Until I met a man who had no feet

I was going to write a post about how my dog has made it his mission in life to ensure that I never again have a night of restful sleep. About how he likes to sleep with his head on my pillow and breathe right on my face. Probably because I was the one who never wanted him in the bed, never allowed him in the bed. Then I got married and had to go to Brazil for work for two weeks and when I came back my spot in the bed had been overtaken. I was going to write about how he likes to get up around 5:00 a.m. and do his obsessive scratching thing for about 20 minutes, enough to wake us up and guarantee that we won't be getting any more meaningful slumber because the child will be awakening within the hour. Or my favorite thing that he does, after spending 2 hours or so sleeping in the bed without moving, waits until I am just drifting off to sleep and sidles right up next to me to have his obsessive paw licking session.

And then I spent an afternoon with my friend who has newborn twins and a 2 year old and a 4 year old. I have no place to complain about sleep ever again. She and her husband walk around sort of like people who have just been in a bus accident and are wandering away from the wreckage, glad to be alive but not quite sure what's happened. She's breast feeding them both and pumping for every nursing session so if she's lucky she gets 2 consecutive hours of sleep in chunks all night. So for all of you moms of twins out there, you rock. There should have been a little something in the federal stimulus package to send you all for a night at a resort for a solid night of sleep.

How about a little something that doesn't suck. In case there were any question about my sanity, I think that fact that I signed up for a fall marathon without really putting a lot of thought into the fact that I'd have to be doing long runs in the central Texas heat is evidence that I've got a screw loose. But I'm not a quitter, so I'm putting in my miles (slowly and plenty full of complaints). Without this fuel belt, I would surely die. And I am not speaking figuratively here. The fuel belt is awesome, I can carry with me 32 ounces of gatorade and some gels. I freeze the gatorade (which has pretty much defrosted about an hour into the run) and it has an added benefit of keeping me cool for a bit. So if you are a distance runner or have aspirations to be, get one of these. If you are not a runner, you should be. Runners rule.