The skinny around here (figuratively speaking)

Internet people, as I like to do, here's my intro announcement:

I'm still loving my time at the fitness center.  Me.  A treadmill.  Multiple TV screens to flip between as I pace myself.  It's quite lovely. 

I ran for 33 minutes straight (49 minutes in an hour) just the other livelong day.  Little 'ole me.  It feels shockingly good wipe sweat off my face and to tell myself "Just keep going until the next commercials...OK, now just make it through these commercials...alright, now let's make it to when the people get up to the bedrooms" (House Hunters...helpfully formulaic when you're timing yourself by the various parts of the show). 

Things I've discovered so far:
1.  I've had a shocking amount of conversations with the boy concerning Greek yogurt, breathing, hydration, and abs.  If I only have about 15 minutes a day to really wedge in a conversation with the spouse, at least we're keeping it real.
2.  I feel like I sweat less.
3.  I can have a casual conversation until between the 15-20 minute mark when it gets a touch harder. 
4.  My lungs are good until the 30-ish minute mark.
5.  I'm glad that I don't smoke.
6.  I definitely need to stretch out the calves before I start.
7.  Sometimes my back gets stiff...dumb, bad posture.
8.  My abs feel different, which is a new phenomenon.
9.  I don't even mind it when I run into students and I'm all red-faced sweaty.
10.  It's fantastic just doing something else for a couple of hours a week.  That's the best part.

And in other news, my latest thing that I can't make a decision on is whether or not to send the Younger to a 5-year old class next school year and then forgo Kindergarten completely.  Folks - submit your thoughts to me.  I'm all eyes.

In the meantime, the Younger is gaga (again) for Uno, which means that we play games (upon games, upon games...) every day.  And, we added a new game (Sleeping Queens) into the rotation, so there's that, too.  Plus, the Elder is b-i-g into Clue, so we've had quite the winter of gaming.  I lurve it.

Last night at dinner, the Elder was discussing her reading, and she dropped this little nugget of wisdom.

Daughter:  "Did you know that I used to not like reading?"
Me:  "Oh...really?  I couldn't tell."

I mean, seriously.  She thinks that we didn't notice when she read just because.  She thinks that we haven't noticed that she now squirrels away for 45 minutes with books in hand.  Such a 7-year old.

She's always been a math-minded kid, i.e. just like her father.  And I dig that about her.  I don't have to have a little bookworm.  But, goodness, that would be great.  SO great.  Years of education are stretching before her...years of reading.  That will make all of her lives better if we can all just agree that reading is top notch.  Which it is.

And that's the skinny-ish bit of what's going on around here.  Thank you for reading.  You're a nice person.