I am down five sizes. FIVE. And this week I've kicked the exercise into high gear, because the pictures that were taken of me at the Smith Fall Fit 5k are revolting. Here we go, Motormouth, here we go.

I was out the door at 8:45 and decided to run up the road before turning around and running my loop. I'm pretty sure I ran about four miles today, fueled by coffee, a maple french toast bagel, and a B-complex tablet. Good stuff. Feel much better now than I did before I hit the road.

Waiting for the washing machine guy to arrive; third time's a charm? We'll see…

It's the day after my race and I'm feeling better than I've a right to. I think the three pre-bedtime Ibuprofen tablets helped immeasurably. Today I checked out a day care for BK and it looks great; he'll start there on Wednesday, hooray! Got dinner prepped already and even managed to make a double recipe of split-pea-with-ham soup. Ended up with 3.5 quarts of the stuff! Once it's all cooled down most of it will go into the freezer for an “omg I forgot to buy stuff for dinner” night. Not bad, people, not bad. Oh, and the washing-machine guy is coming to check out the washer in a couple of hours. Please think healing thoughts.

“I'm going to regret this tomorrow,” I said, cracking open a beer. And regret it I did.

Didn't sleep well, woke up at 4:00 and couldn't get back to sleep for the longest time. Then, in the morning, I had to truck all our laundry to the laundromat, where I spent 2+ hours and thirty-plus dollars. Changed into my now-clean running clothes in the laundromat's bathroom, which was the size of a bootbox and smelled like period. Raced back home, grabbed my shoes, dropped off Mom, dumped the clean, folded laundry in in the garage, put the rest of it in the dryer (our washer is kaput, hence the laundry field-trip), grabbed a slice of bologna and a piece of whole-wheat bread to slap it on, and drove very quickly back to Northampton. Was freaking out that I would arrive too late to get my race packet but it all worked out OK. Met up with Karen, who was celebrating her birthday by running her first-ever road race, and her family. Her husband was good enough to hold my race shirt and half-eaten carbo-bar. We lined up at the start and then boom! We were off.

I'd like to throttle the person who laid out the course — starting it with a big hill was murder and didn't do my hangover an ounce of good. Once the hill was crested, I focused too inwardly and didn't spend much time appreciating the fall colors on the street where I used to live. The only time I walked was at the water station about halfway through; would've made my time if I'd taken a few fewer walking steps there, but oh well. Kept running up Grove Street, kept running up 66, and was feeling about to die when I heard, “Go, Mommy!” from a familiar-looking minivan. Monstro, Mom, and the boys had driven out to greet me along the raceway. Soooo excellent. Probably the high point of my year. From that point, I ran down the big hill and across the concrete bridge (ouch), hammed it up for the photographers and put in a good kick at the finish.

3.1 miles in 40:12. Not great, but after the morning I'd had, and the night before that, I'm OK with it. It's a PR because I've never run a 5k race, and it's a heck of a lot faster than my last road race, which was July 2009 and had me running four miles in 1:09:??. So, there's been a great deal of improvement and even though I feel like hell right now, I'm glad I did it.

Happy birthday, Karen!

Fed up and underfed,

Just one of those days where I wish I were dead.

I'd go and lie down but they repo'd my bed,

'Cause I'm fed up and underfed.

I'm working my way through the Steig Larsson “Millennium Trilogy” right now and for the life of me, I can't explain why. The first one had a very boring introduction and a plot hole big enough for Ron Jeremy to have sex with; the female character is compelling but blank in an homage to Bella Swan Cullen; the sex is either waves-crashing-on-the-shoreline vague or Too Much Frickin' Information. And yet, I can't stop staying up far past my bedtime to find out how the damn stories are going to resolve. Ugh.

My mom moved in with us a few weeks ago and so far, so good. Her presence has been a blessing, particularly with regard to my two children, who are totally nutso about their Nana and could hardly sleep the first few nights out of the joy of knowing she'd be there in the morning.

I am figuring things out, too. We had the VNA (visiting nurse) of our area come before she moved in, to do a home evaluation with Mom and determine what kind of accessibility changes we would need to make to the house. The changes were minimal and accomplished by throwing $212 at Lowe's and getting Monstro to use his power tools for about half an hour. The VNA fellow was particularly impressed with the “Nicest I've ever seen” tub transfer bench. Thanks, Lowe's, for making me look like a superstar.

The pill regimen is four times a day but not a challenge, even for yours truly, who is the worst ever at regimented pill schedules. It's becoming second nature and we haven't missed a dose yet. Also, I bought an awesome pill caddy at Walmart — it holds a week's worth of four-times-a-day pills, and you can take out the day's caddy if you're going somewhere. I have also made the decision to refill the caddy every Thursday evening — that way, if she's running low on something, I can call the pharmacy on Friday morning and then I have until Saturday at 3:00 to pick it up. Smaaht.

We're also getting out and doing something about once a day. I have hooked her up with an exercise specialist so she's going to classes twice a week. We're also going on walks and running errands. People smile a weary smile at me when they see me unloading two small children and Mom's walker out of my minivan. I'd like to tell them that for a blue parking placard, it's totally worth it, but I live in Massachusetts and they probably wouldn't get the joke.

Monstro and I decided to go back to our church this morning. Our pastor called us this week and so Monstro and I decided to give it one more shot. Today was kick-off Sunday: the beginning of Sunday School, children's choir, etc. We got there a little before church and I played praise songs on my ukulele to welcome folks to church. Then I went to join Monstro and our boys in the nursery. Guess what? NO CHILDCARE. So, we stayed through the children's message and then we went home. Lame, lame, lame.

I'll tell you something: I love my kids, but every so often it is SO NICE to leave them at home and go shop for shoes and participate in an adult-type event. This is what I did last night and it was a blast. Thanks, Hidden-Tech!

Also, my feet have shrunk. Weird.

And don't let the subject line fool you, because today I was one of a handful of people in the greater Happy Valley of MA to be an invited artist to the 24-Hour Theater Project. While I've desired this opportunity for years, it comes through a jimmied transom: they want me to act.