Whirlwind of a weekend

Life has been a little crazy here the last few days. My best friend, her mom and her aunt stayed with me this weekend. She and her aunt and her boyfriend, who did not stay with me, ran the Shamrock Half Marathon on Sunday. Her boyfriend is an elite runner. I didn't quite comprehend what this meant until we watched them start at 41st Street, walked back to the finish line at 31st Street, on the way stopped at Starbucks, and 10 minutes after we found a spot at the finish line, Andy finished the race. Ummm... in the time it took her mom and I to walk 10 blocks and pick up coffee, he had run 13.1 miles. I kinda get it now.

My girlfriend, Amber, kicked some serious butt on the course as well. She had hoped to run in 1:50 and ended up running 1:47:26! She's a rockstar. And she's my best friend. I feel cool by association.

Here are the happy and triumphant runners after the race, on their way to the beer tent. Gotta love Yuengling sponsorship.



I've also been fairly productive over the last few weeks.

This:


Now looks like this:


This:


Has a home here:


My broccoli has germinated:



Since this photo I now have a whole lot of coleus, a sweet pea, and two 4 o'clocks. And I may soon have a zucchini. I'm hoping a few more come up in the next few days. Especially the peppers.

And my front porch now looks like this:



This is just a start, I'm hoping to add many more flowers as the weather gets warmer.