Monday, August 27, 2007

Bunnies and drizzle and wind, oh my!

Saturday morning I met up at 7:00 with Anita, Sandy and Mary Ann at Inspiration Point. Last week had been very warm but it was forecast to be cooler in the morning. Way cooler. So cooler that I ended up borrowing a jacket from Sandy. It was drippy, foggy, windy - pretty miserable. At least there wasn't a cow to be seen, just their little leftover gifts in the middle of the trail.

We were pretty whiny at the start. Mary Ann is coming back from surgery and just ran out 1-1/2 miles with us, then was walking back. I had initially said we should just run with her and go get coffee; everyone ignored me. We then decided that we'd just run four miles. After passing the two mile marker we said we'd run five miles. Then we said we'd run six. Then seven. Eventually we were running up that last big hill to the turnaround point and hey, no choices left, we were running the full eight miles.

There had been a wicked headwind for most of the way out and wouldn't you know it, there was another one on the way back. We've never figured out how it can be uphill and headwindy both directions, probably a geographic and meteorological quirk in that area, huh? It was tough going for all of us and we threw in a couple of additional walk breaks. Hey, we're tapering, right?

Probably because of the low clouds and thick fog the bunnies were scampering all over the place. Maybe they thought the normal predators wouldn't see them at their little wabbit games. A cyclist told us there was a coyote out in the field; it must have been like a grand buffet for him.

We finally finished, feeling very virtuous and satisfied (and tired). I ended up running more of the biggest hills than I usually do so it was a good training run. My legs were sore and feeling pretty worn out. I'll have to take it easier for the next two weeks until Erie.

My mom was still with me on Friday night and we needed to have dinner somewhere since (1) I don't cook, and (2) there was no food in my house even if I did. She kept suggesting types of restaurants and I kept rejecting them because of my run the next morning. We finally ended up at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Dublin. Yeah, chips and salsa and a margarita for carbo loading. It was still better than some of her other choices. I ended up getting the grilled chicken breast ala poblana and ate a couple of tortillas, hoping that would be carboriffic enough. I took home most of the meal (it was a great lunch on Sunday). One margarita only, although you know how tempted I was to drink several.

After our run on Saturday I took a short nap then went to an annual pool party given by my boss. Since our company has expanded so much, the party has too. It was enjoyable, good food and drink, good company, nice cool pool. I ate too much dessert and figured that every last calorie I burned on the run was consumed in berry pie, key lime tart and snickerdoodles.

I got into a cleaning frenzy on Sunday. I have a few little bookshelves in my bedroom where I have stuffed animals, everything from the dolly I got for my fourth birthday to the lion I won at a fair. Although I dust around them frequently I don't really do a deep cleaning. My theory of cleaning is that if you let the dust sit there it won't bother you; once you start dusting it gets in the air and that's when the allergies get bad. Really, it works. But it had been ages since I'd cleaned the stuffies and it was time, they were looking darker than they should. I got out my vacuum, attached a brush and got to work. Hours later it looked like a cyclone had gone through my room. One by one I had picked up each bear or dog or tiger or lion and vacuumed the bejeebers out of it. Even the itty bitty ones. Then I cleaned the shelves. Then around and under the shelves. Then everywhere else in the bedroom. Cleaning cleaning cleaning. Damn, this room is clean!

Next time I'll clean the glass shelves over the bar. The ones loaded with fancy glassware and little breakable tchotchkes. Ok, maybe not. But I can write my name in the dust on those shelves so it's really time. I don't think I can wait for a spring cleaning frenzy.

I managed to fit in some knitting on my Temescal Market Bag. I like how the random striping is coming out and I think it's going to felt beautifully. After taking this picture I finished the black stripe and started the next red one. I'm hoping I have enough in each color to finish the striping as written; I'll know in the next few days. I'm going to have to decide soon which strap option to knit but it'll probably be this weekend before I get to that. I like this mindless knitting in circles!

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