Week in Review (November 14 - November 20)

Tuesday (14,662 steps) - Quick Peloton ride before a big day... MY BABY GIRL TURNED 18!?!?! First we went to breakfast - shocking that her request was IHOP - she has always loved pancakes.

I mean, I like pancakes too...

Then we went to Ziggi's so she could claim her free birthday coffee. It was the biggest coffee I've ever seen - 32 oz??

Went to Costco so she could get her own card. A big letdown when a). we found out they changed the age to 16 a few months ago and we didn't know and b). the dumb photo machine was down (again). We picked up some random stuff for Olive while we were there. And onto the "big" adventure of the day - going to the new Museum of Illusions downtown. It was a lot of fun, and pretty similar to the one that we went to in Poland.

Went to the Costco by us and the photo machine was working, so A was able to get her card. By the time we got home it was basically time for A to get ready for practice, so I took Olive for a walk.

A was planning on spending the rest of her birthday with her friends (which was fine, and we had discussed already) so Ben and I went to Parry's.

Wednesday (27,346 steps) - I had taken this day off as well... just because. Since I have unlimited PTO at work I try to make sure I use *at least* what I would have gotten before, and when I was going through my calendar mid-year it didn't seem like I had "enough" days off. This coming from someone that historically had to fight for every minute of time off. Anyway... I lounged around. Took Olive for a walk.

I finished reading my book and then FINALLY headed out to do my run. I chose going to Boulder since I had 90 minutes of "hilly terrain" on schedule. It felt hard right from the start. BUT, for the first time EVER, I ran the entire loop without walking ONCE. It felt like a Herculean effort, but pretty proud of that!

I ordered my "half birthday" reward from Tokyo Joe's and picked it up on my way home.

Before I knew it, it was time to head to Boulder for run club. I had plans just to walk with Olive and see what the sales were.

It was a surprisingly nice evening and I didn't end up buying anything. It was also REALLY crowded, so we didn't stay that long. Ben was at 4 Noses, so Tyler and I met him there for a beer. We got really sad news (for us) from Tyler - that he is moving to Florida for a year :( :( 

Came home to find I received my Katy 225 buckle in the mail! It's a REALLY nice buckle.

Thursday (17,809 steps) - Work from home and had to dig out from time off. Lots of emails, but turned out I didn't have to do much with any of them, thankfully. Went for my run early, and it wasn't bad. Originally I had a longer run on schedule, but I told Greg I felt like I needed to ease my way back into training, so I only did an hour. Took Olive for a walk.

A left early to go to the airport for her trip to Phoenix with her team, so Ben and I went to Parry's.

Friday (18,701 steps) - I had COMPLETELY forgotten that A was going to be gone and did NOT have a dog walker, so I skipped my Wash Park walk and took Olive for a very long walk before I went to work.

A ridiculous new purchase of a puffy coat ($10 from Costco!)

Went to work - and it was actually another pretty busy day. Walked on the treadmill at lunch and read my book. Also put my new Squish on display at work.

Ben and I went to Torchy's for dinner.

Saturday (25,051 steps) - Didn't sleep as late as I would have liked. Ariel had an amazing race and got a new (HUGE) PR - 21:18. What a great way to end her high school XC career! It also was freakish weather and apparently poured during their race. Anyway, super proud of her for that!

Ben and I went to South Table for a run. I haven't run there much and we started at a weird trail head that I had never been to so had to create a map on the fly. It was a pretty nice morning, and the run went pretty good. A bit longer than we had planned, but it worked.

Took Olive for a quick walk and then... REGISTERED (waitlist) for the new Summit 200!! Really excited for that one. Went to 4 Noses to celebrate, and then finally put up our new (and only) holiday decorate. I *guess* it makes more sense than the 12' Jack.

Sunday (23,088 steps) - Neither of us could seem to make a decision of where to run. I only had an hour and Ben said let's just run by the house. I declined that since I always run there during the week. We headed up to Rocky Flats since Ben had never been there. He saw the little barn and house and even though I had mapped it earlier and "knew" it would be longer than an hour, we went that way anyway...

It was a little windy, but not terrible. Stopped at Resolute on the way home. Just had the one beer, and it was just ok. Their beer isn't my favorite. 

Took Olive for a walk.

Ben and I went to Costco (SAD) and it was not a lot of fun because it's the last weekend before Thanksgiving and the Broncos game was later, so it was crowded. We did get A her "birthday" cake though. Happiness all around!

Monday (17,268 steps) - Work from home. Got coffee and (finally) a haircut. I had a run to do and literally put it off all morning because I didn't want to run in the rain or wind. By the time I finally went out I was cold for the first part of the run but it was actually fine. As an aside, I hit 2,000 running miles for the year during this run. Crazy! Took Olive for a walk afterwards - she sported her nifty puffy coat again.

Ariel invited me along while she got her belly button pierced, even though she is officially an adult now, that was fun. (And fast! I swear when I got mine done 25+ years ago it took forever and was pretty painful).

No recollection of the rest of the evening.

Stats:

• 143,925 steps
• 31.6 miles run
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 0 minutes of strength

Day 5 - Warsaw (TXL to WAW, Warsaw Museum, Museum of Illusions, Warsaw Uprising Museum)

We had a very early 3ish am wake up call. Gave ourselves just enough time to do the last minute packing and then 5-10 minutes for check out. What we did NOT expect, was for the front desk to not be able to DO a check out at roughly 4 am. Apparently, their computers hadn't yet closed out the previous day. So there we stood in the lobby, watching the staff chide a drunk guy for sleeping in the hallway, and me, for not checking out the night before. Finally, after 15 minutes and the systems STILL not being up, he let us leave anyway, after we swore we didn't incur any additional charges (like drinking the bottle of water in the room or breakfast in the restaurant).

As a result, we did miss the bus we had been planning on taking. Luckily, we found a different bus that managed to get us roughly to the same area, and made the right connection, getting us to the airport with just an hour until our flight. Luckily, Europe is much more lenient and it took mere minutes to get us through security and to our gate. All while never showing a single form of identification. We got a quick breakfast and coffee, boarded, and were pushing away from the gate 2 minutes early.

The flight to Warsaw was FAST - and we landed early as well. Apparently, you can travel between Germany and Poland without identifying yourself or going through customs. We found the info desk, got directions to our hotel and purchased a 3 day transportation pass. Outside of nearly getting kicked off the train for having my feet on the seat across from me and not having a student identification card for A, the ride was uneventful. We walked to our hotel and they permitted us to leave our bags until we could check in later that day.

We got lost on our first attempt at the bus, but it was a good learning experience. Found our way into Old Town and decided our first stop of the day would be the Warsaw Museum. It was a good museum, but laid out in a very confusing way... over 6 floors! We spent a few hours in there, then went to get our traditional Polish lunch.

After lunch, we decided to get dessert of the day, and were trying to decide what else to do. We found a cool haunted house, but upon arrival, they were closed with no estimate for reopening. We halfheartedly went to the Museum of Illusions - which turned out to be SUPER FUN.

We then took the bus to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. This was another multi-level museum that was semi-interactive. It was a bit confusing following the timeline since we didn't have a tour guide, but we learned a lot, and... got another dessert.

After we left the museum we figured it was time to head back to the hotel and have dinner. We checked in and thought we would wander around and find somewhere to buy bottled water and maybe a beer. Went to a sketchy bar, then got dinner at a "fancy" restaurant in our hotel.

In bed later than we planned.