runbarbirun

The Lazy Gardner

2009-03-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

I know i have said before that I am a lazy gardner...and although I have a large garden I go through spurts of being a superb gardener...mulching, fertlizing ect.. and a lazy gardner.

Last year I planted a bunch of carrots (still no idea why) and yes in my lazy gardening ways never did anything. I never even took them out of the ground.

So i am now in a spurt of being the good gardner and have been cleaning up my garden ect.. and came upon my carrots. Low and behold said carrots are pretty much well entact... I dug up a couple and they look like they weathered the entire winter snuggly and fine in my dirt. Hmmm , so i havent tried eating one yet... they maybe rubbery or nasty... so now I have carrot dilemma again. I have a bunch of carrots still slumbering in my garden... and *i think* i can dig em up and eat um.

So now i have carrot guilt. Because i probably will not do that.. they will probably end up in my composer..or my garbage.. yes i know lazy gardner syndrome.

I need to do a much better job of deciding what I REALLY am going to eat and use and plant only that... because at the end of the season i have noone to help my can ( i can use that excuse cant i?) ..so alot goes to waste... BUT i get so EXCITED at the beginning of the season planning my tomatoes, cukes, zuchinni and such of COURSE i will use it all

This year I will have a resolution to not go overboard....so i wont have carrot guilt..

The art of not eating

2009-02-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

Okay so for some crazy reason I got in my head it would be a good thing to do a cleanse. I fiddled around on the internet for a while and decided I wanted to do something called the MasterCleanse.

Im not going to be fancy and hook you to a link but if your interested google it there is billions of stuff about it. In a nutshell you purge your body of toxins by not eating anything thats right nothing. You 'get' to drink a combination of fresh squeezed lemon juice, Grade B maple syrup, cayanne pepper and water. Then every night you do a "saltwater flush" Where you basically within a short amount of time as possible drink 1 liter of water with 1 TBS sea salt in it. Which then causes you to "purge" your body of whatever is in it.

The cleanse is supposed to be for 10 days and up to 40..but I had decided I wanted to do no more than a week. Today is day 5, of not eating anything except my wonderful lemonaide and im not really sure why I decided to do this in the first place. I *may* try at a later time to do the full 10 days but we will see. I have decided that tomorrow is my last day and on day 7 will start eating again.

Day 1, 2 were kinda hard, Day 3 pretty easy day 4 was hard again and today was pretty easy. I think it is the hardest because I have to make food for other people. So its not like I can isolate myself and not see or smell food. I think what I DONT like about this diet is it is a flush.. So after you drink your most delicious salt water you have about 2 hours of stomach pains and in and out of the bathroom. Its not fun. So i keep thinking there has got to be a better way. I am thinking about trying some other detox plans I guess there is one where you just eat raw fruits and veggies....i think i would like that one MUCH better...but im not sure what it does on the "cleansing" or flushing out your system side.. because the trick with this one is you are eating nothing so the hope is everything that comes out of your colon is not from something you ate recently..

Anyway, day 5 is winding down and i think im looking foward to tomrrow being my last day...

family n friends

2009-02-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

So, I have long been an advocate of having good relationships with my family and friends but I have come to appreciate it more this week. I have been "recovering" this week and I have had many calls from my family and friends to check in on me and see how im doing. My most wonderful friend April has called me several times to see if I need anything and even fed my family one night this week.

My husband and many husbands I know, seem to think that they dont need "friends" and that they are fine without them. I think this is a bunch of crap.

I think it has to do with the maintenance of having relationships with people and the fact that to have a friend you have to be a friend and your relationship has to be cultivated. You have to call them to chat and god forbid, share your feelings, and check in on them and just BE there for them. Im not sure why the man gene has problems with any of this... im not saying ALL men because there are some out there that enjoy this but I would say more than 50% have this relationship issue. Maybe its the communication piece...and that men just dont enjoy sharing their feelings..or maybe their friendship is different and I just dont understand it..

But for whatever it is worth...thank you to all my family and my friends..i hope you know I love you dearly!

Holidays

2009-01-25T09:30:00.000-08:00

Whoever is in charge of holidays and deciding what days are holidays needs to fix some issues.. our current Holidays are totally messed up. Dont they realize that we really dont CARE what holiday it is like Presidents day versus MLK day we only care that we get the day off and our kids dont have school. I think these 2 holidays in general are timed terrible.

You have Christmas and New Years that are right bang a week apart then a scant 3 weeks later comes MLK day.. lame..im not ready for a holiday yet... then not even 1 month later Presidents day. Then we have this HUGE span of time where is not a Holiday until Memorial day.

I know easter is in there but there is no "recognized" holiday for easter so everyone gets screwed. I think we need to have a "Day off Day' or "Labor Day #2 " in the middle between Presidents day and Memorial day. Who is in charge of this.? Who do i need to email about it.?

BOOBS

2008-12-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

So I have a very good friend that turned 40 this year and decided for her 40 she was going to treat herself to some new boobs. Now I have thought off and on that this is something I wanted to do but was rather sceptical. Im sure that you can understand but having 2 kids it has left that part of my body rather deflated... Also then there are all the questions...

What would my family think? Not sure but Im sure in the end they would think I was dumb but they are my family the have to love me regardless of my seeming foolishness.
What would my neighbors/people I work with think? not sure.not sure if I care...
Would I still be able to run ? check..yes i think i would

I have to say after seeing the new boobs I am VERY jealous. They are magnificent. I mean truly perfect... I guess I was not expecting them to be so perfect...but believe they are. I would have to say I am now a believer. They really are not THAT expensive... really and why do people really have hang ups about it... just because porn stars do it...? So do movie stars... Who doesnt want to feel like a movie star.?

Plus you dont have to get Porn star big...I can just get bigger. Life is too short

Time

2008-12-08T20:20:00.000-08:00

Okay I really really dont understand how people get everything done. I am not sure if it is just me or if everyone is this way but Im just not sure how some people are so "put together" and sometimes I think im going to lose it...

Example... okay, I work.. pick up my kids at 3:30... get home by around 3:50 try and sign on the computer and work for a few more hours. Meanwhile kid chaos... screaming crying, fighting, some coloring ( usually on my coffetable or walls), then me trying to mitigate and then a movie (guilt, yes movie is my babysitter but whew i can maybe get some work done)..., then dinner, make dinner, I dont want to eat my dinner its yucky...i want icecream..... then clean up dinner, put dishes in diswasher.. while more chaos and screaming. Next, bed... with please get your jammies on (while they put both legs in ONE and jump back and forth down the hall)... then, If you dont get your jammies on you wont get a story.. brush teeth...that includes spitting toothpaste all over the mirror. In bed, story songs, lights out...then at least 3X back in there for water, or something... Then kids are in bed but house is chaos... dinner still only half cleaned up counters a mess... legos and markers everywhere and a cup of crumbs and smashed up stuff on my floor... huh...its 9oclock.... I have countless meetings tomorrow and I dont want to sweep up crumbs again...are you kidding me.?

Sorry..i know that was a rant..but u know how it gets...just breathe..

7 random things.

2008-11-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

Okay so my sister Britta and my sister Brooke tagged me to do this sillly 7 random things about me. Seeing that are probably the only ones that read this none of the stuff in here will be too shocking but here we go

1. I am freaking out about turning 40. Yes... this is stupid and shallow...but for some reason i have really been freaking out about turning 40. Its like now im old and i dont want to be old...i want to be young and fun and hot.. and not old and dumpy and gross... Okay so not all old people are dumpy and gross...I am exagerating but these are the things that I am freaking out about

2. I am a people person.... I like hanging out with people and socializing. I would have my neighbors/ friends over 3-4 times a week and probably really never get tired of it. I like hanging out with people.

3. THis is related to number 3 but I like having parties but have serious stress about organizing them. If its just a come over and have drinks and we will order pizza ect... i am fine..but if there is expectation that im a "hostess" not that im a bad one it stresses me out.

4. I like Rock Band... So again this relates to 2 and 3 but if you have never played Rockband2 it is very fun. We have Rockband2 and 4 people can play.. 1 person plays guitar, bass, drums and vocals. They have awesome music in there because you can pick oldies like " White Wedding"....or they have System of a Down and Linkin Park ect... very cool.... very fun... especially when you have friends over..

5.My kids watch waay too much TV. Im not sure what to do about this one. My husband is a "TV is a baby sitter" person and I am forever telling them im turning off the TV and that they need to go outside and play. It usually doesnt work, and i have arguments...and then a conversation with myself that all this arguing is not worth it.

6. I wish i was more intellectual. Okay so Im not dumb but, my brain does not retain any "smart" "intellectual" type facts...both my sisters have those smarty type brains and sometimes have conversations where I am like...you gotta be kidding me... you actually think about this. Stuff like that does not happen in my brain... Im not sure what is in there but its not smarty stuff

7. I am a fashion retard.... I like to look nice... and dress up for work ect... but I cannot put an outfit together by myself to save my life. I hate stores like TJ Max ect.. where stuff is super cheap but you have to look through racks and racks of clothes to find the perfect shirt to go with some other pair of pants... NOT for me... I want to go somewhere and I am going to buy what they have put on the manican... i dont know what looks good with what...really...?

ultra...

2008-10-22T17:40:00.001-07:00

So im not sure how it started but my running partner, Chris, and I started talking about how we missed doing trail runs... That conversation progressed to races...and what kind of races we liked and somehow the conversation ended that we both want to do the Leadville 100 trail run. For those that dont know the Leadville 100 is a 100 mile trail run that is considered an Ultra- meaning anything over the 26.2 miles, marathon distance. Not only that it is considered as one of the more difficult Ultra Marathons..because it is on trail and is at altitude...

Interestingly enough I had kind of decided in my mind that I wouldnt be doing a marathon for a while because the training is pretty significant and I had already done several. But for some reason this Ultra talk really got me considering it... Im not sure if it is just because I have never done one before but I have been thinking alot about it lately.

I was at work when I should have been working but what I was really doing was googling training schedules and race times for people who have done the Leadville 100.. The GOOD times for women that do the Leadville 100 are around 27hours... hmmm that really made me stop and think hmmm. Plus they said 75 percent of people that do the Leadville 100 have a pacer... So a pacer is someone who is not signed up for the race but they run the last..30-or so miles with the racer. This happens for a few reasons, you are running a significant distance an im sure by the time you get to 70 miles you are pretty delirious... there is a good chance it is dark at this time AND you probably need some serious motivation and cheering up at this point.

So based on all this I have been trying to convince my running partner that a 50 miler would be a much better choice for right now and we should train for a 50 and see how it goes. For some crazy reason...maybe it is a guy thing he thinks he should run this 100 miler.. Mind you this is a person... and im sorry Chris if you ever read this but it is true... seems to sign up for races and doesnt really train for the properly and ends up either A- dropping out or B- doing the race anyway but feeling completely miserable the entire time because he is not really trained.

I dont like to operate that way and I would feel much better committing to 50 miles to do on my own than 100 miles... who knows or maybe he will acutally get the gumption to train for the 100 miler and I will end up being HIS pacer..

Anyway...at this point im not sure what im going to do other than the fact that it intrigues me.. and Im not sure why. I had already decided I wasnt that interested in another marathon at this point...so why would my brain consider going even further...?

Canning

2008-10-19T10:16:00.001-07:00

So this post is mainly for my over industrious sisters... because lately they have been posting and blogging about canning and doing super industrious stuff. I have an awesome garden... It is big and lots of flowers... EVERY year I plant tomatoes, squash, cucumbers all with the intent of canning them.

I have lived in my house 6 or 7 years and have never canned a single tomato. I love the IDEA of canning but, when it comes to the actual canning of foodstuffs...it never happens. I just can always find something else better to do plus, maybe I dont plant enough tomatoes but, I dont ever seem to have enough to have a true canning experience. I acutally have not done any tomato canning on my own it was always with my super industrious mother who canned everything. I think she acutally made crabapple jam.... have u ever seen a freaking crabapple?? They are supertiny and how many you would have to get and deal with to actually make jam out of seems completely a ridiculous waste of time to me... but maybe that is because she did not have a job "outside the home" until I was about 16 so other than relief society meetings ect..she had to find things to fill her day.

So every year although I know frost is coming.... I dont pick my green tomatoes or cover my plants because i think the time frost comes..im just done and a lazy gardener. I just tore out my tomato plants by the way and made a new resolution that next year I WILL so some canning... Why.... im not sure... will I save alot of money probably not.. I have a bunch of carrots in my garden that i planted and have not done ONE thing with...maybe i need to make some carrot soup....why did i plant so many freaking carrots.? What did i think I was going to do with carrots.? Help canning sisters..

As a side note... my 3 year old just peed all over our trampoline, like on purpose...not an accident... WHY did i have BOYS!

Love in the time of Cholera

2008-09-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

I think I have a love hate relationship with this book. I was going through some of my books decluttering my house and ran across it and just started flipping through it.

I think this is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read (other than maybe "The English Patient". The entire book is like poetry and i wonder what it would be like to be able to express yourself in that way and what it takes to think and describe things so eloquently... check this out..this is my favorite:

"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves"

Is that not the most freaking cool? ..... the entire book is like that where you are just amazed when you are reading it.

The downside however is it has terrible characters... I typically like at least 1 character in the books I read or you try to relate to at least one of them but in this book I had a really hard time relating or empathizing them.

The entire book is about unrequited love and i guess the main female protagonist is semi appealing, but the guy in the book.... ,Florentino Ariza, is basically a pedophile. Now it could be that because the writer is Columbian and it its a cultural thing...but the main character has a thing for like 14 yr old girls.

The other thing I found amazing in this book was the language... It was translated from Spanish and maybe im just dumb but I guess im perpelxed when there are ENGLISH words translated from Spanish that I have no idea what they mean... like diaphanous , ascultation, imperturbable.....I had to look these words up...so im wondering how much liberty does the translator have?? I obviously dont speak spanish...so are there these words in the spanish language..or did the translator just have a good old time..?

Convenience

2008-09-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

There are tons of products out there that are made for convenience..but in the end they dont live up... Bottled garlic for instance... I love the concept. Garlic is a pain in the ass...you have to peel it and smash it and inevitably your hands smell like garlic for at least 2 days.. So I have been buying bottled garlic....its a timesaver..amazing already presmashed.... no smelly hands.

It tastes terrible however... I recently made some fish tampande thing and it called for like 8 cloves of garlic... I am positive the bottled garlic ruined it.... It doesnt even really taste like garlic, im not sure what it tastes like but im tossing my bottled garlic.

I have a cold sore ... and I hate it, hate it hate it. Im not sure what I did in another life to get afflicted with cold sores but I wish i would not have done it. There are all these VERY expensive products that claim to reduce your cold sore by days and I have used them all and they are ALL a bunch of BS.... A cold sore is at least 14 days of digusting ooze and crusty grossness on your face no matter what product is out there. I would like someone to come out with a cold sore prevention that really works......that would be even more convenient for me than even bottled garlic...

I guess I shouldnt be complaining I could have that OTHER herpes, that would REALLY suck.

Book Obsession

2008-09-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Im not sure if everyone is this way but I think I have a book obsession. Often I will start a book or a series of books that I very much become obsessed with. I dont want to do anything but read that book and be in the book. I carry it around with me everywhere and use every 10 minutes of time to read my book. Im not sure why this happens.

I will sometimes delay reading the next book because I feel guilty and know that if I start reading it I wont be able to stop and then I will ignore everyone else and not want to do what I am supposed to be doing because I want to read my book. Im not sure why this type of escapism appeals to me...but it does..

Traveling

2008-09-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

So I have to leave on Monday to go on a business trip to Atlanta, last week I was in San Francisco. That makes me sound very adult and responsible. Its not really that way at all.

I think I have San Francisco pretty down now, but I have to confess that I have traveling anxiety or maybe it is just unfamiliar territory anxiety. I definitely am not one of these "go with the flow" type people who can just "wing it".

When I first started to going to San Francisco I would have stress about it. Basically I would have to be very prepared and print about a zillion maps ( and look at them a zillion times)then, review where I buy my Bart ticket, which Bart train I get on, and which station I have to get off. I would say I had Bart stress for a while, but I think Im okay with it now..just as long as my routine doesn't change.

Monday I go to Atlanta where I have never been AND I think is like one of the biggest airports in the country (yeah). Luckily, I can take a taxi to the hotel but I always stress about dumb things ...like what if I only have a credit card and the taxi only takes cash and what if I cant find the taxi's(very stupid I know), what if the taxi driver doesnt know where my hotel is....

Then I overanalyze what im going to wear. I am there for basically 2 nights 3 days but I end up trying on a bunch of outfits and wondering if I will be over or under dressed.

I am going to this conference that my boss is sending me to on "customer feedback week" So y it is all these seminars from other companies where they are talking about how they use client feedback and survey data to improve their business. The interesting thing is I am wondering who these people at the conference think I am.... a couple of days ago I got a email from one of the meeting organizers inviting me to a "special" luncheon on one of the days with some of the meeting organizers to give feedback and stuff. THEN I got a phone call that one of the meeting organizers wanted to meet with me 1:1.... I guess I can go and be whoever I want to be... Im the only one from my company that is going so I can be as important as I want to be...

Anyway I am going to try to be a bit more adventurous and explore more while I am there. While in SF I always end up going back to my room and watching bad TV.... but my brother is going to go out to dinner with me and show me some sights...the first night. I always go running when traveling because I love to see the city in that way... lots of different things to look at. But im usually stressed with the time change and dont want to be late or miss any meetings or events because i think Im afraid ill get into trouble.... can you get into trouble at a conference...i dont know.

I am yellow...

2008-09-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

I recently went on a business trip to San Francisco where my business group did this personality profile. It is based on Meyers Briggs but is easier to remember because you are classified basically into 4 different color types: Red, Yellow, Green & Blue.

I am dumbing it down a bit because it is more complicated than that because it does take into account stuff like are you an introvert vs extrovert and you actually get a combo color which shows your preferences in each area.

The four colors are basically: Yellow= Involve me, Green= show me you care, Blue= Give me Details, Red= Be bright, be breif, Be gone.

Basically when it comes down to it I am predominantly Yellow with a less degree of Green, then a bit of blue and almost no red. So, in these things they always like to say " no personality type is better than others" But basically Yellows are kinda flighty people who just like to socialize and make sure everyone feels okay about everything..

Pretty much EVERYONE in my work group is blue which means they just like facts and information... no wonder I am sitting in meetings wondering why I am so bored by their data. The most interesting thing is that pretty much everyone is my OPPOSITE type... which means they want to ask me alot of weird placed direct questions and then go away and think about them.

Unfortunately that is not the way I like to do business in my brain... it leaves me feeling like I have done something wrong and wondering why they have gone away instead of talking about why they are asking me these questions, and how their day is, and what are they doing this weekend, and how there kids are and about anything except what they want to know which is data.

I guess if nothing else I know now that my colleagues and I communicate in totally different ways. What I dont like about it though is that I work with REALLY REALLY smart people and even though no colors are better than others...Yellows seem kinda Like the dumb blonde....that kinda sucks.

Scooterrific

2008-09-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

For my 39th birthday my husband decided to suprise me with a scooter.... SUPRISE!!! It was a very very thoughtful gift other than the fact that I have never really considered the possibility of owning a scooter.

In addition to my scooter I was also suprised with about $3000.00 in repair costs for my car (which i love very much) SUPRISE!!!. Which is leaving me about $7000 in the hole from where I was about 2 weeks ago. Hmmm why are birthdays so good.?

After begging, pleading, cursing and crying with the scooter dealership I have now found myself still the proud owner of a 2008 Italian made scooter.. (i hear they are the best!)

I have been trying to embrace my inner scooter.... and it is rather fun to ride.

Scoot.. is 50cc's which means he is still considered a "bicycle" and I do not need to get a motorcycle liscence to drive him nor do I need insurance. This is very odd and a bit scary to me...but I dont make the laws. A fact that my 18 yr old that is currently not insured picked up on right away and MY scooter is rapidly becoming HIS scooter.

The cool thing is he does get about 100 miles to the gallon and is very economical, when it is nice outside. He will go 35 miles an hour..4o if im lucky and there is a slight downhill... cars do seem to pass me pretty frequently.

I just need to stop thinking about wrecking and having all my skin ripped off in the process while I am riding my little scoot to and from work.

Scoot did come with a very attractive helmet that I actually have started wearing again because I cannot get the thought of being creamed out of my mind. But my helmet would look better if I was holding a light saber than riding my little scoot.

BTW... Scoot is currently listed on Craigs list...so if anyone is interested in owning a a very little used very thought birthday present... let me know....

Bug Teeth

2008-08-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

So today Griffin my 5yr old was saying to his brother Sly... " If you dont stop sucking your fingers you are going to get BUG teeth". I said to him...Its not BUG teeth its BUCK teeth. He says... "if his teeth turn into BUG teeth how will he get his teeth back".

I wonder what he thought was going to happen... Like his mommy Sly will have BUG teeth with all his exessive finger sucking!

Make it count

2008-08-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

I was on vacation last week and learned that a friend of mine at work had died. His name was Jon Konjevod and he was my age and had 2 daughters, his wife was 2 months pregnant. He had a severe asthma attack and died on Friday, and he was my friend.

I cannot imagine the terrible things his wife and family are going through right now. What a crazy sad world.

My mom sends me all these spammy emails about living a "life that matters" and "making every minute count" while they do sometimes make me teary they do put things into perspective.

So i do have a few preachy things to say. #1 buy life insurance #2... THINGS do not matter (not your car or your big TV or any of that other stuff you do not need ) #3 People do matter and relationships do matter... so my advice... hug your kids every day several times, then do it again...... forgive someone you dont want to, more importantly..forgive yourself... then call your parents and siblings and tell them you love them. its important.

There is this verse I really like by a band called ALO... the song is "FLY" and it says " I want to tell them what I cant explain, I got to tell them not be afraid. I want to tell them in the end that there is no pain, because when you see the light, you gonna rise like a lion up into the sky, while the world around you dies... " .

God i hope that is what its like..i would like that.

New appliance bliss

2008-08-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

We have had a bit of bad Karma lately and our disposal has broken, along with our dishwasher. We ended up getting a new disposal, sink faucet and dishwasher.
All of these appliances have been in disrepair basically since we bought our house 6 years ago..but they decided to die all at the same time.

The dishwasher had been on its way out for a while as it made a very loud whirring noise... to the point where people would be at my house and say "what is that noise"..."oh, thats the dishwasher". Then last month it started in with the clunk clunk noise on top of the normal whirring.

My disposal has always been worthless. It has leaked off an on under my sink forever and never chopped anything up. I would always look in there and see whole spaghetti or whatever else accidentally made it way in there and regularly had to put my hand in there and clean it out..yuck.

As a side note when my dishwasher was dead I had to do my dishes by hand one day.. and it totally and I am going to say it again totally SUCKED! It took me like 2 hours to do all my dishes and it was terrible and awkward and there was water all over afterwards... i would give anything to have that 2 hours back and vowed never to do my dishes by hand again( we ate on paper plates until it was installed) ..

Well with our the death of our appliances my handy husband installed a new disposal, new faucet and a stinky Russian guy came to our house and installed our new shiny dishwasher. I would have to say im am in new appliance heaven!
I have a disposal that ACTUALLY chops up food, and it has a cool name the insinkerator! My dishwasher (in addition to being very attractive and shiny) makes NO noise AND my faucet does not leak on top when I turn it on. It also has a very cool pull our sprayerey thing.

I have to say I wish i would have done all this 6 years ago! I love my appliances that actually work like they are supposed to, I cant believe I waited so long to get new ones!!!
All hail modern appliances!

Dont put sand in your underwear

2008-08-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

Im not sure why this is such and exciting thing but lately my boys have decided it is very fun to put as much sand as you can in your underwear. Sometimes they stay in the sandbox and sometimes they walk all over the yard, or even jump on the trampoline while the sand is falling all out.... but inevitably I end up with cups of sand on my carpet. I think this is one of those things you need to write down so you can laugh about it later, but i really get sick of asking them not to put sand in their underwear. Then later of course you have the sand in the butt crack that is not very fun to remove. At this point hindsight being 20/2o I think i would have opted not to have a sandbox with a ton of sand in it. I am wondering how long it is going to take for every grain of that sand to eventually make its way into my house.