A long run and a new toilet

I had so many fun plans for last week- apple picking, horseback riding, and Octoberfest. Instead, it poured all weekend and everything got cancelled. Boo. Instead I did two things I didn't plan on doing, a long run and installing a toilet.

I have hated my downstairs toilet since I moved in. It was old, ugly, and didn't work that well.

and now it is in pieces in my garage. free toilet anyone??

New toilet chilling in my living room

But on the long list of everything I wanted to do in my house, the toilet was near the bottom. Until Saturday when it wouldn't stop running. When I opened the tank and tried to fix it every piece I touched broke. New toilet time! Because I am a huge nerd, I had actually written down the model of a toilet I saw in Consumer Reports a few months ago. I went right on-line and ordered in from Lowe's. Then the bf and I spent awhile watching videos of how to install a new toilet on-line. Seriously, what did people do before Youtube?

I would like to say I helped a lot, but I didn't. R did most of it and I handed him things. I did do some of the non-technical and heavy, but gross things, like the scooping the water out of the old toilet/tank and scraping up the nasty old wax ring. An hour later we were done! We crossed our fingers as turned the water back on, but it worked. We did not flood my house. Yeah! It's a little silly how happy my new toilet makes me when I see it. It's really the small things people. 

So shiny. And it works too!

The second exciting thing in my weekend was a long run. I decided not to bandit the Maine Marathon because that's just not my thing. But weirdly when I woke up Sunday to pouring rain and wind, it inspired me to go run on my own. I didn't set any speed records, but I felt better than I've felt on a long time on a long run. There was something about the fact that it was completely miserable out that liberated me. My only issue was with my new i-pod, which I unwisely exposed to the rain. The new nano does not have a lock button, so as the rain or my headphone chord hits it, it skips ahead or turns off. Then, does not recognize my freezing wet fingers. Annoying.

I was soaking wet and freezing when I finished, but satisfied. I felt so strong the whole run. It feel darn good to just be able to go out and run 13 miles when I want to and feel totally fine after. And feel like I earned the huge a$$ pumpkin whoopie pie I ate for lunch.