In Which I Send the Tennis Ball Off in Style

I mean, it's the least I could do after...hmm...well, never mind that. Anyway, here's how the ol' Tennis Ball and I are spending the night:

Stopping at the library to stock up on reading material
Eating a lot of delicious Indian food
(In case you're wondering--we had Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb with mushrooms, garlic naan, regular naan and cucumber Raita...so good)

Watching some Daria
Playing some Harry Potter
Having this fellow wait on my every whim (you're doing great at it, fellow!)
I hope you've enjoyed your night, Tennis Ball, because you aren't getting Indian food and snuggles where you're going.

In Which I Expound on a Tennis Ball

Disclaimer: Hopefully this blog post does not sound blithe. I'm not blithe about it per se, but I prefer to write about it with a certain degree of blitheness. It's a skill I learned from Gilbert Blythe. Oops, there's that blitheness.

Once upon a time, at the start of 2012, I was with child, but spoiler: I'm not anymore. I'm not saying that to get pity or whatever (though of course I won't turn down pity)--it was very early and it's just one of those things that happens. But it does play a pivotal role in the rest of the story so there it is.

So back in the early days of 2012 (ie, January 3), I was at home with Drewbles. I'd started bleeding the day before and it was getting worse the next day so we decided to get a professional opinion on the situation. We tried one place, then another and were finally sent to the ER, which makes this story sound much more urgent that it really was. It's much more dull when you know that insurance coverage and a lack of certain equipment was the blame.

And so began my first foray into the ER. It mostly consisted of Drew and me sitting there talking about how we had been sitting there forever. But in the process of our stay, which lasted several hours, they did a *ahem* quite invasive ultrasound and the doctor casually announced there was "a mass." After which he proceeded to leave and never return. Thanks, doctor!

The doctor arranged to send us to a nearby women's clinic two days later so they could pilfer some more of my blood. He also set up an appointment with another doctor, who turned out to be totally MIA the day of the appointment. Thanks, doctor!

Luckily one of the nurses came to talk to us and actually was interested in the mass! Thanks, nurse! So what was that mass? A uterine fibroid. (Fibroid=a benign growth) Can you guess how big it is? Yep, it's the size of a tennis ball. Just a fleshy mass the size of a tennis ball all up in my bidness.

By the by, I don't recommend doing a google search for pictures of fibroids.

It was another few days before we could meet with a third doctor, who actually exists AND was very helpful. He confirmed the miscarriage and we talked a long time about this fibroid. Since they're benign, doctors often will just leave them if they aren't causing any symptoms. But given the size of mine and the possibility that it is squishing my baby-making vitals, the doctor said it would be best to take it out. He also said there's a chance it could be an ovarian cyst, which means I could wind up one short in that department. BUT we'll be optimistic and stick with the fibroid theory. So this is what is going to happen this Tuesday:

Just imagine that penny is a tennis ball. Okay, so maybe that isn't *exactly* how the surgery will go. Actually the best part about this whole thing (besides having the tennis ball removed, I suppose) is what will actually be doing all the work:
Tiny robot hands! That may not be the official term but you get the idea. Here is how it actually all works:
The doctor sits yonder and controls the robot hands while utilizing a tiny robot camera to see the insides. In the past they removed fibroids via c-section so let's give medical science a big hurray.

So instead of having a baby AND a tennis ball, we now just have the tennis ball. Hopefully sometime we will have the one and not the other, but at any rate, come Tuesday the tennis ball will be history.

In Which I am Successful

Remember the magnets I made to improve my running motivation? Well, they were not *entirely* successful, but I did keep using them. It was encouraging to see a board with at least a few magnets on it, but my motivation for running was just MIA until last fall or so. Even so, it has been a good long time since my board looked like this:
5 days of running, 3 times with Pilates and one 5K! I'm hoping this will make up for not doing a lick of anything next week, and I'm also hoping this same motivation will stick around until the week after. It's so much easier to sit at a desk all day when I've been running beforehand.

And just because you asked, here are pictures from the 5K this morning. Drew's Pop came along too and both menfolk placed first in their age group. Drew also won a frisbee of all things. I got um...well, anyway, it was great and fun and very cold.

(Check out those guns!)

(It was so bright I thought my eyeballs would burn up.)
Oh, did I mention that there was a frozen yogurt walking around?

Dilemmas

Tonight we're supposed to have this white bean soup for dinner (pureed white beans and I get along). It's healthy, it's good for me and it requires using my immersion blender, which is always a treat. The trouble is that I keep thinking about something we had for dinner last week...
Look at them sitting there so innocently, stuffed with cheese and eggs and bacon. True, it would require a stop at the store while the poor white beans go neglected and unloved. But do I really care about beans in the face of this possibility?
No. The answer is no. Those beans never had a chance.

In Which I Compile Another List of Recipes (aka, Beans)

I've been thinking a lot about tennis balls lately. I know that sounds ambiguous at best and random and stupid at worst, but it's still true. One of these days I will explain my tennis ball thoughts, but for now I will talk about food. Food > tennis balls.

On a side note, is anyone else still frustrated with extra holiday poundage? Harumph. Though I have to say, all that fudge was worth it...at the time...and now...

First, I have made chili. Not once but twice! In the same week! This is impressive because I have never been a big chili fan, mostly because I am not a big bean fan. Black beans and I are great friends. White beans and I are acquaintances. All the other beans and I are frenemies--I'll eat them when I must and make barfy noises the rest of the time. Black beans are the sole reason why I liked these two chilis:

Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken & Black Bean Chili
I am a fan of anything in a crock pot. If I could make everything in a crock pot, I would. Anyway, this was super tasty. I'm not really sure exactly what the chipotle taste is, but it was good. And hot. Side note: if anyone knows what else to do with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce let me know...

Healthy Spicy Beef and Black Bean Chili
Super fast, super easy and tasty. I think if you spent a little more time on it it could be better and more interesting, spice-wise. But sometimes fast wins out over interesting.

Crock pot Mango Enchiladas
I combined these two recipes, and they were so very delicious. I don't know when exactly I became such an enchiladas fiend, but they're so good. They have quickly climbed up my list of favorite foods.

Bloomin' Onion Bread
My advice is to make this today. Maybe even right now. Then proceed to devour the whole thing in one sitting. Okay, don't do that, but that's what you'll WANT to do, despite knowing how much butter is in it. But I cannot say enough that you should make it RIGHT NOW.

Crockpot Cheddar Beer Chicken Tacos
Okay so ours were minus the beer. Still good! Yep, that's pretty much all I have to say about this.

Tomato sauce with Onion and Butter
We had this just last night and today I keep thinking about how good it was. I was skeptical--I mean, three ingredients? How could that really be so great? No, let me tell you--it was really, really good. It might have converted me from ever using bottled sauce again. It takes a little while, but for how much effort you actually have to put in it's totally worth it.

Buffalo Chicken Dip
Yeah, it really doesn't look like much, but you'll want to keep eating it anyway! I almost halved the buffalo wings sauce so that it wasn't too hot.

Chicken Taco Soup
More black beans! I should start my own black bean farm. This was another victory for the slow cooker (I didn't sautee my onions before hand), but since we had it the same night as the Bloomin' Onion Bread it got a little overshadowed.

Well, now you know what we've been eating lately. You can sleep well at last.

PS: No, I didn't get any of these from Pinterest.

PS: Bonus recipe for fudge (I left out the nuts because they just don't belong in my food).

In Which I Offer a Link

...to our art blog! I can't even remember if I ever mentioned our art blog on here, but it's been humming along (more or less) for a good while now. Tonight I finally added a link to my sidebar and here is another one, just in case anyone has been missing out on it all this time.

That's all.

A Puzzle

Well, I guess it's 2012 now. How weird. That deserves its own post, I suppose, but for now, here is something unrelated to New Years. For Christmas, Drewbles got this cool puzzle of the Disneyland map (1000 pieces) and we spent a couple of nights putting it together this week. Look how grand it is in completion:

(That's the last bits of my Captain Rex helmet marshmallow lollipop)

Now I will illustrate the difficulties of it. For one thing, the pieces are quite little and for another thing, there is a LOT of detail on there. I'm pretty sure that the only things not labeled were smoking areas and bathrooms. The only downside was noooo Captain EO.
And of course the picture on the box wasn't big enough to be terribly helpful.
Even so, what fun is a puzzle without a challenge? We will surely put this one together again and again.

Christmas Postscript

Just because.

XD

I still can't believe this is actually happening in my life. It looks so great I won't even fuss about how good looking some of the dwarves are, hah.

Something for the Archives

Just in the interest of housekeeping...

• The Shadow of Your Smile, C
• Turn of the Screw, B
• The Thirteenth Tale, B
• Jude the Obscure, B+
• The Beatrice Letters, B
• Lemony Snicket, A-
• The End, A-
• The Penultimate Peril, A
• The Grim Grotto, A-
• Beastly, C
• The Slippery Slope, B+
• The Carnivorous Carnival, A
• The Hostile Hospital, B+
• The Vile Village, B+
• The Ersatz Elevator, A
• Sisterhood Everlasting, C+
• The Austere Academy, A
• The Miserable Mill, B+
• The Wide Window, A-
• The Reptile Room, A
• The Bad Beginning, A-
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, A
• The High King, A-
• Taran Wanderer, B+
• The Castle of Llyr, B+
• The Black Cauldron, A
• The Book of Three, A-
• Entwined, A-
• The Invisible Man, B
• The Island of Dr. Moreau, A
• White Fang, B+
• Crocodile on the Sandbank, B-
• Cold Comfort Farm, A-
• Clockwork Three, B
• The Return of the King, A
• The Two Towers, A
• Fellowship of the Ring, A+
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, A
• Mockingjay, B+
• The Princess Bride, B+
• The Silmarillion, A+
• The Phantom of the Opera, B
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, C+
• Violet Eyes, C+
• Alice in Wonderland, B+
• The Dark Divine, C-
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, B+
• Neverwhere, B+
• James and the Giant Peach, B+
• The Witches, A
• The Incredible Journey, A-
• The Luxe: B
• Julie & Julia: C+
• The Girl Who Could Fly: C+
• Just Take My Heart, C+
• Peace Like a River, A
• Three Willows, B
• The Prestige, A
• The Return of the King, A+
• The Two Towers, A
• The Fellowship of the Ring, A+
• The Hobbit, A-
• The Children of Hurin, A+
• Brave New World, A
• Catching Fire, B+
• The Hunger Games, A-
• The Graveyard Book, A+
• Camille, B+
• Confessions of a Shopaholic, C+
• Everyone Worth Knowing, B+
• On the Street Where You Live, B+
• I'll Be Seeing You, B+
• The Devil Wears Prada, B+
• Everyone Else's Girl, C-
• Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, B-
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle, A-
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, A-
• A Great and Terrible Beauty, B
• The Talented Mr. Ripley, A-
• Persuasion, A+
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, A-
• The Wrath of Mulgarath, B
• Coraline, A
• The Ironwood Tree, B-
• Lucinda's Secret, B
• The Seeing Stone, B
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, A+
• Return of the Native, A-
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: A-
• Forever in Blue, B-
• Girls in Pants, B+
• At Home in Mitford, Karon: B
• The Dollmage, Leavitt: C
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: A-
• Far From the Madding Crowd: A-

A minor aside...

Do you remember that episode of the Office called "Drug Testing" (season 2)? In it, Michael Scott says "I hate drugs, I hate them." Okay, so that's a really short thing to remember, but I've seen that episode like 15 times. ANYway, I feel that way about computer viruses. I just hate them.

To back up, last night little Quinn got attacked by some kind of stupid virus thing. It completely confunded avast!, slowed things down and kept my Internet from working, even after a boot scan took care of a few files. I wound up doing a system restore and so far that seems to have fixed the problem. But it is so so so annoying to me that instead of working on the things I planned to do last night I had to instead do a bunch of scans and restarts and fussing, all because some girl with a lip ring (see the aforementioned episode) made this stupid virus.

Anyway. This vexes me, but in the interest of ending on a positive note, here's a gif.

I'm not sure why this is so funny...

...but it is! *snort*

T-Gives is for Arts

Because it's Thanksgiving, I will now list a few things I am thankful for, in no particular order except for the order they are in:

• Mylo Xyloto
• This cake (which is currently in the oven)
  
• Drewbles
• Days off

I'm also grateful for the time to do arts. There's been a lot less time this year than in years past, but I'm happy to have the time I get. Okay, maybe sometimes I complain about not having more time, but at this moment I am having a better sense of perspective. I cannot do all things! ANYway, the other night I colored up a little something that Drewbles drew for me. The story behind this picture is best told in an excerpt from one of my e-mails to D-Rew:

"People think it’s hip to be heartless! But only I am ACTually hiply heartless. That’s like my Voldemort line, instead of “Only I can live forever” I say “Only I can be hiply heartless.” And then I’ll say “Nyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” and hold my wand all funny. Probably in my case a wooden spoon would be more appropriate."

With that introduction, here is my Blogger profile picture:

Now back the cake. Happy Thanksgiving back!

Fall is for Food

This fall I have been trying all kinds of different pumpkiny foods. Pumpkin is one of my very favorite things and while I am always happy with just a plain pumpkin pie, this year I have been branching out.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
I made this twice. Not necessarily because I loved it that much, but because the pie crust came in a pair. It was good, but it was much more chocolatey than pumpkiny. That would be great if I wanted a chocolate pie, but I really wanted pumpkin pie. I also had to cook it quite a bit longer to avoid a totally goopy middle.

Colonial Pumpkin Bars
I actually made these last year, but even now we talk about how good they are. I think that's all I need to say.

Pumpkin Lasagna
I liked using pumpkin in a main dish, and this was good. But, like the chocolate pie, this wasn't quite pumpkiny enough for me. Maybe that's from using a little more ricotta than the recipe called for, I don't know. Overall it reminded me very much of butternut squash.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Cider Syrup
Once again, I would have been happy with a stronger pumpkin flavor (I just REALLY like pumpkin), but that said, these were still super delicious pancakes. And the syrup? It's better than the pancakes, which is saying something. Really, you gots to try the syrup. The recipe made a lot of both--I would probably halve it for just the two of us. I should say I will halve it because we'll definitely be eating these again.

Whole Pumpkin Pie Soup
This year I wanted to do something different from our usual dinner in a pumpkin and this was a great alternative. I made this kind of last minute and wound up using one of the pumpkins we had outside the door and it worked just fine. And by "fine" I mean "deliciously."

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies
Okay, they're not pumpkiny but cider is equally seasonal and I love it. Also, I LOVE these cookies. I haven't stopped thinking about them since I made them last night. Just writing this is making me want to go over and get another one. Nom nom nom.

Roasted Tomato Soup
Okay, this isn't pumpkiny either but soup is seasonal, right? Tomatoes are one of my very favorite foods so it's no surprise I would like this soup, but I really really really like this soup. I wound up not baking it with the "lids", and instead just broiled some cheese on crusty bread and put it in the soup after. Still tasty and a little faster.

Pumpkin Whoopee!
This recipe gets an ! because it's my favorite of the pumpkin goodies. I got this recipe from one of my sisters-in-law, who got it from one of her sisters, I believe. Drewbles and I struggle to not eat the pan all at once. It's SO good, even with its silly name. Make it! To make it is to love it.
1 can pumpkin puree
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
3 eggs
1/2 t. ginger
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 t. nutmeg

white or yellow cake mix
1/2 c. butter, melted

Mix all ingredients except cake mix and butter, and pour into greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle cake mix on top, then drizzle with melted butter. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

The Days of Yore

I started this blog in the summer of 2004, can you believe it? That's got to be some kind of record. Okay, maybe not, but it has been around for a while now. In all those years I changed the design once--from light dots to dark dots. And I'm pretty sure I changed it back to light dots within a month. When I started this blog there weren't many design options to choose from, and I just always liked those dots. Once the blog template business started booming I thought I might change it but the scrapbook look has never been my thing. Plus I just like those dots.

Well. Lately I have been thinking that maybe it was time to move on from the dots at long last. But I wasn't sure what to change it to. I'm still not into the scrapbook thing and my own ideas were rather uninspired. UNTIL. Last Saturday morning as I was running down Center Street it came to me. "Brilliant!" I said to myself. "Don't forget it." (I always make a point of telling myself not to forget my brilliant plans) I have had many great ideas in my time that I never followed through on, but this one I did. And it looks just how I want and I did it all myself!

So, the point of all this is that the dots are finally gone. I probably should have taken a screenshot of the old look since I don't think that template is even available anymore. Anyway, check it out the new look and praise my cleverness if you feel so inclined.

An Ode

I've been on a Cheezits kick lately. The white cheddar kind is my favorite, but lately I have been scarfing down the new Baby Swiss variety. Basically I will eat any kind of Cheezit you put in front of me. This is not too surprising since I would happily eat cheese at any and every opportunity, but yesterday my enthusiasm produced a haiku. I sent it to Drewbles, but I think I would be remiss in not sharing it with the whole world (because the whole word reads my blog, yes?). Here it is:

Little bits of cheese
Baked into crackers for me
I’ll eat you all up

Also, in the process of finding an image of a Cheezit box which I never used, I found this picture. I feel a certain kinship with this wee fellow:

One Two Three

I have been thinking about this song lately.



Not like "Here are my deep thoughts on this song, let me show you them" kind of thinking. My thoughts are more along the lines of "That's a great song. I should listen it a lot." And to paraphrase the daddio in Princess & the Frog, a song that good just gotta be shared. Not that I want to replace Bono with Michael Stipe or anything.

Side note: why is U2 not as good as this anymore?

A Triumphant Cake!

Remember this deliciousness? The oh so delectable chocolate peanut butter cake? Well. TRIUMPH.

(One day I will take better pictures of my food.)

And now I'll tell the story. I told my sister that if she came to visit me, I'd make her that cake. Well. TRIUMPH.

(There is a story behind this picture...she's not actually taller than Drew. The story is that she was wearing my shoes.)

So I made her that cake. I was a little nervous, but I've recently acquired some things that make cakes more of my friend.
Why did no one tell me how awesome parchment paper is? I will never suffer a half-left-in-the-pan cake again! And who knew they even made those cake turny/transporty flat metal things? Also, wow, it's a lot easier to just print out a recipe than run back and forth from the counter to the computer. Also, powdered sugar. I don't know why I put that in there. Anyway, so what did I do with my new devices? I made that strawberry cake again of course!

Just imagine a picture of it right here.

It still wasn't pretty--that frosting is NOT my friend--but hey, it looked like a cake. A delicious, slightly melty pink cake. But back to the chocolate cake.

(Here it is without its delicious chocolate peanut butter glaze.)

(By this point it was like 10:15)

On Sunday evening, the night before my sister left, I tackled it. I felt some trepidation but the cake turned out perfectly! The pinnacle of my cake making to date! And did I mention it was delicious? It was. Luckily we had our British friends* over to help us try it out and it was met with raves all around (thanks for the raves, friends).

(Thanks, Drewbles, for enlivening the picture)

So, it turns out maybe I CAN make a cake after all and that first chocolate cake in March wasn't just a fluke after all. Phew! Next week it will be time to try out some butterbeer cupcakes...

*Meaning they were in London with us, not that they are actually from Great Britain.

A Long Overdue Post

Once upon a time, we lived in London for the summer. It was amazing, for so many reasons, and I wrote many blog posts about it. But there was one post I never wrote, and yet, even over a year (!) later, I think to myself "I really gotta write that post." So here I am, writing that post about my typical day in London. Sure, it was a year ago, but I'm happy to relive it any old time. Join me as we travel back to the days of yore, when I worked in the most magical place in the world (yes, really, Drewbles).

The day began at 7:10 when Drew's alarm went off. He'd hit snooze, and we'd reburrow for ten more minutes. Then I would get up and stagger off to the bathroom while he reburrowed for another ten minutes. The fun thing about the bathroom was that the lights were motion activated and about halfway through my shower they'd turn off because I...wasn't moving...?

In the meantime Drew got up and put together my lunch (whatta doll). After some cereal for breakfast, I'd meet my co-worker Caity in the hallway around 8:00 and we'd leave from here...
...and head off for the nearest Tube station. When we lived in Think! that meant Earl's Court, then we'd hop over to the Piccadilly line at South Kensington station and ride it up to Green Park.

From Green Park we walked a few of these blocks...
...to get to the Society of Antiquaries library.

(The library entrance is in the building to the left.)

Steven the doorman would let us in every day, often saying something conversational that we couldn't really understand through his amazingly thick accent. Once he offered us some kind of alcoholic beverage.

So then we'd head up a rather grand carpeted staircase into the library itself. It's not large, but it is quite grand. Take a gander:

(The reference librarian, Adrian, I recall, would sit in that red chair. He was a bit of a ghost and never really said a word to us, except to say the English summer began just in time for the English fall.)

Here we'd settle in for eight hours of scanning the card catalog. The library was closed to the public for the whole month of August so it was pretty quiet aside from the sounds out in the courtyard. Here's (most of) the catalog we scanned:
And here was our setup:
We would feed chunks of cards through the scanner, as you can kind of tell. It sounds thrilling, right? But really, it was pretty fun and you always had to be on alert to make sure they all scanned and were kept in order. We'd also have to clean the scanners a few times a day because the cards were so dusty. On an average day we'd scan about 10,000 each.

Oh and here's co-worker Caity! She looks super excited to scan more cards. Hi, Caity.
And here's me! I am also excited to scan the cards. Side note: look how long my hair is! Gee whiz.

Eventually we'd go outside to eat lunch, having some unintelligible exchange with Steven on the way. We'd sit out by the hares and read and it was a perfectly lovely way to spend a half hour. Occasionally we'd see people kicking pigeons, and on the first day we saw Bill Nighy.
Side note: my lunches were awesome because they included digestives and Babybels, along with carrot batons. Carrot batons is such a better way of saying carrot sticks, don't you think?

So we'd work the rest of the afternoon away, somehow never really getting bored. I listened to a lot of NPR, Tolkien podcasts, and the trusty iPod. Just after 5 we'd sign the ledger at the door (where we signed in at every day also) and head back the way we came. Most of the time it was a great commute, but on occasion you'd realize just how many people can fit into one train car. Let me tell you, it is a lot more than you'd think. Side note: I really miss this sound. (*sigh*)

From then on the night was ours! We had many adventures, which I've already documented. And so there you have it--my typical work day in London. I guess I should note that while I was at work, Drew would stay at our little apartment and work all the day after having going on a run through Hyde, Holland or Regent's Park (whichever we were living closest to). He also would clean the dishes and sometimes pilfer extra towels and dish soap from the cleaning trucks. Sneaky!

THERE. Now I've written this blog post, brain! That's one less thing you can harass me about!

An Explosive Weekend

Some of you can probably guess what this blog post is about, based on my recent Facebook statuses. Don't worry, this blog post has a happy ending. Just sit tight, we'll get through this together.

Last Thursday night my sister arrived in town for her long-awaited weekend trip. I'd been working an extra hour every day so I could take a half day on Friday and we had big plans. After hitting a bit of traffic, we arrived in plenty of time to pick Marci up and then we headed back to Provo. Drew had rehearsal for the stake play so we planned to pick up dinner on the way. Our original plan was Gandalfo's but as the time got later, we switched gears and went to In-n-Out instead. We loaded up on the burgers, milkshakes and fries and raced onward to get Drew to his rehearsal only an hour late. We arrived only to find out they didn't need him after all so we turned around and went home instead, where we feasted on our delicacies.

Some friends joined us for the Project Runway finale and a good time was had by all. Eventually we all went to bed, where I for one totally passed out. Fast forward to around 4:00. I woke up, thinking something fell on my head (nothing had). I tried to go back to sleep but was really uncomfortable and kind of sick to my stomach. I thought it was just Aunt Irma's doing, but a while later Drew woke up, also feeling sick.

Do you see where this is going? I'll tell you: the bathroom. The vomit fairy visited me first, then several more times before poor Drewbles managed to finally throw up. In between episodes we sat in the bathroom, laid in bed or fell asleep on a pile of clothes on the floor (that'd be me). As we like to say now, In-n-Out has a whole new meaning for us.

The short version of all of this is that we spent Friday lying on the couch, feeling gross. By the early afternoon we'd stopped throwing up but we couldn't do much else. Do you want to know how many times I threw up? Do you?? Nine. NINE TIMES. That's a personal record. Don't worry, I'll spare you the other details.

So, Friday was pretty much a bust. My sister felt kind of blah all day but luckily it didn't go beyond that. I say luckily because who else would have made us toast and gone to get us medicine? We passed the hours by watching movies, TV shows and falling asleep.

Saturday dawned and we felt better, though not quite up to speed. I mean that literally because we went off to do a 10K. Was it crazy? Well, what's crazier--doing a 10K after food poisoning or wasting $70? But luckily we all survived--Drew even placed! It was Marci's first 10K and she did great, coming in under an hour. I was *ahem* after an hour BUT I ran the whole thing, and no one else in our trio could say that. I'll take my bragging points where I can when it comes to running.

(Since it was a Halloween costume race, Drew dressed as a ninja.)

The rest of the weekend was spent by trying to cram in everything we wanted to do in the time we had left. We saw Three Musketeers (better than expected, though still flawed), ate Thai food, saw Captain America in the dollar theater, got shakes from the Purple Turtle, had friend time and occasionally felt queasy. I also made a cake--but that's a story for another blog post. Before we knew it, we were going up to the airport on Monday morning (at 5...gross), dropped Marci off and went back to workday routine.

And that, my friends, is the story of the weekend. It began very unpleasantly, but it turned out all right in the end. If we had gone for our original Gandalfo's plan, things would have been different. If we had known Drew didn't need to be at rehearsal, things would have been different. Maybe I've been seeing too much LOST lately, but it seems like it was meant to be. Fate can be a vomitous task master.