Wurstfest in New Braunfels

I have spent more time slogging through mud in Canada than slipping on ice and snow. Everyone claims that January is supposed to be the coldest time of the year with temperatures around from -20 to -40 C. (That’s -4* to -40* F) But so far it’s been closer to 0 C (32* F)the whole time. And at the moment it is somewhere around 7 C (45* F). Texas is colder than that right now! What is going on?

Today’s Exploit:

In November we went to Wurstfest. My parents were in Texas for my marathon and my dad’s birthday, so we thought a party would be good. 

Naturally one must wear a hot-dog hat to a hot-dog party. 

That orange watch is an object of fascination to 4-year-olds

And make sure the kids take some pictures. 

He was actually taking a picture of the guy in the Robbin Hood had, but Cupcake photo-bombed

A Zoo Visit

I left my plants with my sister, hoping that she would water them. Since I was really nice and watered hers twice while she was in Wyoming.

She promptly tried to kill Myrtle, and I had to have her shaved.

Cupcake calls her a rebel now.

Today’s Exploit:

I went to the San Antonio Zoo with my sister. 

Cupcake likes flamingoes. 

She tried to be a butterfly. 

Butterfly and baby

Did you know butterflies like sweet tea and sunglasses?

She also thought it would be funny to take pictures of me with animal butts. 

Hippo Butt

Rhino But

There's a Zebra Butt hiding behind the fence and next to that charming hut

And we were stalked by the same three immature college boys, and no matter how we tried to get ahead, or behind, or take a different route, they were ALWAYS THERE!

Picture Week

It’s picture week. Because I finally transferred the last 6.2 months worth of pictures from my camera to my computer.

Today’s Exploit:

I went to the cabin in the fall. 

And fought with a beaver. 

And saw the leaves.

A Short Trip

My family is growing. Myrtle Mint was joined by Maya, who is her cutting. Then we acquired Allison (Ally) the Aloe. It was just the 4 of us for a while and all was good. 

But, out of the blue, one windy and not-at-all-cold day a nice young man joined us. His name is Jack the Cactus. Jack lives in the bottom of a windshield wiper fluid jug and grows little red and supposedly edible fruits. 

The thing was that no one knew where he came from. It took me a month to track down the guy who found Jack, dug him up and put him in his wiper-fluid home.

Today’s Exploit:

I recently made a short trip for my work.

My manager called me and told me that they needed me to go to Canada. Evidently the north has more work than we do and fewer people. And no one else on the loan list had their paperwork together. 

So I had a day to organize my work stuff, and was told I had 2 days to organize travel info, pack and get going. Also, schedule some training stuff.

Luckily they re-thought that and gave me another 2 days to get myself put back together and to actually believe that they wanted me to leave the country.

So I got everything done, and planned my flights to give me enough time to sight-see a tiny bit.

When I got to the airport I noticed that the section that usually says “Economy” said “First”. But who pays attention to details like that? 

But then we were getting ready to board, and I didn’t have a group number...and I was sitting in row 3. And then it finally hit.

Somehow I had managed to get first class seats, and my job paid for it. 

And then I was really classy and slept through the whole flight because my sister made me run all over trying to send her a spare key. She was really clever and locked hers in her car. Hehe. 

PS Happy New Year

Organization is Overrated

While I have not yet lost any of my toenails, I do have some nice purple-black bruises under them. I won’t have to paint them for the next year (not that I paint them on a regular basis, but now I’ll look like I do).

Today’s Exploit:

According to my workout schedule/preparation for a marathon I was supposed to only walk a couple times the week after I raced. 

So I did.

I followed this by a week of complete laziness and did nothing. 

Then I decided I was going to start doing my video workouts again. I was really excited. And I was so ready, I even planned with the other MWD that we were going to switch over at four instead of six so that I could have some sunlight. 

And then the day came that I wanted to start.

And the day went without starting.

Because I was very organized the last time I was home and put everything away instead of leaving it in bags in my car like normal.

Organization is overrated.

Letdown

The day after my race, the big marathon one, I had a very difficult time moving. I did moderately okay if I kept moving, but if I sat still for more than 28 seconds my muscles froze. I would then, to my family’s delight, have to hobble around bent nearly double for the next 3-5.2 minutes until they un-froze.

Thankfully that was the worst day, but then I had to go to work where the roughnecks got to make fun of me for walking like an old man for the next 3.27 days.

Today’s Exploit:

I was really excited for my new class to start, really exited because I though it would be about business management. The title contained the words “Career Management”, so I was sure that this one actually might help me a little.

While I enjoy getting good grades, I now have a 4.0 in worthless English classes. I say “worthless” because none of the papers I received 100% on would have passed my high school English teacher, Mr. Patrick, without being slathered in red ink with a note saying “Re-write or fail”. Probably they wouldn’t get a passing grade from my middle school English teacher, Mrs, Babel, either. (I now beg for criticism at the beginning of each class, and so far have not received anything other than “Good Job” or “Nice work”.)

But I digress.

I was excited for a business class. 

But naturally, that excitement was dashed when I got the email saying I needed to take an assessment for my UNIV___ class. 

Wait.

UNIV does not equal business. UNIV equals general university class.

And “Career Management” does not quite equal “Business Management”.

Crap.

Another goal setting class.

Maybe this guy will have higher expectations and I won’t ace the class. Maybe he’ll actually have some suggestions for me. 

Maybe.

I May Update This Blog, Someday

I started this post 7 days ago. It then spent 4 days unsaved on my desktop with a few unexplained numbers in it, followed by three days with the same content saved as “untitled” in my blog folder.

Today’s Exploit:

I had some vacation just before Thanksgiving. While part of the reason for vacation was my parents’ visit, the other part was to run a really long ways.

A REEEEALY long ways.

I ran a marathon, the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Antonio, to be exact. That’s 26.2 miles. And I really wanted to do well for my first one, but I kind of tanked just over half way through. 

Things were going well, and I finished the first half at least 30 minutes faster than my other races. But then I started getting cramps. First in my right calf, then my left. Then they got worse. And when I tried to walk it off I’d get cramps up thigh, and going up any hill that didn’t immediately make both calves so tight I couldn’t reach my toes meant my hamstrings were going to cramp. 

Therefore I walked most of the second half, and took almost 6 hours to finish, 5:49 to be exact. That was an hour and 49 minutes longer than my goal time. 

Stupid cramps.

Anyway, I didn’t come in last, so there’s something.

Rankings:

148/207 Women 25-29 yrs

2448/3111 Overall

I Might Be Able To Sleep Now

I ran 4.97 miles in 45 minutes. I even had to walk 0.33 miles. I have renewed hope that I might be able to finish my race in something somewhat, maybe close to my goal. But I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

Today’s Exploit:

The mouse, the one that has been haunting my nights and making it even harder than usual to fall asleep, and making sure that I wake up even more than normal, has been caught.

Finally.

I’m told it was taken outside. 

I’m guessing it was on a sticky trap and will slowly die of thirst, but I’m going to pretend that it was a snappy trap and it had a quick clean death. Even with the amount of trauma that the monster caused me, I don’t really want it to suffer. 

Naturally the timing of this event is just so that, if I have to stay tonight, tonight will be my last night. And therefore it will not be any easier to sleep because I’ll be excited about going home. 

Gah.

Mice Are No Longer Friends

I have less than 3 weeks until I kill myself in a most torturous manner. 26.2 miles of hopefully not exceptionally hot Texas weather. My goal is 4 hours, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to make it, but I plan on finishing anyway. Then I’ll fall over and twitch a bit before I expire.

Today’s Exploit:

I was okay with the mouse that ran around the kitchen, and not overly concerned about the mousetrap wars that followed.

I was also okay with the two that played under the table while I washed dishes, only running away when I had to cross their path to get to the bedroom. And I was a bit disgusted with the fact that they chewed through one of my headphones, but it was the replaceable part. 

I laughed at George the other day when one ran from the fridge to the recliner and he wouldn’t put his feet on the floor until he had to go outside. 

That all changed last night.

I was in bed trying to relax my brain enough to go to sleep, a nightly trial. Then I heard scratching. When I looked nothing moved and I attributed it to my imagination, which tends to go wild at bedtime. I heard it again, and was met with the same results when I looked for the source. I re-situated myself so that I could see off the bed if I heard another noise, and proceeded to fight the random flight of my thoughts.

Suddenly I felt a tickling on my head. One of those creepy feelings that moves along a line, and you’re sure it’s a bug, but it turns out to be your imagination when you try to brush it away.

I took a deep breath and made myself stay still and try to relax. 

That was when I felt something moving down my side.

I sat up as fast as I could.

The mouse ran the length of the bed and disappeared.

I made a noise something along the lines of “Gaaah-rrrraaaaawwwweeerrr” (which translates to something along the lines of: BLOODY HELL, THERE’S A MOUSE IN MY BED AND THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT SOME PLACE THAT A MOUSE SHOULD BE! GET OFF! GET OFF! GET OFF!) and jumped up.

Naturally by then the mouse had vanished completely, and did not appear to be in any of my bags or under the bed or hiding in the A/C closet. I searched each of these places at least 3 times before I retired to the living room.

I proceeded to sit on the couch, curled as small as I could get, and watch for the mouse for the next hour.  

I also spent this time trying to convince myself that I really needed to get some sleep, and the mouse only touched the outside of the sleeping bag. And maybe my pillow.

Probably my pillow.

I searched the room another 3 times, and my sheets 7 times.

I finally did make myself get back in bed, using a tiny corner of my pillow that I knew no mouse feet had touched.

I got an astounding 2.1 hours of sleep between trying to get comfortable, trying to make myself relax and feeling phantom mice feed EVERYWHERE.

Mice are no longer something I can see without thinking they were in my bed, and probably eating my food while I washed my hands. 

I was ok with traps before, but now I think we need about 17 in each crevice.