Guaco de Mayo

I spent most of my childhood as a picky eater. I would throw temper tantrums when faced with something I thought was disgusting. I distinctly remembering passing broccoli under the table to my friend at dinner who enjoyed eating broccoli.
I have no idea where all my food aversions came from; but I am still amazed when my friend’s kids will eat anything put in front of them.
Today my food aversions are limited, only celery and anise seasoned items are still on the permanent list.
One may think that I regret spending many years missing out on so many good foods but it is quite the opposite.
I was enriched by my experience of having a colorful beet salad for the first time years ago. I was delighted that I discovered that not only did I like pineapple, but that I loved it. Most recently I discovered that I love guacamole, even I after refusing it for so many years because I thought it was “disgusting”.
Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, the US marketing party “holiday”. At our local grocery store, I was able to sample their guacamole. I loved it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But for some reason I wanted to spend the day at home, relaxing, instead of partying with the masses. I almost gave up that idea at the thought that I could get some more guacamole. Haas avocados were in stock at home and my husband suggested we try to make our own. And I did. I didn’t have to leave the house!

1 ripe Haas avocado
4 cloves garlic minced (use fresh garlic)
1/2 teaspoon each cumin, onion powder, cilantro (add more spices to taste)
1/2 key lime juice (juice it well, include some pulp in there)
1 tomato chopped
1/2 orange bell pepper chopped in small pieces (red bell will work as well)
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix it up and enjoy.

Note: I would have used fresh onion instead of powder but we had none in the house. I would have used fresh cilantro as well but cilantro is all dead in the garden

My Happiness Project

I have been reading the book The Happiness Project to look for ideas to bring more happiness to my life. While I am not generally unhappy, I do have many moments of unhappiness and most of them are a direct result of my behavior. With that in mind I used the book to come up with a list of some things I would like to work on.

Stop at least one negative statement about a person place or thing.

Most of my unhappiness comes from my mouth. When I get frustrated or annoyed with something, or when I am joking around with a group of friends or co-workers, I will blurt out either one or more negative things about a person, place or thing. This is an incredibly bad habit and 99% of the time I feel terrible after the words have come out of my mouth. This will be a tough one for me but it is one I am determined to stop. For now my goal is to stop at least one negative statement a day. In recent practice I haven’t been able to stop all negative statements but I have stopped quite a few. Practice makes perfect, right?

Wear sunscreen daily.

I have had pre-cancerous cells removed in the past due to sun exposure. I no longer lay out in the sun on purpose but I do many outdoor activities. Despite my warning, I still do not wear sunscreen on a daily basis. Sometimes I even skip it when I know I will be doing outdoor activities. Earlier this month I bought a sunscreen that was rated highly for daily use. Since then I have almost daily applied it to my face (despite the greasy feeling). Some days I will even apply it to my arms. It is a goal of mine to make it daily on my arms and face. In addition I will apply to my entire body when full exposure is expected.

Cut some slack

When someone gives you attitude or is rude to you, cut them some slack. You never know what they are going through – their dog could have recently died. This is a tough one, especially when I am not in my best mood. Why should we hold someone else to a standard that we ourselves cannot uphold? People have bad days….it is nice to cut them some slack.

Stop being judgmental

I like to pretend that I am open to all people but the truth of the matter is that I make snap judgements. This just needs to stop. Many people prove me wrong. Maybe someone who isn’t talking to me is not “snobby” but is just shy. You never know – give people a chance. I have met the best people when I just open myself up to someone randomly.

Breathe and breathe deeply.

It is hard to be angry and anxious when you are concentrating on deep breathing. It is a stress reliever. I tend to be a shallow breather so this is especially important for me.

Stop being a debbie downer.

In discussions someone will present an idea and sometimes I immediately go into discredit mode. This happens mostly in the work environment. I understand the evolutionary need for this. Someone in the pack needs to be able to see all the things that can go wrong with a scenario. (exp: We shouldn’t take that route because lions hang out there and lions will kill us). Sometimes it is helpful, but sometimes it is just a road block or just overall negative. I also find when I am in discredit mode I tend to be thinking and not listening. More listening is needed. There will always be time to think through the scenario later.

Stop being a one upper.

This happens in social gatherings. I am sure my close friends have seen me do this. Someone is having a conversation about some place they went, or something they did, or something they like. I feel the need to either confirm that I did the same thing (find commonality) or express something else to prove that I do stuff too. Sounds really immature but I still have not grown out of this and catch myself doing it constantly. Again the huge issue with this is that I am thinking(or talking) and not listening. I should be listening and validating. Additionally I tend to interrupt the person to get my point across – RUDENESS.

Flossing

I am not going to lie to myself and believe that I will floss every day; even though that is the ultimate goal. A more attainable goal will be to make sure I floss at least 4 days in a week. Not a perfect goal but it just may be enough to prevent me from losing my teeth. I am already at 2 days this week – yea me.
I would ask my friends and family to help me by calling out when I am straying from my “happiness” tasks, but that would prove to be difficult. One additional item that I have not added to the list (yet) is that I don’t take criticism as well as I think I should. If my friends and family starting “correcting” me, I would just setting them up for some Leala attitude. Yes, this needs to be addressed as well. However I would not like to bite off more than I can chew. All in good time.

Somebody has been eating the blueberries

Somebody, or some thing, has been eating our blueberry crop this year. I have only tasted one and even that one was not quite ripe. So it has been a little disappointing this year thus far in blueberry land. I suppose I should get some sort of netting installed. I don’t think I will be motivated enough to do this before blueberry season is over. Perhaps it is a project I can take on next year?

Leaves as mulch
This is our second season of using dead leaves from our oak as mulch in the backyard. I love the multicolor look of the leaves on top of the mulch. Hopefully it will assist keeping the weeds at bay.
Drip irrigation
Drip irrigation helps keep these herbs hydrated so they can be of use culinary wise.

Broccoli is Bolting
We say goodbye to the broccoli for now. It has decided to flower.
Trying to bring spring to the backyard

Palm Fronds
I use newly trimmed palm fronds to help shade fragile plants from the harsh sunny days.

Mimosa strigillosa
Mimosa strigillosa is in bloom again and filling in nicely in the areas where the grass has died. Perhaps one day the whole backyard will be covered in the pink flowers.

Grapes
We will have many grapes this season. I have been working on training the grapes so they will provide shade as well.

My Garden Oasis
My garden retreat is almost complete. It should be a nice shaded area to rest from the hot summer sun once the grape vine has fully grown.

What I love about boutique hotels, guesthouses, and B&Bs

I am a bit of a travel freak. I try to use up ever little hour of vacation I get on an out of town getaway. Mostly I like to leave the country. My last few trips have been in Europe. When I first started traveling for fun (not work trips) I was secure enough in employment that I could afford nicer accommodations but I refused to spend the money. Partially because I thought the money had better use for something else and partially because travel companions would be on a tight budget. I have stayed in a good number of crappy hostels and a surprisingly high number of good and cheap ones.
Now I try to stay in two star hotels, cheap boutique hotels or nicely priced b&bs. At times I will stay in fancy places due to my friends who work in the service industry that can get fantastic deals. Additionally a few of my friends have champagne taste so I end up staying at nice places with them. When I am traveling alone with my husband I pick the cheaper places.
My requirements are location and cleanliness. I feel there is personal attention given at these places. They have character. Often an interesting continental breakfast is included. And usually there is a comfortable room where there are tourist information and a book exchange for those of us who love to read. The hotels are not as new but typically have something different about them. Additionally the people who seem to work at these places tend to be a lot more personable and tend to remember you. I have had staff go out of their way to help me (sometimes that doesn’t even happen in fancy hotels ). The staff seem to enjoy what they do more.
One of my favorite memories was in staying at a B&B in San Jose Costa Rica. The owner offered to drive us to the casino herself. She even stayed and gambled with us. In our trip to Bayeux France we competed with honey bees for our breakfast outdoor. I found it charming. We never see bees in the states.
There have been a couple of bad choices – like the hostel in Amalfi that was moldy and the “boutique” hotel we stayed at in Barcelona that was in a sleepy neighborhood and was not too comfortable. All in all one can usually find a good cheap place if you put in the time to research (tripadvisor) and book far enough in advance (many of my first choices were booked full already in Barcelona because I waited too long).

Cute Hotel In Sevilla

Great Room in Madrid

Hostel with Character in Cinque Terre

Bunnies at B&B in Normandy

Recap

Here is the full recap of my first half-marathon. I apologize for some not so nice details but I wanted to keep it “real” and not be all rainbows and smiley faces.

Pre-Race
Carb starving and carb loading were a complete FAIL. I was supposed to carb starve (starve your body of carbohydrates) at 3 days prior to the race. The day started out well enough but then a longtime friend was in town and we had an impromptu girls night out. There was wine and there were appetizers; not carb-free but I had a great time with old friends.
Friday I got another visitor – but this visitor was unwanted. This visitor made me in pain, bloated, and gave me some gastrointestinal issues. I have no idea what I ate this day. To my benefit I did go to bed early that night.
Saturday I woke up really early (good girl). Carlos drove me down to the expo to pick up my packet and meet up with my friends. I was a mess. I still had all the issues from Friday but to add to that I was in a really bad mood and various body parts were aching (knees, butt, back, legs in general). Am I falling apart? I go to lunch with friends (after sitting in what seems like the worst traffic in Central Florida history). My stomach does not agree with my lunch. Gastrointestinal issues get worse and I end up throwing up later in the day. I am pretty sure that I got no race enhancing nutrition on Saturday since I ended up not eating anything for the rest of the day.

Race Day
Sunday morning I wake up early – it was 2:30 am or something. I drink some powder electrolyte mix and have a banana. I actually feel good despite still having cramps. We arrive at the race and meet up with my friends. I try to keep drinking electrolyte enhanced water while we chit chat a little bit. I glance around looking for other friends who are doing the race. I am unable to locate any of them. We do a group photo and head to our corrals. In our walk to the corrals (which is a twenty minute walk by the way), we get stuck in a bottleneck that delays us an extra ten minutes. Some smart guy put the porta potties along the walk-way and the lines of the shitters were backing the rest of us up. We use the second group of porta potties. I stay extra long to make sure I get all the pee pee out. We finally get to the corrals but super-fast friend in the “A” corral is running late. I wished “Good Luck” to her and very-fast friend in corral “B”. I find my corral – the very last “H”. My start is 40 minutes later. I stand around and twiddle my thumbs and try to get away from the girls singing Spice Girls” If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends” at the top of their lungs. Hadn’t Carlos had warned me pre-race that it was a good idea to pee in every potty group you see up to your corral? There is a potty group outside our fenced in area but I didn’t have to go…until about 20 minutes into my wait. Crap, the other racers have started. I am already comfortable in my corral. Am I going to get out and run over and then try to squeeze my way back in? I decided that I wait (what was I thinking?).
Start time is fun. The fairy godmother does some kind of “Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo” and there are big fireworks. The first two groups get big fireworks – we get little fireworks by the time I start.
I decided to keep passing up the log lines for porta potties but I am forced to stop after 5k mark. My 5k was great but had to wait at least 8 minutes for porta potty. That sucks.
Other than the pee pee, miles 1-6 were awesome. I mean really awesome. Running feels effortless. Running through the magic kingdom was nice. My only complaint is that I couldn’t get any of the pro photographers to take my pic. WTF. One kept telling me to go to the left or some shit. “You are the dude with the camera pointed at me, take my picture dammit.” (I later discovered that someone else had taken my picture but I have no idea where they were).
Around mile 7 I started to get a little delirious. This when I began to yell at things. Pre-race I was warned that the first “water” tables you see were powerade and if you wanted water you needed to go to the second set of tables. I kept accidentally picking up powerade even though I thought I was trying to get water. After about the third time I went crazy and yelled at a cup of powerade “I hate you powerade!”; then powerade was tossed away. Additionally this started the one of many narrow stretches where pretty much everyone was walking (4 or more abreast- against the rules) and I could not get around them. It was quite frustrating for me because I would lose focus when trying to get around people. I really should have qualified pre-race to be put in an earlier group.
Soon after the powerade incident I started to get pain on my left leg and left butt cheek. We started to get many ramps that were not only at an incline but they were also not level. Somewhere on one of these ramps I told my watch to “Shut up” because it was beeping at me to run again after one of my one minute walking breaks.
All the pain that I had previous did not compare to mile 11. Mile 11 proved the worst. I had to walk for at least 4 minutes. Legs and butt hurt really bad; and I think it rained at this point (ok, it sprinkled a little bit).
Finally got into epcot – Almost done. Another fn camera guy. I pose for him with cute thumbs up and the ahole won’t take my picture. I yell at him “Why won’t anyone take my picture”
I walk for one last minute and jog toward the finish. A camera guy finally takes my picture, and I give him a cheesy fake smile because I am tired. I get closer to the finish. Can’t find my husband or anyone I know in the crowd (my husband was there I guess). I sprint toward the finish and get my medal. Whoopee.
I get a ‘naner and a cool box of food goodies (hummus and gluten free crackers, yum). My man and friends are waiting for me at the reunion area. I am in a fog. Did I just finish a 13.1 mile race? My friends and I discuss going somewhere to eat post race. None of us can make a decision and I am not sure I will be able to keep a meal down at this point. We decide to go home and plan to meet up later in the afternoon after we have rested. That never happened. Much later I finally muster up the energy to walk down to the local steakhouse and get myself some meat. My energy level doesn’t last long. I am in bed early.
Day After
I take the day off of work to rest and get a massage. The 60 minute massage was awesome but not long enough. I wish I would have purchased the longer one. Legs still really sore post massage. The rest of the day is spent on the couch finishing The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest.

Will I do another one? I don’t know, probably. Will I keep running? I want to I think I will. It is a week later and I have yet to run again. Only time will tell.

Mile Breakdown

Mile	Time	Notes
1	12:55	Crap! I have to pee.
2	12:22	Still have to peee
3	12:27	Where is the potty?
4	21:30	pee pee time
5	12:29	I love this mile
6	13:00	This one too, oooh a castle
7	13:23	I hate everyone, especially this cup of powerade.
8	13:01	Am I still running?
9	12:57	What is this vanilla gel? This is crap.
10	13:35	I thought I already passed the mile 10 marker
11	14:55	Legs hurt must stop running
12	15:08	Is it raining?
13	15:02	I swear I was running (most of it)