On my mind

1. On Wednesday my new cell phone arrived.  It's a fun little gadget that's hard not to enjoy but I have mixed feelings about it.  I'm sure I'll warm up to it over time.
2. I miss my dog.  He's been gone for three months.  It's as bad as I thought it would be.
3. I'm still on track to achieve my running goal of 800 miles this year.  My goal is 25 miles a week and I've been pretty consistently meeting (or beating) that.
4. I recently started volunteering at a local food shelf.  I've been working with new clients - getting them set up to use the food shelf.  It's very humbling to sit across the table from someone who is in a situation that requires them to seek our support.  I go home very grateful for my what I have and very aware of how fleeting it can be.
5. I named my treadmill Lulu.  Now I can say thinks like "I'm going running with Lulu!" or "Lulu and I kicked out 5 miles this morning!".
6. I'm in a really good place with my fitness right now.  I run about 25 miles a week and take a Pilates class twice a week.  Finding time to workout can be challenging but when I have time I'm ready to go. 
7. I'm still trying to run in the morning before work.  I'm successful about 20% of the time (one day a week).  Increasing my success rate here would really go a long way toward balancing out my days but 5:00 AM is soooooooo early.
8. I'm really looking forward to the holidays.  I know a lot of people dread the holidays but I'm not one of them.  One of my favorite traditions is getting Chinese takeout for dinner on Christmas Day and eating it while we watch "A Christmas Story".
9. I got a new Le Creuset baking dish (In September I got a French Oven).  It's basically a 2.5 Qt casserole dish but it has a much fancier name.  I'm going to make a sweet potato casserole in it on Thanksgiving.  We made a special trip to the outlet mall to get it and ended up saving $80 over retail - totally worth the drive.
10. Chris and I are taking Mondays off in December.  It will be nice to have a an extra day each week to prepare for (or catch up from) the holiday festivities.  It will be hard to go back to working 5 days a week in January.