Back in the Saddle Again

Shock of all shocks, I didn't do anything overly special on my day off for President's Day. Not terribly surprising. On Sunday, Esther made enough stew to feed an army, so we invited Alicia and Kaila over for dinner, and we had a good time eating with them. I think Esther and Kaila are kindred spirits. If they weren't Mormon, they'd be Jewish. That's all there is to it. Once we were done eating, Alicia stuck around and helped me listen to Esther play her viola. I'm not sure when the last time Esther got it out was, but I was glad she did, because I got to play with her a bit, and I really like being able to do that. It's always really fun. We also danced around to "Hava Nagila" like idiots. It was cool. Nerdy, but cool. (wait, is that possible? being nerdy and cool? hmm . . .)

Esther and me with the Valentine's Day flowers . . .
we bought ourselves.

Monday morning brought Alicia and Kaila over to our place once more for a yummy breakfast (hooray for bacon!) and watching Everything is Illuminated, which Esther immediately fell in love with and promptly ordered once we finished. I really liked it, as well, so I'm glad that Esther bought it and I live with her so I don't have to buy it to watch it.

More pictures of us lovely women

Esther also got the "Spruce Moose" from her sister, so that now means that come Wednesdays, I don't have to drive her to and pick her up from the temple anymore! It was kind of weird to not have to do that when Wednesday rolled around this week. I've gotten so used to it. Now I don't have to be the constant chauffeur. Well, at least for Esther I don't. Although now we get to play "musical cars" in the morning when I leave for work, because it's usually the Moose that parks behind Douglas in the driveway rather than the other way around.

When I left the temple on Thursday, it was just too beautiful a day to not take a couple of pictures, even with my wet hair that didn't look terribly attractive

I resumed running this week. Now that it's no longer ten degrees outside, I'm willing to run outside again (which is the only way i run, so the last time i went running was probably in november . . . oops!). Don't get me wrong; it's still plenty cold. But it's warm enough that I'm willing to brave the coldness of it (which sounds a little oxymoronic, but it makes sense in my head) to run once more. I just need to make sure my ears are sufficiently covered, because cold ears is usually the most excruciating experience of running in the cold for me. (although, my lungs wanting to explode on me yesterday was no picnic, either.) But I'm feeling good about getting back in the habit. Hooray for good habits! (especially since i have so few of those . . .)

-Me

"The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired in the first half." -Fyodor Dostoevsky