6 topics that would have gotten more blogging coverage if I weren't constantly trying to think of list ideas

1. Mom and Dad's land being timbered. It makes perfect sense to have this done. It's cash in Mom and Dad's pocket, and when they sell it next year the land will be rezoned commercial and all the trees would have been cut down anyway. And I am not particularly prone to sentimentalism, if that's even a word. (I know the house itself will be bulldozed when the land sells, and that doesn't faze me.)

But somehow, seeing many of the trees be knocked down and hauled away has thrown me for a little bit of a loop. Those woods are the site of a lot of my best childhood memories -- treehouses, forts, clubhouses, running trails, tire swings, the witch pond, great climbing trees ...

It's sad to think that my kids will never get to run around in those woods, but at least Mom and Dad's new house will be built in the middle of some woods, too.


2. Carolina's win over Duke. I'm never so happy to be married to a Duke fan as when we watch together as Carolina beats Duke.

3. Lauren G.'s baby shower. I did mention this previously, but now I have Amanda's pictures from it. Here are a few of my favorites.

4. Stephen's comment as we were discussing winning the lottery: "If 95 percent of the people in the world could trade places with us, they'd think they had won the lottery." So true.

5. RPM. Meg and Lauren R. talked me into trying the cycling class at the gym. It was the hardest class I've ever done. A couple of times I thought I might throw up. This guy in front of Meg was sweating like nothing I've ever seen -- literally, a puddle of sweat surrounded his bike. Apparently it's a very popular class -- we had to get there 10 minutes before the gym even opened to guarantee a seat. I'm not going to become a regular, though. Meg and Lauren are rock stars.

6. Stupid Body Pump comment. No one's crazy about the Thursday morning Body Pump teacher. She's very unenergizing and is always saying "Let's go, teeeam" and tells us we need to stop talking between tracks and then asks us why we're so quiet.

So yesterday we were in her class and for the biceps track I added two 2.5-pound weights to my usual weight on the bar since the whole point, after all, is to get stronger. I put them outside of the clips so I could take off the extra weights halfway through since I was pretty sure I couldn't handle the extra weight for the entire track.

And she looked at me and said, "I can tell you right now you're not going to make it with that much weight." I thought, Watch me. And Lauren R., who was beside me, said, "Jenn. Do it." It almost killed me, but I did it and I know the teacher saw it because I was in the front row, but she never acknowledged it. I wanted to go up to her after class and tell her that she's the first teacher I've ever had to discourage me from challenging myself, but I didn't. I complain too much as it is.

After class, when we were putting up our weights, another girl came up to me and said, "I'm so glad you didn't quit. That was such a dumb comment." Seriously, what kind of teacher does that?