Festivities of the Fourth

Uncle Sam, aka Emma, wishes you a happy 4th of July.

It was definitely nice to have the day off work. I ran the Bluegrass 10,000 this morning, a local 10K road race. I really enjoy this distance (6.2 miles) - it is more challenging than a 5k, but not as challenging as a mini-marathon. My goal was to finish in 60:00 minutes, and I crossed the finish line in 58:50. When I crossed the first mile mark, I heard one of the race volunteers shouting the times, "13:20, 13:25, 13:30, etc." I nearly died...13 minutes?!? There were so many kids and walkers that it was really hard to keep a good, steady pace - and constantly dodging around people really saps your energy. I knew that if I wanted to reach my 1 hour goal, I would have to maintain at the most a 10 minute pace.

Luckily, it began to thin out a little bit and I was able to actually run in a straight line. Miles 2-6 went by very quickly and I felt strong through the whole race. And, best of all, I was able to maintain a 9 minute pace for the last five miles. At about mile 3 I caught up with a group of running superheroes - there were 2 people dressed up as SuperMan, 1 person dressed as Wonder Woman, and 1 patriotic Uncle Sam. We were running at about the same pace for the next few miles and while I knew the cheers and claps and shouts of joys from the spectators were for them and not me, it felt nice to bask in their glory for a while. While 9 minute miles are definitely not lightning fast, it's a pretty good clip for me. I did all of my training for the mini-marathon at a 10 minute pace. My goal was to train for the marathon at a 9:30 pace, but 9:00 felt so good today that I am thinking about bumping up my training goals.

But perhaps the greatest moment of the morning came after the race, as I was walking back to my car. I passed a homeless woman on the street who looked harmless, but as I got closer to her she looked me dead in the eye and said, "You're not supposed to run, you asshole." Yes, I was shocked. My eyes widened a little, but other than that, I put my head down and kept walking - I did not want to tango with this lady.

After the race I headed home, took Emma on a leisurely walk, and then Chad and I headed to Wilmore. We had quite a meal with our good friends - smoked chicken, baked beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, taco soup, and some amazing homeade ice cream. Five hours later, I still feel like I could burst.

Well, it's after 8:00pm, it's stormy and my pillow is beckoning me. I want to get my rest tonight because tomorrow will be a late night, as we are catching Into Great Silence, a documentary on monks. It is a 3 hour, near-silent film, and I am looking forward to the part where they observe one of the monks talking fondly with cats.

***UPDATE***
I just checked the race results page from the Bluegrass 10k and my chip time as actually 56:22! It took a few minutes to cross the starting line, so that's why when I crossed the finish line the time read 58:50. I was happy to beat my goal by 2 minutes (really 1:10), but now I am even more proud that I beat it by 4 minutes!

Kitchen Confidential

My head is pounding from too much exposure to reality cooking shows. I love them all - the gourmet, haute cuisine hopefuls on Top Chef, the goofy Next Food Network Star players, and the downright incompetent Hell's Kitchen competitors.

Chad and I start the week of right with a viewing of the Next Food Network Star on Sunday nights. This show is pretty entertaining, even Food Network uber-critic Anthony Bourdain seems to enjoy it. I'm putting my money on Rory and Adrien in the final two.

If you happen to stop by our house on Monday evenings around 9:00 and hear someone screaming obscenities, then you know that we are likely watching Hell's Kitchen. After watching Little People, Big World on TLC earlier on Monday evenings, moving to the Fox reality show seems downright sordid. It's almost like watching a car accident - it is so horrible and painful to watch, but I just can't tear my eyes away from it. I also believe that the spinach risotto they prepare as appetizers should have the name "Ecto" somewhere in the description - the stuff is practically neon!

Onto the best of the three - Top Chef on Wednesday's. I really enjoyed the first two seasons, and I really like the third season so far. This show is both interesting and entertaining - something I really like about the shows on Bravo. While none of them are educational and all of them are guilty pleasures, Bravo knows how to make good tv with Kathy Griffin's My Life on the D List, The Real Housewives of Orange County, and premiering tomorrow...Hey Paula! - a reality show about Paula Abdul's life.

I have to admit that my enthusiasm for Hell's Kitchen is starting to wane, I passed up last night's episode to read my new issue of Reader's Digest.

Update

This has been a wild week. Athan is back in the hospital - you can continue to check his progress at his website: athansjourney.blogspot.com. On Tuesday morning I got a call from my cousin Emily that one of my other cousins was missing - he is 13 years old and was missing for a day in a state park in Arkansas. Luckily, he was found unharmed. Here's a link to the story: http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=47750

Then...this morning I get ready to go to work and the alarm system on my car goes haywire. Since the alarm was activated, my engine locked. The "doot doot" as Chad calls it, would not de-active the alarm. My wonderful husband drove me to work, and then spent most of the afternoon wrestling with new "doot doot" batteries, the steering column and the dash before breaking down and calling a tow truck. Once at the dealership, they were able to disable the alarm. I'll pick Monty (what I lovingly call my Montero Sport) up sometime tomorrow, and hopefully he'll be good as new. I do fear for Monty's future - the air is out, the horn is out, and the people at the dealership warned me that a bunch of other things are about to start going out. I think he's still got a few good years left in him, and I want to drive him until the wheels fall off.

Also, here is another pictures from my trip to Boston for the Team Approach User Forum...a software conference.


















Thats me (second from left) with a few people from our direct mail company, and other PBS member stations, standing on the Freedom Trail.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from my trip to Boston.
I'll admit, I'm no photographer - but here they are!

Emma - in my suitcase before we headed to the airport!







The perfect Boston breakfast...Dunkin Donuts.

View of Boston from Cambridge - the Citgo sign in the distance is a landmark on the Boston Marathon course.






After a delicious dinner at Union Oyster House, we headed over to Mike's for some cannolis.




View from behind the New England Holocaust Memorial. Each line you see is a number - there are over 6 million numbers etched into the six glass towers. Each number represents a victim of the holocaust.

I hope one day that Chad and I are able to go to Boston together - it is such a beautiful and fun city.

Ahh, finally taking a breather...

Saturday afternoon was like a sweet sigh of relief. The event was over and behind me, I was able to take a small nap, and I got to do some yard work. We were able to have dinner with friends and I felt like I was able to truly relax for the first time in about 3 weeks. Sunday morning was special at church - Chad and I are now proud members of Nicholasville Baptist Church. It was a very sweet time with the congregation when they welcomed us with a resounding "amen" and gave us hugs and handshakes.

Sunday night Chad made his "debut" at church - earlier in the week our Pastor asked him if he would like to teach during the Sunday night service. I sat in the pews beaming with pride - I'm sure the people around me thought I was pretty goofy, but I just couldn't help it. I'm so glad that Chad has realized that God has called him to teach/preach, and that we were able to come to Asbury to further his education and experiences.

We're gearing up for Wilco in T-minus 3 days - I can't wait! We've even got a baby-sitter lined up for Emma (thank you Mostrums!) - knowing that she will be snuggled and walked Thursday evening means everything to me!

Also - I need to pick up some pictures from the Wal Mart photo lab, and then I will finally have Boston pictures posted!

Addiction

I'm addicted. My secret weapon has turned into my worst nightmare. To get through the long days and short nights, I started drinking Starbucks Doubleshots about a week ago. At first it was innocent enough. I was filling my car up with gas on my way to work last Tuesday, and I decided to run in the store for a little "pick me up". Well, 9 days later and I'm strung out, jittery as all get out, my vision is blurred and I think my hair may be falling out. Ok...so it's not that bad, but I am definitely feeling the effects. I keep telling myself that I am only going to drink them through Friday. Just make it through the event, and then I'll go cold turkey. Or maybe downgrade my poison to plain iced coffee...

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Sometimes it feels like someone is pushing a "fast forward" button on our lives. Things are moving at warp speed...and it's only Monday! I have a huge event at work this Friday, and I've been working long days to prepare. My sweet husband is volunteering this week at our church's VBS. If not for work, I would love to volunteer with him. He's in charge of recreation, so there is no telling what he'll be making the kids do this week.

Athan is getting stronger every day - thank you for all your prayers. Ryan and Amberly get encouraging news daily, and for that I am so thankful.

I'm watching "Big Medicine" on TLC - it features a man who weighs 1,000 pounds. Yikes! It is a pretty interesting show. Doesn't hold a candle to the Dog Whisperer though.

On a training note, I am about to kick start marathon training. I did a five mile run in Wilmore on Saturday and it felt great. I felt like I was shedding (and/or sweating) away all of my fears, frustrations, and stresses from the past week.