This news brought to you by ShadowRun300.

Good Morning.

We’ll start today’s news with a follow up from a story aired last week about ShadowRun300’s oldest son, Link.  Link, who has been struggling with severe eye troubles the past few years, has finally found some relief.  This relief comes in the form of hard contact lenses.  The lenses force his corneas into the nice convex shapes they should be, in order for light to enter his eye and be refracted properly.  He is no longer struggling with putting them in or taking them out, and he is amazed at being able to see.  Not all is perfect, however.  His contacts have to come out at some point, and because of the shape of his eyes, glasses are not a viable replacement.  So there are times throughout the evening where he is “blind” again.  We will continue to follow this story and bring you updates as they arrive.  

In other news, ShadowRun’s career is on the upswing. With the departing of an important team member, SR has been chosen to be her replacement.  She is now responsible for all of the billing, responding to emails, setting up arriving groups and buses, and ensuring the front office is running properly.  At this time, there has been no discussion of a promotion or raise, however, the added responsibility and respect has been benefit enough to keep her satisfied.  For now.  Her immediate supervisor is aware of her desire to advance, and has inadvertently discovered she is searching elsewhere for a higher position. This knowledge seemed to incorporate some fear in him, so with luck, it may not be long before SR receives the title and pay to go along with the added responsibility.

And now we’ll head to, ummm, ShadowRun for the weather.

The weather pattern that we are in has taken the city of St. Louis and its surrounding areas on a roller coaster ride.  A week ago, the high was 28 degrees with lows dropping in to the teens.  With each passing day, the temperatures rose, and by Monday, the St. Louis area saw a high of 74 and a low of a balmy 52 degrees.  Tuesday was just as warm.  As we speak, however, a cold front is passing through the area, bringing gusty winds and inches of rain.  Waiting just behind the front are dropping temperatures.  By the end of today, the temperature will have dropped into the 30s, possibly turning the rain into snow.

As it happens often in the midwest, this cold trend won’t last for long.  Throughout the week, the temperatures will continue to rise, and by next Monday, the St. Louis area will once again have temperatures back up into the 50s.  Hang on and enjoy the ride.

And now Sports – brought to you by Bob Costas ShadowRun300

SR300 continues to train for the half-marathon coming up on April 7th of this year.  Just 2 short months away.  Despite a critical setback at the end of December, ShadowRun seems to be back full force.  Training during the winter has been a little more difficult than expected. A few days, ice on the roads has kept her homebound, and her work schedule has been busier than in previous winters.  SR prefers running right away in the morning and finds it difficult to run after being on her feet all day at work.  Unfortunately, 6am start times makes it difficult to run in the morning.  As usual, she is determined to have a good showing at the marathon. so she does not let these setbacks deter her.  Just this week she was able to log 25 miles in the 3 days she was able to run.

Excitement and nervousness continues to build for SR300, especially after revisiting the course description.  If 13.1 miles isn’t difficult enough, right in the middle will be a 2 mile “Holy Hill”.  This hill happens to be very near the hotel where she works, so there is thought that perhaps she can don her running shoes right after work, and try to tackle the hill before the big day.  Should that occur, we will be on the scene, bringing you the news live. Well, maybe not live, but you’ll hear from ShadowRun herself on how the event played out.

That’s it for this week’s news.  For more information on anything you’ve heard throughout the newscast, just click on the links provided.  And be sure to tune in tomorrow for an update on Dumb ShadowRun’s smart phone.

 

 

Didn’t See THAT Coming

For her birthday last September, Mario asked for an iPhone.  With High School just around the corner, I promised her she could have one, but she needed to wait until she was available for an upgrade.  That day was January 21.

And every day since then she has begged me to take her.  Between my work schedule and her school schedule, and my lack of desire to wait around in a store for hours… we finally picked a time to go.

Yesterday, I sucked it up and took her in.

We were fourth on the list to be helped, so I took a moment to scope out my next phone.  I liked the slide-out keyboard with touch screen for $30, similar to the one I have.  But today was about her. I could come back later.

She’d already settled on the iPhone 4, because it was only a dollar with her upgrade.

Stop thinking I got off easy.  As most of you know, she’s needs the data plan to go with it.  $30/month times 12.  (times at least 4 more years….) Slightly more than $1 overall.

She became the fourth member of the family to be on the data plan.  You guessed it.  The 2 members not on the plan are Hubby and me. His phone is even dumber than mine.  (It still flips, for goodness sake!)

We listened to Bob as he informed us of the increase in the price of our plan.  My ears perked up slightly when he let me know the next person we added would be no additional cost, since we would then switch to a family plan.

He continued talking and figuring while thoughts raced through my head.   I could upgrade to a $30 phone with no need for data, or I could upgrade to an iPhone for $1 with no cost for data.   

I confirmed my thoughts with Bob when he returned with Mario’s new phone.

20 minutes later we both walked out with our iPhones, She extremely excited about being able to tell her FB friends about her awesome new phone, with her phone.  Me with a slightly nervous stomach about whether or not I’d be able to use my phone.

She patiently used our drive home to show me how to turn it on.  And call someone.  And end the call.  She only rolled her eyes at my dumbness a few times.  But I made sure to save some of my questions for the boys.  I figured if I spread them around, none of them would know how many questions I really need answered.

I can now call, text, and set the alarm.  All the things I did with my old phone.

I know how to check my email, but I haven’t done much of that.  Some of the joy of my couch time, is the anticipation of checking my mail and reading new blog posts.  I’m not ready to give that up by checking my mail throughout the day.

I wonder if all the phone’s gadgets and smartness will be wasted on me.  In a way, I kind of hope so.  I only got it because it was $1.  I didn’t really want it………….

………….I didn’t!

But I kinda like it.

 

 

Justified

It’s not really an addiction if you put it to good use, right?

I mean, if I actually use my excessive pinning to bring joy to others, that’s a good thing, is it not?

That’s my story anyway….

So to justify my habit, I knocked a few pins off the list this past week.

You’ve already seen the snowman cookies.  Yep.  Got the idea from Pinterest.

Melting Snowmen

Along with the hot chocolate cookies…  All Pinterest.

Hot Chocolate Cookie with Marshmallows and 3 kinds of chocolate chips

And recently, I made THE BEST cupcakes EVER.  I merged 2 Pinterest pins to create these heavenly goodies.

Coffee Mocha Cupcake

Hubby’s half on the left. My half on the right.

And just today, I made another cupcake with my hubby in mind.

Since we can’t go to  Key West, I brought Key West to us.  Or at least some Key Limes. I found this yummy Key Lime Pie Cupcake recipe… on Pinterest, of course.

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

These were absolutely delicious and I loved the fresh key lime juice and zest.

But for goodness sake….

Have you ever juiced a key lime?

Dehydrated Key Limes

It’s like milking a cat. (I’m guessing here)

They’re so tiny .  And by the time I got done, every little crack on my hand was screaming at me.

But I got 1/3 a cup outa the little buggers, plus a few more tablespoons for the glaze.

Then to nourish my newly converted vegetarian daughter, I made a cheesy cauliflower bake, and a crockpot mac and cheese.  They were okay, but nothing to blog about.

And for the  “not concerned about eating animals” rest of us, I made a Crockpot Lasagna, and some homemade pizza rolls, all thanks to Pinterest.

So yeah – I knocked a few pins out, and feel slightly justified.

But my boards are looking a little sparse….

 

Back At It

Went for a brisk little run this morning.

17 degrees.

10.7 miles.

Oh yeah.

After cooling down outside, I came in and immediately wanted to snuggle with my winter love.

When I’d had enough of that, I went for a roll on my bedroom floor til I was weak in the arms.

Feelin’ pretty good, I sat down for some coffee.  I had only been sitting a few minutes, when I got up to fix breakfast.  My calves immediately made it known to me they were not going anywhere anymore!  They refused to budge.  I slowly coaxed them into just going a few more steps, by bribing them with another roll on the floor.

That seemed to satisfy them enough to allow me to make breakfast.

After another roll, they were eager to take me grocery shopping.

By the end of the day, I could tell I’d run my longest ever, but my muscles had recovered much faster than I’d anticipated.  Especially after the long break they took while I was down and out.

I take back everything I said about them a few weeks ago.

Although, maybe…

maybe that was the incentive they needed to get us back to where we started.

 

Hooked on Pinterest

My enjoyment of researching the internet for cupcake ideas has been made WAY too easy by Pinterest.

Pin this.

Pin that.

Oh, and this…

and that….

I spend so much time pinning, I don’t have time to bake.

It’s gotten so bad, that last night while I was pinning, I glanced up at the muted TV, and saw a “pin it” button in the corner.

I thought, Really?  I can pin a TV show?  But to which board?  Cupcakes?  Cookies and Bars?  Blondies and Brownies?  Running Motivators? 

A second glance proved how addicted I really am.

–

–

 

–

–

–

–

Tell me you see the similarities….

and that anyone would have been mistaken…

and that I don’t really have a problem…

 

 

Sight for Sore Eyes

I am overjoyed, incredibly relieved, and flat broke.

But I’d have it no other way.

A few months ago we received some pretty devastating news from Link’s eye doctor.

It started 2 to 3 years ago.  He was having trouble seeing, so we made him an appointment.  No biggie.  We ALL wear some sort of eye correction lenses, so it seemed only natural to have him join in the act.

He came home that day with a prescription for bifocals.  We thought it kind of odd that he would have bifocals at the ripe old age of 17, but we accepted it and ordered him a pair.

He had trouble with them from the beginning.  He claimed they didn’t help.  We sent him back to the doc who assured us he just needed to get used to wearing them and looking through the lenses.

He gave it an honest effort, and before long, we quit asking, and he quit complaining.  It became an out of sight, out of mind problem, so to speak.

The topic came up again when he got his full time job as an overnight shelf stocker at a local store.  Seems he was having trouble reading the boxes, so it was taking him much longer than the others to stock his shelves. Rather than fire him, the store offered to give him a different job during the day.

And we decided another eye appointment was in order.

We were shocked and devastated by the news.

He was diagnosed with 2 unrelated but critical issues.  One was an infection in the retina of his left eye.  The other was a severe case of distorted corneas, or keratoconus.

With his cornea so misshapen, the light coming into his eyes was completely distorted, causing him to have a very difficult time seeing.  We were told it might possibly be fixed with hard contact lenses.  If not, he would need surgery or perhaps a cornea transplant.

Our hearts broke.  Fears for our oldest son flooded us, as we tried to come to terms with what this might mean for him.

We made appointments with the specialists immediately.  Before we could treat the keratoconus though, we had to make sure the infection could be cleared up, otherwise any treatment for the corneas wouldn’t matter.  So once a month, he received an injection in his eye.

Yeah.

A shot.

In his eye.

I thought the same thing…..

He’s received three shots so far and may need a fourth.  However, since he was showing signs of improvement  he began seeing  the cornea specialist.

On his second visit, they had him try on a pair of hard contact lenses.  The idea being the lenses would force his corneas back into shape allowing the light to come in as it should.

They warned him that things may look worse because the contacts weren’t prescription, but as soon as they placed them in his eye, he could see!

Unfortunately they didn’t let him come home with them.  Instead, they sent him home with the memory of his brief clear vision, and told him to come back in a week to be fitted with the correct size and prescription.

And those contacts came in today.

His vision isn’t perfect, but it’s close, and it’s SO much better than what he’s lived with these past few years.  He’s a quiet, reserved kid, so his reaction was a shrug of the shoulders and a “yeah – it’s good.”  Which I know really means, YEAH! IT’S GOOD!  I can only imagine how excited he must be to be able to see his beloved computer screen and books clearly….

and the clock, and his phone, and the TV, and…. the writing on the boxes.

This may not be the end for him, but it’s definitely a more promising outlook for his future.

Perhaps I have all you to thank for your crossed fingers?

 

Around the World in 35 Days

Mario’s Christmas present arrived today.  Only 23 days late.

On Dec. 12, I ordered her a One Direction sweatshirt that she’d been begging to have.  The ones at the mall were way overpriced in my opinion, so I found a place online.

I placed the order, and 3 days later got an email that “My Order Has Been Shipped!”  I breathed a sigh of relief to have bought my first present of the season, and even better, it was sure to get here by Christmas!

Every couple of days I would get online and track the sweatshirt.  On Dec. 16 it was in Pennsylvania.  On Dec. 18th it was in Jamaica, NY.

On Dec. 20th, it was in Jamaica, NY.  On Dec. 22nd it was in Jamaica, NY.

By this time I was getting a little worried.  I emailed the place I bought it from.  I emailed the postal service. Then I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Christmas came and went.  I had wrapped a box with a note in it saying “this present has not yet arrived.”  Her curiosity got the best of her, so I showed her a picture.

On Dec. 26th I received a reply from USPS. They thanked me for my recent email.  They told me they valued my opinion, and they are continually working to improve customer service.  They included a link to a survey, and asked me to participate.

No where in the email did they answer my question about why my package was still in Jamaica, NY!  What the heck?  So I promptly headed to the survey and gave “completely dissatisfied” answers to most of the questions. Did they expect me to be satisfied with just a “thank you” for my email?

On Dec. 29th, I received an email from the place I purchased it from. He stated that the USPS does not update the tracking number once the package is outside of the United States.  He went on to tell me international mail usually takes 21-35 days to arrive.

WTF?  I responded immediately with “Why is the item OUTSIDE of the U.S.? It was shipped from the U.S.  and I live in the U.S.??”

A few days later he came back with: Well, the shipping address you put on the order was

Shadow Run

Quiet Little Cul-de-sac

Small Town, IL

NORWAY

Norway??

How the heck did Norway get on there?

ugh.

I admitted fault.  I must not have noticed there was a place to fill in my country, and somehow NO (for Norway) was saved with my order.

Not only was I worried now that Mario may never get her sweatshirt, but I was a little upset with the postal service for only looking at Norway, and not recognizing that my zip code and state were right above it!

Not long after, I began receiving phone calls from the post office.  Charlie must have received my very unsatisfied survey, and was doing her best to track down the elusive sweatshirt. She seemed baffled as well, that the office in Jamaica, NY wouldn’t have seen the discrepancy.  She continued to monitor it as it made it’s way through Europe and then back to the U.S., and she called frequently with updates.

Yesterday I got the call that it was in the next state!  She felt pretty confident it would be in our small town today.  And it was!  She gave me a call this morning to tell me the good news, and only then did I let Mario know her present had arrived!

The packaging itself was in pretty good shape, despite all it had been through.  It was very crumpled looking and had one little slit on the front, but I thought it looked beautiful!

Mario immediately changed into it and proclaimed her love.

I suppose she probably loves it even more because she had to wait for it.  I guess  Abby really was on to something .

 

Lookin Up

I looked up today and almost wish I hadn’t.

My light fixtures had a coating of dust so thick, the light could barely shine through.  And the amount of dust on the living room fan was sickening.

I’ve always proclaimed to be a lazy housekeeper.  I do the bare minimum.  Enough to keep DCFS from taking my children.

But even I know when it’s time to do a little more.

So I got to work removing light bulbs and fixtures, washing them, dusting them, and replacing burned out bulbs. First in the bathrooms, then the kitchen.

I made the mistake of looking around while I was standing on the kitchen table, and saw all the accumulated dust on the cabinets and the sparse knick knacks I have up there.

With slumped shoulders, I climbed up on the counters and began cleaning the tops of the cabinets.

Then I went on a hunt for the extended fan blade cleaner that I’ve only used a few times in the 14 years I’ve lived here.

Not surprisingly I had to dust it off before I could dust the fan.

Before I put it back, I used it to sweep the dust that was hanging in the corners of my vaulted ceilings and draping from my built-in plant shelves.

I haven’t always been a neglectful housekeeper.

When I was a new bride and a young mom, I was determined to do it all. I let myself believe that to be successful, I needed to work, keep a sparkling home, and raise a bunch of happy kids.

Problem was… I wasn’t happy. It was near impossible to keep the house clean with 4 kids and a couple of pets.

Many times my hubby would tell me not to worry about the house.  “It’s lived in,” he would tell me.  “There’s nothing wrong with people seeing that we live in a lived-in house.”

It took many times of hearing him say that to finally click in.

And when it did, I was all for it.  No more stressin’ out about the house for me.

We still live in a lived-in house.  I’m lucky enough to have my hubby keep up with laundry, and we both share the dish washing duties.

I vacuum almost daily, but only because I find it therapeutic.

I’ll scrub the bathrooms if I know we’re having company, or when they become too gross.  Otherwise, they just get a brief wipe down a few times a week.  (Love those Clorox wipes.)

I must admit, though, as I sit here typing, I have every light on in the house to show off my hard work.  It’s amazing how bright my house can get.  It’s a good feeling, for sure.

But I don’t plan on looking up again for a while…..

 

Preppin’

I’m an outside runner.  Period.  I avoid the treadmill at all cost.  It’s boring.  It’s blah.  And it’s boring.

So all my running is done outside, rain or shine, or frigid cold, or steamy hot.

There’s only a few weather situations that keep me from going out – ice on the roads, blustery, below freezing winds, and lightening storms.

This week, it was ice on the roads.

Ugh.

I had planned on running at least 7 miles on Sunday, in an effort to build my stamina back up, but that was nixed as soon as I looked outside.  Sleet and freezing rain covered the streets, the cars, the deck.

Sigh.

I trudged downstairs to the elliptical.  (For whatever reason, I can work out on that for 45 minutes, sweatin’ my tail off.  I just can’t do the treadmill.)

I awoke the next day, determined to go outside.  Ice still covered the ground AND the winds were blustery and below freezing.

Down to the elliptical I went.

Today, I awoke, itchin’ to run. A quick look outside showed no wind, no ice.  It was 18 degrees…. but I can handle the cold. (Wait… did I just say that?)

I donned two pairs of pants, 4 layers of shirts, 2 pairs of socks, my earmuffs, my mittens, and my scarf.  By this time I was sweatin’ just standing in my house.  18 degrees was going to feel pretty good.

And it did.

It felt good to be running again.  Today was only my 3rd day back after that Flippin’ Flu, so I didn’t expect to go long.  I managed a 5.6 mile run in 42 minutes – just over 7 minutes a mile.  Amazing how freezing temps can spur you to move a little faster.

I’m still anxious to push myself for a long run.  Gotta get back to those in order to feel confident again about finishing the half-marathon.  It’s been difficult due to the weather and my work schedule, but I’m determined if nothing else.

And I’m very excited about it!  Especially after reading about Agg’s experience.  Running 13.1 miles in a downpour with gusty winds is very inspirational.  I can’t wait to have that same experience.  Of course, my run will be in 40 degree temps with the sun shining and no rain.

(Don’t worry.  I crossed my fingers so I wouldn’t jinx myself.)

Either way, I’m looking forward to training these next few months, and anticipating the thrill of crossing the finish line.  And I plan to use Agg’s tips on what to wear, what to eat and drink, and which potties to use.

Nice to have an experienced blog friend to help me through….

 

Breaking Up IS Hard to Do

I guess I’ve been lucky.

I’ve never in my life had to break up with someone.  They’ve always broken up with me. So I’ve never had to worry about how to say it… when the best time is to do it… how the person will react… if I’ll hurt their feelings.

So when I had to break up with my hotel pantry vendor guy, I was nervous.

For days I practiced in my head how I would tell him that our relationship must come to an end.

I decided it best to go with the “It’s not you, it’s me” approach.  And in a way, it really was.

Since I’ve been working at the hotel, I have been in charge of the snack pantry.  I did all of the ordering, tracked all the sales, counted all the inventory, and kept it cleaned and stocked.  Most days it was a thorn in my side, but I liked the added responsibility, and it gave me something to do on extremely slow days.

I recently found out that the hotel plans to outsource the pantry.  Someone else will be doing the ordering and stocking, and I’ll just have to do a monthly inventory.

I was thrilled when I first learned the news.  It would relieve me of quite a bit of responsibility.  Great news, since I’ve taken on a ton of responsibility with billing our corporate groups and convention groups.

But I dreaded telling my vendor guy.  After a rocky start at the beginning of our relationship, he turned out to be a terrific vendor.  He owns his business himself, and pretty well takes care of all aspects of it.  Including delivering it to us.  If I needed something in a hurry, all I had to do was ask.  Turns out, when you’re respectful and appreciative of a person’s efforts, their efforts tend to increase.

With the changeover happening next week, I decided to give Mike one last hoorah.  I placed a huge order with him, and hoped I would be there when he delivered it.

Sure enough, he came walking in last week, with his usual smile, and asked if he could just place it in the pantry right away for me.

Sigh.

He was making this even harder for me.

I decided to just come out and say it.   So as he unpacked the snacks, I blurted it out.

I stumbled a little…. kinda nervous… kinda shy… and very worried about hurting his feelings.

I blamed it on the hotel company, and then did plenty of gushing about how happy I’ve been with his services.

He responded very professionally, and claimed he understood.  He told me he’d just picked up a partner and a few other businesses, so he was going to be alright.

I let him know that I would absolutely be referring other hotels and businesses to him.

He left, saying “I guess you won’t be needing these….”  and he placed brand new ordering sheets on the counter.  Sheets he had made specifically for me, since I typically ordered the same things each time.

I gathered them up, my heart breaking.

Such a sweet guy.

I have two more days before the outsourcers take over.  Perhaps I can squeeze one more order in.

For old times sake.