Saturday, January 22, 2011
Well, we survived the Resolution Run this morning. It’s a 5K sponsored by a local running store and they give you a $25 gift card to spend there, so it’s almost like the run is free. We had to tiptoe over the ice, so our times were terrible, but my knee held up, so that was a win. I didn’t push at all, but I was glad not to have any pain.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Still dealing with some leftover fallout from our separation. Ceecee forwarded me an email from that guy who has still been contacting her, I thought he was pretty much gone, but she sent it to me this morning and was very apologetic. It was another of those “Can we talk?” messages. It’s not like she hasn’t repeatedly told him to leave her alone, so she didn’t need to apologize for it, but I asked her if she would allow me to get involved now.
Before this, she always asked me not to, but today she said to go ahead, so I replied to it. Maybe this will be the end of it.
Tonight we’re going to a little local place called Tony’s Famous Spaghetti. We’re calling it “pre-race fuel” since the 5K is still on for tomorrow. It’s really just an excuse to eat there because it’s good and inexpensive, but pre-race fuel sounds good. There’s still a layer of an inch or two of ice on the road in a lot of places, so this should be interesting in the morning.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
We got our snow day and had a lot of fun. We walked through the snow to this little place called Homegrown foods where they sell local produce. The actual reason we went was for homemade peppermint marshmallows. It’s not far from downtown and we also went to The Cup, so it’s a very unhealthy snacking day.
We have a 5k on Saturday, which will probably be cancelled due to the snow on the ground that won’t be melted by then. I haven’t run that far since my injury, so I wanted it to be a chance to see where I am in my recovery.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
There’s good eating, and then there’s good eating! Lately, we have been eating extremely well! This is not good for our physical fitness and running, by the way. I mean, we are supposed to be maintaining a certain level of fitness and eating and drinking whatever we want is not exactly compatible with that. Even so, we are enjoying life immensely right now.
There’s supposed to be a big snow storm coming in, so we’re prepared. We made sure we had groceries on hand and those groceries include orange juice and bubbly I made Chile in the crock pot this evening to eat tomorrow (and the next couple of days, potentially) and Ceecee made pan seared tuna and scallops in butter and garlic for supper tonight. Now we’re just crossing our fingers and waiting for the phone call to tell us that there’s no school tomorrow.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
First Friday Art Walk was a lot of fun last night. The weather was great and we didn’t really have any plan. We just walked around and took it all in. There were some kid rockers playing “crazy train” in the downtown library. None of them looked older than about 13, but they weren’t too bad.
Ceecee has still been swimming a lot and we’re working out pretty regularly again. We don’t have anything specific that we’re training for, so our workouts lack direction somewhat right now. I’ve been trying to gradually increase my running distance and testing out the knee. So far, so good, but I haven’t pushed it, so I don’t really know.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Had a nice run through the streets of Dodge City this morning. It’s one of our least favorite places for a plethora of reasons, but it’s where Ceecee’s Mom and Step-Dad live and close to my daughter as well. We’ve hardly worked out or trained at all recently, so we decided we better do some running while we’re here.
Dodge City was where we lived when my spiritual decline really began. We only moved there because we felt that God was calling us to. We went through a painful church split and a number of other things that caused a lot of bitterness for me. We were victims of numerous property crimes, had some falling out with people we had been close to, and got into financial difficulties with two houses that we owned.
Although it was wrong to do so, I blamed God and began to shut down. I started shutting off my emotions toward Ceecee as well, although I didn’t entirely realize it. We finally left and moved to Missouri as kind of a plea to be allowed to go and try to start over somewhere else.
This afternoon, we went walking downtown and through the old neighborhood. We reminisced and romanced and it was wonderful to be in a place where we had gone through so much frustration and pain, but now had overcome it and were in such a different place, both literally and emotionally. We had endured everything that had come against us and come out of it more in love and better people than we had been before.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The drive to Tennessee today was fun and uneventful. We had a small Christmas this morning with just the two of us before we got on the road. We opened our stockings (yes, Santa still fills them even with no kids in the house) and exchanged a few gifts. Even that was part of the restoration tour as we exchanged cycling jerseys we had bought for each other. The meaning in that gesture was something that only we would understand and it also kept us pointed toward next August’s Tour De Cox, the day we will also renew our vows as the culminating moment of the restoration tour.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The prevailing conclusion among the physical therapists about what’s causing my knee pain is my feet. They are blaming it on a combination of my being flat-footed and having a left leg that is slightly shorter than my right. Custom orthotics is the proposed solution, so I got fitted for them today.
They also have suggested that when I got a video analysis of my running gait done and changed both the types of shoes I was wearing and the way I ran, that I may have messed myself up that way. Bottom line is that I still haven’t and probably never will get a definitive answer to what the problem is. They’re just hypothesizing and trying things.
I’ve gotten new shoes again, custom orthotics, and instructions to try to forget everything I was trying to change and just go back to running without thinking about it. It’s frustrating, but maybe it will all work. I haven’t really been trying to run while doing therapy, but he wants me to start with a half mile or so and try building up and see whether it hurts.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Ceecee has been cooking out of the Harry Potter cookbook. It’s been pretty good stuff! The first thing she made was bangers and mash. It turns out bangers are sausage patties and mash is mashed potatoes. Then there’s an onion gravy that goes over top of it.
She also made some amazing almond brittle! The Christmas season is under way now, and I’m sure there will be all kinds of wonderful things being cooked and baked in the loft during the next few weeks. It won’t be good for our fitness goals, I’m sure, but we usually kind of excuse ourselves during this time of year and then hit it hard when January comes.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Ceecee wrote on her Facebook, “I love waking up to your face, even on a train.” Obviously, we didn’t sleep last night, but we really only napped on the train. We took a cab ride (wow, what a nearly terrifying experience) to our hotel and were surprised that they already had a room ready and they allowed us to check in early. We’re right downtown in between Michigan Avenue and State Street, where the Thanksgiving Day parade runs.
Today, we walked around a little bit, then gave in to our tiredness and just took a nap in our room during the early afternoon. After that, we walked to Navy Pier and did something we never do. We ate at the McDonald’s in the Navy Pier food court.
I’m not really sure why Ceecee wanted to eat at McDonald’s, since that is NEVER a part of our diet, but she did. She ordered a happy meal, which isn’t at all surprising since she’s always been a kid at heart and probably always will be. While we were in there, it started to rain and hail and we were on foot, so we just hung out inside the mall at the pier until the weather got a little better.
When we left Navy Pier, we stopped at Fox and Obel, a gourmet food store owned by two foodies who are former lawyers. We always go there when we’re in Chicago. They have a bistro, a café, a grocery store, deli, bakery, and more. We got some bread, cheese, deli meat, wine and snacks to take back to the hotel. We’re staying in tonight and we want to be up early for the parade and a very full day tomorrow.
The Restoration Tour 