Why me??

Things, admittedly just little things, don't seem to be going my way. Yes, it could be a lot worse ...

Late this afternoon I went to the office. The attorney I work for is out of town. I was going to run the vacuum while no one else was there, go through the mail, water the plants, etc. I'd picked up some supplies at Wal-Mart last night and they were in my trunk. I opened the office door, put my purse on the desk, remembered that I had the stuff in my trunk, and went out to get it. Came back in (luckily had my car keys) and discovered ... a locked office door. With my purse, office keys, and phone inside. Arghhh ... The "If onlys" were just streaming through my brain. Luckily, Dan was in the office next door and he let me use his office phone and a phone book to start making calls. This was about 4:00. Finally, at about 6:30 I was back in the office running the vacuum. Not how I'd planned to spend that amount of my day. But the good news ... at least I hadn't locked my car keys in the office. That would REALLY have been the pits.

And now as I sit here on my laptop, it's not recognizing anything connected via USB ... my mouse, my camera. I restarted the computer a couple of times to no avail. And I keep getting a pop-up window saying "USB device not recognized" but currently THERE IS NOTHING CONNECTED VIA USB. Can you sense a little frustration here? Can something just be easy for me? Fuhgeddaboudit!!! If anyone has a clue on how to solve this, please let me know.

Well, let's get back to my day. Started out by cleaning out the hall closet. Lots of stuff went in the trash and it's just more organized in general.

Then I started on a few kitchen cabinets. Disaster soon ensued. But now ... all good. And the car is full of stuff to be donated to Salvation Army tomorrow.

Dug these out of the basement. They're up for grabs. Waxless Rossignol CC skis, but you'll probably need to put on some new bindings as these are old-style. Also have some poles ... 135 cm Exel but one basket has a piece broken off. Want 'em? Email me. First come, first served.

Supper was ... a salad (what else).

and a Cooking Light pasta recipe that's really a favorite of mine. It's got roasted butternut squash (roasted with rosemary), shallots, a little bacon, and penne pasta with a Provolone cheese sauce (made with 2% milk and flour ... no butter). 1.5 ounces of grated Parmesano Reggiano on the top. D.LISH.

These daffodils purchased at Trader Joe's are just the opposite of the fresh flowers I purchased 3 weeks ago now (and are still on my table). These are disappointing. They're fading, but they never opened up. What's the opposite of disappointing? Appointing??? Anyway, I continue to be impressed with my 3 week old flowers.

Thank you to Dave Phillips for the Fetzer shirt design for 2011. I like it!!



I got an email from Sharon, the RD for Lake Wobegon. She said I'm the race's biggest ambassador. She said there are 14 Rochester runners registered:

Frank Bartocci (streaker)

Richard Bram

LaRee Etter
Meredith Evenson
Marni Gehrking
Brianne Hamann
Andy Hemenway
Liz Jaben
Corrine Klebe
Justin Offord
Joe Ryan
Renee Saxmann
Mike Schmitt
Jennifer Schrandt
Millie Suk

This is gonna be FUN!!

Here are a few pix from snowshoeing on Friday evening. What a lovely, relaxing evening. Thank you Dan and Stacy!!

Today's workout: 68 minutes of "Strength I" (TriRochester bike workout) on the bike and a one mile run. Tomorrow morning I think I'll hit the RCTC track.
 
Well, I guess I'll get back to the Academy now. I'm not really impressed with the show this year. My guess ... next year's hosts will not be the same as this year's.
 
Good night ...

Enough Already

16.55 miles today. I didn't get going until 11 bells as I got to bed at 1:30 AM. What a slug. And it snowed the WHOLE time. That fresh fluffly snow covered up all the ice patches. I was perilously close to going down behind HyVee north but somehow I stayed upright. I am really, really, really tired of winter running. I have totally had enough. My legs were tired today, I had ice chunks on my eyelashes, I got snow in my shoes which soaked and froze my feet and I was tired of slipping on the ice. ENOUGH. AREADY.

Sunday morning: Panera South at 7:30 AM if you feel like running some more. Tom Woo is running 10, but I'm sure there will be a way to run a few more, run a few less. And the coffee pot is always on afterwards.

Snowshoe Sunday at 12:15 at Oxbow at the first bridge. Snowshoeing with Dan E. and friends was great fun last night. I've got some pix but haven't taken them off the camera yet. Sacey E. made 2 kinds of chili for us for the after-party. Regular chili made with turkey and a Mexican chili with corn, cumin, etc. The Mexican version was DELISH. Thanks Dan and Stacey for a great evening.

Being I got such a late start, I've had one meal today. My first EVER hamburger at Newt's at about 4:30 PM. Left most of the fries. The burger was very good, I must admit. They deserve their "Best Burger" award 8 years running. I asked the server where they get their buns. The Gingerbread House. Very good. Then it was off to run a bunch of errands. Now I'm finally sitting down and it feels great.

Well, I think I'm gonna chill for a while ...........   Toodles.

An "Off" Day

I filled up my car with gas early afternoon at $3.25/gallon. Seemed expensive to me. This evening I noticed it had jumped AGAIN ... to $3.49/gallon at S.A. Ouch. That's going to have lots of ripple effects.

I'm having an "off" day. An "off" week, actually. Not sleeping well, so I'm just dragging during the day. I didn't make it to the progressive run in Byron this morning. At 5:00 AM, I just could not drag myself out of bed. I was exhausted. And nothing sounded appealing workout-wise. I laid there trying to think of somewhere in Rochester that was relatively flat and relatively devoid of traffic/crossings so I could do the workout here. Nothing came to mind. I didn't really feel like going to the Y. I contemplated getting on the bike. But finally ... at 6:30, I got on the Stairmaster for 2 hours. Mindless, but a good workout nevertheless.

I took my friend Kathryn to the airport shuttle late afternoon (she's off to NZ via LA and Australia. Lucky!) and then contempled ... 1) just running my mile for the day, 2) running the mile and then hopping on the bike, 3) running down to meet Team R.E.D., 4) going to the TriRochester gathering at Glynner's. Well, I had to run the mile at a minimum. So I did that, got home at 5:45 and decided that I'd head back out and run RED's course in reverse, meet up with them, run back to 6th St and then run home and quickly head up to Glynner's for a little while. So that's what I did. It was nice to still have a little daylight at 6:03 PM.

It looked like a good turnout for RED.

By the time I got home, I had in 6.3 miles. Then I headed up to Glynner's to meet up with the TriRochester folks. Congratulations to Sawra and Matt who are expecing a baby July 16. Sawra says she feels great!

On the way home I stopped at HyVee Barlows for a couple of things: 1) unbleached parchment paper, and 2) asparagus ($1.88/lb.) Well, that store doesn't carry the parchment and the asparagus was totally picked over. Just a couple of bunches that were pencil thin (I like it on the thick side). Again ... things are just "off" for me. I did find some interesting looking carrots on sale, so I bought them.

After work I'd stopped at Trader Joe's for a few things. I ran into my friend Diane Langton and talked to her for a while. Picked up a few fun things. Red peppers were only 69 cents each ... a steal. Daffodils were $1.69.

Finally at 8:33 PM I ate my dinner.

Matt's band concert at WSU last night was very nice. I really enjoyed it. A diverse selection of music, and it was performed very well.

I ate a BBQ pork sandwich (very unremarkable) at Jefferson's before the concert. It didn't sit very well. That's probably part of the reason I didn't sleep well last night. It's always something ...

Tomorrow my friend Dan is having a snowshoe hike followed by chili and beverages. The only person on the guest list that I know is Jim Benike. But it'll be fun, I'm sure!!

I'm tired .... toodles.

Oops!

Jim "Mr. Parry's Endurance Challenge Parry" is speaking at Team R.E.D. MARCH 24, not this evening. But don't let that stop you from coming out ... 6 pm tonight at Brothers. :-)

Good. Morning.

And it was a GOOD morning. What a different run today than yesterday. Virtually the same mileage (11.25 today, 11.22 yesterday, but different courses) but a MUCH better experience. The shoulders on the roads were mostly clear and the bike path/sidewalks were in pretty good shape. Missing was the deep slushy snow which was such a frustration yesterday. There was ice, but I can deal with that.

When I leave the house at 6:30 or so, there's often a young man waiting for the bus near the west end of Fox Valley Drive about a block east of County 22. I always greet him with "Good morning". Well, today HE greeted ME with a "Good morning" before I had a chance to say anything to him. Totally cool. Set a nice tone for the run early on. And today I noticed that the birds are singing. Definitely a sign that spring will eventually descent upon SE MN. EVENTUALLY. :-)

There's a gal that for years has been walking the west side 52 frontage road and she ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS has a cell phone against her ear. ALWAYS. For years I've wondered who she's talking to all the time. I guess I'll never know. But I'd like to tell her ... get a Bluetooth.

Matt's new super cool racing bike is due to arrive in Winona either today or tomorrow. He's very excited. His non-cycling friends don't understand all the hype, so he's having a box-opening party on Friday night. Fun. Great idea.

My new microwave is a very nice change from my old 29-year old model. With the old one, but oatmeal needed to cook on high for 3:55. Well, I tried high on 3:44 the first time I used it. WAAAAY to long. There was oatmeal all over. Next time ... 3 minutes on high. Pretty much the same result. I've backed it off to 2:22 on 70% power. That seems to work. :-) Totally useless info, I know ......

Team RED is welcoming Jim "Mr. Parry's Endurance Challenge" Parry on Thursday, MARCH 24 at Brothers at 5:30 PM. He's running 7 marathons in 7 days, with the 7th being the new and improved Med-City Marathon. Stop on by and see what Jim has to say. At 6 PM, the walking/jogging/running will commence. Also, the Progressive Run from O'Leary's tomorrow AM at 5:30. I just might give it another go. IF I can drag myself out of bed and iF it's not 100% foggy.

I'm reading Running Times on the Stairmaster. There's a very good article about Master's (read ... aging, like me ... actually now I'm a Grandmaster. Argh.) runners. I'll summarize it when I get done.

Well, that's it for now. At 4, I'm going to wish a fond farewell to Brenda, Ben and Robin from the Y and then head over to Winona for dinner with Matt followed by a band concert.

Toodles.

Music, Music, Music

Matt's band concert on Sunday was cancelled due to bad weather. It's been rescheduled to tomorrow (Wednesday). There are lots of options for me for Wednesday: band concert, book club, moonlight snowshoe. But the choice is easy ... band concert. Here's Matt during Saturday's choir performance. This is Chamber Choir. He also sings in Concert Choir.

Matt's senior recital (trumpet performance) is March 27. There's a receiption afterwards and Matt asked me if I'd make some of my "famous cookies". You betcha. I can't wait. Matt just called. He had a jury performance today in front of the professors to determine if he passed his recital. He did! Whoop whoop! I'm so happy for him. He's worked so hard on this music. I look at it and am just blown away. BTW: It's open to the public. It's at WSU PAC (Performing Arts Center) in Winona.

This afternoon I made some "The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie" cookies (Cook's Illustrated) to bring to Matt tomorrow.

I was going through some boxes in the basement and came across this bulletin board flyer from 1985 (back when they printed everything and posted it on bulletin boards. Yes, the stone ages.) It was my second promotion. I'm in the upper right. Wow. I've changed. And look who's in the lower left? Fellow runner Don Gabrielson!! Small world.

Got a nice email from Andy Hemenway today with all the details about his trevails at the Austin Marathon. Wow. I don't think I would have even started. Major GI issues, no food or drink, issues on the course. And he still pulled out a 3:59:59. He's amazing. Kudos, Andy. You're my hero. :-)

Yesterday's workouts: 2 hours on the Stairmaster, one mile run and lots of shoveling. Today's workouts: 11.22 mile run (Salem Road, Mayowood Road, Lenwood Drive, Merrihills, Mayowood, Salem). It was early AM and the roads were not in good shape. The shoulders weren't plowed, and there was so much of that slippery brown slushy snow (snow and salt/sand). I felt like I was running in place at times. It was a tough go. I am now officially VERY sick of winter. I should have gone to the track. After work I went to the Y and swam 1.5 miles and lifted. That went much better. Conditions in the pool are very consistent, although the water felt cool today. But I've been a little "off" for a couple of days ... occasional chills, no appetite today, headachy. But this too shall pass.

Last night I had the Lace-Up Committee over for dinner for a post-mortem meeting. On the menu:

Chicken

Streuseled Sweet Potatoes (a Cooking Light recipe)

Apple, Pear, Grape, Cheddar, Pecan Salad (Cooking Light)

Walnut Bread (Cooking Light)

And for dessert:

Poppy Seed Cake

In attendance:

Laura

Laura, me, John, Jean

Amy (tried to escape the camera)

Lin, Sarah, Amy, Laura

Laura, Jean, Angie, Jean

We had very good discussion. Look for Version 5 of Lace-Up on February 12, 2012. It'll be the best yet. We will stay at Mayo H.S. That venue proved just ideal for us this year. We can't please everyone, but we'll do our best to please the masses.

Well, that's about it for today. Have a good one.

Spring Has Sprung?

Hardly. A couple of days ago it sure felt like it. Today? Not so much. But I did put away the snowmen and get a few bunnies out of their boxes. This morning I got in my one-mile run for the day and then shoveled the first 3-4" of snow. Workout #1.

Heading toward Fox Valley Drive

Looking west on Fox Valley Drive



My half mile turnaround spot

 At 12:30, I got on the bike and did the TriRochester Tempo I workout from 2/7. What a great workout. Sweat dripping from every pore on my body. I just LOVE pushing those big gears on a bike. My heart rate gets way elevated and my legs get a workout, but there's no pounding. Workout #2. Then I went outside and finished shoveling the sidewalks and the last 1" of new snow. Workout #3. When the plow comes by, that'll be workout #4. I heard thundersnow for the first time this afternoon.

I'd tentatively planned to go snowshoeing at 3:00, but decided shoveling took precedence. :-( I hope they had fun. :-)
Hats off to LaRee (full), Andy (full) and Lori (half) on their successful runs in Austin, TX this morning. Great job, one and all! From the calls, texts and Facebook status updates, it was a challenging, hilly course and the weather was warm. When I talked to Andy, they were headed out to see the sights. It was 78 and sunny. Lovely for sightseeing, but not for running a marathon.

Tomorrow evening the Lace-Up committee is coming over for a dinner/post-mortem. I've decided on the menu: baked chicken, streuseled sweet potatoes (Cooking Light recipe), Walnut Bread (Cooking Light recipe) ...

< snowplow just came by ... workout #4 is now looming >

... apple, pear, cheddar salad and for dessert, poppy seed cake. The cake is a white cake and requires stiffly beaten egg whites. This is the test for "stiffly beaten" ... an upside down bowl. And they shouldn't fall out. :-)

John Shonyo is bringing beverages.

There were 50+ runners at the RAC yesterday morning for the run. Great turnout.

Matt stopped by for a couple of minutes yesterday afternoon on his way from the cities to Winona. What a nice surprise!!

Matt had a vocal music concert last night. I got to see the new fitness center all lit up.

They did a really nice job. I enjoyed the concert. It was a short one ... 45 minutes. But that was OK as I was really tired and still had the drive home. The moon was really pretty last night ... almost full, and the cloud formation was like stripes.

I ran across this envelope when cleaning out the office. So cute. :-)

Well, I guess I'll go out in the sleet and wind and finish up the shoveling. It's not gonna be fun. Later ...