VRB's- week of December 11, 2009

[VictoriaL]

Posted this on last week's-- when did it become Friday?!?!?!
:o

Wait! I missed Les's birthday???

HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY, LES!!! :)

Thanks for the anniversary wishes, everyone. Yesterday was #26 (#27 of the day we met...).

Since it has been such a hectic few months with the emptying and sale of the train station, etc., we had planned on a romantic getaway but that was cancelled when DH's 89-yo Mom fell and broke her arm a couple of days ago. The days have been flying by as we deal with keeping her comfortable (and fed) until her surgery next week. Then, if all goes well, DH's sister will take her mother home to NJ with her for a month of recuperation. Fingers crossed...

It is 16 degrees out now, with a forecast "high" of 27. It looks like it will be the EB again! After I finish some holiday-related chores and my MIL's laundry...

[TKay]

Vicci - Thanks for kicking us off. Sorry about your MIL. Ouch. I hope she mends quickly. I think it's so cool that you and dh wed exactly a year to the day of when you met. Congrats again.

Les - Somehow I missed your birthday too. Happy belated from me as well. (Cute video!) I guess I've been reading too fast. Speaking of fast, how is your semester almost over already? Wow.

I am shut in today with ds #2. He's home with a cold/mild fever. It's okay. We actually have weather: It's cold and blustery with off and on showers out there. I'm sure the roads are nuts. I mean, this is madness for us. :rolleyes: Was planning a TM run this morning, but may skip it. I am feeling tired from being up with ds, so I'll play it by ear. Don't want to make myself susceptible to getting sick too.

What are your weekend plans, all? We have a holiday party on Saturday, but other than that, we're clear. Oh, and movie rental night is tonight. I love finding a good flick the whole family can watch (there aren't that many out there). We're on Harry Potter number five, but four was so scary, we may have to wait a while. Our older ds (9 y.o.) can handle it. But the 8 y.o? Not so much.

Cheers!

[VictoriaL]

Tkay, I hope that ds is feeling better, and that you both get some quality rest tonight. :)

A friend was coming to stay for the weekend, so I gave the guest room (aka, the Dumping Room) a good cleaning then decorated it. Unfortunately, things were happening on the MIL front today and we had to cancel our friend.

This weekend, and then next couple of weeks, are totally up in the air now.

I finally climbed on the EB around 5 and did a little over 45 minutes (and they were good minutes, my hr was just a tad under what I do on a "usual" trail run).

I'm hoping to do a little baking this weekend, between other much-less-fun things. I shall echo Tkay-- any special weekend plans, all? I can't believe that Christmas is only 2 weeks away...

[Kathy B]

Well, I worked yesterday, but I did rack up 10K steps on the pedometer (it was quite busy!). Today was weights and a long walk with the dogs. The next two days will be mostly sitting as I am heading OOT with my sister and niece for a funeral that is 9 hours away. I'll wear my pedometer, and we'll see what I can manage.

Hope you had a nice anniversary, Vicci. How did you end up spending your day together? And what did you bake? I did a lot of baking the past few days too. I posted a review of a couple of the items on the 4 page cookie thread.

Tkay, hope DS#2 is feeling better and you had a chance to catch up on your sleep. What movie did your family decide on? DH and I watched State of Play this evening. Pretty good, but not what I expected. I guess I didn't pay close enough attention to the previews!

I'll check back in when I get back and have something to report.

[Natasha]

Wow, tons of views but hardly any activity on the thread yet this week! Everyone must be busy.

Kathy, hope you had a safe road trip! I really enjoyed State of Play. We watched two movies this weekend, both library finds: Stone of Destiny and In Her Shoes. Both were quite good.

Vicci, hope your DH's mom is doing better.

TKay, how is DS2? Are you both more rested? What did you end up watching? How was your party?

Hi to Les, Susan, and everyone else.

I ran and did weights yesterday. Today it's kind of gray and wet. We plan to go swimming after an early lunch.

[TKay]

Happy Sunday, runnahs.

Ds#2 is feeling better. What he had has turned into a cold and not much else. The fever's entirely gone. We ended up watching Karate Kid 2 Friday night. The boys loved the first one. The second was laughable (not that the first one was cinematic genius), but they still enjoyed it. It was a fun family night.

I ran on the TM yesterday while dh rode his spin bike. It was fun. We've had rain here, so he's missing his weekend training rides (he hates riding in the rain).

Nat - Did you get in that swim?

Vicci - Great that you got in some quality time on the EB. What did you end up baking?

KathyB - Good job on the 10K steps. Sorry about the lengthy funeral trip. I hope all goes well.

Hello to everyone else. Hope you're enjoying a wonderful weekend.

[Leslie Ferguson]

Darn it - a spammer in our thread. :mad: Reported!

Ramping up for the last week of classes - two papers left: one 15 page paper due Thursday and a 4-6 page paper due by Monday next week (8 days).

Spent a long day at church, getting ready to read a little as refresher for the 15 page paper.

Hope to make more substantive comments later.

Happy trails,
Les

[Robyn1007]

Hi all!

Tkay, glad DS is feeling better.

Vicci, I hope MIL is feeling better.

Natasha, nice to see you back here. :)

Kathy, sorry you're having to attend a funeral but nice that you have some family with you.

Les, good luck on the rest of your semester.

Pixelman, get lost. :p

Well, I'm back into my coaching season and so far so good. I've got an interesting but good group of kids this season. Had my biggest scare of my coaching career yesterday when a kid fell asleep on the lift. :eek: I had visions of the guy slipping off the lift before I could catch him when I realized what had happened. It upset me so much that it made me want to throw up. :(

I've been getting in a good amount of running. I went on vacation to Ft. Myers Beach Florida a few weeks ago and ran, boated, kayaked and jet skied. Lots and lots of fun. Last week it was frigid around here (-36 degree windchill one day when I woke up) so I was forced onto the treadmill. I know some of you enjoy it but it's misery for me. Especially since I can't control the tv's at the gym. In fact one day I was 5 minutes from the end of my run, a story was coming on the news about a 13 year old swimmer that I thought would be appropriately inspiring when one of the workers just changed the channel. :mad: Uh, maybe between shows would be a better time to do that.

Anyhow, today I met a friend of mine who is training for a marathon next month for a run. She was doing 18 so I met her for the last 5. She ran me much harder than I'm used to in the beginning so that combined with tired legs from a full day of skiing yesterday meant that the last 2 miles were really tough but with my warm up before meeting her I did 5.3 miles so that was great.

My goal through the winter is to get somewhere between 12-15 miles per week whether that all has to happen on weekdays or if I can squeeze in a Sunday run.

Anyhow, nice to see you all!

[SusanMac]

Happy new week runners! It's good to be back. As I type, we've just started a beautiful snowfall.

Well, Orlando was.....Orlando. Hopefully I don't offend anyone, but it's just not my thing. Definitely not a foodie town. Our Israeli colleagues who arrived early ate at Outback and Chili's and we had to explain things to them. If you're not from here, you can't really tell what's chain food and what's not. Did have some stellar Cuban food one night, and a great seafood dinner for our high-end dining night. In fact, I looked back & realized I ate fish every single day :-) I got in 2 runs. Both were short, but at least I did them.

Yesterday was 60 minute run. Harder than it should have been! Hoping to get on a regular schedule this week. With last week's snowstorm, we finally set up the bike trainer, so I hope to start that for some x-training, too.

Les - Happy bday!
Vicci - Happy #26!
Robyn - so excited for your new ski school season! Joining your marathon friend sounds like a fun way to get a workout
TKay - we just watched HP & Half Blood Prince last night. I am the biggest HP book & movie fan on the planet, and think this one missed the mark. It's quite slow and very dark. Your kids might not like it.
Nat - I'm off to look into your movie rec's. Does DH (or you) have any fun races on the calendar for next year??

My quest this week is new scooters! I've been saying that for weeks now

[VictoriaL]

KathyB, a nine hours' drive? I'm tired just thinking about sitting for that long. I hope that you are at least able to get out for a walk or two while you are away. Good luck!

Nat, I have to ask, since you are talking about movies, if you have seen Men With Brooms? :)

Tkay did you and DH "race" while running/ biking indoors?! ;)

Les, you're certainly being put through your paces, aren't you? But this all will be behind you an a few short months...

Good to see you again, Robyn. Yes, a -36 windchill would have certainly sent me inside as well. I don't know , though, I would have been tempted to yell at the worker at the gym who changed the tv channel just as something interesting was coming on...

Welcome back, Susan! At least Orlando was a good place to run, if not necessarily to eat... (not counting the Cuban food and seafood, of course).

I have to mention something about our anniversary last week. It wasn't the most exciting one we've had, we did a little Christmas shopping then had to go to the MIL's apartment for a few hours of cleaning, gathering laundry, changing the bandage, making dinner... :) But we did go out to breakfast that morning and in talking with our waitress I mentioned that it was our anniversary (actually, DH was trying to talk me into ordering the chocolate chip pancakes since it was a "special day", so she asked...). After we ate and the plates were cleared (those pancakes were incredible), the waitress and the diner owner come over, sang us a song, and showered us with confetti! :) They probably didn't realize that what they did was the best part of my day! Oh, until the champagne and chocolate baklava that evening...

Anyway, I've been baking like a fiend because it relieves stress! My friend arrived one day and we spent 8 hours making -- the aforementioned chocolate baklava, chocolate-stuffed biscotti, raspberry linzer shortbread, cherry almond brownies, eggnog fudge, chocolate-peanut toffee, toasted coconut marshmallows. I followed that with making more brownies (where did the first batch go?!??!), biscotti with dried apricots, dried cranberries, and pistachios; eggnog cookies, anise pizelles, and chocolate peppermint cookies.

I've forced myself to go out every day, if not to run then to at least walk for a half hour minimum (that should keep most of the calories which I'm consuming at bay, dontcha think?). Today DH and SIL took MIL to have her pre-surgery testing done so I stayed home and went out for a 4-mile run. It felt fantastic!

SIL, who lives in another state, will be staying here with us while MIL is in the hospital Wednesday thru Friday, so I'm off to plan menus and a grocery list.

[Leslie Ferguson]

Les, you're certainly being put through your paces, aren't you? But this all will be behind you an a few short months...
You could say that - and you're right, it will all be over way too soon. But there's still comps in 3 weeks. :rolleyes:
Robyn. Yes, a -36 windchill would have certainly sent me inside as well.
I'm with Vicci there Robyn, -36 is definitely cold in my book. Good to head inside and I hope you can keep up on your running goals over the winter.
I have to mention something about our anniversary last week... After we ate and the plates were cleared (those pancakes were incredible), the waitress and the diner owner come over, sang us a song, and showered us with confetti! :) They probably didn't realize that what they did was the best part of my day! Oh, until the champagne and chocolate baklava that evening...

Anyway, I've been baking like a fiend because it relieves stress!...
That's sweet about the serenade. I bet it made your day. You definitely have been relieving stress haven't you. Good to get a run or two in.

Welcome back Susan and Robyn. Howdy to the rest of the gang.

Spun this evening after spending a ton of time inside today working on the big paper and 3 hours of class. Only 2 classes left (of instruction) and 2 projects. Then I'm off until Jan 4. :)

Clean up time and hopefully to bed earlier tonight.

Happy trails,
Les

[TKay]

A quick hello from me. I've taken an unplanned couple of days off. Nothing bad, just overscheduled.

Robyn - So nice to see a post from you. Congrats on the start of the season. And yikes about the kid falling asleep on the lift. :eek: Your weather sounds, well, unimagineable to me. I don't know how you people with real weather cope.

Susan - Welcome back. Sorry the food wasn't better on your trip. Bummer about HP and the Half Blood Prince. I was hoping that one would be good. Too much for the kids yet, you're right.

Vicki - I did run longer when dh was on his spin bike, but I don't bother getting competitive with him. He's way too eager to win. :rolleyes: Sweet about your anniversary b-fast. Careful with the baking. You may waste away to nothing. :p

Les - I can't believe another semester is almost over for you. Whew! Glad you're still managing to get in your spins and whatnot.

[SusanMac]

Vicci - good gosh, what the heck do you do with all of those Christmas treats??

Les - very excited for your countdown to Christmas break! Will you be giving any holiday sermons, or do you have a break from that as well?

I can report my first bike spin of the season! Woo hoo! Just as exciting as I remember to spin, spin, spin in the basement & never go anywhere. But, it was definitely good for my legs. And I can get caught up on Heroes (DH is ahead of me, so we can never watch it together).

[Kathy B]

Weights for me this AM plus a solid 45 min on the TM. After 2 days sitting in the car, I thought I'd be right back at it yesterday, but instead I slept in pretty late and then spent the day catching up at home.

The drive was actually not bad. I rode with my sister and niece, and it was good company.

Easy to get overscheduled this time of the year, Tkay. Just get it in when you can and don't stress about it!

What a nice anniversary breakfast Vicci! I had to laugh when I read about your day. We spent our last anniversary at a college football game that was going very badly (our team didn't even score a first down until the third quarter), and it was FREEZING. We stuck it out, though, because the band was performing at half time and also after the game. Only they didn't perform after the game because it was too cold....after we had sat there shivering the whole 2nd half just to see them! :eek: We gave DS a very hard time about that, believe me! :p

Hi to everyone else! Hope your holidays are shaping up nicely. :)

[VictoriaL]

Wishes for lots o' mental and physical energy going out to Les! :D

Tkay, enjoy the down-time!

Just as exciting as I remember to spin, spin, spin in the basement & never go anywhere.
Susan, was this being said facetiously? :p
I feel the same way with the EB, although the NordicTrack was much worse!

Glad you had a good trip and returned safely, Kathy. You know, I have friends whose daughter is in a college band and they pay $80 per ticket just to see her at halftime! You band parents are a dedicated lot!!!

DH and SIL have been with their mother at the hospital today, and she went into surgery late (4pm) so it looks like a long, lonely evening for me. I shall bake! The house is way too clean, and all decorated, so how else should I deal with the waiting??? BTW, Susan, I try to give everything away. Cookie trays for everyone!

I did get in 4.5 miles today. It was about 25 out, but I like to run the trails better when the mud is mostly frozen rather than sloppy-wet.

How's everyone else doing this week?

[Robyn1007]

A quick drive by here. I did a couple miles on Monday which were tough, my legs were definitely spent from Sunday's run. Took yesterday off and did 3.2 miles today. Today's was an out and back with the uphill the out so it was nice to feel really strong on the second half of my run for a change. And actually I started to feel stronger for the last few tenths of the out. I did figure out that too many Good n Plenty candies don't do my tummy good during a run. Oops. :o

[Leslie Ferguson]

Stumbling in...
18 pages done... bleery eyed... can't even type.
Time for bed.
Maybe tomorrow morning I'll be able to determine if what I finished writing today (all of about 10 pages) is even coherent. Regardless, there isn't much more I can do with it - it'll have to be what it is.
Nite!
Les