(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.

Heaven

Summer is finally in full swing in my neighborhood.  Going to the beach, backyard barbecues, early morning running before the heat kicks in, outdoor concerts and visiting with family and friends is on the agenda.

Speaking of backyard barbecues, Meg - Meg Runs and her husband Steve (Boy Scout) hosted a blogger meet up at their home.  It's so funny how we live within such close proximity to each other and have never met.  We've probably been at the same run events, either running or spectating, but have never bumped into each other.  This time the happy occasion of Jill - Run With Jill and her son visiting California was just what we all needed to meet.   Also in attendance were Chris - The Manly Runner and his girlfriend Alycia, Anne - Run-DMZ, Cindi - AKA Alice and her husband Michael (Walter), and  Glenn - The Running Fat Guy.   Hubs manned the camera and managed a few great picture.

 I was able to catch up with Anne. 

"Walter", Meg, "AKA Alice", "Boy Scout"

Meg's back yard is enchanting.  It reminded me of what my grandparent's house used to be when I was young.  I was inspired. 

 Boy Scout manning the barbecue as Meg looks on.  The grilled pizzas were awesome.

Photo op with Jill.  

We had a good giggle about Victor Newman. :)

 All of us

 Left to right: Jill, Meg, Steve, Chris, Alycia, me, Hubs, Anne, Glenn, Cindi, Michael

I'm wishing I had more initiative and snapped photos, but I was enjoying the company of wonderful friends.  It's kind of funny how somethings just fall into place and you just know you're going to get along.  Hubs made the comment that we're always going to events, parties, and homes of people I have never met in person, but through the internet.  I have trusted that these meet-ups are going to go well, and that no one is extremely off kilter.  There are no overtly bizarre stalkers or ax murderers in the bunch.  The evening was lovely, conversations flowed, and we left feeling warm and fuzzy.  I appreciated how Meg and Steve made everyone feel so welcome, and it was fun having everyone together. 

Running?

Oh yeah, I run.

Last week I fit in about 20+ miles, even though Daily Mile says 19.5.   There's about 3 unaccounted miles that I never took the time to log in.   On Saturday I ran 10.5 miles with the track club up the hill that goes to Fort Rosecrans.  It's a long, gradual hill, and I felt a sense of accomplishment when I was done.  I've never run that route before.  One year I think we were out of town when the group ran that route, and the next year I was cruising because I was still getting over the broken foot debacle, made it to the first water station at mile 3 and went back to the start at Harbor Island. It felt good to get over yet another hurdle.  I need to maintain at least 20 miles a week, which can be a challenge with a wacky work schedule, but  It's doable.

It wouldn't be summer without an outdoor concert.  This year was Los Loney Boys joined with Los Lobos for fabulous music and a great time. Having decent seats wasn't too shabby, either. 

Of course, since this was somewhat of a stay-caytion, we had a room facing the bay...

Still not a wake yet, but so glad to be there! No, I didn't go out for a run. 

Song from Saturday, July 23, 2011:
Just Breathe - Pearl Jam

PEACE

Nothin' But A Good Time

Another half marathon in the books.

If you've ever run in a Rock 'n' Roll series event, the expos are pretty much all the same. This year we arrived on Saturday instead of Friday, and other than the t-shirt, the swag wasn't that great. Friday swag is usually better than it is on Saturday. Of course, I wasn't there for the swag or to cruise the expo, which was inconveniently moved from last year's location of Mandalay Bay to The Sands. This new location made for an unnecessary trek up Las Vegas Strip to retrieve our race numbers. We wasted a lot of time getting from point A to point B, especially since we had no direct transportation and did not want to use a taxi just to get to the expo since we were trying to watch our expenses. So much for resting up before the run.

We didn't get any exciting or blog-worthy photos of the expo or of our carb load dinner with a few of the RU group. A few of us dined at Chin-Chin (Asian) located in New York, New York.

Race day. A 4:30 wake up was on the agenda. Luckily we had the foresight to purchase a couple of coffees from Starbucks the night before and put them on ice to have with breakfast (biscotti) the next morning. Iced soy latte actually tastes great. 5:30 am rolls around and we're just a tad late meeting the Rehab United group for the warm up and stretch, but we were there just in time to get in something before heading out to gear check.

The Rehab United Run Fit group.  I forgot my mustache.

Waiting at the start. Cher sang the national anthem. We could hear her but never saw her.

Me & Hubs. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but after running it was pretty good. Hubs came in at 2:38, a PR, finally under 2:40.

My shins and ankle were a little sore for the race, and I really started feeling those sore spots at about mile 7, and that's where I slowed down. My official half marathon personal record time is 2:13:11, and my unofficial half marathon time is about 2:02, which was a training run, just months before the broken femur back in 2008. I knew I would come nowhere close to those times. I just wanted to do better than last year's time of 2:29 and change, and I did. I'm satisfied with 2:25, considering the broken foot and shin splints this year.

One bonus to this years run is that it wasn't freezing.  Early morning temps were probably in the mid 40s, and probably rose to the mid 50s by the time we finished running.  It was perfect running weather.  By the time the concert started, I'd venture to guess that it was about 60.  Last year the cold kept people from staying in the post-run concert area.  This year it was packed, but it could have been that Brett Michael's Band was the featured band.

The hat. 

Brett getting the crowd going.  This guy just doesn't stop.

Can  you say "animated?"  We got a kick out of watching this guitar player. 

Even with the thousands of people at the post race area, we did not see anyone we knew from our group or otherwise, even though they were all there, somewhere.

One advantage to attending the expo is that we picked up red rubber wristbands, which gave us free admission to XS, a club located at The Wynn hotel. This club was pretty swanky.

Part of the deal was free drinks from 7pm to 8 pm. After that, the prices skyrocketed.

During the race I kept looking for Dawn. Last year I found her on the marathon course around mile 6 as I was running.  This year I never saw her, and kept thinking I'd see her at the post race concert, but never did.  While Hubs and I were hanging around at XS, talking to Tobie (who we just met -she ran the marathon), Dawn walks right in front of us. 

Dawn, me, Tobie.

Hmmmm... Extra hands? Dawn?  LOL.

Michael bustin' a move with Tobie and Dawn.

Hubs making friends...

After a few hours at XS, we were done.  We never saw any one from RU, even though they said they were there, but we did bump into a few running buddies from the San Diego Track club.  For some odd reason there are no pictures of our track club friends.  I only had a couple of drinks, but I was done.  I think the lack of sleep contributed to my "tipsy" state. Wearing 4" heels didn't help matters, either.

When it was all said and done, we had a pretty good time, even though we spent the entire time in Las Vegas on very little sleep.  By Monday morning I was ready to go home.

Yeah, I was done.

I'll be taking a running hiatus for the next two to three weeks, but I'll be doing a lot of hill walking.  I'll start up again after the hiatus because the Carlsbad half marathon is in January.  No rest for the weary.

Yesterday's Song:
Mystery Achievement - The Pretenders

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."

That's Not Me

Randomness

This is an odd cold. The cold symptoms aren't that bad, I have no fever, yet I'm so tired! I went to my workout at RU yesterday and felt rather pathetic. Bryan is out for the week and I worked with Justin. Since I don't work with him regularly, he doesn't know me well enough to know that I can push through just about anything they throw at me. I felt like one of those contestants on The Biggest Loser on the first day of working out, where some of them just get going with the workouts, then start whining about how hard it is. That was me. I even tried to negotiate using lighter weights, but he just told me to push through. This is so not like me, but I'm also not feeling like myself, either.

Last night was also an office party. We celebrated three birthdays, including mine. It took me 2 hours to throw on some jeans, a blouse, shoes and apply make-up, just because the the fatigue. We celebrated at a little restaurant in the middle of an industrial/office park - Buds Louisiana Cafe. Yes, an odd location for a restaurant, but it was REALLY good, even for my foodie boss. Luckily, this was dinner and not an activity like bowling or roller skating. It was fun catching up with everyone and all of the office shenanigans. I didn't think to take my camera, but my boss made hats for the three of us birthday girls. Here's my hat:

Custom party hat.  An eye with running legs.

I ordered a few pictures from my daughter's graduation earlier this month. Look at what I received:

 Ummmmmmmmm, that' not my daughter!

At first I was thinking "WTF?"  Now I think this is sort of funny.  I called customer service and they think this guy probably received my daughter's pictures.  They're going to reprint my daughter's photos and send those out ASAP, and told me to destroy the incorrect photos. I feel kind of odd about destroying the pictures, though.  The guy's name is on the back and I was thinking of, perhaps, contacting him (though Facebook, maybe) and just sending him the pictures.  They're not cheap.  What do you think? 

The gophers are going down. Three more heads of almost ready romaine lettuce are gone! It's time for traps.

I should have an abundance of veggies by now. Evil gophers... 

Yesterday's Song:

Aloof - Latvian Radio 

PEACE

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

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!

That's The Breaks

My Peeps

I know. I've been a bad blogger. Part of it has to do with Spring Break, part of it has to do with our computer being buggy, and most of it has to do with the hubs working from home this week.

Speaking of Blogger, is anyone else finding the new photo upload option(s) s-l-o-w?

I had an ortho appointment this week. No surprise, but the foot is still busted. This time I had the where-with-all to bring a camera and take pictures of my x-ray.

Middle metatarsal bone... Not just a fracture, but the bone frayed. Yeah, when I break something, I break it good... *sigh* I guess the Costco incident* in addition to running did more damage than I thought. I wasn't planning to post the pic but, apparently, a lot of you are curious and asked me to show the pic -- so there it is!

I came into the appointment wearing my new Pearl Izumis. The doc busted me on not wearing the boot. The boot is hard and flat, and I have a really high arch, and it caused me to overcompensate through my ankle and knee. The doc pointed out that I need a lot more stability while I'm healing so that I don't cause more injury. The Pearl Izumis are relatively firm and stable, but they still bend -- the doc doesn't want my foot to bend. I've added an arch insert to the boot, which helps, but it still wears me out. I return to ortho in two weeks.

I also had an appointment at RU the following day. Bryan seemed a bit more sympathetic to me after seeing the pic of the x-ray -- not that he wasn't sympathetic before, but seeing how smooshed my foot is, he realized it wasn't as small a fracture as he thought. Sooooooo... instead of the usual workout routine, I got a nice foot massage, did some easy upper body dumbbell matrix exercises, and ankle mobility exercises. He also did casts of my feet for custom orthotics, finally. I return to RU in two weeks.

It was also suggested that I get a prescription for a bone stimulator**. [Feel free to insert an inappropriate joke here, because my mind is mush and can't think of one.] It doesn't feel much like anything when I use it for 20 minutes a day, but it's supposed to help the healing process, and according to the site, it says it "gets patients back to their normal activities 38% faster." I guess I'll find out, providing a trip to Costco is normal activity with steel toe boots. Maybe I'll be able to get in and out of Costco 38% faster. Maybe I'll be able to run 38% faster.

Since I can't run I've been doing other things to keep busy. My side and back yards have been quite neglected, and I decided to pull weeds and add some perennials and drought tolerant plants. I've been mindful of my foot and have been sitting for most of this gardening adventure. I've completed one side yard planter area and a small square in the center of the backyard with a new bird bath. Now, I need to slowly tackle the rest of the unruly backyard.

The strategically cropped photo -- So you can't see the rest of the unruly backyard.

I'm also trying to keep some kind of exercise routine going. I have yet to get into a pool, but that's on the list of things to do. I've been doing a lot of upper body exercises that don't require feet, like stability ball push-ups -- which are probably equivalent or equal to knee-down push-ups, bicep curls, tricep extensions, dumbbell flys, shoulder presses, abs exercises, etc. I've been trying to do modified squat and lung matrices, but I really have to pay attention to the foot with those.

In other news...

The hubs had some rather unexpected excitement earlier in the week. It was later in the day, probably about a half hour before closing when everyone in the office started smelling smoke. They went outside to figure out the source, and discovered that smoke was coming through their basement. 911 was called and they were soon surrounded by fire trucks, police and the local news. Luckily, the fire wasn't that big, the damage was confined to the basement, and they've hired a company to take care of the smoke smell. Oh, the news coverage was minimal. I tried to find a news link because the story aired on the 11 o'clock news on three local stations, but I guess it wasn't news worthy enough to keep the story since no one was injured and the building didn't burn down. As a precaution, SDG&E cut the power lines to the building. They actually went up in a cherry picker and physically CUT the lines. Hubs was more horrified with the cutting of the lines than the actual fire because that meant he wouldn't be able to work at the office with deadlines looming and picky clients wanting their projects done NOW. Hubs worked at home for three days. I pretty much stayed out of his way, since he was on the computer most of the time and had a phone stuck to his ear. By the way, everything at the office returned back to normal on Friday.


Last night we attended a party/reception/thing at RU. They were launching a new training program and had vendors with free goodies, plus food and drink. There were several people there who I hadn't seen since the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon/Half Marathon in December, and was able to catch up with all of their race plans for this year. I'm not sure what it is, but every time we go somewhere that is mostly my thing, my hubs almost always sees someone he knows there. This happens frequently. For example, at my 10 year high school reunion he knew someone I went to high school with, and I had no idea because when he referred to her it was by her married name. Their firms shared an office space together. At the RU thing, he saw a guy from Rotary, his former intern, and a contractors who he works closely with. I wish this would happen to me. I go to his industries receptions/parties/things and NEVER see anyone I know -- and at his things it's all about business. It's not a lot of fun for me to discuss square footage, drywall, lighting fixtures and flooring unless it's for my house. ANYWAY, back to the RU party... I had some explaining to do about my foot, and that's where everyone said they wanted to see the x-ray pic. Towards the end of the event, they had a drawing for some nice goodies like massages, hydrostatic body fat testing, shoes, etc. Hubs won a mesh bag with triathlon gear inside, which was a bib holder/belt, Glide, a sun visor, and a few other small items. I guess he'll have to take up doing tris now. Heh.

I'm not 100% sure what's happening for Easter, but I can venture to guess that my SIL will be hosting it. They ALWAYS plan these kinds of things to the last minute.


Whatever you're celebrating on Sunday, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Wednesday's Song:
California Sun - The Ramones


PEACE

* A lady ran over my foot with her full cart at Costco.
**Ultrasound bone healing system

Continuum

Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon/Half Marathon Event - Part 2

Still with me?

Back to the souvenir shop...

Renata and I stayed somewhat warm for a while, but I wanted to find the medical tent for a couple of Tylenol and ice for my calf. The medical tent was somewhat hard to find. It was way across the venue, on the other side of a huge trailer, tucked away in a corner. Not good. My calf was cramping, but not that bad, but it was still far away, and I couldn't imagine what it would have been like for someone who was really hurting. Yikes. Renata stayed in the souvenir shop to wait for her husband, Gil. Once I found the medical tent, received some Tylenol and ice for my calf and a little rest, I felt better and got up to look for Michael. He finished his race in 2:42. He was just a couple of tents over with a few San Diego Track Club members. We managed a quick photo op with them and one of the running Elvi:

Me, Donna, a running Elvis, Kelly , Michael.

We made our way to the beer, saw more RU people, then started towards the gear check area. It was about that time we found Dawn. She was slowly making her way into the vendor area, looking for the medical tent. She was hurting and needed some attention. We helped her make her way to the medical tent, which was WAY across the venue.

Thumbs up! We made it to the medical tent!

Once Dawn was settled, Michael and I made our way back to the gear check, which took some time, gathered our belongings and made our way back to the medical tent to check on Dawn. I guess she must have been OK because she was gone by the time we got back. Sometimes a little rest, Tylenol and ice is all you need just to get up and going.

By this time my phone was chiming that I had a few text messages. I just missed AKA Alice. She had finished a while ago and was already settling down somewhere for some breakfast. Renata texted me that she found her husband and they were also sitting in one of the hotel bars to keep warm. I guess that was our cue to take off, too. We walked through Mandalay Bay to get back to Luxor (the hotels are connected), and while passing by one of the bars, we ran into Mitch and Doreen from the track club.

Mitch, Doreen, Michael, Me.

After chatting for a while, we all decided to grab some lunch at a deli near by within the Mandalay Bay hotel. Hot soup and a hot pastrami sandwich never tasted so good. It was great catching up with Mitch and Doreen as we talked about our future race plans and Las Vegas happenings.

Some place between Mandalay Bay and Luxor was this huge Christmas tree. We decided it would be a good spot for a photo :

Christmas card potential?

We finally made our way back to our room to crash. I really couldn't sleep but I just showered, iced my left leg/foot and rested. (Our room didn't have a bathtub, so I couldn't fill the tub with ice.) We needed to rest since we had plans with everyone from RU for dinner and dancing.

Yeah, dancing...

I thought I was going to over pack, but it was quite the contrary. I under packed the going out clothes. 3 pairs of pants but no dressy tops. I had a dress I could easily accessorize with some bling, but I forgot the bling. I had planned on wearing black tights with short boots with that dress, but when I went to put on the tights, they were a child's size. *GAH* The package was mislabeled. No back ups.* No dressy tops. I couldn't go without tights or hose because my left leg was so bruised up. Did I mention it was cold???? Well, it was COLD. Michael of San Diego found a Fredrick's of Hollywood within the confines of Mandalay Bay and bought me some black hose. Those almost didn't fit right, the waistband kept slipping down, but they had to work. I could no longer wear the boots, so I wore the heels I brought. (At the time, being on heels didn't feel all that bad.) Luckily, we made it down to the bar and found some of our group looking rather sharp, and we joined them for a martini:



Eventually, the entire group made it to the lobby, all dressed up and ready to go out. There were about 20 of us all together, and took a couple of limos to the restaurant and night club.



Other people were taking pictures at dinner, so we didn't get too many dinner shots. We sat across from people who happened to know a few of our neighbors from our previous address, and even attended the same high school as Michael, just several years apart. Someone pointed out that the breakfast menu had waffles, but breakfast was not being served. Waffles sounded delicious, but I was so hungry that a crummy little mint seemed like a delicious confection.

The night club was in the same area as the restaurant, and we were supposedly on some list, but come to find out we were not, and we were supposed to wait in line behind the infamous velvet rope. Someone in our group, a very smart, pretty, leggy blond said something to the bouncer and, somehow, we all got in. I'm not very savvy at that kind of thing, so I was rather surprised that all 20 of us got in. Michael snagged a few photos of us at the night club, which soon became very crowded.

The lady in the middle jumped in between the two blonds (who were with our group) and started dancing with them. It was awesome.

Michael took a lot of random shots like this one...
Don't know the guy on the left, but that's me, Renata, Gil, and Bryan in the front.

After a while it was kind of tight in there.

You know the saying "What happens in Vegas stays it Vegas?" It should be changed to "What happens in Vegas shows up on Facebook."

Michael and I left about 12:30 am, and I heard that everyone else left around 1 am...

By the time we made it back to our room, it was probably about 1 am. I happened to look down at my feet and noticed that I was now donning cankles -- calves and ankles become one. Yikes. I needed ice. Luckily, our room was right near the ice machine. I don't remember too much about what happened after icing the feet, but I'm sure sleep was involved.

Monday 12/7

THE NEXT MORNING

I had only two drinks the entire night, therefore, no hangover to deal with. My feet, or I should say my left foot in particular, was still rather swollen. Getting out of bed was interesting. My feet didn't want to cooperate. (Remind me why I thought wearing heels after running a half marathon with an already injured calf would be a good idea.) I downed a lot of water and a couple of naproxen and put my feet up for as long as possible while Michael made some calls to the office and followed up with clients. I was craving breakfast in a big way. (Remember, at dinner the night before, someone saw waffles on the menu, but it was the breakfast menu.) I woke up craving waffles. I had to have waffles. We eventually made it down to the buffet, where there was only about 30 minutes left for breakfast. As we made our way through the line, the staff was already replacing the breakfast with lunch items. *Panic* Luckily, for me, there were still plenty of breakfast foods still out, including waffles... fluffy Belgian waffles... with butter and maple syrup... Whew.

As Michael and I were enjoying our breakfast, Justin, his girlfriend and their friends came down for breakfast. They were looking a little sleep deprived and planning to drive back home right after eating. We briefly talked about the trip, the run, the night out, shared some of the photos from the night before, and went our separate ways.

For us it was more rest, some shopping at the outlet mall (which did nothing to help my calf and feet), and dinner back at the buffet. Michael originally wanted to walk up and down the strip that evening, but it was raining, plus my swollen calf. The outlet mall was all I could deal with. I know. We're in Vegas opting NOT to go out.

Tuesday 12/8

It was actually nice to have that Monday to putz around. Once we arrived home on Tuesday, it was back to business for Michael, and for me it was attending my office holiday party, and getting out all of the Christmas decorations. (Evan requested decorating the house many times. I had to oblige, even though I wasn't planning on putting up the big tree this year, just the small one.)

How can Evan escape childhood without making a star out of cardboard, pasta and foil? Evan was really excited to create this star with me. The star now resides a top the rock pine outside, next to our front door.

The left calf is still sore and the left foot is dealing with water retention due to the calf injury. All I can do a this point is RICE, stretch and massage. I go back into RU next Wednesday. I thought about posting pictures of my calf and ankle/foot, but the swelling has gone down since Las Vegas, and most of the discoloration is gone. My ankle was about the size of a grapefruit. I just didn't think to take pictures of it when it was at it's most "ripe."

Before I forget, we stayed on the 13th floor. I didn't think hotels in the USA had 13th floors, which are normally reserved as a utility floor. Superstitions, I guess. I had no problem with 13. We were running a half marathon, 13.1 miles.

Other happenings...

Michael and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary on Friday, 12/11. I looked up what the traditional and/or modern gift would be. For 27 it's furniture. I never knew that. It doesn't look like I'll be seeing any new furniture soon, but I was surprised with the roses Michael brought me, even though we agreed on no gifts this year since we went to Las Vegas. We kept the day simple and went out for sushi at our favorite place in our neighborhood. Cheers.

We still have our trip to Guanajuato, Mexico. Our friend, Sam, is thrilled to be taking us to his home town and brought us several brochures and maps of the area. We'll be staying with his family for most of the trip. We're keeping everything no-frills and packing as light as possible. He even mapped out routes for us to run on, if that's what we decide to do.

Saturday's song:
Loose in Las Vegas - Monty Byrom & David Neuhauser - From the "Deal" soundtrack


PEACE

PS: Do you know how many times I've edited this post due to glitches and minor typos? *sigh*

* Where was Tim Gunn When I needed him? It wasn't in the budget to buy an outfit just to go out for one evening, otherwise, I would have trekked to Macy's for some sort of ensemble, or at least some inexpensive bling/accessories.