Three Things Thursday: Internet, Visitors and CUPCAKE CLASSIC recap

1.  My internet has been pretty wonky most of the week.  It sort of-kind of worked, but not properly and getting anything productive done was useless.  When the internet guy came to check out the problem he fixed a few little things.  The main culprit though seemed to be our modem.  He said he doesn't even see our type of modem anymore.  If he does, it's always because it's broken and/or completely useless.  I realized that we had had that same modem since we moved into this house 9 years ago.  Back in those "old days" we had dial up service.  Wow!  What were we thinking back then?!?!  Then we finally got DSL and lastly in the last couple of years we went wireless.  Yep, just several more signs that I'm getting older (note, I did not say old).  Once the internet guy got things fixed and us set up on a new network, etc. things started to work at blazing fast speed.  Yeah....that is just what I need....to waste more time in faster motion.  I'm kidding....sort of, kind of.

2.  I've noticed some interesting visitors on my traffic feed I have posted off to the side.  >>>>
Some of it is worth noting and the interesting things that led them to my blog.  I love having LOTS of visitors and traffic.  Yes, I dream of my blog being well known and followed by hundreds of thousands of people, being mentioned on well watched & respected tv shows, having companies knocking on my door asking me to do reviews and giveaways, etc. etc. There is certainly so much more I can do to reach that point.  I fully realize that my life isn't really at that place right now though to actually put that energy into it.  So, if it takes off and becomes wildly famous (I can dream, right?) then great, but if not I really am happy with my little posse of followers I have now.  I'd much prefer quality over quantity anyway.  In the mean time, worth noting I have had followers from Kampala (not even sure where that is, will have to google it) who found me by searching for: 45 minutes of craziness.  Yeah, that could easily sum up me in a few good words...ha-ha.  I also had a visitor from Vietnam who found me by searching for: she runs two miles and half.  Sugar Land, Texas found me by searching Muscatine Running Friends.  Yay!  I love promoting that group and I'm honored to be a part of it even though I don't live there.  I also have visitors form Mountain View, CA; Houston, TX; Damascus, MD; Grafton, WI; Amherst, NH; Cashton, WI and Ellensburg, WA.  If you are any of those people, give me a shout out, let me know who you are, give me a hearty HELLO!

3.  I hate to lump this last point into my TTT.  It really deserves a post of it's own, but since my blogging week hasn't gone like I expected, I need to get it in here and done with.  I have been very honored to connect with Jess at Run with Jess.  In a nutshell this woman, wife, mother, friend, runner, blogger, etc. is AH-MAY-HAZ-ZING!  Follow her blog for any amount of time and you will be inspired and encouraged.  She puts together all these fun virtual runs that are becoming more popular within the blogosphere to help connect runners from all over to just go out, have fun and run/race without the confines, stresses, structures of regular racing.

This past week she held her 2nd annual Cupcake Classic.  What a brilliant idea!  I mean who doesn't love a cupcake now and then (moderation is the key people!).  I do!  I signed up in a heart beat and began recruiting other friends to join me in this fun adventure.  While some had to run at a different time & place (scheduling conflicts) most of us met on Monday to run a 5k route together.  I even had some walkers join us, they didn't do a full 5k course, but did what they could and earned the cupcakes just as much!  When we were all done we met back up at our start/end spot (Thanks Go Outside and Play for letting us use the store for this!) and exchanged cupcakes.  That was not part of the Cupcake Classic rules.  I think it's great to make and enjoy cupcakes from time to time, but what better way to enjoy that by having a variety of them to choose from.  We all ooooh'd and aaaaaah'd, maybe drooled a little, over each others creations (some store bought, some homemade, but no two were alike) and swapped them out before heading home.

 

The run itself was great!  Those of us that ran together (Julia, Kristen and I) clocked a 25:10 time.  We didn't specifically pay attention to time while we were running.  We just headed out and had fun, chatting along the way.  At one point Julia mentioned we were hitting a 9:05 pace and at another point we got carried away and was really booking it at a 7:23 pace.  Overall we enjoyed about a 8:20ish pace.  Pretty good and rightfully earning us some cupcakes.  I'll be honest and admit I ate more than one.  In fact, the next morning I woke up really hungry.  I then realized I never ate supper, just some cupcakes.  Oops!  Good thing with my kids though, they helped me devour the tray of tasty treats in no time.  Less temptation for me and points for being a good mommy who shares her treats!

Running down Seminary St. while eating a cupcake:

 Showing off my variety of treats:

Enjoying another cupcake in the BATHROOM!  It's a mom thing.....moms everywhere completely understand!