run log: July 2011

I can run.  I can run.  I can run!  I had the best run of 2011 yesterday ~ going 6.5 and loving every minute.  Nothing hurt, I could breathe, and I felt strong.  It's been a long time since my body could do what I wanted it to do.  Now to learn the lessons:  recovery days are good things and stretching is important.
This month I ran 42.5 miles for a 2011 total of 268
I biked 112 miles for a 2011 total of 327.
I met my goal of running over 6 miles by the end of the month and even better ~ I AM BETTER!
I will run the last leg of the Akron Marathon and it will be good. 
Goals: I would like to have over 50 miles for the month of August.  I would like to have 8 mile runs as my long run ~ and I'd like to run 4 days a week.  I've only been running 3 days a week because I've been afraid of re-injuring that stupid IT band.  But I think 4 days is really doable and it would be very good for me. 

I bought some new running tops at the Under Armor outlet in Frisco ~ because it's important to look cute when running.  If you look good, you feel good and you run well!  That's my motto :)

Colorado

Jacob had a ball with his grandparents.  They hiked and swam and he "worked" a day with his Uncle Bill.  They even bought him an all day pass ($70) for the adventure park at Breckenridge ~ seriously, can you get more spoiled?  Still, I think he was happy to see me when I flew in on July 22.
A few highlights of the two-Barton trip.

• Hiking the continental divide at Loveland Pass.  We went 5 miles total ~ along the "spine of the Rockies" as the book called it, and then we looked (and looked and looked) for a non-snowy, not too steep, not too rocky way down.  There was only the rocky way down, so that's what we did.  They were rather loose rocks too and I kept hoping the whole way down that I wouldn't start a rock slide.  On the hike back in the valley, so to speak, we found a large bucket (about as big around as a five-galloner, but only half as tall.  Would I call that a 2.5 gallon bucket?).  It was duck-taped shut with the date and location written on another piece of tape.  These facts were mostly faded out.  We had many theories about what it was...a bomb...a scientific study...trash...When we told the Texas Butlers, Bob thought we may have stumbled onto a geocashe.
• Geocashing.  Bob showed us the app he has on his iPhone and we went and found a geocashe stuffed under a stump on the hill behind my parents house.  Then we tried to find one on our Cataract Lake hike, but we didn't have any cell reception and there were LOTS of "twin pines", so the clue didn't help at all.  Of course, Dad thinks this is a great adventure and downloads the app to his iPad.  We found our second geocashe in a little "park" (a concrete pad with a bench and a bear statue surrounded by trees) next to walmart in Frisco.  Rather exciting little treasure hunting.  It adds a little bit more fun to a hike.
• Hiking Cataract Lake.  My favorite hike ever because it has all sorts of different terrain and the flowers were beautiful this time.  There was so much snowfall (lasting well into June) and so much rain that the flowers are everywhere.  Then there's the waterfall which runs right though the dense trees at the top.  It's cool and peaceful with a pine needle floor and the loud sound of the rushing water.  It's the highlight of the hike.  And Bob had used Axe body wash, so all (and I mean hundreds) of the mosquitoes went to him and not anyone else.  Biting mosquitoes are female ~ so the ads must be true that women can't resist Axe!
• UNO extreme.  The Texas Butlers shared Wesley's version of UNO ~ that involves "helping" others as well as slapping the table and hitting your forehead.  I thought Dad concussed himself once by slapping the table and then smacking his forehead ~ quite a ricochet of his hand.  Luckily there seemed to be no brain damage.
• Jeeping up to Georgia Pass.  I love to Jeep.  And my dad is the best Jeep driver.  He's totally trustworthy so I don't have to worry about falling over the edge of the cliff or slipping out-of-control down the mountain.  While we were bouncing up the road we saw a HUGE MOOSE who had gigantic antlers just standing in the valley eating shrubs.  We stopped and watched him wishing someone had brought a better camera than a cell phone.  I took a picture, but it doesn't look as impressive as it really was.
• I became the mom of two little gold fish while away.  Who knew.  They are about an inch long.  No telling how long they've been there...how big is a freshly hatched baby goldfish?  Now I'm up to 5 fish in my little pond!
• Anniversary Party!  I almost forgot the whole reason we went at the end of July.  Chip and Jane celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary ~ the whole gang was there.  All the Butlers and all the Rutledges.  It was great to see everyone and catch up just a little bit.  We laughed and watched a DVD of old pictures and ate a great meal.  It was crazy to have all the kids running around, having a great time together.  We do not see enough of each other!

The Rocky Mountains are my favorite place.  Their Majesty reminds me of my littleness and God's greatness.  I am very blessed to have them in my life. 

"I am king of the world!"

#20

#20 was Joy School by Elizabeth Berg ~   the second story of Katie in my quest to read all three of these books ~ so I took in on the airplane to Colorado and when I opened it, I discovered I had read it before.  Since I had nothing else to do for three hours, I read it again.
Good Quote: page 207 " He said there are times we must let sorrow come, learn the lesson and then move on.  He said when you think about it, life is just moments.  And you have to have faith that the next good moment is coming right along."
fl: The housekeeper is ironing and I am lying on the floor beside her, trying to secretly look up her dress.  ll: In the spring, I'll come back and find it again.

#19

Book #19 was a really fast read.  Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg is another great story.  I love Berg's writing style.  It's sweet and poignant and real.  She gets to the emotions of her characters and, just like life, we don't always know the motivations behind the actions.  I got into this one because I accidentally picked up the third book about this character, Katie.  After reading the first few pages, I had to go back to the library and get the first ones.  (OCD wins again) 

The themes of family, growing up, friendship, and tragedy all come into play in Katie's life.  Her mother is dead, her father a mean mystery, her sister trying to escape, and her friend just wants to be grown up.  How do we survive in this life?

Good quote (page 41): "I like to believe that there are no time zones, that all of us could at the exact same moment crawl under our blankets and close our tired eyes."  The world should rest together.
fl: Well, I have broken the toilet. ll: "Hey, wake up," he is saying.  "Everything is here."

What a ride

A bike ride to "Float Week" ~ friends of ours share family property on Ford Road and they spend a week there every summer.  All the kids are invited and it's one giant camping trip in South Madison.  Patrick, now that he's driving, has just gone for the week, only coming home after work to shower.  I decided it would be a great ride to head there yesterday morning.  Then I remembered the huge hill on Ford Road.  It's one that makes you go, "weeeeeee" in the car, straight down and straight up.  Let me be clear, it's not the up that scares me; it's the down.  That's the uncontrollable part ~ How do I know I won't crash and burn?  That would really, really HURT!  But, being me, I go anyway.  I get to that hill and there's no traffic so I set a course down the middle of the lane and go ~ and it's was roller coaster excitement.  weeeeeeee ~ Hopefully no one was around because I was grinning ear to ear and whooping out loud.  Adrenaline, wind in my face, speed on the edge of control.... Let's not talk about the way I had to walk the final push up the other side...But I couldn't wait to go home and hit that hill again!
The other adventure came as I was beginning the return trip.  The camp is way back off the road ~ there's a one lane "road" which is two tire tracks of gravel with a strip of grass growing in between.  There are woods on both sides.  My little tired bike couldn't handle the gravel, so I was riding in the strip in the middle.  I'm tooling along the grass heading back to the road when I see a little cat rooting around in the grass ahead of me.  I say, "hello, kitty" and it waddle waddle looks up at me and I realize, "oh, no, it's not a cat."  There was a skunk between me and my escape.  I, rather quickly, turn my bike around and get out of the way, visions of stink and gross running through my head.  I decide my only hope is to wait it out.  Thank Goodness after a couple of minutes that skunk waddled into the woods.  I hightailed me and my bike past that spot as fast as I could thanking my lucky stars that it worked out so well.
And on a "make myself look better" note, I made it up the other side of the hill on the way home.

heartstrings

A day later and I think I can write about it. 
Yesterday my 13 year-old baby flew by himself to Colorado.  This was his birthday present from his grandparents, spending a week with them all by himself.  I knew what I was getting into when I bought the tickets.  I knew it would be difficult.  I just had to survive it.  Why is letting go so HARD?
His flight was scheduled for 9:00am ~ so at 5:15, I got up and went to wake up JB.  He was sitting in his room playing with his Rubik cube.  He said he couldn't sleep and had been up since 4.  I think he was just as anxious as I was.  We got all ready and went to Hopkins.  Not a problem getting a gate pass and JB bought a $4 deck of cards so we could pass the time.  I looked out onto the tarmac into the face of that plane with  its great big nose and two little windows told it to take my baby safely to Colorado.  Somehow that little stare down made me feel a little better!  Finally they called his row ~ he gave me a hug and walked through the door.  I just stood there.  If anyone had spoken to me I may have just lost it.  Deep breathing ~ I couldn't believe the physical reaction I had to watching him walk away from me.  I don't know if it had more to do with my fear of flying or his actually leaving, alone.
I drove home and followed the flight on Continental.com.  There was the little icon of the plane over Illinois then Iowa then Nebraska and finally it stopped over Denver.  I called Jacob, who didn't answer.  I called Mom, who didn't answer...finally the phone rang and it was Jacob.  He said he had gotten off the plane and started walking toward baggage and saw GG coming toward him.  It was so good to hear his voice and the pride he felt in a successful mission. 
I hung up, walked outside to tell Mike I talked to him and then I cried, just a little.

#18

 #18 ~ My Mother recommended I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  I usually don't enjoy non-fiction so much, but it was not long before I couldn't put this one down.  A true story (hence the non-fiction label), about a WWII Pacific POW.  For me and my woefully sorry knowledge of history, WWII was all about Hitler and the Jews, and, oh yea, the Japanese.  I didn't realize how brutal Japan was and how they were the same evil that Germany was.
The book starts out in 1929 with the Zeppelin airship creating a small-world, humanizing, and haunting picture of the world before all hell broke loose.  From page 4: "The journey had begun on August 7, when the Zeppelin had slipped its tethers in Lakehurst, New Jersey, lifted up with a long, slow sigh, and headed for Manhattan.  On Fifth Avenue that summer, demolition was soon to begin on the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, clearing the way for a skyscraper of unprecedented proportions, the Empire State Building.  At Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx, players were debuting numbered uniforms: Lour Gehrig wore No 4; Babe Ruth, about to hit his five hundredth home run, wore No. 3.  On Wall Street, stock prices were racing toward an all-time high.
    After a slow glide around the Statue of Liberty, the Zeppelin banked north, then turned out over the Atlantic.  In time, land came below again: France, Switzerland, Germany.  The ship passed over Nuremberg, where fringe politician Adolf Hitler, whose Nazi Party had been trounced in the 1928 elections, had just delivered a speech touting selective infanticide.  Then it flew east of Frankfort, where a Jewish woman named Edith Frank was caring for her newborn, a girl named Anne."  The Zeppelin continues around the world and then flies over the house of our main character, Louie Zamperini, a soon-to-be Olympic track star and shortly after, a POW who endures almost more than he can bear.  It's an inspirational and real story about the human character.  It brings tragedy and hope.  From page 376: "Resting in the shade and the stillness, Louie felt profound peace.  When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him.  He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him.  In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away.  That morning, he believed, he was a new creation."
A story that speaks to everyone, regardless of the size of the problems we face. 
fl: All he could see, in every direction, was water. ll: There was no trace of them here among the voices, the falling snow, and the old and joyful man, running.

HP 7.2

Back in 2001 Jacob, being 3, was too young to see the first Harry Potter.  Patrick, being 6, might have been young too, but he loved the book and really wanted to go, so Anita and I took him.  Thus began the tradition.  Patrick read each book as it came out.  Jacob had the first three (maybe four) read to him.  (not so much into reading them himself)  He finally saw the movies on DVD and began to come see them around movie four.

Last night the four of us went to see the last one ~ HP 7.2.  In 3D.  Anita won the screening tickets and we saw it 3 days before the US release!  Fun to be the first.  It was really good and I have to admit that I was a little teary at the end.  The end of it all.  My kids were babies when this started and now they are teenagers.  Harry Potter has been their childhood.

As I watched I was reminded about how GOOD the message in these books/movies is.  I'm always amazed that people have wanted to ban them because they 'glorify witchcraft' ~ I wish people would actually read before they make a judgment.  I can't find it in the book, but in 7.2, when Harry is in the ghostly Kings Cross Station speaking with the dead Dumbledore ("Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?" ... "Of course this is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"), Dumbledore says something like, "Words.  Ah, words.  The greatest of our magical power.  They have the ability to destroy and they have the ability to repair." Ah, words.  They are the most powerful tool people have.  What power our words have.
He also says, "Do not pity the dead, Harry.  Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love." 
Such threatening messages, don't you think?  Sadly, some people do.

And the new is over ~ we don't have another book or another movie to look forward to.  That is sad, but I am glad that I was caught up in the excitement of Harry Potter while it happened.

Harry Potter Day!

It's Harry Potter Day for the last time.  Bittersweet for sure.  Anita won "tickets" for the preview showing tonight at 7:00 ~ While she won a four pack, the seats are not guaranteed so we have to go early to make sure we have seats.  We're hoping that an hour and a half is early enough to actually make this Harry Potter Day.  She's bringing the cards and I'm bringing the food.  We will wait in style.  But we will wait uncostumed ~ I bet we're in the minority on that account.  I'm hoping for some good people watching.

#17

Book #17 for 2011 is Janet Evanovich's Smokin' Seventeen.  I look forward every summer to the new Stephanie Plum adventure.  I usually buy the book and Amy pays me half (or more because she doesn't think half is fair.?.) to have it after me.  On the way to the beach on Tuesday I stopped at Wal-Mart to buy this one and read to chapter 25 while sitting in the sand (oh, glorious day).

I love Morelli and I love Ranger and I love Lula.  The characters in these books are so OVER the TOP and they make me laugh.  The plots leave something to be desired...I had this one figured out pretty quickly ~ but it's such a light, easy, pleasant read that I love it.
This one ended with a stupid cliffhanger ~ Stepahie KNOWS who she's inviting on vacation, but we have to wait until November 22, 2011 to "find out what happens next in Explosive Eighteen" ~ love how there's an advertisement for the next book on the last page ~ UGH.  And really?  Stephanie Plum is beach reading, not snow reading!  Maybe it'll bring a little summer to late fall.  And can she really pick? 
fl: My Grandma Mazur called me early this morning.
ll: This vacation is going to be all about lady parts.

High Noon

You wake up one morning and it's July 5.  It happens every year.  June just FLIES by and I've accomplished NOTHING except perfecting the putzin' around.
This weekend brought many good things:

1.  Cassidy annual firework extravaganza ~ the blue haze of sparklers as a background for Jake's salute to Independence ~ the little kids all watching from the pool ~ the adults happy in the chairs.  My only suggestion is for Jake to set it all to music.

2.  The best overheard, out-of-context line of the night:  Mother talking to her young daughter who got out of the pool to participate with the sparklers, "Granny says you have to wear panties.  Get over her so I can put on your panties."  I think that's pretty good advice Granny ~ if only Brittany Spears were your granddaughter.

3.  We discovered our act for Butler-Barton Family Entertainment Night ~ it's only July and we've got December covered.  So unlike us.  If you're a Butler don't click on the link ~  Anyone else, this is a Phil Cassidy Internet Radio GEM!

4.  The jet ski works.  The jet ski works.  The jet ski works.  It especially works when Jacob is driving and Patrick, riding on the back, pegs it full go and doesn't realize it's HIM holding down the gas.  I thought they were going to DIE and it most certainly was a CRISIS and I reacted as such.  Might just be the BEST thing that could have happened to Jacob.  He was the most cautious young driver of a jet ski that I have ever ridden with.  I actually had to tell him to give it more gas.  (reference the memory of riding with Patrick:  "Slow Down!  You're Going Too Fast!"  etc.)

5.  Found out that when we were kids Barb Hogan and I both saw King Tut at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.  We both remembered the really REALLY long line to get in...we imagine we were there on the same day (even tho' the exhibit had to be there a month or so).

6.  Walking into Wal-Mart this evening I realized my legs were EQUALLY tired and sore from my bike ride today.  I must repeat EQUALLY.  Yep, the stupid IT band is getting better.  (I've been praying for my leg, so thank you God.)