The Eugene Half

Since Joe caught us up on an entire year's worth of posts, I thought I should chip in this time and do my part to keep us from a similar situation.  Here's a brief recap of events that will lead us to the half marathon from which we are now recovering.

March was actually a fairly calm month, which we definitely needed.  We spent a relaxing weekend with my wonderful Grandma Marion in Eugene, with a stop for dinner with my dad and his wife, whipped the yard back into shape, and headed up to Washington to spend St. Patrick's day with the Evans side of the family and celebrate Elizabeth's birthday (corned beef was amazing as usual, Auntie M was surprised, and our birthday stamina was possibly not what it should have been, but we all seemed to have fun).  With a few more quiet weekends we ran straight into April, which brought Joe's birthday.  He's got dibs on that post, so you'll have to hear about that later.  Of course there was Easter  as well.  We went to the service at the church I grew up in, which was great, and then headed to my mom's for a delicious dinner with Nancy, Scott, and Grandma Marion.  It was lovely.

As I think about it, March and April have felt fairly crazy despite the empty weekends.  We've also been planning for a vacation we're taking in May with our Alaska friends Meg and Neil. Can't wait!  But this blog's not about that.

So, the half marathon.

You may remember that at this time last year we attempted the Eugene Half Marathon.  We had run the Corvallis Half only two weeks before with a PR and I was having knee trouble.  Only 3.5 miles into the Eugene Half, I had to throw in the towel to save my knee.  Not being one to be bested, Joe and I planned to give it a go again in 2012 and finally conquer the race.  If we had finished the 2011 Eugene Half, it would have been our fourth half in a year and then we took a full year break (I still can't believe tat for some reason.  Am I forgetting something?).  During that time we went Paleo/Primal and our health has improved incredibly.  I'm no longer cold and tired all the time and Joe's joints don't hurt.  As part of that change we've been focusing more on lower heart rate cardio (walking-slow jogging) and really picking up our high intensity interval training along with more serious strength workouts.  We were pretty down on half marathon style cardio (and frankly I'm not sure it's the healthiest option), but I still had the Eugene Half to conquer.  We planned for it to be our last half.

So yesterday we headed down to Eugene to stay the night at my Grandmas.  It also happened to be my Dad's 60th birthday, so 2 sets of Aunts and Uncles and my cousin and her gentleman friend were there too.  We ate our own paleo dinner and went to bed fairly early, but nerves, warmth, and good hydration kept us both from sleeping well.  Luckily, we'd both slept well the night before, which is the night that counts.  I was doubly trepidacious though because my taper week recovery hadn't felt like recovery at all, with lots of muscle aches.  But none of that mattered.  We were just running to finish, not for time.

After a breakfast of eggs, yams with coconut oil, and avocado, we were out the door.  I chatted with a first time marathoner on the shuttle in, we dropped our bags and headed for the porta potties.  There we encountered enormous lines.  Despite being 20 minutes early, we still stood in line to the national anthem and hoped the fence into our corral as it took off.  We were just in time.  A few moments later and we would have been dodging walkers to get to folks who ran a similar pace.

It was a great day for a race.  Though the day ended with sun, the whole race was overcast and about 50.  We plugged along slowly for the first few miles, but slowly realized that our pace was increasing.  We ran faster and faster and faster.  We actually ran negative splits for the first nine miles and stayed well under our average pace for the last four (Perhaps we should have gone out faster).  My mom came to the race to cheer us on, which I appreciate so much.  While everyone else is abandoning gear on the side of the road in the first few miles, I love being able to toss my long sleeve shirt to my mom at mile 2.  But more than a shirt catcher, she's just a great fan.  She's always cultivated her fandom for me by learning more about whatever sport I played, coming to away games if it was even remotely reasonable, and cheering.  You don't get to see much of your athlete in a half marathon, so she really is an especially good sport to come and enjoy watching.  When Joe and I got together, she immediately set out to become a fan for Joe too, and that's just cool.

The race went by quickly (and well.  My only complaints were the water station at mile 10, which was a total bottleneck, and that the bag check was so far away from the finish!  So much for post race photos and being able to put on your warm things so you could hang out!) and before we knew it we were done, chugging chocolate milk, and hoping on our bus to go back to South Eugene and meet my mom for breakfast.

I must say that in the past I've felt like death when I finished halves, almost to the point that I wondered if it was healthy for me to run halves.  I was thinking that it might be an electrolyte issue, so we made homemade chicken broth and had it hot in thermoses in our drop bags at the end of the race.  We also had bananas and nuts.  Much to my surprise, I didn't need any of them!  We just drank the milk and had some water (didn't fuel differently during the race) and were able to wait for breakfast.  I actually attribute that to paleo.  My muscles are sore, but I don't feel sick, tired, or anything I used to feel.  I feel amazing for having run 13.1 hard miles.

My mom waited for us at The Glenwood Restaurant where we had fabulous breakfast skillets courtesy of Mom.  It was the perfect way to wrap up a race.

The rest of the day included running to Men's Warehouse to fix a suit debacle for Joe, grabbing some romaine, and heading back to Grandma's to celebrate my dad's birthday!  We were both pleased to have so much energy left for more frivolity.

I must say though, that only a few hours after our final half, we've been thinking about which to do next.  Hmm...we may have the bug.

2012

See! I told you that we would be better bloggers! We've had some good snow so far this year and even as I write this (note the date) there is still a little snow in the yard from last night's dusting.

Kerry looking fetching in her new hat:
Edward the Snowman, who tends to visit whenever it snows:
One of us about to speed down a hill at Mary's Peak for our sledding and snowshoeing expedition:

Almost a year in review...

So, since our last post was from...well...May of last year, we felt it important to provide at least a quick review of the sundry activities of our lives over the past year. So here it is; a brief look at what we've been up to recently:

This is a picture of us at our friends' wedding in Hood River in July. This fantastic shebang was preceded by a 4-day rafting trip down the Deschutes and followed up with a huge party at their farm a week later. Speaking of said huge party. This is a picture of the lights that we setup for the party in their barn:

Coincidentally their wedding was on our anniversary--yes this year we celebrated our 6th anniversary. Here's a picture of our belated celebration:

It was too long after this that we then were at our friends' farm again to harvest their 80 basil plants, which when combined with 25lbs of Parmesan, a load of cashews, and olive oil you get a ton of pesto--yum.
This last summer we also went camping in Tillamook with Kerry's mom--ask us about the rabbits...

This summer also brought the 40th wedding anniversary of my parents. We threw them a party on the deck of my sister's house in Seattle.


Kerry and I also took a trip to the Japanese Garden in Portland:
And as if we didn't have enough Americana in our lives we also went back to the farm to press some cider...40ish gallons of it!
This fall also brought Kerry's 29th birthday celebration. Here we are with her childhood friends, one joining us via satellite from Atlanta:
Also to celebrate her day, we made a trip to a zipline and climbing course near Portland:
We had a fantastic dinner out as well:
And Kerry was amenable to sharing her mashed potatoes--she really was!

Kerry also finished up her quilt which was a Christmas present for my sister:
Speaking of Christmas...
On the 23rd we decorated cookies in Portland. On the 24th we celebrated in Eugene. On the 25th we celebrated in Puyallup. On the 26th we celebrated in Albany. On the 28th we celebrated in Sun River! Finally, on the 30th we celebrated with just the two of us! It was a haul, but we loved that we got to see everybody!

Kerry, her cousin Kate and their grandma, Marion:
Kerry and Kate:


Joel, Ben, Sarah, Virginia, Marg, Kathryn, Kerry, Joe:
The cookies:
While we don't necessarily subscribe to resolutions for the New Year, we will try to be better bloggers this year!

Green Eggs and...meat

This April I turned 28, and while the year itself is not an especially significant milestone, my reaching it was celebrated with great...well...greatness! As a birthday should be, mine was celebrated in several stages: drinks and snacketizers with friends and coworkers; a wonderful day and dinner at Big River with Kerry; a day with Kerry and her mom, and taco salads and strawberry shortcake, and presents; well wishes via Facebook, the postal service, and email; and a final installment at a recent Derby party with the half of the family that I brought to the marriage. Yes, I realize that I have mis/overused the conjunction, and. But it really was so great, and thoughtful, and fun, and surprising, and...and...and!

Now, what's with the title of this post? Anybody I've talked to since my birthday has probably heard about the Big Green Egg (reverent silence) at least five or six dozen times. The Big Green Egg was this year's big green gift made possible by the contrification (see v. contrive) of Kerry, and her accomplices, the Grandparents Mac, Kris, and Jim and Sue.

This grill/oven/smoker/roaster is truly indicative of the holy spirit, present in the lives of those who work with clay and fire. It is truly how God intended meat and fire to join for the sustenance of human life. I think you get the idea of how I truly feel. In the five or six times that I have used it I have not once been disappointed, and I have made beer-can chicken, pork tenderloin, pizza, another beer-can chicken, another pizza, and other delicious treats.

The presentation of the BGE was perfect as well. Since the body of it is 2" ceramic it weighs in at 140lbs. For that reason I got to help pick it up (literally) from the store. Well done, Kerry, Kris, Mac and Marion, Jim, and Sue! To give you a preview: Thanksgiving will never be the same!

I've been enjoying the various accoutrements that go with this grill as well. I've also started reading for pleasure thanks to the Kindle Mom and Dad gave me. There are so many books that I've thought I should read that I am now getting into. Incidentally if anyone would like to discuss the social commentary H.G. Wells presents through The Time Machine, I feel well-equipped to do so.

It was a great birthday and I felt well loved and appreciated by all!

Sunday Short: Wicked and Food!

Though life is still busy as always, it feels like these last few weeks have had a sense of normalcy to them. It may be because we aren't running as far (not because we aren't supposed to be, or don't want to, but because we can't. Injury issues. We'll see how the Eugene half goes), but regardless of why, it feels good.

I haven't got much to report, but I'll go through some highlights. Last week we were able to help two of our friends move and then watch one of them, and two of his friends, in a sprint triathlon the next morning. Those athletes are impressive. I don't know if we'll ever do a tri, but I'd like to at least be able to do each of the sports in a triathlon competently all at the same time.

On Tuesday of this week we discovered a new restaurant, which prompted me to make a list of everywhere we haven't eaten, but have meant to. We tend to go back to the known places, even though our spirits are more adventurous than that. This place is a Vietnamese Sandwich shop, which is quite tasty. I had a ginger beef sandwich and Joe had BBQ pork. We also split a bao. It was all delicious.

On Friday Joe took me to Wicked. The show was excellent, the company fabulous, and the dinner was tasty (though a bit hurried thanks to restaurant foible). It was so nice to get to go out out and get dressed up.

Yesterday we had an early Mother's day with my mom. She came over early and helped me with some alterations. We made her chocolate cherry cupcakes, asparagus, baked beans, salad, and chicken. Just how we made those things you will learn soon enough, but it really was quite tasty and nice to hang out with my mom.

The Inagural Corvallis Half Marathon

Last weekend (please note the timeliness of this post!) Joe and I ran our third half marathon. When we initially heard about the Corvallis Half, we'd already set our sights on the Eugene Half (May 1) and didn't think that we could do both. We hmmed and we hawed. Corvallis is where we started running. We ran some in Alaska, but we really started running a few months after we moved to Corvallis. We started on the Bald Hill path, and the Corvallis Half was going to retrace those footsteps. After much thought, we decided that we would make the Corvallis Half a training run for Eugene (watch for the Eugene post in May!).

Our long run the week before the half was a 10 miler and at mile 4.97 of our out-and-back, my knee quit via my IT band. There was no warning, no "gosh maybe you should think about turning around before you get as far as possible from home;" it just quit. I stretched and hobbled back a quarter mile, and repeated that process twice. All the while I was thinking of friends nearby who could come pick us up. I gave it one last stretch before I gave up entirely and that stretch carried me three miles. We made it home with one last stretch. It wasn't looking good for the race though. I gave it a good break, ice, NSAIDS, and tried another 5 miler during the week that went about as well. So, we were officially not running for the next four days in hopes of recovering. Now, since Corvallis was supposed to be a training run, this set us up for it poorly. All of a sudden we were tapering in the middle of our training instead of breaking ourselves down. With a good taper in, a knee that couldn't be counted on (now or for Eugene necessarily), good health (also something you can't count on, see Columbia Gorge Half),and a nice flat race, we were flumuxed. The training run for that day should have been a 15k pace. We decided to run our 9.3 miles at pace (assuming we made it that far), and then see how we felt. If we felt good, we'd maintain and shoot to meet our goal. If we didn't, we'd back off and see what we could do in Eugene.

Sunday morning we got up at 6:45 for a superb race start time of 9:30, had our oatmeal and tea and coffee, and headed out to meet my Mom at Gill Coluseum, near the race start where the marching band was playing. Fifteen minutes before the race, we headed to the porta potties, and found an enormous line. With a little luck we found ourselves peeing to the national anthem, and slipping into the group moments before the start. But it wasn't quite that smooth. Runners line up according to expected pace and shortly before the start they all compress together. We made it into line after that compression and the person I asked about the pace had no idea what I was talking about. We just had to hope that we were in the right area. We were shooting for a sub two hour finish, so we were hoping to find our high 8, low 9 minute pace folks. But with the gun, we were off! They played Fanfare for a Common Man, which was awesome and fairly appropriate. Also, we discovered that not only was my mom there to cheer us on, but "the cousins" were too! "The cousins" are officially Joe's cousins, and I have had the pleasure of acquiring them as mine too. They consist of a good number of cousins, but also an aunt and an uncle. Emilie was running the half too, which we didn't know until the day before the race. This was a lucky situation, because not only did we get to cheer Emilie on, we got her cheering section for us too! So, we had lots of cheering to send us on our way.

The first few miles went through OSU's campus, and were fairly easy. The only trouble here was the camber of the road, which was a serious threat to my IT band and knee. We solved that by running straight down the middle of the road-so much for race etiquette. In that section the counsins were there to cheer us on, not once, but twice!

After we roamed through campus proper, we headed out to the trail that runs through the fields and barns, and underneath the covered bridge out to the fairgrounds and the base of Bald Hill. My mom was waiting to cheer us on and catch my extra clothing after we crossed 53rd. We felt excellent as we headed into and along Bald Hill and remembered when those rolling hills had been such a challenge. It was an amazing feeling to run our third half marathon in the place that we had started by run-walking.

Bald Hill lead us out to the extension of Harrison, and this is where I thought I was done. Up until that point my knee had only made brief and light commentary-the sort of thing that would be standard on a normal run to the point that I wouldn't notice it--and I'd been able to baby it by running on the flat portions of the road. On Harrison we had to run on the shoulder in the bike lane. The camber was bad and my knee was pissed. I figured I'd stop to stretch as we turned onto 53rd, and see if I could make it from there, or if I'd have to be responsible (which I hate) and stop. But as we rounded onto 53rd and I looked for a good stretch spot, my knee reported that it was fine, and we went on without a stretch.

We climbed 53rd at a solid pace considering the false zero and were releaved to reach the aid station at the top of the slow hill, and the sharp downhill following. After gluggling our Ultima, we cruised down the hill. At the bottom the cousins drove by and we got another good cheer. Earlier in the race we actually had a fellow runner as us if we'd hired them. :)

From there we hooked into a little neighborhood, paused for a brief stretch, and soon after hit our 9.3 mile mark. Both feeling good, and having maintained an incredibly solid pace, we decided to go for our sub 2 hour goal and keep on keeping on. We then turned right, which marked our return to the finish.

I don't know what it is about mile 10, but it seems that it all feels great (excluding the Columbia River Gorge sick run) until that point. At 10 miles we always wonder what on earth we were thinking. It seemed that the aid station frequency increased in this section though, which helped a whole lot. Before we knew it we could see Reser (the finish) and.....we turned right, away from it. After about a half mile more of plodding, we could hear the announcer and we knew we were headed in.

We navigated the sharp hill into the stadium (killer when your stabilizer muscles have quit), rounded the final corner, and headed for the 50 yard line with the clock reading 1:54! We were thrilled! We cruised over the finish line with a chip time of 1:54:04, and beat our previous PR by just over 6 minutes. A volunteer I knew cheered us on, they took off our chips, handed us water, and we quickly headed over to my mom who had our warm things ready. I've had kind of a rough time lately with getting really badly cold after long runs, so I stripped off my wet things and slammed on my warm clothes. It helped a whole lot. Then we headed up, got our chicken noodle soup and bananas! Next stop was with my mom at the spectator section of the finish. She congratulated us, gave us hugs, and headed back home to run errands. It was so nice to have her there.

Usually we head home after races to stretch and recover, but this race was different. We knew tons of people who were running it, and for many of them it was their first half. It was brutal on our tired legs, but we wanted to stick around to cheer them on. Shortly, my friend Kathryn, who had intended to see the finish (we were faster than I thought) joined us in the stadium with...get this...mexican hot chocolate made with rice milk for us. Excellent race support. The counsins soon joined us and we cheered on finishers. Kathryn headed back home, but promised to meet us for lunch and a beer once we were done.

We watched for a long time, and saw Chris, Emilie, Gail, and Shelley finish, but sadly missed Teresa, Gordon, and Ben. Perhaps they went by in disguise. That's why we stayed so long. We were waiting for people who had already finished! We finally gave up (good thing too) and called Ben and Kathryn to meet us at Block 15 for BBQ burgers (Oh- yes) and our half-weizens (Block 15 gave dollar pints to finishers!). It was fabulous.

We trundled home, showered and watched a movie. It was deliciously relaxing. At 6, finding ourselves lacking the energy to make dinner, we drove to Market of Choice, bought 2 pepperoni strombolis and a piece of white and black cake, then back to the couch we went. It was really a fabulous race. Fabulous! We were so proud and it was great to have other people we knew run too. We also found that we knew many of the fans along the course, and that made the experience even cooler.

Splits:
1-8:51
2-8:42
3-8:45
4-8:53
5-8:53
6-8:38
7-8:54
8-9:15
9-9:08
10-8:47
11-9:00
12-9:21
13-6:53

I do think the course was a bit short, because my garmin only logged 12.75 miles. It could be my Garmin, or it could be the course. I feel alright though because even with another .35 miles, I know we could have made it well under 2 hours.

Postlude: I had noticed after the race that my face was quite swollen. My cheeks were so puffy they pinched my eyes, but I didn't think much of it until the next day when I found myself 3 lbs heavier than the day before. No biggy in the long run, but in one day, that's a huge load of water. My thighs were visibly swollen, and pants that usually went over my bum didn't even make it past my mid thigh. Dressing for work was a challenge, but I pulled it off for 3 bloated days. I'm happy to report that I have returned to my original size. If nothing else, it was definintely a new experience!

Sunday Not-so-Short: Tales of Woe and Spring!

Wow, it's been quite a two week period. I guess it was mostly just the first week that was difficult, but we spent the second week catching up and recovering.

On Monday, after our last oh-so-relaxing week, I learned that I hadn't gotten the job I had really hoped for with our local hospital. The news came in a one line email: the position has been cancelled. I don't know about you, but I like to know more than that. I called for more information, but didn't get a call until that Friday. When I finally did get the call I learned that through the interview process, the team had figured out that what they thought of as a Wellness Coordinator, was a whole lot less than what it could be. They realized that the position they advertised as a Wellness Coordinator position was really much less, and had to rework the PD to accurately reflect that. I think they would have offered me the job because the director said, "I so enjoyed listening to your interview, and I wished that we'd had you five years ago because the position would be so much different today." Wonderful, and ouch. Really, I would have done just about anything for the pay they were offering and it had so many other wonderful things about it that I could have forgiven the job for being uninteresting. Oh well, such is life. At least I know I'm good--I guess.

Tuesday I started the day by burning my hair with....my hair dryer. Now, this takes special talent. Many people accomplish it with curling irons, but I exceeded all standards and used indirect heat. Tip: Make sure to clean out your hair dryer's lint filter. The motor over heats if it doesn't get enough air. Luckily, I only burnt a section, so I just whipped out my best small sewing scissors, chopped off the offensive looking smelly bits of hair and feathered the edges.

That night when we got home, my mom called at let us know that my Grandma was in the ER. We're not sure what happened, but my mom had called her when she got home from work and didn't get an answer. Mom went over and found her fully conscious on the ground, unable to get up, but not too upset about that. They called the paramedics and were off to the ER. We spent Tuesday night watching the exciting scenes of the ER-seriously-and went to dinner with Mom at 11. Grandma had no broken bones, and no bruises, but seemed to have some issue with her leg. The next day I spent the afternoon at Grandma's getting things together with Mom and Nancy (her earthly angel points increase by the day) then Joe and I went out with Mom again for some incredible pizza. Grandma's all settled in the nursing home and doing better it seems, and Mom's working hard at figuring out the next steps.

Add to that one crazy work week and havoc in lives all around us, and we were pretty much spent by the end of the week. We tried to get lots of sleep on the weekend, and have a relaxing go of it, but sleep was not bountiful. Monday night we went to bed at 9:15 with visions of sleeping the whole night through, but at 11:00 our smoke detectors went off. I'm not sure what brand of smoke detector we have, but they are not the "you need to leave the house quickly and with purpose now" variety; they prefer to take the "THE WORLD IS ENDING AND ALL HELL IS DESCENDING UPON YOU" approach, which is actually more paralyzing that motivating. The house was in fine condition, but our nerves were shot. An adrenaline flood in the middle of a deep sleep is rather agonizing. An hour later we were able to consider sleep again.

Luckily, we've had a break in the action since then and have been soaking up the glories of life and spring. I feel like a lot of years, I let the early signs of spring slip by me and miss the anticipation they bring. All of a sudden-poof-it's spring, which is great, but I like savoring the progress. This year we've been doing much better. On our walks and runs I've been pointing out swelling buds, blossoms beginning, daffodils in all their varieties and all kinds of things. The warmer weather is perfect for running and that combined with a great fitness bump we've gotten from our training (local half-marathons) has made running a delight. Our speed work on Wednesday had both of us feeling like we could go faster and longer than ever, and our long run today felt great! Often in training we just feel tired and only catch up to our efforts at the end. It's nice to feel those benefits now, though we'll be getting into the breakdown stage again soon. We also spruced up our yard a bit and it's looking good. We've got hyacinth and daffodils making an appearance, and I think the tulips and a few other things are on their way. I've also been plugging away at my quilt project and making some real progress. Finally, and I'll sign off with this random thought, Joe made the best fish tacos ever last night. I'm completely ruined for all restaurant fish tacos now, but that's okay, because we can have his whenever we want them.

Here's hoping next week continues the upward trend!

Friends from Alaska

When friends that you haven't yet been able to host, call spontaneously and ask what you're doing in a weekend, the answer, for us anyway, is yes. While recovering from a nasty MLK-weekend bug Kerry and I got that phone call and decided that we needed to make a full recovery.

Though Kyle and Abbey live in Alaska, Kyle had a project in San Diego that he was managing. Since they had not yet visited us in Oregon, and since he would be flying through Portland, Kyle and Abbey decided that Abbey would fly down and Kyle would extend his stop in Portland from a few hours to a few days.

We had a great weekend of cards, wine tasting, watching football, eating amazing food, and just lounging about the house enjoying each others' company. We also had the good fortune of celebrating Kyle's birthday while they were here. Here are some photos from their visit:

The four of us post-dinner.

Joe and Kyle looking suave-like:

Kerry and Abbey looking beautiful at King Estate Winery, just south of Eugene.

Our little Town:

Sunday Short: Snow, Ice, and Relaxation

The big events are always fun to capture and seem like things that deserve some sort of record. This week I enjoyed a few small things so much that it occurred to me that a short entry here and there about the everyday things might be nice.

This week was a quiet one. We were both grateful for that because the two weeks before were anything but.

The weather in the valley was crazy though with snow and ice. On Wednesday morning we got up at 5:30 to run our 6x400 interval workout. The ground was wet and it was extremely cold when we left the house. We checked to make sure it was safe, and finding no ice, we went on our merry way. After our warm up and two of the 400s were done, we both felt a sharp drop in temperature which was dramatic enough that we could not attribute it to general chill. Extreme cold became bitter cold, but we kept running. During the next two 400s, the road got slicker and slicker until we could no longer run safely. We walked up to a new street that was much rougher and more runable with ice. On the way we could actually see the water freezing into ice. Small white bubbles would form underneath the surface and you could actually hear it crackling. We did get to the safe road and finished our work out before carefully scooting home. We both thought it was one of the more fabulous morning. We’d never had the opportunity to see the world freeze, and had never considered that the temperature might drop so severely so early in the morning. It was fun and made our warm showers even better.

On Thursday it snowed about 4 inches and OSU, in typical fashion was open. Our run that morning was great too. The snow was sticky and made crunching noises when we ran, but the world was quiet and the snow stuck in our eyelashes. There’s nothing like snow and ice to distract from physical exertion! Friday we were delayed 2 hours and had the lovely opportunity to sleep in. It was fabulous. We both vote that we always work from 10 to 5. The weekend was just as relaxing with pizza night on Friday (yum! Go Joe!), a day of catching up with small tasks and hobbies before going to my mom’s to eat a delicious dinner and play pinochle on Saturday, and a similar day on Sunday topped off with dinner with Kathryn and Ben. We finished the weekend feeling fabulous and I have almost 60 of my 9x9 quilt squares done!

Christmas

With yet another successful Thanksgiving under our belts Kerry and I marched boldly into the holiday season, venturing out the day after Thanksgiving to get our Christmas tree. While I don't think that either one of us would say that we've been displeased with our previous tree selections, until this year we had not sprung for the Noble. Quite frankly though, until this year we had not found the $25 Nobles.

While marriage is full of compromise, one of the things that Kerry and I are fairly agreed on is that a tree should at least go 3/4 of the way to the ceiling, should smell good, and while it should be well pruned, it should not look like it went through the yuletide pencil sharpener. In an effort to find this perfect tree we decided that we might need to leave the city limits (although there are plenty of places in town as the Willamette Valley provides most of the nation's Christmas trees). We turned to the paper and found an intriguing ad which read: Nobles, 12+ ft, $25. As it turns out it wasn't just the 12+ feet nobles that were $25, but rather those that fell within our desired size-range as well. Even with the plethora of trees virtually at our finger tips, it is difficult to find a Noble Fir for what we would consider to be a reasonable cost. This was a reasonable cost.

With that we hit the road ventured about 45 minutes south and met the nice elderly gentlemen who, presumably, is able to offer such affordable trees by up-selling unwitting tree-hunters with hand carved knickknacks. If either of our parents are reading this entry, you'll know that your children are rather particular when it comes to trees. We spent a good two hours wandering the property trying to find the perfect tree. We found it, cut it down, tied it to the top of the Subaru, and once again avoided being up-sold. There may have also been a few comments made by the proprietor about women and tying knots... We'll leave it at that. For those concerned, said purveyor of Christmas joy was still alive when we left the tree farm.

Now, Kerry and I own two sets of Christmas lights for the tree--a white set, and a colored set. Unless one waives his right of selection, we typically alternate between colored lights and white lights. This year we used the colored lights which meant that the white lights were used on the tree out front. We also decided that it was high time we got some other nicely-scented Christmas decorations--a wreath for the front door, clove pine-cones for the table, and one of those tastefully-smelly candles.

This was also the first year that we decided that we would try a new approach to Christmas: going back to our own house each night. We love our family dearly and found that we were exhausted at each stop because we hadn't had enough rest the night before. Generally we'll head to Eugene for Christmas Eve with the McLaughlins, spend the night, and leave between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning to make the 4.5 hour drive to the Evans Christmas in Puyallup. We'll then do Christmas late into the evening, sleep for four hours and make the drive back to the valley for the Will Christmas on the 26th. To make sure the Wills, Evans, and McLaughlins all got the best of us we decided that each night we would sleep in our own bed. I think that our families got the best of us under this approach. We had a fantastic Christmas and felt lucky that we were able to have seen everyone.

Yes, but can we use the table for Thanksgiving?

In one of our previous installments we mentioned what a great find our table was: so beautiful, so functional, so expandable, and so affordable. All we needed to do was refinish it. And while our initial assessment of the table’s beauty, functionality, and expandability remains true, for those of you considering such a project I feel a certain responsibility to share our experience restoring this fine piece of furniture, and that process’s effect on the last point: affordability.

Several weeks before Thanksgiving, which was to be the grand unveiling of the table, we took it apart, hauled it into the garage and started the refinishing process. If you’ve never started a refinishing project it can actually be quite satisfying to pull off the layers of stain and finish and start to see the actual wood. After several rounds of stripper and many sheets of sandpaper, we were able to marvel at the beauty of our table. It’s important to note that we were originally told that this table was made of solid walnut and as such we followed Minwax’s directions for finishing this table with that assumption.

With the table down to the bare wood we began the staining process, all too trusting of the Minwax directions. We applied a thin coat of custom stain mix (per Minwax's directions), let it sit, and wiped it off. What Minwax doesn't tell you is that a thin coat of stain really means no stain at all.

Unfortunately we didn’t discover this until we put the first coat of urethane on over the stain. Within a few hours pin-sized puddles of stain started creeping up through the not-yet-dry urethane. Crap. Confident that our good friends at Minwax knew what they were talking about we followed their sage advice: “Re-strip and sand the table, apply four coats of mineral spirits to the table, and then re-stain and finish.” Once again, those of you who’ve worked with wood have already discovered our grave error—mineral spirits should be used sparingly, especially when the wood with which you’re working is mahogany, not walnut. The wood would not stop bleeding stain!

I’d like to pause for a moment and also share that Kerry and I had been working on a lovely set of chairs while finishing the table. The chairs presented their own challenges to the refinishing process and finally resulted in a trip to the furniture restoration place to be stripped. Did I mention that we were four days away from Thanksgiving? While delivering the chairs (and therefore delivering ourselves from our own personal Hell) to be stripped we picked the owner’s brain about the table. He reassured us that we were close, mineral spirits never should have entered the picture and that we just needed to keep heat and air moving on the table. The table finally dried, we applied two coats of stain, five coats of urethane and it was nearly cured in time for Thanksgiving dinner—dry enough anyway.

The chairs on the other hand were nearly dry the morning of, but since we needed to sit people at our table we opted to put pillow cases over the chairs to ensure nobody’s sweater stayed with the chair as they got up for more pie. But the table, chairs, and our zest for refinishing projects are done.

The table before:

The chairs before:

The naked table:

Kerry putting the recovered seats on the chairs:

The finished chair:
The finished table:

With the table and chairs mostly dry we had a great Thanksgiving and successfully sat ten people around our new table and had a wonderful meal.

Columbia Gorge Half Marathon

The problem with running races is that between the time you register for the race, pay your fee, and complete 90% of your training you’re never guaranteed that you won’t get sick for the three weeks leading up to it. This is exactly what happened.

If you’ve been following our recent posts you know that Kerry got sick while we were in Alaska, I got sick shortly thereafter and up until a few days before the race we were both hitting the Sudafed pretty hard. It wasn’t so much the getting sick that caused the problems it was the lack of training before a very hilly race. Hip problems, knee problems, atrophied muscles, and no sleep made the course all the more challenging. But it wasn’t all dismal.

Kerry’s mom came along for the overnight trip to Hood River, Oregon. She is a great support person to have along on a race. We were able to throw our thoroughly sopping sweatshirts at her at the turnaround point, she cheered, took pictures and even sprang for a room at the old Hood River Hotel. Thanks Kris!

The course follows the Old Columbia Gorge Highway and for the most part is closed to traffic. The first half is entirely uphill and since it is an out-and-back-course the second half is entirely downhill. After the initial hail storm that saw us out of the starting gate we were actually feeling pretty good. Once we hit about mile 7 though, mile 7 hit us. My knee and Kerry’s hip having essentially not exercised for the three weeks leading up to the race decided (without our consent) that they had had enough. In the end we ran the second half (downhill) slower than the first and our total time was about 15 minutes behind our first half-marathon in June. We’re still recovering… What couldn't be beat at this race was 1) the view and 2) the food at the finish. The view of the gorge as we were running was absolutely stunning and not something that you can see by car. The food at the end was also impeccable: Taco Del Mar, locally made soup, hot chocolate, gobs of bagels, and the ever sinful yet salvation laden Pop Tart!

I would argue that had this been our first race, we might be looking at taking up competitive croquet and leaving our exercise for leisurely runs. One of the things that I think we’ve both learned is that running has become a part of who we are—and who we are together. This, combined with a good first race experience means that we’re going to keep racing. While we were recuperating we found ourselves going stir-crazy, not fitting into our bodies just right, and coming home with dining sets (though definitely a good find). We’re already considering potential candidates for the next race.

We’ll definitely have some of the photos up soon, so check back!

Sick-tober

The days following our trip to Alaska were not really all that delightful and in fact, Eleanor was the only one who made it out of October unscathed. She did sneeze once which had my nerves on edge for quite awhile because I wasn't sure we could handle one more thing. First I got the mighty cold and spent three days home from work more or less. On the first day I only went downstairs once and I only did that to say I did. I came right back to bed after about 15 minutes downstairs and I was exhausted from the climb. Joe caught it at the exact moment when I could survive without his help, which was an odd little blessing. It hit him hard, but luckily not as hard as it hit me. For some reason colds always hit me harder than anyone else and like to make the trip south into my lungs all too easily.

On one Saturday while we were sick, we decided that we had to get out of the house. Cabin fever was setting in and we had the itch to get out. We knew we wouldn't last long, so we just picked a few places we wanted to go downtown and decided to meander until we didn't have the energy to continue. We also thought it best not to go somewhere with friends and expose the whole world to our plague. For the most part, we kept our hands to ourselves. On our way downtown we drove past an old antique/crap store that we've driven by many times and I've always wanted to go in. Joe was interested too so we parked and went in. We cruised around and at one point both saw a table we admired. I said, "That's a nice table." Joe said, "Yeah." We kept walking but I found 3 leaves packaged together that said table leaves 5 $165 (There were two other leaves that were loose). I mentioned that it seemed to inexpensive for a table and leaves and wondered if they were selling the leaves separately, but that made no sense. We both thought it would be an amazing price for a table. We kept walking and looking and then left. We have a table; we didn't need a table.

On our way to our next stop I called my mom because I had a quick question to ask her that was not related to the table and yet I found myself talking about the table. After we had left Joe and I had both said again that the table had been very nice. I told my mom that I didn't know why I was talking about the table and in her infinite wisdom she pointed out that 1. our table only seats four, 2. we won't live in our house forever, 3. that is an excellent price for the table, 4. we will need a bigger table someday, 5. that I was probably talking about the table because um...I wanted it, and 6. that she would help us store a table if necessary.

It turned out Joe really wanted to the table too and we could see it as a member of the rest of our lives. I called my antiquing grandma for advice. She gave good advice and my favorite piece was "give it a good shake." So with that settled we turned around to see if that table price was too good to be true. Now, I should say that the table needs to be refinished and that it had no chairs, but $165 seemed like a steal. I asked the woman who owned the shop if the table and 5 leaves were indeed $165. I pointed to the price tag fully expecting her to say that I was missing a digit or misreading the number and she did. She said, "oh no, that's $145." Ok. We'll take it. So soon, two sickies were removing the legs from a table and loading it into their Subaru. It wasn't exactly the calm day we were looking for, but we felt like we struck gold. Here is the table in it's before pictures. It's currently in the garage in the midst of being refinished.



So, once you have a table, you need chairs. After we looked at every antique store in the area, (still sick, we don't know when to quit) we hadn't found the perfect chairs but did find a set of 6 with another table for only $200, which is amazing for chairs. Again they need work, but working on something just makes it more your own. We decided they would be fine for the moment because the table seats 12 when it's expanded and they could be our backup-scatter-around-the-house set for the future and they were still pretty good. Plus if we decide that we don't want them later, we can sell them, probably for a bit more because we will have spiffed them up. The extra table is going that route anyway. We're pretty excited about the chairs because they have cloth covered seats, which initially sounds like a bad idea, but when you consider that you can change them out whenever you want, they are fabulous! We can choose wild and ridiculous fabrics, or cover them with themes for parties! Once we're done with this whole refinishing project, we'll post before and after photos.

So, back to sick-tober. The whole time we were sick, we were pretty trepidatious. We had a half marathon coming up on the 24th. We weren't running and we weren't really able to taper because of that. We had fit in a short long run at Kyle and Abbey's 8-miles, but there really wasn't anything after that. Luckily we'd done 12 miles the week before. But I won't spoil the half marathon story. Joe get's to tell that one.

Wisely or not we did run, and unfortunately we didn't sleep as well as we could the two nights before. That wasn't such a bad thing for the half, but it did catch up with us afterward. We picked up our second table on our way home from the half marathon, exhausted of course, unloaded the car and had a wonderful pizza dinner...oh so good. American Dream Pizza with more sauce, less cheese, artichoke hearts, bacon, and basil. Yum Yum. We even ate it in bed and watched a movie. We had just turned out the lights to sleep sleep sleep when Luke climbed into the cat box, spent 5 minutes, and produced nothing. Ah yes, bladder issue number 3 for the last two years and issue number 2 for the last two months. Awesome. So we hauled our sorry selves out of bed, loaded the new sicky into the cat carrier and swung by our emergency vet's to see Dr. V, who we've seen so frequently now that he may as well be our regular vet. Dr. V is an amazing Dr. who is totally up on the research and likes to explain things. However, at 1 in the morning after a half marathon, I was so ready for the cliffs notes. Which were, not blocked yet, give drugs, watch closely. At 2:00am we were back in bed. Two days later, we came home after work and after having checked on Luke at lunch and Luke welcomed us with excellent energy. We thought all was going fine until (warning this may be more information that all of you want so feel free to skip ahead) there were little pink clumps in the box and he was looking glassy eyed, leaning back and dribbling bloody pee. So just like that we had him back in the carrier and were on our way to the emergency vet where he spent 2 nights and lots of money. He's home now, but we're going back to the vet today to make sure there's no linger infection. Oh, and he's started to sneeze in the last few days. Again, awesome.

Our wonderful cat on his first day home. He was so happy to be back that he hardly stopped purring.

All of that was pretty rough on us. We were both stressed and worried. We were behind on almost all tasks, and as we were trying to catch up we weren't getting much sleep or exercise. We still had lingering cold symptoms and our bodies and minds were threatening breakdown again. But I think we made it through. Truthfully, I'm just beginning to think that today. Let's hope we continue on the up and up.

But as you can see, Sick-tober had its silver lining. We got a table, ran a half marathon, I had an awesome birthday, and we finished off the month getting pumpkins with Virginia and carving them with Ben and Gail.


Here's to Wellvember!

Kerry's Birthday: The Super Husband Strikes again

Joe was very quiet about my birthday this year. I knew he had plans, but he wasn't letting anything slip. As I was getting ready for the day on the morning of the sixth, familiar birthday smells (unfamiliar the rest of the weekdays of the year) began wafting upstairs. I do love the smell of bacon! For breakfast Joe served me bacon and Noah's bagels with my choice of a variety of toppings. I think there may have been a fruit as well, but I hate to admit that that wasn't as memorable.

I went to work, which was kind of amazing. I only recently started working for housing and for the most part people don't know me well. Before I knew it though, one of my new coworkers was standing in the door with a cake! After that the birthday wishes just kept coming. The same coworker had used her cri-cut to make me a fabulous card and had passed it around to most of the office. My supervisor brought me a soy chai, which he had asked me about every so stealthily before. Pretty much everyone who walked by my door that day wished me happy birthday.

At lunch Joe stole me away to a thai fusion restaurant where we had a delicious lunch of a variety of small things. A bit of pad thai here, some pork rolls there...delicious.

I met my dad for coffee in the afternoon and we had a nice chat and he delivered my birthday present. A kindle! Yea!

After work we had dinner at the local Hungarian restaurant with my Mom and Grandma. My mom and I have the same birthday, so we try to celebrate together. The dinner was fabulous, as usual. All day I'd been trying to decide which option to choose. I was relieved to find they had a buffet featuring all the favorites, so I just ate everything!

We went back to my mom's to open presents and have dessert and let me tell you, I struck gold in both areas. My heart's two greatest desires were fulfilled. My mom got me a cowboy hat and it is absolutely beautiful. I was a bit puzzled at how light Joe's package was, but when I opened it I realized that while it was light, it packed a punch. It was a Moose's Tooth pizza box, with a Moose's Tooth menu inside along with pictures of our amazing friend Kyle and Abbey. We were leaving for Alaska in 8 hours! Joe had already packed my bags, arranged for time off work for me, and had a cat sitter all lined up. Oh and the cake was dark chocolate with coconut ganache and ginger coconut milk ice cream (all made by Joe). Yum!

So all we had to do when we got home was go to sleep, or, in typical crazy-we fashion, put all the furniture in the garage so the cats didn't have to stay in our room while we were gone. At 11pm we trying to figure out how to get the couch into the garage and ended up going out the front door in our socks and pjs to get to the garage.

The travel part is never exciting, so let's skip that. Kyle and Abbey had to work Thursday, which worked out fine. We hadn't slept much so we just took a cab to their house, said hello to Kenzie, their dog who remembered us and was bursting with excitement, did some yoga, and went to bed. When they got home, we went to my friend birthday dinner at the Moose's Tooth! So, the Moose's Tooth is pretty much my favorite restaurant ever and has the best pizza I've ever had and possibly the best pizza ever. I think about how much I want their pizza pretty much once a week, so this was a most excellent choice on Joe's part. We went home to a delicious cake that Abbey had selected, raspberry glaze with chocolate and a butter cream frosting. Mmmm...



The rest of the weekend we just hung out. Alaska is a draw, but since we lived there, it's not so much a destination place for us. It's a place where our dear friends live. Joe and I ran, all of us played cards, cooked, got pedicures, shoe shopped, watched Kyle play hockey, played fetch, watched football, and ate and ate and ate. We ate halibut and salmon. We went to Snow city Cafe for salmon cakes and the BOB (best of the benedicts). We had appetizers at Simon and Seafort's happy hour. It was delicious.

This series is taken from an area downtown after breakfast at Snow City.

The Sleeping Lady

Appetizers at a very small table

Two things happened on Saturday. First I got a scratchy and slightly sore throat (foreshadowing great suffering to come) and we decided that we needed to get out. We decided to float the upper Kenai in Kyle and Abbey's raft.

The next day I was notably sick, but who would choose bed over floating the Kenai? So we got up bright and early, packed many many layers, and grabbed bagels, and decongestant at Fred Meyer on our way out of town.

Rafting was fabulous. Kyle was a trooper and shuttled the truck by himself with his bike. When he returned to the launch, we suited up (9 layers for me on top--couldn't move) and headed out for the most beautiful rafting trip ever. Now, it's important to note that Alaska is not always beautiful. The pictures are, but the truth is not. It rains, it's grey, it's dark, it's dirty when the snow melts, and sometimes it's just plain no fun. We were fortunate to have an almost cloudless day (clouds only added for beautifying effect), gorgeous fall colors, and bountiful sun. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Kyle, Joe, and Abbey stopped to fish a few times and I sat like Cleopatra on her thrown. They didn't catch anything, but I think they enjoyed it. Abbey made warm drinks in the jet boil and snacks halfway through the trip. Joe and Kyle got to take a surprise mini hike through the brush to go back and get Kyle's fishing bag that he left on the bank. We didn't see any bears, which was surprising, but fortunate given the mini hike. Don't worry, they had bear spray and left Abbey and me with the gun. Not that I could do anything with a gun; that's Abbey's department.

Joe and Kyle fly fishing

Abbey celebrating being taller than Joe for the moment

We got off the river, grabbed some tea, and headed home. I was exhausted, but thrilled. When we got home I showered to try to get a grip on myself again, but only managed to inflate marginally. While I showered Abbey heated up the bear chili I'd made on Saturday for dinner after rafting. I had planned to make dinner that night, but was in no shape to do it. She generously went the extra mile and made the cornbread I had planned to make because my heart was still set on it. Before dinner I had wilted to the point that I had to actively avoid work not to cry (for no reason other than exhaustion), but dinner helped a whole lot.

The sunset on our way home

The next morning, Monday, we got up to send Kyle and Abbey off to work and say goodbye. Later we packed up and I played the saddest game of fetch with Kenzie ever. She knows when people are packing and is always quite discouraged by the process. We got in our cab and headed to the airport. The trip home was grueling for this sicky, and at Salem I finally lost it and only managed to pull it together again at Jefferson. You'll hear more about the sick stuff in my next post, but the main message here is that I would be that sick any day to get to go to Alaska and have a husband as amazing and attentive as Joe. I just wish I hadn't made all my friends sick too. It was a fabulous birthday and I felt absolutely spoiled and loved.