Family Fun

Yet Another Delicious Tomato-heavy Summer Dinner

Sister came to visit with my niece and nephew last week.  They are so adorable.  I would post a picture to show you just how adorable they are, but she is very careful about rarely publishing her children's photos online and asking friends and family to do the same, so I can't.

For work, so far, this August is *slow*.  Like crazy slow.  Since the beginning of the month, I've been getting roughly the same amount of emails in a full workday that I received in each day's busiest work hour in June (last month of the quarter).  

I'm not complaining.  It's been several years of full throttle work and it's nice to have an unexpected break.  It's not even the week before Labor Day yet! (A large percentage of my clients or opposing folks on deals go to Burning Man, so I can always count on a slow week prior to Labor Day.)

On the running front, this week was nothing impressive.  I continue to struggle to find time to fit it in and/or be motivated, but I cleared the doctor-approved minimum of 20 miles for a total of 24.74 miles, with much walking.  In terms of high-effort, there wasn't much, but I did huff and puff my way through a 3 miler with Sister while she pushed her 40 lb 4 year-old and 20 lb toddler in the double jogging stroller.  She ditched me on her way up one of the hills for an extra effort -- I'm blaming it on the fact that she's 6 years younger...  When I caught up, I offered to let her go ahead to finish at a faster clip, but she said, "No way!  How often do I get to run with my sister?  I'm sticking with you."  Sister is right -- time with family when you live far away is *way* more important that having the best workout you could on any given day.  

In that theme, I traded in my planned Sunday AM 9 miler out to the cemetery to visit Dad for a 1.84 mile walk around the neighborhood with Mom.

E and I went back to my home town on Saturday to have a celebratory birthday dinner with Mom and Brother.  We went to Peruvian food and it was delicious -- Mmmmmm... ceviche.  On our drive home, a childhood friend and her husband waved us down on the street (literally, an arm hanging out of the window while they passed us honking).  So they came over to Brother's and we all caught up.  It was such an unexpected and wonderful surprise -- I see them a couple times a year, but it had been 9 years since Mom had seen them and at least 2 or 3 years since Brother had seen them.  After the late night, I slept in and opted to walk and talk with Mom instead of going for a run -- It was definitely the right decision.

Overall, it was a great Summer week.  It's been a long time since I've seen Brother, Mother, and Sister in the same week.  Actually, it had been a year since last year's Summer celebratory dinner (where we were all together as opposed to this year, when it was in the same week, but not all together).  I wish we all lived closer.