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)

What I have learned from running

My first half-marathon is a little over a week away. Everytime I run I get little tidbits of information in my head that I wish others would have shared with me; I feel the excessive need to share it with others. So here you go.

The first time I tried running with music it didn’t work. It wasn’t until I became a runner that music helped me run. It clears the chatter in my head that tells me to quit.

I never thought I would get this far, nor did I ever want to; but I am here and it feels great.

Most discomfort felt when running is actually just discomfort and not actual pain. To succeed you must push through it. You should listen to signs for severe discomfort but most of the time it is just part of running.

The first few miles will be the hardest. It wasn’t until I was reaching my long runs of 8-10 miles did I actually run most of it. There was much less walking at that point and more true running.

For the first time in a long time I don’t feel like a quitter. I am pretty much at my goal and it feels great.

Running does not make you lose weight alone. First you have to run frequently and many miles. Second you must consume less calories at the same time (but not so much that you are under-fueled). You cannot splurge and expect running to save you.

Easing into the Green Smoothie

From Photo Challenge

Smoothies can be incredibly healthy things for you to drink. I have a very healthy co-worker who swears by them. As part of my weight-loss-slash-get-healthy journey I have decided to give green smoothies a try. But before I give you the recipe that I used, I want to give you a number of disclaimers so I don’t hear you complaining about my recipe.

Disclaimers:

My smoothies are typically assembled with yogurt, greens, banana, and whatever fruit (frozen or fresh) that I have available in my house. The fruit provides some nutritents but I add it mostly to sweeten the drink.
This smoothie is not low in calories. In time less fruit should be added and more veggies should appear. My last recipe came out to almost 550 calories (maybe 1.5 servings though).
My blender is a high quality blender from the 1980’s (I am proud of my blender that I acquired from my mom years ago). It made of glass (not plastic) and is still kicking; but even it is not idea for green smoothies. It is highly recommended if you are serious about this smoothie thing that you invest in a blender that handles greens well like a Blendtec or a Vitamix. If you don’t, it is very likely that there will be little chunks of spinach or kale floating around in your smoothie; floaters are bothersome to most people.
Some people have issues with mixing the dairy in the yogurt with all the other ingredients (stomach doesn’t like it). I have no issues with it (even though I have a slight lactose intolerance) but you should monitoring this for yourself. I like how the yogurt makes the shake creamy. Down the road I will be adding less of this though to cut back on calories (maybe add only 1/2 cup).
There is a debate about the type of protein powder that is best for the smoothie. I use whey protein but I know someone who swears by a expensive hemp protein. This is another topic where you have to do the research and decide what is right for your smoothie.
Finally, this is the first go around for me. It is heavy on the fruit. The goal ultimately is to get as green as you can. I mean you are drinking a green smoothie because you are obviously interested in improving your health….why else would you do it?

Recipe:

Very Important: A good quality blender is needed.
Applesauce, unsweetened, 0.25 cup
Banana, fresh, 1 medium (7″ to 7-7/8″ long)
2 large leaves of Kale chopped, stalk removed
1 cup Spinach frozen
1 cup Stonyfield Farm Lowfat Plain Yogurt
1 cup Ocean Spray fresh Cranberries (I had them sitting in the freezer)
1 scoop of protein powder

Blend it!