Random thoughts for Wednesday

I stayed out too late last night. In my world, "late" on a workday means anything past 9 pm and I wasn't home until about 10 pm. I had a very fun girls' night out; drinks, appetizers and the girly movie du jour, Eat Pray Love. Despite the evening having 4 complete flaws (1: staying out late; 2: drinking a cocktail during the week; 3: eating fried and gooey food whilst dieting; 4: chick flick) it was a lot of fun. Surprisingly enough I enjoyed the movie and stayed awake the entire time. Now I have to read the book.

I didn't get up to run this morning because I got to bed too late (see above). I didn't get up to run Monday morning either so I ran after work. I kept telling myself to take it easy since I had a trainer workout early Tuesday, then I ended up running 4 outside miles faster than I've done for a couple of years. D'oh!

That didn't translate well to Tuesday's training session. My legs were still fatigued and my arms decided to keep them company. I made it through the workout but wasn't my normal sparkling self. Wait, I don't normally sparkle, no sparkles here. I made it through the squat/ball tosses without dropping the 10 pound ball on my head (or dropping it at all, for that matter), I made it through the mountain climbers without pulling my groin (which I did last week), made it through the traveling lunges without toppling over (it was close, I had to keep grabbing the rail to get my balance), made it through the v-ups, twists, push-ups, tricep pull-downs, bicep curls without collapsing on my face. I wasn't a happy camper like I usually am when I finish, just relieved to be done.

Saturday was a long run, the first 18 miler of the season. We lucked out again with the weather. The cool, overcast, drizzly, breezy conditions were perfect while running. Kinda sucked when we finished; it took a half hour in a hot shower, warm sweats, thick socks and a blanket to warm me up afterward. Summer? Not here. We ran on the always lovely Alameda Creek Trail in Fremont. Since we hadn't run there yet this season we didn't know that the trail going toward the Bay is closed, while the other end's construction is cleared out.

Refueling and rehydrating on Saturday were amply supplied by dinner at my bro's. I picked up my mom and we went to one of my bro's and sis-in-law's patented food fests, this one Tacos Two Ways. Which could also have been called Margaritas Two Ways. Or Dessert Four Ways. Good thing I burned a couple thousand calories running so I could eat (fish and carnitas tacos with the trimmings), drink (ginger/tangerine margaritas and blackberry/mint margaritas), pray (that I wouldn't fall asleep during the meal), love (that I was still under my allotted calories for the day).

I missed knitting so I picked up the sock I started so many moons ago and tried to figure out where I had left off. Somewhere in the gusset so I continued on the row I thought was correct. I'm not sure the pattern is written right for across the instep but I'm going to blindly follow it. Heck, I can do it correctly on the second sock if this is wrong. Nobody looks at my feet anyway.

Now that I've worked out with the trainer a couple dozen times, gotten up at the ungodly time of 5:15-5:30 am to train or run during the week, counted every single thing that I put in my mouth, I'll have to say I'm seeing results. I've lost some weight (lots more where that came from), gotten a bit faster with running (it's relative, I'm still snail-slow), gained some upper body strength (some day I'll be able to do a real push-up). I detest getting up so early but I'm getting better at it. "They" say it takes a couple of months for a pattern to become habit. I'm still waiting.

Lose It!

My run this weekend was a vast improvement from the week before. Last weekend I ran 4 good miles before hitting a brick wall; this weekend I ran 8 great and 2 good miles before getting tired. That's (for the mathematically compromised) 6 more at-least-good miles. I also continued for another 4 miles and they weren't horrible, just tiring and slow and somewhat more uncoordinated.

Helping the quality of the run was that Bree and I ran in Alameda this weekend, a cooling improvement of about 20 degrees. It was overcast almost the entire run and I don't think it got much above 60. There was a slight bay breeze - incredibly stinky at the start since the tide was way out. We did the first few miles together and then split up, meeting back at the lot after 6 miles. I did those at 9:1 and had a good average. I slowed down after heading back out but kept up the 9:1 until I passed 10 miles. I rejoined Bree at that point and we finished at 4:1 and all of those "1" times made me very happy. My last 4 miles were about 1 minute per mile slower than the previous miles but my overall average was still about 25 seconds/mile faster than last week.

Also helping the quality of the run was that I was so tired during Thursday's workout that I was slower than before and didn't mange to complete the extended workout of Tuesday. I was sweating like a Miami thunderstorm and sliding all over when I was on the mat. I fell on my face twice while doing planks. I'm weak enough that I do it on my forearms and they kept sliding out from underneath me. Katie had to keep correcting my form. Since my legs are so much stronger than any other part of my body, my unconscious tendency is to let them take all the weight and effort. As the purpose of all of this is to build some strength in my core and upper body, it can be a problem. I was pooped when we finished and worried about the run, needlessly as it turns out.

I'm not loving the whole get-up-at-5:15 am thing. I'm barely tolerating it. The good part is when I wake up at 4 or 5 am, I know I'll be getting up soon and I'm not as anxious about getting back to sleep. The bad part is -- well, the getting up. One thing is not sleeping, another is moving. But I'm determined to continue the running on Monday and Wednesday and training on Tuesday and Thursday, and hoping to throw in an after work walk or run.

A very nice side effect of this is I'm losing weight. No, not from the consistent workouts alone. I'm dieting. Yup, real live honest to pete dieting. Holy Food Journal, Batman! I've been using Lose It!, a free app on my cell phone, and I really like it. Between being able to input full nutritional data on my own foods and their own extensive database, I feel I'm keeping honest track of not only calories, but the balance of protein, carbs and fat. I think their calorie burn for exercise is high but I try not to consume those calories anyway. I really don't think I burned 1,871 calories during my run yesterday but it's a fun number to see. The website has some incredible reports for those of us who like to obsess about what we've consumed. I could spend an entire day playing around with this.

I miss my lazy way of eating. These days there's no popcorn and wine for dinner. No late night 100 calories carb-loaded snacks. Hardly any chocolate. No cartons of ice cream on my lap. Instead I'm roasting veggies and eating fruit. Except for yesterday when I splurged with a soft shell crab sandwich (and kettle chips and cole slaw) after the run (yes, I had an almost 1,000 calorie lunch and it was goooood!).

Anyone want to place bets on how long I can keep this up?

Runner Girl's Great Vermont Adventure

Last Thursday I gleefully hopped a plane to head to the eastern part of this country. I arrived on time in New York and proceeded to go nowhere fast. They were experiencing thunder and lightning at JFK and didn't think we should try to fly in it. Sissies. On top of my expected 3 hour layover, there were an additional 2 hours of delay. BORED! (Which is completely sad since I had 2 books, my knitting, several movies on my computer, airport internet, etc. etc.)

I finally arrived in Burlington, VT before midnight and made my way to the motel. Sandy had an easy drive up from New York and was comfortably snuggled in her bed. I made sure she was awake and we popped open a bottle of wine to celebrate seeing each other again. Chatter chatter until the wee small hours when we finally realized a little sleep would be helpful.

In a move that surprised both of us, we decided to actually go for the run we had talked about before sleeping. I slathered on sunscreen and dressed in a tank top and shorts - first time for sleeveless this season. We drove to the waterfront and after driving in circles for a bit, parked and started on our way. The plan was for 4 easy miles on the lakefront trail.

We were ignoring that "easy" means a different pace for us both. Although Sandy tried to slow down to my slug-pace, I'm easily rabbited and when she'd get ahead of me, I'd speed up too. The remarkable thing was that as long as I stayed slow enough, my breathing was better than it's been since that first cold I got this winter.

The trail on which we were running, the Burlington Bikeway, is part of the marathon route, toward the end of the race. I knew that even though it was "flat" or "flattish," the little changes in grade would drive me batshit beyond mile 20. The trail was well maintained asphalt with glimpses of Lake Champlain on one side and greenery or houses on the other.

It was fun to me to once again be in the type of vegetation in which I grew up (I grew up in a house, not a garden, but you know what I mean) (don't you?). I had just missed the Lilac bloom which was too bad since it's one of my favorite woody plants and they don't grow well in the East Bay. I seemed to hit peak Peony time though, and from what I could see they weren't the ant attractors that mine are. It was nice to see the varieties of maples and oaks and other hardwoods that don't grow as well (or as big) in the Bay Area, and the green green undergrowth of ferns and vines and flowers. I really felt completely at home. I also realized that I've quite forgotten the names of all the viney plants and wildflowers. They were pretty to look at, whatever they were.


It was a warm, breezy, sunny morning and after about 2-1/2 miles I started getting lightheaded. Because we had forgotten to eat anything or have coffee before starting. D'oh! Here I was, pushing it just a little past my comfort zone speedwise, and I was empty. Dummy. I should have known better. Luckily I had some Sport Beans in my pack and I knew it was only 4 miles. We made it to the end, feeling quite righteous.

After cooling down we returned to the motel for their free breakfast and then showers. We had a full day ahead of us and had to get on the road. Luckily Sandy had a GPS unit since the Gmap directions I had brought with me were complete confusion. We started out for our yarn crawl.

After a while of driving in circles we arrived at our first stop, Northeast Fiber Arts center. Since my stash is a bit out of hand I was only going to buy yarn if it was from a local sheep/spinner/dyer/company and whatdaya know, I found some. I bought a few skeins of a lovely electric blue hand dyed Vermont Border Leceister. [Note: this was very odd to me since I was reading John Scalzi's "The Android's Dream" which involves a sheep with bright blue wool, which I picture as looking exactly like this yarn. ]

I also fed my sock yarn addiction and bought a skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino. The shop was lovely and welcoming and the owner (I think she was the owner) showed me around and pointed out local yarns. The selection of yarns was great but I was being reasonable and stopped while I was ahead.

I thought See's was the candy store for knitters, but I stand corrected

That didn't stop us from moving on to the next yarn shop, Kaliedoscope Yarns. Although this looked from the outside to be someone's home, inside it was all yarn. Once again I was helped by the friendly staff, although they weren't quite as willing to just let me look at only the local items. Because of this, I walked out with a couple of skeins of Madeline Tosh DK Yarn in Tart as well as the relatively local (at least to a clueless Californian) Lobster Pot Yarn's Lobster Sox in Salt Rose (and I would have bought another skein in the gorgeous Lobster Bisque had it been in stock). If you're in the area I recommend visiting both of these shops!






We were getting hungry by then but didn't want to take too much time out of our busy touristing, so we found a local sandwich/Vermont-y store and got sandwiches. We gobbled them down and headed off to my real goal of the entire vacation, the Vermont Teddy Bear Company factory. That will be a story in itself. A long story with lots of pictures. And bears bears bears.

mine mine mine mine mine

After many hours (yes, we went well beyond "couple" and "few") we bid a fond, expensive farewell and left. Next stop, right up the road, was a brewery with free tasting. Marathon, schmarathon, we wanted beer!

The Magic Hat Brewing Company tasting room looked like a combination between a pub and a tourist store. I'm pretty darn certain I was the oldest person in there. Their beers were all listed on the wall and the kind servers poured us whatever we wanted. Between the two of us we tasted most of the choices, liking some more than others. We decided to buy a bottle or two for that night, although we never did end up drinking them (too much wine, I guess). Sandy got to take them home with her, lucky girl!

We were heading toward our motel when we remembered that we were supposed to go to the race expo between 4-7 pm. Funny, all that yarn and bears and beer and we forgot why we were in Vermont in the first place. We went to the expo, which I'll talk about in the race report, then finally made it back to the motel.We were exhausted by that time so we just had dinner at the motel's pub. Very healthy option: salad bar and wings. Well, we needed protein, didn't we? Then we headed back to the room to attempt to sleep.

We spent a night tossing and turning (usual for me, not as much for Sandy) and decided we should eat the free breakfast and get a move on. Again, we had lots to do. Our drive was a little longer this time, out to the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory.

ice cream cows!

We were just in time to catch the next tour and walked around the factory. Since it was a Saturday, nobody was working on the floor but the guide was still able to show us how ice cream would be made, if anyone was working. At the end of the tour we got our taste of one of the newest flavors, Boston Cream Pie. Very delicious. In fact, when the tour guide asked us to please take seconds because otherwise they'd be thrown out, we were happy to comply.

waste not, want not

a decent tour would let us taste each of these

From B&J's we moved down the road a bit to A Special Place where our first stop was the Cabot Cheese Annex Store. We sampled all of their tasty varieties of cheddar cheese and ignored the fact that this wasn't quite the nutrition we needed for the race. We ignored that even more at the Snow Farm Vineyard Tasting area, where we tried mouthsful of their wines from the Champlain Islands.


Next up was Lake Champlain Chocolate factory outlet, where the samples were ok and the chocolate was expensive. We bought not one thing there, the first place we'd gone to without spending money. Since we were there, we also went into the Danforth Pewter shop and browsed through their pretty merchandise. I didn't get off as cheaply there, I bought a hair clip and a letter opener.


Since we hadn't tired ourselves out enough, we decided to next (and last for the day) check out the Church Street Marketplace. This is a street that's closed to traffic and made into a pedestrian mall lined by restaurants and shops. And cows. Seriously, the cows came home to Burlington. For a change, these didn't scare me in the least.

the cow jumped over the moon

how pastoral

a porcelain bovine

groovy, man

ok, maybe this one scared me

a little busy

gift wrapped!

I'm seeing spots

mooing in a winter wonderland

We decided it would be nice to rest a little so we headed back to the motel and both took a short nap. We wanted to be lazy once again and had dinner at the motel restaurant for a second time. We tried for an early night but it didn't look like either of us would be having a lot of sleep.

We were right. Although it was late for a marathon (the race didn't start until 8:00 am) the alarm went off at 5:40 am. I spent the night with bizarro oddball dreams and nightmares and didn't mind getting up to shower.

The race was long, and hard, and wonderful and the race report forthcoming.

Sunday afternoon we didn't make it back to the motel until 4-ish. We took turns standing under the pouring hot water in the shower and each climbed into our bed for a little shuteye. Not much sleep, mind you, just resting. The vast quantities of caffeine Gu kept me from sleep.

No motel restaurant for us again, we wanted pizza and beer! We queried the motel staff and were told of a close-by pizza joint, Marco's Pizzeria & Grill, that was very good. A couple of minutes later we had ordered a Go Greek pizza (feta, sundried tomato, artichoke and black olives), wings and beer (that protein thing, again!). Despite not having had anything to eat all day except performance food, our eyes were much bigger than our appetites.

While we were lazily eating our pizza and drinking our beer, we noticed (couldn't have failed to notice) 2 little kids running around the restaurant and playing together. They were loud but not screeching. The sound of their laughing and giggles was fun to listen to. It turned out the family was part of the owner's family. We were talking to the owner's sister and told her we had run the marahton. She was so impressed that she offered to buy us another round of beer. Neither of us was too inclined to drink more but neither were we inclined to move, so we happily accepted her gracious offer. When we got back to the motel Sandy had to pack, I just had to pack it in. I crawled into bed, read a little, and hoped the beer would help me sleep. Notsomuch.

Although I was staying another day, Sandy had to drive home. We had breakfast and decided to go to the waterfront and take pictures. Upon stepping outside we noted it was very hazy. And very smoky. As people who live (or lived, in her case) in a place where a season is called "Fire Season" we knew there was a big fire somewhere. We didn't know there was a huge forest fire in Quebec and the smoke was drifting southward and piling up over Vermont. It was way beyond nasty. Our photo op was spoiled by the thick haze. We went back to the race finish area and walked around a little, but our breathing was bad enough that we didn't go too far or stay too long.

pretend you can see New York and a lovely shoreline

Oddly enough we were getting hungry again so we decided to take another look at Church Street and find a restaurant. We walked up and down and the air was clearing just enough to make it ok to eat on one of the shaded patios. We picked one of the very similar restaurants and I had my annual or semi-annual Reuben (I normally don't eat beef, but I make that exception). Along with the brightly fluorescent orange sweet potato fries, it was utterly delicious. A couple of quick stops later Sandy packed up her car and deserted me (sorry Sandy, just kidding).

yum, orange food!

I intended to take a walk, or knit, or read, or load picture onto the computer. Instead, I closed my eyes and took a nap. Mostly a toss and turn, but I think I grabbed a wink or two. Afterward, the rest of the day went quickly. I did a little of this and that, went for a walk and got a sandwich for a late dinner, watched a little tv and went back to bed.

And that was it. A great vacation with a great friend in a great area. I can't say enough about the friendliness and kindness of the Vermonters we met. Almost everyone was welcoming to these Californians (which isn't always the case). Even the worn areas around Burlington are pretty and lush and green. When I win the lottery I'm getting a summer home there!

Running and eating part 2

As happened the previous weekend, this past weekend my 10 mile run turned into an 8 miler. What was supposed to be the great reunion run of 2009 turned into just two of us; Anita and I met up at the Lafayette Moraga Trail for a chilly outing. Once again it was freezing and I decided to only run 4 miles and not blow out my lungs with the cold air. Once again we ended up running to the 4 mile marker before turning back. It was cold, I was wheezy, but it was still great getting out and running, looking at the bright crispy clear scenery, carefully making our way across the icy wooden bridge without slipping. We were both tired once we finished but not wiped out, not ready to drop in our tracks. That's an improvement.

I like going out to eat no more than weekly; my known habit is to feel that since I normally eat so well, a restaurant meal is a treat and I can eat what I want. That doesn't work well when you go out 4 days in a row. On Friday my bro had taken my mom to see a new doctor. Due to an obstructive nasty receptionist they walked out. Since there was time, they called and asked me to join them for a sushi lunch near my office. How could I say no?

Saturday night was an office party at a Japanese restaurant in Oakland. The food was incredibly good and rich, although not big in quantity. The wine was incredibly good too, but I only had one glass since I was driving (I should mention that the "one glass" was because after about 3 sips a waiter would walk up from behind and refill the glass. I never did empty that glass all night, so "one glass," right?). Sunday I took my mom to lunch at the newish Lake Chateau on Lake Merritt where we ate too much. Last night I took my mom to a doctor appointment and since she would have missed her dinner at the home I had to take her to dinner.

We were in the Danville area so we went to the new Maria Maria. I was ready to face the same awful service that they have at the Walnut Creek restaurant and was quite pleasantly surprised by the attentive waitstaff. That meal would have been nice and healthy if we hadn't ordered the melted cheese dish to go with my shrimp tacos and her chicken salad. At least I have a leftover taco and leftover salad for my dinner tonight, there was no way we could finish that much food.

So I'm still feeling sluggish and stuffed. Stuffed head, too. My allergies are acting up (no, it's not a cold. I keep telling you that). Mornings and evenings I'm sniffling, sneezing, coughing. Two mornings in a row I've felt like there's sand underneath my contacts. Before I put in my contacts. I've ended up wearing glasses instead. By mid-day I feel fine, get a burst of energy, breathe clearly. But by bedtime I'm all congested again.

I finished my nephew's hat and I'm not too impressed with it. Sure, it's very cute with the stripes, I-cord and tassel on the end. Being a novice I didn't use enough yarn for a true pom-pom but I think it looks less girly being less full. I'm sure it's because of the cheap crap acrylic yarn, but the hat doesn't feel shaped right and is too stretchy. I'll see what my nephew thinks about it and decide whether it needs any adjustments. Now I just want to knit with some natural fiber yarn, something that grew on an animal or plant and wasn't made from chemicals. Good thing I have about 5 WIPs on my counter, I can choose from those. Or go with my feeling this morning: it's freezing out, I need another pair of mitts!

Running and eating

I've been doing too little of one and too much of the other. Care to guess which is which? Alrighty, then!

I managed to go almost 2 weeks with close to no running, no cross training, no core work, no strength work. Any excuses I can come up with are exactly that, excuses. I was tired, I had a visitor, I was busy, wah wah wah. Shoulda run no matter what.

To make up for lost time I thought running 10 miles on Saturday would be an excellent idea. Thought that right up until my alarm went off Saturday morning. The reason I need friends to run with me is that I will not, unless sick as a dog, cancel out on them. I was supposed to meet Bree and Sandy (yes! she's in town for a short visit!) for this 10 miler so meet them I did. I'd like to say that once out of bed I was much livelier but that wouldn't be true.

The 10 miler turned into an 8 miler, which I considered a success since I really only wanted to run 6. It was a beautiful day running through the leaves on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail. I don't like running on leaves since they're slippery and hide pavement faults, but I kept an eye on the ground and only tripped once. I felt quite righteous once we finished. And quite tired too. I'm glad we didn't push those extra 2 miles because that would have been asking for injury or a tumble. Next week! Er, next week on the extra miles, not the tumbling.

I was pretty horrified at how badly I was wiped out from the run. I'm hoping that memories of that will keep me more honest with my workouts. Since I fully intend to keep my weekend runs at the 10-15 mile range I need to keep up with the the daily ones too. I'm pretty sure that when they say you should do an average of 40 minutes activity each day, they don't mean to do it all at one time and slack off the other 6 days.

Today my bro and I took my mom out for lunch. We had a fun, wacky, silly time (not to mention some great food). Because she dislikes the food at the Place, my mom looks forward to the weekend meals out. Also, before all this started she frequently went to restaurants and she misses that. My bro and I are always on the lookout for my mom's newest favorite place (it changes each time she has a great meal somewhere). When my mom went to the ladies room my bro and I remarked on how we had thought the days of my mom being bright and intentionally funny were gone. It's remarkable and great to have her back.

Of course, that also means that I only have 1 day on the weekend to get my regular chores out of the way. And that means that mostly they don't get done. A little laundry, and little grocery shopping, a bill or two paid. The rest of it I put aside and hope I have enough energy during the week to do everything else after work. Normally I don't, but somehow the essentials are getting done. The biggest essential, taking care of my mom, gets first priority. Cleaning house or gardening just don't seem quite so important any longer.

More of the same

Things with mom aren't improving at all. She's still in County, still being tied to the bed at times, still being drugged senseless medicated, still delusional and confused and confrontational and violent. Let's not forget pitiful, which she is in large measure. Many of you have had the bad fortune to have to walk through a nursing home, hearing the old folks babbling incoherently, seeing them tied to wheelchairs or left in bed. You might have been lucky that your reason for being there didn't involve one of those sad elders, or maybe you just weren't emotionally vested in their well-being. Let me tell you, it's a whole lot of different when it's someone you love. Someone you know very well, someone who depends upon you to see that they're ok, to make sure they're treated right, to soothe them and console them if they're frightened or confused. You have to tell your loved one that no, you can't take them home. No, they have to stay there. It hurts, and their violent reaction can hurt worse.

Anyway, her doctor is trying a(nother) new medication. Hopefully this will be the one that calms her down. The doctor has said that it's ok if she's hallucinating and delusional, as long as she isn't violent. Great.

I was able to take a break this weekend. Since my mom currently hates me and the sight of me just agitates her worse, I stayed away from the hospital. Instead, I went for a run.

Saturday morning I met up with Anita and Bree for a planned 14-15 miler. I wanted to run at least 14 miles and since we haven't met our mileage goals yet, we decided to set the goal higher and then when we wanted to stop early, we'd still have our miles complete. Circuitous thinking, but if it works then who cares. We met in Danville with the plan of running the old street route of 8 miles and finishing on the Iron Horse. We took off on time (since all of us have this being-on-time thing and tend to arrive early). The air was cool, the sun was rising, the wind was light and fresh.

We ran the route with mostly a 4:1 run:walk pattern. There were two hills that we each took at our own pace; Bree and I walked a goodly portion and Anita blasted away. We did a little detour at the end because I didn't want to get back to start without a full 8 miles. We refueled, watered up (and down) and were on our way. We headed south along the trail, meaning to get the sunnier part done first. Bree decided to let us go on ahead and so we did.

I don't even remember what the plan was for the mileage there, but we kept on running. The wind was in our face on the way out and I knew it would be better going the other way. There was a lot of walking involved, probably more along the lines of 3:2. It helped with breathing and energy. When we got back we discovered that we had completed about another 6 miles, leaving only a short out and back to finish.

We met up with Bree, ran:walked a bit with her and then without her. The trail was crowded at that point, lots of runners, cyclists, families, dogs. We ended up with a lot of dodging and excuse me's and hi's and coming throughs and on your lefts and good mornings and cute dog! And we went slower and slower. At about the 1 mile mark we turned around and staggered back. It was literally "let's run to the next street. No, let's run to that tree. Ok, we can make it to the bench. Keep going until the garbage can. Well, let's run until the dogs. Oh, we might as well run to the corner." Walk walk run run. We ran in the last couple of tenths, I looked at Mr. Garmin and realized that to get a nice round number we'd have to keep going. I knew that we had been in a couple of places without reception and we had more than likely already run the full amount but we ran on, me staring at my wrist until the numbers changed to 16 miles.

Holy schmoley, we were tired. We had done more walking than makes me happy but if it had been a race we would have been well within the cut-off times. My legs had that strange tingley blood-moving feeling from my bruised toes to my hips, but they didn't hurt. I was a little overheated, a little dehydrated and a lot nauseous. We hung out for a while to cool down and chat, congratulated ourselves on getting it done and scattered on our ways.

Sunday I had another break when I met with Claudia for mani/pedi's and dinner. I hadn't cut my nails since the pedi in Vegas and I was way overdue. It was restful and soothing and my toes are nice and pretty (even the one where the nail will probably fall off within the next week - ew). Afterward we had a little champagne tasting with appetizers and then Mexican food (a huge chicken burrito), the best meal I've had for weeks. We caught up on everything in our lives and then Claudia let me babble on (and on) (and on) about my mom and it helped enormously to get it out of my system. I drove away feeling relaxed and, dare I say it, happy. Thank you Ms. C!

Then it was time to get back into the real world with doctors and nurses and banks and bills and no checks yet and assisted living places and -- oh yeah -- my job. The break was much needed, much appreciated and will allow me to retain a bit of hope for normalcy for a while longer.

It hasn't even been a month

Somehow I feel that this roller coaster ride began months ago instead of merely three weeks ago. I thought that my coping mechanisms were well in place, working properly, but I must have missed the warning label telling me that they would only work overtime for a short period. I was capable and strong for a week, capable for another week but that third week done me in. I got to the (highly annoying) point where absolutely everything was making me cry, I wasn't sleeping, wasn't eating well, wasn't running, wasn't being much use at all. And I'm not at all sure why I'm speaking in the past tense since I don't think I'm over it or able to resume full capability, reason and balance yet.

I'm not going to go into detail here, but the Cliff Notes version is that today my mom was (again) discharged from the hospital into the care of an assisted living facility where they are used to handling patients (residents?) with dementia. My mom is barely coherent, physically weak, bruised and confused. I'm waiting for the phone to ring while hoping it doesn't because we've run out of viable options.

In the middle of all this has been some joy and fun. Saturday morning I met up with Bree, Anita and Olivia for a planned 14 mile run. We managed about 13.75 miles but not all of that was running. My lungs were vastly unhappy. I had had some roses in my office and never even considered that they might cause problems (they were beautiful! Their fragrance was very light! They're my favorite flower! They were a gift from a good friend! They cheered me up! I liked them!). After a couple of days I realized I couldn't get a breath and finally realized why (I'm a little slow on the thinking these days). Add to that the stress and questionable air quality and I was a wheezy runner. I was even a wheezy walker. But it was a beautiful morning in Alameda and we had a good time catching up while we ambled along.

Saturday night was the long-planned outing with Anita and Bree. We had dinner at Blowfish in San Francisco (omg it was the best sushi ever) (and the drinks were fabulous too) (and that dessert was incredible) and then went to the Orpheum to see Wicked. Excuse me, I'm too lazy to post links and too tired to post the great pictures of dinner that I snapped throughout. The play was great, even with the very wide gentleman blocking my entire direct view (I sat sideways, leaning out of my seat into the aisle). I highly recommend it (the play, not the leaning). I also highly recommend having friends like Bree and Anita with which to share an evening.

And speaking of friends, thank you so much to all of you who have checked in by either comment, email or tweet to see how I'm doing. Your friendship and concerns are exactly what's keeping my remaining sanity intact. I'm sorry I haven't been responding to everyone, I'm using most of my "nice" energy when I visit my mom and don't seem to have much left over for correspondence or telephoning. Just know that every one of you is important to me and I hope that someday I can return the favor and give you support when you need it.

That was quick

I had a fabulous vacation. It was great to get away, my first do-nothing vacation in ... in ... in I can't remember how long. Most of my vacations involve running marathons which, although they're my favorite thing to do, aren't restful. In fact, they involve a certain amount of stress. Likewise my vacations with or visiting relatives. There is nobody in the world that I'd rather spend time with than my sis and I'd gladly spend each and every vacation and day off I have with her. But those don't tend to be restful vacations.

Vegas was 100% stress free and I accomplished my entire goal: nothing. My brain rested and for the first time in well over a year I didn't have a painful burning in my gut. I even slept, very unusual for any time, let alone in a hotel.

We sat in the sun, slathered with SPF 675 (or something like that) sunscreen, sipping frozen over-sized fruity alcoholic concoctions and watching all the (surgically and cosmetically enhanced) beautiful people. Lots of crispy critters, some even applying suntan lotion. I didn't know they made that any longer; why not just spray yourself with PAM and get it over with?

We went to an off-Strip salon and got nice, but short-lasting pedicures. We walked a couple of miles in flip flops (objects in the distance are further than they seem) (and, ouch). We played slots (you notice I don't say "we gambled" because my gambling luck is nonexistent and I just do it for entertainment). Bree played a bit of poker while I stayed away so that my negative luck didn't rub off on her.

Meals were whenever, whatever we wanted. Sometimes we split things, other times we each found something special we just had to eat. We only had two meals each day but they were winners each time. From the Reuben (my annual beef-fest), to the Puck pizza and salad, to the mussels to the "S" pretzel, I enjoyed every bite. And every sip.

One morning we got up early, way early, and went for a 4+ mile run along the Strip. The weather was perfect for running and my breathing was the best it's been for ages. It was fun seeing the early morning people and the surprising number of other runners. The early morning workout made us feel virtuous and allowed to indulge the rest of the day. Fine, we probably burned 300 calories and then consumed 3000 but that wasn't the point.

Our biggest splurge was going to see "The Showgirl Must Go On" with the Divine Miss M. We had close-up but slightly off center seats to watch Bette Midler , the Harlettes and a chorus of showgirls put on a big gaudy Las Vegas performance. It was worth every cent we paid, and maybe even more than that. We would have preferred that the loud, pushy, opinionated heartland woman sitting with her minions behind us would have shut her mouth, but at least she didn't talk during the show. The glitter, the songs, the sets, the dancing, the wheelchairs, the mermaids, the laughs; it was all there.

But good times couldn't last forever. Within hours of stepping off the plane my breathing got worse, the burning restarted in my stomach, my brain started spinning and I resumed my normal insomnia. I washed everything I had with me to remove the smoke odor, put everything away and it was as if I had never left.

An almost 10 mile run on Saturday helped me relax but the rest of the day was the same as all my weekends and the relaxation didn't last. Nobody said it would be easy. Now it's time to start serious training for our next event, the one after that and the one after that. Setting goals and reaching them, moving on to the next, not punishing myself for any setbacks.

It sure was fun escaping real life for a short time. Now, I need a vacation.

See Jane Run Half Marathon Report

Yippee, a race!

(objects in pictures are less clear than in real life - stupid camera)

Well, that was tougher than expected. At least they had chocolate!

Probably as a result of ridiculously long lines last year, part of the early packet pickup process for this year's See Jane Run Half Marathon included chip pickup at the Oakland See Jane Run store. Although I wanted to see the newer store in Danville I decided to trek into Oakland Wednesday night to get my packet. The process was quick and smooth. I got my bib, bag, shirt and chip, checked the store in case they had anything I needed to buy (they didn't) and I was on my way.

Last year the goody bag was a wonderful reusable shopping bag. This year it was a typical plastic bag. Included were a mini Secret deodorant (trying to tell us something?), a white chocolate macadamia Luna Bar, a couple of sample packets of Life Fitness Instant Energy Beans (80 mg of caffeine and 200 mcg B-12 per packet; I'd be more hyped than if I was smoking crack), a sample of Flex Power Pain Relief Cream, a $20 off $75 See Jane Run coupon and a bunch of other ads and race fliers.

The chip was one of those Eternal Timing tags; a big hard cardboard-like thing. I'm not fond of them because of the size, even if they are lightweight they don't really fit right when your foot bends. I also find them more difficult to attach to my shoe but that could be because I'm so used to the real chips.

front of the shirt

The shirt was again a light-weight Moving Comfort white v-necked short sleeved tech shirt. Forgetting how big they ran last year, I ordered a 1X. I'll be happy sleeping in it, it's way too big. How odd that a race, even a race for women, actually gets shirts in real sizes. Hopefully next year I'll remember to order my real size instead of going up a couple of sizes. As I'm not fond of white shirts I don't mind that I won't be running in it.

back of the shirt

Even though the previous weekend I had a great run I knew I wouldn't do as well at the race because my breathing wasn't smooth for the past few days. When I got up on Sunday it was overcast and cold and I had hopes that my sinuses and lungs would be happy with that but no such luck. I revised my estimated finishing time from about 3 hours to hopefully about 3 hours.

With my wonderful grasp of directions I decided I'd better cough up the extra $5 parking fee for the lot near the start and finish areas. I had visions of wandering around for hours after the race, looking for my car. For my sanity I parked in a location I could find later. The paying/parking process went quiet smoothly so I was very early for the race. It was due to start at 8:00 am and I got there before 7:00. I wandered over to the start, used the porta potties a couple of times and stood in line to check my sweatshirt.

And stood in line. And stood. The gear was being stowed in plastic garbage bags and tossed in the back of a truck. People would get to the table, bag their stuff, tear off the bottom of their bib and attach it to the bag. This was taking forever. It was getting closer to the start and the line snaked around the entire area and finally someone had the genius idea to go down the line and pass out the bags so that they just needed to be turned in. Perfect, line gone!

I think there were about 1500 people running the half and around 1000 running the 5k which started a bit later. The area was crowded with women and their families. It was obvious that there were some people who had done this many other times, and some people who were running (or walking) their first race. I saw maybe a dozen men with bibs and I'm not sure how many actually did the race. Although there were pace markers along the road I saw many people obviously lining up too close to the front.

The gun (or whatever it was, I didn't hear) went off a little late but even way back in the last group it didn't take much time to cross the start line. I had on a tank top and shorts with gloves and standing around I was shivering. I started off very smoothly and slowly, trying to keep myself from having breathing problems right at the beginning. It worked well since we also had a tail wind there. The large group pounded down the street.

I tossed the gloves after about a mile or two and heated up (have I mentioned that my internal thermostat has been wonky lately?) more than I had hoped. It was completely overcast, about the mid-50's and windy. Since it was behind me I didn't mind the wind at all but I wouldn't feel the same when we were going the return direction.

It was fun doing some people-watching and eavesdropping on some conversations. We women sure do chatter when we're running and not trying to win a race, don't we? I felt good the first 3 miles until we hit the bridge, then slowed down some. By 5 miles my breathing was getting bad and my legs were getting tired. I understood the first but the second had me baffled. I had done good training, I had eaten well during the week, it should have been easier.

By mile 8 my 9:1 run:walk was out the window. I was doing a steady 4:1 at that point and it was working to clear my lungs and rest my legs. But at about mile 10 I was toast. Legs and lungs were rebelling and my brain wasn't very happy. We were on the trail at that point and I got pretty grumpy because of two things.

There was a woman who was doing what I thought was a 2:2 run:walk and we kept leapfrogging past each other. Her watch or whatever beeped her intervals was loud. Annoyingly loud. Because we were such polite women we'd pass each other then move over to the right. So instead of going straight it was weave around, weave back, weave around, weave back. I tried walking more and it didn't help. I tried running more and that didn't help. I tried running and walking her exact pace to stay behind her and that didn't even work. As the trail was congested it was very annoying (and I imagine I annoyed her as much as she annoyed me).

One point of repeated congestion was a group of deaf cyclists. Actually, deaf bike riders since I hesitate to call them cyclists. One young woman was wearing flip flops and it would be upgrading some of the bikes to call them beaters. I think they were a tour group and yay good for them for getting out and enjoying the shoreline, but it was readily apparent that there was a race going on and they could have used a little courtesy because hey, they were deaf, not blind. Their leader would speed ahead and stop to let the rest catch up. And they'd all block the trail while waiting. Then they'd pass again, one by one, sporadically, without (of course) calling out to let us know they were coming. Then it would happen all over again.

As a frequent trail user I'm a firm believer in sharing the trail with others, be they runners, walkers, cyclists, skaters, families, dogs, whatever. I don't care who you are or what your circumstances are, share the damn trail. Politeness doesn't hurt. And if you keep getting in my way and obstructing the trail and almost crashing into me and other runners I'm going to lose my sparkling good nature. No, I didn't say anything to them (what would be the point if they couldn't hear it) and I didn't even give them dirty looks. I just quietly fumed and wished they would move along.

When we crossed the bridge for the final 3 miles things got better and worse. Since we were running in the street there was more room and we didn't have to weave around anyone. The bike riders went somewhere else. But the wind picked way up. It was, no joke, about a 20 mph headwind. Direct headwind. Smack in our faces pushing us backward. Although I knew it was coming I wasn't physically able to handle it well. My 4:1 became a whenever:whenever. I ran from crosswalk to crosswalk, walking whenever I had to (which was frequently). I was actually a little faster than I had been on the trail, probably because I could go in a straight line, but it felt as if crawling would have been quicker. I had my buff pulled over my nose and mouth so that the wind wasn't directly on my face; I'm sure I looked remarkably strange but at that point I didn't care because it helped me to breathe.

We finally reached the park with the last 1/2 or 3/4 mile and changed direction enough that the wind was no longer as bad. It was farther to go than I wanted since by my Mr. Garmin's reconning the first 3 miles were just over 3.1 miles (I never saw a 1 or 2 mile marker). Most of the other mile markers were very apparent and were a mile apart. I cut tangents whenever I could so that didn't make up the difference.


There was a chip mat a bit before the final finish mat so the announcer was calling names of finishers. I put on a burst of speed with my little remaining energy and crossed in 2:54 (pitiful, even for 13.25 miles). There I came upon the one thing I would have changed about the race: the chip removers were literally right at the finish. You had to come to a dead stop immediately and I'm sure I wasn't the only person to get dizzy and nauseous from the sudden halt.

I got my medal, this year more of a traditional medal than last year, and looked around for my chocolate. I had been told at packet pickup that this year they wouldn't run out of chocolate because they had two vendors, but I didn't see any.

shown for scale (the bittersweet wrapper is empty)
(certainly not shown for clarity, stupid camera)

I was just starting to get my dander up when I saw the booth with not only chocolate, but champagne glasses to hold them. Cool! There were 3 piece in the glass, 1 from Hershey, 1 from Ghiradelli and 1 from -- uh -- some fancy other place (sorry! I threw away the wrapper without writing down the name! but it was good!). I ate the fancy stuff immediately (but kept the wrapper to take a picture and remind me of the name - whoops) and walked on.

as presented

There were lots of choices for food and beverage. There were bottles and glasses of cold something-ade (I don't drink the stuff so I didn't notice which it was). There was a table with fruit, cut up bagels with peanut butter and stuff to put on them if you wanted, Strawberry Bliss Attune Bars, bags of Popumz in chocolate cookie dough and probably more that I didn't even notice.

back of the glass

Popchips had a table where they were handing out samples and small bags of their original and one other flavor chips. Bear Naked had a large booth where they were handing out the small bags of their Fruit & Nut flavor granola and they had samples of each of the different flavors covered with fresh yogurt and blueberries. Continuing along the line was the shirt pickup for people who hadn't received them earlier and they were handing out extra goody bags to anyone who needed a bag (this contained the same things as the bag I had gotten on Wednesday with the addition of a sample tube of Aquaphor).

Sweat bag pickup was a breeze, possibly because most of them were gone. But the people there were helpful and seemed efficient and I'd be surprised if anyone had troubles. I don't think it took more than a minute to get my stuff.

Then it was time for champagne (this year it was Barefoot - my favorite cheapass wine). There was what looked like a table with just beer and next to it the champagne table. The champers table had a very very long line. But then I saw that at the end of the beer table a man was pouring champagne into plastic glasses and there was nobody, but nobody, in line. As I walked up a couple of other women did too. The first woman had him pour the champagne in her new glass. The second picked up the pre-poured plastic glass which contained about 2 ounces and asked if he'd fill it up. Yep he did, so I did the same thing (except I told him not to fill all the way since I was driving).

Although there were lots of groups of people sitting around on the grass, there were many tables and chairs set up so I found an empty table near the finish line and plopped myself down to start consuming food and drink. Once I had cooled off it was chilly so I dug out my sweatshirt while I ate the Bear Naked/yogurt/blueberries and drank the champagne. I watched the finishers coming across the line, by this time mostly either walkers or women like me who just pooped out along the route. Everyone looked incredibly happy to finish. I was surprised so many were still out there.

I hung out for a while and then decided I'd better get on with my day. The champagne had given the day a rosie glow and I'm surprised I still felt as crappy as I did. My legs were tired and my lungs hurt when I inhaled. No worse than for a regular long training run, but I had hoped the booze would be more anesthetizing. Don't get me wrong, I was certainly still sober. Just happy.

In retrospect, I'm very impressed with the race this year. I'm not sure if I feel we got complete bang for the buck but that's because it was ridiculously expensive ($91.99 at the end of April (including Active.com fee), plus $5 parking) for a local low key race. But with that, we got a decent shirt, a goody bag, a couple of free samples, abundant finish line food, sufficient porta potties throughout, enough water stops with helpful staff passing out water/ade/gu, good street control (except for the trail which certainly wasn't the organizers' faults), a varied route (for Alameda), a nice medal and a very strong feeling of sisterhood. That last item is almost priceless, even for someone like me who ran alone (but Bree, Anita, Sandy, Mary Ann, Pam: I missed you!).

Now if next year they could just get rid of the wind!

My inner two year old

The little brat was at it again yesterday. This little toddler inside of me wants to sit around and play, eat fattening sugary foods and never exercise. Her favorite thing is to thwart my good intentions and see how much she can get away with. "No" and "I don't wanna" are frequently heard ringing in my head.

The plan was to change at work and run on my way home. Whiny girl didn't want to, but I changed and was ready to go when I realized I hadn't brought a bottle carrier with me. Oh, I had the bottle all right but I hate gripping anything in my hand when I run. I thought about doing the run anyway without water but since it was in the upper 70's the brat told me "NO!" and I listened. I changed the plan to instead go home and go straight to the treadmill, no stopping for anything except a bottle of water.

I walked in my door and the two year old convinced me to take a nap. Just a short nap, she cajoled, knowing that the nap would probably extend long enough that it would be too late to run. I set the alarm to get me up and sure enough, when it went off the baby tried to keep me on the couch. This time though, ancient me convinced the kid that I only had to run for 20 minutes. That's all, then I could sit and do whatever I wanted.

Right, like I was going to get a set of clothes sweaty for just 20 minutes. I got on the treadmill and started out running a nice 12 minute pace, then slowed it down a smidge because I had forgotten to use my inhaler first (I didn't want to stop to go get it). I ran along, watching an episode of L&O-SVU that I had dvr'd, and felt pretty good.

Except for the fact that Comcast's dvr is crap (... this would be the dvr for which I'm paying an extra $7/month). Every time I would try to fast forward through a commercial it would jump to the very end of the program. I'd rewind and it would go back to the start. Then I'd put it on the slowest ff and it would make it to jussssst before the part I had seen, and it would skip to the end again. Very frustrating and it never happened with my old set-up before my Comcast "digital enhancement" forced the use of a dvr in place of a vcr. Grrrr. But I continued running.

With all the rewinding and fast forwarding I ended up spending much more time on the 'mill than I had intended. I actually ran 4 miles with only one one-minute walk break right in the middle (while I was fiddling with the remote). I even sprinted the last bit, going several minutes/mile faster than I had run. I felt wonderful and relaxed and drippy when I finished (except for the frustration of dealing with the dvr) and was glad I had told that two year old to go suck it.

I ate a tasty Boca Burger based dinner and felt even more virtuous when I sat down and started knitting. But the toddler had the last word. The ice cream was really good!

My new "diet"

What was only a sporadic thing, then a slight trend, has now become my almost daily way of eating. I have named it the "what the hell were you thinking????" diet. To date this diet has not caused weight gain or loss but it isn't healthy or approved by any official sources so I don't suggest you attempt to follow it. Some examples of the "what the hell were you thinking????" diet are:

Eat a normal healthy breakfast. Eat a salad with many mixed fresh veggies and some fish or fowl for protein. For dinner eat a bag of cheese popcorn. As a late night snack eat 2 cups of jelly bellies. Look at self in mirror and say "what the hell were you thinking????" and then go to bed.

At lunch eat tomato soup. Half hour later wrap arms around middle of body and say "what the hell were you thinking????"

Eat a regular, healthy lunch and dinner. Afterward sit down with a carton of ice cream and consume most of it. All together now, "what the hell were you thinking????"

Eat a large bunch of cherries, or strawberries, or some pineapple or an orange. "What the hell were you thinking???"

Run several miles after work. For dinner eat only a bag of Baked Ruffles with a glass of wine. "What the hell were you thinking????"

It's not like I haven't been obsessed with the food I eat since high school (and not like that wasn't over 35 years ago). It's not like I haven't spent years on Weight Watchers or other diets and years measuring out correct portion sizes. It's not like I couldn't tell you the calories or fat content of every single thing I put in my mouth. And it's not like I'm happy with the way my clothes fit or the way I look or feel.

The good news is that I haven't gained any weight (... yet). The bad news is I'm certainly doing myself no favors eating like this and I'm certainly not fueling my body for the athletic performance I expect. Much of the food I've been eating I like, I like a lot, but it's crap even in small portions. With the recurring stomach problems I've had since last year I've had to limit many foods, including most fruits and some acidic veggies (and, sadly, high alcohol consumption). This means that even good-for-you foods aren't good for me in most cases. So why am I still eating this way?

What the hell was I thinking?

Rambling Friday

Earlier this week my bro called me and asked if I could look after my nephew for a few hours on Thursday night. I was a bit stunned, since this was the FIRST TIME in 11 years that I was offered this chance. Yes, I've taken the boy shopping for presents but that was it. This time, I was asked to spend a few hours with him and take him to dinner. Wow. I actually had to stop and think about it, which made my bro think I didn't want to do it. I couldn't really tell him I was amazed he was finally giving me this opportunity.

Included would also be, of course, shopping. I'd never gotten nephew a Hanukkah present and had put off our shopping trip for various and assorted reasons. Last night we went to a few stores and I was happy to that although he still tries to get (1) a very expensive total of presents and (2) items I know his parents would find inappropriate, he knows the real limits and will put things back on the shelf if I give him a "look." We had lots of fun deciding what to get (some -- popular tv anime -- toy thingamabobs) and what not to get (Barbie, Elmo, anything girly or too young for him).

We went out for sushi for dinner, although he doesn't like the fishy things as much as the tofu or egg types. It was lots of fun, goofing around, being Auntie. He's a good kid (if just a bit spoiled ...), bright, funny, active. He wore me out!

I don't want to obsess about the weather, but what the hell is up with this weather?? From cold and rainy, to hot and hot and hotter, to cold and windy and rainy. Boots and jackets to shorts and tanks and sandals to boots and sweaters. Spring? Winter? Fall? Summer? Hey, that's why we live in California; there aren't seasons here. In fact, we normally don't even have anything you could call "weather," except in the dead of winter when it gets cold and might - let me emphasize might - rain. Cut it out, Mother Nature. We are not amused.

I'm having food issues these days. I do great until I get home, then good eating habits go out the door. I tend to leave it so late that I'm too hungry to prepare anything decent (even those 7 minutes in the microwave seem too long) and end up eating yogurt, ice cream and popcorn. With Jelly Belly jelly beans for dessert. I rationalize it that I've had a big salad for lunch (which I normally do) with a serving of protein (usually) and so it doesn't matter. Of course it does, and I know it does, and I know I'd feel better eating right, but I'm just not quite there. Since my jeans are not as comfortable as they've been I'll have to turn this around quickly.

My exercise was impacted this week both by the weather and my own uncoordination. I missed Tuesday's run because I was chasing down a tetanus shot (needed since I stabbed myself in the leg with a screwdriver while gardening) (and may I add, OW!) (both to the stabbing and the shot). Wednesday was too hot to run but at least I got in a brisk walk. Thursday I had intended to run on the treadmill in the morning but the blisters from the hot walk made it hard to stand, let alone run. Ditto that again for this morning. One step forward, two hops back. I will run this weekend, blisters notwithstanding. I might first wrap myself in bubblewrap and Body Glide and steel armor ...

A taste of summer

I think Mother Nature is a big fat tease. Yesterday was warm, today was hot, tomorrow is supposed to be hotter and then cool weather and even possibly rain are supposed to reappear by the end of the week. It makes sleeping hard (as if I don't have enough problems there); until today I still had flannel sheets and 3 blankets (and a bedspread) on the bed. The warmth last night made me change today to crispy cotton sheets and 2 blankets, which will still be too warm tonight and tomorrow. But Wednesday night is supposed to go down to 49 degrees and I'll freeze.

Updating from last week, on Thursday I ran 5.5 miles to commemorate my 55 years. I had intended to only run 4 but that number didn't seem to compliment my age. So I kept running and ended up with my longest run in just about forever. It was very emotionally satisfying. As was the piece of cake I had afterward. Well, pieces of cake. Don't tell.

While this weather lasts I'm determined to spend lots of time outside. I ran a quick 5k fun run this morning, quicker because I think the course was a tad short (at least according to Mr. Garmin which said 2.96 miles). I still managed to run myself into an asthma attack since instead of the easy run I had planned, my brain thought "race!!!" and my legs followed. I finished with an average of 11:42 and we all know I don't run that fast ("fast" being relative). That included a very short stop to down a glass of water at the turnaround, and about 30 seconds of walking towards the end to try to stop wheezing.

I felt pretty darn good when I finished, so good that I went home and worked in my yard for several hours. I haven't used my sprinkler system since last fall when drought rationing began. Since it was toasty warm I thought it would be a good idea to make sure my sprinklers weren't shooting water off to the street, into the fence or on the windows. I don't know what I thought I'd do if they were; I don't know how to adjust or fix most of them (and my useless gardeners pretend they don't exist). But I plodded through and did manage to confirm that one spot in my drip system was fountaining 6 feet in the air; I fixed that problem and returned it to drip status. I readjusted the rest of the drip lines so that the plants, instead of the weeds, were being watered, and confirmed that none of the other sprinklers were broken. There are spots getting water that don't need to get water but despite my best efforts I was unable to adjust some sprinkler heads.

Then I thought it would be a good idea to try to fix the lighting system in the yard (... now that it doesn't get dark until later ... ) and see if I could change some bulbs. I determined that the lamps did indeed open and it was possible to change the bulbs. The problem was that the system is about 10 years old, the rubber seals on the fixtures have turned to cement and the rust has jammed the joins shut. I did learn one lesson: when attempting to clean out the seals with a sharp screwdriver, do it on the ground instead of on my leg. Note to self: remember to call and confirm that tetanus shots are up-to-date.

By the time I changed 3 bulbs and gave up on 3 more I was soaked (from a combination of the sprinklers and the heat of the sun) and covered head to toe in mud. I was frustrated that I was unable to fix everything and at the same time relaxed and happy from so much time in my yard. My shower felt wonderful afterward.

Although I accomplished NOTHING that I had planned for the weekend, I nonetheless finished other tasks that were just as necessary for -- um ... ok, not really. I'm very good at prioritizing according to my mood and I wasn't in the mood to pay bills or straighten the house or grocery shop to prepare healthy food for the week. It's a darn good thing that I'm only accountable to myself (... mostly). But as Miss Scarlett said, tomorrow's another day!

That was quick

This weekend was a whirlwind of activity, family, eating, exercise, shopping, eating and, like usual, not enough sleep. My sis and brother-in-law arrived safely and on time Wednesday afternoon. We told the rest of the family that they weren't arriving until Thursday evening so we had the entire day with just the three of us.

When I was a smoker I never ate sugary products (why, you wonder, is she talking about this in the middle of the family report? Bear with me here). When I smoked my taste buds just weren't interested in sweets. I didn't eat pastries, candy, ice cream or drink sodas. Also, since I had a cig in my mouth or my hand for a good portion of the time I was awake, I had no need for any substitutes. Part of my quitting process involved chewing on red licorice and sucking on hard candies. As the years passed and I got farther away from smoke mouth I developed quite a sweet tooth. For several years my absolute favorite has been Jelly Belly jelly beans. For one, they're small and chewy and one lasts a while. For another, they're 4 calories each; quite a few pieces giving a high quality "point" bang for the buck (that's Weight Watcher's point). Finally, they taste great and come in a changing assorting of wonderful, true flavors (dark chocolate and sour orange are my current favorites). (And the Coldstone chocolate mint.) (And peanut butter.) (And grapefruit.) (They have flavor all the way through, even in the center! Unlike other jelly beans!) (You can mix them in your mouth for special combinations!) (They even good when they're stale!) (Which they hardly ever become, in my house!)

A couple of times I've gone to the factory in Fairfield and taken the weekend tour while the factory wasn't in operation. They show videos, and you get to see the factory floor, but nothing was happening. I've always wanted to play hooky from work and go during the week and this was my big chance. While looking up hours on their website I discovered Jelly Belly University; a tour of no more than 6 people, on the factory floor, up close and personal with the production process. I was so excited (yes, my life is exactly that dull) that I immediately registered for our available morning.

Thursday morning we headed up the Fairfield through the gloom and rain. We arrived at the factory nice and early and discovered that we were the only people on the tour. For almost an hour and a half our guide walked us around, showed us every darn thing, gave us tastes and generally made us feel like big shots. It was fun, it was informative, it was sugary sweet. All that, and we got a 10% discount off anything purchased in the store. Uh oh.

We did some shopping, then ... huh? How much? Let's just say I made it to the car in one trip and leave it at that. I won't need to replenish my supply for quite some time.

Anyway, after shopping we headed one valley west to Napa. St. Helena to be specific, to the V. Sattui Winery. We had intended to have a picnic in the beautiful weather but there wasn't any beautiful weather. In fact, it was darn right miserable. We still had the picnic, in the car, facing the budding vineyards. Then we went in to do a little tasting. My sis and BIL aren't big drinkers (they're cheap dates) and I was driving so we were only making the one stop. Since the last time I had visited they've instituted a tasting charge. It was only $5 for 6 tastes and we decided we'd all split the one tasting. See? Cheap dates.

There are a few of their wines that I adore, and some that I've liked since I first visited in 1976 or 77 (maybe 78?). My current favorite is the Madeira (see above re: sweet tooth). Despite the fact that the price is more than 200% higher than when I bought my first bottle, I always get at least one bottle per visit. Although I'm very fond of their red wines I've been having red wine allergies or sensitivities lately and have lowered my consumption. So we tasted mostly whites and sweets and yum, they were all good. Realize that in total I probably had about 4 ounces of wine, so my decision to join one of their wine clubs wasn't influenced by being looped. I've wanted to join a club for a few years and just never got around to deciding where.

The club I joined is new enough that it isn't even on their website list yet. It's the fruity/sweet/dessert club where I'll get 3 bottles every other month until I cancel the membership. Along with the wine, the membership also includes discounts, free tastings, special events and newsletters. I decided on this particular club because I won't have to worry about a red allergy and I can always buy good (and cheap) dry whites at Trader Joe's.

After signing my life away we headed back to the Bay Area through the continuing rain and increasing traffic. We made it home in time to pick up pizzas from Zachary's and head over to my mom's. After devouring stuffed mushroom and spinach pizza and salad we headed back home for an early evening.

Candy, wine and pizza. An hour or more walking. Lots of driving. Talking, laughing and being with family. It was a great day.