In training

I've signed up to do the Catalina 1/2 marathon Feb. 27.

That's 14 weeks from now.

This 1/2 marathon is supposed to be beautiful and brutal.

I've been doing dribs and drabs of running here and there, but nothing consistent.

Now I'm working on it. Here's my log so far:

I did 6 miles by the river on Saturday. Flat. I'd like to give speed etc, but my GPS conked out half way through.

Then Sunday, I did 4.8 miles in the hills. Took me 57 minutes (ugh! that's slow!) and I burned 547 calories. Average speed: 12 minute miles. Best speed: 6.53 (that had to be coming down Toads!

Here we are at the top of Mesa Loop look across to Hanglider.

Then today (Monday 11/23) I took all the dogs out on the tracks for a short "maintenance" run.

Man my legs were tired. I'm sure that had nothing to do with the half bottle of wine I had last night. I suppose I'll have to give that up pretty soon too!

Distance: 3.20 miles

Time: 32:07 minutes

Ave. Pace: 10.02

Best Pace: 7.33

Calories: 324

I'm headed to the cabin now for a week and will keep track of my progress and report back.

Wish I was in shape to to Toads Dec. 5. But after that 4.8 miles kicked me so hard on Sunday, there's no WAY I can do 12 a week from now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

ANOTHER lost dog

This is Boxcar...so named because he's been living on the railroad tracks behind my house for about a month and a half after someone dumped him there. And you wonder why I like dogs better than people?

Anyway, he's very scared and shy. And can jump a 6 foot fence....so the "getting to know you" portion of our introduction has been pretty long and slow. He's not fixed, probably a year old and a queensland mix, I think.

If he stays with me, I'm going to get him fixed, shots, etc. and hopefully find him a home. He needs a retired couple who dont' travel that much and like to take nice long walks at least once a day.

Anyone???

The only fair pics I got

This is our annual fair trip. We always have our palms read...and they always tell us the same garbage. I don't know why we go, but we do.

My husband is going to leave me by the way. This time next year, I'll be single. (She's said that for nearly 10 years now!) Damn....that boy is takin' his TIME!

SF trip in November

Denise and I took a trip to SF Nov. 7 for a work conference...seriously, it was a WORK conference! Can we help it if we had fun while we were there?

This is the view from our room on the 14th floor of the Westin on Marketplace.

Here are a couple cell phone shots from my runs on Sat and Sun mornings. See we weren't THAT bad, I got up in time to run!

Isn't San Francisco the UGLIEST??!!
And here's the Veteran's Day parade on Sunday (even though VDay wasn't till Wednesday!) that nearly stymied our escape to the airport!

Then I went to Sausilito to visit friends there...Man it's UGLY there too! What gives?

Sexxxxxeeeeee!

Santa Cruz trip

We took a weekend trip to Santa Cruz in October with some great friends.

It was really fun.

The best part was on Saturday we went out on the pier at Capitola and there was just a swarm of wildlife. Aparently, some kind of smelt fish were in the harbor en masse, so along came seals, dolphins and every kind fo sea bird you can imagine to feed off the school.

We stood on the end of the pier for more than an hour mezmerized by the "Marlin Perkins" moment. Course I didn't think to get video!

I got a few pictures, like of the pelican who dove into the water and speared a fish on the top part of his bill. Try as he might, he couldn't eat the sucker. So a bunch of other bird came and pecked it off his "upper lip." Poor guy, did all the work and no reward!

Ed is...um...wine tasting? Who knows with him!


Solving the world's problems!

We were in a coffee shop in Capitola...the guys were in a bar. But we spotted them!

Pretty

Here's the Pelican with the fish speared on his upper beak and already the scavenger birds can see a free treat!

Here's the bar where Larry and Ed got us in trouble. They had asked if they could smoke cigars and were told yes by some employees...but then when "certain people" arrived they were told to snuff em...and they REFUSED! Embarrassing!

On an evening walk, heading to the beach from our place.

The next day, we went to Santa Cruz Pier and I spotted this group of seals snoozing together.

Speaking of seals...

Awww, someone remembers the Bakersfield Sound!

Snapped this the other day outside Metrogalleries

Don's neighbor apparently thinks people who buy high end boutique clothing (and art since it's right next door) are attracted by giant blow up Bob's Big Boy balloons.

I would disagree, but then I'm no retail genius.

I dissolved my face in October

I've had a lot of sun damage to my face over the years. And now I'm paying for it.

I go to the dermatologist regularly to have spots of actinic keratosis (pre cancerous cells) frozen off. This time, she said, "Lets try something a bit more vigorous" and prescribed a solution I was to put on my face twice a day for 2 weeks.

She said something like, "It doesn't look like you have that much damage, other than these few spots so you shouldn't have a very strong 'reaction.'"

OHHHHH BOY!

By day 3 or 4, my face was burning and itching so I looked up this stuff, flourouracil, and discovered it is a topical chemo therapy drug. It essentially attacks any damaged skin (as you can see I have a lot!) and dissolves it. Then when the cells start repairing themselves it attacks the faster replicating cells, which are often the cancer cells, by killing some portion of the DNA within the cells.

Who thinks this stuff up? Man!

Anyway, by the end of the 2 weeks I was in terrible pain. I would fill my sink with ice water and stick my face in it for some relief!

The scarring has all gone away now. But I think I have the same old face. My sister thought it was great! Like some kind of spa treatment covered by insurance. But it was pretty terrible.


This is Day 13 (whole blogs are dedicated to warning others about how awful this stuff is, by the way).

This is one week after stopping. I know I still look awful. But I was so happy becuase it quit hurting!

I have to see the dermatologist week after next and I KNOW she's gonna want me to put this stuff on my chest, which she's very concerned about. Great, just great!

I'm starting to think Wilkie doesn't like me!