First Harvest

…and signs of spring

Fresh, crunchy home-grown asparagus! There’s something special about that first harvest - especially when you’re eating it within 30 minutes from it being picked.
While harvesting the asparagus after school Wednesday other sure signs of spring were a welcome sight.

Look close at that last picture – besides the sedum, violets, and coreopsis you can see the first blossom on one of the strawberry plants – it's quite promising as long as the rabbits don’t take over!

Now just give me warmer, drier weather consistently. ~~K

Glass City Marathon 2009

… It’s taken me several days to finally post this, so you can take several days to read it. I broke up my wordiness into 5 “chapters” – too much verbose and ranting to read at once! Chapters include: Expo and Pick-Up, Pre-Race, 5k Race, Half Marathon, and Post Race

Expo and Pick-up
…Glass City Marathon – Part 1

Race packets which consisted or our bib, chip, map, and shirt were ready for us the day before the race and contrary to everything we had been told to date, included NO goodies – nada, nothing! There weren’t even final instructions, and the ones B picked up from a table were not very clear.
I had hoped that running clothing and accessories would abound at the expo. Boy, was I wrong! What a wimpy joke of an expo! No coupons or special offers of any kind from vendors!

The socks B was interested in were only available for men but they said they had them at their store (which was on our way home). Can you guess? By the time we arrived at their store, they had sent someone with all the women’s socks to the “expo” and had not kept any at their Pburg store!

It was a beautiful day to be out and I enjoyed our time together with B, M, & S.

Hopefully, if we do this next year, the organizers will be more efficient and detailed.

Pre-Race
…Glass City Marathon – Part 2

Low-key as in DEAD was how we found T-town 70 minutes before the start of the race! Compared to Toledo’s Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure – what a let-down.
That early, it was already turning into a beautiful sunny day (not as forecast). By 8 am it was in the 70’s – this was much warmer than most of us have been training in outside lately. As I watched the “early start” marathoners take off I was wondering how they would do and certainly give them credit for being willing to run more than 5 hours (I heard they would be disqualified if they finished sooner).

Maybe I’m being unfair comparing it to the SGK Race for the Cure, since one is for charity and the other isn’t, but the difference in organization and attitude toward the runner is very noticeable. Many runners seemed very confused as to where “start” was located – even people who had run the marathon before – apparently they keep changing both the course and start locations. There were no officials or volunteers in sight to even ask – it was “runner help runner”. Is it because I’m such a novice and GCM assumes you’re a “real” runner if you enter an event? I can’t say enough about the friendliness, encouragement, and great attitude I felt from all the runners (and the police along the race course).

5k Race
…Glass City Marathon – Part 3

Unlike the Half and Full Marathon, there was no starting mat for us lowly 5k runners. I realize it is only a difference in a matter of seconds time-wise, but as far as I’m concerned it isn’t true chip timing if it does not do individual timing at both the start and finish. For the record, the “early start” marathoners did not have a start mat either.

Another course change? The map I was given yesterday had a different “start” than the latest one posted online, and after we were all in place at Adams and St. Clair we had to walk down to a totally new start position! That was ok with me – it took off a few extra blocks! But really, they couldn’t have worked all this out in advance and let us know?!
Within 2 minutes of the start I realized I had started too fast and my mouth was already dry. A swish of water helped (thanks to B for letting me borrow her hand-held water bottle) and I backed off. As usual, I thought the first mile was the longest. Nervousness about the course disappeared as the police had cross street traffic stopped and the Woodruff stretch was not as “ghetto” as I had anticipated.

Traffic was temporarily stopped on Monroe Street in both directions as we turned in front of the Art Museum. I must have been doing ok because the 2-mile marker came as a welcome surprise sooner than I anticipated. As the sweat was pouring I took another sip of water. I felt like I was slowing as the temperature was rising. Cars crossing a bit in front of me caused some concern but I refused to slow down more – in fact I increased my speed (just to be defiant?) and about that time the police again stopped the cross traffic and I darted forward.

Running in front of the Blarney Irish Pub gave me a sense of “good timing” since I knew the end was near. I slowed a bit on the downward slope to Water Street.

As I approached the finish I stepped up my pace. I forced myself to get ahead of at least one other woman. Success!
My official time (my husband caught the time as I passed the finish mat – see the "drawn-in" yellow arrow in the picture pointing to the top of my head) was 34:26. Good enough for 3rd place in my age group. Apparently the heat had slowed the pack – no one in my group was under 31 minutes! I was hoping for a better time (maybe even just under 30). Due to my face injury (last Saturday) I didn’t train this last week, and I’m not used to the heat yet. Can you tell I’m making excuses? I was glad my time was less than one minute off my Race for the Cure time.

D’s special “whistle” was a most welcome sound! Even though I didn’t see him right away, he had seen me (unlike at the SGK where we didn’t meet up for over 10 minutes). I have to commend him – he was the great “sports photographer” who took many “perfect” shots. I think he enjoys being our support team – that can sometimes be quite a job! Fewer spectators allowed him the ability to roam wherever he wanted without a crowd – one of the nice differences compared to the SGK.

Half Marathon
…Glass City Marathon – Part 4

Many of you know the initial reason I signed up for the 5k was because of my daughter. She wanted to run her “inaugural” half at the GCM Inaugural Half Marathon and we thought we would start the race together in downtown Toledo. Things changed!

She and my nephew (after some fun pressure) started their 13.1-mile journey in Perrysburg. Thanks to R for his support and transportation! Thanks to B for great photos and encouragement! Thanks to everyone for everything.

Both runners proved successful and I am so proud of them.

I am amazed at B persevering through pain for 3 miles! Read about their experiences first hand – B’s blog – M’s blog.

Watching the half marathon runners as they passed the finish line was insightful – the different posture, strides, sweat level, etc. I have a lot to learn and practice!

Special love and thanks to my family for sticking it out through the end for each other. Priceless!

FYI – I have no intention of ever doing a half marathon!

Post Race
…Glass City Marathon – Part 5

No “goodies” after the race either. I’m spoiled – I want to run in an event with sponsors and vendors that give back to the community via “sample” booths.

Commemorative Mugs for the Half Marathon had not arrived in time for the race. All along the way I feel this race has not done much detail work and follow through – water stops were also not as frequent as indicated in all information that had been provided prior to the race.

A friend of mine ran in the Marathon Relay and has even more constructive criticism! Her top disappointment was about the relay exchanges – no porta-potties or water! Her team finished first in their division and the 5 women have to share one plaque – not even a “token” for each individual. Advice to race director – “Don’t advertise things that aren’t going to happen!”

I’m still awaiting an answer to an email I sent the race director. I’m not holding my breath! ~~K

Cache Craft

You’ve probably heard me mention Celtic stones as swag we usually leave at a cache. Creating these has become a new hobby for D.

Using the Dremel hand tool he has been carving crosses, runes, and other symbols into flat, small stones. He then accents them with a bit of permanent marker.
I purchased some Celtic rubber stamps at the last Irish Fest in Dublin and have found they work well on flat smooth stones. I’ve been using a thin coating of acrylic metallic paint on the stencil. A bit of clear spray after the stencil paint dries serves as a protectant.

We also made our own “logo” to represent our geocaching username – BradClanOH. D likes skulls and crossbones and thought it tied in since we search for "treasures" and "X marks the spot"; of course, it had to have something Irish; and then we just piled it all on Ohio!
Can you tell we’re into geocaching? ~~K geocaching, crafts

5k Redefined

3.1 or 3.44

Apparently Toledo’s Glass City Marathon has decided to take “poetic license” with the 5k’s distance. As I was doing some last minute checking on the GSM website I saw the 5k on Sunday is 3.44 miles.

I know you should always give 110% to your effort, but when an automatic 10% is added to the challenge – that’s something else! Did Carty have his hand in this?!?

Wish me luck! ~~K

35th Wedding Anniversary

Saturday was a day for celebration – in our own way. D and I don’t put too much weight on the “number” of our anniversary, since we have always considered ourselves to be committed to each other forever!

We started the beautiful day with our favorite weekend morning activity – reading the newspaper together in the living room while drinking coffee.

As it became warmer outside we were drawn to yard work. After about 3 hours, I was picking up 5-foot logs D had cut and I had a mishap. I stepped on the end of one of the logs and it catapulted into my face! My shocked reaction to the surprise and pain made me think I might have broken my nose and some teeth. Upon closer inspection, after clearing all the blood, I only experienced a lot of bruising with a cut above my lip and a puncture next to that. Thanks to ICE my swelling is minimal with no black and blue as I write this on Tuesday after the fact. I’m concerned about running, since the jarring is quite uncomfortable to my face now.

One of our anniversary plans had been to geocache. BEB was in town to join us, and I was feeling OK. There were three cemetery caches near Custar that I figured we could tackle (including travel time) in about 90 minutes. We were successful!

Our first stop was as St. Louis Catholic Cemetery. We found the design of many of the tombstones interesting. Etchings just about covered the markers on both sides – there were pictures of the people (many not yet dead), their homes, tractors, names of all their children, and a lot of other clutter (note I said they were” interesting”, not that we liked them).

The geocache was an easy find, but a true level 3 terrain difficulty. D joked that he needed his “Everest” climbing gear and Sherpa Guide! But at least he was glad it was as dry as it was to prevent major slipping. We took an eraser and left a Celtic stone.

We then moved on to Milton Twp Cemetery. As we approached we were intrigued by the strange pruning job on the trees along the cemetery – they were all flat-topped – they almost looked like the shape of a wine glass (sorry, no picture). This was another beautifully maintained area – all bushes had been trimmed recently; all the tombstones (no matter their age) had been weeded and dug around – we haven’t noticed many cemeteries that do this consistently. Again, the cache was a quick find by BEB – she took a plastic good luck token and left another of our Celtic stones.

Interesting OLD tombstones (some with quite a “lean” on them) and a fun, quick find met us at Richfield Cemetery. The terrain difficulty of this one was a true 2.5 with a tricky placement. Another of our Celtic stones was left as we took a poker chip.

After we got back home, I was a bit out of sorts (my face and mouth were hurting and swollen) so you’ll need to visit B’s blog to see our “food”.

Later in the evening B & Z came over – primarily to deliver a present to us. But of course we all had a great time visiting. As we sat outside the conversation was all over the place – music, movies, etc. What fun!

Look at the great paint job Z did on my toes! It’s sometimes difficult to do my own feet; and today was definitely one of those days. Z proceeded to do BEB and BMA – for some reasons D didn’t want his toes polished.

D and I were planning on going to Biagi’s in Levis Commons on Sunday for a bit of a celebration, but I didn’t feel like it – we’ll do that another day!

What a wonderful anniversary, with hopes of many more! ~~K

Good Eats

...thanks to R&B

Just catching up on posting pics of some great meals we've shared!

The most tender steak!

Steak and eggs the next morning (that seems so decadent)

Jambalaya…

Creamy Cajun Chicken PastaThis is a MUST HAVE recipe (http://www.recipezaar.com/Creamy-Cajun-Chicken-Pasta-39087). Don't even look at the amount of calories per serving! I think we’re having this again this Saturday so B can do some carb-loading before the half marathon!

Yummy eating! ~~K

Monday Meanderings

… geocaching

Making a short loop around Route 6 yielded four cemetery geocaches after running some errands in BG on the last day of spring break.

Our first stop was to an old off-road cemetery – its latest burial was in the late 1800’s! Apparently Potterstown was a village south of Weston that burned to the ground and was never rebuilt. The cache was a large treasure trove that included a turtle travel bug we intend to move along. (See below)
Grelton Cemetery is a large, beautifully maintained rural burial ground. Benches and labeled trees were quite inviting, but it was raining so we went on a quick hunt here.
Arachnophobia was the name of the clever cache we found in Hoy Cemetery. Can you guess what the container looked like?
As the rain intensified, we made our last stop at Olive Branch Cemetery. There we found a cache named “Barking in a Tree” – I don’t have any idea why.
It was a fun adventure despite the rain.

Thursday Tommy Travels After supper we went out to further Tommy the Turtle on his journeys. We had heard of a large cache near Haskins that had other travel bugs and geocoins. Although parking was next to impossible, the cache was a quick find and hopefully Tommy will move along soon. It is said this cache is located along the former right of way for the Lima & Toledo Traction Company.
We decided it was so nice out we would try to find one more geocache. “Welcome to Haskins” was another quick find, but a micro (our least favorite).

Geocaching is proving to be a nice hobby – it also helps to get us out walking a bit on nice evenings. ~~K

Reuse

Plastic grocery bags were acting like rabbits in our pantry. It was time to get them under control, but I’ve never had (nor wanted) one of those cutesy bag dispensers.

We recently used up the last of a coffee container. It was rinsed, but not yet disposed. So, I’m sure you figured out by now what it became…
A plastic grocery bag dispenser!

I first cut a ½ diameter hole out of the center, then cut “pie slices” evenly around the lid.

NOTE: Most of the bags were NOT true grocery bags since I carry my own sturdy bags to Aldi’s. The offending bags included ones from Kroger, Meijer, WalMart, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, etc. I still don’t feel these stores are “bring-your-own bag- friendly”, even though they sell reusable bags plastered with their own logo! When I remember to carry my own bags to these vendors I first have to endure the “evil eye” of the “greeter”, then the cashier’s – most of the bagging stations can’t accommodate any bags other than their flimsy plastic ones. Can you tell this is one of my “pet peeves”? ~~K

Howell Hunting (geocaching)

… more “Friday Fun”

With three geocaches under out belt in Brighton, we wanted to tackle five more challenges we knew were in the Howell area.

Hager Hill Cemetery was especially interesting to D as we approached and observed a German flag on a younger man’s grave.

Parking was a bit tricky, but the coordinates were right on target. Notice the snow!

Kid’s Cache took us to a car pool parking lot where a cache was hidden on the slope going down to I-96. This was one of the largest containers we’ve encountered, but pretty junky! It would have taken a crew of 5 all day to properly clean this trashy, muddy area – CITO made no dent! NOTE: CITO is the eco-minded geocaching slogan – Cache In, Trash Out – like a good Girl Scout, you should leave an area better than you found it.
We continued north to the very small Mount Olive Cemetery on Thompson Lake. We thought a woman walking 2 dogs was not very respectful of the location – we named her “Poop Lady”. We had to broaden our search and use our geosenses to find the micro-cache hidden here.
We then went to another edge of the lake to Lakeview Cemetery (I do mean the “edge”).

This was a multi-stage small cache called SQ Howell Remembers. It took a while before the “force” decided to help us find the “chambers” yielding the cache. We enjoyed the beautiful setting and the challenge of this hunt.

Closer to the outlets was Pioneer Cemetery, which was a quaint, small cemetery with a few unique grave markers.

As our swag we took a Euro “penny”.
It was a most successful, informative, and entertaining day of geocaching. ~~K

Shopping

…more “Friday Fun”

We left home about 9 am Friday for a fun day in the Howell/Brighton, Michigan area. Of course I had to stop at Speedway in Pburg to get English toffee coffee for the road – unfortunately, mine was not up to par since it tasted more like flavored milk than any type of coffee drink.

After an uneventful drive (the best kind) we arrived at Tanger Outlets in Howell, MI about 11:15. We were surprised by the amount of snow still showing in the area, including the outlet parking lot.
We split our shopping into two segments. The first lasted until 1:15. We then “broke” for a trip to Brighton for lunch and sightseeing. Our outlet shopping resumed about 5:15, but only took about an hour to conclude.

Fossil is probably D’s favorite outlet in both Tanger and Birch Run, so it was the first store of the day for us. It was not a disappointment – he had wanted a passport case and found one he liked. As a “list-maker” you know how much I like notebooks, and found one that I “had to have” that holds a small legal size pad.
Nike+ Structure Triax 11 was the buy of the day! I paid $95 for this comfortable running shoe in October at Dave’s in Pburg. I bought a duplicate pair at the Nike outlet for $59. I couldn’t resist!

Other purchases (I don’t feel we splurged too much) included a Bass shirt for D for $5 (normally $44), an Aeropostle sweater for me for $4.50 (also normally $44), a Children’s Place shirt for Z, several slotted serving spoons and a bottle opener at Kitchen Collection, Bath & Body Works lotion for me and soaps I’ll use only when we have company, and a glasses case at Rue 21 (I love looking at all the “youthful” clothing and accessories – all for “tiny” bodies).

Whole Foods proved irresistible as we approached I-94 in Ann Arbor. I had never been there and was very reluctant to buy much due to the high cost of most anything “green” “or organic”. The concept is great, but it just doesn’t fit in my budget. I’m glad we went and had a great time browsing.
The thought of going on down the road to Trader Joe’s crossed our minds but we were just “shopped out” and tired at that point. At least we have been to TJ’s and can leave that for another day.

As we neared Dundee, D suggested we do a quick stop at Cabelas. On our last visit to R & B’s I had found a pair of shoes I wanted at Cabelas but they didn’t have them in my size and I was unwilling to pay a shipping fee to get them sent to me. Yea – they had them - just what I wanted and they are so comfortable! And thank goodness it was just a quick 10-minute stop since we were quite tired. Thank you, D.
As we continued home we saw many deer in fields – at one point a small herd of seven.

It was about 9:30 as we pulled into the driveway to conclude our fun Friday. ~~K

Brighton, Michigan

…more “Friday Fun”

Our plans for “Fun Friday” included lunch at an Irish pub and geocaching. I originally thought there was a third Irish pub in Howell (one we had not yet visited), but I realized it was actually in Brighton. See note at end of post about two wonderful Irish pubs in Howell.
On our way to Brighton we took advantage of a geocache called "A Short Walk in the Woods” located at an eastbound rest stop on I-96. It was a nice secluded location for such a busy area. Our swag exchange yielded a Molson can cover.
Brighton’s beautiful downtown city park with an elaborate play area and pond was our parking location. It also held a geocache called “Crazy Quackers”. On this day I would have called it “messy honkers” due to the geese rather than ducks. There were too many muggles in the park as we arrived, so we walked over to the pub, ate, and came back; then we enjoyed observing other geocachers before logging our “find”.
As we walked to Stout Irish Pub (http://www.greatplaces4goodtimes.com/index.php?page=stout-irish-pub) we were quite impressed with this ski resort town. It reminded us a bit of Worthington, Ohio. Sometime we’d like to spend more time exploring – especially on a bit warmer day. If cars are any indication, Brighton reeks of wealth! How many Lexus and Infinities can you see on any one-block stretch?
OK, back to our primary Brighton objective – Stout Irish Pub. It was well worth traveling a few extra miles from Howell. Great service, décor, and food was as expected, and then some.
The décor included straw on some of the walls, a nice bar, and an intriguing mural of a lion and girl from the Berlin Zoo dated 1863 - check out the story and history of this http://www.intimateforest.com/lady_lion/l_l.html.
A nice selection of beer on tap (in addition to Guinness) led us to choose two English brews – Tennant for D and Botington’s for me. It would have been all too easy to have another pint, but we successfully resisted this early in the day.
Traditional “fish and chips” were enjoyed by D. I devoured a delicious bowl of the House Special soup that included champ, Irish bacon, cheddar, and scallions; I also ordered three Irish Sliders thinking they would be much smaller Reubens than they actually were – one served as my “snack” after we arrived home. Their menu is included on the web site link.
Obviously, we highly recommend this Irish pub.
After returning to the city park and finding the cache, we proceeded to St Patrick’s Cemetery in town. Another geocache was waiting to be found there. In addition to quickly finding the cache we enjoyed looking at tombstones including one of a man from Ireland buried nearby.

Pub Note: Cleary’s in downtown Howell is traditional both inside and out. Chris McGurrin’s on old US 23 at Route 59 has a modern exterior but an authentic Irish bar replicated inside (there’s even a map of County Cavan inside since the owner’s grandmother came from Cavan) – I highly recommend the liver and onions in a whiskey sauce.

Looking forward to another day in Brighton in the future. ~~K