Friday Night Photos

Whew! It's been a long week. We have a busy weekend ahead, so I'm sure that will fly by, too. The weather has been fantastic--I love that it's warm enough to sit in the garage with the doors open. Even when I'm just doing something on the computer, I have been going out there.

Eli had to have part of his toenail removed today--I won't post the picture, because it's rather gross. I actually couldn't even take him to the appointment! I had to have Jerry take him; I am completely grossed out by feet and the thought of Eli getting his toenail removed gave me the heebie jeebies for sure.

It all started 5-6 weeks ago. Eli was cutting his toenails and he cut the nail of his big toe way too short in the corner. This caused an ingrown nail which then got infected. Home remedies weren't helping, so we went to Urgent Care--they prescribed antibiotics, which he took for 10 days. Still nothing. Today, he had an appointment at the podiatrist to remove the nail. They numbed his toe and then cut 1/4 of the nail off--from the base by the cuticle all the way to the tip. (Ugh, just thinking about it gives me chills.)

Jerry sent me a text from the waiting room with a dad-joke:

"We've been waiting a long time, but this guy's been waiting a LOT longer!"

Seeing skeletons like this was my favorite part about October last year--it's awesome that this one is just randomly in the waiting room now, haha.

Speaking of Jerry thinking he's hilarious... a few days ago, I noticed that the comforter on our bed was facing the wrong direction (it has stripes and the stripes are meant to go parallel with the sides of the bed, but the stripes were going sideways). I noticed it immediately and I thought Jerry just did it accidentally when he made the bed after he woke up. I said, "Hey, you put the comforter on in the wrong direction."

He said, "Oh, you noticed already? It was a joke! I wanted you to get in bed tonight and your feet would stick out the bottom because it's shorter like that." I just teased him for his prank being as bad as his dad jokes ;) 

Since I haven't been working on any physically strenuous projects, I decided to make an attempt at drawing again. (I wanted to learn a new skill as part of my 40 Goals by 40 Years Old list, so I bought a book and some pencils to try drawing--you can see that post here.) This time, I wasn't nearly as patient and I realized very quickly that I didn't enjoy it. I didn't want to leave it partially done, so I rushed through it. From far away it's not bad, but up close it's rather cringe worthy!

After that, I caved and ended up going out to the garage to build something. I'm going to save it to share on Sunday or Monday, but here is a small part of it so you can guess what it might be! ;)

Speaking of lumber, I am loving the lumber memes that people have been sharing with me--so funny! Here are a couple of new ones:

As you may know, I love 90's music. It's pretty much all that I listen to. I was watching a show one night and I heard a song that I wanted to look for (I don't even remember which song it was) but I happened to notice an album cover that caught my eye. I started listening to short clips of the songs and I felt so nostalgic! I ended up buying the album and I've been listening to it all week. (There were 20 songs, but I already had a few of them).

I was shocked yesterday when I saw Estelle using the doll bunkbeds that I made! I tried SO hard to get a picture of the cats on them after I made them, but they wouldn't stay. I'm going to give the bunkbeds to Shelby (my littlest niece) when I see her, but for now, it's just been sitting in my dining room. Estelle was sleeping on the top bunk, but of course she sat up as soon as she saw me grab my phone to take a picture.

And that's all I have this week. Have a great weekend!

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On This Day... (May 20)

I haven't done an "On This Day" post in a while. I always love looking through old photos, and now that digital pictures are super easy to sort, it's fun to just pick a date and see what photos I took on that day throughout the years. So, here are a bunch of photos I took on May 20th (in chronological order)...

2006: Noah had his friend Kaden over (Noah was 22 months old and Kaden was 18 months old). Judging by how dirty his face is and the fact that he's wearing one sock, accompanied by the fact that they both crashed on the couch, they clearly had fun ;)

2009: I love these pictures of Noah and my dad. They were working on my dad's garden. Noah and Eli used to help him garden whenever they would go over there.

2010: I chaperoned Eli's field trip to a dairy farm. He fed a calf, milked a cow, went on a hay ride, and ate freshly made ice cream.

2012: My first marathon! This was a completely miserable race and I don't even have good feelings when I see the pictures, hahaha. The race was red-flagged due to the heat index being over 100 degrees and people were dropping like flies throughout the course. I do love that Jerry and the boys went down to Cleveland with me and cheered me on during the race--it meant a lot to me!

2014: This was when I was chaperoning one of Noah's field trips--at the Henry Ford Museum. I don't know why the schools felt that the kids needed to go there every single year, but I swear I know each exhibit by heart. Two kids in two different grades, going every year... that's a LOT of trips to the museum!

2015: Eli being the animal-magnet that he is... (I miss Chandler so much!)

2017: My friend Emma had asked me to run a 5K with her at an airport. We took it easy and chatted the whole time. It was so fun!

2018: I went to Kansas City to visit Andrea--and Caitlin and Bonnie joined us! It was such a fun girls' weekend. This picture was in front of an ice cream place that Andrea said we just had to try--I can't remember what flavor I got. I think it was strawberry rhubarb? I'm too lazy to go back and look at my post about it.

2018: While on the trip, we were talking about our relationships with our partners, and Andrea told us about the 5 Love Languages. I made a mental note to read the book, but I took the quiz that day to see what my "love language" was--it was "Quality Time". It was funny, because when Jerry took the quiz, his list was in the EXACT opposite order of mine! If you haven't read the book, definitely read it. It is seriously life-changing. Jerry's and my relationship got so much better after we learned each other's love languages. I even ordered the book for teens so my boys could read it. Here is the post I wrote about The 5 Love Languages (as well as links to the quiz and the books).

2020: The kittens were brand new--we'd only had them for a couple of weeks at this point. I can't believe we've had them for over a year now. And they're bigger than Phoebe and Estelle.

2020: Eli finally let me cut his hair! I forget what I bribed him with. I would never make him cut his hair if he didn't want to, but it was driving me crazy how it would constantly fall over his eyes. I remember bribing him with something, and he said yes! Now he keeps his hair at a length somewhere in between those two pictures. 

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Oops!

I forgot to click "publish" on yesterday's Transformation Tuesday post and didn't get it posted until late morning today. I don't want to take any attention from those transformations, so this is all I'll write today (I have a busy afternoon/evening with baseball anyways). If you didn't see yesterday's transformations, make sure you check them out: Transformation Tuesday #27 : A Fun Variety!

If you've already seen the post, here is a meme that made me laugh today. Enjoy :)

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Transformation Tuesday #27 : A Fun Variety!

Doh! I just now realized that I forgot to click "publish" last night! Well, here is yesterday's post...

I was thrilled to see that I had a lot of emails for Transformation Tuesday today--I have enough for the next couple of weeks! (So if you sent me one and you don't see it, don't worry--I will share it soon.) Since there were several to share, I decided to pick a variety rather than a common theme. These are fun ones :)

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During lockdown in Canada I decided to buy a cottage in my hometown since we have to quarantine for two weeks when visiting certain provinces and I live far away from family. 

I have several different areas of the cottage that have been transformed but for today we’ll talk about exterior paint colour. I wanted it to be fun and scream "vacation"! My dad did a bunch of stuff to the landscaping and stone pavers out front too. The work continues this summer when I’m finally able to get home! 

Lindsay Sue

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This was quite a change in a week--from 11 years old with long-ish hair and bare teeth to 12 years old (on May 21) with super short hair and braces. I still barely recognize him!

- Jenn 

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I was reading your Transformation Tuesday post at my work desk/craft table and looked over at the disaster it’s become over the past couple months. I thought, “well here’s a transformation that needs to happen” LOL

Ten minutes later it was done :) So thanks for the inspiration!

Kelly

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I wanted to share the before and after pictures of my rescue kitty, Peggy Sue. She and her brother were found abandoned. Her brother was up in a tree, and she was lying at the base of the tree with her leg broken. She’s one of my favorite transformations. ;-)

- Rikilynn, Michigan

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I took a royal icing cookie class at the end of 2019, right before the pandemic started. It was the perfect hobby to start while quarantined at home. This was my most recent set for Cinco de Mayo. It's been a lot of fun trying out new designs. Next up is to experiment with other cookie and icing flavors besides the typical sugar cookie and vanilla icing set.

- Gina, Wisconsin

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Lindsay Sue, you definitely nailed it when you chose a color that screams "summer"! It looks like it belongs on a beach. Love it!

Jenn, ohmygosh--what a handsome little man! He aged about two years in a single week, haha. It's crazy how haircuts can make kids look so much older.

Kelly, that is super inspiring for all of us to just take 10 minutes and clean something that we've been procrastinating. It's amazing how simply tidying up an area can give it a whole new feel. Looks good!

Rikilynn, this made my heart MELT. As soon as I saw the picture with the cast, I yelled for Eli to come see (he loves animals more than anything on the planet). She's a beautiful cat! I'm so glad that you took her in. (Do you have her brother, too?)

Gina, I'm SO impressed with your skill! You could turn that from a hobby into a business if you want--those look amazing. Keep sending photos of your new designs. I'd love to see them!

Thank you so much for another great Transformation Tuesday post. Please keep taking before and after pictures and sending them over--I'd rather have a long queue of posts than to have to keep begging for more submissions ;)

To submit a transformation, just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Don't forget to include your name and a description of the transformation. Thanks!

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Enjoying the Man Cave

Today has been a long afternoon of baseball (double-headers are draining, and I’m not even the one playing!). I’m actually writing this from my phone in between innings of the second game—I’m not going to write when I get home because I still have to cook a late dinner.

I’m just glad the weather is warming up. At the last double-header, it was SO COLD I felt like I would get frostbite. With my hat, sunglasses, cap, and hoodie, I looked like Kevin Bacon in the movie Hollow Man, hahaha.

I've really missed working on projects in the garage since I decided to give my body a rest. When I was in the garage yesterday screening VHS tapes (the TV in the house doesn't have the right cable connections for a VCR, so I had to use the garage TV) it occurred to me that I don't have to work on projects to enjoy the garage.

So, today I brought my computer out there and sat in the "man cave" area to work on stuff while sitting in the garage, doors open, enjoying the breeze. It felt SO nice. I really should call it something other than "man cave", because I use it more than Jerry or the boys ;)

While I was sitting there, I realized that I still hadn't put up the garage door screens I'd bought last year. Because we like to hang out in the garage when the weather is nice, we got some screens that go across the opening of the doors--we have a two-car door in the front and a one-car door in the back. The screens are meant to keep bugs from flying inside while still enjoying the weather.

Setting up the screens was easy--I should've done it in the fall! It just attaches with velcro. You don't have to put it up and take it down all the time--the screen doesn't interfere with the door's movement. There is a slit in the center for walking through and it's held together with magnets. The screen is not exactly attractive-looking, but I'm all about the functionality of this--I'm excited to sit in the garage on summer nights and not have mosquitos seeking me out!

(This is the one I bought - Amazon affiliate link. I can't tell you if I love it yet because I only put it up today. But so far, so good. The quality is nice.)

I should've cleaned up the garage before taking a picture, but you get the idea. Anyway, I sat out there all afternoon until it was time to go to Eli's games.

Jerry is off work tonight and I feel like we haven't hung out in forever--we've been really busy on his days off. So, that's why I wanted to get this post written now. We don't have plans to do anything special tonight, but we'll probably play a board game or watch a movie or something. 

Tomorrow is Transformation Tuesday, so if you have any before and after photos of a transformation you'd like to share, please email them to me! Include your name and a description of the transformation as well. The email address is Katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. If I wind up with several, I'll save some for next week. As always, thanks for sharing--I love the inspiration of before and after photos--cleaning, organizing, DIY projects, weight loss, hair cuts, all of it!

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Our First Date (as told by 21-year old me!)

Yesterday was the anniversary of Jerry's and my first date 22 years ago! It is crazy to me that we've been together so long. I have done lots of anniversary type posts on my blog, so I don't want to be redundant (and this isn't even our wedding anniversary). Instead, I decided to allow my 21-year old self to tell you the story of Jerry's and my first date!

I don't have a photo from the date, but this might be the first photo of us together--so this is what we looked like back then:

A couple of years ago, I bought a VCR at Salvation Army with the intention of recording my old VHS home videos so that I could have them on the computer. I never got around to doing it (I needed a particular cable--I have three sizes of video tapes).

Unfortunately, the only way I was able to get this video was to record the TV while I was playing it from the VHS--so the quality is not good (not that it was great to begin with!). If I can somehow figure out what I need to convert the VHS tapes to digital without having to record the TV with my phone, I'll be thrilled; until then, though, this will have to do.

So, here is the story of Jerry's and my first date on May 15, 1999--told to the camera on May 25, 2003. We'd had a bowl with a bunch of questions written on scraps of paper in it and we took turns drawing questions and asking them to each other. (I completely cringe when watching/hearing myself, but don't we all? Or maybe it's just me!)

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HERITAGE RECIPE: Tourtière (Meat Pie)

As promised, I have a recipe that is a little more adventurous than last week's Pumpkin Bread. I actually followed two recipes to make this--one for the crust and one for the filling. The crust recipe was actually submitted to the Rockwood, Michigan Area Historical Society by my grandma! I wish I had memories of this, but sadly, I do not--most of my memories of my grandma were after she developed Alzheimer's. She passed away in 1999.

My mom said that my grandma used to make Tourtière every year at Christmastime--not just for the family, but also for the priests at church and for close friends. She made it for the family every Christmas Eve. Her filling recipe wasn't in the book, unfortunately but there were three other recipes for the filling. Here is a photo of my grandma ("Gobby") and me:

The recipe I chose for the filling was submitted by Carol Tilly in memory of her great-grandmother Rose (Beaubien) Laura. Carol was born in 1930 and passed away in 2018. The year she graduated high school, she was one of only SIX in her class! She was also the Valedictorian. Later on, she volunteered for veterans' services, crocheting lap blankets for veterans in the VA hospital--how sweet is that?

Carol's great-grandmother, Rose, was born in 1866 and passed away in 1959. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any info about her, other than what I'll share below. I chose her recipe because tourtière is a French-Canadian dish, and her last name (Beaubien) sounded French to me--and I figured it was my best chance at an authentic recipe! (Hey, whatever works.)

I even found a picture of each of them... Carol is on the left and Rose (her great-grandmother) is on the right.

Sorry if this is boring, but I found it very interesting! I was able to find Rose on geni.com, an ancestry site, and I kept digging back generations to see if any of her relatives were born in Quebec, Canada--that's where the Tourtière recipe originated. And sure enough, Rose's great-great-grandfather was Jean-Baptiste Cuillerier Dit Cuillerier dit Beaubien (I had to copy and paste that, haha) from Quebec, born in 1709. He died in Detroit, so I can assume that he is the one who emigrated from Canada to the States, bringing the family name.

If my assumptions are correct, then I like to think that this is an authentic tourtière recipe from Quebec in the 1700's. Fun! Okay, I'll get on with it...

As usual, I am copying this recipe exactly as written, but make sure you read my notes. (If you plan to make the recipe, use the printable copy linked below, because I rewrote it to be easier to follow.) Also, I made this exactly as written--no substitutions or changes.

Here is a printer-friendly version!

First, my grandma's recipe for the crust...

French Pastry for Tourtière

2 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter
3 Tbsp. lard
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

Sift flour and salt. Add butter and lard. Blend with pastry blender. Beat egg and milk together. Stir into flour mixture. Chill 1 hour.

My notes: This is very self-explanatory--it was easy to make, even for me (who is notorious for screwing up baked goods). I prepared this and while it was chilling, I worked on the filling. This makes enough for the bottom- and top- crust for one pie.

Tourtière (Meat Pie)

1-1/2 lbs. ground pork
1-1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 or 4 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
dash nutmeg
1/2 tsp. sage
Pie crust for 3 pies

Combine first 8 ingredients (meat and seasonings) in large pan. Cover with water. Boil, uncovered, 30-45 minutes. Stir often to prevent sticking. Cook potatoes; mash and add to drained meat. Add sage and salt and pepper if needed. Remove bay leaves. Fill pie crusts. Cover with top crust. Bake 45-60 minutes at 400 F. (A traditional Christmas treat.)

My notes:

The first thing I noticed was the potatoes--they aren't listed in the ingredients list. I wasn't sure how many I needed, so I looked at some other recipes for tourtière to get an idea; for this amount of meat, it looked like 3-6 potatoes). I had four large potatoes at home, so I used those. It turned out to be the perfect amount. (I would guess the potatoes were probably 10 oz each? I should have weighed them. But it's not crucial to get the perfect amount of potatoes.)

I'd never cooked ground meat this way before (in water) so it was fun to try something different. I'm not sure why you don't add the sage in with the meat while it's cooking, but I followed the directions.

It says pie crust for three pies, but when I was done making this, the filling was only enough for two pies. This is the texture of the filling:

To assemble: Divide the dough in half. On a floured countertop, roll out one half of the dough in a large circle, big enough to cover the bottom and sides of a pie plate. Spread half of the meat filling into the dough-lined plate. Roll out the other half of the dough and drape it across the top. Pinch the edges of top and bottom crust together. Cut a few slits in the top to release steam while baking.

I only made one pie; I put the other half of the filling in a Ziploc bag and set it in the freezer to make another day.

The verdict: I SO BADLY wanted to love this! And I would have... if it weren't for the cinnamon and nutmeg. My family agreed. The texture was nice, the crust turned out great, but I just wasn't crazy about the cinnamon-nutmeg flavor with the meat and potatoes. I would definitely make this again, but I would change the spices.

This was a fun recipe, even though I spent two hours making it! I can see why this was reserved for Christmas Eve dinner ;)

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Friday Night Photos

I don't have a lot of photos today, but I do have a couple of pretty interesting ones...

First, Jerry got a great photo of the fox that's been hanging around. I've seen him trotting past our house a few times now. I really love where we live--with the state land/marsh across the street, we see a lot of fun nature.

Jerry finally power washed our house and deck. I've been asking him to do it for a while, but it seemed like it was either raining or we had something going on every day that he was off work. I would have done it myself, but he told me that it would be killer on my hands/arms. One of the most painful things for me to do is to squeeze something and he said you have to squeeze the trigger and handle the whole time you're spraying.

Anyway, I knew the deck was terrible and needed to be power washed, but I was not at all prepared for the before and after pictures. It's gross! We usually power wash every year in the spring, but last year we didn't do it. When our "bug guy" came to spray the house for spiders, he said not to power wash the house afterward because we'll get spiders again. So this time, we knew better--we power washed the day before he came. (Spiders are probably the biggest drawback to living across from the marsh!)

These pictures are from before, then immediately after (when it was still wet) and then the next day. We want to stain or paint the deck this year--we just haven't decided exactly what we're going to do yet. The stain we had on it faded a long time ago.

And then, most horrifying, is this picture when Jerry was actually doing the power washing. Look at the difference!

I attempted the Color Street Nails again. It's been at least six months since I first tried it--I'd sealed the leftover pieces back in the plastic so that I could use them again in the future. However, I never found a good time because I was always working with my hands, like drywalling the garage and building things out of wood. It just seemed pointless to try to do my nails.

They look better than the first time, but there are still some spots that I messed up a little. They took a long time to apply because I was trying to be very careful, and I find applying nail polish to be easier--but I love how durable the Color Street strips are. When I use nail polish, it gets chipped within 24 hours. With the Color Street strips, they lasted until my nail grew out a bit and there was an obvious gap between my cuticles and the color (maybe two weeks?); they never chipped. I'd love to be able to paint my nails and have it last at least 4-5 days without chipping or peeling.

Finally, here is a meme/ad that Jerry saw and sent to me. I love seeing these sorts of memes about the insane cost of lumber right now! So funny.

Have a great weekend! xo

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Finding a Cat Sitter

A rare photo of all four cats together

I have been sitting with my computer on my lap for at least 30 minutes, and I haven't written a single word (until this sentence). I am SO tired that I can't even really think. I didn't get much sleep last night--it was one of those nights were I was super tired but my body just wouldn't let me fall asleep--and I've had a fairly busy day.

I had my second COVID-19 vaccine this morning, so that could be making me feel tired, too. When Jerry got his, he was super tired, and had chills and body aches. I haven't had any side effects other than a very sore shoulder where the injection was given. It was totally worth it, because I now feel like a big weight has been lifted; even though I was never extremely fearful of COVID-19, it was definitely on my mind when going to the store, or when the kids would go to school, etc. 

This afternoon, our new cat sitter came over so I could show her the ropes of taking care of the cats while we are on vacation in July. (We're going to my sister's property in the upper peninsula.) We're taking Joey with us, but I don't want to leave the cats alone--I worry too much about them.

It's kind of interesting how I met her (the sitter). After I'd gotten our new couch from Facebook Marketplace, I set our old couches at the end of the driveway, hoping someone would take them. They were still there the next day, and I really didn't want to have to call the garbage company to collect them.

That afternoon, there was a knock on the door and when I answered it, there was a girl (she's 18, but I say "girl" because 18 looks so young!) standing there and she asked me about the couches. She was wondering if I was getting rid of them and when I told her yes, she's welcome to take them, she was thrilled. She said she'd just gotten her first apartment and needed furniture.

She (I'll call her "Sara") wasn't able to pick them up at the time because she didn't have a truck, but she said her brother would be able to get them the following week. So, she helped me move them into the garage. She was super friendly and I loved that she was so excited about the couches--I really didn't want to throw them away. 

Her brother and dad came to pick them up, and they were just as friendly as she was. They thanked me for the couches and that was that. Then, the day before Easter, I got a call from Sara. She said she wanted to invite my family to her church on Easter morning and an Easter egg hunt afterward for the kids (she hadn't known my boys are teens). Her dad is the pastor and they'd just opened the church last fall.

I didn't go, but I asked her about the church and I learned that it's actually the little chapel that Jerry and I got married in back in 2003! Quite the coincidence. I sent her a picture from our wedding, because it looked quite different inside than it does now (from the pictures I saw on Facebook).

Anyway, I got a good vibe from her. She had been walking dogs when she first walked past my house (when she spotted the couches) so I knew she liked dogs. I'd been worried about who we were going to have cat-sit for us in July, and it occurred to me to ask her if she'd be interested. I figured she could probably use the money, having just gotten her first apartment.

So we made plans for her to come over so that I could show her the basics of what we'd need, and she came today. I loved the way she interacted with the pets, and she was even excited about feeding the squirrels. I feel like she's a good choice! I'll have her come over again before we leave to go over everything, but I am happy to not have to worry about the cat situation anymore.

It's interesting how things like this work out :) 

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Pain Update

Well, it was a week ago that I said I was going to take a break--of everything--for at least a few weeks, in the hope that it would alleviate the chronic pain I've been experiencing since at least 2017. This pain has progressively been getting worse, to the point where it's unbearable sometimes, and I realized I hadn't taken a break from laborious projects since before I started remodeling the house in 2017. Jerry suggested I stop all physical activity and let my body rest for a while.

I am so thankful for all of the kind and helpful comments on that post! It was really great to read others' input, and it encouraged me to make an appointment with a rheumatologist. It wasn't easy getting an appointment, but I did manage to get in touch with someone today who can see me via video chat on the 28th of this month.

I really would prefer an in-person appointment, but doctors' offices are doing video for the time being because of COVID-19. The receptionist told me that the first appointment would basically be going over all of my symptoms and then the doctor will order tests based on the symptoms I'm having--so I'm good with that. I really just want to get the ball rolling with the correct tests so I can hopefully get some answers.

I've taken the past week off of physical activity, and it's been really hard! There are so many things I've wanted to do, but I wanted to give this a real try and see if I noticed an improvement in my symptoms.

And unfortunately, there is no difference at all. I still can't do anything without pain. It's only been a week, so I'm going to give it more time, but I thought I'd at least feel a little better by now.

Today was a bad day--I had a migraine. Until about five weeks ago, I'd never had a migraine before. I'd had severe headaches, but never what would be classified as a migraine. And good grief, I don't know how people who have frequent migraines live like that! It was so miserable. This morning, I had a second migraine. I couldn't move my head at all without my head feeling like it was going to explode. And I couldn't even keep my eyes open because the light was blinding.

I felt terrible because Eli had an appointment at the podiatrist at 9:00. With my head feeling like it did, I couldn't imagine driving; and the appointment was in Toledo, so Eli couldn't drive (his driving permit is only good in Michigan). Jerry had gotten home from work this morning and normally would go to bed, but he ended up taking Eli to his appointment. He didn't mind doing it, but I still felt bad.

My head finally felt better by early afternoon, but I've had a mild residual headache all day. I have no idea if the migraines are related to the pain in my joints, but I'm definitely going to talk to the doctor about it.

Eli had a baseball game this evening and I drove along one of my old favorite running routes. I used to do a 12-mile run (6 miles out and then back). Driving that route today made me wish so badly that I could be back at that point--where running 12 miles was no big deal. I would get it done in the morning and then relax the rest of the day, feeling a *good* ache in my muscles. At that point, I thought I'd always be a runner.

I still have hopes of getting back to it once I get this pain situation figured out (not necessarily 12-mile runs, but a 3-miler would be nice!). I never thought I'd feel nostalgic about running, but I really do.

Well, I've got to get up early tomorrow so I can go get my second COVID vaccine. I never thought I'd be looking forward to a vaccine so much!

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