7 days til Race Time

In 7 days, I will have hopefully successfully completed my first marathon! Check!

FAQs:

1. What pace are you aiming for?/What time do you want to finish in?
I am not aiming for a certain time. I am slow. With the way my training has been going, I just want to finish. That's it.

2. How can I track you during the race if I can't come and watch you in person?
Go to the Marathon website to receive athlete alerts or to follow me online. There are links which will allow you to sign up to receive text messages as I reach certain mile markers. There is also an option to track my progress in real live time online.

3. Are you crazy?
Maybe. I will have a better idea of the answer to that in a week. At this point, I wouldn't want to do this again. It's a huge time commitment to train and rough on the body. Only a wildly amazing location could tempt me again (Alaska, Hawaii, Tahoe...), and even then, I may opt for a half marathon option if it's available.

4. Are you and Nate running together?
No way, Jose. Nate's legs are 5x as long as mine and he can make much better distance with much fewer strides than me. In other words, he is MUCH faster than me and will be waiting for me at the finish line for a good 30+ minutes.

5. How far have you run in preparation?
Nate and I have trained as far as about 21.75 miles. So just 4.5 more miles to reach marathon distance. Yikes!

6. What can I do to help?
Come watch me and bring me food along the course. Pray for no injuries before or during the race, and for no blacking out, passing out, or any outcome requiring medical attention.

A Good Night

Nate picked me up after work today and we headed straight to dinner then rolled into Barnes and Noble with our fat, full bellies. Here's what we found for a total of about $25 before tax (talk about a bargain!!)

I found: All Creatures Great and Small and All Things Bright and Beautiful (two volumes in one) by James Herriot, $10. I can't wait to read it/them.

Nate found: Volumes 2 and 3 of The Civil War- A Narrative by Shelby Foote, $7.50 each. These were the major steals!!

All of these, brand new, nice editions, and hardcovers. Nate was smiling as he signed his name on the credit card slip, and probably still is. A good night for our bellies and for our bookshelves.

The Wall O' Cards

Not too shabby after all!

Welcome back!

You made it back!

As you can see, I've changed the name of this blog and the new link is
http://thelordsofhorses.blogspot.com

Translated, the weblink is The Aherns (dot) blogspot (dot) com; the new title is The Aherns, and the subtitle is based off of the meanings of my name (note that feminine does not equal feminist) and Nate's. I remember also having seen the meaning of my name somewhere when I was younger to be "little and womanly". An alternative meaning of Nate is found in the plural form in the dictionary. Look it up. :)

Why did I change it up, you ask? Well, I was thinking that perhaps someday, this will be transformed into a family blog. Thus, I've upgraded to a more sophisticated weblink which will hopefully stand the test of time. I envision my children and grandchildren and great grand children perusing this site and all of it's photos and stories someday!! Is this a realistic vision?

Regardless, welcome to the "new" blog.

p.s. That is Nate's hair in the previous post. Anyone who honestly wants hair mailed to their doorstep should speak up now before the trash goes out to the dumpster! :p

p.p.s. Although he doesn't know it yet, and hasn't agreed, I'm adding Nate as a contributor to this. That doesn't mean I expect him to post on it regularly, but at least he'll have the capability. Someday, you know. Must think long term!

Guessing Game

Any guesses as to what this is?

Perhaps a second picture will help:

And thus begins my 29th year

I just turned 28 on Monday and I can definitely feel the difference between 27 and 28. Now that I'm 28, I have more of a sweet tooth, I gravitate towards works by Elton John and Billy Joel*, and I have a deep sense of contentment due to my personal in-house musician**. See evidence below:

In the morning before work, Nate took me out to our favorite breakfast nook: The Buffalo Grille. Later in the evening we had some dessert: Nate baked me a delectable devil's food cake from scratch with some homemade icing.Following dessert, I enjoyed an impromptu solo violin performance by the one and only N.J. Ahern. I then opened a handful of presents and called the day Swell.
*Among other lovely items I was presented with two tickets to an Elton John/BillyJoel concert in March

** Nate, please don't kill me for posting these

Ceiling Fiasco

New Year's Resolution #1: Finish fix-ups in the bathroom

As I mentioned previously, we had a bit of a fiasco in our bathroom a few weeks ago. Ever since then, we've cleared out our bathroom and moved our bathroom essentials into the guest bathroom, which we are sharing with Cheyenne until our bathroom fix-ups are complete.

It was a Saturday afternoon when we discovered a small drip coming from our bathroom ceiling. We were about to head out for a long run, so we put a large bowl down under it and figured we'd check it when we got back. Upon our return, the drips had not stopped, and Nate went upstairs to knock on our neighbor's door to find out if they had any known leaks up there. Since no one was home we left a note and asked her to call when she got home.

Later that night our neighbor called to let us know that there were no leaks on her end, so we called the condo's security guard on duty to see if there were any maintenance guys on duty that evening. Although they were supposed to send someone over, no one ever came, so we resolved to just wait until first thing Monday morning when the main maintenance guy was in. After all, the leak was small and there wasn't much we could do anyway.

Sunday evening we went downtown to a musical performance of White Christmas. We returned home around 10pm to find additional leaks above the tub, a couple feet away from the original leak. The new leaks were rusty in color, and the ceiling around it was bulging downward.This was not looking promising for waiting until the morning. So, Nate called the maintenance line once more and someone arrived at our door around 11:30pm. The guy came in and knocked a hole in the ceiling to relieve the pressure, which released a large amount of water into the tub. He identified the source of the leak and then left with the intention of sending a plumber in an hour or so to fix the leak. A few minutes after he left, as Nate and I were staring up at the small hole in the ceiling, the small hole became large, as the whole ceiling caved right before our eyes.

As it turns out, since the leak was now dripping straight into the tub and was no longer able to cause anymore damage, the plumber wouldn't be sent until normal business hours the next day.

Eventually, the plumbers came and replaced the pipe that was causing the leak. And thankfully, we were able to get the drywall people in a couple of times before we left for Christmas break.

Now all that remains is touching up the paint bordering the ceiling, and replacing a soap dish that fell off the wall when the ceiling crashed.

I can count several blessings in the midst of this:

1. The leak was above the bathtub, and not above our bed (or our heads when the ceiling fell!)

2. We don't have to pay for any of the repairs since the homeowners association will

3. This whole process has been moving along much faster than I thought it would