Thankful Thursdays

Fri - Tax paperwork ready for filing

Sat - Motivation to finally start shopping for furniture and figure out some of our options

Sun - Homeland. Just finished season 2.  Such an awesome show!

Mon - Started at a new client.  There is always some excitement with starting new.

Tues - Cooperative weather -- the snowstorm came as soon as we got back to our hotel and stopped before it was time to go to work.  

Wed - Got to see up close and personal of all sorts of airplane engines at the Pratt&Whitney Customer Training Center

Thur - the Emergency Exit row

Thankful Thursdays

Fri - Costco salmon - 8 or 9 years ago my best high school friend grilled me some salmon that was marinated in lemon, brown sugar, and soy sauce.  This has been my favorite way to grill salmon ever since.  

Sat - I still can't get over how GREEN it is in the East Bay right now.  I cherish this time of year because it will be gone in a month or two.  My grandma used to say that California is called the Golden State because our hills are gold (brown) most of the year.

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Jay

She can take action shots (me drinking water) while riding her own bike!

Sun - In-N-Out - We had or first open water swim at Aquatic Park that morning and they planned to head to In-N-Out after the workout.  Unfortunately, I was sick so I stayed home.  I was most bummed about missing In-N-Out (priorities?), but Nick brought it back for me on his way home!

Mon - Kaiser - When I was a kid, that place was associated with mediocre care, so I never went there.  But when I returned to the Bay Area as an adult, I really appreciated their marketing efforts, the Thrive campaign, and the technological advancements they were making.  I was jealous that my company didn't offer them as an insurance option.  Once I got married, I switched to Nick's insurance so now I can use them.  I pay more per month than I did before.  But I also take better care of myself now that I am no longer nickeled and dimed every time I go to the doctor.  No charge for a checkup, no charge for women's health exam, no charge for the dermatologist (this fair-skinned girl mandates a dermatologist), no charge for bloodwork, and no charge for travel shots (I was appalled when I had to pay $300 for immunizations before I went to Argentina and Mason and Nick paid $0). It's definitely not a perfect system, but it beats the plan I was on before.

Tues - Bacon - It makes everything better, right?  I cooked a bunch last week to store in the fridge and it's been nice to throw it in different foods all week.  Kale and brussel sprouts taste twenty times better with a few bacon bits in them. 

Wed - Downton Abbey.  Ready to start Season 3.

Thur - Proximity to the car dealership - I used to have to drive 20 miles to get my car serviced.  Now it's only 3 miles away!

What To Wear? What To Wear?

Like most women, I struggle with making decisions on what to wear no matter what the occasion, including bike rides.  This time of year when it's not too cold and not too hot the choice is even harder.  Because making the wrong decision can make for a very uncomfortable 2-3 hours.  When hot, when it's freezing, and when it's raining, I know exactly what to wear.  But when it's chilly and trending toward being very pleasant out, my morning goes a little something like this:

Do I need a base layer?  Hmmm....short sleeve or long sleeve jersey?  Is it time for arm warmers yet?  Should I wear a vest or windbreaker?  Do I need a jacket?  Full-fingered or short-fingered gloves?  I wonder if I should wear the wool socks today?  Where are those dang shoe booties?  What kind of headband do I need?

As for the bottoms, supposedly your knees are supposed to be covered until it's over 68 out or something like that, so at least I don't need to decide between shorts and pants.

Today I ended up with a base layer, long-sleeve jersey, vest, and full gloves.  It was warmer out than I anticipated so peeled off the vest after 7 miles.  But, for me, it's always so much better to be too hot than to be cold!

Thankful Thursdays

Oopsie....I didn't realize yesterday was Thursday!

Fri - a walk to a great restaurant nearby for dinner

Sat - First bike ride of the year to write home about.  OK, so maybe it wasn't enough to write home about, but it was a nice 2 hour ride and I felt good.  Also, the scenery is amazing this time of year.  Between the green hills and the mustards blooming, it's beautiful out.

Sun - Being comfortable in the water.  As I've mentioned before, I am a fairly slow swimmer (which really sucks because I could go much faster if I would learn to turn my head without sinking my hips, but I still haven't figured it out yet).  Anyway, every time we have a swim workout, I am just grateful that I took up swimming on a whim to have "something to do after school" with my friends.  Our high school was notoriously awful at swimming.  A group of us started swimming together and then were encouraged to swim year-round at Santa Clara Swim Club after the season was over.  Watching very athletic people not be able to swim more than 50 yards at a time makes me extremely grateful I was looking for "something to do after school" when I was 14.

Mon - Productivity - I ended up logging 19 hours of work today.  And, it was all productive. So while it was a long day, it was worth it.

Tues - Flexibility - because I worked 19 hours the day before, my Tuesday was shot.  I was thankful to be at home, sleep late, start work late, and finish early.  I pretty much evened out the days.

Wed - Coach Dave's Carne Asada recipe - it's delicious and amazing and I now have lunch for several days.

Thur - Bravey - He's a typical cat (maybe even nicer than most cats).  But today, he just loved me, cuddled me, hugged me (yep with both arms around the neck), and licked my arms (I wish he wouldn't do that), for several hours.

Recomittment

This weekend was Recommitment for Team In Training.  Basically, you get 4 weeks from Kickoff to decide if you plan to stick with the Team and continue to raise funds for LLS.  You can drop at this point with essentially no financial commitment.  After the paperwork is signed, you are agreeing to continue to raise your minimum amount for LLS for the remainder of the season.  

I just got word on Friday that I will have to be going to Connecticut for 8 weeks straight (plus who knows how long after that).  It's 17 hours of flying time.  Plus add airport and travel on both ends.  I'm looking at losing an entire 24 hours every week to travel.  I'm not happy about it.  At all. I have to remind myself that a) I have a really good job and this was always a risk; and b) there are worse places I could be (like the middle of nowhere Kansas).  Needless to say, it screws up a lot of plans.  I was supposed to be in Hawaii (for work)  and even though I'm switching from one extreme end of the country to another, it's still a major bummer as I've been looking forward to this trip for awhile.  I probably also can't go to Wildflower Training Weekend.  The idea of camping and then swimming and riding and running that very challenging course isn't my cup of tea, yet I was still planning to do it.  And, my plans for Ironman 70.3 California at the end of March will also have to be changed.  Although I am just spectating and not racing, it was still sandwiched around some vacation and family time (Easter weekend), which will now be compromised. 

Am I recommitting?  Yes.  Because a long time ago, I learned about a guy that trained for 10 months for a full-distance Ironman on a Navy ship.  That means I can get cozy with the Farmington Marriott gym for an Olympic distance event (and grateful I had the foresight not to switch to the Long course distance when I was thinking about it).