a small message.

The inlaws were here, as I mentioned, for a whirlwind visit that included touring the house (technically that didn't take very long), shopping (with no sales tax for them), a drive to Portland and back, gin and vodka martinis (ted makes them amazing) and Ikea.

I'd like to give you all a little tour of the house...here's a few photos of the outside, look for interior pictures tomorrow.

I'm actually getting tired and think I'm going to bed.

Thank you to my amazing inlaws. You have blessed us over and over again. Saying thank you a million times will never be enough.

the little engine that could

Just a reminder since I'm talking about it again, here's the course map.




I didn't mention when I should have the amazing friends that Andy and I have...we noticed this especially when we were running the Butte to Butte. Not only did they stand on the side of the road for an hour after Runner Jeff had past for me to reach them, they cheered so loud for Andy that someone else in the run questioned "what was that uproar?"

When I finally reached them, at the corner of 13th and High, I had successfully passed the 5 mile point. But I wasn't sure if I could make it till the end. I was hot, tired and my kick ass playlist wasn't inspiring me to keep going any more. I'm not too proud to admit, when I saw them all there and heard their cheers, shouts of encouragement and clapping excitement as I ran past, I began to cry. I was overwhelmed and in that moment knew I could finish.

Andy met me at about half a mile to the finish line and ran till the end with me. I didn't think I could make it up the final hill, even though it was tiny compared to what I had done in the first mile, but that was over an hour earlier. When I saw the giant clock up the hill marking the finishing time, I was shocked. It went a little like this in my head.

"A three? I'm seeing a three after the one. How is this possible? That means I'm going to finish under two hours? Under an hour and 45 minutes? How is that possible? Ahhh, of course I'm going to run! I'm going to finish in an hour and a half. Oh geez, ya, I can so do this...."

So after 15 years, after being told by doctors, knee surgeons, "don't run" ,"you can't run", I was finishing my first 10K since the "Tustin Trek" when I was...um...10? I crossed the finish line in one hour and thirty-five minutes.
When I arrived home I found a card and *my favorite flowers* a potted gerber daisy plant, along with the best card ever...



....from Jessa and Toby. The front of the card read, "At this difficult time..." the inside of the card mentioned how they bought the Butte a card and flowers as a condolence, because it was most likely hurt and crying since we had kicked it's ass so hard.
We love it. It's on the fridge.

Life is good, we are blessed with good friends, thank you

...and it doesn't hurt that I've lost 9 pounds since running 5x a week and eating a sensible diet...it's true, this shit works.

Dear Anonymous,

As of right now, my blog allows anonymous comments. With this comes great responsibility. And so, dear anonymous writers, please indicate who you are for the rest of us. How can I answer your questions or respond to your brilliant and often funny comments if I don't know who you are? And, if I do not know you in the real world, it's okay to comment, in fact I love it. I appreciate the views of others, but give the rest of us some indication as to who you are...like your name. Or if it's your first time commenting, then tell us all a little about how you found this blog, where you're from or some little detail about you. We'd appreciate it.

Thanks.
The Writer and Readers of Words for Eyes.

Animal Farm

written by George Orwell

Of course I've read "Animal Farm", in fact it was in college (yes I went to college). But the problem was, when Andy (yes, again with the husband) began telling me about the correlation between Animal Farm and the Soviet communist party, well, I thought secretly "what?!?" I didn't mention anything about it, and since he was reading it at the time I couldn't pick it up (sharing a book is annoying). So when I saw it on the bookshelf years later I silently picked it up and read through it in a couple of days (it's short people, only 144 pages). My Literature course in college apparently sucked, because reading "Animal Farm" again with gutenbergians at my disposal was an entirely different experience.

And by the way, also thanks to the Gute, I now read introductions, prefaces, and the like, from now on I'll have a clue, even if no one tells me a thing.

"Animal Farm's" historically driven concepts push the novel beyond a simple story and I can't stand the knowledge gained from a work like this. Not only is the writing smart and informed, but, the story is just plain great and I can't get enough.

I just want to say "thank you" to Gutenberg and all the people that go with her. It may take me more than four years, but I think it's better this way. I am learning, little by little, piece by piece, one book at a time and I love it.