A L O H A

This is our view now ! Well, if you're reading this after 9:00 am Monday.

The Seattle Half Marathon is over for another year, and Gina and I are winging our way to paradise for a week of recuperation.

All goals were met. I had a 1:47:33 finish and Gina a 1:58:57.

Thanks to all fan support along the course. You guys are the best. I know you were there Val, and TBG. I just didn't see you. Carmel, nice to see you on a beautiful Sunday morning.

Mahalo !

Check the blog for any audio postings I might make from Kaanapali.

Eating Crazy

Ahh, the traditional lamb chops on the grill. And the chef with the surprise turkey legs. No animal is safe around here. This blog has taken a left turn down Eating Lane. No talk of running tonight. Just waiting til the stomach can stomach pie and ice cream. Let's hope the coach isn't reading the blog tonight. This just doesn't seem like a pre-race meal. At least we've got 2 days to work it off.

Don't worry, I won't be blogging again later with photos of pies. Or distended tummies. I won't be moving off the couch, once I land there. CSI is on tonight.

Which reminds me of one other photo I took recently. And because I only know enough about this blogging business to be dangerous, that photo is now at the top of this posting. I really felt like I was Marg Helgenburger when taking that picture. Except I forgot my skimpy shirt, and gorgeous body. :)

OK don't worry, it's pomegranite juice. Something chef GIGI dropped when making another one of her exotic recipes. And don't ask me for it. Check her blog . ha ha ha ha HA !

Bring on the Turkey jokes

Go ahead ! Who's the turkey with the Irish coffee?

It's a new tradition. Well, if the stores, radio stations and everyone else can start being Christmas - y this early, then I can start with the hot beverages. And no, I didn't drink 2. (well, I did, but not at once) The almost 51 year old photographer was joining in.

We had a little run around the lake this morning. Lots of folks out there. More than usual, but actually, we are never here on T-giving, so who knew? guess it was pre-dinner calorie burning. As I look out there now, the post-dinner calorie burning is happening, in the rain.

So, here's hoping that everyone's big meal was great ! Hope no one forgot any key menu items. :) Sorry, Joan, couldn't resist. The lamb chops (yet another new tradition) go on the grill any minute.

Before I forget, how about a moment's silence in honor of Mrs. Siems. The inventor of Stove Top stuffing. She passed away earlier this week. An obituary with a lengthy paragraph on how she came up with the exact size of the cubes of bread. Soggification factors. True, NY Times. I don't search that stuff out on the net.

Which begs the question, what does silence on a BLOG sound like ?

Go Blue !

or not....
I cannot blog on about the big game because I've been trying to keep the blahg language G-rated. And the way UM let the "other team" come down the field and score, #$@*#
'nuf said.

Hey, look, here I am wearing my Michigan hat, Down Under. I know, it's just a lame excuse to show off the medal I won at the Sydney Games. Yes, it was 4 years ago but I'm trying to change the subject. Do I look delirious? I did just finish a half marathon in 90 degree temps. Or 30 C as they like to say in Oz. Which reminds me of the day we were at Manly beach (but I like it, too) and a fellow Big Ten fan (a gopher, I think) spotted me and my hat. Asking for any recent scores I might have heard. You can take the fan out of the hemisphere but....

Today was 10 miles. We started the morning with a group from Super Jock & Jill, our local running store. Chet and his gang are celebrating 30 years of shoe sales. So we did the 3 mile loop and then headed off to finish up. Then back to Chet's for some treats, t-shirts, and shopping.

G'day mates !

If it's the holidays...

You can be sure the relatives will be coming to town !


But don't worry, that's not a sick Santa in the wheelchair. I was going to crop that photo, but felt guilty about cropping out an invalid. Jeez, this Catholic guilt is going to be the death of me. and my photo-blogg-ism career. (wow, a double dasher)

Jeanne Evans, a New Jersey cousin, was in town. For business. So Jeanne and her boss, Gail, got the Paloozer mini-tour of Seattle. Pike Place Market and the Fremont Troll. And of course, the new bathroom at Green Lake. Jeanne's husband, Ron, is a plumber so she made sure to take fotos of that.

The Market visit was billable hours for them because we stopped for a bit at the fish place, that is famous for its fish tossing, which only happens when someone buys fish, so we didn't witness any salmon in the air. A few crabs, though. The fish place is now famous for a book, and business management philosophy, which Jeanne and Gail's company has bought into. FISH. I think it stands for "make sure work is Fun, but if your co-worker is Inept, chalk it up to Stupid Humans are everywhere"

or "Work is Fun If you picture your boss with a Salmon Head"

or, hey, this could go on and on.
as does this blog.

After the tour we had dinner and lots of laughs, at Anthony's Pier 66 restaurant. Poor Gail had to put up with Rinehart/Reeves family stories. We made her tell a couple on her family, to even things out. Family Stories are Interesting and Humourous. Not. One glass of wine and the letters garble.

The sweet potato recipe??? you people... Go to Martha's blog for that stuff.
But if you insist, it was boil 'em, peel 'em, mash 'em, butter 'em, bake 'em And if it were me making it, leave out the rosemary. Incidentally, Fussy Herbs Suck (in my humble opinion)

as a favorite actor would say "Somebody Stop Me !!"

She cooks ! She rows !!

She is wonder woman !! (she is 3rd from left, or right, in this boat, OK, she's in the middle) She is wondering how she got to be the subject of today's BLOG .

Saturday we ran with our group, Always Running, aka AR. You can see the connection. They chalk out a route with mile markers , and also deliver water bottles to certain mile markers. A very useful thing on the extra long runs. Don't have to plan a route to pass water fountains. I hate to wear one of those water bottle belts. Too much sloshing noise, and with that you know what we'd have to change the name to Always Pee-ing.
Also gets us out doing a route other than the same old ones. Variety is the spice of running. We did a perimeter loop of the Laurelhurst area. I did 15 miles, at a nice easy pace. Gina took it easy and only did 13. She had that darn regatta the next day. Had to save up.

Ah, the regatta. Head of the Lake. Starts in Lake Washington, thru the cut, thru Lake Union, past Fremont bridge, ending just before the locks. Last race of the year. No more early morning rows for her. The day turned out perfect for rowing, no wind. And for spectating, no rain. High winds had been forecasted. Cannot trust those weather guys.

And better still, there was a beer garden. I don't care what type of event it is, if there's a beer garden, I'm there. Ballet and beer ??? sure, if it's good beer.

How'd they do??? Well, if one were to just look at the results sheet, 7th out of 8. But Wonder woman is the best at analyzing the numbers and after careful scrutiny, taking into account various factors (like the age handicapping, lightweight vs big girls) she announced that their lightweight 4 had a very good row.

So, we're happy.

Oh, and that stuff in the bowl that looks like something one might hurl at end of very tough race?? Twice baked sweet potatoes and yams. Testing for T-day. And it was a very good dish.

Anyone wanna hear about today's miles, at 10K race pace? no, me either.

Riots, part deux

Rioter complaints that jobs are scarce are not far off, Mary Capon, Charles' mother, wrote in an e-mail. "It is generally known that only the sons or daughters of bosses or managers are likely to get jobs ... what hope in heaven do these kids with minority last names have?" wrote the Rochester native and Rochester Institute of Technology graduate.

The part the editor cut here was: "I went to RIT because my sister Ann did not attend this college. Following in her footsteps at St. Agnes was pure hell. Her stellar sports performances, those high grades, and of course, all the nuns loved her. No way I could go to college at Brockport State, as much as I would haved liked to attend that fine educational institution. 'mais je ne suis pas amer, elle est si doux.' I am not bitter, she is so sweet. "

The newspaper editors have such a hard job to do, but thank goodness oui bloggers of the world can chime in and give a full reporting of the story.

Merci bo coo and aw vwar.
help, i've lost my english-french translation site.

Paris, what a riot !

Today in the Rochester D & C, there was an article about the riots in France, with comments from folks with local ties to Rochester area. I've cut and pasted the parts from the article of most interest to our family. It seems they must have had to do a lot of editing due to space restrictions.

From the D&C:
Charles Capon of L'Hay-les-Roses in suburban Paris said the rioting has been limited to the worst neighborhoods of various cities. "I feel safe," said the 18-year-old who each summer spends a month in the United States, including the Rochester area. "I don't live in the suburbs that have problems. People that live there must feel scared."

I'm certain the editor must have cut out the part where Charlie say "spends a wonderful month in Rochester, well, really Fairport/Perinton with his loving grandmother, who he adores, and his only regret is that he must share his time there with his siblings, Nicky and Mary Kay. They can be so bothersome. Well, Mary Kay is all right because she cooks lunch, occassionally. The best part of his trips to the States is when his fabulous Aunt Ann arrives from Seattle to entertain, and buy pizzas. She is "le plus frais" The coolest !! "

Election Day

Vote here if you think this is the nicest set of toes you've ever seen.

You're welcome. And you're lucky the zoom isn't working properly. That nail is gone now. I'm starting fresh.

Thank goodness last weekend wasn't race day. We ran 13 miles, but it was not as fun as usual. Could be the 40 degrees and constant drizzle. I was trying to hit several miles at 8:30 pace, but not sure that happened. At least it wasn't the huge rain that we had on Friday. That was fun, but only 4 miles. The strategy is that it's ok to run thru a puddle, but avoid being in the "splash zone" of a car hitting a huge puddle as they pass. The best thing about cold and rainy training days? The post workout hot tub, of course.

Today was alternating easy/hard miles at the track, for a total of 6. Whenever I'm running those at 7:15 pace, for only a mile at a time, it boggles me mind that the elites run their miles at 5:00 pace, give or take 15 seconds. FOR 26.2 MILES !!!

Yes, we did watch the NYC marathon on tv. And, yes, it's disappointing to watch the condensed less than an hour coverage. Wouldn't want to take any tv time away from the NASCAR show. Not to worry, I followed most of it online. Can you say running GEEK ?

We have voted. Seems they replaced the little old ladies at the polls with homeless guys. Which I have no problem with, but the little old ladies did smell better. Most of the issues were snoozers. The umpteenth time we voted on the monorail. But presumably the NO SMOKING in public places will pass. It's really weird that Seattle has been so behind on this issue. I mean, Ireland passed the law, fer crying out loud (said with a brogue)

I must stop. Gotta read up on the news. I hear Paris is burning.

Race Results

I AM LOVING THIS 50 YEAR OLD AGE GROUP !

We did the Dawg Dash race on Sunday. It was a 10K, on UW campus. Starting in the stadium, onto campus, and back to the stadium. There were some uphills, and stairs, and fortunately, as we all know, what goes up, must come down.

I won my age group with a 46:30. Gina took 6th. (and had a pr in the process)(well, a recent/on a hilly course pr) Our buddy Val won our age group in the 5K race, with PamB right on her tail in 4th. Both of them beat the cutoff time for the special anniversary 5K t-shirt. Pam deserves it, she's actually an alum.

It was really fun. Perfect weather. I started out way too fast, as usual, (7:07 at mile 1) but figured it would all average out with the hills. I caught up to my race friends (Wendy, and JudyF, see them at all the races) mid way. And we all kicked it in the last mile or so together. Wendy leading the way. Judy probably ran a marathon the day before. She's unbelievable, and 61 yrs. old.

No time to stick around for the awards, sheesh. My glory time was cut short cuz we were due at b'fast with the 5k'ers, Tami, Kathy, and rellies. Pancakes take precedence over blue ribbons. anyday.

That's it for now. When I really need material for a posting here, I'll just add my mile splits. That ought to blahhh-g you to sleep.
Hey, no photos today???
zzzz zz
OK, since you asked, my 10K pr is 46:02 in Melbourne at Masters Games.

You might be a runner if....

*you wear a black, plastic sports watch with your dress clothes.

*you can remember a time from a race 4 years ago, but you can't remember your friend's birthdays.

*you are not embarassed to show someone where your hamstring "really" hurts.

*you know your resting heart rate, maximum heart rate, and exactly what your heart rate is at all parts of your run.

*you love shoes...running shoes.

*you read each month's issue of Runner's World cover to cover within 24 hours.

*you not only know how you did in a race, but you know exactly how every other runner finished.

*you drive by a golf course and think what a nice place it would be to run.

*you know splits are something that not only cheerleaders care about.

*your friends know to never call you after 8:30 at night.

*you get up earlier to run on the weekends than you do for school/work/couch.

*you have hundreds of safety pins scattered around your house.

*you have more T-shirts than a souvenir shop.

*you know that there is no such thing as too much pasta!

*you can't wait for your next birthday so you move into a new age group.

*you know that cotton is not the best fabric for running!

*someone asks you how your run was, you go into a 10 minutes description of every factor of it.

*you can use endorphins in a sentence.

*you could watch a whole marathon and not be bored.

*you enjoy running in the rain.

plagiarized from joedom.com or some such running site

Happy Halloween

B O O !

Just a warning, be careful out there this weekend. You never know who will show up at your door. It could be a vampire... or worse, a politician begging for votes, or an environmentalist begging for money for the trees & ozone, or a pair of missionaries of some sort begging for your soul.

We actually enjoy these visits. It's quite fun to listen to the beggar's spiel with all the huffing, puffing and wheezing, after walking up our 30 steps, then say "no thanks, we gave at the office" "come again, when you're in shape"

Of course, those same 30 steps also dissuade the trick or treaters from ringing our bell. And we LUV the little monsters. I imagine the neighbor kid will make it, as she was able to come up to sell that wrapping paper. But we normally end up eating all our Halloween candy. Darn. And, yes, I have been taste testing the Butterfingers for the last couple weeks. Don't want to be giving out any bad product.

Hey, speaking of a fun weekend, tomorrow we're going to go watch a soccer game of 7 yr olds. At 9:15am, at the far end of town, and it will be raining. I'm pretty sure I'd rather go for a 15 mile run.

Hey, speaking of rain, fun and running. We're racing the Dawg Dash on Sunday. It's a 10K. On campus at the U W. It's a challenging course with quite a bit of uphill, but also the return downhill at the end. Stay tuned, as you know results will be posted here.

Well, I should go join Gina for the annual viewing of "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Can you hear CB's theme song now?

That's next. How to get music files on this Blah-g?
"I vant tunes on da blog"
OK, say good night, Count Dracula.
Who you calling a Blockhead?

Peace

Last night we attended another candle light peace vigil. The organizers bring it practically to our front door, so we can't not go. So convenient we only missed a couple innings of the game. And being the newbie activists that we are, when we got home we had to figure out how to get candle wax that dripped, out of Gina's pant leg. Thanks, Cornie.

There was a large group, 300 maybe. Of course, it was a nice night out, and the runners had to pick their way thru the crowd. I'm sure they were thinking, "must they protest RIGHT on the running path?" And the protesters, I mean, peace vigilists, were thinking "can't they stop running for just one day and join us?"

And the kids were thinking "I hope it's this nice out next Monday for trick or treating"

There was a small group of singers roaming around. We thought of dad. Any opportunity to sing in harmony is a good cause.

And not to confuse you, that this is a political blog, but you just knew ol Harriet would pull out. ok ok

For all of you Doonesbury readers, did you catch the RIT plug?

And NOW, back to the true theme of this blahh-g, Tuesday was a 14 mile run. Supposed to be 12 but I miscalculated a bit. Normally, I would miscalculate on the minus side, but it was a beautiful day, so who cares? And today was a little track work. Cuz it's all about speed!

Like I said, Peace.

Podium Pals

1st, 2nd, and 3rd, at the Pumpkin Push 5k Race.

At long last, running buddies, ann , gina, and val, managed to "own the podium". After all the hundreds of races we've run, we did it ! (that's a krissy-ism)

Of course, that's in the 50 year old age group, not overall. but hey ! it's all about the age groupers. Let those prima donnas run/suffer those 5 minute miles.

Finally, the stars were aligned, schedules meshed, no other speedy types entered, (speedier than us, that is) no one was injured, or at a regatta, or in Oz.
So, here is the photo op we've been waiting for. And I'm sure you all have been, too. sure.

It's a Frame Job

Yesterday we got a few frames for fotos. Thought we'd display a couple of my pictures (out of the 79,000 digitals I've taken, 2 isn't bad).
But as I'm sure you all know, the frame industry is out to make potty mouths of us all. By putting those little price tag stickers on the glass. And then making sure the sticker is not of the "easy to peel off" variety. arrrghghhghgh

Today was 6 miles at a moderate, seemed like hard pace. Combine that exertion with the sinus headache, and today has been largely unproductive since the morning. Just waiting for the yard arm to fall, so I can have some medication.

Let's see if I can remember how to add a photo to this blog.

Thurs

Yes, it's thursday, driving day. And of course, as soon as i picked up the car from the valet at space needle after dinner last night, the engine warning light and something else were flashing. what did that stoner do to my car? aggh. now a trip to dealer. $$$$$

And how do you like that race number?