Here’s the background: We’ve been listening a lot to Snacktime, by the Barenaked Ladies. It’s a children’s CD, but it’s fun enough for parents to enjoy too. There is this one song, Crazy ABC’s, where they go through the alphabet and list a crazy word for each of the letters and a definition of it.

Here’s the scenario: We were at dinner with my parents and my nephews. My mom was playing hangman with the kids when all of a sudden my husband comes up THE WORD to END ALL WORDS! The MOST FANTASTIC HANGMAN WORD EVER! He’s positive that they’ll NEVER EVER EVER guess it before their hangman is hung.

He tells them: _ _ _

Someone says: A

He fills it in: _ A _

Zoe says: Q

He gets a look of shock as everyone else at the table thinks our daughter has just made the dumbest letter guess ever because there isn’t a place for a U in those three slots, especially with the A in the middle.

And then she says: “qat, it’s an evergreen shrub” (quoted perfectly from the song, mind you).

Last night my husband and I ran the Superun 5K. It’s through Lake Park, and this run is challenging, but we love it anyways. Our times? Well let’s just say that we finished, and our times sucked. I hadn’t run in over two weeks, and my husband (who finished around 22 minutes last year) ran at my pace (which is no where NEAR 22 minutes).

It did not rain, and there was no beer on this race. It’s was all sunshine and hills.

The next 5K is Bastille Days, which is in July and is my favorite one of them all. I believe my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews will be running it too. That’ll be interesting. My nephews, who are 14, are now taller than me. They’ve got loooooooooooooooooooong legs and I’m willing to bet that they are going to sprint to the finish line.  

Speaking of my sister-in-law, I found out that she joined a triathlon class this summer, thinking that it would teach her the skills necessary for if she’d ever want to do a triathlon. Well, guess what, the class is ACTUALLY GOING TO DO A TRIATHLON. Yes, that’s right. She’s doing a triathlon. I think it’s a great idea, I wouldn’t want to do it — maybe one of those mini tri’s though, I could handle that.

On my birthday I decided to make a flowerbed in my backyard. It was something that we had been meaning to do since we moved in two years ago, but no one really wanted to dig up the grass. Not because we liked the grass, but because it would be really hard work due to the fact that the ground is mostly clay. I started out with plans to dig a space where I could plant a clematis by the arbor, but ended up with a garden that extended to the corner of my yard along the fence, about 6′x6′x8′ in a triangular shape. It looked huge up close, but when I turned to look at the rest of my yard in comparison — it’s really small. Let’s call it ‘quaint’. From the sidewalk you can’t even see my quaint birthday garden actually.

I really wanted to go straight to the nursery to pick out a few plants to put in the flowerbed, but waited so we could go together on Saturday. We picked out some tall grass, catmint, a small juniper, and a burgandy sedum type plant. Once you get close enough to see, it’s really pretty.

After we finished the flowerbed, my husband said to me, “see how much easier it is when we work together as a team to get something done, rather than going about it in your usual maverick way?”

Maverick way? Moi?

Okay, to be honest I hadn’t ever really thought about it, but I suppose I am a bit of a maverick. I like to do things when I want to do them, not before, not after, and I want to do them my way. Is that so bad? I mean, it got us a quaint little birthday garden, right?

Today is my birthday. I’m not sure what my entire day will bring, but it’s starting out at the eye doctor with my daughter, Zoe, then we are going out for coffee. Well, she’ll most likely have chocolate milk and I’ll have coffee. The rest of the day is up in the air. Perhaps we’ll bum around at the Lakefront Art Festival, it begins today and we’ve never gone, but Zoe is way way WAY into art. And, I am too, but she’s at least got a shot at being an artist, I’ll have to wait until retirement to pursue it. And now, since it’s my birthday, I am a year closer to it. Right?

I already got my birthday present two weeks ago, an iPod Touch. It’s, in a single word, AWESOME! I love it!! It’s probably the coolest gadget I’ve ever had. It has wifi on it and I can connect anywhere there is a hot spot. We were driving home from Door County on Tuesday and I needed to get an email from one of my classmates, did you know that Two Rivers has hot spots in the city? It does. All of a sudden I had connection and I’m telling my husband: “Stop the car! Pull over!”

Anyhow, the iPod Touch is so very very cool.

Did you get me anything? I am accepting gifts, iTunes is a great idea ya know. Or bottles of red wine. That’ll work too.

Have a great day!

I am vacationing in Door County with my family, which includes my husband, seven year old daughter, parents, and two 14 year old nephews. We are staying in Fish Creek, but yesterday we decided to make a day of it on Washington Island. I've been to Door County many times in the last 12 years, it's become a yearly excursion, and somehow we've never been to Washington Island. What would it be like? What would we do there? What adventure awaited us on the other side of the ferry?

There were seven of us, so we had to take two cars. Round trip tickets for a car is $24 (JUST the car), adults are $5.50 and children are $3.75. When we got off the ferry we immediately headed towards the Lookout Tower in Mountain Park where the view from the top of the tower was amazing! After that we split up for lunch, with my husband, daughter and I going to a restaurant on Main Street that promised breakfast all day, soup, sandwiches, wi-fi, and a baby grand piano in the dining room, oh and let's not forget the kayak tours. Close your eyes and imagine it with me, do you see a fireplace? Someone playing the piano? Customers lounging around, laptops open, blogging away? Coffee bar perhaps?

Okay, now you need to snap back to what I'd like to call: the reality of island life. The restaurant was about the size of my living room, the baby grand was in the corner with a fence (FENCE?) around it, zero laptops, no fireplace, and only two other tables of customers. The waitress moved on island time, and she even stopped taking our order at one point so she could help someone else find a fork. However, it must be said that that was the best darn grilled cheese sandwich I'd had in a while. AND I was able to log onto wi-fi with my iPod Touch so I could email my brother and check on my dogs.

After lunch we met back up at Jacobsen’s Museum were we met a life long resident of the island. Then we visited an Art & Nature Center, where I searched for a painting to add to my Door County collection (didn't find one though). My nephew bought a boomerang, which my husband immediately tried out in the parking lot. He threw it towards the woods, and I'm sure he expected it turn around right before the trees, but it didn't, and my nephew had to trounce around in the trees until they found it.

Note to anyone with a boomerang: learn to use it before you throw it towards the woods.

We decided it was time to head back to the ferry. My dad's car got on no problem, but we were told we'd have to wait an hour for the next ferry, so we pulled off to the side to wait. Next thing we know we are being waved ahead, once we got up to the ferry it was pretty clear that only one of those little Smart Cars would fit on the deck. The guy leans into the driver's window and says to my husband, "okay, what you're going to do is turn around here and backup onto the ferry, (and then he pointed) sideways there behind that car". And then I looked and saw him point towards my mom, who was already rummaging around in the cooler that was in the hatchback of their Equinox. My husband and I looked at each other, surely this is a joke, right? He didn't just tell us to back up on the ferry, did he? And then we laughed. And from the look on his face we realized that it wasn't a joke, and that we were going to be backing up sideways on the little itty bit part of the deck.

So that was our once in a lifetime Washington Island experience. I think that it'd be a perfect place to go for a bike ride. Maybe next time!

You are probably wondering if I still ran the Riverwest Beer Run considering the weather conditions at 11:30 a.m. today. The answer is yes.

Yes, I ran in the rain.

Now, I have to tell this is completely out of character for me. I'm not a fan of running in the rain, and I certainly don't like getting my running shoes wet either. However, today I stomped in the puddles with all the other runners. All the other CRAZY RUNNERS who came out even though the sky opened and poured down upon us. A LOT. IT RAINED A LOT! It was a complete downpour right before the race started.

Speaking of rain, at least my basement is dry. Unlike my parents basement in Sussex, and my brother's basement on the northwest side of Milwaukee near Mount Mary College. And what about you? How did your basement hold up this weekend?

My summer running season has begun and the first run on my list this year is the 32nd Annual Riverwest Beer Run (or Walk). Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the fastest runner out there, nor do I have any experience running while drinking beer. However, my husband loves this run, so this year I've added it to my summer schedule. The run is this Sunday, June 8th, 11:30 a.m., and starts at the intersection of the Booth and Locust in Milwaukee. Last year my husband ran it with my brother, which you can read about here, but the synopsis is that a guy in flip flops finished ahead of him. FLIP FLOPS! AND BEER! Are you interested yet?

Next up is the 2008 Superun 5K Run, which is probably the most challenging run I put myself through. Are you familiar with Lake Park down on Milwaukee's east side and the big hill that goes through the park? The route takes the runners straight up that hill. It's intense.

After that is my favorite run of all, the Storm the Bastille 5K, which takes place at night during Bastille Days. Last year I ran it with my husband and my sister-in-law, we stuck together for the whole run, which is a good thing because the year before that I ran it by myself and was to meet my husband at the finish line. Have you ever seen the amount of people who are waiting at the finish line??? MILLIONS! Okay, so maybe not that many, but it was enough that I couldn't find him for a few hours, in the dark, at Bastille Days, in my sweaty running clothes.

I'm hoping to squeak in the Firecracker 4, which is on the 4th of July, and starts at Hales Corners Park. It's really early in the morning, and well, I'm not always such a morning person. So we'll see about that one. The last time I ran it I really enjoyed it though.

The big one I'm planning is on August 30th, the Lake Country Half Marathon,in Oconomowoc. I've never run a half marathon, but I think I can do it if I train for it. My husband ran it a couple years ago, but skipped it last year because he was training for the Milwaukee Marathon.

Any other runners out there?