Sitting on a Bench with some guy…
Today’s bench is brought to you from the front of Bettenhausen Dodge. Home of my auto true love. (Post should be above this one)


My girl got the crazies!
How are you celebrating Mark Buehrle Day in Illinois? Amanda?? I’m talking to YOU!

I got my ABC News picture right there, above these words. I just finished painting on my Buehrle-56-Total-Body-Art-For-One tattoo kit. I’m currently making myself a Mark Buehrle FastBall (9 shots of vodka lined up on my coffee table in front of the TV) with a chaser (5 more shots that you drink during the actual game). Then I’ll probably finish painting the kids room or throw up and pass out.
I’m just kidding. I’m not going to paint. But I do know what Amanda is doing thanks to her kiss ass phone call to my mother while my mother was still at my house.
Appreciation. Have fun sissy! I’ll need pics for future posts! Love, L.C-Bip
Sad news from our aqua-world.
Something was wrong with Mason’s puffy-eye goldfish for quite some time now, but we didn’t know what. We could tell though, that it didn’t look good. And survival of whatever ailed it was not hopeful. After a hard fought battle, he struggled desperately this week to live, I am sorry to say, that he is gone. As of last night, I found it necessary to put him out of his misery.
And without even one bit of exaggeration or sarcasm, I really felt sorry for that poor fish. And I am not ashamed to say that I cried. In fact, I am crying right now typing about him. Watching him try to eat and breathe and swim was just awful. If you could imagine yourself ever wondering if fish have feelings or if they suffer at all, you would know that it could be true looking at this particular goldfish.
I watched him a few nights ago searching the water for food. I could tell he was having a hard time finding it. He used to have very big bags around his eyes when we first got him, that’s the type he was. Just recently, the puffs were beginning to grow again. Sometimes they do. Unfortunately his life was rough from the start. We didn’t know at the time that those kind of goldfish are susceptible to getting those baggy eyes punctured. Which happened almost immediately. The internet said he may die from it. But he didn’t. In fact, he recovered and looked better than ever.
Then a few of the other goldfish Mason had in his tank started to attack him. They eventually ended up nipping off one of his three, long, tail fins. Then just as abruptly, they stopped. The puffy-eye seemed fine even after that. He swam a little weirdly and not always straight, but he was very tough and endearing and had personality, if a fish can, and we really fell in love with him.
Let me just say here, that we have had A LOT of fish come through this house. I mean, A LOT, a lot. And we have dealt with many dead fish so it’s not like we are over prone to fish affection but, this one really did seem special. It’s weird until you own a really good one and then you see. At any rate these last few weeks we watched him suddenly grow bigger and bigger. His body started to get fatter and fatter as if he was going to burst. We managed to get one picture of him, looking pretty good for all his trouble. You can kind of see where he was becoming so fat. In the last 2 days his scales seemed to be lifting off of him and I knew we were close to the end.
Then last night when I went in to feed him, puffy-eye was laying at the bottom, kind of half-in and half-out of Mason’s decoration Colosseum. He was gasping but not moving. It didn’t look like he would be able to get himself out of there. So, I nudged him free and he floated helplessly to the top, just staring at me, gasping for air (?). I couldn’t stand it. He LOOKED miserable. I don’t care what anyone says, that fish was not without some kind of pain. So I ended it for him. And I cried.
I feel kind of silly for being overly emotional about a fish, but he was part of the Aqua-World that we have been creating all the years of my children’s lives. And I cried, because Mason and Stevie really loved that fish too, and they weren’t here to see him go. They knew when they left that there was a good chance he would be gone by the time they get home next week, but I was kind of hoping that little guy could have made it, or suddenly got better and been perfectly normal again. But it was not to be.
So this is my little eulogy to another fish that has swam in and swam out of our lives yet again. He was a funny, puffy, silly, lopsided little fish that we adored.
Rest in Peace.

And if you would like to read more about the love these little fish seem to invoke, please click here.
Bench of Love. Second Installment.
Or maybe we’ll go with Bench of the Day! Keep a theme going here. Since I have no actual theme. Or is that the theme itself?
If anything the theme is: Shit That I Did 2 Days Ago And Am Telling You About Now or Everything Is Always Two Days Ago
Maybe if I put them in italics??
Shit That I Did 2 Days Ago And Am Telling You About Now
Everything Is Always Two Days Ago
Hmmm…I’ll have to think about it. Here is today’s bench (picture taken four days ago):




Don't they look excited to be helping me with this project?!?
Update. NOW it’s gonna rain…ratsafratsa…And the Final Warrior Dash post until next years event (or at least sign-up)
It’s like thunder, lightning…the way you love me is frightening…that’s from a song, but the storm is moving in. It’s like the weather was waiting for me to finish running today. “OK, Thunderheads, she’s done. She finally got her lazy butt up and around, send in the clouds and let her rip!” Bastard Atmospheric Conditions!
Anymuddyway…These are the final pictures from that damn little mud camera with the amazing ability to take blurry pictures of hot firefighters but somehow focus in with razor sharp acuity on my ginormous ass going over a wall. (If you wanna see the butt pictures–you gonna have to search the website–I put them in a separate post–Ha!)
Here they are. Thanks A & J!

Our kingdom for a wish…

Before the race. Strolling the course. Posing so bravely.

Ooooh! Fire! Hurry!

Scary! And actually it was a little bit...it was hot, high, and 7 in the morning. We have to jump over that???

The mud. Looks nice with no one in it. Kind of like a spa!

The start.

People running with us. I'm kind of hungry...

Imagine that running on the flat ground is the easiest thing you do all day!

The hills! Killer! Seemed easy until about the twentieth one!

The junkyard cars.

Cheesecake!

My favorite part! In the forest! The steep terrain and jagged rocks! I really did like this obstacle!

Climb over a spool. Walk the plank!

From the bottom...

...and from the top!

Look at that man! Just hops right over! Where are the girls?? You gotta go look...'cause they are not in this section!

In the tubes...a mere competitor...

...Out the other side...a WARRIOR!

Swampy. Our first taste of mud and what's to come!

The mud pit. Down and dirty and in it! We are there.

We are so over it!

Firefighters. Big Hoses. Water. Yes, please.
See you all next year!!
Every excuse in the book…
For why it took me a dismal 47 minutes to run around 3.7 miles.
1. The air temperature was 87 degrees at 3 pm.
2. There was no wind.
3. And no shade.
4. The sun was blazing down like hellfire.
5. I had a rock in my shoe.
6. And a cramp in my leg.
7. And a weird pain in my ankle going down to the bottom of my foot.
8. I have my period.
9. I have my period.
10. I just ran 5 miles yesterday.
11. The direction I ran has more of an uphill slope almost the entire way.
12. I still have a scorching sunburn on my chest from the weekend. (Sport bra was rubbing and causing blisters)
13. My earphones kept falling out.
14. Or pulling too tight at the neck. (Tucked in my shirt collar and thru the sleeve to my arm band)
15. Wispy hairs kept sticking to my face.
16. Sweat was dripping in my eyes.
I could probably keep going but it won’t change the fact that today’s run was made on sheer willpower alone. Seriously.
I had zero desire and zero strength to get around. At the one mile to-go mark (going backwards from the norm), I wanted to stop. And I don’t mean just stop running. I wanted to completely stop and lay down on the track. I was actually arguing with myself about NOT stopping. Telling myself, I could not just stop right there and I really couldn’t sit down much less LAY down on the trail. Besides the car was still a mile away, and how did I think I was going to get there?? I’m like, just go. Just keep going. Breathe in, count steps, count breaths, whatever…here comes a tree, here comes another tree, ¾, ½, ¼, here’s that garbage can, here’s that pink kid croc shoe that somebody must have lost yesterday, I can see the car, keep going, don’t throw up, here’s the port-a-potty, the parking lot, the car, you made it!
And now I am home again. Almost forgetting…that’s how it gets you! Exercise is only hard at the time. Otherwise it feels pretty good.
And since I’m feeling successful and numb, here’s those pics I mentioned earlier. See how I buried them way in here! You gotta be a fan to get the good stuff! Thanks Jay for taking such a flattering picture! And thanks Amanda for that concerned face while helping me over, making it look like I weigh 300 pounds! I love you guys! Ann Or Ex E Uh! Next year! (I posted them full-size for that extra added chuckle)

I'm much more flexible, and not THAT heavy, but I still couldn't have made it over myself. Next year. Little jog, little skip, up and over! Take that, horrible waterproof disposable low speed film camera (with unfair sharpness and clarity).

In my defense, my butt is not really THAT huge. It LOOKS huge, that is true. But it's the angle. The shorts. The other shorts. I am MUCH better looking in real life. And thinner. I swear!
The birthday that NEVER ends…
Ok sissy, first off, THANK YOU! for reading my posts. Without all this good family material what would I really have to talk about??
So, here it is from me, C-Bip, (that’s my new internet handle–get used to it–stands for Chicago-Based Internet Personality…???…from the previous post???…does anybody READ this thing???) (haha. i’m just kidding. not.)
Even though her birthday was 11 days ago now, we still have to talk about it! The Sox!, blah blah blah, Baseball!, blabbity blabbity, Pictures!, blab blab blab, With players!, me me me…enough already! Here’s your stinking post! With pics!
My only regret is that she only sent three fabulous pictures out of 200 for me to share with my new world-wide celebrity fan base!
So, one more time, HAPPY B-DAY SISTER!! Here’s you, hubby, AJP (can’t spell the last name, too lazy to look it up) and the Sox! Love, L. C-Bip to my peeps.



Hey, I just noticed AJP's last name is spelled perfectly on that guys shirt in the first pic above! So, there ya go!
New Feature!! Weird Shit That You Find Around Your House

I apologize for the graphic nature of my headline…but I needed to GRAB your attention!!
After lounging around the pool all weekend and reading the “Star” Magazine and “US Weekly”, I have decided that I will no longer be just a “blogger”.
No, no, no. I read the gossip about Ashley Olsen and how weird she is, by a source who WAS revealed. Revealed by himself, but still. And he wasn’t just some guy on the street, or some guy on the same plane, as it turns out, with a celebrity. He (I don’t remember the name) referred to himself as a Manhattan-Based Internet Personality.
So please, from now on, I am a “CHICAGO-Based Internet Personality.” That’s right. I’m a somebody. I’m a STAR! And here’s my first stellar post as an “Internet Personality”:
What the hell is this?? We found it on the floor in the utility room. No one knows what or where it came from. But in the interest of world-wide celebrity, I thought of my adoring fans-to-be and put it here, for you, to speculate upon while basking in my fabulous, “personality”.
You are welcome.

It's flexible, plastic and rubbery feeling. It stretches if you pull it without breaking. Looks like it fits into something or around something, like an inlay, but we couldn't find anything missing a rubbery, 3-loop thingy. Mysterious. Weird Shit!


