Bunk bed

Better Running Through Walking - NY Times 6/3/09

"To train for my first marathon, I’m using the “run-walk” method, popularized by the distance coach Jeff Galloway, a member of the 1972 Olympic team. When I mentioned this to a colleague who runs, she snickered — a common reaction among purists.

But after interviewing several people who have used the method, I’m convinced that those of us run-walking the marathon will have the last laugh." (more)

Bedroom

Hey, here's a good one: Runopolis.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 73º
Weather: warm & balmy
Weight: 155 lbs.

Listening to: PODRUNNER Classic - OverDrive+ (175 BPM)

The return of summer, late night runs that turn out far more taxing then you imagined when you first set out. It's so nice! No, it isn't, not really, that's Cleveland humidity hitting you in the face and you don't know it yet.

Still. Better than ice.

The boy got a bunk bed for his fourth birthday, a present for both of them, really (thanks, Mom!) Arrived last week. Promised I would have it up this weekend. Yesterday we cleared the schedule, nothing but putting up the new bunk bed.

Except my kids live in a trash heap. Piled high and deep. Before I could remove the boy's sportscar bed frame and the poor girl's half-of-a-Queen frame she's been sleeping halfway out of for a year, we needed to weed. And pitch. And sort. And then, when all the toys and books and animals were relocated or trashed, then we could remove the old beds (by this time I was doing all of the work and they were reading books I had dug up, which was fine by me) and marvel at a room which had not been empty since before my ex-wife moved out.

Only ... the walls. Good God, they had not been painted since before I moved in. Maybe twenty-year old blue-gray paint. Cracked walls, holes in the plaster from nails. I had always dreamed of, you know, when the girl was one I would paint her a mural or something. That was nice a idea five years ago, at least then I sprung for new curtains.

No, this would not do. After naps I got one gallon of one-coat, primer-less paint. Ice blue. I was up until two last night painting the walls. One coat. Really! Worked a dream. Swept, mopped, and today and only today (after a restless night with the girl grinding her teeth and the boy continually poking me with his toe, because duh, they had to sleep somewhere) did we work together to put up the bunk bed. Which they sleep in, right now. In an otherwise empty room.