52 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

  1. Running a 9 mile race this weekend, I’m super ready. The weather is really fantastic these days.

    Rachel, I’d love a weekly fitness thread again, but then again, I’m not a super reliable participant. I just got Trail Gloves for Christmas (Merrills) because I wore holes in my cheap Chuck Taylors and they were getting slippery. Now I can’t believe I held out so long! Also, I finally realize how narrow the converses are….no wonder it took so long to break them in. They’ve been demoted to my favorite walking shoes.

    The Trail Gloves are like ballet shoes with grippy mountain bike treads! They are the perfect shoes.

    • Have an awesome race! I’ll definitely start the fitness thread again; drop in and out as necessary.

      I just googled the Trail Gloves – dang, they look comfy! I love my Vibrams, but they’re still not my primary running shoe (don’t know if they ever will). I wear them to the gym and for shorter runs. I do love them, though!

  3. Kid free weekend for me with nothing much planned. I am having some pretty bad pain right at the ball of my foot and doing a simple Google search yesterday it is pretty obviously something called Metatarsalgia. Worse part: I mostly affects “middle aged women.” Thanks. Feels pretty similar to the plantar fasciitis I had a few years back only that was heel pain. Getting old is just so much damn fun. (Actually mostly I love being in my 40s – but the body breaking down is not so great.) I’m keeping it up and icing on and off. I don’t run, but I take at least 3 long fast walks a week and I really miss it. My emotions and sleeping are so much better if I do it. Hopefully it will feel better soon – if not I’ll go see a doctor early next week.

    Hope you all are having a great Friday!

    • Oh, I just had that! I just rested it up, like you’re doing, and eventually, foot massages were good, too. Now, I’m back to running longish miles.

      I don’t think it’s being 40. I think it’s a combination of disuse and then sporadic overuse. Feet seem to have a lot of muscles that don’t get used enough, so I’m trying to build them up carefully.

  4. Anybody ever make pho at home and have tried a good recipe? I have been wanting to try it but the recipes look time consuming so I would hate to spend six hours on a recipe that didn’t turn out to be so great. The university dining hall where I used to eat lunch sometimes has a really good chicken curryish pho, but the main recipes I see are for beef ones.

    We have baseball starting up again tomorrow after a couple month break. Then there is the super bowl of course. It looks like sports are going to be our weekend.

  5. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! A gift from Mothertalkers arrived today. That will help so much with our traveling. You are all wonderful! Alex and I really appreciate your thoughtfulness as we get ready to head down for his surgery!

    • I know I speak for others when I say that we wish we could do more – every single one of us wants to be there in person giving you hugs, and (simultaneously) back at home helping with the kids.

      Sending you and Alex love and hugs, and my most sincere wishes for a successful surgery and an easy recovery.

  6. After the elections, NC is now a one party state – governor and both sides of the legislature are a R. And it’s every bit as bad as I was afraid it would be.
    -Let’s do away with income tax and have a huge sales tax instead.
    -Liberal arts (and especially the flagship university) are bad – must have all voc tech.
    -More guns in schools are the solution to the problem.
    -And the most pressing concern in the state – women keeping nipples covered. Such an epidemic that a bill has been introduced.

    Ugh. Just, ugh.

    • I so feel your pain. Kansas has any of the same issues-they must be reading the same playbook. Here they are also looking at changing the state constitution so that the legislature is the final word on school funding. (This is because the courts keep finding that the schools are illegally underfunded and they are want to circumvent the courts.)

      We were already a one party state before the elections, but the R’s primary-ed out all the moderate members of their own party. So now we have uber-conservative Gov, and both houses. It is a clusterf^%k for sure. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

  7. I’m in for a fitness thread. A friend is making me a personalized training schedule to get me from 0 to 1/2 marathon my May 19. Can’t back out now. Seriously, my sloth is my biggest barrier.

    M has a fever and I’m leaving for 4 days tomorrow. So I’m headed home from work now…

  8. Can I just say that my butt hurts? I fell flat on my A$$ on Tuesday, and am slowly recovering, but since I spend most of my day sitting, my butt does not get too much rest. Even walking doesn’t help too much because that involves bending that muscle. UGH…Ibuprofen helps, rest helps….but none of it helps fast enough…and by the end of the day, the pain has radiated down my leg and across my back. BLERGH

    • Big ouch. Do you have a bruise? The only reason I ask is because I fell a couple of years back and had a big nasty bruise on my butt. I had the doctor look at it and it turned out to be just that, be he had me come back a couple of times to check for some weird complications (I don’t remember what, but he was emphatic that I go back).

  9. My husband is going to VT next week. Once dd2 is off to college, I’m going with him on trips to visit all my friends in the computer. Because I would totally ditch him to go visit Snarky and Katie. Well, as long as Snarky promised not to share her germs.

  10. Woe is me. Working on a painful case of mastitis. Home with a fever and the baby while dh takes the kids to Ds’s school dance party. We have so many plans for the weekend. Waaaah

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