What's left of the wall.

I went to Berlin last Sunday and got to see where the wall was. There's a chunk of it saved outside of a store right near Brandenburg Gate. You've probably seen Brandenburg Gate before. It's the big arch that is always behind Hitler in his speeches.
Anyway, it's very cool and kind of unbelievable to stand in a spot that has changed so significantly in my lifetime.
It was kind of a quick trip but while we were in Berlin, we also saw the monument with the big gold angel on top and olympic stadium.
The weather was nasty though so we only got a little bit of time to walk around when it wasn't raining and absolutely freezing.

Sunny Tomato Pickin'

Look who I caught feeding Sadie tomatoes from the garden...
I don't believe any of the complaining now about Sadie stealing them.

Mesa Turkey Trot 10K

I finally pestered Steve and Denise into joining us for Mesa's Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot events.
Denise had the idea of wearing the crazy hats. I think that it paid off because some photographer took our picture at the race for a local newspaper!

Brian and I both beat our personal records for the 10k at this race. 39:18 for Brian! He was 33rd out of 2,224 overall and 2nd in his age division! Hooray for Brian.
As for me (drum-roll...) 64:55! (watch-time) Hooray for me. I have moved from the 90th percentile to the 53rd percentile in three years!!!
There's too many exclamation points in this post so I must end now!!!

Fort Bowie National Monument

 
Because the town of Bowie, Arizona was a little bit of a let-down, we decided to check out Fort Bowie National Monument. So we drove about 10 miles south of Bowie on a increasingly rough road to reach a parking lot at the trailhead of the Fort Bowie trail. There was a sign that pointed to "Historic Fort Bowie, 1.5 miles".
After hoofing it about 3/4 mile, we came upon the original cemetery but it only had one original headstone in it. It was still kind of cool though. After another little bit of walking, we came to a reproduction wikieup. We took a few pictures (on Roman's camera, sorry) and then moved on. Finally we arrive at the remains of Fort Bowie. There is a cabin there with a park ranger that can answer all kinds of questions. He explained to us that because of the lack of water for hundreds of miles, the spring near the Fort was an important resource to defend. Of course, it was originally the Apache's spring so that is who the Fort was stealing, er defending the spring against. Anyway, lots of bloodshed and fighting over this spring. It was a large fort with lots of people. It would have been so weird to be there back then. So isolated, it would be like going to live on Antartica but it seems so mundane now. Anyway, here's a picture of me in front of the remains. In the glare of the sunlight you can see the original steel flagpole which was kind of neat that they preserved it in the same place as the old photos show it.

Bowie, Arizona

Brian, Roman and I headed down to visit Bowie, Arizona the day after thanksgiving. Let me answer some questions you may have concerning this trip.

#1 - Where?
Bowie, Arizona is a VERY small town near the Arizona-New Mexico border. It is about 2 miles from I-10 and doesn't see many visitors.

#2 - Why?
As everyone knows, Bowie, Arizona is the birth place of the fictional character Rambo. It seems that Germans, or at least the German that was in the car with us, is way into Rambo and remember the mention of Rambo's home town from the first movie. It seems that Rambo was born to an American father and a German mother. Perhaps that is why it is interesting to them? Beats me.

It turns out, and this may be surprising to some of you, that there is NOTHING to do in Bowie. Half of the buildings are boarded up and the other half seem to be the target of the town's pyrotechnic teenage population. There was a mini-mart that was open and had the friendliest lady working the counter. She was happy to tell us that Bowie doesn't really have much and she herself lives in San Simon down the road. But her mom was born in Bowie and still lives there, bless her soul. This lady was really sad to inform us that there was not a single Rambo monument in the town. So after eating at the Subway on I-10, we took some pictures and went to Fort Bowie National Monument. Here's a picture of the main street of Bowie though to give you a sense of what the town was like:

Fondant!

Finally the shower is over and the cake doesn't have to be a surprise anymore.
For Chrissy's wedding shower, I made a cake with fondant icing. Now before you go making fun of my lumpy cake that you see in the picture, let me explain that the cake is a Rice Krispie treat cake. Chrissy's mom used to make her cakes out of Rice Krispies so I thought I would make her her childhood favorite. I now know that her mom just piped icing on the edges but I thought it would be fun to have the rice krispie part inside be a surprise to Chrissy when it was cut.
I've been wanting to experiment with fondant for a while so this was the perfect opportunity. I looked around online and found that most people hate the taste of fondant and it is used only for looks. The worst tasting fondant is apparently the Wilson brand one that is sold already made at stores like Michael's (I've never tried it, just read a LOT of complaining about it). A few more hours of looking and I finally found a recipe that people seemed to like. Even better, it's main ingredient is marshmallow, which fit the theme of the cake itself quite well.
The final product turned out to be delicious and even with a warning to the guests that the icing may be more for looks than taste, I noted mostly empty plates, including the icing.
I encourage anyone to try this. With normal smooth cakes, I think the look would be very professional but pretty darn easy. Here's the recipe for anyone who would like to try: http://www.members.cox.net/shelleydevere/WhiteChocolateMarshmallowFondant.html
Happy baking!

Brian's 10 Mile Race

The results are up and I just had to post about Brian's incredible run yesterday. He clocked in at a 6:22 pace. That's one second slower than his record 10k he did back in May!
Apparently he went out too fast at the beginning so he was light-headed at about mile 5. He was determined to stay ahead of some random guy that he picked that was pushing the pace from behind. Anyway, he did it, he's still alive and after some time laying on the sidewalk immediately after the finish line, he was still able to come run the last mile with me. What a guy.
BTW, this race was fast. I mean fast. Where do these guys come from? Out of 415 runners who completed the 10 mile race, an amazing 19 of them broke 6 minute pace.

Get Moving Tucson 10-Miler

After almost 3 years of 10k races, I participated in a 10 mile race today. Phew. Those extra 4 miles are just amazingly hard.
It was a very enjoyable course though, winding through downtown Tucson and through the UofA campus. It almost took my mind off the punishment that I was dealing to my legs. Of course I was so stressed at the beginning thinking that there is no way I was going to be able to run 10 miles. But once again, my negativity failed to get the best of me. With only a few walk breaks in the last two miles, I managed to put together a pretty good time.
It always helps to have Brian come back for me and this time was no exception. I found him chatting up the water ladies at mile 9, ready to hand me a gulp of water before diving into the talk about how I was going to 'take the guy in front of me'. Well, I don't think I took anyone that last mile but I did complete another race with a smile. That has become my goal because it is almost guaranteed that I'll get the announcer to remark on how I'm "still smiling after 10 miles".
The best part of the race before the finish line: Going over three bridges downtown. What fantastic scenery.
The best part of the race after the finish line: Easy. Chocolate-covered bananas!

Sushi

Tonight was my first try at making sushi. It came out pretty darn good. I later found out that the art of sushi is cutting things really small. I can do that next time probably.









I put cucumber, avocado, green onion and mango on them. Brian didn't like the mango at first but then he ventured into wasabi territory and really liked the sweet and spicy together. I think we'll try again soon.

"Hey There Delilah" Madness

So I thought that I was the only person that thought that The Plain White T's song was just plain creepy. It doesn't sound sweet, it sounds like Delilah has no idea that this guy is drooling over her 1,000 miles away.
It turns out that lots of people think the song is kind of creepy. For the best response to the song check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXlX5t1K6X0 (the lyrics are worth watching the lame video for). The song has even got it's own Wikipedia page.
That will give you something to think about the next time you're enjoying this sweet song, you sicko!

More Pictures of Kayaking

Breck so generously posted select pictures that he took to a website. Already it's hard to remember that I was in this beautiful place. Enjoy!
http://www.cladesign.com/vancouver/orca.html

Vancouver Island Kayaking Trip

I'm back from a freakin fantastic four day trip to kayak with the orcas. It was a great experience and one of the most serene vacations that I have ever taken.
I'm still waiting on some pictures from a fellow traveller on the trip but here's a sneak preview of some of the scenery and silliness experienced.

Zacher Family Slumber Party - Part 2

Due to popular demand (Jen)... a review of slumber party part 2.



This episode of the slumber party was held at Denise's family cabin near Payson. Since this was the last week in July, of course it was a brilliant idea on the part of Steve and Denise to move the party out of the valley.
The weekend was marked by lots of relaxing, a hike under Tonto Natural Bridge, making custom pizzas, playing a very personalized version of Monopoly, a visit to the fish farm and of course, lots of button pushing. I, for one, had a fantastic time with all the events. Looking forward to part 3!

Warning; Post entirely about running

A fair warning to those of you who are less than interested in running in general.
For those of you still with me, I have to describe the weird thing that happened this morning while doing intervals.
So two weeks ago, I ran my fastest 400m interval ever - 2:01! This was faster than my previous PR by a whole second, and faster than my "average time" by about 10 seconds. I was hugely psyched and couldn't wait for the next week's session to see whether I could match it again. The weekend after that though, I promptly came down with a chest cold. (Weird I know - In the summer? Who gets colds in the summer? This was my first.) So the retry had to wait another week.
This morning I got a late start and my legs were quite sore from lifting weights yesterday. I resolved that I would get out there and do my best although I suspected lingering coughs and chest congestion were going to make it very difficult. So it was with great surprise when I pushed stop at the end of the first 400 and registered 1:58 on my watch. 3 seconds faster after being sick? This was getting weird.
So I told myself to slow it down a little or I wouldn't make it through the 3 more 400s that I had planned on doing.
The second 400 felt much slower, I was guessing 2:08 would be my finishing time. I pushed stop on the watch, looked down and saw 1:49.89. I came to a stop and my mouth dropped open. I quickly began calculating all the ways that I could be screwing up pushing start and then pushing stop. Brian wasn't there yet so I ran back to the car to get my cell phone to record these times. Brian showed up around that time and laughed as I tried to figure out how to write a memo on the phone. After explaining to him that I may never see these times again, he reminded me that there were two left and I trotted off to do them.
I was sure the last two couldn't break 2 minutes, I was just too tired. But I did! I ended up with 4 amazing times (for me) that I'm sure will carry me for at least a year.
1:58.48
1:49.89
1:52.37
1:56.21

Brian's Humongous Carrot

The other white meat

Brian has always kind of chuckled when I quote this old pork ad. I just thought it was my amazingly humorous delivery.
It turns out that he's laughing because the whole thing is a sham! Pork is not the other white meat. It may look kinda lighter than beef but nutritionally, you might as well have yourself a big old slab of cow.
My RealAge newsletter the other day sent an email reminding me that as a general rule, red meat should be limited to one serving per week. AND... AND... that pork counts as red meat!!! Can you believe it?
Now I know that some of you out there are saying "duh, bacon". But you have to realize that I'm just about meat-illiterate and it never occurred to me that there wasn't also a "bacon cut" on a cow. You know, bacon was just the most ridiculously fatty part of the pig. I thought that the health aspects of bacon had more to do with the cut than the animal.
Luckily I don't really like eating pig so now it is pretty easy to convince Brian that we should never eat it again. BUT There is this fantastic Losbeto's near us that makes beef green chile burritos that I don't think I could go longer than a week without. So I guess we know how my once a week quota is going to be filled... until I convice them to make a chicken green chile burrito!

On cheesy running songs

There's something about hard physical exercise that makes even the cheesiest of things seem so emotional.
Lately, one of my favorite running songs is "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. Crazy right? While I'm sitting still here writing this, I can hardly stomach the thought of piping Eminem directly into my ears.
But when I'm out on the road and I'm hot and I'm tired and I have less than a mile to go, I fast forward to this song and it is just so darn motivating. It starts with a very cheesy instrumental part, then he starts talking about how hard life is or something like that and then there's this snippet: "oh there goes gravity". I swear that gravity does let up for a split second after that line and I feel great.
Later on in the song there's some line like "feet fail me not cuz maybe the only opportunity I got". I know, I know. I hope that everyone out there is rolling their eyes. At that point I always have a little thought about how lucky I am that I have such a healthy body that always comes back from the abuse I dole out.
Inspiration can be found almost anywhere.

Cinco de Mayo 10K

Brian and I ran a Cinco de Mayo 10k on Seis de Mayo this year. It is a really beautiful race and we had perfect weather to make it extra nice.
Unfortunately, I haven't felt so good the past couple of days. I must have caught a little bug somewhere. When I got to the one mile mark, I had felt like I already had run for eight miles. Not a good thing.
So I walked more than I've walked in any other race in my life and finished slower than any 10k I've run in my life. At least I was still enjoying myself and enjoying the beautiful course. It was a pretty tough one to run because of the hills but I walked most of those and just ran the downs.
Brian came back for me like usual. He was a huge motivation and talked me into passing by three people that I had no intention on passing before he met up with me.
Speaking of Brian... He ran a personal best at 39 minutes! That's fast!
Now for the Mexican breakfast... They ran out. They're going to be getting a letter from me about that. I was very disappointed. Maybe next year Brian will get a plate for both of us as soon as he finishes like I suggested.

Inspiring post for Brian

See Brian, even when you have nothing interesting to say, you can post a really awesome photo. (I did not take this photo. Seriously, did you think I was that good?)

Guitar and cello?

Brian is all excited about doing a guitar/cello duet together. Since neither of us are musically talented enough to do composition, this ought to be very interesting.
Anybody out there want to consult on how we get this going? (I should mention that I have a very limited range of notes that I can play on the cello and I can't do any of that vibratto crap :)