O.K., it's the night before and just minutes to bedtime.  I'm as ready for this as I'm going to get as I sit here sipping my tea and relaxing. 

Road Trip!

Got on the road bright and early thing morning. (well, early)  By 0600 I was in the Sebring and sliding onto the Ventura Freeway.  I didn't want a repeat of last year where it seemingly took all day to get there and I arrived in town just in time to get to the expo around 3:30p.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to San Diego:  I teased you the other day that I had a surprise to reveal today from a good friend.  Well...I took a little detour off the 405 around Century Blvd.  Into LAX, to Terminal 7 to pick up...

....my cheering crew extraordinaire: M!  She e-mailed me this week to ask if I wanted a cheering section and of course I gratefully accepted.  So she flew down to L.A. and joined me for breakfast and the rest of the drive down to San Diego.

We got into San Diego plenty early, went straight to the Expo and got my packet picked up.  I'm #20273 so if you want to keep track of me just go to the San Diego Marathon site to watch the live results.  Bear in mind that I have NO idea how my race is going to go - it depends upon four things: my legs and my lungs.  If those things go well, then this could well be a PR.  If they don't go well (and they haven't for nearly a month) then it could be a long slow slog.  But either way I'm going to have fun, I'm going to thank the people who cheer, I'm going to keep those people who are special to me in my heart and I'm going to hit that finish line with one finger in the air victoriously.  The only question is whether that will happen 5 hours and 15 minutes after I start or 6 hours and 45 minutes after I start.  (or somewhere in between)

Expo

The expo here is a lot better than the one in Honolulu.  7 or 8 good aisles of running gear, races and other booths related to running and fitness.  Unfortunately they moved it downstairs this year, into a larger space that isn't nearly as nice as the one we were in last year.  But the expo was still good.  I bought a couple souvenirs for friends and just as we were getting ready to leave we ran into Beth and her family!  She looked great and seems ready.  If she hits her goal time tomorrow...she'll Boston Qualify! 

After the expo we wandered around the Seaport Village, taking pictures and doing a little shopping.  It was a beautiful San Diego day.

Around 1PM it was time to get moving so we headed for the hotel and got checked in.  Four Points Sheraton San Diego is a nice place, but there's a lot of construction going on - especially painting.  Painters tape, drop clothes and unfinished rooms are all around.  The room I have however, is pretty nice.

Before a marathon I don't eat late.  A late lunch is the last real meal I'll eat before the race so in the early afternoon we headed over to Olive Garden for some pasta.  Yeah, I know, but San Diego isn't my town and Olive Garden is a known quantity.  I didn't want to take any chances on a small shop the day before a race.  Olive Garden was fine - the breadsticks were tasty, the spaghetti was fine and the icea tea was plentiful.  Great service too - so I left a generous tip.

The afternoon was just a matter of relaxing. Spent some time in the jacuzzi, made a quick shopping trip to pick up an item I'd forgotten (the ever crucial Body Glide), sipped some tea and watched TV.  Got my gear laid up, sync'd my race music to my MP3 player, charged my watch and put my chip on my shoes.

I'm as ready as I'm going to get.  Time for some sleep - 4AM will come awfully early - then let's light this candle!

Thanks to all who reached out today to wish me well.  I really do appreciate it!

-B-

P.S.  Congratulations to my father, who has so far lost 12 pounds on his own new fitness program that includes an hour of swimming every morning.  Atta boy!

This just in, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin has been photographed wearing shoes. As we all know terrorists are often seen wearing shoes while beheading their victims.  This clear use of "hate couture" by Malkin shows a great insensitivity to Americans and that for all her rhetoric she is clearly a sympathizer with Islamic Jihad and their message of hate.

Yes, it's ridiculous.  So is Malkin's absurd rant against Rachel Ray for wearing a paisley scarf in a commercial.  Malkin is rapidly marginalizing herself with such nonsense.

-B-

Not much new to report - I've arrived in Los Angeles.  Slept the entire flight over which was great and now I'm visiting with my parents.  A few random questions and acknowledgements.

• Thanks to many including LW, JC, CT, BD, MA, PE, RB and others for their wonderful words of encouragement.
• Tomorrow (Sat) will be an early morning and a long drive down to San Diego but I'm looking forward to it.  I suspect that getting into SD, into that environment, getting to the Expo will really boost my enthusiasm.
• No luck finding new New Balance 817 shoes in L.A.  Guess I'll just have to wear my existing one-dots on Sunday.  That's a little disappointing but should be o.k.  My existing shoes don't have that many miles on them.
• I am taking a lot of photos but won't be able to post any of them here until after Tuesday.  Why?  Because I suspect the SD card reader in my tablet PC is corrupting my photo images so...for the time being I'm only uploading pictures to my desktop computer.  Tuesday and Thursday should see a lot of new photos posted here and on Facebook.

General News and Notes

• The nice folks at Avis upgraded me to a beautiful red Sebring coupe complete with Sirius Satellite radio.
• I'm tired of skipping dessert...Sunday there will be dessert.
• Not at all surprised to see Spike sent home on Top Chef.  As I predicted it came down to Lisa vs. Spike to see who would go home.  Now we have to see on the finale who wins it all.  I think any of the front 3 (Stephanie, Richard or Antonia) have about an equal shot at it.  Don't count Lisa out but she has been on the bottom of Judge's Table at least 5 times so she'll really need to excel.

O.K. off to bed for me.

-B-

Well...the big run is almost upon me.  Honestly I've been trying hard to muster up some excitement for it, but the well-documented cold and cough have more or less left me feeling like I'm just going to line up, do my best, get my t-shirt and go home.  I have no real expectations for even approaching my PR at this point.

Then, just as I was ready to shrug this race off, somebody precious to me told me today that I should try to keep in mind that there are a lot of people out there who would give anything to be able to run it at all.  That maybe if I go out there with a positive attitude and a smile on my face that maybe I can inspire others who are on the sidelines to get up and give it a try for themselves.

I'm reminded of why I adore her.  And she's right of course.  So it's with a somewhat adjusted sense of purpose and a slightly renewed sense of appreciation that I'll be taking the course on Sunday.

Between now and then I'm eating carbs, trying to sleep well, stretching, picking up a new pair of 1-dots, hydrating, fighting this cough (which is fading fast, thankfully), trying to keep a positive attitude and...flying.  Tonight in fact.  My flight leaves in about 3 hours which means I need to finish packing.

I also got a wonderful surprise from another great friend yesterday...but I'll tell you about that on Saturday from San Diego.

Next post will be from L.A. tomorrow.

-B-

I'm heading to bed early tonight (still trying to shake this $#**#@& cold) but wanted to correct an oversight from my earlier blog post.  I had meant to mention this in that post but my thoughts are with my good friend Jim who tragically lost his mom this weekend to a sudden heart attack.  I had the pleasure of meeting her during one of her visits to Hawaii and my impression was that she was a nice and classy lady with a great spirit for life.

I know Jim loves her very much and is really feeling the impact of her unexpected loss, as is Jim's dad and whole family I'm sure.  So I'm sending warm wishes to Jim and his family that they can get thru this difficult time.

-B-

• Subaru is running a commercial with a guy surfing and mountain biking and his Outback is getting dirtier and somebody is writing "Wash Me" in the dust on the windows.  It's a cute ad and nicely produced but two things don't work here in my opinion:
• First of all you never see the car moving until the very end when it moves a few feet in the rain.  The Outback is a fine looking car I guess but it's not so striking that an exterior shot of a stationary car is really going to grab anybody.  Even the exterior shots of the car are often only partial shots of the car.
• Secondly you barely see the interior of the car and what you see is out of focus and awkwardly shot. 

So we're supposed to buy this car based on a few exterior shots of the car not moving and one uninteresting interior shot?  Doesn't work for me as a car commercial.  As 40 seconds of film, fine.  But it doesn't make me want to buy the car - and the Outback is the kind of car I'd probably buy so I think I am their target market.

• It's a Miracle!  Well...maybe not quite.  I mowed and "Miracle Grow"''d by backyard this weekend.  One of my friends was teasing me about whether it suddenly greened up.  And actually...it did.  To be fair I don't think it was the single application of Miracle Grow that did it but the yard definitely does look greener and healthier today than it has in a while.  Giving it attention, regular water (and Miracle Grow) is probably the explanation.  I'm pleased at how quickly the yard is rebounding.  I'm even considering planting some flowering plants - maybe some Hibiscus.
• I don't intend to be mean but...Elizabeth Berkeley, who is a lovely woman, is hosting Bravo's "Step It Up And Dance" show and her promo picture is terrible.  I have never seen the show, only the promos but at the end of the promo they have a shot of Ms. Berkeley standing to the side of the show's logo and she turns sideways in a very confident pose - typical of show promos.  Honestly, though, and it's probably her posture, she really shouldn't stand sideways in a tight little black dress like that.  It makes her look shapeless and has got to be about the least-flattering pose I can imagine for her.  She really is lovely and somebody should have pointed out to her that she should adjust the way she's standing if that's the image that's going to be associated with the show - maybe she needs to tilt her hips back slightly; I'm not sure.
• Watching back episodes of Top Chef a few things leap out at me:
• Manuel got bounced in an early episode.  I thought Spike should have gone instead but kudos to Manuel for showing a lot of class in the way he took the news and bowed out.
• I have kitchen-envy.  As I do more and more cooking I'm increasingly dissatisfied with my stove/oven.  I really miss my old kitchen. I'm increasingly tempted to buy a new range at my own expense and just put it in here.
• Baring a total meltdown by one of the other chefs either Lisa or Spike will be the next to go.  Lisa has had a lot of serious missteps and I don't think she has any friends among the Judges.  Spike seems to be on the chopping block nearly every week and he can't avoid elimination forever.  One of them is going on to the final four because there are only five competitors left but I think somebody else would have to really stumble hard for them to both make it.
• Welcome Alice Jane Kingsley Colley!  My friend Paula gave birth to a beautiful little girl on Friday.  Yes, my birthday.  Mother and daughter are doing great.  No word on how dad is doing but he looks happy in the pictures.

Today's Workout: San Diego Marathon is nearly upon me.  I leave for San Diego on Thursday so really not much of a workout today or this whole week.  I plan to do some core strength work and stretching today.  I'm hoping I may be able to do an easy short-course run tonight, but it totally depends upon my lungs.

Quote of the Day

"Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you."
    -Erich Fromm-

-B-

I was reading an article recently about a study of folks who had lost a significant amount of weight (30 or 40 pounds or more) and kept it off for at least a year.  That's really the trick - weight loss is only part of the battle, then you have to KEEP it off.  Lots of folks lose weight, hit their goal, celebrate achieving their goal and abandon their diets.  Then they gain the weight back.

That's why healthy weight loss can't be a fad diet, it has to be lifestyle modification.

Here are two facts about the folks who kept that weight off:

1. They don't skip meals.  Some folks think weight loss is about eating one tiny meal a day and starving yourself.  But folks who've succeeded show that the opposite is true.  You eat healthy, and often.  And ESPECIALLY they don't skip breakfast.  You need to start your day with some healthy fuel, plus a good healthy breakfast makes you less likely to gorge yourself on an unhealthy lunch.

I've started carrying with me a "snack kit" which includes a ziploc bag of pretzels and a few other little healthy snacks that travel well.  My mother has been known to keep a little cooler with a couple of Diet Cokes in it.  Both of those are good techniques to help fight off hunger during the day and keep your body fueled.

2. They weigh themselves regularly.  You don't have to weigh in every day, but those who maintain their weight loss tend to weigh in at least twice a week - that way if they do have a sudden gain (and a pound or two of fluctuation is normal, don't panic) they can reexamine what they're doing with food and exercise and make corrections if necessary.  I usually weigh in 2-3 times a week; these last few days I've been weighing in once or twice a day but that's just because of the novelty of wanting to see sub-200 come up on that scale.  Now that I've achieved it (199.2) I'm sure I'll go back to only weighing in every 2-3 days just to track progress.

Important: Be sure you're getting a balanced diet - not just limiting yourself to a narrow range of foods.  The diets where you just eat cabbage for two weeks are not healthy.  Sorry.  One thing that can help is to take a multivitamin every day in order to help make up for any key nutrient shortages but that shouldn't be a replacement for a balanced diet.

-B-

• Star Trek IV is probably the best of the entire series and it includes the great sequence where they have to save Checkov from "20th Century medicine".  Sort of raises the question though...if all you have to do is put a device on the patient's forehead how much schooling do doctors really need in the 23rd century?  What does Bones really do other than complain and push a button or two on devices that cure everything?
• This morning I weighed in...and for the first time in probably close to a decade, I'm under 200 pounds.  199.2.  Wow.  A lot of it is due to running, swimming, biking, lifting and eating better.  But the last few pounds have been due to the Dayquil diet.  Being sick I've lost 6 or 7 pounds which as I've said is the one fortuitous bit of this illness.  I am feeling a little better today, so hopefully I'll be at full strength in the next day or so and hold onto that thru next weekend.  San Diego is one week from today.  In fact, one week from right now I should already be finished.
• The Kanakas are on a roll...today we pulled out an all-too-exciting victory against Leftovers.  We jumped out to a big lead, got a little complacent, they came back to tie it and we had to win in extra innings.  Despite the fact that I felt lousy (the cold is not totally dead yet) I was 3 for 4 at the plate and made a few plays at second base including the first and last outs of the game - both times tracking back to catch a pop fly in shallow center field. 
  
  The bad news is that I didn't feel good running the bases -- it doesn't bode well that running 60 feet is a little bit of a chore, 7 days before I have to run 26.2 miles.  But we'll see.

Today's Workout: We'll see.  Softball this morning was a bit of a disappointment because I was more labored than I expected running even short distances.  At worst I'll take a long walk, but I had hoped to take a short run.  I'm playing it hour by hour at the moment to see how I feel.

Quote of the Day:

"Where there is great love, there are always wishes."
    -Willa Cather-

-B-

O.K., quick update for the long weekend...

• Thanks to all who sent along birthday wishes.  I really didn't make a big deal about my birthday (thank you Shanda for not saying anything yesterday!) because I just didn't feel like having a fuss about it.  I did get some nice cards, a couple of very surprising and pleasant phone calls, some nice e-mails and text messages and even a beautiful bouquet of roses.  It's never a pony, but I knew that going in.  Thanks to all who thought of me, it's appreciated.  I have some thank you cards to write.
• One totally unexpected "birthday present" has come along in the form of surprise trip.  I've been given an opportunity, on June 4th, to go to Midway Island.  Yes, really.  By the way, technically Midway is an atoll.  And, of course, it was the focal point of the battle that turned the tide of World War II in the Pacific.  I'm a big WWII buff and one of the very first books I ever read was Gordon Prange's Miracle at Midway.  Yes, June 4th is the day after I get back from San Diego, but that's o.k.  A lot of travel but this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip and you'd better bet I'm going.  And taking a lot of photos.
• I'm still watching a lot of Food Network though I've come to realize that most of what they cook is stuff I wouldn't cook.  Omelettes, elaborate bean curd and lamb dishes, etc.  Great for foodies; sort of fun to watch, but not really practical for me.  That's o.k.  Long as we're talking about Food Network - Rachel Ray is adorable.  Cute, perky, bright...too bad she's married.  :-)  (Not like I'd have a shot)
• Speaking of food I am still enjoying watching Top Chef.  Oh, wait, I mean, I am really enjoying watching Kraft Top McCormick Chef (Brought to you by KitchenAid).  Just the other Maytag day they were making some Pam filet mignon and it really looked Corelle delicious.  Sometimes I watch the GE contestants working away in the Kenmore kitchen and I just can't help but Campbell's admire how I Can't Believe It's Not Butter they are!
• I read that too much stress can kill you.  Great, now I'm worried about it.
• Good job to the Dutch Boy paint folks.  There's only so much you can do with paint, really, to make it better and differentiate yourself from the competition.  So they "thought outside the box" by thinking about the box.  Specifically they came up with very clever new can that is easy to open and close, easy to pour from, easy to carry, easy to work from.  Next time I need paint I will definitely lean towards their product specifically for that reason. 
  And as a business major I have to say that I'm impressed.  It's a really good example of understanding the issues that people have with the packaging and improving the product to address those.

What's Ben Cooking:  Nothing too fancy right now.  I'm sort of craving grilled cheese so I've made a grilled cheese sandwich or two for lunch and I might experiment with twice-baked potatoes for dinner.

Today's Workout:  I'm still not quite 100%, health-wise.  I'm going to take a short walk in a little while, and hopefully this evening I'll feel up to a short run. San Diego is a week from tomorrow so it's too late for any real training.  At this point my focus is on getting healthy, stretching, keeping the legs loose and trying to lose a last pound or two.  All I can do is hope for the best - the real question for San Diego will be how my stamina has held up with the near total lack of distance training over the last month.

Quote of the Day

"The best proof of love is trust."
  -Dr. Joyce Brothers-

-B-

I feel pretty good...except for this damned cough.  It just keeps hanging on!  During yesterday's runs my legs felt o.k. but the cough just wouldn't let go.  It does seem to be getting better, slowly, but it's still there.  So we'll start with...

Today's Workout: Will be a walk.  It may be easier on my lungs - that's the primary point.  I just need to stretch the legs, burn off some calories and, frankly a long walk in the night air (even though it's rainy tonight) may be just what I need to clear my head.  Hopefully tomorrow morning my lungs will feel clear enough for a morning run.

Don't Search For The Valley: Hidden Valley Ranch is running a commercial about how kids not only eat their vegetables but love them...with Hidden Valley Ranch dressing.  No doubt...of the 140 calories in 2 tablespoons of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, 130 of them are fat.

What's Ben Watching:  With "Biggest Loser" on hiatus I'm sort of getting into "Top Chef".  I'm not watching it as intently as Biggest Loser but it feeds nicely (pun intended) into my newfound hobby of cooking.  Plus hostess Padma Lakshmi is magnificent: beautiful, smart, articulate, nice personality.  Wow. 

Dale got bounced off this week.  He's a very talented chef but sort of a difficult and annoying personality.  I'd probably enjoy his food but I'd hate to work with him.  Ultimately he was the executive chef this week and so the buck has to stop with him for how poorly things turned out for his team.  That was a lucky coin toss for Lisa as it turns out.

What's Ben Cooking: I've always liked potatoes and so I think I'm going to try a few new potato dishes in the next week or so.  I've been doing a lot of pasta dishes, and I still have a couple of recipes to try there, but I think it's time for some potatoes.

No, I Am *NOT* a Vegetarian: One thing I haven't been cooking that much of lately is meat.  My pasta salad is vegetarian, the pasta with carmelized onions I made last week was vegetarian, in fact...this whole week I think the only meat I've eaten was in the chicken Caesar salad I had for lunch today.  But yes, I am still a carnivore.  Guaranteed my first stop after San Diego Marathon will be In-N-Out Burger.

Isn't "Celeb-Reality" an Oxymoron?: Just when you thought you couldn't get enough of Nick & Jessica, or the Hogan family or any number of shows about dozens of egomaniacs trying to find "love" with Flava Flav or Bret Michaels the E! channel is going to offer us "reality" shows about Denise Richards and the Lohan Family. 

Isn't this basically train-wreck TV?  It's horrifying but you just can't look away?  I caught 10 minutes of the Scott Baio reality show earlier this year and I learned something interesting...Scott Baio is kinda a jerk.  Somehow I don't think I'll be DVR'ing the "Living Lohan" show.

Suspension of Disbelief: Nothing ruins a movie for me faster than it being just totally implausible.  Now to be clear I have a sliding scale for how willing I am to suspend my disbelief.  For "The Matrix" or "Lord of the Rings" they are clearly fantasy/Sci-Fi so I'm a lot more willing to just go with it when Hobbits levitate and what-not.  Last night, however, a prime example of a disappointing member of an otherwise good series was on TV: Die Hard 2.

My primary gripes revolve around serious plot holes.  The basic concept is that a group of terrorists take over Dulles airport and threaten to crash the planes if their demands aren't met.  NOTE: I guess this is a spoiler warning but honestly this is a 17 year old movie and if you haven't seen it by now I suspect you're not covering your ears because you're too excited to see how it turns out.  Anyhow, if you're just waiting for the 20th Anniversary edition to see this then you might just want to skip to the Quote of the Day.  Otherwise...

My problem with the concept is that it just wouldn't work.  Dulles Airport is in Virginia and there are half a dozen other major airports (not to mention Andrews Air Force Base) within a couple of hundred miles.  If the aircraft had enough fuel to circle for 2+ hours then they had enough fuel to get to Jacksonville, Florida.  Maybe Dulles is snowed in, but Charleston or Charlotte probably isn't.  And they couldn't plow a runway at Andrews Air Force Base which is less than 50 miles from Dulles and land the aircraft there?

Part of the plot is that the terrorists have taken over radio communications so that the tower can't communicate with the planes...but what stops the tower at National Airport just a few miles away from communicating with the planes and telling them what's going on?  Or Andrews AFB?  At the beginning of the movie McClain calls the airphone to talk to his wife on her plane.  Leaving aside the fact that I don't think those phones can receive calls why not call that phone back to tell the plane's captain what's going on?  Several helicopters operate during the movie - can't the helicopters get on the radio and talk to the planes?  Aren't there dozens of planes on the ground at Dulles and don't each of those planes have working radios in them?

The terrorists supposedly change the ILS to show altitude 200 feet higher than it really was in order to crash the plane - but the plane would have its own altimeter that would have told the pilots their true altitude.

At the end the planes follow the fire trail to see the runway and land.  Why couldn't they have followed the fire trail from the first plane that crashed?  Or after Esperanza's plane exploded?  If it was a simple matter of brightly lighting the runway why couldn't the airport have simply lined a runway with firetrucks and police cars with lights blazing?  The terrorists ran away when the fire trucks came out after Esperanza landed - clearly the terrorists had no interest in having a major firefight on the runway with hundreds of rescue workers.  The airport is in Virginia surely it would have been a trivial matter to have troops, cops, firemen, National Guard on the scene in a manner of an hour.

Unfortunately when the major premise of the plot is so flimsy it tends to ruin the movie for me.  And I say that as somebody who enjoyed Die Hard 1 and Die Hard 3.  Each of those had a few logical flaws of their own, but I didn't find them as glaring as Die Hard 2's.

Quote of the Day:

"Whatever our souls are made of, hers and mine are the same."
   -Emily Bronte-  (I took liberty with the gender in the quote)

-B-

A few Santa Fe odds and ends...

• On Friday tried to go to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum but unfortunately it was closed so they could set up for their upcoming exhibit featuring the work of O'Keefe and Ansel Adams.  I was really sorry they were closed, but more sorry that I'll miss the O'Keefe/Adams exhibit.
• Emma proved her worth again on this trip -- in fact she's been so impressive that each of my parents have bought their own.  My mom's is named "Emily" -- dunno what dad will name his.  She got me to and from the various hotels, museums and even restaurants with some ease.  One evening before we set out to walk around the Downtown area I took her out of the car and carried her with me - she's just as useful for pedestrians; though I had to zoom way in on the map to get the level of detail I needed.
• On Paul Unger's recommendation I bought an Olympus WS-311 digital recorder while I was in Santa Fe.  My primary reason is to use it as an external microphone for my Tablet PC when I do recordings in OneNote.  But it'll be a handy audio capture tool in general.  I'm impressed with how small and light it is.
• Santa Fe is a nice town with a LOT of museums and galleries.  It also has an extraordinary number of white men with pony tails.
• Friday night grabbed some pizza at Rooftop Pizza a charming little eatery where they serve pizza, pasta, salads, etc.  Randi made friends with a baby at the next table.  I made friends with a thin-crust pepperoni pizza.
• Saturday night there was a live band playing in the square in Santa Fe's downtown plaza.  They were doing some really good covers of Santana and I lingered for a while to listen.
  
• The Dodge Caravan that Avis rented me was a FlexFuel vehicle that can run on E85 Ethanol.  That would have been way cooler if I'd seen anywhere to actually BUY E85 Ethanol when I was driving around.  I glanced at every gas station I noticed but never saw anyplace offering E85.  By the way...I discovered that it really doesn't matter how loudly you blast your Foo Fighters while cruising Don Gaspar Ave...it's just impossible to look cool driving a white Dodge Caravan.
• You know a hotel is fancy when they gift-wrap the spare toilet paper rolls.  The Hotel Santa Fe was the conference hotel and you can imagine my amusement when I went to grab the spare toilet paper roll in our meeting suite's bathroom and discovered it nicely "gift wrapped" in purple tissue with a decorative string.  There was no card though, so I'm not sure whom it was from.
• On the flight from Albuquerque to Los Angeles our flight attendant "Bobi" had a little trouble with her announcements - first she welcomed us to the "Delta Connections" flight, which might have been fine if we hadn't been on United Express.  Then she announced that she'd be coming to get verbal confirmation from the folks in the exit row...which she had already done minutes before.  I'm sure it had been a long day for her - she seemed like a nice lady and was clearly a little embarrassed at her continuing difficulty with the announcements.

Men's Fashion?

Though my friends have somehow voted me #4 "Most Fashionable" on Facebook (out of our group of friends) I'm afraid I'm continually puzzled by what some of the guys I see are wearing.

• On one flight I saw a fellow wearing a shirt that said, in large letters: "Booty Patrol".  Ladies, tell me, does that work?  Really?
• A fellow in the airport at LAX was wearing a navy blue sport coat and light blue dress shirt...with navy blue shorts.  Maybe that's stylish but it looked like a clothing mullet.  "Business on top..."
• Something just looks odd about guys wearing deep v-neck t-shirts.  I dunno - looked like he stayed over at his girlfriend's place and had to borrow one of her shirts that morning.

Today's Workout - I'm not quite 100% yet, but I am feeling quite a bit better and I am really down the last hours of prep for San Diego.  Tonight I'll try to do an easy 5 miles - I'm guessing 5-8 mile runs during this week are probably going to be what I'll have to settle for before San Diego.  I guess I'll just have to rely upon experience to get me through the 26.2 on race day.  I have no idea what my time is going to look like.  The good news is that I *AM* starting to feel that engine start that I need and my weight is still down at 203.  It's still possible that I may sneak in under 200 pounds for race day, which would have me 20+ pounds under last year.  So we'll see.

Quote of the Day

(actually a song lyric)

"The challenges, we took were hard enough.
They get harder now.
Even when we think that we've had enough.
Don't feel alone,
'Cause it's I who understands.
I'm your sedative,
Take a piece of me whenever you can.
Don't cry.... you're not alone.
...don't be so hard on yourself..."

    -Seal, "Don't Cry"-

-B-

At the Albuquerque Airport enjoying their free WiFi and quaint but comfortable charging stations while I wait for my flight home.  Decided to take the scenic route back down from Santa Fe today so we took the Turquoise Trail back down to Albuquerque.  Turned out that Randi's flight was just an hour before mine so we decided to carpool and it was great to have the company on the drive.

Great views along the way, lots of cyclists doing the Santa Fe Century Ride and we stopped at the Tocororo Cafe in Madrid for brunch.

I can heartily recommend "Annie's Pancakes" which are apparently made with cottage cheese (though I didn't detect any) and come with a lovely berry compote.  Randi had an omelette which she said was quite delicious as well.

Rolling into Madrid I instantly had a sense that it looked familiar.  Moments later I saw some posters and other memorabilia that confirmed that it was the setting for much of the movie "Wild Hogs" starring John Travolta, William H. Macy (husband of Felicia Huffman and thus one half of the "F.H. Muffman" duo), Ray Liotta, Tim Allen, Marisa Tomei and others.

Leaving Madrid we were treated to more lovely scenic views of the New Mexico desert before finally getting onto interstate 25 and rolling into the Albuquerque Sunport (they don't call it an "airport" here) right on time for Randi to catch her flight back to Sarasota.

The Book Looms...

Though there are some last-minute questions about what the actual title of the Outlook book is going to be, the ball is rolling fast now.  I suggested we name the book "The Davinci Code" but apparently there are some issues with that.  Tim said he expects we could start receiving printed copies of the book in the 3rd week of June.  Now I just have to hope it sells more than 6 copies. 

Hurray for P & J!

I was notified via text message this morning that Patricia and John beat the bridge in today's run!  HURRAY!  Great job guys and great event - raising money to help fight juvenile diabetes.

New Mexico Moments

• "They're small, take two."
• "Rockin' Randi!"
• "Would you like some tea?"
• "Thank you Emma" (said in unison)
• Getting to watch music enthusiasts talk excitedly about bands and artists I've never heard of.
• "It's brown and tan and beige."
• "Well, he didn't say 'no' yet." (He said "no" the following day, <sigh>)

Quote of the Day

"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."
       -John Wayne-

-B-

Hola from New Mexico.  In Santa Fe for the rest of this week attending the ABA Law Practice Management meeting. 

Travel to the event was relatively uneventful though I did have a V-8 moment in Honolulu.  I got smart and did Hawaiian Airlines curbside check-in BEFORE I took the truck over to Park & Ride.  To check in I showed my driver's license, of course, but apparently when I got back in the car I put my driver's license on the passenger seat.   That would have been o.k. except that it was still sitting there when I got into the security line. 

A quick phone call back to the Park & Ride guys brought the shuttle bus quickly back around - back to the car, retrieved the license, back to the terminal all in less than 10 minutes.  Plenty of time to catch my flight.

Hawaiian 10 to L.A. was largely uneventful; the lady sitting next to me had a teacup Yorkie in a carry-on and it was adorable.   Every now and then it would yip very quietly, but for the most part it just sat quietly in its carrier.

Once in L.A. my folks swung by the airport to pick me up and off to In-N-Out Burger we went for delicious cheeseburgers.

Watson, Come Here, I Need You

My father and I exchanged pleased glances when my mother whipped out her cell phone to call my grandparents.  I don't expect her to become an avid mobile user ("OMG!") but it was great to see her comfortable with the technology so that in those events when she really needs it, she feels like she can use it.

Back to the airport I caught a mostly-empty United Express flight to Albuquerque.  Another uneventful flight; I spent most of the flight chatting with a very pleasant young lady named Cassie who is a budding restaurateur.

Finally into Albuquerque I got over to Avis for the regular "What Car Do I Get This Time" game.  They were all out of mid-size so they upgraded me to...a minivan.  Something about driving around in a Dodge Caravan makes me feel like a soccer mom.  At least it came in handy (more on that momentarily).

Got to my hotel around 1AM and checked in.  It's quaint - really a motel - and rather 1978.  But it's clean, well-maintained, has free WiFi access and cost about half what the conference hotel (just a mile down the road) cost.  Unfortunately my cough is still causing problems.  I got to the hotel around 1AM but by the time I settled into my room, logged in and synched my e-mail and got cleaned up it was 2:30 before I got to bed.  With a 7AM wake-up call looming I was resolved to not getting much sleep - but for the first couple of hours what sleep I did get was frequently interrupted by annoying coughing fits. 

So the morning came and I got dressed and headed over to the Hotel Santa Fe for the first day of meetings - sleep deprived or not.  The day went fine, meetings, luncheon, meetings...then in the evening we had a reception at the New Mexico Museum of Fine Art.  The crowd was fun and we got to tour the ground floor of the museum, which features one of Georgia O'Keefe's landscapes of New Mexico.

Post-reception the real fun began - Randi, John, Paul and I piled into the Caravan and drove out to Santa Fe Brewery to spend the evening listening to a hot young bluegrass band.  Randi and John are SERIOUS music enthusiasts to the point where they have all kinds of inside stories about different bluegrass bands, know a lot of the musicians, attend festivals...they really know their stuff.  I don't have that much experience with bluegrass music, but the music was good and the company was fun.

End of the evening I took Randi back to her hotel (Emma is being very useful here in Santa Fe as well) and staggered back to my room for what was going to be yet another fitful night of sleeping and coughing.

Quote of the Day

"He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses."
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson-

-B-

Tonight I'm packing for Santa Fe and sort of deep in reflection.  Tomorrow is a travel day so my next blog post will probably be either Thursday or Friday from Santa Fe.

Here's a quote to tide you over...

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: You don't give up."
   -Anne Lamott-

-B-

Tuesday Thoughts...

• I've mentioned before that, for me, before every big race there's a moment where I actually feel my "engine start" where I get excited for the race, anxious to go.  I get a rush of energy, enthusiasm and focus.  Usually it happens a couple of weeks before the race.  Don't know if it's because of the illness, or the inconsistent training or maybe it's just not time yet...but I'm not feeling it for San Diego yet.  Hopefully it'll still happen.
• Yesterday was a busy cooking day - I was craving grilled cheese so I made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.  For dinner I put the new food processor into action and made an updated version of my vegetarian pasta salad recipe.  The new recipe includes some green olives and more finely chopping the red peppers and I have to say that it really was delicious.
  
  It's really quite a simple recipe:
  
  1 lb of whole wheat pasta - I often use a rainbow rotini for color.
  One large red pepper (sometimes I'll do a second pepper or a different color for variety)
  A handful of green olives with pimento (it's the Helen Amstutz school of cooking - "a bunch of this" "some of that")
  2 cups of shredded Fat free or 2% mozzarella cheese (at least.  I like a lot of cheese)
  A few sliced sun dried tomatoes
  A "bunch" of non-pareil capers
  Some Kraft Fat-Free Zesty Italian dressing
  
  Cook the pasta (about 10 minutes) in boiling water.  While that's happening chop the pepper, olives and sun-dried tomatoes into fine pieces (the food processor makes it easy) and mix in the capers.  When the pasta is done, dump it into a colander and rinse with cold water until the pasta is cool and firm to the touch.  Dump into a bowl, toss in the chopped veggies and cheese, add dressing to taste and toss.  It's low fat, vegetarian, and quite tasty.  This recipe makes a bunch of it - easily enough to serve 2 or 3 adults...maybe more.
• Last weekend I got my guest bathroom basically done.  The color scheme is sort of "creme and purple".  I have a little extra urgency because I'll have houseguests in about 6 weeks.  I was going to get some new houseplants, but didn't manage it - so when I get back from Santa Fe I'll work on that.  Last bit I need to do is convert the guest room into an actual bedroom.  Right now it has a dresser (full of linens) my second TV which I rarely use, a recliner and that's it.  I need to get a futon or small bed and to get rid of the recliner - something else to deal with when I get back from Santa Fe.
• I get to see my dad tomorrow!  On my way through L.A. on the way to Santa Fe I have about a 3 hour layover.  That means I get to grab a quick meal with my pop (and Mom if her work schedule allows) -- he's going to come down to LAX, pick me up and we'll cruise over to In-N-Out (of course) for a tasty treat.
• Just 1 chapter left to go.  Whew.

Today's Workout

STILL fighting with this damned cough and a few little body aches.  So once again a run - probably a little shorter than I might otherwise have liked.  Time will be a tad short today anyhow - I have to pack and do my usual work today.  I'll try to do some core strength work as well.

Quote for Today

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, it's what you are expected to give -- which is everything."
     -Anon-

-B-

This cough is really an unwelcome houseguest at this point.  Short of cleaning out my fridge and making a lot of long distance calls I'm not sure what more it can do to irritate me.

• This weekend was retail therapy weekend I guess.  Since I'm doing a lot more cooking I decided to treat myself to a fancy new kitchen toy: The KitchenAid Food Processor. 

I'm planning to use it tonight when I try an updated version of my pasta salad recipe. I hope it's not too much fun or else there might be a LOT of diced vegetables in the new recipe.

• Quick snapshot of my house - yeah, it's Hawaii.

• Down to the final couple of chapters of the book.  Thank goodness.  I am SO ready to have it done and in print.  So that I can get busy cranking out pages on the second book.  No rest for the....well, me.
• Last night's run was really quite good.  The night before it took me a ways to get warmed up but last night from the very first steps I felt smooth and strong.  I set out at a strong pace and was immediately tempted to add some distance to the run.  Knowing I needed to get home to get some work done on the book was the only thing that reigned me in and kept me on track with my short course run.  I actually did my longest, short course, run (which is sort of like being the most honest congressman I guess) and I did it fairly fast.  Other than some minor abdominal cramping I felt great and, most importantly, my hip flexor felt good.
  
  It was another beautiful night - a sky full of stars and a cool breeze really added to the run.  Wish I could do my marathon in these conditions.
• Looking ahead - short week for me.  Wednesday morning I leave for Santa Fe.

Today's Workout

Not too much variety these days.  It's all about run, run, run some more.  I'll do a little core strength work during the day and this evening I'm going to try to do about 5.5 miles.  Adding another mile or two every day - we'll have to see what I can do in Santa Fe.

Quote for Today

"If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all."
   -Anna Quindlen-

-B-

Apparently I'm a poster-boy.  Imagine my surprise when I flipped through the TechShow program and found this ad.

Wow, what a lot of memories that photo brought back.  It was taken during the 2007 TechShow. 

• I engaged in a bit of retail therapy yesterday.  As some of you know I'm a big "Columbo" fan and I have almost every episode of Columbo on VHS.  Problem with that is that now that I'm all "Blu-Ray and LCD" I don't have a VHS machine in my living room anymore.  So yesterday I bought a Samsung VHS/DVD-Recorder and a spindle of blank DVDs.  Took a little reading of the manual, but so far I've managed to dub 4 of my Columbo episodes onto DVD (and one is going now).  By the time I'm done (I'll do a few a day; it's push a button and walk away) I'll have converted my entire collection to DVD along with a few dozen movies I have on VHS as well.  Then I can crate up those old VHS tapes and either dispose of them or stick them out of the way in the attic.
• It's Mother's Day and I was gladly working the phones a bit earlier today.  Started off with a call to my grandmother in Indiana.  She's 97 and I can't tell you how good it is to just hear her voice.  I'll be in Chicago for a conference in mid-July and you'd better believe I'm going to go a few days early and go visit her and my grandfather.  The last couple of years I've tried to make a point of seeing them at least 3-4 times a year.

 


After that call I put in a call to my Mom.  As a Mother's Day gift to her I will NOT post a photo of the two of us.  She HATES having her photo taken.

So, Happy Mother's Day, mom and grandma!  I love you guys.

• My folks are considering getting one of those devices that tells you when your garage door is open - the kind you can put inside your house.  That led to a discussion of why somebody doesn't create a way for your garage door opener to remind you when you drive away that the door is still open. What a good idea.  Reminded me of a quote - something about men going to their grave with their music still in their mind.  Or something like that.

But that's not our quote of the day....

Quote of the Day

"Love is not blind - it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less."

-Rabbi Julius Gordon-

Today's Workout

The long road back.  Will do another run tonight, adding a bit onto last night's run and hoping to feel good enough to do another tomorrow morning.  San Diego looms large...

-B-

Still not quite 100% so didn't feel like going out.  So tonight I went for a run, then cooked some dinner.

The Run

Decided to do a short-course run tonight, about a mile longer than the run I did yesterday.  I know where my lungs are - still a little flemmy but slowly improving - but I was concerned to test my legs and, specifically, hip flexor.

So I headed out for my short course into a nice Hawaiian night.  I was feeling a cool sprinkle falling on my shoulders and couldn't help but look around to see if a nearby sprinkler was running.  The sky was a lovely dark blue and the teal and purple remnants of the sunset were hanging on the western horizon and there were very few clouds in the big sky.  So where was the rain coming from?  Beats me, but it was sort of nice.

I once met an SR-71 pilot and he told me the Blackbird was a real pig to fly at low speeds and low altitudes.  Get her up at altitude and above Mach 2 however, and all the seals swell up nice and she just goes like a bat out of hell.  That's sort of how my body felt tonight.  For the first half mile I felt out of sync, my hip hurt, my legs weren't sore but didn't feel right.

After about half a mile though, I warmed up and started to find my stride.  My hip started to feel o.k. (not great, but o.k.) and for the next couple of miles I played around a bit with my speed.  "Fartlek" is the funny Swedish word meaning "speed play" and I'm not sure what I was doing was fartlek exactly, but it was good.  Hips forward and back, a few adjustments in my posture, faster and slower I played around gauging my body a bit.  Surprisingly what started to fail me wasn't my hip or my legs...but my stomach.  I started to get some discomfort in my stomach, illness-related no doubt, that convinced me to stop goofing around, settle back into my usual stride, and just take it around the course and get home.  So I did.

Dinner

Once home, a quick shower and change of clothes, then it was time to cook some dinner.  I was trying something new tonight: a vegetarian fettuccine with greens and caramelized onions.  This was extra tricky because I was working with a number of ingredients/techniques I'd never worked with before:

• I've never cooked with kale or swiss chard before.
• I've never tried to caramelize onions before

I started off slicing onions, which went fine, except I began to suspect that I had way too many onions.

So I made my first improvisation of the evening and took out about 1/3 of the onions.  That worked out just about right as it turns out.  Onions caramelized (I hope) it was time to add the broth and the vegetables.

The broth didn't reduce quite as predicted and what I learned is that my stove is not that great.  I have to say that I'm not especially impressed with the GE appliances in my new place.  Too bad I'm a renter at the moment - I'm tempted to just replace the appliances at my expense and making them a gift to my landlord.  We'll see.  Anyhow again, I was improvising.  Finally with the vegetables simmering in the broth it was time to cook the pasta.  It all timed out perfectly, and finally the finished product took shape.

For a first try at this dish I would say it came out pretty well.  Would have liked just a bit more flavor - maybe a pinch more salt next time.  But pretty good and I have some leftovers for tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow.  It's tomorrow.  And I need to go to bed.  Good night all and Happy Mother's Day!

-B-

Busy day today - I need to bang out about 6 chapters on the Outlook book today, get in a run (or two), finish up some household chores and tonight I might try cooking a vegetarian fettuccine with greens and caramelized onions.  (Which means there's a decent chance I'll be ordering pizza)

• Add book: Yesterday I got an e-mail that made me smile.  It was from the marketing director at my publisher and it was simply titled "Book Cover Ideas".  Very simple message - she was asking if I had any ideas for the cover or if she and the artists should just come up with some concepts themselves.  I don't have any specific ideas for the cover (I think I got the negatives back from that weekend in college so I'm not worried about that) so otherwise I'll see what they come up with.  But just having that conversation - about my book cover - made the book feel very close and tangible.  It's my first solo book.  I'm getting excited.  I hope it sells more than 6 copies.  My mom is getting a free copy so that might cut into my sales somewhat.
• I bought a couple of the canvas shopping bags at the grocery store the other day to use instead of the plastic bags they give.  Yes, that makes me very "earth day" and I suppose that's a bonus.  I have to admit though that I mostly did it because I was getting tired of all the plastic bags filling up my bag drawer at home.  This is just cleaner and more efficient.  And good for the environment, cool.  It's sort of hard to look cool carrying them into the store, though.  I'll have to work on that.
• One piece of fallout from the illness...another minor race bites the dust.  I was supposed to do the Pearl Harbor Bike Path 10K tomorrow.  But honestly, while I will undoubtedly run tomorrow, I don't think I'm up for getting up at 5AM to drive 10 miles to give a race effort for 6 miles.  It's o.k. this was just a race I was doing for the t-shirt and a little fun as a training run anyhow.  It's not a goal race for me, not even something I really had on my race calendar.
• I'm not terribly vain - though somehow my friends on Facebook have voted me #3 most fashionable somehow; I'm assuming that's a joke - but there is one piece of kit that I really like and recommend.  And that's the shoe sponge.  It's a sponge that contains the shines you need for virtually any kind of shoe.  Before I put on my work shoes in the morning I give each shoe a quick (5-second) buff with the sponge.  Does it replace a professional shine?  No.  But it definitely makes a difference, and it takes 10 seconds tops.  You can buy the sponges at Bass or Payless Shoes; or probably a few other places like that for less than $10.

Today's Workout

Frustratingly I'm STILL not quite 100%.  But there will be at least one run on the agenda today.  Between 3-5 miles I'm guessing, depending upon how I feel.  I'm partly concerned with my cough but also somewhat concerned about my hip flexor - which needs to get healthy.

Quote for Today

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

-B-

Well, it's Friday again that means a lot of things, such as...

• It's RST Movie Day again.  Taking the whole company to see "Iron Man" today.
• Randi has arranged for us to take in some live music in Santa Fe next week and I'll be seeing Pat Benatar in concert in San Diego in a few weeks.  Some of my other favorite musical artists like Lili Haydn, Barenaked Ladies and James Taylor are performing this summer and I've been checking their tour schedules against my travel schedule (I'm in Seattle in late June, Chicago in mid-July, L.A. in August, etc.) to see if I might be able to catch one of them performing live.  So far no luck, though Maroon 5 in Tampa in October caught my eye and I know Lili is based out of L.A. so maybe she'll have an August show there I could attend.
  
  Trivia: Lili Haydn was a junior high school classmate of mine.  I can only hope I've aged as well as she has.
• In a previous post I mentioned an article on voting machines and election technology that I'd written.  I've reposted it here.
• I've found myself watching a lot of Food Network lately.  Of course just because I'm watching cooking doesn't mean the retail anthropologist in me is sleeping - I couldn't help but think it odd that they'd run a Kraft Mac & Cheese ad in the middle of Iron Chef.  I could be wrong but I would think that regular viewers of Food Network and shows like Top Chef or Iron Chef are probably, at least to some extent, foodies who might turn up their noses at it.  Then again, I was watching and I'll willingly admit that I love Mac & Cheese.
• Bachelor Tip: If you tend to dump your basket of clean laundry on the bed in order to fold it and put it away....don't leave it there 'til the end of the day.  For some reason I do that a lot and just don't seem to learn.  Often I forget about it until I'm ready to go to bed.  I stagger upstairs, tired and looking forward to a good night's sleep, and find 10-15 minutes worth of laundry folding waiting on me just so that I can get into my bed.  ARGH.
• I've pretty much decided that Honolulu WILL be my December marathon this year.  I'm already registered for one thing and I feel a lot of responsibility towards Brian and my running team.  I'll want to get out there and lead my group yet again - for some of them it will be their first marathon and it does give me a lot of satisfaction to cheer them through that great accomplishment. There are a couple of other reasons I'm not willing to confess here right now but anyhow - I'd say it's 99% likely that Honolulu will be my December marathon.
• The government of Burma/Myanmar has finally agreed to let U.S. relief supplies into the country....on Monday.  Monday?  Today is Friday.  O.k., in Burma it might be Saturday but still...that means that victims of the cyclone have to wait another 48 hours or so for relief?  Those people are sick, injured and starving.  Some of them aren't going to live 48 more hours without help.  Why the delay?  U.S. supplies are already staged in neighboring Thailand.

Today's Workout:  Still feeling a touch of the cold but I'm determined that I do need to get a run in today.  So I'll do a short-course run later on today, probably this evening.  I'll probably try to do some core strength work before I leave to go to the movie.

Quote for Today

"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it."
   -Douglas Adams-

-B-