Thursday - Vancouver Adventure

Thursday was a long, long day, so prepare thyself for a long post.

We woke up, fairly refreshed, and not being in a great hurry, luxuriously read in bed for a bit before getting up, showing, breakfasting  on cereal and Odwalla juice we'd brought with us and heading out.

We did a little debating about what we were going to do with the day.  It was forecast to rain around noon, which had an impact on our plans.  Davan really wanted to go to Capilano Suspension Bridge and I thought it would probably be pretty cool, but not really worth the price of admission, so I was thinking Lynn Canyon would be a better place to head.  There is a suspension bridge there, as well, but it's free.  Of course, it's shorter and there isn't all the extra stuff like the tree walk...

Seeing as how we were on a bit of a mini-vacation, I told Davan my reasons, to which she listened and gave some serious thought, but then said if she really wanted to go to Capilano, we could.  She did, so we did.

I was right that it was pretty cool, but not really worth the admission.  Davan agreed after seeing the place and learned a valuable lesson about tourist attractions.  Still, we were there, so we enjoyed what was on offer.

There were some totem poles:

And the suspension bridge was pretty long:

We spent some time in the middle, looking, and perhaps spitting again:

The weather, as you can see, was quite nice.  At least, it was not raining - mostly sunny, even.  It was chilly, though.

We walked around on their various paths, checking out what views we could:

Being homeschoolers, it was, of course, important to get in some lessons.  Davan is learning all about geology and bridge construction here:

I'm actually kidding.  She didn't get much from the displays.  I just thought that would sound good.  :)


They had a tree top walk, which was fun:

We had a nice time together there (even though I believe we'd have had just as nice a free time over at Lynn Canyon, but, you know, I'm not bitter or anything):

The cliff walk was fun, too:

We'd have definitely been scared if it weren't for all the heavy duty railings...

They had a glass floor in spots, but besides the fact that it was fogged over, they'd ruined the fear factor of it by putting little white squares all over it:

This summer, Davan and I were in Chicago and went up the Sear's Tower (yeah, I know it's called something else now) and they had a glass floor thing that was actually scary to get yourself to step out onto.  We'd expected that again.  This?  Not so much.

After a couple of hours of grand enjoyment, we were done with all they had to offer and moved on.  We were headed to another eatery that I'd found prior to travel for lunch.  On the way, though, we drove through Stanley Park and Davan, in spite of being absolutely famished, asked to stop at this park:

It had the same core equipment as the park we'd stopped at on Wednesday, but it also had a few other things.

Davan couldn't pass up outdoor rings and a trapeze if her life depended on it.  Well, okay, if it was really life and death, she could.  But you get the idea.

After lunch, which left Davan not totally full, but I promised more food prior to her audition, we were torn between going back to the hotel to chill out for a while or sight seeing more to take her mind off her upcoming doom.  We opted to go to Science World.

But, once we saw the prices, we decided it wasn't really worth it for the two hour slot we had available, so the picture is of the museum we didn't go to.  Yeah.

We went for a walk on the sea wall instead.  And what did we find?

A park, of course,  After a little playing, we moved on so that Davan could panic a little.  I got the camera out to get a picture of her panicking, but instead, she looked like this:

That made me threaten to just video her all afternoon to ensure she kept up her good spirits, but, instead, I distracted her by singing.  This not only produced some public humiliation, but caused her to need to correct my lyrics, which made for a nice distraction for a while, including while we sat on these rocks for a bit:

Then, lo and behold, we found another park.  This one is of a style that Davan really loves, so we spent some time there:

When we moved on, we found yet a third park:

The equipment wasn't very exciting for Davan, but what was cool about it was two fold.  One, it was under a bridge, so it says dry even in the rain, but two, and better, there was this view when swinging:

Our walking goal was to get to a ferry pier, not to ride the ferry, but just to walk out onto it because it juts out into the water and Davan thought that was cool.

However, I'd been mentally toying with the idea of riding back to Science World (not that it was a long walk or anything, really, but just for fun), so when Davan asked if that was a possibility, I was pretty quick to say okay.

While riding the ferry, we noticed a pretty cool looking bridge along the path the other way from Science World, so we went to check it out.

There were a lot of pretty cool things right around there.

Then we discovered why:

It turns out we were in the Olympic Village area.  Pretty cool.

Oh, and the forecast rain?  Hadn't made an appearance.  It was mid afternoon and mild out.  We were really glad we'd ended up on the walk instead of inside.

By the time we got back to the van, it was time to think about getting a bite to eat before going to the audition.  Davan, I must say, was holding up pretty well.  She was nervous and every now and then would have a small freak out in her Davan-ish way, but we've had some pretty strong audition freak outs in our house and I wasn't seeing that at all.

We'd seen a Whole Foods and decided to check out their prepared food bar for some eats.  We found it and figured there was probably underground parking someplace, as that seemed pretty common in the area where we'd also had lunch earlier.  However, we found a street spot that was available and opted to just feed the meter.  We had a fair amount of time, so I went for an hour and a half. 

We stopped at a drug store to get some lip balm, as we both had chapped lips, and some floss as I'd been in need for hours with a bit of food stuck that was bothering the heck out of me.  Then it was on to Whole Foods.

We found lots of good stuff (vegan, gluten free, not overly oily, lots of veggies) for us to eat there - plenty of options in the hot food bar and some were even Fuhrman recipes.  They had California Creamed Kale for those for whom that means anything.  We were impressed. 

Sadly for my pocket book, as it wasn't overly cheap, Davan went through twice before she was feeling satisfied.  And then we got smoothies, too.

I wasn't worried about the time for the audition yet by the time we got the smoothies, but I was concerned about the meter running out, so we meandered back to the van.

The van wasn't there.  The whole line of cars we'd parked in?  Gone.  At first, I thought I had my blocks mixed up.  But, no, it was where we'd parked.  The meters?  They had stickers on the posts saying that you couldn't park there between 3pm and 7pm - rush hour.  We'd parked the car at 2:40.  I'd totally missed that.

What gets me about it now is that the meters are pretty high tech - you can use your cell phone to pay the meter there.  But they can't figure out how to make the meter not accept money during the no parking times?

The time was 3:55.  The audition started at 5:00, but we'd been told to have her there at 4:30.  We had a good idea of where the audition was, but had left time to figure it out en route, so we didn't know exactly.  My first thought was to get a cab and just go to the audition then worry about the van, but Davan's paperwork and clothes were in the van.  I had to figure out where it was.

There was a restaurant right there that was kind enough to let me use their phone.  I didn't have my cell phone with me because we'd decided not to pay the roaming charges for out of country use and I wasn't even carrying it or I'd have used it in this circumstance.

I got the address of the impound lot along with a directions from the nearest light rail stop from a recording.  By the time we were back out on the street and I looked at my watch, it was 4:08.  The hostess from the restaurant had told me how to get to the stop near the lot by taking a train and then switching downtown to another train.  We didn't have time for that.  I looked around for a cab.  None to be seen.  I debated going back in to ask them to call a cab, but I started thinking about where that light rail stop was - near Science World.  We'd just been there and it wasn't that far.

We started running.  Now, I've been training for a 10K, right?  Davan is up to a mile at a time in preparation for the 2 miler we're doing in a few weeks.  She kicked my hiney.  I, apologizing, had to ask her to go a little slower. 

We got about half way and saw a tow truck from the company that does the towing and I asked for directions and a ride.  He gave directions, but wouldn't give the ride, even though I was able to work up some pretty good panic.  After we left him, I told Davan I was putting it on some in hopes of help and that things weren't quite so dire.  I was telling her this whole time that I thought we'd still get her there by 5:00.  She took it all really well.  I was impressed.

We finally made it to the lot.  Just now, I mapped it out and we ran 1.5 miles at as fast a pace as I was able to squeak out.  I'm pretty sure I did faster miles than I did on my recent 5K in spite of the fact that I was not in running shoes and was way, way over dressed and in spite of the fact that Davan hasn't run more than a mile in a day.

We ran in and got pretty lucky with getting to a window to pay quickly because a lot of people were flowing in to claim their cars.  I gave Davan the keys and told her to go get changed while I paid.  Then I ran to her, putting the smoothies that were near untouched but had been carried the whole way into the drink holders.

When we pulled out of the lot, it was 4:30.  We were starting from a different place than we'd expected to get to the audition, had no extra time to figure out navigation as we went and it was rush hour.  I drove and Davan did her best to navigate with me helping at stop lights as I could.  It was super stressful.

We got there at 4:50 and went tearing in the building.  A mom said to us, "They're just starting, get on up there!" which didn't make either of us any calmer.  However, they were just stretching and the auditions really didn't start until 5:00.  She'd totally made it.  Two other kids came later - one not showing up until 5:30.

So, the audition.  I'd been planning on running while Davan auditioned, but with the stressful and taxing trip there and with the fact that parents were allowed to watch, I decided to stay.

During warm up, there were kids up there holding handstands with their feet on their heads.  This is something Davan can't remotely do.  Handstands are not her strong suit.  I could see she was intimidated and, frankly, I was worried, too.  Was she out of her depth?

Then they started.  And I needn't have worried.  Davan held her own just fine.  There were 15 kids all told ranging in age from 9 to 17.  The instructors led them through a warm up (including a run which was a little over kill for Davan, I must say, but they didn't know that) and then got down to business. 

They did a partner trick:

I was surprised by how many couldn't manage it.  Davan and her partner did fine, in spite of the fact that Davan's partner, while her same height, was quite a bit larger and they had to trade off being base and flier. 

I stopped taking pictures after this, as they weren't turning out so well.

They did a series of acrobatics from summer salts - forward and backward - progressing up to tumbling that included round off, back hand spring, back flips.  Anything that someone couldn't do, they could pass on.  Davan had to pass on a few of the tumbling passes, but others started passing before she did.  They got a chance to warm up each thing, then did it for real.

After tumbling, they did some press handstands to back bends and similar things, then flexibility.  Throughout all this, Davan did well,  She was often in the top three performers on those things.

They did some dance and some improv.  Then it was onto strength.  Now, keep in mind that Davan had played on a multitude of play equipment, done a goodly amount of walking and then topped off with a 1.5 miles sprint just before the auditions began.  Still, though, she did well with the strength portion, which included standing tuck jumps, push ups, pull ups and pike ups (hanging from a bar and bringing your toes to the bar with straight legs).  She was in the top two or so on pike ups and definitely in the top half on the others.

Then it was over.  There was a question and answer period, after which we gathered up our things and left.  As soon as we got to the van, it was time to analyze it all (after we figured out a food plan, as Davan was starving again and what we had with us wasn't enough - smoothies were involved in the food plan).  The first thing Davan said to me was, "I don't really know what I was auditioning for."

In the question and answer period, the teachers told them that some of them would be invited to audition for the high school, some would be invited to audition for the college and some would be invited to come to the summer camp.  There was never a question about which each person was hoping to do.  And they said that, even if they weren't invited, they could still audition, but it would be without a recommendation.  Apparently, the real auditions (not the per-selection tour), last a week!  It'll be interesting to see what come of it all.

Davan, although she's toyed with the idea of the high school before, is pretty sure she's not ready to leave home next year.  She wants to go to the camp (if she doesn't get into Circus Smirkus, I should say) and she wants to go to the college when it's time, but she doesn't want to leave home at 14.  She's not necessarily staying no to leaving home at 16, though, and maybe doing the last couple years of high school there...I guess we'll see if she even gets an invitation and, if so, for what!

We also don't know what is better - an invitation to audition or an invitation to come to camp.  I mean better in terms of which they offer stronger candidates.  I know the camp invitation would be better for Davan just now.

It was a very interesting experience and Davan, while sometimes looking like she was wound as tight as a top, kept her pre-audition anxiety to a minimum and seemed to make a good showing for herself.  After, she said, "The first step is being able to go to an audition without being dragged there.  The second step is to not look like I'm in pain while I'm there."  Fair enough.

We went back to Whole Foods for a post audition smoothie for Davan, parking in the garage this time around, then headed back to the hotel where we looked through the catalog they'd handed out at the audition before collapsing into bed at 10:45, whopped.

Wednesday - Heading to Vancouver

Wednesday was our day to drive to Vancouver.  I got up, walked Ranger, feed her, finished packing the food for the car and part of the trip, got Davan up, loaded up the car, dropped off a dismayed Ranger at doggie day care and off we went.

We had an uneventful trip up.  We didn't do great with our audiobook choices for the trip, but did manage to find something to listen more or less pleasantly.  The boarder crossing went okay, but I felt flustered.  The crossing guard had a lot of questions for us regarding why we were going, where we were staying, details of this "circus school" and a few other thing, all fired at me in a rather aggressive way.  Shesh.  I was glad to be through.

I hadn't written out directions on how to get to the hotel, feeling fairly confident I could manage it from the pretrip planning I'd done looking at maps and such.  However, I confused one body of water for another and thought we had to go to a very different place than planned.  We ended up going within blocks of the hotel before heading out to a suburb, only to realize my mistake and navigate back to the hotel.

While we were on this little driving tour of Vancouver, we drove by a park at which Davan asked if we could stop.  We only had some vague ideas of things we'd do in Vancouver other than go to the audition and, thus, were prepared to flow through our trip, so we stopped.

Davan was rather thrilled with the set up of this park. 

After a while, though, we decided to move on to the hotel.  Little did we know that we were only a couple of miles away at this point, but would drive for nearly another hour before getting there.  Sigh.


When we arrived at the hotel, which I'd booked through Priceline, getting quite a deal, we were disappointing to find that the parking was quite difficult (we would have exited out the rear hatch if we could have opened it from inside the van, as it was, it was quite a squeeze to get out the sliding door) and was an extra $15 a night.  Oh well.

We got up to our room and...well, we were disappointed about that, too.  It was an oddly shaped room with no great place to put our bags, a refrigerator that didn't work, no microwave that was supposed to be there, a view of the other U of the hotel about 10 feet away out the windows, an overwhelming chemical smell and windows that didn't appear to open.  We did discover that the bathroom window opened, which, at that point, seemed like the best thing about the room:

Davan enjoyed sticking her head out many times over the course of our stay.

Not being thrilled with the room, we headed out to walk, even though it was raining pretty hard at this point.

Davan, looking rather distressed by the weather:

Actually, she handled it well, really.  We walked over a bridge that was just a few blocks away, which was a great, high bridge.  We spent some time looking down at the ferries below and timing how long it took our spit to fall, I must also admit:

We'd been talking about catching a ferry after walking a bit, but ended up altering our walk to be able to catch one of the rainbow ferries rather than going to the original choice of ferry stop that only had blue ferries.

On the way to the ferry stop, we found this fountain, which required some frolicking on before we could move on.

When we got down to the ferry dock, I realized that I didn't have any cash nor was there a machine at which to buy tickets - it's all done by cash on the boats.  We were going to just walk away, but the ferry operator asked if we wanted to get on and I explained the problem.  He kindly offered to let us ride to the next stop where there was an ATM and then pay when we went on, so we hoped onboard.

The next stop was Granville Island, where we've actually been before a couple times, but both times Davan was too young to remember.  We walked around the Public Market there, debating making a purchase, as we were pretty hungry, but we had a restaurant picked out that we were headed to and quite a ways to walk, precluding us wanting to carry much around, so we didn't.  After using the ATM, we went back down to the ferry to wait:

 

And it wasn't long before our next ride showed up:

We rode to the other end of False Creek, where we got off and made our way to Gorilla Food, our choice for dinner.  We circled the stadium on the way and Davan had to get her photo with the large "D" marking the D entrance. 

Davan was second guessing the choice of a raw food place on the cold, wet walk there as she was feeling like something warm would be nice.  However, once we were there, in the nice warm restaurant, the room temperature food was just fine.  We got a slice of pizza and a burger with a side of coleslaw to share:

I liked the food well enough.  Davan liked the pizza quite well, but, overall, didn't feel like the raw food really satisfied her, even with a slice of chocolate pie to finish off with.  She won't be a raw food convert.

We headed back out into to discover that it was no longer raining, but it was quite cold, so that we still wanted our hoods up for the walk back to the hotel.

We got there, made ourselves comfortable, and had time for a couple of hands of cards and some reading before we turned out the lights.

When we did settle into bed, I found myself looking much more favorably on the hotel, as the beds were quite comfortable with decent pillows and nice duvets.  Shockingly, as I'm not usually good at sleeping away from home the first night, I feel nearly right asleep and slept pretty well most of the night.

Give Us Your Feedback

As I mentioned, Davan is putting together an application for Circus Smirkus Troopers.  Part of it is doing an audition video.  The video is one minute of introducing herself, including why she wants to be a part of Circus Smirkus and what she brings to the tour.  We took a dozen or so takes and have narrowed our choices down to these two.  Which do you like better?

Where I've Been

I haven't posted in a few days because Davan and I went on a little trip.  It came together at the last minute.  We conceived of the venture over the weekend and solidified plans on Monday.  We had a lot to do in a couple days - beyond packing and hotel finding, there were plans to cancel/re-arrange, paper work to fill out, panicking to do (that was on Davan's part). 

Where did we go?  Davan decided she wanted to take part in this.  So, we jotted off to Vancouver, B.C. for a few days.  It was a good thing she decided to look when she did because the audition was less than a week away by the time she looked it up.

But, that's not all that is going on this week.  Davan also is applying for this and the deadline for that application (complete with a video piece which Davan is putting in extra sessions at Do Jump to create) is coming up fast.  Either way, next summer could be an expensive one.

Not, that is, that our little jaunt up to Vancouver was cheap, for a variety of reasons, which I'll cover in future posts.  We had a very nice time over all and I'll share it with over a couple of posts.

For now, though, just one picture to whet your appetite.  

Healthy Halloween

We did a special dinner for Halloween last night.  In some past years, we've done pizza on Halloween.  We wanted to have something special, but I also wanted something healthy.  I was reminded of something we'd done a few years ago when I was looking for pictures of Davan in past Halloween costumes and ended up doing it again.

We didn't carve pumpkins, but that doesn't mean we didn't make pumpkin faces:

Davan decorated two - one for her dad and one for me - while I did the third - for Davan.

Here's Davan with her's:

It's a cat.  I'm sure if you couldn't tell, it's just from the angle.

She took a picture of me with mine, as well, but I can see we need to work on photography skills.  I'm there and all, but rather distant for being the primary subject matter.

A close up:

This one was Davan's first and had it's tongue sticking out.  This one ended up being mine and needed more steamed broccoli in my opinion, but the face was cute.

The pumpkin part is mixed mashed sweet potatoes and yams.  The sweet potatoes are in there because I like them better, but the yams are what makes it orange.  I mashed them with fresh sage, garlic and black pepper.  It was a yummy mash. 

Once Anthony came home:

and we were ready to eat, I used my broccoli spears to scoop up the mash.  It was quite tasty.

Of course, all of this eating was done over an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer 'cause it was Halloween and all.

I made a dessert, too, but don't have pictures because they didn't turn out pretty.  I made pumpkin whoopie pies.  They were gluten free and also sugar free.  The only sweeteners in there were pumpkin (real mashed pumpkin from, you know, a gourd) and dates.  I made a cashew cream whip for filling and away we went.

After Buffy and eating, we went for a walk to see all the trick or treaters.  We didn't have any at our door due to the fact that we live in a secure building.  Davan was a little sad about that.  She likes handing out candy or trick or treating, but she doesn't actually eat the candy and feels like she's too old for it.  She's on the lookout for a posy of little kids to chaperone next year so she can be involved. 

Up Early

I got up a couple of long hours before the crack of dawn today.  You see, Anthony needed help with his makeup:

And he needed help getting into his dress:

He had to modify the back of it to fit and putting it on now involves safety pins in the back.

He tells me he doesn't plan on making make up a regular part of his day or I'd have to teach him how to do it himself.

Here he is all ready to ride to work:

Meanwhile, it's now 6:00am and I'm tiptoeing around the house so as not to wake up the dog.  I'd half planned on going back to sleep, but I've got a 5 mile run to get in this morning and Davan's make up to do before she goes to Do Jump, so by the time I got settled in and actually fell back asleep, it'd probably be time to get up again.  I wish I had a jog stroller for Lovely.  Then I'd go back to bed and run after she got here.  Ah well.  I guess I'll just be tired again tonight. 

I was tried last night and turned my light out at 9:15, but was frustrated in the falling asleep department, not managing the feat until about 10:30.  Grrr.

Davan has requested Buffy watching this evening, as it's Halloween and all.  She thinks we should go ahead and eat while watching.  I haven't really figured out what's for dinner yet...pumpkin soup maybe?....but we can probably do that plan.

Last night, we ate at the table:

Partially because we were eating family style in the Chinese sense.  That means eating directly off of central plates.  We had an interesting mix of Pad Thai and french fries.



We haven't been eating out really at all with Davan and I trying the whole gluten free thing (which, by the way, is going okay in that it isn't that hard to do, but we're not really seeing much/any difference, so I'm not convinced it's our issue, but we'll stick it out a bit longer), so we did an eating out style dinner.  I actually used a little oil in making the Pad Thai and the fries were a particular craving for a certain family member.  That'd be Anthony, although we all partook.

Well, not Ranger, who was a mix of hope and abject disappointment about the whole dinner affair:

I hope your Halloween is a good one!

Dressed Up

We went to a Halloween costume party last night.  It was at the home of one of Davan's best friends and was a whole family affair. 

Davan hadn't planned on dressing up this year.  We didn't do Halloween last year and she was happy for a break in costume making.  The couple years before that were big costume years, which she enjoyed at the time.

In fact, in '07, she was so into Halloween that she had two costumes, one that was more maneuverable than the other:

She got so much attention for the dragon costume that she was inspired to keep making homemade costumes for a couple years to come.  It was a dad/daughter project for a few years.  They spent so much time on the dragon head...I was frankly glad to leave it to them.

In '08, she did this:

Actually, both her dad and I helped on this one, but it was her project primarily just with a little help.  She's a gnome on a toadstool if you don't find that immediately obvious.

Anthony was busy with his own costume that year, too:

He was CADMan.  He won the office costume contest that year.  He did his costume all himself.  No help from me or Davan.  Very independent that guy.

In '08, Davan was just going to get a little into the Halloween spirit:

However, then she got abducted:

Shocking, no?  She and Anthony were the makers of this costume again and, again, she got lots of attention with it. 





Later, though, she calmed down and was just sitting on the alien's lap next to my mom on the couch:

I guess the alien was pretty friendly.

As I was saying earlier, she took a break after that.  We had our year of alternate holidays and didn't do Halloween.

This year, Davan was, again, not going to dress up.  But then, just a week ago, she got invited to her friend's Halloween party and, suddenly, needed to come up with a costume.  She had lots of ideas, but only a week to make anything happen.  Then, on Monday, she found out that the class she teaches on Monday was being encouraged to dress in movement friendly costumes for class.  So, she went pretty simple so she could dress for Do Jump.

I'm realizing here that our pictures were less than great from last night.  I'll still share what we've got, but I'll try to get better on Monday. 

Davan went with being a jack-o-lantern.  She's just in black for clothes.  She and I both worked on her makeup:

The reason she needed to do some of her own orange was that I was also busy doing someone else's makeup.  Sadly, there isn't a picture of me actually doing it, but here is the result of both make up jobs:

Anthony made good use of the dress Grandma sent.  Here he is, showing a little leg:

He made quite a stir walking to the party:

Sadly, there isn't a picture of him without his coat on nor one of him in his wig.  Like I say, I'll try to remedy that on Monday.

Anthony will be modifying his costume slightly for Monday.  He's following up on the CADMan of '08 with CADGirl of '11. 

And me?  Well, I really didn't want to spend a lot anything on my costume, so waited until the last minute, then ran off to Goodwill to search for inspiration, but didn't buy a thing and ended up looking like this:

Yeah, the only picture of my costume, as it were, was helping Davan with hers.

This idea, though, was a book character - Mercy Thompson.  I've got a paw print "tattoo" on my navel and am wearing one of Anthony's dog tags and my wedding ring on a chain.  Then there's the shirt, which, really, I don't think Mercy would wear like that, but it shows something similar on the book covers.  Of course, on the book covers, she's also covered in tattoos, but she only has the paw print and a couple Celtic knots when you actually read the books.  And, she's got long brown hair that she usually wears in braids, so it wasn't a great costume, but I did made a bit of an effort.

The party itself was nice, but mostly people we didn't know, which is a difficult situation for a bunch of introverts like us, so we went, hung out, did the social thing, then came home to chill for the tail end of the evening. 

Both Anthony and Davan will dress up again on Monday for work, but this was my one evening of costume fun. 

There's a New Man in My Life

Here's my husband:

And here's the man I came home to today:

Day Off

Yesterday, Davan and I took the day off.  Well, okay, not entirely.

Davan got up and did a quick walk/run with Ranger.  Davan was inspired by the run on Sunday and wants to do one.  We've signed up for all three of us to do the Winter Wonderland 2 mile run on the 26th of November, so she's training.

I met a friend for a walk and ran the 1.5 miles to our meeting location and back.

But then...we decided to veg.  We popped popcorn for our lunch (nutritious, no?) and watched a little Netflix.  Yeah, yeah, we were going to wean ourselves away from that.  And, really, we've cut way back, but we were feeling like a veg day.

We decided to watch Dollhouse.  Anthony and I have watched the show before and liked it, but it is a little adult in parts, so I wasn't totally sure about introducing it to Davan, but she was interested and has totally been on a woman-lead action kick, so we went for it.  We watched three episodes over the course of the afternoon.

In our defense, we did also make dinner:  dalh, brown rice, roasted carrots and a dessert of apple cobbler, so we didn't totally slack.  Oh yes, and chores were done - I scooped the litter box, took out the trash, paid bills, worked on laundry and tended dishes.  Davan did a thorough room cleaning and a mediocre bathroom cleaning (that is a skill to be worked on).

Overall, though, it was a down day.  A day of rest, which was nice to take in the middle of the week, as it's been a pretty busy week.  We took Lovely to the zoo on Monday afternoon, Tuesday was busy all day with dentist appointments and, because we were in Gresham for the dentist (we will be changing, but haven't yet), running errands that suburbs are good for (cheaper grocery shopping, Goodwill, as our local one is pretty hoity-toity), as well as company for dinner. 

Today is Davan's busy day, made busier by a Do Jump friend who went away to college being back in town and fitting in seeing her prior to Tracker's this morning.  Meanwhile, Ranger and I did a 5 mile run (with hills!), I did Do Jump work for three hours, made apple compote (I bought a big box of apples Tuesday for $10 and am trying to use them up while they're good - luckily, this isn't difficult), and rode to meet a friend for a walk and back (a 2.5 hour event).

It's all good stuff.  Who was it that thought I could fit a job in around all this?  Oh, yeah, that was me.  Of course, not all weeks are so busy and, hey, I could have skipped Dollhouse yesterday, but I have to say, I like not having to fit that in with everything else on weeks like this.

I Forgot to Mention

I did a quick look at the results before we left and I finished 244th out of a field of over 1000.  Who-hoo, again!  Of course, many of those were intentional walkers, but still.  I'm feeling pretty good about it.  I didn't get to see my age results or anything, but I also know I'm not anywhere near the top.  I'm just curious to see.

Ran Like Hell!

I ran in my 5K this morning - the Run Like Hell.  It was so much fun! 

First, I dragged Davan out of bed and we rode down to the start:

 
Okay, actually, it wasn't that early and these two weren't that grumpy.  I made them pose for this picture.  The start wasn't until 9:00 for the 5K and, while that did make for a bit of an early Sunday morning (not weekday morning) for Davan, it wasn't that awful and Anthony was most definitely already up.

It was very nice of them both, though, to come support me and here's how they were really looking:

We got there plenty early so I'd have time to find the bike check in and use the porta-potty as necessary (it sadly was necessary), so we watched the 1/2 marathoners go by, the 10Kers start and the kid's run in it's entirety before I started.  It was fun, though, and not really that much time.

Here I am before I undressed down to my running clothes:

While I opted not to dress up, just running is enough of a challenge for me, I did wear my orange shirt to keep in the spirit of things.  There were a lot of people in costume, though.

Eventually, it was time to go.  I debated back and forth about wearing my MP3 player (I will certainly for longer runs, but I wasn't sure about this one), so you can see that I'm still messing with it when we started:

As happens with races, there was a lot of movement in the pack at the start.  Having been close to the starting line when we took off, I got passed quite a bit, but I also did some passing of my own.  And some of those who passed me early I passed later.  Many people had pacing issues.  Not I, though, well, at least not until the very, very end, but that's a story for after a couple miles.

I really enjoyed the run.  I certainly ran like hell the whole time, which is what I'd been planning.  My goal was to finish is 30 minutes or less with a roughly 10 minute mile pace throughout.  I did pretty well with this, although I was surprised by a hill in the first mile, having thought it was a flat course.  It wasn't a killer hill and I did fine with it, but that was my slowest mile at exactly a 10 minute mile pace.

I tried to pace myself on a few different people throughout, but there wasn't anyone that worked for the whole run.  Some ended up pulling ahead and others I passed, but it was still a lot of fun to run with other people.  About 2 miles in, the 1/2 marathon course and our course met up, so we got a whole influx of people then.  It was pretty crowded throughout the run.

I was feeling pretty whopped as we got close to finishing, but this song actually helped.  Yeah, I like Glee music.  Live with it.  Anyway, I was glad I was using the MP3 player at this point for sure!

Anthony and Davan were waiting and tried to get a couple of pictures, but it can be hard:

I'm the one in the orange, behind the guy in the dark clothes.

 This one I'm more obvious but a little blurry.  Oh well.

I was working so hard, having put it all out there at this point.  Then I went around the corner, expecting to see the finish right there, but it was a block away.  I kept running, but had no kick at all left, nothing to pull out, so I got passed quite a bit there at the very end.  Still, though, I made my goal with an official time of 29:15.  Who-hoo! 

I worked my way around to Anthony and Davan and got the victory pic:

We checked out the after run festival, got a little free food, I drank water at nearly every opportunity, and I got a little chiropractic care from a local chiropractic college student - the school had booth - who worked on my knee issues and gave me an exercise to do, so that was cool.

Then we rode home, I showered, played with my Garmin data and now it's time to eat the corn cakes Anthony has cooked up for us.  Yum!  I wasn't hungry right after the run, but now I'm starving, so I'm off to eat!

Book Review: UltraMarathon Man

One of the books that caught my eye at Powell's was this slim volume:  UltraMarathon Man:  Confessions of an All-Night Runner by Dean Karnazes.  Unlike some of the books I picked out (okay, most, really, sadly), this one panned out.

I found Dean to be extremely entertaining.  The accounts of his 100 mile+ runs (no stopping to sleep) were gripping.  Between wanting to know what happened next, what he did next and the slimness of the book, it was a quick read, but a very enjoyable one.

I found myself alternately appalled, motivated and, okay, frankly, wimpy.  This man runs through the night then plays with his kids.  Some days it's hard to get the motivation to even play with the kids and let's not get started on how much sleep I need, but that's all beside the point.

This is a short review for a short book and I'm going to leave it here because reading his accounts are much more interesting than reading my account of his accounts.  Suffice it to say that runner or not, this is a book that isn't to be missed.

Book Review: Mercy Thompson Series

Okay, so this is a series review as opposed to a single book review, but we'll let the post title slide. 

There are, so far, six books in the Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs.  They are, in reading order:

Moon Called
Blood Bound
Iron Kissed
Bone Crossed
Silver Borne
River Marked

There are, apparently, also some short stories scattered in there to be found in anthologies, but I've only read the novels and, thus, can't speak to the short stories.

Often, when I read series, they start to peter out for me around book three or four.  Why?  Well, they start to feel the same or things seem really contrived or the the romance ('cause there's always some sort of romance) is either way too drawn out or ridiculously back and forth or the books are really one book split into several to make a series with no clear endings for the individual books or things just get stupid.

(As a bit of a digression here - one series that I thought did really well in this regard, that is, not falling into any of those traps, was Harry Potter.  My theory on this is that Rowling had a plan from the beginning with certain things that were supposed to happen each year to make the overarching story line work.  She fleshed out each year as she wrote it, but it wasn't off the cuff.  Each book had a proper ending.  Each book progressed.  It worked.  At least for me, it worked.  And, I suppose for those legions of Harry followers out there it worked, too.)

When there were only two Mercy Thompson books, my mom suggested them to me.  Of course, werewolves and vampires are/were big then and I started them with a wee bit of trepidation, but Mom had recommended them and we usually agree of good books, so I picked them up and I enjoyed them. 

Then I forgot about them until a few weeks ago when I saw River Marked at the library in the Lucky Day area. 

(Now, that's causing me to side track again.  Our library system has recently instituted a Lucky Day program where by books that are in high demand, i.e. have long wait lists, have a couple set aside that can be checked out for only two weeks, rather than the usual three, and can't be put on hold.  I enjoy browsing the Lucky Day section, but don't always find that what interests everyone also interests me.  Anyway.)

I realized that I'd started the series some time ago, but had obviously missed quite a few.  I decided to go back and read them, not even really being sure I'd make it all the way up to River Marked, given how series tend to go with me. 

I surprised myself by racing through each book as it came in at the library for me.  I would be exited to get the notice that it was in (which happened quickly each time, as I guess everyone else has already read the earlier books), get to the library as soon as I could and read it, even once putting aside another book I'd started. 

(Of course, it turned out that the other book was one I ended up not reading because it bored me to tears.  Who would have thought that a book about a guy breaking the world record for circumnavigating the world by bike would be so boring?  And yet...)

So, all this is to say that these are good books, even as the series goes on.  I'm impressed. 

I like reading from Mercy's point of view.  Mercedes is a mechanic by trade, working mostly on VWs, but a historian by education and interest.  She does karate and is a very independent minded woman.  She can also turn into a Coyote at will and happens to live next to the alpha of the local werewolf pack. 

There are things in Mercy's world that make it just a little different from ours (or, at least, that we know of and all that).  In Mercy's world, the fae have shown themselves to be real.  Werewolves and vampires also exist but most people don't know it yet.  Mercy, though, has acquaintances in all these arenas. 

While, up until the start of the series, she's managed to keep her head down and not get truly involved, all that goes down the drain with the arrival at her garage of a scruffy young man in serious need of a meal and offering to work in trade.  This young man also happens to be a werewolf who, she knows, isn't part of the local pack.  One things leads to another and pretty soon we've got a whole series.

The books progress in a way that makes sense to me, rather than feeling contrived.  Mercy changes and develops, as do other characters in the books.  The romance, although a little drawn out in my opinion, does progress and, once it's really established, doesn't waver in that whole back and forth way that really annoys me.  I enjoy that the books are set in Oregon/Washington and that, in River Marked, the setting is mostly in an area where we've camped and I've seen the things that set the book up, which is really fun.

I'm not sure where the series is going next, but I'm hoping Patricia is able to keep it going in a way that works for me.  Yeah, I'm selfish like that.  So far, though, she's done a good job and I recommend this series to those who like strong women, mystery and a bit (or more) of the supernatural.  Check them out!

Lovely Weather We've Been Having

It's true - Portland has been seeing some nice weather the last two days.  We've been out enjoying it, too, although it's all been camera-less once again.  I always like the blog entries with pictures the best, so it's always disappointing to me to write a blog entry without pictures, but apparently, not disappointing enough to make me remember the camera when going out to do fun things.  Or when doing fun things at home.  Well.  Anyway, on with the story of the nice weather days.

Yesterday started off with a run, but it was a bummer of a run.  My knees are hurting.  They do tend to do that when I run, but I'd somehow hoped they wouldn't this time around.  I've been running sporadically for months now without any serious knee pain rearing it's ugly head, but I'm guessing I've increased my miles too drastically recently.

The pain started Friday, but it wasn't too bad and Saturday was my rest day.  Sunday's run - 40 minutes at tempo, during which I was working very hard the whole time - did them in.  I was planning on just ignoring it for my four mile run yesterday morning, which was supposed to be an easy run and I was taking it easy, but, well, the pain was seriously too much to run through after two miles.  Bummer.  :(

My current running plan is to cross train all this week, which will either be walking or biking.  Neither of those activities is entirely pain free, but close if I'm careful, so that's the deal.  I can get my heart rate up pretty well on the bike, so I'll mostly do that, but I walk a lot for a variety of reasons (activities with friends, grocery shopping, going to Do Jump), so I'll keep doing that.  Sunday I'm doing a 5K race, which I'm planning on still doing.  I'm doing this one, but I'm not going to dress up - just enjoy the people who do.  I'll see where I am after that, but I will probably modify my training schedule to include more cross training with fewer running miles that I'll try to increase more slowly this time.  Hopefully, that works.  Additionally, I'm doing some exercises a PT gave me a few years back when I had the same knee pain.  Maybe it'll actually help this time.

After my pathetic two miles of running, Ranger and I walked a bit more, but needed to get home to shower and have breakfast before the Lovely L arrived.  I haven't mentioned it here, but Davan and I are doing child care for an eight month old on Mondays.  We're tag teaming it, which is working out really well.  It's good for Davan to have some baby exposure (hands on child development) and it's a little extra cash.  I'm not charging much at all, so it's not much extra cash.  Davan, though, does teach at Do Jump on Monday mornings, so I need to shower before the Lovely L shows up or I don't get to until Davan gets home.

The Lovely L got here just as I was finishing my breakfast.  I had California Creamed Greens for breakfast, if you can believe it.  I totally had a craving.  We'd had leftovers from Sunday's California Creamed Kale and I'd been thinking of it all morning.  When I looked in the fridge, though, I saw that Anthony had taken it to work for lunch.  I considered going the smoothie route, but what I really wanted was that kale.  I didn't have any more kale in the fridge, but I did have a bag of mixed southern cooking greens from Trader Joe's, so I steamed them up, whipped up some sauce and, viola, craving satisfied.  Well, sort of.  It was good, but I'd really wanted the kale.  Weird, I know.

The Lovely L and I did some chores and some playing until she got too tired to carry on and she took a nap while I got lunch together for Davan and I.  For better or worse, the Lovely L only seems to sleep for a half an hour at a time here.  Her mom says that pretty normal, but she'll sometimes stretch to a little longer.  Davan and I had the rest of the creamed greens, roasted and seasoned polienta cubes, baby bell peppers and grapes for lunch.  The Lovely L had some sort of odd mash of formula, baby cereal and maybe mashed blueberry baby food.  This isn't what I'd feed my own baby, but such is life.

Davan played with the Lovely L while I cleaned up after lunch, then we all walked to the library together where Davan and I took turns looking for books and reading board books to Lovely (or just ensure her safety while she crawled around). 

Ranger was in serious need of a walk by then and, after some discussion, Davan opted to stay behind with Lovely while I walked Ranger.  Playing with her sounded like more fun than pushing her in a stroller.

Ranger I and set off into the sunny afternoon for a stroll, but were shocked when a dog came flying silently out of a back yard and attacked Ranger.  I tried to pull them apart, but to no avail.  It was only seconds, really, but it seemed like a long time until the owner called the dog off (who obeyed right away) and checked with us for injuries.  We seemed to be fine.  I hadn't been touched, just startled and I didn't see anything wrong with Ranger.  The owner seemed sincere and truly shocked by her dog's behavior, so I opted just walk away.  When we started walking, though, Ranger started limping.  She was favoring her front left leg.  However, when I felt it, she just wagged her tail at me and didn't seem to be in serious pain.  By the end of the walk, she wasn't limping.  I guess we'll just be careful of that house and hope it was a one off deal.  We walk by that house daily and had never had an issue, so...we'll let it go.

Back at home, Lovely was ready for a bottle and another nap.  She settled in for her half an hour while Davan and I enjoyed our books.  Post nap, I was off to Freddie's for a few items for dinner.  Again, Davan opted to stay home with Lovely.

Lovely only had about a half an hour left with us after that and the two of us played with her until her mom showed up.  Meanwhile, I was plotting on ways to get Davan out into the sunshine.  Anthony had already expressed his intent for an after work bike ride, so it would be just the two of us.  I came up with a scavenger hunt - a list of ten items to be found in the neighborhood all while Ranger was with us, in a certain time limit and rewards to be had for certain levels of achievement.

Here was our list:

two people holding hands
someone eating
an ant
a squirel
a person holding a book
an empty stroller
a dog on a leather leash
a regular license plate in which the three letters made a word
a person riding a bike in shorts (yes the weather was nice, but it was still only in the 60s)
a person wearing earbuds

After an hour, we had everything but the dog on a leather leash and time was running out.  We decided that we could substitute that one item for two different ones that we hadn't yet seen or find that one item.  The two items we chose for substitutes were someone eating a sandwich and a spider web.  The spider web turned out to be really easy, but we had to go a long way from Laurelhurst park back to Hawthorne Blvd (where there are many restaurants) before we found someone eating a sandwich.  In the end, it was clear that unless I could run (no go on the knees, even the fast walking was causing trouble), we weren't going to make it home in time.  We did another little rule bend and decided that only one of us needed to make it home by the time limit.  Davan took the keys and ran.  She just made it.  Whew.

Our rewards were getting to watch Glee while we had dinner and getting to make pizza with Bob's Red Mill's Gluten Free Pizza Mix the next day (that'd be today for those keeping track).

We whipped together a quick minestrone with the use of some frozen veggie/bean bags in addition to fresh onion and garlic, a can of diced tomatoes, seasonings and some brown rice pasta.  Anthony got home just as the soup was ready.

This morning, Tuesday morning, is usually my strength training class at Do Jump.  The class was still happening, but I wasn't excited about going.  Partially, I feel like I'm wimping out, but partially I don't think it's the right class for me.  I feel like I'm working several levels past where I should be working (I leave literally shaking and am seriously sore for days) when I'm there and am using it for an excuse to ignore strength work the rest of the week.  I'm already working really hard at the running and it just doesn't seem right for me right now.  Davan expressed interest in trying it out, though, so I sent her in my place this morning.  I'm not sure what we'll do for the rest of the term, as Davan also has 3.5 hours of Do Jump Tuesday evenings and it might be too much for her in one day and as I am feeling a little guilty for wimping out...I may finish out the term or I may ask if we can just get drop in trade for the rest of the term so Davan can go to open workouts on Sundays.  We'll see.

Anyway, off Davan went to Do Jump at 6:50 and Ranger and I actually managed to go back to sleep for a while.  When we got up, I took her to one of the off leash areas nearby to chase balls (only a few times - she's not a big fetcher), sniff all the interesting smells and chase a couple other dogs.  We got home just before Davan, who came in pretty whipped, but proud of herself while also worried about hitting the wall this evening when she went back.

The nice weather made me want to be out in it.  The high today was supposed to be 73!  Not shabby for October.  Although I haven't looked to see, I don't think it actually got quite that warm, though.  Anyway, I suggested the zoo.

Davan had to think about it for a while, as she was feeling like she was doing a lot of activity today, but ultimately decided she wanted to go.  We filled a couple water bottles, packed some plums Anthony had brought home from work that were off of a co-worker's tree and a bag of baby carrots and sugar snap peas, grabbed the smoothies I'd been making during our discussion, and went out the door.  I'd have liked to ride over, but that seemed like it'd be asking too much of Davan, as the zoo is up a dozy of a hill in addition to being a longer ride than our normal range, so we drove.

We, along with nearly every Portland Metro child under the age of 5, had a very nice time at the zoo.  We chatted, laughed, animal and people watched and kept this week's apparent theme of scavenger hunts, coming up with two different ones while we were there.  The reward for the first one was getting to go see the river otters, which is a favorite.  We won, but it turned out the river otters were having nap time.  Bummer.  We did get to see a black bear frolic in a tub of water with a red ball, though, and that was probably our animal highlight of the day. 

We came very close to loosing our second scavenger hunt challenge, which earned us "soft serve" back at home for dessert after the pizza, but managed the win when, at the last minute, we saw a kid with a handful of Cheerios in his snack tray (and I'd been thinking seeing a Cheerio would be an easy one considering the ubiquity of that cereal as a toddler snack and the plethora of toddlers at the zoo today). 

We came home, got the pizza dough ready to rise, then I took Ranger out on a skate while Davan worked on Life of Fred.  After pizza making, eating (it was okay, but not great) and cleaning up, I got in a quick bike ride for my cross training. 

I got home just in time to whip up some "soft serve" with time to eat it before Davan had to run off to Do Jump.  Our most indulgent "soft serve", which is what we earned, is this:

3 frozen bananas, broken into halves or smaller
a hardy spoonful of peanut butter
about 1/4 cup of unsweetened coco powder
enough water to get things moving

Put it all in a VitaMix (or other high speed blender) and run until smooth.  It's our ice cream.  We love it.  Well, Davan and I do.  Anthony, who can't stand bananas and who came home while I was on my ride, passed on the "soft serve", as usual.  We'd saved him some pizza, though, and even left the mushrooms off his part.  We're good people.  Actually, I'd have timed the pizza to be ready when he was home for an early dinner before Davan went to Do Jump, but he'd told me he wanted to go for another after work bike ride.  However, he'd felt like he was dragging on his ride home from work and opted to skip the extra ride.  He did do a lot of strength training last night, so I wasn't too surprised.

Anthony, Ranger and I got outside one more time before the sun went down and went to the dog park again.  There were a whole lot of dogs out, enjoying the weather with their people, so Ranger got in some good running and general socialization. 

I did a stretch and strengthen session at home.  (See?  I'm not a slacker even if I don't think my strength training class is right for me.)  Then I wrote this novel.  I'm betting only my mom made it this far.  Particularly as there aren't any pictures.