I Hate Cleaning

It's been kind of an unexciting weekend here at the Holding Pattern household.  Greg and I both knew going into it that it was going to involve A LOT of cleaning, because his parents are visiting from Chicago next week.  I've spent a lot of time with these guys:

Behind them you can also see the oven racks, because we even did an oven self cleaning last night.  It's been one of those really thorough cleaning jobs that only happens once in a while in my house. 

Aside from the big clean, I started my Saturday with my long run for the week.  

I downed a Green Monster first:

Also a couple bites of a random protein bar.

Got all my gear on:

(Oh yes, I'm psyched!  Notice the random cleaning product on the TV in the backgroud...lol)

Stretched while getting puppy kisses:

Then it was just me and the road! 

According to my training plan, I needed to do another 6 mile run this week. I figured I'd try to do that or maybe more.

It actually went really well.  I did 6.25 miles in 1 hour, 2 min, 45 seconds.

Thank you Garmin!

Mile 1 - 10:11

Mile 2 - 9:49

Mile 3 - 9:43

Mile 4 - 9:52

Mile 5 - 10:18

Mile 6 - 10:21

Last .25 - 3.51

I actually could have and might have gone longer, but I was cutting it close to a haircut appointment and knew I needed to get my butt back and get ready. 

My second breakfast consisted of coffee and a zucchini/banana muffin toasted and topped with a little butter:

If you are thinking that's not enough food to get you through a couple hours at the hair salon, you would actually be right.  I was famished by the end of my appointment!

I went to a new salon and it was great!  My stylist and I had a great conversation and I think he really listened to my hair issues and cut/colored/styled accordingly.  I've been feeling like I've been a style rut with my old stylist, so I'm excited to take my hair in a new direction. 

Hi Brian- if you are reading (I gave him the blog address).

I loved my hair color and cut. 

Awesome, right?

Just kidding :)

I'll post pictures soon.

I was going to do a couple errands on the way home, but ended up bee lining for my fridge.

I randomly assembled this whole wheat wrap, which had deli turkey, red pepper hummus, black beans, cheddar cheese, spinach, salsa, and some avocado.  I also threw some Sun Chips on the plate.

The wraps I got are from the Harris Teeter bakery and did not "wrap" very well.  I ended up grabbing a fork and using that when they started falling apart.

After lunch, Greg and I went into cleaning mode for the rest of the afternoon.

We both have allergies, but his are really bad in the fall, and have decided to kick into overdrive now that the dust is flying.  Poor guy was NOT feeling good and all I could hear was random sneezes coming from him all afternoon and evening. 

We had planned on going to Diana's house for a little shindig last night, but Greg said he felt awful and didn't think he could do it.

I decided I'd stay home with him.  Honestly, I was also exhausted by the time evening rolled around from running and cleaning all day and being social wasn't sounding that doable to me either.  I let Diana know and she was very understanding.

 

I really didn't even feel like cooking dinner, so we ended up getting Papa Johns pizza.

I managed to assemble a salad, so it wouldn't be all bad ;)  I had two slices of cheese, salad, and water.

It kind of hit the spot.

Passed out by 9:45pm.

Before signing out, I forgot for much of yesterday that it was 9/11. 

I can't remember if I brought it up last year or not, but on 9/11/01, I was a young police officer at a college in Northern Virginia. 

I was actually working and on patrol at the time of the first plane hitting the towers.  I heard while walking through a building that something was going on.  I went up to our station and checked out the TV and watched with some of my fellow officers as chaos ensued.  I then went back out on patrol to make sure our campus stayed orderly despite all the craziness.  I was impressed that our student kept their cool and stayed in line despite everything going on.  I later heard about the second plane hitting, the Pentagon being hit, etc...  Later in the day I went home to my apartment in Arlington and could hear helicoptors flying to the Pentagon back and forth for days after.  It was definitely an odd time to be working in public safety.  On one hand, I could keep the peace in my small jurisdiction, but on a larger level, the world was in complete chaos.  It was hard to feel like the small role I was playing was making any kind of difference when that kind of thing was happening in the world.  I totally understood the reason why people joined the military when 9/11 happened, because it felt like that was really the only way you could really make a difference.

Where were you on 9/11?  What do you remember?