Here's the short Short

1. Jonnene and I spent last weekend up in Hot Springs, AR to celebrate her birthday. We had a great time...went hiking in the hills, visited the observation tower on the ridge near downtown Hot Springs, saw a couple of great sunrises (our hotel room faced Lake Hamilton to the east), ate some great food, toured Bathhouse Row, and spent some quality time together. Paul came down from Little Rock to take some formal photos of us and we all ate dinner with his parents at a nice little local Italian restaurant. HS is definitely a nice place to visit...it'd been over 10 years since I was last there and probably over 25 since I had spent any real time there. I'll not make that mistake again...I will be back.

2. Since I'm off the bike this month, I've been running to stay in some kind of shape. I've put in a productive week by totalling 15 miles on my footsies! Today I did my first trail run in over 9 months down at Stoner Park and got a blister on my right ring toe. That kept me from getting more than 30 minutes...probably about three miles for the day. I felt a little spastic at first, gingerly running over the trails but soon I was in a good trot and feeling comfortable on the trail again. I've missed being out there!

3. Work has picked up! And I received several checks in the mail...finally!!! I took care of some long-standing bills, got some things I've been needing and putting off for oh-so-long. I'll take care of some other items next week. As to work, I got three calls on new jobs...finished an ad for a local magazine...and have been trying to get things organized around here. With Jonnene occupying some of my office space...and that's okay with me if you're reading this, honey...I've had to make some adjustments to how I do my work. So far, so good.

4. The kitchen is slowly coming around in its renovation. We put the first couple of coats of paint on the ceiling today but I'm still not satisfied with my plastering efforts. I think I might redo some of it or I might be resigned to get an expert in here to make it right. I actually enjoy doing it but, in general, I wish I knew more about the process. I hope our countertops come in next week...that'll make the biggest noticable change in the look, but the whole place is coming along pretty well. It might end up looking a little bland as Jonnene said, however, the whole goal is to make the house sellable and sometimes you can't get too wild and crazy.