Merry Christmas!!!

...From All of Us!!

View from the Couch...

Philly Marathon....

...well not exactly the time I was looking for BUT this was a great marathon...well organized and supported...I ran smart with what I was given on Sunday and fueled spot on so I'm going to give myself an "A" for effort....plus the weather was fantastic and I got my picture taken with Rocky...thank god they moved him to the bottom of the stairs...I was prepare to get up them if I had to, but alas he was at the bottom and my legs weren't going to complain about that! Great weekend with friends...and more importantly with the fam...a little early turkey day celebration and a beer and I was out by 9pm! Happy Thanksgiving week!!

A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste....

....especially when you are driving "right" by.....

Attention TPH...

TPH...and those honorary members...I think that 2010 needs to be the year of the comeback...now...Who's with me?????

Weekend Projects...

Home Depot Bucket use #300...the elevated dog dish... ...The pieces....

...Starter hole for the roto-zip...

...roto-zip ready to zip...

...after the whole is cut....

...on the bucket, waiting for the dish....

...silicone to the dog dish....

...something to hold it down while it cures for 24 hours...

...finished product....after waiting for a few too many months for the hubby to make something wooden, this was my compromise...he originally told me it was a little trailer park...but really, for 4 bucks I think it's a stroke of genius!! Plus now when we travel with the doggies, they have their own luggage to carry food, leashes, toys, medications and treats...can't forget the treats! Hope everyone's having a nice weekend! :)

Move Over Rainmaker...

Just Kidding!! But in true DC Rainmaker fashion...a food post! Ever wonder if the recipe in the magazine tastes good?? Well tonight I decided to try out a recipe that was in this month's Runner's World...and boy it was good...I'm pretty sure it's gonna taste even better tomorrow night with crusty bread and some fresh (read that hasn't been sitting open in my fridge for the past 2 years) red wine...bon appetite!

Happy Almost Friday...

Just a quick update so that the parentals don't worry about my state of alivedness!! Week two of graduate school and I've already completed and emailed off my first assignment...thanks to the mom for some proof reading and the big sissy for the last minute citation consultation...darn APA format!! So other than my sudoku addiction being replaced by school reading and papers, things are going...busy, but going...it's been raining here for days...so much so that on Tuesday I decided to build an Arc! Yeah I know...gardens, pickles, salsa and now an arc...where do I find the time! Seriously though I'm hoping for some drier weather as my running is behind schedule...and we all know that that's no way to run a sub-4 hour marathon!! So with my computer battery almost dead and happy thoughts of building arcs, I'm off to get some sleep...hope everyone has an awesome Friday...and a great weekend!
:)

Labor Day Weekend...

Labor Day Weekend in VB means only one thing...The Rock and Roll half marathon...ok, well it probably means a lot more, but if you want to run a flat half marathon in hot and humid conditions, then this is the race for you!! Seriously...I was glad that Elite racing finally decided to hand out technical t-shirts for this race...I mean really, if you are charging people close to the price of an Ironman the least you could give them is a technical shirt!! But I digress...this weekend was full of visiting family and...drum roll please....Dogs!! I know, imagine that, on this blog there would be a picture of a dog....shocking!!
First the cousin and her family blew into town for the half marathon...we ran the perfect half marathon...well paced, negative split and best of all a big 15 minute PR for the cousin...Woo hoo!! Unfortunately the fireworks were allegedly better in Knoxville than the Black Crows...so the TN gang blew out as fast as they blew in Sunday post race...really, even if the fireworks were cancelled they were better than the Black Crows...I'm not one to be less than positive about things but this was by far the worst concert I've been to...aside from the rocking harmonica solo, the band did little for me or the crowd...maybe if we had all dropped some acid ahead of time it would have been better...but that would have been a LOT of acid!! Sorry BC...maybe next time you'll sing more than 5 minutes AND do an encore...but your hippy hair did look FABULOUS blowing in the wind! :)
Our doggy visitor rode down on the boat with her mom and dad...she's like our third dog child and obviously she wasted no time at all getting all settled into her futon throne! Queenie was very happy to stay in air-conditioned and carpeted splendor for several days while her humans tinkered on the boat...despite the nasty boating weather, there were fish that were caught...or at least tales of fish being caught because goodness knows I didn't even see a scale let alone a fish attached to it!!

Otherwise school has started and I'm getting back into the swing of things...although on-line classes are certainly different than attending classes but I could totally get used to lounging on the couch in my underwear watching class...it's a hard life but someone's gotta do it! With that I'll leave everyone with well wishes and hopefully now my mom won't tell me on facebook that I'm ignoring my blog....really Patsy, it's hard to maintain both!! Bye! :)

A Question for the Big Sissy....

DID YA BRING ONE HOME FOR ME??????!!!!!!!!!

This week's visitors...

taking the plunge...

...can't believe I did this, but I joined facebook today...so make me your friend people!!

Mutant Cucumbers...

Salsa Sunday...

Salsa Sunday...started with the past few days tomato crop...yes Dad those are all from my plants the past few days...eat your heart out!! (Although if you were closer, I'd share) ...First order of business was to remove the skins from the tomatoes...after much searching of the internet I found a nice little trick that was so simple and cut my chopping time down to nearly nothing...first you dip the tomato in the hot boiling water....

...30 seconds later you dunk it in ice water and waala...skins slide right off...it was awesome!

....skinned and chopped up into the pan they went with the other salsa ingredients...while we simmered away I got the jars ready...

...and BAM! I've got salsa....perfect!

...Hope everyone is having an awesome Salsa Sunday...marathon training starts tomorrow...YIKES...I'm not sure the track will remember my name! :)

more pickles...

So, today was bread and butter pickle making day...an official holiday...or maybe not...but with the abundance of cucumbers from the garden I needed to do something!! So I chopped up a couple onions and cucumbers and sprinkled them with pickling salt and soaked them in ice water for a couple hours... ...while they soaked, I cleaned a couple of quart jars... ...then I mixed the rest of the ingredients up in a pot...originally thinking my pan wasn't big enough, I cut the recipe in half...in the end though I ended up making a batch and a half to fill all the jars...

...I then got the hot tub (aka water bath canner) boiling, put the clean jars in to warm up and sterilize and drained the cucumbers and onions...isn't this great...just like television...three pictures later I'm already draining...that would be a 2 hour warp if anyone's really interested!

...I then put the cucumbers and onions in the bread and butter mixture and brought it back to a boil....filled my jars up....put on the lids...and put them in the hot tub to soak for a little while...

...and presto...PICKLES!!

...I'd like to think of them as jumbo bread and butter pickles...thank goodness the hubby put some of the other cucumbers in the downstairs fridge where the temperature control is questionable at best...just in case you are wondering, freezing a cucumber isn't really good for it!! Otherwise I'd still be making pickles...tomorrow is salsa making!! Hope everyone's having a nice weekend! :)

The Big Sissy's Long Awaited Race Report...

...or How I Broke My Foot in Two Places....
...or How Much Running in Soft Sand is Too Much???...

All of these would be fitting titles to the Big Sissy's RR...but we'll let her rant for a bit....


If I were in charge of the world (which I am not-but she is striving towards) all races would be planned with common sense and the non runner in mind! (again, a reminder that the thoughts expressed here are solely the writers and may not be confused with the blog's owner's own love of running!!) So after we picked up our excellent race packets, which were the highlight of this race, we learned where the Five Guys Burgers and Fries along with the PetSmart are located in New Jersey. Being a dog owner myself I have to say that the information on where the PetSmart was located along with the location of the 24/7 emergency vet could be potentially useful information but I digress. Race packet pick up was very smooth which considering it was 4th of July weekend at the shore was amazing because it could have been a giant nightmare!
We arrived at the race site only to discover that the racks (at least some of them) were numbered wrong. (I think this was only the 10 or so numbers that the Big Sissy fell into, but I for one was confused when after seeing the mis-marked racks couldn't find mine...) So I set all my stuff up and then had to move all my stuff again. Not so horrible but I should have known then. As we got our pre-race directions we learned that the race was going to start ½ mile from the transition area and then go another 400 or so meters down the beach. Now, there are 80 blocks of beach in Avalon and I understand that some people had trouble last year with the current and ran into the peer but again…there are 80 blocks of beach. After a lovely week of water temperatures the wind decided to change on Saturday and so the water was COLD and I don’t just mean a little cold I mean freeze your feet off, can’t breathe cold.

We need to get you a wetsuit Mooch...

Like any good swimmer would do, I simply swam like the little old ladies who didn’t want to get their purple hair wet at the pool in the summer. My old lady breast stroke was still faster than most of the people’s regular swimming but then we hit the beach…now we have to RUN back to our bikes in the loose sand (see map...I think she's referring to the map I posted previously...) Any advantage that I gained in the water was VERY quickly lost as I trudged back to my bike. you passed this guy trudging!!

The bike was a scenic three loop course, like my sister my ADHD kicked in and by the middle of the second lap I was completely bored but I did notice some very cute doggies along the way who were passing time with their people watching the race. The helpers were cheerful and helpful which is always nice. Not too many bike complaints except that again, you have 80 blocks of beach maybe there was a way to stretch the bike route out so that you didn’t have to do 3 loops but again…

But you're smiling here!!

...next was the run and thanks to the piping plovers (adorable little endangered birds that they are) nesting on the boardwalk we got to run on the beach at high tide. I could again say that there are 80 blocks of beach and PAVEMENT in Avalon but you get the idea. WHY ON EARTH DO YOU RUN ON THE LOOSE SAND FOR THREE MILES WHEN THERE IS A PERFECTLY GOOD PAVED STREET??? Less than ¼ of a mile into running in the loose sand I ditched my shoes and ran barefoot for the remainder of the race. It is completely demoralizing to pass the finish line 3 times especially when you are slow like me. But I did finish and the ice cold towel was a very nice consolation prize. Nic’s beach towel was way cooler. As a total positive they had CHOCOLATE MILK at the finish which was great and REALLY COLD (like the ocean) and since I didn’t swallow any salt water or work hard enough to puke it was sure tasty!!! Since I couldn’t walk on my screwed up ankle (which later turns out to be a broken in 2 places metatarsal bone...) which was now even more screwed up thanks to three miles in loose sand, my very kind sister the nurse went in search of some ice. This turned out to be a much larger challenge than one might think and again proved the value of the ice cold towel at the finish. Anyway, couldn’t get out of there fast enough and for sure I wouldn’t do the race again, even with the awesome packet stuff because I really do think common sense shouldn’t be so hard but hey what do I know?! Some nap time on the beach and a walk in the water to ice my foot finished the afternoon for me.

Nice Puke-Free Finish!!!

Congrats on a great race despite the broken foot and all...I think that ranks you pretty tough in my book!! And a shout out to Dad for the great pictures...although he failed to capture my pukey finish photo, he did a pretty good job getting all the other highlights...or at least some good pictures of the lady in purple he thought was me!! JK...luv your skillz DAD!

Busy-ness...

I need to show my blog some love!! I'll have the Big Sissy's race report up soon since she finally sent it to me...but first I must edit because we all know about the dog (who has made a miraculous recovery...thank goodness) and well because it's my blog and for once I can print what I want...call it repressed pride of authorship for all of those Christmas letters I wrote that were hilarious only to be edited to a more tame and way less funny outcome because someone didn't like something I said!! :) I promise not to butcher it too much Mooch.

I spent this week slowly getting reacquainted with my running shoes...and by slowly I mean after 10 days I finally went for a run...and of course I chose the hottest most humid day to venture out, but I lived to tell the tale and I wasn't even too sore the next day, so we'll classify it as a success...but the reality is I need to get back out there and start getting some base miles in before marathon training starts in full at the beginning of August...this is so against my procrastinating tendencies...so maybe I'll start tomorrow!

For today's project I made pickles...random I know...especially since I've never made pickles before let alone canned anything BUT from my initial (completely amateur) opinion, I think I did a good job...it appears I ended up with a good seal on all 8 jars...so in a couple of days we'll see how they taste. The garden is doing so well...I never imagined I'd enjoy it so much or have as many cucumbers as I do...next year maybe I'll plant some cucumbers that are supposed to be made into pickles, this year we'll just have to improvise! The tomato plants have a million green tomatoes which are all of a sudden turning red in big numbers instead of the one or two every few days I've been getting...just yesterday this is what I picked... ...and the most exciting news is that I've got baby green peppers!!! I'm so excited!

...aren't they cute?!!? I'm already planning for the fall and next year so that I can better use the space I've made...but an expansion is definitely in the plan...especially now that I'm a master canner (spelled correctly just for you Lee!!!)!! Ha! Hope everyone had a great weekend! :)

New Jersey or Bust!

Well I think our long weekend would be described as a Bust! Maybe we should have taken the closed due to flooding tunnel as an omen to not make the trip....or maybe we should have considered the resulting 15 mile back-up at the other tunnel a sign...but silly us...decided to change plans, meet Geek some where in MD to return the puppy and continue our trek up the Eastern Shore to NJ...only to land here less than 30 minutes after our arrival to the parental units....Yes that would be the emergency 24 hour vet hospital!!! In keeping with my strong sense of fairness, Jack decided that he too needed some emergency surgery...fortunately with a lot of luck and the quick actions of his well trained owners, his bout with GVD (aka Bloat....180 degree flipped stomach, filled up with air...) was successfully resolved with surgical intervention by Dr. Jessica. Needless to say, we are so thankful it was successful as we were in no way prepared for the alternative. 48 hours after surgery...when he decided he would eat for us instead of the great hospital staff that took awesome care of him, he was released back to us for a little R&R and the salvage of a nice last day at the beach...which was spent swimming, running, biking and running...at a little race called Islandman.... ...I'm going to let my sister rant about this race...mostly because she chose it, but let me just say, I disagree a little with this particular course but I'm sure that the race director had good reason why it was organized as it was...however it involved a TON of running and a good deal was on softer sand...which I know is unavoidable when doing a beach triathlon...but starting the swim away from the transition area and then swimming even further down the beach just didn't make sense!! So with that little explanation, here's my quick race report...ocean swim...a little choppy but with a good current it was very quick, not that you could tell that from my 11+ minute time for the 1/4 mile swim but really the fastest woman's time was 8+ so I'm not too disappointed....most of my 11 minutes was spent running from the swim exit to transition...I think they could have lessened the blow of this largely soft sand run to transition by having another timing mat at the swim exit but everyone did the same race...on to T1 which was mostly uneventful for me...I'm never super fast but this year I've really mastered having coffee and scones in transition so my just over 1 minute time pleased me especially since I opted to remove my wetsuit once I got to my bike....and speaking of the bike...it was a lovely 3 loop 12 mile ride...it was enjoyable but really hard to remain legal with 400 racers in a 4 mile area but surprisingly few penalties were handed out...and luckily I was not one of the lucky ones receiving one of those even though I was convinced I had incurred one trying to pass a couple guys that were already blocking the guy I was trying to pass...it was ugly but I was pleased with my time of 38 minutes and some change but grossly reminded that my ADHD can really only handle two laps tops!!...T2 was also uneventful...despite that others tell you not to talk to anyone even your parents I had a nice quick conversation with my mom while changing shoes and quickly got on my way to run in some more soft sand. Originally this run was described as a 5K beach run on the boardwalk...but thanks to some nesting Piping Plovers it was run entirely on the beach...and I'm pretty sure the boardwalk in Avalon, NJ isn't very long so it would have been a lot of circles to get 5K...not that passing the finish line not once, not twice but three times before actually finishing was much better!! Despite the sandy run and my awesome vomiting at the end of the race (UGH...think I swallowed a bit much salt water during the swim...) I actually managed a 25 minute 5K which I thought was ok...in all I finished 4th in my age group netting an awesome beach towel prize. And while I have been there done that on this race, considering its reasonable price tag the goodie bag, technical t-shirts and prizes were really awesome....and best of all an iced down towel as a finishers medal...I love useful gear! So with that a few more pics from the weekend....

The Boys Chillin' after Jack's Return Home

The Big Sissy and I in Transition

Off We walk to the Swim!!

...I'll have more pics for the Big Sissy's guest race report...but until then hope everyone's having a great week! :)

Dear Dad...

Life here is rough...they make me sleep in their tempurpedic bed...on the fleece sheets...with a fuzzy blanket...in the air conditioning and under a celing fan....but I'm trying to make the best of the situation....

....I miss you...

....do you think they'll let me take this blanket home?!

Love,

Mixson

Dog Days of Summer!!

We have a visitor this weekend....

...He'll be with us for a few days and so far he's been a very busy guy learning the house rules....First he had to master the art of lounging and remaining as stress free as possible....

...then he had to wait his turn for some snackies...

...then he had to take a nap....

...lastly, he had to sit and watch while I mowed the lawn, watered the garden and picked cucumbers....although, unlike the hubby, he didn't tell me I missed a spot!!...don't worry Geek...I think he'll want to go home...eventually!!!