Thursday, October 29, 2015

Random Thoughts....

1.) This is SO not safe for work....

But it is SO appropriate at times!!!


2.) I'm actually not overly enthused for Halloween this year.  heck, I have YET to visit the Halloween store.  I don't know why either.  Work has been stressful (we always have 2 different lecture series in October that are a lot of work).  I've been limited in my usual stress buster: exercise.  3.) I want to eat all of the chocolate.  I really shouldn't.  But there's candy everywhere!!

3.) I'm currently listening to Black Widow: Forever Red (as an audio book).  It's not a Pulitzer Prize winner, but I'm enjoying it.  In other news, I'm thinking of picking up the paper version.

In a related note:  I'll soon need a new audiobook.....

4.) Speaking of books... one of my favorite authors has a new book.  I bought the hard cover.  I have the audio book.

Apparently sales are so dismal that even through the sequel is at the publisher's, it won't be published due to poor sales.

And that just makes me sad.






5.) I'm rather ashamed that I'm REALLY looking forward to this:

Yes, my shame knows no bounds.

But in other news, I exercised today and it was WONDERFUL!

Edited to add:

I ran across this on Facebook this morning.  I think this is a wonderful idea, not just for kids... but for everyone!


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

I hated to do this...

But this morning I deferred the Massive Medal Half at the Virginia Running Festival.

I hurt myself running the Crawlin Crab.  I thought it was just regular fatigue.

But a week and a half out I'm still having pain when I run.  Heck, I have pain when I walk too much.

I visited my massage therapist.  She's awesome, by the way.  She also has a background in sports related injuries.  She touched the spot where the pain lies, and knew.  I could feel it too.

She proclaimed that the injury seems to be healing.

But this morning I knew that I shouldn't be running a half marathon in this condition.  especially not a half marathon that I wanted to be setting a personal record on.

So my new plan is to start the Jeff Galloway program again, this time in "improve your time" mode.  I'll run what I can, while also working on strength training.

I know that I'm doing the right thing.  But I still feel like a failure.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Crawlin Crab 2015 and beyond

After problems with the weather, the 2015 Crawin Crab 5K and Half happened this past weekend.

Honestly, the 5K was a good race.  I took it easy.  Apparently I needed to take it easier.

Feet into the half marathon, I knew I was in trouble.  My shins and calves were screaming in pain.  By mile 3 I called the Spousal Equivalent to ask if it was OK if I quit.  But I didn't quit.  After the 5K mark my legs started to warm up.  I had long since given up on my run timer.  I started to run blocks, and pick landmarks to run to.  Sadly, that lasted until the 10K mark.  I walked the rest of the race.


I passed the 12 mile mark and saw someone sitting on the side of the road.  It was the SE.  I cried when I recognized him.  he was worried that I was still on the course.  (he mistook 10K for 10 miles.)  He walked me to the straight away, then left to pull the car around.  

I finished the race.  My time wasn't bad.  My legs were screaming in pain.  We rode home.

At home I tried to get out of the car and couldn't.  My right calf muscle has seized up.  We limped in, and thankfully Misty went out on walkies with the SE.  I honestly scooted up the stairs on my
butt when I went to take a shower.  Once clean and dressed in jammies, I warmed up soup.  I ate it in the bread bowl that I snagged from yesterday's race.  I also made myself a smoothie (with Tropical Strawberry Shakeology)  

After long races I seem to have issues with my body temperature.  I'm always cold.  Chugging a smoothie didn't help.  With the help of a warm puppy and 5 blankets, I settled in for a well deserved nap.

The next day I got to visit the Imaging pavilion for the third time in 3 weeks.  This time it was for a breast biopsy.  I was laid on my stomach, with  my boob dangling through a hole and lifted up.  Like I was a car getting an oil change.  it wasn't too painful.  Just very scary. I did come home to some flowers.

All in all it's been a rough few days.  I'm still limping and sore from the race.  The skin of my book is all itchy and raw from the tape.  I can't exercise.  I'm rather cranky today because I couldn't exercise.

I should receive my results by Friday.  And then I can resume my life.  And figure out the next mystery.  I'm on day 75 of my cycle, which is something like 40 days too long.  And I'm gaining weight, and can't seem to do anything about it!


Sunday, October 11, 2015

Strawberry Chocolate Oasis Pie

I wanted to watch the movie Waitress.  renting it would be $3 or so.  The Spousal Equivalent found it at Movie Stop for $1.99.  Score!  Now I own it.

Of course, watching it made me WANT pie.

So I did some googling on the pie that most intrigued me:  The Strawberry Chocolate Oasis Pie.  The character Joe describes it as:
“Just a pie! It’s downright expert. A thing’a beauty … how each flavor opens itself, one by one, like a chapter in a book. First, the flavor of an exotic spice hits ya … Just a hint of it … and then you get flooded with chocolate, dark and bittersweet like an old love affair …” 



Now, of course that's all there is to go on.  So I dug up three recipes:  This one form fallinginlovepie.  This one from Love & Olive Oil (generally held up as the definitive version) And this one from Jingersnaps.

So I decided to make a mixture of each.  (mainly because I gained weight just looking a the Love & Olive oil one!!)

My Version of the Strawberry Chocolate Oasis Pie

Crust:  I used a store bought chocolate cookie crust

Filling:

  1. 1 cup sugar
  2. 3/4 cup butter
  3. 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  4. 4 oz semi sweet baker's chocolate (It was all I could find.  I want to try a more bittersweet kind next time.)
  5. 3/4 cup egg substitute (I had it in the house)
  6. 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  7. 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice 


Filling

  • A whole lot of strawberries, green parts cut off and halved.
  • 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar


Putting it together:

  1. In medium bowl, beat sugar and butter with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, spices and cooled chocolate. Gradually add in egg substitute and beat on high speed until mixture is light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).
  2. Put a bit of the mixture on the bottom of the crust, then press in some strawberries.
  3. I then sprinkled in the vinegar.  Just a bit...
  4. Pile in the rest of the filling.  resist the urge to eat it it with a spoon
  5. put strawberries on top
  6. refrigerate


I need to try it to decide if I need darker chocolate or more spices....

(More to come... after it sets up...)

Friday, October 2, 2015

Buffalo: Canadian wine and all the Wright Stuff, Part 2

Continued from here

Saturday morning we started out to the Niagara-on-the-Lake wineries for the Niagara Wine Festival.  the concept is pretty cool.  Each winery has a wine and food pairing.  It gets people it to spend some money.

We went to the following in Niagara-on-the-lake:


Colaneri winery.  Amazing in person!
  • Strewn- to pick up some wine (they have a wine club membership there)
  • Rancourt- Lobster Bisque and Charonnay
  • Colaneri- Vegetables and pasta and Sauvignon Blanc
  • Reif Estates- Italian Sausage and Riesling
  • Pillitteri-Chicken quesadillas and Viogner
Then we made our way to Twenty Valley
Mike Weir had diet wine

Look at that view!!
What did I learn?  Go with the wine pairing with food.  And LOVE late harvest wines!  And Cabernet Franc Icewine is AMAZING!

Sunday brought us out to the Greycliff Estate.  My dad and his partner are super involved there, so I did the in depth tour!  It's is an amazing place.  Sadly, the cliff is crumbling away, and there's still a lot of work to be done.
Can you imagine spending your summers here?

Monday we did the other Wright designed estate in the area.  The Darwin Martin house is in a word: amazing.  As for the size of it, it's not the biggest, but the design of the place is amazing.  (sadly, no pictures of the inside.  Click the link!)
I now have decided that I need a Prairie Style home
On our way to the Darwin Martin house, we stopped by the Forest Lawn cemetery.  I'm hoping for a tour when I go back to visit!
Frank Lloyd Wright designed this for Darwin Martin, it wasn't built until recently 

seriously, it's a couch....

And a chair!

And an AMAZING monument!
I was in the Buffalo area for 6 short days.  On my last night there we discussed what we'd so when I come back next year.... and bring the Spousal Equivalent!



Thursday, October 1, 2015

Hurricane Joaquin

According to various weather types... the storm could hit us and flatted Hampton Roads...

or it could miss us completely...


See???

As I'm writing this the forecast models are moving more and more eastward.  Which is good!

But this also means that we need to do some hurricane prep at home.  And that we also need to do a bunch here.

I have wine to drink.  Books to read.

And a dog that is SO over all of this rain!

Stay safe everyone!

Buffalo: Canadian wine and all the Wright Stuff, Part 1

This past weekend I visited my father and his partner in sunny Buffalo, New York.  Yes, it actually was sunny!  We had two objectives:  Wine, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
 First up was the Frank Lloyd Wright Fontana Boathouse.  

The structure and design was amazing.  And even more amazing, the building (built in 2007) is actually a working boathouse for a rowing club.


the side.  Wright loves his cantelivers
it's also rented out for parties.
reproduction furniture.

Love the windows!

We hit the Anchor Bar for lunch.  The original home of the original Buffalo Wings!

That night we went to the Skyline Social.  it was held in the Mid Day Club, which is inside the Liberty Building.   Yes, the building has miniature statues of Liberty on the roof.  (that picture was taken form a doorway).

The views were spectacular!!









The next morning we joined the All Wright, All day tour to see the Frank Lloyd Wright Filling Station in the Pierce Arrow Museum.

We got the the museum early, and had a blast looking at all the old cars.


look at the detail!!  steerable from the front or back!

Did you know that they made cars marketed towards women?  Pierce-Arrow has a huge collection of the lady cars!



But the masterpiece of the collection is the Frank Lloyd Wright Filling Station.

it was designed for company in Buffalo in 1927, but never built.


Well, it's built now!
The station from the outside.

Sculpture that echos the spires

The waiting room.  it has an open fireplace.
Later that evening we crossed the border into Niagara Falls, Canada.  We stayed the night at the Sterling Inn and Spa.  The room was amazing.  And breakfast comes right to your door!

We then went to some wineries.  (As you do...)  We tasted some at Jackson-Triggs, Sadly Peller Estates was a bit bought out.. before going to a tasting and dinner at The Trius Winery.

The Menu

I had a bruscetta... sadly, the dandelion pesto was gross...
It's a strawberry and icewine Popsicle....

dinner...

with Red Wine!

Dessert!


A great time was had by all!


I had more wine to drink than I've ever had before!

And more was to come!!!