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With five solid days of non-stop rain last week courtesy of TS Fay, and our normal afternoon thunder showers courtesy of the month of August, our pond is very high. We’re not in danger of flooding like some parts of Central Florida, but the Outer Banks of our pond have been submerged, and it will just require a little more rain to have our pond join with the swamp behind the row of trees. I have pictures, but unless you have been to Pereiraville and are familiar with the normal water height, you won’t appreciate how expansive our pond is.

On the bright side, the size of my backyard that needs to be mowed is decreasing as the water rises!

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I iced my aching right shin last night when I got home (and also soothed it with some tasty adult beverages all night, as it was poker night). Then, before bed, I smeared stinky muscle pain reliever stuff over both shins (the left is not nearly as painful as the right).

This morning, my legs feel so much better! I smeared more stinky muscle pain reliever stuff over both shins before work, so I’m sure I smell great, but since it seems to be helping, I’ll go with it.

I am walking just fine, unlike yesterday when I could hardly walk.

Yay for progress! Tonight I cross train, and in the morning, I’m supposed to do an hour.

Oh, and my coaches have been emailing back and forth with me about my shins. So that’s nice.

Tomorrow may be your payday. Please consider dropping a couple bucks into my Team In Training fundraiser (over there on my sidebar). Boudicca is totally out fund-raising me, and I started first. Of course, she actually knows people, whereas I have only imaginary friends!

I have three thank you notes I need to get out today.

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Since WFTV cut into Jeopardy last night, I have heard nothing else about DNA test results. I think they jumped the gun.

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WFTV just broke into Jeopardy to report the DNA results are back on the hair and stains found in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car. The results indicate the samples belong to young Caylee, and that Caylee was dead.

Half an hour ago, WESH reported that the air sample test results were back, the air taken from the car, and showed there was a decaying body inside that car.

WFTV reported that investigators delivered the news to the family about an hour ago (I’m pretty sure we watched that live on WESH during yell at the tv hour).

So… will Casey confess? Will we ever know what happened to that sweet little girl?

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I love movie theater popcorn. Okay, really, I just love orange movie theater popcorn salt. I know I’ve mentioned my appalling habit of getting a cup of salt and then dipping individual pieces of popcorn into the salt. It’s really wrong, I know. I love it. So, I was thinking, to help me run when my shins are screaming, I bet having wheeled popcorn machines popping fresh popcorn zooming along in front of me, with a giant bucket of orange salt, would help me run through the pain. It’s a brilliant plan, really. Oooh! Popcorn AND a mobile bar so I can be chasing a martini, too. And a tray of dark chocolate-covered strawberries.

Yup. That’s what I need. That would be perfect!

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On Friday, when money appears in my paypal account from the small amount of paid blogging I do, I am transferring that money over to Chris Muir, of Day By Day. It’s the least I can do. He’s a nice guy who tolerated me stalking him and created a cartoon about it! I want to help him to continue creating Day By Day.

(darnit, the server hosting the picture of Chris is still down. grrrr.)

UPDATED: The pictures are now back in that post I linked to.

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First, the grandma who held a teen burglar at gunpoint and ordered the kid to call 9-1-1 and report he was committing a crime, and now this:

When Susan Kuhnhausen returned home from work one day earlier this month, she encountered an intruder wielding a claw hammer. After a struggle, the 51-year-old nurse fended off her attacker by strangling him with her bare hands.

Neighbors praised the woman for her bravery, and investigators said they believed the dead man — Edward Dalton Haffey — was burglarizing Kuhnhausen’s home.

But after an investigation, police now say the intruder Kuhnhausen strangled was apparently a hit man hired by her estranged husband — Michael James Kuhnhausen Sr. — to kill her.

Yay for a woman being able to defend herself!

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Distance: 2.16 mi
Duration: 30′02″
Pace: 13′50″

Right, so this is my poor attempt at a run this morning. It had its highs and lows, mostly lows. Elsewhere, I have talked about the shape of my neighborhood being roughly a capital B, and how that loop that is farthest from my house is kind of the getto of our ‘hood, and scares me. I’ve mentioned how I try to run that loop because of the fear factor. Well, today I clocked that loop and it is approximately .53 mi.

On my first lap, as you can see if you go to the graph I linked to (I heart Nike+), I ran the entire loop. This is a first for me! Usually, I only run approximately 2/3 of it. I kept telling myself to imagine I was trying to keep up with all those runners at the park the other night. I mean, really, I ran much further (like consecutive time running, no walking) the other night than I have in some time, so surely I could do that loop. Me running the loop was the high point of my run.

The low: that was pretty much the end of the running for me. I think I mowed the lawn too aggressively on Sunday evening, because that’s when my shins started to hurt. On Monday night, I asked one of my coaches about if there was a super fantastic stretch I could do to solve the ache. She told me not really, made some suggestions, and ultimately told me to just grin and bear it while my body works out its kinks. She said the pain should go away in a few days.

Well, on lap two this morning, I tried to run again at the scary loop, only my leg was having none of it. I only ran .2 of the loop before I was fighting back tears due to my insubordinate leg. So, I walked the rest of the second lap.

I’m going to email my coach and tell her how bad my leg hurt this morning and ask for some thoughts. She’ll likely tell me to do what I’m doing: ice it. And wait for my body to adjust to my fabulous new shoes.

If you do go see my graph, the point where it looks like I stopped is when the airplane-sized mosquito latched on to my left ankle and I had to stop to smack and scratch. Stupid bugs.

So, there you have it. My abysmal run.

The alarm clock should be sounding here momentarily, so it’s time to get up for work.

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Yes, yes, there has been a decrease in bloggage from me. I’m very sorry about that. Work has been making me pull my hair out. I hate when work interferes with my goofing off.

Meanwhile, sherlock has posted more this week than he has in months. So, head on over to Bakerstreet if you’re upset with the Pereiraville drought.

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Look at my handsome younger brother on his first day of middle school!

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As if my shoe shopping experience were not enough, apparently shopping for shoes is making the news.

Another good guideline is every six months or every 300 to 500 miles, retailers said. Most shoes’ cushioning won’t perform well for much longer, and then the benefits of the shoe are lost.

Another good indicator: If you wake up with sore feet after an activity, it’s time to buy new shoes.

I swear, I’ve been through this kind of thing already!

Lohman said he performs a quick gait analysis on customers, then combines that information with the wear patterns on an old shoe and the aches and pains reported by the user, then starts narrowing the hundreds of choices to a few dozen. Runners need the most cushioning to absorb the pounding pavement. Walkers want shoes with a skinnier midsole.

“That helps transition as you pull your toe up, and makes the transition smoother, since you don’t leave the ground,” Lohman said.

All right, kids, I have a lot to do. More from me later. I promise.

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As soon as I locked the door at work, the sky opened up. I stood on the porch for a few minutes trying to decide if I wanted to ride my scooter in that downpour. In the end, I had to go or I would be late for training, and training is important to me.

There were probably thirty or forty of us, in the pouring rain. I only completed two laps, which was two miles, in the thirty minutes they gave us. It was actually rather encouraging. I was expecting to be overwhelmed and self-conscious (and I was), but after finally giving up on keeping up with the running pack, I found my own pace and stopped being so awkward. And, as people lapped me (gah!), they offered words of encouragement to me, as did the coaches who ran the loop in reverse.

Some people only completed one lap, so at least I did more than them, right? Not that it’s a competition. After the thirty minutes, we went to the track, formed teams, and did relay races, complete with a baton exchange and all. Only, my team fell apart, so instead of running a third of the track at a time, I ended up doing the entire lap. Exhausting, I can assure you.

It rained the entire first lap. And during the relay. So I didn’t get to find out of my new socks, sports bra, and shirt wick or not; I was soaked. Also, my brand new shoes got soaked and muddy. And squishy.

Please consider donating to my torture the fat lady Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraiser. It’s a great cause.

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Because we haven’t had enough rain lately, looks like TS Gustav has his site set on Florida.

I hate technology, btw. I just took a handful of Advil and am drinking a Coke to try to beat back my head ache.

More later. Work…

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Note to my husband:
My mailman, Oto, just gave me a pass to a free movie: Traitor. Yay for free movies. Here’s the catch: the movie is tonight. 730p. Winter Park Village. We’re on our scooters, and I will be sweaty and smelly from my 6p training run.

I have two passes. Do any of your co-workers want to go?

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