Projects and Peanuts

My trainer Mike, me, and Kelly pre-race

After sprinting across the half-marathon finish line on Sunday, I looked down to my shoes that have two symmetrical holes where each of my big toes have been slowly pushing through, and muttered to myself (with the breath I had left) that running season was officially over. I suppose one might question my sanity to train outside during Berlin's excruciating winter only to switch to indoor basketball once the weather gets good, but that's what's happening, so deal with it.

So that project is over, and a few others are gaining speed. Some are smaller - finally purchased and put together a real bed today! - and others are bigger - the "side project" I mentioned earlier this year is almost ready to be shared.

Café Engels in Neukölln

In other news, on Saturday, Kelly, Marko, and I met at Cafe Engels for a quick coffee before picking up our race materials at Berlin's famous Tempelhof airport. It was my first visit to the cafe, and I found it quite pleasant. I thought they did a great job with little touches, like mint in the carafe of water and chocolate covered peanuts that accompanied our creamy cappuccinos. Marko wasn't so pleased with the peanuts though considering he's allergic and unassumingly popped one into his mouth. Thankfully he didn't have a strong reaction. Also thankfully I got to gobble up the remaining ones on his saucer.

As a side note, I'd like to give a quick thanks for the lovely comments and messages on my last post. It's very encouraging to know all of you read, respect, or even relate to what I write on this thing. So, DANKE!