Friday Mishmash

I lost 10 pounds in one day without dieting!  It's the newest thing in weight loss, and it's called a haircut.  OK, it might just feel like I've lost 10 pounds, but I had about five inches chopped off, plus my hairdresser put in a lot of layers, and the result is like I'm floating on air!  I documented the process:

 Before - my hair had grown past my bra band in the back;

During - all foiled up for my highlights and lowlights;

After - all done!

Back view - it's still long, but much lighter overall.

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So last Friday I posted this picture:

Ollie, Andi and Louise

Today, I'm posting this:

Just Andi and Louise.

Last Friday afternoon, little Ollie started looking unwell.  It's hard to describe a sick rat, but she just didn't look right.  I tried to get her into a vet on Saturday after my race but all the "exotic pet" vets in town only work M - F.  I held her as much as I could, and petted and loved on her, but she died on Sunday afternoon.  It was pretty crushing - she was such a sweet, outgoing little thing, and seemed perfectly healthy right up to late on Friday.  She was only about four months old.  Jeff and the kids were still on their nerd convention vacation while all of this was happening, so I didn't tell them until Monday night, when they got home.  Thankfully I had sweet friends who were checking in on me - it's a pretty helpless feeling to watch a pet decline like Ollie did.

 R.I.P. Ollie

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Today I'm going to a celebration of life for an old friend, Gary - last Friday morning, I heard that he had died.  It was a pretty crummy Friday, as you might surmise.  Gary was someone who really enjoyed life and marveled at everything.  A while back, he decided to take up bowling, and before long, there was a group of us who met him every Friday night at the bowling alley.  We'd bowl, eat burgers and fries, and have a great time...sometimes, friends who didn't bowl would stop by just to hang around!  He was a good guy, and he will be dearly missed:

Fun times and good memories at the bowling alley with Gary.

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Tomorrow I have my 11 mile run.  It's going to be freezing cold, but hopefully not as windy as it was for yesterday's run - it was 35 degrees, with a north wind blowing of 15 mph, which made for a 25 degree wind chill...brrr!  Fingers crossed the run goes better than last week's 10 miler.

Have a great weekend!