Saturday, April 10, 2010

Same Ol' Situation

Not running is really messing with my blogging and Daily Mile updates. It's more of not being as mobile which throwing things off. I'm attempting to keep busy with in reason, but when you're used to doing certain things as a part of your daily life it puts a kink on the chain of daily events to not do THAT thing, and running is that thing for me. Yes, this is a temporary situation, and I hope I'll be back to doing some sort of running and training in less than three weeks.

Gardening has been the activity of choice these days. It really isn't the fun part of gardening, yet, it's the prep part, like pulling weeds and digging up the dirt with a pick ax*. I have a big back yard, but it has gone by the wayside since May 2008 when I had the hip fracture and surgery. There's no problem with the lawn, that gets mowed and trimmed regularly. It's the planter and garden areas that have become unruly. Those areas were sort of my thing, and when I could no longer squat and easily get up and down after surgery, gardening was out of the question. When my grandparents were around, gardening was a serious thing. They planted just about everything, apricots to zucchini. The garden area was beautiful and always lush. They also had a beautiful array of of flowers growing, no matter what the season. It seemed like the Land of Oz to me when I was a kid because the yard was so pristine and colorful. I've told this story before, so I won't recap it, but I'm back on the gardening thing, perhaps not with the same verve my grandparents had, but at least it will be less unruly. Hubs and I thought putting in a lap pool(fire pit, new patio, granny flat/office, etc...) would solve most of the gardening issue, and it would, but maybe when the economy turns around and we actually have funds for something like that. Meanwhile, it's just me, a shovel, and some seeds.

Photo from May 2005- Currently looks about the same - Sad, I know....

Hubs celebrated a birthday on Wednesday. Since it was a work/school day, and everyone's schedules were all over the place, it was just Hubs, the kid and me celebrating. The three of us went out for sushi at the neighborhood place just blocks away, then we came home for cake.

I swear, I do have some mad cake decorating skilz and a degree in Art, I even own special cake decorating tips, paint brushes and gear, but that would have required a trip to the store, and I wanted to use what I had on hand. I made a cake from the Cooking Light cookbook , "Old Fashioned Caramel Layer Cake," decorated with fridge magnets and an Ikea tea-light candle.

OK, not my finest moment in artistic creation, I'll never work for Ace of Cakes, but the cake was delicious.


"Happy Birthday dear Papa..."


Thursday I attended a "Pants and Pinot" party at AKA Alice's home. Her sister brought over a really great inventory of jeans, tops, dresses and accessories. There was also a friend who was buying gold jewelry on the spot, but I didn't think ahead of time to look through my jewelry for things to sell. I wasn't planning on drinking wine (the allergy thing) and planning on buying just one pair of jeans. It has been AGES since I've had a decent red wine, but a certified wine snob told me that my best option for wine would be pinot noir** (less likely to have a reaction, not sure why) so I indulged in a glass of wine. I keep trying because I really miss red wines, and it's a crap-shoot with the taste of organic wines which don't warrant an allergic reaction. After a glass of wine and some really good nibbles of food, I was really relaxed, took a look at the awesome selection of jeans. I grabbed a few pairs to try on , just thinking I would purchase just one, but I also found a pair of jeans with my name on them. I rarely run into anyone who has my same name, unless they're 80+ years old, and to find my name on a pair of white jeans was just hysterical. Amazingly, the jeans fit well, so I had to purchase those in addition to the one pair I was already planning to buy. Score! This was a very smart retail event -- Alcohol and shopping. Fun for the guests and a major score for the retailer with all of those relaxed shoppers. I also saw some of the herd at the party. The funny thing is that we looked so different from our running selves, that we were not readily recognizable. One of the Heffers, Betty, walked right past me and said she didn't recognize me with my hair down, and I didn't recognize her when she walked past me - she had just come from work. We're used to seeing each other in running garb, all sweaty and dusty.

Oh, by the way, AKA Alice puts on a really good party. :)

Tomorrow is the Carlsbad 5000. I'm still not able to participate. I was hoping I'd be able to at least walk it by now, but I'm not there yet. I will be attending since Hubs and my friend Rich will be running, plus the Herd, RU buddies, and track club friends. *sigh* I'll bring the big ass camera and take pics. This so sucks not being able to run this one since the timing is chipped, and it's a 5k. Next year I'll be all over this one.

Wednesday's Song:
It Amazes Me - Tony Bennett

PEACE

*I really need to get a roto-tiller.
**Bummer. I still broke out, but it was so good!

11 comments:

Aka Alice said...

LOL at your mad cake decorating skilz. I'll bet the boys didn't care either way :-))

We all clean up real well, don't we? We went to my sister's house after Surf City in February. We must look pretty bad after running because my sister didn't recognize Betty either. I think she's just used to me.

Thanks for coming over. Glad you found some jeans. I'll be looking for you and your big ass camera in the morning...

Miss Rachel said...

That cake looks delicious. Caramel cake... mmm.

I hope you will post some photographs when the garden starts blooming more.

Glad you had fun at the party.

Hampers said...

Thank you for an important and heartwarming post. I enjoyed going through it. Keep on posting :)

Jill said...

Your gardening sounds devine! I used to love to garden and now I can't get myself to water the stupid thing 18 times a day...water is liquid gold in Colorado and nothing will grow out here! I admire your patience with your plants

That cake is making my mouth water..it may look a little funky but I bet it tasted awesome! I can't look at pictures of anything with sugar anymore while I'm tapering or I'm going to probably have to drive right over there and eat it! Man, I want some cake NOOOOWWW!!!!

Soon you're be back to running...and running strong!! :)

Roo said...

Now that's a big back garden. When we first moved into our house, I was going to get my dad (an incredible gardener)to come and help as we where clueless, sadly he passed away before we got a chance to get to work.

Now we have a wonderful garden, testament to him really and the fact that I must have picked up something on my way while he worked and I ignored...

I hope you manage to work out all the frustration of not being able to run out on the garden, and yep, rotovater is calling!

Last but not least, Caramel Layer Cake..hmmmm

Cheers

Unknown said...

Using the fridge magnets as lettering on the cake was brilliant!

Irene jeans. They have your name on them, they must be meant for you!

Unknown said...

I love your creative use of magnets, that totally cracked me up! Oops, I slept in and missed the masters at Carlsbad so I'm off in a few minutes to milling around and watch the elites. I'm still going to look for you!
You'll be back in the game soon, hang in there!

Southbaygirl said...

you'll be back running and you'll be better than ever!!!

Glenn Jones said...

Speaking from the male side of the tracks here - as long as the cak tastes good you may have to remind us of your decorating skills. We'll agree with whatever you say...

And I agree with the concrete the back yard idea. Us guys are pretty good at washig the concrete down. What? We're in a drought? I guess the washing will have to wait then. Another margarita please!

Black Knight said...

Siii the magnets on the cake are a great idea. Be sure, you run again very soon and the fracture/surgery will only be a bad memory. Believe me I am a "survivor" too.

Miss Rachel said...

Miss Rachel again. Has anyone guessed the song? I know a song by Joni Mitchell called "Same Situation" but I can't think of a song called "Same Ol' Situation." Hmm...