Play it Again, ING

I am SO signing up to run the ING half again next year. The course was beautiful and the crowds were awesome. I expect that the start and water difficulties will be ironed out before the next one - maybe they can consult the track club for some advice.

Here are my stats:

Official time: 2:00:18
Chip time: 1:54:06
Garmin: 1:54:24
pace: 8:42

The PR time was due to our friend, Joe, who ran with me and kept the pace. He kicks ass.

Here are my friends and their times - all halves, except SuperNat:

Chris: 2:15:37 (first race EVER)
Susan: 2:28:52 (my boss)
Virginia: 2:03:46 (first half - my training partner)
Joe: 1:54:06
Jason: 2:01:39
Jennifer: 2:13:12 (first half)
Nat: 3:44:15 (heatstroke and a BQ)
Wes: 2:07:45

Here is my report:

My alarm was set for 4:00am, I thought. Apparently, it was not because I woke up at 4:14 with no alarm and my watch reading the wrong time. I'd cooked my oatmeal and set out my gear the night before and Doug made the coffee while I was in the shower, so I wasn't too far behind. Joe overslept too, so he was a little late picking me up and we were late picking up my friend Jennifer. We flew down the highway, so we got on MARTA at the Medical Center Station where it would be less crowded. MARTA was a breeze, we got to Underground at 6/6:15. We applied the vasaline, changed shoes and put on my knee-braces and checked our bags. Awesome job on the bag-check, UPS.

We finally found the huge wall of porto-potties and blanched at the lines. No matter, we waited and headed for the start. There were no signs, we just followed the masses. Because of the huge crowd, we knew not to try to go in at the back. Instead we walked outside the barricades until the 5:00 marathon pace group. At that point, we started to worry that we wouldn't get into the road. We went just behind the 4:30 pace group sign, and jumped (with help from those around us) the barricades. We helped several others do the same thing. I never heard a gun or a starting whistle. The crowd just started moving and we went with. We accidentally started Garmin at the finish line mats instead of the start, but quickly switched off - hence the 20-odd second discrepancy in the times. While waiting to start, I asked Joe his pace - "I don't know, what are we doing?" So, we ran together, even though Joe is MUCH faster and a better runner.

Jennifer had her own pace and so we parted at the start. The first 2-3 miles were bobbing and weaving as dawn broke over the city. The expo article about the views in those mile was not kidding. It was gorgeous. My knees felt OK but my toes got sore from sliding to the front of my shoes when tiptoeing between the other runners. We went through Inman Park and Little Five Points at or below my goal pace (9:09). I watched for running skirts (yes, I have skirt envy)pointed them out to Joe - he's not in the market for a skirt, but maybe for a skirt-wearing runner. We went through Little Five Points, which I haven't seen since Doug and I took my sister to see Dogstar 15 years ago. Then, we went down the Freedom Parkway - I remembered to eat my Sportsbeans during this stretch and on the way back we saw Jennifer and waved. She looked happy and chipper andwas running fast. Others have complained about this section, but it was still shady when we were there and was pretty pleasant. Then we ran up through Virginia-Highlands and I started to get a little tired. I was waiting for the post-beans euphoria. Some guy was handing out bottles of cool water from a grey trashcan and we got one. Thank you guy - we shared that water for the next two miles. It hit the spot. We went around through Piedmont park and I started to fade a bit. I was still with Joe, though, and we were doing about 8:20s at this point.

Then, the hills. On the back of the map that they gave us at the expo, it showed 3 big inclines. I kept thinking that we had finished the last hill, but no - there were more. I think that map was lying. Joe stared leaving me at this point. I caught back up and gave him a punch after the last out-n-back into the cheering zone. Then, going back up the hill to Peachtree, I stared to flag. My gut grumbled ominously. I looked in vain for a potty. No dice. This is a bad situation for a girl with pelvic floor issues. I stuck my earbuds in (had been only wearing one and switching ears so I could talk to Joe) and soldiered on. I kept Joe in sight and told myself to keep moving. Several times, I wanted to walk. The devil on my left shoulder kept saying "you can walk just a few steps, it will be no problem to catch back up," while the angel on the right said "no, sister, you better catch back up NOW." At the mile 1 sign, which apparently means one mile to go, Joe said "we're at 1:53" - I was a little loopy by this point and running with my eyes closed. I thought he meant that it was 1:53, which meant no way for the two hour goal. No matter, we pressed on. Those last two miles were in the 9:15 range and were not at all fun. The crowd started counting down as we approached the mats - I made the first mat before 2 hours, but that was the start mat. Oops - so I finished at 2:00:15. We got bananas and water and made the requisite pitstop - sorry to the guy who walked into my portopotty because I forgot to lock it. I felt like ass - not at all like Superwoman. After some curbside relaxing and ice shrink-wrapped to my IT band knee, I felt better. We limped to the UPS trucks to find Jennifer. There she was, at the appointed location - chipper and bouncing with glee. She finished in great time and at the same time as the marathon finisher.

It was a great race. I still have some muscle soreness today, but the knees are fine. I'm definitely there next year with more hydration and hill work under my belt. Thanks Joe, for keeping the pace. 65 Roses.

Full of Nerves

Annika's teachers told our sitter that they thought she had the Scourge on Thursday. After a
nervous phone call with Doug's sister Katie (who knows everything), we've decided that she does not have pinkeye, but does have allergies. Luckily we are going to the allergist on Tuesday anyway and Katie's daughter has allergy eyes too and had been for her four year checkup last week and they recommended some drops. We've purchased the drops (the name starts with a "Z") and they are working pretty well. We did have to go to both Walgreens (they were out) and Publix with Dagny clad only in a pair of shorts, but you gotta do what you gotta do. You can just call me Britney.

The nerves are about the big race tomorrow. I went to the expo today and got my number and cool Mizuno shirt. The expo was nice and though it looked like chaos, it wasn't bad like it was yesterday. Watch for #16060 - I'll be smack dab in the middle of the pack, hopefully not hobbling.

Better

When Doug first started playing golf in our neighborhood, he took me to the parties and I didn't know anyone - those golf guys all looked the same to me. Gradually, I started to make some distinctions by associating one fact about each guy with his face - names came later. My first two facts were: (1) the bartender who made everyone feel liked and important and (2) the singing guy.

"The singing guy," you say, "that sounds bad".

But he was a marvel. The singing guy would talk the band or DJ at whatever party it was into giving him the microphone and maybe some backup music (not always) so that he could sing a love song to his wife. And he could sing! He sang ballads, like "The Way You Look Tonight" or "Unforgettable" and his wife just looked embarrassed and gave him a hug when he was done.

Later, when I came to know the singing guy by his name, I also noticed that when you asked him how he was, he always said "Better than I deserve!" with a big smile.

At the church service on Saturday, the preacher said that this was a great reminder of the Lenten season. I thought he was just strange until I had some time to meditate on the idea. Lent is a good time to remind ourselves that we are all really better than we deserve. That is the point of giving things up and foregoing meat and all of that. I know that my spouse is better for and to me than I deserve most of the time. And the kids are better than I could even hope for. How about remembering to be grateful for that and reveling in it, instead of bothering to think about how they could be doing it "better" or "my way".

We lost the singing guy last week. The preacher was speaking at his funeral. Our friend was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about six months ago. For those of you that don't know, there is not a good prognosis for that kind of cancer and though he fought the good fight, it was too strong. He was grateful and friendly to the end - sending out updates full of sunshine and any good news he could think of. It was almost as if he were keeping our spirits up, instead of the other way around.

As the preacher said, we are better for having known him, much better than we deserve. We will miss you, Cary.

Frustrated

So, I wrote a nice post while at my continuing education class on Tuesday, but it was lost in the ether when the hotspot at the Sheraton went out on me. Then, I was going to write after finishing my work on Friday but the internet at home went out. It turns out that my moden was not on "bridge mode" despite the nice Bellsouth customer service rep's assurances to the contrary. I didn't believe her anway because her grasp on the English language was tenuous at best and she kept blaming it on my router, which is brand new. Luckily, the D-Link customer service rep was (1) a speaker of English, (2) knowledgeable and (3) helpful. There were long pauses in our conversation where I thought he was reading the instructions, but when he was probably surfing the internet and lost focus with me. No matter, the internet is up. It only took ALL of Dagny's nap and the 2 hours that Annika was being punished in her room. No work was completed and no blogging done. Stupid Bellsouth.

Annika was punished because (as was revealed when Doug questioned her about it) she was having a parade with Dagny while I was on the phone with a work colleague on a business call after I told her that I was going to take the call and that she needed to be quiet. I had just thought that she was following me from room to room with the loudness to get attention. Silly me - who knew it was a parade?

On the running front, I think I've solved the problem. My shoes were old. I knew that they were getting old, but I was waiting until the new Brooks Adrenalines came to my running store. If I was to buy shoes, why not the latest technology? Because waiting for the new technology will @#?*& up your knee - That is why. Stupid. Anyway, long story short, I bought an interim pair of new Adrenalines while waiting for them to come in at my store (because they ordered them especially for me) and now I have two new pairs of shoes. They won't go bad, though, and I'll hopefully get more mileage out of them if I rotate pairs - especially in the sweaty summer months.

Sun: 5 miles with knee brace on non-IT knee at 9:45 pace. Could have gone longer if I would have had both braces.

Tues: 4 miles in the flats at unknown pace. Could have gone longer if I would have remembered to wear any knee braces. You can't re-enter the house after leaving at 5am because the alarm beeps and will wake the babies. It was a joy to run without anything though - I felt like a gazelle.

Fri: 3 miles in the flats at 9:00 pace, cut short because of potty break

Sat: 6 miles in the nasty wind with both knee braces and no tunes at 9:09 pace. This run sucked; the wind, silence, cold and bad Mexican food for dinner on Friday combined for a lot of misery. The cardio and the knees were fine though. This is my race pace for ING if I'm to hit my goal time. I think, with proper fueling, hydration, both braces and some tylenol, it might be possible. Cross your fingers.

I'm Not Trippin'

I saw a bumper sticker this morning that said "Faith is a journey - not a guilt trip." I think this was a slam on the Catholic church because there was also another church (protestant) sticker on the car.

I know that it's the conventional wisdom that the Catholic church is all about guilt. And, believe me, Catholics carry a lot of it. However, since I've been doing the regular church attendance thing while Annika is in religious classes, I've thought a lot about this guilt and whether the Church puts it on the parishoners or if the parishoners put it on themselves. The priests joke about it a lot, so it's not news to them.

Here is what I think - there is always a "better" Catholic. For folks who don't make weekly Mass, it's the regulars. For the regulars, it's the Eucharistic ministers or ushers. For those folks, it is the folks who do adoration. For those folks, it is the daily Mass attenders or the Deacons or whoever. Someone is always commenting favorably on all of the ways that you can give of yourself (time, talent, $) to the church and there are always opportunities to do it. So, it's only natural for we competitive creatures to want to be the best at any or all of these things. The failure to do so causes guilt.

So, I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. If a rational, thoughtful, adult feels guilt because he or she COULD be doing more volunteer work or giving more money or attending more activies, that is not a bad thing - especially if it impels them to do good things. I think, though, that the words "rational" and "thoughtful" are the keys, though, because a person can do only so much.

Isn't She Lovely

Annika spent Tuesday afternoon playing dress-up while Dagny napped and Doug and I played dueling laptops on the porch in the beautiful weather.

You can't see the many back-view photos that I was required to take so that I could capture the fairy wings and fireman hat at the same time.

She might be a big pain in our bottoms right now, but Annika sure is cute.

I reread my post from this morning and apologize for the negativity. My lack of getting out and running or doing exercise has got me in a funk.

Tomorrow, swim lessons. We are already talking about how tough Annika is, so cross your fingers.

Issues

When I worked at the law firm, we used to call things that sucked "issues." There were title issues, contract issues, marriage issues, job issues and personality issues. We've had some issues at our house this week.

Annika went to Grammie/Grampa's cabin for the weekend last weekend and has been a bear ever since. I don't know if being the center of attention for two whole days spoiled her for the week or if she is just having a rough spot. Sunday, general bad behavior and failure to listen or follow directions. Monday, in addition to similar behavior, refused to eat dinner then whined about being hungry/thirsty. Tuesday, hit Dagny and then lied about it after bad behavior and waking Dagny from her nap. Wednesday, refused to use the potty for me and the sitter. Peed in the car on the way to dance class.

Doug had to plug two of his tires on Tuesday. He was in the driveway with the tools and the car jacked up when I returned home from picking Annika up from school. He is good at this and gets a lot of nails in his tires at work. While on the ground, he noticed that MY tires had the metal showing. "Have you seen your tires?" he asked. Clearly not. I left work early and got new tires (4 of them) yesterday.

And my knee is still bad. Despite the mileage scheduled for this week and next week (16 and 20 miles per week, respectively, plus speed work), I've done the following: Monday, Pilates. Tues, 6 miles too fast and hurt the knee. Wed, Tae Bo. Thurs, Pilates. Sat, 4 miles at 9:30ish pace. Sun, Tae Bo. Mon, Pilates. Tues, 3.1 miles at approx 9:45 pace. Wed, tennis - I don't think this counts. Thurs, does Peachtree application count? The tapering is supposed to start next week. I think that I've already started tapering. SIGH. The good news is that my Tuesday run at the park was without a brace on my IT band knee and despite some stiffness, it didn't hurt. Or maybe the other one just distracted me.

Now THAT is Creative

So, have I mentioned that I'm not creative?

Doug is a much more creative and adventurous cook and Annika can draw circles around me. And, Corinne, she can knit a billion things 40 times faster than me and with less mistakes and more importantly, she knows how to fix the mistakes.

But this woman, takes the cake. . . or the muffin, if you will. The link is courtesy of my sister, Emily. She is pursuing graduate school in psychology, with an emphasis on sex disorders.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

So, this was the third hard week of training in a row. I was even having delusions of marathon possibility (not this year, but ever). Instead of relaxing and enjoying the easy running, I pushed through that tempo run on Tuesday (8-ish min pace because of the 9s last week) and hurt my knee. No, not the IT Band knee, the original bad knee. Dumbass.

It's feeling better now, and I may even get to run this weekend so I'm not worried about my race except that I might not be as fast as I could have been. Sigh, sometimes it's one step forward, two steps back.

And, in other news, if work asks you to come in on your off-day for a 30 minute meeting, the answer should be no. Otherwise, your whole week is shot to hell because the day off that you were going to get to make up for the extra workday will be lost to a meeting (cancelled) and the original 30 minute meeting will be moved to 5pm - on Friday.

Didja Know?

Did you know that Thursdays are free beer glass night at Taco Mac? The food is iffy and the bathrooms are ugly, but the beer is lovely and I just noticed what a great collection of glasses we have. Just imagine if we remembered to take them home every time!

Dagny actually stood still for me to take her photo this morning. She was in a very good mood. I'm about to go and get her up for lunch. She was setting up a tea party on the little table with her milk and cups at each place. Then, a poo happened and she had to get a change and a rest. We thought today was service officer day at school and borrowed the police uniform from cousin Clay. Thanks Katie and Clay! I'll have to wash it tomorrow so that Annika can wear it again on the right day. Sometimes, all of these clothing instructions (color day, costume day, pajama day) are irritating. The fire truck will be appearing at school so that will be cause for big excitement, though. As you can see, Dagny is learning to use her spoon very well. She likes ice cream the best but dry cereal is fine too.

Not So Very Smart

So, in the beautiful weather this afternoon I took Annika and Dagny up the street to play with their cousins. In the whirlwind of getting ready for the outing (filling water, using the bathroom, etc), Doug suggested that Annika drive her jeep. We bought this for her for Christmas from a friend whose daughter had outgrown it. Against my better judgment (because Doug made me feel like an asshole), I made the "if a car is coming at you, you must stop" rule and off we went.

Because it was too scary for me to strap Dagny into the car with Annika, I pushed her in the push-n-ride car with it tilted into a wheelie so that her feet didn't catch on the pavement. So, we had the first near miss crossing the street in front of our house. Annika panicked while I was trying to explain where to drive (against the curb, facing traffic) and stopped in the middle of the road. I (still holding Dagny in wheelie-position) grabbed the bar of the car and yanked her over to the curb out of the way of the oncoming car. We will be lucky if her neck isn't sore. Sigh. After another discussion of where to drive, we were off. I think that those 0.4 miles were the longest of my life.

Did I mention that the jeep has two speeds? Low, which is a crawl, and fast, which is faster than I can walk. So I walked then jogged, walked then jogged. We made it to Katie's house without wrecking and fun was had by all. Annika only had one time-out and it was only because she ran the car into me. Much better than running into her cousins or sister, and she didn't do it intentionally. She is just a bad driver (just like Mom!). Katie offered to drive us home (to get the car later) but I sucked it up, put the car in low speed for the downhill and off we went. Annika hates low speed. I let her put in back in fast when we got to the flat parts.

Upon our return (not too much the worse for wear), Doug said "why didn't you just put Dagny in the car." I explained the terror of Annika driving Dagny and that I couldn't walk fast enough to keep up. He said that I should have put Dagny in and jogged alongside, with the idea of grabbing the car if Annika made a driving error. Maybe next trip. In the meantime, I'm going to get an adult beverage and try to calm down.

In other news, Annika's pants (size 4-T) are too short. She has actually been eating for the past two days, so we thought a growth spurt was upon us and 'lo it appears to have already happened.

Still other news: my parents have moved into the neighborhood. I think Dad is enjoying it already, but hopefully Mom will warm up on the idea soon. Dagny and Annika LOVE to drop by for visits or grocery errands.

Running: Tuesday was an 8 mile tempo run. Tempo-schmempo. I ran at the park and Garmin was worthless. He kept stopping while I was still running. I think I ran almost 8 miles at about a 9 minute/mile pace. Thursday was the hill sprints with walking in between - 3.37 miles at a 9:15 combined pace. Saturday was an 8.34 mile long run at 9:20 pace - it was my first non-park run and I did OK to end up back at the front of our subdivision (it's all downhill from there) at close to the 8 mile goal. Probably I should have eaten something before I did this run because it was pre-breakfast but I had to get back by 7 for Doug to leave for his tournament, so I chalked it up to fat-burning training. I'm STILL craving salt, though. Maybe I'll have gatorade next time. Anyone noticing a trend on the pacing? Yep, it was the week of 9 - that wasn't the plan, but oh well.

The Scourge

Now that I'm the mother of toddler and preschooler, I'm coming around to the idea that pinkeye is the new scourge. I know that you can give it to yourself and that toddlers are most likely to do it because of the frequent finger/nose + finger/eye contact, but frequently (like the throw-up virus), it seems like folks send their kids out sick so that they spread their crud to everyone else.

Yesterday, Doug's sister called me at work to tell me that one of the other moms in Annika's class reported that 3 kids in the class have pinkeye (3 out of 13). Yikes! Annika's eyes were goopy yesterday morning but didn't look red. After a warning email to Doug, 2 hours of worrying about my own itchy eyes and one trip to the ladies room to wash hands and check the mirror, I realized that maybe it's just spring. That, and I saw a sign at the eye doctor's office on the way home that said something about allergies. Me being crazy and paranoid is nothing new.

However, I took Annika to her first swim lesson today. She whined and acted like she was going to drown (she was not - they put a floatie on her at the beginning so that she wouldn't sink) - it was very embarrassing, but hilarious. Wow, are we ever going to have to work on toughening her up, though. What a wuss. Anyway - back to the story, while we were waiting to begin the lesson, one of the teachers showed up late to work. The other instructors had been whispering about him prior to his arrival because he was late. His right eye was swollen shut and he said that it hurt to even open it. That's right - pinkeye. No one said that out loud, and the guy said he would do his lessons with goggles on, but they sent him home.

Whew!

I was very worried about the scene I was about to make about how my kid was not getting in the pool with oozy eye boy.

Skubetzelis

The photos are apropos of nothing. I was trying to capture Dagny and Annika while they were all dressed up in their pretty dresses the other day, but had only limited success. Above, my friends Michelle, Corinne and Beth during the Christmas knitting night with cracker crowns.

Then, Annika showing me her beautiful dress and smile. I think it was on Valentines Day. I took photos of Dagny too, but hers were blurry because she is so fast. So, I put in a Christmas on of her instead. Same dress, though, so just imagine her taller with more hair.
The Skubetzelis is a Lithuanian word which means klutz (we think, but possibly with stupid and some bad words involved). We don't mean it as stupid or with cursing, though, it's just that Annika is currently so clumsy that the words "klutz" or "clumsy" do not cover it adequately. Yesterday, she fell off of her chair at least three times, flipped a grocery cart over on herself and crashed on the floor while walking or dancing more times than I counted. This, after hitting her lip on the kitchen counter on Saturday. She must be having a growth spurt. Poor thing, she is all bruised and battered.

In other news, on Tues - 4 mile tempo run at 8:53 pace, very slow and sluggish. Thurs, 3.32 mile hill sprints/walks at combined 8:56 pace. Sun, 10 miles at 9:24 pace. That was my longest run of my training so far (and farther than any run for my Disney race). I'm sore today, but was not in any appreciable pain yesterday. Next time, I'll make a better route and station some water or gatorade so that I don't have to avail myself of the QuickTrip. Doug told me to run somewhere else and he was right, again.

Still other news, we made our adult dinner on Saturday and had the fancy wine that I bought Doug for Valentines Day. We are still wondering whether we don't appreciate wine enough to like the expensive stuff or if it was simply not a good choice. It seems to me that we are far less likely to be disappointed in a bottle of wine if we only paid $14 for it - we expect less, but are surprised when it is (frequently) better than that. And the $5.49 Valpolicello at Trader Joes -delicious.

Now That's Action

Today the House passed a resolution (non-binding) which says that they disapprove of President Bush's direction in Iraq. In case you've not heard of this, read a story on MSNBC here.

Regardless of your position on the war in Iraq or President Bush, doesn't a non-binding resolution saying that they don't like his plan seem dumb? I remember listening to a Representative (don't recall his name - he's not from GA) say on NPR on the day after the State of the Union address that he really needed to "DO SOMETHING" about this new plan and that his action would be to propose a non-binding resolution. What kind of action is that? Who doesn't know how their Representative feels about this issue? Or their Senator? What is the point of a non-binding resolution but to send a big F-you to the Executive Branch? And that helps our country, how? Doesn't the Congress send the President a big F-you every day anyway? Seems like it to me.

Why do they waste our tax dollars this way? I think these folks have a bit too much time on their hands and might need some real jobs.

I'm "off" from my paying job today and Annika was supposed to go away with Doug's folks for the weekend. We had big plans for running this afternoon and an adult dinner, with wine. Instead, Annika threw up on the rug in the den. She seems fine, though, so that is good - but if anyone knows how to get vomit out of the fringe of a rug, please let me know.

The Food Wars

Mike just posted about the food issues going on at their house. Annika has developed the delightful habit of sitting with her food in her mouth (un- or partially-chewed) when she is supposed to be eating. Sometimes she even adds little gagging sounds to increase our fun. The offending food doesn't have to be anything that she doesn't like (onions, peppers, anything good) - sometime it is something as yummy as applesauce or bananas.

Last night, we had a meal of Chinese food that we got at Trader Joes - Shu Mai and Chicken Lemongrass sticks (which are a lot like taquitos with lemon flavoring) and honey glazed baby carrots (not from Trader Joes, but from Doug's imagination). No dice. After 10 minutes at the table with her first bite of Shu Mai in her mouth, Doug sent Annika to "The Chair" to chew it up and swallow with the instructions that she couldn't return to the table until she finished. She sat there for an hour while Doug and I had a delightful dinner and shared a bottle of wine and conversation. Dagny screamed a lot because Annika was missing and because she wasn't hungry either, but we can talk louder than she can scream. Apparently, the pile of Chik-Fil-A nuggets that they had for lunch at Annika's Valentines party filled them up so that they weren't interested in dinner (except for Dagny's cheerios). Too bad, they missed out.

Just wait until Annika figures out that she can spit out the food that is sitting in her mouth.

It's Going Around

On the eve of our big race - the 10K Peachtree qualifier, I woke at 12:52am to find Doug awake. "I've been throwing up all night and I have a fever," he said. Food poisoning or the roto-virus? We don't know, but he is still in bed with his ginger ale. He will have to race another day. The girls and I are going to relax the rest of the day and try to stay quiet.

I picked up our babysitter (bless her) and went to the race with Joe and Virginia and we had a lovely run, except for the ridiculous cold. Running is not so much fun when the temperature is in the 20s. However, I got my qualifying time for the Peachtree and a new fastest mile record. Here is the weekly report:

My training plan said to run 6x400s, a 6 mile tempo run and a 6 mile long run. I was a little off because of the work/run time crunch, but the results were generally good.

Mon: 4 mile tempo run at 8:45 avg pace. Cold and no fun.
Wed: overslept because the dog got up at 3:30 to pee - no run
Thurs: dog got up at 4, so I ran early - 3.31 miles hill sprints, walking down the hills at a combined 9:00 pace. I was sluggish because of not enough sleep and not wanting to overdo prior to Saturday's race
Sat: Race day - according to Garmin, I went 6.4 miles at an average 7:47 pace with mile 6 being the fastest at 7:24. That is my fastest recorded mile ever. Thank you, Joe and Virginia, for the encouragement and pacing. According to the race clock, I finished in 49:54 and Garmin said 49:55 so I don't know where the extra 0.2 miles came from.

Day Off

Today is one of my days off from my office work. In a fit of feeling sorry for myself, I was going to list all of the zillion errands we've done today. Other than the scone from Starbucks, the half-bag of veggie chips (sweet potato, taro, beet-colored sweet potato and something else I've never heard of) and the two trips to the running store, none of it was terribly fun. However, I've done this before on the blog - another Friday when we ran ourselves ragged and got me down. Maybe it would be better if I just didn't try to cram so much stuff into one day.

So, now I'm going to get my work computer and my i-pod and sit on my bed with Annika. She is having "quiet time" today. The days of her taking naps are finished but we are both a little worn down this week so maybe I'll work or maybe it will wait until tomorrow. But at least I've got the laundry going.

The Patience of a Chopping Block

Dagny is finally learning some words. They are mostly not intelligible to regular humans, though, so she gets very frustrated when we can't understand what she is saying. So frustrated that she balls her hands into fists, turns red, shakes and bangs her head on the floor - which hurts, apparently, and that only makes her more angry. We may have some discipline issues later, I'm thinking.

The word of the week is milk - sounds like meyouk.

Inquiring minds: BMI - 20.4-8, BF 20%

TMI

For those of you who don't frequent any online forums that use "internet-speak," TMI means too much information. Usually that means that someone is about to talk about their sex life or their poop or vomit. I will leave all of those things to your imagination. It may also be used in IMing, but I don't know how to do that so I can't comment.

Thank you, Dorothy, for reminding me that I was supposed to have done a 15 month check-up for Dagny. So, belatedly, here are the stats:

Height: 32 inches (80th percentile and exactly the same as Annika at this age)
Weight: 22lb, 11oz (38th percentile, down from 57th at the last visit - I thought she was looking thinner. That's almost 3lbs more than Annika at this age)
Head: 18.5 inches (69th percentile - still a pea, but not as much as Annika)

It's very interesting to see how little their body shapes resemble each other - Annika is thin and slight and Dagny is sturdy. When I was little/adolescent, my Grammy told me (to make me feel better about not being thin) that I was sturdy. Oooh, I hated being sturdy at the time, but now it makes me happy. I hear/read "sturdy" and I think "kick-ass."

In other news, Doug bought us a new scale because ours was getting a little erratic. Doug was having 8 lb weight shifts in 24 hr periods. I said it just needed a battery, but now we own a body composition monitor which tells us our weight, % bodyfat and % water. How's that for TMI?

Party at My House!

Doug is going to the hockey game tonight with some friends and after I learned that the running will not fit into my schedule this afternoon, I thought to myself - cool! What are we going to DO? Just as if it were my parents leaving me alone for the evening.

So, chick movies? drinking the mom-and-dad-not-homes? breakfast for dinner? everyone sleeping in my room? prank calls? bras in the fridge?

Who knows, the world is our oyster. Dagny and I will hit the Trader Joes while Annika is at school to see what we should get for dinner because, let's face it, Doug usually makes our dinner. Maybe this won't be so much fun after all.

Not So Deep

So, I wrote a whole post about the nature of intelligence - based on Doug and my observations of the "Top Chef" season finale and the seminar that I attended at work this week. Alas, my two little friends called me out of the office and my post was lost. Regardless, I was rooting for Sam and when he didn't make the finale - for Marcel.

In other news, I discovered this week that the guy at my favorite running store is also using (loosely) the same running plan that Virginia and I are using. His race isn't until April, though, so he is much looser than we are. Anyway, this week we were to do 3x1600s, a 5 mile tempo run and a 10 mile long run. I was so excited about my tempo run that I almost posted about it on Tuesday - see what a little hubris gets you . . .

Tues: 6.18 mile tempo run at the park at an 8:10 pace. This is the best run that I have had since June or July. I actually ran my comfortable running pace - it was so uplifting. After 3 miles, my knee stiffened and I revised my plan to only go for 4 miles. Then at 4 miles, it felt OK so I just kept going. Thank you, Doug, for coming home early so that I could run in the afternoon.

Thurs: 3.01 mile hill/speed run (sprint up, walk down) at an 8:54 pace. I got to leave work early this day (thanks again, Doug), so I ran in the afternoon. I was truly sucking it at the end - felt like my lungs were trying to heave out of my throat to get some 0xygen. And, since others were awake, I had to run on the side of the road instead of the middle. Still, an improvement over last week. My plan to go 4 miles was abandoned due to the aforementioned sucking.

Sat: 4.02 miles at a 9:38 pace. I had planned to go 8 miles this morning at a 10:00 pace - set my Garmin and everything. My knee was stiff and I nearly quit after the first mile. Fought through it and kept running through miles 2 and 3. Then I had to go potty and decided that 4 was it. I was very depressed at my knee crapping out like that, but when Doug told me the temp when I came inside (24-26 degrees F), maybe that was a good enough excuse. I'll have to meet with my pal Billy in the morning as penance/punishment/make-up, though.

Beauty

So, I drove to Savannah for work last week. That's right, 8.5 hours in the car for a 40 minute meeting and lunch. But, the meeting went well and they didn't need much of my legal expertise during the discussions (always a good thing), so it was a successful day. Along the way, I noticed how beautiful Georgia is. You don't always think about it, as you pass all of the piney woods and kaolin mines on I-95 and I-16, but this state is lovely. And Savannah - even the slums are gorgeous. If you ever have reason to visit the federal building in Savannah, please note that they do not have a lobby or bathroom that you may access without the presence of the party you plan to meet. No good after a 4.5 hour drive. There is, however, a lovely coffee/dessert shop just down the street (Walnut St, I think) that had good coffee, yummy scones, delicious-looking sandwiches, clean potties and all manner of chocolate, including chocolate thongs. I did not point these out to my colleagues when we returned for them to use the facilities, but I did buy a chocolate bar with chiles and nibs in it for Doug. No dice for him, but I have really enjoyed it. Yum. Please also note that if visiting Savannah, you need to take change for the parking meters or buy some stuff at the aforementioned coffee place so that you have enough to cover your time.

In other news, our training program called for Virigina and me to run 4x800 speed repeats, a 4 mile tempo run and an 8 mile long run this week. Viriginia and I found this program independently and are following it loosely to train for the ING race. I am following it more loosely than Virginia since it's not my first half (loved writing that, by the way) and my knee is still touchy. So, here is what I did this past week:

Tues: 4.02 mile tempo run in the flats at a 9:11 pace. This was not a hard run. I've not done any tempo runs since August, so I was pleased to get the four miles without my knee crapping out.
Thurs: 3 miles of hill repeats (sprint up, walk down) at a combined 9:18 pace. This was very difficult because it was cold, the hills are hard and I had a lot of phlegm. I was definitely sucking it at the end.
Sun: 6 miles at a 10:00 pace at the park (the flat one, not the Rec). Not hard, I probably could have run further but I didn't want to hurt the knee.

Pretty good, if I do say so myself. I've not been looking much at the training program because I'm so far off of it - especially the tempo part. To train based on my regular 5K pace, my tempo run should be at an 8:27 pace. I didn't even do the math for the speed work, and cross-training, forget about it! I'm off to a good start for this week, though, so hopefully the next post will be all about that.

Also, a friend of mine just found out that her baby may have a heart problem. They don't know how serious the problem is yet, and the baby won't be born until spring, but say a prayer for them please.

P says pppp

It's P week at Annika's school this week. For that reason, they are wearing pajamas to school today, having popcorn and a movie for snacktime and a pizza party for lunch. For breakfast, we even had pancakes. I'm out, though, and can't think of any other "p"s to have for dinner except peas. Any ideas?

In other news, I finally came through on my promise to Dorothy and gave blood yesterday. They were having a drive in the office park at work. The participation was low, but overwhelmingly female. You would think that the men would be more likely to give, but not this day. It had been 8 years (I had signed up to donate one other time, but had to cancel when I got pregnant with Dagny) since my last donation, so I am surprised at how punk I feel today despite not feeling light-headed at all yesterday (usually I do). Maybe it is a consequence of getting old. If you want to give, here is the site to make an appointment. You can search by your zip code for a convenient location and make an appointment online.

Patience is a Virtue

Patience is a Virtue. One of Mike's sisters mentioned this in a comment over at Hollandsenieuwe. My mom used to tell us this (in the really annoying sing-songy voice) when I was a kid and boy, did we hate it.

So right now, I don't have any patience. I knew that something would fall through the cracks when I started my permanent job (that's right - the temporary, part-time gig turned into a permanent, more-hours but still not-full-time gig). When I started the temp project, birthday cards fell off my plate. Until last year, every cousin, aunt, uncle, other relative or friend got a birthday card on or near (except for Tara, whose birthday has always confused me) their special day - and most got a handwritten "message" from Annika. No more, after July of 2006 we terminated the cards because I never got around to buying any in August and we just slid downhill from there.

Anyway, despite Doug's herculean efforts around the house (relieving the sitter in the afternoon, cooking outrageously good dinners, helping me pack lunches), I find myself losing my marbles on an increasingly frequent basis. I'm going to have to work hard to find something else to lose so that the patience can stay on my plate and I won't yell at Annika because she has antagonized Dagny for the seventeenth time of the morning or just not gotten dressed when asked.

This short temper could be related to my crappy training. Natalie asked how my training for the ING half-marathon was going - in a word: badly. I don't know how long one is supposed to "recover" from a half-marathon, but I'm pretty sure that I've exceeded that time and have moved on over into either complete sloth or just re-injury. Because I ran my race at my training pace, took Tylenol and fueled as Joe recommended, it was not challenging cardio-vascularly and I didn't feel used-up at the end. However, my knee was toast. I have only run 7 miles each of the last two weeks (hopefully more this week because I have a date to run with Virginia this afternoon). That darn IT band just doesn't want to cooperate with my plans.

However, on Thursday I was able to run the loop around our block by running the uphills and walking the downhills. Since I haven't done any speed or hill runs since September, the loop was a challenge - I was actually sore! Maybe today will be the beginning of something good.

Now, if I could just find something else to "lose". . .

Speaking of which, I just noticed that I lost both Jason and Camille from the sites list during my change -you guys are clearly not paying attention either!

Oops!

I just noticed that I had accidentally dropped Corinne off of the blogs list. She is back now. Rest easy.

In other news, while I cleaned up after dinner today my amazing husband made chicken salad for me and the girls to take for lunch tomorrow. From Paula Dean's recipe that he looked up on the internet.

Walt Disney Half Marathon Race Report + photos

At long last, here is my race report with photos of the girls from our visit to Disney World last weekend. The first is Dagny wearing Annika's Minnie hat. Then, Annika inside the mouth of one of the sharks from the Nemo ride at Epcot. This was originally an informative ride about the ocean, but now it is an informative ride with Nemo and friends. Dagny and Annika LOVED it. At the end was a cool play area (where the shark is) filled with cool shark facts and children. Next, Annika with her face painted as "princess kitty" - her choice. She wore the face paint for two days until it wore off (after we were home).



Last, Dagny gets to know (or pounds, whichever) Eyeore at the Crystal Palace restaurant. If you go to Disney World, this place is great for lunch because (1) the food is good, (2) they have the Pooh characters, and (3) it is very close to the baby center, which has clean changing tables for use and baby supplies for purchase.

Lest you be disappointed at the lack of running photos, the following links show me at the race finish and post-finish with my medal (not beautiful - I'm not Miss Photogenic). Please note that in the finishing photo, you can clearly see the reason that our friend missed me at the finish (Doug was off placating Dagny, who had lost her marbles).

On race morning (Saturday), I woke at 2:58am. It was two minutes before I planned to get up, but 10 minutes before the alarms. I took some Tylenol and started my coffee in the coffeemaker and my oatmeal in the hotpot. After showering, coffee, and as much oatmeal with soymilk as I could manage, I got dressed and left - without waking Doug. I was to meet our friend Joe at 3:50 so that he could drive me to the race. He volunteered to do this so that he could scope it out for his marathon on Sunday. Alas, we left one important part out of our plan - WHERE to meet. He wasn't in his room and I had no phone. After a moment of adrenaline panic, I banged on our door and woke Doug up so that he could call Joe on his cellphone. Bless him, Doug called Joe for me and we were on our way!

Race morning was warm and damp. Florida is quite humid. Disney does not skimp on any aspect of their race, so I was able to take care of "business" no less than three times before we even got to the starting area at 5:30am. I also ate some more Tylenol before the start (Doug's advice). The start of my race was on the road just beyond the Epcot parking lots. The wheelchair racers started first, then the fast folks (wave A) and then my group (wave B). Wave C brought up the rear. I thought that I was in the middle of the wave, but perhaps was at the back. Mickey, Donald and Goofy started the race for us and shot fireworks for each starting group. It was slow going at the beginning and shortly before the mile 1 mark, the folks next to me dropped to a walk because we were essentially running in place. After we ramped down to World Drive, the crush eased a bit and we were able to get to a better pace. Miles 2 and 3 passed without significant speed as we all plodded along in the dark. I realized how slow the first miles had been and gave up all hope of keeping to my 10 min per mile goal pace. As we ran, I found and chatted with Brittany Brown from Kansas, who I had met as we stood in line to get our numbers at the Expo on Friday. Go Brittany! At each mile volunteers dispensed water and gatorade in appropriately colored cups and there were portopotties.

As we approached the Transportation and Ticket Center (could have been Magic Kingdom), there were cheerleaders chanting and clapping for us and then two divergent paths with music (country and rock). The sun was starting to rise at this point, but I still didn't need my visor yet. Joe had advised me to fuel after 40-50 minutes of activity. He trained hard for his marathon and read a lot about fueling. Because of my knee, I hadn't done any training runs long enough to require fueling and really if the point of exercise is to burn calories, why would I consume extra ones (other than beer?). Seriously, other than water, I had consumed nothing while running. So, because the local Target has Sports Beans (made by Jelly Belly) and Joe said that they weren't horrible, I packed those in the key pocket of my shorts. As we came into the Magic Kingdom, I busted out the beans - because of the danger of hurling, Joe advised consuming water at the stops before and after eating them. Because of the humidity and my lack of experience at this distance, I consumed water everywhere. I munched on my delicious jelly beans as we ran through Tomorrowland, past Space Mountain (and the real potties), the Teacups, and the Carousel. I stopped eating to pass through Cinderella's castle (they take photos there, you know) and finished them up on the way out through Frontierland. At this point, the race volunteers were handing out bananas. I almost passed them, but ate a few bites of one as I ran just in case the beans were too "hot" for my tummy. The beans might be harder to consume if one were running at a faster pace - for a first-time racer, they were perfect. I wasted a whole mile concentrating on eating my beans one by one without dropping any.

The sun was fully up by this time and I realized that I was making better time as we passed miles 6, 7 and 8 out of the Kingdom, past the Grand Floridian and the golf course. This guy said that this was the difficult part of the race because of the boring scenery, but I loved it - so green and relaxing. Also, as I exited the Kingdom, Annika appeared in my headphones, yelling "Go, Mommy, Go!" Doug had secretly taped her with several different uplifting messages and uploaded them to my i-pod. I laughed out loud and then got misty. What a great husband. He also put my tunes in a good order, which I didn't realize and messed up because I started with Whitesnake instead of Christina Aguilera. Anyway, after mile 7, I decided that a potty-break was in order so I waited until the mile 8 marker since it was over halfway and past any distance that I had ever run before. At mile 8 there were two potties facing the road and about 8 facing away. I ran to the "away" ones and there was NO line. Marvelous.

Lighter and with a spring in my step, I continued down the road, listening to my tunes, taking my earphones out to listen to the marching bands and the steel drum band and the DJs who liked the road. It was so much fun. I didn't stop smiling the whole time. At mile 8, prior to the potty break, my left foot started to hurt. I thought perhaps my shoes were askew and tried to stretch it as I ran. The knee was OK - a little stiff but nothing bad. I decided that I could start running faster. Miles 8-10 passed without incident, though I did figure out that the Team-in-Training coaches were running ahead on every mile and then waiting for their peeps to come by before sprinting ahead again - those TNT folks and their spectators were great. I made a mental note to require all friends running in the ING race to wear matching shirts (a joiner, I TOLD you). At mile 10, I figured that I was close enough to the finish to run at racing speed. I tried to keep up with this beautiful woman (dark green singlet, dark skin, single long braid, a very tall, good-looking man passed her in mile 10/11 and gave her a kiss) because she was running so well. She passed me, though, on the flat part of the highway as we went over the overpass. Because we were on the highway for the last 3 miles, there was a big crown in the road. Inclines of all kinds seem to make my knee hurt, so I ran a lot in the grass. There was less pounding there too, seemed like. Anyway, there was another food stop at mile 12/13 where volunteers dispensed Cliff Shot Bloks. These were sour apple flavor and smelled heavenly. However, it was nearly mile 13 - who needs calories there? Not me. I sprinted past the beautiful woman in the green shirt, into Epcot, around the Christmas tree and straight to the finish. I had the best time. It was so much fun - I couldn't stop smiling all day. This was the perfect first half-marathon. No water/fuel/potty worries, plenty of music, cheering, distraction - so much fun! I definitely would do this race again, if finances permit, but I would save the park visiting until after the race and after the other kids are back in school to avoid the crowds.

New Look

I'm a joiner. I admit it. Any group that I think might be fun or exciting, I'm in - tennis team, track club, golf group, casserole ministry, mom's group(s), alumni association, etc.

So, after Anne and Dorothy updated their layouts with the new Google Blogger, I had to do the same. I like blue better than green anyway. It makes me happier.

I lost some of my links when I made the layout change so if you think there is a cool blog or link that I should show, let me know.

Qwack, Qwack, Qwack

So, during one of the many Christmas festivities last month, my sister related a story to me of how Annika told her that her eyes were cracking. "Ha!" we taunted, "your eyes are cracking!"

Yesterday, Annika told me the same thing. "Mommy, why are your eyes red?" she asked. "Because they are tired," I replied. "I think they are cracking" she chirped, "like eggs."

Please note that each instance of the letters "r" or "l" is either silent or sounds like a "w" - "Mommy, why are youw eyes wed? I fink they awe cwacking."

Garmin's Results

For my half-marathon at Walt Disney World, here are Garmin's results by Mile number, in minutes and seconds. Clearly I should have moved towards the front of my corral, but perhaps the slow start allowed me to finish as easily as I did:

1. 11:48
2. 10:47
3. 10:52
4. 10:28
5. 10:05
6. 10:08
7. 9:31
8. 9:56
9. 10:10
10. 9:53
11. 9:15
12. 8:51
13. 8:25
14. this wasn't actually a mile, but 0.41 miles in 2:53

I'm not sure why Garmin thinks I went farther than 13.1 miles. It could be that I forgot to press stop at the finish or did it late - I don't know. Please note the negative splittage is marred only by my visit to the porto-potty in mile 9. Stopping at all but one of the previous 9 water stops made this necessary - it was humid, folks! I'll post a full race report later (maybe later in the week) with some photos of the girls at Disney.

Results

Displaying 1 to 1 of 1
Unofficial Race Results

STEPHANIE BACHMAN Bib #28120 Age 34 F
START
5K
10K
15K
FINISH
6:15:22 AM EST
34:54
1:07:12
1:39:13
2:13:15
TIME
Chip Time: 2:13:15
Clock: 2:28:01
Pace: 10:09
Placement
Overall: 2683
Gender: 1039
Division: 165

Questions? Please contact ChampionChip USA

So, you probably can't understand any of that, so I'll explain. I started my very first half marathon (DisneyWorld 2007) on Saturday at 6:15:22 am. At the 5K mark, my chip said that my time was 34:54, at the 10K mark I was at 1:07:12, at 15K I was at 1:39:13 and finished at 2:13:15. My pace was 10:09 minutes per mile and you can see the placement.

What you can't see is that the Disney Half is a lot like the Peachtree Road Race. There are a zillion people. For the first 3-4 miles, traffic was very congested but after that I was able to find places to run. I'll post my mile splits later, but I had a great race. I stopped for 10 of the 12 water breaks and one potty break plus the slow start and still finished in a decent (if not record-breaking) time. It was really fun and I am so looking forward to the ING Georgia half in March.

The Best Party

So, Doug and I are not much for New Year's Eve parties. We had one here the year after Annika was born, which was fun but usually we do something low-key and frequently don't make to the ball drop before falling asleep.

Last night was no exception. We invited some local friends (and by local, I mean 5 miles or less) over, with kids for tapas and beverages. The kids got sparkling apple juice (not a hit), macaroni and cheese and little cheese pizzas. Sara brought a delicious cookie cake and we had Bellinis. Doug kept refilling my glass so I might have been over-served, but it was a lovely evening. We did a haphazard clean-up after everyone left and were asleep by 9:30pm. Gotta love the bring-the-kids party. We will be having a lot more of those.

New Year's goals/resolutions:

(1) Have more patience for my children.
(2) Have more empathy for my family.
(3) Run more races.
(4) Faster.

The Christmas Gauntlet

My brother-in-law coined the title to this post to describe the four day traveling extravaganza that was our holiday.

Friday, we drove across the city to see the relative who suggested that I get a sitter and come without the girls. Since a sitter was out of the question, I left Doug at work and took the girls over there three hours early so that Dagny could nap. It worked out fine because I helped with the party preparations and got the girls home at only one hour past their bedtime. If Annika hadn't woken back up, we would have been golden. Saturday, I gave Doug a pass and took the girls to my Grammy's house in Griffin for lunch. Dinner was to be at 6pm and that would NOT work with Dagny's nap (3-5pm) so I thought lunch would be better. When I arrived at the house, they told me that "dinner" was at 4pm so if I had known the actual time, I could have stayed home in the morning, brought Doug and actually done the official party. Whatever. Grammy is hard of hearing, so it was better to be there before the crowd anyway. Sunday was cold, but I got to run and go to Mass before 8:30am. We shopped in the morning and then Doug took Annika to church with his family in the afternoon. Everyone returned to our house after church for food and excitement. It was very pleasant and easy. Monday was beautiful. Santa got up early and repaired the seam of Dagny's rocking lamb while Doug made a lovely breakfast. We had to wake Annika at 7:40 because Dagny was screeching for her. The girls had a marvelous time and we played outside in the freezing rain until lunch. My family came for the ultra-controversial Christmas dinner. They may actually be speaking to me again now (despite the fact that it was not I who demanded any change in plans), but maybe not. Regardless, we made beef, asparagus, risotto and lobster tails for dinner. Except that my risotto was done well in advance of everything else, the food was good and I think everyone had a good time.

Yesterday was to be my running day. We did some size-correction shopping in the morning and I was going to run in the afternoon. Then came the rain. I put Dagny down for her nap and noticed that the drops were covering the driveway. Sorely tempted to stay inside, I came down to check the weather on the computer. Sigh - no sign of stopping and no indication of any rain on the radar. However, Natalie had sent me an email about my race, which spurred me back into action. I donned the foul-weather gear and sallied forth into the mist . . . hoping to get to 8 miles. I ran the first two miles in the 39 degree rain. After that the rain stopped and I even saw another runner. I got to seven miles without pain, but then my hurt knee began to ache. Knowing that further running would make me lame, I stopped at 7 and counted myself lucky. This will be my last long run before the big race. I may not make good time or even get to run the whole way, but I think I can finish. Thank you Nat, for getting me out of the house. It was the best run I've had in a long time.

Oops

I finally made the Outrageous Peanut Butter Cookies that Anna wrote about last week. One of the cookies broke as I was transferring them from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack, so I had to taste-test. "Hm," I thought, "tasty, but a little buttery." I wondered if the peanut butter added extra fat so that it overwhelmed the flour. Maybe I needed more flour. I consulted the recipe for further muddling. All of a sudden I noticed that it called for 1/2 cup of butter. For those of you who are not baking fools this week, that means one stick of butter. I used two. Oops.

They are still good, just a bit pecan-sandieish in texture. Good thing I have extra chocolate chip cookies from the garbage guys' batch, which (by the way) start with two sticks of butter.

It would be silly if I hadn't done this to the sugar cookies just last week.

In other news, I ran six miles yesterday. It's a new world record. Not really, but it is the farthest I've gone since August. No knee pain at all, except for where I strapped my knee brace too tightly and hurt the back of my knee, which I didn't notice until I removed the brace upon finishing. I did learn that the whole wheat pancakes and grapefruit were not bad pre-run food, but maybe less of them would prevent them from threatening to reappear. The run certainly helped my endorphin shortage. I was beginning to feel a lot like the grinch with my soul being "an appalling dungheap. . . ."

Heck

I love grapefruit. Annika and Dagny love grapefruit. For lunch, I cut the grapefruit into smiles (wedges, for those of you without toddlers) and we eat them all up. When Annika eats her smiles, or anything else, for that matter, I exclaim and praise her.

So, when she ate her grapefruit smiles recently, I said "wow, Annika, you are eating the heck out of that grapefruit." Yes, I said heck. I probably should have phrased this differently despite the obvious lack of bad words.

"Why?" you say. Because now Annika thinks that the inside of the grapefruit is called the "heck." "Mom, I ate all of the heck out of this grapefruit." "Dagny left some of the heck in her grapefruit." Either that or Annika is using Larry the Cable Guy as her speech role model.

The Ugliest Cupcakes and other disasters

Doug's birthday was last week. We went out for dinner to a fancy-schmantzy place inside the perimeter (I had a gift certificate). Since we left the girls with my mom, Annika and I made cupcakes the next day to celebrate the birthday with the family.

Because a cake mix makes a million cupcakes and I'm not a terrible baker, Annika and I decided to make the cupcakes from scratch, using the Small Batch Baking cookbook. We made the fudgy chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing. As the cupcakes finished baking, I tested them with a toothpick to be sure they were done. No problem until the cupcake deflated as I removed the pan from the oven. That has never happened to me before, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that I could just take the ugly one. Nope. Soon enough, all four cupcakes deflated, leaving a crunchy burned rim around the top of the pan and sunken centers (like the craters of volcanos). Crossing my fingers, I whipped up the peanut butter frosting. It tasted lovely, but my spatula broke off in it. Sigh. I frosted as best I could and you can see the results. Annika had one cupcake and enjoyed it, but the others were a loss. Doug didn't even taste them. I spent two days beating myself up about not being exact enough to bake in small batches before tasting (in a fit of hormone weakness) the monstrosities and realizing that they were AWESOME. Doug missed out.

A week prior to this event, we went to a bring-the-kids party at which I was to bring dessert. After contemplating the chocolate flan cake and nixing it as too "flan-ish," I consulted with Tara (who suggested some lovely desserts) and Anna (who suggested a red velvet cheesecake and a three-layer cheesecake). Since it was a party, I went with the festive cheesecake. It wasn't a difficult recipe and turned out very nicely with delicious topping, but no one at the party touched it. No one, until I begged for opinions (and then only two of us tried it). Let that be a lesson - at a party where people are chasing kids, finger food is better. Then, we dropped the remainder of the cake on the neighbor's driveway on the way home. Oops. Hope that it didn't stain.

This past Sunday, I went to a work party. Mindful of the untouchable cheesecake, I planned my dessert selection around what the other dessert-bringer was doing (Buche de Noel from Gabriel's). Thinking that something simple would make a good foil for the cake, I baked banana bread with peanut butter chips and walnuts and pumpkin bread and paired them with chocolate chip cookies and some leftover oatmeal cookies. No dice. My desserts tasted and looked pretty marvelous (if you ask me), but no takers. Everyone ate the cake (except for Steph, who doesn't like cake) and left the breads and cookies.

I was only able to run 2 miles yesterday (sore knee) and today's cold/low-grade fever are making my appointment with the Billy Blanks CD unlikely. So, I've wasted two 18 packs of eggs and a lot of effort in the last two weeks for nothing except to expand my own waistline. I love the holidays.

A Nice Thing

I'm full of good stories to post, but a bit short on time these days. So, instead of the photos of the cupcakes we made for Doug's birthday or the numerous attempts at Christmas card photos, I'll tell you a nice thing that happened to me today.

I took Annika to "church school" this morning and went to Mass. Doug had Dagny and they went shopping. Dagny is sick and has bumps on her head and nose from our outing yesterday so it was better for them to be alone together. Anyway, during Catholic Mass, when you say the "Our Father," everyone holds hands. It's a relatively new thing and a bit hippy-dippy, but a good community-builder. So, I extended my hand to the woman next to me and into the aisle (because I was on the end) and was denied. The woman at my side had her hands folded in prayer and was not going to share my cooties. No matter, I get the germ idea so I wasn't angry. It is good form to extend your hand across the aisle but it's unlikely to be taken, so I resigned myself to empty-handed "Our Father"ing. Whatever - no big deal.

Then, a woman that I know from our neighborhood reached across the aisle from one row back and grabbed my hand. I know it's sappy, but it really made my day. Hopefully she didn't notice that it made me cry. Maybe I'm spread a little too thin these days or maybe it was because I was up three times last night with Dagny or maybe I'm still not feeling that I'm actually a part of the congregation yet, but that little gesture meant a lot to me. Thank you, lady - I hope that I can hold out my hand to you when you are having a bad day.

A Different Life

Natalie mentioned in her blog today that she wishes that she had run in high school as her gymnastics coach had encouraged.

While I ran on Sunday, I was thinking about the same thing - how would my life have been different if I had run track my freshman year as I had wanted to. Unfortunately, that year I was grounded from the world from January until spring because of the sneaking-out incident. So, I was barred from track that year and just never bothered again. Would I have stuck with it if I had joined the team? Could I have kicked ass at the hurdles (the way I did in my mind's eye)? Would the stronger/thinner/faster/smarter/taller endorphin high have helped me actually buckle down and learn something in high school instead of worrying mainly about boys? Would I have appreciated the nice boys who liked me instead of pursuing the "bad" ones? I don't know. If the running and discipline did not create a character change, it is likely that I would have just given it up. I was pretty darn shallow then and had no perspective. I like to think that I was a larva (or a pod person) - lacking in actual human qualities.

So, in light of the spitting incidents and nastiness at school, I am wondering how we can instill empathy, consideration and perspective in the girls so that they aren't like larva. So far, we are still working with the "we control you" system that I mentioned last week, with a little "Santa is watching you" thrown in for good measure. I don't know where to begin to bridge the transition from "we control you" to "you are a good human who can make choices." Doug insists that team sports are a good first step. So, even if Annika and Dagny are REALLY DARN BAD, they will still do the sports. We will just have to think of some other thing to deny them or make them do for punishment.

By the way, my sister mentioned to me that a call from Santa might not be a bad idea for the unruly kid - a "I hear that you might not be acting like a good girl all of the time - better shape up" call. We haven't resorted to that, but it is definitely an option.

If I Didn't Know Better

One Christmas (8th grade), I received a giant hershey kiss from a female relative - with a card that said "your first?"

Then, last week at Thanksgiving dinner, after I explained why I put Uncrustables sandwiches in Annika's lunch box (so she will eat something, anything, at lunch), the same relative said "you lose your mommy card for that!"

Then, today I got an email from the same woman which said you are invited to XX event at XX location on XX date, "around 6 or whenever it is good for babies. Or, if too hard, how about a sitter?"

So, I know that I was hypersensitive in middle school, that being my fat period, the time of hormones and the fact that I had indeed never kissed anyone. Bless her heart, she meant it as a joke. You can even hear the "hee-hee" after the quotation marks. Heck, the card probably even SAID "hee-hee." You'd think that with teenagers of her own and having been a pubescent girl at one point, she might have been sensitive to these issues, but no.

The Thanksgiving thing was also a joke - "oh ho - you lose your mommy card for THAT! ha ha ha!" She has no way of knowing about the First Meals book or the time I spent making baby food and ensuring that no sugar or other junk entered Annika's body. Or the fact that Doug and I now silently and covertly rejoice together if Annika puts a single bite of anything in her mouth.

And the latest, though not a joke, is an attempt to be accomodating after ignoring my sister's polite request for a child-friendly time. She is probably just trying to make sure that the time works for the folks who work in offices - with no idea that it's usually the kids that are the bigger lure, not the dinner.

Anyway, the nutshell is - please, please promise that you will all ridicule me when I start to say stuff like this. Or at least pull me aside for a private discussion on thinking before speaking.

A New World Order

Here is some comic (maybe) relief:

Doug and I have a new company line: "good girls get good stuff and bad girls get bad stuff." A little harsh, perhaps, but we had some distressing news from the school this week. Apparently, Annika spit at some of the other students and told one girl that she was not her friend and that she hated her. This is in addition to the numerous temper-tantrums, screaming and general acting-out that we've had going on around here. I had attributed the bad behavior to Dagny's new-found mobility and cuteness. It could also just be fatigue because Annika is trying to give up her afternoon naps.

Anyway, the new plan is for Annika to go to bed earlier (8/8:15pm) and receive immediate punishments for deviations from appropriate conduct. No warnings, no counting, no repeating directions - it's actually a lot easier for me. More difficult, however, is rewarding the good conduct because it's hard to find good conduct to reward.

We kicked off the new world order with a dinner at Hachi-Hachi (not its real name) last night because Annika said that she was nice to all of the other kids at school yesterday. It was very big fun and they even had a cool Japanese soft drink with a marble in it. Good girls get good stuff. This morning, however, Annika disappeared while Dagny was finishing her breakfast and I was cleaning the kitchen. She lost track of time while playing with her toys and peed in her clothes before she made it to the potty. Therefore, she had to skip dance class, was not allowed to wear a leotard and we did errands instead. Bad girls get bad stuff. Annika changed her clothes like I asked, and followed directions until we got to the library so she got to pick out some books. Good girls get good stuff. (That one was a stretch, but I needed something good to even out the bad).

If lunch goes well, we will roll out the replacement sugar cookies and bake them. If not, punishment city.

In other news, I ran 5 miles on Sunday and again yesterday. Whoo hoo! I've realized that I won't be able to make my goal time in the half-marathon, but I think I'll be able to run the whole thing. Unfortunately, in mile 3 yesterday I allowed my frustration with something at work get the best of me and ran entirely too fast (which isn't really fast, but apparently any increase in speed puts extra stress on my knee) and now the knee is sore. No running today or tomorrow. Maybe on Friday.

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad

This fall, Doug promised Annika that I would help her make pumpkin pie. Real pumpkin pie. Out of actual pumpkins.

I've never done such a thing. All of my mother's pies started with a nice can of pumpkin. So, I googled and came up with this recipe. It was a little vague on the pumpkin-cooking instructions and seemed to recommend steaming. We bought some pie pumpkins, which sat on my table for several weeks before I mustered the courage to cook them. Since butternut and acorn squash look like pumpkins, I decided to roast/bake the pumpkins as if they were one of those squashes. Just so you know, pumpkin doesn't take nearly as long to roast as butternut or acorn squash. After thirty minutes, I peeked in the oven and my pumpkins halves were collapsed (and therefore, done). Also, the recipe said that one pumpkin would yield about 3 cups of puree, which would be enough to make one pie. I cooked two pumpkins and yielded 3 cups of puree, but it made enough batter for two pies.

Anyway, once I had pureed the pumpkin, I showed it to Annika. "Ick," she said. "That stinks." On that auspicious beginning, we finished making the pies and baked them. Doug picked up whipping cream in a can at Trader Joes and we served Annika her pie with the magical topping - green sprinkles. Delightful. Seriously, those were some really good pies.

Today, on the other hand, I tried to make sugar cookies. It was a very easy recipe, out of the Southern Living Cookies cookbook. The dough tasted funny, like I didn't have enough vanilla or sugar but I put it in the fridge as instructed anyway, hoping that the cool would improve the taste. Usually sugar cookie dough is pretty tasty. Later, when I began to make the oatmeal raisin cookies I promised to bring to Thanksgiving dinner, I couldn't find the butter I set out to soften. It was nowhere. Finally, I looked in the trash can. Four butter wrappers were in there. Were they the two from the sugar cookies and two from the muffins I baked for Annika's class snack yesterday or had I put four in the sugar cookies? I just tasted the dough - definitely too buttery. I'll let you know if we bother to salvage the dough.

The moral - don't cook while on the phone and feeding the kids at the same time.

Not the Same

We watch the Tom and Jerry show a lot. It is on Boomerang. Annika loves Tom and Jerry.

However, the OK violence on Tom and Jerry does not seem to translate into acceptability for other genres of mayhem. Not when you are 3 1/2.

We had the great idea (NOT) of watching "Home Alone" last night. Not only did it take forever for the madcap escapades to begin, when Macauley Caulkin's character finally started giving the Wet Bandits the business, Annika began to cry. Screaming and crying.

Let that be a lesson to you. It will be a while before we watch "A Christmas Story."

Killing Me Softly

Why, oh why, do I ever second guess my gut instincts?

In an ongoing matter in which we are trying to get governmental approval, I sent the third requested addition to our file to them WITHOUT using certified mail, return receipt requested. The agency responsible for this approval does not allow the use of UPS or FedEx so I had been sending everything by certified mail from the Post Office. It costs $5 a pop, but it gives me proof that they got what I sent.

Except this last thing. I was in a hurry because that day was one of my office days and I thought that it was more important to get it sent than to wait another day. How wrong I was.

I got the letter today which says that they still haven't received what I sent and also requests another new item. Sigh. I knew that I should have sent it certified and that I also should have picked up some certified mail forms while I was at the post office on Tuesday. I talked myself out of it with the idea that I wouldn't be needing them anytime soon. Anyone who has ever tried to corral a kid while trying to fill out those darn forms understands how much those would have helped me.

Oh, and - my kids are sick. Dagny has an unidentified virus that the doctor charged me $40 to say was a cold and Annika has an ear infection that caused her to barf in my car on Wednesday.

Boobs

So, I frequently check out the scary photos on this site and it makes me wonder - if celebrities make their livings by looking good, have stylists to help them look good, and spend seemingly unlimited time and funds to spend in the pursuit of looking good, then why do their plastic surgeries look so bad?

Is it that they are not giving enough thought or investigation to their surgeon or the viability of the planned procedures? Or is it that plastic surgery just doesn't work very well?

I don't know.

I do know that there was a whole thread on a running board that I frequent in which one lady was asking for advice on how long recovery would take and if breast implants would impede her running. You'd be surprised how many women and how few men were in favor of the implants. Personally, I thought that boobs were a hindrance when I had them (during breastfeeding) so I don't see what the big deal is. Foundation garments have come a long way - there are even some with implants sewn inside. Everyone is different, though. The boob lady probably thinks I am a weirdo because I'm still running from the fat self.

Speaking of which: I ran 4 miles on Sunday. In a row! It's a new world record. I'm still following Doug's advice and aiming for 10 minute miles, which seems to be helping the knee. I have faster miles in me, but they will have to wait. Doug kept the girls so that I could run around the path at the elementary school in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day and I had a marvelous time despite the first mile that was 9 minutes (oops) and forgetting my headphones. I listened to the gravel and leaves crunching under my feet and practiced my work presentation while I ran. Multitasking is good.

Good Luck Nat!

As I jumped over to The Negative Split to check on Nat, I was sad to see no new post. However, I remembered that this is her marathon weekend. Good Luck Nat - you are going to kick ass at the OBX Marathon!

When I grow up, I want to be like Nat - smart, svelte, stylish, grounded and really really fast. : )

Booty-licious

I was going to include this in the "in other news" section of the previous post, but decided it was too long.

Dagny and I went for a run today at the park during Annika's dance class. We had just enough time to do the 5K loop. My knees troubled me at several points during the run so I had to walk more than three times. I attribute this to one of several things: (1) it was cold, (2) I forgot my knee brace, (3) I ran yesterday, (4) no warm-up, (5) my first time on hills since the doctor visit, or (6) running too fast. Or, maybe my knee just isn't better - but I really really don't like that option so I can't put it on the list of possibilities.

Just about everyone that I've ever seen at the park is nice. I used to run there while Annika was in school before I had Dagny. The other walkers/runners wave, laugh, slap hands and generally enjoy themselves. This is a good place to run - very uplifting.

Today I scared the crap out of a couple who were walking their dogs because I yelled "wheeeee!" as we turned the corner to go up the big hill past the lake. These walkers were not expecting sound effects during their route, so I apologized as we passed them on the way up the hill. They didn't mind since I had the cute Dagny bundled into the stroller. I got about 1-1.5 miles before the knee started complaining. Knowing that if I ignore the complaining I will come up lame and have to limp rather than speed-walk, I dropped down to the walk at several times during the rest of the run. I was either walking really fast or my running was very fast because I finished the 5K in about 32 minutes which was the pace I was aiming for. Doug has thoughtfully set the virtual training assistant on my Garmin to pace me for 10 minute miles. He also reminds me to go slow before I go out the door.

Anyway, as we were on the home stretch, coming up the sidewalk hill past the elementary school, I had to walk AGAIN. I probably let out a groan as I shifted into walking gear. It really hurts my feelings to have to walk. As I motored up the hill, a young man who was run/walking with his wife and baby came trotting down the hill. As they ran past me (going the other way), he said "this hill is called butt-cheek-hill." I chirped "it sure is," with a smile and continued on my way. Inside, however, I was cursing and screaming about how I could kick that hill's behind if it weren't for my stupid knee. Stupid knee.

Etc, Etc

Here is a photo of Annika and Dagny on our way to the neighborhood playgroup Halloween party. Note the difficulty we are having in keeping Dagny still. Annika is Belle (from "Beauty and the Beast," in case you are not Disney-rrific) and Dagny is a puppy. She adores this costume and carries it around like a stuffed animal, giving it kisses. We had to cut Annika's dress off after the party because we discovered during the many games of chase that it tripped her up - even with her running shoes on.

As you can see, the other photos are from Rome. I am standing on the step at the church at the top of the Spanish Steps. We bought the giant bottles of water before we realized that you can drink (and everyone does drink) the water out of the fountains located all over town. The only explanation we heard, and we heard it several times, was "it is good - it comes from the mountains." It was good, and cold too.

I chose this photo because I thought I looked good (which is saying a lot because I'm not so photogenic), except I've just noticed that my legs blend into the pillars supporting the railing on either side of me. It just goes to show you that I'm still haunted by my fat self that I feel the need to explain that my ass is not as large as all that.

The last photo is of the pope at the Wednesday Papal Audience in St Peter's square. We are standing on rickety plastic chairs with our backs to the basilica so you can see the beautiful fountain in the center and some of the columns from the "arms" leading up to it. Pope Benedict is doing laps of the square in the pope-mobile (minus the plexiglass). As you might imagine, everyone was pretty excited to see him and there was a lot of jockeying for position as we tried to track his progress on the giant video screens that flanked the steps of the basilica.

Plans, Interrupted

I had planned to run in a race this morning. Virginia and I agreed that we would run in the William's Run in Alpharetta today to try for Peachtree Road Race qualifying times. Unfortunately, my knee had other ideas.

Plan B: I was going to run in the 5K race and cheer Virginia on in the 10K. My mom was going to take care of the girls and maybe even watch the race. But, alas, my sitter for the evening's dinner club got invited to homecoming and had to bail on me.

Plan C: Mom was going to keep the girls for the dinner party, but didn't want them for the whole day. Fine, we emailed the race organizers to see if they needed some volunteers. If we couldn't run, at least we could be supportive. They didn't need volunteers so we were free to spectate. Talked several friends into running also so we had plenty to cheer for. Annika had a fever all day yesterday and it was cold as balls this morning. When I went to wake her she asked if she could please sleep longer. No race for us.

Camille ran her first 5K and came in second in her age group. Natalie won her age group. I'm certain that Virginia got her qualifying time. We baked pumpkins and made pumpkin pie. Annika has eaten nothing all day. I exploded condensed milk into my hair so I have to shower again before taking Annika to her friend's birthday party. That exploding milk (due entirely to my own stupidity in forcing the can open when it clearly didn't want to open) necessitated mopping the floor also, so a shower would really be a good thing.

The good news is that I have two very nice smelling pumpkin pies on my counter and there is still time for a shower after wrapping the birthday present. And, I ran 3 miles this morning without having to walk. That's 9 miles this week, which is nothing compared to my marathon-training friends but is a huge improvement over the crappy run/walking I've been doing. No wildlife this week except for some bunnies and the crazy newspaper guy who tried to run me over this morning.