what a weekend!

um, let's see, what DID we do this weekend?

My folks are great -- bickering with each other pretty much nonstop, in that way they do. Driving each other nuts, but if one of them is sick, it sends the other into a tizzy because they've known each other their whole lives and can't stand to be apart. Of course, my dad's first words to me were, "Gaining weight, are you?" Yeah, love you, too, Dad. From anyone else, I'd say, yep, it's been hard getting back to fighting weight where I was last year, or, I've actually lost weight since I saw you last, but from him, it just sends me. Something about how he said it -- in the same tone as when he calls me "little girl," despite the fact that I'm 37 in less than a month and have a family, job and home of my own. Nope, no issues here with fatherly acceptance, none at all...

The actual trip to the Valley was terribly boring and physically exhausting. Being in the car for that long just wipes me out. Four hours on Thursday night, 7 total on Friday, and another 4 this morning. Ugh. And, yeah, my in-laws didn't rent a van like they said -- we all six squeezed into their car. Yes, it's a freakin' Lincoln Continental and as big as a house, but it is still not made for a six-person roadtrip.

Lunch in the Valley, however, was deee-vine, and reminds me of yet another reason I'm glad I don't live there. If I did, and ate refried beans and chicken enchiladas like that all the time, I'd no doubt be 60 pounds overweight instead of the 25ish that I am now. But, I have to say, Day-um, they make some good Tex-Mex food down there. And don't get me started on the fresh tortillas. Sigh.

Seaworld was quite fun, even though someone forgot to tell the weather that it's October already, dammit, and it was prolly way above 90 late in the afternoon. We were fooled by early morning coolness and clouds into thinking we'd gotten away with nice weather. But by shortly after lunch, when we'd seen all the shows (and gotten our photo taken with Shamu!) and were left with just walking around the concrete jungle, the sun was merciless. But the boys had fun, and the sealion/walrus show is hilarious, and DinoBoy will now be known as the Dread Pirate Monkeyboy.

Dinner in San Antonio -- replay the paragraph above about Valley tex-mex for the San Antonio dinner experience. Good freakin' food, although miserably unhealthy and portions WAY too large for one person. And add in the pralines and leche quemada candy from Mi Tierra, and I'm doubly glad we don't get down there too often.

I did manage to run while I was gone -- I did 3 miles on Friday morning on the crappy treadmill at the hotel before we headed out to the Valley. Probably didn't do much to mitigate the damage from the enchilada lunch later that day, but it was better than nothing. Which is what I did yesterday and today (unless you count walking for 7 hours at Seaworld exercise -- I kinda do, esp since I carried DinoBoy on my back like a monkey for a while there at the end). Next week is 20 miles for the Sunday long run, so I just consider this a HUGE (yoooge, i tell ya, YOOGE) step-back week.

What else, what else? Oh yeah, I just got back from the drugstore, where I had to buy an arm sling and children's extra-strength pain reliever. For Elder Child's broken collarbone. He moved up from a non-check hockey league to checking league. Today was their first checking clinic. Apparently, we didn't do too well. Sheesh. Luckily, one of the other hockey dads is an ER doc, and he gave him a once-over and gave Hub some instructions to get him through the night. They should be here any minute. More later, I'm sure. Fun times.