Let's Go Huskers!

Last year at this time, I was writing a big check to Tom Osborne to renew our Nebraska football season tickets and watching the Nebraska bowling team on television.


(photo: huskers.com)

Last week, I wrote a big check to Tom Osborne to renew our Nebraska football season tickets and now I'm watching the Nebraska women's basketball team play in the NCAA tournament.


(photo: huskers.com)

My, how things have improved. :)

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Not The Smartest Thing I've Ever Done

Today was the first trail race of the season and I've been looking forward to it. This trail series is held at a local state park and the single track trails are challenging but oh-so-pretty. I couldn't wait to get out there and see how my times had improved since last year.

As it turns out, I'm about three minutes slower. But I blame this...



and this...



and this...



It was almost 60 degrees at noon yesterday but by the time I headed to bed, it was 30 and snowing. I'm guessing there was 5-6 inches of snow on the ground when I woke up this morning, and that was on top of a layer of ice. My neighbors picked me up at 7 a.m. and we headed out on roads that hadn't seen a lot of traffic. When we pulled up to the trail head parking lot, it was 28 degrees and the wind was tossing a few gusts our way, just to make life interesting. By the time the race director waved the ribbons to start us up the trail, 30 or so hardy folk were turning various shades of red in the initial stages of frostbite :)

It doesn't take long to warm up when you're slogging through six inches of fresh powder.


(That's one of my neighbors in blue and me, up ahead in gray. The photos are all courtesy of my other neighbor, who managed to run and act as race photographer at the same time.)

I walked almost as much as I ran. Snow shoes would have been more helpful than my Mizunos. But it was silent and beautiful on those trails. And there were breakfast burritos and hot chocolate waiting at the end. And I had the company of good friends.

It was a great morning to be a runner.

Hello Sunshine

We had sun, glorious sun today! The little girls were outside til the last possible minute. Tomorrow, it's back to rain... and then snow... but today? Today we saw the sun.

Diving Into Good Books

It's been a banner week as far as reading is concerned. I haven't had much in the way of deadlines, so I've been able to read at night and it's been wonderful! I loved the Harry Truman book. It was fun and quirky and educational, all in one. And did any of you read the comments on that post? The AUTHOR stopped by and said hello. How cool is that?

Then I dove into The Girls from Ames, which is the true story of the forty year friendship of eleven women from Ames, Iowa, interspersed with statistical information about friendship and comments from the author about the relationship dynamics within the group. I truly loved that book, too, and highly recommend it to all of my friends - especially Elaine. For some reason, I think Elaine would really like it.

Laurie R. King has a new book coming out in April - it's part of the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes storyline and I adore that entire series. Whenever a new book is coming out from a favorite author, I like to re-read all of the other books in the series. I've been on a Mary Russell kick lately anyway, and I'm already up to A Letter of Mary (although I read The Moor out of order... so sue me). That's probably next on the agenda. I should have another few days of reading before work begins to intrude again and I intend to take full advantage of it!

The Girls From Ames

Go. Get this book. Read it. I'm really not kidding. Wow. And I'm only 65 pages in.

Hanging With Harry Truman

I have a certain fondness for presidential retrospectives. I was a history minor in college and my favorite classes were those that dug into a president's life and times, both in office and out. Toss in a president who was relevant from WWI to WWII and I'm happier than a pig in slop.

You see, The Great Depression and New Deal are gold mines in terms of American history - especially American political history. I had a college professor named Fred who positively adored New Deal politics - mostly because there was so much for him to disagree with - and I've never gotten over that rush of glee that I felt every time Fred screamed, "And that's why Roosevelt was WRONG!"

And he screamed that a lot. Fred was not a Roosevelt fan.

But me, I'm more of a Truman fan. Fred was quiet on the subject of Truman, mostly because there was so much criticizing of Roosevelt to be done, but another professor turned me onto Truman by making me read Truman (catchy title, eh?) by David McCullough. You'd think forcing an undergrad to read a 1,120 page book would engender lifelong hatred, but I came away thinking Truman was a nifty sort of president. I've actually read the book again - in fact, I purchased it so I could have it around the house. At 1,120 pages, it makes a nice doorstop.

Anywho, all of this rambling is meant to explain why I voluntarily grabbed a book at the library called Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip. After the Trumans' left the White House, they took off on a three week road trip across America, with Harry at the wheel. Not only is it a fun book, it's also an interesting look into presidential history. Did you know that when Truman left office, he was no longer given Secret Service protection and wasn't paid any type of salary or retirement? He published the phone number to his office and actually answered the phone himself. He and Bess moved back to the house that Bess had grown up in, because it was the only place they could afford to live. Oh... and while he was in the White House, he had to pay the White House expenses out of his own presidential salary?

See? This is the interesting sort of stuff I adore.

Can you imagine telling the Obamas that they had to pay for the White House expenses out of their own pockets? I'm guessing that would seriously cut down on the number of State dinners and trips to visit the Vatican.

Next On The Agenda

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I've got two more business trips on the horizon. Okay, I actually know exactly how it happened. The first one is my boss's fault, since he's hosting a conference and put me on the speaking schedule.

Without telling me first.

But that's another story. Which I'm sure I'll tell you one of these days.

The other conference is one I attend every year and I always learn something new, which makes it one of my favorite conferences. Except that this year, the guy hosting that conference got wind of the fact that I was speaking at the other conference and... you know where this is going, right? Yep... I'm speaking at that conference, too.

Although I was slightly smarter for the second conference. I roped two people into sitting on a panel with me so I'm not up there all by my lonesome. It's not that I mind speaking in public... it's just that I don't want everyone staring exclusively at me. If there's a couple other people to look at, so much the better.

So anywho, you can imagine my predicament. If I freak out about my lack of appropriate wardrobe before ordinary ol' business trips, you can guess the panic I'm feeling about finding something appropriate to wear while speaking at a conference. Luckily, we have... umm... about three weeks to solve that particular dilemna. Oh lord.

There is a bright side to all of this (in addition to the fluffy hotel beds, mounds of pillows, and room service). The first conference is in NEW ORLEANS! I've never been to New Orleans and I'm pretty darn excited about it. Our conference hotel is just blocks from the French Quarter and there are a couple of tours already arranged for conference attendees that I should be able to sneak my way into. I'm hoping to see an alligator on the swamp tour :)

The second conference is in Baltimore in May and, although I'm sure Baltimore is a lovely city, I'm not quite as excited about the location as I am about the fact that Meredith and the BABY are going to come see me while I'm there!!! After all these years of emailing and phone calls and wailing and lamenting and whining and celebrating and such, we're finally going to hang out face-to-face. I'm not sure Baltimore is ready for us.