Filler Post

I've been slacking in the blogging department. So, until I come up with some new material, I give you demon baby:

Elliott Isabella

On Friday, Catherine walked past the employee health center in the Church Office Building and fatefully decided to check her blood pressure. It turned out to be 160/100, and because Catherine was 8.5 months pregnant, we had to take her to the hospital.



We got to the hospital at about 4:00 and within two hours the staff had diagnosed preeclampsia and decided to induce labor. So, rather than enjoying the date we had planned for the night, we made some calls, got a few changes of clothes, and settled in for the long haul.



At 6:28 on Sunday morning, Catherine gave birth to Elliott Isabella. At 5 pounds 6 ounces, she's tiny. But her height is right in the 50th percentile, so she's pretty lanky. We're not sure where she gets that from.



Catherine may want to share her story later, but for now I'll just say that things have been going well: Catherine is recovering quickly, Elliott is healthy, and we're thrilled to have her.

At Least My Knee Will Heal Itself

A week or two ago I realized that, thanks to my left knee, I haven't had a single solid week of running all year. And now half of the year is gone.

But I managed to run every day in the week leading up to the Grandeur Fun Run, and every day in the week after, too. And although I didn't run a lot (high 30s and low 40s), I did log plenty of vertical, and I started thinking my knee was finally coming around. But after my run on Monday I could feel trouble brewing. Things were a little worse on Tuesday. And yesterday I finally had to admit that I pushed past the limit and now I'm injured again.

Based on past experience, there's a good chance that this will pass quickly if I just stop running for a week or two. So maybe it's good that I'm actually injured rather than sitting on the cusp of an injury, because now I'll do what I should have done before and take some legitimate time off. And if I can get my knee back on track quickly, I may not have to defer my Speedgoat registration for another year.

Anyway, for better or for worse, since yesterday evening I've been cross training at the gym (specifically, logging time on the stair stepper) rather than running. Which leads me to what I was going to write about.

Earlier today Catherine and I took the Mazdarati to the car wash. So I was surprised when I stepped out of the gym tonight and walked over to the car and saw that it looked pretty dirty. I looked closer and saw this dent running from the rear quarter panel to the passenger door.



I thought, "you've got to be kidding." I went back into the gym and told the employee that someone had sideswiped my car. I filled out an incident report while he went out to have a look. He pointed out that it looked like blue paint on the car, and suggested that I take a look at the blue cars in the lot to see if any had white paint on their bumpers.

That sounded like a good idea, so I took a look around. There were a few cars of the right color, but none had white paint on their bumpers, so I headed back to the car, feeling justifiably angry.

I got back to the car, and something didn't seem quite right. Then it dawned on me: same model, same color, same trim, but not my car. I looked over a few spots and saw my car, as clean as I remembered it.

Anyway, I went back in and told the employee what happened. We both had a good laugh, he tossed the incident report, and I went home.

It's funny how a false alarm can make the status quo seem better than it did before. Right now, I'm just happy my car is okay. My knee is still injured, and that still sucks, but at least it will heal itself, and at no cost to me.