Happies from the weekend
A few other happy moments from the weekend (besides my race with Rachel!):
I took a nap Friday (I had the day off).
We went out for burgers Friday night! (And I had a burger Saturday night too!)
Rachel’s cat Reggie let me play with him! (After being bribed with treats, of course.)
I painted 8 rocks and even resined them! Because… THE SUN WAS OUT!
And I remembered to hide one this morning! I need to get better at offloading them. I brought 4 to hide at the race and I heard back from someone that their son found one and they sent me the cutest video of him with it. Aww.
Steven made me heart shaped biscuits for breakfast yesterday!
We had a lovely lazy Sunday. We watched (bad) movies and just hung out. I even played with the cats! I found a way to play with the indoor and outdoor cats at the same time.
I received a surprise puzzle in the mail from Val! It’s the perfect type for me – a lot of variety and not too complicated. I sorted the pieces out and started it last night.
Other wins: I didn’t read the news and got a text from someone about my work and didn’t let it bother me and waited until today to respond. Good work, Kim!
2025 Freeze for Food 10K Race Report
Rachel and I ran the Freeze for Food 10K in Madison, WI yesterday!
The race was at 1:00, and started and ended at the Henry Vilas Zoo, and went through the arboretum and a little around a lake.
It was in the 20s, with clear blue skies, and a bit windy.
We averaged 11:48s with a 1:13:11 finish time. My easy pace has been around 13:00 lately so that was speedy for me! I didn’t exactly train for this (I ran 5+ miles last weekend to make sure I could), so I feel a little wrecked today. When I finished, my watch said I needed 90+ hours of recovery! Ha ha. Oops.
The race flew by though. We chatted the whole time. We hadn’t seen each other since September and had a lot of catching up to do! I got to Rachel’s at 11:00 and we jumped right in, pregamed with a cupcake,
ran the race, had drinks with her lovely coworkers after,
had dinner together, then I drove back home! It was a wonderful day that left me feeling fulfilled and happy. But that’s 100% on brand for any time spent with Rachel!
Reading Update (2025 #10-12)
[10] Love on Deck (Arcadia Creek #1) by Kasey Stockton
Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, saw book #3 recommended on pippipost.shop, Kindle
Synopsis: Lauren’s blind date with her sister’s fiancé’s friend, Jack, was a total disaster. Now, with her sister’s wedding set to take place on a cruise, she’s dreading spending more time around him – especially when Jack asks her to pretend to be his date to keep another wedding guest at bay. She’s still annoyed about their awful first date, but she agrees, hoping Jack might send some business her way.
Review: Eek. Lauren is uptight, too work focused, and highly unlikeable. Her refusal to talk to Jack about what happened on their first date was super annoying. It didn’t make sense to me why Jack would be attracted to her, other than looks. This was actually pretty boring, apart from the other wedding guest causing drama.
Recommend? Nah
[11] For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men by Shaunti Feldhahn
Religion / Christian Living / Women’s Interest, for WWM Book Club, hard copy
Synopsis: In For Women Only, Shaunti Feldhahn shares “insights” from “research” with thousands (or so she claims) of men to help women better understand them. She explores topics like why respect matters more than love, how men view their role as providers, the impact of visual attraction, the emotional side of sex for men, and what they wish they could express ABOUT HOW THEY WANT YOU TO LOOK GOOD FOR THEM.
Review: Okay, look at the genre. I obviously read this against my will. My gym’s book club alternates between fiction and nonfiction, with each member suggesting a title. We write them all down, draw randomly, and the last one picked is what we read. The moment I looked this one up, my reaction was UGH. And NO THANKS.
Honestly, I could write a whole post about the things that bothered me about this book. First, was some of it true? Sure! I bet so! Was it deeply rooted in being a Christian woman who serves her husband? Definitely. And that might be for someone, but was NOT for me. When we reviewed it in class, a lot of us wondered if reading the companion book For Men Only would have made us hate this one less. If we saw that there was a book that was telling men how to understand and serve us.
Alright, here we go. This is just a small list of the things that bothered me.
- The “insights” in this book perpetuate gender stereotypes that are learned. Either sex can act a lot of the way she was saying most men do. In fact, in the book club discussion, some people brought up they related more to the “men” side. It was way too “us vs them” and “wE CoUlD nEvEr GeT iT cAuSe ThEy ArE wIrEd DiFfErEnTlY.”
- Here is the awesome advise on how to be supportive of your husband when you yourself need support “cast our cares for provision on the Lord rather than on our men. In the end, it is His job to carry the burden.” How about therapy? Or communication? At least as supplemental?
- And shortly after, if you have financial worries and your man is stressed about supporting the family? “By praying for our husbands and looking to the Lord rather than to our circumstances we trust Him to carry both our husbands and their burdens. Then from the overflow of our hearts, we can give back to and encourage our men.” So if you have financial problems, the Lord will take care of it. Cool, cool.
- There is advice to do everything in your power to please your man sexually and “enjoy God’s intimate gift, and make the most of it.”
- Ugh, there was a whole chapter about how your man is always tempted and has a rolodex of visual porn popping up in his mind WITHOUT WARNING. Of course, based on her studies, churchgoing men are the best at resisting these temptations. OBVIOUSLY! And if your man is tempted, pray for him. What. Also, wait for this – “It’s natural to enjoy being noticed, but he doesn’t want you in there. You’re cluttering up a good husband’s mind and tempting him to dishonor his wife.” WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK. Love that drive by of other women.
- And the very last chapter was about how your man wants you to take care of yourself cause you obviously don’t love HIM if you don’t. I cannot even get into the HORRIBLE examples in that chapter. Oh, OH! And she said it’s a really sensitive topic so don’t bring it up with him! Just do it!
That was like the gist of the book – pray and don’t really communicate. What a pile of trash. To me at least. Maybe this book is really helpful to a ton of people and that is great! But for me, it was a no.
Recommend? Fuck no
[12] Unromance by Erin Connor
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, Green Light from Kamie on The Popcast, Kindle
Synopsis: Sawyer Greene, a former bestselling romance author, hasn’t believed in love since her college girlfriend left her with nothing but writer’s block. When she gets stuck in an elevator with a charming stranger, she sees it as a one-night fling and nothing more. But when she cross paths with him again at a picture-perfect Christmas market, fate might have other plans. They decide to make a list of romance tropes to ruin – to get her writing groove back, and to cure him from being a romantic.
Review: This is a cute premise and the characters are really likeable. Each chapter has a romance trope that is happening or that they are going to try to ruin. Clever! A bit too long though, and the double dark moment was kind of annoying. But I still enjoyed it overall.
Recommend? Sure
Random Thoughts Thursday 488
- Book club was so much fun last Friday! I loved sharing what we didn’t like about the book but also finding something we learned from it. It felt good to focus on a positive and hear everyone’s perspectives. And the book exchange was a blast – look how cute the one I received was! The book I got was Part of Your World (which I have read and loved! The person who gave it to me felt bad I’d already read it and brought me another book later – The Locked Door – not necessary, but so thoughtful).
- Every Wednesday night when Steven and I take the garbage and recycling out we race down our long driveway and end up out of breath (both of us) and in a fit of giggles (me). Last night we ran into each other and I bruised my elbow and leg. Oops! It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt (written as if I learned a lesson – no lessons were learned.)
- I never thought I’d be talking about eggs here – I’m vegan! – but I do buy them for Steven (he’s vegetarian). I stopped by the farmstand for eggs last Sunday and they were out. Another person trying to buy eggs said to me “it really says something that the egg shortage is so bad you have to go to a local farm!” and I was like “we always buy our eggs here.” Oops. I didn’t mean to be bitchy, I was just saying what was true and popped into my head. But I felt bad for a minute about my response. She was like “nice to meet you, have a nice day!” then we both got in our cars and left. Oops.
- More egg talk – so I ordered the “pasture raised” ones from Walmart for pickup and when I got home and put the groceries away I saw there was only 11 in the carton!
- Something I’ve been saying a lot lately, after people laugh at a joke I made, is “thank you for laughing.” Daily it’s like, if I am not laughing, I am crying, so making other people laugh feels really good.
- Recently someone asked me if I was going to train to be a pilot. I said “I’d like to someday! It’s not in the cards now ☺️,” and they responded with “You can shake those cards!😘😅.” Sigh. I know they were trying to be encouraging and kind. And they mean well. But they know nothing about my personal situation and I am just like ACTUALLY I CANNOT SO LET’S QUIT THE BSING. (I didn’t respond.) Ha, this same person has also encouraged me over and over to do my “hide a painted rock a day” challenge that I did in 2023 again, and I have told them MANY times that will NOT be happening and they just keep saying it so… maybe this person is not hearing me anyway?!
- I think I have written and deleted more responses in the past month than I have in years. I am heavily filtering myself. (Except in person with the egg lady, obviously.)
- The “shake the cards” comment made me think a lot about how I’ve made my life too open. I share too much publicly (said, ironically, on my public blog). I have a lot of connections (which I am grateful for!), and people feel comfortable commenting on my life, CAUSE I PUT IT OUT THERE. Will any lessons be learned? There is more hope here than with the garbage/recycling bin races.
Things I saw on the internet
Information Diet
Have you heard this term? I saw it in a comment on an Instagram reel. Someone was saying they put their mother on an information diet because she couldn’t rely on her for support. I call that boundaries, but thought “information diet” was a clever way to say it.
I googled information diet and this was the first search:
An information diet refers to the conscious and deliberate management of one’s information consumption habits. It involves curating, limiting, and optimizing the intake of information from various sources to improve productivity, mental well-being, and decision-making capabilities.
Different context, but this definition sounds like something we should all do for ourselves.
Hope This Helps
Ha, I have seen the phrase “hope this helps” used sarcastically so many times on the internet that when I see it used genuinely, I am a bit sus.
A Weird Situation
I saved the best for last. I got the most bizarre email on my blog account yesterday. At first I had it pasted below but that doesn’t seem nice so I will summarize it:
The email said they (let’s call them Greg) had a weird situation where someone used an internet phone number (to hide who they were – they suspected their ex) to contact them to request a print job, then sent these photos. So Greg traced the photos through the internet and found my blog and asked me to call him to clear this all up.
Y’all, just, what?! These are the photos that were attached:
I am not trying to order prints of these, and don’t think anyone in them is either. Super LOL. I didn’t call Greg but if he sees this, here is his answer.
You don’t “get” it until you’re in it
Something I think about (too) often is how I struggle to understand what someone is going through if I haven’t experienced it myself. I mean, duh, that is true for everyone.
But I will look back at how I responded to a loved one’s situation, and worry whether I was supportive enough, based on what I am feeling currently as I am going through it.
(Did that make ANY sense? There is not a lot of sense on this blog these days.)
So it’s like double pain – the pain of the thing I am going through and me beating myself up for how past Kim acted when someone else was in that situation. LOLOLOLOL.
The life of an Enneagram 2. Sigh.
The lesson is to ask. Reach out and ask. How can I support you? Do you want to be left alone? Do you want someone to listen? Do you want ideas? COMMUNICATE. Don’t assume they want what you would want. Recognize what they want may change. Respect their boundaries. Know it’s not about you if they seem distant. Etc. Etc.
Example: when my snis was looking for houses in 2014 and getting super obsessed and excited I didn’t get it! I didn’t understand that you find the house that seems perfect to you and start to imagine your life there and what a freaking letdown it is when you don’t get THE house. That it’s an emotional up and down journey. When we found our dream home in summer of 2015 then spent some time planning what it would be like to live there, I understood. And yep, felt bad I didn’t get it previously, even though I was genuinely excited when she was, and sad when she was too. (Again, welcome to my brain)
I could give more examples but it’s basically just all the hard life stuff. You don’t get it until you go through it.
Social media assumptions
Last week at the gym someone said to me “isn’t your husband a pilot?” (edited to add – they meant is that his job)
Ha! No! But I can see why you’d assume that based on my personal Instagram. Until I recommitted to posting more of the cats on there, it was heavily flying photos.
That person also asked me if I work at the navy base. Ha. Also no.
But that convo reminded me:
Everyone has their own little version of you they’ve created based on your interactions, and what you share online (and a load of other things). And I don’t share much about his work or mine. So why would they know?
Another assumption people make on my rock painting social media is that the rocks I post are a commentary on what is going on in the world. For example, I posted this yesterday:
And someone commented “Well this is timely advice! Brava for your positive spirit! 👏👏👏❤️”
Ha, here’s the thing. I saw this on pippipost.shop (which I credited), liked it, and decided to copy it. Then I scheduled it to post over a week ago. So each day, it’s a surprise to me what will be on my rock Instagram (because I schedule a bunch of posts at once and can’t remember what I scheduled for when), and not a commentary on anything. Just a reflection of what I felt like painting in the past week to half a year.
But I’m glad it spoke to someone!
Speaking of flying, I’m so grateful for a hobby that requires my total concentration and leaves no room for any other stray thoughts. What a reprieve.
Same sentiment with reading.
And speaking of work, I’m trying so hard to disconnect on the weekends (and less successfully on weeknights). I was doing so well on Saturday then a text set me off and I was mad about that and at myself for letting it affect me so much. Ugh.
Flying to Fond du Lac
Steven booked a plane for a good chunk of time Saturday afternoon so we decided to fly somewhere new-to-us and ended up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Random, right? Here’s how I search for new places to fly:
- How far away is it?
- How complicated is it to fly there?
- Is there anything to do near the airport?
- Does the airport have a courtesy car we can use to get around?
- Bonus – does it expand to a new area on our flying map?
The research involves a lot of zooming into airports on google maps and searching for food, coffee, activites, etc. And that is how we ended up in Fond du Lac yesterday. Just under an hour flight ✔️ free courtesy car ✔️ and a few coffee shops to try ✔️
We had a fun adventure and one of our most successful flights! Steven’s radio communication was perfect, there wasn’t a lot of other aircraft in the sky to think about, the weather cooperated, and we found the Fond du Lac airport easily. Woo hoo!
Now, if anyone cares, some details.
It warmed up a bit yesterday (it was in the 30s!), but it was pretty windy when we got to the airport – 20 knot winds with gusts at 29. We preflighted in the hangar, pulled the airplane out ourselves (first time!),
then I stayed with the airplane while Steven went back to close the hangar door to make sure it didn’t start rolling forward because of the wind.
And guess what? It did a bit. Nutso!
While we finished preflight, Steven had me hold the yoke in place because the wind was making the ailerons flap around so much (I always feel so good when I can “help” with something, even if it’s this simple).
All that buildup to say that after takeoff we were thrown around a bit by the wind but it leveled out when we got to our 4,500 MSL cruising altitude, and was smooth sailing.
A direct path from Waukegan to Fond du Lac would have taken us through Kenosha airspace (class D) and Milwaukee airspace (class C), so we flew more to the west than necessary (magenta part of path below) at the start to avoid that. Then we did a direct route.
We actually flew over a class D airport – Waukesha – but we were 1000+ feet over their airspace, so we didn’t have to communicate with them (but tuned into their frequency just in cases).
Like I said, it was a mostly quiet day with hardly any other general aviation planes out, and we were grateful! We enjoyed a bit of sightseeing – pointing out airports, the Milwaukee skyline, large quarries, sprawling suburbs,
lakes with ice fishers, wind turbines, etc.
Ha, I say it was quiet, but right when we got to Fond du Lac, two planes were taking off right before we were landing. It’s funny how timing works out like that!
As I saw those planes on ForeFlight (flying app we use) but could not find them in the air I realized a math mistake I was making, by not doing it. Let’s say we were at 2500 MSL and ForeFlight said those planes were -17, meaning 1700 feet below us. So I am expecting them to be in the sky (because otherwise wouldn’t it say -25?) and that is where I am looking for them.
BUT, this is MSL (mean sea level), not AGL (above ground level). Which means I need to account for how high above sea level we are, which is 800 feet. So when it says they are -17, they are actually on the ground. So… yeah. I need to keep that in mind.
Blah blah blah. Always learning!
Steven had a great landing! Well, I rated it 9/10, and he said 6/10 then later came around. He had done a ton of prep work to familiarize himself with the area around the airport so he’d know where to enter the pattern, when to turn base, and final.
We did really well with our prep work! Like I mentioned, I was super proud of us for finding the airport right away too. The snow actually helps with that – the runways stand out more.
We wanted to tie the plane down because it had been so windy at our home airport, but all the tie downs were frozen with ice in them. And it was actually calmer. So we put some chocks out and hoped for the best (just kidding – we never “hope for the best” – we would not have left it like that if we weren’t comfortable with it).
The Fond du Lac FBO (fixed-base operator) was really nice, and so was the guy working there.
Steven signed out the courtesy car (it was free for an hour and $25 an hour after), said he would adhere to the strict instructions NOT to touch the lights as to not drain the battery, and we were off!
We went to Just Love Coffee Cafe. I got a chai and Steven tried the coco loco latte. Neither was spectacular, like, I wouldn’t fly an hour to get it again ha ha ha, but they were decent!
We drove through downtown on the way back and were only a few minutes late with the car. We brought back a muffin from the cafe for the FBO worker and I hoped that would make him change his mind if he was thinking about charging us! But he didn’t seem like the type to care (and wasn’t).
We did flight planning, preflighted the plane, and were on our way! The winds had died down, which was nice – only 9 knots, no gusts.
I almost forgot to mention, the density altitude was so low, we had crazy vertical airspeeds on takeoff at both airports – 1000′ a minute. Nuts! We got to our 5,500 cruising altitude in no time.
We followed a reverse course to avoid those airspaces again. And it was quiet, like on the way out. I really enjoyed seeing the sun start to lower and create some beautiful color.
We had a bit of a tailwind, kinda, so we got back a bit quicker (47 mins) than on the way out (58 mins).
Steven had a smooth 10/10 landing, and we did all the postflight stuff (including the “hurry hurry I have to pee” portion) and that was that. A fun day ending with a beautiful sunset.
Random Thoughts Thursday 487
- Khali’s Gotcha Day was on Friday February 14! She has lived with us 8 years! She’s still just my wittle bebe though.
- The main reason I’m going to book club at the gym tomorrow is for the book exchange – it’s blind date with a book themed! Okay, and I also want to hear if everyone hated the book we read as much as I did.
- I’ve been dealing with some health insurance bs. I thought my benefits weren’t applied correctly because insurance was no longer covering something they covered 100% of last year, and I finally got someone to tell me that they covered that last year because of a deal they had with the hospital, and they no longer have that deal. Sigh.
- Here’s a phrase I’ve heard a lot this week – we’re building the plane as we fly it. Sigh.
- I signed up for the last day of RAGBRAI!
- Last week’s mani:
Random Thoughts Thursday 486
- I signed up for a race! Rachel invited me to run a 10K with her in March, and I’m excited – not just for the race, but to see her. She’s the kind of person who always leaves me feeling better than when I arrived.
- I completely forgot to get Valentine’s Day cards for my snister’s kids (or anyone). I didn’t even think about it until I got this cute card and chocolates in the mail from my friend Courtney. Oops.
- We got quite a bit of snow yesterday – at least 6 inches!
- We’ve got a cold snap coming, and the cat house heater has been down since last week (Steven’s working on a fix – it’s a system issue, not the heater itself). So this little lady is back inside again!
- Could Khali be ANY CUTER?
- It might be time to say goodbye to the Gingerbread man. Although I kind of want to leave him there to deter Ned from destroying the RV.
- It’s well documented here how much I hate typing on my phone with my thumbs. Val told me about this mini foldable Bluetooth keyboard, and I immediately put it on my holiday wishlist and Steven’s brother got it for me! It’s fantastic!
- In real life, I’ve been a shell of myself, keeping my distance from most people – not just to protect my peace, but because I don’t want to be a drag. It’s hard being around constant moodiness. That said, I really struggled to regulate my emotions last weekend in KC. I was definitely not the best version of myself. Fun times.
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
