Nice!

I returned from a very nice bike ride with Mike Schmitt just a short time ago. We met at the RAC and since the wind was DECIDEDLY from the northwest ...



The wind blowing the spray from the sprinkler

 and Mike was thinking 30-35 miles would be a nice ride for the afternoon, we headed up to Pine Island on the Douglas Trail to provide a little shelter from the wind.

And windy it was! It was hard to hold 20 mph into that wind. When we got to P.I. we found this sign:

Well, it was pretty obvious that the bridge is not safe!

The bridge is that piece of steel being dragged out of the river by the backhoe. We turned and headed out to county 5 toward Byron, but turned on county 14 and went down the Genoa hill ...

The hill is about 1/4 mile ahead

as Mike hadn't been down it before. I got up to 39.6 mph without pedaling. I didn't want to go ANY faster. : ) When we got back to Douglas, we headed back into Roch on the trail once again. 41.70 miles for me, about 32.2 for Mike. Very enjoyable ride. Thanks, Mike!

At the Fox Valley Drive traffic circle

Last night, 12 of us gathered at Beetles: Roger, Joyce, KC, Dave, Tom, Karen, David, Amy, Jean, Jim Li, Tom W, me. Laughter seemed to be the theme for the evening. : )

Tom, Karen, Roger, Dave

Amy and Jean

Tom, Karen, Joyce, KC, Roger, Dave

Jim Li, Tom W.

Tom Woo

I guess I didn't get a picture of David Williamson. Sorry 'bout that. I offered our server, Sam, a cookie which she took. Towards the end of the evening I asked her for my check for my diet Pepsi. She just waved her hand and said I was good. I thanked her and offered her another cookie, which she took.

Some Dave Duncan quotes from yesterday evening:

• "Just don't say it. I have a big mouth." (His response to me saying that the "Melby surprise" is supposed to be a SURPRISE.)
• WWRD? (What would Renee do?) (His response to a LOT of stuff ... big mistake!!)
• "Now what are the chances of that?" (His reponse to me saying that I was running OBX marathon unless I do something stupid.)

We were talking about my 1:27:26 TC10 time (I'm still very ashamed of it) and Dave said that he thought I was still in the top 25% of finishers. I just shook my head ... and then said it was actually in the top 24.7%.  (Actually I had no idea.) Everyone burst out laughing. Guess you had to be there ... : )

I got an email from Noah the other day. He ran Whistlestop last weekend. He said it was a beautiful day, 65 to 70 at the finish. He didn't run a PR, but got marathon finish #5 so he was happy with that. He said the party at the finish didn't hold a candle to Grandma's, though.  I can't imagine ... : )

Did you know that Joanie (Joan Benoit-Samuelson), who's now 53 years old, ran a 2:47 marathon in Chicago last weekend? She's also one of 15 runners to have run a sub-3:00 marathons in 5 straight decades.  Here's the story. She's incredible.

Speaking of marathons ... Kris O'Meara is also running Boston and staying at "our" hotel (Ramada). Great! Registration for the marathon opens on Monday at 9 am EST. http://www.baa.org/ It filled quickly last year so don't dilly dally.

Morning workout: Lifted and swam for an hour. I brought a bunch of cookies to give away. Gave them to Brian, Kay, Mike, Mike, Kevin, Jack (who's 85) and his buddy (who's 88--a retired Lutheran pastor), Paul, Glenn and his buddy, Rosalyn. I should have brought more. : (

Totally useless information: there were 14 pieces of mail in the mailbox today. Every single one of them was either asking for money, trying to sell something or trying to get one of us to get a new credit card. Ridiculous waste of paper and postage. It all went in the recycling or shredder.

For dinner tonight, I decided to make butternut squash ravioli (from Sam's Club). It's OK by itself, just boiled, but rather boring. So I sauteed some onions and a sweet pepper in olive oil ...

and did a chiffonade (sp?) of some basil. Sage would have been a better match but I don't have any fresh sage.

Bunch it up tightly

And thinly slice

Then after boiling the ravioli, I tossed it in the skillet to saute it as well and give it a nice crust.

Then grated a little fresh Parmesano Reggiano on top.

Really delicious, I must say. I was starving after that bike ride and this totally hit the spot. BTW: on the back of the ravioli package there's a suggestion for a "sauce" for the 16 ravioli inside ... 3/4 c. of melted butter along with some seasoning and walnuts. OMG. That's a LOT of fat calories ...

Until tomorrow, cheers.