Nesting

Thank you IKEA for your mind-numbing illustration-only instructions

We are about four weeks away from welcoming our newest member to the family. Mr. Stork should arrive sometime around the 14th or 15th of August, and we have been busy converting this house from a three person abode into a four person home (not counting the 72 lb. dogshit machine). Some of you have been asking about names. We aren't announcing but we are considering Suar, Jamoosha, and possibly Nitmosa though it's so tough to pin down the pronunciation on that last one (long O sounds like a drink in Okinawa, short O sounds like a monster in Okinawa ---a very small squeeky monster).

So the conversion of the office, computer room/storage room was necessary and daunting to say the least. I have made two big trips to Goodwill, numerous trips to the dumpster, and assembled the mommy chair, crib, and dresser/changing table, hung the flowery curtain, and painted the room pink. I can't believe how much stuff we had.

She will have to sleep on that until I can get the energy to finish the crib

Look carefully and you can see the faint outline image of the little old lady who was strangled in this room

We are also in the process of teaching our son to use the potty. Holy Moses! He likes the movie Cars (hates the band which is a shame since I like them a lot and they have recently reformed), so we set up his bathroom like a Pixar museum with milestone prizes taped to the mirror. So far, he just sits there on the throne for a half hour or so playing games on the iPad until we get tired and get him down and he promptly lets loose.

The diecast cars for a tinkle and the DVD for a deuce

Playing Mr. Giggle and Caveman Bowling on the ipad

Running has been going fairly well lately. I have been running three to four times per week including a track speed session on Thursdays. It's been hot (duh), so that has slowed my pace a bit, but I'm injury free and feeling good about keeping this base. I ran in the Arizona Road Racers Summer Series 5K yesterday morning and had a hard time keeping my paces according to plan, and finished over a minute slower than the target. Oh well. The main road to South Tempe was closed, the line to the six* porta potties was enormous and I was not able to line up with my pace group, and I left my inhaler back in the car. Meh, wtf. My summer race season is now closed --the next race is in late September, and my goal is to maintain a base through the remaining summer and get our daughter situated in her barracks.

* really there were only five since one was so badly desecrated that only the most iron-stomached runners could have used it. Most of us took one look and turned back to the line for a do-over clemency pass for the next open door.