Birthday Happy Dance!

Tomorrow is my birthday!  I will be 29.

I love birthdays!  I love other peoples birthdays at least as much as I love my own, but probably more. I love birthdays more than Christmas, because on your birthday, it is YOUR DAY. On Christmas, you have to say Merry Christmas to everyone else.  But on your birthday, the wishes just come to you! Also, Christmas is really just one big ball of stress. Yes, this is selfish, and I don't care.

My husband is cooking me dinner tonight. Best hubs ever. Dinner at home is what I prefer, because I like the option of eating dinner in my underpants for my birthday.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say Rob likes this option as well. 

Tomorrow night my friends are throwing Amy and I a party for our collective birthdays!  A theme party! Thrift store prom!

Look for pictures next week.

That is all.

Have a super fantastic weekend!

Remember.

Last Thursday, the UAB community lost a tremendous person.  Dr. Dale Benos, who was the chair of the Physiology and Biophysics Department, died suddenly of a heart attack, about a week after his 60th birthday. He was out for an evening jog with his wife.  It was a complete shock. I cried for him, for the wonderful person we lost, and for his wife and two teenage daughters.  

I called (okay, I texted) my dad to tell him I loved him.

Dale taught my ethics class in grad school, and it was clear that he loved teaching.  He has been incredibly kind to me through the years (I'm pretty sure he never forgot a face), and from the number of people present at his memorial service, to everyone around him.  He was an amazing person who I met with just 6 days before his death to borrow some materials for my own teaching activities.  He showed tremendous interest in my goals, was thrilled for my interest in teaching, and even gave me some suggestions for my own career aspirations. I left the meeting in such a great mood, excited for the future, and made a mental note to meet with him more often.   But then he was gone, in a flash. 

Rob and I both had Dale as a teacher at some point, and we thought it appropriate to attend the memorial service, which was held yesterday at Church of the Highlands.  It was quite a nice service, despite the pastor obviously trying to recruit souls to salvation for the last 15 minutes or so.  (That part was completely inappropriate.) The point is that Dale was remembered by many as a kind, godly person who loved his family more than anything and always tried to do right by the people around him.

We didn't say anything about it, really, but Rob and I spent a lot of time together this past weekend.  We had lunch on Friday (which we NEVER do on a workday---too busy, you know?), went out for yogurt Friday night, went for dinner Saturday night, etc.  We have a tendency to sort of go our separate ways on the weekends (we both have so many projects!) but I think this sudden sense of loss made us think twice about that. 

Things like this always make me think of the ones I love the most, how much they mean to me, and what I would do and feel if they were suddenly gone.  Just gone, with no preamble and no real explanation. 

So.  That was my weekend.  Somewhat reflective, but definitely not boring.  Sometimes it's nice to just remember.

I will not post about my weekend next week because:

i am going to the movies twice.  twice!

i am going on a run

i am going to catch up on some work stuff maybe.

i am going to clean the house

i am going to catch up on making birthday cards

i might clean my car

i am going to the market, but all of you already know about that.

my weekend is going to be blissful, but nothing special to tell you about on monday.  so.

have a lovely weekend everyone!

Pheidippides Died.

Well, Amy and I have started marathon training as of this week. Why would we do that? Because we think we can. And I know if I'm going to do it, now is definitely the time. (No kids, a husband writing a dissertation, you do the math.)

Being in a somewhat flexible job where I can work pretty much whatever hours I want, I am not accustomed to waking up early. I like to stay up late, so the reality of marathon training hit me at exactly 5:45 this morning, after a big garlic-y dinner last night and staying up to catch up on "The Sopranos" on Netflix. (We are on Season 3.)

But I had to be in the shower to get ready for my teaching day in Tuscaloosa (every Wednesday) by 6:45, so that meant an early morning-it was a pretty short run today. I'm down. And now I feel very accomplished.

This is the first week of training, so I'm still in the excited phase.

Here's how it goes:

Sunday- Cross Train (easy enough)

Monday- Rest (very easy)

Tuesday- Run in the a.m., Power Yoga in the p.m. (gotta keep those muscles strong and stretched out!)

Wednesday- Run in the a.m.

Thursday- Run in the a.m., Power Yoga in the p.m.

Friday- Rest (!)

Saturday- Loooonngg Run for the week (up to 20 miles)

So periodically I will blog about how this is all going. I have run quite a few half marathons, a 15K, and a million 5Ks. I know what training is, and I know I'm going to be in amazing shape, but too tired to enjoy it at all. I know I will drink so much (organic) milk and eat so much (all-natural) cashew and peanut butter we might go broke. I already dread the 18-miler the day after Christmas. After all, Pheidippides DIED.

The 1896 Olympic Marathon, courtesy Wikipedia.

Put on yer dang jean shorts-we're goin' to see them Gators play!

Another fun weekend in the books!

At 6:00 p.m. Friday evening (after work) we drove to Gainesville, FL--arriving at roughly 3 a.m. after several interstate setbacks.  For those of you that don't know, Gainesville, FL is the center of the universe (*inject some sarcasm*).  Anyway, we stayed with my in-laws for the weekend, had a lovely visit, and went to see the Gators play the Kentucky Wildcats!  I like the gators, but I don't love them.  Mostly I married into gator-dom.  But what I love love love is football--so exciting!

That being said, I hope the Gators kick the shit out of Bama this upcoming weekend.  One can hope.

Jeff, my brother in law, and "Dr. Mans" to you, was nice enough to plan the pregame tailgate. We had some amaze-balls burgers, great sides, and enjoyed watching the Bama (YUCK)/Arkansas game on the flatscreen.  One of the tail-gators (!) got a pretty severe sprained ankle, but that was the only snafu.  We went to the game, where the gators killed the wildcats, and finally back home after another tailgate snack while we waited for traffic to clear.

And Mississippi State beat Georgia!  Woot!

Again we got in bed superlate, but it doesn't matter, because the next morning we had to go see the grandparents!  We missed Grandpa Mans' ("Dr. Mans" to you) birthday party two weeks ago and needed to give him his gift and catch up. We had a great visit, complete with homemade cherry turnovers.  Granny Mans is the best cook in the world.

Overall a superfun weekend.  Thanks Jeff and Lori for your hard work--I know from experience that planning and executing a tailgate is no small feat.

Photo with the fam before we leave on our football adventure. 

Jeff did his hair special for the occasion.

And one more with the mom-in-law.  Woo!  Look at those bags under my eyes!

I'm too old for this type of travel, apparently.

The only photo I took at the game---with my cell phone.  Win.

Have a great week everyone! 

-Keri ("Dr. Mans" to you)

The football game is mostly secondary to the food.

So after yoga and breakfast on Saturday, I went to a THIRD social event!  I know!  Turns out three is my limit for social events in one day, because I totally flaked out on going for drinks and dancing later that night.  

We tailgated for the UAB football game.  I didn't go to the game, but I hear they won finally. Anyway, it was time for the Golden Tongs cookout competition, and this year the media was beef!  Rob didn't compete this year, since he's won the tongs every year at this event.  But Erica made beef skewers which were a big hit, and Edie made "the best hamburgers on earth".  They were seasoned with cajun sausage and wrapped in bacon!  Bacon!  

Erica won by a vote of 6 to 5!

Edie poses with her amaze-balls burgers!

I wonder if Sean believed me when I said I didn't take this photo?  

Abby protects Bells from the marching band.  

The marching band, really, this dog was terrified.

Owen protects Mommy from the marching band and looks around for snacks.

Erica, after years of hard competition, finally wins the Golden Tongs! 

Maybe next year, Edie!

Unless Rob decides to come out of retirement...

Woot!

Peace factory, WORD.

This past Saturday, there was a yoga session at Vulcan Park on the city overlook.  The name of the class was "108 Sun Salutations at Vulcan Park".  I was very excited and decided to take interested parties of my yoga class on a field trip.  I am a very stupid person sometimes.  At least one of us should have realized that we were going to do 108 sun salutations with different yoga instructors from the Birmingham area, and even though I did realize it was going to be a lot of saluting the sun, I kind of thought each instructor would do a different version of the pose series, and not the SAME ONE OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR 1.5 HOURS!

But that's what happened.  

It was a beautiful day, and even though my little group was stuck by the pregnant lady section, we did very well for about 24 rounds of sun salutation.  I learned that I should imagine my body as a peace factory (for reals), cleanse my internal organs, and open my body to cleansing energy and peace from the earth.  Just so you know, this is NOT how my yoga class operates.  Anyway, I got somewhat dizzy, very nauseous, and super-hungry.  After about 75 rounds of the same thing over and over, I took my yoga class on a field trip to the pancake house.   We had a wonderful time eating bacon.

Edie and I fail at keeping our eyes open.  And also I'm making my stank-face.  Win.

Alicia and Johanna, thinking they're ready for anything!

It looks like Edie forgot her pants, but she's wearing them.

The hippies come out of the woodwork.