Smokin' Hot

Required running gear here in NorCal
The air is a hazy grey, thick...it smells like a campfire you can never escape due to all the wildfires going on right now. To top it off it is triple digit temps all this week...112 today.

Thursday Thoughts

24 days until we leave for Disneyland! Our big vacation this year. It will be hot. It will be crowded. But dammit, we are going to have fun! Delaney is five and Charlotte will be turning four and we can no longer put off their childhood right to stand in line after line at the happiest place on earth.

• I need to get serious (again) on my weight loss plan. I did pretty good in May, okay in June...but now I need to step it up again. I'd like to lose another 5 to 10 pounds before Disney - gotta look good for my main man Donald Duck (I like him cuz he's grumpy, Mickey is just to perky for my taste). So I guess I better put all that wine I just bought in my cellar (uh, little refrigerator), stick to my exercise schedule, and update my goals.



• My foot hurts. It was hurting pretty bad Monday and Tuesday so I have been laying off the running. My foot feels much better today, just a twinge, so I think I'm going to try a light run today. Hope I don't aggravate it again.



• OK, tmi ,but I either have IBS or I am lactose intolerant...it is time for me to deal with this properly cuz it just ain't fun. I'm going to try cutting out dairy first to see if that helps at all. I don't eat much dairy anyway (mostly just a limited amount of cheese and ice cream), so it shouldn't be that hard.



• I am going to start researching switching our house over to solar. Our energy costs have gone through the roof the last year, and I can't figure out why since our lifestyle hasn't really changed. Anyway, I'm going to check into it - we'll see, it may just be too expensive to be worth it. I like the idea of being a little more self-sufficient and greener like Kermie though.



• My boss left yesterday for a month long vacation to Ireland and Switzerland (where he owns his own Chalet - disgustingly rich) - whew! Now I have a month of being able to get caught up at a nice steady pace instead of frantically trying to get 3 projects done at the same time, that he wanted last week. I needed this vacation!

Girls Weekend!

Hello all! I can't believe it has been a week since I have posted, the last week just flew by! I was super duper busy at work last week, with a huge deadline job that was sprung on me Wednesday morning and needed to be done by Friday. I rocked it out though and got it done.

I had an awesome girls weekend with two of my sisters and my stepmom. We went to Napa Valley! So beautiful, one of my favorite places to hang and relax and if anyone comes to visit California - a must see!

My stepmom, Julie, won tickets at an auction several months ago to see Love, Janis - four tickets, so she invited her 3 daughters. It was really great because my sister Amy and I are pretty close but Maggie is 18 years younger than me so we haven't gotten many chances to bond and it was nice to spend time with her without all of the kids, husbands, and rest of the family around.

So we didn't go to Napa until Saturday afternoon, and I was able to get my long run in before we left. My stepmom is a little dingy, and she forgot she was suppose to pick me up on the way to get Amy...and she forgot her purse...she had me a little worried about her. She is doing a raw foods cleanse right now, and I just think it isn't working too well for her brain function. But anyway... the show was Saturday night and it was pretty good - a lot like being at a Janis Joplin concert, but without the smell of pot. The girl singing sounded EXACTLY like Janis, so that was pretty cool.

Julie, Amy and Me >

Me and Maggs

Sunday was the best, we didn't really have anything planned so we threw around some ideas...spa treatments, wine tasting, tattoos, and we settled on walking around and shopping the quaint little town of Calistoga and maybe hitting a winery or two. Calistoga is one my favorite towns, it is just really cute and has lots of cutesy, artsy-fartsy shops, good restaurants, lots of spa places...basically a great tourist stop.

The first store we hit was the "Wine Stop" that is located in The Train Depot - where we did a wine tasting (at about 10:30am) and bought a case of wine. We had a very pleasant, funny server named Tom, who actually owns the shop. We even met the guy who buys all of Michael Jordan's wine for all of his restaurants and personal collection (at least that is what he told us) - he was a pretentious ass, but entertaining.

So we walked, and shopped, and ate lunch in Calistoga which was tres fun.

We finished off the weekend with a wine tasting at Cakebread Cellars. My stepmom is actually a granddaughter of a Cakebread, so we thought that was the best winery to stop at...we didn't know we needed a reservation! but luckily we were able to get in.and the wine was fab, so we bought a second case to split...

Speaking of Nuts....

I'm a big fan of the BBC America show "You Are What You Eat." Nutritionist Gillian McKeith holds and intervention with a family or person who eats horrible and puts them on an 8 week nutritional plan that she develops (mostly vegetarian). I just love how the British lay it on the line - "You're fat and disgusting, now what are you going to do about it!" Plus, she talks about poop and farting a lot - and that is just funny...and she get results. People lose 25 -40 pounds or more in 8 weeks.

On one of the episodes Gillian explained how nuts and seeds are such a healthy snack because they are full of vitamins and essential fats. Evidently, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and other seeds are a great source of zinc which is suppose to increase your sex drive. My husband ran straight to the store after he heard that and now I have bins full of seeds on my pantry shelf.

The fats in nuts are good for your heart, but they have added benefits for runners though...today I came across this article. Anti-inflammatory folks - lord knows I need that, and they are suppose to help repair small muscle-tear injuries. They article recommends incorporation about 1 1/2 ounces of nuts into your diet. But they do want you to stay away from the pre-packaged and heavily salted ones. I think if they are covered in chocolate they are good though (hee, hee). Do you think those little M&M guys can get me to strap on my kicks and go running?

Why?

Manwhore strikes again. I'm sure most of you have seen Playgirl's, I mean People's latest photo spread of Mario Lopez trying to pose as some of the most famous pictures of sexy guys. There is something wrong with this guy.

eewww! Thank goodnes this picture fuzzes out "the area" - just disturbing

He looks like he's trying out for the village people here.

Ugh...yes you have a nice body, but....I just don't want to see your package that close up.

Sorry Mario, not even you can make a diaper sexy....

A Very Merry Unbirthday

Let me just preface this by saying I still have a hangover from Saturday...so I'm not feeling very wordy today.

Saturday was Delaney's Unbirthday...she waited 5 months to celebrate her birthday so she could have a pool party. Pretty patient for a 5 year old...but when it came down to opening her presents and eating her cake she reminded me it wasn't really her birthday. Ugh.

I have the worst luck with parties and I was so worried that no one would show up...out of the 11 girls I invited from her softball team, only two RSVP'd. Evidently EVERYONE went camping this weekend, or had graduation parties to go to...I don't know, but in the back of my paranoid mind I always think they just don't like me. It was killing me because I wanted her to have a good party, and she did...so all my worries were silly, we had about 10 kids there which was just about perfect.

So I devised a new plan in getting ready for the party - High Intensity Interval Cleaning. Let me tell you, this works great with kidlets! We concentrated on one room or project at a time, worked really hard for about half an hour, then I gave the girlies a break and a reward (like painting their nails). We had about 3 HIIC sessions on Friday, and one on Saturday morning and the house was spic and span for the party...without any major stress.

I also tried HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) last Friday and I loved it...my inspiration for the cleaning technique. I'm going to try and incorporate this into my marathon training somehow.

On a side note, Delaney has been asking A TON of questions about god lately, we are doing our best to satisfy her interest. How do you answer some of these questions though? This was our convo this morning:

D: Can you talk in heaven?

me: I think so, but I'm not sure. I'll let you know when I get there, but you need to wait a while to find out.

D: How are you going to tell me?

me: I'll write you a letter

D: You can't do that. How about you knock over a plant.

me: Okay, I'll knock over your favorite plant to let you know if you can talk in heaven.

D: How about, not my favorite plant

Taking the Good With the Bad

The good news: I am officially down a pant size. My old pants actually slip down over my hips without even unbuttoning them.

The bad news: I have done everything in my power to sabotage this accomplishment over the past week.

More good news: My sabotaging ways failed...the old pants are still too big.

Okay...so I am back. Moving on from the parties and PMS from last week, and ready to go down another pant size.

I just freaking realized after reading POM's marathon training schedule and Marcy's maybe I better get on plan too....it is only 17 weeks until the Cowtown Marathon. I've been living in denial that it is as close as it is, thanks for the reality check ladies. Crap, 17 weeks! I'm actually a little scared since this will be my first full marathon....aahhh! Thankfully, I have a pretty good base right now.

So I have been debating in my mind whether to join a gym or not. I'm pretty anti-social so I really like running solo or just working out at my house - we have an okay setup - treadmill, elliptical, some weights.

I have three reasons for wanting to join the gym: 1) I think my husband will exercise more if we have a gym membership, 2) My babysitter is joining, and I actually like her so she would be fun to workout with, 3) air conditioning...all my home equipment is in the garage sans air conditioning...and it gets freakin' hot where I live. We're talking triple digits a good portion of the summer.

We have an Anytime Fitness going in about 5 minutes from my house. They are offering some pretty good start-up incentives right now...plus we can go month to month so I can quit if I don't like it or if I don't use it enough. It is a small gym, just cardio machines and weights...no classes, although they might expand if room opens up in the building. Their cardio machines are really cool though with video screens and bikes that actually steer...almost like playing Wii Fit, only you actually get your heart rate up for more than Wii Fit's intense 3 minute workouts.

I don't know, I just can't totally convince myself that it is worth it...but the air conditioning....

Last but not least, I found this little gem in a Women's Health magazine.

Fit-Speak
Exercise has a language all its own. Study up, then add these gems to your vocab--and your workout.

Chub rub (n) Red, angry chafing produced when your thighs rub together during a run.

Hard•ware (n) A finisher's medal--not the coveted gold, silver, or bronze but the one every participant gets for completing an event or race.

LSD (abbr)Long, slow distance--an hour-plus exercise session held at a conversational pace that builds cardiovascular endurance. Any high you get from this LSD is purely endorphin-generated.

Pew•ni•form (n) Stanky gym clothes that have been festering in your gym bag for a week. (Oh Yeah, I have a pile of these in my closet!)

Show shape (v) To shine your high beams at the gym. (A la Farrah Fawcet, Jen Aniston)

Vart (n) Embarrassing noise emitted from down there. Usually occurs when you come down from an inversion posture in yoga or do situps. As for the word's origin, well, think about it. (How embarrassing! I guess I'm not the only person who does this if there is an actual word for it).