Snow Day 2!

Snow Day #2 was a lot like Snow Day #1, no snow & lots of ice. Dean & I didn't have to go to work the last 2 days but I did work from home. Just a little today but I put in 6.5 hours Tuesday.

I took some pics. The temp was in the 20's so I wasn't about to go outside. These were all taken through doors & windows.
This is the view from our front door.
More from the front door. Sadly, that's ice & not snow.
The patio from the living room.
Pretty much the same view as the last picture but this was at 8:30 this morning. That black bag to the left is covering my pepper plant that I've managed to keep alive for a couple of years.
I took this one from the back door. I hope the ice on my palm doesn't kill it. I've learned that Dean turns the pool pump up & that keeps the pool water from freezing.
More from the front door.
Dean decided to venture outside. The bird bath was frozen solid.
Behind the pool. Notice lots of brown plants.

Home plate from the old Alex Box Stadium is almost completely iced over.
The driveway.
More of the driveway.

The ice in this area of the patio was a couple of inches thick & solid. It hasn't completely melted & we're getting back into the 20's tonight. We have to go back to work tomorrow. Bummer. We've determined that I'm in the minority in being completely happy to be confined to the house for several days. Everyone else has cabin fever. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time off!

I managed to not eat everything in sight either!
Pancakes with fruit is really good! I only used a tad of syrup & it was sugar free. YUM! I've had a lot of salads too.
I've lost count of the number of cups of coffee & hot tea I've had over the course of the last couple of days.

I'm thinking I won't get a run in before Friday because you know it's in the 20's. Granted, it's colder a lot of other places & there's a lot of snow other places but I live here & we are not used to this & I don't like it! I was really excited about my first snow day ever - working at the newspaper I always had to go to work regardless of the weather - we were supposed to get actual fluffy white stuff. It didn't happen.

I hope everyone is staying warm & safe.

Toodles!

Sunday Funday!

More like Sunday Lazy Day. Of course if I'm being completely honest I would tell you that it's been a weekend of pure laziness!

Friday we woke up to crazy weather. Sleet, 26 degrees & ice evrrywhere. Schools & all sorts of other places were closed. Sadly, my office wasn't one of those places.

I took this before I left for work. It's by the pool.
The interstates were closed & a ton of surface streets were too. The temp didn't get any "warmer" than 28. I know that's not cold in a lot of places but it's craziness here. Luckily, since the roads weren't getting any better the office closed at 2:30.
Icicles were all over my car when I left.

Lots of ice.


I stopped at one of my favorite restaurants, Mike Anderson's, to pick up seafood gumbo for supper. I had to pass right by on my way home. It was delicious!

When I got home this is what things looked like.



My poor camelias.

I hope my azaleas still bloom after this.
The icicles hung around awhile. They were still there Sat. Speaking of Sat., I cleared a bunch of stuff off the DVR. RHOBH? Check, House Hunters? Check, Party Down South? I'm ashamed to say, check, Rich Kids Of Beverly Hills, check! 
Dean went & got Caliente to go. I have to have my Mexican fix!

Sunday morning we went to Mass & grocery shopping. When we got home I went for a run.
I didn't go too far because I'm wearing old shoes. My new ones haven't come in yet. Stupid narrow foot. Incidentally, my boob Dr that's a runner told me that since it was so much warmer last than my first half would cause my feet to swellwhich would make them rub places they don't normally which would be why I bled through. Not sure what my running schedule will look like this week because they're forecasting worse weather Tuesday than what we had Friday. Ugh! I'm over winter!

Toodles

Thoughts

The Louisiana Marathon posted some pictures on their FB page that I thought were cool looking so I'm sharing.

There was a little more daylight than this when I got down there Sunday morning.

The race started at the steps of the State Capital

This was along the route The sunset was just a random picture I took yesterday while sitting in traffic. When I got home I did a 4 mi. run. I had tired legs & averaged an 11:07 min./mi  I've been told the quicker you get back out there the better. I've been doing a lot of stretching & foam rolling & I feel good.

Today I visited the boob Dr. for my 6 mo. check up. I had my 6 mo. ultrasound earlier in the week & my yearly mammogram. Oh what fun. In keeping with the last several years I have yet another "spot" to watch but the Dr. isn't concerned about it. I just have to see her again in 6 mos.

 Last January when I saw her she was telling me all about how she'd been training for her first marathon but had gotten injured & wasn't able to run it. She'd been running 5K's & Half's before that. I mentioned to her that I'd been running but didn't think I could do a Half. She assured me I could & encouraged me to train. I thought about it & a couple of days later is when I signed up for the Woman's Half Marathon. I saw my Dr. at the starting line of Woman's & she told me she was recovering from a knee issue but was feeling good. I didn't see her after that but she finished a couple of minutes before me. She's 10 years older than me so it just goes to show you that everyone is different & age doesn't necessarily mean you'll be fast or slow.

At today's appt. we talked about our races. She finished the full in 5:20, 20 minutes faster than her goal. She said she had friends with her the whole run & they chatted & it was great. She said she felt fine afterwards too. I can't imagine!

I'm sure some of you think I'm leading up to saying that I'm going to run a full. You'd be wrong. Ha! I have no desire. I'm so incredibly proud of myself for training for a 5K & completing the first one & continuing on & completing the half's. I've never been an athlete (I don't consider myself one now either), I tend to not follow through with grandiose plans either! So all of this is a really big deal to me. I'm not fast by any means & I'm not the slowest one out there but that's ok. Some days I feel like crap & don't think I'll be able to make it to 2 miles. Some days I feel good. All this to say if you've thought about training but haven't pulled the trigger - DO IT! You'll be glad you did.

Toodles!

 

Half #2

This weekend was my second Half Marathon. The Louisiana Marathon is a pretty big race. It's only in it's third year but was voted one of Runner's World magazine's best "new" races.
Saturday morning there was a 5K & a kids fun run.  I went out to watch my friend Allison  & her son Cael.
Cael had so much fun!
Allison did great too.
Allison's hubs made me laugh when he said "apparently, I'm part of a family of runners".

Me, Cael & Allison. It was cold!!!

In keeping with Half Marathon Eve tradition Dean & I went & got cake balls for dessert Saturday night.
King cake & wedding cake. OMG!! FABULOUS!! The King Cake ones taste better than any king cake I've ever eaten. So so so good.
They deserve another picture. The purple, green & gold are King Cake in case you're not familiar with Mardi Gras.

We had dinner at Portobello's so I could get some carbs & it was delish!

Sunday morning on the way to the race which is approx. 10 mins. from my house I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. I don't know why but I felt like I was going to throw up & burst into tears at the same time. I didn't have that feeling before the first one. I sucked it up & found Scott & Lydia.

Not the greatest picture but the sun wasn't up yet. This is the starting line.

Me & Lydia. Excuse how I look. When there's any wind I have to cover my ears & the headband doesn't work too well with the hat but since it was going to be sunny I needed the hat.  This was the first time I ran with compression sleeves. LOVED THEM! I took them off & threw them at my friend Cindy on the course when I saw her because I'd gotten hot but they're great when you're cold & don't want to wear a jacket.
We finished! Me, my brother Scott & my sis in law Lydia. Scott & I both PR'd! I was soooo excited! 2:19:24. Scott aka the Kenyan Wannabe was 1:35. That's just craziness. Lydia had knee issues & this was one of her worst races. She finished in 2:40. I still think that's an awesome time.

This race had a slightly different route than my other half & I liked it a lot with the exception of the overpass. Same overpass as the first half but this half we went across it twice. UGH! It was at mile 2ish & mile 11.5. The second time was really rough & the majority of people were walking but I KNEW if I walked I wouldn't be able to start running so I powered through. UGH!

I felt really good throughout the race. It was so fun because it's a big race & there are tons of spectators. There were people with DJ equipment, guitars & there was even a gong! The route is through a lot of residential areas near LSU which have beautiful multi-million dollar homes so I enjoyed that. A couple of places had bars set up & were offering runners shots & drinks. The thought of that made me nauseous..... When I got around mile 9 I looked at my watch & was in the low 10 min. mi. pace. I knew I would be close to my previous time. Once I hit mile 10 the distance between miles slowed down. Earlier in the race it seemed like the miles were flying by. I knew that stupid overpass was coming & I thought that it was really close to the end of the race. Not so much. It was at mile 11.5. Well, I just thought mile 10-11 was long. 12-13.1 was the longest mile ever!!!!! I saw my friend that I work with about 100 yards from the finish so that was good. At that point I knew I was really close on the time. As you rounded the corner to the finish they were playing the LSU fight song. I saw the time on the clock & it was past my time. I thought I'd started my watch pretty close to when my chip time started so I was a little bummed. Then I saw Allison, Dean & Scott cheering for me & that made me happy. I got water & my medal & went to meet up with them. That's when Allison showed me the text message. Her & Dean were tracking me & got text updates. Final time: 2:19:24. I was so so excited. We waited for Lydia & during that time the guy that won the full marathon finished - 2:38. That's so unbelievable to me!

My medal & time ticket!

Normally, my watch is off like 1/10 of a mile compared to my phone & it's always behind my phone. I did not expect to see 13.24.

There was a nice Finish Festival with food, drinks & live music. We stuck around for awhile & then I was getting cold so we headed home. After some stretching & foam rolling I was going to take a nice long, hot bath. I discovered this.
What is that you ask? Well, that would be blood. Both shoes looked like this. Around mile 8 or 9 I felt like I might be getting blisters on my pinky toes. Very odd because I don't have a problem with blisters.  I was a little scared to take my shoes off. Once I did I was happy to see that there were no blisters, just a very small cut on the top of each of my pinky toes. So weird right? After feeling around the inside of my shoe the only thing I could find was a stitch that felt funny. It's definitely time for new shoes. I'd been on the fence about whether to buy new shoes before the first Half but I decided that I didn't want to take any chances & I just stayed with what I trained in. With Christmas & everything I kinda forgot about shoes. Well, except for when I put them on to run. Needless to say I decided to just stick with the same ones. I told Dean looking at my shoes reminded me of when Curt Schilling was pitching in the World Series & he had a horrible bloody ankle & his sock was soaked but he just kept pitching. Dean looked at my shoes & wasn't reminded of that at all. Apparently, I'm not as hard core as I thought. But, hey I ran with bloody toes!!!

Toodles!

Happy Friday!

I don't know about y'all but my week has flown by! YAY! It's been a pretty boring week. Work, run, work, run. Yesterday, I ran 2 miles. As the app says "just to calm your nerves". I'm not overly nervous since I know what to expect & NO RAIN!!! I'm a little nervous since I haven't run more than 10 miles since the last half but we've had a lot of rain & ridiculous temps. I ran the first half in the rain, been there, done that & I have zero intention of training in it.

I saw this on Facebook the other day & I loved it!

I often say I don't understand why everyone can't just be happy for each other? Or what about the whole "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all". Anyway, it made me laugh!

So the only plans we have this weekend are eating, the race & getting a mani. I think I'm going back to what I've been thinking of as my signature color (OPI - I'll Take The Cake). I did some red & tried a couple of other colors so I'm ready for the light neutral. Mainly because it isn't as noticeable when they start to grow out.

I guess this is enough random nothingness for one day. HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Toodles!

Weekend in pics

It was our last Friday that the office closed at 2:00 until April 15th. sigh. It's a bummer but it's only for 3 months. I took advantage & got my hair done. Cut & low lights and a little hibiscus tea
and a little champs!
Funny story, an "older" lady came in & when she was asked if she wanted coffee or tea she responded with "Lord no, I've got a good Champagne buzz going." Y'all, it was 4:00. Her stylist asked if she wanted champagne & she answered "now you're talking" so she asked the others that were there if we wanted any. I'll never turn down champs!

Have y'all heard of these?
I swear it's a miracle brush! I have a lot of hair but it's very fine so it tangles. A LOT. I always thought it was because it was dry but Alexy the stylist says no. She used this brush & it worked great so I bought one. I used it this morning & it worked way better than my big comb that I've been using for years. In keeping with the "I think I have adult ADD" theme I left the brush in the bag at the front desk while I went to take off the smock & I proceeded to walk right out the door, get in my car & get 3/4 of the way home when I remembered that I left my brush. Ugh. I went & got it Saturday.

What I worked so hard for!
Dean put my sticker on Saturday. I've had it since the race but it was always cold or raining & when it wasn't we'd forget.
Another view of it. HA! Also, something we did Saturday that wasn't on the to do list?? Kill a snake. This is starting to get old. We've killed more snakes since we've lived in this house than I've ever seen in my entire life. I was cleaning out the closet & I had some stuff to put in the trash so I went to put it in the outside can & as I turned around to go back in the house I saw the little monster staring at me from behind my car. What is it with these animals that they stare into my soul?? It started slithering under my car. This may sound ridiculous but he seemed to be injured. He had a funny, gimp slither. Almost like a limp. So I don't want to lose sight of him because he needs to be dead. So I start hollering for Dean. Nothing. I go on the patio by the pool & holler while jumping up & down waving my hands in the air (like I just don't care) hoping to get his attention. No luck so I ran to the back door & hollered there's a snake.  Have I mentioned that Dean is calm & mild mannered? Yeh, the exact opposite of me. He began to what can only be described as moseying to the door & said "huh, I thought it was too cold". I went back to my spot so I could keep an eye on Mr. Gimp. It's like he knew exactly where to go so that we couldn't get to him. Under the car up against the back, drivers side tire. Seriously. Dean got the shovel & he stood behind my car with the above view, while I was in front of the car. We stood there a good 5 minutes just staring trying to figure out what to do. I even had a broom & poked him a couple of times (from a distance that wasn't quite far enough away for my liking). He didn't move much. We decide to try what we've tried before that didn't work. Running over him with the car. It terrifies me to get in the car with the snake being that close. I have this fear that all of a sudden he's going to jump in the car with me. I jumped in & closed the door really quick. All I had to do was back straight up & I'd get him. Score! Except that after Dean watched the front tire roll right over him the snake was gone. Vamoosh! No snake. He was like Houdini. He then appeared on the other side of the car, ALIVE. Seriously, I don't know how much my car weighs but I'm pretty sure it's in the tons & if that doesn't kill a snake we're in a world of trouble. It's time like these when I think maybe I could be on a reality TV show. One that really is unscripted reality. So Dean killed it with the shovel & disposed of it in the ditch behind our house. This is becoming such a regular occurrence I didn't even take a picture. I went back to working on the closet.

Speaking of the closet. No pics because I'm not finished but it looks sooooo good! I have 2 shelves that I still need to go through. It's a lot of t-shirts & I think it's time that I actually part with some. I got tired of working & it was time for the Saints game so that's why it's not finished. Let me tell you, those Saints really messed things up for me. I didn't finish the closet because they were playing & I didn't go to Mass Saturday because they were playing. Then they went & lost. So, I went to Mass Sunday morning, did our grocery shopping & then went for my long run. Well, it was 9:30 by that time & in the 50's & sunny. Not good for my run. I wanted to go 11-12 miles. I ran out of water around mile 7. That never happens but I was hot, I had capri's on & I should've had shorts, around mile 8 there was a rock in my shoe. Have I mentioned that I was hot. Finally, I didn't feel like I could go anymore.
9.5 miles isn't bad but when I wanted to go a minimum of 11 it's not good. My race is Sunday. I'm nervous. 10 mi. is the furthest I've ran since the last race. I do think I'll do better than yesterday because the race starts at 7:00 so it will be cooler & they have water every mile. I did some good stretching & foam rolling when I finished & managed to eat good the rest of the day.
Scrambled eggs with green onions, feta, tomatoes, avocado & spinach was delish! I'll definitely make this again but throw in more veggies & mushrooms.

How was y'alls weekend?

Toodles!