The Waiting Game

They say it's a good thing to know your weaknesses. What they don't say is that it's sometimes best when your spouse doesn't know about them. Do you remember that scene from Jaws where Quint dragged his fingernails across the blackboard to get everyones attention? Ever since I was a kid I've hated that awful screeching sound (just the thought of it makes me shudder) - it brings to mind images of fingernails being bent backwards and reduces me to a pile of quivering jello. Even writing about it makes my skin crawl.

And the point of that amazing revelation? This morning Nancy and I passed a truck coming out of a steep driveway and part of its undercarriage scraped along the ground and made a similar sound with a predictable reaction from me. Ever since, Nancy has been making claws and "doing a Wolverine" down an imaginary board. She seems to think it's funny, and each time she does it I get goosebumps.

What a meanie!!!

I hope Gavin doesn't cotton on because that boy is relentless in his tormenting. I guess he's just like his dad - what goes around comes around :-)

And we're still waiting for Gavin's little brother to put in an appearance. Nancy has an appointment to be induced next Wednesday if the little blighter hasn't arrived by then, so it's going to be within the next week. But we're all ready - I've even put the crib together, put the infant seat in the car and got the stroller down from the attic. It's a strange feeling of anticipation at the moment - we're both excited and nervous. All the things that can go wrong play on your mind, and we just want a healthy, happy baby.

As for a name, we have one in mind that's become our favorite, but we're not going to say what it is because it may change. Gavin had been a "Iestyn" for months until he was born, and then we both agreed he looked much more a "Gavin" than a "Iestyn". I'm glad we made the change because he's so proud of his name.

We have a few alternatives handy just in case.

Running this week has been both hard and hot - I did 10 miles of hill repeats on the St Edwards trails Monday evening (had to push on the last loop to beat the sunset) and another 7 miles last night. Both nights I started out with a small group, and both nights finished by running extra loops by myself. The temps both days were in triple digits, the trails are very steep and rocky and I was sucking down the water - makes for some hard workouts. Stubborn or stupid? I'll let you decide.

On the upside, I rewarded myself with a root beer float on Monday and some Greek yogurt yesterday - felt I deserved it.

This morning I enjoyed a relaxed 7 miles on the road with friends which left my legs and spirit refreshed. I like these leisurely runs, especially tacked onto the end of a couple of hard runs - they always leave me feeling good and ready for the day.