Back on My Feet Again

Got ambitious this morning and did three very, very slow miles after taking the boys to the bus stop. It felt ... good.

And my shoulder didn't even break off. It was a bit chilly at first, around 20 degrees, but I worked up a sweat.

Busy week in kid-dom. Have to take Will to town so he can spend his birthday money on a couple of Wii games. After two years, I finally discovered a Wii at retail price and figured, hey, he's been so good for so long that he deserves it. He had a one-word reaction when he opened the present:

"Sweet!"

He's also got a student leadership meeting Wednesday night. John is going to NYC Sunday and Monday on a combined biology/Western Civilization field trip (insert your own joke here).

The first batch of maple came out great. Just no comparison between doing it yourself and buying it, none at all. It took Lisa about 20 gallons of sap to get a half-gallon of syrup. We may try again for some more this weekend. As it stands, we've got about three pints in a jar in the fridge, and bought a half-dozen tiny, half-pint gift tins for relatives.

Scary news in the world of chickens. I'm hearing that one of the larger hatcheries had an avian encephalomyelitis outbreak. If true, sucks to be them, and and anyone who bought chicks from them.

I bought one batch while I was flat on my back from McMurray; the first box arrived dead. Some doofus put them in the back of the truck in subzero weather. The second replacement batch was delivered to the wrong post office, and someone else picked them up. Instead of giving McMurray another chance to abuse me, I ordered a batch from Cackle. They've been fine so far; no evidence of AE, anyway.

Gotta get cranking on some work.