(There's No Place) Like Home for the Holidays

December brought a slew of non-stop busy-ness.  It's been party, party, party... sort of.  I can't remember the last time Hubs and I were invited to a grown up party together until this year.  After Las Vegas, we had four holiday parties last week, plus our wedding anniversary of 29 years on December 11th.  This week was a little calmer but busy with baking and trying to remember what we did with certain Christmas decorations.  I went old school this year and used most of the Christmas decorations from the years when my kids were in grade school.   We also put up the tree in the living room this year. 

The dining room where the tree usually goes is, uh, having issues...  

Like last year, the Kiddo was my decorating buddy and helped me with the majority of the decorating.  Hubs put one ornament on, and and my son put a few up high were I couldn't reach, and my daughter was oblivious to other life around her while busy with studying for finals.  

Living room fireplace.  

I would so love to have a warm fire, but this fireplace needs to be repaired or torn down and rebuilt.  I put candles in it but there's no damper, and the air coming in through the top blows out my candles. *sigh*    The kiddo pointed out that since we can't burn anything in this fireplace that Santa won't get burned when he comes down our chimney.

The Kiddo

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas because I got this surprise delivered today:

Nothing says Merry Christmas more than socks, holiday peppermint Gu's, and Stingers from  blogger Tara - Colorado Runner!   Yay! 

The packages were shipped from REI.  When UPS delivered the boxes I was wracking my head trying to remember what I had ordered from REI.  Then it clicked that these were from my Secret Santa from the Bloggie Gift Exchange.  One box contained the great pair of Smartwool running socks, and the other box contained the Gu's and Stingers.  The timing is perfect because I'm out of any type of gel/goo electrolyte and I just might have to save a couple for the Carlsbad half marathon next month.  The socks are on my feet right now:

Warm and cushy!  I can't wait to run in these! Thanks so much, Tara!

On the running front, not a lot of running has been happening.  Somewhere between the parties and work, I caught a cold.  It's not a bad cold, but just enough to mess up the flow of day-to-day life.   I know I had the cold before I had to deal with the bratty snot-nosed kid patient and his clueless mother.* Gross. I hope to do a slow, longish run this Saturday morning, which happens to be Christmas Eve.

In other news, for the first time in YEARS (2000?) I received a cash bonus at work.  I honestly wasn't expecting much of anything, maybe a box of candy, but since I'm part-time right now I felt the bonus was rather generous.  I had plans for new Ugg boots and have change left over for an outfit, BUT one of my cats became rather ill yesterday and my bonus went towards paying the vet bill. Merry Christmas to my vet. Oh well.   At least I had that cash to help lessen the blow of that hefty vet bill, and for that I am grateful.    FYI, it was my little girl cat, Luna, the little bitty 8 pound cat who can beat up our 75 pound dog.  The vet thinks it's a thyroid issue.  She's doing much better now and will be on meds for a week.  Good times.

This year we didn't send out Christmas cards.  I suppose we could have, we just didn't.  I'm thinking of New Year's cards.   Just in case, consider this picture of the Kiddo and me your Christmas card from me:

Wishing you all lots of Christmas cheer!

Song from Thursday, December 8, 2011:  

Good Intentions - Toad the Wet Sprocket

 PEACE

*On the scale of one to ten in snotty-nosed grossness, this kid was a 10, plus he sneezed all over everything.  It was so gross that I felt the need to wipe everything down with rubbing alcohol when he and his mother left the building.  I'm not a germophobe, but felt gross dealing with this obnoxious kid.  I just don't understand parents who let their kids run a muck in a medical office, or any professional office.  Sheesh.

Little Room

I'm cautiously optimistic that my computer won't bug out on me again. I was able to read some blogs, catch up on Facebook and sort through e-mails on my iPhone, but I'm not much for posting from my phone, unless it's super short. Yes, I know people who could probably compose entire novels on their cell phones, but I am not one of them.

The last time I posted was around the time we celebrated my mother-n-law's 90th birthday. The amazing thing is that she is still rather all together, considering her years. She still likes to boss everyone around and be the matriarch of the family. I think I once mentioned that she didn't want to use a cane to aid with her walking because (she said) it would make her look old. For the first time in years, the entire family was together. No one was away at college, those who were living out of state flew in for the occasion, and everyone who lives locally made the effort to show up. It was pretty incredible that no one thought to take a picture of all of us together.

The track club's half marathon training program is in full swing. I've been making the effort to attend the Tuesday night workout at Balboa Park, as well as the Saturday long runs, provided I'm not scheduled to work. The Tuesday night workouts are killer. I always end up feeling so beat up by the time the hour is over. The hills of the back trails of the park are on the schedule. It's not the hills that concern me, it's the dust mixed in with the warm weather that gets my asthma going. I may have to figure out how to work around that, like wearing a mask (NOT!), resign myself to the VERY back of the pack, or run someplace else.

I was looking forward to my long 4th of July weekend, but I ended up coming down with a cold, which took up my entire three day weekend. Figures. Hubs had come down with the cold earlier in the week and passed it along to me. This is the first year we opted out of running in any Independence Day 5ks. As much as I needed to sleep in that morning, I just couldn't. My head was too stuffy to remain laying down. Sheesh. A cold, no 5k and no sleeping in. Yeah, it sucked. Once I got up and downed a couple of Sudafed, and chased those with some coffee, I decorated cookies, because that's what you do when you're amped up on Sudafed and coffee.

Well... that's what I do when I'm amped up...  I get all artsy-craftsy. Notice the lack of attention to detail.  I am not a professional and do try this at home.  Results may vary and may be better because you won't be amped up on coffee and Sudafed.  Just sayin'.

While I decorated cookies, Hubs textured and painted the small bathroom. He also braved Home Depot to buy stuff to re-attach the toilet. I'd say this weekend bathroom project (that has taken about four months to work on) is about 85% finished. He still needs to cut floor tile for the trim, replace the old medicine cabinet, attach the back-splash behind the sink, and maybe add some sort of window treatment.

Before

During

After

FYI, those blue tiles on the wall were aluminum. Needless to say, those tiles did not age well, however, the ceramic blue tiles in the shower are fine. Back in 1947, my Grandpa had to cut costs somewhere, and using aluminum tiles were more cost effective.

When working on the small bathroom was over for the day, we had friends over for a barbecue.  Once again, no one thought to take pictures, but we barbecued and ate way too much food, roasted marshmallows for s'mores later on, then watched fireworks from the roof and backyard. 

Now that I'm somewhat on the rebound from my cold,  I started back at RU with a killer workout. Even though they knew I was rebounding, they still believed that I can handle a bunch of weighted lunges, pylometric exercises and pseudo kettlebell-esque exercises, THEN run right after.  Good times. It was all finished off by some assisted stretches that were extra special. (Yeouch...)  It's all within the realm of getting me running just as well as I did for Rock 'n' Roll in June.

I need to get a little more serious about training for the AFC half marathon which is just next month.  Getting a cold sort of threw me off a little, but I need to put some distance and hills back into my long runs, especially since I can't attend some of the Saturday morning group runs. Dollars to doughnuts, it will be warm and humid on the day of the AFC half marathon and I need to be ready.

Song from last Thursday:
Low Tech Lady - Ana Laan

PEACE

Keep My Head High

I really wasn't planning a blog hiatus, but the past couple of weeks have been crazy busy.  Most of the crazy had to do with our rental house.  I'll go into details about the rental house later.  Right now I just need to catch up.

I'm still dealing with shin splints, however the soreness isn't as bad as it was just a couple of weeks ago.  I've only run once in the past two weeks, twice if we count the Run Fit class at RU last night, but that was not continuous running -- We did circuit training.  I've also  made a discovery that the custom orthotic for my left shoe is most likely a contributor to making my shins splints worse than they needed to be.  I took the orthotic out of my left shoe and replaced it with the original insole that the shoe came with.  Guess what?  I had little to no discomfort in my shin.   At the Run Fit class I was able to SPRINT for the first time since about August, and there's no next day overwhelming soreness or pain. *WHEW* I must add that I still can't do a lot of side to side movements, but when I run it's not side to side -- it's forward.  I like moving forward, and not just with running.

My dad left for for a Mediterranean cruise last week.  I'm not sure of all the ports, but Morocco and the Egyptian Pyramids are on the itinerary.  It's the perfect trip for him.  He's traveling with a group from his church.

The same day my dad left for his cruise was the same day my cousin came up from Ensenada, Baja California - Mexico.  The plan was for her to stay at my dad's house while he was away, but he forgot to leave the keys with us.  My cousin had a lot of business to take care of while she was here and she ended up staying with us until we could have a set of keys sent down from Fremont, CA where my brother lives. It was great catching up with my cousin, but she needed a lot of assistance with looking for particular businesses and agencies.  It's a long story, but her purse was stolen with all of her identifications in it, including her Military ID, California Driver's License, her Mexican residence ID, and so on.  She was planning to stay with us only one or two days until the keys arrived, but it turned into four since a couple of agencies required long waits in line, such as the DMV.  The advantage to my cousin's stay with us is that we were able to catch up on all of the relatives happenings and  incidental gossip in addition to a lot of thought provoking conversations about spirituality.

My cousin is a veterinarian.  It was funny that my cats and dog seemed to know she was an animal person.  My cat, Lumpy, would not leave hear alone at all. 

Computer companion

Since just before the end of September we were dealing with our rental house.  A friend of ours had lived there for over three years, but work was about an hour drive one way.  He decided to move closer to work.  He kept telling us that he was working on cleaning the house and getting it ready for the next renter.  Hubs and I figured all we needed to do was  paint and shampoo the carpets, plus some small repairs and a little yard work.  We were wrong.  So many things were broken or dirty beyond cleaning.  We were shocked.  Our friend hired a cleaning company to help him out, but it was so dirty that even the cleaning company charged him extra... and it was still not up to par when the cleaning company left.  Trash and rotten food were left behind in the driveway.  Some personal items were left behind, even though our friend said he took everything and that other stuff was ours.  In all fairness, we did keep a few things in the garage, but mostly Hubs' drafting equipment, a desk, a dresser, rolled up blueprints, and a few toys from when the kids were little, but that's all. These items were all off to the side and out of the way.   Our friend's kid's photo album, some of his furniture, bird care supplies and clothing items were definitely not ours.  We have a long list of things that were broken and needed to be replaced such as entire closet doors.  We really did not expect this since he rented another house from Hubs folks a few years back and everything was fine.  Our friend was expecting his security deposit back, but the cost of getting everything fixed and cleaned exceeded that dollar amount.  Needless to say, our friend is a bit miffed with us, but mostly with Hubs since they handled the agreement together. I'm not sure what will happen with this relationship, and I hope we can get past this mess.    

Hubs and my son worked at the house every singe day for the past two weeks painting and doing repairs.  My cousin even helped us a few hours hauling trash and cleaning cupboards.  I sanded and varnished the kitchen floor and part of the living room floor.  I also spent time scrubbing various things like greasy drawer pulls in the kitchen, the mold off of the ice and water dispenser on the refrigerator door, and the fireplace that was left full of soot, ashes, and wood.*  Since we didn't rent a dumpster, we put trash in receptacles where ever we could, which meant hauling bags of garbage to our house, my inlaw's house,  my sister-in-law's house, a neighbors house (she offered) and  my dad's house.  New carpet has been installed and everything is beyond ready for the renter, who should have moved in when our friend moved out.

*SIGH* 

 If that weren't enough, someone rear ended the back bumper of Hubs' car while he was idling at a stoplight after a trip to Home Depot, buying items to finish fixing up the rental.  No one was hurt, just the bumper.  Hubs had to laugh because it has been a draining past couple of weeks -- then the car gets bumped.  At some point you just have to laugh because it's so ridiculous.

If there's an upside, sanding and varnishing floors is a really good workout.

Now that we have some momentum going, we need to get back to caring for the house we live in.  I need to sand and refinish parts of the dining room floor where the dog likes to hang out.

My boss turned 60 last week.  She looks amazing for 60.  If you met her you would never guess that she's even close to 60.  There's something to be said about healthy living. Her family arranged a surprise party and had a small gathering.  I was quite touched to be included since I haven't been summoned to the office in several months due to a very stable staff. One of my former co-workers flew in from Texas to be here for the occasion.  It was so good to see her again.  This birthday event was somewhat like a family reunion, even though it was people I have worked with.  I guess it's a good thing when you can consider people you work with as family.   I thought Hubs brought a camera, but he didn't use it.  My boss was given a toga, crown and gold tone asps to wear at her party.  It was great.  I must explain that my boss is notorious for pranks, and you know what they say about payback.  It was awesome.

Good news.  My daughter finally got into San Diego State University.  SDSU was being a bit stingy with admissions, but recently let more students in. SDSU is only a 15 minute drive down the interstate, but it will take much longer just to find parking.

Saturday, October 16, is my daughter's 27th birthday.  Since she has a gig working behind the scenes at a college play on Saturday evening, we'll be taking her out for lunch.  She has plans to spend next  weekend  in Las Vegas to celebrate.
 

1983

2010

There's plenty of blog fodder ruminating in my head, but there's so much that it would quality as the longest blog post ever if I were to write it all down.  Two extremely busy and emotional weeks will fill a head.  I'll spare you all.  Besides, there's too much fodder to even process.  I'm exhausted.

Song from 9/29/2010:
It Happens - Sugarland

PEACE


*My cousin kept calling me "Cinderella."

It's Easy

Today officially marks one week until the marathon. I'm feeling less ambivalent about my foot and more confident that I'll finish the entire half marathon running most of it, however I won't be shattering any records. I'm OK with not shattering any records, I'm over-joyed to be running.

I participated in the very last Saturday run with the track club. We began the run at a very sunny RIMAC Field at the UCSD campus. This was a 1 hour 30 minutes time on your feet run, and I really didn't place any expectations on myself, I just wanted to move, even if it was slow going. I would have been happy with a 12 or 13 minute mile average. I started out running with AKA Alice. I honestly thought I would end up watching her run off well ahead of me because she's doing great and I'm still on the rebound, but I was able to keep up with her, more or less, for the entire run. I think running with her helped me to push myself just a little more than I normally would have done on my own. A few of our splits were even in the 10 m/m range. I was surprised. This run boosted my confidence. Parts of this run were, admittedly, a little tough. For starters, it was a WARM morning. We've had a cool Spring thus far, and the warmth of the sun did not make for a completely comfortable run. We've had no heat training. Sure, it was a gorgeous day, perhaps for going to the beach or lounging by the pool, but for running? Not so much.  I'm glad I remembered to slather on the 50 SPF sun block before heading out this particular morning.  There were also a few hills. They weren't extremely steep hills, only one made me want to walk, but it was enough to make it a good, but hard workout. Running with AKA Alice made the miles go by smoothly. I also forgot Lucy and relied on the BiM program on my cell phone to track miles, but I put my cell phone in the pouch on my water bottle belt, and couldn't easily check for time and miles. AKA Alice kept me posted on time and miles ran.

Post run photo op.  I just realized how pasty I look next to the healthy glow of AKA Alice.  Photo credit to my Hubs, who used my trusty cell phone camera. 

Other highlights of the last run:

• Taking the oath  - "I (state your name)"... promise to have a good race, etc...
• Seeing a lot of my track club friends.
• Listening to the guest speaker.
• Hubs watching the soccer games on the field and not listening to the speaker, especially when he blurted out "nice" after a  play on the soccer field, which coincided with something the guest speaker said.

After the guest speaker and other announcements, Hubs and and I went home, cleaned up, then went to a party for my in-law's 65th wedding anniversary, hosted by my in-law's care taker.

Here's most of us.

This home was located in a modest neighborhood, in a very unassuming house, but the back had this mini version of Hugh Heffner's mansion pool/grotto:

Perfect for this day!

The actual Playboy mansion grotto/pool, just to compare.

After we  swam, toasted my in-laws, stuffed our faces and played games, Hubs and I went home to do this:

Good times...

We scraped texture coat from just one section of the house.  This stuff is horrible.  My uncle had the house texture coated less than 20 years ago, but the guarantee is for "as long as you own the home,"  as long as my uncle owned the home. It figures that the stuff was already peeling off the house when we bought it from the estate.  Perhaps there are contractors who have a better texture coat product, but this is the second house we've lived in that the texture coat easily peeled off.  

My sister, husband and nephew are in town for a few days.  It turns out that my sister applied for a position with in her company, in the Sherman Oaks, CA, area and got the job.  Ever since they've moved out of California they've been trying to move back.  They've lived in 6 different states since leaving California.  The trip was mostly to scope out neighborhoods close to her work.  So far they're liking Studio City, but they have until August to make the move.  Saying they're excited is an understatement.  With only a couple of  hours of drive time between the Los Angeles are and San Diego, I'm sure we'll be seeing each other a little more often.

Misszippy is having a Somnio Jacket giveaway!  Be sure and check it out!

Thursday's Song:
Cherry, Cherry - Neil Diamond

PEACE

Days Of The Week

Yesterday

We spent time at home fixing things around the house and gardening. I found more "planted" avocados, planted by my dog. The only thing is now some of the avocado seeds are starting to sprout. Someone suggested I dig those up and give them out as gifts. Aside from finding the sprouts, I pulled a lot of weeds and stray grasses, and that was just a small section. I really do need a bulldozer to take care of everything and just be done with it.

Today

Workout at RU today.
I got the usual killer workout, except this time I did barbell squats with 85#.

We're having some very un-San Diego weather here today. It feels somewhat tropical and humid. I was rained on. I'm glad it wasn't just me drenched in sweat when working out.

My PT sent me an e-mail, per my request, with a general workout for when I'm not working out at RU, 4 days of running - varied between my long runs, intervals, hills and tempo runs, strength training 2 days, and (of course) the two days I workout at RU. I just did the math. That's 8 days. Last time I checked there were only 7 days in a week, unless I missed something, and even so, I should have at least one rest day. I don't think he meant the workouts as it reads, but it does read as 8 days.

I found a really good referral to a raspberry buttermilk cake recipe off of Not Soccer Mom's blog, who found it on another blog, but it's also on Epicurious.com. The recipe is pretty straight forward and, in my opinion, easy. I've made this cake three times already. I might have to try this cake with blueberries next. It comes out exactly as it looks here:

Photo from Epicurious.com

Saturday's song:
Dream Of The Blue Turtles - Sting - Run-DMZ

PEACE

Here We Come A-Wassailing

Yesterday

Activity: Walk
Date: 12/27/08 12:15 PM
Distance: 2.12 miles
Time: 0:29:43
Speed: 4.2 mph
Pace: 14' 17 min/mile
Calories: 205

Yesterday I finally met with Jim from the track club to see about correcting how I run with my new set of circumstances. We met at Mission Bay Park. (It was a beautiful day; I should have taken my camera!) I told him about my injury ordeal and how lopsided I am when I run. He asked me all of the standard questions about the injury, surgery, shoes, shoe inserts, physical therapy, how many miles can I run now, and so on. I did a little running to show how my form is, or lack thereof. He gave me some good tips, most were basic, and I knew about most of them (building back muscle and endurance), but the one little tidbit of advice that seemed to help the most is to watch my posture. I know that sounds basic, but I've become somewhat used to my lopsidedness and I'm not as aware (anymore) when I do go lopsided. After our meeting, I had my husband run behind me so that he could tell me how to correct my running posture, and a lot of it was bringing up my right shoulder to help my body become more even, if that makes sense. At any rate, it worked. The only problem is that I can't have my husband run with me every time I want to go running, I still run faster than he does, and even though I'm going slow for me, he can't keep up with me to help me make the corrections. We might work on this posture thing just on Saturday mornings, provided I can get my husband up early enough. He's not a morning person.

Last night a friend stopped by with all the goodies for Bloody Marys with shrimp. I've had a Bloody Mary with a shrimp garnish but never mixed into the drink. He chopped some cooked shrimp in the food processor and added into the drink. It was just like drinking a shrimp cocktail with a kick.



Today

I'm not trying to brag or anything, but IT'S ANOTHER GORGEOUS OUTSIDE TODAY! OK, I'm bragging just a little... My husband is going to take our grandson out to the park to burn off some energy and kick around the soccer ball before the big football game (Chargers/Broncos) this evening. Today will also include putting all of our stuff back in the bathroom, now that it's relatively done. There's some minor things that need to be taken care of, like buying a new shower curtain, but it's done.

I'm going out for a walk now. It's just too nice a day to waste. I might even take pictures.

Friday's song:
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Frank Sinatra - Run-DMZ


PEACE

Killing The Blues

I drove to my 6 week post op appointment today. This is the first time I've driven since I was admitted to the hospital. They took a few x-rays before the appointment. It looks like I have a spatula in my femur, attached with screws. My surgeon said everything is progressing normally and I can now use a stationary bicycle along with swimming. He also said in about three months I could probably test out running a little, but nothing ridiculous like a sprint or long distances. I was pretty psyched about the go-ahead for stationary bike riding. He also gave me a referral for physical therapy, which will most likely be a lot of stretching.

Tonight my husband and I are going to a concert. This time it's Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, together. We bought the tickets months ago, and it's a sold out show. My son and his "friend" will be going, too. The venue is at Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay, a smaller, outdoor venue that I've talked about before. We purchased the dinner/room package again, and we're really looking forward to it.

No official workout today, but I'm busting my butt cleaning the house.

Yesterday's song:
Walk This Way - Aerosmith and/or Run DMC - Simply Pink

PEACE

Hard To Say I'm Sorry

Today's workout - Rodney Yee's Yoga DVD

Before I completely forget, this is a picture of my brother-in-law, George, participating in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon last month, running to the finish! Congratulatons, George!

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard about the Chicago Marathon. Since others have discussed it much better than I ever could, I won't write much about it here, but you can check out this article/opinion over at CRN, which conveys everything I'm thinking, and then some. I did call my sister who lives just outside of Chicago to hear her take on it. She agreed that it was quite ridiculous that the event organizers ran out of water and electrolyte drinks, and blaming it on the runners was rather irresponsible. She mentioned that her son, who works on Michigan Avenue, said that the streets resembled a war zone after the event was called off. I'm only hoping that the event organizers formally apologize to the runners they may have offended (if they haven't already) and learn from this event debacle so it never happens again.

There are 10 more days until my half marathon. I still want to fit in one more long run, probably tomorrow morning. For all practical purposes, I'm ready. My goal is to run the entire way, even with the hills, which I know I can do (and have done several times before.) I'm hoping that not walking will give me better finish time than my last half marathon, even with those hills. Aside from the event, I am looking forward to seeing fellow bloggers Leslie and Dori, and from the Yahoo Running group, Denise.

I *think* our internet connection is finally fixed. The electrician came back out yesterday and did more re-wiring.


Peace

Caught A Little Sneeze

No workout or run today.

I took a free meal yesterday instead of today. I had a couple of bananas that were rather beyond ripe, but perfect for banana bread. For me, banana bread is one of those things I don't really need to measure out. I just sort of know what makes it work and mix it up. In addition to the normal stuff for making banana bread, I threw in chopped walnuts, orange rind, orange juice and dried cherries. (*EDIT* I didn't use any oil, shortening or butter in these, also used an egg substitute.) Instead of using a bread pan, I used a muffin/cupcake pan instead.



I was really happy how these turned out and should have written down the exact measurements of what actually went in to make these. The texture was just right. I was was able to have two. My family inhaled them. Lower in fat, yes, but these were part of a free meal for sure because of the sugar. I'll have to figure how to make them with even less sugar but still taste great. BTW, photographing food and making it look right isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

Last night, as we were winding down for the evening, I had a sneezing attack... Something(s) (some plants) outside are in bloom, pollinating or drying out. These are all plants or trees just outside my bedroom. The sneezing died down second I went into another room. I don't want to rip out everything that's making me sneeze, since one culprit is a very large pine tree, but I need to figure out how to work around it...


Peace

Earthquake Weather

Activity: Run
Date: 09/05/07 09:28 AM
Distance: 3.58 miles
Time: 0:35:51
Speed: 6.0 mph
Pace: 10' 00 min/mile
Calories: 341

The weather has cooled down but the humidity seems higher. I was pretty well drenched after my run today. I felt good about my run, but since summer vacation is over for most people, the streets seemed busier more car traffic, and I had to slow or stop a few times to yield the right-of-way. This was one of those runs that I had to be very aware of everything around me, so there was no way I could get lost in my thoughts... It was just too busy. I ran in my neighborhood, but avoided "the hill." I'll take on that hill again, soon. I can't avoid hills in my neighborhood, so I did have my share today, just not THAT one.

Yesterday was my grandson's first day of school, ever. He's been to a home daycare since he was a baby, so this was a big day for him. He handled the first day well, so well that he wanted to stay and it was hard for my daughter to pry him off the playground equipment when it was time to go home. As with all family traditions, as we did with my children, here's his first day of school picture:



He came home so exhausted, and fought falling asleep all afternoon, but was deep asleep even before his usual bed time.

If you live in San Diego, CA, did you feel it? Yesterday, there was a smallish earthquake off the coast, about 4 miles out. It was in the 4.0 range. If you've never experienced a small earthquake before, this one felt like a large dump-truck just went by and shook the house enough to make a few things rattle. The only thing I check to see if it actually was an earthquake, is to look at one of my hanging lights - like the one pictured to the right - to see if they're swaying, and that's usually a good indicator... Granted, swaying hanging lights are not very scientific, but that's what I look at if the house should rattle... Of course, the local news had to play it up until they had more serious matters to report on. The earthquake wasn't that serious, but but it's enough to get the geologists excited.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Peace

Open Arms

Yesterday

Activity: Run
Date: 07/25/07 07:15 AM
Distance: 2.16 miles Time: 0:21:02
Speed: 6.2 mph
Pace: 9' 44 min/mile
Calories: 206
HILLS
That's much better...It sure beat what I did the last time I ran!

Today
Upper Body Workout - Free weights, mostly dumbbells. Chest presses & flys, upright rows, bicep curls, bench dips, floor crunches, bench crunches. I skipped lat pull downs today. I just didn't feel like working on the Bowflex today. I am still wanting to go heavier but any single dumbbell weight over 20 pounds and my left bicep starts to ache.

The article I interviewed for in Runner's World Magazine came out today, in the September 2007 issue. The author didn't use anything I said, which is pretty much what I expected, but she did address issues with expert oppinions. Oh, the article is under the Mind + Body section titled "Split Decision" by Gigi Douban.

Comic-Con is in town this weekend, starting today. I've been to it in the past but I think I'll pass this year. My daughter is attending. She had aspirations of being an animator, but decided it wasn't for her, however, she still enjoys seeing what everyone else is doing. Today my son and I are going to primer the garage, or at least get it ready for the primer. Painting walls one solitary color is one of my least favorite things to do, so maybe between my son and I we can knock out painting a few walls.

Peace

Golden Slumbers

There was no run or workout over the weekend, just a lot of running around and work to get things in gear for the party, then the clean-up after. The party was a success and thank goodness for those giant jumpy things that can fit a bunch of 3 and 4 year old kids in all at the same time, making them really tired, going to bed early, and making their parents really happy at bed-time.

We've also had some work done on the garage space, as in finishing up the drywall, texturing the walls and priming. We're turning the front garage into a temporary bedroom. DH and I will paint this week, then the guys come back next weekend to set ceramic tile.

This next week my goal is to run or work out each day, Monday through Saturday. Last week wasn't perfect, but I got something in. I also need to restart loggin in my calories on Fitday. After this weekend of pizza and cake, I'm feeling rather fluffy. I did have some minor break outs on my arms (from the cheese on the pizza) but not as bad as it could be. Perhaps keeping the water intake up helped.

It's been a busy weekend! I'm beat!

Happy Sunday!

Peace

Good Times

Activity: Run
Date: 05/22/07 08:23 AM
Distance: 2.59 miles
Time: 0:26:30
Speed: 5.87 mph
Pace: 10' 13 min/mile
Calories: 244

Note to self: Run an hour earlier or later than today's time. There was too much car traffic to stop or yield to, due to children being dropped off at the elementary schools.

I made myself panic unecessarily. I thought there was only one week left until the marathon. We haven't even figured out how we're going to get out of our neighborhood to get to the start. We now live a couple of blocks between miles 15 and 16 of the marathon route. There's actually 2 weeks left. It's on June 3rd. Whew...



Non workout/running stuff:

My dog was sprayed by a skunk last night. I had managed to get in bed relatively early last night, which is rare. I hear barking, then silence. A few minutes later came the smell... Forget about falling asleep early. UGH! I wouldn't let my poor, smelly dog in the house at all ~ She slept in the patio. I had to be out of the house before the stores opened this morning so I gave my son the task of going to Petco for some sort of special shampoo and taking care of the situation. When I came home the dog was bathed. She does smell better... She can be back in the house, but there's a little bit of an after scent that isn't gone yet... Good times.

Peace

Running to Stand Still

I'm feeling really beat up about now. Not so much from working out or running, but from all of the other physical labor I have been doing this week.

We've ordered a new refrigerator (finally). After some unscientific research and asking people about the pros and cons of their stainless-steel refrigerators, we've decided to get the LG Titanium. It's not really stainless steel, but it has the look, and it doesn't show fingerprints. EVERYONE we've talked to about their fridge said the same thing:

It looks great but fingerprints show up quickly, and they didn't think they'd have to "polish the refrigerator" frequently.

Unlike the stainless steel dishwasher, microwave and oven/range, the fridge is touched more frequently. We've received the same comments from people with kids and pets and from people without kids and pets. Hubbie and I spent time at Home Depot looking at a Maytag and the LG. We already have Maytag appliances in our kitchen, so that would have matched what we already have, BUT Maytag doesn't offer anything similar to the LG Titanium, at least not yet.



Well, now one more thing is checked off the lengthy list of things to do/buy for the house.

Yesterday afternoon I ran the approximately 5.50 miles (5.52) at the bay and tried out the wireless run tracker. It's very cool. I set it up to beep after every quarter mile. At each quarter mile, it would beep differently, and after a mile it would start the sequence over again. When I was finished with my run it showed the map/course and all of my stats. As far as yesterday's run, well, that's another story. It was rather windy in spots and it felt like I was going nowhere, running into the wind. My average mile was something like 10:44. I even felt sluggish, so I knew I wasn't putting forth a good effort and wasn't the least surprised at my much slower than normal time - my splits on the wireless run tracker definitely reflected it. I usually start out slow and finish strong, but I progressively went slower. It was actually beautiful at the bay and I did take a picture with my phone, but I need to figure out how to download it to my computer so I can post it here. I'm not very mechanically minded, so it will take a little figuring out the proper downloading procedure, but I know it can be done.

Today will be a rest day, and it's also, technically, a "free" meal dinner. I don't thing I'm going to go hog wild with the food and drink, since I did that already this week. I can still go out to dinner and keep everything clean, and save the alcohol (if at all) for the weekend.

PEACE

Ghost Town

After reading a blog post by Anne - Run-DMZ, about "ghosts" in her house, it got me to thinking about my own experiences in a house we used to live in.

Between about 1986 and 1996, we lived in a very cute, 2 story, 2 bedroom, one bathroom house, little (about 800 sq ft) 1940-something house near the Little Italy section of San Diego. The house had been in my husband's family for years, and was left to my father-in-law after the relative who lived there died. I loved being in that house because it was so charming. It was also close to everything and close to most of the major roads. Location, location, location! My husband's siblings also had the opportunity to rent that house prior to us moving there. They told us stories of weird occurrences such as a glass breaking for no reason, lights going off and on for no reason, a feeling of a "presence." My first thought was "Yeah, right, uh-huh, they're mental."

A few months after we moved into the house, we experienced the lights going off or on for no reason. When the light would go off, I would get up and turn it back on and it would stay on. There were no electrical shorts in the wiring. On another occasion, I was in the kitchen and noticed that some cooking utensils on hooks were swaying back and forth. Since I live in California, my first thought was "earthquake." Nothing else rattled or moved, such as the hanging plant in the dining room or the hanging light in the kitchen -- Those are the things I would look at to see if we had some sort of earthquake... No earthquake happened and no one was physically in the house with me.

Through the years we lived in that house, I would occasionally feel a presence there. One night while I was dozing off to sleep, I distinctly heard a man's voice whisper in my ear my name. I got up but my husband was not home at the time, and no one was there in the house besides my (at the time) toddler boy and little girl asleep in the other bedroom. I think that particular "voice" incident was the only time I felt creeped out. Most of the time I never felt afraid, in fact I thought it was kind of neat to share a house with a "ghost." I never felt like the presence was evil. Maybe my ghost looked like the ghost Patrick Swayze played in the movie "Ghost?" Teehee...



Since leaving that house in 1996 we have not experienced a "presence" such as the one we felt at that little house. I don't know if the "ghost" is still there, but he might be... Several renters have been through the house since that time and only one other renter has said anything about weird/unexplained occurrences at that house.

Peace

Light Up

The Arizona Rock N Roll Marathon/Half Marathon event is THIS Sunday... Am I ready? I guess I'm as ready as I'll every be, considering training was sparse. Hubbie and I did about an 8 mile run at the bay on Saturday. I came away from that run with no issues or pains. Hubbie had sore hamstrings, but that was it. We didn't bring a time piece, so I have no idea how fast (or slow) we ran. Our friends who are running the event with us are in the same boat, but they were sick with colds, but did manage a few runs as well. They're "waddlers" -- as a part of John Bingham's Penguins. I'm looking forward to this little break from real life. The friends who offered their house to stay at
are fellow BFL'ers. I met the wife through a BFL Women Over 40 online group. There's 5 of us left from the hundreds that used to belong. It will be fun!

In house stuff, we FINALLY agreed on light fixtures for the kitchen table and sun room. In all honesty, I've just settled. I couldn't find exactly what I wanted because everything I liked was WAY out of our budget. Hubbie and I conceded and decided to buy what ever Home Depot happened to have in stock on Saturday after our run. For the kitchen we picked out this red glass cylindrical fixture. It doesn't give off much light but at night the kitchen has a warm, red glow if we turn off the can lights.





For the sun room, it's not too exciting, but it's a parchment colored glass cylinder, which gives off a nice glow in the sun room at night, plus we can see it from the living room. It looks much better when it's on, but I couldn't get a decent picture.



Both lights are much more streamlined than I would have liked, but they do look much better than just wire hanging down from the ceiling.

Peace

Our House

Last weekend was spent at the house working on the oak floors... It's amazing what a person can do with the right equipment. Saturday afternoon, hubbie rented a vibrating sander, about the size of a lawnmower and we knocked out two bedrooms, hallway, living room and dining room in one afternoon. Sheesh. I wasted time sanding part of the hallway floor with a hand held belt sander last weekend. It was still a pretty good workout, sanding the floors with that huge sander, but it was well worth the effort because the floors are smooth as silk. Hubbie and I stayed the night at the house.

Sunday we ran in the Shelter Island 5k walk/run. This is the event with the brunch afterwards. We arrived somewhat late, but with just enough time to walk to the starting area, barely any time to get our bearings, and the announcer said "runners, take your marks." I didn't hear any announcements that they were starting in a few minutes or anything like that. Perhaps I missed it, but we were off. No time for gum or throat lozenge. No time to set my stop watch. I still had my jacket on and realized it too late, so I wrapped it around my waist. I wasn't even warmed up yet and my legs felt like lead. After mile one my cell phone fell out of my mini fanny pack, which is just big enough for a cell phone and ID. I'm not sure how that happened but it did, and that slowed me down. I didn't stop for water at the water table. Before the end of the run at mile 3 I felt like barfing. I finished in 27:16. Ironically, I finished just behind the same lady I finished with last year, but I didn't realize it until after the run was over. I felt good about my time because I really didn't train for this event and I would have been happy with a 30 minute finish. Last year I finished this event about 45 seconds faster. Hubbie finished in about 33 minutes. Our whole objective to this 5K run was the brunch. We did meet a very nice couple who stumbled upon this run last year, as we did, and returned for the brunch. I also saw my cousin working the Naked Juice booth, so that was nice. I didn't realize it, but photos were being taken at this run. Since I wrapped my jacket around my waist, it covered my number, which was #336. Here's a half picture of me towards the end, next to #78. Since my number was covered there is no full picuture of me. I'll take what I can get... (I kind of like how the muscles in my leg that's pictured are popping out.)I had asked hubbie to bring his camera. He did bring the camera but he left it in the car, 3.1 miles away... OH WELL. After the brunch was over, hubbie had a soccer game to play in and I went back to the house to prep the woodb for the polyurethane. I polyed two rooms, then went back to the other house, showered and went to bed. Hubbie and I had a full day.

Monday I had my son drive me back to the house (so he could have the car to get to classes) and I worked on the floors, completeing the hallway, livingroom and part of the diningroom. Today was a day off from working on the "new" old house and stayed home to pack and do laundry. Upper body workout will happen during Dancing With The Stars.
That's it.

Peace


EDIT - 8 sets circuits, 15 reps each Bench dips, push ups, upright rows, bicep curls.