Musings of a Plodder


I thought I would steer away from any more controversial posts (although, if you ever want my real opinion, just ask, I promise I won't be shy) and write about a topic that has been a part of my life for oh, about 16 years.
It all started when I got cut from the freshman volleyball team, and my parents looked at me and said, "well you have to do a sport-so it is swimming or running." Since I didn't love swimsuits and hadn't been swimming with my country club league since I was a wee toddler, that left me with one option.
Running cross-country.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like team sports, and I even like competing, but man, I was not a good runner. I ran JV my freshman/sophomore year, and then eked out a spot on the varsity team my junior/senior year; although that spot was often tenuous depending on who was injured and who had beat me that week. I remember my parents (mainly my dad) telling me to "Run faster." Right. Like I was going to to do that. Running HURTS.

Fast forward lots of years (I won't say how many) and I have passed my athletic peak during my glory days of crew when I realized that working REALLY REALLY hard meant that you got better and I find myself now, almost 30, trying to stay in shape.

Most of you know, my job involves talking with people about their health at least a bit and I feel that in my job, with all of my blessings of education, time, and knowledge that I better be living at least a passable example of what a "healthy" lifestyle can look like. Mix that in with my aversion to equipment knowledge, my desire to bring p-dog on my workouts, and my lack of creativity, and I have returned to my days as a runner. Or more accurately a plodder.

My days of plodding ebb and flow, sometimes I'm good and disciplined, other times weeks lapse between runs, but I plod on.
And have come across some interesting thoughts in the last few months.

1. I invented a new dog harness. The best ever. My special, slightly autistic coonhound can even do it. Phoenix comes from a family of coon-hunting champions. She got a bit of the short end of the stick. But check out this blog for a talented coonhound.
Anyways, back to my harness. It is awesome b/c it is hands free, keeps pdog from chasing random animals, and lets me enjoy a natural stride. Two climbing slings and one carabiner.






2. I'm intrigued by barefoot running. I recently read an article in the NYTimes called "The Once and Future Way to Run."
It kind of got me thinking and I decided I would try running in these shoes:




So far, success. It has most definitely made me change my stride to try to eliminate that nasty heel strike so we will see where it gets me.

Anyways, I'm trying to keep myself in passable shape through a combo of running, yoga (here), and the occasional ski outing.
Also AWESOME news. I washed my ipod Nano in the wash about 5 months ago and through a combination of laziness and hope, never threw it away, and guess what!!!!
It works again!!!
Props to apple. That is some solid construction.

Sadness.

What sadness. Such an avoidable tragedy.

Fun Stuff.

My mom bought some new books for K and they are cute-worth reading/buying/checking out if you haven't already.

1.

This is a cool book made sort of by accident. This artist who was home with her baby girl had this idea to make a scene surrounding her little peanut. What turned into entertainment for herself morphed into this neat neat book about baby's dreaming. Love it. She also has a cool blog: Mila's Daydreams.

2.

This author has won a bunch of awards for his simple, clearly stated, mini-moral dilemma books. Cute and education.

Also, I found out this week that not everyone knows about purple potatoes :-) I discovered them a few years ago when my hubby cooked them for me and they are SO fun to add to a dinner because they put an unexpected color on your plate. They are a bit sweeter than normal potatoes, but can be prepared pretty much the same. The bonus? If you boil them, the water turns this VIVID blue too. Lots of fun colors to use while cooking... see?



Here they are on the plate (And don't worry, I'm not humble-bragging about our AWESOME meal b/c the next night we ate Rumbi).

Wasatch Food

My hubby, as some of you might know, has had a long term interest in the food scene here in SLC. When we moved here from DC, we suffered a bit of a shock with the change in available food options, especially fancy, foreign, or just plain good food with regards to the restaurant options that were offered. Since that day, we have been on a constant quest for good out-to-eat food places.

Mark also dabbles in food making himself and has been known to whip up some extraordinary dinner fare for our household.

In honor of the above two things, he has started a new blog (the link is the title of this post) that will hopefully review the current options for out-to-eat places in and around SLC but also put up some original recipes tested in our very own kitchen.

I know he would take suggestions in both areas, so feel free to tell him what you think!!

The best part of all of this? I get to eat good food!!!

Chicago!

4 generations...K and I have matching socks over jeggings b/c we are cutting edge.

I am on vacation this week (Woohoo!!!) and am enjoying it very much. I had the chance to go to Chicago to visit my parents the first few days of my break and we had a great time.
It was my first time in a while traveling alone with Baby K and I have to admit, traveling on your post call day made for an interesting experience. The flight attendent most definitely commented on the fact that I *might* have briefly dozed off while K was watching Sesame Street on the ipad. Traveling on 3 hours of sleep total doesn't bode well, but luckily it was a lovely uneventful flight.
On both my flights the seat next to me was miraculously empty. That is all I have to say. It is AMAZING having an extra seat for K. She did so much better having her own space; space to play with the Playdoh that I brought, a tray table for her to color with, and lots of space for reading. Made it much easier overall. I tried to entertain with the ipad, but she just isn't that interested for any longer than 3 minutes. Oh well.
I also packed a dinner for us which helped a ton....
While we were in Chicago we had a great time hanging out with Great grandma L, Grandma and Grandpa, but most of all, we LOVED the kitty. Loved her. K would play for a few minutes with something else, then run back and say "Aw, kitty...."
She wore my old winter coat and also played with my old toys all of which were meticulously maintained, wore my old (including an intact doctor's kit that I distinctly remember playing with). And she got a rocking moose. Need I say more? We had a great time.

Moose assembly. Harder than you might think.

Getting ready to check kitty's blood pressure.

Getting tips on kitty whispering from Great Grandma L

Playing with my best friend

What? Sitting with my great grandma.

Grete, the infinitely patient kitty. Who, I might add, is 16 years old.

Blustery walk to the Navy Pier Children's Museum. But worth every step.

Playing on the fire truck. Truth is, K loves trucks.

Playing in the water room. Managing to get wet despite the full length raincoat.

Shopping on Michigan Avenue. K was mad cause she didn't get anything. Except her AWESOME hat.

Eating Sprinkles cupcakes with Gpa. They were good, but not as good as these.

Got REALLY REALLY close to a bear, then a lion, then gorillas. K wasn't as thrilled about this...

Tractor at the zoo/petting farm. See? Loves trucks.

This is my favorite clip from the weekend. K saw Gma laughing with her head back everytime they put stuff on Grete's head, so she did the same. So sweet.

All in all a great start to my vacation...now on the ski-cation part of things! Hoping I can make it one more day :-)

Am also reading some good books, so be on the lookout for a few new book reviews!

Congrats to Laurie!!!!!

We are so excited that Joe asked Laurie to marry him last Friday :)

We couldn't be more thrilled to welcome this guy to the family.

He survived a ski day with Mark, enjoyed some whiskey with the family, and had Baby K wrapped around his finger by the end of the weekend.

He is a great guy who is getting to start a life with a great girl....