Groundhog Gallop 2009

This was just an incredibly busy weekend. It's 9:20 on Sunday night and I'm just now home and trying to process it all.

Saturday morning was spent at the 2009 Groundhog Gallop Trail 1/2 Marathon. I'd never run a trail half marathon and wasn't sure what to expect. I also hadn't gotten around to running 13 miles, period, since my November marathon, and hoped my legs would hold out. I was thinking I'd run a 2 hour 15 minute half, maybe 2:10 if I felt good. I ended up crossing the finish line at 1:59:03, first in my age group for women, so I was quite pleased. My friend Neal and I ran the last 6 miles together and were by ourselves for a good stretch. We ended up chatting like we would on a normal training run which made the miles melt away. I should have some pictures to post from the site in a day or two.

Today was an Animal Protection Society of Rockingham County (APSRC) meeting. I transported a four-month old black and white kitten to the meeting to be fostered by one of our volunteers. The woman who gave her up was moving and couldn't take him. ADORABLE little girl kitty. Silky fur, soft mews, and wide eyes that gazed out at me from her carrier as I drove. Oh, how I wanted to take her home! I am not meant to transport animals. Even knowing I was taking her to a foster home broke my heart. I just wanted to take her home and hold and cuddle and love and spoil her--for life.

We had a lively meeting and covered a lot of ground which, as secretary, I have about 5 pages of notes to transcribe and send out. After the meeting I drove into GSO for our quarterly writers group meeting where we all report on our projects, writing status, blocks, highs/lows, etc. It's wonderful to be surrounded by the energy of a group of people who share the same passion as you.

I stopped at the store on the way home to pick up salmon for Salmon Pastry Puffs but the fish counter was closed at 8 PM. Who knew?

I've checked e-mail, combed Lucy, Facebooked (yes, I just made that a verb), Twittered, and now I'm going to go plunk my tired self into bed. Tomorrow it all starts anew.

Cheers.

Snail Watching

As you may recall, our fish tank has been recently invaded by an army of snails. We removed the 5 or 6 snails and thought we'd handled the problem. Nuh-uh. They're back. In force. And we think this time they're mad.

This morning I counted 15 itsy-bitsy snails crawling over rocks and logs and clinging to the glass walls of the tank. I've abandoned my guilt over killing them. Now they make my skin crawl. We've been reading up on how to handle our snail problem. Last resort is to empty the tank and start anew. This may cause trauma to our fish so we'd prefer to avoid that. Right now we're opting for a two-pronged approach.

Method #1 is to put a piece of lettuce in a small cup. The snails are attracted to the lettuce and sit on it and munch, allowing us to pick the leaf up in the morning and carry snails out of the tank.

Method #2 involves us reaching into the tank and squishing any snail on sight.

After dinner this evening, Blair and I enjoyed a little snail watching. It's harder than you think. The snails are about the size of a quarter of a grain of rice. You can stare into the tank and see none. Only when you look closely do you notice they're covering a rock, or three are inching up a wall.

My job is to spot them and Blair's job is to squish. As I was moving around the outside of the tank, I commented to Blair that my personality is well-suited to this type of work.

"Yeah. Kill 'em!" he said in his high Dena-imitating voice.

"No," I said. "What I mean is--hold on, there's a snail. Under the rock. Smash it.--What I mean is the seek and find suits me. It's a challenge."

We had agreed to watch a movie after dinner but, after washing our hands, discovered neither of us felt much like sitting in front of the TV.

"Snail killing is kind of a mood killer," I remarked.

"I don't know about that," said Blair. "I'm feeling pretty virile after smooshing all those snails."

That's a quote. I do so love that man of mine. Happy Friday the 13th!

Getting To Know You... ♫ Getting to Know All About You ♪♪

Client relationships are interesting. I of course begin every encounter in "professional" mode, ("Mr Smith? Dena Harris returning your call. Is this a good time for you?") but I'm often surprised--and pleased--how quickly pretensions are dropped. I don't try to be buddy-buddy or best friends with my clients. Indeed, I'm more likely to follow their lead on how friendly/business they want to keep the relationship. But I'm always thrilled to get a glimpse of the person behind the job.

For example, I wrote website copy for a London-based company and while writing the founder's bio we both agreed it would be appropriate to include some personal information on the site. That's when I found out his nickname was "Salsa King," for his love of the dance. Hel-lo! How could I not refer to him as Salsa King in our next correspondence? I soon learned what type dogs he had and that he runs half-marathons. Who knew?

Another client had to cut a phone call short because he had a tennis match with his wife. I e-mailed him information I'd been working on and concluded with "Hope your tennis game went well." His e-mail back contained feedback on my work and the ending sentence, "Tennis is a stupid game. I can't believe I ever liked it."

Cracked me up. I love the dry wit.

I find most people are happier dealing with a "real" person--someone who's not afraid to laugh or poke fun at themselves (or, as appropriate, at a project). I'm meticulous about meeting deadlines and honoring my word, so why not just be myself with clients? It makes working on projects more fun for me and, I hope, for them. I feel for my friends in the corporate world who tell me they so often feel they have to wear a mask and be someone they're not. No thanks.

Yet another reminder of why I'm so lucky to get to do what I love--and be myself while doing it.

Cheers!

Crab_People

My regular readers are by now aware of my on-going Twitter addiction. I Twitter as Lucy_Cat, which means I spend large parts of each day thinking of new and funny things a cat might say that more often than not revolve around poo.

Anyway... a hermit crab called Crab_People started following my posts. It's Twitter etiquette to follow those who follow you, so I clicked on the follow button and added a message to Crab_People that said something like, "Nom nom nom," which is Twitter cat talk for "Tasty!"

Crab_People sent me back a message and accompanying photo which I now share with you. Is Twitter a waste of time? Probably. But it makes up for it by the laughs it provides. Crab_People's response:

"You sure you want to go down this road?"