T H E L A S T M O V I N G D A Y

God willing, that is.

We spent the first half of today at the mercy of a 26-foot box truck:

loaded up! 

on the roaaaad again... 

I cannot express the appreciation I have today especially for good friends: Mike, Andrew & Jessica, ya'll are life savers. This would have been a very different day if the three of you hadn't made an appearance and donated your time, brute strength and encouragement. Haha.

At the new house, the boys took to unloading the big stuff, while Jessica and I committed to building furniture. This wouldn't have been a priority, except that Rob's parents were due in town in the evening and otherwise would've been shacked up on the couch... which... no. So bed-building it was! Ikea certainly doesn't operate on any shortage of screws, bolts, washers, nails and HOLES DRILLED THE WRONG SIZE.. haha. The hammer ran a marathon today, but we made it happen. 

go go ikea go!

The frame was built and the mattresses were laid. The guys showed up at the last minute before the mattress pads and bedding were added, to test it out:

exhausted movers approved.

mattress topped! 

It was nothing more than a blink it seemed between the time that Andrew, Jessica and Mike left, and Rob's parents arrived. When they did, this little blur came tumbling out of the car. Meet the newest addition to his dad's house: Duke the pomsky! 

duke

stop it, ya cutie.. 

I'm obsessed. Seriously. This dog is so freakin' adorable, it's disgusting. 

dog selfies. dogfies. 

^ I mean... c'mon. Look at this guy! I'm excited to head back to Illinois in a couple months or so to visit and see how much he's grown. 

In the meantime, we've just inhaled dinner out of styrofoam boxes with plastic utensils, because the dishers and real flatware are hiding in some unmarked box somewhere in this place still. That's all part of the adventure though, right? Hah. 

We're all spent. See ya in the mornin!

xo | cmd

Friday, You Are My HEEERO.

Ok, so really it was last week that I could've legitimately said, "Friday, I thought you'd never get here." This week, I was equally ready for the last day, but not quite for the same reasons.

For starters, this came in today, and created a small but welcomed shift in my daily "living space" here at the desk... 

Last week was brutal from the time Monday rolled out on the wrong side of the bed, until it finally went back to bed Friday evening. Just a rough week. This week wasn't any less active, but there was definitely a firmer balance with life beyond the desk, and while we were at them, it didn't feel quite like the universe was trying to sizzle us under a magnifying glass. 

But still, a busy week is a busy week, no matter how you spin it. This Friday at hand was punctuated by an isolated incident involving an individual [who should also be isolated, perhaps on an island somewhere... or another planet... mehhh; I digress] with a fascinatingly-unfortunate and advanced arsenal of ignorance. The week's been good. We had the pedal to the floor for four full days, so I wasn't surprised to feel the gas running low today.

At least we finally took lunch breaks that exceeded 5 minutes. I think today was an entire 10, maybe even 12.whole.minutes. College taught me how to be resourceful with just a couple of minutes [usually running, ungracefully between campus buildings]. Whatever. Lunch!

nommmmsss.. 

The weekend was officially here. 

Well, almost. 

This was my 6:00. And 7. And also 7:30p: 

paperwork. the bane of my existence..... 

This guy I know [he's kinda cool, so I decided I'm going to take his last name later on this year ;)] - well, he made and brought me not only a PB&J, but a PB&J burrito, along with my favorite pair of jeans, so that I could wrap up my work and not have to go home and change/eat before reporting in for celebration with our long lost friend Jessica! 

I changed, ate and closed up shop. From there, it was off to Pearl's in Col-Tusculum for Jessica's open house: celebrating her past accomplishments and shortly-unfolding plans for expansion to her studio. 

love this gal!!

Congratulaaaations, dear friend! And so good to see you, as always! 

we're really good at pictures. like, really good.
:|

Oh, and my date was decent, too, I s'pose. 

this guy...... 

And with that being said, the weekend is officially here. And that's officially awesome. 

Happy Weekend, blogbots! 

xo | cmd

Canoeing, Kayaking & Tim McGraw!

Today started with a few quick errands, then it was back to rendezvous with Rob and Jesse to head out to Harrison for a day on the water! We met up with Jessica, Bumper, Andrew and his brother Will, then continued on to find a couple of Jessica's other friends Phil, Liz and Alicia. The lot of us loaded up on the bus and made our way down to the livery, where we stocked our canoes and kayaks with goods for the day and launched out onto the river!

perfect day for a new hat debut! 

Off to the water!! 

jesse

my favorite guy ♥  

andrew, jessica, will & bumper in the water swimmin' 

bumper & will 

go bumper, go!

hangin' out with panama jack :) haha

slow down and enjoy life! 

bumper! 

one of many beaches

jess, bumper & andrew 

jesse

captain bumper!!

cute little paddler!! 

so freakin' cute! 

he hopped up with us for a bit - heya! 

diggin' these guys! 

in love with that guy! 

love love love. 

liz & bumper

more fun on the beach

Eight miles after drop in, we pulled off the river and dragged ourselves back to the car. It was a quicker-than-expected 45-minute drive back to the homestead, with a quick stop off at Eli's BBQ first. We opted not to stay and eat due to the wait time, but did get to smell the flowers & soak up some of the simple stuff :) 

We headed up to storage, grabbed the boat and headed back down to the boat ramp. Jessica and Andrew were waiting, and in no time, we were all geared up and en route to Riverbend for Tim McGraw.

the persian cat because the glasses don't fit my face... face. 

riverbend!! 

jesse and me.. after about 20 attempts between
3 of us to get the "right lighting" with the flash.. haha

concert time! 

perfect ending for the perfect saturday night! 

Jessica and I finally wore out, and took advantage of the warmth from the cuddy; so we wound up falling asleep there and apparently snoozing through the rest of the night until we pulled off the river..

welp... haha.. there's that. 

PERFECT. SATURDAY. IN THE BAG!

That's a wrap, folks!

xo | cmd

MLB All Star Color Run Cincinnati 2015!

Waking up early on a Saturday isn't typically something I look forward to doing, but today was a totally different story, and I'm not sorry at all for rolling out of bed at 7. It was color run dayyyyy! And not just any color run: Today was the MLB All Star Color Run, in honor of the All Star game that will be here in Cincinnati on Tuesday next week.

So up & at it at 7am it was; I rendezvoused with Jessica & Andrew at CYOFL at 8 for some quick warm-up, and then it was off to downtown, where the crowds were already pouring in.

We were readyyyyy..

here we go! 

What. A. BLAST! Seriously. If you're not into fun runs like this, I'm really not sure why. I couldn't have picked a better day for this to happen, nor a better group of people. We had an amazing time! :)

the cyofl team! 

We met up with the rest of the group, got our gear on, and we were off in search of the start line. Let the fun - and color - begin! 

(When the CR posts pictures from today, via bib/team ID's, I'll get those up, too!) 

It was a hilarious bout of running, powdering, music, laughter and awesome teammates among a few thousand of our closest friends. This definitely beat sleeping in today! 

yeahhh! 

The "post run" party was a giant affair right in the heart of Sawyer Point: a field of powder clouds, race day t-shirts boldly staking their claims to the course of the 3+ miles between start and finish. We gathered together in front of the main stage, where beat-dropping-powder throws (I kid you not) looked exactly like this:

Again, I can't wait to see the pictures from today's run... because my team had some of the most fun together today that I've had on any run in a long time. We were covered from head to toe in powder and thrilled about it!

colorfulllll! 

the guys, minus 1 of the andrews..

Poor Jessica wound up losing a battle with her contact lenses, so it was an early departure from downtown for us; we hopped in the backseat, thankful for Bumper's seat cover ;)

just strollin' downtown.. no biggie...

backseat post-race! :p 

I picked up my car and headed home to shower up, unsure of whether or not I'd be able to remove all the swatches of color from my body and clothes. I stripped off my shoes and whatever else I could outside, and realized there was much more than I'd bargained for, all the way to the core! 

lovin' it! 

c o v e r e d ! 

Hilarious.

So I cleaned up and switched gears into swimsuit mode and U-turned it right back to Jessica's, to join her and Andrew poolside for an hour or so. It was a short-lived little visit, before we shuttled Andrew back to his truck and took ourselves and Bumper over to Chipotle for lunch. 

Bumper, the king of the backseat :) 

cruisin' with bumper & jessica! 

The rest of the day was devoted to laundry [fyi, all the color it seems did in fact wash out of even the white tshirt and everything else, too!], clean up a little around the house, and then just... veg.. out. I did some reading, a little shopping and formulated some tentative plans for Rob's birthday.. sorry, no spoilers yet ;) 

The boys are 2 days into their bike trip now; I just spotted a FB update with some cruise pictures along the way in Gatlinburg. I'm... jealous. 

Happy Weekend, Blogbots! 

xo | cmd