now in technicolor

Have not written in awhile due to a week long battle with a sinus infection (which I mistakenly called a nasal infection at every given opportunity, causing many a confused glance). Not something I would recommend to anyone.
I managed to go running on Sunday though, in the out of doors and everything, with the ever illustrious JLB. He just got new running shoes (at the fantastic Running Company, always a good place to go with running questions and concerns) and would not take no for an answer, so we went for a nice mild 2 miler through the warm and uncrowded streets of Portland. It was really nice, and I am jazzed to get back into it this week.
I have an odd almost strain-like pain in the back of my left knee. I am sort of half wondering if it is from the little lift I've been wearing in my left shoe since this fall, if it is possible that that is causing some sort of excess pressure on the knee joint. But it doesn't hurt so much as ache as though I haven't stretched properly, even though I have.
And its Lent! Those who are unfamiliar, its this freaky little Catholic thing, where crazy little catholic types do something particular to mark the time between the day Jesus (allegedly) died and the day Jesus (allegedly) rose again. It is a good time, really. I was never much for it as a kid (the usual things to give up around my house then were candy and snacking between meals, pretty boring really) but as an adult it is a little different, sort of a strings-free time to try something new or give yourself a little much needed discipline boost.
I've gone Vegan for lent this year, more because I have been toying with it for over a year now, going dairy-free one day a week or trying to have a Vegan meal once a day, things like that, and the lure of cheese is generally too strong to do much more. I will admit I am being "sunshine catholic" about it and allowing myself Sundays as a sort of "break", but so far its not so bad--really not difficult and it feels nothing like deprivation. I'm actually enjoying it a lot. I has just given me a new frame to look at food through, which takes a little more creativity, given the unfamiliar territory--but a little extra creativity is not a bad thing, if you ask me!