D'yer Mak'er

Yee-haw!  One week back at work full time and I've already put in overtime.  Due to the actions of the ghosts of employees past, there's a lot of  corrections to be made, pick up the ball that was dropped, and bring everything up to speed.  I realize I have plenty of catching up to do, but it's coming back rather quickly.  Every night before I leave they say:

"No texting or e-mail messages, OK?"
"We know where you live!"
"We'll make you come back!" 

The reason being is that their last two employees quit by text message and e-mail.  I'm glad to be back, even though it seems overwhelming at times. I know everything will fall into place.  I've been to this rodeo before.

Running is happening, slow, but it's happening. I'm still dealing with shin splints, although they are less sore. My last run before the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll half was less than stellar, but I got it in, hills, shin splints and rain.

We were supposed to do a flat run out by the bay, but we had a social networking group join us for the run, and we met out at the RU facility in Sorrento Valley, and it was much easier for the group to meet indoors, especially since it had been raining that morning. This group handled their runs differently than what I'm used to. Instead of sending people out by pace (all the 8 to 9 minute milers take off, then the 9 to 10 minute milers, etc), they sent people out by how far they we running. I was running with a pretty nice group until we arrived to the intersection where the people running 6 miles went one way, and the people running 11 miles went another way. I suddenly found myself alone, since I was the only woman over age 40 running more than 6 miles at a much less than an 8 minute mile. I don't mind the alone time, though, but that's when I was going up hill. The shins weren't too happy with me. This had to be one of the slowest runs I've had lately, but I just wanted to get in the 11 miles without walking. The run up Coast Highway through Del Mar, to the "Welcome to Solana Beach" sign is actually a pleasant run, especially early in the morning. I didn't take pictures, but it was also quite damp out, and a camera would have been a moot point, unless it was waterproof. I avoided any heavy rain until I had only a half mile to go. You just can't outrun Mother Nature. A nice, steady shower hit. It's one of those rain showers that's great if you're indoors with a hot beverage in front of a fireplace. Alas, I was running underneath the I-5 at that point, watching the rain from the underneath the bridge and I really wanted to finish. It would have been easy to just stand there until the rain let up, but maybe it would rain for hours. I made myself run the half mile in the rain back to the warm confines of RU. It honestly wasn't a huge stretch or feat to run in the rain, it was actually kind of nice. Running in the rain gave me the excuse to explain my slow pace, but we all know better.

There's so much more to talk about, especially about work -- it's like a sit-com -- but my mind is toast. 'Nite.

Thursday's (November 11, 2010) Song:
Sweet Serendipity -  Lee DeWyze

PEACE

I'll Wait

Monday's Song:
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op 86 "Pastoral" - Beethoven - Extra Bonus Points to Run-DMZ

PEACE

Sounds Like Life To Me

Randomness

Like many of us, I spent the past 16(?) days catching up on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, cheering for our country participating in sports I know little about. I am familiar with downhill skiing, cross country skiing and ice skating, only because I've had lessons in each of those activities, but I'm far, far, FAR from being a pro and have never competed, but I can confidently say that I can get myself from point a to point b. I know nothing about hockey, but I can get the gist of the game, and I found myself cheering and yelling at the TV a few times. Same thing with snow boarding, speed skating and bob sledding. I'm sure I would have been yelling at the curling event, too, but it wasn't on when I watched. Oh, and what about some of those guys (and women) in their super suits? You really have to have quite the physique to pull off one of those super fitted race suits. Now that the 2010 Winter Olympics are over, I'll have to find something else since American Idol is a yawner this season. At least I still have Project Runway.

I actually got out and ran with the track club on Saturday. We ran at one of my favorite locations, starting at Tidelands Park in Coronado, along the Silver Strand to fit in the time or mileage and back. A lot of people don't care too much for the Silver Strand, but I like it. I can find my groove there and just go with it. It figures that rain was in the forecast for our run. It seems it has rained three out of the four Saturdays in February, and that one non rainy Saturday I was sick. In spite of the rain there was a decent attendance of track club members. My mileage for this 2 hour out and back run was exactly as it was when I did it last year, but it was raining and very windy at some points this time, plus I was just coming back from being sick... I guess I should give myself some slack for that, but I was a little bummed with my time. It was good to be back running with the track club, though. I was able to catch up with my friends who did show up. I'm glad I had the foresight to bring a change of clothes because I was DRENCHED. My clothes and shoes were sopping wet and heavy. It felt good to change into dry clothes and shoes, even if it were just for the ride home.

I'm signed up for the Carlsbad 5000 on April 11 with Rehab United as a team - which should be fun. I missed the boat on the La Jolla Half Marathon, which said "FULL" when I tried to sign up yesterday. Am I bummed? No. Running in the LJHM was sort of an after thought to running the Carlsbad Half Marathon in January, and I was thinking about going for the triple crown (Carlsbad, La Jolla, AFC), but it wasn't a priority, getting healthy was the focus. Now I might have to rethink AFC and if I really want to do that one in the heat of August. There ARE other half marathons to consider.

Check out another running skirt give away at Endurance Isn't Only Physical.

I was in the mood for baking on Sunday, so I made a Red Velvet cake. I've been having issues with Red Velvet Cake I've had at restaurants. They aren't good. Either the cake tastes weird or the frosting is cream cheese frosting, which (in my mind) is all wrong. That's not how grandma used to make it. I scoured the internet for recipes and found this one that comes close to grandma's cake:

THE RECIPE FOR RED VELVET CAKE

The recipe for the frosting follows it. By the way, this frosting recipe contains enough butter to make Paula Deen squeal with delight.

Parenting (or in our case, Grand-parenting) rule #6.8 in the rule book:
"Never leave out any markers, pens, stamps, paint, and/or other media that a 6 year old can run a muck with."

What you're looking at is my dresser stamped with my husband's state license stamp. I guess the kiddo had a good time at it. No, he didn't get in trouble. It was his Papa's fault for leaving the stamp out, but the kiddo was made aware that this wasn't a nice thing to do, even though we thought it was funny.

Wednesday's Song:
Who Will Buy? - Barbara Streisand, London Theater Orchestra & Cast, Aaron Neville, etc...

PEACE

Photo by fleeglebingodroopersnork on Photobucket.com

Ridiculous Thoughts

Random Thoughts

Have you ever researched a product you were thinking about buying, and read through the customers comments/reviews? Before purchasing my Garmin, and more recently a Keurig coffee machine as a family Christmas present and a Cuisinart juicer to replace the cheap-o one that broke, I researched these items to see which models would work best and fit my needs. I've discovered when reading the consumer review section, that the people who had the most problems with the products usually didn't read the directions, or never went past the "getting started" page. Seriously. I guess people just want to use their gadgets right out of the box, sans directions.

It's raining hard in Southern California. Finally.

My little girl cat was initiating play with the dog when she thought we weren't looking. I wonder if they really get along when we're not home, and if all those dirty looks and growls are just for show?

I have the Carlsbad Half Marathon next weekend and I'm not ready. I have been running and working out , and I know I can finish it, but the most I've run since the Las Vegas RNR HM is 5 miles. Going for a PR is not in the equation.

I receive a call on my cell phone from an unfamiliar number, and answer it anyway:
Me - "Hello"
kid - "Mooooooooom?" "Tyler just spray painted my room!"
Me - You have the wrong number.
kid - *phone disconnects*
I'm so glad I'm not the mom in that scenario...

I'm finally using Daily Mile for my workouts, as well as my runs.

I ran with the track club on Saturday. It was a five miler. It was so much fun to see most of my running friends again, plus many brand new faces. It's going to be another great year of running!

Chargers. *sigh*

My son took it upon himself to clean out the work shed in the backyard, and we all got into it. The shed turned into a catch all for the stuff we no longer use or need, and it was embarrassingly full. The shed also contained boxes of random household items leftover from our move here, three years ago. (Can you say "procrastination?") Obviously, we didn't need all of that stuff. My daughter made so many trips to Goodwill that they now know her. Our recycle bin is crammed with cardboard, and the trash can is equally full. We have more to do, as that space will some day become become an office, but it's much better.

Wednesday's Song:
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - Ohio Express

PEACE

Climb That Hill

Activity: Run
Date: 04/11/09 09:39 AM
Distance: 14.25 miles
Time: 2:42:44
Speed: 5.3 mph
Pace: 11' 25 min/mile
Calories: 1376

Today's long run with the track club started at La Jolla Shores - right on the beach, and went up the coast to Del Mar and back, but we came back through Torrey Pines and by UCSD. This run includes a huge (killer) hill with a pretty steep incline. I did OK and felt really good about this particular run. I'm not beat up like I was last week. It was also drizzling and much, MUCH cooler than last week's run. It was perfect running weather. I was prepared for the weather this time. I wore my leggings for the entire run, but had an huge pair of old running shorts in my car, which I put on after the run, then jumped in to the water to cool down my hot, swollen legs in the 50-something degrees water.



The water felt good once I got used to it. I went half-way in.

It also looks like I'm going to lose a toenail. The big toenail on the left foot is nice and purple, doesn't hurt, but feels weird. I wish it would just fall off already. I briefly thought about photo documenting the toe, but I'll spare you all.

Thursday's song :
I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - Miss Rachel

PEACE

Misty

Activity: Run
Date: 01/03/09 08:42 AM
Distance: 1.92 miles
Time: 0:19:22
Speed: 5.9 mph
Pace: 10' 06 min/mile
Calories: 185

I went ahead and signed up for the San Diego Track Club again for this year. Last year my husband was a bit reluctant, but this year he looked forward to waking up to attend this morning's first meeting at 7 am in the drizzle and mist. I noticed there weren't as many people in attendance this year, but I also noticed that many people grabbed their info packet, t-shirt, and shoe ID and left. We stayed and listened to the the opening comments, met the coaches, did a warm up run, stretched, and ran some more. I found a comfortable spot in the middle of the C group, and I'm quite thrilled to be there. As far this morning's run went, I was pretty happy with getting an almost 10 minute mile average without pushing it too hard. Last year I had a little anxiety about being right between the B and C groups (I averaged between a 8:30 to 9:00 minute mile) and eventually I found my comfort zone with track workouts with the C group and long runs with the B group. (FYI, C group is a 9:30 minute mile and slower, B group is 7:30 to a 9 minute mile, A group is a 7 minute mile and faster.) This year it isn't about a time goal. It's about being there and taking care of unfinished business. This will most likely be the last time I train for and run in a marathon. The picture is supposed to be of our beloved head coach Paul talking about the track club , but it was starting to drizzle and I hurried to get a picture with my cell phone, making it look like you need your glasses on to see it. As I had already stated, a lot of people did not stick around because of the weather, but I did see plenty of familiar faces and a lot of hugs were exchanged. My husband was equally happy to see familiar faces, too. Oh, and our C group is called "Air Supply." Ick. All's I can think of is the song "All Out Of Love" on the easy listening station we had to have on the radio at another doctor's office I worked at. The song is just OK, but it's played in the same set of about 12 easy listening songs over and over again. So much for a hard pumping, motivational running song.

Yesterday's song:
Always On My Mind - Willie Nelson

PEACE

Baby, It's Cold Outside

YESTERDAY
I can't believe what an absolutely gorgeous day it was here in paradise. Temperatures in my 'hood almost hit 70 degrees. I opened up the house. Man, that sure felt good. Rain is on the way, so I took advantage of the glorious sunshine. I talked my grandson into picking tangerines, playing with his cars, and getting the dog to play fetch. I'm still dealing with cold symptoms, but it sure felt good to bask in the sunshine. Then I phoned my sister, the one in Illinois. She informed me that it was -3 degrees in Wheaton. Then she told me to shut up. Ha ha.

TODAY
It's a blustery shade of grey today, and lightly raining. I'm feeling a little bit better and, just perhaps, it will be a good day to make some Christmas cookies with my grandson, and just get that nice, warm, cozy feeling to the house.

OTHER STUFF
OK, I'll be the first to admit that we're spoiled with the weather here in Southern California. It's not just the people who are spoiled. I took this picture of my dog, Logan, this morning, snuggling up to the space heater:


Friday's song:
Christmas In America - Melissa Etheridge


PEACE

One Day In My Life

Rain!

I know that parts of the country are drenched right now, but we've had little to no rain for months. I can't remember the last time we had a good rain. Maybe January? I can't be sure. While I took care of some errands this morning it rained big fat drops, and I actually turned on my windshield wipers. We're justthisclose to mandatory water conservation here, and those big fat drops were a welcomed sight. The little shower didn't last long enough. I hope we get more precipitation out of the now grey and ominous looking sky.

Other stuff...

Commercials. I'm gonna vent a little. I am glad that the horse racing season at Del Mar is for a relatively short time. Their commercial drives me nuts. More specifically, it's the song that accompanies the commercial that drives me nuts. It's in a faux simile style of Christina Aguilera about 5 or 6 years ago with all the jazzy ad-lib vocal runs. Maybe 5 years ago the commercial would have been more appropriate, but now it just gets on my nerves. I have to hit the mute button on our TV controller each time that particular commercial airs. For me, it's like nails on a chalk board. Next, is that they're taking songs I like and putting them on commercials. Sometimes that's OK, like the song Paradise by Ana Laan which is used in a Dove deodorant commercial, but when they chop the song to fit the commercial, then it ruins the song. I'm did like the song The Story by Brandi Carlile, but they're using that song in a car commercial, and they chopped the heck out of it. *sigh* I'm not liking that.

I haven't said hot yet. HOT!

Honestly, I'll be glad when Blog365 is over. I've missed a handful of days but I've stuck by daily posting. Once the year is up, that's it. No more daily posting. By the way, I won't be adhering to daily posting while on vacation. I might do a couple of posts, but it's vacation!!!

Yesterday's song:
Candlelight - Richard Eliot

PEACE

Right Place, Wrong Time

Have you ever gone to an appointment only to find out it's on another day? I almost did that today. I though I had a hair appointment this morning and rushed out of the house, passing the Jehovah's Witness ladies who were trying to save me as I hurried to get into my car, then drove about three blocks, only to find the appointment card in the center console in my car with the actual date and time ~ this Friday. The good thing is that I wasn't late for my appointment. Heh. The not so good thing is that I got up and out early, instead of slowly savoring my steamy cup of coffee while still in my pajamas and Ugg boots. It's a rainy day off. I did manage to visit the grocery store for the ingredients to make chicken enchiladas, so the drive was not a waste.

Here's my valid excuse for bad spelling, typos and bad grammar...



Lumpy always wants to cozy up with me while I'm blogging. It's hard to type when a 18 pound kitty is insistent on sitting on my lap, rubbing his face into the keyboard and kneading the fabric on my jeans.

Yesterday's song:
Running - No Doubt - Smartypantz

Peace

The Sky Is Crying

Activity: Run
Date: 01/05/08 08:00 AM
Distance: 3.30 miles
Time: 0:28:00
Speed: 7.1 mph
Pace: 8' 28 min/mile
Calories: 304

We met up with the SDTC nice and early this morning. There were about 600 of us. They went over who all the people to know were, what to expect, and what groups we're in. They have the A, B, and C groups. I put myself in the C group. This consisted of people who run a 9 minute mile or slower. I suppose I could have been in the B group, but my husband asked me to be with him in the C group. I guess it's better to run in the front of the C group instead of bringing up the rear in the B group. They said we can move up or down in what ever group we're in, so it's not like I'm stuck there if I feel like it's too slow. It also rained and never let up once. Our group was supposed to do a 30 minute run around the track, but we ended up doing an out and back run, which I did in 28 minutes, DH did it in 36 minutes. We were all pretty soaked when we were done. I'm so glad I decided NOT to wear my long sleeved cotton t-shirt. Wicking material is great for rain. Oh,and since this is training for the Rock 'N' Roll Marathon, each group has a name of a rock band. I can't remember what A group is called, but B group is Rush and C group is Cake. They came up with and voted on these names last season. I like cake and I like Cake.




Yesterday's song:
A Day Without Rain - Enya

Peace

Red Rain

Upper Body Workout - Bowflex - Lats, shoulders, biceps, triceps, chest.

If we decide to run in an event this weekend, we'll most likely run in the Jingle Bell 5k - Benefiting the Arthritis Foundation. My husband said he would run in that one with me if we do run. There's also rain in the forecast for tomorrow, which, ironically, wreaks havoc on people with arthritis, including me. We'll see how it all goes.

Yes, it's raining. Not only am I spoiled by the normally wonderful Southern California weather, but so are my animals...

Two of my cats and the dog are pictured here, in the near vicinity of a portable floor heater. The cat on the floor - under the chair, Luna, has declared war on the dog, Logan, and major hissing and claws are usually involved. This is a very rare moment, that Logan and Luna are cohabiting peacefully for the sake of warmth.



At the upper left hand corner is my big tabby cat, Lumpy, AKA Artimes. He's hard to see in the first photo, but he really is there, hiding... See?



Finally, it's the last day of NaBloPoMo. I've officially posted every day this month. I did notice that I did mess up one day, and that was yesterday's post. I really did post it yesterday but it had the wrong date. I did the celebrity look-alike thing the day before, and kept it saved as a draft so I could add it to my post on the actual day of posting. I noticed the wrong date this morning and changed it to when I actually did write and publish the post.

Peace

Dreaming

No running or workout today. Today is a carb-load day and we still need to pick up our race numbers. The weather forecast for tomorrow implies rain, but meteorologists have been predicting rain since mid week. I've never run in an event with rain before. We'll see how it goes.

Recently, I've been having dreams about being at work. Perhaps there's a little part of me that feels guilty for not being at work all of the time, and just maybe that's why I'm dreaming about work. I dunno. I suppose this could be analyzed until the cows come home, as I'm sure there's more than one way to look dreams, depending on what theories you subscribe to. One dream was about a coworker announcing that she's pregnant. Another dream was that I showed up to work, only to find all new techs who didn't know how the office worked, and all the seasoned techs were on vacation. Where is my warm, sandy beach dream?

Peace

Mental Hopscotch

Activity: Run
Date: 09/19/07 11:24 AM
Distance: 5.02 miles
Time: 0:49:32
Speed: 6.1 mph
Pace: 9' 52 min/mile
Calories: 474

I decided that I needed a mental boost, so I went to the bay to run ~ knowing that it wouldn't be busy with tourists and the usual weekend crowd, just a few parents and their toddlers at the playground ~ it's overcast and looking like rain is near by. I ran 5.02 miles before it started to sprinkle.

At Runningskirts.com they posted a picture of me! You have to scroll down a little bit to find me here. I didn't even know they posted it until Chantal mentioned something in "comments." It was sent to them well over a month ago and I forgot all about it... That really made my day! I posted this same picture here back in August.

Peace

Please Come To Boston

Rodney Yee's Yoga DVD today. About 1 hour.

I had a good recoup on Sunday. No aches or pains, which is a major thing for me. My son wasn't feeling well so we ended up a the doctors. He went to a concert on Friday and was in the"pit." He was tossled around a little while, uh, dancing(?) with the others... He was complaing about chest pains. They did an EKG, x-rays and blood tests, just to be on the safe side, but everything came back top-notch. He's fine but the doctor Rx'ed some higher strength motrin. We also did taxes... Yep. A fun filled Sunday, indeed.

The very wet and rainy Boston Marathon was today. Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot won with an unoffical time of 2:13:14. Amazing. The women's winner was Russia's Lidiya Grigoryeva in 2:29:18. Equally amazing.





It is highly unlikely, however not totally impossible, that I would ever run in the Boston Marathon. I need a Q time of about 4 hours for my gender and age group. I'm currently working on a 5 hour or less marathon. As of right now, the only way I would make it to the Boston Marathon is if I go as a happy spectator.

On a side note...
I am super craving all of the wrong foods right now. Mac n' cheese sounds really good right now, but I can't have dairy. White butter cream frosting, Hostess Twinkies, and hot dogs also sound equally delicious... I don't even really like hot dogs all that much, they just sound really good right now. Perhaps this "need to feed" on junk is left-over from my run on Saturday? It sure isn't PMS. I know I need to semi carb load after a big run like that, and make sure I get enough protein, but, sheesh! I'm wanting all the bad stuff!

Peace

Red Rain

Tired.

I think my body is just trying to tell me to take a break. I can't really remember the last time I felt this exhausted. Even my hubbie made a comment to how tired I looked... I know there's a bunch of colds and flu's making the rounds again, so maybe that's part of it. I sorta-kinda did a workout yesterday but it was nothing to get pumped about. I just putzed around. Watched TV. I also IM'ed a friend (from high school) who I haven't corresponded with in about a year, that was cool. Even though I still have a case of the tireds , I'm gonna at least move around today, unless my body rebels. Maybe there was something to how I was feeling last Thursday. I dunno.

It's also raining today. It hasn't rained here in well over a month, so it's really nice to hear the rain hitting the roof in the sun room -- It's spooking the dog, though... She has to go outside through the sun room.

It's just one of those days... It's all good, though. It's a good day to make a huge pot of soup.



Peace