Our lunch today

Here is our lunch today. Pita, hummus, fresh apple and carrots, some crackers and cheese, and a mug of tea. Yum!

Now I need to go wake Kathy from her nap...

Get up

You know that feeling you get when you exercise?  Especially when you don’t feel like exercising, but you go and do it anyway? 

I had that experience yesterday.  After church, Kathy and I ate lunch on the couch while watching the Winter Olympics.  Then we started to doze.  I napped on and off for an hour.

Finally, I managed to wake up, but didn’t feel like leaving the warmth and comfort of the couch.  Wresting myself from its confines, I forced my body and mind to go change and head over to the gym.  March 22nd I will be running an 8k race in Chicago and I need to get miles in so I don’t die. 

Once I got over to the gym, I walked a warm up lap and then started my run.  I decided to start slow and work on negative splits, picking up to a fast pace by the end. 

After I finished, I felt great.  The overall average pace was 8:44/mile, but by the end I was in the low 8s, which is exactly what I wanted.  Endorphins pulsed through my body.

I was glad I made myself go and run.

I’m finding the same thing happening with work at home.  We have quite a few projects going on right now, trying to get ready for the baby coming in July.  For the last couple of weeks, I have been putting things off and feeling bad about it.  Wishing I had more time to relax and do the projects. 

This weekend we got quite a bit of work done around the house.  And as I was crawling into bed at the end of the weekend, I felt better about my project list than I have in some time. 

Relaxing is good; getting up and doing things is even better.

P.S. It doesn’t help that we watch a couple hours of Winter Olympics every night.  They’ll be over soon, right?

Weekend in Chicago

Craig and I spent the long weekend in Chicago.  We got there Thursday evening in time to check into our hotel and then go to the taping of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me (NPR's weekly humorous news quiz), which was pretty great.  We've been downloading the podcast and listening to it pretty much every week for the last couple of years, and it was neat to see how it happens.  I'm always interested in the nuts and bolts of how things work, so it was fun to be there for the recording (and re-recording of mistakes!) process.

On Friday we slept in, had breakfast, and then went to the Art Institute of Chicago (the big art museum).  We found to our surprise that admission is free this February, which was a great bonus.  There were several parties of school children on tours.  One set up in front of American Gothic as Craig and I were in the area, so we found seats and listened to the museum guide's talk, which was quite interesting.

Friday evening we went to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  They did a program called "Mystery Movie Night." The first half of the program was pieces from various mystery movies (mostly overtures).  During the second half they lowered a big screen and played one of Buster Keaton's silent movies, Sherlock Jr., and the orchestra played the score.  We were up in the gallery, but were able to see the screen with no problems.  The whole evening was great.

Saturday we checked out of our hotel, had a leisurely breakfast, and then walked up the Michigan Avenue - the Magnificent Mile.  It was COLD.  We then went to the apartment of some friends, Matt and Charlotta, where we had a lovely supper and great conversation.  We stayed the night, and the next morning we got up and went to Ikea on the "way" out of town (we actually had to head west to get to the store).  It's always fun to walk through the huge store and see all the stuff they have.

We headed home and got back to Goshen in time to watch most of the Superbowl.  Craig made a fire in the fireplace and we had a nice evening, even though the Indiana team lost.

This is me in the same pose as t-rex.  It's hard to see that, though, because my coat is black and my arms blend in with the torso.  Oh well.

We took this mini-vacation as a "babymoon" - as Craig put it, we wanted to do a fun little trip before I get too big to walk around a lot.  Kudos to Craig for planning a wonderful trip.

Break-in

I suppose this title is not technically accurate.  The side door on our house was unlocked so they didn’t actually break anything.

Maybe I should start from the beginning…

No, that is too far back.  I’ll start with me moving my office to the basement to make way for a nursery upstairs.  I had been working at home in the basement most of the morning, and decided to ride my bike for some exercise to start off lunch.  With the computer down there, I can now watch TV shows using Netflix online viewing. 

At some point I thought I heard the doorbell, but it is not all that uncommon for UPS or USPS to deliver a package and ring the doorbell as they walk away.  I figured I would check the front door later.  Not that I really thought that.  Instead I was thinking that entering a code and pushing a button every 108 minutes would be mind numbing, and trying not to think about my burning muscles.

I was actually just finishing  the workout and moved to the computer to check my email before heading upstairs to shower.  While I was looking at my email, I heard footsteps upstairs.  At first I figured it was the friend I was meeting for lunch, and finished checking my email.  Then I heard footsteps come down from the top floor.

“Oh, he must not know I moved my office to the basement,” I thought.  So I headed to the stairs.  As soon as my foot hit the bottom stair, I heard scrambling upstairs.

“Oh, I bet he’s going to try to hide and surprise me,” I thought.  Even when I got to the top of the stairs and saw a back flying out the door, my mind was still saying it was my friend.

But then it dawned on me that there were two.  And they were moving way faster than my friend ever could (Sorry, K—it’s true.  They were two kids and scared out of their minds). 

If you have ever had a situation were the body instantly pumps an overload of adrenaline into your veins, you’ll know how I felt.  Instant edginess, disbelief, shaking, and playing out a million different scenarios in your head.

I called Kathy to let her know I was alright even though she had no idea that anything had happened.  Then I got the number for the cops.  They came over—three cars, I think.  I talked to one of them for awhile, explaining what had happened, while the others looked for the suspects.

One cop came back in with $1.60 (3 half dollars and a dime) that they dropped in the alley while running away.

Turns out that they started a few houses down from mine.  It was locked.  At the next house, the lady actually talked to them.  They were looking for their friend, but must have the wrong house.  They eventually made it to my house and came in.

These stupid high school kids almost made off with my PS3.

You can see the cables on the back are draped across the shelf it sits on.  The only cables left were the two USBs plugged into the front for charging the controllers.  Another minute and they would have been gone.

While one was working on the PS3, the other went upstairs to look for any cash or jewelry.  I guess all he found was the half dollars.  And his footsteps on the stairs are what brought my up from the basement. 

I bet they were as surprised as I was.  But it is MY house.  So don’t come back!

Update:  A detective called to say that the two kids were apprehended.  And the cops were retrieving my phone off of the roof.  Wait, what?  I have my phone…  Oh!  I went upstairs and, sure enough, my old phone that I replaced a year ago but hadn’t recycled yet.  They got a statement out of the one kid and the other’s mom wouldn’t let him talk without an attorney. 

What a day…

teaser post

Craig will be posting later, to tell the exciting story of why his lunch plans were cancelled.  It involves tracks in the snow, an unplugged cable, and lots of watchcat fail.

I guess they'd rather lounge around in closets and boxes.  Hard to blame them, really, upon reflection.