DEAD CHICKENS!

No, just kidding.  They certainly look dead.  One of our recent warm days (& probably last for the year), the chickens enjoyed the warm spot in their coop by having a group Dust Bathing Party.  Oh my, that sounds like chicken porn.  Girls!  Behave yourselves!

Dust bathing is a perfectly natural, albeit funny-looking, chicken activity.  Chickens don't have the capability to bathe but they need to occasionally "scrub" to keep mites & bugs at bay.  They're surprisingly clean birds & typically don't pick up bugs (we assist by keeping their roosting area clean & dry), but it's good for them to clean up every so often.  That's where dust bathing comes in.  They lay down in dry dirt & twitch around - it looks like a chicken seizure.  Chris & Sonja have a video of a chicken dust bathing here.

The black chicken is Fosters.  I think she might be developmentally disabled.  She doesn't quite "get it."  Poor thing.  But it's quite alright, we love her still the same.  And we think she finally started laying eggs...which helped her status immensely.

R.I.P Grandpa Lipetzky

Last week, Steve's grandpa, George Lipetzky, passed away.  He had been sick for some time & while it was incredibly sad to lose a wonderful person, it's comforting to know he's at rest & in peace.  George was 80 years old & lived a long, fulfilling life.  He was married to Mickey for 55 years & they had 7 children, 25 grandkids, & numerous great-grandchildren.  A very faith-filled man, it's certain he's entered the pearly gates to be with his Father.  But let's be honest - he's in heaven with his Father, drinking Jameson & playing pinochle (a game I do not understand nor will I ever understand).

(He was so involved with two Catholic churches in Sioux Falls, he had five priests & one deacon officiating his funeral.  I think that gave him a first-class, express trip to the puffy clouds of heaven)

Here's a picture of George & Mickey from our wedding (no, she's not an angry person, I think she was caught off guard in the picture...).  We feel so blessed that George read at our wedding.  Our wedding was the last out-of-town trip they made & the last wedding they attended.

George, I raise my glass to you.  Cheers.

All Hallow's Eve

Our costumes were epic.  I spent hours bent over a sewing machine.  Not to mention the blood, sweat, & tears coming up with our costume ideas.






...That's all a big, fat lie.  We like fun, easy, costumes in this household.  Behold our genius idea for this year:

Steve wore a brown shirt with "Jif" on the front & a "Wonder bread" on the back.  I wore a purple shirt with "Smucker's" on the front & "Wonder bread" on the back.

Peanut Butter & Jelly!

Thank goodness for felt, glue, & easy logos.

We didn't get a picture of us actually in our costumes.  But I think they're fairly easy to picture.  :)

Just keep running

Despite the lack of description in the blog world, Steve & I continue to run on a regular basis.  Neither of us is training for anything in particular at the moment, so we've enjoyed several leisure runs during the week.  We don't always run together because we're usually training for different distance races, but we do enjoy going for runs together.  My goals recently include breaking previous month's mileage, so this month (October) I'm aiming to break 100 miles.  Mind you, that's only 100 miles for the month.  Many professional/super hardcore runners break 100 miles of running in one week.  I think my legs would fall off at that rate.

We've participated in several races over the summer (most notably Steve's 50-miler) & continue to enjoy races when we can get to them (being in a smaller town means we're somewhat limited on local or nearby races).  I was aiming to break 2 hours in a half-marathon this summer.  I came thisclose to breaking it.  My time was 2:00:05.  5 seconds??  Are you f-ing kidding me??  The infamous PR (despite not breaking 2 hrs, it was a Personal Record) occurred at Deadwood Mickelson Trail Half-Marathon & I blame it entirely on one aid station where I unfortunately decided to stop but had to run around the back of the table because the volunteers were BLOCKING the food & drink.  Bless their hearts for volunteering.  But damnit, GET OUT OF THE WAY!

I may or may not still be harboring a slight burn from that.  My ego was stroked a bit this past weekend when we participated in The Link 10K, a fundraiser for the Sheridan Memorial Hospital Foundation & cancer care at their cancer center.  We participated last year, had a blast, & came back in full (pink) force this year!  The 10K (6.2 mi) was actually 6.45 miles & I ran it in 55:13.00 - another personal record!  Steve blew the competition out of the water & ran it in 44:08.00, coming in first place.  Speedy Gonzales!

Evidence of our pink obsession:

P.S.  I had to make the picture large b/c I'm just so darn proud of how obnoxiously pink we are!
P.P.S  We wore pink wings.  For the whole run.  And super huge pink feathery fake eyelashes.  But because I'm a sweaty meatball, my eyelashes fell off at mile 4.  Go figure.
P.P.P.S  Check out the shirts (Georgia's shirt is under her long sleeve).  We have some HOT WHEELS!  :)

Fun little tidbit...

...About the history of the elusive, illustrious, exalted, prestigious "marathon":

from Runner's World

(Like my use of the thesaurus for those big words?  Thanks www.m-w.com)