Under two hours

The past week or so has been a bit busy.

Thursday night we had a friend of mine from my hometown over for dinner. I made dinner and it drove the husband a bit loco- his A-type personality showing through. Usually he is in the kitchen and I am playing the host, serving wine, giving the art tour (I actually know almost all the artists by now and can fake the whole spiel about light and form, etc.) and putting out appetizers. He did a miserable job at that but he was great at keeping the conversation flowing in the living room. I made lamb chops with minted potatoes and zucchini. dinner was a big hit.

Friday Mr. Clifford and his new (well not really as they have been dating for about eleven months now but new to us) boyfriend visited us for the weekend. That evening we ordered in Mr. Clifford's favorite pizza in Hoboken and drank- probably too much as Mr. Clifford and I went through two bottles of wine between just us. Our guests then went into the city for BlowUp. There was no way I was going.

Saturday I was supposed to do a nine mile run- yeah right, that was not happening after Friday night. Our guests were up early and grabbed breakfast in Hoboken then headed off tot he city for the day as PS had never really been there before. The husband and I headed down to the cottage to help out ST move a bunch of art from his house to the gallery after we dropped the kids off at the groomer. We also hit Lumber Liquidators and looked at hardwood flooring. We had approached the hardwood from going for unfinished and then finishing ti ourselves. We end up with prefinished, strand bamboo that was on sale. Then it was back to the apartment. Our guests were sleeping after having spent the entire day walking around NYC. We hit a local Italian place for dinner and then home to watch SciFi. It was an early night.

Sunday it was brunch and then our guests headed home.

Monday the husband took TK down to the cottage for some commentary and suggestions on it. Thankfully TK convinced (i.e. told) the husband we should do hardwood in the kitchen (which I was for) and also in the foyer (which means I don't get to try my hand at tiling). He also told the husband a sleeper sofa was needed for the den- woo hoo! I had been trying for years to get us to have a sleeper sofa but the husband had been dead set against it.

I then met the husband and TK and we had dinner in the city down in Tribeca. It was good ol' down home cooking. I even had rhubarb-strawberry pie for dessert.

Not much to discuss about Tuesday other than it was mom's birthday so I called her and sang Happy Birthday to her. She is not an easy person to get gifts for so she got flowers from me, the husband and the boys.

Today I got up and made up my nine mile run. I did it in a hour, fifteen minutes and 43 seconds. Not bad but I then had to rush to get showered, dressed and onto the bus to get to the office.

Today was sort of slow but I had a bunch of stuff going on in Europe so the morning was brisk. I was starving by lunch time so I was bad and got lunch from MCD.

I am loving the weather- I think autumn is my favorite season. The mornings are brisk, we can sleep with the windows open and yet it is still warm enough that I don't need a coat.

Is it just me or is there a dichotomy in something the President has proposed? The President wants us the have the highest graduation rate by 2020. I am all with that- a great idea as I am a firm believer in the idea that education is a must for a democracy to thrive. President Obama also wants us to become a manufacturing powerhouse again. Are college graduates really going to want to work on assembly lines in what is traditionally a blue collar job? Hasn't a college degree always been viewed as an exit from having to take a blue collar job? Maybe I am biased by history and not perceiving what manufacturing jobs will entail in the future and maybe it will need a college degree but that is not going to happen over night.

Tomorrow I am having drinks with JS after work. I also have to run fours miles and get a my hair coiffed by Joe the barber in the Port Authority the one who likes to call me Tom.

This weekend I am doing my annual get together with my fraternity brothers. This year we are doing something different. We are heading to Wyndahm for the Warrior Dash. I am going up Friday after work with a brother who works in the city- I am driving. It should be quite interesting as whichever one of us comes in last place is supposedly going to have to wear the Borat bathing suit- we'll see; actually I really hope I don't see as many of the brothers have seriously gone to pot.

Next weekend is the half marathon. With how the training is going I am hoping to finish it below the two hour mark.