This and That - By the Numbers

• 4 - Number of Blog Posts for March (counting this one - so long as I manage to post it by midnight).
• 10 - Miles I ran this morning - longest run since the Carlsbad Half in January.
• 4 - Miles I ran yesterday
• 1 - Number of condoms I ran past this morning.
• 2 - Number of times I ran past above mentioned condom.
• 1 - Number of bugs that flew into my eye during the run.
• 4092 - Code to get into the ladies room at some coffee house I ran into in Encinitas. "Please!" I shouted, "A bug flew in my eye, can I use your ladies room?" She gave me the code immediately. I may have to remember this next time I have that other type of runners emergency...
• 4 - Times I yelled "BIKE BACK!" this morning, so that runners ahead of me would get out of the way of riders.
• 0 - Number of photos I took during the run this morning, which is a shame because we ran on the coast, and the surf was awesome!

4 - Number of photos that were taken of us consuming mimosas after the run - Priorities, priorities

• 46 - Miles that Mik and I rode last Saturday with the Trek bike group. By the end of the ride, I KNOW I needed someone barking "RUNNER RIGHT!" at me, so making runners aware of bikes is now my thing.
• 473 - Times I barked "SLOOOOOOWINNNNNNNG" and "ROLLLLLLLLLINNNNNNNG" on that long ride. I am slowly realizing that riding in a group is a LOT about letting everyone else know what's going on.
• 7 - Schools we rode past last week. I have no idea where any of them are though. One of the things I do notice about riding in a group. I'm paying so much attention to what everyone else is dong ("SLOOOOOOWINNNNNNNG, STAAAAAWWWWWWPING, ROLLLLLLLLLINNNNNNNG, POLE!, HOLE! RUNNER UP! BIKE LEFT, WALKER RIGHT! CAR DOOR!) that I barely pay attention to where I even am!
• 200 - Number of riders who stood in line to use 2 restrooms at our 1/2-way point SAG stop.
• 10 - Number of people who would have stood in line if it were runners. Come on, you know that many of you would have found a bush.
• 4 - Times I've seen the play L'il Abner this week (you weren't expecting THAT were you?)

Turbo is playing "General Bullmoose" in the PPJT production of Li'l Abner. No, I wasn't familiar with the play either. Here he is after Thursday night's performance with DramaGirl and Millie

• 9 - More days until I have to teach again...thank GAWD for Spring Break this year.
• 188 -Papers I graded last week.
• 16 - Number of classes I taught.
• 4 - Meetings I attended - Three of them were on Wednesday.
• 3 - Spinning classes I've now gone to, and nobody is more surprised by that than I am, but I like the workout!
• 1 - Number of massages I got this week. I have NO IDEA why I don't get massages more often because It was WONDERFUL. Next time, however, I'll get one AFTER a long run, and not before. I certainly felt the effects of the deep tissue massage...well basically the whole time I ran this morning.

The Rest of the Story...Three Days at Tahoe

When I last wrote (what? a two week hiatus? WTF is up with THAT Alice?), we had finished the Napa to Sonoma half-marathon and done our last wine tasting at the post-race festivities.

That day Betty and I said goodbye to Mik and Elsie, who had to head back to SoCal to go to work (nasty four letter word), and we packed up the car, our girls, all our wine, and headed to North Lake Tahoe and Momma's cabin.

It was THERE, that we got to rest. Wel...sorta.

Mountain stream that runs near Momma's cabin....LOTS of water this summer. LOTS!

Momma and Betty on one of our walks...that's a patch of snow behind them...in JULY!

Let's just say that Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful areas. We took walks through the mountains. We went to the beach at King's Beach. The water was friggin cold, but I was willing to swim in it because it's fresh water and you don't feel all salty and crusty when you get out.

Nice panoramic shot of the beach at North Tahoe. It's unbelievable to me that those mountains STILL have a fair amount of snow on them.

It wasn't all sitting around and walking. One morning Betty and I went to play Pickleball, which is sorta like playing Ping Pong (or Table Tennis for those of you are aficionados), but you're on a court.

Blurry action shots courtesy of DramaGirl

Why is it that Betty looks like an athlete and I look like I'm out for a cup of tea?

I had never even heard of Pickleball, but one of Momma's friends was an AVID player and he asked Betty (the athletic one) if she wanted to play a pickup game....and Betty took me along. I want to make it clear that I did NOT embarrass myself or Betty. Pickleball, it turns out, will be taking the country by storm. I thought it would be more of a drinking sport (like Over the Line....or Golf), but it turns out that you can actually work up a sweat playing Pickleball. In fact, the next day, we both had some achy muscles, having used muscles that are not normally used during running.

But mostly, we hung out and relaxed. We watched way too much Bravo one afternoon (and Betty and I drank some of the wine we had with us). It was wonderful.

Our last day...lunch with Millie and Betty at Tahoe City

DramaGirl and me at the Tahoe City Dam, where the lake becomes the Truckee River

The next morning, DramaGirl and I left for our next destination...Kansas City. We left from Reno on a 6:20am, at the butt-crack of dawn, flight. Betty drove like a bat-outta-hell to get us to the airport in time because I completely lost track of time and we didn't leave Momma's cabin until about 5:10...and it's about a 45 minute drive to Reno from her place...you do the map.

All I can say is thank goodness that Reno has a small airport.

Thanks so much to Betty for driving and for all the adventurs...and especially to Momma for letting us stay with her. It was WONDERFUL.

Next up: Kansas City - HOT, HOT, HOT and HUMID. (also...I won't wait two weeks to write about it...I promise...I really need to get caught up with this before school starts).