Slowly but surely we make progress on the new place. We made the laundry area much more functional by adding a nice 3 door cabinet above the machines. Home Depot had a big storage sale and we went nuts on the storage units – this is the first one to actually go in:

Another important addition was the hardware in the kitchen: knobs on the cabinets and pulls on the drawers. Sturdily built from the finest drop forged brass, thickly plated with nickel for an elegant, timeless look:

Last but not least, the all important towel bars, rings and toilet paper holders:

Big Congrats to Alma buddy Abigail, she just finished her first marathon on her 32nd birthday! Her time was 3:51:33 for a 8:50 per mile pace, nice. It was the Houston Marathon, and you can see her finish line video here, look for grey long sleeve shirt, black skirt, sunglasses and bandanna. She hits the finish line right about the 18 second mark on the 30 second clip.

Overweight and out of shape from a few sedentary weeks of gorging on holiday treats, I suddenly had the realization early this morning: today I am going to run. At 30F with a strong wind and a light snow falling, I knew I wouldn’t be going far. Even if it was just around the block and back I needed to kick things back into gear. Surprisingly, I felt good. I had just the right amount of clothing on, quickly warming up and hitting a good stride, with no ill effects other than a slight stiffness in the legs. No idea how far I went, just circled the big condo complex near our place and through the subdivision across the road – have to map out the distance later. The first race of the season will be here before you know it, time to get ready.

Figured out I ran approximately 2.5 miles using the sweet mapping tool on this site Derek pointed out.