Yes. My 1/2 Marathon career is over before I even started training when today I was diagnosed with a Meniscus injury in my left knee and also diagnosed with degenerative osteoarthritis of the left knee.

I was very afraid that this might be arthritis since my knee has been really hurting the last couple months. It runs in my family — my mom is about to have her 4th joint replaced and my brother who will be 40 in two weeks (ha ha), has had 2 hips replaced and is having issues with his shoulders now. I was just hoping that I just hurt myself and it wasn’t more serious.  Gee. Thanks Mom.

Turns out I did hurt myself and it is more serious. Crap.

So the prognosis….good, since it was caught early. I am strictly forbidden from running more than 15 minutes straight ever again. He would prefer me not to run at all, but rather to do elliptical training or take up biking. Actually he said that training for a long distance bike ride would be wonderful for my knee. So maybe I’ll look into doing a 75 mile race or something. I can continue spinning, which is good.

Sorry Sarah & Marcia. I suppose you’ll have to run 13.1 miles along the beach by yourselves. Sniff sniff. I was actually looking forward to it.

……that you’re past a certain stage as a parent, some interplanetary karma comes back and kicks you in the butt.

I thought for sure that at nearly 19 months we were past the “put everything in your mouth” stage with Madeline….well other than crayons. In fact, I haven’t seen her put anything in her mouth aside from food and crayons for at least 2 weeks. However, today, she and Claire were playing on the porch and Jonathan and I both saw something green peeking out of her mouth. I went over, did the obligatory finger sweep (thank you Notre Dame lifeguard training for showing me that little trick) and out popped these two little things. (Click here)

Now, I wonder if she’s just stuffing little plastic thingies in her mouth at random or else she’s being REALLY snarky and wanted to send me a message. Hmm. Time will tell. It also makes me wonder what else she’s eaten that I don’t know about. I mean we have all of Claire’s little teensy dolly things in plastic tubs she can’t yet open, but who knows if its all there. Oye.

….crayons and play-dough are non-toxic.

Let’s just leave it at that.

Actually when Madeline was eating the playdough, she took a bite and said EWWWW Ball, and then threw it all off her high chair tray.  Something tells me she’s not the artist of the family.

Yep.  The rumors are true.

I’m going to run the OBX Half-Marathon with my Sister in Law Sarah and possibly my Mother in Law Marcia on November 9th in North Carolina.

Expect many many posts about how running sucks in the next 24 weeks.

Who’s going to join us???

I have a problem.  A yarn problem.  A SERIOUS yarn problem.  I didn’t realize how bad it actually was until I was this weekend when we were looking for the freaking B&BW bag (15% off) and my mother in law opened my yarn closet which immediately exploded on her.  (I found the bag by the way honey…it was in the yarn closet…behind a bunch of yarn).

Anyway, during Madeline’s naptime this morning, Claire and I took everything out of the closet and sorted it.  One giant tub and 4 giant plastic bags later, the bulk of it is stored in the basement.  The only thing left upstairs is the stuff earmarked for my upcoming projects.  I figure I have enough yarn to last me for the next 4 years.  Seriously.

I know I resolved not to buy any more yarn before, but really this time, I’m going to do it.  I’m going to make a few stash buster baby blankets for a certain person who’s having twins…and cough cough it would be really nice to to know if at least one was a girl cough cough.  I’m going to see how much I can use up before the end of the year.

I finished my first sock that could reasonably fit a human adult today.  I’ve made baby socks galore, but not one that would successfully fit on an adult.  The only adult sock before this one that I made was so tight it wouldn’t go up my leg, so I frogged it.

Anyway, I digress….Isn’t it pretty?

I need to make the leg part longer next time, but these will work my first pair.

The basic pattern is Fine Socks from Briggs & Little, but I substituted 9 inches of ribbing with only about 5 inches of the the slip rib stitch that I made up. It goes something like this

Row 1: *slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front, k1* repeat to end
Row 2: Knit

Row 3: *k1, slip 1 purlwise with yarn in front*, repeat to end

Row 4-5: Knit

Now on to sock #2

…and I’m still trying to decide if I’m crazy enough to take both girls to the Library to watch Bee Movie at 2:30. I have fond memories of going to the library to watch Disney movies as a kid…sitting on carpet squares and eating popcorn from a brown paper bag. I’m just not sure if Madeline will sit still for even 2 minutes. I’d hate to leave early because she was everywhere, because I know Claire will love it.

Hmm. Maybe I’ll go rent the movie and we’ll have Library day at home. Or maybe that’s the cop out.

I decided this morning that we are going to participate in the Great Sunflower Project. I think Claire will get a kick out if it and it’s free. Sunflowers would look just lovely in our garden. So far the garden has 4 tomato plants, the sage from last year, basil, the out of control mint and 6 broccoli plants. Our cucumbers died for some reason, so I need to get some new plants. I think also we’re going to do a salad garden, now that we have a rabbit and chipmunk killer in Spots, er Tom Tom the cat across the street.

The other neat thing that we have going on is that we now have a lawn tractor for our big lawn. Yay. My older brother Rob has horrible arthritis, and has had 2 hip replacements (he turns 40 this year) so he can no longermow his own grass. As a result, we are the proud owners of his Lawn Boy. It didn’t work after sitting for 2 years.,so Jonathan and one of my other brothers Joe did a Mr. Wizard on it. A couple ebay purchases later of spare parts, it is as good as new. Hooray. Now it will take about 30 minutes to mow our lawn instead of 2 hours, and I can do it now…well after taking 3 Allegra.

Also, hey organized moms (ahem Emily D & Jen), I need to find a better way to store all Claire’s art stuff so it’s easily accessible and so she doesn’t need to rely on me every time she wants to color/glue/whatever. I just want her to be able to get it out and put it away herself. I have a rolling cart thingie with everything in it, but it’s in the basement and kind of a hassle to bring up and down the stairs when she wants to do art. A lot of the stuff in that cart isn’t appropriate for her projects…its more scrapbooking stuff that I’ve never used and the like. Oh, and it has to be Madeline proof and as cheap as possible. Any ideas?

Yesterday was the Sunburst 5k that I’ve been training for since the triathalon.  I learned a very valuable lesson this year….that running a 5k on a treadmill is not hte same as running outside.  And although I’m not thrilled with my time, I finished very strong at the end after having to walk a little bit up the one hill in South Bend.

What should I do next? Another 5k and shoot to improve my time? Mini-Triathlon in August? 10k in October? Half-Marathon in the Spring (yeah right, keep dreaming…I’m not doing that to myself again).

On a related note (literally), Jonathan’s Mom and Sister are here visiting for the weekend and we’re having a great time! They ran in the race with me yesterday morning, and we’re all having a blast together. The girls are thrilled to have them around!!