It has been over a year since I did my last half mary. I think I am ready to train for another one. There are 8 weeks or so between now and the 21st of October. All I have to do is add back my weekend long run to my existing running schedule. I can do this.

Maybe next year I'll do the full...

Here are some of the photos we're sending to Ethan's birthmother this month. I would like to point out the copious amount of drool on the exersaucer picture and note that Rosie's eyes are actually green and not demonic red. The red eye repair function doesn't work on cats. It also, incidentally, doesn't work very well on Ethan's deep brown eyes either. That is another story altogether.

Ethan is 5 months old today. I am amazed by how much his personality has come out in the past month or so. He is a happy, and giggly and busy all the time. I put together pics to send to his birthmother last night, as we do every month, and will try and remember to post some new ones in the next day or so.

Last night Mr. UPS dropped off the new running shoes that I ordered from shoes.com. Their warehouse is in Louisville. I was going to have them shipped to work, but that would mean that they would charge sales tax, so to save 6 bucks, I had them shipped home instead. Interestingly, the package was sent from Louisville to Indianapolis, and then back down south to Jeffersonville. Distribution logistics are tough to understand.

Either way, it is great to:
a)run in new shoes
b)have decent looking regular tennies now (my former running shoes)
c)demote my former regular tennies to yardwork shoes (the pair before that)
d)pitch my falling apart crappy yardwork shoes (three pairs removed)

Being a runner is complicated.

Aargh!

I finished coursework for the MSSF degree in May. I still haven't received my degree in the mail. I e-mailed the department in June and she said to wait another month. I e-mailed the department yesterday and received a reply back this morning that says that the registrar deals with this, not the MBA/MSSF department.

This morning, I called the registrar's office. There is no notation in my transcript that I have been awarded the degree. She said I should talk to the department. I told her the department told me to talk to her. In that case, she said, the person I needed to talk to was away at a doctor appointment. I was promised a call-back this afternoon.

In the meantime, the registrar person called the department person and determined that they did not have an application for graduation on file. I called the MBA/MSSF person and told her that we had e-mailed about my graduation application on 1/29/07. She found a copy of the e-mail. Sometimes it is good to be anal about keeping e-mails. She will research and call me back soon.

Everyone I have spoken to has been kind, helpful and gracious. I am frustrated, but remaining patient. I have 2 e-mails from 2 heads of the department saying that my course schedule would indeed fulfill the requirements for the degree. Now I just have to wait.

Guess who got his first official tooth Friday! I don't have any pics yet, but it looks like the next-door tooth will be coming in within days as well. He isn't sharp yet, so I continue to let him gnaw on my jawbone as he loves to do.

I am amazed at how much solid food Ethan eats. He will eat a whole container of baby food in addition to 2 oz. of formula blended in with rice. He seems to have enjoyed every food he has tried so far, even the grody ones like peas and carrots. He is even getting the hang of opening his mouth for the spoon. No shoving and prying is required.

Every day for the past week, I have expected to find Ethan sporting a new tooth or teeth, but we're still not there yet. He has the low grade fever, the slobbering, the swollen gums, the fussiness - all the classic symptoms. You can see where they're just straining against his little gums, but they have yet to poke through. Last night, he was bleeding a little bit from one side and you could see where the gum had split a little, but still there was no telltale white poking through. This morning, that side was actually less swollen that the next-door tooth-to-be. I feel bad for the poor little guy - I hope he can get it over with soon so his little mouth won't be so sore...

Here are some of the latest pics of Ethan. His hair issues seem to have been fixed - we have had pretty good luck with hemp oil. It takes away the frizz but still leaves it soft and not greasy.

I can't believe how much he has changed over the last few weeks. He's such a grown-up boy in his exersaucer, and he is really doing a great job of eating solids.

There is a 5 mile race on Saturday morning at 8:00AM near where we'll be staying for vacation. I can't find much information on it online, other than to see last year's results. With my poky post-vertigo speeds, and if this year's race mimics last year's, I would likely be in the last 10 people (of about 75) to finish. Plus, will I really want to run a race after being in the car so long the day before. Then again, I know I am slow and am ok with that. A race on vacation would sure be fun...

Much pondering will occur between now and then...

Hooray! I got my lazy hind-end out of bed this morning for a full 5.25 mile run. I feel pretty good, considering that it was (and is) stupid-crazy-hot-humid outside. It was a tough one, but it felt like an accomplishment when I was finished. Now I need to figure out if my headache is due to dehydration or just getting up too durn early. Nudge me if you see me falling asleep at my desk.

We're officially booked for a condo at Oak Island, NC next month. We wanted to combine a trip to the in-laws with an actual vacation so we could eliminate feeling guilty, and yet have a little relaxation as well. I think that this will take care of both of those. A trip that is 12 hours each way normally will be much longer with little dude, so we are planning on taking our time getting there. Damn - now I have to get into swimsuit shape before we go.

And I finally finished Harry Potter Saturday night/Sunday morning. Whew!

Have you ever just had one of those days where you're down for no reason? Today was one of those days. I felt tired, unmotivated and sluggish. when I get in these moods I have a terrible time concentrating long enough to get things done.

I tried making a list and going through the line items. Didn't work.

I tried rationalizing; talking myself out of the funk. Failed again.

Then I pulled out my wild card - the mood cure-all that trumps my Papaw's CamphoPhenique or Grandma's CortAid. It worked. Here it is:







I feel better now. Do you?

Vacation

I think we're planning a vacation in September. Derek and I are big fans of travel and have gone lots of places together, but other than a trip to Ohio last month, and one to eastern KY in May, (which don't really count because they were to see family and there were no overnight stays)we haven't gone any substantial trips since Ethan was born. As a matter of fact, the last time we stayed in a hotel was at the hospital when he was born.

So I've got the itch but don't know what sounds appealing. Anywhere we want to go is going to require a fair amount of driving, and with little man is going to take longer than it used to. We're going to have to do some research to see what is within a reasonable distance.