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27 May 2012 tagged blogger, blogging with no comments
i love that we live in a future where it’s almost easy to take it for granted when someone from china watches a six year old ted talk on blogging given by mena trott where she mentions the blog and odin in the context of how blogs can help build a friendlier, more connected world and takes the time to leave a wonderful comment writing, “it is never too late to realize the wonderful legacy BLOGs can bring to us!”
funny too, that i just realized that i never properly blogged about the academy of art university in san francisco studying odin’s adventures last year after watching the same video.
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25 May 2012 tagged exercise, running with no comments
well, turning 40 had to happen sooner or later. i’m not one to think too much about “big birthdays”. time marches on and all that.
it is amusing to me that ten years ago, right before i turned 30 i started running and in that post i don’t say clearly what my motivation was – to do something at 30 years old that my 20 year old self would have thought was impossible. ten years ago i could barely run for 5 minutes and if my 30 year self could have had a conversation with my 20 year old self and said i was training for a marathon, my 20 year old self would have said i had gone batshit crazy. completely insane. and yet, i did it and went on to run a few marathons before completely falling off the wagon after odin was born.
and so, now that i’ve turned 40 i’m doing it again. trying to do something my 30 year old self would have never thought possible. not just running a marathon, but running it faster and stronger than i ever could have imagined at even 30 years old. then, i was just hoping to finish which was an incomprehensible feat for someone who couldn’t imagine running even a 5k. now, i’m hoping to finish in under 4 hours which means i have to average 9 minute miles for 26.2 miles.
to be honest, i’m not sure i can get to that pace by the time i run the chicago marathon. it seems impossible now.
but who knows, maybe i can prove my 40 year old self wrong while kicking my 30 year old self’s ass 
it’s really a function of weight. i’ve lost 40 pounds since starting running again and i probably have to lose 30 more to have any hope of finishing under 4 hours.
i do know my 30 year old self would have never been able to run 6 miles without stopping while averaging 10 minute miles with 7 minute mile sprints. 7 days a week.
and i’d really like to know what my 50 year old self is going to come up with to kick my 40 year old self’s ass.
what do you got? an ultramarathon?? bring. it. on.
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25 May 2012 tagged birthday, clams with no comments
kris didn’t need to ask what i wanted for my 40th birthday dinner
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13 May 2012 tagged egg, recipe, red bell pepper with 1 comment
here’s an easy but satisfying twist on regular ol’ eggs. slice a cross section of red bell pepper so you get a nice circle-ish shape. take care to cut it so it will sit flat on a pan. heat both sides of the pepper in a frying pan for a minute or two, so that the pepper starts to soften but not too much. then, crack open an egg and put it right in the middle of the pepper.
carefully splash a bit of water in the hot pan and cover for 3-4 minutes. the steam from the water will cook the egg whites but leave a proper sunny side up soft yolk.
acceptable modifications include adding crushed red pepper flakes and pepper jack cheese.
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12 May 2012 tagged running with no comments
nine months after starting running again, four months after building up to 35 miles every week and three months after signing up for the chicago marathon, i just ran my first half marathon!
i didn’t intend to run 13.1 miles today, but i missed a few days of running while travelling ( though i did get in a 5 miles run at 5,000 feet ) and just decided to keep going.
the best part? finishing strong with 8 minute mile sprints.
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21 April 2012 tagged backyardchickens, barred rock, chicken, hen, the girls with no comments
with the early warm weather greening everything up, The Girls are out happily foraging around the yard looking for Anything That Moves. it’s really amazing to sit and watch them scratch and peck with what appears to be incredible specificity as they look for bugs and ticks and whatnot where the whatnot is most likely something creepy and crawly ( ’cause, you know, chickens are not vegetarians, right? ).
while guineafowl are often cited as the premier pest controllers, i think any poultry is going to do a great job at reducing all manner of pests in the yard and garden, including dreaded deer ticks which carry lyme disease which has a high prevelance in southwest wisconsin.
with the mild winter and and warm spring i’ve been hearing a lot of reports of people finding deer ticks in town on their animals so i like to imagine The Girls are eating every last one of them as they excitedly run here and there through the yard.
in fact, if you’re in an area with a lot of deer ticks, i think it’s your duty to keep backyard chickens. i think someone should update the uncle sam expects you to keep hens and raise chickens poster to say “two hens in the back yard for each person in the house will keep a family in fresh eggs and keep the deer ticks away!”
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21 April 2012 tagged blossom, flower, plant, violet with no comments
like many blossomy things, including our peach tree, the violets have bloomed about a month early which is far too early for these parts and i suspect they’ll quickly succumb to an upcoming cold night before i get a chance to harvest.
which all means once again another year has passed without making violet syrup.
i think this might mark the sixth year of almost making the syrup. at this point, maybe i should just wait until an even decade passes.
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15 April 2012 tagged bicyle, bike, day2843, ericiv, ice cream, odin with 3 comments
it seemed like a nice enough day for a bike ride to try out the new coon prairie trail that was recently finished between viroqua and westby. a bit breezy perhaps, but worth the 8 mile bicycle ride from our house to downtown since we could make a stop for ice cream at ole & lena’s kaffe hus. and, hey, we’ve done a 20 mile bike ride so we knew we could make it.
the ride out was, in hindsight, suspiciously easy because we somehow didn’t notice that we had a 20mph wind to our backs. i guess we should have known something was up when we made it the 8 miles to westby without seemingly having to pedal once.
it was so easy that odin decided he wanted to pick up 4 more miles to make it an even 12 before enjoying ice cream and heading back home. but by the time we made it back to ole and lena’s the winds were gusting up to 40 mph! and we were still 8 miles from home!
we were both still in denial about how hard the rest of the trip was going to be as we relished our ice cream cones and commented on how the crazy wind made for tough going.
i guess we both thought maybe the wind would calm down. we had no idea how wrong we would be.
the next 8 miles were brutal. the wind picked up more, sustaining more than 20 mph and gusting over 40mph. the winds were so strong that you had to pedal doing downhill just to keep moving!
for the first time in his life i saw odin really struggle with the idea he might not be able to accomplish something he set out to do. of course, i told him there was no shame in calling mama and waiting by the road for her to come pick us up.
“poppi, i really want to finish this. but i don’t know if i can. i don’t think i can. i really don’t think i can.”
i told him we’d take it one hill at a time and to listen to his body. just one pedal push after another and another and another. if at some point he didn’t have another pedal push, well that was just fine. we could always try again some other day.
it was amazing to watch him draw upon every ounce of determination he had and make it all the way home.
well, all the way except for the last few blocks when his front tire went flat
he was pretty tuckered out when we got home but, of course, five minutes later he was asking when we could go outside and play some street hockey.
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14 April 2012 tagged knitting, knitting sticks, maker, measuring tape, viroqua. wisconsin, yarn with no comments
well it took awhile, but five and half years after i wrote about felix’s closing on main street the wonderful ewetopia fiber shop has moved in from its smaller space just down the street. it’s a great shop and i’m sure it’ll do even brisker business in its new digs.
given odin’s love of knitting and crocheting we make frequent trips to the store and today we decided to cash in a gift certificate he’s had burning a hole in his wallet from christmas.
he picked up some knitting sticks, a ball of yarn and a measuring tape a new project he has in mind. i’m sure you’ll see his finished creation soon
