Posts Tagged ‘healthy-living’

Day 348 and Counting… Living the Dream In Wine Country!

Posted: August 18, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Wow!  Our first two days in California have been a blast!

Well, almost.  Our first day was nearly a disaster, thanks to a problem with our bank.

We landed in San Francisco, took a shuttle to the rental car location, and had our bank card declined for no apparent reason.  Turns out, there was “fraud activity in the area” where we were and they had put a temporary stop on all transactions being conducted there on their cards.

We were to meet our PR connections at MacMurray Ranch for lunch and a tour of the vineyards and we couldn’t figure out how to pay for our rental car to be able to get there.  After a number of increasingly unpleasant telephone conversations with our bank, we finally got something worked out and were nearly on time to our first appointment.

Lunch was family style and Kate MacMurray was the perfect host.  The property was magnificent and the highlight was when they drove us to a point high on a ridge, where we drank Pinot Noir overlooking the entire estate.

Our hotel has a nice pool that we enjoyed in the afternoon and we ate at a really cool place in downtown Healdsburg called Spoon Bar where the outside walls are actually accordion doors that they had opened all the way up, giving us the feeling of dining outdoors.  Healdsburg is a great little town with all kinds of great places to eat and drink, especially down around the square.

Today was super busy and fun.  We started off by taking a run down and through Healdsburg.  The early morning temperature in the mid fifties was a very welcome change!

We had lunch at Louis Martini Winery, then visited the CIA – that’s the Culinary Institute of America – in St. Helena.  That and driving past Alcatraz have been the highlights for Ceecee, so far.

After that, it was back to Healdsburg for a tasting at J. Vineyards and winery, and we actually reached the wine saturation point, so we went to a little Brat place called The Wurst and tried a local brew with our dinner.  It all ended with a drive to Sonoma for dessert at a place on their square that I really love called El Dorado Kitchen.  Whew!

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Day 342 and Counting… Restoring the “Girls Just Wanna Run 5K

Posted: August 11, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Today was the annual “Girls Just Wanna Run” 5K, the largest women’s only 5K in the state of Missouri.  Since I’m obviously not running, but Ceecee is, I volunteer to be one of the traffic control people out on the course.

This year, there were expected to be close to 1000 participants.  I didn’t count them as they came by, of course, but it was pretty impressive to watch that sea of women flooding out of the park and onto the streets.

Last year, we were separated during the race, but Ceecee still gave me a high five as she came by, although it was very awkward after the race.  This year is as different as night is from day and we were extremely glad to be a couple throughout the entire event.

For me, there was no hoping that she would spend any time with me afterward, or having to say goodbye again when it was over.  I didn’t have to worry about our future because we are as committed to each other as any two newlyweds.

Tonight is date night and then we only have a few days to make preparations before flying out to California!

Day 340 and Counting… A Dog Bite Cuts Our Ride Short

Posted: August 7, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Awfully unexpected turn of events during our training ride this morning.  We were intending to try to ride the entire route of 62 miles, a metric century for those of you who are familiar with the term.

Around 20 miles out, we turned down a farm road with a few houses on one side and a Bassett Hound came running out into the street.  There’s always a worry of dogs getting tangled up with your bike and causing a crash, so that was where my focus was, on avoiding hitting the dog.

It had other ideas.  It bit me as I came up alongside it.

I kind of kicked it off and kept riding to put a little distance between us before I stopped to take a look.  It was bleeding, but not badly.  We usually carry some minor first aid items with us, so I cleaned it up and put on some neosporin.  It was pretty sore, so we decided to just head back toward the house.

Later, I went back in the car and tried to find the house it had come from by asking some neighbors.  I wasn’t sure what my plan was, but I definitely wanted to at least confront the owners if I could find them.

A neighbor knew of the dog and said it had been known to bite before.  I kept thinking it was a good thing it was me that it bit and not my wife, because I wouldn’t have handled that well.  As it was, i made a police report, but declined to take any action against the family.

Day 330 and Counting… The Firecracker 5000

Posted: August 1, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Monday, July 4, 2011

Ceecee got first place in her age group in the Firecracker 5000, an Independence Day 5K in Branson this morning.  She never expected it, but I was sure proud of her.

I had hoped that I might have placed for my age group, but no such luck.  Even so, I ran a good race and it was a pretty neat course, going along the shore of Lake Taneycomo during the last mile.

We won a couple of ridiculous door prizes, too.  Ceecee won a huge box of fireworks, which we gave to our son-in-law’s family, and I won a quilt with an Americana theme.  It was funny, though.  On the way back home, we decided to stop and eat a picnic lunch and we used that quilt as out picnic blanket.

Day 326 and Counting… Training, Pizza, and Plans

Posted: July 29, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Today we took a long ride to Ozark and back.  There are some wicked hills in the country in between, but it’s good for us.  It’s only a little over a month until the Tour De Cox and we still have never ridden 62 miles before.

Once we got back to town, we stopped at Rosati’s, a fairly new pizzeria that is supposed to have authentic Chicago pizza here in Springfield.  We had lunch there, and it was good, but definitely no competition for places like Pizzeria Uno or Gino’s East in Chicago.

Our California trip is all booked and paid for.  We leave nere July 20th and we’ll be there a week!  So looking forward to taking Ceecee to wine country and to see the pacific Ocean.  It’s funny; with her upbringing, she’s been all over Europe, but has never been to California or seen the Pacific.

Day 304 and Counting… Training and Playing

Posted: July 1, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Had a good training day Monday and have mostly been having fun since then.  Rode 15, then ran 3.1 Monday morning to get ready for the Willard triathlon, which will be June 18th.  .

Yesterday, we did a movie marathon at our local dollar theater.  It’s not really a dollar, except on Tuesdays.  They call it “Time-warp Tuesdays,” and sometimes on a hot day, we’ll line up 3 or 4 movies and stay in there most of the day.

Tonight, they’re having a free performance of “The Taming of the Shrew” as part of the annual Shakespeare festival.  It’s outdoors at a park near our loft, so we’ll walk down and see it.  Should be fun..

Day 271 and Counting… Restoring the May Day 5K

Posted: June 5, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Saturday, May 7, 2011

Last year, my wife ran the May Day 5K in Republic, MO, while I watched, cheered, and agonized over the state of our marriage.  I wasn’t in running shape at the time, but I had been doing the couch to 5K program and I did run the 1 mile fun run.

Today, we both ran the May Day 5K as part of the restoration tour.

Last year at this time, I could only wonder why my wife had decided we were through.  I still had hope on the day of last year’s race, but things had to get much worse before they got better.

Today, it wasn’t our times or whether we placed (we didn’t) that mattered.  It was that we were together, in love, and committed to restoring our marriage.

That’s the goal of this year of restoration.  It’s to replace the painful memories with new, happy ones.  It’s to heal the hurts we caused each other and repair the damage of our past mistakes by creating a new present that will become our new future.

Day 225 and Counting… Back To Work

Posted: April 23, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

 

We’re back at work this week and back to work on our fitness goals.  It’s less than 5 months to the Tour de Cox and our vow renewal.

We’ve been enjoying life a lot and not working out nearly as much as we should be.  It’s time to get back on our bikes in earnest.

Day 202 and Counting… A Long Ride and A Prostitution Bust

Posted: March 23, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Took a 30 mile ride on my “new” Bianchi road bike with Ceecee this morning.  I actually bought it a few months ago, but have barely ridden it over the winter.  We had a great time, but part of it didn’t quite go the way we planned.  

We rode from our loft out to the trailhead for the Frisco Line Trail, which is about 7 miles, and we planned to take the trail for an indefinite distance from there.  This is the trail where Ceecee ran the half marathon right before our marriage fell apart

According to the map, it runs for about 43 miles total and we were just going to ride until we were ready to turn around.  What we didn’t realize is that it turns to gravel after 8 miles.  Since we were on road bikes, we turned around there.

Even so, it was a fun ride and it was by far the longest I’ve gone on my Bianchi since I bought it.  

On a much funnier note, we were checking out at a store later and saw on the front of the newspaper that a prostitution ring was apparently busted in the building right across the street from our loft.  Who knew?

Day 171 and Counting…Back On Our Bikes

Posted: February 20, 2013 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, January 27, 2011

The weather was nice enough to take our bikes out today, so we got in 12 miles after work.  Well, let me qualify that.  The weather was nice enough FOR US to take our bikes out.  Of course there are cyclists who ride year round regardless of weather, but we are not those cyclists.  We’re wimps when it comes to riding in the cold.

Anyway, it was a nice ride and the first time we’ve been on two wheels in a while.  This weekend, we’re taking an unscheduled restoration trip to St. Louis.  After what went down  Monday, we need to get to our city and fix some hurts and disappointments.  I’m a little scared of what fallout there might still be, but we’re also really committed to seeing ourselves healed, whole, and as strong as can be, so I suspect this is going to be a blessing on multiple levels.

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