Random Five (Friday Five Edition)

It's been quite awhile since I have posted.  It's been a very busy couple of weeks for me which included training all week last week, which meant catching up on everything this week.  So I thought I would post some random things that have been happening.

1 - Since about May I have had a sore throat on and off.  Never with a fever and never anything that was a big deal.  When I had my yearly physical last month, I mentioned it to her.  She wanted me to go see an ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) doctor.  Again, since I didn't think it was a huge deal it took me awhile to get around to make an appointment.  The funny thing about the practice she referred me to was I called and expected that it would be 3-4 weeks at a minimum to get an appointment, and they had one for the next day.  That never happens.  I saw one of the ENTs on Monday and he put an optical fiber endoscopy down my nose to look at the back of my throat.  It turns out that I have Adenoiditis.  It just means that my adenoids are infected and he gave me these HUGE antibiotic pills to take.  If it doesn't clear up, I'm to go back in a couple of weeks.

2 - Just these past few days, it is now starting to feel like fall.  I've never really like fall as this time of year is when I get most of my anxiety due to darker and colder days.  Even though it's the same 24 hours, because it's darker early, I feel like I have less time to get things done, which causes most of my anxiety.  Once I get used to it, the anxiety tends to alleviate for the most part.  But I am very thankful to have the few extra weeks this year.

3 - I only play the Mega Millions and Powerball when the jackpot gets really high like it is now.  I know I will never win, but I enjoy thinking of what I would do if I did.  Paying off my house and car and paying off any debts that my parents have and then traveling.  I've only won a dollar a couple of times, but I played the Mega Millions last Wednesday and I matched 3 numbers and won $10!  I know that's not a huge deal, but it was exciting for me.  And I'll be reinvesting that money into my dreams for tonight's drawing. :)

4 - I'm a bit embarrassed on how long I have owned my couch, but I've had it forever.  It is a loveseat that rocks and reclines.  I've had it forever because it's very comfortable and it fits perfectly in my awkwardly long and narrow living room.  I always sit on the right hand side because it's closest to the end table and the past month I have noticed that the cushioning (or lack of) on that side is probably causing me issues with my glutes (and therefore my knee).  So I have moved the couch around so that the end table is on the left side.  I have to say it is awkward.  I am right handed and it's weird to have everything on the left side.  But I either have to get used to it or go shopping for a new couch, which fills me with anxiety.  For big purchases that will be daily use, I have to know everything about every option and I have to analyze it all to make sure I am making the right choice.  I swear as the item for purchase gets bigger, the time I analyze it goes up 100 times.  It's ridiculous.  So for now we will see how this works.

5 - I never hum.  I never whistle (while I work).  I never sing.  But I noticed over the last few months that I have started humming.  It's so weird, I don't know why I all of the sudden started.  And the weirder part, it's always the same song.  Not only that, it's always the same Christmas song.  I might understand it some if I started it now, but it's been happening all summer long.  In June out of nowhere I'll realize that I'm humming a Christmas song.

And a bonus - I had to share this as it's probably one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen.  It was on a sunrise ride I did last weekend.

I'm hoping to get a few posts prepped, so when I do have a busy couple weeks, I'll still have something to post when I don't have time to sit down and write something out.  Till next time. :)

How have you been?  Anything random happen to you this week?

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0

Weekly Update (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

It's been a long week.  Very long.

I haven't run in a few weeks as I'm rehabbing my knee.  It's been bothering me since early this year and I kept running on it due to races.  Now that I do not have any races on the calendar, I am taking this time to rest and make it fully better.  So that means I've been trying to swim and bike more.

I was up too late on Sunday night to get up successfully on Monday morning to do anything before work.  In fact I was lucky to get to work on time.  That evening I had my first photography class.  It's a two month class that will take us to the river most weeks to take pictures.  I'm very excited about it.

Tuesday I want to the gym for my class.  By lunch time I headed home to work from home and that probably was a good thing.  I opened up my garage and water was all over the ground.  My water heater decided it was done and started leaking everywhere.  I called a plumber and had it replaced.  If I had gotten home at the regular time I would have had to deal with that after hours. 

Wednesday I made it to the gym again to swim.  I've been enjoying it but not much more then half an hour at a time.  I went to sit in the hot tub after but the jets were barely working.  It was kinda like sitting in a warm bath.  Later that morning the tree guys called saying they had time to get my trees cut down.

Thursday was a gym class day and the rest of the day really wasn't that exciting.  Work kinda sucked but that's how it goes some days.

Friday I got up and almost talked myself out of going for a swim 3 times.  I'm glad I eventually got there as it does make me feel better.  The jets were fixed in the hot tub and it was so nice to relax after the workout.

Saturday I decided to take my bike out.  I haven't ridden since last fall and I didn't know how my knee would feel.  I only rode 3 miles as my knee didn't hurt but it was talking to me.  I didn't want to push it so I kept it short.  The good thing was it didn't hurt the rest of the day.  That evening a friend and I went to dinner to celebrate my birthday that was last month.  We finally had a chance to get together.

Here's to a less crazy week.

I am linking up with Holly and Wendy for their Weekly Wrap!

Where's Heather Been? (Friday Five Edition)

I know it's been forever since I have posted.  Work gets really busy and then when I get home, I just don't have the energy to concentrate on writing a post.  I also haven't been running, so I feel like I don't have a lot to share.  It's funny as when I run, I come up with so many things to post about that I forget half of them by the time I am finished.  These things rarely come to me while I'm doing other things.  So no running, means no thoughts on new posts.  So here are some things that I have been up to.



1. While I hadn't run a single mile since the Baltimore Relay, I finally got out there on Thanksgiving morning.  I didn't do a Turkey Trot, I just got out and ran in my neighborhood.  It was a cool morning, so I was bundled up.  I took it slow and things felt good.  I was glad to get out there again.  I have since run a couple more times so hopefully I’ll be getting back to it regularly.

My next race is Princess in February so I got to get my but into gear and start training.  I just pulled up the training guide from the runDisney site and it looks like I'm 5 weeks behind (3 if I cut out the 14 mile week, which I usually do).  I will have to see what other training guides I have and morph something together.

2. I was in a Parade!

I'm not one to go to a parade and have never been in one.  The weekend before Thanksgiving there is a local parade that happens every year.  Our bicycle group has had a spot in the parade for many years now.  A couple weeks before, there was an email that went out requesting volunteers to be in the parade.  I thought about doing it but wanted to wait till it was closer to that weekend to see what the weather was like.  And then I forgot all about it.  Two days before a friend of mine asked me to do it with her.  How can I say no?

On that Sunday it was supposed to start at 2 and we got there a couple hours before. The weather was beautiful!  It got to be in the mid-60's with a sky full of sun.  As we were getting to our staging area I noticed that people were already out and setting up chairs along the route.  We met up with everyone and decorated our bikes with Christmas lights, bows, and bells.


We had a pretty good turn out with about 15 people in our group.  We chatted with everyone while we waited and watched all the other groups get together.  At the last moment, the stars of our group showed up.  A father-son duo who had high wheels.  They were even dressed in old-fashioned clothing to match.


As we started out, we had two people walking with the bike club sign in front, the guys on regular bikes behind them, our stars, and the ladies brought up the back.  Us ladies were in the back to give the high wheelers plenty of space to be able to circle round and round without having to stop when the parade got backed up.  I loved being behind them to watch them work the crowd.  They were the hit of the parade.  Everyone was pointing to them and getting photos as we rode by.


I couldn't believe how many people were there to watch this parade.  I think a lot of it was the beautiful weather, but still couldn't believe all of the people there.  I was glad that we were one of the first groups to go.  When we were heading back to our cars we past the staging area and there were still groups waiting to go.  We all were glad that we were done.  A few of us then went on to get some pizza from a local restaurant to continue the fun.  It really turned out to be a fun day.

3.  With my longer commute I have been getting into Podcasts.  I've been totally into true crime ones lately.  The latest one that I've been listening to is "Someone Knows Something".  Each season he looks into a cold case of a missing or unsolved murdered person.  I feel like it's very well done and brings you into the investigation with him.  I'm on the last episode of his latest season and am already missing it.  I'll need to find a new one.

4.  My Old Lady cat got pretty sick.  Brianna is 18 years old, so if something is off with her, even just a little bit, I get very worried.  This time around she had diarrhea.  She has never had diarrhea in her life, so this was a big deal for her.  At first I thought it was constipation as she would just squat in the litter box (or somewhere outside the litter box) for a very long time.  She also wasn't eating or drinking anything.  I took her to the vet the next day and he confirmed it was diarrhea.  We also saw that she lost another pound since February and is down to 4 pounds (she was only 6 pounds at her heaviest).  They gave her liquids and said that if she isn't better in a few days to come back.

Well, a few days later she was starting to eat and drink a little, but she was still squatting here and there.  I wanted her to get another round of fluid so I took her into the vet again.  He didn't do any blood work the first time we were there since her dehydration would throw her numbers off.  This time he did.  While we waited, he showed me how to give her fluids so that I could do it at home if needed.  I did it a few years back for her brother when he was sick, it's not too hard.  Once the blood work was done, I heard the vet go "Wow!" from the back area.  My baby girl has had issues with her kidneys.  A year ago, her numbers were in the red.  In February they were barely in the green.  They are now fully in the middle of the green and she is doing great with all her other numbers.

We were sent on our way and told to get her to eat as much as possible to get her weight back up.  If she was still having diarrhea issues, it might be something more then a bug and we would put her on steroids.  A couple weeks later, she is good and gets to eat whatever she wants to eat.  She loves chicken in a can and the left over turkey I saved her.



5.  I saved the best for last......

I got a new job!!  I will be a full time Scrum Master for a smaller company.  And, yes, I still want to get a post out there on what that really means.  My last day of my current job is Thursday 12/7 and I start the next Monday 12/11.  I am very excited for this new adventure in my life and hope it's half as good as I think it can be.  One of the best parts is, is it's closer to home.  No more commute into the city!

What have you been up to? Did you have a good Thanksgiving?  Any true crime/unsolved mystery podcast recommendations?

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall (Friday Five Edition)

Today is the first day of fall.  I thought I would look back to see the highlights of the summer.  The sad thing is, I had to really think hard to get five things.  I'll have to try better next summer.

1. One of the main reasons I am having a hard time thinking of highlights of the summer is because of work.  One, I don't get paid time off, so it kinda is hard to justify to take off a day or there to do something fun.  Don't get me wrong, I will be taking time off, but I feel I really need to justify it now.  I also go thrown into a huge project the month before go-live.  Meaning I was working tons of hours.  Good for the wallet, bad for fun extra things.

I also got a new job title of Scrum Master.  Basically that's a glorified Program Manager in the Agile world.  I might do a post to explain all of that in a week or two.  It's a position I have been wanting to get for the last year and a half, so I'm glad that I finally have the title.  I still work with my original team doing the things I did, but I also joined a second team as the Scrum Master.  I know it sounds like I'm doing two jobs, but it's worked out.

2. I decided that I needed to take some time off from running.  So at the beginning of the summer I got myself a new bike.  This was something I have been talking about for the last two years.  It was about time I got off my butt and get one so that I could enjoy some time on it.  And I did.  Minus a few weeks when work was crazy and my IT band really was bothering me.


I was able to get out for many beautiful sunrise rides.


I mean a lot.


Really I should say tons.


3. With this new bike, I did a triathlon.  It had been a couple years since I had done one.  On top of that, I was very under-trained.  But getting out there and doing it, I forgot how much I enjoyed it.  The training can be hard to fit in, but even with very little, I was able to put everything I had out on the course.  Before the race I swore I wasn't going to sign up for this one again.  After, I knew I had to as I love that course.


4. We have been having a friend stop by the back door almost every day before summer started.  She came by every day and just sat at the door.


My cats loved when she came by.  They would just sit there and watch her.  Sometimes they would claw and hiss at the windows, but mostly they all just stared at each other.  I ended up naming her Duibhe (Doobie), which is black in Gaelic.  All of my cats have Irish names, and since I didn't know if the kitty was a boy or girl, I thought this would work.  Since then my neighbor had said she believes the cat is a girl.  I don't quite know how she knows, but she does a lot of work with cats.


5. As summer hit, it was getting very hot in my upstairs.  Every summer I hate being upstairs during the day because I have two skylights in my bedroom.  With full sunshine in there for most of the day, it was very hard to keep the upstairs cool.  I had heard of shades for your skylights a few years back and kept meaning to get some.  But, like my bike, I'm very good at putting things off.  I don't know why as it was the best thing for my house.

What did you do this past summer?  Anything fun?  Anything productive?

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0

Weekly Update (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

This was a busy week for me, especially in the work out realm.

Monday I really didn't have anything planned on my calendar.  I had two good bike rides over the weekend and I really needed to give my legs a rest.  I could tell during my stretching and rolling that my quads and glutes needed extra attention with a couple of knots in them.

Tuesday I went to my regular FT class.

Wednesday I actually went for a run.  This was the first time I had in 2 1/2 months.  I know my relay partners are saying "Finally!"  I did 2 1/2 easy miles before work.  I kept it light and did a 30:30 walk run.  I didn't push myself and I didn't slack off and walk any extra.  It was good.  I kept thinking my run time was set to 15 seconds instead of 30, so that's probably a good sign.

Thursday I went to my regular FT class before work.  The gym at my job offers classes to take as well.  I have taken a couple over the last month and they added a new one on Thursdays.  It's a Core Blast class.  Basically 30 minutes of nothing but abs.  The class lasted about 25 minutes and I felt it as we engaged our abs and lower back the whole time.  While we were doing some leg lifts the knot in my quad from Monday started to cramp.  Oww!  I didn't feel soar after (not even my quad), but I know it was a good workout.  My core is something that always needs to be worked on.

Friday I went on a second run for the second time.  I did the same mileage and run/walk times from Wednesday.  My IT band was a little tight, but nothing that is no different from when it bothers me before so I wasn't worried about it.  I did notice that both these runs were not any slower then what I had done last summer when I was heart rate training.  So I really don't think I've lost too much taking the break over the summer.  There was a beautiful moon out shining through the clouds.  It's just weird getting a whole run in before there is any hint of the sun to come up.
 
I had decided to do the TRX class again at the gym at work.  I had enjoyed it the first time I took it as I feel it really worked my core.  While it was still a fun class, I don't feel my abs like I did after the first class.  So I probably will try to take one of the two classes a week to make sure I get some extra core work in.  My quad was bothering me a bit during this class.  Not bad, but it was talking to me some.

Friday night I took my friend out to a nice dinner for his birthday.  He loves Texas de Brazil, so it was a lot of meat.  I can't eat red meat, so I fill up on their yummy sausages and some wonderful goat cheese.  We then made our way to the Apple store as I wanted to check out their AirPods.  I wanted some truly wireless earphones and I wanted to make sure they would fit properly.  Well they did and they were comfortable so I bought a pair.  I'll post something about them in a couple weeks after I have a chance to use them and run in them.

This past weekend I wanted to try to get at least one bike ride in.  The weather would be nice for riding in the morning.  Saturday I knew my quad was still a little acky to head out.  And the only group going out was a little faster then I'm used to, so I knew I didn't want to push it.  I set my alarm to head out with a group on Sunday morning and when I woke up my quad hurt more then it had in the last few days.  So I decided to not go and stretch and roll it some more.  I decided to use that time to start looking into getting some Podcasts onto my iPod.  I've listened to Podcasts every so often, but it was never a regular thing.  I decided to add a few to my iPod to listen to during my runs.

How is your training going?  Do you listen to Podcasts?  If so any recommendations?

Linking up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap Up.

Weekly Update (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

It was a busy week for me.  Not necessarily running, but I did think about it.  lol

Monday started off with Labor Day.  I had the day off so I decided to power wash my deck.  It's been at least six years since I had done anything with it and it really was starting to show!!  It took me forever as it was just ick.  But even though it wasn't perfect when I was finished, it looked a heck of a lot better.

I didn't take a before power washing photo, so this is the best one I could find to show how icky it was.

This is the after power washing and before staining.

Wednesday I planned on getting up and running.  My alarm went off when I was in the deepest sleep ever and I couldn't function, let alone get out of bed.  So I reset my alarm for another hour and went back to sleep.  I tell you I just couldn't wake up at all throughout the day.  I felt like a zombie and couldn't wait for bedtime.

By 9 PM I was dead asleep and an hour later I woke up to go to the bathroom.  This really isn't out of the ordinary, but not a second after I got back into bed I had to go pee again.  I knew right then and there that things felt off and I probably had a UTI (bladder infection).  I've only had one before and from that experience I know it gets bad very fast.  Every time I made it out of the bathroom I had to go right back in.  I knew it was going to be a long night.  I searched for a Doc in a Box (Urgent Care) that was open, but none were after 10 PM, so it's either I suffer and not sleep all night, or head to the ER.  I decided to head to the ER, especially since things were getting worse and all I wanted to do was sleep.

My trip to the ER wasn't bad.  It was actually fairly quick.  They took a urine sample and I sat in a room playing games on my iPad.  They came back and verified that I did have a UTI and gave me a prescription.  The nice thing is that they tested my sample with the antibiotic that they were going to give me to verify it will work with that medicine.  I asked if their pharmacy was still opened, and of course it wasn't.  But they were nice enough to give me my first dose.  And within an hour I was feeling much better.  I did decide to find a 24 hour pharmacy because the ones near me don't open up till after I'm at work and I didn't want to miss a dose.  The antibiotics did their job and the next day I was feeling much better.

I was planning on maybe running on Friday morning but I can't remember why I didn't.  But I didn't get out there.

Saturday I woke up really early to go for a bike ride.  My riding buddy had been out for like 6 weeks with back pain.  He was back and ready to ride a slow short route.  A few of us headed out for an early ride to watch the sunrise as we rode.  While it was a little chillier then our past rides, it was still a lot of fun.  We ended up getting 33 miles in, which is good for me.


That afternoon I started staining my deck.  I didn't want to do the spindles but when I really looked at them and realized it probably was at least 8 years since I have done them, I realized that I had to stain them too.  I only got the outside of the deck and about a quarter of the inside spindles done.

Sunday I woke up to join my riding buddy again for another 33 mile sunrise ride.  Even though others said they would be there, it was just the two of us.  Which is good as we ride well together.  As the sun was just starting to come up and it was a bit dusky out I saw a deer run across the street in front of us.  It was amazing to see.  A Jeep was heading toward us and all the sudden I saw a second deer jump right in front of the Jeep.  I gasped as I saw it happen and then a loud bang happened.  My riding buddy had not seen the deer, and just heard me gasp and a bang and he thought something happened to me, but he saw the lights on my bike right behind him.  I told him that we would stop at the next intersection as I couldn't bare to see what happened.  I love animals, I love nature, and to see something like that just made me so sick to my stomach.

We continued on with our ride.  I just kept seeing and hearing it over and over in my head.  Heading back we realized that we would have to take the same road.  I kept taking deep breaths and mentally preparing myself for what we might see.  When we came around the curve there was nothing on the road and the Jeep was off on the shoulder.  There wasn't any glass or blood anywhere.  So two things could have happened.  Whoever hit it, took it home for the meat.  Or what I am going to assume happened is that the deer was stunned, but OK, and went off after his friend.

That afternoon I finished up my deck.  The wood was so dry that I felt like I just needed to pour the stain on it.  It took four gallons when it normally only takes 2.  But it was done and I was proud of all the work I put into it.  

Morning after staining, but still a little wet.  May need another coat.

**Edit - I took this second picture after work. It's looking so much better. I don't think I'll need the second coat.

Later that evening my cat's little friend, Duibhe (Doobie), came to visit.  I was hoping that she wouldn't step all over my wet deck, but she did.  And stayed there for awhile.  It doesn't look like she left any paw prints anywhere.

You can sort of see the white area where it is so wet pretty wet.

So that was my busy week.  I'm hoping it's a little calmer next week.  And maybe get a run in.  The races on my calendar are coming up very quickly.

Did you have a good week?  If you had Labor Day off, did you do anything fun?  What was the most traumatic thing that happened to you on a bike ride or run?

Linking up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap Up.

Weekly Update (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

The last couple of weeks have been busy but boring.  Here are the highlights.

I know it's been a couple of weeks since the Solar Eclipse, but I haven't posted about it.  I ordered glasses the Wednesday before and they were supposed to be in my mail by Saturday.  Well Saturday they didn't come.  I stalked the tracking information and it said it would be in my mail on Monday.  At first I was just going to go home at lunch and work from home while I watched it.  But I changed my mind and ran home and went back to work.  I'm glad I went back as a few of us went out and I passed my glasses around.  There were about 50 people out just in front of our building experiencing the beauty of the eclipse.  We had about an 86% eclipse and at the height it looked like a crescent moon.  It was amazing to see such a rare thing.  It has me thinking of traveling to see the full eclipse when it comes back to the US in 7 years.

I've biked a couple times a week for the past month.  It's good to get out there on the bike.  Most have been early morning sunrise rides.


I had an annual check-up for me, my car, and one of my cats.  Of course all separately.  The car passed it's inspection as did I.  Aiden did well for his but he was so scarred that he peed on me while I was trying to comfort him.  Then he hid under the chair and pooped.  The poor thing.  I got home and he still loved me, so all was good.


I was supposed to take a couple days off this week to take a class to get a certificate for work.  They canceled it the afternoon before and now I have to find another to take.  It was disappointing as I was looking forward to the class.

My mom started back teaching school for the fall.  We now have a nurse come by and stay with my dad while she is working.  Thursday I got a call saying my dad snuck away from her.  They did find him as I was on my way to their house.  I decided to stay with them till my mom was done with her class and came home.  My dad did seem agitated, but calmed down a little while I was there.  Apparently he keeps looking for my mom and will take the dog out for a walk looking for her.  Though he has letting the dog off the leash, so a neighbor will be taking her while my mom is not home.  But even without the dog he will go out for a walk looking for my mom.  So the nurse and I took turns going for a short walk with him till my mom got home.  My mom now has gotten bells for the door and is ordering a GPS finder to stick in his wallet.

My work has classes we can take at the gym.  I took a TRX one on Friday and thought it was good.  I didn't think I worked out too hard, but two days later my abs are still hurting every time I move or breath hard.  I will defiantly take the class again.

I finished up another month with a buns challenge.  I haven't thought about September yet, so I may not do this month's challenge.  I really liked this challenge and will probably add in a few things to my daily stretching.

I've caught up on the latest season of Game of Thrones.  I was disappointed that it was only 7 episodes instead of 10, but still another really good season.

Does your animal get scarred at the vet?  Have you taken a class that you could feel two days later and looked forward to taking it again? 

Linking up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap Up.

Weekly Update (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

This probably will be a nice short update.

This weekend was our project deployment for the project that has been taking all my time for the last month.  It went fairly smooth, but a lot of time and a lot of moving parts.  I'm hoping after this week I'll be getting my life back.

I actually got out on my bike on Sunday.  I have only been on it a couple times in the past month and I have missed it a lot.  It turned out to be a 38 mile ride which was a little more (and a little faster) then I should have done considering the little I have been on my bike.  My quads were trashed.  Not like they were pulled and can't walk, just that I really couldn't have done much more biking.  I took it to the limit.  My biking partner is having back issues so and the people that ride early morning are a bit faster then me, but I still plan on getting out on Wednesday with them.


The Solar Eclipse is today.  I'm super stoked about it.  I was supposed to get glasses delivered to me on Saturday but they won't get to my house till today.  I'm hoping that my manager will let me head home at lunch and then work from home (minus the time I will be watching the eclipse).  I can't wait.

So that's really about it for this past week.  Just work, work, work.  Fun times.

Are you excited about the Solar Eclipse today?  

Linking up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap Up.

Weekly Update (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

Not much has been going on recently.  But a few small things that were good.

I don't think I mentioned that I got shades for my skylights a few weeks ago and I LOVE them.  I have two skylights in my bedroom and is so bright and so hot up there throughout the day.  I should have done this years ago.


After I had the skylight shades put in, it was still hot upstairs and I realized that there was something wrong with my AC.  They came by and said I had a leak in a coil.  So now it is nice and cool in my house.  So pleasant.

I finished reading The Handmaid's Tale.  After everyone was telling me how good the book was, I was really not impressed.  The whole idea bothered me and it was really never made clear why and how it came to that point.  I didn't have any empathy for the characters either.  It would be like The Hunger Games and just showing the game and not explaining the whole situation and not getting to know the characters.  I reluctantly watched the Hulu series this weekend, again because everyone said how great it was.  I ended up really enjoying the series.  It took a lot of liberties from the book and really got into the characters.  It also gave more of an explanation how a society could get to that point.  I recommend the series, but don't read the book.

Because I have been working a lot, it's been hard for me to get out on the bike while working 10 hour days.  I'm still getting to the gym a couple times a week.  I have also started another 30 day challenge.  I like this one as it doesn't seem to get to so many reps that I just don't have time for it.  If this goes well that site has a few others that look very interesting.

I still haven't had the want to run yet, though I can feel it building a little.  After I saw a 10k sticker on someone's car I thought it would be fun to do a 10k this fall.  We will see how the next month takes me.  I officially decided not to sign up for the Richmond Half.  While maybe a run or two in the next few weeks sounds fun, the thought of following a scheduled just doesn't sound like fun right now.  I'm hoping just to find my way back naturally.  It's there, but not like it was.  I know at some point it will be, for now it's not.  Going slow is what is best for me now so I don't completely lose my love for it.

For the past few months, I had had a cat come to visit us nightly on my back deck.  My cats love seeing her and sit and watch her.  They even wait for her by the door, looking out for her each night.  I haven't seen her in the past month.  I didn't know if something happened or if I had just not seen her around.  A week ago she started coming by again.  I broke down and started feeding her some treats that my cats won't eat.  I didn't realize how many nose and paw prints I had on these windows till I took this picture.  I have since cleaned them so that they have a better view of each other.


My cats love sitting and watching her.  She is the black blob on the right outside.


We have been very busy at work as we have a huge project going live in a couple of weeks.  A lot of moving parts which means a lot of testing going on.  While things have been good, I was asked if I'd like to change positions.  It would be a 50/50 split of my time, but this new position is what I want to do with my career, so it's a good move.  I'm excited for the opportunity.

I saw the trailer for "Ready Player One" this weekend.  It's based on a book that is based in the future, but has a lot of 80's pop culture references.  I loved this book and the trailer looks amazing.  I can't wait for it to come out next year.

Have you seen or read "The Handmaid's Tale"?  Have you read "Ready Player One"?  How is your training going?

Linking up with Holly and Tricia's Weekly Wrap Up.