Another Busy Week (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

Two weeks ago I had a crazy busy week.  Last week I was out of town.  And then another crazy busy week.

Monday I got back from Florida in the afternoon.  I had to work a few hours, but thankfully I was able to work from home.  I was able to unpack a little, but enough to empty the suit case and put into piles of dirty laundry, items reused for travel that needed to be reorganized and put away, and items that just needed to be put away somewhere.  I was so tired from the week away that I just went to be really early.

Tuesday I got up and went to the gym.  Nothing really exciting there.  After work I went to another User Group.  As I explained in another post, in IT there are user groups which focus on different aspects of IT.  There are ones for .Net, Database, Networking, and of course Agile.  There are two different groups for Agile in Richmond and this second one I have never attended.  They decided to do drinks, networking, and a Q&A.  So basically it was like a happy hour where you could submit a question and those questions were discussed in smaller groups or the group as a large.  It was a nice night were I met some people, had some good beer, and talked Agile (not everyone would enjoy that last part.

Wednesday I didn't get up and go for a run.  My knee was still bothering me a little and really, I need at least a week of rest before I start running again.  I really hope I do enjoy getting back out there when I don't have to do longer runs.  After work I went to physical therapy.  While my knee had been feeling better, I knew I needed some straitening done.  He ended up needling my IT band and it just kept jumping.  If you have had needling you know what you mean.  Knowing most haven't, it's like someone shocked you.  It usually means that things are very tight and it's getting loosened with the needle.  It doesn't hurt much, just a weir sensation.  And I know that things will feel a lot better in a day or so.

Thursday I went to my FT class at the gym.  Again, nothing special.  Than after work I went out to a happy hour with a couple of ladies from my contracting company and someone that I used to work with that also got a job through them.  As I walked in I saw a running friend of mine.  I said hello and went over to my group.  The three of them are in their twenties and there was more then once that I felt old.  It was a good time, but more then once I had to date myself and had to remind myself more then once that they really needed a few more years to really understand things. :)

Friday I didn't run again.  It was nice to sleep in a little.  After work I met my parents for dinner and then we had tickets to see Rent.  I walked into the restaurant and who did I see?  My running friend that I randomly bumped into the night before at my happy hour.  It was Restaurant Week, so a lot of restaurants have special three course meals that you get for a set price.  A few dollars of each meal goes to the Food Bank.  It's win win.

We headed to the theater to see the play.  I went to get some water and who do I see again?  Yes, my running friend.  Granted, I knew they were going by at this point, but it is a big theater.  I know I saw Rent when it first opened on Broadway.  I remember that I didn't like it, but for the life of me I couldn't remember why.  I did enjoy it this time around.  A couple of songs reminded me of TV shows that have used them, namely Big Bang Theory and The Office.


On the way home from the play I got a text from a coworker.  His wife had their baby earlier that day.  He is such a sweet guy, I know he will make a good dad.

Saturday morning I woke up early to one cat in my face, one on my leg, and the other kneading my back.  I wanted another hour of sleep and they just wanted snuggles.  I guess I really haven't been home much in the last few weeks.

I got up and knew I had to clean.  I still had my piles of stuff from unpacking and my house was a mess.  So what did I decide to do?  Let's make a bigger mess by rearranging furniture.  I rearranged my CD and DVD shelving, which meant I had to pull everything out, which meant that I needed to wipe everything down individually cause everything was so dusty, which meant I just made a bigger mess.

I got most of that done by early afternoon, and really I am happy with the change.  But before I could finish I headed out to the movies to see the new Avenger movie.  I really enjoyed it.  The first part, I was unsure as it was a lot of characters and they quite hadn't fit all the pieces together.  But by the time they got to the Guardian of the Galaxy guys I was rolling.  They really stole the whole movie.  And yes, there will be a squeal to finish up the story line.  We only have to wait till May of 2019 to see it.  Very excited to see the conclusion.  Oh and I got the best shirt to wear to the movie.

Sunday I did all of that laundry from my trip and cleaned more with the rearranging of the furniture.  I still have to put back all the DVDs and clean the kitchen (and a few other odds and ends), it is still better then it was.  I would have loved to take Monday off and finish what I started.

How was your week?  Ever randomly bump into the same person more then once in the same week?  Have you seen Rent?  Did you see Avengers this past weekend? 

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

Star Wars Half Marathon Wrap-up (Friday Five Edition)

This past weekend was the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend in Disney World.  With the week before my trip being so busy and this week just as busy, I haven't had time to share some of my time down there, let alone really absorb it yet.  It was a wonderful weekend, except for the pesky running thing.  I had a fabulous time with my friends.  I had a real hard time during the half marathon due to my knee pain coming back and being there through the whole race.  I will leave you with some pictures from the weekend.  If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen them already.

1. The Expo


2. Star Wars 5k

3. Magic Kingdom

4. Star Wars 10k


5. Star Wars Half Marathon

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 crazy week for me!

Monday I was supposed to run before work but it rained.  I even saw snow flakes in the air as I drove to work.  I don't run when it rains and it's below 50 degrees.  Too miserable.

Someone at my work has gotten a standing desk.  I was going to wait till I was full time to ask about it, but she said that she could get one, but the company wouldn't pay for it.  I had a standing desk for years and loved it, so I checked Amazon just to see what they had.  I wasn't planning on buying one right away, but I found one that had a 25% coupon.  That deal was too good to pass up.  It arrived Monday and got it all set up.  Love it!

Tuesday I went to my FT class at the gym.  Just a normal class.

I got a call the day before from my eye doctor who said that I was going to have to reschedule my May appointment I made last year.  Either I could go Tuesday to the office across town or wait till the end of June.  Since my contacts have been crazy dry, I opted to go on Tuesday.  I schlepped across town in the middle of the day for my appointment.  He has me trying new daily contacts (my last ones were monthlies).  These are of the latest technology and a lot more expensive then the ones I've had for years.  We will see how they work for me.

That evening I went to a meetup for those that do the same thing I do.  I don't know if they have it for other industries, but in IT there are monthly meetups for everything from .Net to SQL to Networking.  Mine is about the Agile community.  Each month there is a different speaker to discuss different aspects of the community.  The topic interested me, and while I didn't feel like I learned anything new, it made me feel better that I was on the right track.  I also saw someone there from my last job.  It was interesting to catch up and hear what's happening over there now.

Wednesday I got out and did my 5 mile run.  It was around freezing again and I wore my new fleece tights I had gotten a couple weeks ago and it hasn't been cold enough when I ran to wear.  I was worried that the waist was a little loose and I'd just spend the run pulling them up, but it never did that.  They also had a draw string that helped as well.  These are definitely a keeper.

While my knees started feeling better on my runs last week, Wednesday it felt tight again.  No sharp pain to make me stop running, but it nagged at me the whole run.  I probably shouldn't have done the full 5, but I haven't been running much lately and felt like I needed to get them in.  I had a PT appointment that evening and he worked a bit on the same area as last week and found some interesting spots around the same place, but on the outside of the leg.

Wednesday night I had another bad night's sleep.  I hadn't been able to sleep through the night and am up for 2-4 hours in the middle of the night.  My mind is just racing so much that it wakes me up and I can't get it to stop to be able to fall back asleep, even with all my little tricks.  I still dragged myself to the gym for my class.

With the Ukrop's 10k on Saturday the Expo is held Thursday and Friday with no packet pickup the day of the race.  I headed there after work on Thursday.  They had changed venues and I had to go across town to get there.  I understand why they changed venues as the race has grown and where they normally have it, there isn't enough parking.


Of course I got there after work with most people, and I knew it would be a pain to get in and park.  I have done several events there and knew that there was plenty of parking.  What I didn't understand was, with several entrances, why they had the cars come in where people had to cross the traffic to get into the building.  So there was a lot of stopping to wait for pedestrians as well as when you were walking to the building a lot of waiting for cars to pass.  That could have been done a lot better.

The expo itself looked identical from the last venue.  I got my bib, shirt, and shuttle ticket.  I ran into a running friend and said hello.  I didn't see anything interesting at the official merchandise section.  And all the other booths were the same.  I dropped off a pair of used sneakers.  Looked to see if anyone had my shoes with a good discount (they didn't).  And then I couldn't find my way out!  This was not a very big Expo, just everything was high enough not to see any doors.  And there were no signs for exits.  I asked a volunteer and he pointed me in a direction.  I still couldn't find it and eventually after looking around a corner I saw a door.  I was free!

Thursday night was another horrible nights sleep.  It even got to the point where I just got up and started getting things ready for the race on Saturday.  Awake for another 3 hours in the middle of the night and falling back asleep just in time for the alarm to go off.

Friday I did get up for my run.  It was now in the mid 50's which meant shorts and a shirt.  So different from Monday and Wednesday.  I wanted to get another 5 miles in, but I told myself that if my knee hurt I would stop.  And if it was tight I would only do 3 miles.  Within the first 100 feet it was tight, just like it was on Wednesday.  So 3 miles it was.  As I was heading round to finish the second mile I kept thinking of the fact I had a 10k the next day and a weekend of running next weekend.  I looped around the block and called it quits at 2 miles.  This close to races I'd rather rest then get the miles in that I need and hurt myself further.

That afternoon I had to take my old lady cat to the vet for more blood work.  While a month ago we found her kidneys are doing wonderful, her liver numbers were very low.  She doesn't act like a cat that has something wrong, as she has just been her normal self.  The vet has her on a daily pill and wanted to see how the numbers were as well as check her thyroids.  Well the pill was helping and the issues is definitely her thyroid.  So she doesn't have to take the daily pill anymore, but has a daily liquid now.  We will be back in a month to see how that is doing.


After the vet I dropped her off and headed downtown to meet my parents for dinner.  We have a yearly subscription to local plays around the city.  This play was Romeo & Juliet and it was at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which also has a really good restaurant in it.  We had a good dinner and a wonderful bottle of wine.  We were taking our time as we thought the play started at 8 and by the time we made our way down a little after 7:30 we found that it did start at 7:30.  Thankfully the people there know us and there were no assigned seats so we made our way down the side to some vacant seats.  I've seen this play many times, but I have to say the lead actors were very good.  And looked very young.

Saturday morning I got up and headed down to the Ukrop's 10k.  I met up with friends before the race.  I ran it on my own and while it was very hot, I felt very strong for the whole race.  My knee was a little tight the whole time, but nothing like it was Wednesday or Friday on my training runs.  There might be hope for the knee next weekend.  We all met up after the race for brunch and to catch up with everyone. 


I went home and showered and took a nice nap.  After a long week, a hot race, and a few mimosas at brunch I really needed it.  Then I went out to dinner with a friend.

Sunday I did nothing!  Well I did get my laundry done, but really that was about it.

See what a busy week I had?  I get to turn around and do it all over again, but this time heading down to Florida for a runDisney race weekend.  I'm going to need some time off when I get home just to rest from these last couple of weeks.

How was your week?  Did you run the Ukrop's 10k?  Was it hot or what?  Have you seen Romeo and Juliet before?

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

Random Friday Five (Friday Five Edition)

I know Friday Five has changed their format for this month, but I still like the list of 5 things.  So I’m gonna stick with it. 😊  There have been a ton of things going on, so this week will just be the randomness that is in my brain.

1.  I had a recap done of my Lucky Charm 10k race and it disappeared.  I had been working on it on and off one afternoon and it kept autosaving.  I also hit save several times.  I had issues with changing the page name and I went to close it.  It asked me if I was sure I wanted to leave the page.  I hit no and went to save again and again was still having issues.  So, I closed the window and it again asked me if I was sure I wanted to leave the page.  I hit yes and when I got back into Blogger the post was gone.  I Googled everything I could about losing a draft and nothing worked.  I feel so deflated and the thought of writing it over frustrates me to no end.  It will happen eventually.

2.  It’s been such a busy week that I feel like it’s been 2 weeks in just 4 days.  And the craziness is not ending any time soon.  I’m exhausted and I’m not sleeping well since I have so much on my mind.  I can’t wait to just sit on my couch and do nothing for a day.

3.  The Ukrop’s 10k is this weekend.  There really isn’t a big to-do about it this year with my friends.  We usually all go to the Expo on the same night and then go to dinner.  And then we all meet up before the race and then have brunch after.  It just isn’t going to be as much fun without the comradery.

4.  The Star Wars Half Marathon is next weekend.  I haven’t run more then 6 miles since Princess due to knee issues and just plain laziness.  I know I’ll have fun meeting up with my friends, but I am so dreading the actual running part.  Just need to make sure that I get some extra podcasts and/or audiobooks to help pass the mileage.

5.  I’ve been wanting to replace my fake French doors with a sliding glass door.  With my birthday coming up, my folks said that they would contribute to it.  All I know is that I want the in-glass shades as well as a pet-proof screen door.  Now I get to research all of the other millions of choices I have get to make.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make all those decisions and get it installed before the summer is over with.

This will happen if I don't have a pet-proof screen door.

Have you ever lost a draft?  Did you get it back?  Have you bought a new sliding glass door?  Recommendations?

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

Weekly Update (Weekly Wrap-up Edition)

The last couple of weeks have been fairly uneventful.  Especially since I haven't had the motivation to run.  And then I had knee issues.  This past week seems to have picked up a little.

For the last week or so my left knee has been acting up.  It was more of a sharp pain then the normal soreness of things.  And it was the same knee pain that I had way back when I started running.  It really started hurting after not stepping right and hyper-extending my knee.  Hyper-extending my knees are something that is really easy for me to do.  So I have been doing a bit of resting.

After a weekend of rest, on Monday I decided to get out there and test out the knee.  I had 5 miles on my schedule and if at any point my knee started to hurt then I was going to stop and walk back.  I do have to say that it was a good run and I watched my every step to make sure I didn't hyper-extend.  No pain in my knee till the last few blocks.  I was happy to get through a longer run.

And then I went through my day.  And as I did the pain got worse and worse.  Not good.

Tuesday I went to the gym for my FT class.  The knee hurt a little, but it wasn't bad like it was Monday.  I missed Thursday because of it and knew that I would take it easy.  The rest of the day it didn't hurt as bad as Monday, but it wasn't great.

Wednesday I skipped my run as I knew better.  I had a PT appointment that afternoon and had a lot of little things worked on.  While it made my knee feel better, I wasn't sure if he found the actual issue.

Thursday I went to the gym again.  Things were better then they were at the gym on Tuesday but I still felt like my knee was talking to me.  I kept it easy again.  During the day I found a knot in my lower quad, toward the inside.  The more I massaged it and rolled my stick over it the better my knee felt.  I actually found the trigger to my pain.  I did see this beautiful sunrise on the way to the gym.


On Friday I decided to take a short run to see how the knee felt.  I took off on my 3 mile route.  It was actually warm out, like in the 60's at 6 AM.  It did sprinkle and rain a little, but it felt so good to be out there in shorts and a tank and not 5 layers.  While my knee didn't hurt, it could feel like it was talking to me or maybe tight.  But not actual pain.  It's hard to describe, but I think most people understand it.  The real test would be how I felt the rest of the day.  And I had no pain the rest of the day.  I did continue to work out the knot.

Friday night I went to see the play version of Dirty Dancing.  I have to say that I loved the movie growing up and have seen it several times.  A lot of the play was strait from the movie, dialog, movements, songs.  Then there were parts where it just seemed like they were trying to stretch the play out.  Random dances and songs that were not in the movie and really didn't seem like it was part of the story at all.  Don't get me wrong, the dancing and singing were great to watch, it just seemed out of place.  And then there was the audience.  Woot-ing and hollering when the lead actor had his shirt off made it feel a bit like a bachelorette party.  Over all it was fun and made me want to watch the movie again.

Saturday morning I wanted to try 5 miles again.  And like Friday, while there was a little tightness, no actual pain.  The knot I was working on was much smaller at this point.  And it felt fine the rest of the day.  I knew I was on the right path.

Saturday afternoon I went to see Ready Player One.  My friend and I have read this book and enjoyed it immensely.  A very geeky book with a lot of references to the '80's.  We were both worried about if the movie would be any good since movies are never as good as the book.  Overall I enjoyed the movie.  A lot of things that I pictured in my head came out on the screen.  The only thing I think it missed was a bit of character development on how the friends met and how they became the team they were at the end.  I'm afraid if you never read the book that would be a confusing part of the movie.  But the movie overall was good.  I still highly recommend the book to any self-proclaimed geek out there.

Sunday was Easter.  Beyond church, our family never really had any Easter traditions.  Well except when I was in high school.  We would do all the church things having to do with Ash Wednesday and Lent and then on Easter we would head to Kings Dominion.  The weather was usually nice and the crowds were low, especially in the morning.  My mom hated going to church on Easter cause it was full of people that only went twice a year.  So because we never had any true Easter traditions or dinners I feel like others are judging me when I say we don't have plans.  I know they aren't but it's like I'm saying I don't have any plans for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

I hope everyone had a good Easter!

Is there a movie you have seen that was almost or just as good as the book?  If you haven't read Ready Player One and have seen the movie, what did you think?  What are your Easter traditions?

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