Northern Cali Trip Recap

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Northern California.  Kid free.

We flew into San Jose, CA and stayed with a friend for a few days.

We love Santa Cruz, and spent a day there pretending we were on the Titanic.

We met our friends Tom and Martha in San Francisco for our drive to Napa.  Rainbow over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Super.

Our first night in Napa we had a 7 course meal at Morimoto. Holy crap!  I've never been so full, but it was crazy good.

We did some wine blending at Joseph Phelps.

Then we did a tasting at Caymus.

They treated us like royalty at Beringer.

Doug had a tea party at the C.I.A.

We found the world's best coffee!

Seriously heaven!

I helped make wine at Spottswoode.

We got the grand tour at Chateau Montelena.

Just like the wine label.

I crapped my pants 100 times going up a mountain filled with blind corners.  Finally we found the sign for Chappellet.

Well worth the panic attack!  We even got a barrel tasting.

Great Italian dinner and a little more wine sippin'.

A day trip over to Sonoma and this for breakfast.

Williams Selyem was my favorite overall tasting.

 Pax, the wine maker at Wind Gap, gave us an autographed magnum with strict instructions to consume at dinner that night.  Yes sir.

Doug finally found a bottle big enough to make me happy.

The day we headed back to San Francisco was crazy foggy.

A quick walk through the bay area and the Christmas decorations.

And then back to reality.

Oh Napa, you caused me to gain 10 pounds.

This bottle caught my attention and made me giggle.

The fall colors in the valley were gorgeous!  I wasn't really expecting that.

And I found this poster in a store.  The Sisterhood of W.I.N.E.  Women In Need of Excitement.  That just about says it all!

Napa was fantastic.  We ate every meal like it was our last.  We drank amazingly good wine everyday, all day.  It was glorious.  You only live once.  Do it right!

Whine and Wine Wednesday

Today was our first attempt at Zumba.  If only I had a video.  That is some crazy stuff.

These people have rhythm.

I. Do. Not.

This was either me doing a Michael Jackson move or having a nervous breakdown from my white girl syndrome.

Julie was shakin' what here mama gave her, and giggling the entire time.

And Randee....Lord help us.  She had pole dancing flash backs and was grinding on the Christmas tree.

I'm not sure those were Zumba moves, but she seemed to be enjoying herself.  The Christmas tree, not so much.

WHINE:

I don't feel very whiny today.  Well, unless you want to bring up the subject of LAUNDRY.  Oh how I loath laundry.  I'm so far behind, as always.  I'm considering relocating to a nudist colony.  I'm sure the kids will adjust.  Our Christmas cards might be a little disturbing, but dang if the laundry wouldn't be done!

Oh yes, and my inner thighs are SO SORE!  Jillian sure knows how to put a hurtin' on a girl.

WINE:

I think I'll pour myself a glass of this tonight.  It arrived straight from Italy, and taste oh so good!

I realized I never wrote about my Napa trip over Thanksgiving.  Perhaps I'll do a quick recap tomorrow for those of you interested in seeing how much food and wine you can consume in seven days.  Just know, the price is 10 pounds!

The girl child is making cupcakes for her holiday party at school tomorrow.  It's her passion.  Works out great for me.  She even cleans up the mess.  Awesome!

What's your whine and wine for the week?

Come on baby make it hurt so good

I'll keep this short and sweet.  We worked out today at 4:45am.  The first time since the marathon.  We had a new friend join us.  Jillian Michaels made us cry.  Now it hurts to sit on the toilet.  Tomorrow we rest.  Wednesday we Zumba.

Meet Julie.  She may never speak to us again.

Nice to know Randee is sexy as ever.

You sure as heck would never know I've ran two marathons in two months by the size of my legs.  Mercy me.

Operation Fat Ass to Phat Ass is officially underway.  Hey, I know the name is goofy.  No one gave me a better solution and I'm too lazy to come up with anything else! 

Oh yes, and this was the hubby and me looking all cute at the work Christmas party this past weekend.  Good times.

The PLAN!

We have a plan!  Randee and I have been L-A-Z-Y since Chicago.  Well, I've been lazy with a 20 mile run and a marathon thrown in for good measure.  Randee's just been lazy! (love ya Randee!)

We have had two months to miss our daily workouts, and on Monday morning we are back at it!  Not marathon training, but working out.  2012 will be the year for OPERATION BIKINI BODY.  We really need a more creative name.  You got any suggestions?

Fat Ass to Phat Ass?

Anywho, for the rest of the year we are going to work out just three days a week at 4:45am (versus 5). We will do the Jillian Michael's DVD's and some short runs.  On Saturday morning we will do our Fort Worth 3 mile loop or a yoga class (alternating between the two).

To jump start 2012, on January 2nd we are going to go for 90 days of P90X.

Lord help us not to die!

We will sign up for a few FUN races in 2012.  No more than 10K for Randee, and no more than a 15K for me.  I don't have any races planned for January, but there are a couple in February that have my interest!

I was looking back at when we started this blog.  January 9, 2011.  It's getting close to one year.  I will do a full year recap closer to that date.  Just know that this blog has caused me to lose friends, helped me to make new friends, kept me accountable, helped me laugh at myself and my running buddies and hopefully motivated at least one person to get movin'!  I've considered stopping the blog.  I've gone a month without posting. However, I think it's here to stay.  It provides me an outlet for my thoughts, no matter how juvenile they may be!  My husband says running has turned me into a 13 year old boy.  Perhaps.  It's also a great way to look back at my marathon journey.  And the journey is really what life is all about!  Life is what you make of it.  If you want to sit at home out of shape, feeling sorry for yourself and lonely, so be it.  It's your life.  You are the one who controls where life will take you.  Not those around you.  Quit blaming others and take control of YOUR LIFE.

Not sure where that rant came from, but I'm over it now!

So stick around.  The next year will include:

A little of this.

And this...

...and this.

Lots of this.

And hopefully these two will come along for the ride.

So what is your suggestion for the name of our 2012 workout plan?

Whine and Wine Wednesday

No your eyes are not failing you.  I really am posting twice in one week! 

WHINE:

Well, I'm still whining about that marathon on Sunday!  I just went to take a look at the race photos.  I knew they would have to be spectacular with the rain, wind and freezing temps.  You know what happens when 25,000 people are wearing ponchos?  No one's race bib is showing.  Therefore, EVERYONE is in lost and found.  You have to really want to see how sad you look to find your race pics! 

Luckily I'm very vein, and I don't give up easily.  Pics were found, but really we would all be better off if they would have stayed lost!

Well, I guess Talia and I stayed together longer than I realized.  This is mile 8.  Why yes, I have morphed into a heavy set man since I last posted.

This is my counting 1 to 100 at mile 19.

I have to admit the final miles are on a downgrade and a very long, straight road.  I'm pretty sure those boys behind me are walking slower than my granny.  I'm barely in front of them and it felt like I was really runnin'.  Dang my lack of training and wine consumption.

I've never been happier to see a finish line!

I can finally walk somewhat normal today.  My right knee and ankle were really swollen after this race.  Actually, on Monday both of my legs from the knee down to my toes were crazy swollen.  I was a little concerned, but all is getting better.

A couple of stories I forgot to put into the race report.

At some point around mile 10 police were working an intersection where the cross street was not shut down.  They were letting a car or two pass when there was a break between runners.  Just before I crossed a car went when they were not supposed to.  The first male police officer jumps up and karate kicks the car's passenger door.  The other female police officer screams "dumb ass" at the driver.  I gasped, and then giggled.  Some drama to distract me from my agony!

The other funny thing was around mile 18 I sent this picture to Doug, Cheri, Alecia and a few other people in a group text.  It then began to rain again so I quickly put my phone away and carried on.  Somehow my bouncing sent multiple gibberish text to individual people from my group message.  Apparently it went on for quite a while.  Just my way of letting them know I was alive.

WINE:

Well, I had some last night.  It was Italian.  It was tasty.  I think tonight my wine of choice will be NyQuil.  I have a little tickle in my throat and want to make sure I don't get sick!  We have Doug's formal Christmas party this weekend.  I surely don't want to miss that!

So tell me, what have you had to whine about lately?  How about wine?  Have you had anything good?

White Rock Marathon...aka HELL

Holy crap.  It's been forever.

Five second catchup.

My last workout of any kind before yesterday was three weeks ago.  Talia and I ran the Fort Worth Marathon 20 miler.  It sucked so horribly bad.  Hot.  Boring.  Lonely.

The three weeks prior to the race consisted of a lot of sitting on my butt.  Drinking a lot of wine.  Eating a lot of food.  A spectacular trip to Northern California.  Lots of greatness, just not necessarily marathon training greatness.

Fast forward to yesterday.  Talia and I registered for the White Rock Marathon while still on our Chicago marathon high.  That high was loooong gone.

We have been in a severe drought for months.  That is until this weekend.  The monsoons arrived.  We almost had to take an ark to the race.  Instead we took the train.

A little lonely without our other bitches, and questioning our own sanity.

The high temp for yesterday was 42ish.  The low was in the 30's.  The wind was windy.  The rain was constant.  Well that's a lie.

It wasn't raining as we stood in the line for the start of the race.  It began about 21 seconds after we crossed the start mat.

We accessorized nicely with these lovely trash bags.  Talia wore hers for half the dang race.  I ditched mine pretty early on.

It was go time.  I was still in denial about what was about to go down.

About 25,000 people were expected.  6000 marathoners, 13,000 half marathoners and the rest were doing the marathon relay.  I think about 4500 ended up finishing the marathon.  I think the other 1500 were carried away with hypothermia.  It was seriously miserable!

Talia and I hung out together for the first 6 or 7 miles.  I forgot my Garmin.  I had no music.  The mile signs were either non existing or destroyed due to the weather.  I saw mile marker one and the next one I noticed was nine.  I was truly running blindly.

Talia kept trying to stay with me.  I finally told her I was going to kick her ass if I found her waiting on me one more time.  I knew I was going to suck butt and did not want to drag her down with me!

The rain went to a drizzle for about 30 seconds around mile 18.  Just long enough for me to take this spectacular picture and text to a few people to let them know I was still alive.

Around mile 10 I thought about walking.  I knew if I did I would never finish.  And by walking I mean constantly.  I did walk through every water stop, but ran everything else.  I counted my left foot strikes from 1 to 100.  I tried to go to 101, 102, but decided that was way to difficult.  So, for 16  miles I just kept counting 1 to 100.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Somehow it worked.

Holy crap.  And then a freaking angel fell out of the sky!

With about .5 miles to go Randee comes out of no where to run me in.  What a surprise and just about the greatest thing anyone could have ever done!  She did the same for Talia.  She went from Uber Bitch to Angel instantly!

Hardest earned medal EVER!

The race organizers did a great job.  The volunteers who stood in the cold for hours for the hydration stations were beyond amazing, and have much bigger hearts than I do!  The fans who came out were such a nice distraction.

It was definitely a day to remember and a day to find out what you're really made of!  My time was a tad faster than Chicago, but still not what I was hoping for.  I'm sure I'll give the marathon a go again...but not for a good long while!

Whine and Wine Wednesday

It's Wednesday, therefore I get to whine!

WHINE:

I really don't have much.  Just can't believe it's already November.  I'm going to boot camp three mornings a week.  It's kicking my butt.  Lunges.  Pushups.  Toy Soldiers.  Burpies.  Jump Rope.  There are many forms of torture.  This week my soreness is gone and I'm already seeing improvement.  Yippee!

Let me toot my own horn (TWSS).  I was the best today at the heisman exercise.  Finally something I can do!  Whoot!

The ginormous bucket of candy at our house has got to go.  The kids brought home a butt ton of candy from trick or treating.

Zombies were all the rage at our house.  It was the first year I let the kids have scary costumes.  Such a mother milestone.

I'm such a proud zombi momma.

Doug played the electric guitar, with the amp blaring for all the neighborhood.  Kids couldn't decide if they thought he was real or fake.  He did jump at a couple of bigger kids and got some screams.

Later in the evening Doug matured, and moved on to the fart machine.  It's remote control.  He got some good giggles.  I'm pretty sure I'm married to a 13 year old.

Many people gripe about the older kids, not really dressed up coming around for candy.  I'm okay with this.  What I don't like are the van loads of families that come into the hood. Then each kid has two bags.  This one is for me, and this one is for my cousin.  WTH?  Your cousin can do their own dang trick or treating.  And how is it that all 10 of you hoodlums have a cousin who needed you to get their candy?  Makes me want to slap some kids....or really their momma.

WINE:

I'm gonna have some wine tonight.  Not sure what I'll sip on.  Did I tell you that I've got a Napa, California trip coming up soon?  Exciting!  There is sure to be LOTS of wineing going on.

It's official.  I miss my bitchy friend.  I don't think I've gone this long without seeing her in over a year!  We do have a happy hour planned for Friday night.  I can't wait!  I need all the scoop about when she is going to be sweating with me again.  This blog has gone all to hell without her to provide me with inappropriate photos and daily bitch sessions.

Now go buy yourself a tasty bottle of wine and get ready to pour a glass or four this evening.  Yes this evening.  No drinking before 6:00pm 12:00pm.  That would just be rediculous!

Happy Whining and Wineing!