I did it! I ran 60 miles in July. 60 miles exactly. No more. No less. The Oregon Food Bank will be receiving a $600 check this week from this Old Lady! Knowing every mile I ran would feed a hungry person was the incentive I needed to keep pounding the pavement! I can't tell you how excited I was to complete my goal this morning - especially since I ran on the roads around our house. I may have not mentioned that Taylor Manor sits on an extinct (or so says my live-in geologist) volcano! Yes - we live on top of a volcano! Which means all runs from this house are up or down hill. No flat places to run around here. It wasn't pretty, but it was the perfect send-off to my month-long running challenge.Old Ladies Rock!
Next up: WALK WEEK! I am not going to run a step for a week, but plan to walk 15-20 miles next week instead. Time to give my boobs knees a break.
Truth-be-told, DT and I suffered a bit from our Whopping Cough injections yesterday. Not just sore arms at the injection site, but we both felt like we were coming down with something all day Saturday. This is a normal reaction. Tired. Sore. Achey.
Speaking of aches & pains... while you have all been bored reading about my 2 or 3 or 4 mile jogs, My Driver had his own little scheme. Suffering from an injury to his shin, DT did not run for two weeks... but instead spent 17 hours on our exercise bicycle. SEVENTEEN hours. When we left on our RV road trip (18 July), DT lost his daily access to the bike, so started jogging again. He has jogged 67 miles since July 18.
Why do I even speak to him?
Oh, that's right. I forgot. Because he can grill.
Luckily, we had food to soothe our aching left arms. Remember a few weeks ago when I wanted to grill a butterflied chicken for Shabbat... but we invited our suddenly-vegan niece and switched to a pasta menu? This Shabbat, we did not invite a soul so we could grill a butterflied bird. Not just any bird, mind you. We bought a bird from nearby Kookoolan Farms. (Talk about local. Kookoolan Farms is just one extinct volcano over from our extinct volcano!) We enjoyed this chicken on Friday night with grilled corn on the cob.We usually go out on Saturday night, but since we were feeling so poorly due to our T-dap injections, we decided to stay in and had soft shell chicken & grilled corn (off the cob) tacos. Yummy.
Mr. & Mrs. Goldfinch (Mr. is the pretty bright-yellow bird)
We had a few visitors during dinner and we also had a visit from a bird we cannot identify.
It looks like a dove, except it is twice the size of a dove. It has a bill like a duck and a white band around the throat. We have seen this bird - twice this weekend - perched high on the top of tall dead trees, spots usually reserved for local raptors. I sent 6 photos of this bird to my Dad (Mr. BLM) and he is completely stumped. The bird made no noise. S/he preened a bit, but we never saw it fly. The bird is grey with black spots on the feathers, and is about 12-14 inches tall. We have lived here (no body of water - just creeks, meadows and forests) over 17 years and this is the first time we have seen this bird. Anyone?
Steve
Steve & Mary came up for dinner tonight. DT grilled two pizzas and we had a nice Greek Salad made with yellow pear tomatoes. Of course, everything was organic and we had a great time discussing the important issues of the day - Lisa's baby and Duck Football.
The first pizza was topped with a home-made red sauce and mozzarella, pecorino, parmesan and a teeny bit of cheddar. When the pizza had finished baking (on our outdoor grill), it was topped with a handful of fresh arugula leaves.
The second pizza was the most classic of all pizzas - Pizza Margherita. The crust is brushed with olive oil, then topped with sliced fresh mozzarella, sliced roma tomatoes and baked til perfectly browned and puffy. When the pizza is finished, it is topped with a handful of slivered basil leaves.
The Greek Salad was a refreshing accompaniment.We are on full baby-watch mode. Follow my tweets to keep up with all things baby (or just read my tweets on the left-hand column of this page).
Until my next update, I remain, your walking correspondent.