A little running, a little mid-week randomness

My first run back

I finally got to run today, my first since Cleveland. I hit my usual 4 mile loop through the park. My legs were really heavy for the first mile, but I got into it and the pace seemed natural to me (negative splits from 9:28 to 9:00, yeah baby!). I got a little extra motivation toward the end--as I was crossing the main road back to my neighborhood, the tornado siren started going off! I don't think I've ever finished my run with such focus. :)

The storm was kinda crazy. I ended up in the basement for a while. My husband and son were ushered into the basements of their respective buildings (work and daycare) downtown. We had roughly walnut or ping pong ball sized hail. We still missed the brunt of the storm though, thankfully. Here in the Show-Me State I think we've all been mostly holding our breath and looking toward Joplin as they braced for another storm. 

....and some random

Today's accounting:

6 purses (including two I plan to deconstruct for their bamboo handles)

1 pair dress pants

1 dress shirt

1 J. Crew dress shirt for Mr. Joanna

1 J. Crew zippy sweater (which looks HUGE in this picture) for me

__________________________________________________________________

$5. 19

I know it sounds a little crazy, but remember those girls from my birthday lunch? Well, we played a little hooky from work today and got a fancy-schmancy breakfast at a gorgeous bakery in my neighborhood, then headed to the Outlets. What Outlets? The Goodwill Outlet. Yep. That's what I said. The Goodwill Outlet. Where you buy clothing by the pound. At the rate of 79 cents. Even if stuff ends up not fitting, at worst it was maybe 30 cents wasted. And you can just donate it right back anyway. Win-win.

I think we went mostly out of curiosity, and I have to say, I had a blast. We dug through these huge bins of everything and found some great items. It's definitely an experience, and an insanely economical way to shop if you have the time to dig through the mostly unorganized bins and inspect everything you think you might want.

And for those of you who do crafty things, this is BY FAR the cheapest way I've ever thought of to get bamboo handles. I'm using mine (from that light green number--haven't decided if I'm going to destroy the gray-blue one yet) to make something sort of like this. It's going to be awesome. You're all going to want one.