my running mojo...

has disappeared.

that can't be good.

someone please send it back.

i just want to sleep. read. be.

which is not really me all that often....

and we haven't even completed base phase...whiny? check.

confidence lost? at the moment.

but today? supposed to do 7 miles post work. why is it so hard lately to put the shoes on?

for the friends & family...

ugh. enough work.

that last post took a lot of my evening. why?

because in true jennifer fashion i multitasked my way through a work project, online, on my night off.

caught up with a few folks on facebook.

researched travel links for the work thing.

cooked dinner.

texted mark (he's outta town singin').

not much is super new here.

the library closes in it's current condition a week from today.

april first, we box up all of my department (something i am in charge of, whoo boy! it's going to go very smoothly and quick i predict since i have awesome coworkers...) and moving day is april 9th. (once we box up the kids dept, we of course box up the *rest* of our 20,000 square foot library).

last weekend, 3 co-library-gals and i went to a cabin. martha's folks own it, and we had a restful few days despite dreary march weather. i even got my 12 mile solo run in on saturday morning and had to forgo on the wine friday evening in prep for that. of all nights i was the designated driver girl, and we stayed in ;) the cabin was part of a lodge property near crosslake, mn. which is just a hop, skip and a jump from brainerd, hence babe as our backdrop.

here's the crew. we only talked about libraryland for a small portion of the trip.
from left to right...martha, lisa (yeah, it stinks her eyes are closed :(, me & carol...


we drank some vino.

we sang in a bar. (i apparently sing loud...it's the only way i know how ;)

we met the local legion folk.

we tried to go to a meat raffle but got the night wrong.

we had copious amounts of food.

we found an awesome 2nd hand store.

we soaked in the hottub at midnight. martha ran there barefoot (the building was close, but still! wet frozen muddy ground and she was like a kenyan in a race!)

good times. we hope to repeat it down the line if possible...

so happy spring to you all, as it looks like the times-are-a-changin'...

86 days and counting to the marathon of my life.
~jd

thing 33...travel 2.0

i like to travel.

i know for some of you this might be a completely new tidbit.

and from others, i get a lot of grief.

before i start, part of this Thing mentioned if you know of a good travel blog to tell about it.

Matt Logelin gets 1000s and 1000s of hits a day on his blog. Is it a travel blog? He'd probably say no, but for a computer guy with a newly minted 1 year old daughter (happy birthday Maddy!!!) he has seen SOOO much of the world and is a rock star photographer for fun. And even though his blog started to share news of a pregnant wife to family back in 'the MN' as he calls it, and ended with the heartbreaking loss of her 24 hours after Madeline's birth, it's got me and most of the world hooked.

Matt has posted so many places worth seeing....the one that sticks in my mind the most is Banff, Canada. I want to see Lake Louise....holy awesome.

okay, anyway, back to the post.

i found The Cranky Flier pretty entertaining....very interesting tidbits into the airline industry and varying airlines. i don't fly nearly enough as many others in the world, but this author seems to really know his stuff...

Virtual Tourist was really well done....I loved the ease of layout, the plethora of links and the quick info and pictures right there. I'm also a big fan of 'personal' reviews from real folks who have stayed places, and those that are here looked credible and honest. nicely done...

For those wanting to start a new travel blog of their own, this is clearly the site for such things...easy to navigate, great stories, photos and everything told first hand. of course the fact that there was a 'marathons' section truly drew me in ;) I help co-teach a blog class at work with a colleague, and it would be fun to use this as a 'highlighted' link for those who are curious about various kinds of blogs out in cyberland...

have i mentioned i like wine? besides water, coffee, organic chocolate milk and runner juice (usually powerade zero), wine is the last of the 'jd's favorite beverages' category. i like a nice frosty beer on a hot day or with friends at a pub, but wine is my booze of choice at home on a quiet night or while hosting a dinner for friends...
so this site was the one i had to peruse...http://winesandtimes.com/wnt/index.php

willamette valley, OR and Sonoma County, CA are on my lists of wines places i'd love to travel to. so if either of those opportunities come my way, I have found the helpful site to plan out my tour.

so thing 33? au revoir~

more work..thing 32..let's mash

or mashup i guess. 2 different things? i think so...

so, google maps and mashups are the topic of this post.

wow. this was a blast to play with.

i recently got to visit maui, hawaii for a few weeks.

so i chose this as my test subject just for fun....and WOW. that google earth aspect with the satellite view is *phenomenal*. i am so overwhelmed by what technology can do these days. i'm only 35. i can't even imagine how different things will be in the *next* 35 years...

anyway...

here's what i made. (i hope)...


View Larger Map

there's a lot of zooming in and moving west to see what i made...but it's there. simple, a few highlights.

can i see using this in clases on how to use google. do i see using this kind of thing daily at the reference desk? not so much...at least in first impressions.

but is it kinda cool? heck yes! i'll love playing with this kind of thing for future trips or marathons...it's cool to see where you've been or will go...