Mad Manatees 2015.4 CLOSED (or Poptart/pet pic ticket) (Page 40)

Happy thanksgiving to everyone down south of me - some of you aren't exactly 'south' but still. 

Good luck for turkey trotting and then getting filled up on yummy yummy food!

I finally got back at it yesterday with my swim group! YAY! Felt so good to do it. But i had three coffees yesterday and just felt off for the afternoon. Oops

I love the family stories - my parents were both born in Canada but have siblings born in the Netherlands (yes, both sides are Dutch. Other than the fact I am not tall i could easily blend in on the streets in any Dutch city) - my grandmother was actually pregnant with my dad when they took the boat over! And! they already had 7 children. That is some craziness. But just goes to show. They had lived in occupied Holland through the war and then it seemed it would never recover. 

Anyway, I could go on an on but it's actually the nice part of being second-generation is that the stories are much closer. My maternal grandmother is still alive and recently wrote down her war memories which they would never share with the kids. I guess it was all too fresh then. 

As for Black Friday sales - it's only a recent thing here but i will be partaking - going over to buy my running shoes at the Running Room for a good discount! :D 

Originally posted by StaceyK So Karen's hooked up with a power meter and a new Garmin. What's on everyone else's Black Friday/cyber Monday list? Nothing for me this year. The Australia/USA exchange rate has gone to and Phil hasn't had any work for around a month so no Black Friday buy up for me Also I told myself no more buying tri stuff until I have done a solid months training.

A power meter is pretty high up on my list but it will have to wait until at least xmas. Our shopping excitement is limited to a new oven.  At least my wife is excited about it.  I've been renovating an old house in all my spare time and our current appliances are going in there thus she gets new ones.

Turkey trot went well this morning.  I've had a chest cold and dry, 27 degree air didn't help much but brilliant sunshine made up for a lot of that.  Everyone enjoy your day.

Karen, I hope your issue work themselves out so you can get back at it the way you like!

Happy Friday everyone! We are definitely getting into the holidays and i think before we can blink Christmas will be here! 

I don't have much on for today - i had hoped to go to lunch yoga but i have a 1pm meeting and the class ends at 1 so ... i'll have to do something else. 

I am going to a potluck with some former colleagues and i am making a super delicious and decadent pumpkin lasagna - my main variation is to roast the garlic. I LOVE roasted garlic. I actually can't wait to make it even though there are lots of bits to do. Cooking the squash with butter and sage makes it smell and taste so amazing! 

I love cashews.  Very much a treat for me.

Getting lots of running in so far this weekend.  It is very sunny and cold with no wind.  Trying to take advantage of daylight opportunity to run.  Looking for another 5k for tomorrow morning.

Happy to hear that Santa is coming to the rescue.  How long did you have the 910?  I've not heard of one breaking down. 

Robin, how cool that we'll be E-House teammates!!  Hope to see you at the kick-off meeting on Thursday evening and/or at the group workouts. Now that you're a team member, you can spend even more money there because you'll be saving 15% every time you do.

TJ, I'm always on the lookout for the first bottle of eggnog every year.  It totally cracks me up that there is now Halloween Nog.  I like both the store-bought stuff and the kind my mom makes from scratch.  They're completely different and delicious in their own special way. Mom's is a lot thinner and has real whipped cream on top, sprinkled with nutmeg.  It's so decadent.  We never had it with alcohol - I didn't even know it was served that way until I was an adult - and it really doesn't need it.  My 83-year-old choir director, on the other hand, makes a very similar recipe and adds a LOT of alcohol.  She says the secret is to marinate the eggs in rum all day.  Needless to say, her eggnog parties are legendary!  I've tried eggnog (the store-bought kind) in coffee but never in chai.  I like my chai made with soy milk so I might actually like it with eggnog. Because, you know, I DO need extra calories this time of year.

Mary, thanks for sharing your story.  It's an excellent reminder of all the things I have to be grateful for.  I think my parents were a little taken aback on Thanksgiving when I said I was grateful to have a warm and safe home, food to eat, and the money to have 3 pets.  It's so easy to take those things for granted when you've never contemplated or experienced what it's like to not have them.  On a lighter note, I can't believe that nobody made a joke earlier about when you said the turkey breast was so big!! (snerk)  DH bought 2 this year, put stuffing between them, and wrapped them in cheesecloth to bake so we got a "turkey" without all the mess of the carcass.  It was really tasty, especially with the bacon-mushroom stuffing.  Then again, I think pretty much everything's better with bacon.

Lisa, waiting for stuff to heal just plain sucks, especially when it takes longer than anticipated.  There's not much comfort in "it could be/have been worse" and anything longer than about a week seems like an eternity when you're in the middle of it.  Sorry you're having to go through that right now.  Sending healing thoughts your way.  (To you too, Ben, and to Judi and Gunnar-pup.)

I always challenge myself to not spend a single penny on Black Friday and I succeeded this year.  I really dislike all the crowds and pressure to buy-buy-buy, not to mention the syrupy Christmas carols that always get played during the holiday season.  Not sure why "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" and "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" annoy me so much; they just do.  DH and I did go to Endurance House today to take advantage of their 25% off everything deal.  I got some Skratch (hot apple cinnamon flavor - yum!) and he bought me cold-weather running pants and gloves with wind covers.  He's very kindly letting me use them right away instead of making me wait a month. I suppose he does have a vested interest - he won't have to listen to me gripe (as much) about being cold! 

Alrighty, now that I'm mostly caught up, I'm off to watch a football game from the comfort of my cozy couch.  DH and I were laughing earlier about all the people who pay hundreds of dollars to sit outside in the cold and snow so they can watch games live.  Have at it, people.  I'll take my coffee and Bailey's and lap cat any day of the week.  At least when I spend hundred of dollars and go out in the cold and snow, I'm actually moving around most of the time.  Then again, those football fans probably think I'm silly too, running around in the freezing cold.

Well, okay, I thought my last post had covered everything.  However, I just found an EPIC article that I had to share.  OMG! The Hyperbole of Internet-Speak from the New York Times.  OGM, literally dying!

OMG, that was the greatest article ever in the  history of the internet. I can't even.

And linguistics takes yet another punch to the gut. I think I'll just go get another cup of coffee and try to get some work done. And by work, I mean shopping on Amazon.

Hey, kids!  I've returned from the Land of Limited Cell/Internet Service (WV) and have survived the Payton family Thanksgiving.  Since I was in WV, I couldn't do the race I signed up for in PA, but we did do a little 5K while visiting.  It was interesting, to say the least.  Extremely low-key, which I suppose is to be expected from the region where we were.  Maybe 100 entrants?  Less, probably; more, definitely not.  Safety pin and hand-written number on a 5" x 7" piece of paper = bib#.  No maps, no marshals at turns, no police, no real start/finish line.  Directions included, "...turn right at the NEW stop sign..."  Needless to say, I made sure I kept a local ahead of me at all times! Timing was from a  running stopwatch and the same guy reading off numbers as we crossed an invisible finish line. I don't think results get posted anywhere, not that I want that calamity recorded for posterity!  Not my best 5K ever, but not my worst, either.

Glad you survived the wilds of West Virginia!! Those kind of races can be really fun - although, I don't think I've ever done one quite as low key as that!!

That's funny! Were there banjos?  DH had a manager years ago who was from WV. Whenever DH would start cursing about him it usually involved the phrases "sister kissing" and "possum eating"

That sums up my work this morning as well.  Coffee in hand, amazon and ebay with some Christmas music playing.

Well I guess I'm commited (or should be commited):

Behind the Rocks Ultra 50K - Registration April 2, 2016