Dingos Back to School! ~ The Running Mamas Thread - Page 3

[LaLaLaLa]

Penelope--So sorry about your knee! I skinned my knees a couple of times in high school running cross-country, and I couldn't believe how much it hurt. I didn't remember the pain from early childhood!

Nic--My DS pees on trees, too. Only in our yard (so far), though. My mom was horrified that I would encourage this during toilet-training, so I guess we'll have a conversation befor the next time we visit my parents.

Runningmommy--Sorry about the cold; I'm fighting something, too. Ugh.

This morning I slept in. Ah, bliss! Actually I'm torn between elation and irritation. DH did let me sleep, but he plunked the kids in front of the TV. I dragged myself out of bed and decided to go for a run. Seven miles, so over an hour, and the kids watched TV the entire time. Yes, it was free time for me, but I would just be so much happier if DH were actually parenting during that time. Grrr.

But, anyway, I did get a run in, which felt good. And banned TV for the rest of the day.

I hauled leaves from my yard to the dump for the next few hours. Paused to take some aspirin for my exertion headache. Hauled more leaves. At some point DH needed a break from the kids, who were driving him crazy, so he went out to put gas in his car. Honestly? You need a break after approximately 2 hours of parenting time? He slightly redeemed himself by coming back with iced coffee. I'm kind of easy to pacify.

It was a good fall-ish day. DH promised the kids blueberry pancakes for dinner, and I need to get into the shower so I'll be fit to eat at the table with the family. Seven miles running + four hours of raking and dumping leaves = super gross mom.

[Nemesis]

Lalalala- My Dh does the same thing.

Bike ride today, no run. Maybe tomorrow, though.

[bec]

Penelope - I hope your knees are feeling better! I still have a scar on my knee from tipping my bike over last spring. Tipping it, while, get this, being at a complete stop. I was trying to adjust my seat and tipped on the side that was still clipped. Blood gushing, in front of my tri class teacher and everything. Graceful, that's me.

RM - I hope you are feeling better soon! The last traces of my cold seem to be going, but I know how miserable this week has been. Katie is feeling better, only for Emily to start complaining that her head hurt. I'm hoping a good night's sleep does it for her.

Gaye - Sounds like a wonderful run!!! My RP (back when she could run ) was training for her first half while I was training for my full, would run the first half of my long runs with me for her long run. It was so nice to have some company, that it really made the second half of the run just fine. I ran the half with her as part of my 2nd 20 miler. I got up super early and ran 7, then met her, drove out to the race, and we ran the half marathon. It was truly one of the best runs I've ever had!

So, the children were super noisy and despite dire warnings woke us up around 6 this morning. DH got up and yelled at them for a while, stood them all in the corner, and then directed them to clean up the living room and they were NOT to wake me up (I was attempting to ignore all this and go back to sleep). Abby decided that throwing heavy toys onto the floor in the room right next to my bedroom was a good idea, so I was up around 7. Needless to say, I was pretty steamed and just in a pretty rotten mood for most of the day. DH sent me on a long bike ride a little before 4 because I was too grouchy. Sooooo, I went out for a little over 2 hours, and rode over 27 miles on forest preserve trails. It was a really nice ride!

[JenLove]

Went out for a run last night and bagged it about 5 minutes in. Maybe I should've stuck it out for another 5 minutes just to see, but I fell asleep with Val at 10 when I intended to get up and hang out with DH for awhile. I know I sat up to take my sweatshirt off sometime in the middle of the night, she nursed at 7am, and we crawled out of bed at 9:15. I still kinda feel like I was hit by a small bus.

Bec ~ Glad you got a good ride in.

Nemesis ~ I hope you get out for a run. How's preserving going? Any new projects?

Jo ~ What's going on on your farm? I hope all is well your way.

L4 ~ Holy smokes, woman! That's a lot of work!

[1jooj]

Thanks Jennie!

Today we tended bees and I am cleaning out the chickens to get ready for the next round. Also digging a few potatoes, and I think that is enough beyond routine chores. We have a party to go to for breaking fast, and I have to make a salad.

Looks like I will be going with dh to Germany, too! It's not an area I'm familiar with, but I'm still looking forward to it. Going to try to cobble together a schedule of subs over a 1-week period, so Jennie, if you're game to try a few days down on the farm, I can pencil you, J and V in. Wonder if you might like to do some time together with a friend of mine? Has a dd same age as V and has previous farm experience. As I said, will FB you when I have dates. Also, the strategy of arranging subs without my mom worked as planned--my mom offered to help when she saw I could manage it without her.

[doctorjen]

I think I updated the race list to here. Check it out and see if I have your race, with the right date! (I seem to be goofing up dates for some reason.) The list looks a little fuller - but feel free to sign up for more races!

[Penelope]

Bagged a run this morning but did a nice 12m bike ride. Trying to get excited for a long run tomorrow on the same route. My knee feels totally fine, and I think if I stretch well tonight and tomorrow morning I should be able to run with no problem.

Off to drive for a student field trip... I agreed to manage the ones in my town, since it would be easier for me as they're mostly evening/weekend, only to find that my colleague expects us to drive to the town where our college is, drive the students to the field trip site, drive them back, and then drive home. Only, by "us," he really means "me" in many, many instances. So, I've organized students to drive for the rest of the field trips, paying them out of the dept. budget, but none of our drivers are going on this one, so I'm driving. Since it's the only one, I'm not upset about it, but it astonished me that this was a totally unspoken assumption about how much time I was willing to devote to this. Mmmmmm, miscommunication!

[babybugmama]

Did 7 this morning and it wasn't too bad. I was pleasantly surprised at my overall lack of achiness.

Jo - I went to germany as a teen and loved it! I especially loved Cologne where there were like 20-30 teens and there wasn't a common language...so sometimes there were multiple intermediaries to communicate. It was truly an amazing experience. Although at that time I believe the Berlin wall was not down or had just come down and so...only one side of Germany. (I just googled it, it came down in '89 after our visit).

[1jooj]

bbm, I lived in Germany in 89-90 as an exchange student, was actually in Berlin a couple months after 9/9 went down, and even got to hammer off some wall myself. I LOVE Cologne, lived very close to there, also loved Aachen and spent a lot of time there. I went back for a semester of college at the Uni in Bonn. Wish I were going to be closer to all of that stuff, but dh's work site is between Bremen and Hanover, so we'll probably just go see his old host mother (she's at least in her 80s). He lived there almost 2 years, too. Our common language was German when we met. Without our experiences in Germany, I highly doubt we'd be married.

It will be fun to go together, I hope.

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by 1jooj

bbm, I lived in Germany in 89-90 as an exchange student, was actually in Berlin a couple months after 9/9 went down, and even got to hammer off some wall myself.

<cough> 11/9

Only good thing that happened on my birthday, before that it was the great NY blackout, Kristallnacht, and Spiro Agnew's birthday....

Half Price books here has a Labor Day weekend sale of $.25 for most kids books. Good thing, too, since the library is closed, and we were scraping the bottom of the barrel here, having missed our chance to hit the library before the holiday weekend. Don't know if that's chain-wide or just ours...

Feeling Gaye's misery. We offered the job to Ms Bubbly Friday -- msg on cell phone. Yesterday DH called again asking her to let us know one way or the other, or even if she needs time to consider. Nada. We followed up on the almost-as-favorite one's references after that second message. Considering that it's a holiday weekend, how long do we give #1 to contact us? DH starts Wednesday. I can make it work W-F, but I need to travel T-Th next week.

[Nickarolaberry]

So I also remember that day quite well (11/9 that is). At the time I was a senior at university taking a seminar with my thesis advisor on Soviet and Eastern European Studies. (not my topic of thesis, but a required seminar nonetheless).

She came in the next day, after having spent a semester and touting her new book, and wrote on the board. NEVER MIND.



The final that semester was a bit of a free-write.

[Geofizz]

Nick.

Nanny question - what would you all do about a library card? DD has one, but most library trips will be just her and DS. Get DS one?

Dumb details to worry about when still unable to put a NAME to the nanny, but, books are pretty important around here.

[zubeldia]

Geo - I would get DS a card. We had VERY similar issues to you and Gaye when we were seeking a nanny. It was so frustrating. Indeed the most frustrating part was that people would email with a lot of enthusiasm and as soon as it came to actually moving forward they'd be incredibly flakey. In the end I found a really super young woman (a student.. but very mature) who is working out very well. Hope a super-nanny materializes for you very soon.

esk. your DD's comment on DS's tinkle is still making me laugh Hope it's continuing to go well. BTW, I would also be very concerned about the ducklings... Poor little guys.

Penelope, gah, I would be incredibly ticked off with DH if I had to do the morning routine on my own.

La4 - I would be bothered by the TV babysitting, too. Gah. Glad you got out for a run, though.

Beginning of semester meetings have been consuming all my time, this past week First day of classes next week, and I am pretty nervous as I am now Chair of the department and I don't know what I am doing

OKay, triathletes... I have my first tri this Saturday and I am so nervous! I was terrified of the swim but I just drove the bike course (no time to ride it) and I am a wee bit frightened. Any advice? Also, I didn't want to wear my tri top under my wetsuit ( couldn't bring myself to wear an uber tight top)... will it be all 'exhibition-y' if I wear my sport's bra underneath (a giant Ennell ) and change in front of everyone?

Argh, I am so nervous!!!!!!!!

[Geofizz]

Well, Zub, I'm sure you're fine as chair. Our chair has been in place for a year, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, he doesn't know what he's doing either. He'd back that statement up 100%. He's way better than the previous one who wouldn't admit he didn't know his job.

Yeah, still getting over that experience...

I'm digging into DD's stack of books myself right now.

I need to find a way to get some runs in here. It's dropping off pretty badly with last week's interviews. I'm really, really, really hoping we're done with that.

[1jooj]

11/9 indeed! Oddly enough, you probably already KNOW I screwed that up because of the etymology of November. How embarrassing. I do it with those "number months." Woops! </cringe>

Nick, I can't imagine what that must have felt like for her. Yikes.

[tjsmama]

Ugh, geo. I SO feel your pain. What is wrong with people today? I do tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I guess I would wonder if maybe she lost her phone or it died or something. Do you have any other way to contact her? Other than that, I'd say maybe leave one last message along the lines of "we need to move forward so we need to know by X, or we'll have to offer to the next candidate". And I agree, get DS his own card. I think I need to do the same thing. Of course, I'm still trying to get the nanny card for the zoo back from the summer nanny.

Zub~Feel free to ignore my advice, but honestly...I would just wear the tri top under the wetsuit. That's what they're meant for, and you don't want to be trying to wrestle into it while you're all wet and trying to hurry. That said, there will probably be people doing some changing in transition, but not many. You see it more in beginner-focused tris. Most experienced triathletes (with the exception of iron-distance races) spend the whole race in their race outfit, whether tank/shorts, singlet, swimsuit only, whatever.

Pretty uneventful day in these parts. I slept in till 9 (ahhh), headed to the farmers market, got talked into some pears by the 23-pounds-of-peaches lady (but only 3! I was strong! ), ran a bunch of errands and spent way too much money, took a nap (again, ahhh...two days in a row!), grilled a yummy dinner of steak and farmers market veggies, and now trying to get psyched up for some more exciting pharmacology reading. I'm volunteering at a race in the morning, and am pondering a bike ride afterwards but feeling kind of uninspired by it.

[kerc]

Hello Mamas. I'm am dog tired. (why am I up at 530? kidlet #2 woke me up. grr). I haven't been running, except to keep up with my job while my kids are not yet in school. We start thursday in this town. In the town just over the bridge they started last week. I *think* I'd be ok if I just had my normal prep time every day. Instead I'm orchestrating kids -- not really wanting to stuff them in the living room with a movie, but kind of needing to.

25 cent books? I'm in. Although I mandated a trip to the library preceding the weekend.

Library card? yes, I'd get ds one. G/L with the nanny situation.

Dh and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday. Err, our anniversary (11) was yesterday. But since he hasn't been paid since May 1 and me June 1, we elected to wait until after he is paid (friday) to actually celebrate.

Never been to Germany. I don't have a whole lot of interest in going, but mostly I think because I'm more into visiting places that have oceans. There are few places I really want to visit that are inland. Isn't that silly?

Happy Labor Day. here's hoping your day isn't as filled with work as mine is.

[Nickarolaberry]

Geo and Zub, on the chair of the department thing. I generally think it's better when someone outright admits s/he is moving around in the dark. When I first arrived in my Ph.D. program the chair was a guy who had been around forever and was a leader in the field, so he kind of knew what was up.

When I went back in June (same dept) to speak at my mentor/advisor's memorial service, the chair was a friend of mine who was a year behind me in grad school. That was weird. He was kind of a lovable know-it-all-wunderkind in grad school...I guess that kind of thing got him pretty far. Interestingly he's a little bit controversial, if the conversations I had with other faculty members (a bit older but not yet of the 'emeritus generation') were to be believed. I'm not that surprised.

Pretty much I think a good chair at least listens, even if s/he has to make unpopular decisions. The arbitrary authoritarian thing doesn't go over too well.

Had an early morning anxiety attack (generalized) and was up at 3:30 so I just finally got out of bed at 4 and went out for a run. 3 very fast (for me) miles. Won't be able to run again til Wed. evening b/c dh had to go out of town (more on that if things materialize..it's not career based but everyone here would definitely find it interesting).

Happy Anniversary K! With you on the delayed celebration thing...I think we celebrated by getting a new van. Actually my preferred gift would be a gift card to the running store and a dinner out at the new veggie Thai place.

ETA: Have fun in Germany, Jo! I also don't have it high on my list...for probably obvious reasons, just too...intense. On my list, however, is Morroco (sp?), Turkey, Petra (in Jordan), Italy, France, Ireland/Scotland/UK. Israel is always my first choice destination and I haven't been back for over a decade, time to plan a trip somehow. One of my new colleagues is from Tunisia and he has some really intriguing stories, maybe I'll make it there some day if they would let me in.

[modmom]

Happy Labor Day Dingos,

Had a great 5 miles yesterday--new shoes!!! I was able to find a pair of the saucony triumphs I run in online for 50!!! I think it was 6:00. I didn't realize how much I needed a new pair. Dh who is very frugal and has less problematic feet is always suspicious that I am buying my shoes too soon I can't seem to make it to 500 miles what does everybody else do.

Jo--Germany sounds like fun.

Bec--It looked like you said you were thinking of the zoo last Friday--Was that Brookfield? Cuz we were there.

Dr. Jen Could you put me down for the Disney Princess Half on February 27th.

THanks

[Penelope]

Hey, Dingos!

Geo, nodding along with the nanny sympathy and the advice to get a library card for ds.

Nic, you're Orthodox, right? Can I ask a question? At our field trip to the Orthodox synagogue yesterday the rabbi emphasized that he rejects evolution; that struck me as an unusual kind of claim to make unless one is a certain kind of evangelical Christian. (I mean, I haven't before heard a religious Jew make that particular religious claim.) Is that the norm for Orthodox folks? I'd like to be able to discuss a bit with my students and cite another datapoint in the discussion.

Zub, my department chair insists that his position is *not* supervisory and he has *no* authority over me. We're a department of two. I think in general, not being power-crazy or obstructionist will put you in a good position to do a fine job.

Ok, RR: a slow 10m, with lots of achy hip... going to redouble my yoga efforts between now and my half in three weeks.

And my fridge died, and we can't get a repair appt. until Saturday. I have how many people invited to dinner on Wednesday? ... whoever said 20, you win!