The Money Pit (and other topics)

I started a post two nights ago...but it's been one of those weeks, and I was pretty surly about work, and the house, and life. But I finally came to grips with reality and realized that I really have nothing to be surly about, so I deleted the post. It was really was really, really, REALLY too whiney...even for me.

So...this week has been all about the money pit (aka our house), DramaGirl (aka -soon to be middle school promoted*), work, and a little bit of running thrown in for good measure.

The Money Pit
On the house front...10 years ago, we bought a "fixer" and we've been "fixing" it ever since. It's our  very own money pit. Most of this is my fault because I have a GOD DAMN VISION for this house and come hill or high water, I will see my VISION come to pass. Walter, would live in a shed and be happy (so long as there was a little black and white TV that he could watch sports on... You may think I'm exaggerating, but you'd be wrong.)

Anyway, after several years of whining and nagging and suggesting and plotting, I finally got Walter to agree to put in a pool about 4 summers ago. LOVE the pool. But, I've been looking at a hill of dirt behind a retaining wall for about 4 years thinking it would make a LOVELY upper patio. Finally, this week, we poured the pad.

Pouring concrete...amazingly difficult work. The concrete is brown, so it's not just dirt your're seeing.

OK...so now there's another concrete pad above the pool. So what's the big deal? And No, that box of Corona is not a landscape feature....

OH...now I get it. I'm talking about the view,  not the Corona... It's just filled with random crap...I swear.

See...

So...much of the week included me dealing with the contractor and the cement guy.

DramaGirl
The other part of this week has been all about DramaGirl, who is "promoting" from 8th grade to high school. We went to the high school registration this morning. She'll be going to the high school where i used to teach, so I have relatively few worries. After school today, I took her and two of her friends to a nail place to get pedicures and manicures...they're such chicks!

DramaGirl and friends getting pedicures...

Runs
I don't wanna write about work because it's BORING...but I will write about running! I managed to get in THREE WHOLE RUNS THIS WEEK. (Can I hear a WOOT! WOOT!)

• Monday - Walter and I ran around our very hilly neighborhood. MEH! I have some hill work to do to get ready for San Francisco next month. We KNOW that won't be a flat course. (3.03 miles, 34 minutes)
• Tuesday - I went to the SDTC track club workout. Walter was meeting with a client in Ontario***, so he had to miss it. Too bad. It was a tough-ass workout! 2 mile tempo run followed by a set of 8 x 100 strides (with calestentics) and another set of 8 x 100 sprints, followed by more sit-ups, planks, and other evil core exercises. OMG it was tough (and it was the first workout of the season...an alleged "easy recovery workout" for those who'd run the marathon. I'm wondering if I should be scared...very scared.
• Wednesday - My back ached...could it have been all the dropping to the ground and sitting up/plank/pushup action I was into the night before (Don't get all excited G, I'm still talking about the track club workout).
• Thursday - Three mile treadmill run. Used to love the 'mill. Now I can barely tolerate it. My whole goal, once I get on the 'mill is to see how quickly I can pound out three miles. Today it took me 32 minutes.

Tomorrow, Walter and I are going to do some strength training and Saturday, our second run with the track club's 1/2 Mad Group. Oh yeah...and there's this little "promotion" exercise in the morning.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone and Happy Father's day to all the dads out there!
____________________________

* They don't call 8th grade "graduation" here. They call it "promotion" instead. So tomorrow morning, there's going to be a "promotion" ceremony. I'm  pretty much OK with the nomenclature. I mean after all, it's 8th grade. But to be honest, all the hoopla certainly makes it FEEL like a graduation**. 


** Also if we call someone who is graduating a graduate, do we call someone who is promoting a promoate?


***There's an Ontario in California too. I am sure it is nowhere near as lovely as the one north of the border. The Ontario in SoCal is mostly known for what might be the most enormous strip mall EVAH. When driving from the south, you're also grateful when you get to Ontario because that means you're past  Norco, which is the most toxic smelling place EVAH due to the methane emitting from all the COWS!****


**** Heffers do NOT emit methane. Not like this anyway. I'm just sayin'

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!

I Never Thought I'd See Those Studs Again

I actually started this post, about two days ago, on my iPhone... but I never finished it and now it seems lame, so I'll just start over with the same headline, mostly because I like the headline, even though it will really have not much to do with this post... except for this...

Yeah...we remodeled our house when we bought it...I really never thought I'd see these wall studs again...

Contractors took out the floor and two feet of wall in DramaGirl's bedroom due to dry rot and termite damage!

So...I'm living at a construction site. Hopefully, we'll be done with the walls and floors by mid-week, but I'll still be living sans one shower for another couple of weeks. Until then, we are living like this... I have no idea where ANYTHING is...GAH!

That's all the furniture from my kids rooms, stacked around the house... clearly my kids have too much stuff...at least the remodel is a good opportunity to weed out some stuff.

OK...enough of that topic. Onto other more interesting Hefferblog fodder, because tomorrow is the America's Finest City 1/2 Marathon!!!!  Mik, Betty and I went to the expo this morning to pick up our bibs. 

Expo notes

• We took Walter's car, a Honda Accord. I drive an SUV (yes, I am one of THOSE moms...but it is a Honda Pilot, not a too-huge tank-car). In any event, I don't like driving Walter's car. I feel like Fred Flintstone in it. I admit it. I prefer being UP HIGHER where I can see what's in front of me when I drive.
• I only did one U-turn, and that was in front of Betty's house.
• There was tons of traffic and stalled cars on the road in all sorts of random spots this morning. Maybe there are always stalled cars, but when I'm not driving the FredFlintsonemobile, I can see them ahead of me and avoid them, but not this morning.
• The Expo was small...not as low-budget as La Jolla, but not the scene that was at Carlsbad. 
• The AFC shirts are maroon this year....kinda pretty. I do wonder what all the dudes will say about them though.
• I almost bought a pair of leopard-print, dayglo lime green and black - running shorts from Gypsyrunner, but I'm a big chicken.

They're kinda tucked under the hot-pink, leopard skin print shorts...pretty HAWT don't you think?

• There was a vendor that I'd never seen (or noticed) at the Expo called "DirtyRed" and I just liked the name of the company, and the clothes were cute, and the business is owned by a woman from San Diego, so I'll give her a shout out.

I posted on FB that I'm just a little freaked out about this race. I have NEVER run a race being so woefully unprepared. In the last month, I've run only four times on real pavement, and maybe another three or four on the 'mill. The longest run I've done was only 5.5 miles...and while I've done a fair amount of cycling, none of that has been recent either. And of course, there's this...

I'm sure I'll be fine...

So...here's my race plan

• The most important thing tomorrow morning is to have fun. By this time tomorrow, Betty, Mik, Alberta and I will have run all three legs of the triple crown (finishing the Carlsbad 1/2, La Jolla 1/2, AFC 1/2 in one calendar year). I haven't been particularly healthy or whole for any of them, but I have had fun at each and every race, so that's a goal for this one as well. I'm taking my camera, my phone, and a really good attitude. I'm just happy to be running because a month ago I wasn't so sure I would be able to do this at all.
• The weather this week has been quite lovely. Unlike the last two years when Betty and I ran in just sweltering heat and/or humidity, tomorrow looks to be an absolutely wonderful running day. The morning marine layer (aka fog) has pretty much been hanging around until about 10:00 or so, which is plenty fine for me.

The sun, apparently, will come out some time between 9 and 10 am, but my goal is to be past the AVIS parking lot (about mile 9) by the time the sun comes out. That part just KILLS me every year!

• I'm going to use a run (slowly) the first 6 miles - the downhill part. Then I'll use a run 9 minutes/walk 1 minute strategy for the rest of the race.
• I will do whatever it takes to get up 6th Avenue (that last uphill part).
• I don't have a time goal for this race (liar, liar, pants on fire)...OK I do...I think I can finish in under 2:45...that's my lofty goal! 

We have to be at Balboa Park before 5:30 am to get on the bus that will shuttle us out to Cabrillo monument, so my other goal is to get to bed early tonight (yeah...like THAT ever happens) and get a good night's rest.

Good luck to anyone else that is running/racing this weekend. I know I am WOEFULLY BEHIND in reading and commenting on all your blogs. Next week school starts, and my life will start to get back to some normal routine.