We named him Einstein.

No particular reason for that name except I thought it was funny. He almost got renamed when my nephew Hunter saw him for the first time and exclaimed “TURTLE!” Einstein seemed to fit him though so it stuck.

Through the years he was my little buddy when I was home alone waiting for Joel to get off work. He loved the sound of running water and punk rock music. He was also probably Five Iron Frenzy‘s littlest fan. He loved to rock out. He rarely ever screeched or made the loud obnoxious noise parakeets are known for. He mostly just chirped and sang pleasantly or had little conversations with the birds outside the window.

He was a afraid of almost everything. He didn’t even like to be held for a long time. We tried to get him toys and even another parakeet buddy but he wanted nothing to do with them. As long as he had his music or running water he was happiest.

He eventually warmed up to us and realized we weren’t out to kill him. When I spent a year based in DC while Joel was back here in Chicago he and Joel became really close. They never lost that special bond. He was meant to be a friend to me but he ended up being Joel’s confidant during all the hard times while I was away.

Then the last couple months he started to look a little rough. His feathers weren’t as bright and he went through a molting phase that didn’t ever really end. The last couple weeks he started falling off his perches. And then in the last few days he just didn’t try to get up on them anymore. He just hung out at the bottom of his cage. His one little foot curled up under him and he never used it anymore. We had to move his food and water onto the floor of his cage so that he could eat and drink.

Then this morning he sang one more quick little song. It stood out to me because I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I heard him actually sing.

Then he let out what sounded like a painful cry. I went over to check on him and part of his bottom beak had broken off completely. It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. I called Joel and he rushed home so he could take him to the vet. I was too much of a mess to go with him. It just broke my heart to see him in such pain.

Joel and I said our goodbyes to him and I stayed home and just cried. The vet said it was nothing we did wrong. He couldn’t be 100% sure without very expensive blood work but all the symptoms pointed to a tumor. It would have cost hundreds of dollars to even try to treat him and there was no guarantee it would do any good. He was just in too much pain already so we decided the kindest thing was to put him down.

I miss him so much already. The cage is already in the garage because it’s just too painful to see it sitting there empty. Looking at the spot where it used to sit makes me cry though.

I think Phoebe will miss him too although she was never a big fan. I blame that on the geese that used to live in the backyard of our old apartment. Bullies. But we could always say “Where’s Einstein?” and she would run to his cage. If he got too loud she would run over and grumble at him or stare at him in interest.

He was old and up until the end he lived a really nice life. I wish we would have taken him to the vet sooner. I feel so guilty that we let him be in pain at all much less letting it get to the point of his beak breaking. We knew in the last several days that he was really sick and we’d probably have to have him put down. I just didn’t want it to be true. I wanted him to suddenly perk up and be his happy little self again.

We did the kind thing, although I wish we’d done it sooner. Knowing that doesn’t make it any easier though. He left a void bigger than I imagined he would. He was always just there, in the background making my day a little brighter and more pleasant with his song. And now he’s gone.

A part of our family died today. I miss you so much my little friend.

Joel and I are running again. Hush, I heard that eye roll. I haven’t really mentioned it here or on Twitter because this is the third time I’ve started the C25K program. ::hangs head:: I know. I’m horrible at follow through. But whatever, this time I’ve gone much further than ever before and it feels awesome.

This is not a post about running though. This is a post about falling. Excited?

Joel and I have a habit of running in the evening. This started out of necessity because 6 weeks ago when we started it was 85 degrees, humid and sunny during the day and the one time we tried running in the afternoon I about collapsed halfway through. Humidity is the devil. Take note.

Well Fall is upon us here in Chicagoland and the temperatures have been extremely pleasant. Instead of changing our habits though we’ve continued to run after dark. It just works for us. Or it has so far.

Tonight I was feeling great on our run. The previous run was a full 20 minutes straight. I know! Head explosion over here. I’m still in shock that I actually did it. Anyway, after that long run going back to intervals (per the program) felt like a piece of cake. The weather was nice, I had my headphones in and was rocking out. I only had about 2 minutes left of my last running interval before the cool down and I let my mind wander.

I’ll never remember where it wandered because I realized the sidewalk had suddenly become slightly uneven and gravity was about to make me it’s bitch.

In my head it all happened in slow motion. The sidewalk dipped and my feet didn’t get the message fast enough. I tripped slightly and must have over corrected because instead of righting myself I kept going downward.

Bam! My right knee hit and I somehow still stumbled a bit more before my left knee followed with only slightly less force.

Bam! I reached my right palm out to catch myself but my momentum was too great and I continued down even further. The momentum was so great I scraped my knuckles on that same hand.

Bam! My left shoulder hit next and my mind immediately went to my iPhone which was in a case strapped to my bicep. Oh please don’t let it break. Yes, even with the threat of bones breaking my biggest concern was for my iPhone. I realize how pathetic that is.

Finally Bam! My face met the concrete and I could not fall any further.

I lay there for a moment completely in shock. My brain did a quick mental check of my bones and nothing felt broken. I lay face down on the pavement and the shock of it all, plus the sting of the scrapes caused me to burst into tears.

Joel was almost immediately by my side and I was soon sitting up on the sidewalk, testing my limbs to make sure none were seriously injured. Thank goodness none were. I was bleeding but not broken.

A minute passed, I’m still sitting there bawling when I realize a car is pulling up next to us. And then I saw the pretty red and blue lights flick on.

Oh yay, the police!

I scrabbled to my feet, tears and pain suddenly gone with the adrenaline of the embarrassment. The officer was incredibly nice and offered me an ambulance (which I obviously told him I didn’t need) and a ride home (which I was too embarrassed to accept). Because he stopped he had to take my name and information and write a quick report of the incident. Fan-freaking-tastic. I am officially on record as a klutz. His exact words were “So you just tripped over the curb or something stupid like that?” Yep, exactly stupid like that.

Needless to say I didn’t finish the run but walking home wasn’t a problem. Want to see the damage?

Sexy knees.

Shoulder and face. Please excuse the sweaty hair and face. Running isn’t something I get dressed up for.

Closeup!

So all in all nothing is too horrible. They definitely sting and I’m not looking forward to the probable black eye in a couple of days. I’m just super grateful it’s nothing more than a few superficial scrapes. As weird as it sounds I’m glad I caught myself with my face rather than catching the whole fall on my hands and snapping my wrist. Can’t fix that with a band-aid!

Despite my luck this time I think it’s about time we change our running habits. Uneven sidewalks are much easier to spot in daylight. I’d like to try and keep all my skin attached from now on thank you very much.

Here are a couple snippets from the weekend:

—

Jordan- Uncle Joel, you don’t live here.

Joel- Well for the weekend we do.

Jordan- Yeah but you don’t live here regularly. (side note, seriously he used the word regularly. He’s 3! Cracked me up)

Joel- Would you like it if we lived here regularly?

At the same time: Anthony-Yes! Jordan- No!

Anthony- But Jordan, then they’d be here all the time.

Jordan- But that would just be silly.

—-

They were watching a super hero move and one of the previews was for Harry Potter.

Anthony – I like Harry Potter. Is he real?

Me- No he’s a character on TV just like Superman.

He seemed disappointed but got lost in the movie and didn’t say anything else about it. Later my sister Anna (16) was over and she was talking with Anthony. He was obviously being super cute and so she said,

You’re so cute, Anthony. You should be on TV.

Anthony’s eyes got really big and sad. He took a deep breath and said,

But…. I want to be real.
——

I was so pleased with how the day went. I thought it was going to be the whole weekend. My brother-in-law was having some health issues and we thought he would need to be in the hospital all weekend. Thankfully the issues turned out not to be as serious as originally thought and they didn’t even have to stay over night.

It was going to be kind of fun and interesting though. Going from a blissfully child-free couple to two toddlers and an infant? For a whole weekend? Including over night? Bam!

I was shocked at how stress free it was though. Yeah I was tired at the end of the day but those kids are so freaking well behaved. The most annoying part of the day was heating up bottles every time Diggy needed to eat. And that was not that big a deal. At all.

The only thing I’m worried about now is I won’t be able to live up to this high standard of adorableness my sister’s kids have set. I’m just the tiniest bit concerned that I’m going to end up raising a herd of monster children.

Maybe I’ll just convince my sister to move in next door. Between her and their older boy cousins they ought to stay in line. Or at least their cousins will teach them how to be ridiculously adorable and I won’t notice the monstrous behavior as much.

But when I thought about it I realized I may like to look back and see what a regular day was like too. So here it is, a day in my life as seen through my iPhone and Instagram:

7:00am- Joel’s alarm goes off. I nudge him to turn it off and doze back off while he gets ready for work.

7:45am- Joel kisses me goodbye for the day. I wake up long enough to kiss him and then again fall back asleep.

9:00am- I roll over and see this adorable face staring at me. Check Twitter, email, etc from my iPhone.

Good morning sunshine.

9:15am- I finally stop cuddling Phoebe and checking tweets and make the bed.

Phoebe seriously freaks out about bed making.

10:15am- Breakfast eaten, showered, dressed and out the door.

Bye Phoebe.

10:45am- Laser hair removal appointment. Ouch.

11:00am- Out to lunch with Joel.

We’ve been wanting to try out Labriola’s cafe for awhile. It does not disappoint. Yum!

12:00pm- Drop Joel back off at work. Long day for him. Bummer.

12:30pm- Home again. And somebody is ready for her walk.

It’s kind of rainy and gross though so it’s a short walk.

12:45- Phoebe naps while I catch up on blogs and twitter and stuff.

2:00pm- Phoebe’s batteries are recharged and she would like for me to play with her.

She starts polite but if I don’t oblige quickly she goes into attack mode.

2:05pm- I give in and we run around and play with her new favorite toy.

Kill it!

2:30pm- I decide to sort laundry so it’s all ready to do tomorrow.

2:33pm- I grumble about how somebody always forgets to empty their pockets so it’s lucky that somebody always double checks because otherwise somebody’s flashdrive would’ve gotten washed. ahem

2:35pm- I almost kill our hamper because it. always. falls. off. the. freaking. hooks.

Laundry makes me grumble a lot. ahem

2:40pm- Laundry is sorted. I could wash it today but… yeah... So I read a book instead. A book and Phoebe cuddles are so much better than carting laundry up and down three flights of stairs.

Happiness.

5:00pm- Time to eat something for dinner.

I get kind of lazy about dinner when Joel has to work late. What?

6:00pm- Jazz class

7:00pm- Water break

7:10pm- Hip hop

8:30pm- Classes over and finally time to pick up Joel from work. P.S. Longest work day ever, right?

9:00pm- Home at last. Time to get a little quality time with Joel, watch some Psych on Netflix and enjoy a little post dance treat.

I’d say I earned it.

Now I want to know about you. What does a day in your life look like?

As far as the clothes that I haven’t kept for their sentimental value, they generally last me a long time. They either go out of style or I grow tired of them. Some of them that I wear really often get that pilled up look after awhile. (Which makes otherwise perfectly good clothes look rather ratty by the way. If anyone has a solution to this me and my wardrobe would be eternally grateful.) I have one pair of jeans that I got from a friend who bought them at a thrift store. After wearing those jeans for seriously years they finally just got a hole in the knee. That is the only pair of jeans that has ever gotten a hole in them without already coming home from the store that way.

Joel is a completely different story. I swear the man goes through clothes like you wouldn’t believe. It’s been about a year and half since the last time we bought him jeans and he just informed me that of a dozen different pairs he has one pair left that doesn’t have holes in the knees.

What. the. heck. people?!

He isn’t a five year old rough and tumble boy who crawls around. In fact, I can’t think of the last time I saw him crawl. He doesn’t play sports. He has a desk job for heavens sake. How does sitting at a desk 40 hours a week wear holes in your knees?!

It’s the same with shoes. Today he was complaining that his feet hurt after walking around all day. After taking a look at what he was walking around in it wasn’t hard to see why.

These shoes are about a year old. One year old!

Holding them up to the light. You can see through them completely!

How does this happen? Just, how?!

I realize that I own easily twice as many clothes and shoes as he does so it makes sense that his clothes would wear out a bit faster. But this seems really excessive. Do other men destroy their clothes in record time like this? Or am I seriously married to the clothing assassin? Is there a way to prevent the massacre? I’m pretty sure I see pants and shoes alike shudder in terror as Joel walks by. Send help people. Future clothes depend on it.

Winners. Yay!

After that there’s a parade in which a float = anything with popcorn thrown on it.

Or people dressed as popcorn. Whatever.

As a kid I remember the floats being these elaborate creations made entirely of popcorn. Not sure if I was just little and thought everything was cooler or if people got lazy because the floats aren’t all that impressive anymore. Oh well, it’s more about spending time with my family anyway.

See how my brother is leaning back in his chair? Despite warnings he continued doing it.

He learned his lesson though.

Once the parade was over we walked around a bit, ate some junk food and listened to the bands that were playing. Normally we’d look around at the booths as there are always some really cool crafts and things. This year it was so insanely crowded that we quickly decided it wasn’t worth it and headed home. I made cake!

If you follow me on twitter you may remember tweeting about my cake wreck. See, in my head I’m this fabulous baker. Unfortunately I have very little experience and so things don’t tend to turn out the way they look in my head. Remember the asshole cake? Yeah.

I do learn from my mistakes though and did not come close to losing a finger or throwing cake across the room. Win!

That’s kind of where the win ends though.

What I learned this time is whipped frosting, while delicious, does not hold layer cakes together well.

Whipped frosting kind of likes to be all airfull and slidey and before you know it your beautiful layer cake looks like this.

That hole in the frosting is from me trying to push the layers back into place.

Top tip: that doesn’t work. At. all.

We all got a good laugh out of it though and the really cool thing about the cake wasn’t revealed until I started serving it.

That was the reaction I was hoping for.

Ta da!

Hot mess on the outside. Awesome on the inside.

Kind of like me.

The Route 66 portion of Epic Road 2011 is finished and of course it was an epic day.

We started out bright and early on a winding mountain road. We weren’t quite early enough to catch the sunrise but the views were still incredible.

It was quite an adventure. Not something I’d attempt at night but during the day it was definitely worth braving.

The tiny little town of Oatman is home to a bunch of wild burros. They’re the offspring of burros left behind when the gold diggers moved on. They didn’t have any use for them anymore so they left them to fend for themselves. Apparently they’re doing pretty well. They came right up to the car to beg for food.

Once we got through the mountains and entered California we had a nice scenic drive through the Mojave desert. The views were beautiful and there we some fun quirky things along the route.

Graffiti! No we didn’t add our mark. Still never bought any spray paint.

Shoe tree! Apparently whenever a tree grows in the desert people like to throw shoes at it. I didn’t have any shoes I was willing to part with.

My favorite roadside attraction of the day was the bottle cactus ranch.

We had the pleasure of meeting the artist behind the ranch, Elmer Long. He was so friendly. He came out and when we complimented him on his work he said he was still working on it. He also nonchalantly mentioned how the “British TV” had just been out the previous week. Then he regaled us with stories of the cabin he just bought and how the insurance company was making him put a new roof on, among other various repairs.

We chatted for several minutes and I think he could have talked all day. He was just such a nice guy and seemed to love having visitors. The bottle cactus art was neat to see but his friendly chit-chat made it extra special.

It was a good thing we had that nice little break because the last stretch of our trip was spent sitting at red light after red light. Good old LA traffic. I know I’m not the first to bemoan the traffic in the greater LA area but seriously, it took us 4 1/2 hours to go the last 50 miles. Four and a half hours.

That meant that we finally got to the pier and the end of the route just after dark.

End of the trail! Yay!

Family photo on the pier.

A beautiful end to an incredible trip. I can’t believe it’s over. It was quite the adventure and I’m so glad we did it. I’ll write more of my final thoughts and some pointers in case you want to take your own trip down Route 66 in the future. Hint, I highly recommend it.

The Grand Canyon was something I’ve wanted to see my whole life. I’ve been to Arizona and the vicinity more times than I can count and have never been. I’ve always thought that was beyond wrong. I have now officially corrected it. My life feels a bit more complete as a result.

I assume that if you grew up on planet earth you’ve seen a million pictures of this wonder. It doesn’t disappoint, it is every bit as breathtaking as it appears in pictures.

But I know what you really came here for is to see the pictures of us. Right?

Just say yes.

Well good because there are a bunch. And since this is my blog I’m posting my favorites. All of them. Be forewarned, there are a lot. But I saved the best for last.

Just after our first glimpse. Looking at this picture I can still feel the awe I felt as we came around the corner and the canyon came into view. My stomach dropped and all I could do was gasp. Absolutely stunning.

Just chilling on a rock. You know, at the Grand Canyon.

One thing I couldn’t get over was how close you’re allowed to get to the edge. No rails or bars prevent you from just walking off.

Or being an idiot and jumping off. I wonder how many tourists have plummeted to their death because they wanted to get a cool photo.

Not these idiots. At least not today.

Funny story about that picture. We clearly have not played with our camera enough because we could. not. get the timing down. What you don’t see are the 15 outtake photos of us in various stages of landing. Finally some dude came up and offered to take the picture for us. I think he was just tired of my sighs of exasperation.

Family photo.

Fact: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are more delicious at the Grand Canyon. Look it up.

Gratuitous close up of me.

And finally, the hands down best picture ever taken at the Grand Canyon.

Our love? A world wonder all its own.

That’s not to say that we didn’t have a wonderful time. We made sure to stop along the way for some photo ops.

Owl Rock. Bet you can’t guess why it’s called that.

Tiny little double bridge. I wouldn’t recommend driving through it with anything much taller than our little Accent.

Who can tell me what movie this is in?

The highlight of the day was definitely the Petrified Forest National Park.

Unbelievably gorgeous!

The only downside was it was unbelievably windy.

It was too hard to keep my eyes open long enough to get a picture.

Phoebe was not impressed either. I’m pretty sure if I had let go she would have blown away completely. I’m not really even exaggerating.

Despite almost getting blown over by the gusts of wind I braved going out on a ledge for some pictures.

I didn’t realize Joel was taking my picture but I’m so glad he did. This may be one of my favorite pictures of me ever.

Almost getting blown off a cliff to my death for a photo? Worth it.

The only bummer of the day was trying to visit the meteor crater only to find out it’s completely fenced in. You have to go through a visitor center to see it and no dogs are allowed. Obviously leaving Phoebe wasn’t an option so this was about all we saw of it.

That mound in the distance? That’s it.

In the long run it’s not that big of a deal. Having Phoebe with us has been so fun. I wouldn’t trade this time with her for my own personal meteor crater.

Not that I’d know what to do with a meteor crater if I had one.

Probably charge admission.

But allow dogs of course.

Tomorrow we get to see the Grand Canyon, which is the site I’m probably most excited to see on this whole trip. I just hope the wind calms down so I can get some decent pictures.

You know, looking at the camera with my eyes open.

And maybe not getting blown off the edge. That’d be good too.

We got up early and started the day with fresh made waffles courtesy of our motel. Nom.

Our first stop was the Bug Farm. We almost missed it but we turned around and I’m really glad we did.

It’s the VW Bug version of Cadillac Ranch. I love me some VW Beetles. Obviously it was extremely windy again. However this time no whales, humans or half buried cars were flashed.

Then it was on to Cadillac Ranch for more buried car fun.

We should have thought to bring some spray paint. Not something we keep in the trunk of the car. I know, you’re shocked.

Love him so.

Phoebe was decidedly not impressed. Her face here cracks. me. up.

We passed the midpoint!

As we entered New Mexico Route 66 turned into a dirt road. We debated taking the interstate for all of two minutes but where’s the adventure in that?

Best part of dirt roads? Being able to stop whenever you want to pose for a mini photo shoot.

By far the highlight of the day though was when we reached Santa Rosa. I was looking through our little guide and noticed something called Blue Hole that was a little off Route 66. It was described as a large well that’s 81 feet deep with crystal blue waters. It sounded neat so we decided to detour a little.

When we got there we realized that not only does it look neat but it’s actually a popular free place on a hot summer day. Anyone can just jump in. Now the water is seriously 64 degrees so it’s not exactly a swimming hole but there was a steady stream of jumpers.

(That old dude about to jump? Not Joel. Or me. In case you were wondering)

Joel and I wandered around with Phoebe and took a few pictures. I must have had a look on my face because Joel turned to me and said, “You want to jump in, don’t you?”

I so did.

However, I didn’t feel like being the only soaking wet one so I made Joel agree to jump in too.  Joel didn’t really want to because he was nervous about his swimming skills. Since there were two lifeguards on duty though I told him that was no excuse. Plus, I knew he’d really love it once he did it.

I think deep down he knew it too because it didn’t take much convincing before we were back at our car pulling on our bathing suits.

Unfortunately we couldn’t go at the same time because we didn’t have anywhere safe to leave Phoebe. I made him jump first because I was a little afraid he’d back out if I had already jumped. Once it was my turn I was surprised that my legs shook a little as I got out onto the ledge. From up there it looks way scarier than it does on the ground. The scariness was nothing though compared to the icy shock of the water. I’m pretty sure I’ve never felt water that cold in my life. It took my breath away.

Totally worth it though.

And just like that we were on our way again. I can’t believe I even considered not jumping for a minute because it was a little inconvenient to change into my swim suit in the car. Or that I didn’t want to get my hair wet. Good grief.

We jumped off a high rock into ice-cold water. Why? Because why not?

And that’s exactly what this trip is about. Why freaking not.