Life on the Runn...

Fridays have always been a great day.  After all, who doesn't love Friday?  It's the end of the work week and the start of the weekend.  In college, Fridays were especially great.  More often than not, Friday was a day of no classes.  We would go out Thursday night, sleep in Friday morning, get some work done during the afternoon, and be ready to head out again by dinnertime.  We rarely made it to bed Friday nights and found ourselves strolling in early Saturday morning instead. Times have changed!  I usually wake up Friday morning excited for two reasons.  First, it is the final time I have to set an alarm for the week (usually).  Secondly, I can wear jeans to work on Fridays, which is especially exciting.  Theses days, there are plenty of Friday nights where I barely see the other side of 10:00, and I have to admit that there have been times where I've even missed 9:30.  Instead of going out on a regular basis, we do things...

I've neglected to update my blog with much regularity as of late.  A number of things have contributed to that - work, grad school, etc.  As so many of us do, I have a lot on my plate right now, and it seems that I've been having to prioritize quite a bit just to get through my days.  I think I can say, with certainty, that I am more stressed now that I have ever been.  There are a lot of things that are up in the air, so to speak, and I am waiting for everything to iron itself out. In the mean time, I thought I would share a picture of some of our new neighbors.  They're a pretty cute bunch, and I am hoping that their diet includes lawn decorations, as my neighbor could stand to lose a few...or a dozen...or all of his.

It is no surprise that I catch a germ or two during the school year when you consider the fact that every day I am surrounded by kids, who, despite my best efforts, aren’t always careful about containing their germs.  I started feeling a bit ill last Friday and figured I'd caught a bug.  I was worried it meant that Brian and I would have to cancel our dinner plans with our friends Craig and Sarah and their kids, but I felt better as the evening went on and we were able to have a great night with them.  Saturday I woke up feeling pretty horrible, but again started to feel better relatively quickly and managed to work through most of my cold symptoms.  I was feeling almost 100 percent on Wednesday, and since it was so nice, Brian and I decided to spend Wednesday afternoon at Grant Park walking along the lake.   Thursday morning I woke up feeling very strange.   When I tried to speak to Brian, I couldn’t.    I no longer have a voice!  A...

Each spring and fall, Adventure Rock, our local climbing gym, partners with UW-Milwaukee to provide a nature/rock climbing course at Devil's Lake State Park.  Brian and our friend Chris typically work the course with Don Q, the UWM naturalist who puts the class together.  They've been trying to get the ladies to come along for some time now, but the weather never seems to cooperate, so Chris’ wife, Dawn, and I usually stay home.  This year, we were determined to join in the fun this year.  Both Dawn and I decided that we weren't going to spend our weekend freezing or wet, so we did have to set a minimum temperature requirement.  I wasn't feeling so well on Saturday morning (a cold, I think), so I was especially hoping that the weather would be pleasant.  We were told to expect temperatures in the 60's, and those magic words made us eager to go to Devil's Lake.  Since we knew it wouldn't be very nice on Sunday, Dawn and I initially planned to...

Friday night was girls' night.  I was invited to dinner, as two of my friends were stopping to eat in the area before they headed up north.  We opted for Mexican, which was no surprise. We all love Mexican food and margaritas.  It was the three of us versus Botana's and the rainbow margaritas.  You can probably imagine who won...but we had a great time and we laughed so much, I think we all cried.  I really love my girlfriends; they're the best!! After spending the better part of my morning reminiscing about the fun I had Friday night, I had to pull myself off the couch and get ready for my next weekend event.  I had an afternoon coffee date with a friend I hadn't seen in a while, I'd say at least five years.  Sarah and I were pretty much inseparable in high school.  Time, distance and trivial things got in the way of our friendship, and before I knew it, we weren't really talking.  It always upset me, and brave and outspoken as I am, I was...