyone else has it. Way to take one for the team.

For the environment and health Amanda:

• Did you ever get that whole breathing while running situation under control?


• Want to buy a new car? Allow me to recommend these. And the follow up, how not to go broke while saving the environment.

For those of you interested in geography:

• Where's the best place to be single? I highly disagree. Minneapolis actually rates 16 in number of singles. All I'd like to know is where the heck are these people? And it's not fair if they're only using census demographics like legally single and married because there's a crap ton of people who are with a partner but not married. Trust me.


• Where not to live is the least healthy part of the US? While it's no surprise that the middle of Appalachia is first on the list, I'm shocked at Los Angeles and San Bernadino area in California appearing.


• And the follow up, Where's the healthiest place to live in the US? I highly agree with this one. In the Twin Cities, there's always a road race somewhere, indoor triathalons in the winter and a championship triathalon in the summer, plus the Twin Cities Marathon and the insane number of people riding their bikes everywhere. Way to go us.

Well, I'm haivng a day...

Apparently, I'm having a bit of a day. I called home and talked to Dad as was normal, and then started talking to Mom. For some reason, Mom didn't know I was planning to drive home for Thanksgiving. So then she spent 15 minutes figuring out if I could get home another way. And I asked her stop [obsessing], and then I offered to call her back later [because she was still obsessing], which was when she said she'd stop. And instead of stopping, she kept discussing it, so I told her I loved her and I'd talk to her later.

I'm sorry, it's no fun for me to listen to my mom obsess and repeat herself for 15 minutes, I just wanted to chat with her. Here's the deal. I have a co-worker who obsesses all day, every day. And it drives me up a wall (although her anxiety doesn't transfer to me). On Sunday night, I just don't want to listen to it. Having OCD, I just assume mine isn't as bad as everyone else who has OCD. Is that wrong?

Sunday linkfest

The things that I found interesting:

• How cool are bats? They're one of the 5 most invaluable animals on the planet! That's how cool.


• Ever heard someone ask a really stupid question only to realize you didn't know the answer. Me neither. But just in case you were lying a second ago, this is at least answers to all your questions about living eco-friendly.


• And finally, in a relief to my entire generation, when we get older, we can look forward to Google making us smartler in the face of our brains shrinking after we turn 30.

For Sarah:

• I was looking at a list of the ugliest buildings in the world. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but I think you already knew it anyway. Don't worry, I still come see you even if Boston's city hall is ugly.

For people who shall remain nameless (it's ok, I don't think they read my blog):

• Want to lower your health insurance costs? PETA says being a vegetarian should do it. Novel idea. It's not entirely practical for people like me who buy meat on occasion but typically eat food without meat.


• To the 1 in 5 of you who are still smoking: Quit!. I do actually work with people who smoke. Too bad. One wants to quit and it's like she never gets around to it. I don't understand.

For Kelly (and I want to make it clear that I don't think your fat, the article just reminded me of something you said):

• For those of you worried about hip size, apparently we got smarter as our hips get bigger, and the companion piece, it's not just smarter babies, it's smarter moms too.


• Kelly, I feel like I need to apologize about this one too. You see, I was reading this comic thinking, "that sounds like Kelly" and then I got to the last frame. And the fact that the whole comic up until that point had sounded about the same as us trying to get together while you work/go to school/quilt/etc only made the ending so much funnier.

Liz Trains for a Marathon

I've officially started training for the Marathon next October. I was able to find a Marathon Training Schedule online that looked pretty reasonable. But that's not what I'm doing. Right now I'm on the Build up plan which builds up to the marathon training program.

Miles today: 4.3
Miles this week: 4.3

Lessons learned:

• It's too freakin' cold to stop. Ever. And on Sunday mornings, there's not many people out so it's really peaceful out.



• Whenever I run in the cold, I freeze for the rest of the day. Does anyone else have this issue? Discuss.



• I'm going to need more cold weather gear. Good thing I bought that stuff yesterday and did laundry today.



• Days like this are the perfect day for a hot tub. (My membership at the Y just got a whole lot more valuable.)

I actually did go to the Y after running. I lifted some weights and then, sure enough, got in the hot tub. And it was wonderful. And I wasn't really as cold as I normally am for the rest of the day.

Congratulations, you've reached your goal of 1,000 posts

Graphic taken from this place.

I was thinking about what would be a really special post for my one-thousandth post. Here's what I came up with: for all of you, I've updated my amazon.com wish list.

Also, Garmin GPS systems seem to be ridiculously discounted on Amazon right now, and, Amanda, Sports Authority online has ridiculous deals on Nike apparel. I got an insane deal on cold weather running pants and a jacket. I was going to just tell my parents what to get me for Christmas but it was so cheap, I just went ahead and bought it.

In a couple weeks, I have to give a talk about my trip to South Africa. I decided that I needed to talk about living in Malawi as part of that talk so I scanned a whole bunch of pictures into my computer for that, and from my first trip to South Africa, including some of the pictures where I'm bald. This stuff is really fun for me to remember so I thought I'd share it:

This was my first time in South Africa, October or November of 2001.

Above: Table Mountain at Sunrise. Below: Kaga Kamma.

This picture was controversial because I was too young to buy alcohol in the US. No problem in South Africa though.

Gugulethu township, which of course, I revisited in 2008.
That's my friend Sarah also seen here, and two South African school teachers. We tried Sarah tried to fix something on their computer but it didn't work. I still remember Sarah was fooling around on the computer and one of them was looking out the window and singing song to herself and we stopped to listen. It was really cool.

These guys are singing their national anthem, one of my favorite songs.

Yes, that's my "golfing". I think I was posing for a picture.

Remember: there's nothing like close ups of kids.

Why am I wearing a bandanna in all of these pictures? Because I was bald, and in the stop before South Africa I'd learned the rather painful lesson that scalps can peel because of sunburn just like any other part of the body.



Then, there's Malawi. Four years later, I still don't have the words to explain, but these might help:









I'm especially speechless thinking of my family:

Number 999

I was just watching an update about the senate race in Minnesota. The nice thing about having this one stretch out (as opposed to 2000) is it actually decreases any anxiety I had about who the winner will be.

I'm starting to get excited about running in the cold. (It's the new clothes I get to wear.) I wish it would stop snowing/sleeting/generally crapping out so I could go one morning. I'm also starting to get serious about this whole Marathon training business. It looks like I have to get used to running 4-5 days per week, a tall order considering I usually run about 3 days per week. Honestly, sometimes it's not a tall order. I don't think I'll loose enough weight not to get my period so those weeks could be interesting.

On Sunday I ran 2 miles with Amanda. Monday I did the elliptical at the gym (which is good cardio but doesn't count as running) and this morning I ran 3 miles. I'm thinking about going outside tomorrow. As always, it depends on the weather.

What have I seen lately?

For post 998, I will tell you

Regarding politics:

• For all those of you who had a different opinion on the elections than I did, from me to you.


• I got sucked into this article because it said President Elect Obama has read all of the Harry Potter books (which makes me feel a lot cooler than I did yesterday) and then I read that he smokes?!?. Serious? Interesting, I used a similar tactic to get my dad to quit smoking. Way to go Mrs Obama!

In the world of medicine:

• The best inventions and cures are almost always by mistake. That's how we got the telephone. Apparently, it's also how we'll cure AIDS.


• What happens when a documented immigrant with no health insurance needs care? Apparently, nothing good, unless you go to California. There's not a study, but I'd imagine it's cheaper to treat than to deport at some point.


• I remember one time Kelly told me womens feet and hands are always cold because we're "keeping the baby warm" even if we're not pregnant. Who knew there was scientific proof? Cool. It's winter and my feet will be icicles until at least April.

And in the Just For Fun section:

• This is how I see the seniors I work with. That is why I love my job.


• This one is for Kelly, maybe something fun to do with company. Maybe I'll do it and invite you all over.


• And for both Kelly and Amanda, A "your mom" joke I just couldn't pass up. ::Sigh:: It's been too long since we've made the jokes. Not too long without your mom of course, I just miss the jokes...