Running and cooking

It finally hit me that Drew is an adult when he signed up for a Spartan race in Atlanta and went there with his girlfriend a couple of weekends ago. Got himself up and left at 7 in the morning, did all the checking in, then ran that thing over 2.5 hours all by himself. Camille was there to cheer him on and take pictures, but this is the only one I got. God bless him!


Meanwhile, Dean and I forced Lucas, uh, I mean joined Lucas for a 5K that same day, and he dropped his time from the previous 58 minutes to a very respectable 37 minutes - woohoo! Now we couldn't convince him to join us for O'Daly's Green Dress Run downtown, so we went by ourselves. They take the Green Dress part very seriously, and if you look just to the right of center, you'll see a lady wearing a green tutu...who has also pained her entire body green, down to her eyelids. Now that's commitment....or needs commitment - ha!


Here's the starting line - note all manner of wigs and a man in a dress way behind me.


And these young ladies were running in dresses, but they walked through their beer breaks. Yes, people were running with drinks in hand. Dean saw a group running with Fireball shots...which was probably necessary to stay hydrated, as there was not a single water station until you crossed the finish line!


Okay, now next weekend is the Azalea Trail Run 10K, and I will attempt to do this while on call, so we'll let you know how that goes. Now to segue to something my sister told me about - Birchbox. For $10 a month, you get 5 samples of beauty products in a beautiful box worthy or re-gifting.


Ooh, this month I got 6 things! They were dry shampoo, regular shampoo, conditioner, 2 eyeshadows, facial cleanser, and a facial mask. Last month I got samples of lotion, foaming face wash, lipstick, hair serum, and something else I forgot. Love this little club, and it makes for great travel-size toiletries. Thanks, Sister!


Another thing I discovered is that there's a lady in Publix who cooks a new dinner every week, and you can taste it, then buy all the ingredients right there next to her booth, and get a free recipe card - who knew?! So I made a delicious cranberry-walnut salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing....


and pork tenderloin with dill yogurt sauce - shoot, I forgot to get a shot of that, it made it look a lot yummier.


So what have you been doing lately? Cooking anything new? Exercising? And yes, I wrote this post instead of going running like I should have...dangit! .

Rest of Spring Break 2015 *Graphic Pic Warning

(Do not scroll down if you are sitting in a busy waiting room or you have a weak stomach - you have been warned.) We came back from 50-degree weather in Wisconsin and headed for 70-degree weather at the beach. A little cool for swimming, but nice enough to take the dog for a paddle board.


I met my sewing buddy Robbie at a nice restaurant for lunch, and was planning to do a nice review of them, so I took a bunch of pictures. This is the cool fish tank with stingrays and all kinds of fish you can pet...I guess.


These were the cool light fixtures, and the food at lunch was GREAT!


Love the decor! Alas, I took the family back for dinner the next night, and was really let down, so no big review now. But if you're in a boat in Wolf Bay and want to dock at the Cayman Grill, definitely stop for lunch on the deck. If it's nighttime and you want well-cooked fish, keep on going! One funny story - the waitress, who seemed to be from another planet, took our drink orders, then brought the boys' Cokes in tiny kids' cups with bendy straws. Lucas, the 12-year-old, would've been offended if this happened just to him, but it also applied to 18-yr-old Drew, who's 6'2 with a buzz cut. We all cracked up and Drew immediately Snapchatted a pic to his friends. Then when she took our food order, she actually asked him if he wanted the adult pizza or the kid's pizza! The hilarity did not quite make up for the overcooked, unseasoned fish, sadly.


On Saturday, I got up at 6:30 AM to run a 5K - go me! Unfortunately, I came down the stairs in my sock feet, which is a big no-no for someone with Mad Cow disease, as you can see from previous posts. So one foot flew off the step and I fell straight back onto my derriere and right hip, which were clothed in slippery running shorts, so I proceeded to bump down 10 steps as if on the lubed-up sled from Christmas Vacation. My forearm banging on each step didn't even stop me, but THIS time (yes, this was the second time I did this) I didn't bruise the arm up, at least. So I was trying to dress and leave the house quietly, but Dean did jump up to come check on me. I walked around and didn't seem to have broken anything, so I went on and ran the 5K - booyah! Even shaved 3 minutes off my time (33:46), but this was because there were only about 25 people running, and I didn't want to be the last one. Now hold the phone, because I just checked the results, and would you believe that I came in 3rd in my age group?! I'm going back to count - I bet there were only 3 of us.


Okay, back to my Mad Cow. I came home, ate a nice breakfast Dean made for me, loaded up with ibuprofen for the hip pain to come, got in the bed, and proceeded to have that hysterical laughing then crying thing I do after falling - it was just delayed a little because of the 5K. It seems to be a combination of happiness that I haven't broken anything when I fall, and sadness at the inevitability of a broken hip in my future. Whatever...here's that graphic pic I warned you about. It's quite educational in what happens to your leg when you fall down and you're on aspirin. I'm hoping gangrene doesn't set in....and that Giovanni Ribisi doesn't show up and declare my leg "south of cheese."


There was another large bruise perfectly outlining my coccyx down to the 3 spinous tubercles, but I'll leave that one to your imagination. Here's the anatomical diagram. (Yes, if you Google-image that, somebody posted their actual bruise.)


Let's leave you with something more appetizing - this is how Dean fixed Cuban sandwiches for us when we had to come back to the real world of school and work. The man is a whiz with cast iron pans!


Now what are you doing this weekend?