Updates

It's been a while since I last posted, but things are going well.  I've gotten back into running, and with the exception of some legs that seem to forget how to run, things are going smoothly.  Tomorrow I'm scheduled to run 19 miles, but due to the setback of the stress fracture, I'll probably run somewhere between 15 and 17, depending on if my friend Fiona decides to run with me.  She's also training for the marathon. 

Last weekend, I went to Houston to visit my friend Rachel.  We went to the rodeo, which was a first for me.  I got to pet a weird-looking bull and we saw a lot of cute baby animals.  It's hard to express how strange it was for me to go to the rodeo overall, but I had a surprisingly good time (I had to try really hard not to think about the machines on display that were specifically for killing animals).  Here are some pictures of us and animals at the rodeo:

There is a thing called Mutton Bustin', which turns out to be 5- and 6-year-old kids hanging onto a sheep while it runs for as long as they can.  I would never have imagined that such a thing would exist.  Anyway, after they get ridden, the sheep look sort of angry:

As part of the rodeo, there's a concert at the end of the night most of the nights.  The night we were there, the concert was John Legend.  I can't say that I'd heard any of his music before that concert, but it was a fun atmosphere anyway.  Check out the stage they built in the middle of the giant stadium that shortly before had had teenagers running around trying to turn baby cows upside down and drag them into a chalk square (for scholarships, no less!):

And since it wouldn't be my blog without some pictures of things I ate, here are some of the delicious things Rachel cooked for me:

 Check out this close-up of a pea.  I think it's really cute for some reason:

And this is Rachel's dog, R2D2:

 The reason she's called R2D2 is that she goes in circles trying to catch her tail.  From what I understand, R2D2 the Star Wars character also went in circles.  Anyway, it's ridiculous to watch a dog doing that.  But she's a sweet dog, and she likes running, which was good because we took her running.

This has been a long post, but I wanted to also mention that I'm having a ton of fun in glass mosaics, and I'm at the polishing step for my mom's present.  I like how it turned out!

Of course, just like I can't skip posting pictures of my food, here are the latest shout-outs to my donors.  Thanks so much to Kschu (again!), Jasper, everyone at the Nerdy Games Night, Meredith and Brian, Jennifer G, and David and Dorothea!  Unbelievably, I'm within $800 of my goal at this point!  If you haven't donated or think there's someone you know who would like to donate to the Museum of Science Traveling Programs, here's the link: http://www.mos.org/marathon/meettherunners.php#lowenthal

Have a good weekend!