no wrinkles for me, please

"Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles."

George Eliot

second 5k race recap

Saturday was my second 5k.  I'm sure none of you want to hear my race recap, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

Ran the Run for Hope 5k with hubby, who obviously ran much faster than me.  He may be a little rusty (according to him), but his years and years of soccer training tend to make an appearance as soon as he kicks it into serious gear.  He's able to run much faster than me with much less advance training.

I had mixed feelings about this one.  I was not at all prepared for the number of hills on the course.  Seriously, I didn't even know you could fit that many small-to-medium hills into a 5k course.  It was super painful, since I wasn't prepared.  I was extra winded, couldn't keep a steady time, and got the most painful stitch in my side of my life.

All that said, I did somehow (miracle of miracles!) manage to beat my previous time. Must have been doing something right.  Made it in 31:39. 

Yes, I know I'm still slow, but I'm pretty proud of that number.  I could have beat it by MUCH more if the course/hills hadn't half-defeated me and if I hadn't been almost doubled over in pain halfway through from the awful stitch in my side. Oh well.  I beat the girl in the neon top with perfectly fixed hair, who provided excellent motivation for the last half mile or so. (Who still has perfectly curled hair at the END of a race?! Not me. That's for sure.)

Next up, I want to try a 10k!

Happy Monday!

wimp?

 "Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp, or are you going to be strong today?'"

--Peter Maher, two-time Olympic marathoner from Canada

Running my second 5k tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Boston

You know, when everyone was writing blog posts and news articles and personal reflections about the bombing of the Boston Marathon, I did not.  I didn't know what to write.  Was I qualified to say anything?  I've spent time in Boston and tried to get to know the city, but, though I went to college in Massachusetts, I was almost two hours from the capital city of the Commonwealth. Was I allowed to weigh in?

I had also just started running again, but I'm no where near qualified to write about runners and the pains of marathon runners suddenly caught off guard.  I've never run anything longer than a 5k.  I can't even imagine what the finish line to a marathon would even be like, let alone one so completely changed.

Lucky for me, staying quiet paid off.  A friend of mine put into words what I was hoping someone would: that this is not the way I remember Boston.  I will never ever remember Boston as The City Where That Guy Bombed the Marathon Once.  That's not Boston.

This is Boston.

Enjoy.

carrot fail

Guess carrots aren't my forte. Might need to try again.  They did mature fully and they're a good color, but clearly there's something lacking....

Perhaps I'll try again. Fewer seeds.  And I'll need to do more research (my specialty) to figure out what happened.

tolerable

“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?"

- Henry David Thoreau

passion tea lemonade in a new cup

While on pinterest (a favorite recreational activity of mine), I stumbled across a pin linked to this blog post.  After a quick glance, I realized I had to try to make Passion Tea Lemonade.  Can you imagine a better drink to start summer?  (Well, maybe sweet tea....but this is still pretty high up there.)

I modified her technique a bit.  I used three teabags in the pitcher instead of the whole box, and I left the tea bags in my pitcher while it cooled in the fridge. More time to steep!  My tea was a bit weaker, but still tasty.

When I added the ingredients, I mostly eyeballed it. Ice, two thirds passion tea, one third lemonade.

Boy! was it good!

I'm sure you're all wondering (not really), but that's a new cup!  Hubby and I have been to a few baseball games already this year, and last week they happened to be having a sale on this particular cup.  I'm sure you can all guess how much I love things that are on sale. I had to have it.

It's the perfect size for a tasty summer drink!

live long and prosper

Have you guys seen these kinds of websites?  I somehow found one that predicts how long you'll live.

Apparently, I'm going to get very very old.

My results:

Life Expectancy Results

Life Expectancy: 90.79 yearsLower Quartile: 84.38 years (75% chance you will live longer than this)
Median Lifetime: 93.05 years (50% chance you will live longer than this)
Upper Quartile: 100.10 years (25% chance you will live longer than this)


What's your life expectancy?

Happy weekend!

savannah sunday, part deux

After refreshing ourselves with some pizza, we all (cousins, aunt and uncle, mom, and me) trekked out to see Tybee Lighthouse.  It's gorgeous!  They have a keeper's cottage with furniture arranged in a way similar to one of the actual keepers, an informative video, and you can climb the lighthouse!  Mom and I spent some time in the air conditioning first, but then decided to make the trek of 178 stairs. 

 

 

The view from the top:

 

 

 

The above is a picture of the prism they have in the top of the lighthouse, along with its two bulbs.  The prism is called a first order fractal lens.  I'm not sure of all the mechanics, but I do know it magnifies those two bulbs there and the lighthouse stays lit. 

 

A daytime picture.

Of course, no trip to a coastal city would be complete without at least one abnormally large meal of mostly seafood, and this trip did not disappoint.  We trekked to The Crab Shack and ordered the mostly delicious thing on the menu: the chef special.  Mom and I ordered the size meant for two people -- TWO people -- and this is what we got:

 

 

Don't worry.  Mom and I are pros.  Mom advised not to waste time with potatoes and sausage -- you can get those anywhere -- and focus only on seafood.  Most of the table needed a refresher on how to eat some form of seafood or another, but we tucked in our napkins and got to work.

 

By the end, Mom and I had done some serious eating. This is the end result of our efforts:

 

See?  Pretty awesome, right? I think so.

The Crab Shack also had a gator pit and we were allowed to feed "gator treats" to the animals using poles and string with a bobby pin on the end.  Got a picture of Mom feeding one!

 

 

It was so fun! I've never fed an alligator before, and I doubt I'll have another chance any time soon.  It was pretty sweet.  I don't know what constitutes a treat for an alligator, but they seemed to love them and came to eat willingly.

 

A few more pictures from the restaurant:

 

 

We were tired, but Mom and I returned to the beach later in the evening to do a little extra walking around and looking for seashells. While there, I managed to snap a few pictures of the lighthouse in dusk light.

 

 

 

All in all, I'd call the day successful.  We managed to squeeze in just about as much tourist and local fun activities as any group of seven can manage. 

 

On Monday, we got up for breakfast and to hit a few of the cute stores in historic Savannah (there are so many!) then I caught a flight and Mom began her trek homeward.  It was a lovely, action-packed weekend!

savannah sunday morning

On Sunday, Mom and I got up and headed out for an early start.  This turned out to be a good thing and a bad thing: it was awesome to walk the streets of Savannah in virtual solitude, but it also meant nothing was open.

Never fear! We can walk and look at the squares! 

After an unfortunate debacle with a defunct walking tour app, we decided to sally forth using whatever tour info the app would give us and our handy maps and brochures. I managed to take a few reasonable pictures, which I'll share for your enjoyment or amusement or scoffing or whatever other opinion you have of my mediocre photography skills. 

A view of city hall from Johnson Square.

The lion in front of the Savannah Cotton Exchange on Factor's Walk.

A statue/monument of The Waving Girl.

John Wesley in Johnson Square, I believe (there were a lot of squares.)

After working up a bit of a sweat (oops), Mom and I met up with the cousins and family and headed to Fort Pulaski.  The fort had a medium-sized battle of its own in the War Between the States (that's what they called it in the fort info) and the introductory video there was very informative.  Honestly, the fort is one of the better organized nationals parks I've been to, and I've been to several. 

Anyway, after the intro and visitor's center, we all hurried directly to the center of the fort for a musket firing demonstration!  The young lady (park ranger) doing the demonstration was friendly and knowledgeable and I learned lots.

After that was over, we all toured around Fort Pulaski at our own pace. I got to read all the signs and see all the hidden corners.  I'm a slow museum and monument tourer -- I like to read everything.  I even got to play with two lenses (one of them new!) with all the arches in the fort and the interesting architecture.  I hope you'll excuse a few more photos.

All in all, I'd call the morning quite successful.  We saw several things on our list (squares, monuments, the fort...) and had a good time doing it. We all definitely needed food after touring the fort, and after a bit of confusion and trying to find parking, planted ourselves at a pizza place that had no air conditioning, but did have a tv with baseball on.  The pizza was delicious!

Sunday afternoon recap will be posted soon!

saturday in savannah

The last two weekends have been so eventful! I didn't take very many pictures two weekends ago, so I'll just give you the summary version:

Saturday, May 25, we attended the beautiful and joyful wedding of our friends in hubby's hometown.  We got to catch up with many friends that we haven't seen in a while, and met new friends.  It was nice to go back to the town we both enjoy.   Sunday, we attempted to organize the closet and mostly failed, and on Memorial Day, we went to the baseball game.  Because it was in the middle of the day, the game strangely ended up taking most of the day up and left us with a relaxing Monday evening before the work week began again. 

This weekend, I took many many pictures and can't wait to tell you all about it. I'll probably have to tell you about it in parts, so let's start with Saturday!

On Friday evening, I had flown into Savannah to meet up with my mom and my cousins and aunt and uncle.  We were all there to celebrate the graduation of my cousin...let's call him B. B graduated from SCAD this Saturday and it was super awesome to be able to share the weekend with him and his family! Plus, I got to see my mom and tour a new city in the process. 

Saturday morning, I was up early.  I squeezed in a run, mom and I got ready for the day, and we embarked on our adventure. 

First up?  The Harper Fowlkes House! This old house had so much history! And, we had a docent who was extremely knowledgeable and told us about everything she possibly could.  The tour was longer than we expected, but we learned so much!  

I managed to snap a picture of Mom out on the back porch of the house:

Isn't her dress great?

After we had absorbed as much history and as many "really neat" things as we could handle, we walked a block over to the Civic Center to grab seats for B's graduation. 

Funny story, when B took off his graduation robe, we all noticed a strange coincidence.  Unknown to anyone, B and his twin, C, had each bought the same shirt at the same store, but in two different states and without talking to each other.  How strange is that?! Twin connections!

See for yourself!

Anyway, we finished the day up with a delightful Georgia peach sangria at a nearby cafe, and then a delicious dinner at Garibaldi's a few blocks over! 

Next post: Sunday update.  Hope everyone else's weekends were just as lovely!