Friday, May 21st

Friday morning, we went to the weekly neighborhood play group at a park we had never been to before. Man, there are a lot of parks in Sacramento! One day I'm going to make a list of the one's we have visited since we have been here. One day, when I have entirely too much time on my hands.

My father-in-law came to visit Friday afternoon and we went to Old Town Sacramento, the Train Museum, and went for a walk after dinner along the river.

My favorite quotes from his visit:

My Father-in-law: So, Tobias, how many dimensions are there in string theory? Can you say 12?

My son: I'm Toby. I like cupcakes.

Wild strawberries

It was pretty great day.

Hi Sarah - Here are a few half-baked, half-marathon ideas

(My friend Sarah and I are talking about training for a half-marathon.)

You still up for it, Sarah?

If you are, here are a few that I have been looking at:

The Urban Cow is in October, and the best part about that race, for me, is that Fleet Feet Sports has a "Train for the Urban Cow 1/2 Marathon" training program that looks pretty sweet.

But.... The Lake Natoma Four Bridges Half Marathon, is on Halloween, and you can win an award for the best costume - which means, costumes! Fun!

Also, the Urban Cow is on the 3rd of October, so I'd imagine I could do Fleet Feet's training for the Urban Cow program and apply it to the Lake Natoma race instead.

Then there's the Buffalo Stampede 10 mile race in September. It is put on by "The Buffalo Chips," which apparently is Sacramento's oldest running club, and I don't even want to know how they got the Buffalo Chips name.

Here's a link to the calendar for local races for you to check out too. I've just skimmed it myself, so you might find something that fits your schedule better, or looks like it might be fun.

I've also been listening to the free iTunes podcast, "Marathon Training Academy" which has been awesome. I am adjusting my training game plan to include weight training and cross training, as opposed to jogging every day - a strategy that they say is supposed to guard against overuse injury, and burnout - but it means I have to pick up two new hobbies now, and, gasp, actually plan and research what I'm doing - but, ultimately, I think it's prudent advice.

Also, just so you are prepared, I really just want to stress that I am a remarkably slow - I'm a jogger - and sweaty jogger at that. I sweat a lot. You do not have to run the race with me side by side, we can just run the same race, or run/walk in my case, and I'll meet up with you at the end - and we can go out for a beer, or something. I think it would be hard to try to figure out if we are training at the same pace, without training together - but I think it's safe to say, that you're a probably a faster runner.

Sunday at Art Beast and Sugar Plum Vegan

Yesterday, we went to two of my favorite places in Sacramento: Art Beast and Sugar Plum Vegan Cafe, just a block away; me, my mom, my brother James, sister-in-law, Laurie, baby niece, Penelope, Oliver, and Toby.

Oh my god, I miss you guys already!

They are here!

Toby's bedtime is usually 8 o'clock, so when 8 o'clock came along I called my mom to see where they were and they were only 20 minutes away!

Toby got to stay up super late last night, meet his cousin, open presents, and I served a vegan meal that everyone seemed to really like.

I made bok choy, broccoli, and mushroom stir fry with brown rice and we also attacked some of the left-over tabouli I made on Friday. We made whole wheat tortilla wraps with hummus, tabouli, salsa (because salsa goes on everything, of course) and roasted red bell peppers. The hummus was store bought, but I'm thinking about making my own since we eat it all the time, it only consists of a few ingredients, and I have a high powered, super fancy blender, that should really be put to good use more often.

It was so great to see everyone, and I'm so happy to get to see them all again this morning! Penelope is getting so much bigger, and has a lot of personality now. She is such an easy-going happy baby! And super cute too!!!!

They brought the patio furniture that didn't fit in the U-Haul when we moved to Fresno. My mom saved it for us at her house this last year, and brought it up this trip. She also brought a treadmill that she bought and didn't use, that is going to be ours now, and half a garage full of our law books that will soon be displayed at Oliver's new office. They also brought presents for Toby's birthday, so now he thinks all the banker boxes full of law books are unopened presents. Sorry little guy, they aren't nearly that exciting.

Looking at the pictures of myself is painful. It is surprising to me how fat I am - especially since, as of this week, I have officially lost 40 pounds, but I am still losing, so all in good time.

Laurie and Penelope:

b

Toby and the law books:

My mama:

My brother James and my niece Penelope:

The Fishy Train Museum

It's Saturday, around 4:30. My family was supposed to come visit today to celebrate my son's birthday, but it looks like they won't be here until after he goes to bed now.

Toby's actual birthday was last Friday, but they didn't want to come that weekend because it was Mothers' Day weekend and Laurie, my sister-in-law, and my brother, James, planned on spending the weekend with Laurie's mom in Ventura.

The original plan, involved my mom coming up yesterday, on Friday, and my brother, his wife and baby, coming up today; but then they decided to all come up together - and leave early, "around 6 in the morning" my mom said, which ended up being noon.

I had a bunch of stuff planned for this weekend, and it doesn't look like any of it's going to work out now... but we had fun today anyway - and hopefully they'll get here before they have to turn around and go back!

We went to the library, and then visited the Capitol Aquarium that one of my new friends from the mom's club told me about. Toby called it the "Fishy Train Museum." After that, we took Toby out for frozen yogurt at this place by our house called, "Dude, Where's my Yogurt?" No really Dude, that's what it's called.

Our Friday

Inspired in part by Laurie's suggestion, and the fact that I had a lot of strawberries and got even more strawberries in our fruit and veggie box this week, I made strawberry jam / a mess of the kitchen this morning.

It really was a lot easier than I imagined, although, so was screwing it up. I let it boil over at one point which meant I had to take the stove apart to clean it afterwards - but now it's super clean - way cleaner than it was before. This made me think of college. We used to say that parties were good for our house because the biggest, messiest, parties inspired some serious deep cleaning, before, and afterwards. Making jam was like a big messy party for my stove - and now it's sparkling.

Then we went to the Friday play group at the park and that was fun. It was hotter today, 83 degrees, and starting to feel like Summer. Is it Halloween yet? It can't be as hot as it was last Summer in Fresno, though, so take that Sacramento Summer. ;o)

One of the mom's in our play group bought a new stroller. It's the same exact one that we have. Same (original) color and everything - they look like radically different colors now, side by side. I had to take a picture of it because it really shows how well loved, and sun bleached, ours has been. Bob strollers rock. We love ours, although it needs to be hosed down in the worst way, especially after I took Toby for frozen yogurt this week.