Getting to Know Me

It's been a while since I've had a weekend where I literally was doing something every second. Monday is Day #1 with the kiddos, so there' s been a lot to do.

Here's one thing I did today.

I hand this out to the kids on the first day of class so I don't really have to talk about myself and when they are bored, they have something wholesome to look at. Maybe they'll learn some more digits of pi! Now that I have the collage made, I'm ready for year #6. Hard to believe.

Lots of Excitement Today

I am lying in my hotel room in sunny San Diego. Probably not what most out-of-towners do here, but I'll explain. For one, I am running a half marathon here tomorrow. It's a training run (slow pace), which means more time in the sun tomorrow, so I'm trying to avoid the sun today. And for two, the Olympics is on nearly all day today. Granted, NBC has decided that track cycling prelims are more exciting than the women's 10,000 m final. You know I love cycling, but the US athletes aren't even winning medals in the events they are showing. Where's the love for Shalane? Right here.


In case you weren't up between 12:30 and 2 am to watch the replay of the race, Shalane was confused about her place at the finish because the leaders had lapped some runners but she didn't know how many. The video shows a non-African runner crossing the line after the winner, Dibaba, and it's confusing for a second, but then you realize that woman has more laps to go. Congrats on getting that third place Shalane! I'm sure Marblehead will have a nice parade for you and I will do my best to channel you during my race tomorrow. We drove the end of the course today, which we heard was hilly, and it was, so I'll need the boost.

The only outing today was to Whole Foods (and then to drive the course). While we were there, Jon Miller, of ESPN fame, was also shopping.

The story: I heard the guy behind the counter say, "Hello Mr. Miller." In my head, I thought, "Oh, that must be a former teacher of that guy. Cool." But then, the response of Mr. Miller was so weird. It was as if he didn't know the kid working behind the counter or didn't care to catch up. I kept shopping and then I heard K say to the man, "I really like your style." I looked the man up and down and thought, "What is he seeing here?" He had on a blue Hawaiian style shirt with no pattern, dark chino shorts, and some older Teva-like sandals. I didn't think his style was anything to comment on. Then Mr. Miller spoke. "Well, thank you very much," he said. Then I knew that this wasn't just any old Mr. Miller. This was Jon Miller, who I've heard call the Red Sox winning the World Series on the radio. And his style, was not something to be seen, but to be heard. Funny thing is...his voice sounds the same in real life.

The final note of the day: This morning, I went to the Starbucks across the street to get the Times. By the way, this Starbucks opens at 4:30am on weekdays and 5 am on weekends. I didn't know that the San Diegans were so aggressive in the morning. Maybe the early hours are for the surfers. Anyway, I got a coupon for a $2 grande cold drink if I came back after 2pm that same day. So, since it's right across the street, I went back and tried the new Vivanno smoothie.

I first saw these advertised in Atlanta, but I can make my own smoothies, so I wasn't that interested. Today, I had the orange mango banana, which I thought it was pretty good. Who knows what's really in it, but I wouldn't turn it down if someone wanted to give me another one.

And as I close, bad news for Deena. Sad.

Cuil!

There's a new search engine in town.  My town to be exact.  Menlo Park company Cuil just unveiled their response to Google, which they claim will be better.  I like the format of the results, but you decide.

Does This Trump Newport?

From today's NYT Olympics section:

"...NBC will stream 2200 hours of live events across 25 sports on NBCOlympics.com...  Users will be able to watch the events on up to four screens at a time during each day of competition... users will see the standard world feed that is sent to all broadcasters... Users will also have access to statistics, athlete biographies and other information as they watch the action."

Consider it my new homepage.

Top 3 of the Week

3. The Foam Roller

Since I had to take a year off from running to be injured, I have kept track of anything that hurts when I exercise (in a spreadsheet, obviously).  My Physical Therapist seemed to have done wonders with my tight calves (I was pain-free for four weeks) and then I went to Nicaragua.  Everything went back to the way it was before PT.  Then one day while in Florida, I had a great run.  My soleus (the actually source of the pain) was only slightly hurting during my run.  Hmmm...  From there, I had three awful, horrible runs...the kind that make you doubt that you are even close to someone who should own running shoes.  Then I had another great run (with absolutely no pain).  What did these two great runs have in common?  For one, they were flat.  That is important for my calves, but every run in Nicaragua had been flat too, so I thought it had to be something else.  The day before both runs, I had been at the gym and gave my muscles the foam roller treatment.  Maybe there's a lurking variable here, but I'm pretty sure that there is causation between using the foam roller and decreased calf pain.  So, when I get back to Cali on Friday night, there will be a nice foam roller at my door and I will consider it one of the better investments I have made recently.  You can get one too, here.  Or, you can do what I'm doing until I get to Cali...just using some water bottles.  More evidence that foam rollers are great: when flying from Atlanta to Boston, I saw a football team traveling together and one kid had a foam roller as his carry-on.  I'm not ruling that out for the future.

2. Sunday NYT Crossword (08.03.08)

I have only recently started doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with any sort of consistency and persistence (persistency?).  Last week, I was steaming mad at Will Shortz.  Ali and I started the puzzle and were doing pretty well, but things just weren't making sense.  It turns out that we were supposed to put arrows in some of the boxes to mean "up," "down," "left," or "right."  Such as liberals was "THE <--."  I was furious about this, but apparently, that's not unusual and I've now been initiated.  I now know that the Sunday NYT puzzle might not be as straightforward as it looks and the title actually means something and the Sunday puzzle is actually hard.  So, yesterday, I brought my A game to the crossword.  The puzzle was very clever and I suggest you try it, if you have access.  So, this Sunday's puzzle was conquered (thanks to a disappointing set by Calexico)

1. Newport Folk Festival

This was just the highlight of...maybe the summer (no offense to the wonderful people I've spent time with and the country of Nicaragua).  I would have liked to attend both days, but since I've never been before, I thought I'd just check out one day and see how it went.  Not to mention that the line-up on Sunday was not to be missed: Willy Mason, Brandi Carlile, Calexico, Gillian Welch, Levon Helm, and Jimmy Buffett (well...we did miss him).  Here are some tidbits.

Willy Mason--cute guy, wore suspenders, nice voice, had a woman (last name Carlile but not Brandi) who had a great voice and played the guitar, his brother played the drums, and his parents came out to sing the last song ("Oh You Restless Fugitive"...a song that I loved but can't find reference to anywhere).

Brandi Carlile--Simply awesome!  This woman is a performer, in and out.  I love the way she uses her voice and the beautiful grittiness it can have (some credit for which goes to producer T Bone Burnett, who produced Gillian's first two CDs).  I really liked "Turpentine" and "My Song," both songs I haven't heard since I don't own her new album.  She closed with Folsom Prison Blues (which she did just the way it should be done) and encored with Hallelujah, which gave me goosebumps.  When she started the latter, K asked me if I had heard the song.  I said, "Yes, but not the Leonard Cohen version."  About a minute later, these punk kids with cigarettes, sat down next to us.  One turned to us and said "Have you guys heard of Leonard Cohen?  He does this song much better."  K just said, "Yeah, maybe, but I'm not here to complain."  Meanwhile, I had goosebumps, so perhaps her performance of that song was somewhere in between.  Anyway, I think she's great in concert and encourage you to see her, if you get the chance.

Calexico--As I said, I got a bit of the crossword done during this set.  I like their stuff and enjoyed their collaboration with Iron and Wine, so this was disappointing.  During the first few songs, the bass was so loud that it was hard to hear the songs.  The best song was "Goin' to Acapulco"with Jim James (a voice worth listening to from My Morning Jacket).  That's all I have to say about that.

Gillian Welch--Ahhhh...how long I've wanted to see her live.  There she was with David Rawlings and out came "Miss Ohio" right away.  Gillian is not as energized as the others we saw, but it was her and she played the banjo and harmonica and was just great.  She also seems very comfortable in front of an audience.  She was just chatting between songs and seems very comfortable on stage. And the best part is that you all can enjoy her performance, courtesy of NPR.  They are slowly posting many of the performances on their website.  There are lots of performances there (including Jim James...who mentions the "interweb" around 28:10...Brandon).  It also seems like they will be available as podcasts through "All Songs Considered Concerts."  I loved Gillian's "Lawman," "Gamblin' Man" (which I guess is a woman's take on a traditional folk song about a gambler), "Red Halo," and her cover of "Jackson."  And her version of Paul Simon's "Gone At Last" really is better than his.  Actually, pretty much all she did was great!  She played three new songs, which I hope means that she's going to release an album soon. 

Levon Helm--I have never seen someone so happy to be playing on stage.  Before, during, and after every song, the man was smiling and happy.  He just was having so much fun.  I would be having fun too if I beat throat cancer and was playing with a band of 10 or 12 in front of thousands at 68 years old.  Not a bad gig.  He was fabulous (despite the tequila-drinking parrotheads next to us complaining about the voice of the old guy who they thought was probably on Cialis)!  He had quite the band of horns, a slide trumpet (?), Little Sammy Davis on the harmonica, Howard Johnson on the tuba, and his daughter Amy singing.  Levon was on the drums to start but then on the mandolin for a lot of the time.  They did a great "Ophelia" and "Long Black Veil."  But I think the highlight was closing with "The Weight" with Jake Shimabukuro on ukulele, Gillian Welch on vocals, David Rawlings on vocals and guitar, and Little Sammy Davis back on harmonica.  I know that it wasn't really "my generation," but K and I left on such a high after watching these musicians pour it on for us.  

Notes for next time: Despite what they say, people were in all kinds of chairs and had umbrellas.  I definitely would have been much more comfortable if I was sitting and shaded.  I don't mind wearing a bucket hat and an SPF 30 shirt and applying sunscreeen every hour, but it wasn't for comfort.  Also, apparently this stuff is streamed online through wfuv.org if there are days when you can't make it.  I do hope to get there again in the future.  It's unbelievable to see so much great talent for the price that you would pay for just one performer. 

That's the scoop from the east coast.  Hope this finds you well.

Boo!

Ricardo Ricco (Italy) tested positive for illegal substances in the Tour. He and his team were promptly kicked out. He was performing really well so far, a fun thing to watch that in retrospect seems, well, suspect. I'm sad. This Tour has been exciting to watch and they've done a lot of advertising about turning the Tour around, getting past all the doping scandals, and just riding. I guess they didn't convince the riders of that tack. I just hope that Vande Velde and Hincapie stay out of trouble...I would be beyond crushed.

Sums It Up

This picture might just sum up all of what I need to tell you about Nicaragua. Here's me running...I did a lot of that there (67 miles worth according to my Nike SportBand, which apparently was a bit short in it's measurements, so who knows really). I think that the kids only really knew me as the lady who always had to go to bed early so she could get up early and run. It's also a great shot of the bus we rode. Look at this relic! It's from Georgia but they pimp it out with colored electrical tape on the steering wheel. I'm surprised there's no "God is the guide on my road" along the windshield like most people have (although they have it in Spanish). The story behind this picture is basically that I was given some freedom (some rare non-kid time after 7am) and I just started running. Kind of like Forrest Gump en Espanol. What is odd is that I'm on the sidewalk. I never once ran on the sidewalk there...it was beyond dangerous and I hate running on cement and I see it as my right to run on the road (snotty, but true). I guess I didn't trust the bus driver, given that he's not using any hands. Note to people in wheelchairs and blind people: Do not vacation to Leon, Nicaragua. They have made it perfectly clear with their unkempt sidewalks that they don't really want you there. Sad, but true.

Things Have Changed

Gas was $3.50 when I left, now it's $4.50. That's hard to get around when I'm hoping for a summer of seeing your family around the Northeast.

California is on fire. There seems to be a constant haze and temperatures in the 90 s and 100s aren't helping. Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.

Tampa Bay is also en fuego. The Red Sox need Big Papi back in the line-up for a spark.

We have an Olympic track team! I am watching all the video on NBC.com and tearing up watching the women's 10K. I was pulling for Adam Goucher, but I am excited to see Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan, Bernard Legat, Nick Symmonds, Shannon Rowbury, and the rest. Obviously, I will be anxiously watching Deena and Ryan Hall too!

I am thinking about investing in the Speedo LZR Racer. My swim times are too slow and I hear that suit helps.

I will be happy to get on an American Airlines flight tomorrow. Last night when we landed in SFO, the TACA airline crew played some kind of trance/club music. It was bizarre. What would my Nana have said?

I'm fairly certain that my run tomorrow will not include any whistling, hissing, or "chelitas." I can't remember when I've been so excited to lace up the Mizunos.

The Celtics are the champs! I know this is old news, but I can't believe that it's only been three weeks. I can't wait to get home to my own version of Titletown.

Nicaragua Pics

I've posted my pictures online. If I can stay awake, I'll try to add captions soon.

A Pretty Good Day

I'll admit, my birthday started out a bit shaky. With a restless night in the top bunk (which included two descents to go to the bathroom) and a sub-par run, the day only improved. Apparently, when you have facebook, everyone remembers your birthday. I've never received so many well wishes on July 3 (unless you could the 200 boys who sang to me in 2004 and 2005). We went on a tour of some churches in Leon and got to go on the roof of the Cathedral. It was so beautiful up there. I never knew that Leon had so many trees. From the roof, we could see all the churches in the city and about half a dozen volcanoes.

Lunch today was a great. We went to my favorite place--La Olla Quemada. They served the vegetarians (it's just easier than trying to figure out how to be kosher) spinach and cheese quesadillas (they probably have another word for this) with a huge slice of avocado and pina jugo (pineapple juice). I was in heaven.

After lunch, I started the family phone calls. Skype really is great if you're abroad. At 2 cents a minute from here to the US, I got a lot of good talk time. After dinner, everyone sang "Felix Cumpleanos" and there was a big tres leches cake (the only dessert I've had here, so hence, it is my favorite) with 28 candles. Thankfully, I was sitting under a ceiling fan, which blew out 26 of the candles before I had the chance.

After dinner, we had a cultural performance scheduled. It was the best thing we've done so far...lots of Nicaraguan dancing and singing. It made my birthday end on a great note. When all the Nicas were done, some of our kids got up. One of our girls did Tihitian dancing. She pulled me up on stage to dance with her. I definitely have hips more suited for Chubby Checker. She was awesome at it though. Then a few girls did Irish dance and some people sang and beat-boxed (I don't think that's a verb). It was too much fun. I am off to bed...hopefully I get a good night sleep and a better run tomorrow. Thanks for all the fun birthday notes today! You all definitely made it easier to be in Nicaragua on my birthday.