Happy First Day of Spring!

I'll be honest ... I totally forgot today was the first day of spring until I heard it on the news last night. Here in the Midwest, we had late winter/ early spring all winter and then just jumped straight to summer sometime last week. It's crazy. Saturday, I had to dig out the box with my (non-workout) shorts in it!

First off, someone asked how long my hair was BEFORE it got chopped ... since it's been in a perpetual bun or ponytail for the past 5ish months ... so here you go ...

Secondly, I found these lovelies over the weekend and decided I needs to make some cookies for St. Patrick's Day:

OF COURSE I'm not eating the cookie dough.
Who do you think I am, my grandmother's granddaughter? Haha

They spread out a little more than I would have liked (and were a little too soft), but they were pretty darn yummy. I bought some mint chocolate chip ice cream and Mint Bailey's at the same time I bought the m&ms. Talk about a mint overload! Between all the mint, the alcohol, and the emotional upheaval, Saturday night was interesting.

I DID get a run in yesterday, but it was a hot, short, miserable slog through the trails at Wildwood Metropark. The dune trail was great (despite the people traffic), but I decided to make a loop of the meadow and found the biggest mud ball in the park. Myself and another girl who was running the same route made use of the hose attached to the wall of the visitor's center to rinse ourselves off from the knees down before going anywhere NEAR our cars. Oh, and to the teenagers we interrupted: your "secret make out place" isn't so secret. You're right along the main trail for runners in the park. It's a gorgeous day, as people are getting off work. Don't be surprised when you get "caught". And don't be a couple pricks and start screaming and cursing at the runners going by who couldn't give 2 $#!@s about you hiding from your parents and making out. End rant. *rolls eyes*

A while back, one of the neighborhood kids I occasionally babysat when they were younger got a "real" mountain bike for her birthday ("It has shocks and everything, Jess!"). If you saw my post from last weekend with the picture of me laying on the deck after my race, same girl who took that picture. Anyway, I promised her back when she got the bike that I would take her over to Oak Openings and ride a trail with her this spring if she stayed up to date with her homework and she stayed out of trouble with her parents (she reminds me of myself at that age, defiant and moody). When she saw me come home from riding last week, she got really excited and reminded me of my promise. I remembered. And I reminded her of her part of the bargain. Today, she showed up with a note from her mom (no joke) and a copy of her weekly homework "report card". Since it was TECHNICALLY spring and she IS doing really well and it was a GORGEOUS day (it reached the low 80s!), I told her to go home and change into old clothes. She just screamed and ran home, excited. I was already changed and ready to go by the time she got back.

It's almost a 2-mile ride up to the park, so I had her ride in front of me and set the pace, mainly so I wouldn't be tempted to push the pace and tire her out too early. It gave me a good chance to watch her ride and get an idea of how her balance was and how well she shifted gears. I was impressed. She held the pace pretty steadily at around 10mph the whole time we were on the road. Once we got on the trail, she handled the mud and "hills" really well. I had to remind her to slow down a little bit through the standing water if she didn't want to end up COMPLETELY soaked, but I was really proud of her. She never complained and really seemed like she enjoyed it. She didn't even complain when I told her we needed to clean off the bikes before we put them away. According to my Garmin, we pulled out a little over 8.5 miles in 50 minutes. I consider that pretty darn amazing for a girl who has never ridden outside her own neighborhood (the girl, not me). I don't know if she'll want to go again or not, but I'm sure her parents didn't have any problems getting her to go to bed tonight :)

Oh yea, and we got a little muddy ...

I guess it MUST be spring ... mom's flowers are officially blooming. :)

Happy Spring! :)

PS- Happy Birthday to my big sister's (well, she might as well be) husband who turned 30! Luckily, he has coworkers and friends who have just as twisted a sense of humor as he does ...