The Bee's Knees

So this post is about (among other things) The Bees and my knees. This phrase popped into my head and since then I have been pondering a few things. Why in the world would the knees of bees equal something cool? Do bees even have knees? And why don't we use this funny phrase anymore? Just in case anyone is remotely interested in this topic, Wikipedia has the following information on The Bee's Knees:

"Slang coined in the 1920s. Stories in circulation about the phrase's origin include: "b's and e's", short for "be-alls and end-alls"; and a corruption of "business". Noun 1. (idiomatic) Something excellent, outstanding. Synonyms- cat’s meow, cat’s pajamas, cat’s whiskers."

Now to the actual post (if anyone is still reading this at all).

Yesterday was an eventful day, which started out bright and early at 4:00am. Actually, it was not bright out. Anyone who gets up at four knows that it is pitch black. This is nature's way of saying "Get back in bed!!!" Regardless of the obvious signs that I should be in bed, I was up with my friends Chelsea and Mel, driving to Mapleton, UT. Chelsea had talked me into running the Hobble Creek Half Marathon with her after Mel had talked Chelsea into participating.


We actually had a great time. Obviously it was very hard running 13.1 miles after minimal training, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first ten miles. We had some deep discussions (like the one around mile four about Breaking Dawn and its flaws) and tons of laughs. In fact, we even entertained other people. At the fourth water station Mel and I were starting to feel a little hot, so we grabbed two waters, one to drink and one to pour on our heads. As we each poured the cool liquid down onto our hot, tired bodies, one of the volunteers yelled "Sports drink!" Oops. Apparently the first three water stations serve water only, the fourth serves sports drink first and then water. We were soaked, sticky and sweet smelling. Sort of.

Miles eleven, twelve and thirteen were not that great, but at least I kept running. During one particularly uncomfortable hill, someone had written a motivating message on the ground in chalk: "It's EASIER than child birth." This is actually a lie. Child birth was much much easier than this. I loved child birth. I had a fabulous epidural and got the best nap ever.

Back to the race, we sucked it up and finished just over our goal time of 2:00. I am very happy with our time! Later that day I was not as happy when my knees started aching for the first time ever. I have never had the dreaded "knee problems" during any of my long runs, so I am surprised that they hurt so badly after this race. Hopefully this is a one time thing and future runs will be ok.


Thanks to Chelsea and Mel for talking me into this. You girls were awesome to train and run with! Now we can say "We ran a Half Marathon!" (Also, we discovered that if you cough when you say "half marathon" you can trick people into thinking you ran a marathon.) Thanks girls. I think you are "the bee's knees."

Now to the Bees part of this post. Last night after running, working and taking a quick nap, we headed to see the Salt Lake Bees play the Tuscon Sidewinders. Going to a baseball game, even if it's not at Yankee Stadium, is one of our favorite summer activities. Last night we relaxed and let the babies crawl around on the grass. Kipp even caught a home run ball! (Branden points out that he would have caught the ball if I hadn't sent him to buy hot dogs right before the ball came flying at us. He missed the whole thing!)




And for a final but unrelated picture, Marina has decided that she only likes to feed herself. She refuses to let me spoon feed her food, protesting by turning her head or swatting the spoon away. If I do ever get food into her mouth, she spits it out, squishes it in her hands and rubs it all over her face, body, hair etc. Isn't she lovely?