shaverfamily.org

Uh, hi? �Merry Christmas? �Happy New Year? �Obviou...

2007-01-03T15:46:00.000-05:00

Uh, hi? �Merry Christmas? �Happy New Year? �Obviously it's been quiet around here lately. �We were busy with Christmas preparations, and over New Year's weekend I vowed to keep all of us out of the emergency room and instead led a cleaning and decluttering frenzy at home. �I am feeling quite happy with our accomplishments in that department. ��When we moved to Roanoke and lived with Mom and Dad for 9 months, with some stuff at their house, some in Raleigh, and eventually some in storage, we basically quit filing. �After we moved into our house we never got caught up. �I can say that now we are more or less caught up on all filing for the last ~27 months. �It's kind of sad when some of your bills and things are so old that they can go straight to the trash without ever seeing the inside of a file folder.

After a 2-week spell where the only exercise I got consisted of shoveling handfuls of sweets into my mouth, I am back to my regular routines. �On the 22nd I will officially start my training for the Indy Mini Marathon. �Unlike the half-marathon in Charlottesville last spring, this one is supposed to be flat, flat, flat. �It also includes a lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. �But the best part is that three of my friends who live out that way are also running!

An�update�on�Emma Kate: she has officially weaned, and I don't even exactly know when. �It was sometime in November or December, I think. �It feels both good and a little strange to be done with that part of our mother-child relationship. �I am glad that she got to end things more or less on her terms, when she was ready. �And see, I won't still be nursing her when she goes to college! �:)

Oooh, I forgot to tell you that Chris got me a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas! �I am so excited! �He got me a red one, but I�am�exchanging it for one in cobalt blue - and I just found out it was delivered this afternoon! �Woo-hoo! �I cannot wait to open it up and check it out - the red one is waiting to be returned and it has taken real willpower not to open the box.

We had our first salad with homegrown lettuce this...

2006-11-12T23:42:00.000-05:00

We had our first salad with homegrown lettuce this weekend. It's always so interesting, almost surreal, to eat vegetables from a garden and be reminded what they actually taste like. The difference between fresh from the garden and "fresh" from Kroger is huge.

The Raleigh Ringers were in town yesterday for their first ever concert in Roanoke. They performed to a very enthusiastic sold-out house. I hope they'll be back in a few years. I had no idea that we had such a nice venue right here in Roanoke - Shaftman Hall at the Jefferson Center. The sound there is outstanding, and the room itself reminds me of Meymandi in Raleigh.

Just in case anybody was wondering, thinking and j...

2006-11-09T13:38:00.000-05:00

Just in case anybody was wondering, thinking and jackhammering DO NOT go hand in hand. Sometimes it's not so great to have an office with a window.

I have to share this Emma Kate story: Last Friday ...

2006-11-06T21:23:00.000-05:00

I have to share this Emma Kate story: Last Friday I was the one to take her to preschool. When we got there, one of the teachers (I think) was in the hall and said hi to EK. This woman has been friendly to EK and me since last year, and I still don't know her name. During supper on Friday night I asked Emma Kate if she knew the woman's name. She insisted that she didn't. Then Chris said that on Halloween the woman had been dressed up as a witch. EK still insisted she didn't know her name. I really felt like she was pulling my leg, so I said, "The next time I see this lady, what should I call her? Should I call her Ms. Witch? What should I do?" And Emma Kate looked straight at me and said, "You should ask her who her name is."

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. She tells it like it is. I could learn some lessons from this child.

Just a quick note to say we're still here. We spe...

2006-10-08T15:13:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to say we're still here. We spent last week at the beach... you'll notice to the left there are new photos on Flickr - lots of them. We're home now and it's about 25 degrees colder. Brrr.

I have scrapped my plans to run the Richmond Marathon. The pressure of playing catch-up after being interrupted by appendicitis was too much. I am kind of burned out on training - not necessarily on running - but on trying to carefully follow a training schedule. I'm still running, but taking some downtime, and considering my options. A spring marathon could happen - we'll see.

More news on our garden: the cucumbers are gone an...

2006-09-07T06:47:00.000-04:00

More news on our garden: the cucumbers are gone and leaf lettuce has been planted in that spot for fall. The squash are all dead and I think I'm going to put carrots where they were. I have enjoyed it so much that I wasn't ready to quit. :)

Emma Kate had her first day of preschool yesterday. It went much more smoothly for her than it did last year. My baby girl is growing up! We tried to take the obligatory "first day of school" pictures and we sure did get a mixed bag of facial expressions!

I'm getting ready to hop on my bike for the first time since my surgery. It's supposed to be a gorgeous day, I have no running planned for the day, so I am going to bike to and from work. I'm a little nervous... I can't believe I've been off the bike for so long.

Yesterday on my way home from work, I saw an older gentleman riding his bike. He had clipless pedals, bike shorts, what looked to be a fairly nice bike... but no helmet. I just don't get that. Wouldn't your greatest investment be to protect your head?

Time to catch up around here.I'm in my second week...

2006-08-31T23:37:00.000-04:00

Time to catch up around here.

I'm in my second week of life without an appendix. Weekend before last we were in GA visiting family. Sunday morning I got up, drove into Gainesville and ran 9 miles around town. I got back to Aunt Rexie's house and ate breakfast and shortly after my stomach started hurting. Since running and my GI system don't always co-exist peacefully, I figured it was just some post-run discomfort and it'd be gone soon enough. It came and went for the first hour, but by about 11:30, halfway through church, it was getting pretty constant. Between 12:30 and 1 we found a Walgreens and I took a couple doses of Maalox. That never brought any relief and Mom and Dad started talking about the ER. I was thinking, "Ain't no way I'm paying $200 to go to the ER and be told I have gas." So, we drove 20 miles or so out to the Cracker Barrel where most of the family was meeting to celebrate Aunt Rexie's birthday. While we were driving the pain began to localize in a couple of spots on my right side. When we arrived at the restaurant, I talked to my cousin who has had a lot of gallbladder problems and that was what really made me think maybe I should be checked out. We had already decided we weren't going to be able to stay to eat, unfortunately, and so we headed out for the 20 mile drive back to the hospital. I think we got there around 3, and by that time I was pretty doggone sure I'd never had gas like this before.

My time in the ER was fairly uneventful, I guess. I ended up having CT scans and an ultrasound of my gallbladder. They diagnosed early appendicitis (even after the ER doc told me several times that he wasn't impressed with my belly, which in my state of pain sounded like a personal attack rather than a comment on the fact that I didn't howl when he pressed on my abdomen). It turned out that a surgeon who has operated on several of my family members was the one on call for his practice, so we opted for him to be the one to do the procedure. He showed up to examine me and boy, was he a sight for sore eyes! Dr. Handsome agreed that it was appendicitis and said we could be in surgery in about 30 minutes.

This was the only other time I'd ever been in the hospital other than my own birth and Emma Kate's. I was a little nervous about the idea of being knocked out and operated on. My last thought in the OR was of too many Reader's Digest articles I've read where patients receive anesthesia and can't move or talk but are still awake and aware of what's going on. Fortunately that didn't happen to me and I woke up in a rather talkative mood some time later. It must have been midnight when I got to my room - so it was a long evening for my parents. I was discharged the next morning, so all in all I wasn't even there 24 hours. Pretty amazing.

My surgery was laparascopic instead of the open incision, so my healing hasn't been that difficult. I did a lot of walking that next morning. We made the trip back home on Tuesday. I went for my first post-surgery run on Wednesday of this week (3 miles). I don't have any pain and the incisions seem to be healing OK. Now I just need to get my fitness level back up where it was. It stinks, because I had achieved sort of a jump up right before this happened... now I've got to rebuild. I'm a little uncertain how to go about getting back on my marathon training schedule, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel so I'll just have to figure it out.

Let's see, what else is going on? Let me give a garden update. The cucumbers have died, the squash is still producing just a bit, but the beans have come on in full force, and the tomatoes aren't doing too badly either. Even the bell peppers have decided to get in on the act. Today I went to the seed store and got leaf lettuce seeds - I decided to plant them for fall/winter in the space previously occupied by the cukes. I think I have been bitten by the gardening bug. Our freezer is full of pickles and squash. I have been eating oven-fried squash, cream of squash soup, squash bread, squash casserole, you name it. This morning I froze my first batch of green beans. It's pretty cool - I like being self-sufficient.

EK art

2006-08-14T18:28:00.000-04:00

Emma Kate is getting to be quite the artist. I'm curious whether others will know what this is.

IMG_2434
Originally uploaded by shaverfamily.

I'll see about putting pictures up on Flickr later...

2006-07-31T13:42:00.000-04:00

I'll see about putting pictures up on Flickr later, but our garden is overflowing with cucumbers and squash. I've had to rapidly expand my recipe repertoire for those two veggies and we're still having trouble keeping up. Fortunately Chris's coworkers snatch it right up when he takes in our extras.

Cuke Recipes

Crisp Cucumber Freezer Pickles - I have the second batch of these in the fridge right now, and they'll be done tomorrow morning, freeing up the only bowl we have that's big enough - which means I'll probably do another batch tomorrow night. These are really good. I cut the sugar to 1 cup and that seems fine to me. Also, I don't think the red and green bell pepper add much taste, but they add some color. Those could certainly be left out if you wanted.

Spicy Refrigerator Dill Pickles - I made a double batch of these this weekend, but since you can't eat them for 10 days, I obviously haven't tasted them yet. They seem promising; the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes caught my attention. I did make one adjustment - I missed the 1 and 1/2 cups of fresh dill weed, so I substituted dried at a 3 to 1 ratio (so 1/2 cup of dried dill weed). I don't know how that will work taste-wise. I do know that we'll probably need to rinse or wipe our pickles before we eat them. The dill spurred a new name for this recipe: Swamp Pickles.

Thai Cucumber Salad - this is a tasty salad recipe from one of my online running mama friends. I have been known to subsitute ground coriander when I didn't have any fresh cilantro on hand. Don't know for sure if that's "right", but it tasted fine to me.

1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
� teaspoon red pepper flakes
� teaspoon salt
2 pounds cucumbers, seeded and sliced into quarters
� cup red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
� cup roasted peanuts, chopped

In a bowl, mix vinegar, sugar, pepper flakes and salt. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cucumber, onion, cilantro, and mint. Toss until well covered. Refrigerate covered for 1 hour. Before serving, add the peanuts.

Tzatziki - I like this with hot whole wheat pita bread. I'll give you the "written" recipe first and then tell you what I really do. :)

8 oz. plain yogurt (whole milk yogurt works best)
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and pressed
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. fresh mint or dill, chopped
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Squeeze the moisture out of the cucumber in a towel, add to the rest of the ingredients, mix well and serve.

OK... in my desperation to use up cukes, I think I probably do more than the "1 small cucumber." We have the pickling type, but I will put about 4 of those in. I like the sauce chunky. Another option, as I noticed at the Indian restaurant we lunched at today, would be shredding or grating the cucumber. All depends on what you like. Anyway, if the garlic cloves are large, 1 might be enough. This isn't good (to me) if it gets too garlicky. Last time I made it I omitted the lemon juice and olive oil completely and used fresh mint. Finally, instead of fresh ground pepper, I used white pepper and it gave it a really nice kick. Chris especially liked that aspect of it, which is good, because if he will eat this it is good in the fight against the cucumbers. We have made this with dill too, and it's good, but the most recent version with the mint and white pepper is our favorite.

Oh yeah, I just clipped this recipe for Raw Avocado and Cucumber Soup, but I haven't tried it yet. I hope to very soon as it sounds yummy to me!

Yellow/Summer Squash Recipes

Sylvia's Squash Casserole - this was made by a friend of the family when Mom had just come home from the hospital. We all really enjoyed it.

Olive oil
~6 med-large yellow squash, sliced
1 onion or however much you like, chopped or sliced
14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained well
Dried oregano
Bread crumbs (Italian seasoned ones are good, any type would be fine)
Cheddar cheese, grated/shredded

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large frying/saute pan, heat a little olive oil (about 1 TBS) over medium heat. Add the onions and saute for a couple of minutes to give them a head start. Add the squash, stirring well to coat. Add oregano to taste. When the squash are just starting to get tender, add the diced tomatoes, and continue to cook. You want to balance the tenderness of the squash (don't let it get too mushy) and the liquidness of the whole dish - you want it to be as dry as possible. Whenever you are happy with it, put everything into a loaf pan or casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and then cheese (both to taste). Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes or until it looks done to you.

After making this several times using a variety of methods, I have settled on this one as the way to have the least liquid in the dish. I have frozen a small amount of this and will try to remember to report back as to how it tastes out of the freezer. It sure is delicious freshly made!

Squash Bread - pick your favorite zucchini bread recipe and substitute yellow squash. It doesn't taste squashy at all and is quite good, assuming you like zucchini bread. I actually used my breadmaker's recipe for zucchini bread, and it turned out fine. I plan to make several loaves of this and freeze.

We are in a library in Crawfordsville, Indiana. P...

2006-07-17T12:40:00.000-04:00

We are in a library in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Photos of the weekend are on Flickr...

We're having a good time. We have a little story to share about our night last night which involves motorcycles and raccoons, but no time to tell it right now. We've got to hit the road...

I have a little bit to say about a lot of things, ...

2006-07-05T09:25:00.000-04:00

I have a little bit to say about a lot of things, so here goes...

First, a little more detail on Mom... we got more information in her first visit to the doctor post-surgery. The cancer had invaded over 60% of the way through the muscular wall of the uterus, but fortunately had not gotten out. That degree of spread would normally mean further treatment (chemo and radiation), but the doctor said that since her cancer was a grade 1, he was not recommending that. She will be watched closely for the next several years, and they are considering her 95% cured. She is recovering well, though maybe more slowly than she'd like.

In what seems like a cruel twist of fate, we recently found out that Aunt Rexie (Mom's sister) has non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It is in her shoulder and neck area but they don't believe it has spread to any organs. She is getting ready to begin chemo and will have 6 treatments, 3 weeks apart.

We had a nice 4th of July celebration last night. Mom and Dad came over and we had a very yummy meal... hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, layered salad, corn on the cob, fruit salad with poppyseed dressing, hot pineapple casserole, and personal-sized Uncle Sam cakes for dessert. Then Chris, Emma Kate, and I went to one of the Carilion parking garages to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately for us, the roof was closed off to a private party (?) but we still had a pretty good vantage point. I had fun taking pictures (you can see more on Flickr) but poor Emma Kate did not enjoy herself. She was scared and didn't like how loud they were. I was afraid we had scarred her for life, but she was back to her old self within a couple minutes of the fireworks ending. We saw some more fireworks way off in the distance, and she proclaimed that she did like the "small fireworks."

Our garden is doing well. Emma Kate picked our first cucumber last night. We have had a few squash already, and we have been getting tomatoes off of our lone Roma that is in a pot. We've got 22 bean plants and some of them are ready to be staked. I am having fun and learning a lot. EK seems to be taking a lot of pride in it, too. I think she claimed ownership of the cucumber last night.

We are prepping for a trip/vacation... we leave next Thursday. We are driving to a state park near Chicago to camp and meet some of my online running mama friends (and their families). We are going to camp on the way there and back as well. The drive will definitely be long, but I am looking forward to heading out to parts unseen... we will be going through cities like Lexington and Louisville, KY, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. All places I've never been. We haven't tried an adventure like this in some years, so I am excited and I am interested to see how it will go. I really hope EK has fun. As much as she loves the outdoors, I expect her to have a blast.

Wonderful news! Mom is cancer-free! The path rep...

2006-06-19T08:44:00.000-04:00

Wonderful news! Mom is cancer-free! The path report came back on Saturday (somebody must have been working over the weekend) and it showed that her lymph nodes were clear. The doctor said there was no need for further treatment. To say that I am thrilled would be an understatement. I need Mom around for many more years.

She is going home from the hospital today. I am taking care of EK and working from home today (and probably most of this week), but I plan to get over there sometime this evening to see them. I am glad that the next time I go to the hospital, it will most likely be strictly as an employee.

Another quick update... Mom had a pretty good nigh...

2006-06-16T10:51:00.000-04:00

Another quick update... Mom had a pretty good night last night. This morning she has been disconnected from the IV and the morphine PCA and will receive pain meds by mouth from this point on. She also has taken her first walk down the hall. She's making some good progress. We still haven't gotten the path report back, though... so that's a big hurdle left to clear.

I'm writing this from my boss's boss's office here in the hospital. I am getting ready to head back up to the 11th floor shortly. Dad spent the night at home, I was here, and he got back around 8:30 this morning. I am staying at least until the doctor comes, but I'm not sure what I'm doing the rest of the day. If there is more news and I get a chance to get back online, I'll post it here.

Real quick, 'cause I am beat. Mom's doing well. T...

2006-06-14T23:31:00.000-04:00

Real quick, 'cause I am beat.

Mom's doing well. They had to do the traditional full incision instead of the laparoscopy, which means a longer stay and longer recovery time (by weeks)... but it was what was best for her situation once he got in there and checked things out a little. When we heard this by phone while the surgery was still in progress, I thought, "Man, why is all the news not what we want to hear?"

But then, when the doctor came to talk to us afterwards, he said that on visual inspection he didn't find anything else (i.e. no cancer just hanging out in the pelvic cavity) and that the outside of her uterus looked healthy. I'm taking this as a very good sign regarding spread. We won't get the results until Friday or Tuesday, but we are feeling cautiously optimistic that Mom is cancer-free at this point. It's a good feeling.

Well, it's the day before Mom's surgery... less th...

2006-06-13T09:54:00.000-04:00

Well, it's the day before Mom's surgery... less than 24 hours to go now. I guess we are as ready as we can be, more or less. I still have things I need to do around the house, but that's no different from normal, anyway. Mom has to be there at 7:45 in the morning, and I plan on spending all day there. Dad is going to spend the night tomorrow night at the hospital. I am not totally sure what I am doing on Thursday; it will depend on how she is doing. Then I think I am going to spend Thursday night at the hospital so that Dad can get a good night's sleep at home. Friday I will be off work and will be home with EK.

The 10 days of amoxicillin that I finished up on Saturday did not clear out the sinus infection. I feel like my brain is slowly leaking out through my nose. It's lovely. I'm sure my co-workers are loving the nose-blowing noises coming from my office. If my doc agrees, I'm supposed to be getting another script for a stronger antibiotic today. I'm not thrilled about all this antibiotic action, but I need to be well right now. I'm just trying to get plenty of probiotics in, too... through yogurt, kefir, and these acidophilus pearls I got at the co-op.

The laptop arrived last night at about the usual UPS delivery time, which is fortunate since we were home and a signature was required. Um, this laptop is ginormous. I am a little embarrassed by how big it is. I do not generally go in for big flashy stuff but I feel like I now own the Cadillac Escalade of laptops. Oh well, at the rate technology moves, I guess it will be old and obsolete in a few months and then maybe I won't feel so strange with it.

There are lots of new features to play with and I've just scratched the surface. I'm liking the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I couldn't get the wireless router set up last night because something is all jacked up with the ethernet connection on the cable modem. To make a long story short, on two different laptops, I can get online with the USB connection, but the ethernet is dead. I have tried a different patch cable, too, and that made no difference. Is it possible that when the PC got fried it somehow fried the ethernet port on the modem but left the rest of it intact? That's sure what it seems like. The ethernet connection was plugged in at the time and the USB cable was still in its box in the basement. After at least an hour and a half on the phone last night with the Cox people, a repair person is coming to the house Friday morning. I hope they will just replace the modem.

I copied our pictures off of the external USB drive last night. I feel better that they now exist in two places. The USB drive is nifty, although I noticed that the power plug is a little fussy... i.e. if you barely jostle it you will lose the connection. Hm. Next step is to finally pay for a copy of Eudora and get our email back up and running. Then I'll finish moving files and stuff. It may be a while before I get everything just the way I want it... although this might be a good activity to do while hanging out at the hospital.

OK, so, onto a different topic. I don't think I've mentioned here that we have a garden this year! Yes, an honest-to-goodness garden dug into our backyard! Dad started a bunch of plants from seed for his container garden (a.k.a. the science project) and ended up with more than he could use. So, he came over and helped Chris till up a 20x10 plot. We have tomatoes, cukes, squash, bell pepper, and then we planted bean seeds... 2 rows of Kentucky Wonder. I looked out there this morning and I need to get out and do some hoeing... there is some kind of grass or weed that is making it's way all over like a ground cover. This year is going to be a steep learning curve for me. It's amazing that I grew up with a father who knows tons about vegetable gardening, and yet I know next to nothing. I guess as a teenager I didn't think it was worth my attention. Anyway, I hope I am able to give it the time it needs and that I will learn a lot. I could see expanding it and trying to grow a greater variety of stuff next year.

Well, I don't have much else to report right now. I'll try to post tomorrow with any news.

Woo-hoo! Our new laptop has shipped! I can't wai...

2006-06-09T08:40:00.000-04:00

Woo-hoo! Our new laptop has shipped! I can't wait to get it in my hot little hands. I picked up the hunk of junk and the 80GB drive yesterday. The repair guy, George, showed me the contents of the 80GB drive and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was so nice to see those familiar folders and files. I guess this shows how the computer geek side of me has stagnated, but I'm still mucho impressed that we got an external USB hard drive out of the deal. Softens the blow a little bit of having to buy a new printer, possibly a UPS, probably some new software, the list just goes on and on...

I was just looking through the blog archives and realized that this time last year we were worrying over Hannah's medical condition. I haven't updated on her lately, but that's because everything is fine. I am so glad she is still with us and that the anemia seems to have resolved on its own. I still think it was the phenobarb. No pet of mine is ever getting near that stuff again.

It's a gorgeous morning here. I didn't run this morning, but am planning to go to the Xtreme Training class at the gym tonight and also lift weights. Tomorrow morning is 13 miles. I hope it's a good run. I have been extremely tired this week, but I did get a little more sleep last night, so maybe that will help me.

Busy times here. Mom's oncologist appointment tod...

2006-06-08T15:55:00.000-04:00

Busy times here. Mom's oncologist appointment today went well. I feel like she is in good hands. Her hysterectomy is scheduled for Wednesday of next week at 9:45. We're figuring out childcare arrangements and making other preparations.

We dropped the dead computer at the repair place today - turns out both the power supply and the motherboard are fried. The dead motherboard means the system is not worth repairing (apparently the motherboard is not replaceable due to old age; i.e. the part isn't available). However, the repair dude came up with a very cool solution. A couple years ago I installed a second hard drive at 80GB. The original hard drive is about 30GB. So... he moved everything on the 30GB drive onto the 80GB drive (which didn't have much on it) and then, by putting an enclosure around the drive, turned it into an external USB drive. Pretty cool. So that's how we'll transfer the data to the new laptop, and then when that's done we'll have a spare 80GB external drive... bringing our total storage capacity to 200GB. I feel like we managed to squeeze a last little bit of life out of the old PC. I'm going to pick it up on my way home from work.

Dell is saying the new one will be shipped on the 13th. I'm not sure why since it says that they finished everything but boxing it on the 5th. Maybe it will be a happy surprise and it will get here early.

Well, well, well... the latest in the string of ex...

2006-06-05T15:14:00.000-04:00

Well, well, well... the latest in the string of exciting evens at the Shaver household is that the computer died on Friday afternoon. It happened during a thunderstorm... the power didn't go out but the circuit breaker tripped for the outlet that all the computer stuff is plugged into. I suspect it got the power supply, and I am hoping that the motherboard and drives, etc. are all OK. We shall see. We are going to look into getting it repaired, but in the meantime, I just placed an order for a shiny new laptop from Dell. The desktop is 5-6 years old and we'd been planning to replace it fairly soon anyway. We will still probably be 2 weeks without a computer at home by the time the new one arrives. I am not sure how I am going to manage this, but I suppose I will survive somehow. ;)

I had a pretty lousy 10K race on Saturday, but made up for it somewhat with a 14 mile bike ride yesterday followed by a GREAT 4 mile run. I rode the bike to work today, too. I think I'm getting more confident and more knowledgeable, and thus, faster.

I turned 30 on Sunday. It seems a little weird to...

2006-06-02T09:42:00.000-04:00

I turned 30 on Sunday. It seems a little weird to me, like there is additional pressure to "grow up," though how I would go about that I'm not sure. But I have mostly only noticed some positive aspects of being in a new decade. One is that I finally get to move up in my age group for road races. The 25-29 age group is not so bad, but at some smaller races, it's 20-29. I know I got a lot more sleep and had a lot more free time at 20 than I did at 29. I did not have a child waking me up in the middle of the night, heck, for that matter I wasn't working full time and really had very few responsibilities. I'm just sayin', is all. :) I think my lifestyle is much more similar to the 30-34 crowd in terms of the time it affords me for training. Plus, I am older than one of the local female "superstars" so I am leaving her behind for a while age-group wise. We'll see how this pans out on Sunday, which will be my first race (a 10K) as a 30 year old. I managed to snag second-place in my age group in the 5Ks I ran my last 2 Saturdays as a 29 year old, but this race on Saturday is probably going to draw a lot more competition.

Anyway, the best thing about turning 30 has to be what I got with various birthday funds... a road bike. It's a Specialized Allez Triple. This past week has been like the beginning of an intense love affair. I worked on Monday, and used the holiday as an opportunity for a first ride to work under "test" conditions. I haven't really been on a bike in 5-6 years, so there has definitely been a learning curve. I commuted again on Wednesday, and gazed lovingly at the bike throughout the day as it leaned against the wall in my office. I was much more comfortable on it by Wednesday evening. I haven't ridden since, but I am hoping to get out for a longer ride this weekend.

I am having a little trouble juggling the running and biking, but I'm hoping it's just an adjustment period and things will settle down. Wednesday morning I actually biked the 5.5 miles in, and then 15 minutes later went for a 4 mile run. I spent the first mile talking (out loud) to myself: "Come on legs, we're running. Running. We're off the bike, this is running. Not biking. Let's go!" Then, after riding home on Wednesday, my legs were like lead for what was supposed to be an 8 mile run Thursday morning. I hope this gets easier. This is the last week that I am running any road races for a while. That has caused me to restrict my activity on Thursdays and Fridays, so once I am not racing maybe I can spread things out a little bit more.

Anyway, there is definitely a thrill in biking that is not there in running. It might be the danger factor - the question of, "Can I ride on this road/make this turn at a light/go down this hill without getting hit by a car or flying off the bike?" There is also a strong satisfaction in knowing that I am getting from point A to point B entirely under my own power (and that it takes half the time it would if I ran, plus I can carry stuff!). I have yet to really enjoy the scenery, although I did take note of the sunrise the other morning, but I think that will be a bigger factor as I get more confident on the bike.

Triathlon and (maybe) duathlon are on my list of things to do before I die. I'm pretty sure this fall is going to be my marathon debut, though. I will start serious training for that in July. This is a great time for it and I don't want to let my newfound bike love get in the way. But the tri and duathlon will probably follow sometime in the next 3-5 years, maybe sooner, maybe later within that range.

Well, now that our family knows, I'm ready to go a...

2006-05-31T13:19:00.000-04:00

Well, now that our family knows, I'm ready to go ahead and write about it here: we found out last Thursday that Mom has uterine cancer. What a shock, to say the least. We are kind of taking things one day at a time. She was supposed to have an appointment with the gynecologic oncologist this Friday, but unfortunately the appointment got pushed back to Thursday of next week. However, today she was able to speak to the gynecologist who did the D&C and found out a couple of things... it's adenocarcinoma (which is a more common type) and is a grade 1. Grade 1 means the cancer cells are not too different from normal cells and that the cancer is likely to be slow-growing. This is a relief, as the main thing we have been worried about is spread. If it has not spread, a hysterectomy should take care of it and we can hopefully put this behind us. If it has, well, that's a whole 'nother ballgame alltogether.

I actually met the GYN oncologist by chance the Friday before her D&C. He gave a talk at Grand Rounds on gynecological cancers. That has proved to be very helpful for me as a knowledge base for understanding what we're dealing with here. I can't stand to be in the dark in a situation like this... the more information I have, the better. Prayers and/or good thoughts appreciated. One thing's for sure, I am SO GLAD we are in Roanoke. I can't imagine how helpless and frustrated I would feel if this were going on and I was living 4 hours away.

In nearly 15 years of driving, I have never hit an...

2006-05-15T09:14:00.000-04:00

In nearly 15 years of driving, I have never hit anything larger than a bug with my car. Until this morning. What a sickening feeling. RIP, squirrel. I hope I can go at least another 15 years before it happens again.

I had a nice Mother's Day. We went to Red Lobster for an early dinner with Mom and Dad, followed by dessert back at their house. Strawberry pie, one of my all-time favorites. My mom is such a great cook. :)

I made black bean soup on Saturday and we are having it again tonight. I am already looking forward to it. I find that I alternate between craving chickpeas and black beans. There are always some in my pantry - in fact there are canned and dried, though I'm not so good at using the dried. I don't know if my body is trying to tell me something about its protein needs or if it's just the taste I crave. Anyway, I'm planning to make a loaf of feta black pepper bread before dinner. It goes so well with the soup, and it's one of the Fast Bake recipes for my bread machine, so it only takes an hour.

I got some good running in this weekend... 10 miles on Saturday and 7 yesterday. Saturday's run was beautiful and sunny and the perfect temperature. Sunday's run... well, it was sprinkling when I headed out and about halfway through the skies opened up. It amuses me that when you run in the rain, your front is soaking and your back is relatively dry. Also, I'm wondering if rainwater is softer than our public water (which is the definition of hard), because I am pretty sure those were detergent suds forming on my shorts by the end of the run. Wonder if I could market this as a new time-saving laundry strategy?

Anyway, that made 33 miles for last week, and that's what I'm shooting for this week. Next week I'll bump it up to 36. I'm aiming for 50.

If you take a look to the left, you'll notice that...

2006-05-01T11:16:00.000-04:00

If you take a look to the left, you'll notice that I've decided to join modern technology by adding Flickr to the blog. I am still managing to take photos, but I've been terrible about sharing them. Over the weekend, in addition to creating a Flickr account, I finally bit the bullet and learned how to use actions in Photoshop to automate tasks. Now I can click the mouse a few times and then walk away while Photoshop resizes and compresses all the photos in a given folder on my hard drive. This will make my life much easier, and hopefully it will mean you'll get to see more pictures.

We were out near the mall today, and all of a sudd...

2006-04-01T21:50:00.000-05:00

We were out near the mall today, and all of a sudden Emma Kate exclaimed from the back seat, "LOOK! It's a grape store!"

She was pointing at the Olive Garden sign. :)

I ran a 5K on Saturday, sponsored by the local Cat...

2006-03-20T12:59:00.000-05:00

I ran a 5K on Saturday, sponsored by the local Catholic school. It was cold and windy, and I had to pull out the running tights... yuck. The course was out and back and into the wind for the whole first half. It definitely slowed me down but I think I was able to make up some time on the way back. I finished in 27:40, so I took about a minute and a half off my 5K time from November AND managed to finish with a pace just under 9 minutes. I didn't have any real goals for the race; I was just curious to see what I could do, but I have to admit that at about the 2 mile mark I started thinking it sure would be nice to finish with a pace under 9 minutes. So I'm pretty happy. And the food at the race was yummy! :)

The Charlottesville half-marathon is now less than 4 weeks away. I'm getting excited. I ran 10 miles yesterday for the first time ever in my life. It really wasn't all that bad. I love long runs. I especially love when nobody else is around and I can talk to myself out loud - you know, encouraging myself (all of my other thinking stays private). Somehow that's so much more effective than encouraging myself inside my head. Or maybe I'm just crazy. Whatever.

I'm also trying to pick some local races to enter after the half, up through the beginning of June or so. There are a slew of 5Ks and one 10K on June 3rd. I think I could almost run a race every weekend if I wanted to. I have decided on one for May 20. Emma Kate is already excited about the Toddler Trot. It'll be her first race!

As EK and I were driving home tonight, we saw a ca...

2006-03-13T20:30:00.000-05:00

As EK and I were driving home tonight, we saw a car pull out into oncoming traffic and cause another car to slam on its brakes and squeal its tires. This spurred a discussion about driving. She already knows about cars "bonking" one another and so we discussed that bonking other cars can hurt people and cost a lot of money. I ended by saying, "It's good to be a safe driver." Emma Kate said, "It's bad to be a... bonkin' driver."