And She Ran and Ran and Ran some More!

JR and I drove to Austin Saturday evening after Kimbre's water polo games.  We checked into the Holiday Inn Express which was very nice, but not as nice as the one in Odessa the week before.  This one didn't have granite countertops, but did have a kitchen and sitting area, which was set up very user friendly.  Gotta love reward programs! 

Within 5 minutes of getting to our room, we received a phone call from the front desk saying they had gotten complaints about the noise we were making.  JR said, "Are you serious?  We just checked in."  She said she was serious and he said, "OK."  and hung up.  I guess I was turning the pages too loudly in the Holiday Inn Express amenities binder I was flipping through or possibly JR farted too loud in the bathroom?  Not sure, but I'm sure the kids running up and down the hall yelling at one another were bothered by our obnoxious behavior.

We left a message with Morgan and Nancy saying we were in town and had the brilliant idea of going to Morgan's work at Applebees.  There was only one Applebees in the hotel phone book, so we drove about 20 minutes and went inside.  I asked the cross eyed hostess if Morgan was working and she made a very confused face, if you can look anymore confused than when you have crossed eyes, and she said, "Morgan?  Do we have a Morgan that works here?"  A guy walking past said, "MorGAN?" with an accent on the second syllable.  "No, I don't think we do."  So we left because those 2 were weird and to tell you the truth, the clientele looked scary. 

On our way back to the hotel, Morgan called and gave us the right directions to the Applebees she worked at out of the EIGHT there were in Austin.  Why was there only one listed in the phone book?

We drove to the right Applebees and had white queso, chips and jalapenos, my latest persistent craving I have been having and a beer.  I had ordered a Cherry Limeade, but after taking the first sip and realizing it was pure sugar and felt guilty, switched drinks with JR who I knew would like it more anyway. We had a nice little visit then returned to the hotel where I promptly fell asleep.

And woke up at 4 am, 4:30 am, 5:30 am and finally got out of bed at 6 am to make myself instant oatmeal and pecans I had packed.  I got dressed and went to the bathroom, then went to the bathroom and then drank a little water and went to the bathroom and then went downstairs to eat some yogurt while JR ate his breakfast and then went back to the room and went to the bathroom.  We stopped to pick up Morgan and JR dropped us near the start line and I went to the bathroom and then JR left to find a parking space and when he finally returned to us, I went to the bathroom.  I WAS VERY NERVOUS!  There were a LOT of people. Luckily it was cold and breezy, so I wasn't nauseous, well, OK, a little nauseous.

Here is a picture of us in the line to go to the bathroom before the run.

Here are what all the people looked like:

 

Amazing, huh?!?  Just under 23,000 registrants.

Morgan and I got in line.  Nancy and her girls, Jenna and Kiley, were running late and it wasn't until about the 5th mile that I actually saw Jenna.  I never did see Nancy or Kiley, but with all those people, it isn't surprising.

I didn't realize there were going to be so many hills on this course!  It wasn't going up them that was so hard, but going down.  They were steep!  I was afraid my feet were going to slip out from under me and I was going to fall on my face.  Morgan told me to lean back, which helped, but she would take off like a bat out of hell and I would practically crawl down and then catch back up with her when we went up the next hill.

I am a consistent 10 min mile runner.  Doesn't matter what I'm doing, my legs go one speed and the less I think about it, the better.  I did try to run as fast as I could at the end, but there were so many people, it was almost impossible to go as fast as you were capable of.

 I finished in 1 hour 2 min 21 seconds.  And I will take it.  Duh,  Winning!  lol

I saw JR on the side, trying to take photos of me and Morgan finishing, finished the race and then lost him.  I went to find water and then moseyed over to where I had last seen him and he wasn't there.  I went to the bathroom, AGAIN, not sure how that was possible, and then wandered all over the place looking for him and Morgan.  After about 20 min. I started feeling hopeless and had that, "I'm never ever ever going to find them and will have to sleep on the streets in a cardboard box feeling".  And then I saw them!  I was so relieved!  Truly, the number of people were amazing.  Finding them was pure luck.


We stood in lines getting our free bananas, coconut water, brown rice, chocolate milk, etc. and then headed back to get cleaned up at the hotel and have lunch with Morgan and Tonya. 


We decided to eat at Pluckers, a wing place.  The food was really good and the waitress was a complete doll.  My sister, Tonya, showed up shortly after we ordered and we had a really nice talk about her music and what had been going on with both of us.  We hadn't seen each other in a long time!

And here we are:

After dropping Morgan off at home, we headed towards Houston.  Surprisingly I stayed awake the 3 and a half hour ride.


Today I woke up and wasn't even sore.  I toyed with the idea of working out, but decided I would give myself a break.  I drove to the garden center to buy dirt to cover up my potatoes, which I did, and to Big Lots to get more canned cat food and bunch of other junk.

I need to find a cheaper source for plain ole dirt.  I spent $10 a bag for dirt and it took 2 bags.  This defeats the purpose of growing potatoes if it is going to cost me $20 everytime I need to bury them.  Um...no.

The rest of today I have sat on my rear, but I am going to research training to run the half marathon and figure out what to do with the chicken I took out this morning.

And off I go!

Pam   

Fish Tacos...YUM!

One thing I always do when JR leaves town is make fish tacos.  I get Tilapia from the store, pan cook the fish in butter, give it a squirt of Chipotle mayo and top with tomatoes and lettuce on a wheat tortilla.  Easy and tastes great and JR wouldn't eat it if his life depended on it.  OK, maybe if his LIFE depended on it, but I could hear the sounds of revulsion clearly in my head as he was doing so.  I ate this, some leftover butternut squash and a fistful of Skittles for dinner.  I'm thinking I want more sweets...

Today started slow with interval running, not feeling like interval running at all, after 3 days of not working out.  I put in Jillian Michael's Last Chance Workout after-wards and felt nauseous, but pushed myself to finish.  I did everything but the very last exercise in the last set.  I think it was the humidity because I haven't turned the air on yet and I'm not used to getting all hot without any reprieve.  Yuck.  I think it was the heat because the rest of the day I have felt perfectly fine except lazy.  Our high was 83 degrees today.

After walking the dogs, showering and throwing some laundry in the washer, I headed out the door with a large box of clothes and misc. junk to donate to the thrift store.  I also had a bag of kitten food Henri couldn't handle and 2 cats toys the cats didn't ever play with to give to Carol who works at the thrift store.  I think she has over 20 cats.  I have so much stuff to go through and I haven't barely gone through anything.

Once at the store, Carol told me the guy I had hired when I managed the store, Joe, was giving his 2 week notice.  He has been managing the store and doing a wonderful job, but he's going to college and has a girlfriend and his time is up.  He's been working there a little over 3 years. I'm surprised he lasted this long.  That store is a LOT of work and very stressful.  Joe is going to suggest they hire Carol to run the store and I think it's a good idea.  She has a wonderful giving personality and truly only wishes the best for everyone.  The store will probably lose money, but they will have a huge following because of her.

Treasures I found:  2 pair of Under Armour compression shorts for running which normally sell for $25 or so, for $1.00.  YAY!  A really pretty purplish dress for 50 CENTS.  I might wear this to Kimbre's water polo banquet. I had no idea it was 50 cents until I checked out and was VERY happy.  A Chico v-neck short sleeve shirt for $3.00.  A pair of Eddie Bauer jeans for $4.00 and a Joey Green book for $1.00.  Oh, almost forgot, a box of pencils for 50 cents.  Good day. 

I went to the grocery store where my find of the day was Iams cat food for $6, marked down from $12.  I got a few other things and headed home.

I was lazy for awhile and then headed out to start working on the front garden.  Once I started, I was really enjoying myself.  It was beautiful outside until my neighbor on the right started mowing his grass going 90 miles an hour on his riding lawn mower, blowing dust, pollen, and leaves in my face.  I was happy when the kid went to their backyard.  Harold, the 87 year old walker on our street, stopped to talk to me and almost coughed up a lung.   

I planted 3 blue Plumbago and weeded almost the whole bed, raising up the edging as I went along.  I need to weed some more and decide where to plant my white impatiens tomorrow, along with possibly planting one of the 4 Gardenias I have in the next area over before Kimbre's water polo games.

Pretty uneventful day unless you consider the snake that I touched WITH MY HAND!  I have a lot of leaves in my garden bed I have been using as mulch.  I was using my UN-gloved hand to push the leaves aside to get to the weeds and I literally pushed a snake with my hand!  I'm still getting a quiver down my back as I think about it.  It was probably...hmmm, 1/4" thick and 12" long and a reddish brown color.  A decent size, I'd say!  I watched it for a bit and it just sat there, so I went back to weeding. I thought I should take a picture of it and when I looked over were it was, it was gone.  Yikes.

And now I'm off to get ready for bed.  Night!
Pam

      

 

 

I have the smartest dog ever!

I really think I do have the smartest dog ever.  lol  This week I started training sessions with Dexter outside.  I'm not exactly sure what I am doing, but I'm trying..  The first day we worked on him not pulling on the leash.  Today we worked on the same thing and he never pulled once.  I'm sure it had to do with the bag of shredded cheese I was holding, but still.  Then we worked on Lay Down from a sit position and by the end he was doing it!  I am so proud of him!   As long as I am holding food, we should be just fine!

Earlier this week I went to the garden center and bought way too many plants.  I thought I had measured right, but I must have been thinking only of the length and not the width.  It will all work out in the end, because I have a very large yard...lol.  It looks a little bare right now, but the Daisy Bushes I have in the back will eventually grow quite large and the pips of Lily of the Valley I bought will grow and flower (hopefully).  It will all fill in, in other words.  I would much rather prefer paying less and looking a little bare for a season or two.

Here is a picture of before.  It was half pulled apart by this time.  JR had removed the pond the evening before and we had filled the hole with some of the pond gunk.

After many hours of busting my ass, this is what we ended up with.  I extended it, dug up all the weeds and grass, added compost and rabbit dirt, switched out bricks for cleaner ones and planted. 

As long as we're talking accomplishments, look at the size of these asparagus!  They are HUGE!  We have had quite a few meals with asparagus already.  I'm not sure if I'll freeze it or not, but so far we're keeping up with the eating part. 

We also ate strawberries from my side garden this week.  I should have waited another day or two, but they were still good.  The plants are loaded!!!  I have been eying the next few that are turning a deep red for breakfast tomorrow.

I need to clean out the front flower bed and plant the blue plumbago and white impatiens I bought soon.  I had considered it today, but just haven't gotten to it.  Some days I just don't have the desire to dig in dirt.  Not many, but some.  I received the book I ordered titled The Edible Front Yard, so all sorts of new ideas should be spewing forth any day now.  :)

I am trying to find ideas to build a privacy fence between my neighbors and us.  They suck.  Well, he sucks, she's OK.  They adopted this Golden Retriever about a year ago to add to their other Golden Retriever and they bark incessantly at us.  We can't even go in our backyard when the dog is out, especially the newer one, because he just barks and barks and it is enough to drive anyone insane.  So I wrote the neighbors an email and I asked them to please keep their dog in from 8:30-9am in the morning, so we could walk our dogs and feed the rabbits in peace.  We were both gone every day all day during this and I thought it was a reasonable request.  I was very nice about it, but the jackass kept letting his dog out while we were out there. 

So I would yell at the dog to Shut Up and sometimes when I was out feeding the rabbits, he would let the dogs out and I would flip them the bird.  Not to their face, but in their general direction of their sliding glass door.  I TRIED not saying anything, I really did, but it was like a volcano erupting in me.  Slowly, slowly, all of a sudden I couldn't stand it anymore and would say, "SHUT UP!!!"  or worse...

All winter they are hermits.  I'm not sure where the dogs go pee, but they are never out, so we have a nice reprieve.  Now that the weather is nicer, and they are smokers, they go outside every 15 minutes when they are home with their dogs and we get to hear the damn barking again.  BUT, I have noticed they have been working during the day lately and are gone from about 10-5pm.  So I was thinking, because it is what I do best, I could offer to let out the damn dog and she would get used to me and stop barking at me all the time.

Last night I let out our dogs and of course, their stupid dogs start barking and I walked over near the chain link fence and I said, "Ernie?"  He said, "Yah."  All ugly sounding.  I said, "I noticed you two have been working lately, would you like me to let out your dogs while you are at work?"  He said, in a VERY nasty voice, "NO!  I DO NOT!" and walked away.  I almost started laughing.  But I didn't say anything and came inside.

I need a privacy fence, privacy bushes, privacy from my neighbors.  They are irritating the hell out of me.    

I had a good workout with Cathe Friedrich this morning.  65 minutes of total body toning.  JR and I were discussing how it is better to be happy and not be so obsessive about working out and what we eat.  As long as you are consistent and watch what you eat most of the time, it's OK to eat some things you shouldn't.  Let's face it.  I love food.  I will probably always have a tummy because I like to eat food.  Who cares?  As long as I have stress relief, that's the important part, right?  lol

And this is this and that is that and now it is time to shower.
Pam

And She Was Run Ning and Run Ning

My friend, Nancy and I, signed up to run a 10K in Austin, March 27 and I think we are nuts.  It isn't like we actually enjoy long distance running.  I much prefer interval running which takes 30 minutes tops.  I always feel like I have worked out good and hard when I run intervals.  When I run longer distances, things start hurting:  knees, my foot, my side, all different areas.  But oh well.  I haven't ever run a 10K before and it will be an experience.  Last year 20,000 people were in this race and supposedly, from what Nancy says, Mathew McConaughey runs in it every year.  I'll also get to see Morgan and Tonya, too and spend the night in a Holiday Express with JR.  :)  (He has points)

My garden has been planted and little green buds are poking through the soil.  The pleasure this gives me is inexpressible!  Whether they are grass or weeds or what is actually supposed to come up, I won't know until they are bigger.  I know for a fact my onions are coming up, my peas, my cantaloupe, and my squash are growing.

Today it is raining a nice soaking rain and I'm sure the whole garden will appreciate it.  I know I will.  I use rain water from our collection tank and since I'm opposed to using the hose, I take numerous bucketfuls of water from the tank to the garden, back and forth, back and forth.  The hose needs a pump to give it a little pressure because now the water just trickles out and it drives me CRAZY!  It's like watching paint dry.  A little more exercise never hurt me anyhow.

Speaking of exercise, I ran this morning, 1 minute intervals for 20 min to total 2 miles.  I was pretty sweaty and the house was humid, so I started opening windows.  BIG huge kudos to JR for making all those screens last year.  My intention was I was going to finish up my workout with a 30 minute DVD of some sort after opening the windows.

I have a set of windows over the kitchen sink that have always been tight.  I pulled over a chair and climbed half up on the granite counters to hoist the windows up.  The first set went up after a little hiccup, the second set went up slowly and the third set were a bear!  I pushed as hard as I could to get them open and all of a sudden my sweaty leg shot off the humid counter and I went flying off to the floor.  The worse body part hit was my left shin and it immediately started puffing up.

I tap my shin on anything, even softly, and make big whiney noises.  This time I did Lamaze breathing techniques, hoping I wouldn't hyperventilate.  Seeing as how I was already on the floor, in front of the freezer, I crawled over and grabbed a gel pack and put it on my shin.  I kept thinking I had better raise my leg, but since I wasn't bleeding, wasn't sure it applied.  I mean, I took no medical courses in high school.

I sat there wondering if I had knocked myself out, how long it would be before someone discovered my body.

I slowly hobbled out to the garage and got the can of WD40 and sprayed the crap out of every single one of the window frames, something I should have done 4 years ago when we moved in.

Needless to say, I didn't go back into the workout room.  My poor body can only stand so much.

Pam   

Gardening till I Drop

Another day spent outside and my body is feeling it.  Today cantaloupe seeds, peanut plants and cherry tomatoes found a home in the garden and the asparagus area got cleaned up half-ass. 

I'll need to weed out the asparagus better soon.  While pulling back leaves, there were quite a few asparagus about the size of a sharpie marker.  I was planning to have them for dinner tonight, but JR was delayed, once again, this time in the Atlanta airport.  He'll be home later tonight.  There were a few WHITE asparagus under the leaves.  I tried one raw and I much prefer the green.  I thought they were supposed to taste better???  Maybe not, I say. 

This morning I cut all the eyes out of my red potatoes from the pantry in preparation of planting them.  Hopefully they weren't sprayed with something to stop growth, but every single one of my potatoes had eyes growing.  I looked up information on how to plant them, since I never have before, and it said people let the pieces sit out overnight to dry out before planting.  I guess if you put them directly in the garden, they will rot if you don't dry them.  I'm not ready to plant them anyway.  JR needs to move a fence for me.  In the square foot method, you can put one eye or chunk of potato per 1 sq ft.  I will have a 4 X 4 foot square for them.

One interesting thing I learned while researching.  I always knew the green potatoes were bad for you because they were toxic, but what I didn't know was they turned green because they were allowed to be exposed to sunlight.  As soon as a potato plant reaches approx. 6" tall, you need to mound dirt up along the sides of the plant and repeat until the plants flower.  This will be interesting.  Growing peanuts will be interesting, too.  Same idea, really, sorta, kinda. 

Until JR moves my fence, I can only plant my onion sets and clear up the asparagus bed.  I'm not 100% sure I want the fence where I thought I did, so to plant the onions would be risky.  I'll go out tomorrow and figure it out.  Kimbre has a water polo tournament Fri and Sat, so no gardening those 2 days...Thank God.  lol  My poor body.
Besides the fact that I am extremely thorough, the reason it takes me so long everyday to accomplish so little is because I have a crazy method of gardening.  First I figure out what area needs to be weeded, then I dig up every single little weed I can find.  I usually keep a pile of the weeds and give them to the rabbits.  After weeding, I dig a hole for each plant or seed I am planting and I half fill it with kitchen compost.  I add a little more dirt, then plant the seed or the plant.  I water them in with rainwater, add more compost to the ground under the plants and then mulch with leaves.  And I am slow.

This morning I had a GREAT run on the treadmill.  I ran 3 minute intervals at 5mph, 6mph and 7mph then 3.4mph twice at .5% incline, 2.4 miles.  Yes, that is POINT FIVE incline.  I read to simulate running outside on a treadmill you should set the incline to 1.5%, but that is too much for me.  It tends to bother my knees and I'm not about to hurt myself cause someone in a book says.  Besides, I tried the other day and I couldn't do it.  lol  

After running, I put Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 level 2 and the dang thing wouldn't work!  Of course, it waited until I was committed before it digitized on me.  I called the place I ordered it from immediately and they are sending me a new one.  I went back in my room and picked out a pilates (yuck) dvd and did the dance routine for a total of 10 minutes before I switched over to traditional pilates.  It was OK, but nothing I would do on a regular basis.  I listed it for sale online.  I have oodles of pilates DVDs and I don't even like doing them.

My order from LL Bean came in today.  I got a large rug since we are now using the back door instead of the laundry room to let out the dogs.  I LOVE it and it looks very pretty.  It's their waterhog mat with a half circle at the top to look fancy.  I also got 2 mats for the kitchen, but I don't dare put them down until Dexter is trained.  I had ordered Remy a therapeutic dog bed because she has been getting more and more stiff, but I didn't like the color of the cover.  It's a denim material and was called burlap, but it honestly was the color of puke.  They are sending me a blue one, like we have in a different style. 

JR just arrived home, time to be a wife.  :)

Pam
   

Peppers and Strawberries and Squash, Oh My!

I was back in the dirt today.

Yesterday after going to the mall to return a pair of jeans, stopping at Target for misc. stuff and perusing the garden center, I came home and planted 8 jalapeno pepper plants in the main garden.  I have NO idea how many peppers this will give me, but I want to try canning candied jalapenos this year.  I wouldn't mind pickled jalapenos, too, but I haven't found a recipe for those yet.  I am thinking I have some time.  The new plants are planted next to 4 green pepper plants and 4 yellow pepper plants.  (Hopefully...I started them from seed and you never can be too sure how many of those will come up.)

The day before, I had cleared a large area for the peppers and had also planted my squash and peas.  I am doing a mixture of square foot gardening and traditional rows along with Ruth Stout's mulch method.  Since I had just started the mulching process, I still had quite a bit of weeding to do.  The garden has grass with roots that reach hell, I think.  I don't know what it is called, but Ruth Stout mentioned a grass in her book called Witch Grass and if this isn't it, it should be called that, too. Being me, I just looked it up and no, that isn't it.

Today I planted oregano and strawberry plants next to established strawberry plants and rosemary in the side garden.  I had a lot to weed and the edging material had sunk down almost even with the driveway, so I pulled all that up, reconnected it together, cleaned out the edge and repositioned it.  I dug holes in the dirt where I wanted the plants to be and half refilled the holes with compost from under the rabbit hutch.  The dirt under the hutch is black gold and I could hear the strawberry plants moaning in ecstasy when they were planted.  I watered and then more of the compost was added to even out the soil.  I swept leaves along the garden bed and sides of the driveway and mulched the plants with the leaves and stood back to marvel at my handiwork.  Nice!

I still need to clean out weeds from the driveway cracks and along the side of the house and garage.  I also have 3 tomato plants and 5 peanut plants to plant in the big garden in the backyard tomorrow along with multiple other seeds since we have now entered March.  (beans, cucumbers, onions and cantaloupe.)

I sat down and drew a diagram of where I wanted everything in the backyard garden today, but have decided, after talking to JR, I am not going to grow corn.  Back to the paper to reposition everything tomorrow after running.

Today I worked out with one of Jari Love's first workout DVDs.  It is primarily a strength workout with weights, (lighter weights with a lot of reps).  I like her, but all this garden work and 5K stuff is wearing me out.  I kept up, but was dragging today.

JR was supposed to come home, but was detained in Canada another day with work problems, so Kimbre and I went to the mall tonight and successfully found a prom dress for her at Cache.  It looks beautiful on her and is a deep plum color.  We'll only have to alter the length and be good to go.  She also chose a gorgeous bracelet and necklace which looked fantastic with her coloring and the dress.  Kimbre knew the cashier, so she gave us a coupon worth $60 off the total, which was wonderful!  Happy Happy Joy Joy!

After a quick stop at Panda Express to inhale Orange Chicken, we went to Pets Mart where I found a cat bed for half off, a ring made out of tennis ball material that squeaks, a bitter spray to keep Dexter from chewing my table and chairs, 2 huge 42 lb. containers of cat litter, Natures Miracle spray for accidents which is supposed to completely remove any smell to inhibit marking behavior, a huge Nylabone for Dexter to chew and 2 new collars.  One collar is for Dexter since he is outgrowing the one I just bought him and a new collar for Simon. We weighed him tonight and he has gained 5 lbs already!  Holy cow!

Back home to discover a note from my sister Alison telling me wonderful news about her being pregnant.  If anyone should have a baby, it is her!  I'm very excited for her and her husband. 

Kimbre talked with Schmelz for awhile and then headed to bed after helping clean up a mess Dexter made.  What a gal!

And with that, I am off to bed.  I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open and even though the cats think now is a good time to play chase, I don't. 

Pam