Winter is pretty but

We are ready to be done with it. This is our driveway. We don't shovel after my birthday.

Mild pain in the wrist region

Me: Do you want to hear me sigh and moan about my arm more loudly and more frequently?

Gary: That would be awesome.

Hope and her screen time

Each kid gets 30 minutes of TV, computer, or video games a day on school days. Hope usually wants to watch something on TV but lately she's had different ideas about how to spend her allotted time. I just discovered these videos tonight:

More

Bones

In addition to bragging about kids, running, dogs, art, and my dog poop picking up skills, I like to brag about my strong stomach and high tolerance for pain. So I'm stymied by how queasy I suddenly feel when I see my bones in an x-ray. I think it's all the little bone nuggets in the wrist area that really gross me out. Too teeth-like, maybe.

I headed out the door to run Wednesday morning and slipped on a tiny patch of ice. I've never felt sudden pain like that but the nausea that accompanied it was worse. I guess our bodies are designed to distract us from intense pain with intense nausea. I suppose I could be having nausea flashbacks when I look at the x-rays.

Do you want to test your tolerance for looking at my wrist bones? Feel free.

Special note: All of this nonsense pales in comparison to what my tough niece, Meredith, has been through: ruptured appendix, liquid restrictions, pic line for antibiotics, almost a week in the hospital. We're so glad you're home, M!

Back to choir art

Monday

Saturday long run

Saturday long run
Originally uploaded by WkHanson08.

It was worst 11 miles Emily and I have run together.

The Best Worst Run of All Award still goes to the Las Vegas Marathon when Andrea and I ran in headwinds, sleet, and 50 mph gusts that knocked over the porto-pots for 26 miles. That one was great.

But Saturday was bad. Half the distance was in 4-5 inch deep snow hiding slippery ice. The wind picked up on Lake Calhoun and stayed strong all the way. Rudy the "I should be a sled dog" was plagued by ice in his paws so much so that we ended up carrying him part of the way. Emily's hands started to freeze pretty bad so she had to run the last mile with hands tucked in her armpits. I thought I was okay but when I got home I couldn't get warm and ended up sitting in the bathroom in my sleeping bag with my hair dryer blasting heat into it.

It was painful and tiring and the whole time we were out there we were wishing we were not out there. Strangely, the worst run beats not running almost all of the time.

But I enjoyed not running very, very much this morning.

Run done; time for coffee

I'm not a quitter

Several of my friends could have made 10 of these in the time it's taking me to do this one. Silver lining: I am getting pretty good at backwards knitting.

Running on empty

Ha ha. Ooh, that's a clever title. See, my GPS device was out of juice for the run this morning. So I was "running on empty" just like the song. Get it? Get it?

We actually had a good run but I've become a little bit too excited about putting my data -- my s.l.o.w. running data -- on my computer when I get home. So there's a hole in the calendar for 2/18/09. I'll get over it, I suppose.

Speaking of running, you know how I like to talk about food all of the time? Having a southern girl running buddy makes for delicious conversation about food every morning. While I miss not having Andrea around every day so we can plan our next trip to the the nearest pasta bar/manicotti buffet, listening to Emily tell me all about red velvet cupcakes, cheesy grits souffle, and chocolate sauce-covered biscuits for breakfast takes the sting out of being awake and running on icy sidewalks at 5 a.m.

To Do

There's really no photoshopping that can make this picture okay.

The point of me posting this horrid picture is to prove to you that my brother was Anthony Michael Hall's (circa The Breakfast Club) double back in the 80's. I will never forget going to see that movie with my mom and dad in Des Moines. You know the opening scene on the school bus where the camera pans from shoes to head on Anthony Michael Hall's character? I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that my mom and dad and I all inhaled sharply. We all thought the same thought at the very same time which was when in the hell did Jeff go run off to make a frickn' movie??

Shawl status update

Starting from scratch the third time. But this time, instead of unravelling and knitting with fuzzed up yarn, I got smart. Instead of starting with a new hank, I rewound my #2 ball so that I could start with the yarn end from the fresh inner core. I know you are all impressed by that. (I also know that my sister-in-law, Dani, is making an appointment for me at Broadlawn's.)

President's Day

The kids celebrated President's Day by harvesting some large chunks of ice from the neighbor's backyard. Simple pleasures.

I am not an economics wizard

But I don't think you have to have gone to an institution of higher education to figure out that politicians are not doing things right.

And how are the political looter class trying to remedy this situation? Well they are trying to re-inflate the bubble with the extra added spice of making the secured assets (property) even harder to repossess (in effect un-securing questionable loans either by fiat or with money plucked from the government's magic money tree). Pure genius.

And the next news item just around the corner? Think about US Treasuries... or 'Junk Bonds' as they will soon be known. 'Screwed' does not even begin to describe it.

Scanner is working again

I got started on scanning some old pictures tonight.

Blast to the past

Breakfast

Possibly the most delicious chocolate chip ice cream cookie sandwich in existence. If I run in the morning I'm going to come home and have one for breakfast.

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, Hope reads to you in Chinese from our in-home aquarium. When asked what it means in English she gives her standard answer, "I have no idea."

I love elementary students

Don't get me wrong -- I enjoy the middle schoolers but you don't get to hear things like this during the work day:

"I know how to do kung fu fighting, karate fighting, Texas fighting, boxing...

You know what I need to learn? I need to learn how to do cowboy."

I wondered where all this "pinkie swear" talk came from. Now I know.

Hope's school newsletters just make me smile so I'm posting an excerpt here in my little internet time-capsule.

Check out circuslunch

You have to go to Mary's blog and check out her links today.

She forged my signature

Do you think her teacher will notice?

What did she mean by that?

Every morning on the way to the bus stop I ask the kids, "Who loves ya?" They always reply with the standard list of me, Gary, relatives and friends. This morning Hope answered, "You do. My 44 year-old mother."

I'm pretty sure she was making fun of my age.

It's my birthday

It's the thought that counts but I look forward to the year he has a contract in the IT department of a chocolate factory.

Random thoughts on a February Sunday

1. I want to reread The Shack after hearing the author speak in church this morning. Very moving. Very touching. Impossible for anyone not to relate to The Great Sadness.

2. I want to buy a bunch of copies of that book and give them away like I did when I was in high school with Hope for the Flowers, by Trina Paulus.

3. Sometimes your kids tell you things that sound like someone's tall tale. When you find out one of those tales is not, the effect is jaw-dropping and it makes you listen to them more carefully.

4. If I want to run at 5 tomorrow I better get the hell to bed.

5. Life is good. Always. Even though.

More my speed

I've put myself in time out from knitting. I became very, very angry at the shawl in spite of Elizabeth's help with getting me back on track. I didn't go nuts and cut it up like I wanted to but I did put it away for awhile. I've decided Hope's potholder kit from Grandma Hanson is more my speed. I could probably stitch a bunch of these together and make some coats and blankets or something.

Start your day out right

Two things you can do:

1. Visit This Little Site of Mine

2. Watch this video:

Documentary on my must see list

3rd grade wolf project

Hank sure seemed to like the origami involved in this school project. It looked like he made twice as many wolves as did the other kids in his room.

Needle in a haystack

Facebook has been really rewarding in terms of finding old friends out there on the internets. Old friends, classmates, next door neighbors, Meadowbrook moms, current and former coworkers, etc. I started searching for a friend I had in college. I sang with her in Camerata Singers at the University of Iowa. I emailed the School of Music and alumni associations to see if I could find her.

No luck.

I hate myself now for not maintaining ties with her. Her name was Win Feng. She was a chemistry major. She was married. I'm not sure she was happy to be living in the U.S., so far from her home and friends. Her husband (I never knew his name) was a chemistry major, too. They lived in student housing.

Now that my daughter is in a Chinese language school -- what I wouldn't give to be able to find her and talk to her again.

Wen, are you out there somewhere?

"You have to see this"

One of my 6th grade students came to see me today and begged me to google beaker+youtube and watch this video with him. He said it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. I think you'll agree that it does elicit a smile and a giggle or two.

Blog post

Here' s a post from a dad that will make you count your blessings, laugh, and count more blessings:

What I Did on My Christmas Vacation

An excerpt:

The logistics of getting him back to California included a relaxing round of us giving him the IV meds in a mexican restaurant in the airport. Since we didn't have the IV poll with us, I got to hold the bag up in the air for half an hour while my wife attempted to sterilize any stray bits of fajita that might still be on our table. (To the patient and tolerant staff at Revolucion Restaurant in Terminal 5 at JFK, I may put you all in my will.)

False advertising

Hope picked out some tri-colored popsicles for football festivities tonight (because you know when it's 40 degrees in Minnesota it's time to eat popsicles). She just marched into the living room:

Mom! These two colors are a rip-off cuz they're both the SAME TASTE!

This is why Gary wants to move south