Run, Gaslight run!

Food Rut and avoiding Life Rut

2011-10-16T18:49:00.006-05:00

You know you do it, too. Even though your repertoire of possible dinners includes a gazillion items, the same 8 or 9 are rotated through, week after week. Right now I'm stuck on 1) whole baked chicken (then I whittle away at the chicken for subsequent feedings).,2) shrimpy pasta and 3) big ass-ed salads. All summer I was on an intense gazpacho kick, making it every Sunday. Not that a vegetable smoothie is a poor addition to dinner on a 104 degree day, but it's just kind f an odd staple.

I honestly can't think of what else I've been cooking every night for the life of me.
My point is, life makes me tired sometimes, so I settle into the familiar to avoid stress.

Since I all but abandoned the poor blog for Facebook, life's handed me some changes. Nothing too drastic: same house, same husband, mostly the same hair, same love of IPAs, AC/DC and raw fish and oysters. I shall elaborate on changes in good time.

Mostly, last spring my principal sprung the idea of a new position on me, one I'd I'd all but given up on: teaching science. I've taught Language Arts (what we called English back in my day) for ten years. My first year I saw the 911 disaster on the news while preparing for my day, to give you some perspective. In that time, I forged my routines, my favorite lessons, my ways to struggling readers-you know, getting good at your job. In 2009 I got wind of one since teacher leaving for certain and another who couldn't wait to teach anything else, so I signed up and studied for the TExES science exam. It weren't as easy as I would have liked, but I passed.

The next year I continued teaching LA as someone else was picked for the one job (but I'm not bitter) that existed and the other one never materialized. Sigh. I was kind of grumpy. For about 2 weeks.

The next year several teaching units were cut, so staff certified as "generalists" were moved to available 6th grade positions. And the 7th grade teachers were made to move our classrooms to promote cross-curricular planning. Because it happens through the walls, of course. Grumpy again, this time for about 3 weeks.

Fast forward now-teaching science! Love it! (to which my loving husband says, "Are you qualified to do that?" The state of Texas says I am!!)

But another change came to our middle, school, the 6-period day (as opposed to 5) .Shorter classes! More students! 70 mph, please!

Omigosh. Whew, really, is what I say quite often now, as if I didn't before. Thankfully I have an AWESOME teammate with tons of experience, so I'm not drowning so much as I'm treading water in a wave pool. On low, but a wave pool, nonetheless.

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody [1080p]

2009-11-24T16:49:00.001-06:00

Viva Freddy Mercury

Holy cow- my state rep emailed me back!

2009-04-15T16:45:00.004-05:00

I mean, my letter was about beer, (big shock), and I'm sure it's a form from her website, bit still.
Perhaps I'm easily impressed.

P.O. BOX 30099
HOUSTON, TX 77249-0099
6515 IRVINGTON BLVD.
(713) 691-6912
FAX (713) 691-3363

P.O. BOX 2910
AUSTIN, TX 78768-2910
CAPITOL 4N.7
(512) 463-0620
FAX (512) 463-0894

JESSICA FARRAR
STATE REPRESENTATIVE
DISTRICT 148

April 15, 2009

Ms. Gas Light
Houston , TX

Dear Ms. Light:
I want to thank you for your correspondence regarding your support for House Bill 2094, relating to authorizing certain brewers and manufacturers to sell beer and ale to ultimate consumers. I am always happy to hear from constituents from District 148, and I appreciate the time and effort you have made to make your voice heard. Rest assured that I will take into account your concerns and comments as I continue working here in Austin through this Legislative Session.

As you can imagine, Session is a hectic time and things develop at a rapid pace. If you would like to keep up with what is happening here in Austin , please visit www.house.state.tx.us. This website allows you to track all of the legislation that has been filed this Session, as well as the work being done in the committees and on the House floor.

Again, thank you for your time and interest. Please do not hesitate to contact my office should you have any questions or comments regarding this or any other matter in the future.

Sincerely,
Jessica Farrar
District 148

Please Vote

2009-03-08T09:44:00.003-05:00

If anyone is still watching, I have a favor to ask.

The favor is actually for my friend Anita, but she's in Singapore right now and doesn't have a blog, so here is her request:

Thomas’ PE teacher is going for a job in the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia. He was 50 top listed from 350,000 candidates. The top voted person gets a wild card for the interview along with their top ten candidates. His name is Greg. When you click on his name, you will see a You-Tube video of him. Look at it and see it and vote. Can you believe he has such a cool teacher? Where were those types of teachers when I was growing up?

Thanks all. And if you think you can get anyone else to vote, that would be awesome too!

http://islandreefjob.com/#/Greg

Anita

Anyhoo, unless your kid's PE teacher is competing also, help a dude out.

Interview you

2009-02-21T11:59:00.002-06:00

This interview meme was graciously provided by Jamoosh at one of my favorite, yet neglected, blogs to read, Das Mixture. OK, J, I'v rested for a month, so now I guess I'll get with the program.

If you want to play along:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Question one:

1. What is the most rewarding thing about your current career choice?

What? No reward has been offered...

It's tempting to go with the obvious, the "making a difference in a single child's life makes it worth the heartache" kind of answer, which is true. Between helping my adolescent Engllish language learners master reading and writing to coaching milers to victory, I get to see kids succeed in ways they previously didn't think possible.

But seriously, for those who really know me, you know I speak the truth when I say... it's the entertainment value. Yep, the little boogers shove the boredom of what a nine-to-five existence can be. It's the reason I left the riveting insurance industry, and it's what keeps me "collecting" teaching certifications in any areas where I think I could function.

2. If you could spend a month eating in any country, what would be the country, and why?

Hmm. Seeing as how I hav actually only visited three other countries, Mexico, Costa Rica and Dominica, none of which exactly boast amazing cuisine, that's a toughie.

With my penchant for all things noodly, you might think Italy, but unless I want to spend a month in a white-flour pasta coma, that's not the brightest idea.

Since sushi is my second favorite thing to consume, Japan might be anohter logical choice. After indulging in ahi for thirty consecutive days, my mercury levels with rival Jeremy Pivens to the point that I might be able to rent myself out as a thermometer.

With nothing but triite literature to go on, I'm gonna say France because French Women Don't get Fat, right? I fancy myslf a cook with some panache, but my knowledge and skills of sauces are lacking so a month at Le Cordon Bleu would please the husband to no end. While there I could also take the sommellier course, to assist in the pairings, non?

3. Describe yourself using one of the following running distances: 5K, 10K, 15K, 13.1 Miles, 26.2 Miles

I'm going to go with the big daddy on this one, Chuck. The marathon, the 26.2.

In every aspect of my life with the exception of running, I'm what you might call a late bloomer. I didn't hit 50 lbs until 5th grade. Mostly a wiry tomboy until about 16, and then not far off. To finish college I took...well, let's say that for about 4 years I majored in Delta Zeta/Sigma Chi little sister. And as for the years...I'd been legal to drink for quite some time before I brought home the sheepskin.

I met Grind when I was over thirty, and we didn't marry until we were 37, just after moving into the first "owned" house I'd live in since I was in second grade. Even after finally graduating from UH when I was hummmana-mumma, I didn't delve into education until I was thirty-five.

The marathon, much like life, or my life anyway, requires a person un-averse work and rest, perseverance, patience, and an appreciation of carbohydrates. You have to want it for wanting it, even though time-consuming and uncomfortable.

Oh, and although the thrill is there after the first finish, the longer you've been running them, the less worked up you get, and there are plenty of fabulous milestones along the way.

4. Your task is to take an out-of-towner out for three meals in Houston: breakfast, lunch and dinner. What restaurants do you choose, and why?

First off, not all in the same day, 'kay?

Breakfast:

First, we must run 11-12 miles, no exceptions. Okay, maybe biking for 2.5-three hours would be an exception, but that's it. Quick shower.

Next, we go to either Catalina Coffee or Bright and Early (both on Washington) for a latte or a Cafe Mexicano, respectively.

Coffee in hand, drive either down Washington to Los Dos Amigos or to La Mexicana in Montrose for Mexican breakfast. Los Dos has tasty chilaquiles plates for 3.95 and a friendly staff. For a more leisurely breakfast, sit under the palapa deck at La Mex. Be indulgent, have a frozen margarita with your breakfast chips. The huevos con jamon with ranchero sauce and a side of Mexican rice will refuel your system from the long run and prepare you fully for your upcoming nap.

Lunch- again, pick a nationality.

You want sushi? The Blue Fish on Richmond. Tasty bites of fish bits AND AFAIK, they are the only sushi place to serve St Arnold Amber. Gotta have spicy tuna and spicy salmon hand rolls .

You want Thai? Vieng Thai on Longpoint between Sliber and Antoine. Rob Walsh contends it's one of Houston's as most authentic, and since Ubon of Thai Gourmet passed way, I must agree. It's all fab: curries, salads, Thai coconut soup and my favorite, PadKee Mao noodles. Mmmmm.

Wanna sandwich? Pedal down to Onion Creekk on White Oak Drive. The bartender knows which beer I'll want, and have the turkey on Ciabatta.

Or we can go to Star Pizza. You decide.

Dinner. I even consulted the husband on this one as I was having difficulty nailing anything down.

Sure, Vic and Anthony's is nice, if you're into meat. Anything Pappas is always quality, but enormous and not really a "Houston" style of cooking. Maggiano's rocks, but they're a chain. I used to love Backstreet Cafe, but we haven't been there in years.

Why, you ask?

Because we make better dinner at home! Between the two of us, we can make pasta dishes, gumbo, any style of fish, seared venison back strap, steamed veggies, habanero brownies, salads, pilafs...all paired with amazing wines, and that's just from what we have in the fridge and freezer RIGHT NOW!

So, candlelit dinner at Casa Gaslight.

5. You currently live in a 100 year-old home. What is the best thing and the worst thing about your house?

Best: the wrap around porch. It's about 9 feet deep, with a view of the Houston skyline to the south or the sunset to the west. Nice Alpine glow on the buildings.

Worst: C-o-l-d. Between the wooden floors and pier & beam construction, I wear fuzzy slippers alot. Of course I say that, but I felt differently after visiting my sister in December. She lives in a nice, new house, an darnit if you have no idea of the temperature outside when you're indoors. That's just freaky!

Grind would probably say the constant stream of projects, but I don't think he really believes that nearly very homeowners we know spends continual time planning home improvements, regardless of the the age of their home.

Since I know you're on the edge of your seat:

2009-02-01T10:51:00.004-06:00

The answers, with why I chose them:

Bull Durham - What's not to like? Susan Sarradon as loosely-moraled baseball groupie, from back when Kevin Costner was likeable. (BTW-spellcheck wants me to delete that e and I just don't want to) I loved the way should could wear a head scarf and look so very cool.
My Cousin Vinny- Great cast of New Yorker characters plopped down in Alabama. Great lines including "magic grits" and the "My biological clock is going tick-tick tick (with stilettoed-heel stomp) " from the firlfrind. However, I never thought the coupling of Marisa Tomei and Joe Pesci was very believable.
Stripes- Very funny. I'm a sucker for Bill Murray's timing and delivery. I tell people that my first year teaching, entirely as a substitute, was like his movie "Groundhog Day". Every day I go in prepared and energetic, just like Bill Murray wanting to sleep with Andie McDowell, and the next day (with different kids) they remember none of it.
I am Legend For some reason this movie really struck me as profound. The good Doctor's sense of survival, guilt, personal responsibility and loneliness. Very sad, and I will never listen to Bob Marley's "Don't Worry...'Bout a Thing" the same way again.
The Shawshank Redemption A story of hope, again with great characters. I never thought I was a TIm Robbins fan, but here he is in two of my favorites.
Top Gun Pretty cheesy, but I was twenty years old when it came out. I think Maverick and Goose's relationship was quite cool; I wish such companionship for all my man friends.
An American Werewolf in London Not exactly a clssic, but I saw this on one of my first dates, and I absolutley adored David McNaughton (the I'm a Pepper" guy). Unfortunatly for him , I nver saw that he did anything else.
American Flyers Great cycling move. Watched it again with my college friends the night before my first MS 150.
Coal Miner's Daughter This was on cable the year we had it, the summer after 9th grade, adn I thin Amy & watched it a dozen times. It was during the summer before I moved to Houston as was "Urban Cowboy"-tell me I wasn't terrifed about the surprise move that August of 1981.
Moonstruck Don't know. Just liked it-and Cher looked really beautiful, which I hadn't thought since her "I got you Babe" days.
Little Big Man Dustin Hoffman's the best. It was a real debate as to which of his movies to include.
Gladiator I never expected to like this movie, but I was mesmerized by watching a natural leader like Maximus in action.
Shakespeare in Love Again, unexpectedly, I loved this movie, probably because of the contrived yet amusing refrences to his other works
Cool Hand Luke Paul Newman as an asnrchist? Really? Me-ow.
Remember the Titans My favorite kid-friendly movie. I find an excuse to show this at some point every year. And even I'm supposed to be grading papers, I still watch and cry at appropriate times. Even if I show it in 3 consecutive class periods. Sad, I know.

Waste an hour! Waste two ! revised

2009-01-25T11:12:00.008-06:00

Movie meme, taken from the Briantolgist

Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
Post them here for everyone to guess.
NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search functions.

Feel free to answer in the comments, all both of you.

Well, I believe in the soul, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap.I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.
Well, I guess the laws of physics cease to exist on top of your stove. . Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?
So we're all dogfaces, we're all very, very different, but there is one thing that we all have in common: we were all stupid enough to enlist in the Army. We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers. But we're American soldiers! We've been kicking ass for 200 years! We're 10 and 1!
It's just... I was saving that bacon!
I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.
Too close for missles, I'm switching to guns
“He’s a Jew.”(one nurse to another)

“How do you know?”

“ I’ve had a look.”

“You sound half-human.”

I am half-human.”

She can't be dead, Doo! We're goin' shopping! Who am I gonna talk to now?
Aw, ma, I love him awful.
After my religion period, I took up with a swindler: Allardyce Merriwhether. After Mrs. Pendrake his honesty was downright refreshing. AND Indians think everything is alive...White men believe everything is dead.
Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.
I know something of a woman in a man's profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that.
[watching sexy girl wash a car] My Lord, whatever I done, don't strike me blind for another couple of minutes.
'I think this is a very good time for prayer and reflection.." "Coach, I'm hurt. I'm not dead."

Just to be playful, I'm tagging Jamoosh, Joe, June & Jonathan.

Sidelined

2009-01-19T16:21:00.004-06:00

Other than being bummed, I'm fine. I mean, my foot/leg thingy is sore, but I made a prophylactic (I love to say that -it totally freaks people out) move to avoid further injury by not even starting the race.

These are obviously our very cool bibs that we did not get to wear day...okay so I guess we could still wear them around the house, but that does seem a little stupid.

Anyway, the foot has been askew for 4 weeks, and then got worse 2 weeks ago. It took me a week to get into see Sanders fort ART. I ran 11ish last weekend and iced the foot afterward. It was achy, but debilitating like to week before. I had aggressive massage on my lower leg on Wednesday and rested all week. LaErica helped with a XC meet I hosted at our school on Tuesday and noticed me limping as I ran back and forth across the field during every race to coach my kids.

It felt okay and I jogged 25 minutes with my team on Friday. Achy at firs,t then fine. I was at 80% in favor of running.

Saturday a.m. I went to do my glycogen depletion run- an easy 1/2 mile warm up and drills, then 3 minutes hard. The burning activated at 2.5 minutes and was searing after three. I walked home knowing the verdict. Big sigh.

SO...I managed to snag a cushy volunteer job, escorting the Elite half-marathoners down to the start line. We watched to finish over by the press stand, and I maintained composure. We were allegedly supposed to escort them back up, but none of them wanted to be "escorted". I think that's more for the marathoners as 26.2 pretty much beats you up.

This is from in front of the start line during the Star Spangled Banner...look at all the skinny folks.

Happy Birthday to Grind!

2009-01-16T16:02:00.002-06:00

Here's Grind with his birthday presents, the Larousse Gastronomique" and some "magic beans" from Starbucks.

He took a birthday call from mom and we headed to the St Arnold Scavenger Hunt HH to attempt to win a kegerator. We did not.

We did, however go for a lovely dinner of British food at Feast Brit and Krusty. The boys signed up for the 9-course sampler...and 2 hours later, we could go home!

Our home turf XC meet, Tuesday.

2009-01-15T06:54:00.002-06:00

Me, explaining the concept of drafting to my 8th graders.

My superstar, OJ. He won easily by 11 seconds.

One of my seventh-graders. She works hard, takes coaching, and thrives with the extra attention.

Look at all those ribbons!
Big thanks to La' and Fraser for coming to campus to help me.

Things are looking grim for Sunday

2009-01-14T13:57:00.003-06:00

The foot thing, aggravated on Monday when I did warm up drills with my students, has taken a turn for the worse. Instead of getting stronger after rest and strength exercises, it feels weaker.
Don't get me wrong, I can probably run and feel fine. For a while. After Monday's incident, if I take a step a little bit wrong (to the inside, I suppose), I get a searing pain below my ankle (medial side) and just over the back of my instep. Like a shooting, "Holy Crap I've sprained my ankle!!" kind of pain.

So tonight, I'm going for a massage. If it feels stronger on Friday, I'll run 2 miles. If I make even one misstep with searing pain, I'm bagging the marathon.

No hometown PR
No helping the Roadrunners in team comp.
No Runner of the Season ranking (makes me wish I'd run the 30K!)
No awesome post-race hot-tubbing because I'll be too bummed to want to be at a marathon party. (maybe I'll get over that one)

If I run the two miles and feel great, I'll probably still run the marathon with my house key, keeping the option of stopping in the Woodland Heights and riding my bike back to get my car. Because let's face it, if big things are going to go wrong in the marathon, you usually have some indication by mile four.

I'd say I'm 80/20 in favor of NOT running at this moment. I can't be too bummed...this fall's training made me stronger, and I have three distance PRs within 7 weeks.

I'd say I peaked at the proper time, wouldn't you?

Turkey dinner

2009-01-10T12:20:00.001-06:00

For Thankgivign this year, our friends treated us to a fablous British dinner.

On Christmas, we served gumbo, venison shank, and grilled redfish.

I want some TURKEY, dammit! I'm totally deprived of turkey sandwiches, rice & gravy and tryptophan hangovers.

Solution: head to Whole Foods and get your turkey on.

Grind seems pleased.

Meeker Handprint Merlot

Even took out the Vera Wang

Chrismas with the uber-nieces

2009-01-09T06:43:00.002-06:00

The little one's eyes are really that big...but her lips aren't. After the photo we discovered she's "tried" momma's lipstick. Too funny.

The taller one is a cross country runner Pulled off a 6:45 mile in one of her races! Can't you see how proud her auntie is?

PS They don't make very many running clothes that tiny.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-31T22:43:00.001-06:00

Which to marathoners in Houston means, "Which awesome holiday party did you have to leave early so you could hobble thru your long run with some respectability?"

For Gaslight in 2008, thankfully, none! The hash Christmas Party? Way fun! Roadrunner party? Danced the night away! Christmas at my house? And my birthday? Totally fine! That has to be the best thing EVER about running a fall marathon-your long runs do NOT freak you out. Why? I've done my long run, so put that in your pipe and smoke it-I'm still recovering!

Let's just see how that translates into my performance on January 18, 2009, but I'm not sure how much a ballbusting December would have helped, really. But anyhoo, my point being, i was left in peace to enjoy my holiday season.

Prior to my departure to Charlotte, (miss me??)I did join my fellow roadrunners last Saturday for John's annual Loooong Run. Blasphemy, some may say, to put off hugging the uber-niecelettes until after one. Last.Twenty-one. Miler. But you gotta do what you gotta do, right? It's not going to run itself!

I do not have to remind my fellow Houstonians of the weather on said Saturday morning: 72 degrees. Yes, we swam our last long run. I spent some quality time with Simon as we plodded through the Tanglewood subdivision. (note: I LIKE Tanglewood! Nice place! So pretty! A little Stepfordish, perhaps, but golly a nice layout.)

Ahem. My last six at marathon pace was a little off, but hey, if it's 72 degrees on 1/18, we'll set off for a 3:30 and LIKE it, right? Maybe. I might still try for 3:20, but let's not be silly. What was my point? basically we made it 21 miles, I was able to speed up at the end, the biscuits were fluffy and the hot tub was bubbly. In an uncharacteristic brush with restraint, I declined adult beverages in favor of returning home to finish packing.

And you know what I forgot?? Guess.

No really, guess.

My damn driver's license. In case you ever place your state ID into a tiny, beaded bag for a party and neglect to have it at the airport, they WILL let you on the plane with 3 other "validish" IDs. I think the saving grace was my Debit card with a photo, my Costco card with photos (have I mentioned lately how much I love Costco? More love!) and my checkbook. Yes, I had a wallet full of cards and a checkbook, but no TDL. And they give you a minor bagcheck and bonus patdown for free!

Roadrunner Holiday Party

2008-12-25T07:19:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks back, but produced some festive photos, no?

I think this was our best club Christmas party in years!

Partygoers reveling in holiday cheer

We had the usual "meet the members" blackout bingo:

Eddie handing our gift certificates to "winners"

I think some members were disappointed by the heavy hors d'ouvres instead of a dinner buffet, but this kept everyone mingling.

A new addition was a dejJay, (groundbreaking, I know) which everyone enjoyed.

The secret to a great cocktail party? Not too many chairs!
Lana and I trying to not look our age

Um, oh, hi..

2008-12-23T17:40:00.004-06:00

remember me?

I have a barrage of excuses for not updating, including but not limited to:

extreme busyness with actual school business, i.e. planning an editorial study, creating novel tests and grading compositions (you're jealous..I can tell already)
daily cross country practice, including two this week (watch me push the munchkins)
a freaking cross country MEET the night before grades are due (and waiting for an hour for parents to show)
training, for that thing, what was it? ...yes, the Houston Marathon.
preparing for the Drips arrival, (houseguests living n Bahrain) They are plenty low-maintenance, but I did have to straighten up. A little.
Many, many, holiday parties. I know, poor me, harriette socialite.

Pair that with the fact that half the time it has been effing cold, which means the inside of my 90-year-old house remains frigid much of the time, making it very unpleasant to type. So there.

OK, I'll Play...

2008-12-09T06:22:00.002-06:00

4th folder, 4th photo.

Ironically, it's the same (or similar) to the photo at the bottom of my blog's front page. See?

2005 was the Year of the Conference...sigh. I miss 2005. First, Parker (former principal) send a group of teachers to a Service Learning Conference in Long Beach, CA.

Sat in the front row (dork) to hear Erin Gruwell (Freesome Writers' Diary) as the keynote speaker, and met the women from Kids Consortium in one the breakout sessions. They were so dynamic, I began jonesing to attend their summer conference in Bethel, Maine. Lo and behold, Parker approved my request. I flew into Connecticutt and spent a few days with High Maintenence, then drove north to Bethel, which is ski area about 2 hours NE of Portland. The photo is of a water park taken from a bridge (yes, I parked and walked to it) over the Bethel River.

The Summer Consortium was great-workshops on how to plan and execute service-learning projects with students, interesting speakers, great people. I think I was the only teacher from outside the Northeast, much less from Texas!

The research shows great things about how this type of work increases kids' "assets" and empathy. Texas, however, does not have a required service component in secondary education..your best best is plan a unit in elementary when you have the kids all day. Unless you can weave the project into current cirriculuum, teacher buy-in is unlikely.

Remember the Middle School Summit last month? The kids at Pin Oak take a SL class, which as far as I can see, might be a decent reason to work for HISD. (I don't).

I must say, hearing this made my day.

2008-12-07T17:08:00.003-06:00

"Mr. Buck Fought Back"
By PEGGY O'HARE and ANITA HASSAN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 6, 2008, 7:24PM

Officials said the deer, named Mr. Buck, was a favorite of schoolchildren at Bear Creek Pioneers Park.

Officers arrested a 23-year-old man in the decapitation of Mr. Buck, a beloved deer at Bear Creek Pioneers Park's wildlife sanctuary who authorities have since learned fought back as he was attacked last month.

Brandon Eugene Gregory was arrested at his apartment late Friday by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officers and Harris County Precinct 5 deputies. He is charged with taking a wildlife resource without landowner consent — a state jail felony offense. His bond is set at $5,000.

Mr. Buck's severed head was recovered in a white chest freezer at Gregory's apartment in the 13300 block of West Road, said Sgt. Johnny Longoria with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Special Investigations Unit at a press conference at Beer Creek Park Saturday afternoon.

Along with the tools used in the slaying, Longoria said authorities also recovered the bodies of two additional improperly tagged deer on the apartment patio that had been taken from an adjoining county.

The November killing and mutilation of Mr. Buck shocked animal lovers across the Houston area. The 8- to 10-point buck was comfortable around people and let park visitors scratch his chin.

A park ranger found the white-tailed deer's headless carcass in a pool of blood Nov. 25.

Authorities have since learned Mr. Buck did not go down without a fight.

During a confession, Gregory told authorities he jumped the fence that night. When he was about 15 feet from Mr. Buck, the deer lowered his head and charged toward him, Longoria said.

The deer then knocked Gregory to the ground, pinning the man in the upper leg with his antlers, Longoria said. Gregory allegedly pulled Mr. Buck towards his body with his left hand and used his other hand to fatally stab the deer with a knife, Longoria said.

"It sounds like self-defense, but he (Gregory) shouldn't have been in there in the first place," Longoria said.

Gregory told authorities he used the knife-and-bone saw to sever Mr. Buck's head, before using bolt cutters to cut the chain-link fence to flee the scene, Longoria said.

He told authorities he would have taken the deer's entire body, but his injuries, which he described as being deep enough to fit half his pinky finger through, were too severe.

After all the publicity the case garnered, Gregory told authorities he was did not go to a hospital for fear he would be caught, Longoria said.

Gregory could not be reached for comment Saturday. His girlfriend, who answered the door at his northwest Harris County apartment, became tearful and said she could not talk to the media.

Longoria said Gregory did not give much of a reason for the killing, except that he had a great admiration for the deer's antlers and that he wanted to see exactly how tame Mr. Buck was.

"If he wanted to see how tame he was, he should have just come up to the fence and fed him like everyone else," Longoria said.

Turkey Day musings

2008-11-28T18:56:00.002-06:00

So Tuesday at track I finally get to speak with Jon after SA. We modify the workout for my non-recovered self, and I ask him if it's a really bad idea to run a turkey trot. He thinks for a moment and says. "No, just don't be disappointed. You might do well, but if you don't, don't be disappointed."

Not a screaming vote of confidence, but I'll take it. I mean, it's not an in-town holiday unless I have a number pinned to my belly, right?

I sponsored one of my xc kids for the 5k (mean...hey! you showed up for practice on Wednesday, you win...a 5K entry!) and he seemed pretty pleased with the entire ordeal. I even ran into one of my old high school running mates...who was talking with Schroeder. Another round of "It's a Small World", please?
Anyhoo:
lap 1, 6:39
Mile 2 6:52
mile 3 6:53 (see a trend yet?)
mile 4 7:04 (repeat after me, "I will not be disappointed...")
mile 5 6:58 (maybe I can recover?)
mile 6 (+.2) 7:34 (maybe not!)

And you know what? It was fine. If it weren't 11 days after my marathon, I could have run faster, I'm sure of it. I just have to keep the extra lbs off until the Bayou City Classic!

Explianing myself

2008-11-25T06:37:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I received this email from my pal Jen:

This Week at Sammy's......Spazmatics are Here Tuesday!!!

with a note from Paige, another lady in the group elaborating:

Anyone up for some disco and dancing?

And before involving the entire group in an unplanned fracas, I felt I should say:

While I am not officially banned from Sammy's, the overly enthusiastic crowd nearly inspired me into a fistfight last time I was there...yeah, maybe I should stick to track.

To which Paige then replied...

I’m speechless but certainly have questions…

Apparently that is a real conversation starter, because Jen added:

GASLIGHT! You crack me up...what the? Yes, storytime!!

So here it is, for those of you who missed it the first time:

It had to do with "personal space" and a young woman who did not have any respect for mine. Best I can recount more than a year later, it seems she wanted to stand where I was...so her solution was to move closer and closer to me, continuing until we were nearly spooning. I sort of "made myself big", standing firmly with cross country elbows. So continued to jostle against me, which was irritating.
Thankfully she was only about 90 lbs and 5 feet tall, so she sort of "bounced off", but clearly not my type, as I prefer blondes. (that's a JOKE) I let her know that my pals and I had sort of, "staked out" this area.
Having known to be enthusiastic on occasion myself, a simple, "oops, my bad" would have been fine. But NOOOOOOOOO....she thought it best to try and engage me in a conversations (sorry, already too irritated for mediatation) about how I know KNOW that since I was at SAMMY'S I should EXPECT for it to be crowded. And for it to suck, too, apparently.
So, given her sage advice, I have stayed away. See? I can learn from my sistakes, and she's not that much of an imbecile after all. The evening is referenced is this blog post here.

Saint Arnold scavenger hunt and Run Chugga Lugga

2008-11-23T10:28:00.006-06:00

Grind and I managed to combine the two events:

Who knew there was a Sean Connery tribute wall?

Awesome campy art piece, great beer selection...and somehow they manage to recreate that unmistakable aroma of New Orleans. It's just magical.

But my arms ARE inside the gondola!

Secret Santa

Gaslight getting a drink. So thirsty from pub crawling!

Sing like you don't need the money

2008-11-21T06:39:00.008-06:00

After we abandoned the Cult concert, Miriam, Whitney and I made our way to the Riverwalk in search of margaritas and a snack. We settled on Republic of Texas because it was shiny, but mainly because it was open at 10:15 on a Sunday. Ah, well.

They did, however, have karaoke. Miriam reasoned that I had to commemorate my PR with a song, and wanting to milk this for all its worth, I agreed.

Now don't I look self-satisfied?
I must have poured over that gigantic binder for 15 minutes...I'm pretty sure the girls thought I was stalling. Here's the thing: I'm quite clear that while I can carry a tune, I have, in no form or fashion any vocal quality or singing talent to speak of. In karaoke, this is a bit of a problem, but not a complete disaster. I choose songs that involve a bit more "camp", where no one actually expects for me to sound good.

My first try a few years ago? "The Rainbow Connection Song". In a Kermit the Frog voice.

So I chose "Let's do the time Warp Again".

Here I think I am Magenta, "seeing all".

"He had a pickup truck and the Devil's eyes!"

Now I'm Riff Raff, winding up for the chorus.
Look at the guy to the right at his table. he approached us earlier with a, "So, did you ladies run the marathon?" Miriam told him that I did (because I was engrossed in the binder, remember?) and then he asked my time. He got all flustered and weird after I told him..I think he was coming to brag about qualifying for Boston. :-)

This looks like it was a jump to the left...

...and a step to the right.

The margaritas were mediocre, but it was a good time. Just another one of the sacrifices a girl must make for performance art.

Blah

2008-11-20T08:03:00.004-06:00

Our first meet is today, so I'm a combination of excited and stressed-out. Kids that I "share" with band, orchestra and basketball don't have their uniforms and sweats yet, so this afternoon will be harried.

Morning commotion has me out-of-sorts, and on top of it all, progress report grades are due today. YAY!

Thanks to mom for sending the link to my R & R photos.

Vallejo - Just Another Day

2008-11-19T06:34:00.001-06:00

The opening band, Vallejo, was the big surprise. A range of sounds from metal and punk to sweet percussion and channeling Carlos Santana.

Head-bangin' Wednesday

2008-11-18T22:03:00.001-06:00

The idea of nonstop bands along a 26-mile course was a big part of the allure of a Rock n Roll marathon. The first 13.1 miles? Awesome. Those last, painful, lonely miles, were just that, lonely. The panorama was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but along the Mission Drive, the spectators were quite spares. Band....a mile of road....band....mile of road.

A couple of the bands on the backside weren't even set up when I went thru! Come on, people, it's not like I was first runner by! Anyway, our race numbers got us into the concert that night with headliner The Cult. Lou & Jessica were up by the stage, but for some reason I was more comfortable staying closer to my chair. The whole "standing" thing, and wanting to avoid the cloud of pot smoke looming above the crowd. I know, I'm old. A self-portrait of Miriam, Whitney et moi.

We didn't stay for the entire concert, but did hear "Rain" & "Firewoman"...my companions didn't know any of the music, so we abandoned the venue for the Riverwalk.

We were fairly close to the stage, but photos are tough.

SA marathon, the details

2008-11-18T12:57:00.003-06:00

Thanks to Anne's husband John, we arrived at the start in plenty of time. We found the port a potties, I located corral 1, and then I ask Doug where our bag drop is...

At the END of all of the corrals! Oh no!

I bustle through the crowd to find a group of UPS trucks..and I should have know that the setup would return post-race to haunt me.

At least the jog back was a nice warmup!

pace

mile 1 - 7:16

Mile 2 - 7:03 yikes!

mile 3 - 6:59 double yikes-here's when I let the pace group go

mile 4-7:12

mile 5 - 7:36 big hill, and trying to work my GU belt

mile 6- 6:48 There's the downhill!!

mile 7- 7:07

mile 8- 7:07 (I can only assume..dividing a 1414 total)

mile 9 - 7:06

mile 10 - 7:20

mile 11 - 7:20

mile 12 - 7:16

mile 13 - 7:15 (I hit the half in 1:34:15, 45 seconds cushion for a 3:10)

mile 14 - 7:18

mile 15 - 7:20

mile 16 - 7:25 (I'm seeing a trend I don't like here)

mile 17 - 7:33 (Jenn just joined me and is calmng my hyper, worried ass down)

mile 18 - 7:12 better!

mile 19 - 7:25 (hilly)

mile 20 - 7:29 There went that cushion!!

mile 21 - 7:32

mile 22 - 7:02 AC/Dc inspired!

mile 23 7:43 (I think this is when my hamstring barked at me)

mile 24 -7:26

mile 25 - 7:28

mile 26 - 7:08

.2 - 1:36

HUGE thanks to Jennifer, again. Those last miles, as always, were a bit rough.

There you have it; the breakdown of Gaslight!

Dammit!

2008-11-16T17:21:00.003-06:00

I missed it by 10 seconds. My goal of 3:10:59, that is. :-)

I PR'd by 8 minutes tho-3:11:08! Holy freaking crap! The big shocker? 166 overall, 20th woman, and third in "my division", which I assume is 40-44. Caroline Burum ROCKED IT with a 3:07:15. And I thought I would run with her...riiiight. Official results will be posted here at 7 pm tonight.

A couple of low points, since I know that's what everyone likes: (har har)
After hearing AC/DC blasing at mile 21, I started to pick it up, and my hamstrings said, "Twiddle-iddle-diddle!Deeetttt!!

I gasped, "Oh!" Jen looked at me, somewhat horrified, so I eased up my pace, trying to increase my shuffle instead of my stride.

Then: Hit 25 in 3:02:29, and a 7:08 plus 1:36 was all I could do. The finish? UP. HILL. A steep one, up to the Alamodome. No shit, ask anyone. Really strange.

HUGE thank you to Jenn Brown who paced me from mile sixteen.

My friends rock.

Hot tickets

2008-11-13T07:47:00.001-06:00

Missed marathon sign up because of early sellout??

The Houston Marathon Foundation will hold a random drawing for five entries for the Chevron Houston Marathon or Aramco Houston Half Marathon at 12:30 p.m. Saturday as part of Marathon Appreciation Day at the Sports Authority, 2131 S. Post Oak Blvd

Middle School Summit

2008-11-13T06:37:00.001-06:00

All in all, a good use of time. The focus was "SEL", or social-emotional learning. You kow all of those things that your mom, dad, Sunday School teachers and elementary taught you about yourself and life? You know, self-awareness, empathy, kindness, self respect...those things?

Well, you get to middle school and become INSANE and forget. And many of our kids (like ones from homes of poverty) grow up in environments where they don't receive that type of feedback.

The set up was a little wonky-breakfast and then 2.5 hours of speakers in the large-group format. Come on people! We're middle school teachers! I took multiple RR breaks just to get out of my seat. A.D.D. much?

Pin Oak offers students a service-learning class, and they choose causes to research, publicize, and try to make a difference. Can you hear the envy in my voice? I would LOVE to take on a class like this---but empathy is not on the TAKS test. Damn NCLBy.

Each group set up fundraiser booths in the cafeteria, selling drinks, pumpkin bread, or cookies, and telling the attendees about their projects. Very cool.

The two breakout sessions I attended were called "Stakeholders in Education" An Open Forum with Superintendents. Again, very valuable...but these guys seem to feel like their learning communities and federal funding ties their hands when it comes to making significant changes.

Some observations:
1) Pin Oak Middle is a nice school. If it weren't in HISD (and right on 610) I'd love to work there.
2) Either most Teachers and Administrators really do care about the whole child, or at lest the ones who attend these conferences do.
3) Listening to speakers who know of what they speak is so incredibly pleasant. The superintendents of SBISD and Cy Fair are such people. So smooth...
4) Abe Savaadra isn't the totally the anti-Christ I thought he was.
5) MANY elected officials who are in change of policies are complete pantywaists. They may have strong beliefs, but once elected, all they care about is staying in office. They will make no significant changes in policy that could rock the boat that sailed them into office.

I think I could/should be a policy person. I would absolutely kick ass.

Help from the tech savvy

2008-11-11T06:40:00.001-06:00

I ran a defrag on my computer this weekend, and since then I have been getting "install additional plugins" messages everywhere.

And then it doesn't let me install them.

And after I finally install the new Flash player, I still get the messages.

Whassup? And ideas?

Coach...

2008-11-10T06:29:00.005-06:00

Today was the first day of cross country practice, and as you may have noticed, it was POURING.

I don't have anything against running in the rain in general, but 1) it is their first today-I don't want to scare them off and 2) they don't have the switching-shoes out luxury that I do-many of them are running in their school shoes. Can you imagine the parent phone calls? Yikes!

The students met me in my classroom today and I passed out the schedules and gave them a little little talk (a spastic crowd-ho-lee Toledo) when one of he new guys picks up my trophy from the Tornados XC Relay. "It looks like a boy," he says.

"It's got boobies," I answer. He re-examined her and put it down. :-)

I do have some running shoes to pass out to those with hi-tops, but today's practice would be short, so I figured their bball shoes could have a ten-minute run.

Through the hallways of the school. Where they usually CAN'T run for fear of detention.

I think they had a good time.

Tomorrow I'm attending a middle school conference. I'll let you know.

All about the 25K

2008-11-09T21:26:00.002-06:00

You'd think a taper meant I would sleep in today, right? Not so much.

In this sort -of-responsible board position, I feel a bit of an obligation to participate even if I'm not racing. Which I wasn't despite the advice of some very supportive friends who thought I could reach some other goals today. November, however, is about my San Antonio Marathon, not the Fall Series, not the CHM, just San Antonio. And volunteering!

You know me, I looked for a groovy-cool, low-maintenance, fishing early kind of a volunteer spot. Bill agreed and gave me the mile five pace-calling position, which was even more odd than you can imagine. The pace-calling is simple enough- you just wind up blabbing numbers for about an hour. So the 5-mile mark rests atop the Memorial Drive bridge, just as the hill crests and heads to the Wortham. The odd part was just as the front runners passed, I felt that same weird swaying that you feel when driving on the Pierce Elevated. A fluke, I rationalized. Maybe a truck just vibrated the bejeezus out of the course.

Not so. The strides of every 130 lb runners jostled the bridge in a disturbing manner-- I didn't think I was going to make it! As the crowd became less sparse, it intensified. I had to SIT lest I barf on my pace sheet. Very odd indeed.

After my timing duties ended, I headed to watch the finishers and then for my "tent" on the plaza. A very relaxed day if you don't run 15 miles, I must say! I shoved my wares back into the backpack ad pedaled home.

The post-race party was delightful, featuring Wurstfest-style fare and hungry runners. A bagged on the soccer game for a much-needed nap. Cross country practice starts tomorrow, after all, so my days are about to get a couple of hours longer.

Well that didn't turn out quite like I planned it

2008-11-08T19:48:00.002-06:00

Got the munchies? I was given a heaping teaspoon of humble pie for breakfast!

That test this morning? Not. So. Hot.

What's the difference between the inner planets and the outer planets? Oh geez, I am so in over my head.

I know NOTHING about space to speak of, really. (Sorry Sarah-just not my bag). On quite a few of the 90 items items, I wasn't certain of my final choice. On a few others, I couldn't even eliminate the requisite two answer choices.

For the first time on a test in 20 years, I have no clue as to whether or not I passed. I wore my running clothes under sweats thinking I'd head right out for a run afterward, but instead rolled home feeling really, really, stupid and like I'd been beaten with a stick. So much for my run.

BUT - I was saved from an afternoon of wallowing because I was lucky enough to have already made plans -watching the Regional XC meet! Fellow cross-country dork, LaErica, picked me up and we headed to Lone Star College to watch her former students from Mayde Creek, and I tagged along to cheer for the Spring Branch schools that qualified at last week's district meet.

Who knew it was the social event of the weekend? I visited with one of the Bayou City guys, Mike, who coaches at Strake, my distrcit athletic coordinator, hashers Ralph "Fire Poker" Fenello, Scud, Scum Puppy, fellow board member Annie, and my best bud from high school XC, Trish, and her kiddos.

Fast Lauren from Brazoswood won again this year, with one of LaErica's girls in third! How cool to get to run in the state meet. There must have been a hundred girls who finished the 2-mile course in under twelve minutes. Yikes.

Ok, enough with the politics

2008-11-07T10:04:00.003-06:00

It's 9 days out from the inaugural San Antonio Rock n Roll Marathon, and I'm already nervous as a cat.

I think my taper finally started after my AT Run last night, but I do still have and easy 12-14 tomorrow. I'm going to share my super-secret goal this time: 3:10. Now granted, this means it needs to be 1) a GREAT day, 2) a cooperative course, and 3) I need to regain my lung capacity after last week's cold. I sure hope there's a pace group; it makes things much, much easier.

Tomorrow I take my TeXes 4-8 Science Exam, so wish me luck. I keep preparing myself for fictitious position just in case an opening materializes. My dream teaching job would begin with coaching in the morning and then a health or public speaking class. In the afternoons I could teach literature & composition then finish the days with science. How's that for ADD?

Now my dream job if I wasn't teaching? I'm still trying to figure that one out. Rachel Ray and Sheryl Crow's jobs are already taken.

It just keeps getting better and better

2008-11-06T10:44:00.003-06:00

The under-reported incompetence of Sarah Palin

And this

But really, don't we all owe her a gi-normous thank you?

Longing for the mountains

2008-11-05T13:51:00.000-06:00

Wednesday

2008-11-05T06:21:00.004-06:00

After months of both sides laughing and pointing, it's finally over.

And what a day it was.

The visit to the Wortham to see "Much Ado About Nothing" was actually great, although I was pretty worried about passing out during the first two numbers. Nothing against the performance, but I have issues staying awake when I sit in a comfortable chair in a dark room for any length of time. The story line is much funnier when sung than when merely reading it for a college class. Afterward when we to Discovery Green for a picnic lunch, and all seemed surprisingly well with the world. We arrived back at school for half of ninth and all of tenth period, and I actually made the kids work. Yes, I'm mean like that.

Last night was out first session back at the Rice track, and since I'm running SA in 12 days, I had a special workout: 6 x 1K @ 3:45-3:55 with 2:30 rest. It. Was. Hard.
Granted, I'm pretty tired to begin with this days, but the pace was pretty challenging for me on a good day and with other runners. Solo? Well, I stayed close to the goal pace: 3:57, 3:52, 3:54, 3:56, 3:56, 3:54. Being few seconds off was discouraging, but now it's over, and I declare my taper officially ON. Except for Thursday.

My election night activity of choice was pizza and drinks at Matt's with about twenty other Bayou City folks, and I must say Matt was more probably excited than an Australian has any right to be. It was amusing, as the crowd was mostly folks who at least leaned slightly to the left-I may have been more upright than most.

Anyhoo, the Romano's pizza was most excellent, more fluids were available than I had any need for on a Tuesday night, and I cannot begin to articulate the feeling coursing thru me when I saw the TV declare, "Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States."

Like 911, I think I will always remember exactly where I stood (OK, sat, my glutes and were killing me) when history was made, and I felt honored to spend it with good friends. Regardless of your views, you must admit that was a monumental moment. But you probably won't.

New trick

2008-11-04T07:52:00.002-06:00

I know that I cannot really expect animals to immediately pick up on the dreaded return to Central Standard (ie. "fall back") Time right away, but we must all learn a little patience.

Relishing my extra hour of post-SSS inner party and pre-fifteen miler sleep time, I hear a "tap-tap" at about 4:45 on Sunday morning. "Huhmm?" I think I said.

Grind quietly (as quietly as he can ever manage, anyway, "S'Ophie."

Within seconds, the rhythm increased and the sound crescendoed "WHAPWHAPWHAPWHAPWHAPWHAPWHAPWHAP!"

Leaping from under the comfort of down and pattering down the stairs, I see the big, fluffy, very bad cat up on her hind legs, drumming the glass for all she's worth. Which is not very much right now, I might add.

Will she get to keep those front claws? We'll see. At least a trim is in order!

More political insight "Why Buy the Cow"

2008-11-03T21:52:00.002-06:00

(shamelessly lifted from the 3 R's)

"Why buy the cow?" An overview of economic systems

This pre-election quick course in economics showed up recently in my e-mail. My high-school history teacher actually used the "cow" example to explain certain socio-economic systems, but this list has had a few additions since the late 1970's.

SOCIALISM

You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbor.

("From each according to ability; to each according to need." It's actually not a bad concept of community, in my opinion - it's not unlike the way the early Christians operated, according to the Acts of the Apostles. The biggest problem with it is that self-interest can't really be drummed out of people, and it seems to me that's why it doesn't tend to work on a large scale or over an extended period of time. Shiona at Future Imperfect articulates on the topic quite well.)

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away...

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons
(OK, this isn't really an "economic" system - it's just funny.)

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead.

VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.

The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.

You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.

The public then buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION (Post-Communism)
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No one believes you, so they bomb you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy....

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.

The one on the left looks very attractive.

NZ is my favorite. You gotta love those Kiwis. (hi Sean)

In case you forgot...

2008-11-03T21:34:00.003-06:00

Go Vote Tomorrow. Seriously.

Whatever you choice, it is your right. Please don't take it lightly.

This may come as a shock, but I voted 10 days ago. I KNOW! SO much easier with shorter lines.

In case you're a data wonk: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Enjoy.

Instead of watching the states turn colors tomorrow, I will be at the Houston Grand Opera with two-hundred seventh graders.

SSS, November 1st

2008-11-02T22:14:00.004-06:00

We've plated and venison and new potatoes, go sit down!

tapas:

Laird Chardonnay, 2005 "cold creek ranch" (California)
Silver Chardonnay 2006, unoaked, Santa Lucia Highlands (California)
tasting wine #1: Don Fino superior fino dry sherry manzanilla (Spain)
St. Arnold Elissa IPA
Dogfish Head IPA

soup and salad:

Becker Vineyards 2007 Texas Viognier

main course:

Mettler 2006 cabernet sauvignon (California)
Pardevalles 2006 "Gamonal" prieto picudo (Spain)
Meguante 2004 garnacha (Spain)

dessert:

tasting wine #2, sweet sherry: Bodegas Tora Albala 1979 Gran Reserva Pedro Ximenez (Spain)
tasting wine #3, aged tawny port: Fonseca Porto, 20 year old (Portugal)
tasting wine #4, Muscat: Yalumba "museum reserve" (Australia)

Chuck and Grind admire the hunter's bounty in the freezer.

Grind opens the Mettler cab for the main course.

The Devays

The pecan-grilled venison. Looks Tasty, doesn't it?

I'm cleaning or something-dinner's almost ready!

The rest of Sniff, Swirl and Slurp: the Devays, the Kirkparticks, Chuck & Cheryl

Grind makes a sauce while I dish out brown rice
Smiles!

Please

2008-11-02T19:32:00.001-06:00

Is it time for my taper YET?

What a week

2008-11-01T16:51:00.002-05:00

Tuesday- stage four for Practice for the Tour. Heartache graciously agreed to pick up my keg of St Arnold Amber so we could set trail, and a good time was had by all.

After Sunday's bodacious run, I probably expended more energy than I should have, with a 16-second negative split. It was probably the easiest course we've set this fall, and we had a nice crowd to enjoy it. Due to dropping temperatures and darkness, we didn't finish the keg, but we did manage a respectable round of "Happy Birthday" to Nboka, who is annoyed with me for telling everyone his new age. So I won't anymore.

I think fast Jonathan cinched up Open Male while newby Amanda Beardsley spanked all of the ladies. Except for Sabra, who lucky for her missed the first stage.

Wednesday-Ran too far with fast Jen. Reasonable pace, but we just got to talking, and before you know it, we'd run for 1:15. Oops.

Thursday- Marathon (figuratively) day: leave school on foot at 3:45 for at 11 mile AT pace run, returning in time to slug down a Slimfast and shower before nearly 2 hours of report card pickup.

Friday - Took the day off to study for my science ExCet test that I'm taking next Saturday. Grind was nice enough to give me his cold before he left for a hunting trip, so I was able to actually rest on what might have really been a sick day.

Saturday - Hosted an SSS dinner party for eight. Multiple grocery store stops and mucho cooking. Pecan-grilled venison haunch and new potatoes, garlic green beans, seafood gumbo and green salad on our end. Other couples brought cheeses, tapas, and espresso cupcakes.

The chapter's title was "Wines your Granny Drinks" and featured a bunch archaic wines. It began with dry sherry (gag) served with the tapas and cheese, and finished with three dessert wines: an Oloroso (sweet) sherry: Pedro Jimenez (known as PX) , Muscat and a 20-Year twany port. The first was incredibly rich and raisiny, and the other two a bit lighter. All were tasty with the dark chocolate icing and goronzola dolce (stinky cheese).

Monday Monday

2008-10-27T21:49:00.003-05:00

Thankfully I spent the first half of today basking in the afterglow of my PR, (btw - I wonder how long I can milk that? ) as it was the first day of benchmark testing. This is how school districts asses progess of kiddos on the TEKS months prior to the TAKS test so the teacher can determine areas of weakness.

Yeah.

Picture this: you teach language arts to four different classes which will be tested simultaneously. First they will write a composition, related to what's usually a corny writing prompt that they act like they do not understand. Because is sucks. After they pour their guts out onto the front and back of a lined sheet of paper, revised and edited to the best of their energy level, they begin the objective portion. This means revising and editing some essays by fictitious students ("Please help Jeannette revise her essay on Mount St Helen's...") via multiple choice questions. Ok, it's actually not that bad, they just aren't up for it quite yet. It's October, people.

And Clearly you cannot put all 85 7th graders in the same room ALL DAY for a writing test, so you divvy them up.

First, you have to mentally asses which of your classes is the neediest, the squirreliest, and generally the biggest in the ass, and that's the class who you need to test.

Next, you have to choose the teachers on your grade level to test your "other" three classes, preferable teachers who are not pansies. You match up the personalities...then choose a couple of babies who you need to keep with you anyway.

Because completing this exam takes more than a couple of class periods, we shut down rotation. This means th students stay in the same room from 9 am until 3:30 pm, even if they finish the test a 1:30, and having to be completely quiet except during lunch.

Oh, and I'm trapped in there with them! Woo hoo!

And people wonder why I drink.

Return to the Bog hash - last Sunday

2008-10-26T19:41:00.007-05:00

Last Sunday Stop n' Blow and John Boy hared a "re-creation" hash, reminiscent of the of the "birth" of Stop n' Blow. Best I can tell Grind and Baby Huey were planning a kickass shiggy run in the wilds of Humble and she begged to go along so that they could teach her to hare.

I'd say they did a fine job.

The territory west of 59 at Kingwood Boulevard is also where I ran my first hash nearly 12 years ago. Heartache was the hare, and I inadvertently cut off 80% of the trail, winding up at the on in within 20 minutes.

Not so today! Trail lasted about 1:15 for me. Grind ran with his camera to get some hasher action shots.

Look at that sandy gully-impressive

The Hares, plus Smooth Stroker

ID10T and I bursting through the shiggy.Our speed would explain the large gashes on my legs

Heartache and FMR traversing a scrubby field.

This is Momma's Boy playing jumping on my back for a ride. Grind yells out before snapping the photo, "Hey, don't you doggie-style my wife in the water!"Much ridicule dished out later.

The second of two San Jacinto river crossings.

This was the first of the two crossings. Looks like something from the jungles of Malaysia, doesn't it?

A rather impressive cypress swamp. Watch out for the knees! Ouch.

More deep, dark water

Aw, the very first creek crossing! So long ago...

Zoltan in the bog.

Ok, you can let our your breath nowrevised with no math

2008-10-26T14:50:00.004-05:00

Ok, the race is over, and I just know you're on the edge of your seats waiting for the report.

Here's the dillio:
After the USA 10 miler, Jon sent me a sorta-cryptic email congratulating me on my finish (that part wasn't cryptic) and saying, "And you made the marathon qualifying standard time!"

Really? I looked at those last year before and basically thought, "HA! Sure I can run that!" (again, difficult to convey sarcastic tone via a keyboard. Did you catch it?) The part I'm leaving out is that you actually have to WIN and qualify in order to be an invited runner, so of course being completely, thoroughly outclassed (in my running, duh) by Heidy Lozano, it was a moot point.

But still... I was pretty proud of meeting the standard, so I made that my super-secret goal for the half-marathon. The time: 1:33:20. The plan: go out fast for the first mile, drop down, and wait. Third loop, hammer time. Great pants, no?

Well, the first mile worked out according to the plan. Right at 6:51, so now I can slow down, right? See, my concern for this race was increased by one-third with the interminable construction on Bagby-- no flat-ish first loop this year, replaced by the an extra run down the dips on Allen Parkway. Sigh. I knew he hills would tire me out, and I was reminiscing for the flat expanses of Webster, Texas.

Jake wanted a running partner that would keep him from giving it too much speed, and I enjoy company, so I thought it would work out. Do you know how fast Jake is? I think his marathon PR dropped below 3 hours twice last year, so that should have been my first clue. I figured he could spot a 7-minute mile from across the street, so we'd be golden.

Here's the reality:
1- 6:51
2-6:54 (yikes)
3-7:03 (ok, getting closer)
4 -7:01
5- 7:03
6-6:52
7-7:04
9 & 10 -13:38 -at 1:09:17 for 10 miles-pretty happy at this point
11-6:57
12 -6:37
13.1-7:27-Finish time of 1:30:17

So I never hit the 7:05 pace that I had worked myself into a frenzy over. Every single mile was faster. Every. Single. Mile. Previous best- 1:34:06.

Roger commented, "So did you break 1:30?", and then looking at my watch, "Oh, no, you missed it."

Um no, Roger, I was aiming for 133, so I'm pretty happy, "gosh darnit".

What I did leave out earlier is that I was completely freaking out. As in "omigodomigodomigoswhadamidoingiam sogoingtocrashholycrap," which was running thru my head most of the first two loops.

There were a few ladies that I thought I should catch on that third lap, also. I passed one at mile 11, and the other two at the last turnaround. But they sped up! CRAP! This means I have to actually RACE! In a race! When I only wanted to PR! Jeez!

But it was fine. I did not die, and I nearly caught up to snarky Schroeder at the end. You know, kind of like when I play pool, I don't really even have to even beat some people. It's enough for me that they think I might beat them.

How am I?

2008-10-26T05:37:00.001-05:00

I'll let you know in about 3 hours, after the Koala/Luke's Half-marathon is over.

35 down, 28 to go.

2008-10-17T06:24:00.003-05:00

Last night's run was so much easier than I imagined it would be. Memories from two weeks ago and wiping the burning sweat from my eyes were still too fresh, so I emailed Coach for confirmation of my pace.

I didn't hear back in time.

So based on our previous conversations, I converted the hieroglyphics repeats I could fathom and execute: 3M warmup, 3x (3 1200s, 1 slow tempo, 1 medium tempo, 1 fast tempo.) 2 mile cooldown. The lack of rest between sets may exude a glare that hurts your little eyes, but don't wory. I survived :-)

Although the couch was calling, I summoned the gumption to toss on a sweater (yikes!) and amble back out the door to hear the Suspects, and I rewarded myself with a frosty Stone IPA (BYOB, of course) and spirited ska dancing.

TGIF.

Thursday at Discovery Green

2008-10-15T15:57:00.003-05:00

The Suspects

Some of you may remember them from the best garage party, evah, at The Lair (circa 2000) free at 6:30 pm, October 16.
Be there!

Thank you baby Jesus

2008-10-14T10:06:00.001-05:00

I-10 is now OPEN!
The sight of 6 open lanes sent chills thru my body- my commute is now cut by 5-10 minutes!

Happy Columbus Day

2008-10-13T11:41:00.004-05:00

Go forth and oppress an indigenous people.*

*Lord, help me. I've quoted Boy George. Again.

I do love me some cloudy weather!

2008-10-12T15:03:00.003-05:00

Today's run: USA 10-miler.
Results: 1:10:05 (PR by 55 seconds) and 1st female, 40-44.

Junebug rode down to the race with me and asked about my goals. Not really sure what I could do or where I was in my training, I told her I'd shoot for a conservative first few miles at 7:30 and just pace by feel after that.

I found my "Tour" nemesis, Ms. Jodi, at the start line and we talked about running together. The pace after the gun seemed a little fast and our split at the first mile elicited a nasty expletive from my lips. "I can't keep doing that!" she warns.

"I can't either, let's slow down. We backed off and I hit the next two in7:10. Still much faster than I planned, but the cloud cover made the pace comfortable. Knowing how the sun warms up the course near 8 am, I figured I should hold this for a while and begin a conscious slow-down as the burning orb in the sky arose.

And then the game changed.

As I neared his pace, Coach Rich quips, "I thought I was going to beat you this year." I answered that he still might, but held on, right behind my fellow trail-wench Helen. Fraser had just surged ahead and was running and chatting next to her. Third mile, 7 minutes. Almost 30% done; how will this end, I wondered.

Say what you will, but I adore this course. It's a box! And flat! What's not to love? You run next the Armand Bayou Nature Center for quite a ways, and grow more relaxed surrounded by its swampy foiliage: tall grasses and cypress trees, the occasional roadkill not withstanding.

As the course turns right onto Red Bluff and later on NASA Road One, I caught a motivating breeze as we ran over the water. The irony being that I don't really even LIKE water, and I DESPISE Clear Lake. (the area, not the actual lake).

Saw Jazzy Joe with his BARCers handing out water right by the fourth marker, which I managed to miss. I noticed this summer that he's looking really, really fit, and then I read about his biking miles and extremely conservative diet. Amazing discipline-go Joe!

And then I notice it..the tag...on my shoe...it's come undone! Crap! What now? Bend over t refasten? Take it off and carry it? I decide to do nothing and hope for the best. I pass the hald in just under 36 and think, "Ok, a 72 isn't out of the question." I haven't ever run under 73, or possibly 74 on this course.

Mile six and I'm right with Helen, and I think it's my slowest mile yet, but the watch says 42:39. I can't add, I'm too out of it.. just run. Then I ran mile 7 in 6:54, passing Shon and Rich. Damn, 3 miles left? I start composing my blog. Jeez, Helm, focus. I sure with this was two miles to go and not three....

Reluctantly, I pass Helen, and I see Duval riding toward us on his bike. "Victor's just ahead-you can catch him!" I look hopefully at my friend and nod as if to say, "Yes, WE can catch him." She's not feeling it, and I pull on ahead.

So as not to bore anyone left reading, I just say I finished in around he same pace and DID catch Victor. On the back stretch I hear "One hour-ten minutes" from the bullhorn, thinking, "Ok, I can still go under 1:12!". What I didn't realize (was my watch BROKEN? or am I just insane at mile 9?) is that he was calling out that we could MAKE it in under 1:10-the clock said 1:09:50-something as I made that fateful left into the home stretch.

No one is more surprised than I am, although the VDOT calculator on RunBayou puts my pace within what I knew was my range. Who'd a thunk it?

Something that I find is unusual at the USA 10-miler is the rampant duplication of awards. Most race nowadays state that they don't, and I honestly don't know the entire history of this practice, but I wonder as to the logic of the On The Run folks to do it this way.

So sorry...

2008-10-11T15:12:00.002-05:00

I've spent the last week grading papers, running quite a bit, and making myself sick watching Sarah Palin videos.

To save your stomachs, this one is from "Real Time with Bill Maher". Granted, if he weren't an atheist, he'd probably be angling to be on the right hand of the anti-Christ, but he is funny and there are some real facts here.

Ok, enough of that-more about ME!

Last week was a monster-mileage week in my last month of training for San Antonio. It looked like this:

OFF

Hills

-1 hour with

2 x 10 mins fast with 5 mins jog b/t

(8-9 miles)

45 mins easy (6 miles)

Tempo or Step Down

3 x (1 at slow, 1 at medium, 1 at fast) see chart

5 x (9 mins fast with 1 min jog

1 @ fast, 1 at med, 1 at fast, 1 at med, 1 at fast

(11-12 miles)

50 mins to 1 hour

(7-8 miles)

2:45-3:00 or 22 miles, whichever comes first (last 6-8 miles can be at or under goal marathon pace)

30 mins easy (4 miles)

Goal Mileage-55-60

I went into Thursday night pretty intimidated and with my swarthy Scottish training Sherpa by my side, so he could drag me thru the 3x3 miles. My paces weren't that challenging, but dang, 9 miles of anything is quite a bit.

Warmup, fine. First set, fine. Second set....well let's say things started to get fuzzy. I made it through by cutting the last repeat (the "fast" one) to a 1200. Right before this leg of the workout, tho, I stopped for a drink, wiped the toxic sweat from my brow and told my running partner, "I don't feel so good."

Being the pal he is, he answers, "wow, I've never seen you like this-it's kind of funny!" and he starts to chu-ck-le. Ahem. Because I can realize the humor in how completely outclassed I was by this workout, we are still friends. Saturday went much more smoothly-we started out with KW and added a modified RO loop to make it 23. He says "Hey-this time you still have colour in your face!" (notice the British spelling) . Well.

Fast forward to this week, a step down in my mileage which will end with the USA 10-miler tomorrow. I email coach to ask about pace on 1200s...which I compare to miles...and he tells me that if I cna't make my repeats in 6:00, then I should stick to 1200s for now.

4-5 x 1200 w/ 3 mins

See Chart for times

(8-9 miles)

Well, that certainly explains a lot, now doesn't it??

For crying out loud already...

2008-10-07T06:23:00.002-05:00

Would someone please tell this woman what the word maverick means, and have her explain why she thinks she is one?

I didn't jump on this bandwagon right away, I promise. She was an unknown, so I waited until I knew something. Unfortunately for her, my fist exposure was in the form of SNL satire- a spoof on her interview with Katie Couric. Completely amused yet dumbfounded at items the interview referenced, I searched YouTube for the original.

Holy high horse, Batman!

I think I was most offended when Couric asked her about abtaining a passport, but I don't remember if it was in that clip or in part one, but ICK. Apparently Palin didn't apply for one until last year, which is a little odd. She responded in a bitter, condescending tone, (paraphrased) "I have alwasys worked, and usually have had two jobs. I couldn't just out while I was in college and take off for Europe with my backpack ." Like that's the only time ANYONE would possible for time to explore another country-during college. As a fellow not-a-freaking-rich-kid, I was appalled that she spewed such contempt for anyone who has had the opportunity to travel. And this is who people want as second in charge. Of their COUNTRY!

I don't understand her appeal. "But she's like me, so AVERAGE!" Listen, I don't want average, I want Ivy-league, insanely-educated, scholarly, worldly, and connected to many, important and otherwise as my leader. Hell, I even want that for my school principal, and I wouldn't vote for her as vice-president of my running club. 3:59 marathon my ass. If she can attach a sail to her rear to cathc all of that hot air she might qualify for Boston.

I guess independent thinking all relative, really, because what American, living in 2008:

thinks that the vice-residency is part of the legislative branch of government
wants to ban books from being in a public library
thinks it's okay to state employees if they don't agree (or divorce your sister)
wants to set back reproductive rights 50 years?
sees a nationally-televised debate as a time to "talk to the American People" without "answering those tough questions"-nice waste of our time, lady.
believes that a candidate who wants to cut low-income preschool programs is in favor of education

You're right, most don't, at least not the people that I run with (literally and figuratively).

Concerned: consciencious homeoner versus slacker de jour

2008-10-01T16:23:00.006-05:00

I LOVE my house. I really, really like my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors are pretty nice, and some are exceptionally generous.

But let's just say Ike did not exactly bring out he best in everyone.

Take neighbor Tom, for instance...please. Take him now. The Woodlands, Midtown, three lots away, we don't care, just TAKE HIM.

Upon our arrival in the fair Woodland Heights, the ramshackle condition of our neighbor's homes was clear as mud. I think my brother-in-law commented, "You guys live next to the two biggest birdhouses in the neighborhood." Not just a metaphor, people. Gaps exist between the rafters and rooves of both houses-gaps large enough to allow for free-flow of avian and small-mammal traffic. I might even have a shot of the rotten siding on one house just to the north of our driveway..will post later. The other begins projects and lets them hang...his fence was near collapse, so Grind told him of his plan to rebuild it. Did he offer to help? sure! I think he did reimburse Grind after he worked on it for 3 days, but he's pretty frustrated.

He tries to led by example: re-roofing our house, grooming the yard and tending to it was it were a prom queen's hair-do, scraping, repainting...you can imagine, especially if you know him.

So have the boys on the block followed suit?

Kidding. You know they haven't. You've read about the collision between a fishy-smelling, sandpapery, tarpaper roof and my the once-immaculate paint on my SUV. You may recall our mentioning the 90-decibel hum of Luke's generator under our open windows. The consideration! It's overwhelming!

Ahem.

My point is, between these clowns and the shenanigans of the bar across the street, the 'hood isn't as happy as we'd imagined. The debris pile in front of trashed house #1 is beyond disgusting, but since the cleanup is taking so long, ours has grown brown and annoying, too.

Grind (and on a much, much smaller scale, me) spends too much time making improvements our house for the surrounding domiciles to rot around us.

It's time for the the city to buck up and do the right thing.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

2008-09-28T16:09:00.002-05:00

I told me AP as I left Friday that I wasn't sure that I'd survive a measly 2-day weekend. I still don't know...

I did have a little something to look forward to today: Librarian Jessica stopped me last at school to say that she and Frankie were meeting to run on Sunday, and he was going to bring the twins. Cool! Seven o-clock, I get to run with my boys.

So I'm waiting...and waiting....people start to poke fun "miss the 6:30 train??" since that's what time my club usually runs. "No, waiting on some people..."

Then I see them jogging toward me, and I inquire, "Hey guys, how far do you want to go?"

"Ten miles," Jesus answers resolutely.

"Oh-kaaaaay. Really? You're up for 10? Well, let's go now." I hadn't planned on running more than 4 or 5, but if they want to...I guess I'll always be coach.

So we start off, headed west, thinking I could take them on the RO loop. But really..these speedy 15 year-olds plodded along, obviously still not awake at 7:30. So I thought better of it and not wanting to get these guys stuck 4 miles away and dead on their feet, we headed to the Rose Garden. Much better idea.

I think the surface finally jarred them awake about 3 miles into it after we turned onto Tiel Way, but befor then they hardly made a peep. We chugged on in short for about 7.5, I think. When we hit the Golf Center, I told them, "Half mile left..." and they took off, racing each other through the crowd. I was so proud.

Mah bay-bees! All grown up and on Varsity now. Sniff :-)

R & R (running and racing, duh!)

2008-09-27T15:39:00.000-05:00

Saturday's schedule called for 11 at marathon pace again, and I'd say it went event better than last time. Met the "Wankers" at the pool at 6 and headed to the GRB. Lordy the weather was awesome!

Barry was kind enough to put out Gatorade for the group, which I retrieved afterward. A very-laid back run with friends. Although Lady Catherine is still without power, it's nice to be sort of back to normal. I had to resist racing her in, as I knew 5 p.m. would bring he first HARRA race of the Fall, the Cross Country relay.

Allison put together a team of Open Women, and all in all we seemed to enjoy ourselves. I knew the Tornados chicas had a superfast team: Jenn Brown, Diana Hirst (need I go on??), Michelle Friedman and Lee...Carruthers, I think it is? AFAIK, these ladies all run 18-19 minute 5ks, so if not outclassed, the idea that we would be competitive was a j-o-k-e.

Ally signed us up and wanted to get back to her new hubby and the football game, so she took first leg. Not sure of her exact split, but she was speedy! The two runs during the previous 24 hours left me with dead legs, so I hobbled in at 14:28. Not my best, but not my worst, with. Saltwater Taffy was our third leg, and I know she ran strong. She's so modest and takes competition seriously, and she came in APOLOGIZING! "I'm sorry, I died, I couldn't have been any slower..."

I reassured her, "Look, Taffy, I don't know what your spilt was, but it's fine! We're glad you ran with us. And it's only 5:43 right now, so you probably ran almost exactly what Allison and I did!" Assgrabber was watching Holden, so I drug her to the keg to calm her down. A Roadrunner youngster, Jen, ran our anchor leg, and left pretty early to get on with her graduate student Saturday night.

Even Grind joined in the fun. After suffering a broken "ring toe"on his right foot, he hasn't really run in 3 weeks, so he pedaled on over to Dr Bob and asked if he could help on the CPR/AED team. He even rode in with with Out of Tuna as she finished leg 4 on one of the more "recreational" teams.

So we're drinking the St Arnold amber, chatting up our pals, and winning door prizes. The sun is going down and it's kind of loud, so most of the crowd isn't paying attention. Pretty funny...they call out 75C, and no one runs up. Leno calls out, "Any runner from team 75!" and I realize that it's us and bound forward. Just as I arrive I hear, "Bullshit!" and Taffy runs up behind me. I about bust one laughing, so I back off, but Leno gives me a prize. too. I look at it...it's an Ultimate Frisbee. Yeah, because I can throw.

I notice immediately that it is more useful as a cocktail tray and take to sashaying about with my beer on it.

So here's the irony...some of my club members ask, mostly to be polite, I think, "How did you do?"

I really didn't know. After Jenn's team, I couldn't tell who the other open females were.

I'd seen Erin on one ALRC mixed team, while Sarah and Melissa ran on another. Since they're all over 40, the Striders put all their fast ladies on a Masters Women's team. I had no idea who our competition was.

Well, apparently, no one! Again, were standing around, clapping for our friends, and Leno calls out, Bayou City "We've Got Power", second place~ ~!

Huh.

Just wondering...

2008-09-24T13:57:00.003-05:00

Can you claim liver damage with FEMA?

Look how sad- the cirrhosised liver spilled her drink!

On that note, Thursday night I plan to visit Discovery Green to hear The Gourds.

Back at it, and Work makes my nose run.

2008-09-23T06:22:00.005-05:00

I sniff repeatedly as I type this post. Was does this mean? Am I ill? In the doldrums about returning to the work force? Nah, I'm pretty sure it's the MOLD. But I hope not, or it's going to be a long semester. Maybe it's just dust.

Over the my school district made multiple call-out attempts to get all staff into the building yesterday.

Seriously-I received one message Friday night, an actual call on Saturday from an AP activating our phone tree, an additional recoded message from my building principal early Sunday and then two more district recorded messages on Sunday afternoon. I think they must receive error messages if there's no answer, and I must not have been the only one without phone service. At least my Callnotes still worked.

The kids return today, and we anticipate some forgotten knowledge, much forgotten procedures, late buses and a generally discombobulated population. And these are eleven-to fifteen year-olds, so it's all relative, right?

According to this chart from Centerpoint, 56% percent of the customers in my school's zip are still without power. I wonder what our attendance will be like? Many kids will welcome school's return, as I'm sure they are 1) bored, 2) hot, and 3) maybe a little hungry.

Hungry for learning?? Maybe. We will do some writing today.

I'll include more tasty images from last weekend for those of you who just can't get enough:
This is the gigantic pile of yard waste in front of our house. Except now it's BROWN.

This is a view of the flooding from our neighbor Pam's second story porch.

The fog on my camera lens makes i nice and Halloweenie, dontcha think?

After any enthusiastic rainstorm, my street floods, and Ike was no different. This guy thinks his car might be able to make it! Go for it!

More details

2008-09-20T22:32:00.002-05:00

So here is our house at 8:30 the morning of the storm. Still boarded up and everything is fine.

We took a short walk up the road to Anal 101 and Out of Tuna's house to check on them. They had no power either, but a house full of little boys to boot. Hurrah! Much loudness.

Here is my poor car, all scraped up from the big-ass sheet of tar paper that my neighbor called his roof. It really sucks for him, with no roof and all, but Saturday afternoon he says, "I knew that was going to happen." WTF??? I would have parked elsewhere if I'd known your house was going to fall apart-thanks for the heads-up!

I have a $1K deductible, btw. Grr.

Well that sorta sucked, now didn't it??

2008-09-20T18:22:00.006-05:00

In all of my forty-two and a half years, this is the third weather-"disaster" that I have personally experienced. and really, Ike is the only one where I have felt any pain, nay, discomfort whatsoever.

The term "leave room for error" was created with me in mind, so I hesitate to say that I'm a lucky girl, but God certainly knows how much I can take.

Hurricane Alicia, 1983. I was a senior in high school, and frankly I enjoyed the day off. I don't remember preparing the house all, and then I remembered-oh YEAH, my mom left us in Houston while she and Don worked in Connecticut for 10 months! We had supervision, but not a homeowner-type. Another story, another time. Anyhoo, I slept through the storm and our power was back on by dinnertime.

Tropical Storm Allison, 2001. Lotsa water. Nuff said.

Then there was Ike. This is a shot I took while huddled on the porch at about 7 am. we were looking forward to stepping out while the eye passed us. but obviously that didn't happen.

Trying to capture the wind on film is tricky.

The neighbor's roof flew off and then the upstairs windows took quite a beating.

At about 7 I woke up sleeping Grind, who had crashed on the sofa with his shotgun. He rose and went to look at the yard, then later challenging the storm gods:

Tour de Art-September 19

2008-09-04T07:41:00.001-05:00

Celebrate RRCA's Run at Work Day!

The long Run

2008-09-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'm baffled. Not so much baffled as nervous, and I don't know why.

This week's long run, Coach Jon's schedule says 10-11 at marathon pace.

I'z skeered. It may hurt real bad.

I hope tonight's AT run will boost my confidence-either that or absolutely smash it. :-)

Then, bike down to Discovery Green to catch one of my favorite bands!

Junie B's Meme

2008-08-31T11:23:00.004-05:00

I AM …at peace with myself.
I WANT… to travel more.
I HAVE…lots and lots and lots of shoes.
I KEEP…everything. Extreme packrat disorder.
I WISH I COULD… be less clumsy. And sing.
I HATE… stupid.
I FEAR…my unused potential.
I HEAR…silence, and I like it.
I DON’T THINK… most people think before they vote or have children.
I REGRET… times when I haven't given it my all.
I LOVE…my cute husband :-)
I AM NOT…particularly organized or patient, which some people think are requirements for teaching.
I DANCE…with myself and others, every chance I get.
I SING…all the time. Unfortunately for others, this includes concerts, too.
I NEVER… say Never. It will ALWAYS bite you in the ass.
I RARELY…know when to quit.
I CRY WHEN I WATCH…friends struggle or hurt.
I AM NOT ALWAYS…active. I spend h-o-u-r-s on the couch with my books.
I HATE THAT…poochy part of my belly over my waistband.
I’M CONFUSED ABOUT…why I can't manage a flip turn without nearly drowning. I will try again today.
I NEED… to go run my 7-8 miles, but it's already hot and I just ate.
I SHOULD…interrupt less and be more considerate.

*I stole this. You should too.*

And the weekend finally arrives, just in time to raise my spirits: TGIF

2008-08-31T10:23:00.005-05:00

Actually, compared to wed-thursday, the last coupla days have been great.

Brief synopsis of the last 48 hours:
When you last left leetle Gaslight, she had freshly pained toes and was heading to the Ho for a beer-which made for a somewhat painful Friday. My first full week back at work-couldn't have made it thru without adding more challenges, right?

Grind had a hankering for Onion Creek, so we headed out for libations and a turkey sandwich. Ran into Dude Where's my Car and UrN8 and had quite a nice visit.

Five-thirty am Saturday brought my longest run in quite a while-18 miles. It turned out exceedingly well-Coach Jon managed to convince Schroeder and Wayne that they should run an easier pace than usual. Like that's NEW information! These guys have been dragging me around the city in pre-dawn hours for the past 6 years, and NOW they listen that their long runs should be at 8-8:15. Thank. The. Lord. Anyhoo, thanks to multiple Gatorade stops, it was almost like fun.

Saturday afternoon/evening was the long-awaited San Leon pub crawl, hared by Can't Touch This. Grind has a new case of blue-toe (Friday he broke the little piggy who stayed home), so we took our mountain bikes. Her original trail had TEN bars. About 5 too many for my taste, but eh, it's her trail. We started at the Top Water Grill on 9th Street, which I must say I would visit again. Full of local beach rats and guys in cigarette boats, but a nice setup on the bay. I guess it's the bay, anyway.

Trail wound thru the neighborhoods and we caught the local sights: the oyster place, a parrot nest, a pony, loose dogs, etc. The second stop was a bit too smoky, so we pedaled out to some of the other bars: the Green Parrot and 18th Street.

The most well-built structure in San Leon:

Don' t you love the way the liquor store graciously shares its space with the Defensive Driving school?

Remember that I had to stop my bike on the road and get my camera out to take this..it's just that awe inspiring.

It was across the street from a guy with TX's largest yard sale. He probably had 40 8-foot tables set up right on the street, all completely covered with crap.

A couple of homes and businesses were preparing for he possible wrath of Gustav, but not many.

Our next stop was the Green Parrot, where a band was setting up to play later that evening.

I won't bore you with the rest of the evening, but we stayed pretty low-key in comparison to the rest of the crowd. Something about being on bike and nearly forty miles from home..I don't know.

@^$%#&$%&#%*!!!!!

2008-08-28T15:40:00.003-05:00

GAH! What kind of a crap excuse for a day was THAT?

So since I had a "Meet the Coaches Night" commitment from 4:30-6:30 pm on Wednesday, I arose at 5 am for a 6 mile, character-building trot at the park, totally solo. You remember that Wednesday is my favorite running night, don't you? So a personal compromise to start out, and a long day ahead of me to boot.

The evening was fine, but I let the building at 6:45 to find my car askew-my left rear tire is flat! BAH!

Ok, no biggie. Grind pays for AAA, so i head back indoors to give them a call. "Your estimated window is until 8:45..." WHA???

Two hours? Really?"

"Oh, no, it won't take THAT long," dispatch assures me.

So I head out a second time to wait. I have water, I have a book, I will be fine. I see a few other coaches file out to their vehicles, and another female coach leaving walks out and stops. "You don't know how to change a flat?"

"Sure, I just don't want to. AAA will be here soon, I'm in a dress, and 9 times out of 10 something happens to make a self-tire change impossible." This is called foreshadowing, people.

Painfully long story short, it WAS going to take 2 hours, despite additional phone calls. Actually, it took 2 and a half for them to arrive. In that time span, I changed into shorts and Marnie and I tackled 80% of the tire change...until we discovered my jack's shortcomings.

Literally.

My entire strut was exposed, but I still couldn't budge my tire. The damn thing was big enough! I asked the wrecker driver guy to check and be sure I wasn't totally lame, and he said, "Huh- you need to write Ford a letter."

So I arrived home at 10 o'clock. No Run. No Rice. No beer. Poo.

And Thursday, it just gets better. I had to make my first parent call, which is always a drag. I really want to bond with my kids before I have to start fussing at them, but 5th period will not allow it.

Having spent an extra 20 minutes on campus, I then race to Costco to find a new tire. At least I have the silver lining of Costco shopping, right?

Wrong.

They examine the flat to see if it can be fixed, and it can't which is not big deal. So I'll buy a new tire! And other treats while I wait!

Unfortunately, Costco doesn't sell Continental Tires, and the helpful sales guys tell me that studies show using different treads can impede performance in rainy conditions. He recommends Discount Tire, which I know will be full of people by 4:30, and I plead with him to call and see if they have what I need.

He returns with worse news- the only store in the area with this tire is on I-10 at Kirkwood.

I now have to get on the Katy Freeway at nearly 5 pm on Thursday. I nearly cried.

I hate to be such a baby, but I was really looking forward to a tough group run before the Drips' keg at the Ho. Thinking this would be so fast, I didn't even grab my clothes before I left home that morning.

The employees at DT are always great, so I hate that in most cases I'm so glum when I have to be there. Yes, they have the tire, and the wait time will be...and hour and a half.

I'm so bummed, but there's not much to do. I curl up with my YA novel and wait.

I guess the somewhat shiny part of this is that they actually could fix my tire, so I left without paying one red cent. No run was going to fit, so I indulged in a Chai Latte and a mani/pedi, thinking a good foot rub could turn my frown upside-down.

That and a frosty St Arnold amber seemed to do it.

Is everyone who comments on the Chron.com site an idiot?

2008-08-26T14:06:00.004-05:00

A local nutritionist and friend of mine was featured in a Lifestyle section article
today. Kruppa serves as dietitian to the Olympic diving team. I thought the story was clever, a nice response to the huge publicity given to Phelps massive calorie consumption.

The comments, however, range from inane to offensive. In the accompanying photo she stands in front on pool lanes and holds a fresh peach and a head of broccoli. Some say stupid carp like "Gimmee a steak" while other readers spewed comments like "most people hate broccoli" and hateful barbs about the nutritionists' appearance. Another accused her of arrogance when she posed a hypothetical question (after being asked) her opinion on Phelps' high-calorie, high fat diet.

I could hold my tongue no longer...and join the idiots...

Yes, the nerve of a nutritionist to promote fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains. Do you pay a professional to give you the help you've asked for, or blow sunshine up your skirt? Grow. Up.

When ASKED to comment on Phelps' diet, Kruppa gave a response, "I can't complain much because he looks pretty darn good and he just won eight Olympic gold medals." Then added, "One question I have is: If he ate a very healthy diet and included healthy fats and whole grains, what could he do? We don't know"That doesn't really sound like hubris, jealousy or critcism, but more of a professional musing. The dumbest thing you've ever read? Really? You don't think it might be a response to the publicity given to Phelps' diet and calorie burning? Olympians' diets are certainly nothing like what your average desk jockey needs to consume, but I do think it's relevant to current events.

Back to school

2008-08-25T13:37:00.003-05:00

Ah well. I have spent 7 of the last 11 days in meetings. Missed me?

That's what I do for a living, right? Sit in meetings? I spent about two hours setting up my room, and we finally got a couple of hours to lesson plan last Friday. FRIDAY! After already being at work for more than a week! Sheesh!

Finally, last Thursday was "Meet the Teacher" night. Quite a misnomer, as it was actually, "Come and pick all your forms and shit" night. BUT, even though it required me staying late, missing my run (thunderstorms!) and being almost an hour late to the Scavenger Hunt party at Saint A's, I DID get to see some of my kids, which energized me more than any other thoughts surrounding "returning to work" had thus far. Some were cute and sweet, running up to me with open arms...others grinned shyly and gave me a half wave..and a few more tried to hide and turn their parents the other way. I guess those were mostly the ones still feeling the sting of summer school.

Today I got my new crop of 7th graders- all eight-four of them. My teammate fought for me to have at least one section of Pre-AP students (think honors) this year, and Oh. My. God. I am so thankful. I never wanted to be elitist and demand them, but she thought I really needed at least a daily one hour break from struggling readers and severely at risk kiddos. "But I love all of my students!" I said, (ok, the majority of them).

But there is a difference. As a whole, they are a little more motivated and seem to expect more of themselves. This will be good. For them, for me, and for the rest of my students, too, I think.

Some of them even look like runners. :-)

2008-08-25T13:36:00.000-05:00

What I did this summer

2008-08-17T21:47:00.007-05:00

Last Thursday brought a flurry of girly emails from various hashers: "Who's doing Ironbabe this Saturday? Yay!"

OK, perhaps I exaggerate, but more than a couple of Harriette's sent messages about their training and the uber-cool race this Sunday, Ironbabe.

I want to be an Ironbabe. But it's been ELEVEN years. No bricks. No long bike rides. Good God let's not even think about the last time I've been swimming with any consistency (never, actually.)

I really gave it up for marathoning...it was too much to continuously train with no off-season.

I mulled it over: positive! It's so short!

I thought about the logistics: I'm running 14-16 on Saturday. Hmm.

I thought about my training: I haven't swum a stroke this year. Ok, maybe to get my drink.
I thought about every other excuse I could muster: I could be really slow, and I might be embarrassed.

I mentioned my musings to Stop n Blow at Bunco on Thursday.

Conclusion: If you really DON'T want to do something, don't mention it to Stop NBlow. Especially when she's on FIRE.

By Saturday morning after the 14 miles, I had talked myself out of it. Then she called.

"I just wanted you to know that MY race number for tomorrow is 196, and I wondered what yours would be. I'm hanging up now..." And she did!

So I drove to Tri on the Run and did it. How bad could it be?? Let's consider it an $80 workout.

The call back: "MY race number is 409. What time are you coming to get me?"

And so it went. Knowing I was woefully unprepared, I chilled out on the swim and bike. Like breast stroke chilled out. And I rode about 18 mph on the bike, all the while thinking about the run. I even wore my Camelback, just thinking I would stay hydrated that way.

I calculated the distance, and decided that anything under 1:10 I could be thrilled with. 1:09:34, baby! Believe it or not, I placed 4th in my age group.

But what am I really proud of? I did it. Throwing caution and pride to the wind, I followed SnB's lead and just went for it. I never felt bad, and I had a great time being with my hasher girls.

That and I had THE fast freaking run split of the entire effing race! OMG@! Who knew?
http://www.eztoregister.com/results/aghtmib08.htm

Once upon a time...

2008-08-17T15:41:00.004-05:00

...therer lived a triathlete named Gaslight. Well, not really a triathlete by nature, but accidental, if you will.

see, that spring, sge decided to join her college buddies in their yearly tradition of riding the MS150. (BTW -The Houston was NEVER 150 miles, but 180 or so. Back in the olden days you only had to collect $150 in donations. )

Ok, back to the story. After the ride, one of the buddies introduced GL to his friend Maryanne, who was training for tris. Just sprint distance, nuthin' fancy, but it sounded cool. Maryanne thought GL was a fun, hip chick and let her swim at the Houstonian with her. And you know how I feel about the Houstonian.

That summer, I did my first race, COMBAT. It was H.O.T., and the venue couldn't have sucked any worse than it did. Seriously, the I45 feeder thru Texas City? Really? But at that race, Marynnne introduced me to some of her nice tri-geek buds, most of whom sort of ignored me. Hmph. Other however, like "Big Daddy" Dave Rainey, took an interest in budding athletes like Maryanne and me and guided us thru bike rides and generally encouraged us in our neophyte racing careers. It was a good summer of workouts. I only did one more tri, but one day I decided to push the envelope while running at the park. Why not run a third loop? I still feel pretty good...

You might figure out where this is going. Later that month, I signed of for the 1995 Houston Tenneco Marathon and started to seriously train, sort of following the Chronicles schedule.

Fast-forward a couple of years to tri season...I've now done a few marathons, got tons of short races under my belt, and even met our favorite curmudgeone, Grind Slut. We're training for the Texas Hill Country Tri in Canyon Lake, formerly the National Log Course Championship. I have no delusions of placing; this race is tough and popular. Months of hot bike rides and unprecedented miles of swim training. The usual running, but as you might imagine, not the toughest part for me. I always knew once I got thru the swim, I'd pass folks for the rest of the morning! One weeklend two weeks out, we did a double header: an Olympic distance in Victoria on Saturday followed by the Cinco Ranch sprint and a shiggy hash on Sunday.

I was as ready as I'd ever be.

One tri-friend commented prior to the swim that I looked more like I was about to be fed to the alligators than doing a race! Another advised me to just take it easy on the bike; save something for the run.

I think I was last out of the water. It was a 1.5 mile swim in the most gorgeous fresh water I think I still have ever been in.

The bike was hilly. I just stayed calm, chugging up the many hills and trying not to freak out on the scary downgrades.

And then, my dear reader, I had the run of my life. It was 100 degrees, but elation filled my soul. I ran fast, I slapped guys on the ass as I passed them. I picked it up, and finished smiling.

I made my goal. That was 1997. More later.

For my friends that actually made it to Conroe this morning:

2008-08-16T12:15:00.001-05:00

I suck.
Or rather, I am totally remedial at alarm-setting. 4:30 it is!

I awoke with a start at 5:12 when Grinds says, "What time are your friends coming?"

Um, I was supposed to be at the park 10 minutes ago.If the doorbell had rung, I would have been out in les than 5...

I threw myself together and ran with WayneFit.

So sorry, I regret missing the opportunity. Would have provided notice if I was flaking out; I hope you guys didn't wait too long and had a nice run.

Mammoth Lakes, part deux

2008-08-13T16:03:00.004-05:00

The reason we came: BLUESAPALOOZA!

Ok, so I can take or leave about 75% of blues bands, but does have a nice ring to it, right? And 50+ microbreweries!~ Egads!

The festival is nestled in the pines, and really got crankin (I mean crowded)around 2 pm. The beer tasting was only from 12-5 (only!)

Feeling as if we were on a mission, Grind, Frenchy D and I worked diligently for he first hour and half we were there, working our way from booth to booth. I was plumb tuckered out, not to mention hungry! Toolbox and I rest here on a pointy rock. Not. Too. Comfy.

Speaking of my dear friend Toolbox, she doesn't drink beer, bless her heart. Can you believe?? She does drink Rieslings, is awfully nice, and looks good in hot pants (that's important to boys, I think) , so we keep her around. So, we went in search of overpriced, low-quality white wines to sate her while all of her companions basked in the delights of microbrews.

During our "travels", we stopped to chat about something (after she has her wine, of course) and some guy overheard us-"Hey-where are you guys from?"

Um, Texas? Well actually, TB is a Midwesterner...it was my accent that he decided didn't belong.

Myaccent. I canhazone?

"You didn't come here just for this!" he complained, or judged, or sumpthin', I dunno.

We insisted that yes, I was huge fan of most beers, but TB was just a trooper along for the ride. To a beer festival.

I have a private moment. Mmmmm, hops!!

Good PR Move for the Chevron Houston Marathon

2008-08-13T15:59:00.003-05:00

Full Registration Refund through August

Are you registered but unable to run in January? The Houston Marathon Committee is offering all current registrants in the marathon or half marathon a full registration refund through August 31, 2008. The previously-announced partial refunds of $65 for the marathon and $40 for the half marathon will continue to be offered from September 1 through November 20, 2008. Transfers and refunds will not be offered after November 20, 2008. Participants who have already transferred their registration and received a partial refund will be receiving an additional refund towards the end of the month. To request a full refund, click here.

Mammoth Lakes, #1

2008-08-13T14:11:00.003-05:00

Look at the Happy campers!

After a full day of planes, trains and automobiles (ok, no trains, really) Grind, Frenchy D and I made it into Mammoth Lakes, home of Olympic marathoners Ryan and Deena. Those two, however, apparently were not aware of the impending Bluesapalooza and left for Bejing two weeks early! Whatever.

We joined up with a tired bunch of Bayou City folks for happy hour, where an elated Sticky Lips shared news from the events of their week. I galnced about the bar and noticed, hey, we aren't in Texas any more....

Everyone, including the trombone player in the band and only excepting the crew of bartenders, looked fit enough to go out an hoof a marathon the next day. I'm not saying that they were all locals, but it was way "differnt" than H-town.

Our threesome didn't really want the pub food at the Dublainers, so we sauntered across the street to Petra's Wine Bar and Bistro. Oh. My. Goodness. So yummy!

Their website won't let me steal any pictures, so you'll have go to the Gallery and look: I'll wait. Pretty nice, huh? and soooo yummy! Really, I'm just talking about the wines. It was so overwhelmingly good I was beside myself

A surfed the internet for days to procure appropriate accomodations for Mammoth, with thes priorities: close to the festival, quiet, nonsmoking, and cool.

After realizing I could pay too much for a crappy room or too much for a kick-ass room, I settled on the Westin Monache. Would recommend.
Cozy, no?
And with a full kitchen, who knew??

We made the cut!

2008-08-13T09:50:00.002-05:00

I know that you were all on the edge of your seats, but despite one closed bar, camera malfunctions and photo-sharing site woes, my fellow-pubcrawlers and I are all in the top 200 for the St Arnold Scavenger Hunt!

Yes, hey due to a crippling number of responses, the Saint doubled the number of winners and prozes.

The drawing for the kegerators will be at the brewery next week. Wish us luck!

They've posted photos taken by the winners, so I thought I'd share:

Me at the Brewery Tap:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=149572806&albumID=1670606&imageID=21927259

Grind gazes lovingly at the Edinbirgh Pub Crawl ma:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=149572806&albumID=1670606&imageID=21927323

Showing his love for democracy, Asswipe made the cut:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=149572806&albumID=1670606&imageID=21927348

The dangers of late night curry

2008-08-11T08:37:00.002-05:00

My left hand sports numerous fire ant bites from procuring lemongrass from the yard in the dark. Grrr.

I know, I know, I've ben out of town. I have to do some things and I'll update later, 'kay?

XXOO

Overheard in the kitchen

2008-07-31T22:58:00.002-05:00

Grind asks the loudly whining cat, "Ophie, what do you want?"

"For us all to cry a river of tuna," calmly answers Gaslight.

Wha??

Damn that Red Rex.

Quick question...

2008-07-30T16:02:00.002-05:00

Let's say... if YOU were a member of a large running club, and this running club sends out a fairly thick monthly newsletter containing columns about various things.

Some of the board members of this large running club have to write a montly column for said rag containing newsy bits and other interesting ideas and facts.

What would YOU want to hear about? Hmm?

Speak now or be forever annoyed at what corny poetry I come up with.

Pain in the rear revised

2008-07-30T15:14:00.006-05:00

Ok, so I cleaned up the title a little out of consideration for anyone who might have a live link to my latest post (Jonathan!).
But seriously-many runners I know have ass issues from time to time. Hamstrings, glutes, poriformis, whatever. You know what I'm talking about. The 11 thousand images on Google tell that it's a seriously common problem: a pain, waaay up at top of your hammie- an insertion point.

I had great fun in picking out just the right one, too, I might add.

Last Sunday after a brisk 11 (or was is 12? I don't know), I ran the hash that afternoon. Decent pace-never went too nuts- but my right butt muscle was so locked up. Really painful and quite annoying. I took the week kind of easy, thinking maybe some biking and easy running would let it heal.

Since San Antonio is not getting any further away, this Saturday I brought it up a notch to 14 miles with WayneFit. Ye-ouch.

"Hey Wayne," I begin, as he looks at me attentively, "do you know where I can get a new hamstring?" A group chuckle ensues, and his first suggestion is acupuncture.

I have no fear of acupuncture, but I did remember and mention" Isn't that what turned Superman Matt's calf into a giant, black knot?" Wayne didn't remember is that way, but I clearly did. Olya then mentioned Jim Guillory at the Houstonian. No pain, she says.

Yes, I'll send you his info, which Wayne-o promptly did. "Tell him I sent you." Of course, I tell him.

So today I went to see Mr Jim. When someone does Muscle activation therapy, they move your legs and/or arms around and have you resist the way they pushing or pulling. If the muscle he's testing isn't firing, you just won't be able to hold your arm, leg, foot, toe, or whatever in the direction you want to. It's like some freaky slumber party game.

Nooooo! I don't want my foot to go down!

Anyway, he does this for everything within reason, which is great, because as a middle-aged runner (OMG I said it), I knew I had more than one weak spot. As a matter of fact, he' bend my knee one way, turn my ankle another and tell me which way to resist- and I'd start to grin. I KNEW which movements I wouldn't be able to make just by the way it felt.

Runners spend a lot of time going forward. And a little up and down, maybe. If we don't do yoga, pilates, kickboxing..something with lateral movements in it, those muscles quit communicating with our brains and sorta quit.

Bad muscles! Communication GOOD!

So we'll see. It's Wednesday, and time for 9.5 with my bayou guys. At Guillory's advice, I took a 600mg IBU for the inflammation, which was the only ache still there when I got up from the table. That and some Tai Bo oughta do me.

Maybe I'm cured. The next week will tell...

And a plus is that I LOVE the Houstonian! When Grind gets rich and I retire I will spend all day there.

**I've been getting deep tissue massages for some time now, and this spot is a challenging one to reach. And I l.o.v.e. them !! Usually the nice lady has to lean all the way into my right butt cheek while balancing on her elbow. Whew boy, hurts so good!

The guy who performed the Muscle activation technique works on everything-my right glute, quad, and hip flexors (among other things) weren't paying attention and doing their jobs, so the poor little priformis was going all of the work for them. No amount of ice massage was going to wake their lazy asses up. In M.A. T. , the muscles are palpated at their insertion points. He retests, and usually they have begun firing again. It's EERIE.**

Flashback to 1978

2008-07-29T15:39:00.001-05:00

And I dare you to not smile:
\

Houston Press Music Awards Festival

2008-07-29T07:29:00.009-05:00

Sunday afternoon we hopped on the bikes for downtown to see the "60 bands on 10 stages" of the Houston Press Music Festival.

First stop- Flying Saucer. Get a good beer, buy tickets, get our bearings. The band, Sugar Bayou, played some toe-tapping bluegrass. I spotted the McQuillens on the dance floor and spun around with them a few times.

Now to go and see about a friend...look, it's the BASS PLAYER!

Next up, pedal over to see Rubbin the Boy Wanker play with his band 80 Proof at the Real Sammies (not the same place as Sammy's) over next to Brewery Tap. They play 80's style rock- not so much the dancy-stuff like Devo and Lauper; think Billy Idol and The Cars.
See Rubbin jam!
The band also sports an Owen-Wilson looking keyboard player. I do wish he was more of a front man on "You May be Right" as I tend to associate Billy Joel with the piano. For some reason.

Their singers are quite talented, too.

Crazy back-tat photographer. I have no problem with tattoos, or back tattoos in generally, It was just H-U-G-E.

Now, back to the Saucer for Scattered Pages. The Press described them as influenced by Johnny Cash and The Ramones, so how can you go wrong? They were awe-some. Scattered Pages on MySpace
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=31853757

Their first couple of tunes were fast and rockin'- I wiggled around quite a bit.
As you see, the lead singer was channeling Chris Isaac, and there is nothing wrong with that!

For the 4th show, Grind and Anal 101 carefully studied the schedule. After little debate, we went down the street to Dean's Credit Clothing. I think it was Frenchy D who suggested The Wiggins, listed as "experimental", but I won't hold him to it.

Keep experimenting, buddy.

Because no one REALLY expects me to shut up about this:

2008-07-28T19:12:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I am a big fan of Roberta's Running Notebook, featured every Thursday in the Chron. Every week I read, and sometimes her ideas are discussed on Sunday long runs, etc.

But THIS week, whoo boy.

She posted an article dsicussing the Houston Marathon Board's recent announcement that the masses of early starters will no longer be tolerated.

Great, I'm all for it. But why didn't they announce this in January?
Anyhoo, back to Roberta- she wrote as unbiased a story as possible, and guess what?
People decided to comment! There were 45 postings when I felt I had to butt in with this response:

oneFirstimer86:
There has always been a time limit. Starting early is cheating. Every year I drive from
the Heights to the GRB and pass hundreds of walkers from the mile four
marker (at 530!) all the way into downtown. What time did these people start?

My only issue with the marathon's recent decisions is that they should
have stated them back in January when 2009 registration began. I personally
encouraged friends who were on the fence about running to go ahead and
sign up, because hey, nothing to lose right? They'll refund your entry and
transfer it to another lucky runner!

"Any event that is discriminatory
towards a person due to how long it takes for them to finish a race is downright
pathetic. It truly disappoints me. The most disgusting thing about this entire
incident is the partial refund walkers will be receiving after they have been
unceremoniously booted from an event in which they have been a legitimate part
of for the last five years."

Oh really? Have you run other types of races? Or researched other marathons?
Some 10k's have time limits from 1:20 to 2:30. Many 5K's have time limits of 1 hour of less. Is this discrimination or realistic?

Austin
Marathon: 7 hours
Dallas White Rock 6.5 hours
Gramdma's marathon: 6 hours

If you look on the Marathon Guide website,
http://www.marathonguide.com/features/Articles/2006RecapOverview.cfm,
there is a breakdown of cutoff times for about 300 marathons. The majority of them are between 6 and 7 hours, with the next largest group being 5-6 hours. There are,
however, 40+ marathons with longer time limits, and according to the site, only
15% have a time limit of 8 hours or greater.

BTW: There are, of course,
many making unseemly comments. From both sides- I think a few from both groups
(pro and con the decision) feel attacked. That is not the point of my post.

You know what I find amusing? Every week Roberta writes this column,
usually without anyone's notice to comment. This issue has sparked 46 comments so far, granted many from multiple posts. I with the Chron would put a link to
her on the sports page-not buried in a search.

People of all levels train hard for the marathon. Oh, and some don't, but that's another story. The point is, training to finish within the time limits is a good goal. Are the early starters being respectful to the 6 hours marathoners, struggling to keep running and earn their rightful finisher's medal?

I'll run San Antonio too, this year. From this website: there will be cutoff points enforced along the route. Marathoners must reach the mark at 10.7
by 11:30 a.m., which is an 18 minute per mile pace.

Last year brought us the two most positive changes the marathon board has made: start line corrals and registration transfers. I fear that this year's decisions and announcements will completely overshadow this.

I wish the some of the runners commenting hadn't gotten so condescending and
nasty. I sorta feel like it makes us all look bad.

Kind of like the cheating walkers make the others look bad.

Big day in Newfoundland

2008-07-27T21:40:00.003-05:00

Congrats to Houston Hashers Seigfried & Roid, Stop N Blow, and *Eargasm on their first 70.3.

That's months of hard work, plus the pain in the butt of air travel with your bicycle.

Fire Tunnel, Dogma and the fabulous off spring were in attendance as athletic supporters.

JohnBoy, already an accomplished 2X Ironman, also finished. I should hope he kicked their tails!

*In exile in Saudi

Wearin' out the library card

2008-07-26T14:14:00.002-05:00

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This the second Joshilyn Jackson book I've read this month, and I've loved both of them. Nothing says "the South" like Karo Syrup and a dark family secret, and this book delivers.

See the link to right that says "Woulda Coulda Shoulda"? That's the blog where I learned about this author. The women are friends. And I must say, I held out thinking that the novels would be light and airy.

They aren't.

View all my reviews.

Special Run today

2008-07-26T13:42:00.002-05:00

Posted for some friends of mine:

**The Tornados Running Club is hosting a Benefit Run, Saturday, July 26th at5PM to raise funds for Cornelio GaribayCornelio suffered a broken ankle a couple of weeks ago, he has no healthinsurance and will be out of work for about 3 months.

For those of you that don't know Cornelio, he's been a mainstay of theHouston running community for a number of years. Cornelio has lived andraced in Houston for over 20 years. He ran track and cross country forClear Creek High School and received a scholarship to run for San Jacinto.After his college career, he joined the Navy. Cornelio is still one ofthe top runners in Houston and runs for the Al Lawrence Running Club.

This non-competitive, untimed run consists of two, roughly two mile, loopsthrough part of the HoChiMinh Trails.We will meet by the baseball fields at the Picnic Loop, south of MemorialDrive, across from Memorial Park.There will be one water station as you emerge from the trail between thefirst and second loop.We will provide post-race refreshments including at least one keg of beer.

There is no cost for this run, but we will gladly accept donations, 100% ofwhich will go directly to Cornelio.Additionally, you will need to sign a waiver form the day of the race.

We look forward to seeing many of you there!

**Disclaimer: Attending this run, or posting to this blog, for that matter, does not in any way mean to blame one party or another or "take sides", if we're being all junior-high about it.

If you've ever been in a rough spot, I think you can empathize with Cornelio. I know that I do.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

2008-07-25T16:11:00.000-05:00

Saint Arnold Scavenger Hunt Pub Crawl

2008-07-25T12:00:00.005-05:00

Number one- Kiss that monkey

Number Two -Bagwell

Number three- World's Fair

Number four- Edinburgh Pub Crawl

Number Five- Democrats

Number six- Balls!

Number seven-Gargoyle

Cheerful teammates,um pubcrawlers.

Oh noes, mangoes!

2008-07-25T11:44:00.002-05:00

I love mangoes, but they do not love me. Not the fresh ones, anyway.

We bought a case of them at Canino's last weekend, and I already have the severe cafing on my mouth that I get from cantact with their juice.

I sliced them all up today, and ate a few. Soo nummy! Must go wash face NOW.

Sigh.

How's My Summer?

2008-07-23T09:05:00.001-05:00

I've been reading my tail off!

A Paper Life by Tatum O'Neal

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow. Poor Tatum. Ryan O'Neal is an evil bastard. Seriously, like needed to be picked up by CPS, E-V-I-L. After that berating, it's no wonder Tatum and her brother are both addicts and she married that other narcissist, John McEnroe. Sheesh. It's enough to make you stop watching tennis. Oh wait, I don't..

Tatum wasn't even sent to school as a child and AFAIK, never graduated. Ergo, it's a quick, easy read.

View all my reviews.

What's cookin', 2- leftover from last week

2008-07-22T10:54:00.001-05:00

So after some thought, I decided that my creation deserved it's very own post, mainly because when I mention that I have made a veggie pie, people give me that "blink. blink." kind of look.

You start a bunch of veggies, including one of the "greens" variety, 2 pre-made pie crusts, (they generally come in a set), 3 eggs, about 1.5-2 cups of cooked brown rice, some feta cheese (okay, that's really optional) and your favorite seasonings.

As with any dish with the possible exception of ice cream, I start with a generous amount of olive oil and garlic. Here, as you see, I have already added carrots. Start with these as they 1) give the pie a nice sweetness to balance the bitterness of the greens and 2) they take longer to cook (duh).

The next veggie to add is your fennel. Just chop it up like so, and add it to the cooking carrots after they have had a moment to themsleves. Five-10 minutes, maybe?

Rinse the leeks, then slice open, longways. Wash well as they soemtimes have a bit of mud between the leaves. Now chop into half moons.

Oh, and you should have already started baking the lower pie crust. Sorry. This time I used whole wheat, which might be a bit "earthy". I'll let you know tomorrow.

An aside: Gaslight does not make piecrusts. She takes them out of the nice bag and puts them in her own lovely stoneware piepan.

Here we dump, um, carefully add the chopped leeks and onions.

This week's leafy green of choice was Kale. Wash and chop. I've used collards, broccoli, rapini (that's a leafy Italian broccoli). Greens, while sometimes bitter alone, are great in this pie. Again, I think it's the garlic, carrots and crust that smooth the flavors over.

A buddy of mine said he only counts on having salt & pepper around.
"Not even garlic?" I ask. Maybe that's why he's so skinny!

Here's what I used:
cayenne pepper
salt
Italian seasonig
fennel seeds
cracked black pepper

Still pretty simple, right?

It might look a tad heavy on the cayenne to the untrained eye, but it was perfect!

After the veggies are cooked, put into a bowl and add your 1.5 cups of cooked brown rice. Combine and let cool for about 20 minutes.

Go update your blog or something. Go!

So it's been 20 minutes. Mix the 2-3 eggs before adding to the cooled mixture (you don't want to have scrambled eggs in your veggie pie).

Add some feta cheese. Amount and variety ar negotiable. Grind says he's used mozerella, too.

Now smoosh it all into the pie shell.

I didn't manage to get a shot of the trickiest part- dislodging the remaining shell from its tin and artfully placing it onto the top of your pie.

Be careful is my best advice.

See, over to the right, inside the oven?

I did manage it!

Now set the oven for 350, and bake one hour!

Niecelettes

2008-07-22T10:31:00.002-05:00

Spent last week hanging with the sister in Charlotte, NC. These are her adorable offspring, ages 11 and 8.

Urban Adventure Race

2008-07-13T21:11:00.007-05:00

I was a bum on Saturday, but I know what you really want to hear about :

RACING!

For some reason Grind didn't tell me about the Terra Firma Adventure race until Friday night. Skeered? we'll never know.

He and Asswipe entered as a male masters team for this race, which was going to be non-technical mountain biking, running, and knowledge of the landscape. A little odd, but ideal for hashers, no?

They began at Market Square with instructions to run to Allen's Landing to get the checkpoint information. Some you would need to run to, others (like Memorial Park) were to be reached on bike.

Having lived an active lifestyle in the inner loop of Houston for the past fifteen years seemed to have been as valuable a skill as being able to pedal your bike for this race. They did give out city maps, but how much help would that be finding the footbridge on Crestwood Drive?

Two other hasher teams competed as well: the F-mans were team Bad Livers, and still beaming form their recent relocation to the Sunset Heights, earned a fifth place in the mixed category.

Grind won the coveted door prize, the Park Tool bottle opener. It works very well, thank you. He's showing it to Eli and trying to convince him the share.

Narc and his partner Lan won third in the mixed masters category, I believe. He was not as nearly as grumpy as he looks in this photo.

The boys came in 6th overall and first in their division, and as you can see they are particularly euphoric. It was pretty amusing, actually.

Crap.

2008-07-12T20:24:00.000-05:00

It's what I felt like today. On a minorly related note, have you ever had the wine Red Rex?
It's a blend of seven of the yummiest grapes, evah!
OMG it's amazing. Well the first bottle was, anyway.

well fan-freakin'-tastic (sarcasm implied)

2008-07-09T13:20:00.005-05:00

You know that I-10 expansion? The one that swallowed the parking lot of our favorite outdoor store , downsized community fitness centers, and destroyed and relocated restaurants in the Spring Branch/Memorial Area?

Yes, this one:

Not that there was an easy solution, short of making all daily commuters into the city from Cinco Ranch carpool or use public transportation. Imagine such a thing. It smacks of communism.

Ahem.

So I drove said freeway out to make purchases at my favorite Washington-based Membership Warehouse, where I bought fabulous looking fresh blueberries and Rainer cherries, by the way. Since the most of freeway ramps are still under construction, I exited Campbell Road and planned to take the feeder west to Bunker Hill, which is when the horrific truth hit me.

See, I take the Wirt Road exit for work. When it reopened this year, I celebrated with MUCH gladness and a possibly a Starbucks venti nonfat latte. From Kroger! On Wirt Road! Never had things in come together quite this easily on my commutes.

And then I tried to exit.

Exiting itself wasn't a huge problem- it the right turn that was made into a death-defying trick by good old TXDOT.

See that niiice loooong row of pilings that would soon hold up the Wirt Exit ramp? Well they descend about 100 feet from the corner! Nice, huh?

So they miscalculated, I thought to myself. Until today.

They are ALL going to be like that! Look at 'em! Campbell, Bunker Hill...it's literally an accident (or a million) waiting to happen.

I don't know about you, but if I am traveling to a location such as, oh, Campbell and Westview, I'd take the Katy Freeway to Campbell and make a right.

WRONG! Not unless you're ready to DIE, you don't!

This is great. Just great. Don't say I didn't warn you.

What's cooking?

2008-07-09T11:19:00.001-05:00

Grind's Saturday creation: extremely dense cornbread

You may or may not be able to see all of the grains:
polenta
regular cornmeal
whole wheat flour
sesame seeds

Independence Day, part deux revised with photos

2008-07-05T09:16:00.011-05:00

SURPRISE!

Little Toolbox has been fretting for months, nay, possibly even the last decade as how to best please Frenchy D on his 40th birthday. He's a social guy- he loves a party. Her? Not that much. Now she loves TO socialize, but a couple of friends, diamond earrings and several glasses of Riesling are her ideal party.

Then he tells her he doesn't want a surprise party. We'll see about that.

It was actually Grind's brainchild- he would "distract" the birthday boy with manly activities, then bring him back to our house for an alleged 4th of July cookout and dinner. Like we do together about 40 Saturday nights a year. Perfect!

The mission: Guns & Go-carts

The accomplices:
Grind and Ass Grabber

Oh, so we all did go out for a fancy-shmancy dinner at Mark's on his actual birthday. Totally blowing him off on Tuesday wouldn't make for a very nice surprise on Friday, now would it?

See? Lotsa friends. He was happy.

This is our ginormous porch-it continues around the corner. Good thing, since 70 people came.

Here he opens one of his several Bahrain-themed gifts:

And Old Faithful says she never takes a good picture!
More party guests:

The F-mans and Tai-Tai to the left

And after Gaslight stopped being grumpy about cleaning, moving furniture and decorating, here are the hostesses.

Happy Independence Day- part 1 now with link

2008-07-04T08:42:00.002-05:00

Little Gaslight's day began like most of yours probably did- with a run. Yes, the Run Wild 5K just looked so sparkly and shiny that I could not resist its lure. For whatever absurd reason, I really like the winding street of its course. The blindness of what lies ahead thru all the turns seems to make the already abbreviated distance go by even more quickly.

Not to say that it wasn't painful. It is July, after all.

At Valhalla last week someone asked if I was running for a time-"No, I'm running to win!"* Come on people, it's going to be 80+ degrees- PR weather for sure. Anyhoo, you never know who's going to show for these holiday races, so it's SWAG (some wild-ass guess) as to how it would go.

*meaning some also-ran age-group award, of course

I'm a simple girl. If I can have a hard run, a good cup of coffee, some breakfast, a beer AND go home with a little hardware, it would make me pretty happy. Gary's AR nature, um I mean attention to detail, makes this race run more smoothly than your average 5K

I'll not bore you with race details, but it went okay. Nearly 50 seconds off my PR (yikes!), but that seemed on par with everyone else for our summer-conditioning status and the heat.

The overall winner? Lilia Vasquez. How cool is that? I love it win a master's runner takes the big prize! I don't know Lilia, but she's always smiling and brings her mini-me daughter to races with her. I like. And 18:59, much less in that heat-WOW!

So I know that posting the photo took away your obvious suspense as to whether I placed or not, but I did earn and was able to utilize my hardware at the post race party (thank you Two Rows!)

Finally, a link to my craptastic photos (I'm number 243)

http://www.raceshots.net/08runwild5k2.html

I especially love the 3rd shot after the finish line, which although unattractive, truly expresses the discomfort at the end of a good race finish.

I heart Wednesdays

2008-07-03T11:01:00.004-05:00

Grind can't figure out why I don't just go run in the mornings since I don't have to be at work.

Truth is, I get by with a little help from my friends.

Especially during the school year, worn down by unruly 13 year olds, lame leadership and teachers' lounge gossip, there are many days I want to collapse onto the sofa and sleep until dinner.

More often than not, though, I get my lazy butt up so as not to miss the pre-loop at Rice for my mid-week 9.5. Long miles on the sun-baked concrete straightaway of Braes Bayou may not sound like a good time to most people, but whether it's Bridge-to-bridge with the fast boys or a relaxed chat pace with Spyder, the bayou run rejuvenates me for the rest of the week.

I refuse to say that I'm obsessed or addicted to running, but more than anything, it's my biggest social outlet. All my running friends make me happy and help keep me motivated- you all know who you are. Thank you.

Massage today for the screamin' hamstring. I hope it helps for tomorrow's 5K.

Morning Hills.

2008-07-01T11:22:00.004-05:00

No, I didn't go to either of the "public" hill workouts this morning: neither the popular Kiwi-Olympian led one, nor the highly-controversial, somewhat snarky, rhyming underground one. I think steering clear of the controversy is a good call on this one.

And by the way, if I was going to make a crappy comment, about EITHER party involved, I must say, I would at least have a pair and sign my name. 'Cause that's just plain cowardly. Not to mention mean. And probably sticking your nose in other people's business. But I'm not. No siree.

Anyhoo, I just met Nboaka and trail wench Helen out at Jackson Hill this a.m. for a workout.

30 min WUP, 5 X 4 minutes fastish, 10M cool down. Rog held up little sticks in his hand and we "drew" for leading each of the repeats. Thank God Roger drew the longest one so he only got one turn. Try following him. Go ahead. I'll wait. Hmph.

And Helen "Sidehill" Grant- she's crazy! She took the 1st and 4th repeats and really likes to run around trees and across the hills. The first time was fine, but on the 4th (after Roger wore us out-I was anaerobic 1:18 into the 4 minutes) I kept stepping in big holes.

Oh, Nboaka has a all-non-improved surfaces rule for his workouts, which explains the wacky terrain, right?

I think I led my repeats, 2nd and 5th for those bad at math, at a respectable pace. Since they are both faster than I am, I felt pressure to really push it. I chose fewer hills than Helen and a more reasonable pace than Rog, but I think it went okay.