Frosty

Greetings from Minneapolis! No, I didn't move back; I'm just visiting. I went for a run around the lakes last Sunday, when the weather was 30 degrees, with an 18* windchill. I had all my winter running gear and was proud of myself for not being a weather wimp. It was a pleasant 10 mile run.

However, I have not run since then! The mercury sank like a fruitcake and barely reached double digits above zero. Yesterday it was -10 when I took SD to work and only reached 10 above late in the afternoon. Today's high will be -1. Good thing I have my SmartWool tights. I'm spending the day at the Mall of America. :-)

Tomorrow I'm going to see Spirit of the Marathon with AmyBee. It was not playing in my county last month and I really wanted to see it. I guess a lot of other people did, too, because it sold out at the Eden Prairie theater we were supposed to go to. We're driving to Egan instead. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie and AmyBee.

I spent the day yesterday cleaning my old house. It's empty, but we've had a lot of people going through it and it was filthy. Since I want to get top dollar, I spent the day spiffing it up. We actually got an offer, but it was a lame offer and the guy backed out 2 days later. I see this as an opportunity to get a better offer. I'm optomistic that the house will sell in the next couple of months. We dropped the price by $100,000 and that should get some attention.

We bought a bed finally. We were sleeping on an air mattress since we moved, because we put our old bed in the guest bedroom. I got tired of sleeping on the air mattress and now we sleep in the guest bedroom. It's nice, but not as nice as our bedroom. Anyway, Room and Board has an outlet in Minneapolis and you can get some good deals there. We bought a platform bed, nightstand, and an Aeron chair and they'll deliver to my house for a flat fee.

SD is expecting his bonus check soon, so we're suddenly flush. We still need to by some office furniture--I'm getting tired of typing at the card table and folding chair. I've been having problems with my left leg--it hurts all the way from my hip to the back of my foot--and I think my sciatic nerve got damaged from sitting too long in the folding chair. Of course, I haven't confirmed this with a doctor... But rest seems to be helping.

SD has been promising that we can buy some bicycles when he gets his money, so I'm looking forward to that. I've been avoiding looking at bikes, because I want to buy every one I see. But I found a store that I like and I think I'll let them guide me on a purchase. They rep Felt and Kuota, so I may end up with one of those. But if you have any suggestions, I'm open to that. The highest elevation is around 1700 feet, so I need something that will get me up the hills! I'm leaning toward carbon, for the light weight, but SD is leaning toward price--the lower the better. My budget is around $2000, with pedals, clips, and seat. My goal is to do a Century, and maybe some short races. I don't expect to win any races, but I'd like a bike that isn't going to make me feel like I'm pedaling backwards. :-)

Time to go to the mall! See you later. I'm be home on Friday--yay!

Girl from the North County

Gosh, thanks for all the comments. I didn't think you would be checking my blog anymore, since my posting has been so sporadic.

Life is good, but I'm still adjusting. It's hard to get used to how far away everything is; I drive 15 miles in either direction to shop or get my mail. The post office won't deliver to my house because you need 7 addresses within a mile and we're the only one within 3 miles. We finally got trash pickup straightened out, but no curbside recycling. SD just wants to throw everything away, but I can't bring myself to do that, so cardboard and bottles are stacking up in the garage. I finally found a place that will take all our recyclables, so now I just need to pack up the truck and bring it in.

The most frustrating thing has been the lack of customer service. It took 14 days for FedEx to deliver a package that had been sitting in a local warehouse for the past 10. And that's with me calling every day and burning up cell phone minutes. Oh yeah, I don't have a land line, because the telephone company wanted 50K to bring one over. There have been other customer service issues, but this post is rapidly descending into a rant.

And I don't want to rant because really, I LOVE IT HERE! It's quiet, peaceful and beautiful. When we come home at night, there are a billion stars out. On any given day, I'll see deer, hawks, or bobcats. My favorite time to be here, though, is sunset. The sunsets from my deck are spectacular!

I haven't been to a movie, but I have gone to see the elephant seals at nearby Piedras Blancas. It's the breeding season and the beaches are covered with males, females, and babies. They first starting showing up around 1993--locals were noticing that the "rocks" on the beach were moving. It's an awesome sight to see.

Oh yeah, I've also been running! I'm incredibly behind on my Big Sur 21 mile training, but right on schedule for the San Diego Rock and Roll marathon that I signed up for last week. The running club I'm with are training for their first marathon, so I figured I'd do it too. I'm not even going to try for time at Big Sur, but it would be nice to finish. I easily ran for two hours on Saturday and that gave me some confidence that I'll be ready. It was the longest I've run since Nike in October. I don't know if I'll be running a 20 miler before Big Sur, but I'm hoping I'll at least get up to 18 miles before I have to taper.

My running coach is a personal trainer and I'm taking some lessons from her. I'm also taking a sculpt class. I've been woefully lacking in muscle strength and I'm hoping the weight training will make me a stronger runner. No more 120 pound weakling for me! Charlie Atlas, here I come. :-)