I Did It!

I did it AND I exceeded my fundraising goal! Thank you, thank you to everyone who gave money. As promised, I ran the whole way- I think I could have run another 5K if you asked me to. Maybe next time? I really underestimated what I thought I could do. I actually had signed up for the untimed race because I didn't want the pressure of making a certain time. When I got there though I lined up with the timed runners in the 10+ minute mile group and guess what? They were waaaay too slow! I spent the first 4 or 5 minutes of the race trying to weave in and out of everyone to get further ahead in the pack. It must have been the adrenaline. I really think I could have done the whole race in under 30 minutes if I would have been able to run at my preferred pace the entire time. I guess I'll have to tuck that information away for the next race I do. Regardless, I 'm ecstatic at how well it went and I hope to do many, many more in the future.

Plus, I got to load up on carbs at Comet afterwards. Yay!

I Also Vote for Chris Rock

This Is What I Get For Trying To Teach Them About the Electoral Process

This afternoon Michelle Obama was in West Allis, WIsconsin- just about 5 miles down the road from my house. I picked up the girls from school and headed out with a bevy of snacks in tow, a huge bottle of water, and a backpack filled with toys, crayons, notebooks, and two ipods. We waited in a big crowd of excited, friendly people for about two hours and ended up in a spot right in front of the podium. Yeah! Then, right when Michelle was being introduced and walked out to speak I heard the words I had been dreading to hear:

"MOM-MEE, I have to go POTTY!"

Gah. No photo. Nothing. I tried frantically to get one as Ava yelled at me but couldn't get my camera to focus. I probably could have figured it out if I didn't have a four-year-old grabbing her behind and crying. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Here's Michelle. So close, yet so far away.

I Vote For Tina Fey

Best line: "I can see Russia from my house!"

My Little Brother Got Married!

Victoria and Brian

God Bless Jon Stewart

Nothing beats the Daily Show's election coverage.

This. Is. Wrong.

This showed up on my inbox today forwarded from a friend of a friend. (Yes this is from a real person- it's not one of "those" forwarded emails.) Make of it what you will:

On Monday, the 17-year-old son of our friends Mandy and Melissa had
gone to the Twin Cities for the day with his pastor and a group of
teens to peacefully protest the war at the RNC. While there, he was
brutally beaten by five police officers and detained without being
Mirandized and without a phone call, despite his repeated requests to
call his parents - a violation of Minnesota law. He was ultimately
released without his wallet, phone or shirt and wandered the streets
until he met a stranger who let him borrow their cell phone to call
his mom.

It may sound far-fetched to believe that Keith didn't provoke the riot
police, but in this beautiful age of technology we live in, the truth
is contained in numerous YouTube videos and news photos showing Keith,
a practicing Buddhist, actively not behaving provacatively. Michelle
Tucker blogs for VITAL Source under the heading of The Free Speech
Zone.. She picked up the story and started gathering more information.
She has posted about it extensively today and will continue to do so.
Please go to her blog
http://www.vitalsourcemag.com/index.php/blogs/michelle to see for
yourself. And then, please, please share the URL with anyone who might
be interested. More good information is available from the Minnesota
Independent (http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/), with sites and
blogs now picking up this important story.

If you want to know even more about the protests at the RNC, do not
rely on your favorite major news organization. Go to YouTube and
search for RNC Protesters. Or dig deeper on the internet to find news
from independent sources. Corporate news companies are still toeing
the party line on this story - Anarchists got out of line, the police
heroically stepped in to save the RNC and the people of the Twin
Cities from the dangers of rioters. But this is only about 10% of what
happened yesterday. It is important to see it for yourself and make up
your own mind.

Scary. Here I was laughing at the people carrying marijuana signs behind Chris Matthews' head on MSNBC but I had no idea stuff like this was happening.

And the Veneer of the First Day Already Begins to Wear

Day two of school began this morning with me finding Juliana's backpack with cat pee all over it. Inside was the mountain of school paperwork I had spent yesterday afternoon completing. Yeah.

Things are back to normal!

No More Babies.

(Click on any of the photos for the whole gallery.)