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HEEEEELLLLOOOOOO?!?!?!?!?

Is anyone out there?

Echo, Echo, Echo.

Ok - I might be exaggerating just a smidge. It has been a week since I posted. But I had a good reason. Last weekend was the big race weekend. And last week was all about getting ready for race weekend. Each night had a plan. There was cleaning the house -- more straightening up than anything. Laundry night for clean towels and sheets. The CostCo run -- thanks Mike for the maneuvering of the HUGE grocery cart with more than a little momentum. And for lugging it all around. And driving out there. Well, you get the point. Thursday was more groceries -- less bulk. For the record, back to the CostCo thing, I mean I just needed a bottle of juice. Not 8 gallons. Or, 50, MAYBE 60 plastic cups. Not 250. Bulk has its place, but wow. They are not messing around out there.

Thursday was also the start of Meghan's mini-bender. See, some folks were in town from well -- out of town, and I had said I would meet up with them. Well that kicked off at 6 PM. And then there was bowling at 9 PM. So, I went straight from drinks with friends to bowling. And sorta missed the whole dinner thing. So here I was, shooting to break 100 (again) and start off sucking it up -- big time. I know you all find this so hard to believe. Well, this other guy we work with was there -- big bowler. Unbeknowst to me, prior to that evening. He has 8 300 games. Yes, I was in the presence of greatness. So I ask Mr. PBA what I am doing wrong. For the next game and a half, we decide to work on my "technique". Which translated to even worse bowling because it all felt wrong. Starting with my left foot rather than right, locking my wrist, snapping the ball on release (huh? still don't get that one) and all the while knocking down one, maybe two pins at a time.

Allow me to put this all in perspective. With our handicap we had like 230 pins on the other team. They STILL almost beat us. So the obvious answer to a bad bowling night, no dinner and a weekend where you are entertaining 50+ people?

Simple.

Keep drinking.

Martine calls it grieving through socializing.

So, when I got to work on Friday (at 7:55 AM thank you) I think I might have still been drunk.

Yes, I am 32.

Yes, I am professional

No, I should not be doing these things on a school night.

Oh, and of course, all my projects at work are hemorrhaging from every possible orifice and I had planned on leaving early that day.

Suffice it to say, I did get through the day -- with the help of some grease. And did leave at 1 PM to go pick up the team shirts and do ANOTHER grocery store run before people started showing up at 5 PM for shirt pick up. And my dad and my sister and three of her friends were due in town at any point. This is what the chaos in my house looked like at one point:

Yes - I had shirts everywhere. These were on top of the official Komen shirts, so we were in good shape. Shirt pick up went well. Had some snacks and drinks for people that wanted to stick around. And some of them did. Good to catch up with people and forgot how many of you hadn't been to the house so gave a few 10 cent tours. Good thing I had picked up all the underwear. Kidding.

Sorta.

Well of course, it dawned on me about 9:30 PM and more than a few beers later, that I still had two egg casseroles to make along with 2 huge potato casseroles for the 50 + people I had promised breakfast to. So about 10 PM we started cooking. I had some great help from my sisters friends. Not my sister grant you. She just sat her butt out back and kept the cocktails flowing. But Lindsey and Morgan kicked into high gear and made some pig their bitch. Translation: they cooked the bacon. I will say that we were almost bested by an onion. But Ms. Morgan had a solution for that:

Yes, that is right. We wear our sunglasses at night. I am not sure that they actually helped in keeping me from tearing up for about 20 minutes, but hey, they looked cool and when you are c
cooking at 10:30 on a Friday night and you have had a few cocktails, they seem like the perfect answer to a rather teary issue.

So, we managed to get all the cooking done by about 11 PM -- and even managed to get the kitchen cleaned up. Called it a night around 1ish because I had people showing up starting at 8:15 AM the following morning. I got up around 7 to get some last minute stuff done around the house. And of course had my first of two breakdowns in the morning. I was sitting there, having my coffee, thinking about getting my race number pinned on to my shirt and then realized I needed one of the "I race in Celebration.." of signs. And then realized that I was going to have to change my sign this year. " I race in Memory of..." That was one of the toughest things I have done, reaching for that sheet. And I just stood there and stared at it for a good 5 minutes or so before Courtney came downstairs and she was like, can you write one for me. I told her give me a few minutes, I am having a little bit of an issue with this one this morning. But I did manage to get not one but two of them done. One for me and one for Courtney.

So slowly all the people started showing up. And we managed to all get downtown and hit the race in time -- which was something of a miracle considering all the bodies. Got a team picture -- of course that is only about 1/2 the team. It is on the Flickr site. It was a good walk. It was a little crowded at first but once the crowd got its pace and spread out, it was pretty nice. Except it was 80 freakin' degrees on an OCTOBER morning. IN IOWA. I think Al Gore may be on to something. So, aside from a slightly warmer morning than was anticipated, we had a great turn out. I think the announcer placed the total count somewhere in excess of 22,000 people. Which is a lot -- especially for Des Moines. Now we did have a few uber-ambitious folk that not only ran, but wanted to get timed. Big congrats to Andrea & Matt, finishing 170th & 168th in their respective groups (women & men) and to Steven who finished 35th in the mens standings.

Yes, that means that about the time we were completing our first mile, they were done, had cooled down and were headed back home to shower and wait for my walking ass to get home and get the food cooked.

But -- she had a plan. HAHHA.

Actually, it sorta solved itself. My father wasn't going to walk the whole 3.1 (yes Courtney, 3.1 miles) miles. He made it about 3/4 of a mile before the knees gave in. So I told him, no sweat -- head home and get the food in the oven.

The rest of the race went well. My second emotional part of the day was when we got to the finish line. Survivors have their own chute to finish through. They get a rose, have a whole cheering section and so on. Watching all these women walk through the finish line and get cheered on was just a little too much.

So there was that.

But on the whole, it was a really good day. Made it home, all the girls had beat me to the punch and had all the food set out, the bar set up and things kicked off in full swing. See all the pictures on the Flickr page link on the left. We did find out later that day that our "racy" team name had made the Des Moines Register. You can check out the article here. Of course, this was day three of the Meghan's Race Bender. Bloody Mary's and beer until about 5ish -- when I needed a "nap". Right.

I think everyone had a good time. I know that I did. It had all the makings of a really emotional day, and it was but in a good way.
And to top it all off, I got a picture of all the muchkins that raced in their team shirts and I think it might just be my favorite picture of all time:

That's Cloud, Emerald and Noah. All of them sporting the coolest in 7 month old gear. Kills me. Every time.

We did of course, have to go out for dinner and then had to keep the trend alive as it was LaNiya's birthday weekend. Those pictures are also posted.

Sunday was all about two things. Sleep and football. Oh, and reclaiming my house. But mostly sleep and football. Bears managed to pull one out against the Pack -- and I couldn't be happier. AND

I got to watch the "Rock of Love: The Reunion" show on Vh1. More train wreck. More trashiness. More bad hair. I heart it.

Ok, now that I have brought you up to speed -- sorta, I will sign off. I promise I won't wait a week between posts anymore. In theory, I am through the craziness and can start getting back to normal life. Whatever that might be.

Now Listening: Walk the Line Soundtrack