Living an EXTRAordinary Life

It was a dark and stormy night.  Okay, not stormy, but it was dark and cold and night when I woke up on the first day of this November, to run this race.  Oh, I was so tempted to stay in bed.  The temperature:  37.  Brrr …. really, that’s too cold even for early November.

But I got up anyway, and prepared for the race.  We were not supplied with timing chip tags, so I had to figure out how to put my chip on my shoe via the laces and this was not the kind of thing I can figure out easily at 5:30 in the morning.

We left later than we wanted to, of course, but were early and beat the road closings.  We had the good fortune of the starting line being near Matt’s office, so we used that parking lot and stayed in the car where it was warm.  And I had access to indoor plumbing … no outhouses for me.

When it was time, we made our way over to the start line, and Matt found the 2:00 pace team and I went to the back.  The slowest pace team was 2:30, despite the fact that we had 3:15 to finish.

There were supposedly 4,500 signed up for this race.  That is a small race to begin with, and looking around, there was nowhere near that.  Oh no.  I hate these small races, I feel so slow!

The race began through the South Side of Pittsburgh and as we begin, 80% of the people participating break away.  I start to have a meltdown and must have given off some meltdown vibes, cause there are others around who start to talk to me and I express my sincere fear that I will not finish in time.  An older woman says that I will and she will finish too, even on the sidewalk.  The younger woman, whose name was also Jennifer was super supportive and we ran together all the way through South Side to the West End Bridge.  I had to stop to tie my shoe (of course) and she said that she was going to keep moving and I told her that I would catch up.  I never did.  I did see her a few times looking back for me, but I had lost too much ground, between tying the shoe and then having to go UPHILL to get onto the bridge.

Around the corner from the bridge, mile 4, my leg started to twinge.  For a moment, I panicked and thought that at least the relay station was only 2.5 miles ahead and if I had to stop that was a good place to do so.  But then I said “My leg doesn’t hurt, there is nothing wrong with it” and it was indeed fine after that.  I must have just stepped funny.

I ran/walked, ran/walked, all through the North Side.  There were few people behind me.  It was very surreal, I was practically alone, feeling like I was merely trudging along on a practice run, except that the streets of Pittsburgh were open just for me.

The prettiest part of the trip was a part of Northside that I had only seen once, at night, during a Halloween 5K.  There is a park somewhere nearby and a walking trail to the right.  But we were on the road, of course, and the trees were still holding on to their leaves.  This was essentially the “turnaround”.  One more uphill ramp, to the 31st street bridge, and down into town and back to Southside and we are done.

Along the way, two girls taking a walk break said that they were surprised that the race was so competitive.  They didn’t think running was so big in Pittsburgh and didn’t think they would be all the way in the back all alone.  They were there for fun, not for speed.  At this point we were all averaging somewhere around a 12:00 mile, so we weren’t exactly going slow.  But we felt like it, as it was so isolated back there.

Around mile 7.5, 8, somewhere in there, I knew I was probably done running, or at least trying to run for any length of time, and I was also nauseated.  At this point, I looked over and saw someone who looked like she was struggling too.   She was also not feeling well, so we helped each other by walking together.  She was walking faster than me, so I had to keep up.  Then she slowed down, and I sped up so she had to keep up with me.  Mile 10 went really fast, but the rest of them seemed to go on forever.

Eventually, my nausea did pass, so I was happy about that and Rachel and I did get to the finish, and I did run across the finish line.   In pretty much 3:00.  That is my third slowest half marathon time.

I would not have done nearly as well had it not been for the kindness of strangers and the support of Jennifer and Rachel.  I finished 138th out 139th in my age group, and I actually think that is a bit funny.  There were not even 2,100 finishers in total.

One thing I was surprised about was that they did have water until the end. I hear about the people at the end who don’t get any because the race runs out.  There was no sport drink after awhile though, but I don’t know if its cause we were late, or if they didn’t pass them out.

The pros of the race:
*The course was nice
*Our goodies … this HUGE reusable shopping bag from Dick’s, a reusable water bottle, a towel, a finisher’s hat (which we got at  the expo) and a long sleeved technical tee
*Plenty of water and food at the finish (although could that be because half of the registrants didn’t show?)

The bad:
*Not enough participants
*There were not time clocks at every mile and I don’t think all of the miles were even marked
*The medals don’t have the year on them
*Not a lot of crowd support

One of the problems with blogging about something that happened in the past is that you tend to lose of the detail.  I’ll try to remember the important things as I go.   Fortunately, two of the last four of our days were relatively low key.

MONDAY:

We went on the Kilohana Plantation Hike.  This is the same plantation that we went to the day before for breakfast and shopping.   The hikes starts with a train ride, the same train ride that the people who only want the train ride go on, then we get off to hike, have lunch, and pick fruit in the orchard and then get picked up by the train back to the plantation.

Our group consisted of mostly people older and less fit than us, except for one who was most likely younger than Matt.  She had a “personality” disorder.  At first, I found her annoying, but then as I realized that she wasn’t just weird, but wired differently, I warmed up to her.  What can I say, it was morning, I wasn’t fully functional myself and had late realization.

So we board the train.  The first stop, the one that started the hike was fun.  We got to feed the wild pigs and the goats.  Of course, the goats being goats tried to hog all the food.  There were itty bitty baby pigs there.  The smallest ran into the grass though, and we didn’t get a picture of them.  Matt took pictures and I did the feeding.   During the hike, the learned that there are 350,000 wild pigs on the island, compared to the 65,000 human residents.  And that is why there are no more peacocks on the hike.

The hike was long, but slow.  And interesting. We saw a lot of different flowers and learned about the parasitic banyon tree.  We saw a 100 year old mango tree.  It had long since stopped producing fruit, and a banyon took over, but for a mango tree to still be standing after 100 years is really something.

After the hike, we had an okay lunch.  I had a salad and chips.  The salad had the little purple flowers that supposedly tasted like mushrooms on it, but I didn’t taste that with all the other veggies mixed in.  Then we headed for the orchard. On our way, a horse came over to talk to us.  I thought about my niece Maddie  right then and how happy she would have been over the horse coming over to her.

The orchards …. ahh… the guide cut up a delicious pineapple for us to share.  Never had a better tasting pineapple ever! I tried some new fruits … lychee (pronounced LEE-chee), and I can’t describe it except that its juicy and sweet.  Oh so yummy.  I had a longanberry … several of them, they look similar to the lychee, taste like a canteloupe.  And a star fruit, which I have seen here in grocery stores and never bought, cause I didn’t know what to do with it.  Turns out, you slice it like you would slice a cucumber or zucchini into rounds.  Its flavor is reminiscient of a kiwi.

The highlight of this excursion was Hobo Gray, a friendly cat who hangs out by the train station.  The train driver told us that she was abandoned there six months ago and they have been taking care of her.  She was limping, and he promised that if she wasn’t feeling better the next day, she would go to the vet.  He seemed very concerned about her.  Hobo let us pet her.  We were there before anyone else, so we got to her before it all got to be too much for her.   That was our only cat fix of the whole trip.  All the other cats seem to be true ferals and run from us.

After the hike, we went to the beach.  It was hard to believe that our trip was almost over and we wanted as much beach time as we could get!

TUESDAY:

We didn’t do very much on Tuesday.  A lot of reading and hanging out at the condo, outside.   The event we had planned was water tubing.  This was run by the same company that we went ziplining with on Friday.   So it was the same deal, get there, get gear, take a long truck drive, tube, eat, go back.  The actual tubing was okay.  I think it was definitely geared to families, as it was mellow.  I would have liked some waterfalls or bigger dips or something (nothing that would cause us to fall out of our tubes though), just a bit of a thrill.  It was relatively relaxing, or as much as it can be in an organized group.  The stream was 2.5 miles long, which sounds short, and it was.   The lazy river at Sandcastle (for those who know it) … that is about what this was, plus tunnels and a guide or two.   I would have liked a bit more Raging Rapids (at Kennywood) for the experience.    I thought the lunch was better than the zipline one, but the people who worked this event were not as friendly or nice as the zipliners.

WEDNESDAY:

Was essentially our last full day here in the sense of having the condo.  We mostly did nothing in the morning, although I do think that this was the day I was reading on the lanai, and saw a turtle, and then another.   I called in to Matt and there were at least six or seven swimming around together.  It was cool.  Matt ran in to the condo to get the camera and started snapping pictures and actually got several that shows the turtles.  That was this year’s theme for the trip, turtles. 

Afternoon on the beach, where the “waves” were the roughest all week, but no critters joined us in our swimming.  We stopped at the grocery store to get something for dinner and breakfast the next morning, and packed and read some books.

THURSDAY:

Got up and cleaned up the condo, showered and finished packing.  Sigh.  I can’t believe 10 days went by so fast.  When it got there, it seemed like we had so much time, and then whoosh! it was all over … but we still had some vacationing to do!

We “checked out” of the condo at 10:30 and headed west to Port Allen Airport where we went Powered Hang Gliding.  Let me tell you all … this was frightening!  I’m quoting Matt here, but its like riding a motorcycle in the air.  There is nothing around you.   Yes, we are seatbelted in, but that wasn’t good enough.

I admit that I was this close to making him land and stop.  But what stopped me?  I didn’t want to be only the fourth person to make them do that.  According to their website, only 3 in 18,000 people have done that. I am sure that there have been more students since us, but that three still stands.

It wasn’t the turbulence, it was just the being in the air with no outer protection.   About half way through though, I started to relax and enjoy it.   Matt got the option to steer his plane, I didn’t.  I was offered, it was a “lesson” after all, but I was too scared.  Matt got to go into the canyon and I stayed over the water, that in itself another story, as I can’t swim.  But we were totally safe, because we were 6,000 feet in the air, and at that point, the air holds you in and if the engine failed, we had a long time to glide down and steer to a safe place.  But it didn’t feel that way at first!

Would I do it again?  Probably.  But no time soon.  It’s very cost prohibitive.

Then we went to lunch at Joe’s on the Green, and discovered too late that it was good for lunch as well as breakfast.  Oh well.  We did some souvenir shopping and then …. we had nothing left to do and our flight wasn’t until 10:50.

So we went to the beach and sat in a pavillion and read our books.  The couple who had gone hang gliding right before us were there too and they saw us and we talked to them for awhile.   Eventually, after the sun started to go down (and I got some awesome sunset pictures), we headed out the direction of the airport.   We still had time so we decided to kill some of it at Border’s, then grabbed a quick dinner and headed to the airport at just about the perfect time for that.

In Lihue … well, they never were equipped for security and security is outside … the check in counters are sort of inside …. they are under a canopy, but its still open.  Its weird, but you have to go behind security to check in and check your bags.  First, checked bags have to be inspected by the USDA for plants and produce.  Then you get your boarding pass, get your checked bag tags, take your bags to the TSA bag area and then you get into general security line.  Anyway, the set up is a bit confusing.  And then when you get to the gate, they check your carry on for contraband.  We watched one guy get harrassed over his case of papayas, that I am pretty sure he bought in the airport, cause he was behind me in the main security line.

The trip home was uneventual.  Didn’t sleep as much as I would have liked, but got some sleep in.  The flight out of Phoenix to Pittsburgh was delayed 45 minutes, but we landed only 15 minutes behind schedule.  My best sleep was during that delay.  The plane moved, its like a car, and I was out.  When I woke up, I was surprised we were still on the ground.  I even slept through the pilot announcements. 

We are working to get over our jet lag.  Saturday, we were not up that late, around 11, but Sunday, I was up at 1:30!  Oy!  I hope to be back to somewhat normal in a few days.  Its hard.

In Summary:

Poipu is a nice place to stay.  There are grocery stores and restaurants and Lihue is only 15 miles away.  Our condo, while not deluxe accomodations (our room at the Palazzo in Vegas was much nicer for instance), had everything we wanted and you cannot get closer to the water than these.   It did not really have a beach, as we thought.  Just a small sandy area that was shared with another big resort.   We didn’t spend time there because it was so small and lots of people.  But the turtle sightings were awesome as was listening to the ocean waves all day and night.   The place wasn’t air conditioned and the trade winds didn’t cool the bed and bathrooms like promised.  It was actually hot.

We may stay at the North Shore the next time, where we stayed the first time.  I don’t think we’ll find a condo or house so close to the ocean however.

Don’t think these beaches are like the ones on the mainland shore.  The fact that these are volcanos make the beaches very rocky.   If you surf, or body board or body surf, or snorkel, its great.  If you just splash in the ocean, its great.  But its not like the beaches in North Carolina where you can go out to your neck, still have sand beneath your feet and ride waves inland.   If you try that in Kauai, you’ll break your head.

I highly recommend “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook” by Andrew Doughty.  He didn’t steer us wrong at all.

This was, by far, one of the best, if not the best vacation ever.

Thursday was a mellow-er day for us.   We were up early again, around 7:00. Not sure if I like that or not.  I am not pleased with being sleepy at 8:30 at night.   But  I am happy that we are still awaking so early, because if we became night people here, well, our adjustment at home would be that much harder.

This was our first run of the trip.  We managed to drag our feet too long and it was 8:30 or so before we got out there.  It was very hot and humid.  At least the lower 80’s with humidity about 70%.   And hills!  Not bad ones, but a lot of them!  We ran for about 40 minutes, I just couldn’t do any more.   A migraine threatened me all day, but I fought it off and won, for the most part.

We also went to the local grocery store, the one about 8 minutes away, instead of going to Lihue.  We just needed to pick up some stuff we didn’t think to buy and had already run out of.   It’s called Sueoka and it’s a cute little grocery store in Koloa.  Which in itself is a cute little village.  Mental note to self … take photos of Koloa.

Then we went to the beach.   I wanted to go back to the beach despite the sunburn.  This time, we moved to the end of the beach, and noticed that there was lots of sand … but not really any waves.  But it was fine with us.  We sat on the ocean floor and let what waves were there carry us. It’s quite relaxing just hanging out.  I think the lack of waves was due to the rock wall that was breaking the waves.  On the other side of the rocks, was a beach called Brenneke’s that is good for boogie boarding and body surfing.  Very large rough waves over there.

While we were in the water, the lifeguards yell out to everyone “Just so you know, there is a Hawaiian Monk Seal heading your way.  They can be very dangerous.  I repeat, they can very dangerous to people, these Hawaiian Monk Seals”.  Or something like that.

There are less than 1500 of these animals in the WORLD.  Even seeing them here in Hawaii is not a guarantee.  They guess that about 15 or 16 live “on Kauai”.   Usually the south shore, where we are staying, but generally in the more remote beaches.  When we were hiking on Thursday out on Gillan beach, there were signs everywhere,  some “informal”,  and way off the water that warned people to stay away from any seals they encounter.   This was a relatively uncommon occurrence, and we get to see one!

We stood on the sand and watched him swimming around.  He was HUGE.  And from the glimpses we got, he looked like any other seal you see in the zoo.  Except that this is natural habitat.  That always makes it better.  He was sticking around, we moved to our chairs and watched him swim directly towards a lady who had not gotten out of the water.  She looked intimidated and managed to get away before he got directly to her.   So very cool, though, to see him or her, its not something that happens every day.

We originally planned pasta for dinner, but decided that we didn’t feel like cooking, so we walked to Bubba’s where I had another Taro burger.  Really, it tastes just like any other veggie burger.

And apparently the cure for sunburn is more sun … cause I didn’t get any more red.  In fact, I got brown.

Friday, the 11th, was our 10 year anniversary.   Neither of us really felt like running, so we went out to breakfast.   We went to Joe’s, which is only a few minutes from here.    According to our books, this place was good for breakfast only, and indeed, the breakfast was good.  I had tofu scrambler.  You won’t find that on any menu in Pittsburgh!  Matt had pancakes.   Then we went for a walk down Lawai, the opposite direction of where we have been.  Thought we’d get to Sprouting Horn, but we didn’t make it that far.  We stopped at a marina for a bit and watched the waves and some scurrying crabs.   Sea life animals are so much fun to watch.

Then … ziplining!  Yay!   There is this phenomenon in Kauai dealing with GPSes.  They just don’t work!  They work to a point, but don’t get you where you are going.  Many times, the “pin” for the location you are going to … its just plain in the wrong place.  This day, the pin WAS in the right place … except that there was lack of road signs and Kauai Backcountry was set off the road.   We drove past it three times, then I finally called them.  And the person who I talked to … seemed dumbfounded!  She was confused over my “can you give me a landmark?” question.  Asked which direction I was coming from … I had already told her we were heading North on Kuhio Highway, to the T … heading towards Hanalei, and that I knew that we went past it.  She was so confused!  And I’m the “foreigner”!  Finally, she said that they were next to “Ooh Baby” which we saw, and that is what I asked her in the first place!    And when we got there, we saw why we drove right on by.

NOTE:  Kauai businesses have a strong need for website designers/maintainers … if anyone out there is enterprising enough to pursue it!

But enough of that!  About the ziplining itself!  Whoa!  It was SO. MUCH. FUN.

We were both a tiny bit scared when we got there.  But also excited.  The first thing that had to be done was weigh in and getting our harnesses and hard hats.  We took a long vehicle ride to the ziplining area.  This ride was pretty long, a good 20 minutes.  The guide was funny and gave us the history of the land.  The land is privately owned … its something like 27,000 acres.  With lots of wildlife living there.  The only freshwater stream comes from the mountain on the property.

Anyway, we get to the top, we get our photo op, and the guides take pictures of the participants.  Then we get our safety briefing.  The first of the seven lines is a “bunny” line.  It was short, not that far off the ground.   Matt and I were the second to last (out of five couples) to go.  Matt went first.  Then I went.  I, of course, “landed” back facing instead of forward facing.    And it was so much fun.  This first line went so fast, it was a warm up.  I needed one more to feel ready.

The second line was the highest one of all of them.  And the second highest in the world.  I was a little intimidated by that at first…. but LOVED it.   And by this time, I felt totally safe, even though I still held on with two hands.  Lines 3 and 4 were the longest, and by far, my favorites.   By the third time, I wasn’t holding on with a death grip any longer, and only used one hand by line 5.  I really could have done several more than seven! I never got the hang of steering though, cause when I was up there, my brain told my hands to turn in the direction I wanted to go, instead of the appropriate, turn in the direction you are going.   When we were done, we were TIRED.  I can’t believe how much that wore me out.   They fed us lunch from Subway and offered swimming in a stream, but nobody bothered.

Saturday we started out going to the Kauai museum.  It looks small from the outside, but there is a LOT of stuff in there to see.  Very interesting, but I didn’t retain much about the history of the island.    The gift shop was nice, and had the nice shell leis that they make on Ni’ihau and cost $200+.  No thank you!

We had read a lot about Duane’s Ono Char Burger, both in our guidebooks and online.  So since we “out that way” we decided to go find it and give it a try.  This is a place that locals go, and its a stand on the side the road.  However, its WAY past Lihue, where we were, about 30 minutes away.   And, of course, the GPS had it wrong!  I did see this place as we drove fast by it, cause the GPS had it showing a few more miles up the road.  So we had to turn around.  And really, there aren’t really many roads in Kauai, so turning around is a bit of an adventure by itself.

Some of the things we heard was that there were stray cats there, but nary one to be found this day.  Also that MINIMUM wait times for food was 20 minutes and sometimes it can take an hour!  Ludicrous.  We waited less than 10 minutes.  That’s all.  I had a veggie sandwich, what they call a combo … cheese, veggies, sprouts on rye bread and really good onion rings and a milkshake that made me sick the rest of the day (I should not eat ice cream) but tasted really great.  Matt had chicken fingers and fries and milkshake.

We stopped at a little fair in Kapa’a.  This has got to be my favorite place in Hawaii.  It’s charming and quaint little village.   This is where the Bikram Yoga studio is, and where the former wonderful vegan and raw food restaurant Blossoming Lotus used to be.    The fair sells Hawaiian clothings and crafts and fresh fruit (but it didn’t look that good, and I didn’t need any anyway).   I bought a Kauai and turtle decal for my car.  I’ve kind of gotten a little fond of those turtles.

I also love driving (riding) this stretch of land because it borders the ocean.  Beaches all along the side of the highway.  Ahh….  We then stopped at Coconut Grove Marketplace and looked around the shops.  I remember when we were here before, that we shopped there.  It’s pretty sad, a lot of the storefronts are all closed up now.

This was when Matt got an ocular migraine, so we just headed back to the condo and hung out here and read and watched The Food Network.

Today, Sunday, we got up and ran.   We ran for about 60 minutes and Matt’s Garmin (GPS) said that was only 4.8 something miles … so I think that was off too.  I tell you … we are really out in the middle of nowhere … there was no way Matt only ran 4.8 miles in 60 minutes!

After our run, we went to the restaurant Gaylord’s for their Sunday brunch.  Gaylord’s is located on the Kilohana Plantation.  Its acres of land that used to be owned by someone (ah, yes, articulate, I am) and the house is still in its original condition.  But now, its Gaylord’s restuarant and some really nice shops.  There are also gardens all over there, and the place offers train rides to take you around and look at them all.  And there is also a hike and train ride deal that is about four hours long and we are actually doing that tomorrow.  But today, we just ate, and looked at the shops and when we were outside, we saw four cats.  None of which came to us, but clearly weren’t feral.  Two black and whites … looked identical.  They were so cute.  The male (it was obvious) at least acknowledged me, but his companion insisted he follow, so he did.   I’ll post a link to the website tomorrow, after the hike.

Then … we stopped to buy some beverages and bread for dinner and came back here to read before heading to the beach again.   We were in the water with TWO turtles.  The turtles were only 10 feet away!  Yep, 10 feet!  Two of them!   I was excited.

We stayed at the beach about three hours and did not get burned by the sun, and relaxed in our condo.  It’s a mess, I want to clean it, but I’m on vacation and I’m really trying to resist. 

This concludes the first 7 days of our trip.  This, is, really and truly, the best vacation ever.

Matt and I are here on the island of Kauai, celebrating 10 happy years of marriage, for 10 full days.  There will be alot of stuff to talk about, so I am writing it all down as we go.  Partly for my own personal memory and also to inform everyone of what we’ve been up to while we were here.  And yes, I’ll go into detail! 

Monday was travel day.  We were travelling USAirways.  I have to admit, I was worried about our layover in Phoenix.  If our flight out of Pittsburgh was late, we were in trouble.  But, for the first time in a long time, neither flight was delayed, and the one to Kauai was even early to land.

Flying first class is awesome.  It’s wonderful to be in those bigger seats and only the two of us in a row.  I was disappointed that neither flight had foot rests though.  I liked that we could have beverage service right off the bat, although I didn’t need any.  I do have to say that the flight attendant on the first flight was “friendly-bordering-on-annoying” though.  The meal we were given was actually appropriate for me.  I wasn’t sure how veg-friendly it would be, or how filling, so I had a Qdoba breakfast burrito before the flight.  The breakfast I was given was yogurt/granola, a croissant and fresh fruit.  I ate the fruit and the croissant, and a few bites of the yogurt.  Just mostly to confirm that I, indeed, do not care for yogurt.    Matt slept through the meal.

In Phoenix, we had the dilemma that it was breakfast time there, but we were already up for over  6 hours and WANTING lunch, and KNOWING that there was no way the meal on the plane would be suitable, I had to find something and settled on pizza, which turned out to be VERY good.   Later, when the flight attendant asked me which meal I wanted, I told her neither.  She asked me if I would like it later, and I said “no, I’m vegetarian”.  She was nice though, and brought me a salad (which was tasty and made of REAL greens) and a roll.  I thought that was very thoughtful.  It’s not her fault her stupid “boss” didn’t offer vegetarian meals on these particular flights.  Nor kosher or gluten free.  Wonderful, eh?

When we landed in Kauai, our first stop was to Wal-Mart.  Now, I hate Wal-Mart you probably know and avoid it like the plague.  But sometimes, in paradise, we gotta go where we gotta go.   So to Wal-Mart we go.  We wanted some groceries and beach supplies.  They didn’t have beach supplies at all.  But fortunately, after exploring the closet, we found everything we needed here at the condo.

Our condo is nice, our view is beautiful.  The ocean waves right outside our door.  I’m listening to them rush right now.  It’s very relaxing.  With the screen doors and windows, it keeps it cool.  The bedroom and bathrooms, however, are stifling.  A bit of advice to any future beach condo renters.  Get a second or third floor space … then you can keep the windows open all night and sleep with the breeze!

That night, we went to bed early.  I tried to stay awake until 10:00 p.m., which would have meant I was up for 24 hours, thinking it would be cool to say that and also would help to adjust to island time.   But, alas, I fell asleep at 8:45 p.m.  Matt was later than that.  Of course, we were up before 7:00 a.m. the next morning.

Tuesday, we got up and had breakfast and took a walk.  It was already hot at 8:00 a.m.  Uh-oh, that doesn’t bode well for running!   We then came back here and was lazy for awhile and went to Poipu beach.  The beach was nice, but not practical for what I call swimming … going out into the waves and riding them.  There are too many rocks, and I was afraid I would be knocked over by current and get my head banged up and at worst, die, and at best, be bruised.  So we sat on the edge of the water and let the waves hit us there.  I enjoyed that.  Eventually, we did go back to our chairs and sat down and read.  I thought we were in the shade, but I am lobster red, so I guess not.     The nice thing about the beach is that there is a grassy area, so we didn’t have to sit in the sand.  And trees … which, apparently, do not offer any sun protection.

Cool beach happenings … we noticed a bunch of people standing by the water and pointing and taking pictures.  We eventually got up and joined them and saw a HUGE sea turtle swimming.  He came nearly to shore and worked his way back out.  I really wish we would have had our camera.

Another thing, we were surrounded by chickens and chicks and even, I think, quail.  Chickens run all over Kauai, and the roosters are confused, as they caw “Cock-a-doodle-do” all day long.   While we were sitting in our chairs, reading, some chickens came over to us and just hung out.  A mama with her babies were in the area too.  Now … in all of m life, I I never thought I’d share beach space with chickens.  It’s surreal.   See, I always say “Chickens are our friends”. 

We decided to go out to the best pizza in Kauai for dinner.  Our GPS had us going the wrong way (apparently when Kauai lists an address as 2-something, you need that 2- cause its not the same as 3- ).  It was the best pizza!  I had zucchini and green onion, and the zucchini was sliced rounds and not chopped, and looked very pretty.  On our wrong way drive we saw birds sitting on cows.

Wednesday once again found us up early.  And boy, did we fill it.  We didn’t have any way to carry water, so we postponed our run until tomorrow, and decided to hike instead.  However, before we did that, we headed up to Lihue to go to the “big” grocery store.  We started out at Hilo Hattie’s so I could get some sundresses, and then to K-Mart for long sleeves and SPF 50!  for the beach.  The store was okay.  I thought the selection small, but was impressed with the amount of organic and other healthy options it had.  But food here is so expensive.

After that trip, we went on the hike.  We chose a hike nearby that was recommended by our travel book.  It was a bit “off the beaten path”.  The directions say to follow the road until it dead ends and go on the unpaved road.  It started out unpaved, but then became rocky and very hard to navigate … especially in our Mustang.  The trail started at Gillen beach and travelled up some cliffs.   We, however, walked down the wrong path and was at the group of four beaches first.  These beaches were wonderful!  Nice and isolated, although swimming would be trecherous.  It was perfect for walking and hanging out though.  We walked probably an extra mile to get to the trail start and had to navigate a stream.  Matt managed to jump over it, but I removed my shoes and socks and walked through.  Then I had sand in my shoes.  Oh well, I am in Kauai after all. Anyway, the trail was made of lithified sand dunes.  The water really rages up against the rocks there.  We took some awesomely beautiful pictures.

After the hike, we came back to the condo to change.  That is the lovely part of this trip, we have a lovely comfy space to keep coming back to.    While we were here, the management company knocked on the door and wanted to swap out a couch.  But then they changed their mind.  Whatever.

Out to dinner at Poipu Tropical Burgers that was NOT nearly as bad as the reviews said.  Our service was friendly, the fries were good.  I liked my housemade veggie burger, and Matt said that his burger was “ordinary”.  But ordinary doesn’t mean mad.  We walked around the shops there, and we will probably go back at the end of our stay for souvenirs and gifts.   Then we had some gelato.  Yum!  So much cheaper than Vegas’!  I chose french vanilla and pumpkin spice and Matt had chocolate and french vanilla.

The only really “bad” thing to report is that Matt (it had to be him, he was the only one closing the windows) killed a poor innocent gecko, that was hanging out in the window track.  Apparently, he closed the window on the poor dear thing and then when we opened the window, he was crushed.  We didn’t even notice until we went to shut it again.  We are very remorseful for this senseless killing.

So that is days 1-3!  More fun to come!

So often, all we do or hear is complaints about humankind.  And really, can we be blamed?  In an age of dogfighting, rudeness, poor customer service and road rage, some days we just wonder where the human race is headed.

And I personally, have had a lot of bad customer service coming my way lately.  I’ve mentioned it on this blog.  However, this week, things really turned around.

It all started when I bought a sewing magazine.  I fell instantly in love with one the projects, its a wall hanging quilt for Halloween.  It’s not really hard, and I wanted to make it, but I didn’t want to have to go and find different fabrics to make it. Call me lazy, but I wanted THOSE ones.  Particularly the middle panel.

So I sent an e-mail to the magazine inquiring about the fabric.  On many projects they state the name of the material and where to get it.  But not this time.  I didn’t expect a response.  I thought maybe it might be a question in the letters section in next issue.  To my astonishment, actually got a response.  They gave me the “brand” of fabric and links to three stores that the manufacturer said ordered a lot.  I check out the web sites and … not helpful.  They were pretty much brick and mortar stores, with no option to buy online.  One did have option to buy online, but didn’t have very many of the collection.  The person who wrote me the letter actually called her local fabric store and asked them if they had any before sending me the link to that store, which unfortunately, did not have an internet store.   To make a long story shorter, I did find everything I needed.  Two of the patterns are in different colors than I wanted, but it will still look nice.

To think how many possible letters they get every day and they took the time out to help me.  I was overjoyed.

For an encore, enter Sears Optical Online.  You know how I hate the customer service in the Optical store at Ross Park? I’m not sure if I have mentioned it here, but in the past … well, lets just say that my contacts are usually sitting there and I never get called about them, or they get lost and I have to go back to the store after I was already there.  They seriously are not organized there.  Very unmotivated employees.  The doctor himself though, he’s a good guy.

The last time I needed contacts, I decided to see if I could order them online, have them shipped here and  not have to worry about the store not calling me or losing them again.   I could!   This time, however, my prescription had run out and I wasn’t happy with the brand I was using.  I mentioned that to the doctor at my exam, and he gave me Ciba Vision to try and ordered trial pairs of two other pairs.  I loved the Ciba Vision and wore them for nearly three weeks, before I went to the store to see if my others were there.  The people working in front were all “Were you called?”  “No, but, see, you NEVER call me and they are always here”.  I am sure they called me some bad names in their head.  So they looked for them and couldn’t find them.  I said “I need new ones, I am going away for the weekend. Why weren’t these ordered?”  I was promised that they would be ordered and overnighted to the store.  By the time I got home, I get a call saying that they were there, they had been misfiled.   SIGH!

So, after wearing contacts for the next few weeks and deciding on what brand I needed, I was up against another travel deadline.  The pair I was wearing felt like I had pebbles underneath them.  And well, you just read what I was working against.  So I ordered them online, knowing that they would get the prescription.  And they did, everything was going fine, and then the dreaded e-mail.

My toric (astigmatism) lenses were on backorder and they weren’t going to ship at all until they came in.  I begged!  I replied … ” I have two toric lenses here. I just need the sphericals.  Please send them separately. I need them, I am going on vacation. I hate the ones I am wearing now”.    So the ordering department called the distribution center.   The DC said that everything is in, shipping Friday, when do I leave?  I said “Monday.  I’ll pay for overnight shipping (the post office will even deliver on Sunday)”  and then I get an e-mail …. the DC is sending me two “trial” pairs and I should have them by Friday, to hold me over so that I can get through my trip.  Those are FREE.   And I think are both lenses, not just the sphericals.  The next day after all of this, I received notice that my entire order shipped.

Today, Fed-Ex pulls up to the door and delivers me my new contacts.  I have two toric lenses (those suckers are expensive) and two trial boxes of the regular ones … and each of those has three lenses in there, so that is SIX total.  A WHOLE FREAKING BOX of contacts for free.  All because I was in a tight spot.  And I didn’t even mention the stupidity of the store!

Now THAT’S customer service!

On the tails of that, I am actually communicating with the handyman and Matt had a truly wonderful experience with the University of Pittsburgh Ticket Office today.  We had ordered three tickets to Saturday’s football game, but someone else is going to join us, so he called to see if he could purchase another.  Expected to not be able to do it and we would need a plan B … whether it was buying four new ones and reselling the three or moving back to unoccupied seats in the section.  However, the lady working that day, was awesomely nice and managed to exchange our three tickets for four better ones.

I need to call USAirways tomorrow.  I am afraid, very afraid.  I don’t want my streak to end. 

Or, getting caught up on my crazy life.  I guess its not really so crazy, but it feels crazy to me! 

Last Friday, we attended my cousin’s Matriculation/Convocation ceremony at her university.   You are all probably familiar with Kayla by now.  Her university of choice is only one hour south of here, and we drove down for this rather quick formal welcoming ceremony.  We were looking forward to seeing her and seeing the school, as we have not been there yet.

It is dead smack in the middle of a little town.  Main roads run through it.  Yet it is still private and very beautiful.  Fortunately, it was hot in the gymnasium, so they skipped the opening speech and got right to it.  All 400 something names.  But it was a stroke of luck that we were sitting in the front row of the bleachers and one of the nurses opened the doors and we had a nice breeze coming in at us.  Ahhhh ….

Kayla then gave us a very quick tour of the campus and took us to her tiny dorm room.  So cute.  But it was nice.

I am very proud of that girl.  She has grown up into a beautiful and smart young lady, who is going to make a wonderful RN someday.

***
On the homefront, well, like I said, I feel like life is whizzing on by.  Is there any reason for that?  Well, maybe.  I call it responsibility.  And the beginning of training for a marathon.  I haven’t really been running much, but more than I have for a few months.  I feel like I am beginning again.  You wouldn’t think that six or eight weeks of low mileage with a few 7-days of no running stretches would do that.  But for me … deconditioning is so easy.  I have put on a few pounds, and that is contributing.  But so is the fact that I’ve been lazy about my running. Combine that with the oppressive humidity.  I am having all the usual doubts about me being cut out for running and all that.  But somehow, week after week, several times a week, I lace up the shoes and head out and do my run/walk.  I manage to improve each time.  Obviously, I can do this.

Other noteworthy things:
*Hallie gained a pound of weight.  Yay!

*I think I actually have a handyman to do our work.

*I discovered that I hate the Swiffer Wet-Jet.

*My dryer died.  Now I have to go to the laundromat.  I hate the laundromat.  The only advantage is the ability to do multiple loads at once.

*The owners of the condo we rented in Kauai have not sent us the important information that we were promised by now.  Naturally, this stirs up a lot of anxiety, as I worry that something went wrong and we really don’t have the condo.  Although the rental agreement is right here on my desktop.

*After the initial excitement of my weight workout, I have never done them again.  Each time I think I’ll start again, there is a trip in the way.  So now … I will say after I get back from Hawaii.  Maybe I’ll be ready to commit to those again.  I know I have commitment issues, despite being married and having a tattoo, but this is a 2x per week, 25 minute workout.  You’d think I’d be able to handle that. 

*Technology is starting to overwhelm me.

*These smileys show up in places I didn’t put them.  Drives me nuts.

I promised the cats that we could play with their new toy, so I should probably go attend to them.

Last weekend, Matt and I took Kayla to Las Vegas for her inaugural trip.  The trip was conceived due to the Criss Angel Cirque du Soleil show.  Kayla is a big fan of Criss’ and we thought she would love the show.  And we love her and Vegas.  So why not combine the three?  It was almost not meant to be, as that Kayla girl is a very busy girl.  But we finally picked a good weekend to go.

We arrive on Friday, hop in a cab to the Palazzo.  Which continues to delight.  Kayla reacted to the room pretty much the same way I did in March … complete with open jaw and giddy over the remote controlled blinds and curtains.

After we checked in to our room (that is 2 for 2 on the Palazzo having our room ready at 12:00), headed out for lunch.  We went informal to the Cyprus Market at Caesars.  Its maybe a half mile away, but it took us half an hour to get there.  It was so incredible to watch Kayla looking at everything.  She looked, she took a picture, she took a picture with her phone, texted it to someone, repeat.  It was funny.  That was pretty much the pattern of the weekend.  But it was okay, it was funny.  It took us five hours to go three miles down the strip.  Hey, you have a better way?  Didn’t think so!

We did the “Eiffel Tower Experience”.  I have always wanted to go up there.  It wasn’t that thrilling, but at least I can say I did it.  Dinner was at The Rainforest Cafe.  They seated us in the bar, despite being with a drinking minor, and after asking us if everyone was over the age of 21.  I was disappointed in that.  I really wanted Kayla to see the animals get upset when the thunderstorms started.

Criss Angel show was just okay.  Needed more music, less dancy artsy fartsy diabolical bunnies.  I suppose if you are a die-hard Criss Angel fan, then its the show for you.  I thought it was better than KA though.

Saturday was rides day.  We headed to the Stratosphere.  The first thing we rode was “Speed: The Ride” at the Saraha, as that is where the monorail drops you off.  That is the second best coaster in Vegas.   A short walk to the Stratosphere.  Kayla and I rode the Big Shot.  I really like that ride, I wish it held us up there longer so that we could see Vegas better. That is the highest view to see Vegas from, and its over in an instant.  Matt and Kayla rode X-Scream, which I opted to skip this time, as the first time was enough for me.  It really, honestly gave me a panic attack and made me cry when we rode it the first time.   Matt, my hero, didn’t chicken out and went on there with Kay.  He was close to not doing it, but he was very brave.  Insanity is not that scary, its actually pleasant, but since I get motion sickness and didn’t feel like spending the day nauseated, I opted out of this one too.

For the first time ever, we visited “The World’s Largest Gift Shop” so Kayla could do some shopping.  Headed to Circus, Circus to show Kayla that amusement park and Matt and Kayla rode the best coaster on the strip.  Too bad its in the worst casino/hotel.  Too many people, too many kids.  Inconvenient location.  I would probably battle the kids and ride the coaster every time we went if this was more centrally located.

Dinner at Stripburger. My favorite place in Vegas.  Where they make homemade veggie burgers and the fries come in such a large portion that you need to share.  They used to have “Cakes in a Shake” but they don’t anymore.  A shame.  It was fun to be drinking a shake and have a chunk of cake get stuck at the bottom of your straw.

Mystere was the show of the evening.  The best Cirque du Soliel show that I have ever seen.  Matt agrees.  It was just as good, if not, better than the first time.  Kayla said “wow” at least 50 times in the first 45 minutes.  After that, I lost track.  It is highly acrobatic, and I always want to join them on the trampolines.  That just looks like fun.  I would have to say if you have time/funding for just one show during your stay in Vegas, this is the one to see. Really.  It’s that good.

Sunday came too fast.   We ate at Grand Lux Cafe in the Palazzo, where I get this unique breakfast thing that I can’t remember the name of, but also has awesome pancakes, and we’ve here, French Toast.  Visited the Secret Garden (baby animals yay!), Madame Taussad’s Wax Museum, which we walked through twice, because we were at the end when Kayla realized she left her sunglasses with Hugh Hefner.  Nobody stopped us from walking back in there and going through backwards.  We were able to recover the sunglasses.  And you’d be surprised how long it takes to get through there if you stop and take pictures of three people at even half of the statues.

Kayla made a new friend of the Coca-Cola bear.  We didn’t buy any M&M’s at M&M’s World (yes, really).  Kayla and I rode the coaster at NY NY, which is just okay.  Its too rough to be good.  Headed over to the Rio, which is a really really fun casino over in Carnival World or whatever they call it …except for when the shows are dark.    We ate at the buffet, which we were told by one of the chefs is THE largest in the world.  It really is big!  And it has gelato on the buffet.  Since that stuff cost $10 a scoop elsewhere, you’d better get some while you’re there.  Penn and Teller were, as always, great.  They changed the opening.  I liked the older one better.  And Penn missed one of the psychic jokes.

At the Rio buffet, I asked Kayla how many pictures she took.  She was at 477.  I had nicknamed her Snappy the day before.  That is why.  And also why she’ll need a new memory card.     Matt and I have about 47 pictures.  And they are mostly of us at the wax museum.  Ha ha.

So that was basically our trip.  We look forward to our return in December when we will be running the marathon.  We are deciding between staying at Planet Hollywood, our original plan, and Mandalay Bay, which is the host hotel.  Normally, we wouldn’t consider Mandalay, as its at the far end of the strip, and we’ve been trying to stay central, but seeing that it is actually the finish line of the race, that makes it a big contender!  We’ll keep you posted!

Matt’s take:  http://matt.riffle.org/2009/08/11/las-vegas-trip-august-2009/

On Thursday,  I spent the day with Baleigh, my cousin on my husbands side of the family.  She is 12 years old and she is quite the young lady.   I drove to her house and picked her up, and that is a 75 minute drive, and I am not a fan of driving.  I did make a wrong turn and went into the next town over, but I easily rectified the situation.   Driving back towards this end of town however, I did miss my exit and had to go another way.  The problem with that was that I didn’t know how to get to the zoo from there.  So I grab the GPS and make her look it up.  She read me the directions and I said “Is there any mention of Route 28?” she said “No” and I said that the directions were good enough for me.

I knew the first part of the directions and I had a different way of getting there than the GPS and so we laughed at the GPS saying “Recalculating”. Its really funny how I swear that voice is showing beligerence when it has to “recalculate”.    We eventually make it to the zoo.

It was a perfect day for the zoo.  Cloudy and not too hot, so the animals were active.  And boy did we hit a jackpot year with all the baby animals.  We didn’t see the young tigers, or if we did, we couldn’t tell.  They were born last year.  We did see the two baby elephants, both girls, who were born last year.  I was surprised at how small they still were, but considering how big they have to get, I guess its not surprising.

My favorites though were the water babies.  The sea otters were rollicking in the water.  Rolling around, jumping.  So cute.  I think we watched them for a LONG time.  The baby beavers were cute too.  And there was the little sea lion.  She was born in mid-June and was still being nursed.  She was walking really well and swam really well, but she couldn’t get on the rocks in the middle of the tank.  She tried really hard but she just couldn’t make it up there.  I hear that she was able to do it today though.

Petting the kangaroo was a nice highlight too.  Every time I go to the zoo, I hope they are close enough to the path for me to touch, but never until this year.  I expected them to have wiry fur, but they were soft.  Baleigh crawed through the stingray tank and into the meerkat habitat.  She laughed at me when I ran from the “Bat flight” display.  But she was just getting even with me for laughing when she ran from the Hornbill.

After the zoo, we headed back to my neighborhood because it was the day for me to pick up my weekly vegetable box from the local farm.  While we were at the host house, we saw two domestic kitties.  The black kitty was owned by the family and he was really friendly. There was also a stray who was a buff tabby with white paws.  He was a cutie … he had the extra toes on each front paw.  The stray was also very friendly, and we don’t know what happened to his owners. I was talking to the neighbor there and discussed getting him neutered.  Cross your fingers that she does it!

Now it was time for dinner!  We texted Matt and then headed to Station Square and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, where I forgot to order fries, as my other cousin says that they are the best.  I ordered green beans instead.  But then we had dessert.  I had a rum cake, and it was really tasty … and really small.

We rode the Monongahela Incline to the top and took pictures of the City and walked all the way up Grandview Avenue, and down the Duquesne Incline.  Then walked to the Station Square parking lot and came home.  I got lost in the parking garage.  Really, I did. 

We were all exhausted, we uploaded the photos, Bay and Matt watched Hannah Montana.  Eventually we all went to bed.  Matt and I (surprisingly for me) were up at 9:00 and Baleigh slept to 10:30.  I must have worn her out!

Friday morning, we dropped some paper off at the shelter and took the quick 10 cent tour.  She was invited back to hang out in medical another time.  We drove back to her house (why does that trip seem so much shorter when there is someone with you) and I came back home and was glad to not have to drive again that day.

I really enjoyed myself.  Baleigh is so smart and pretty and she is a joy to hang out with.  She helped to make my birthday week one of the best I’ve ever had!

July 10-13th took us to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit my sister, my nieces, nephew and brother-in-law.

Friday:

We left in the morning to go pick up Kayla before heading to the airport.  I had built in traffic time and chat time to our schedule, and it was a good thing I did.  We ended up leaving a little late (of course).  Kayla was ready when we got there (of course).  Matt innocently asked her “Have photo ID?” and she said “oops” and went up to get her passport.  Guess what?  She couldn’t find it.  And, at that time, she didn’t have another form of photo ID.  She calls her mother and her stepfather to see if they knew where it was.  We helped her to ransack her room.  No passport.  Time was a-wasting.  We were now officially running late.  So we grabbed her birth certificate, voter’s registration and social security card and prayed to the TSA gods that we would be allowed on.  Worst case scenario is that we had a nine hour drive ahead of us.

We get to the airport and to my delight, there was no line at the USAirways check-in counter.  I checked my bag and Matt checked Kayla’s for ease of ID problems.  The security line was also blessedly short.  We picked a line where the TSA screener looked pleasant.  He let us through without too much ado.  He called someone over, probably a supervisory sort.  That guy said “I don’t have a problem with it if you don’t. You can call Mr. X if you’d like” and he said “I don’t have a problem with it”.  Whew!  And now that we only have to show our photos one time, that was that.  Thank goodness Kayla was 18, or we might have gotten more problems.

We land in Raleigh around 3:00 and head to my sister’s ‘new’ house.  The rest of the day was just exciting. The girls and Owen so happy to see us.  I got the biggest and strongest hugs ever from Ginger and CoCo … at the same time.  They are just the sweetest kids.  All four of ‘em.  We basically just hung out at the houses.  Looked through Ginger’s box of momentos from China (Saturday was her “Gotcha” day anniversary).  Kayla and I put temporary tattoos on the little girls.  Renee’ made us spaghetti for dinner (meatballs on the side).  We hand cake and presents for Maddie’s (delayed) birthday, and we watched Spy Kids 3.  (Not recommended).

Saturday:

We went to the beach.  It was only a two hour drive. I think if I lived two hours from the beach, I would be there every other weekend.  Seriously.    Last year, we tried to go and we had storms all the way down.  We picnicked in the cars and headed back.  This year, however, it was wonderfully perfect weather.  The kids all argued who would sit next to Kayla.  They couldn’t remember that she only has two sides.  Eventually Owen relented and came in our car.  He was a pleasant passenger, telling us all about his recent vacation in Tennessee, asking us if we were going to Pigeon Forge, and commenting on “that Ford is a piece of crap”.  Also, after a period of silence from him, he pipes in with “With the Dish Network you can get over 100 local channels”.  I nearly peed my pants!

The beach wasn’t too busy, but we still had to fight to find a parking space.  When we got to the beach CoCo declared that she had to go to the bathroom and Kayla innocently said “Oh go in the ocean” and CoCo ran down to the water, stayed in the sand and pulled her pants down.  LOL.  Those kids!  We called her back and she came (good girl).  Renee’, CoCo, Ginger and I went to the bathroom and left the other kids there.   When we got back, we put on sunscreen and we took the girls to the edge of the water.

The rest is just us hanging at the beach for about three hours.  Everyone but me got sunburned.  The two little girls had sunscreen and kept having it reapplied, so I don’t know how they still got it.  The rest of them all varied from zero to just one (too late) application.  Score one for my plant based sunscreen.  Too bad its being discontinued.  Damn Aveda!  Maddie rode home with us this time, but she slept for part of the trip and the rest of it, we talked about how tall the tallest man ever was (8′11.1″ and 8′5″ for the currently tallest living man)  and how small the shortest man ever was (2′4″).  The iPhone helped us.

When we got back to the house, my sister started dinner, some of us took showers, most everyone got aloed.  We ate dinner.  Owen wanted to watch Spy Kids 3 again.  Adults groaned.  And Owen brilliantly had the suggestion that the kids watch their movie in their parents’ bedroom and we can watch the other downstairs.   Everyone liked that and us adults watched a good movie, who’s title eludes me at this time.   We all slept very well that night.

Sunday:

Everyone slept in.  Eventually we got up.  Hung out in the yard.  Eventually we rounded up the troops and headed to Little River Park.  Stopped for Slushees.  Ate pierogies.  The highlight of the day was Maddie’s concert.  She has been taking guitar lessons for two years. This night, we built a fire and she played for us.  She is terrific!  And so much improved since Christmas!  She played really great then, but you can definitely hear how hard she has been working.  We made S’mores, drank some wine.  The kids went to bed.  We hung out in the gameroom talking and stuff until we all pretty much fell asleep.

Monday:

This day was much too short.  Basically we got up, had breakfast and kissed the kids goodbye.  Had I known that Maddie and Owen weren’t in school, we would have taken the last flight of the day, but we thought they would be going back to school.  They had switched schools since the last summer visit, when they used to go back the second week in July.   North Carolina has the option of year round school.  Which I like.  They do get a lot of the summer off anyway.

And that concludes this wonderful, albeit, too short trip.

If you haven’t read the entry on the first workout, please go back and do so.  Then this will make better sense.

Today’s workout was postponed from yesterday.  No biggie.  I’m supposed to do 2-3 times per week.  I’m shooting for three, but two will just take longer.  And who knows, I might just do it on Sunday, giving me three workouts.

Today’s workout, Workout B, Stage 1, went like this:

First Exercise:  Deadlift:   2 sets of 15 reps.  I grabbed my 12 pound body bar.  It was way too easy.  On the second set, I used 10# dumbbells in each hand.  That felt better.  But I don’t think I actually did it right, cause I didn’t feel like I was working.   I will look at some videos on this and next time, I will assemble my barbell.

Second Exercise (to be alternated with the third exercise): Dumbbell Shoulder Press:  2 sets of 15 reps.  I used 10 pound weights, challenging, but not impossible.  Yes, I was surprised too.

Third Exercise:  Pullovers: 2 sets of 15 reps.   Hmmm …. Thought for sure I could use the 10 pounders.  Nope, I did ONE.  So I switched to the eight pound weights.  Still too heavy, I managed 12 reps.  When I went through the second rotation, I dropped to 5 pounders, did 15 reps, but that felt too light.  Can’t win?  Not sure what to do … stay with the 5 pounders and do the reps a few more times, and go back up, or use the 8 pounds until I can do 15 of them?

Fourth Exercise:  Lunge: 2 sets of 15 reps.  I grabbed the 10-pound dumbbells and did my 15 reps on each side.  I felt challenged, a little wobbly.  Felt that my form was off, but it really wasn’t.    On the second set, I also used the ten pound dumbbells and had a little trouble finishing the set.

Fifth Exercise:  Swiss Ball Crunch:  2 sets of 8 reps:  Ditched the Swiss Ball forever.  No more balls for me.  They are unsafe for me.  So I did crunches on the floor.  In a normal week, when I do yoga two or three times, I work the core alot, so I am not stressing the abs during these workouts.  I did 2 sets of 15 on the floor.  I didn’t alternate with the lunges, like I supposed to.  I did the lunges, two sets of crunches, then the last set of lunges.  I just didn’t feel like getting up and down off the floor.

Bonus Exercise:  Bicep Curls:  2 sets of 15 reps:  I did them, using ten pound weights.  That is where I should be today.  In a few more weeks, I should be sporting the 12 pounders.

When I was done, I made a protein smoothie.  That is the best part of the workout.  Again, I don’t understand how these simple five exercises, with no cardio is supposed to make weight “pour” off of me.  But I know it will make me stronger, sleeker, faster and drive up my metabolism at rest.  But I must do cardio.  Good thing I am mostly addicted to running.

Okay well now you all know my regimen for the next 6-8 weeks.  I’ll let you know how its going half way through and again at the end.  No, I didn’t take measurements because I find them not only demoralizing and unmotivating, I am also really bad at accurately measuring myself.  I can measure the same place three times in a row and get a different reading.  I’ll go by the scale and my clothing sizes.  Eventually, I guess I will measure myself, probably at the end and use my “old” set of measurements as comparision.  I wasn’t much lighter than I am now, and did wear the same size.

Until next time!