Eight miles

I ran eight miles with the Fleet Feet crew this morning. The temperature was awfully cold when we headed out — something like 21 degrees, with a windchill of 7 — but it really didn’t feel that bad. We ran from Fleet Feet to the river and back at a nice, leisurely pace.

I’ve got another busy day ahead of me, but Ron and I took a couple of hours to relax this morning with one of my favorite Saturday activities: breakfast at Ollie’s and a stroll through a greenhouse.

At the encouragement of an administrator who thinks every classroom ought to have plants, I’d bought a palm tree (which one of my boys named “Payton,” in honor of Walter) and a pothos a couple of weeks ago at Riddle Plant Farm. They proved popular enough that I seized the excuse to spend part of this frigid morning in the warmth and light of the greenhouses at Southwood Nursery, where I found a $10 plant with pretty blue-and-white flowers and a sale-priced $5 rubber tree plant that’s nearly two feet high. I’ll repot the rubber tree this weekend and take it and the flowers to school on Monday.

What I really want in my classroom is a hamster, but I’m not sure I can convince Zaphod of the merits of introducing a rodent into an English class….

Emily

Finally.

I finished my math homework this morning during my planning period, knocked down the backlog of grading to something manageable while the kids were taking a quiz this afternoon (I cheated a little bit and gave them some free time to talk quietly after they finished), and e-mailed my editor the second edits on our freelance pieces a few minutes ago.

I’d love to celebrate, but I have an eight-mile run at 7 a.m., so I think I’ll confine my festivities to a spirited game of “What Is Making That Unholy Smell in the Crisper Drawer?” and call it a night.

Emily