Friday Leftovers (Oct. 2)

Earlier this week I guest-blogged on This Stop Willoughby and it was a pretty fun experience. To any new readers who have come here from there, I'd just like to say welcome and hope that you add this blog to your reading list.

And now, on to another edition of Friday Leftovers

Word Association

The word association for the week.

1. What Pleases you? :: ice cream
2. Whatever :: say
3. Chime :: bells
4. Pleading :: begging
5. Simulate :: assimilate
6. Flashing :: dancing
7. Directional :: challenged
8. Pink :: rose
9. Access :: hollywood
10. Ugly :: duckling

* Okay, a couple of things. I like ice cream as much as the next person but I'm not sure it's the thing that pleases me the most, nor would it necessarily be in my top 10... or would it? I don't watch tabloid tv shows like Access Hollywood so I have no idea where that one came from. And I am very directionally challenged so that one's on the money. I have no sense of direction. I can't point from my house to the general direction of, say, the grocery store. And we've lived here for three years.

New Blog Buddy

I wanted to share a new blog with you. Sarah has started a blog called the Mother Goose Cupboard where, according to her, she will share her attempts to nourish her family. She's a stay-at-home mother of two girls (ages 6 and 4, two years apart like my own) and lives in Canada (though we won't hold that against her!).

And all the AR folks know her better as goosegreetings.

Anyway, check out the blog if you get a chance!
More New Blogs
Another blog buddy, Lissaloo of One Step At A Time recently bestowed upon me the Beautiful Blog award, for which I am touched.


I enjoy reading her blog as she was one of the first from AR to take the plunge and start a blog, and she's been blogging happily ever since. She recently started a pair new blogs so if you have the chance, check them out.

Krafting With Kids is great but I'm not a "krafty" kind of guy so it would be tough for me to do the things she does on there but I would love to try some of those things, especially because I think my daughters would love doing those things.

Her most recent venture is One Book at a Time. These are her words about the blog: "I am looking forward to many great book discussions with my friends, and anyone else who would like to join us in reading the book of the month. We will be posting our book reviews during the last week of each month and are looking forward to 'discussing' them in the comments section."

So anyway, thanks to Lissaloo for the award and for your support.

Run Antics

One of the pitfalls of running long distances is that you are running for a long time. Last week, we ran 11 miles and it took a little more than two hours. When you go on such long runs, you need to be properly hydrated, and I don't mean just having a fuel belt. You need to be hydrated before you go on the run, otherwise you will pay for it. Last week, I drank my usual 16-ounce bottle of water and a Clif bar, which has become my pre-run fare.

But I'd also drank a lot of water the night before. And I had about a half glass before I left the house in the wee hours of the morning.

Just before we went out on our run, I used the bathroom mostly as a precaution. I didn't want to head out on the run and then realize that I needed to use the bathroom. We run through mostly residential areas of Loma Linda, a mostly quiet community that's best known for its university/medical center.

Anyway, I was going through my usual stages of a long run, trying to not think about the huge distance I was about to undertake, trying to concentrate on the street in front of me and was doing fine. Until about Mile 3. I felt something. An urge. I was puzzled.

Surely you jest.

I had just gone to the bathroom. How could this be possible?

I tried to ignore it, hoping it would go away. In some ways, it was as if my check engine light came on, and I was hoping that by tapping the dash it would vanish. I continued running and hoped it would disappear. I figured that my body was draining its resources so it would have to draw reserves from somewhere, so then the urge might vanish at some point. I've not taken any anatomy classes but I'm sure it doesn't quite work that way.

Soon, I had a chance to relieve the pressure. The group I was running with was small and I was running in the back, not really talking to anyone, so I didn't think anyone would notice if I slipped away for a minute or three.

We'd come up to some sort of school or something, and there were dumpsters in the back of it. We ran through the parking lot and past the dumpsters. There were no runners behind me, far as I could tell, and the rest of the 11-minute pace group was dashing up ahead.

But I panicked. Would I really be doing this, right here? What if someone came out from the school? I didn't see any cars but what if someone was there anyway? Nevermind the mess...

I hemmed and hawed a moment too long, because before I knew it, I saw a large group of runners, not my pace group, and they'd be in plain sight of the dumpsters soon. Not going to happen.

It was about Mile 4 at that point. I decided that I'd just keep running and maybe my body would be able to suppress it since I was running and putting strain on my body after all. Mile 5 came and went, Mile 6, Mile 7 and we were heading into Mile 8. The whole time, though, I realized my body wasn't suppressing anything. Now, I was going through a long run and my body was feeling the effects of it, so I wasn't totally focused on my bladder but it was a bit of a dull aching pain nevertheless.

We got to a street that was lined with trees. Orange trees I think. It was about a half-mile worth of them, and on the other side of the street was the back side of a housing development, covered by walls and trees which actually sloped downward so the street wasn't visible to those houses. The only problem was the orange trees were fenced off. The perfect hidden spot, blocked by a chain link fence.

I had already decided, though, to just tough it out until I was done. I'd had my chance and squandered it, so too bad.

Still, I was running behind the crowd. The few people I'd talked to were ahead of me. Nobody from my group was behind me. If it wasn't for that fence...

But then, I saw it. I saw an opening. There were many trees up ahead, orange trees, big ones that had lots of branches and green leaves and oranges. And there was no fence blocking them.

Screw it, I had my chance. I sprinted across the street, gave one quick glance behind me to see if there was anyone right behind me and disappeared into the trees. One glorious minute later, I was back on the road, adjusting my fuel belt, feeling re-energized for the final push.

I could concentrate on my running again.

Carved Pumpkins

Okay, so I have some more shots of pumpkins from Disneyland to show you and I was going to wait until next week to post more stuff but I can't wait so I'm going to post one right now.

It's totally freakin' awesome.

Seriously, how did they do that?!?

If you aren't familiar with them, those are the two main characters from Up.

Fantastic.