V-A-C-A-TION

In the winter time.  Which means it's cold. But not that cold.  Yesterday was colder.  Tomorrow will be warmer.  (You really have to sing/chant that part for it to make sense, otherwise it's just a bunch of short sentences.)  But the temperature has improved from -10 to at least 20 something, so it's really not that cold today.  Then tomorrow the temp is supposed to get up to 50 with rain, so hopefully some of the snow will melt and there will be open sidewalks again.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, if that matters to anyone reading this.  We're not really into celebrating those kinds of holidays, so we didn't do anything overly exciting.  On Saturday we went to RunBase in Boston and then at lunch/dinner at 5 Napkin Burgers.   Yesterday we went to Kohls and bought a self-timing crockpot and some pants.  We're so romantic, you can't even handle it.  

I swear when I jumped on here I had a lot more to say, but I've either forgotten it, or it wasn't important, because now I'm mostly fresh out of updates.  I am still looking for donations and working on a fundraising night.  I'm only about $1750 away from my goal, so if you want to take pity on me and provide some extra money, you can donate that right here. Boston Marathon 2016 Donation Page

Since I can't remember anything else that I wanted to write about, here are the end of post pictures. In recognition of Valentine's day, it's the before and after of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider in their boat during the floating lanterns.  If you really like the after picture, I'll send it to you in exchange for a $50 donation. How's that for incentive.
*UPDATE*
I just remembered what else I wanted to share.  Two things actually.  One is running related, one is not.  So, first, the running thing.  Today I got an email from Green Strides, a fairly well-known race host around these parts.  They've been putting on the Earth Rock and Run half-marathon for a few years now, at least.  BLet me back up. Back in 2014 I ran that race with my running partners, one of which was pregnant at the time.  There's a lot I remember about this race, but specifically, the giant hill towards the end.  I'm not kidding when I say giant, but you better believe that two of the three of us ran up that hill and took it like it was our own.  (The third was pregnant and gets a pass for not making it that far).  I'm sure there's a post back in here about that race actually.  But the point is, even without training for this half, we ran it, hill and all.  Jump forward to today again and here you'll see this lovely email that I received.

Lest you not want to open that up or can't read it clearly let me share the main idea with you.  A bunch of people complained that the race was too hilly, so Green Strides changed the entire course to eliminate most of the hills.  Say it with me now running friends.....WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!? Is it just me, or is that absurd? Never have I ever heard of a race group bowing to pressure to drop hills out of their course. As far as I'm concerned, you check the elevation map before you run if you're that concerned about hills. Then you decide not to run this race.  Or, you just suck it up and run up the hill because you're already there. Running is not about finding flat roads to run on, it's about taking the challenge and finding out what you're made of.  Before you accuse me of being too into this though, I know that not everyone runs for the same reasons I do, but I still don't think hills should be removed because people complained. We live in a hilly area and it's just part of the run.  In the words of  Miley Cyrus, there's always going to be another mountain....

Now that we're over that, let's move onto the second item that I wanted to share.  This is not related to running, but it is related to country music.  You see, I had tickets for the Lee Brice/Tyler Farr show in Lowell on March 17, mostly because I really wanted to see Tyler Farr in person.  I just like his music, I can't help it.  Sadly, he backed out of the tour after getting vocal chord surgery, which was disappointing, but I was still going to go to the show, because I guess I like Lee Brice enough too.  But then I got our elementary school basketball tournament schedule, and wouldn't you know it, my boys team is playing on Thursdsay, March 17, at 5:45 p.m.  Obviously I can't abandon these boys in the one big game that matters to go see a country concert instead, but it was a little disappointing.  Being there for my team is far more important to me than making it out to Lowell to see Lee Brice perform, but it seems like this concert was doomed anyways.  Hopefully Tyler heads out on the road again next year and I'll get the chance to see him then.  

And now back to those pictures as promised above.

Snow day like today

Alright, I know, these puns are the worst.  Plus, it's not even snowing today that was yesterday.  Whatever.  Do you know how hard it is to come up with a title for a post when you really don't even have anything to say? I mean, of course I have things to say, but since nothing really holds this post together to make it flow, I had to choose a broad topic for the title.
But more than 4 sentences about titling a post is way overboard, so let's move on.  Since it did snow yesterday, I think I might actually have to move my running indoors.  If sure was a real unhappy realization, but what can you do?  Hopefully the snow melts in a timely fashion, or at least melts off the sidewalks enough that I can get in a my long runs outside.  Besides, it seems like every time I run on the treadmill, I get a cold the next day.  So if that's going to be a pattern, I'm not going to be able to do much more treadmill running! Speaking of colds, I have one now, since I did run on Wednesday, indoors, and now I can't breathe properly.  Super annoying.  I'll probably give working out a shot tomorrow, since I have to go up that way to drop off my car anyways, but I'm not sure it's going to go great.
Other than my lack of working out, I did another chalkboard drawing for Title Saugus yesterday, for their D-Strong fundraiser today.  I think it's high time I free-lanced my chalkboard drawing skills, so if anyone needs some art done, I'm available for a small fee.  Today I found and watched A Hard Day's Night on Hulu.  Let me just say, that movie does not hold up with what I remember from my childhood days.  As in, it's completely weird and really seems to be lacking a clear plot until halfway through the movie.  It's mostly just a bunch of random shots of The Beatles singing their songs. I mean, I'm a fan of it, and I'll probably watch it again, but it sure is weird. Unrelated to that, I tried Dove Dry Shampoo this week and it worked well, I think I'm a fan, but it needs more testing before I commit fully.
So anyways, that's basically all that happened since the last time we chatted, sorry it's not more exciting.  Here's a pile of pictures to make up for that.

Oh,I bought these amazing peanuts at Target and mixed them with chocolate chips, which was totally worth it.

Dry shampoo hair

Thursday, February 4

Friday, February 5

D-Strong chalk art

Check out that sweater man.  

Working on my chalk art

March...EEEK!

Thankfully February is OVER.  See ya later Feb.  What a month.  Seriously, filled with snowstorms, wind chills, and a lot of not running.  I'm glad to be out of it.  Now, onward to March.  Hopefully the weather warms up...a lot.  I'm particularly tired of trying to run outside and having to dodge snowbanks, ice patches, and winter in general.  Seeing grass and sidewalk again is an exciting prospect.
Along with the *hopefully* melting snow, we're also basically at the two month countdown to the big wedding day.  Tomorrow is officially two months, but who knows if I'll have time to update this then, so we'll just call it today.  The other elephant in the room right now is the Boston Marathon.  It's coming up next month and I STILL don't have an entry.  Believe me, I've been trying.  I attempted every charity who had spots open with no avail.  Adidas running has a free entry their giving away, all you have to do is tweet why you want to run.  You better believe I did that.  My problem there is that I can't possibly fit into 140 characters all the reasons I NEED to run Boston this year.  There's just too many.  In no particular order, here are a few.  1) Because of last year.  2) It's Boston, it's the dream. 3) BOTH of my running partners are running it and it's likely the only chance I'll ever have to run it with them.  4.) It would be the 3rd marathon in 6 months.  How amazing would it be to have that accomplishment in my life.  In short, there are 100s of reasons why I want to run Boston, if only I could have the chance!  Plus, anyone who reads this knows my love of Adidas running gear goes deep, it seems only fitting that I would be able to run under the Adidas spot.  Seriously, it's a match made in heaven.  If only Adidas knew that.
On another note, we went for a 10 mile run today, because yes, I'm still training for it, even if I'm not in it yet.  I'm trying to upload my Garmin info and it's taking forever.  What the heck is up Garmin?  I've had to download extensions, re-work all sorts of info, and I still can't get my watch to upload.  I miss the old site, where you plugged in your watch and it uploaded.  None of this Garmin Express nonsense.  In an effort to make this all easier, I connected it to my Google + account.   Turns out, it didn't make it any easier at all.  Seriously, these updates are taking forever.  I just wanted to see my splits!  Sure, they're going to be slower than usual, but that's because we run pregnancy pace now, to stay with Cynthia.  But I still want to see them.  Sheesh Garmin. Get it together.