Finally!

Christmas is finally here! (I know it's not officially here yet, but for me the long weekend has begun and marks the beginning of the celebration for me). It's been a few very busy weeks for me at work, and I really needed the break. I haven't been running in a couple of weeks as Varian has been working with the system pretty much full time, which doesn't leave me any time to myself. It has been a great learning experience though, and very rewarding work, even though it has been non-stop. Anyway, today I finally got out for a run. The weather has drastically improved since the last one, and it is 60 degrees today but windy. I had to take it easy though as I gave blood this morning. I really notice how frustration builds up more easily when I don't run. I've really got to make the time for it.


This weekend holds a lot of food for us. Tonight we are going to go check out the new Qdoba near us to have a little break from cooking. Tomorrow we are having ribs, which is one of my specialties, and on Sunday I'll be baking a ham. That's a first for us, so hopefully it will turn out okay. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas time is here

Well with our Christmas party a big success yesterday, it really feels like the Christmas season is upon us. It was great to kick back this weekend with our friends, especially after the week I had. The cold day on Wednesday was only the beginning, it ended up with a major flood Friday at 5. It will be interesting to see how next week shapes up after that. Thankfully next week is the last "full" week I will have before I get a few 4 day weeks for the holidays. I can't wait!

Take a few days off...

...and you feel it when you get back. Man, that run kicked my butt today. 35 minutes, but barely. I was going a little too fast I think. Nice to get back outdoors though after being sequestered inside for three days. It got really cold here this week, but now we are almost back to normal. 30 degrees today, and nice and sunny. Had to get one in today, I doubt I'll have time this weekend. P-A-R-T-Why? Because I gotta!

I should have known...

...it was going to be one of those days.


I got my first 3 am wake up call from the magnet today. It called to say that it was cold. Turns out the heat to the building went out. After driving in to see if someone was fixing the problem I returned home to try to get an hour more sleep. By the time I came back at 8:30, the heat still wasn't fixed and one of our fire sprinklers was starting to drip onto our spectrometer computer. When I went up into the ceiling to investigate I found that the pipe had frozen. Thus began the mad dash to get facility people in to turn off the water and drain the sprinkler system so that we would not get drenched. The heat is back on now, but for some reason the NMR room takes forever to heat up so I'm sitting here in my parka and sweater freezing my ass off. I have asked Melissa to pick me up early, I can't do anything else until we warm back up anyway. This sucks.

Okay, maybe I am crazy

It's 32 degrees out and there's a brutal wind from the northwest; I just got back from a run. 35 minutes, but I tried to run at a slightly faster pace today. I had my hat on to keep my ears warm, not bad actually. We'll see about Wednesday, it's supposed to be 9 degrees. Yikes!

Apparently I'm crazy

Melissa told me today that she thought I was crazy. Crazy like a fox! I had a long and tiring day yesterday and was not able to squeeze in a run even though it was a gorgeous day. Today we woke up to 3" of snow, but it is calm and 27 degrees so I was determined to go out for a run. It turned out to be one of the best. It was quiet and the snow cushioned every footfall. With a fresh white blanket of snow the world always looks so peaceful. That's one of the things I really missed while living in California. I found a great route around the local high school and even passed some cows on my way (that shows you how far into the suburbs we live). Could have gone forever but my circuit took 35 minutes. Now for some Christmas baking this afternoon.