So much has happened since I last posted. Friday afternoon I went up to St. Cloud to meet up with my River Runner friends. We met at G. Allen's for supper. Eight of us: Chad, Nikki, Rick, me, Cindy, Kathy, Donnie, Paul. (Rick, Cindy, Donnie)
Paul, Kathy C.
(the newly engaged) Nikki, Chad
I didn't realize it, but they'd ordered an appetizer before I got there. Rick had a coupon for a free one. So I think they got the biggest thing on the menu. The biggest pile of loaded nachos I'd ever seen!
I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and baked potato. Not knowing about the nachos I also included salad bar, which turned out to be totally unnecessary. There was a LOT of food. Didn't eat the bun on my sandwich. Barely had anything from the salad bar. I think I'm still full from this meal. : ) The sunset was really pretty when I left.
I headed to the mall to look for this black ruffled jacket I'd seen at our Macy's here in town.
I went back to get it later and it was gone. (Looked for it in the Macy's in FL, but they didn't have it either. Their stuff was a season ahead. Not much of anything even with sleeves. When I get an idea in my mind, I'm relentless.) Anyway, at this Macy's, they had the jacket but in a mustard color. I asked if they could check on their computer to see if they had it in black instead. She checked and the bad news, their store didn't have it, but there were other U.S. stores that did. The good news? It was 40% off, plus another 20% after that. And the other store honored that price too. So ... they're going to send it to me, and I got it for about half price. They were going to mail it today. So now I guess I'm glad I didn't buy it here and pay full price. All's well that ends well. : )
Saturday morning a bunch of us do what the River Runners call "front loading" before the 8:00 scheduled breakfast run at Brigitte's, which was about 6 miles. Several of us wanted to get in a 20-miler, so we started at 6 bells. That's Dan pictured below.
It felt really cold. About 20 degrees with quite a noticeable north wind. My hands were freezing, even with 2 pairs of gloves on. We made a 3.5 mile loop and headed back to our start location to pick up a couple more runners and then took off again for the 10.5 mile "horse loop". The gals needed a rest stop, so we went into Cash Wise foods and then the 3 of us ended up running the loop by ourselves. A nice, very flat loop to the south and west, crossing highway 15 and swinging by a pretty farm (with horses, hence the name) that was quite close to the road. I ended up running 20.61 miles (finishing up with the big group pictured on the River Runners website) in 2:49:27.
What a workout! Cindy and Wanda are darn good runners. I was hanging on for dear life. : ) My tummy wasn't feeling quite right on Saturday, so the run felt hard for me. But it would have been hard in any case at that pace, and with the full week I'd had. No Kwik Trip chocolate-frosted, creme-filled long john (straight up--no sprinkles, no nuts) on Saturday. Just didn't have an appetite for that. And I don't recall ever seeing a Kwik Trip in St. Cloud, either. Anyway, the River Runners always have a big group that stays for breakfast after the Saturday run, hence the name "breakfast run". Always so much fun. I just love this group. They are such genuine, warm, friendly people and have been so hospitable and welcoming to me. Love 'em. That's Rick (white shirt), Paul (camo and hat), Gary (white hat, blue shirt), Heather in the grey (a newcomer) and Cindy (on the race team with me, and she and hubby Donnie are co-presidents of the club this year).
John, Deb, Leah and I'm not sure who the gal in the Apple du shirt is.
Too many to name in this one ...
I had a bowl of oatmeal with raisins.
Just what I needed. When I left, I went to Byerly's (grocery store) with two things in mind: a couple copies of their free cookbook/magazine (one for me and a couple for foodie friends) and some of their croutons from the bakery. I really like them on my salads and they're better than any others I've tried around here. And they're small so they go a lot further. River Runner Gene Garver was in there getting coffee so I chatted with him for a couple of minutes. He's training for his first marathon in 25 years and is hoping to run a sub-4:00 at Lake Wobegon. I'm rooting for him! He's a very nice guy. And strawberries were $1.79 for a pound so I picked up a package for a dessert for this evening. More on that later.
Then I grabbed a quick shower and afterwards stopped at Great Harvest in Waite Park. The bread selection there is always quite a bit different than ours here. So I picked up a loaf of blueberry swirl. It looks like a 2-lb. blueberry "cinnamon roll". It's very good. I've nibbled on the outermost ring.
I was getting pretty sleepy on the way home, so I stopped at Ferndale Market in Cannon Falls just to get out of the car and try to wake up a bit.
And who should pull up beside me less than 30 seconds later? Amos and Barbara.
I swear I can't don't go anywhere without seeing someone I know. That can be both good and bad. Anyway, I was delighted to see them. They'd just been in Northfield for a little while. The market was giving out little samples of turkey sliders, which were very good.
That turned out to be lunch. Still didn't have an appetite. Which was both good and bad, because when I got home I had just enough time to catch about a 20-minute cat nap before going to Kathryn's 7th Annual Vernal Equinox party (basically a chance to pig out on cookies!). She had a beautiful springy table set, covered with oodles of wonderful looking cookies.
She'd asked me to make some of my Peanut Sitting Pretties. They're in the lower left in the photo, with the frosting and peanut m&m on top. She had such pretty flower arrangments. It really felt and looked like spring in her lovely home.
I couldn't stay but a few minutes as Matt had a vocal music concert in Winona (he sings with both the WSU chorus and the Winona Oratorio Chorus, both of which participated in the concert). It was a selection of opera music, mostly sung in Italian. It was very good. In the photo below, Suzanne Draayer is pictured in the aqua gown. She's an RTC member and runner, a professor of vocal music, and a fabulous soprano.
These shots turned out bad, but Matt was part of a 6 trumpet group that played for one song. I didn't want to use a flash, hence the blurred shots.
Matt is on the far left. His friend Katie had given him a buzz yesterday morning with the 1/4" clipper guard so his hair is REALLY short right now. But he says he loves it. First, though, we had dinner at Jefferson's. I had a chicken BLT wrap, which was good.
Still wasn't hungry, so I ix-nayed most of the fries. Full. Done.
Well, now you're caught up on Friday and Saturday. I'm tired, so today will have to wait for tomorrow. (Make sense?)
Good night all.
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