1,000 miles (posted by Ann)

I hope you are feeling better, and hearing out of both ears. Ear infections aren't fun, and they are a real bummer when you are flying for a living! I'm glad that you got to go to the cabin, it looks really pretty and sounds like fun. Love the gourds, Steve's mom is really talented!

We're back from our quick weekend in Seattle, and I'm headed to work on the train Monday morning. I'm a little tired, but not too much the worse for wear. We managed to make our flight Friday evening, and it was uneventful except for my choice of airline seat. I was thrilled to be able to get an exit row in Economy Plus on United (more leg room!), and I grabbed the window seat instead of Steve since I fully intended to sleep the entire way there. But . . . after we took off the exit door didn't seal very well, which means that the 60 below cold outside seeps in. I just about froze - I used my coat, Steve's coat, and as many blankets as I could get to try to block it and it was still so cold I couldn't possibly sleep. Brrrrr!!!

I'm glad to report that was the worst thing that happened all weekend. Not too bad, huh? Seattle is gorgeous, very green even in the winter, and I really like it. Steve wants to live in the Northwest, and we toured the University of Washington which is in Seattle in case he might want to go to school there. He's starting to think about where he wants to go, which is mostly about whether there are mountains and he can hike and be outside. Fine with me, I'll have a nice place to visit!

We went to Pike Market, and visited the first ever Starbucks. Here is Steve at the shrine.
We bought apples and some fancy jams, and had a blast. There are such different and funky shops there, it's great! Then we went up the Space Needle, which was fun even if it was rainy and foggy so we couldn't see very far. Then we drove around, went to dinner, more Starbucks, etc. We did find a park for Steve to run in, and he did a very fast 7 miles on Sunday before we had to go to the airport to come home.

So I bet you're wondering about the 1,000 miles since all I've done is blab about our weekend in Seattle, huh? Steve runs cross country and track (remember all the running pictures?) and his cross country team gives out T-shirts as awards for mileage run during the summer running season, which is June 1 to September 1. No one has managed to run 1,000 miles during that season since the 1970's, and Steve is going to do it this summer. He has a plan for the summer, and a plan for how to get his mileage up between now and then so he's ready for it. He's very dedicated, and is working hard to get to his goal. For those of you who are wondering, that's about 12 miles a day if he takes one day a week off.

So - sister mine - how could we track his mileage on the blog? I have in mind something that will track his weekly mileage now, and start a counter when the official season starts so we can see how he's doing toward the 1,000. Do you have any ideas of how we could do that?

Not that I'm a proud Mom or anything, you know.