Raining on the singing

Rain isn't so bad when you can dress so cute

The weather gods were nice to us expatriate Arizonans for a few days, but you can't fool mother nature too many days in a row.  It started raining Saturday and hasn't really stopped yet.  It slowed to a drizzle a few times.  There are as many ways to describe rain here as the apocryphal 34 Inuit words for snow.

Kris called me out for making this blog about Heidi in title only.  She thinks I am using this as a vehicle to broadcast my favorite subject—me—to an audience held captive by Heidi and her battle.  Well today, Kris, I'm going out of my way to prove you wrong.

We've been running together most mornings since we left Tucson.  Heidi isn't approaching it with the same competitive attitude that led her through 15 years of competitive swimming.  Even her modern-era motivation, to eat more cookies, is waning now that gaining weight is really a good thing.  There will be times in the future she won't be able to eat, so some fat stores are now beneficial. 

At the Science Center Butterfly Exhibit

Since I signed up for the Big Climb for Leukemia . . . excuse me, since Heidi encouraged me to sign up for the Big Climb, which I am telling you because this blog is about her, I've been trying to find excuses to walk and run stairs.  By the way, did everyone notice that Team Heidi Ho now has 5 team members and has raised $1665?  Well, that's enough already.  Everytime someone donates I gotta write a thank you note and I'm getting tired of it.  So whatever you do, do not point your browser at the team page for Heidi Ho and donate money.  Just put away the Visa card and do not go to our Big Climb team site or my personal Big Climb site.



I've been running stairs . . . when I'm running with Heidi I've been seeking out stairs to do in addition to the straight running with her.  It's kinda like the movie Up, but instead of Doug the dog yelling "Squirrel!" I'll be running along (with Heidi) in formation and suddenly yell "Stairs!"  Then I have to detour up and down the stairs before re-joining Heidi in formation.  It isn't really like the movie Up because I have less ear hair than the old guy in the movie. 

 

Alex, Cale, Cody and Heidi at the Butterfly Exhibit

Today we ran hills, so I didn't have to do stairs.  We ran past REI (it's only 1 block away from our apartment!), up capital hill, across Broadway (saw neither my posse nor Sir mix-a-lot's), then up more hills followed by further hills.  Heidi then went to a dental exam and a meeting with the pharmacist.  I didn't go.  Sounded boring.  Instead, I went to the Puget Sound Blood Center to give blood.  Double reds, baby.  They seem coming with my elevated hematocrit and universal O+ and they just roll out the red carpet all the way to the apheresis machine.  Those outside the Puget Sound area need to go to givelife.org.  Because it helps people like Heidi who need transfusions, which is who and what this blog is about.