Once in a Lifetime

Ron Giles alerted me today that I, yes yours truly, was mentioned by name in the Daily News segments of Runners' World and Running Times today. And RunMinnesota blog (Down the Backstretch) too. Oh. My. Gosh. I was SHOCKED!! Click on the links. Must be a slow news day ... REALLY slow. :-)  I am humbled, and now feel the pressure to do well at Zoom!Yah!Yah! But all I can do is run my best on Sunday and everything else is out of my control. Dick Daymont emailed this morning and said the temp in the field house should be about 60 at the start, but will warm up with the activity and addition of bodies to the space. I've gotten a few miles in on the indoor track, but other than that it's been a long time since I've run in warm conditions. I despise the "dreadmill".

This morning I drove to the Y (after shovelling first) and lifted and then swam for 45 minutes. Felt like such a wimpy workout but I know it's what I have to do.

I spent the bulk of the afternoon in the kitchen making (more) cookies for Z!Y!Y! I have all but one batch done now. Today I made two batches of Oatmeal Raisin  (new recipe from AllRecipes.com ) ...

and one batch of Peanut Butter (decided to do them straight up, no chocolate chips).

I'm hoping the runners and volunteers will find something they like in the assortment.

Matt surprised me this afternoon--in a really good way. He had this big cloth bag that he slipped over a whole bunch of clothes hanging on hangers. It's really a laundry bag with a drawstring, but he uses it for this purpose I guess. Anyway, he wanted another one. So I gave him a big hunk of muslin fabric and let him make another one. He did GREAT!! I was so impressed. He used a decorative stitch around the casing on top, found some kind of cording to string through it and made it work. I was so proud of him. He just used the sewing machine for the first time yesterday. He had no help from me whatsoever.

My laptop arrived this evening. Haven't even opened the box yet. It'll be fun to dink around with ... sometime. :-)

This afternoon, Joe Soucheray kept talking about these kids from St. Cloud on YouTube and their parody on a Jay-Z tune. It's kind of an ode to MN--Minnesota State of Mind. Here you go.

Team R.E.D. did not cancel their Thursday evening run and social hour today. Brave souls. It would have been fun to drive to Byron to see them all, but I really don't feel like venturing out. It's miserable and the roads are terrible. Hope y'all are having fun!

Change of plans for Off-Season Striders on Saturday: "Based on the inconvenient truth that the weather forecast is saying that it will be minus 13 degrees at 8 AM this Saturday morning, we are postponing our 2nd Annual Test the Lace Up Against Breast Cancer Half Marathon Route Run until the following week--Jan. 16th. For those hardy folks who really want to run this Saturday, please meet at Dunn's North at 7:30 AM."

I'll close with some "Old Farmers' Advice":

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.
Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.
Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Stay warm. Toodles.