I started a new position on Monday, but my responsibilities haven't really changed much at work. I do have guaranteed funding for 3.5 years and I feel blessed to finally have benefits including sick days and vacation. I'm finally out of the "Limited Term Employee" rut.

I have been begging the chickens to lay me an egg, but no miniature eggs have popped out of them yet. This may be over the top, but I am planning on sending out an "Egg Announcement" once it happens. I need to start thinking about winterizing the coop soon to keep it free from drafts and also getting some kind of heating element so their water won't turn into ice in below-freezing weather. I also need to bribe them more with treats and promises of free-ranging in the yard. Or maybe threats would work best? They are of tasty deluxe chicken meat age at this point. Or something like that.

Be proud of me. I have been biking consistently to and from work since last May. Even this week with 70% threats of rain I have thwarted the storms and made it to work dry. My only problem has been stupid stupid pedestrians who walk in the middle of the bike lane when the sidewalk is only a few feet away. I actually hit someone (well, technically only their backpack) the other morning. I do not feel bad about this. I chimed my bell multiple times, I said excuse me, and still this girl does not move. I feel like I should have one of those air horns to wake up all these mindless UW undergrads. Or maybe I should just bike the long way to work.

Paul & I have joined a soccer team. He's been on it for a while as goalie (which is obvious once you see him-- he is scraped and bruised all over!) and Wednesday was the first game for me. I sucked. And I am SO OUT OF SHAPE it is sad. I was sore all over for two days after. Even, inexplicably my arms (and no, I didn't do a throw-in). I wasn't terrible, but I definitely didn't play like I should have. The sad part is that I knew where I was supposed to be and what to do but my body would just not cooperate to get me there. Some of it might have had to do with the super hot weather, but the other 90% was definitely due to my out of shape body.

BUT, on the other hand, I am in decent biking shape. Yesterday Paul & I woke up and biked out to Blue Mounds State Park. We took the Military Ridge Trail, which is a bike/walking trail that follows and old train track (so it's graded pretty well and there's not huge hills). About 70% of our ride was on a dirt path, which made it a bit more slow going than usual but we still made decent time. When we got to the park entrance we suddenly found ourselves at the finish line of a 100/200km bike race, which was hilarious, because there were people on the sidelines rooting us on (assuming we were part of the race, even though we were the only ones not in skin-tight bike jerseys), and Paul even had his picture taken by the photographer at the finish line!

By mid-afternoon we had biked back home, pedaling fast because we thought the predicted t-storms were going to hit us (they never came). Our route ended up being 57 miles round trip and at the end we both felt wonderful. I felt like I could have gone for many miles more, even on my slow hybrid. And the best thing is that I'm not even sore today! I'm hoping that we can do some longer weekend trips (maybe even overnight?) this summer.

Last night we started planning the details our of chicken coop, and this morning we settled on a basic design. Hopefully in an hour or so we'll head to home depot and pick up the needed items to start building. Luckily, there is a lot of extra lumber laying around our house from the previous owners, so we shouldn't have to buy too much. The biggest expense will probably be for the fencing.

Today Ruthie is coming to visit as she drive from Minneapolis to Chicago. And the best thing is that I'm catching a ride with her into the city. I was going to take the bus, but this is a much better solution all around. I love when things work out so perfectly. And I'm excited to spend a little more time with Ruthie.

I'll be spending the night at Sylvie's place (who's almost done with med school - hurray!) and hanging out with Karin all of Monday. I haven't seen either of them since college graduation, our last day as roommmates in college, so this should be fun. Karin is back from South Asia just for a few days, so I'm lucky to take a day off to get to see her.

Summer is off to a great start, with lots of unexpected visitors (Ruthie and Craig) and bbqs with neighbors, chicken coop building, bike rides and fun plans. Also, hopefully, a boundary waters trip in July!