The woods are lovely, dark and deep

We are not in the woods, and neither dark nor deep. But it is snowy here. We did not transplant, we did not put bulbs in, we are not quite done with fall. But winter has made its first foray into our yard, and luckily the kids rejoiced. (Peter rejoiced at 5am by waking me up and then going back to sleep with his knees poking my spine, which led to me giving up the ghost of my sleep about 5:30 and puttering around with coffee for a few hours.) I am deeply satisfied that we already bought them snow boots; any additional mittens and hats will just have to appear somehow.

I had planned to run the Chicago Marathon tomorrow. Instead I'm at home with an irritated IT band (tendon between one's knee and hip, the frequent victim of overuse injuries.) I am heartbroken, but realistic, and have scheduled the appointment with a sports injury doctor which I should have made a few months ago, in the hopes that I can heal up and start running again soon. (The primary symptom of an injured IT band is crippling knee pain about 2 miles into your run, which is as much fun as it sounds. It's even better if you're doing an out-and-back and you feel fine for, say, the first seven miles, and then suddenly you're a long way from home and unfit to do more than walk. Yes, that's the voice of experience.)

So instead we went to the talent show that's part of Midland's homecoming festivities, and it was good and our beloved babysitter was on homecoming court so we got to see her all dressed up. Today was still and yet more homecoming fun, but we're skipping the game because of a. the snow and b. a basic lack of football aptitude among 3/4 of the family. Peter was especially delighted with the chance to eat cotton candy, win prizes, eat more, win more, and see the dance team. Grace had more fun at the talent show, I think, but either way work events that are family-oriented are a nice change of pace.