Cookin'

In addition to just everyday stuff (like teaching and being a wife and mom), this last month and a half I...

• Ran 60 miles, including an almost 8 mile run this morning (7:82 miles - 10:37 pace), my longest run since San Francisco. 
• Cycled 68 miles

My artistic rendition of last weekend when Betty and I were driving over the Coronado Bridge to meet up with Mik for our bike ride.

Actual evidence that we were in Coronado last weekend...and in biking gear.

• Celebrated Walter's Birthday (early in the month!)
• Went to three SDSU basketball games

Turbo, Walter and I on the trolley going from a basketball game to a football game

• Went to three SDSU football games (one of the football games was on the same day as a basketball game. Yes, we went to both)

We are the masters of the 15 minute tailgate!*

• Revised a report written (by someone else) about a grant project I'd worked on a year ago so that it was readable and thus, publishable.
• Decided to keep teaching and not apply for a professional development position at the college where I teach. (That was the big decision I alluded to in an early November post).
• Cooked Thanksgiving Dinner for the family
• Presented at a research conference, which was held at The Disneyland Hotel.

Cali, Belle (the bookish version) and me...dinner at the Goofy Cafe. Cali thought it would be fun...

Walter joined me at the conference after it was over and we stayed an extra night...here he is eating a beignet for breakfast and trying to not get the powdered sugar all over himself...

• Saw Millie in a play...and had dinner beforehand with the Herd!

Candycanetini

• Fell woefully behind in grading papers
• Graded what felt like about a 1000 papers eventually 

Here's the stack of papers I meant to grade over Thanksgiving, but didn't...which made the week AFTER Thanksgiving...so much fun!

• Made Gumbo for DramaGirl's field hockey banquet potluck dinner.

Yum!

• Started drafting a second report (different topic this time)
• Made Rissotto for the English department pot luck (yesterday...sorry no photos), then came home and made two breakfast casseroles for Betty's Post-Run Birthday Breakfast this morning (yes, I was cooking at midnight last night!)
• Blogged...FOUR WHOLE TIMES....counting this one

Geez...no wonder the laundry doesn't get done! Also amazing is how creative I can be with coming up with ideas for dinner since I've gone to the grocery store only twice this month (not counting the times when I sent DG or Walter to the store to get something for me.)

At one point, a colleague, who knew that I'd been really busy, asked me if there was light at the end of the tunnel. I told him that I was confident that a tunnel existed SOMEWHERE, and I also believed that once I found the tunnel, there'd be light at the end of it.

In any event, I am here to report that I've found the tunnel, and yes there is light at the end of it, and yes, I can see the light. Thank goodness.

So, I'm still here...and blogging will again become something that I do semi-regularly. Until then, I leave you with this.

Christmas in SoCal babeee... I so want to drive by this at night and see what is UP with that screen in the back!

Wish Happy Birthday to Betty! She gets to move up an age-group this year and is so very, very, very happy about it!

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* I was posting updates about the sports-event Saturday on FB and Keith asked me to explain tailgating... so for Keith in Canada... In the US we meet in the parking lot before sporting events like football games to eat and drink before the game. This may be, in part, because food and beverages inside the stadiums are mediocre (in most places) at best and really ridiculously expensive at worst. Probably the word "tailgating" comes from some old-school notion about pulling up in a pickup truck before a game, pulling down the tailgate, and using it as a buffet line. 

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes...

School started this week for me (hence I was "off the grid" for the past few days). The first week of "back to work" for teachers includes LOTS of meetings (one of which I completely forgot to go to...sigh), sending emails, getting syllabi and copies ready for the first week. The actual TEACHING of classes doesn't start until Monday.

One of the things I noticed this week as I was talking to my colleagues is that, for the most part, we fell into two camps...those who felt that "they weren't ready" for school to start. Most of those people taught summer school, so they hadn't had much of a break. The rest were rested, and eager, and mostly said that they were ready to go back to teaching.

I certainly fell into the latter camp. For the first time, maybe ever, I felt like I had enough vacation. I'm rested and am ready to get back at it. It was a great summer. I got to run two half-marathons, I got to travel with friends and family. I certainly had a fair amount of "down time" and way more than enough wine!

It's kinda a nice feeling.

Going back to school is one way that I know that the summer is (or is almost) over. Another signal that my summer is coming to a close is my mid-August birthday, which I quietly celebrated about a week ago.

When I was younger, I made a pretty big deal out of Birthday Week. Heck for a while in my 20's, I considered the whole month of August my "Birthday Month!" (As in, "Hey bartender...It's BIRTHDAY MONTH...shouldn't this round of drinks be "on the house?" You might be surprised at how well this worked!)

Now that I'm (ahem) older, I am decidedly more low key about my birthday. Until this year, I kept my birthday private on Facebook. This year, I made it non-private because some people, when they learned it was my birthday a week after the fact, chastised me for keeping it private.

I'll be honest...the birthday wishes from FB were really nice.

So was my birthday (not a week...but a couple of days of celebrating). On Wednesday, I met up with Mik, Elsie, and Betty at Mik's house. It was the first time we'd been together since the Napa to Sonoma half. We got to hear about Elsie's adventures in Guatemala. (Her dad is a doctor and she participates in an annual trek to South America where her father and other surgeons provide health care services to the people there. She is a translator and always comes back with good stories...and this year, a good luck doll...for the dolls!)

Cute! No? Thanks Elsie!

Mik served the birthday cookies on her family birthday plate...how cool is THAT?

On my actual birthday (Friday). I went for a run at Lake BP. For the past year or so, the road around the lake had been closed about 2 miles in for repair. It's now open all the way, so I got a 5.5 mile run in.

Locals will recognize the target at Lake BP...the lap doesn't count unless you tag the sign!!!

That night Walter and I took our kids to the track so that they could learn the important life skill of betting on ponies.

I bet on the 8 horse in the 6th race in honor of Mona. Damn mule came in last...

Actually, I've had really good luck betting horses this season, but only in the first two races I see. The first time I went to the track, in the first two races, I correctly picked a quinella (where you bet on two horses that you think will come in first and second, but in no particular order). 

I had my friends thinking I was a betting goddess, but then I didn't bet on another winner for the rest of the day.

Then on my birthday, I correctly picked another quinella in the third race, which was the second race I saw...and then not another winner, or even close, for the rest of the day.

So, in the future, I think I will not bet on any races past the 3rd.

Turbo likes betting longshots thinking that if one of 'em hits, he'll win loads of money. Sadly, one of his first memories of being at the track is choosing on a 50:1 longshot to win, so he thinks that this is a common occurrence now.

DramaGirl made this gorgeous thing! Consumed at home later that evening (and for the next couple of days) It was a lime-berry pie that was super rich and yummy!

So...this year, I turned 49. Wow. One year away from 50. I'm in my 50th year of life.

I'm not sure what 50 is supposed to feel like. I've read that 50 is the new 40, whatever that means. I'll also be honest that the prospect of turning 50 has me a bit wigged out. I know that some will say that "age doesn't matter. It's how you feel that counts" and while a huge amount of that adage is certainly true, age does matter in how you feel.

Doesn't matter how you slice it. 50 sorta sounds...well you know...old.

40 has been a great decade so far. I earned a doctorate. I started running and have had some absolutely wonderful adventures with some great women as a result of "being a runner." I've raised two great kids out of toddler-hood and into teenage-hood. I continue to be happily married to a great man. I have nothing but good to say about my 40s.

But there's a nagging voice in the back of my head that wonders how long can this continue? Certainly, life is going to change. It always does. It, of course, already has. If someone had told me when I was 39 that I would earn a degree, change jobs, start running, change jobs AGAIN, run a marathon, many halves, and even do a few long bike rides, I'd have probably been a bit incredulous.

That really wasn't me then. It is me now. I've changed.

So while I shouldn't be wigged out about change, I am. The changes that I went through in my 40s were very positive, yes, but I know that it won't always be so. I know that my body will, eventually, not allow me to run any longer (I may be 90 when this happens, but it will happen). Even now some of "the herd" complain, suggest that not ALL of our adventures need to culminate in a 13.1 mile run. Maybe we could look for some 10Ks instead? Maybe we could go somewhere and not run at all? Maybe we could ride Segways (that was for Mik who is morally opposed to such things).

I know my body is changing, some of it for the good (I may be in the best shape of my life...definitely the best shape of my adult life...and by adult life, I mean the part of my life that started in my 30s. I dont' really consider my 20s adulthood...it was more an extended adolescence.)

But some other aspects of a changing/aging body?  Not. So. Good. This became clear to me when I went to the gym last night. I didn't actually go the gym to workout. I had signed Turbo up for a gym membership so that he could go there after school with a couple of his friends. It is definitely the least expensive after school program I've ever paid for. Anyway, as the membership director walked us around the gym and was (of course) trying to get me to purchase some personal training sessions (I also belong to the same gym, so personal training isn't an entirely outlandish idea), he also asked me what my training goals were. Whenever I'm asked this question, I always mention running and how any strength training that I do is generally focused on increasing endurance in long runs and/or riding.

He took one look at me and talked to me about improving my posture because "as we grow older, our shoulders tend to start hunching over..."

HUH? Grow older? Hunching over? WTF????

But I can look at myself in the mirror and I see the hunch. I see the difference between a young person's posture and mine.

GAH! GROWING OLD SUCKS!!!!...I'm just saying...and there. I've said it.

Sigh...

So, I will fight these NOT. SO. FRIGGIN' POSTIVE changes as best I can, but getting older really pisses me off.

For One Week Only! We're DINKs

DramaGirl and Turbo are at camp this week, so Walter and I are sans kids.

So on Monday, Walter went to the Charger game (lousy Chargers...they DO look good in those throwback jerseys, but really, they suck otherwise...we blame the coach)

On Tuesday, Walter and I went to the SDTC* workout and ran with Elsie. It was the first Tuesday night workout I'd been to in MONTHS and it was fun to have Walter there, but the workout was really, really hard (5 x 1000 repeats on the freekin' grass!)**

After the workout we went to dinner at Ortegas, a fabulous Mexican restaurant, had some wonderful shrimp tacos and margaritas and didn't have to worry about getting home at any point to pay a sitter.

Yummy non-mix-made Margaritas. And how can you complain about a $2.00 margarita anyway?

Tonight, Walter and I went to (yes) another Mexican restaurant called Ranas. This one had "Mexico City" style food (which is different than border food). I had Pollo a la Chipolte, which was in a cream sauce with sauteed onions and mushrooms (like I said, not Baja style Mexican food). It was yummy and delicious.... which is not at all repetitious!

In other words, without kids, I'm not cooking this week.

Tomorrow, I'm getting my hair done (can you say GRAY?)...maybe a late dinner w/my date.

Kids are back on Friday and we'll resume our regularly scheduled life.

____________________________

* I am soooooo not going to another SDTC workout in Balboa park where we run on the grass. I read in Runner's World last month that running on grass is really bad for PF and Achilles issues because of the uneven surfaces...can I just say, UH, YEAH! My foot is KILLING me today.

** I have some words for my insurance company about how my foot was "functional" after 6 treatments. Define "functional" for me, will ya? GAH!

A Shower, a Bar, and Some Verbal Vomit

So...you'd think I could scrounge a post together over the weekend about our absolutely marvelous six mile run around the island of Coronado (which isn't really an island, more of an isthmus really, but I digress, and if I'm incorrect about the geological label for the place, Betty will correct me) and subsequent breakfast with Irene and Michael at The High Dive...

Yum...mimosas!

You'd also think I could wax on poetically about the freekin' AWESOME 6-mile, pain-free run, (in my new running accessory no less).

Yes...it IS quite attractive, but since it helped with the knee-clicking and pain I've been having, I'll continue to wear it even though it acts as a too-small knee-fat girdle.

Once again, Mik ran in the stapled pants...

Running Stats...6 miles, 1:09:14, 11:31/mi

And you'd also think I'd take some time to retell some excellent stories about how we drank mimosas and told ridiculous jokes about The High Dive coffee mugs.

The High Dive has the MOST random assortment of coffee mugs at their self-serve station. How can you NOT love a place that has a Reno coffee mug...especially when it's not even in Reno?

But you'd be wrong...

It was a very busy weekend...

First of all, on Saturday night Walter, the kids, and I met some friends at the stadium to watch an SDSU Aztec game which was followed by the KGB Sky Show. For the non-locals, KGB is a local radio station (classic rock...thank you very much) and for years they promote an absolutely amazing fireworks show after a sporting event.

Betty and I at the Sky Show

THEN...On Sunday, I went furniture shopping for a new sofa and a media cabinet of some sort, and it took all day (and trust me, "furniture shopping" is not a euphemism for ANYTHING fun).

Here's the sofa I think I like...haven't settled on the media cabinet yet...GAH! There are just too many of them...all different sizes and colors and shapes and I JUST CAN'T DECIDE!!!!

The sofa and media cabinet will go in this room...the room with the new bar!

I promised a few members of the herd that I'd post some pictures of the new bar... Bar breaking in will occur as soon as the rest of the room has some furniture!

It is a really loooong bar...which I have wanted since we moved into this house almost 10 years ago...and now I have one!

Also, thank goodness that after a month of sharing a shower with DramaGirl and Turbo, our master-bath shower is also finished. I told Teresa I'd post some photos of that...so here's another batch.

Inside the shower. DramaGirl took this photo...she was standing on a bench.

Outside the shower

The whole bathroom...I really should straighten the counter before I broadcast photos of my messiness to the world...sorry mom.

Anyway, the whole shopping experience gave me a headache, and I was EXHAUSTED by Sunday night, so no bloggy-blog-blog about the weekend (so sorry).

Then Monday came, and I woke up early for a quick 30 minute dreadmill run (I haven't done that in AGES). Once again, no pain...I averaged 5.5 mph (about a 10:54 mm) for 30 minutes. AWESOME!

Then I was off to do that teaching thing that I have to do. Darn it if THAT didn't take the whole day!

Most importantly, Monday night was our once-a-month Dinner Club...which is where some of the running-heffers force invite the husbands to go out to dinner with us...although for some reason the number of running-heffer husbands seems to be dwindling.

I wonder if it's because we spent considerable time talking about this item...

According to this website, Go Girl is "a female urination device (sometimes called a FUD) that allows you to urinate while standing up. It’s neat. It’s discreet. It’s hygienic."

AWESOME! Seriously, you have to go to the website and click on the "demo" link...it's priceless. I think it'll be a perfect stocking stuffer...

I imagine that we decided upon FUDs as enlightening dinner-table conversations because before dinner, Mik, Dr. Elsie, Betty and I met at Parky's (a nearby dive bar) for a pre-dinner cocktail.

Parkys...doesn't the strip-mall frontage tell you everything about the place? It is located next to a Big Lots... which also tells you much about the place...

It took me three U-Turns and a text message to Betty asking "where the F is this place?" to find it.

But it was well worth the effort. We loved this bar and here's why

• Happy Hour Hors D'ouerves were being served out of a crock pot
  
• Everyone who was a regular came in the back door.
• They had two beers on tap, Bud and Bud Light
• They wouldn't take a credit or ATM card, but would take a personal check
• The drinks were REALLY strong
  
• Elsie ordered a glass of wine...which the bartender poured out of (I am NOT making this up) what appeared be a cranberry juice bottle...we assumed it was box wine.
• After one sip, Dr. Elsie noted that it did NOT taste like "Chardonnay."

We are sooooooo going back there one day.

This month we had dinner at The Fish Merchant.

Betty, Mik, and Dr. Elsie with The Fish Merchant...Mik made sure she got a hand on both bass...

Have a great week everyone! I'm off to PT in the morning... If I had blogged AT ALL this weekend I would have given a big shout out to my PT, Brett, who finished the Malibu Olympic Triathlon this weekend in 2:30. (I couldn't stalk him, but I did check his results!). Way to go Brett!

17 Years

First things first...I promised that there'd be a drawing on Saturday for a fabulous set of Exercise Anywhere cards...and since there were several of you who said you didn't want to be included in the drawing, I thought that I'd use a random sequence generator and the first number that came up that also belonged to someone who said he/she wanted the cards, would get them...

So...here's the sequence list

And the first number is 10.

And the 10th comment was from Lisa Slow & Steady from Chasin' Bunnies...so CONGRATS Lisa, you win the cards! Send me an email with your mailing address and I'll send 'em out to you.

So...onto other stuff.

This weekend was pretty busy (which is why I didn't get to the drawing until Sunday night). Saturday was my and Walter's 17th wedding anniversary.

First, a few words about my Walter, who puts up with me and my kind of crazy. He has been my rock and support system for almost 20 years now, including the 17 that we've been married. Whenever I get some nutty idea about what I want to do next, he's supportive and almost never looks at me like I'm insane (he might be thinking it, but he has enough sense to wait and roll his eyes when I'm NOT looking).

Seriously, with no conversation, or no plan, or  forewarning, one day about 8 years ago, I came home from work one day and announced that I'd applied to a doctoral program..."Guess what honey, I'm going back to school! You don't mind taking care of lots of extra stuff where childcare and running the household is concerned while I earn this degree, do you?"

My decision to start running wasn't made so suddenly. It was more of a gradual lifestyle change, but similarly, one day I came home and announced that I was going to start training to run a marathon. "Hey honey, you don't mind if I take off for a few hours every Saturday morning to run for a few hours do you?"

Now I'm thinking triathlon. He never bats an eye, or complains (really...not much) about when I take off to do my long runs, or rides, or weekend trips to races with the herd.

In fact, he loves my friends. They entertain him as much as they do me.

I'm just plain lucky to have married such a patient, loving guy*. Since I've been biatching and moaning for the last couple of weeks about my various aches and pains, I thought I'd stop for a moment and remark on the remarkable guy I married 17 years ago, and the blessed life I get to live with the person who is, in fact, my very best friend.

So, on Saturday, Walter and I "did the town" and by that I mean that we went to several places to eat and drink.

First, we went to the Hotel Del Coronado, and had some Mojitos on an outdoor deck and listened to a Jimmy Buffett cover band. I was one of the only people on the deck yelling "Salt! Salt! Salt!" (all of the Parrotheads know what I'm talking about, the rest of you are probably going "huh?")

Then we went for a walk on the beach

Next we went to have Sushi (which again, is just a gift to me because Walter doesn't really like Sushi all that much, so he endures it for my sake because I LOVE it!)

He does look pretty thrilled about the sushi, doesn't he?

They also had a Happy Hour special on Sake...which we had to have (buy one, get one for $1.00? how can you go wrong?...geez, I'm a cheap date.

Then, we went to a place called Extraordinary Desserts...(seriously, if you want a cheap thrill...follow the link...I'll wait).

Yeah...extraordinary. We had some kind of fresh fruit tart with peach custard in a meringue bowl. YUM!

Finally, we went to Hospitality Point (where I've spent a considerable amount of time in the early morning because this is where the track club tends to meet for the Rock and Roll Training) to watch the sun set.

Awesome...

17 years...Wow. Just. Wow!

Then we went home...and that's all I'll say about that...

Except for Happy Anniversary Sweetie. I love you!
_________________________
* To illustrate the saintliness of Walter...On Sunday morning, I got up at the butt-crack of dawn to go for a bike ride... Yep, that's love. But I'll write more about that later.

Bikerides, Trash TV, Big Kayaks, Foreigner, and Too Much Wine

Do you ever have those weekends where you flit from one activity to the next thinking, "oh this'll be a great thing to blog about" and then you NEVER have two flipping seconds to actually sit down and blog about it?

Welcome to my weekend...

So, if I were to actually sit down and blog about all the randomness of the weekend, this blog would win the "All Time Longest Blog Ever Written Award" so, since it's Monday night, I'm gonna just post some pictures.

Friday - Bike ride at Lake PB with DramaGirl and Turbo

At the fence we stopped for a drink. I'm just glad that we made it without a major meltdown on the part of any of us.

After multiple attempts at trying to take a self portrait, finally one shot that includes all three of us!

Funny line of the afternoon...there was an older gentleman riding his bike past us (giving us the rear-view), then toward us (giving us the frontal-view) wearing, unfortunately, a really skimpy Speedo.

Why?

Turbo looked at me, laughed and said "That's just wrong mom."

I gotta agree with that!

Friday night - Real Housewives of New Jersey/The Cougar Viewing Party

I have nothing to say about either one of these shows, other than I'll probably watch the Housewives again, because it's just too trashy and fun, and because they call their breasts "bubbies," but The Cougar was just too creepy...way beyond trash.

We did have some fine trashy snacks though.

Orange fruit candy (the fruit course), cheeze whiz in a can, Vienna sausages, and the mandatory pastrami-wrapped cream cheese pickles (I'm still swollen from the sodium intake).

We made a special plate for Elsie. Vienna Sausage with tomatoes...cuz we are so mature... I knew she'd never eat a Vienna Sausage. She cringes whenever I order shell fish. I tell her I don't want to know where it comes from or what it ate when it was alive.

Saturday - Take it easy day

Nothing to report - I did move the pool furniture out on the deck and cleaned it off. I did not go run with the SDTC because they ran in Oceanside (which is just really, really, really, far) and since this is supposed to be a 1/2 Mary taper week, I really didn't need to run 17 miles.

We did have some wine with our friends Jean and Tom...for those of you who are keeping count, that's two nights in a row drinking wine for me...

Sunday - Torrey Pines taper run

Elsie, Betty and I decided to give THE HILL at Torrey Pines one more go. The difference between the previous weekend, and this past weekend (well...in addition to the wine), on Sunday it was relatively warm. As usual, the heat HURT.

It was a beautiful day. Since I was run/walking, I took lots of pictures. Here are Betty and Elsie with Torrey Pines State Beach in the background

Random signs in the state park...I mean is nudity such an issue that there needs to be a sign that tells it's prohibited? (Although, this may have been one of the trails that leads down to Blacks Beach. I, of course, wouldn't know about THAT)

I took this shot on the way down the hill...nice shot of the trees

Wait a FREEKIN' MINUTE. I think this guy is Elsie's BOYFRIEND!!! (Fo-Reals! Although she hasn't let us meet him yet...what's she afraid of anyway?, she did "accidentally" run into him during our run on Sunday, and in going through my pictures today I realized that I HAD AN ACTUAL PHOTO OF THE GUY! Is it him Elsie? Is it? Is it? Don't try to deny...

Of course, when we found out that Elsie had run into her new boyfriend, we had to leave a note on his car (cuz again, we're so mature that way).

We also took note of the BIG KAYAK hanging out of the back of his car

Sunday Night - Foreigner!

One would think that a bike ride, a trash TV viewing party, friends over for wine, and a taper run would be enough for one weekend...but noooooooooooo, I had to go to see Foreigner on Sunday NIGHT as well...

Yes, the maturity of a 12 year old, and I sometimes think I'm still 25 as well...WTF? Oh, and I think that all of April has been '80s month for me anyway, so why not go to Foreigner concert...

Mona, me, Edith, and Daisy (who makes a blog appearance) with our iPhone Zippo lighters during "Blue Monday."

Dolly and Momma - rockin' (or Momma is wondering what she did to end up in this place)

The view from our seats (beginning of the concert)

The view after Mona and I decided to get closer to the stage (actually I just credit Mona who has amazing persuasive powers and convinced the security guy that the band NEEDED us near the stage...)

OH YEAH! Me, Mona, and Edith, backstage with the lead singer after the concert because some random woman gave Mona and I some backstage passes...

May I just add that this kind of thing NEVER happens to me. Again, it was the pretty, young, chick that I was hanging out with...but still, I'll take it!

So, I was VERY tired today, and I'm VERY tired tonight, and I'm STILL singing Foreigner songs in my head...

Thank goodness today was Monday. I needed some REST!