10 on Tuesday

1. Mama got a new pair of shoes! Not really that exciting, but I've got shin splints after switching from treadmill to sidewalk and going from 0 to 3 miles/run after 4 weeks off to nurse my aching knee at the same time. I know I've got at least 150 running miles on my shoes from the last few months, plus some walking miles from the tail end of training and walking in the last 3 Day I did, so I must have been somewhere in the 300-500 range. It was time for new shoes! Props to Marathon Sports for keeping my shoe on file, too, so that I don't have to remember what I'm wearing and I don't have to wait to be fitted during their weekend rush. :)

2. Mama has also been making some progress on her Spring To Do List, despite work and life getting a little hectic over the last few weeks. I have photos to prove some of it (pics or it didn't happen!), so look for me to be doing some back posting over the next few days. Hopefully I'll have the time and energy to get that done...

3. Last weekend I got to meet a friend and coworker for the first time, and it was so fun! I always find myself struggling to explain some of my work-related relationships. There are so many people I "work with", but not really - we work in the same building, but we don't interact at all to actually work. Then there are all the people that I actually work with, but I have never laid eyes on because we work in different cities. I was pretty excited when I heard that my coworker Heather had planned a long weekend in Boston with her fiancee and friends, so I gave her a list of places to eat while they were here and then made plans to get together with them for drinks on Saturday night. Which then turned into making plans to get together with them for lunch at Sowa on Sunday (food trucks!). It was so great to put an actual person with the name and the voice - as much as we try to share pictures once in a while, it's not the same as actually getting to spend time face to face with people.

4. Last fall I found a running club in Quincy and ran with them occasionally. It was definitely a group trying to get off the ground, but I really loved everyone I met through them. This spring our little group has been growing, and tonight I had eight people at my run! I was so excited! It's such a great group - no one get left behind or runs alone. There's always someone along side you cheering you on when you start to drag or to chat with to take your mind off the running itself. I'm so glad I found these guys, and I'm so excited that our little group is growing from the four regulars we were over the fall/winter!

5. Also? Running with these folks is making my pokey butt move faster!

6. We put the window fan in our living room window recently, and it must blow bugs into the room pretty often. Champ has been doing a lot of bug hunting (and eating). I'm pretty sure that some of the time she's really hunting the air, but I just watcher her swat a bug right out of midair. She has now chased it under the couch, and hopefully she'll eat it soon because I really would rather not have random bugs living under the couch.

7. Pete and I are getting into the grilling habit again! It's pretty awesome, and I'm determined to get us a picnic table for the backyard this weekend. So far it's been brats or burgers, but please share your favorite things to grill so we can expand our grilling repertoire!

8. Speaking of Pete, he bought himself a Kindle the weekend before last and he has been a reading fiend ever since!!! I, on the other hand, have reverted back to reading printed books. Partly due to getting a book from the library I couldn't find on the Kindle, and partly because my eyes were starting to get angry at me for spending so much of the day staring at a monitor/screen/TV. They have been appreciating the rest, but my back and shoulders have not been appreciating the heavier book that I just started yesterday!

9. We're heading to Maine on vacation in a week and a half, and it totally snuck up on me! It's going to be a well timed and much needed vacation based on what's happening at work over the next few weeks, and I'm pretty much counting down the minutes until our Girls' Day massages. In fact, it's taking all kinds of restraint I never knew I had to not book something ASAP and wait for that! So excited for vacation for so many reasons!

10. #1 reason to be excited for vacation? Pete and I get to sleep in a caboose. I KNOW. It's okay to be completely jealous.