Pre-race Jitters

I thought that I'd use my night-to-myself in my own hotel room to kick back and watch a sappy/corny movie and instead I am of course obsessing over tomorrow morning's race. I've worked out my wardrobe issues--I think. And I've also unearthed a couple of packets of GU (a food-like substance for running an exception to 2010's "real food" rule) which is lucky because I forgot the Clif Shot Bloks (other food-like substance) that I usually use. So, I will sort of be breaking the "nothing new" rule tomorrow--I've used GU but not frequently and I like the bloks bettter--I'm hoping that doesn't backfire. My various electronic gadgets are charging and I've worked out the always tricky pre-race breakfast dilemma. Now I just need to turn off my brain a go to sleep. Sigh.

Anybody Have a Recipe for Cheetos?

Michael Pollan is such a considerate guy that when he heard that one of my New Year's resolutions was to only eat real food, he published a book called "Food Rules" which provides 64 straightforward rules about how to accomplish that very thing. Some of the rules I already had a pretty good handle on: avoiding things with ingredients I can't pronounce, avoiding fake sugar, avoiding "food-like substances"--foods so processed that someone visiting from, say, 1945, wouldn't recognize them as food. Michael Pollan uses "Go-Gurt" as a prime example-is is food? toothpaste? lube for your go-cart? Eat fruits and vegetables.
The rule that I really liked, and am going to attempt to embrace is: "make your own junk food." Meaning that it's okay to indulge in dessert, french fries, etc., as long as you make it yourself. The idea is that if you make it yourself, you're probably not going to go through the effort to make it all the time and it becomes what it's supposed to be -a treat. I like this idea. Although I know myself, and knowing that I can only eat a dessert that I made will really just mean that I will be making dessert more often, not that I will necessarily eat less of it. My sweet tooth is totally strong enough to overcome the problem of not enough hours in a day. That is its super-power.
When I told Garion about this new household policy, he was immediately on board: "Let's make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!" That's my boy, always using his head. So that's what we're doing today--making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and a couple of other easy things (split pea soup from scratch and fresh bread in the bread maker) to get us through the parts of this week where we just won't have time to make real food.
I realized that although a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie is still a cookie, making them myself lets me tweak the recipe. I replaced some of the fat with applesauce, replaced some of the white flour with wheat and coconut flour and used dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate (I'm sure that change right there will add at least a 12 days to our lives). Still a cookie, but maybe a not-as-bad-for-you cookie. And this is how making my own junk food will be better for me--my junk food will not be as bad at the junk food that comes from the store in a bag. The major hitch being that I don't know how to make Cheetos.

Coming Soon...

Over Christmas, we went to visit Moses's oldest brother and his family. My sister-in-law is a veterinary technician and by virtue of that profession, she rescues a lot of dogs. Right now they have six. Just to be clear: six dogs is a lot of dogs. It's pretty much a herd of dogs. I suppose "pack" is the technical term, but "herd" seems to describe it better.
Of course Garion and I fell in love with one while we were visiting:



This is Harley. He is pretty much just as sweet and friendly as he looks. He's also the world's most laid back dog. Garion hugged him, laid on him, and decorated him like a Christmas tree, and I don't think that dog even batted an eye. Harley also knows how to fetch and shake so that pretty much covers the necessary dog tricks. Harley's best trick? He is not-intrusive enough that Moses said "ok." Moses might also have succumbed to the dreamy look in Garion's eye whenever Garion talked about Harley and told us that Harley is the only dog he would ever have and wasn't Harley funny and if Harley lived with us he could sleep in Garion's bedroom, etc., etc. However, Moses is tough, so that is probably not at all what happened.
We could have brought Harley home after Christmas, but I wasn't prepared for Moses to actually agree to dog ownership and I wasn't quite convinced that I wouldn't be in the dog house (ha!) for the rest of Harley's life if we brought him home. And also the Prius was so packed that Garion had to stuff his kneecaps into his ears for the two day drive home, so I'm not really sure where we would have put the dog. This means Harley is still in California and we had a little more time to think.
This week, my sister-in-law told us that somebody else was interested in Harley, but that we could have him if we were willing to make a firm commitment because we have the family in. So Garion and I had a long talk about poop scooping, and taking care of animals, and how we will not be able to change our minds once he comes to live with us and about how pets will eventually die and how you feel sad about that and how we cannot have other pets like tortoises (or, ahem, chickens) if we have a dog. And Garion's eyes were so huge and hopeful at the possibility of a canine buddy that I knew we were in for good. Moses said that he would drive out to California to pick him up, and I am taking this as a good enough sign that he is actually ok with this dog. That, and Moses told me that this is about the only dog in the world that he can live with. Not that Moses is excited, just that Moses won't require prescription medication to dull the reality of his home life after it includes this dog. I think Moses will make the trip sometime in February or March to pick up Harley-- Garion and I are so excited!

Still Here!

I'm back to beginning every blog post with "I know it's been a while....." I'm just going to accept that. Life around the holidays is crazy, crazy, busy and I am exhausted. I liked them better when other people did the work and all I had to do was wake up and find out what Santa brought me. I'm actually looking forward to Monday because I think things will settle down a little and Garion will be back in school. But! Today I'm going to take 5 minutes for a little 2009 reflection. I like listing all the great things that happened the previous year, especially the things that I did for the first time. I don't think I've ever dumped that into a blog post before, but it seems appropriate--another first for 2009.

This year I:
-Smote the olive green walls in my bedroom and now have a lovely buttery cream color that doesn't make me feel sea sick every morning.
-Smote the 80's-awful wallpaper in my entry-way and the pepto pink wall in my living room and painted the whole thing a nice caramel-y color...mmmmm......caramel......
-Painted the living room WITHOUT TAPING. Yes, I did it free hand. And it looks GREAT! It's like I've had this super power locked up inside me all these years and I never knew.
-Went to Australia! By far, the highlight of 2009. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the thought that I actually made it to the other side of the world. In Australia I also tried meat pies for the first time, saw weird (to me) animals, smacked into people while walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk, stairs, escalator, etc. and saw so many beautiful things I'd never seen before that I can't possibly list them all. And also, they have Minties there, which I just adore, but I think I've mentioned that before.
-Managed to go camping...twice. Hmm. Not as many times as I would have liked but both times were with close friends and were great weekends.
-Bought a canoe! So much fun. Except that now it's so cold outside that I'm having trouble remembering what it feels like to be warm enough to think that taking a canoe out on the water is a good idea.
-Fully recovered from a stupid back injury. I am so grateful for this--I don't seem to have any lingering problems and I am just so glad that I can still do all the things I love to do. Also, I found out that my husband is good at housekeeping and just wasn't letting on.
-Did lots of fantastic hiking and trail running and I DID NOT FALL!
-Enjoyed my job security--I know a lot of people who didn't have this last year and it makes me even more grateful for mine.
-Marveled at Garion's leaps in bounds (the boy is 7 and reads chapter books--freak of nature that one).
-Thoroughly enjoyed Garion's first appearance in a Christmas pageant--he was a detective shepherd and was brilliant.
-Made my first peach pie--an unmitigated disaster.

This year, I did not:
-Make to the top of Mt. Humphrey's, again. sigh.
-Complete any of the runs I signed up for. At least the money from the entry fees goes to charity, right?
-See the Great Barrier Reef when it was actually within shooting range. Huge mistake. If you go to Australia, go to the Great Barrier Reef, for crying out loud.
-Cry on Garion's last day of kindergarten (but it was close), or cry on the first day of first day of first grade. I did get a little teary when, a couple of weeks ago, he left a note on my pillow that said, "I love you mom."

Plans for 2010:*
-Grow out my hair. I AM doing it this time. Really. It's time for a change and I just need to muscle through the the year of grow-out. This year is the year. It IS!
-Eat real food, as in only eat things with ingredients I can pronounce. No more fake creamer in my coffee
-Learn how to make pie. I love pie. Why do I not know how to make one?
-Smite more ugly wallpaper.
-Make it to the top of Mt. Humphrey's, damn it.

* Bonus material:
Moses's Plans for 2010:
-Install the woodstove.
-Take his wife somewhere nice and warm for their 10th anniversary.

Thankful

I've just about made it through the completely crazy chaos that is November in this family: four birthdays followed in quick succession by Thanksgiving. The run up started with my brother's birthday on the 11th (sushi dinner); followed by my Grandpa Jack's 80th for which I (unintentionally) made him probably the worst peach pie ever; Garion's birthday with my family, my sister-in-law, father-in-law, and new baby niece; followed by my birthday the next day (sushi dinner again). On to Thanksgiving which has meant three separate groups of company at our house for various time periods starting last week up through last night. My brother and sister in-law from Seattle came down with their two girls and another sister and brother-in-law came in from North Dakota. We also had Moses's parents (who live in the middle of nowhere about 45 minutes away) and our college-aged niece who lives in town. *Side Note: I swear I should not be old enough to have a college-aged niece. Actually, the really scary thing is that Moses's siblings are so spread out in age that I actually have a nephew who will turn 30 this year, but I just don't think about that because it's too weird. *
I could not have asked for a better Thanksgiving. We had a fantastic feast, the turkey came out perfect, Moses and I were organized AND! did not bite each other's heads off. There were no major arguments or, even more unbelievably, any kid melt-downs (baby excluded). We totally won the Thanksgiving lottery.
Tomorrow, we'll have breakfast with my dad and on Saturday we'll visit my mom's brother.
Whew. I feel like there ought to be some kind of finisher's medal for making it to the end of this year's November. But....I'm grateful for all of it. For my brother, who makes me laugh. For my Grandpa who is smart and meticulous and who taught me how to drive a stick and be careful with my money. For my baby boy who I cannot believe is already 7 and who has so many ideas firing through his head he can barely talk fast enough to tell me all of them. And for the 34 years I've been given so far on this earth and everything those 34 years have brought me. And for my husband and his family who are so different from the family I grew up with but whom I wouldn't trade for anything. And for my family, that I did grow up with, who shaped who I am and how I walk in this world. And finally, I'm grateful for this little bit of quiet time that I have before the the last few crazy days of November.

Derailed

I was rolling along really well today--in the groove, gettin' junk done, and just generally chugging away and being an all around productive employee. Then I popped over to "Whatever" for a minute where I encountered this (takes a little time to load):



I was completely derailed for the rest of the day. Does that ever happen to you? You hear a new song and there's just something about it that sucks you in and implants itself directly onto your neural synapses and you're bopping up and down and kind of wishing that you were out running with the ipod because at least you'd be moving? This song will be replaying itself on in my mental jukebox over and over for a least a week. I don't even really know what it's about-- chickadees, archery, and if I'm not mistaken, something about a lifeguard all in the same verse or so. This afternoon I'm a little bit in love with Weezer. Track suits not withstanding. And hey, it's not country, so, you know, progress.

**11/04/09 update: as suspected, an excellent running song

khooooohhhh, khoooohhhh

That there is the Darth Vader breathing sound, in case it's not obvious. I'm happy to report that this household successfully survived the flu and is pretty much on the mend. I'm fairly certain Garion and I had H1N1 since everybody I've talked to says if you got the flu in October you had H1N1. And also, I was sicker than I have been in many, many years; I had a fever for 4 days. That is pretty much unheard of in history of me and my kick-ass immune system. And Garion missed an entire week of school. So, I'm willing to grudgingly admit we caught a new virus. And really, I feel so trendy. Clearly H1N1 is the thing to have this fall. I'm just grateful that in the grand scheme of things, we had relatively minor cases.

Oh, yeah Darth Vader. Garion's going to be Darth Vader for Halloween. He tried his costume on yesterday and the first thing he he did was come up to me and hold out his hand in the force/choke hold thing Darth Vader does to keep his minions in line. I'm not kidding, that was FIRST THING. As in, "hmmmm, I am now dressed like a preeminent agent of evil....I think I will try using the force of my mind to strangle my mother." I played along and pretended to suffocate (I don't know-is that good parenting?) and Garion laughed hysterically. On the one hand, I love watching him play dress-up and he is clearly excited about his costume. On the other...he tried to strangle me! We might have to have a post-Halloween debrief just to make sure that the lines of morality are once again clearly delineated after the holiday.