Run Log: March 2012

Today I had to take the kids to their tennis lesson at 10:00.  I carefully planned out a 9 mile route and told the boys I'd be later than their hour lesson, so to just hang out and wait for me...
We got to tennis, and I realized I'd forgotten my iPod.  REALLY!  How do I forget such a thing?  What to do?  I could go home and really make the boys wait for me (not so much an option), skip my run (nix on that too), or run with out it.  Which I did.  And I must say, at no time did I think, boy I really wish I had some music.  I enjoyed listening to the traffic, my feet pounding, my breathing... I was very surprised that it was so enjoyable.  Speaking of, don't you LOVE it with a long run feels good?  That last mile my body was just a running machine.  I felt strong and in control and alive.  After finishing last week at only 7 miles, it really felt good to be able get in the 9.
In March I ran inside & out, along the North Coast & the Gulf Coast, in record setting heat & blustery cold breezes.  And I ran in new shoes ~ with zip tie laces.  They are taking me some getting used to.  They make me feel like a third grader...but they are oh, so convenient. I have to get over my tendency to over-tighten them...my feet kept falling asleep for the first few runs (UGH).
Run Club is going...but I've had to miss because Patrick has started tennis.  I'm hoping I'll be able to get some run club in...but it's good to go watch him play too.  


Here are March totals:
80.5 miles for the month ~ It's a ReCoRd!
211 miles for the year
0 biking miles for the month
52 biking miles for the year
37.5 miles for my new shoes
and 1 mile swimming for the year...


Some interesting facts:

Longest run this month: 9 miles (tied February's high)
# of bags of Candy Cane Kisses left in my cabinet: 1 (and a half of a bag in the candy jar...they have actually been there for over a week.  I'm practicing self-control.)
# of boxes of Girl Scout cookies left in the cabinet: 2 
# of books I read this month: 2 
Biggest YMCA pet peeve this month: Girls who walk on the treadmill at a pace MUCH slower than they would walk through the mall.  I KNOW ~ I KNOW ~ I KNOW.  They are at the Y and working out.  I should be encouraging...but COME ON...work out like you mean it.
B Fit 4 Life Challenge...Sort of quit because I couldn't make any of the scheduled events...and I really think wearing a pedometer is stupid.  Maybe I'll do something in April...but I seriously doubt it.  I even went to the website to see where the team/I rank {looking for a little motivation to keep at it} ...and there is NOTHING posted.  Even the people running it don't care.  Rather sad, it could really be a fun program if it were run in a competitive and challenging way.  
Monthly mileage record: 80.5 miles THIS MONTH breaking the old record of 72.75 miles set in March 2011
Highest mileage record:  13.1 miles ~ May 16, 2010 (Cleveland 1/2)

March Madness

Spring came early to Madison, Ohio.  My magnolia was in full bloom on March 26, 2012.  Big Pink Blooms filled the sky will their softness and their light.  This tree has been through so much, recovered from loosing it's branches when a late spring snow dropped a foot of heavy flakes on buds ready to burst.  That year it bloomed in the woods.  A wonderful, thoughtful husband trimmed them back, the best he could ~ and now it stands almost as tall as it was before.  Why the magnolia bloom swells my heart with joy, I do not know.  It's beauty is simple and sweet; not long lasting.
Especially when the temperature is 26° the morning of March 27, 2012.  The blooms are now brown, making this same vibrant tree look dead.  I can not take a picture of the now; I only want to remember the before.  Life is short.  Enjoy the blooms each day gives you.

New Orleans

My Dad and brothers completed their epic bike ride along the Mississippi River Saturday at the point where the road ends between the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.  Bill and Dad started in 1998 ~ and resumed 11 years later to make 5 more trips (for a total of 6 week long trips) to make the 2500+ mile trip ~ most of it on a tandem bike.  My brother, Bob, joined them for half of the trip (not as easy for Bob to get vacation days).  And I joined them all for the party.
We left 80° & sunny Cleveland on Thursday morning and landed in 68° & rainy New Orleans.  We took a $60 cab ride into town and were the first to the hotel.  Of course we could not check in, so we dumped our luggage and headed out in the rain.  The only souvenir we bought were the Bourbon Street rain ponchos (to go with our Indians rain ponchos and our Disney rain ponchos...eventually I'll start carrying rain ponchos).  We walked up to the Super Dome and down to the mighty Mississippi.  We had shrimp creole & jambalaya for lunch ~ Then headed back to check into the hotel.  Mike and I were the SAG wagon drivers who went the 40 or so miles west to pick up the bikers that evening.  Interstate 10 is build right on the swamp...(I guess it's called the bayou)  So strange to have the whole interstate system be a giant bridge.  We found the guys riding route 23 along side the levy that keeps the river from flooding everything.  Bob said they'd ridden all week without seeing much of the river ~ it's held back by a levy for 100's of miles.  For dinner we had alligator bites, turtle soup {much to Maggie's dismay..."But I love turtles.  How would you feel all dead in someone's stomach, Uncle Silly Mike?"}, and oysters on the half shell.  Oh yum. ~ as was the banana foster ice cream cake for dessert.  Mike's a big fan of the Abita beer ~ 'specially the Andygator ~ I just found some on the web...
That night in the hotel, I realized, you don't go to Bourbon Street and expect to get a good night's sleep.
Friday we walked Bourbon Street in search of breakfast {who needs to ask where to go?} and ended up in the diviest of dives...down in the 'bad' part (really, there's a GOOD part) of Bourbon Street.  The plates were chipped, the walls were dirty, but the food was cooked to order and very good.  I just went to the website...yeah, it looks nothing like that...(maybe it was Katrina that did it in)

While the riders rode, we rode the St. Charles street car to the Garden district ~ and toured (on our own) the Lafayette Cemetery.  I just find this little detail of living below sea level fascinating.  They have to bury their dead above ground so they don't float up!  Some of these crypts were from the 1800's.  We found one where the person had died of yellow fever.  There were also new dates; we found one from 2009.  If you look at the picture, the white wall at the end of the row is the wall that encircles the cemetery.  It also contains remains.  Why does this seem so much creepier than a expanse of green grass with small marble markers?  On are way out of the Garden District we saw a car accident and police trying to get into a house...we didn't stick around, in case we'd get caught in the crossfire.
On Saturday, Mike and I had to run 8 miles (as per our training schedule).  We figured we'd get up run early ~ but the boys wanted to get their last 32 miles done...so we ended up dropping them off, driving 24 miles, jumping out of the car and running the last 8 ~ that was the plan anyway.  But the trip out of town may have been the biggest adventure of the day.  Mike was driving, we had two iPads and 5 navigators, and we still managed to get lost.  We had to turn around at an extremely busy intersection.  Mike turned left ~ and realized, "I don't think we want to be here."  We were headed the wrong way on a one way road with bumper to bumper traffic on the cross street.  When the light turned green, we would have 100 cars barreling toward us, head on.  We were able to turn into the flow of traffic before the crash, but it was iffy for a while.  Dad had the best comment, "Good think I wasn't driving.  I would have panicked and tried to merge into oncoming traffic, killing us all."  Mike took it all in stride, be he wasn't happy!
Running the last bit of road in America was weird.  The Mississippi was on our right and the Gulf was on our left.  We were surrounded by water, and we couldn't see any of it.  We were running in the ditch between the two levies.  I can't believe people choose to make their homes in a place that is one storm away from total devastation.  We ran 5 miles, in the 75° heat, sweating, trying not to get hit by the cars that refused to move over (even though they had two lanes to drive in).  At the 5 mile point, we found my mom and the rest of the gang ~ the road was flooded two miles from the finish, so they were going to wait where we were.  Mike and I decided to keep running and then come back, but we both got nervous that we'd miss the fun of the finish, so we turned around at 6 and only got 7 in that day.  We had a ceremonial finish, the the guys really wanted to put their tires in the Gulf, so down the flooded road they went.
After all the pictures we all went to lunch.  As we were eating, Mike watched Mary Grace (age 4) go into the restroom.  Then he watched a lady walk out and turn off the light.  He nudges me and says, "Get into the restroom.  Mary Grace is in there and a lady just turned out the light."  I get there as fast as I can.  Just as I open the door and turn on the light, I see MG look up at me as she's trying to crawl under the stall door.  "Hi, Aunt Becky, I was coming out to turn on the light."  I would have been freaking out, but not MG.  She was taking care of it.  What a kid.
We had a great day that finished with a party!  We all met for dinner in a private room and had a great time.  Clare needs to be a party planner!
The next morning we got up early, and headed for a taxi to the airport.  As we were waiting there was a woman in the lobby, clearly not thinking straight.  She was on the hotel phone, "No one cares about me.  I don't care"  ...blah blah...drama...drama... Then she says, "Dad, she doesn't have anyone to straighten her hair."  Like it's the most horrific thing that can happen to a soul.  ???  A good object lesson about what can happen if you drink too many days in a row.
Bourbon Street is Geneva-on-the-Lake all grown up.  Quite the adventure!  But in Cleveland we saw Z in the airport (at least it was a REALLY tall guy who looked like Z.  How many of those can there be?)

#5 & #6

After slogging through book number 5 ~ I polished off book number 6 before I even had a chance to review it. Also had 3 & 1/2 hours on  plane...so that helped.  (more of the New Orleans trip in another post)
Book # 5 was Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.  It came highly recommended by an English teacher friend ~ and I was skeptical at first...was this written to mock or belittle Christianity?  Would I spend my time reading, defending my own beliefs?  My first indication that it would be ok was the "Author's blessing" on the dedication page:  "If you have come to these pages for laughter, may you find it.  If you are here to be offended, may your ire rise and your blood boil.  If you seek an adventure, may this story sing you away to blissful escape.  If you need to test or confirm your beliefs, may you reach comfortable conclusions.  All books reveal perfection, by what they are or what they are not.  may you find that which you seek, in these pages or outside them.  May you find perfection, and know it by name."
And it was ok.  In fact it was thought provoking to ponder about the first 30 years of Christ's life.  If indeed he was a real live human being, there is not reason to doubt that he experienced real live human experiences...yet, I've never really REALLY thought about his growing up in those terms...did he indeed question himself and his own ability to deliver a people and bring the Kingdom?  Whom did he seek out for advice?  Did he have a best friend?
That's the other part that picked at my brain...Biff, his best friend, had the hardest time GETTING what exactly the Messiah meant.  He wasn't quick to pick up the stories ~ the parables ~ and apply them to what was going on around him.  In fact, he didn't figure it out.  The one closest to Jesus, didn't get it.  Rather telling, rather unsettling to me, even thought I can't really put the WHY of that into words.  Maybe it's because of all the craziness I've been going through the past few years at church...
Even with the thought provokingness, I felt the book dragged.  I would fall sound asleep after three of four pages...if it weren't for the plane ride down to New Orleans, I would still be trudging my way through it.
fl: You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't.  Trust me, I was there.  I know.  The first time I saw the man who would save the world he was sitting near the central wall in Nazareth with a lizard hanging out of hi mouth.  ll: The anger ran out of me then, leaving me feeling as if my very bones were losing their structure.  I looked forward, straight over the Ben Hinnon valley, into a sheet of lightning-bleached rain.  "I'm sorry," I said, and I stepped off the cliff.  I felt a bolt of pain, then nothing.  That's all I remember.
p437 ~ "The H.  His middle name.  It was Hallowed.  It's a family name, remember, 'Our father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be they name.'"  "Damn, I would have guessed Harvey," Biff said.

Because it was a vacation....I took along another book.  Book #6 was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I hadn't gotten wrapped up the The Hunger Game mania...even though all the teachers said what good books they were.  I did put it on my list of books to read, thinking I'd get to it this summer.  I even put it on hold at the library (like #357 in line).  But, as I was buying stuff for our trip at Wal-Mart, I saw the book for $6.00.  I picked it up, thinking, "Good, I'll get it read before I go see the movie." ~ and Jacob says, "Mom, Patrick has that book in his room."  Seems he bought it when it first came out at a book fair.  So, I have my very own copy!  Life is funny that way.
Great story.  It would be a good discussion book; many parallels to our own government taking over "for the greater good."  There were times when the story was way too contrived (very middle school), but the characters are lovable and believable and I can't wait to read the next one! (Which Patrick doesn't have because he didn't really care for the book and didn't want to read on.)
fl: When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.  ll: I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.

GLoRioUs

I've got dirt under my nails, a pinkness to my shoulders, and a new pair of running shoes.  This has been a good weekend.

It has been in the 70 for that last five days ~ and the forecast calls for 'record highs' for the next week.  I've weeded about half of my flower beds (half may be an overstatement), the kids have a huge pile of sticks in the fire pit, and I was HOT during my run yesterday.  I LOVE SPRING. 

Earning my money

Yesterday I went up to the office to run off science flash cards for my class to use to, obviously, study their science vocabulary words.  Now, we have two copiers in the office, the one I always use and the slower, color machine.  Unfortunately, because we all have to make our own copies now, my favorite machine makes really light copies with gray lines through them.  In other words, it makes ugly copies that don't make me happy.  So I'm starting to use the slower machine.  (It makes nice clean copies...that make me happy.)  BUT I don't know how to use it as well...DON'T JUDGE.  Those new-fangled machines have all these buttons and choices and I never know for sure if I want sort or stack.  Of course, I THINK I'm sorting, but the 11 copies of 4 pages comes out as 4 stacks with 11 copies in each stack...UGH.  Now I have to make 4 piles and take one from each pile to make 11 stacks.  (This sounds like a bad math problem.)
All this set up...now the story:
I'm grumbling to Bonnie, the secretary, about being too stupid to make the machine do what I want it to do.  A parent (I'm assuming) comes into the office.  I leave saying, "I'm off to sort my copies by hand."  And this woman says, "Isn't that what you get paid to do?"
She caught me so off guard that I KNOW I gave her a look that didn't mask my thought of, "REALLY, you think that's all teachers do all day is MAKE COPIES?!"
I think she THOUGHT it was funny, but it wasn't.
{But now it kinda is!}

Wrecking Ball

Bruce has released his 17 studio album ~ wow ~ 17 (that's how old my kid is) ~ and I LOVE it.
I will be the geek and list the songs:
1. We Take Care of Our Own
2. Easy Money
3. Shackled and Drawn
4. Jack of all Trades
5. Death to my Hometown
6. This Depression
7. Wrecking Ball
8. You've got it
9. Rocky Ground
10. Land of Hope and Dreams
11. We are Alive
12. Swallowed up
13. American Land

Land of Hope and Dreams has been a favorite of mine, nice to finally have a non-bootleg recording ~ and, being old, it's nice to hear American Land and have a chance to learn the lyrics...Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long...
The last few albums have taken me a while to find favorites and songs that are meaningful to me.  Not that I haven't liked the music, it just wasn't MINE right away, like Racing in the Streets is MINE.  But Jack of all Trades immediately spoke to me.  That's my husband.  That's my life.  Same with Rocky Ground.  I find it amazing that Bruce can put into song my thoughts and feelings.  Mike always sarcastically exclaims, "Bruce sure feels the plight of the working man..."  But for someone who doesn't have economic hardship, he sure understands some of the related feelings.
Can't wait for April 17!

Spring?

71 degrees when I left school this afternoon around 3:40 pm.  Beautiful, sunny, windy day.  Felt like spring ~ even though we've yet to have real winter.  I got home ~ and all my crocuses have bloomed!  Amazing...last year it was so late when they came out...now I've got flowers on March 7 ~ with tulips and daffodils poking out, just waiting (for the dogs to smash them so they can't bloom).

Jalapeno Popper Dip

A new favorite ~ I found this recipe on Pinerest ~ and decided it needed bacon.  Here's the link for the original 

Jalapeno Popper Dip 

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 bag real bacon pieces (or you could fry your own bacon)
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapenos or 4 fresh seeded jalapenos diced finely (add more if you like it hotter)
• 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• Directions
• Mix the first 7 ingredients together and spread into a pie pan or 2 quart baking dish.
• In a bowl, mix the last three ingredients.   Sprinkle this mixture over the dip and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes ~ until the top is browned and the dip is bubbly.
• Serve with chips or crackers!
• *If you want to serve it cold just mix the first 7 ingredients...skip the topping.  Very yummy that way too.

SO GOOD!