makeover

i have decided this blog layout needs some sprucing up. i had to change the picture up top, since i haven’t had that much hair in a long time, and it was really bothering me that the running log application messes up the sidebar when you pull up the site on certain computers. i still want to:

• make a new banner (i love the orla, but i want a new color scheme!)
• update my blogroll
• add some new lists to the sidebar

and, i’m also potentially putting a blogher ad window on the side as well. i don’t think it will bring in much cash, since i just don’t have a very wide readership, but it might be fun to be part of a network, and if somehow it helps my audience to grow, that would be cool.

i think.

any thoughts?

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several of my faithful commenters picked up on the fact that i need to do some serious destressing this weekend (thank you, kath, jess, cindy, and of course atilla). i just got back from a lovely hilly run in chapel hill, basically from my house on the durham border all the way into carrboro on iconic franklin street. it was more of an urban adventure (well, as urban as CH gets, anyway) than a nature run, but it was relaxing nonetheless. i smelled delicious flower scents and listened to sufjan stevens and m.i.a., a rather striking contrast. i saw the city waking up, from a line outside of the sunrise biscuit kitchen to pro-life picketers outside of planned parenthood (i snarled at them a little). i ran up a very long hill and got to run back down. i passed some guys who were huffing and puffing. it was an excellent 10 miles.

some local scenery:
(all from franklin street!)

swanky west franklin
sunrise biscuit kitchen smelled AWESOME
right next to UNC

from here, i am headed out shopping (smithfield outlets!) with some fellow running chicas and will be back in the early afternoon with plenty of time to make our flight out to miami. as sad as it will be, i am looking forward to getting together with my family for the funeral. i think it will make everything seem more final and real and hopefully it will help my grandmother a bit to be surrounded by family (she has advancing alzheimer’s and this is all VERY hard for her).