zoo run!

so saturday was our zoo run. it was awesome, despite leaving town at 5:30 (which meant waking up at 4:30 and getting to the school to pick everyone else up by 5:30). i let everyone sleep on the way there. and they barely complained that i parked next to the entrance of the zoo rather than near the start line. so we had to walk half a mile to get our packets, then half a mile back to the car, where we waited for an hour or so for the race. then we walked half a mile back to the start, waited in line for port-a-potties, and then finally got to run.

i learned in that race that when i do have kids i will not be taking them with me in a jog stroller for a race. i will also not bring my 3-7 year old kids with me to actually run the race because it makes somewhat young individual runners feel really bad about themselves when they can't beat them at the end. fast little devils. i was also reminded again that walkers, while certainly encouraged to participate, need to be at the back of the pack, to one side, and not 5 people across. it wears me out.

it was a little tricky for the first mile what with all the walkers and strollers. plus the kids we were with (i can say that, they're like 10 years younger than us) took off and are a lot faster than us. i tried to at least keep them in my sights so it would be easy to find them at the end. as we rounded a corner and came up a hill, we managed to get around the mess and close the gap with two of the girls. then i just decided that i needed to catch them. i did. i nearly died. i'm not very good at running 9 minute miles, but apparently i can. at one point we ran down a pretty steep hill. i don't like running downhill. my body isn't used to it. not to mention i started running a 7:20 pace, which i haven't done since high school. despite my speed, i still couldn't catch those little kids in the last stretch. it was pretty depressing. also depressing that i only ran a 31:12. that's a great time for me, but considering i ran so fast the last two miles, i should have done better than that.

whatever the case, we said goodbye to a couple of the girls and stayed with the couple that rode with us to take a tour of the zoo. still fantastic. not to mention the dinosaurs.

they recently added a new herpetarium that's amazing. and i don't really care about the reptiles and amphibians usually. it's a really nice building, though. huge improvement from what they used to have.

one of my favorite sections was the australian outback. there's just something about kangaroos that get me. i think it's because they remind me so much of gandalf and uzi. especially gandalf.

this one acted like gandalf would act if he was a little more like a person. it just kept scratching it's arms and staring at me. it was precious.

this one was definitely more uzi. note the legs in the air in the sunshine. pure uzi.

the penguin exhibit wasn't quite as great as it was when it was a temporary exhibit. i'm thrilled that they are here permanently, but i wish there were more.

the good news is that this one loved me. it kept walking next to me and staring. i just knew it wasn't to come home with me.

the dinosaurs were scattered throughout the zoo. also a little disappointing, seeing how i wanted to feel like i was in jurassic park. still pretty fun hearing them roar at me and watching them move a little. the children were terrified.

kaitlin and i were especially excited about the brachiosaurus, as we share in its veggiesaurus ways.

life found a way.

the white tiger was on the prowl when we got over to it. it was pacing back and forth in front of the window so quickly i wasn't able to get a decent picture. the orange tiger, however, was so sleepy, it gave me a chance to get a little bit better of a picture for joy's daughter zoe. zoe has a tiger shirt that she likes to wear EVERY day, so we thought that maybe seeing a real tiger would make her pretty happy. plus zoe became a big sister last wednesday to noah, a beautiful baby boy, so i'm sure any attention is welcome.

the last time we came to the zoo, the male and female lions were separated and were roaring to each other. it was pretty cool. it was also really cool this time to see them together in the sunshine. it's not as easy to see here, but the male's head is upside down and his mouth is open. just made me laugh.

we got to the world of primates around feeding time. this lovely lady (we're pretty sure she's preggers) left us and came back with some fruit and carrots. and then stared at us for awhile.

this pair was precious. after a rejection, one ran to a rock with his hand over his face in shame. he gave himself a pep talk and tried again. another rejection. more hand-over-face shame. finally he went back, put both hands around her face to profess his love. she accepted. then they were best friends again.

the last stop was the cheetahs. also pretty funny. also reminded us of danders and uzi. when they got up from their nap, there was quite a bit of ear licking followed by some wiggling in hopes of getting more ear licking. then more sunshine and sleeping. classic uzi.

after an hour or so of errand running in fort worth, we headed back home to knock out some yard work and take the puppies on a much deserved walk. then i crashed. at 8:30. yes, it was still light outside.

my boots

yesterday i got wear my new boots. they're old gringos. they're fancy.

i still haven't quite gotten used to the fact that i'm wearing them. not in the breaking-them-in sort of way, cause they're fine, but i've never been a boots person. i'm a converse person. boots sort of throw me off. plus they're brown (medium brown, so black doesn't look stupid), and i mostly have black. plus cardigans look sort of stupid with them. not always. it's just really throwing me off.

then there's the whole jeans situation. i have skinny jeans for them. which aren't too bad, but i'm awfully hippy, and the boots don't help fight that. i also can't tell how i feel about the height of the boots. i feel like if they went up another inch on my leg they would look a little better. and then if i went with jeans OVER the boots, that's a whole other story. the boots stick out a lot at the top and also add to the width of my leg.

so i guess i love my boots, but don't know what to do with them. i think that should i ever find a cute summer dress i'll just go with that (never going to happen). they look really good just sitting on my floor, though.

my handsome little devil

i love gandalf. he is filled with personality, both shining from within and forced upon him through our imaginations.

we adopted him at petsmart about 4 1/2 years ago. the german woman that worked for the adoption agency warned us that he was "very vambunctious." we didn't see it. he was just sitting in his cage, staring at us. waiting to pee. he was about 2, 2 1/2, and we couldn't fathom why he hadn't been able to stay in a home. we talked about it for about 5 minutes and decided he was ours. with his beard and bushy eye brows, gandalf just seemed the appropriate name.

he was perfect during the drive home. he curled up in the floor in the backseat and fell asleep. he crawled around a little, but had a great temperament. we walked in the front door and let him run around some. he pooped in the dining room. he was home.

while he does have the occasional bouts of mischief, yelling, and escaping, he's turned out to be such a delight, and rarely vambunctious. some people would argue that his lack of vambunctiousness is caused from the loss of his manhood 3 days before we got him. i would argue that it's because no one could ever love him like we do.

he is the perfect blend of independence and deep devotion. he is so happy to see us when we walk in the door, even if we only walked to the car and back. when he wakes up in the morning he does breathing checks to make sure we're alive until we speak. when we say good morning the wiggles begin and he gives me earlicks. he's just precious.

if we could get him to keep his mouth shut at 2 o'clock in the morning when he hears something, and if we could keep him from bolting the second the door opens, and if we could somehow persuade him to stop journaling (i finally threw the book away after the 5th time i pulled it out of the pool), he would do no wrong.

also love how his personality changes based on his hair length. he's so cute when he's shaggy. his long eyebrows emphasize every movement and give him so much character for everything he does. and then the second he leaves from getting his haircut, he becomes regal and sophisticated again. it's amazing. he just carries himself differently and doesn't allow himself to stoop to a lower level.

he's such a handsome little devil.

my babies are multiplying

i went out to water the garden last night and check up on my baby bell pepper. to my delight it was still doing well, getting bigger every day. last year when i had a bell pepper plant in my topsy turvy it only produced one pepper. not bad, but disappointing. i was a little antsy about how much fruit would produce this time around. so i did a little investigating and am pretty sure that i have a few more buds about to sprout on both green bell pepper plants. the red bell is a little late to bloom. i'm still holding out hope. i was also pleased to see not one but THREE jalapenos. they're already almost an inch long. if i could just see some improvement in my tomatoes and squash i'd feel a little more accomplished. i'm three jalapenos closer to some salsa, though, so that's exciting.

trivia night last night with the math department. all i know is that it's a really good thing i was there. last week my only real contribution was knowing that biscotti meant "twice baked." thanks, giada. this week, however, i pulled out all sorts of amazing knowledge about little ricky schroeder, vidal sassoon (which they didn't even use), simon fuller, and the release order of several sequels. don't even try to argue with me about when speed 2: cruise control was released (thanks chad and brian for forcing me to see that with you at student council camp. that knowledge really helped me out last night).

tonight is card night at our house. not tomorrow like i asked it to be. so now i'll be working while everyone else has fun and then sitting by myself tomorrow when i was hoping to have fun. there'd better be some dip left when i get home, that's all i know. i just realized how delicious that same dip will be in a few weeks when it's made with my baby jalapenos.

king of the lanes?

i'm exhausted today thanks to a jam packed weekend. i spent my afternoon friday figuring out a pattern for some pillows i'm hoping to start making. i've found that when i get something in my head, i get to a point of obsession and i have to do something about it. most of the time i'm too lazy, but friday i managed to get everything knocked out. i also managed to fit in a quick run before the sun went down (read: it wasn't 5 billion degrees with 203% humidity).

saturday we got up early and headed to gainesville for the medal of honor parade. i wasn't really looking forward to it, but i've got to say that the combination of flyovers, shriners in go carts and getting to see a pearl harbor survivor was pretty exciting. i found myself tearing up at the sight of the recipients that were awarded the medal.

alex and i swung by his grandparents' house for lunch and then i headed for an afternoon with my parents while he went fishing with his. it was a typical gainesville day: trip to the outlet mall, wandering around tom thumb, stop by taco casa on the way out of town. plus mom taught me how to make french knots and we enjoyed some delicious coconut buttermilk pie. heaven.

from gainesville, alex headed to dallas for a friend's birthday party at a piano bar, while i met up with some old friends for drinks and bowling. seriously one of the best nights i've had in i don't know how long. as we know, i like to live in the past, relying on old inside jokes and songs from the mid-90s to get me through my day. it all came together that night. i was with two of my close friends from middle school (one the birthday boy and the other my date for the evening/future husband) that are still as awesome now as they were then. we spent the evening laughing at the same jokes we've had since 1997 and singing songs that were popular in 1997. it was incredible. extra bonus was not having to pay for a single bit of it (thanks future husband!).

another great bonus was finally figuring out how i knew the guy in the lane next to us. he's one of our favorite waiters at a mexican restaurant in town. yes, we go there enough that we both recognize each other a few beers in at a bowling alley. no, i still haven't gone to a restaurant since lent began (two more weeks!). yes, it's still killing me.

all in all, a great night out with my friends. i got to boss people around like the old days and dance to it's tricky (twice), tootsie roll, and sexyback. i got to use my bowling ball again without severe back pain (though my shoes were so slick i slid around a little too much and nearly injured myself). AND because we were bowling by time rather than game, i won the 2nd game thanks to my 4th frame score. winner!

sunday we made it to church despite the 3 1/2 hours of sleep we were running on. alex dropped me off at mom's house while he headed off to paintball. i stuffed myself full of mac and cheese, potato salad and beans. not to mention more buttermilk pie (so much better the 2nd day). i sat around for a while letting my stomach deflate and then changed into my running gear.

dad and i drove the route he ran the day we got married. he has big plans to start running it on my anniversary every year. the thought hasn't entered his mind that i may not want to run 7 miles on my anniversary, but that's fine. i might be able to talk him into doing it the day before or something. anyway, we parked at the college and ran out west of town towards lindsay. i used my garmin while dad relied on the distance he'd clocked on the car. obviously mine was a little more accurate, so i got to run about two tenths extra to hit the three that dad thought we'd run (i know, it's annoying that i can't just stop, but i like even numbers). and then i figured i might as well get in another tenth so it'd be a 5k. dad didn't care, i think he was glad to have some more cool down time.

we got back to the house and enjoyed some celebratory beers. which i then followed with some chips and salsa. mom got done with her sewing and wanted to drink some more, so we sat on the deck and talked about how awful the kids at her school are and how stupid the parents are. dad joined us and then alex came over. which meant more food. then we headed back home and crashed. sweet sweet sleep.

so overall a great weekend, highlighted by saturday night's festivities. the only downfall was the 2 pounds i gained. i'd made it a new goal to just focus on 5 pounds at a time so i can celebrate my small results. last week i knocked out 3 pounds. plus the two this weekend, i still have 4 more to go. which means baked spaghetti and more running this week. and since our social calendar is full (including poker at our house- chips and dips and delights), it'll be a struggle. i'm hoping i can just burn a lot of calories getting the house ready to go.

my baby

there's a new baby at my house. not a human one. not a new puppy (gandalf would disown me).

it lives in the backyard. it's about 1/2 an inch tall. i made it myself.

welcome to my house, baby bell pepper. you're precious.