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Adieu to Camping

After a crazy week, we set off on Thursday night for our final round of camping for the season – at Mueller State Park. Of course we got going late, but luckily the camping spot was only a couple of hours away and even with some stops, we made pretty good time. We couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like we’d still get to see most of the pretty fall color. Despite the chilly weather, we were snug and warm in our camper!

The next morning, we made some pancakes and then started driving around to check out the scenery we’d missed in the dark. We drove through town and were immediately sidetracked by a dinosaur museum and spent the next couple of hours there, doing everything dino. The museum is primarily a working dinosaur lab and they have sent dino skeletons all over the world. The kids were enthralled by their specimens and our bizarre tour guide. Continue reading “Adieu to Camping”

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Menu and Workout Plan Monday

Wait, is it Friday yet? Just Monday? Carp!

I don’t usually do this, but lately we had some miscues on what was going on with dinner, so I thought I’d take a mo and post about our menu plan for the week and that way Matt and I both have the links we need to get started and anyone out there who reads this (hi Mom!) gets some recipe links too.

And on the flip side, here’s my workout plan for the week.

  • a run that somehow never materialized (my bad)
  • Monday: bootcamp – this is already (THANK GOD) done, we did “The Beginning” which was 2 rounds 6 exercises (Burpees, Wall Ball, SDHP, Toes to Bar, Box Jump, Push Press) for 45 seconds AMRAP and then a 10 min time limit to do 20 or 30 of each. I did not finish. But I did do max weights/height (50+ for pushpress, 40+ for SDHP, 20″ for box jump, 1/3 of my height).
  • Tuesday: run 3-4 miles in the AM
  • Wednesday: bootcamp, and maybe run in the evening w/a friend
  • Thursday: bootcamp!
  • Friday: hoping for a run around the campground
  • Saturday: hiking
  • Sunday: TBD
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Server Rebuild

A week or so ago, a nasty power surge hit our neighborhood and unfortunately, despite the fact that our server (yes, we’re nerds, we know, we have badges) was plugged into a surge protector, it was irreparably damaged. Boo. Aside from the fact that we didn’t want to pay to rebuild it, we didn’t want to take the time either. But we need our server, so we really didn’t have much choice but to rebuild.

To make it easier on Matt, who is the primary computer builder at our house these days (once upon a time I was a pretty good computer builder myself, but I have not kept up on my hardware knowledge, and these days it falls to Matt), we setup the build in the dining room.

This way he could check on the progress of things and keep tabs on the build while still being available for our normal weekend family life.

And of course, use my favorite salad bowl to hold cables.

And of course, like so many other things, we viewed it as a good opportunity to introduce the kids to a part of the geekdom over which we reign. They got to see the insides of the computer and had a brief explanation of what the parts do and a fairly stern lecture about touching anything, particularly the attached keyboard lest they accidentally escape out of a long process. Overall, it was fairly successful – Ben had a bit more trouble keeping his mitts off the whole fascinating scene, but he only killed one incredibly long process, so not too bad.

Of course having the dining room occupied meant we ate ALL of our family meals at the coffee table, including the messiest breakfast in the world, Berry French toast. OY. So glad I spent an hour on Friday cleaning the floor. Grand idea. Not.

Unfortunately, the server build did not go entirely smoothly and it is still on the dining room table but it must be moved tomorrow in anticipation of the cleaning faeries that will visit us on Tuesday morning. Hopefully the alternative parts will arrive quickly.

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10 Running Questions

Katie of runlongkatie and runner of insane 50 and 100 mile races I am pretty sure I’ll only ever dream of, tagged me to play a little game that originated at another of my favorite running blogs, Another Mother Runner. 10 Questions on Running. Thanks for the tag, Katie – here are my answers:

1. Best run ever: It’s so hard to pick a best run ever. My run at the Stonehouse 8 last year pops into my head – that was my first trail race and I really loved it. Fording streams, hurdling boulders, dodging cacti, falling flat on my face around mile 7. I also raced my best half marathon time last year (2011) at The Colfax Half and I did it without music, which seemed absolutely insurmountable when I started. But I had a great race and I was so happy to crack 2:15. Good times!!

2. Three words that describe my running: social, therapeutic, slow 😉

3. My go-to running outfit: For tops and bottoms it depends on the season, but being well-endowed, I can’t imagine running without a great workout bra. Moving Comfort’s Fiona is my favorite. Inside (on the treadmill) I usually wear a headband to keep my hair out of my face and outside I love the Sweaty Bands hats.

4. Quirky habit while running: if the going gets rough, I start repeating the same sentence or phrase over and over in my head – nothing particularly motivating, just words that pop into my head (“drug store sunglasses,” or “pink and purple elephants”) and I will also repeatedly count on my steps up to a certain number.

5. Morning/midday/evening: mostly morning though sometimes evening

6. I won’t run outside when it’s: Too windy!! The wind we get in my area is unbelievable – like blow away small dogs and patio furniture unbelievable and it makes running pure hell (at least against the wind). It feels like being on a treadmill and yet you know you should actually be moving forward. I’ve run in loads of other conditions including some pretty fierce cold. I also don’t really do ICE since I worry about my clumsy self falling, but luckily my favorite routes usually clear up pretty quickly so this is not usually limiting.

7. Worst injury and how I got over it: So far I’ve been really lucky to never have a major injury and now I’m finding some wood to knock on. My left heel is painful now and again but stretching it helps and it’s never kept me from running. Knocking on that wood again …

8. I felt most like a badass mother runner when: My kids wear my race medals around the house and proclaim they want to run with me in my next race and also anytime I finish a run over 10 miles.

9. Next race is: I’m running the Golden Gallop on October 7 … 5.280 miles around Golden. That will probably be my last race of the year.

10. Potential running goal for 2013: I am not entirely sure yet. I know I want to run (and actually train for) at least one half marathon – maybe Colfax or Platte River. I also want to run the T9K again. Lastly, I would really like to do a sprint triathlon. Whether or not 2013 is the year for that, we shall see. 2012 has definitely not shaped up the way I thought it would!

I’m guessing I’m supposed to tag, but none of my other bloggy friends (at least ones that are still blogging) run! I need to find some more mother runners (who blog).

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Ace

A few weeks ago when we went to Stueben’s for lunch, we looked in on Ace, a new restaurant in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood that’s just down the street from Stueben’s. It’s a different sort of restaurant – not just about food. Once I saw what the deal was, I knew we had to come back.

Continue reading “Ace”

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Carnival!

Friday was the carnival at Tabby’s School.

 

 

The event kicks off with the fun run, just a 1 mile jog through the ‘hood. The fun run kicks off the school’s mileage club, a club where they run laps on lunch recess two days a week and they earn charms for various achievements. The fun run earned them their first charm and the necklace to put them on. Continue reading “Carnival!”

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The Deluge

You know you’re from CO when you get excited about rain. Even when we haven’t had a particularly dry, HOT summer like this one, I am always excited to see rain. It started last night when I was heading home from the PTA meeting and I had little drops pelting me the whole (2 blocks) home. It hadn’t gotten much worse when I went to bed but when I got up I could hear it hitting the roof and the windows. Our streets are covered and we had to hold bootcamp entirely inside. Tabby wore her rainboots (we bought them while in NYC) to school. No one minds though – I think it would take a week or more before we’d get sick of rain. I look at it as a great excuse to drink tea – just wish I was doing it from my own kitchen instead of my office. Oh well!

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LunchBot

A few weeks into this deal, we’re getting pretty adept at sending the kids off with healthy lunches each day. I have become the LunchBot and crank out lunches for myself and the kids in about 10-15 minutes after dinner. I have a simple formula I follow. Main Dish + veggie + fruit = lunch. I ask them what they want from a small array of choices (2-3 for each category) and then they tell me what they want. I’d love to let them help pack, but usually there’s just not time. Tabby is somewhat more limited in her choice of main dishes – she has to have something that taste good cold. Even if I send a thermos, they put the lunch bags in a walk-in and its tepid at best by lunch time. So she takes a sandwich a bit more frequently than I’d like – I think I probably need to go back through all of my lunch-related pins and see about finding some other options for her. Luckily she does seem pretty happy to take a sandwich a couple times a week and we’ve found some things that are better cold – the shepherd’s pie, for example, was a huge hit cold.

In addition to our family’s food, I’ve been making some extra meals for a meal train. A family friend has cancer and we are keeping her well-fed so she can kick its ass. This has mostly just meant doubling whatever I’m making for our family and dropping it off. But today, there was a hole in the schedule, and so I filled in and I had a few moments of wishing I hadn’t. I’d been going since 5a and my feet were killing me, but it’s a small thing, something simple to do to help someone out. It’s always worth it!

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What a Weekend

This weekend kind of reminded me of what weekends were like before the kids were born. We did a lot, though nothing real specific. We spent LOTS of time at home. We cooked. We cleaned. We ran a few errands.

Friday Tabby and I sent Ben off to preschool and went for a duathalon (she rode her bike and I ran). It was halting and slightly frustrating, but we got into a rhythm and had a nice time. Then we had a smoothie at our local coffee shop. We had a trip to Target, lunch and then we watched a movie. Before we knew it, Matt had arrived home from his trip (YAY!) and he picked Ben up on the way home from the airport.

Tabby and I had picked up the ingredients for some blueberries and cream cookies (we left out the white chocolate chips  – I forgot them and they aren’t a favorite anyhow) and the kids were eager to bake – with Daddy. Eventually Kelly joined us and we spent the rest of the evening watching movies and hanging out.

Continue reading “What a Weekend”