Posts Tagged ‘Home’
… as in “feel like”. I started feeling a bit of a scratch in my throat on Sunday, but ignored it. It was still there Monday morning, which was also when I couldn’t figure why I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. My throat got progressively worse as the day went on, as did how I felt. Yesterday, I had a fever, still had the sore throat and still felt like shit warmed over. Today, pretty much the same, but at least no fever. I’m going to the minute clinic to get a throat swab and to get some antibiotics. I’ve been using my sinus irrigater (sp?) every morning and night — and this morning, I coughed up some pretty nasty gunk from the back of my sore throat after irrigation. Hence the decision to go to the dreaded clinic. I go to the minute clinic at CVS for things like this because it’s so damn hard to just show up at my doctor’s office and get in to see her spur of the moment. Plus, if this is strep, I don’t have time to wait until July for an appointment.
Tomorrow? It’s the Track Shack Corporate 5k in downtown Orlando at 7:15pm. My office has been planning on participating for over six months. I designed our team shirt. Am I running? I have no earthly idea at this point. I feel tired just getting up out of my chair. The SO has threatened to keep me at home if things don’t significantly improve. If I can’t go and run, I will be extremely disappointed and pissed. I need a punching bag. Except, I don’t know if I have enough energy to punch anything.
Speaking of crap, we had the godson this past weekend. Well, actually, Friday evening through Saturday afternoon we had him. He’s always great; he’s 2 and-a-half but has the greatest attitude and always seems to be in a good mood. The poor thing got the shits on the way as we were taking him home to his mommies. We had to pull over and change him twice. (The car smelled like baby shit until yesterday.) Just as we pulled into their subdivision, he pooped again. This time, it was massive. We zoomed in, got him out and handed him over, crapped pants and all. 
Actually, once we got inside their house, I volunteered to change him (I’m a saint, apparently). With me in front removing his pull-ups, his one mommy on one side and the SO on the other, we all said a collective, “WHOA!” as the pants came off. There was poo all the way up to the poor kid’s navel. I think I used an entire container of wipies getting him cleaned up.
So although there’s been a lot that’s been going on around here, at this point, I’m too poopy (as in attitude and general overall feeling) to write about it. Maybe I’ll get around to it later, post-antibiotic. For now, send good ju-ju so I can run the 5k tomorrow night!
You’d think I’d forgotten this blog was here, wouldn’t you? Actually, I hadn’t forgotten, I’ve just been a wee, little bit side-tracked.
Launching an online presence is still a daunting task, but with social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, it’s really gotten a lot easier to reach a target audience. With that being said, I’ve been busy creating another site and establishing my online presence for that site. Having two Twitter accounts can be a lot like juggling; you want to make sure you’re tweeting from the correct account — and as a rule, I don’t retweet my tweets from one account to the other (at least not without a full disclosure). I’ve not hidden the fact that I am the same person behind both accounts, but one is for me personally (@ChariD), and the other is for my business, Intrepid Athlete Designs (@IntrepidAthlete). The Facebook page for Intrepid Athlete is here. If you’re so inclined, please become a fan!
Anyway, I just wanted to update the blog and make sure that all 1.5 of my readers knows what I’m up to and that I haven’t forgotten about this place.
I’m still running, just keeping up with keeping up and I have a couple, maybe three 5k races coming up. The first is the Corporate 5k in downtown Orlando on April 15th. The next is April 24th (maybe; I still haven’t registered) in Winter Park and the third is the Walt Disney World Expedition Everest Challenge. That one includes an obstacle course interwoven throughout the race — should be interesting. We have a 2-person team — my friend Jenn and I. Our team name is Twisted Sisters. Yes, it fits. We have matching Intrepid Athlete necklaces (2 discs) with our team name. We’ll also be wearing matching Bondi Bands which are red with white skulls all over. We’re stylin’ — get back now.
If you get the chance, please do go check out Intrepid Athlete and let me know what you think. I also wouldn’t be too upset if you ordered a necklace or two. 
This morning while drinking our coffee (around 5:30 am), the SO and I were watching the news and occasionally commenting on current events and happenings locally. For some reason, something sparked a memory from almost 12 years ago. It was a favor that was asked of me by a friend of ours regarding a kitten and Christmas.
At the time, I was living alone in my duplex (I lived in/owned 1/2 of a duplex); a two-bedroom, one bath tiny place — but it was home and it was mine. The SO and I were dating then and we hung out with another couple every now and then. One of them, I’ll call her ‘R’, asked me if I’d do her a favor. She had bought a kitten and wanted to give it to ‘J’ for Christmas. The thing is, it was still 2 weeks from Christmas and she needed to “hide” the kitten somewhere until Christmas Eve. That’s were I came in. R wanted me to pick the kitten up from the pet store and keep it at my house until Christmas Eve, when she’d come by and get it.
Sounds easy enough, right? ::rolls eyes::
So of course, I said I’d do it. The next day, arrangements were made for me to pick up this little calico ball of fur from the pet store. She was beautiful, as most calicos are; I held her in the palm of my hand and she looked up at me with little flicks of light bouncing off the crazy, shooting fuzz hairs all over her body and head. I almost fell into a cute coma. She sat in her little box on the way home and cleaned herself. She purred and mewed and was downright sickeningly adorable. The next two weeks were going to be a breeze and I’d have a cute little companion who would sit in my lap and sleep while I watched TV or read a book.
Then reality stepped in and I awoke from my trance.
The first night, I invited the SO over for dinner and to meet “Christmas Cookie” (R picked the name, so don’t blame me). When the SO got there however, Cookie was nowhere to be found. I figured she had been frightened by the doorbell or the extra person so I wasn’t too worried about it. Did I mention that I had a little dog at the time and had a little dog door that lead out to the backyard? No, I didn’t. Well I did have a little dog door that lead out to the backyard. I didn’t lock it shut because then my dog wouldn’t be able to get out and pee; he had issues.
Anyway, after spending an hour trying to find Cookie, it was officially determined that OMG, COOKIE WENT OUT THE DOG DOOR INTO KITTY HELL. How could an itty, bitty, fuzzy kitten survive out in the wild that was my backyard? We searched the yard, which was fenced, and could find nothing. It was then officially determined that OMG, COOKIE WAS EATEN BY AN OWL, or some other horrid predator that would completely ignore the cuteness that was Cookie and who would eat her in one gulp.
We freaked, to say the least.
All I could think of was that R had asked me to do this one simple thing and I had managed to not only get a kitten killed/eaten, but I had also completely ruined a very nice couple’s entire Christmas — before Christmas had even arrived. How talented am I?
The SO asked if I had a newspaper. No, I don’t have a newspaper — I lived like a frat boy — I worked, ran, ate pizza and dated the SO; that was my life, no frills, no newspaper. And why the hell do you want a damn newspaper? The world as we knew it was ending, small animals were dying and Christmas was now the date of a Major Disaster.
We got in my truck, drove down to the corner convenience store and bought a paper. We sat there in the parking lot and the SO looked through the classified ads looking for anyone who was selling/giving away calico kittens. Genius, if you ask me; R had never seen the kitten! We spent an hour on the cell phone in my truck calling all over metro Orlando and found no calico kittens. Apparently, Christmas Cookie was the only calico kitten around for miles. Except she wasn’t around any more.
We went back to my duplex and tried to brainstorm some more. That’s when I heard The Noise. It was coming from a stand-alone pantry near the dog door in the kitchen. Something was scratching and making knocking noises. Then we heard the little, “mew”. I pulled the pantry away from the wall, and out walked Christmas Cookie! Just like nothing had happened. I have no idea how she got in there, but she’d been all curled up under there sleeping and had just woke up and realized she didn’t know how to get out.
After locking the dog door (sorry, dog your issues will have to wait), we went into the bedroom. We had this thing where we’d turn off the lights, light several candles next to the bed and we’d sit in bed and read books and talk. It was usually very relaxing and a time to unwind and just be together. Usually.
Christmas Cookie had been laying between us on the bed, occasionally rolling over on her back to swat at our hands or jump up and pounce on our feet. She suddenly got up and walked the full length of the bed, up from our feet and made a beeline for my face. She sat on my chest and playfully tapped my chin with her paw. I turned to the SO, started commenting on how CUTE this kitten was, and in that moment, the stupid cat stuck her FACE into the candle that was sitting next to me on the nightstand. It was a nanosecond, she backed up and I grabbed her almost immediately — but the damage was done.
The kitten now had no whiskers. There were these scrunched-up black, stinky nubs in their place.
Two weeks was going to be an eternity.
From then on out, Christmas Cookie was placed into the bathroom sink (which I lined with a little hand towel), where she’d sleep securely. The toilet was closed as was the bathroom door. We cleaned up her whisker nubs as best as we could, but by the time I handed Cookie over to R on Christmas Eve, they still hadn’t grown back. R gave the kitten an odd look and then looked at me as I whistled a tune, shuffled my feet and looked elsewhere.
A few months later, we spoke with R and asked how Christmas Cookie was doing. She had fit right in with the 2 big dogs, the 2 little dogs and the one old grumpy cat already living there with them (it was a freakin’ zoo, people). R mentioned there was one weird thing about Cookie though — for some reason, she insisted on sleeping in the bathroom sink.
Have you ever done a favor for a friend and had it almost completely blow up in your face?
The last few times we’ve tried to do laundry, our less-than-3-year-old front loading washing machine [you know, the expensive cool-looking kind] has stopped just before the final spin. No error, no beeps; it just won’t drain and then the “no spin” light comes on and it just stops. The door lock stays on, but no other lights. We can push the cancel button, which unlocks the door, but then we’re left with completely wet clothing and the whole bottom of the inside of the washer is filled with water. Grrr.
Being the I-can-do-anything type, I went online and googled our issue. A bunch of certified repairmen informed me that I needed to replace either the door lock [which appears to be working - for $48.50] or the control board [which is a PCB - printed circuit board - costing over $100]. Me? I figure the drain tubes or the pump [both inside] are clogged with goo. Cat hair, people hair, cleaning gunk; you never know what something will turn into once it’s left to congeal in a plastic drain tube. Blech.
I took the top off the washer, removed the front panel, removed the door and then removed the entire front of the thing. There were several steps in there over which I’ve glossed, but you get the idea. I used a pliers to open the clamp holding one end of the drain tube — the one attached to the pump. OMG — the water that came out of there STINKS. The scent of rotten eggs wafted out and permeated the laundry room. My cat came out of nowhere and was literally climbing over me to see from where the dead smell was coming. Sometimes, pets are gross.
After opening up the clamp on the other end, up where it meets the inside back of the washer, I removed the entire drain tube and brought it over to the kitchen sink. I filled it with hot water and let it sit and then carefully blew through it to force any goo out. I then sanitized my face.
The pump needed cleaning, so I wiped it out — which consisted of me rummaging around with my index finger to remove anything ::gag:: inside. I put everything back together and realized, “wow — there’s a lot of exposed metal in there”, as I found that the itchy area on my pinky finger had actually been sliced and diced by something inside the washer. Once I’d sanitized and sand blasted my finger to remove any germs, I put a load of clothes in and crossed my fingers for half an hour as it went through it’s cycles.
People, IT WORKED! I am a genius. Yes — you can make a note of that and send me congratulations. Send sanitizer too, I’m running low for some reason.
As I’d mentioned last week, we went to Colorado to spend Christmas with my family. We left Orlando Wednesday morning at 8:17am and arrived in Denver at 10:30am. It was snowing! But it wasn’t the kind of nice, light snow you see in commercials. It was windy and the sky, roads and everything were the same color — white. To top it off, our rental car was rear-wheel drive, so we learned quickly about turning into the skid…
The rental car company had a deal where they would pick the car we’d have — and it was guaranteed to be a medium size or better, depending on what was on the lot. They had plenty of cars; even ones smaller than a medium, but they still insisted on giving us a Dodge Charger. The Charger is a great car — don’t get me wrong — but it’s rear-wheel drive and not the best on slick, icy roads and turns. The rental company said they’d give us a smaller, front-wheel drive car instead, but we’d have to pay $15 a day extra for the smaller car. The rental agent even warned us about driving in snow with a rear-wheel drive car, but in the end he sided with profit and not the safety of his customer. He was also a turd attitude-wise.
You remember in rental car commercials how they show the stalls with the rental cars are covered and the rental agent runs out with an umbrella and assists you with getting your luggage in the car? Well, that’s sheer fantasy as far as this rental company goes at Denver International. The stalls were out in the open and all the cars were covered with at least half a foot of snow and the windows were iced. I went to the car and found a brush and a scraper inside and swept the snow off the hood and windows. I then scraped the ice off the windows, which froze my fingertips, even though I was wearing lined leather gloves — OUCH. I found the key and backed the car up to the SO [Significant Other] and our luggage. We loaded it up, fired up our GPS [which we call Chickie-chickie] and we were on our way; albeit in a relatively good mood, but things could have started out much better.
My folks weren’t expecting us until the next day; we had told them we were taking a much later flight on Wednesday and so we wouldn’t be able to get out to their house until Thursday morning. My sister Melanie was already there, as she had flown in from Seattle a little bit after we had landed. My folks picked her up — we hustled when we landed so we wouldn’t all run into each other at the airport — that would’ve kind of ruined the surprise! I wish I had taken a picture of my Mom’s face when she opened the door and saw us standing there; it was priceless. First confusion, then surprise, then fake anger! The first thing she yelled out was, “you little liars!”
It was great to have the whole family together. As mentioned earlier, I hadn’t seen my sister Mel [she's one year younger than me] in over 12 years. My youngest sister, Leigha [she's 8 years younger than me], came over a little later in the day after she got off work. The SO took a great family photo of us:
[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignnone" width="392" caption="Leigha, Dad, Mel, Mom and Me"]
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You can tell I live in Florida — I’m the one with the tan.
Silly sister pic:
Gratuitous snowy scene [the sun FINALLY came out the next day]:
And my sister Melanie and I had a great reunion after not seeing each other for over 12 years. Sisters, just like best friends, just pick up where they left off:
With regard to training… I ended up just running on a treadmill and using a stationary bike in the hotel workout room. It was just too cold for my lungs and I didn’t have the correct cold weather gear to even attempt a run outside. Not to mention that the initial snow had packed down and new snow had fallen over it, freezing the old snow. I didn’t feel like breaking a leg out there. Even inside on the treadmill, the altitude and the lack of oxygen in the air [lack of oxygen being relative...] made it difficult to breathe. Just walking up stairs would make you temporarily winded and exhausted.
We had a great time, but it was wonderful to get home. We stepped off the plane, breathed in the warmer, humid Orlando air and knew it was good to be home. A cold front had come through just before we landed, but compared to Firestone, Colorado, it was a heat wave.
In just a little over a week, the Disney Half Marathon will be here! I just hope this vacation didn’t add any pounds and that I didn’t lose any fitness due to my limited training while gone.
How was your Christmas holiday?
