Beating the Heat

Record breaking heat today, tomorrow, and Sunday, then a "cold front" coming
with temps only in the high 80s!

The huge storm that hit here a week ago took out many trees, including this grand
old specimin that we guess was 300 years old and maybe 10-12 feet in diameter.

The storm hit here around 11 last Friday night.  Immediately knocked out power (and AC).  Laura had just flown in from Seattle to spend the weekend before flying home with Rose on Monday.  We decided to leave the house in favor

of an air-conditioned nice hotel with a pool to enjoy the weekend together.  We headed north and, despite many inquries, didn't find a hotel with rooms and power until we got to Wilmington, Delaware (about 2+ hours north of here).  There was visible storm damage (downed trees all along I95) until well north of Baltimore.  Many hotels that 

we tried did not have power.  Our own power didn't come back until Sunday and we were without Cox service (phone, Internet, TV) until Monday night.  There are people we know who are still without power.  We want underground wires if and when we buy another house!  We were very lucky.  Just branches blown from neighboring trees in our yard.  

Johnny and Jack fill the bird feeders, staying in the shade of the umbrella and the crape myrtle.

Laura models star bubble blowing techniques.

It's so hot and humid out during the day that our outside playtime (bubble-blowing and playing on the slip and slide) usually takes place before 10.  We tried the playground one morning, but despite the shade, the swings and slides were much to hot for comfort.

Rose must take after her mom, some pretty good bubble production going on.

The house seems empty without Rose's cheery presence.  Ella and Jack miss her a lot, too.  They were always "up" for any game or activity she suggested and she did a great job a big-sister.  A nice change for Rose, the youngest of 3 in her family.  Rose got better and better on the bike when she was here.  We stayed a while Saturday morning after the storm, hoping that the power might come back on, and went on a 13 mile ride through the neighborhoods.  She was a trooper, never complained and was as interested in seeing the storm damage as we were.  We did have to maneuver around downed power lines and walk our bikes around big downed trees, but we had a good ride.

Jack and Ella were more interested in catching bubbles on their bubble wands.

One of the many trees down across my running path.  I run very early in the morning.
Notice the very long shadows and the pinkish-hue of the sunshine--there was an old poem that my mother shared with me once that mentioned "rosy-fingered dawn." She was buried at Arlington 19 years ago, today.

I've kept up with the running and biking, despite the weather.  I get out to run by 6.  It was 84 degrees at six this morning!  DH and I went for a nice bike ride on Independance Day, mid-morning to noon.  It's a little cooler biking because we use mostly shaded paths and the bike generates a little "personal-breeze."  We also take two large bottles of ice water and stop to drink it half way through.  We don't need to stop, but the water break is good.  And yes, Mom, I always slather on lots of sunblock.  Funny to think that when I was growing up people used sun-tan lotion to get a tan!

The Slip and Slide got a good workout.  I love Jack's expression--he loves it, but it's
cold and the water is getting on his body.  The slip and slide left a 20X5 foot swath of
dead yellow grass after our 2 hour play session.  A knife to the heart of lawn-tender DH.

Anybody have any ideas about how to prevent the yellow dead grass under the slip and slide?  It really is annoying, but the children love it so.  Our best slip and slide area (shaded and sloped) is smack dab in the middle of the back yard.

My brand new running shoes (Nike Vomero 7).  I love the color
and my first run in them, this morning, felt like I was running
on clouds.

Shelley wrote about her new running socks.  She said they'd make
her run faster.  Mine are a different brand, but it's true!  I thought
the pink color might deter any house-sharing sock snatchers!! (Hi
sweetheart, ti amo!)

I lost .4 at my WI last week.  WW was closed on the 4th, so I'll expect big things next Wednesday. 

My new-found refreshing summer drink.  Lemon Ginger Green Tea iced-tea.
I make a large pot of it in the morning and finish it by dinner time.

Stay cool!

Fence Post, WI, and Pix

My running is going very well, despite the first wave of summer heat and despite the challenge of finding times to run when someone else is able to watch the grands. I ran four times last week for a total of 18.5 miles. Running very early, I was able to beat the heat and avoid leaving Rose alone. I found it also started my day off on a note of success. I feel good about myself when I've run and am set up to have a good day of following my plans. If you look closely, you'd probably notice my little halo on those early morning run days!

We had a new fence put up last week. We'd had a chain link fence that was here when we moved in, but I wanted a wooden fence for a few reasons. I like the look of them, for one thing, and we're hoping they will inhibit the deer who have been feasting on our liles and hosta and many other beautiful, and apparently delicious, plants in our garden. I chose to have the solid part only four feet high because we like our neighbors and want to be able to chat face to face through the "topper." i also thought the fence would make a nice backdrop for our garden. I think the three workers were trying hard to be careful, but there were several plant casualties in the garden beds near the fence. :-( I'm hoping that most will come back next year. The workers worked through two of our hottest days. Rose and I kept them supplied with a cooler of ice water.

I lost 1.4 pounds at my WI last week. We're going to a family reunion, beach vacation on Vancouver Island in five and a half weeks. I'd love to lose 7.5 more pounds by the time we leave. The last time we were with this crowd (DH's sibs' families) I was feeling quite trim at 6 pounds above my current weight. :-)

One new recipe in the RECIPE page this week. Debby asked for the recipe for my brownies. It's there and you'll love them, but caveat emptor! They're wonderful and made from old-fashioned, read NOT health or diet-concious, ingredients!

We're aiming to take an after-dinner bike ride tonight. Rose is opting out, but can stay alone for a bit with Jay. We'll shoot for an hour long ride. I've missed riding.

If one picture is worth 1000 words, I wonder how many these two pictures are worth?

It was this picture from last Dec, posted on
FB by a friend, that brought me to my senses and
back to being serious about getting myself in shape.

Tonight, -30 pounds later, feeling good about myself.

Photo Story

We had a great time hosting a tea party for FIL's 90th birthday.  He lives in Wilmington, NC and we and all our progeny (kids, in-law kids, and grands) went there to help him celebrate.  Daughter Laura made this beautiful cake and it was possibly the best cake I've ever eaten.  Awesome.  I tried to limit myself, but suspect that this cake was largely responsible for the 2 pound gain my scale reported the day after the party!  (fortunately gone within a few days)

The grands (12, 10, 8, 4, and 2) worked on this banner and we think it turned out wonderfully well.

These are the world's best brownies.  The recipe was my grandmother's.  I made and froze 4 batches of these and never had even one until the birthday party.  Um, they might have also contributed to that 2 pounds.  But they're all gone now. :-)

We put son John in charge of the helium balloon kit.  He got them blown up and the kids were delighted to find places to attach them around the party room. (We had reserved the poolside party room at FIL's condo complex.)  Granddaughter Ella is eying the platter of scones as she looks for a place to tie her balloons.

Grandson Ben is a talented chess player.  His opponent was in his mid 90s, has played chess for decades and was surprised to lose 4 out of 5 games to a 10 year old.

After the party, the children gathered up all the balloons and took them outside.  No, they didn't let them go, they had fun popping them and disposed of them in the trash.

Laura gave the grands a push on this neat swing in a large Wilmington park (Greenfield Park).  They climbed trees (live oaks, I think), enjoyed the Spanish moss, saw an alligator in the lake, caught a small box turtle, and collected some large pine cones for future art projects.

DH and I love being surrounded by our gang of grandchildren.  We love each and every one!

More smiles!

Grandson Jack (almost 3) gets up close and personal with the little box turtle.  He waited patiently for it to come out of its shell and chortled when it scuttled into the water.

Granddaughter Jeannine scrambled right up this live oak.

We brought granddaughter Rose (8) back to Virginia with us.  We took her up to Lancaster County PA to a play about Jonah at the Sight & Sound theater there.  We drove through beautiful countryside and saw a dozen horse drawn vehicles.  There were also horses powering the farm machinery.  

The play was so well done.  It was a musical and the staging, special effects, and costuming were every bit as good as at plays I've seen in NY and at the Kennedy Center.  It was a fun day.

Rose loves to shop.  Here she is modelling an outfit we found at Kohl's.  Gotta love those 75% off racks!

Can you spot the dog in this picture??  I seem to be the only one in my family who has noticed the dog who is always out in this yard in our neighborhood.  Here's my photographic proof.  Remember, you can click on the picture to enlarge.

My new favorite meal.  Tish's Eggplant Parmesan .  I made up this recipe with what I had on hand one night and it's a definite keeper.  (lean ground turkey, lots of veggies, grilled eggplant, fresh mozzarella).  Only 275 calories per serving.  The recipe is in the RECIPE page in the sidebar to the right.

My little Nike+ is not reporting my running right now because the Nike+ site is being renovated.  But I'm doing really well with the running.  I ran 5 times last week, averaging just under 4.5 miles per run.  I'm running farther and faster which makes things better as I can allow an hour for transportation to and from plus the run rather than the hour and three quarters it took me for the same run a month and a half ago. I've been getting up early to accomplish my run before Rose wakes up and the other grands arrive.  The weather has been wonderful recently, but I noticed that the 90s and even a 100 degree day are in the 5 day forecast.

I'm not biking as much as I'd like now.  Mostly because Rose is not yet a confident biker and we don't leave her alone.  We'll get back to our long after-dinner rides in a few weeks.

I'm continuing to lose at my weigh-in's.  I'm down over 30 pounds since Christmas.  Happy days.  I've had some great "closet shopping" sessions and reclaimed some cute outfits that hadn't seen the light of day for over a year and a half.  I still have 23 pounds to lose to achieve my WW goal, but I feel confident that I'll get there.

Today is DH's and my 39th anniversary.  No big celebrations today, but we are very thankful for our wonderful life together.  We're hoping to get in a bike holiday weekend next month.  Maybe that will be our celebration!

Smooth Sailing

The USS Jack and Ella

Ella and Jack loved fixing up an old carton into their boat yesterday.  Each side is painted a different color and, by the end, we had seats (stadium seats leftover from our days cheering on their Daddy and the Georgetown track team), a number for the boat (68 at Ella's insistance), and a nice rope attached at the front so I could pull them across the deck.  And the best thing?  They loved it so much that they wanted to take it home!  My decorating plan doesn't really have room for a small boat. . . .

My life has had happy sailing since my last post, too.  I lost 2.2 pounds at my WI on Wednesday (26. 6  since Christmas).  I also dipped down into the next decade--yay!  I record my weight every morning and enter it onto the physicsdiet.com site.  I love how it coverts them into an average weight, so that the minor fluctuations in weight don't have such an impact on the graph.  On the graph, green is good.  Here's my graph since Jan 1st.  There are a few spikes (red) and plateaux, but the trend is good.  You can spot the three dramatic down trends when I did 17DD cycle I (beginning of Feb was the first and I'm just finishing the most recent).  My average is just about 1 pound per week.

I had to squeeze in my run this morning to get to my hair app't on time, so I ran faster.  Another minute off my pace!  Notice my little Nike+ runner girl in the upper part of the side bar.  The pace there says 13:04 per mile, but that's the cumulative pace for all my runs and walks over the past few years.  The pace kept going up as I mostly walked last year, but it's definitely turned around.  I'm hoping to make the Nike+ girl's pace go back under 13 by the end of next week.  Today's pace was 10:53 per mile. :-)   My method of running for an increasing distance every time my ipod announces that 5 more minutes have passed works really well for me.  I'm now running 80% of the time (run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute).  I'm going to have to  start running earlier though, the weather is edging into the 90s and definitely getting more humid.

We're driving down to Wilmington NC next week to celebrate my FIL's 90th birthday.  We're rented a huge beach house that will accomodate 12 of us (DH and me, all our children, their spouses, and all the grands.  It should be really fun.  I've planned the party.  A tea party.  According to the RSVPs we'll be about 35.  I'm going to bake (scones and brownies) before we go, Laura is going to make the birthday cake (she has a white thumb!), and I'll get fresh fruit when we're there.  Pink lemonade for the kids, clotted cream and strawberry jam for the scones, some nuts, a nice selection of teas and we're calling it on the food offerings.  I found a rental place there that assures me I can walk in and walk out with teacups, linens and whatever else we need.  I've reserved the poolside clubhouse at my FIL's condo, sent the invitations, have supplies for the grandkids to make a happy birhday poster, and am running out today to buy a box of balloon magic (helium, balloons, and necessary acoutrements in a box).

We'll be returning from Wilmington with three of our grandchildren in the car! Ella and Jack are going to stay for a couple extra days (John and Tobey have to get back to work on Monday and this works out for childcare and gives them a chance to be with their cousins longer).  We'll also have Rose, Laura's youngest who is eight and enjoying her first solo summer visit with us.  (We've worked out a great deal with Laura and David--we get to have their kids come here  for a few weeks in the summer when they're 8, 11, and 14.  It works out so that we get one child each year and we have a lot of fun.  Ben (11) will come next year, and then Jeannine (14) the year after that!  We'll have a wonderful time!

Rose when she was 7.

We're going out to dinner tonight!  One of DH's international students (he teaches an advanced law course at Georgetown) invited us to dinner to meet his parents.  They are Italian and we'd had the student to dinner a while ago.  We lived in Italy for a few years and have some other connections.  It should be fun.  We're going to the Chart House in Alexandria.  I've got to peruse the online menu to make my choices, though my brain is trying to remind me about their Mississippi mud pie.  I'm trying to ignore that, we'll see.

Hoping to take a nice long bike ride, tomorrow.

No News . . .

In this case, no news is good news!   I admit to an epic fail at my goal of posting once a week in April (sorry!), but the rest of the story is full of successes.

On the exercise front, I've passed some invisible barrier in the past couple of weeks and it's coming much more easily now.  I'm enjoying running, and yes, it's now a lot more running than walking.  I've been going out for 90 minutes a few times a week and each time, my distance increases and my pace gets faster.  I'm not trying to embark on a racing career, but I'm feeling good about being able to run, and to feel like a "real" runner, again.  My ultimate goal is to be able to run 4 or 5 miles a few times a week.  For now, while the weather is great (not too hot!)  I'm doing a little more.  Follow my running with my little Nike+ avatar at the top of the right sidebar.

My biking has also gotten better.  As the weather has gotten so much better, I'm getting in about three good rides a week.  My balance issues of last year (that followed my spine surgery) are a thing of the past (YAY!) and I'm using my road bike a lot more than my hybrid.  I'm inspired by Lori and Michele in their biking successes and working on my endurance and stamina.  I'm also scheduled to take a basic bike maintenance course so that I won't have to trudge home walking my bike if I have a flat tire or other basic problem. You can follow my biking progress in the DailyMile widget in the right sidebar.  Thanks to Michele for the idea of using DailyMile.  A few nice long bike rides and several decent runs for a total of 99 miles over the past two weeks.  YTD total miles is at 407 as of April 15!

I am continuing with my own approach of using 17DD and WW Simply Filling with good results.  I'm losing every week at my WI's and am firmly back in "wonderland" again.  I'm averaging losing about 1.3 pounds a week.  Not bad for a 60 year old!  At this rate, I hope to be at my goal weight by the time we go to the beach in August.  I'm at that happy place now, where clothes that were not fitting are now fitting well or starting to get loose!  DH has reached his WW goal weight and son Jay has lost a little over 3 pounds since February.  Neither has a weight problem, but both are in "fighting trim" now and looking quite good.

I'm trying out new recipes and continuing to make our favorites and we're eating well.  Tonight I made roasted fennel.  I took the bulb, cut it in 2/3" slices, dipped it in a mixture of one part balsamic vinegar and one part olive oil and sprinkled some parmesan cheese on the top.  I roasted it in a 400 degree oven for 20+ minutes so that it was golden brown and quite tastey.  (the original recipe called for two parts dijon mustard to be added to the mixture, but I opted out of the mustard!).

I'll leave you with one picture from the past few weeks.  None of me, I was the photographer.  I'll try to  do better about getting myself in the picture next time.

DH and Ella, who has finally learned to smile for the camera!

Have you ever thought that you couldn't lose weight after a "certain age?"

Out of the Box

I was standing in line at the grocery the other day idly comparing my cart full of stuff to a cart in the next line over.  I confess I felt a little prideful.  My cart was brimming with good, good-for-you things.  Beets, cabbage, carrots, apples, kumquats, carrots, fresh ginger, greek yogurt, mayer lemons, chicken, tilapia, olive oil.  The other cart, when I really looked at it, seemed to be filled with boxes.  Hamburger helper, jello, cereal, frozen waffles, pasta, pizza mix.  Some people come out of the closet.  I have come out of the box.  I buy very few processed foods any more.  That's a good thing.

On the weight loss front, I've kept up my streak!  I've lost at my last eight weigh-ins and, with the help of the 17DD, I've lost 13.6 pounds from my 2012 high.  What's working for me now is to stick with the basic Cycle I from Saturday to Tuesday and then to relax to WW Core (Simply Filling) with some of the extra weekly points thrown in from Wednesday through Friday.  Strangely enough, I find it easier to stick to the more restricted diet on the weekend.  This is probably because DH is very supportive and trying to whittle off a few pounds to get back to his WW lifetime goal (he's lost about 10 and is just a couple of pounds away).  I'm gradually learning how to enjoy the "extras" without going overboard.  It helps me when I know that I can enjoy popcorn or a dessert or brown rice once in a while.  Or cookies.   I made my sister's killer Oatmeal Cookie recipe yesterday, but changed it just a bit to make it a little more figure-friendly. I took a big plate of them to our Bible Study (they usually get grapes or pineapple from me, and it was fun to bake for a change).  Those were all  eaten and when we got home, I noticed that Jay had put all the rest into a tin box.  I sent those with him to work today.  Of the whole batch I just had 3--not bad.

Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

You might notice that I have a new recipe page that you can link to in the right column.  A few of you had expressed interest in my Stuffed Cabbage recipe.  I remade it and wrote things down.  I based it on a recipe for Sweet and Sour Cabbage rolls from Eating Well, but I made some changes to suit my tastes and requirements.  They were dee-lish.  I also put a recipe for roasted parsnips and carrots there.  Talk about tastey!  And good for you.  Try these. (oh and I just added the Oatmeal Cookie recipe . . .)

The penny finally dropped (love that expression!) and I now know that I can use my trusty little ipod nano 6th gen to record my runs on nike+ without messing with the nike+ kit.  You might notice that my little nike+ avatar in the sidebar is running again.  Yay!  I'm mostly walking so far, but the distances are getting better and the running bits are getting longer.

Virginia Bluebells

Like many of you. we're having an early spring.  I was surprised to find that my Virginia bluebells were in full bloom yesterday.  We're about 2 or 3 weeks ahead of last year's season.  I've spent a few hours doing spring clean up stuff in the garden, but I need to push myself to get out there soon to finish up, because I think the awful hot humid days when it's not fun to do heavy garden work are galloping toward us.

Oh and we had our first after-supper bike ride of the season last weekend.  I love this.

Mileage report: with the increased running and a few bike rides I'm adding 46 miles for the past two weeks. YTD 222 miles.

I am washing my hands about 60 times a day and doing lots of hot water loads in the washing machine in an effort to avoid the nasty little virus that is plaguing my little grandchildren.  Jack and Ella and their parents have been trading it back and forth for the past couple of weeks.  Hm, I think I'll go wash my hands again. . . .

Have you come out of the box??

De-cluttering

My little nano!

In some ways, I had a super day yesterday.  My plan was to tackle one room and to de-clutter it as much as possible.  The room is a spare room where my youngest granddaughter naps on the days I watch her and where the three out of town grandkids stay when they're visiting.  It has FIVE bookcases and is home to our children's books (remember I was a children's librarian for 20+ years--I love children's books!).  It also has a walk-in-closet that has been so jam-packed that it's been hard to close the door for years.  I clipped on my new nano (which I LOVE) and got to work.  Four hours later I had a dozen bags of trash, 10 bags of things for giveaway and a much better looking room.  I still have a crate full of "stuff" that I have to find places for, but I can actually take a few steps into the closet and now I only have 3 bookcases full of kids books.  Success.  (and more work to do on another day)

I need to take that valuable de-cluttering concept and apply it to some insidious habits that have crept into my eating.  Take yesterday.  We had a dinner invitation for yesterday night to a "fondue fellowship."  We had to go (don't ask) and we were the only guests.  I've just about cut cheese from my diet altogether--I don't crave it, it is quite high in calories, cholesterol, and salt and it wasn't too hard for me to cut it.  Well, fondue?  I recall the last time we had a fondue dinner (about 10 years ago)--masses of creamy warm cheese, wonderful bread cubes--good with or without the cheese, lots of wine, and mouth-watering warm, melty chocolate for dessert with strawberries and angel food cake for swirling.

I considered eating a mini-meal before we went, but I was at the airport picking up Johnny's family and got home just minutes before we had to leave.  So I was hungry.  Failure was certain.  How discouraging.  Wait.  When we got there I saw several plates of cut up veggies (broccoli, green beans, red peppers, tiny white potatoes).  It wasn't a cheese fondue!!  It was a broth fondue and we cooked our chicken and veggies at the table.  I probably ate 4 bites of chicken 6 green beans, 2 marble-sized potatoes, and 2 pieces of red pepper over the course of 90 minutes.  'Nuf said.  I need to get rid of the worry about those situations.  While it's good to pre-plan as much as you can, it's just one meal.  As it turned out, it was well within my plan.  I spent lots of needless worry envisioning fondue pots full of bubbling cheese.  Next time, I'll ask.  Wouldn't that have been smart?  I could have even worked around the cheese.  Instead, I just worried about it.

I didn't get my run done yesterday.  I put it off until noon and was getting dressed when I heard the first rumble of thunder.  It rained all afternoon with impressive lightning and thunder, so no run on the trail.  I'm heading out as soon as I push "publish post."  It's a bit cooler, but nice and sunny.  Week two of C25K today.

How about you?  Do you have any habits you need to de-clutter from your routine?

Have a good one!

Weekend Wrap-Up

I'd forgotten how quiet it is around here on the weekend.  Good for me, though, to have a little more chance to play catch up with you guys.  :-)

A pretty lazy day today.  We went to church in the morning and I spent an hour or so outside trimming bushes.I got them just in time, most of the roses, azaleas, and many other spring bloomers are already producing buds.   Our daphne has blooms.  If you don't know daphne, it has the loveliest fragrance.  I go outside just to breathe in the smell a few time a day.  I'll pick a bloom and bring it inside tonight.

Daphne

DH tried to talk me into biking over to our son's house to take care of their pets while they're away.  It's only a few miles away but there are some Major hills so I declined.  We did go do our weekend routine at the gym, so I wasn't a total laggard today.  

Tomorrow I have the day "off" (the grandkids are visiting their other grandparents in sunny FL).  It's supposed to be in the high 60s, but rainy.  I plan to run with my C25K and knock out week two.  I also have the painter coming in the morning and plans to cull out lots of "stuff" (books, clothing, clutter) to add to my giveaway bag for a pickup on Tuesday morning.  I've gotten rid of over 500 books in the past few weeks.  This frees up two full size bookcases!  I think I'll transfer them out to the garage to try to make some order out there.  Later.  The house comes first.  I also had my first sale on Craig's List.  I sold a piano.  It took only a week and I got my asking price.  Not bad.  I'm on an anti-clutter campaign.  

See you later.

Tish

I did it!

You can just start calling  me Tech-Tisha!  I got my sister's new Mac wireless system up and running in less than 15 minutes.  I am on my computer which found her new network with no problem at all (easy when I know all the passwords!).  Now all I have to do is find the right cord so I can get her ancient PC and printer connected to the network.  She's asleep in that room right now, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow. I think I'm going to get myself one of those Airport Extreme routers --they are awesome.

I decided to check a bag on my flight down.  I usually travel with a 26 inch suitcase, but, because I was bringing the computer & router as well as a couple bulky boxes of Christmas presents, I decided to bring my huge suitcase.  I checked it and only managed to squeak under the 50 pound limit by decanting a few items to a carry-on bag.   My trip was otherwise uneventful.  Oh, I did finish the "difficult" level sudoku in the flight magazine that had apparently been attempted by several previous occupants of my seat.  That felt good.  I also started reading the book Unbroken, by the author who wrote Seabiscuit.  This one's a true story, but it's not about horses.  It's about a second-generation Italian boy who was on the fast track to becoming a delinquent until he discovered he could run.  Really run. He ran for the US in the 1936 Olympics and was on the way to breaking the 4 minute mile.  Then the war came.  His war involved flying, crashing into the Pacific, being a prisoner of war, and becoming an unsung hero.  I like this kind of book and it's so well written, it almost reads like a novel.

This is how I like 'em best, cut in wedges.

I think I'm going to do fine staying OP here.  We had baked fish, 1/2 of a potato, and green beans for dinner.  I'm going to run to the store tomorrow and stock up on a few of my staples.  I'm already missing the huge box of navel oranges I scored at Costco on Friday.  They were delicious.  I want some NOW.  :-)  Hmm, maybe it's time for a nice glass of water.  I always have trouble staying hydrated when I fly.

I brought along my running shoes and my Nike+ ipod thingie.  I'm going to try to get out for a run tomorrow.  I only have about 25 miles to run to reach 500 for 2010.  That sounds like a nice round number, no? It's supposed to dip down into the 20s here tonight, so maybe I'll wait to do that run until the sun has had a chance to warm things up a bit.

Okay, that's it for now.

Have you enjoyed the first northern hemisphere navel oranges of the season yet??