Mother's Day to now - what have we been doing?

It's been a few weeks since our last post because we've been pretty busy!

Markus, Liz and I ran in the Susan Komen 5k. With his long legs (and even with his bum knee!), Markus raced through the finish line in only 22 minutes. The event was crowded, but it was amazing to see so many people and survivors. They have lots of freebies and food for the runners, too. I was just glad that I finished the race, and I even shaved two minutes off the time I was running the same distance in the gym.

We were back home by 10 am on Mother's Day, and then it was off to see the moms. Poor Markus' mom thought one of her wishes was coming true - she read the note Markus wrote in her card (in essence, she did a great job raising him and now it's his turn to be a good parent) and thought she was finally getting grandbaby #2. Nope, not yet, I was quick to assure her!! After all the teasing that we've done, she probably won't even believe us when we actually are expecting a child! Then we were off for dinner and a pretty tasty strawberry pie with my family. No false grandbaby expectations there, though I think my mom might be warming up to the idea of a new little baby in the family...thanks Miss Loree (one of my mom's dance teachers who graduated with me and Markus had a baby a few weeks ago).

Markus started his first summer session class, something relating to Human Resources and negotiating, on Monday night; it meets twice a week for seven weeks. It's a pretty intense class in terms of homework and reading. He's taking his final Master's course in summer session 2 (insert applause here!), so the summer looks to be full of reading and homework for him. I'm going to brush up on my home improvement skills so that perhaps I can tile a floor, refinish a floor, or install a toilet while he does homework...okay, that's totally unrealistic as a toilet weighs 100 pounds, but I'm hoping to keep the remodeling momentum going to some degree.

On Thursday night, I made my first pork roast which I bought at Esposito's in the Italian Market. Markus commented that it was the best pork he's ever had, and I agreed. I can say that because I really had nothing to do with it - I just roasted it for the right amount of time! It was pre-marinated, so a very easy dish to cook! If you're ever in the vicinity of the Italian Market, you must swing by Esposito's and buy some meat - I promise you won't be disappointed. I bought ground turkey there one day, and they had to go in the back to get it for me because they'd just finished grinding it. That's what I call fresh. They're on South 9th Street at Carpenter or Catharine (can't remember right now).

When the weekend arrived, we spent some time with Luke and Amanda. They were at the beach on Saturday so we went to the Italian Market Festival. Many Italian Market businesses and vendors were selling food, flowers, I'm Italian tee-shirts, and there were a few arts and crafts vendors there. The big highlight was seeing Frankie Avalon on the Sorrento Cheese main stage - the Big Kahuna from Back to the Beach!!!

When Luke and Amanda arrived that evening, we had a Home Movies (cartoon) Season 4 viewing party, along with pizza and mango bellinis. I know, bellinis are a brunch drink, but we were in the mood. After bellinis and two bottles of wine (hey, nobody was driving, just walking), we went to Capogiro. Read my other post from today - I'll post all about Capogiro in that one.

The four of us decided that we're food enablers. As individual couples, we eat healthily. When we're together, Amanda and I sweet talk our guys into getting Capogiro or ice cream or some other naughty dessert, and the boys, well, since they love us they oblige. Nor do they refrain from the treats, either...but we decided to turn a corner this weekend (after our trip to Capogiro, of course) and be healthy food enablers. We'll see how that goes.

On Sunday, I removed the tile floor in the third floor bathroom in preparation for remodeling it. I know, can you believe it? I ripped up a tile floor (I couldn't believe it either)! That night, Markus and I ordered this tile (http://mosaictilesupplies.com/fireside_blend.html) for the floors and this toilet (http://www.performancetoilets.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=31). The walls will be painted Boston Fern (aka, green). The toilet will arrive tomorrow, but we can't install it until the tile arrives next week. We'll get started on removing the fixtures, spackling the walls, painting, and hopefully installing the new cabinet and vanity over the long holiday weekend.

I traveled to Indy on Monday morning - for the first time in at least five weeks, my plane wasn't canceled or delayed!!! Hurrah! Now that Indiana is on daylight savings time, it stays light here until 8:30 or 9 pm, which is nice but confusing and deceiving to the mind. It's always much later than I think it is! The Indy 500 is on Sunday, so the racing fans are here in full force. I'm glad I'm leaving tomorrow before it gets super crazy in the city!

I think that catches us up now. Oh, our one cracked window was replaced (windows are totally done now) and our roofer patched our (hopefully) last leak and replaced the rain spout that we had to cut open in the rain a few weeks ago.

My final note is about Camper. For those of you following her health saga (bladder infection, followed by fever/vomiting), she had another vomiting and slight fever bout early last week. We made another trip to the vet, had x-rays done (which showed nothing abnormal), paid a lot of money, and went home. She slowly rebounded, started eating again, but had an awful hacking/retching bout each time she ate. I was a nervous wreck, convinced she had some chest obstruction, so I pretty much stalked her for a few days. Yes, I even stalked her when she went to use the litter box. She made faces like I've never seen, and upon her exit, I realized that her problem was constipation...almost immediately after that, her energy returned, her appetite improved, and the hacking has all but stopped. We've been brushing her every day in case a hairball was causing her some trouble. I'm just glad she seems to be healthy again. The one good thing to come out of all of this? She's lost 1.5 pounds (just in time for summer and bikinis)! She's starting to look like a fit little kitty again, and she's even taken to perching on our shoulders again (she hadn't done that since her younger, thinner days). We've taken some photos, so we'll post them soon. On that happy note, I bid you all adieu. Have a happy Memorial Day weekend!