I had high hopes today.

High hopes that the Garmin 405 would be available to borrow at my local running store from their electronic lending library.

Score! After reading Shari’s post yesterday on gadgets I had Garmin envy and hit up the cheapest way I know to get my hands on a Garmin (FREE), even if it’s only mine for a week.

I had high hopes for a dinner out at a restaurant near Zak’s office before a homeschooling gathering tonight. He eats lunch here frequently and has only had good things to say about their salads.

Fruit & Salad Company? Yeah, it’s no coincidence you can spell A L I S O N with the letters from the name of this restaurant. How have I never eaten here before? This is a question that has no answer.

We all had high hopes there would be no 6 pm meltdown tonight.

But that one was just plain old silly.

We had high hopes that some apple juice would help.

We’ll take our meltdown to go, THANKS!

There were oh so many high hopes for an amazing salad from a restaurant that calls itself a fruit and salad COMPANY for crying out loud.

Can you make out the tears in my pile of iceberg lettuce? Turns out you can also spell the word S A D with the letters from Fruit & Salad Company. Too bad you can’t spell J I P P E D or R O B B E D.

I got the “Veggie Chop” which promised bite sized veggies and mixed greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. I left off the asiago cheese and would have left off the croutons too had I not been distracted by the 6pm meltdown going on at my feet. I will say though that I had an enjoyable treasure hunt in the car for the smallest pieces of broccoli I’ve ever seen, a couple of sad mung beans and three slivers of carrot. I do not have high hopes for getting my money back.

We all high hopes for a gathering with some new homeschooling friends this evening.

And those high hopes were totally warranted! We had a blast telling stories around a campfire with some homemade kettle corn, warm apple cider and lots of laughter. Iceberg woes temporarily forgotten.

I’ve got high hopes for a REAL salad tomorrow, or at least dreams of one.

• We Came, We Saw, We Raked
• There’s Always a Silver Lining
• Say What You Mean To Say

Last night after Zak got home I showed him my butt and how high it was from the floor (one inch) and begged for him to handle bedtime by himself and let me off the hook to slither into bed 9pm.

This, my friends, is why it’s almost 10am and I am typing this post in complete silence. When mom’s away, the children will play… with dad… until very, very late at night. I have no idea what time they went to bed (I didn’t ask) but they are still sleeping and I am not complaining.

So anyway.

A typical Tuesday morning, a typical Tuesday morning run. Except today something happened that made me laugh and put a spring in my step for almost my entire 5.24 miles.

I see the same set of folks out in the mornings, day after day – walking alone, running with a friend, walking their dog that from a distance always looks like a pig. Most people smile and say good morning. Some people avoid eye contact and pretend they don’t see me, but I know they definitely hear me when yell to them that I knit the hat on my head.

For a while there was a small, older Asian man who for the sake of painting a picture for this post might be compared to Mr. Miyagi. He was very sweet and would actually stop me to chat like we were old friends. After our first introductory conversation, the next time our paths crossed he came right up to me and gave me a huge hug and kissed me on the cheek like we’d known each other for years. A little over the top? Sure. Did I try to avoid him after that? You betcha. He seemed harmless and even though I changed my route to avoid him, when we did happen to see each other I was reminded that he was just this lonely old dude who wanted someone to talk to for a bit, and that I could definitely take him down if I had to.

Wait a sec. Didn’t I just compare him to that guy from Karate Kid?

Martial arts insanity aside, lately I’ve seen another older gentleman who very kindly and appropriately stays on his side of the road and just gives a little wave and nod when I pass him. I see him out most mornings and today was no different. But this morning he stopped in his tracks as I approached him from the opposite direction. Instead of waving, he folded one arm across his waist and gave a little bow as I ran by. I don’t know what it was about this gesture but it made me smile and even giggle. It made me realize how much I truly enjoy seeing other people out every morning, people who make regular exercise a part of their lives and hit the streets in our neighborhood with me day after day – even if they do sometimes push the limits of societal norms.

Ordinary run done, time for some not so ordinary juice.

Time to introduce the Breville to a new friend. A bunch of new little friends actually.

1 1/2 cups of cranberries, 2 carrots, 2 small gala apples and a chunk of ginger the size of my thumb. The Daily Plate tells me this glass is about 260 calories.

Looks like Fruit Punch, doesn’t it? That’s what I thought too. Fruit punch in the most literal sense as it totally packed a very tart punch, but the addition of apples, carrots and the ginger made it go down easy.

And now I hear finally hear children stirring. Time to wax on, wax off my bloggie-sans.

• Orange You Glad It’s Sunday?
• Let There Be Light
• Birthday Beet Juice