Morning Energy

It's a shame that I don't have the discipline to get up earlier than absolutely necessary to get to work semi on time in the morning. After noticing an interesting phenomenon in terms of my energy levels, I've decided to call myself a "mid-morning" person. I'm not a full-fledged morning person since I don't hop out of bed all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but after an hour or so of being up and caffeinated, I get this rush of energy to get stuff accomplished around the house. Unfortunately, this burst of energy typically occurs when I'm in the car on the way to work. I can't even jot down the tasks I've remembered I need to do at the house. By the time I get home, I feel like I've been beat down, and have no energy to do much of anything. I struggle to complete simple tasks like make and eat dinner, or even pick up my room.

Marcello, on the other hand, is an evening kitty. He gets riled up between 9 and 10 each night and flies around the house in what is sometimes a tornado of destruction. We've dubbed it "Kitty Arsenic Hour". Except he's not tired and hungry like the kids' arsenic hour. Just crazy. He did crash hard on my lap at the end of arsenic hour last night, but typically he'll go crazy until we put him to bed. When he's not being destructive (knocking over plants, jumping on counters, etc) it's pretty funny.

Seems like we need to teach Marcello to accomplish tasks around the house while we are gone, and pre-arsenic hour. He's obsessed with the Swiffer, but I doubt he'll actually clean with it. Oh well. :)

Marcello is a Kitten Who lives in Our House

Since we are determined that Marcello is going to be a musical cat, Maureen and I sing to him when we are cuddling with him. It's usually anything from lullabies to made up songs (like the one in the title. The strange thing is that I can't get the song I made up out of my head. Every time I see him, I sing to myself "Marcello is a kitten who lives in our house". And he is. But I feel quite silly wandering around with a made-up song in my head. Here are a few cute pictures of Marcello for your viewing enjoyment:

I bought him a tunnel (along with the fancy "Kitty City")

Keeping cool while I get ready in the morning

Helping me pack my crate for the triathlon

Speaking of the tri, it was yesterday. I finished...2 minutes slower than last year, but I finished. It seemed much harder this year, maybe I didn't train as well? I'll have a full report over on my running blog complete with pictures hopefully sometime this week.

Other than that, things are pretty normal in my world. Hopefully they will somewhat stay that way, but who knows?

Where Has the Time Gone?

It's crazy to me that this summer is almost over. It seems like it was just Memorial Day, and now we're 2 weeks away from my Labor Day venture up to Maine. It's been a busier summer than I expected, but a good one as well. Chorus rehearsals start up again next week. What else is going on with me? Here's a quick rundown:

• Triathlon- The Iron Girl triathlon is this Sunday, and I'm a bit nervous. Last year I was nervous because it was my first try at a tri (ha ha!), and I had no idea if I would finish. I actually blew away my own expectations! This year, I think I started training a bit early, and have been burned out for the past month. I was up to way over the distances for the swim, bike, and run back in June. I've been hovering just under that now since July. So, I'm a little afraid that I'll do worse than last year since I didn't have my pre-triathlon Maine vacation to swim in the freezing open water lake and bike the almost-mountainous Acadia Park Loop. Oh well, it is what it is!
• After I finish triathlon training, I'll be going back to strictly running in preparation for the Goofy Challenge (the crazy 1/2 marathon one day, full marathon the next shindig I signed up for at Disney). I have every intent of diligently updating my running blog during this training, but we all know how that usually goes.
• I'm going back to my roots a bit in the chorus. For a couple of the pieces we are singing this year, I'll be singing alto. It's definitely exciting for me- while alto is more challenging musically, it doesn't stretch me as much vocally. Plus, it can be much more fun to sing harmony occasionally!
• Marcello the kitten is doing well. Other than his crazy kitty arsenic hour antics and jumping up on the counters where he doesn't belong, we are loving every minute with him.
• Next week is the 1st anniversary of J and I's first date. That is just weird to me...seems like the time has flown. I laugh when I look back at the date I didn't think was really a date...and at how long it took for me to figure out how I felt about him!

So that's the update on me...nothing ridiculously exciting, but life is definitely rocking along!