Okay, okay. I am a very bad person. I never knew how different life would be with a family. I went from having all the time in the world (and being lonely) to having small snippets of time that I try to mend together (and have a family). Not complaining-just sharing observation about my life. Busy best describes it. Priorities have definitely changed. Normally, Saturdays were reserved for long runs, working in the yard (which I love to do), grilling out with my neighbors and having one too many of whatever we are drinking at the time. Now Saturdays are about soccer, dance pictures, splitting time with the father, and numerous other things that have somehow become more important. I am still searching for a balance. I'm I'll figure it out eventually.

I know I cannot catch up since my last post. I will talk about this week so far. Susan has not been running regularly and just tries to catch a mile here and there. Sunday afternoon we went for a three miler that turned into a three mile run/walk. We had fun and stopped in several open houses along the way just to be nosey neighbors. The father had the kids so we were able to enjoy our time together and come back to the house, sit on the screened in porch (with propane heater) and read. Monday I did a quick 3 miler. Felt good and Sunday made me sort of hungry for more. Today I went out and did a 4 miler on my hilly course. The weather was slightly warmer (high 50s) and a tee shirt was plenty. Of course I also wore shorts and shoes. I am civilized after all. The run was enjoyable. I know that I was not fast but I did push and it felt good to do it. I'll take off on Wed. and then run on Thursday and hopefully on Saturday or Sunday. We are supposed to go to Atlanta for a soccer tournament but I may stay in town with E to get her picture made with dance class. Of course if we stay in town, we are going to stay in town the whole weekend and work in my yard in Eagle Point. It may be a weekend where we divide and conquer . . . Susan and MAC at soccer tournament and E an myself staying in B'ham. As typical with my new life, chaos is the norm and we don't have a plan yet.

Hey all. It's Wednesday lunchtime and I'm eating my can of solid white Albacore Tuna and fistfull of pretzels and drinking my third giant cup of water. Yes . . . doing weight watchers (Jim style) again. Now you may ask "what do you mean Jim Style?" We all agree that weekends are tough. That is when we party, go out to eat, and generally let go just a wee bit. I really hit the WW method hard on week days. However, if I way the same on Monday morning as I did on Friday morning, I count that as a win. I have had a good week so far. I have dropped 3.6 lbs since Monday morning. I know that's a bit much for a 48 hour period but that's just the way my body works. Sometimes it may be a couple of days of holding steady and then WHAM! I lose a couple of pounds.

Running. Let's see . . . I did a nice 5 miler on Saturday. Still not ready for any long runs but I can tell I'm starting to get stronger. I ran Monday afternoon. That was a fun run. Four miles, pushing it just a little. I was definitely winded when I finished but my recovery was quick and I regretted not having gone further. I walked eleven holes of golf Tuesday afternoon. It was first I have played since November and I was surprised that I was able to hit fairways and an occassional green. My score wasn't that good but I was happy with the contact and had mucho fun walking with my buddy Larry.

I am supposed to run 4 or 5 after work today but we'll have to see how it goes. There are storms about to blow into the B'ham area and supposed to last until sundown. Hopefully I'll find a gap so I can get out and get in some exercise.

The big social event of the week happens tonight. I'm taking Susan and girls to The Club for dinner and dancing. Tonight is the Father/Daughter dance and I know that E is going to try to dance my legs off. MAC may dance with me but she is bashful about getting on the dance floor. I'll post pictures later.

question for runners out there-
does anyone use the measure tool on Google Earth? If so, have you found it accurate. I do not use a GPS and I'm just too plain lazy to ride my bike or car along all my different running routes. It seems to be fairly accurate but just curious if anyone uses the tool.

YUCK

yes, yuck-
never mind. I have managed to contract some kind of stomach bug. Actually this feels more like a St Bernard or something of quivalent size. Not sure where it came from-perhaps the circus last Friday night. I felt good on Saturday and went for a nice 5 miler Saturday afternoon. E had a friend over to spend the night so I guess she could have introduced this dibolical biological threat to human kind. Doesn't matter. I have felt like (insert your own word here)and continue to feel like whatever word you chose.

I felt fine Sunday morning. MAC was sickly so Susan stayed home with MAC and I took E to Sunday school (kicking and screaming, it's not fair!!!). I had to remind her that she stayed home several weeks ago when she was running a temperature. About halfway through my SS class, I started feeling nauseated. I mean stomach flip flops, not finishing coffee, breaking into a sweat kind of thing. We skipped church and headed home. We were supposed to eat brunch at my parents' house but I had to bail because
1-I don't like puking on the side of the road.
2-I don't like puking into Wal-Mart bags while pulled over to the side of the road.
3-I prefer to be sick at home.

By early afternoon, the "D" word got me. You know, loosey goosey. And then the purge really began. For those of you who prefer not to read about or discuss bodily functions, you should skip to next paragraph. We've all been there-sitting on the head with your head stuck in a garbage can. Awful. And it wasn't even from a wild night of partying. Probably from a kid. I have done some tough things in my life but nothing compares to being exposed to the germ carriers 24 hours a day. It's an absolute miracle that any kid makes it out of school alive. Okay, back to bodily functions. I think I managed to clear everything out from the last 2 months. Remember the Seinfeld episode with the black and white cookie? Remember how he fought to retain his puke free streak. I was sort of fighting it. But once I gave into just a little gag, it was all over. And the body aches.

I thought it might be the flu but I had a flu shot and I really didn't have a fever. Maybe gall stones? All I know is that I was down for the count. I spent the rest of Sunday in the horizontal position, half awake, half asleep with the TV on, not caring what I was listening to. At least the TV sort of drowned out the sounds of my grunting and whimpering. I also had chills. Big shivering, quaking, uncontrollable shakes. I took Tylenol and that helped a little bit with the body ache. I went to bed just knowing that it was my last day on earth.

I awoke Monday (today) morning feeling a wee bit better. However, not good enough to go into work. Now, if you know me, you know that I don't like to skip work, unless golf or travel is involved. Body aches were gone but stomach was still not right. Susan had me try some oatmeal before they left for school. It stayed down. Yippee. I had soup and sweet tea for lunch. Mistake. Got to see the noodles for a second time. Yuck. I've sort of been bouncing between feeling okay to feeling bad. We just had tacos (I never said I was smart) for dinner. Plain. Flour torts and hamburger meat. Still trying to decide if I'll keep it. I'll keep you posted.

MAC is trying to read over my shoulder and wants to use the computer to listen to some hiphop or whatever it is kids listen to on Youtube. Got to watch them. Check you later.

hugs