8 8 8 is great!

That used to by my personal chant/cheer/whatever in high school.  My lucky number and volleyball number is/was #8, so it's always had my heart.  Tonight I had 8 easy miles on my agenda.  To be honest, I contemplated skipping it because my knee was still a little wonky while walking around at work today. I figured I'd at least get 2-3 in, and turn around and come home if it ended up being too painful.

First and foremost, the most exciting part of my run:  wearing shorts.  These poor leggies have not seen sunlight in uh....anyone?? Buehler??  My guess is November, but to be honest it was probably early October.  Despite the 25 mph winds (can we just get ONE all around nice day?  no?  I need to quit bitching about the weather now?  Ok, dually noted), it was actually a very nice 54 degrees.  Getting started was a bit chilly, but I warmed up (ie:  started sweatathon 2010) real fast.

Secondly, no knee pain.  Uh...what?  Ok, I'll go with it.  My stomach was still pretty pissed off at me, as it's yet to recover from the 20 miler apparently, but other than that, I was a-ok and feeling good.  I did a route over by my old apartment, so it was definitely nice to check out some new/old scenery.  And I took out the new shoes for their first spin outdoors.  Heck yes.  Come to think of it, maybe that's why I had no knee pain.  Hmmm....interesting. I'm planning on wearing the older pair only for really crappy crappy muddy/wet weather, so hopefully they'll only get another 20-30 miles on them tops.

My garmin had issues finding a satellite, so I ended up running about 8.1 miles in 1:17:08 for a pace of 9:32.  P.S.  I had two separate people LAUGH at me for declaring my 8 miler an "easy" run tonight.  It's insane to think that 8 miles is the shortest run I'll have for this week.  Don't even get me started about the week on my schedule that has 10 miles as the "easy run" [shudders].

I had such an overwhelming response to my Life to Do List and Qualities List, that I just had to follow up with some explanation.

Domesticate a squirrel.  Growing up, my nickname from my parents was Squirrel Bait.  Yes squirrel bait = nuts.  That should give you an idea of the type of child I was.  Come to think of it, my parents also called me Fart Blossum.  I'm not even sure they loved me at this point.... :p  But I digress.

I've always had an obsession with squirrels, they're just so stinking cute.  When I went to college, there was a swarm of squirrels that hung out on the walkway from the cafeteria to my dorm.  Many of them would chill in a crab apple tree outside the building.  One night, I bravely walked up to one, and actually petted him (more or less touched his back, and then freaked out).  When I called to tell my mom what happened, she replied, "We always knew you were Squirrel Bait!"  Oh, gotta love them.  Anyway, this will happen someday.  It's gotta, it's on "The List."

Potty training a cat.  I'm a dog lover, but I also love cats.  One thing I don't love is their stinky litterboxes.  At one point a long time ago, I saw a thing on tv where someone talked about potty training their cat, and it completely made sense, because it's roughly the same way you'd train them to use a litterbox.  Again, this will happen at some point.  I'm guessing they won't learn to flush, but that's fine. ;)

I also had many folks respond with their impressive match up on my "Qualities List" and also their extreme short comings (pun intended....apparently my blog readers are shorties.  It's ok, I still love you all. :p)  I think my top match was @jumbolaw with 21 matches.  He also suggested that I add single to my list.  Oh touche.  Excellent idea.  Ha.