So today my brother ran in the Boston Marathon. For months and months, he trained to qualify for Boston — and for months and months after he qualified, he trained to run in it. And today was the day.

How cool is that? To set a mammoth goal like running in Boston and then actually doing it. What an amazing sense of accomplishment that must feel like!

On a smaller and considerably less impressive scale, I’ve set a goal to improve our house — starting with updating our kitchen and dining area. I took the first step this weekend by starting to paint the dining room. More specifically, painting the paneling in the dining room. Dark paneling. I worked the entire weekend and managed to finish…applying the first coat of primer. Only one more coat of primer to go. Plus at least one coat of the actual paint. And then the trim. And then I get to start it all over with the kitchen cabinets. And then this… And then that… And then this and that. Looks like I’m going to be working for months and months for a different kind of marathon called Home Improvement. But the best part of spending the weekend priming the walls was that my kitties kept me company and alerted me to every song bird and bunny outside the back door.

Here’s a much more impressive and efficient building effort. Guess who’s taken up residence in my work parking garage for the fourth year in a row? Mamma bird built this over the weekend. Sweet little babies on the way! Yay!