mid-july
there's no hiding how much i love musicals. i was hooked at age 5 when i first watched the sound of music...and my love grew even stronger when i saw les mis on broadway. since then, i have jumped at every opportunity to see another. so, we're out at a cardinals game one night, and i hear them advertising for beauty and the beast at the MUNY. blackberry out. investigation commenced. it turns out that there is an outdoor theater in st louis that puts on a new musical each week. amazing! i looked over the schedule and decided i wanted to see the sound of music at the end of the month. a week later, a friend called out of the blue and offered me 4 box seat tickets to damn yankees....FREE. i snatched them up and we took some friends for a pretty great night. catchy songs, great costumes, awesome front-row view. when we got home, i was looking on the website and discovered that the entire 5 back rows in the theater are always free on a first come, first served basis. hmmmmm....maybe i could just catch every last one of the shows for the summer! next up on the list was cats. being that this is my friend's favorite musical, i knew just who to invite on premiere night.
we met up, found seats, stowed away our "intermission" snack, and shared our excitement. as the sun set, the orchestra and spotlights woke up, and i settled back for another great one to add to the list.........wrong. this is possibly the most ridculous, asinine excuse for a "play" you could venture to imagine. prancing monkey-like creatures singing made up nonsense with zero plot. it was closer to a gibberish ballet of torture than a musical. save for the good company and picnic snack, it was a pure waste of anticipation. i actually get quite upset whenever the songs decide to resonate in my head. jellicle cats and mr. mistoffelees......please. this experience doesn't get two thumbs down....it gets two cat claws to the face.
end of july
i didn't end up getting to see the sound of music. not because of the above mentioned disaster, but because i was instead on a plane, bound for seattle! i had not seen my brother and his family for over three years. they recently had a baby girl and i was dying to spend some actual, authentic, family time getting to know his three kids. i will spare you the details of my drama in reaching my final destination, but it was toooootally worth the trek! here is what i loved best about my visit, in no particular order.....
~precious, amazing baby maliah with her soft skin and tiny body and contagious smile
(baby m on the beach with my mom)
~giggling on the couch with my brother and sister-in-law and mom into the late hours of the night...just like old times :)
~the joy of doing nothing yet knowing that you have everything
~rambunctious "wrestles" on the trampoline and racing through the parks with my boys
~a beautiful 8k race through the hilly and breezy streets of seattle at sunset
(nothing compares to a race in gorgeous weather!)
beginning of august
while i was away for the week, marcus continued on with his normal life of work, gym, and running at home. on thursday night, he went to his usual softball game. we had been texting typical banter up until that point, but on this night, i got the text of all texts. he had gotten hit by a softball on the side of his shin and the contusion that resulted was painfully, scarily massive. picture follows...
i have to be honest. when he texted me this, i thought it was a picture of his knee....with a little red bump on it. he didn't say much more about it, so i just assumed it was a minor injury, that he had iced, and that it had gone down. but when i returned home several days later and saw his leg....holy cow. it was not on his knee at all. and it was not only larger and tighter, but his ENTIRE lower leg was now bluish purple. his ankle was swollen so that his socks were digging in and his foot had yellow and green bruising on it. i immediately went into nurse mode, demanding that he ice it, take ibuprofen, put it up on pillows, stop running, everything i could think of. when the "bump" did not go down after a few weeks, we finally agreed that he needed to go see a doctor. her recommendation....prescription strength ibuprofen. wow. thanks for that $150 charge. he is now the proud owner of two mega-size bottles of over-the-counter ibuprofen and a most-likely permanent, albeit smaller shin contusion.
the following picture was taken around the time he went to see the doctor. nothing had changed except the bruising had mostly gone from the rest of the leg. yowch!
mid-august
you would think that the softball incident would have scared marcus away from balls and bats altogether. but he would not back down from a man vs. food challenge! st louis has a minor league team called the gateway grizzlies. pretty crappy team to be honest. but they ARE famous for one thing.....baseball's best food. at least that's what they call it. baseball's best hamburger and baseball's best nachos. we had seen both on the man vs. food challenge. when a groupon came up for cheap tickets and these food items, we rushed over to the stadium. the burger is bacon, sharp cheddar, and a hamburger patty served on a krispy kreme donut. sweet and savory deliciousness. the nachos are multi-colored tortilla chips covered in philly cheesesteak meat, onions, peppers, and monterrey cheese sauce. holy goodness. we will both admit that they were better in theory than in actuality. but they were premade and sitting in a food warmer for the groupon crowd that was coming to get them. perhaps made fresh they would have been more up to par. or made at home.....now there's an idea! next football saturday, get ready!
speaking of made at home....marcus came back from a long day of golf one weekend, smelling of sunscreen and wind, and plopped down a HUGE bag of tomatoes on the counter. a guy he was golfing with had brought them from his garden to share. being that i am the only half of this couple that even likes tomatoes, i began to wonder what in the world i was going to do with all of them. what else but make tomato sauce....which i have never made in my life. enter the "joy of cooking" cookbook. that thing is amazing. it will teach you how to boil water, i swear. page 1. well, maybe not, but everything else you can imagine is in there. so sure enough, i find 3 or 4 recipes for made-from-scratch tomato sauce and i set to work. this is what i was cut out for. slaving over a hot stove all day for one single meal....i love it! and we loved IT. tastiest italian food since italy itself. i only wish that i had more time to cook fresh meals for us. we would definitely put on a pound or two, but who doesn't love a fat, jolly woman in the kitchen.
end of august
i guess you could say that I don't love a fat, jolly woman in the kitchen. hence my half marathon ploy. i have been running like a crazy woman. by the end of august, i was just over the hump of halfway through the training. i was really starting to get my rhythm in the blaring heat and humidity that has tortured us this summer. i started feeling my confidence boost and my times improve over the weeks. and then suddenly.....the heavens burst forth a glorious blast of cool, dry, gorgeous weather. this did WONDERS for my stamina. no more huffing and puffing. no more pouring sweat. no more need for walk-breaks. running magic :) i have definitely been bitten by the bug!
oh....until this week..... :(
beginning of september
we went camping for labor day where i literally got a bug....a stomach bug. the vacation plus the sickness took me out of commission for almost 5 days. i'm worried that my leg muscles are going to rebel against me when i try to venture out tonight. but i gotta start back somewhere. so off to lace up the ol' shoes. only 24 days until the big day!
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