What I Did Today- Christmas Trees, Manicure and Hair Balls

I finally started putting the ornaments on the Christmas trees today.  I almost finished, but still have a few more ornaments, the garland and the tree toppers to go.  Next I'll set up the Christmas village collection and then do the mantle, centerpieces on the dining room and kitchen tables and the outside lights and wreath.  We already have a neighbor who beat me with the outside Christmas lights and decorations.  I thought I would be the first to get mine up, but no, they win.

I purchased this musical note garland at Pottery Barn a few years ago and used it for garland around the big Christmas tree last year.  I don't know what I am going to do with it this year since it doesn't really go with the gold and silver color scheme on the big tree that I'm doing this year.  I am switching everything up from last year.

I could probably use it on this smaller tree in the family room.  Colors here are red, green and gold and the ornaments are more casual and fun.

The cats are really digging the trees.

I got a manicure and pedicure today using my favorite black nail color - OPI Lincoln Park After Dark found HERE.  It is lovely dark, eggplant color.  I have also used the matte OPI Lincoln Park After Dark color, which is very unique, but I don't like it as much as the regular version.

This is one of my favorite Christmas pillows purchased at Pottery Barn HERE a few years ago.   I discovered the other night that Cadence likes to sleep on it so it's now covered in cat hair. 

Phantom enjoying the Christmas tree.

Another one of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark.

Lot of nice things going on today, but also some not so nice things...

Cadence had another hair ball incident.  The Murph blamed it on too many cat snacks.  You can see Phantom checking it out.

I wish I could train this cat to clean up his own hair balls.  Unfortunately, he's been begging me all day for snacks and I've refused to give him any after the incident.  He can be very demanding, but I've stayed strong.  Tough love!

You Know Those Jumbled Letter and Number Thingys

I don't know about you guys, but those things people put on their blog comment area that have what appears to a jumble of unreadable numbers and another even more annoying box that sometimes appears to be numbers (you know the ones) are totally confusing to me.

This one seems to be very popular and I still never get it right on the first try.




and this one...





Whenever I try to post my comment on their blog posts (and you know which ones of you have this set up), I spend all afternoon trying to figure out the letters and numbers to prove I'm not a robot and get my comment to post. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little about the "all afternoon" part, but even a minute of one failed attempt after another is frustrating, humiliating and time wasting.  

Then I imagine there is a little geeky computer nerd security monitor somewhere out there watching my futile attempts from cyberspace.  Laughing to himself as he thinks he's weeded out yet another robot trying to comment on some poor unsuspecting blog.  Only I'm not a robot!  I'm a real person!

I understand the need to prove I'm a real human and not a robot because I mean who wants a comment from a robot!  Robots have nothing to say.  Absolutely nothing!  I, on the other hand, have plenty of important stuff to say.  

What I don't understand is why are they so darn hard to read.   Even when I put on my super duper 200X magnified reading glasses, I have a hard time deciphering the jumbled mess.  Are robots that smart?

Am I the only one who just can't get it on the first, second or third try?

These little things do seem to "dumb down" after each try until finally, after about 20 million tries (okay, I'm exaggerating again),  I get one like this that even I can understand...

urstupid    123    

Why can't we just start with this one in the first place?

Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon- 43 States To Go...

I ran my 8th marathon (not including the 2 at the end of the Ironman races) Saturday in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia.   Now I can check Georgia off my list of states.  I'm already looking for a spring marathon to run.  I don't know if I will be able to find a race close by in March or April, which are my preferred marathon running months since they don't interfere with triathlon season.

This marathon was one of my favorites, if not the favorite one other than Boston.  I like New Orleans too.  This one was smaller than the others, with no crowds so not very many spectators. That can be a negative if you like that.  It didn't bother me.  I loved Boston and New Orleans with the crowds and the cheering, but I loved this one too in a different way.  Twenty three miles of the two loop course was inside the Chickamauga battlefield park in the mountains of north Georgia, right outside of Chattanooga.  We actually had to go through Chattanooga to get there.

You can see the Confederate soldiers behind me getting the cannon ready to shoot before the race start.

The course was rolling hills, mostly on paved roads through the park.  It was a beautiful Autumn day running in the woods with all the colorful leaves.  At one point at around mile 15, I thought I saw someone in a red coat up in the woods.  My first thought was that it was the ghost of one of the dead soldiers who was killed there, but I quickly realized that, hey, that was the wrong war.  No red coats in this battle.  Only gray and blue.  Besides it was probably just the red leaves I saw.  It was a long day.

All the runners took off at the start line after the boom of the cannon.  It was so easy to get lined up at the start.  I was right behind the 3:50 pace group and decided to try to keep up with them.  Ha!  They disappeared by mile 2 and I was somewhere in between the 3:50 and 4:15 pace group.  For most of the race I thought I could make it to the finish in 4 hours. I was 2 hours and 2 minutes at the half and feeling great.  That made me think for sure I would do at least 4 hours 10 minutes on the marathon.

 I was wrong!  The first loop was easy and I hardly noticed the hills.  The second time around those hills were much more noticeable.  I think they got steeper.  Somewhere after mile 17,  I slowed down, not because I wanted to, but because my quads were toast.  The 4:15 pace group caught up with me around mile 19 and I picked up my pace to try to hang with them the rest of the race, but after mile 20 I had to slow down and I watched as they got further and further away.

All that downhill running on uneven roads shredded my quads.  By mile 21, my quads were hurting so bad I could barely run.  It was painful.  I began to wish I could pull the compression sleaves I was wearing around my calves up to cover my quads.  It was at that point when I knew I was paying for my lack of proper training.

Yes, I did the long runs as needed, but I just didn't put in enough weekly running mileage.  More specifically, I didn't do the mid week long run I needed to do to get my mileage up.  In most training programs I have followed in the past, I did a run mid-week that was half of the mileage of my Sunday long run.  If my long run on Sunday was 20 miles, then on Wednesday I would have done 10 miles, usually at race pace and then Sunday 20 miler at slightly slower than race pace.

I haven't done that in two years.  As a matter of fact, I rarely do a run over 4 miles during the week.  If I had done the extra run, I think I could have held out a little better and maybe even have gotten in under 4 hours and 15 minutes instead of falling apart.  One good thing is I didn't fall apart until after mile 19, unlike this time last year when I did the Pensacola marathon and fell apart around mile 12 because I started out too fast and I hadn't done any 20 mile training run either.  I won't do that again!

My finish time was 4 hours and 24 minutes and I was very happy with that.  I loved the finisher medal with the woman holding the sword up in one hand. It matches one of the monuments in the park that we ran past between mile 2 and 3.  In 2007, the race officials started picking one monument in the park that represents each state (or battle or something) and this year was the Kentucky sword lady. 

I really, really would love to have a sword of my own, but the Murph said that is out of the question.  I don't know what  he thinks I might do with a sword if I had one.  Nobody would mess with me that's for sure!  I would put my highlander moves on them.  I could just see me now doing one of my long runs in a seedy part of town with my sword in tow.  Who needs pepper spray when you have a real sword?

But anyway, I don't see a sword in my future so the pepper spray will have to do and if I run in a seedy part of town, I will stick with a large group.

I think it would be fun to come back and do this marathon again when they have the Alabama or Florida monument on the finisher medal.  (if they have an Al or Fl monument)

At the finish line they were giving framed certificates to all the first time marathoners.  I thought that was a great idea and they were really cute.  It made me wish this was my first marathon so I could get one too.  

The expo wasn't huge, but it had all the essentials.  All I needed was a couple of extra Gu and they had that, as well as a few other things.  They were giving Gu out at some of the aid stations on the course, but I always carry some of my own during the race, as well as some salt tablets.

Another plus was the hotel where we stayed was only about a mile from the race start.  There were shuttle buses that were taking racers to the start at 6 a.m and 6:30 a.m, but I didn't want to get to the race start that early and stand around in the cold.  The race didn't start until 7:30 a.m.  We left the hotel at 7:10 and drove to the start in our own car.  We got to the start around 7:15 and found a parking spot right away not far from the start line.  Easy!  

Then I headed straight to the porta-potty line, as usual!  I drink lots of G2 before a race and it makes me have to go.  I made it to the start line somewhere between the national anthem and the cannon blast.

Driving through Chattanooga brought back memories for both me and The Murph.  It has always been a favorite vacation spot and the mountains are beautiful.  We headed straight home after the race and passed up on going to some of our favorite spots.  We have no children with us anymore to take to these places.  Sad, I know.  I did pick up brochures on some of the places we have taken our kids in the past when they were little.

I remember going to Rock City and Lookout Mountain when I was kid and taking The Boy to the TN Aquarium when he was about 5 years old.  He loved it!  I miss those days!  The Murph has taken The Girl to all those places as well.

Enjoy your children.  They grow up way too fast!

Because He's Cute and He Can Get Away With It

Friday, The Murph and I were getting ready to head to the Chattanooga area.  I was running in the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia on Saturday.  Ft. Oglethorpe is right outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee and about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Birmingham, Alabama so we were just going for one night and coming right back home after the marathon.

As I was trying to pack up and get ready to leave, I guess Cadence decided to take a stand against my leaving.  He doesn't like it when the suitcases come out.  None of our cats do.  They don't like us to leave even for short periods unless we are going to the gym and it's their nap time.

It happened when I couldn't find my arm warmers.  Before I knew it, Cadence was on top of my bag.  Actually inside the bag getting cat fur all over my running clothes.

He refused to budge as I went around him taking pictures with the camera.

He just sat there and watched.  Refusing to get out.

I could have picked him up and tossed him off my clothing, but...

He looked pretty cute and he has been known to bite.

Besides he had that - I dare you, double dare you look on his face.

Then I threw one of his toys across the room, thinking he would jump off my bag and go after it.

Didn't work.  He just gave me "the look".

After about 30 minutes (and I found my arm warmers), he finally jumped off for some Friskies Party Mix cat snacks.  He likes to snack as much as I do.

Only my pre-race snacks included bananas, Power Bars and G2.

It's Not Even Thanksgiving Yet But I Did It Anyway

I went ahead and put the Christmas trees up earlier this year, even though I haven't put ornaments on them yet.  I usually wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving to put the tree/trees up, but this year we may be at the beach that weekend, so I went ahead and put them up early.

If you remember, last year I put up five trees.  This year I'm down to three.  One in the living room, one  in the family room and one down in the boy's "apartment".  The tree above is the family room tree and the one below is the Boy's tree.  I thought he would like having one of his own this year when he gets home from college.  He seemed to like it last year although he didn't really have much to say about it.

I thought Phantom would like it if I put his cat bed under the tree to give him a comfy spot.

The cats get all excited when I get the Christmas decorations out.  They love sleeping under the trees.  Phantom has already taken over the living room tree below.  I had it in the family room last year, but it's so big I moved it this year.  It's too tall for this house.  The living room ceiling is no higher than the family room.  It's hard to cram a 9 ft tree under an 8 ft ceiling.

My obsession with Christmas trees goes way back.  When I was a kid, I would always start pulling the tree out the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We always had artificial trees instead of real ones.  That made it easier.

When I was in college, I put a pathetic little 4 ft tree with ugly decorations up in my apartment.  I brought it with me when I married my first husband, the Boy's father, who just happens to be Jewish and didn't really appreciate having a Christmas tree in his house.  I still remember the fight we had when his grandmother, who was an Orthodox Jew, was going to come for a visit and I refused to hide the tree in a closet.

I don't remember what we did with the tree during her visit.  Probably stuck it in a bedroom temporarily.  It was very offensive!

Once the Boy came along I felt the need for a bigger tree so I traded the 4 ft tree in for a 6 ft tree.  The Boy's dad was kind of use to my tree by then so he didn't say anything.  His grandmother had passed so  the tree wasn't going to cause any major family crisis.  I upgraded the ornaments too, from super tacky to mid-level tacky.

My first Christmas after the divorce was final was a glorious one.  I bought the biggest, fullest pre-lit tree my ceiling could handle.  The one I now have crammed in the living room.   That baby can take some popcorn off those 80's ceilings!

When it was delivered to the house, the box was so heavy that the Boy, who was 11 at the time, and I had to drag the box around to the back yard, open it and take the tree section by section into the house.  It barely fit under the ceiling in all it's pre-lit gloriousness.

Eventually, I decided it would be even better to have a tree in every room.  I got over that idea after a couple of years.  Too much, even for an obsessed Christmas tree lover like me.

The entire reason I never converted to Judaism when I married the Boy's dad can totally be blamed on the Christmas tree.  But that's an entirely different story.  Sort of.  I could call it "The Rabbi and the Christmas Tree."

My Mom Sent Me This

As I was checking my email today, I saw this one that my mom forwarded to me.   She's always sooooo concerned about my safety....

                    ----------------

IMPORTANT REMINDER!!!!!!!
 

Remember to wear a bicycle helmet.                                     ----------------

My mom is such a sweetie to be so concerned she sends me this nice email!

Don't worry mom.  When I bike, I ALWAYS wear a helmet!

    

I Did. Did You?

I hope everyone made it to the polls to vote today.  I was still registered at my old voting place even though I've moved and gotten married since the last time I voted.  I only moved about 2 miles away, but that also changed my voting place to about a mile down the road from my old voting place.

I wasn't sure if they would let me vote since I hadn't changed anything, but it was no problem.  Not only did I vote at my old place, but I was also able to re-register with my new name and address and turned it in right there so it's all done for the next time I vote. (if we are still living in Alabama then)

 All done!

Dress:  Bebe
RainBoots:  Michael Kors here

The Murph says Cadence reminds him of  "Where's Waldo" in all the pictures.  When I was looking through the pictures we took today, I found him lurking in the shadows behind me.  I usually don't realize I have a little stalker until I see photo evidence.  See the little orange and white possessed thing coming through the door behind me?

 Cadence.

He can't vote.

Vulcan Run

Tomorrow is the annual Vulcan Run here in Birmingham, Alabama.  It is a very popular 10K race in the downtown area that has been going on since 1975.  Since I am tapering for a marathon next weekend and I haven't been doing any speed work lately,  I am probably not going to race.  As always it did cross my mind.  I use to do it every year back in the day and even won some hardware.

As you can see it has been a long time since I've done this race!  Where did the years go?

My favorite awards are the little, miniature Vulcan statue ones.  Cute!  I wonder if they still give them out to the age group winners?

Here's the real 56 foot tall Vulcan statue that sits atop Red Mountain and looks over downtown Birmingham.  It is the largest cast iron statue in the world and a favorite place to go on field trips when I was in first grade.  He is a the Roman God of iron and forge and a symbol of Birmingham.

Even our local triathlon club is called Vulcan Triathletes, named after you know who.

A few years ago I bought this Christmas ornament from the gift shop at Vulcan park.  It hasn't been on a Christmas tree yet because I hung it on the window and forget about it every year.  Maybe this year it will make it to the Christmas tree.

One race I have always wanted to do, but haven't been able to get into is the New York marathon.  I hear they canceled it this year due to Hurricane Sandy.  I think that was the right thing to do especially since the start of the race is in hard hit Staten Island.   I just couldn't imagine running a marathon while there is still all that devastation in the area.  So sad!