Checking in from Southern Orange Cnty (long)

View from Santiago Canyon Road

Northwest of Rancho Santa Margarita

Looking South toward Laguna Beach from just off the PCH

Great cycling, luxury accomodations, B. rules and I'm going to assemble a cabinet.

Now, the long, travel diary version of the trip so far...

Landed late Sat. night at a small airport, Long Beach. B was waiting. Short wait for the bags. All in good shape.

30mins to B's incredibly clean abode. I've since imposed all kinds of disorder and messiness.
In bed by 3a.m. ET.

Sun. we slept in a bit and watched bits and pieces of the LA Mary which was broadcast live start to finish. Pretty cool. The women had a head start (16mins?) and held onto the lead, got some extra prize $ I imagine. A "nasty" day according to the locals - 50's and cloudy.

Then it was out and about to stock the frig, and similar errands. Stopped by her gym to nab a free pass for me while I am here. I hit the pool for 25mins and B found a treadmill. Not an easy endeavor, a few dozen mills but they seem consistently full. Picked up a map, stopped by a bike shop and started to plan some riding in the area.

B has a cough thing she's fighting, and I was wiped out, from travel I guess. Early bed Sun. night.
Mon. I dropped B at work. She's letting me drive the LandRover. Can you believe that? Nice ride. Plenty of room.

I went directly to the gym (which is nearby) for 30mins in the pool. After lunch it was off on the bike for a little over 50miles, windy, but periods of sun, ~55F. Big fat bike lanes galore out here. If that wasn't enough, lots of super wide paved paths that parallel the roads but go under cross streets and intersections - no stoplights or cars.

Flatted 2miles into the ride. First flat in quite a while. Oh well, I was due. No prob, pulled out the spare tube. Ffffft. $#!*^%! One spare tube, dead. Walking back to the car, bike on shoulder, tire-less wheel in one hand, a good samaritan drove me the last mile. I knew where the bike shop was, not far. Hop in the Rover and 60mins later, new tube in and back on the road.

Map in jersey pocket, I pedalled my way down to the Pacific Coast Hwy via a mix of path and bike lanes. Got on the PCH at Laguna Beach and rode N to Newport Beach then back inland and home. Stopped for a pic of the coast at Vista point, just before Newport. Looking south, north, and at the vantage point, then one more further north on PCH before it hits Newport.

No shortage of hills anywhere. Quite a few long hills, some steep hills and some that were both. No such terrain can be found less than an hr or two drive from the DC beltway. Hence, something I've never done. Shendandoah (Skyline Drive) or maybe WVa. rides are on my list, someday, or weekend.

So, I was looking forward to the chance for some real hills out here, dare I say mountains. They're here for the me, I plan to keep hitting 'em, soak it up while I have the chance.

The evening excitement was moving B's stove to it's proper position, a good 2 inches closer to the wall, and, at her instruction standing far away and watching as B lit her gas fireplace for the first time. I was to call 911 if things went kabloouey. Bed early again.

If Mon. was hills, Tue. brought something closer to mtns. Another morning swim, an attempt at some house cleaning by way of dishes, garbage and such. OK, yeah, I'm begging for points here. I fear painting will not happen and I'm trying to offset that now! Altho, I suspect it's a project of such magnitude (the whole house almost) that B may not be quite revved up for it just now herself.

The ride today (upper 50's, breezy, but near zero clouds) was Live Oak Canyon to Santiago Canyon, then turn around and do the roller coaster backwards. These canyons lie along the west side of the Santa Anna Mtns.

Great stuff! And turns out it's not more than 5 or 6 miles from B's front door to where the nice low traffic, winding, scenic, heart thumping, leg burning hills kick in. One minute it's nice modern strip malls (as they go), and then suddenly when you turn into Live Oak Canyon it's zero development save for some discreet driveway entrances leading no doubt to pricey hillside homes.

Live Oak Canyon Rd starts off with some nice twisting shady stretches with a canopy of low hanging trees over the road. Georgeous. I actually considered stopping for pics but feared I'd never get going again as it was all uphill at that point.

Then Santiago Canyon opened up more with higher climbs to less forested terrain, winds were more significant as were the ups and downs. I stopped at the top of one climb where there was a view and snapped more pics. I turned around at the top of another climb. Savored a banana and clif bar as I looked down on Yorba Linda then headed back.

Picked B up from work and got the tour of the Y&R bldg. A pretty snazzy set up. 2 floors. The whole bldg. 200+ employees. Lots of cubes but not the typical cube farm - no Office Space (I speak of the movie, not having watched the TV series) set this. Met B's close co-workers Becky and Ashley. Seemed like cool gals. Attractive, fit, on the ball, like B, of course.

Went by Ikea and picked up a nice dark wood TV cabinet piece. I can't paint, but I can try to assemble this puppy (not ass-emble, I hope) over the remaining 6 days. If I don't do the job, and do it well, B may kick my butt across the county lne. And she's wearing just the boots, er slippers, to do it.

The early over/under on cabinet completion time is 4 days. Hmmmm. We picked up some Indian food on the way home from Ikea.

Zooey (has this become the official spelling? I haven't examined her collar tag yet.) seems not bothered by me. She is, perhaps, more amusing than E&H of Devereaux fame, in kind of a spectator sport way. She's got a little 180 hop that is just goofy, and she goes nuts for no apparent reason just often enough that I keep an eye out for it. She can really zoom around. Pure gray blur. Pretty talkative too. No way will B get away with walking in the door and then disappearing in the bathroom, not without some real meow complaining at the bathroom door.

Looking ahead- B works Wed. but the night will be a trip to Anaheim for a hocky game. Becky and her husband Dan will be along. Former triathletes, they're already cool in my book of course. Guess what? I may spend Wed. exercising and putting together a cabinet.

B is looking at a half day Thur. Not sure how we'll fill the p.m. yet.

Fri. plan is for me to ride down to San Diego along the coast in the a.m. B will sleep in or not, and drive down to meet me before we hit the Museums in Balboa. That's the plan.
Maybe LA one day.

Rocking onward

Shatterbelt - get on over there by clicking here and check it out. You can see a slick video as well as listen to some of their songs.

Yeah, I'm a CSPAN-listening, never-been-to-myspace-dot-com geezer, but fwiw, I am very impressed.

How did they get some of those overhead road shots for the video? Pretty polished tunes too.

Far from earth shattering, but def more than standard training aches and pains. Just hours after dropping a race entry in the mail some calf/achilles issues cropped up on my evening run. Not good. Time to stay off the road. No run or bike for now. Ouch. Will switch gears to a swim focus I guess.*

That is part of the beauty of tri. Rarely will injury bar exercise all together. So the exercise that gives my day structure almost never has to disappear entirely.

Blame it on endurance sports:

• wildlife sightings of all kinds - red fox, bald eagles and what I can only call vultures being the most noteable three
• combo of cold and wind resulting in losing a contact lense while on the bike, 3-4 times in the last year. I now carry eye drops and extra lense.
  

* I need to save energy for the big birthday wingding this weekend anyway.

Shhhhhhh.... Quiet Optimism

Bad news abounds, it seems. But, amidst the Iraq events, bird flu pandemic predictions, teetering economy, a downward spiraling season for the mighty MD Terrapins... there are small gleaming gems to light the way. Personal flotation devices. I suppose we all have them. Ready for the grabbing in those fleeting moments of sinking sensations. Such as... with Spring Training hope is eternal, even for the Nats. Boswell says so.

Getting a bit deep there. Back to earth, and the latest news in suburban Maryland.

Great Valentine steak and sides at Devereaux last weekend. So cold and windy Dad even cooked inside, no grill action. Received a very hip b-day scarf from B, she knitted it herself. She reports that Zough-eee the cat likes to bolt out the door.
Slyly plotting an escape here....


Caught Mark on CSPAN radio as I drove home. Very cool. The youngest of six was clearly the sage of the crew. Really called out the home office editors re the WVa mine reporting mess.

I've got all the Memmott writiers on google alert, but must admit I'm a default Washington Postie. David Ignatius is my current fave columnist. He likes to swing a heavy hammers and, imo, often ctaches the head of the nail. Like this on the Dubai company port terminal management dust up. Or this re the NSA warrantless surveillance.

I have not contracted Olympic fever. Has anyone? I could be watching right now, but I'm rambling on at the keyboard instead. The fever is not exactly going around. I did overhear two elderly gals at the post office talking about the drama and pressure on the athletes, staying up late or recording what they liked. Score two for NBC.

Good stuff on the family blogs. OH goes to Cali; more and more pics via Olean; impressive stuff in Chantilly, from music making and cat walk walking to flag manuevers and college considerations.

Blame it on endurance sports entry:

• Dollar Store gloves - perfect for cool-cold weather running... and nose-wiping, sweat soaking abuse, 'cause hey, they're only a buck.
• Emery boards - keep the toes and feet happy, another one of thenlittle things that becomes oh so important.
  

I'm starting to feel optimistic re my health and fitness. Have gone so far as to put together a list of possible races for the year, below. knocking on wood, bracing for the chill and shudder as the spectre of the jinx blows through. I've registered for a grand total of one, the 10miler in April.

I'm straying waaaay off the reservation. Winging it, compared to most of my fellow age group competition peers. This is a heretical departure from standard operating procedure for runners, cyclists, triathletes snd the like. SOP dictates that by the end of December one lay out a detailed training plan for the upcoming year. Start by identifying the "A" races for the year and then design months of structured training aimed at "peaking" for each A race. Folks can get seriously micro about this. I've tried. Life has a way of intervening, bumping the best laid plans off course.

I have nooooo intention of doing all of the races on my list. Just a loose list from which I'll choose 6-8 max, probably ones I can drive to day of, that also don't fill up before I register - and many may already be closed.

Half of the races I enter will just be "cool" or "big" training days - catered and supported by virtue of the race amenities. The others will be real race targets, a bit of a training taper and such.

First up, possibly a last minute entry for the March 5th race, as a big training day. It's cheap, won't fill up, and is so local I can ride my bike to the start if I wish. I'll actually try to hit the April 2nd 10miler rested and ready to go for a PR.

March 5 – B&A Trail Half Marathon (Baltimore & Annapolis) annapolisstriders.com
March 12 – St. Pat’s 10K
April 2 – Cherry Blossom 10 Miler
April 8 - Brandywine Valley Duathlon, Del City, DE (5k/17.4mi/5k) piranha-sports.com
April 9 – Bethesda YMCA Du (run 2.5mi- bike 10mi- run 2.5mi) cantriathlon.org

April 22 - Lake Anna Half Ironman distance Tri (aka "70.3" tri for the 70.3 total miles covered in such races)
May 6-7 – Wintergreen Ascent TT (time trial), VA - bike up the mountain one rider at a time in one min intervals, wintergreenresort.com
May 7 - National Age Group Duathlon Championship, Mason, Ohio
May 7 - New Jersey Devilman Half IM Tri, Cumberland Cnty, NJ piranha-sports.com
May 21 – Ford Disney 70.3, Orlando (qualifier for 70.3 champs)
June 26 - WVa Mountaineer Half IM Tri, Morgantown, hilly bike, riverside run MountaineerTri.com
July 8 - Diamond in Rough Olympic distance Tri, Northeast, MD piranha-sports.com
July 9 – Blackwater Duathlon (R 8K, B 30K, R 5K), Cambridge, MD tricolumbia.org
Aug 6 – Pittsburgh Oly distance tri- *Reg’l Club Champ (winning club sends crew to Vegas for nat’l champs)
Aug 13 - Lums Pond Tri or Du (du: R2mi/B19.5mi/R3.1mi), Lums Pond, DE piranha-sports.com
Aug 20 – Timberman Half (qualifier for 70.3 champs)
Aug 26 – Northeast MD Oly Tri, cgiracing.com
Sept 3 – Shenandoah Mtn 100mile bike “race" featuring 12-14K feet of uphill pedalling
Sept 10 - Del. Diamondman Half IM Tri., Lums Pond, DE piranha-sports.com
Sept. 16 – Odyssey Half IM Tri, Lake Anna, VA oarevents.com
*Sept. 17 – DC Tri, Oly distance* - "The Nation's Triathlon" permits pending, will be first ever triathlon in District of Columbia tricolumbia.org
Sept 24 – Mont. Cnty Half Marathon, Rockville, MD
Sept 30 – Chesapeake Man IM Tri., Cambridge, MD tricolumbia.org
Oct 8 - Cape Henlopen Tri.& Du (R3.1mi- B15.3mi- R3.1mi) piranha-sports.com
Oct 8 – Army 10 miler, No. VA
Nov. 11, 2006 - World Half IM Tri champs, Clearwater, Fla. Must qualify for entry slots via prior race.

Gas down (!) to $2.19 at one spot, $2.29 across town, the town being Greenbelt.

Virtual crayola

Experimenting with spicing this thing up a bit colorwise.
It's dangerously easy to alter the blog color scheme.

The I95 corridor snow has been well reported. About 12inches in my area. I lifted not one shovel full, the community crew beat me to my 20yds of sidewalk.

Thanks Mom, for that nifty pic from 1970. I've been looking for a pic for my blog profile and it will do nicely. That is indeed one killer lid warming my not-so-fuzzy young melon. Pretty sweet get up all together.
So. You started me on my hat habbit, eh?


Let's really drive that age thing home with a quick and snarky look back at 1970.

• IBM introduces the floppy disk.
  
• The Beatles break up.
  
• Bar codes introduced for retail and industrial use in England.
• Wimbledon: Margaret Court d. B.J. King (14-12 11-9); John Newcombe d. K. Rosewall (5-7 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-1)
  

And, more in the vein of self-indulgent lists...

Blame it on endurance sport:

• seeing sunrise over the DC mall
• making note of portajohns spied when driving locally
• biking in weather cold enough to freeze both of my water bottles before I've had a second sip
• getting my legs painfully worked over by an attractive, black belt holding, massage therapist named Robyn
• learning the art of donning mayo (okay, chamois creme) filled spandex cycling shorts without having the stuff end up all over my legs
• observing the following multitasking wonder while on the road: woman on roller blades (shorts, sleeveless tee, no helmet/pads) moving at a good clip downhill on a neighborhood artery street, left arm fully extended grasping the handle of an apparently occupied Hummer-sized baby stroller, right hand holding a lighter and she's trying to light a "100" sized (er, supersized) cigarette as she cruises along. Yes, I'm holding back on the redneck/darwin at work line of jokes.

Worn out phrases: thrown under the bus operational details Hummer-sized

Recent memorable quote:
"It is during our most challenging and uncertain moments that our Nation's commitment to due process is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must preserve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad." Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for the majority, Hamdi et al. v. Rumsfeld, et al.

One more in the Cat Column

Back at it. Not much to report with me - that is my overarching theme, btw. As ever present as my favorite blog crutches: lots of these ( ), and these ..., and probably too many of these , .
The punctuation police could fill their quota in one quick drive-by here.

So, I will fill space via two other angles of attack. Hopefully (comma) in an amusing, interesting fashion, keeping it short enough so you'll at least check back every few weeks.

My two-pronged approach:
1. Update re someone not me; and
2. Steal content ideas from other blogs and adapt them to my liking, throwing those other bloggers zero credit for the inspiration.

1. Update re B - Just too easy right now B!
Recently had a birthday.
Has lots of hot gal pals.
And... (drum roooolllllllllll, buiiiiiiiiiiilllldinnnnng to a crescendo) ... just adopted a svelte young cat!
My sister has thereby - by her own admission - gone over the edge.

Zooey

Mine was a family of dog folks, or so I thought. I'm afraid to do the math. Denial is better than admitting dog folks are in the minority.

Don;t misunderstand. Animals are great. Each deserves kindness. But dogs are clearly better. Truly, best. Would you ever come across the following quote with regard to cats? "I someday hope to be as a good a person as my dog thinks I already am."

Well, I suppose the next best thing to an exclusively dog loyal person is a cat person. You're still my favorite sister B.

2. The Intellectual Property theft (it's not really plagiarism, technically, right?)

It's actually a common fail safe: The List.

Should be right up my alley. I'm nothing if not a list person (avoiding eye contact with the post-its surrounding my pc). I'll stick to my comfort zone, maybe stretch it.

Things I would not have done if I had not "gotten into" endurance sports.

If I can't stretch this into multiple entries... well, pathetic is the word. I'll do my best, for better or worse, to keep it spicy, avoid lots of the boring, predictable and relatively meaningless run Xmiles in Xmins kind of items.

1. Purchase and continue to wear elastic shoe laces in my running shoes. The footwear equivalent of taped together spaz eyeglasses. Function over form my friends.

2. Voluntarily (actually paid for the privilege) taking a 35min swim in sub 65F water. The air temp was sub 55F. It was raining. Did I mention I paid to do this? I even planned to hop directly on my bike and knock a good 15-20degrees off that 55F with the natural wind chill that cycling endows. What doesn't kill you... Well, it may make you stronger, provided you get through the hypothermia, which I did. I then packed my bike in my car, cranked the heat, drove home and alternately whined and bragged about it for at least a month.

3. Slather the visual and feel-quivalent of mayonaisse all over the inside of spandex shorts, slip into the shorts and get on the bike. Repeat.
(side note - People really eat this mayo stuff don't they? I don't now how either tastes, but I'll eat chamois creme before mayo.)

Makes shaving my legs with a Braun electric seem pretty tame all of a sudden.

Gas is now $2.44 for the cheap stuff, rising fast from $2.33.
35F and dry here today. Calling for more of the same this wek. Maybe winter has really arrived now that we are in mid-Feb. She's welcome for six weeks, tops.

D.C. Winter on Hold

The holidays are behind us and IT is here. Well, it's at least on the front porch and about to come in. Without knocking. Always rude and never welcome. Winter in D.C. just stinks. (Quite timely that the political plate is piled high with meat to gnaw on while stuck indoors.)

It's gray, it's wet, it's windy.
It's ugly and makes you want to stay in bed.
Darkness falls by 4:30p and it all just gets in your head.

When a respite presents itself, it's best to pause the whining and revel in the good fortune, soak it up and recharge. The sun broke out, sort of, and the temps climbed near 50F this afternoon and at the last minute I rolled out to snag a quick bike ride.


Very much a smell-the-roses ride on my regular route through a few federal plots in the vicinity.

One split second of excitement tho, courtesy of a squirrel on speed. I was the only traffic of any kind, but he just HAD to get to the other side of the road RIGHT #!%$* NOW!

This psychotic little wonder came out of nowhere. Moving like he was on fire, he covered a good 20yards of open ground on my right in a blurry gray flash. Not one of the typical dart-stop-dart-do-a-180 maneuvers they love to pull. This tweeker was committed, nothing but a straight shot all out was gonna cut it. I had barely moved for the brakes and he had somehow slipped under my front wheel by some invisible margin and was gone down the hill on the other side. I was awed, and, obviously inspired.

Anyway, I brought the camera with me...

Twists and turns leaving the nearby wildlife refuge.

Returning home through the USDA Ag Research Center
Damn. The sun is diving fast.
Not enough light to see the cows and geese scattered in the fields.

Gas is now up to $2.35 for the cheap stuff.

Holiday Week

This pic does not do justice to the monster manger.

Well. Made it through another year. Woohoo!

A very nice holiday week to finish out 2005.

• Soooo nice to have Bridget around for a few days, even if she is all about getting lights, lights and more lights on the tree. Sheeesh. I kid, I kid... really.
  
• Great food, and darn healthy overall. My foray into Yorkshire territory was balanced by completely additive free dishes like sweet potatoes, squash, asparagus, and spinach.
• Mom and Dad at the helm keeeping things humming like a well oiled machine as they juggled the usual Christmas activities with caring for every pet in the neighborhood. Many sweet animals abandoned for the holidays, not that I picked up any of the slack.

We got out to see The Family Stone. Not a bad flick. Holiday fare of the slightly deep thinking variety, served up with a solid dose of flawed family dynamics (the family on the screen, not the family in the seats, er, yeah) with a dash of tear jerker seasoning.

I managed a few pics from Christmas day, and one of my first crack at using the food processor from Bridget. The green stuff is a blend of chick peas and spinach with a little salt, garlic, turmeric and muchi curry spice thrown in. Call it Holiday Hummus I suppose.

I'm also throwing in a pic of the humble Christmas (or would it be "Holiday") Tree propped up by the City of Greenbelt. It's a Charlie Brown tree for sure. Not a single light Bridget! This rather blue collar and heavily liberal 'burb has it's spending priorities in order, or maybe just a limited tax base. In any event, campaign money directed here by any party is wasted.

Health, contentment and prosperity to all in '06.

No More Mr. (Mashed) Potato Head

The easy to prepare and super-healthy sweet potato.

I may resemble ol' Mr. P., but I'll no longer horde the serving bowl of the heavy white stuff. Really. I've switched from the white Russett to the orange Garnet. The sweet potato falls within my lazy but healthy guidelines.

I do looooove to eat but, no love for cooking. My oven is more storage space than anything else. Fortunately, someone else steps up to produce the occassional blueberry pie.

The "how to" is basic stuff, but I'll stretch it into a blog post.
Quick prep -> Just chop 'er up.
















Easy - > Move circular slices from the cutting board to the steamer or tupperware. Beware, orange coloring may bleed out and tinge the steamer.



Healthy -> beaucoup vitamins and minerals and the carbs are healthy. Loaded with antioxidants and all that.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=64#summary


The orange flesh will eventually brown when exposed. Prevent this by storing the unused slices in a small tuperware container fillled with water and keep in the 'frig. Yeeesh, that sounds rather Martha Stewart-ish, eh?

I typically run the steamer every night for ~20-25mins.

• Carrots sticks go into the bin first
  
• then a few broccoli florets
• maybe some green beans
  
• some red and green pepper pieces
• perhaps some frozen peas and/or spinach and/or asparagus and/or brussel sprouts
  
• topped off with a number of sweet potato slices

If the asparagus, peas or spinach are fresh I'll wait to throw them in when there is about 10mins of steamer time remaining.

Rinse plate and steamer. Done. Minimal clean up is key.

Gas: $2.07 on 11-30-05.

Thanksgiving '05

Some lively Italian wine.

The holiday went pretty well here in the DC area. The weather was not bad, the company was excellent, and the food was great, times two.

B flew in earlier in the week and she and Mom produced tea ring and pies for the holiday. Blueberry and pumpkin. Homemade crust and everything. Berries from Burdick's of course.


The Chantilly crew was in good form on Thursday.
Mark served up a moist and tastey turkey using a brining process. Pretty brave to go with a new move on game day.
I'll give Carol credit for everything else, including some real cranberries that I loaded up on twice.

E & M held up well with the boring old folks.

Phoenix and Aspen even seemed particularly chipper with happy little bursts of indoor barks.

Meanwhile, I managed to screw up just about every pic I snapped.

Friday was cold but clear. Bridget, Dad and I got in a run along the Potomac on the C&O Canal tow path. Aunt Pat and cousin Mary Pat were up from Florida and staying in VA. They stopped by that afternoon with cousin Jimmy's daughter Ashley and went out yarn shoppping with Bridget and Mom.

Friday evening Mom, Dad, B and I went out for some mediteranean food and then out to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore Hall in Bethesda. The first symphony was by a Spanish composer. Featured a violinist. The second was Tchaikovsky's first symphony (got that?). I was surprised at how much I liked all of it. Of course, I know nothing about such music.

Saturday was Thanksgiving in Gaithersburg. Dad pulled off another good year... turkey, oyster stuffing, cole slaw, asparagus and more. And, another pair of pies by Bridget & Mom.

Zippy contribution from me, but I did perch near the kitchen and take a lot of pics, and by sheer volume managed to get a few that show recognizeable objects.

An "artsy" sense of the flurry of activity...


Keep it up with the pics blogger boy, I'm first for the food...
Hey, it's a plumpkin, till it cools...


Gas: $2.13 before the holiday.

November 7 2005

Not much to report. A relatively uneventful week. A bit of an indian summer, upper 60's and no rain.

As far as the fun stuff goes, no new injuries, a little running for the first time in weeks and quite a bit of swimming.

And... re the pic, just some timely odds and ends. I may do this a few times a week, just throw up an item of the day pic or something witha few related words.

The pic reflects the arrival of basketball season and my current favorite snack. The Washington Wizards are off to a 3-0 start, with wins over three teams that have yet to beat anyone, a combined 0-9.

The Maryland Terrapins will start the season ranked in the top 20 nationally and pretty well stocked with experience and talent.

Fig Newmans - good stuff. Healthy? Yes... but maybe not so much if you can't stop with just 10 or 15. If they ever start selling supersized containers I'm in trouble.

Gas: $2.37 for the cheap stuff this weekend.

An October Wrap

So, yes, back at this blog thing.

I can't claim the cool factor of kayaking, or (nor?) that of heading off into the wilds of WVA every so often, a la cool kid no. 6. I'll work on that. Getting a blog post up once a week would pass for an exciting achievement in my world. Gotta have pics to spice it up, so I've taken a few lately.



On to the new material...
Starting with the intro/teaser. Since the last episode...

The cat lover has carried on her duties sans solids, including dog walking and 10K as the marathon sherpa-spouse.
Her young man/in-house chef ran 26.2, I say 26.2 MILES, all in one shot. Again.
The left coaster recently kicked off her weekend morning by crawling through mud and running through water, all of it somehow uphill for 6 miles.

Me? I've caught up on TV time and achieved personal bests in both latenight carb consumption and rapid weight gain. That, my friends, is synchronicty. Sink...row...nissittee. It's hard work discovering the inner couch 'tater, but I am well on my way.

Picking up roughly at the end of September...

I headed down to RFK stadium on the first weekend in October, where I met M&D on a gorgeous sunny day, high 70's.



The Nat's were out of the running but could impact the playoffs by beating the Phillies in the final game of the season.



I arrived early and broke out the camera. A deep throng of fans gathered around the home dugout and another swarmed the home bullpen and outfield as the players went through warm ups. The season opening baseball is back in DC! glow was still burning. Folks looking around trying to somehow take in an entire season with their eyes, absorb it all, and goofily admiring the presence of one another. As in - hey, look at us, we've got a team and that team has us, an honest to goodness loyal following! Floating through the isles relishing completion of a full season, including some time at the top of the division. A .500 season and no playoffs was just fine, enough for a bit of a we-are-faaaam-illeee vibe. (Where is Willie Stargell these days? Parker? Tekulve?)

There were quite a few Phillies fans in attendance, and they were a loud presence, reacting to the play on the field and the out of town scoreboard. The Nationals lost. The Astros won, knocking Philly out of the playoffs. Not much joy for anyone. Nevertheless, the final out was followed by a prolonged standing O from all the Nats fans, appreciative of an unexpectedly exciting and competitive season.


Baseball has sucked me back in. I'll be following things through the off season.

Despite being less active than usual, I've got a new round of injurries that hit me early this month. It's apparently the year of injurries and humility for me, or something. Hip/glute and knee stuff has limited me to minimal biking, no running. But, lots of swimming. As I write, the weeks off have helped and it feels like I will be running again in the next week or two, and back on the bike regularly as well. My stomach is playing nice, to the tune of 7-8 lbs added in the last few weeks. So, I've got that going for me, which is nice... right.

Mom had some tooth work done and has been getting by on yogurt and other mushy stuff. Hasn't stopped her from sticking with her walking routine, which now includes a young dog from the 'hood. Didn't seem to slow her down as we covered 7miles on foot at the Marine Corps Marathon.

B continues to stay active and seems to be enjoying it. She recently took on a "Muddy Buddy" event. She and a teamate ran, biked, scaled walls, crossed through water, crawled through mud and generally had a blast over an uphill and literally bruising course of about 6 miles and 90minutes. Those crazy Cali folks.

The big recent event was the annual Marine Corps Marathon.

Walking around for a few hours taking in the Marathon Saturday (10-30) was a welcome chance to actually spend time on my feet moving around and to hang with Mom and watch Dad take on another 26.2mile day. Sunshine and temps into the high 60's made for easy spectating. I managed to avoid injury and hopefully so has Dad.

The "people's marathon" (no prize money) is a huge race. 30,000 strong. Marines in abundance, wearing their camo uni's they kept the course clear, gear secure, runners hydrated, etc.

Mom and I connected at the Lincoln Memorial just after the 8:15 start.






Lots of runners to watch, and some other interesting sights and sounds as well.







Chickens apparently can run. Miles the Bear got paid not to run.


Note: It is strongly suspected that the chicken, or at least the chicken outfit, did not cover the entire 26.2.



Dad went off in the first wave, wearing his phone and a small waist pack with some fluids and calories. Some hamstring tweaks nagged him over the weeks leading up the race day, so expectations were nil. No attempt at a personal best marathon time. With the forced taper in effect, it was very much a take it on the fly kind of day. The brains v ego war was won before the gun. Take what the day gives, and come out injury free, that was the goal.

He checked in via phone now and then. We spied him a few times.

First, just after the 10 mile mark, and then at about 14.5 still smiling and moving at a pleasing pace.
And finally, after he finished a loooong 25th mile on consistent up grade and hit the brutal hill at mile 26 as he headed for the finish (he's in there somewhere).

Even without pushing for a time goal he covered the distance in about 4hrs 32min.


I'm hoping the whole family will be 100% when we get together in Gatheirsburg for turkey and maybe a 5 miler in a few weeks.

I believe I heard Mark get a question in at Fitzgerald on Fri. as I listened to the Libby indictment press conference. Ol' Fitz would have none of it, refusing to clarify some of the vague language in his opening statement.

Paid $2.44 for gas today.

C.

I'm Back - The Quickie Life Update Entry

Start the clock. I'm shooting for a worthwhile entry in under 10 mins.

Here we go...

For the second time this summer I was knocked to the canvas for a couple weeks with a stomach condition. This time around was not quite the knock out blow that landed in late June and left me 10-12 lbs lighter in the end. Just a standing 8 count and I am now back in action, no lighter. Had the pleasure of a scope down the old gullet to get a professional eyeball on the situation. Serious stuff is pretty well ruled out. I am gradually venturing from eating completely bland stuff into not so bland. Taking appropriate meds for awhile as the works heal.

Cheap gas went up fro $2.35 to $2.69 before Katrina, then shot up to $3.33 locally in Greenbelt and now is dropping. Currently at $3.19.

I missed blueberry season and the felling of the apple tree. I am, however, enjoying some of this years berries thanks to Martha's picking efforts and the Mom & Dad express delivery. BIG thank you Martha!

I am a few pages into Brad Lockwood's book on the Case family knife dynasty. I'm liking it. Should I be surprised? Thanks Martha (again) for the signed copy.




Caught a Nationals game at RFK Stadium last weekend with Mom & Dad.

It was a big game with playoff implications, and they lost thanks to one bad inning by their ace pitcher Hernandez and some play by the Atlanata Braves, including a reach-over-the-fence-and-snag-a-home-run catch.


But it was a great day to be at the park. Low 80's, low humidity, sunny. Good seats in the shade. Very comfortable. RFK is spiffed up just enough to be a pleasant sight from the stands.
(And, NO! the Nats are not quite out of it yet, darn it!)



While I was out of commission Bridget has started running and walking. She is persevering cautiously, learning to accomodate and smartly manage her way through the minefiled of aches and pains that come with never having done this stuff. And she is progressing nicely. And, she is making all kinds of home improvements as well. Inspiring.

Dad continues with a busy work schedule and absolutely epic running. Mom is just as busy and has added a local pooch as an ocassional walking companion for her daily cruise in the neighborhood. They have also leapfrogged me technologywise, with a nice laptop at home ona wireless sytem.

I see the youngest of six is logging some impressive bike miles. Especially as they are on a mtn bike and off road. That off road stuff is too much for a roadie like me. An hour off pavement is easily as tough as 2 on it.

I'm out of the loop and way behind on all of the many other local family events. Even more clueless than usual I suppose I should add.

Meanwhile, I'm just happy to happy to have the energy to throw a wimpy post up on this blog site.

And... 29mins later, I'm done.