10/10/10

A good feeling waking up in my own bed this morning. Though, I should have been getting up early and running the Chicago Marathon. Next year, I promise next year I will run it. The good news is that my leg is feeling much better and I am training for a half marathon in November. Anyway, I have a lot to do today since I lost a weekend day to being in airports.

I got up and took the pups outside to play for a few minutes, then in for some coffee and read the electric meter. I was somewhat shocked by the amount of electricity used while I was away. I know I can contribute some to turning on the hot water heater, but I typically use 6kWh per weekday and around 8kWh per weekend day. While I was gone, energy use was almost 19kWh per day. Oh well, we backed a bunch up during summer and I knew that vacations (or business trips) would cut into that.


I did two loads of laundry in the morning. This is huge because before I left for work, there was like 7 straight days of rain, so I couldn't hang the clothes to dry. I had been holding off doing the laundry until a sunny day, and today is a beaut. I played with the dogs a bit more, then took them for a short walk. I took a shower and got dressed and headed off to Kristen's to meet up for breakfast. On the way I stopped off at the back to pick up some cash, because I never carry cash.


At Kristen's, I met up with Ralph and Beth (who was in from West Point!). I got the tour of the kitchen work that Kristen, Alexis and Ralph have been up to the last few weekends. I wish I brought my camera to take pictures to send to Cheryl, the kitchen looks fantastic. They have it all drywalled and mudded, they installed brackets behind the drywall for floating shelves, it is all painted and looks great. Ralph had a new toy, it is a nailer, but the nails have no heads so they are almost impossible to see afterwords.


We all jumped into the Saab and headed over to Fresh Local for some eats. There was talk about kayaking over, but those talks turned to whispers because of the cool temps and slightly high winds. Anyway, I had a cinnamon roll and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. We talked quite a bit about Cheryl and about Beth's civilian experiences at West Point. I am glad to see Beth is doing well and Alex will be back from Bahrain soon enough.


So what was I doing at 10:10am on 10/10/10? Having a great conversation with some really great people, what were you doing?


When we got back to Kristen and Alexis', Alexis showed us his horseshoe crab collection of hollowed out carcases on the dock. The suggestion was made to make some kind of 'armored' outfit with their bodies, it would be awesome. We talked about the next two West Point football games coming up and getting everyone down to tailgate and check it out, maybe 10/30 or 11/7.


After helping Beth with putting her kayaks on her car... when I say help, it was mostly moral support, I'm not sure if I actually lifted anything, nor did I pull any rope or straps tight. I headed back to the house to do a little work around the house. I decided it would be a great day to start a fire in the wood stove for the first time this year. Not that I needed the heat, but I wanted to get one burn in on the weekend while I was home to monitor. I let the dogs play in the back yard while I installed the plastic liner for the brick walkway out the front which I will construct next year. I had to get one side of the liner in because that is what will be paved up to on Tuesday. Midway through the little project, Mackenzie, Dan, Emerson and Cailan came by for a visit. They brought a fantastic orange lamp over form the 70's that had been in the attic since, well the 70's. They also brought me some cereal and apples freshly picked. We sat and talked by the wood stove for a bit, and then they left to go home and do some things around their house. I went back outside and finished the liner in less than half an hour.


I played with the dogs some more in the yard, then came in to post the blog from yesterday. Meanwhile, I decided to check the news on the Chicago Marathon, and watched a few clips on the finishes for the men and women. It inspired me enough to go for my long run, mind you, I haven't run in over a week. I geared up and did the New Castle loop, 7.34 miles. What a perfect day for it, sunny, a little breezy and around 65F. I got back, took another shower and played with the dogs some more. At 6:30pm, I set up the video chat on my tv upstairs and the pups and I got to talk to Cheryl for half an hour. I have a few tweeks to make to have the setup perfect, but it worked pretty good. Afterwards we went on a 1mile walk, then I made chicken sausages for dinner (by the way, I forgot to eat lunch). I ate two, had a beer and watched the Simpsons. I feel asleep and missed Family Guy, woke up at 10, put away all the dishes and headed for bed.