Hometown

Who said you can’t go home?*  I can always go home.  I’m a total homebody.  I love visiting my hometown and I especially love Pittsford in the spring.  There is such a happy light feeling about upstate New York when it starts shedding its winter coat around May (or sometimes June) and it’s my very favorite time to be there.  I haven’t been home since last June (!!!) for my sister’s wedding and I was already lamenting that this trip was going to be in an fly-in-Friday-morning, fly-out-Sunday-morning type of visit.  Too, too quick. 

(And I won’t bother to waste a whole blog post on how in-Friday-morning turned into in-to Buffalo-Friday-afternoon, but I will go on record to say that air travel lately has just become absurd.  Is there any other industry where you pay so very much money and get such poor delivery on promises and services?  Whatever… moving on… I made it home and so did my bag.  So there’s that.)

Pittsford!  In the spring!  It’s very beautiful.  My mom and I went into the village on Saturday morning for a coffee date and a hair appointment and since we were early for the hair appointment we just wandered around the canal area.  I was snapping pictures of my favorite sites - the boat I used to work on, the coffee shop I used to work at, the grain mill that had been reconverted to an office and my mom said to me “You really like visiting Pittsford don’t you?”  I do and I know not everyone in the world has the sense of contentment and peace that I have when I return to the place I grew up and I feel fortunate that my hometown memories are happy ones.

I worked as a deckhand on this boat, the Sam Patch, for two summers with one of my best friends, Jen.  It was the greatest summer job ever.  We rode up and down the canal every day doing lunch and dinner cruises and private parties. Jen and I were in charge of tying the boat up when we got to the locks for the ride up, serving meals, bartending, jumping down in the hold to find another bottle of wine or refill the snack bar, answering questions about the history of the Erie Canal, selling memorabilia and even occasionally – when Captain Rick wanted to come down and mingle with the passengers – driving.  (And if you have never been in a canal lock before, it is truly a marvel of engineering… a legitimate water elevator!) One of my favorite memories was working on the boat was on a 4th of July cruise when we took the boat from the canal down the Genesee River into downtown Rochester, and Jen and I climbed up on the roof to watch the fireworks.  We got great tans (a great job benefit when you’re an 18 year old girl), amazing tips on some especially boozey dinner cruises, learned how to tie knots and most important of all, our boss – Eric – imparted to us that he trusted us wholly as he often left Jen and I in charge of closing up the boat at night, running the credit card slips, calculating our tips, restocking merchandise and placing food orders for the next day.  Jen and I are both the type who completely thrive under being put in charge and to be so young but have that kind of responsibility – I think we both took for granted what it said that our boss thought about us but I look back on it now and I’m amazed at what he trusted a pair of 18 year olds to handle.  I’ve had few bosses since then that have empowered employees the way he did his staff.

I’m writing all this now because I found out a week before I went home that Eric had died unexpectedly.  He was very young – in his mid 40s – and he had a preteen daughter (who I used to babysit.)  Jen and I texted back and forth when we found out, expressing our shock and our sadness. Whenever I’ve gone home and visited the canal dock, I’ve seen Eric bustling around getting ready for the next cruise to go out and inevitably he’ll ask him if I’m home to stay and if I want to work a shift on the boat.  (I always do and yet I never had time!)  I kept half-expecting him to jump out of the ticket office while I was down there snapping pictures, but the canal cruise season hadn’t started yet and the dock was quiet.  He was a good man, and I’m sad for his family to learn of his passing.  He’s worked tirelessly for the non-profit that runs the canal boat for over a decade now, and I know the organization is going to be impacted by losing him too.  Very sad.

I actually intended to write this whole post about my trip home, but I sort of transgressed when I started writing about my trip down to the canal and little mental good-bye to my boss and a piece of my teenage years.  I think it’s probably better to end on that note and continue on with a second installment later to write about the real reason for my trip home, which was the beautiful baby shower my mom’s friends threw for me.

Oh and by the way, I googled it and to the best of my knowledge it looks like Thomas Wolfe said you can’t go home.  And Mr. Wolfe, I just want you to know that Jennifer Nettles, Bon Jovi and I whole-heartedly disagree with you.

Nashville Country Music Half Marathon {Spectator Perspective}

Drive 440 miles.  Run (or watch your friends run) 13 miles.  Drive another 440 miles.

When you describe it like that...

Yea, it actually is kind of crazy.  But amazingly, when you're with good friends something as crazy as driving 14 hours road trip to run 13 miles does actually become fun.  Or in my case, watching good friends run the 13 miles - even MORE fun.

Somewhere around Christmas both Matt and Anne got it in their heads they wanted to run a half marathon. Anne picked out the Nashville Country Music Half - proclaiming she needed music at every mile to keep her motivated - and Matt decided while we were visiting Nashville at Christmas that that one would suit him too.  Soon after, Locke signed up, our friends Rick and Stephanie joined in, then Anne convinced her sister Jane and boyfriend Nick to join.  A few weeks later, I convinced Heather - who had told me one of her 2012 goals was to run a half marathon - to sign up for this one and she got her friend Anna on board.  THEN I learned one of my high school besties, Tamara, was running it too.

I had my hands full as super fan - that's 10 runners if you don't feel like counting.  I've never been to a half as a spectator before and it was a really cool experience.  I was glad I'm enough of a compulsive planner that I had mapped out ahead of time where I was going to park and wait for the runners, because I had picked out a spot that allowed me to get to see everyone at mile 3 and then walk about 5 minutes to get to mile 10.  My mom was a huge help by watching their chip times from the computer at home and texting me when to expect people so I could know when to look - because I totally underestimated what 35,000 runners streaming by would like look.  (Hint: a tidal wave of sweaty, grimacing faces.)

I couldn't believe every time I actually found one of my runners in that mess but I was so proud to see each one go by!  My parents have always been loyal spectators to my events - even driving down from Baltimore to surprise me and Jamie when we ran our half and my Dad jumped in for a few minutes at mile 11 with me - and I felt like I got to "pay it forward" a little bit by being there on the sidewalk for all my runners.

Pre-race 6 am smiles: Locke, Jane, Nick, Anne & Matt

My friend Tamara sent me this video her Dad took – he was filming sporadically throughout the run and I literally was standing at mile 10 and went “who is this guy running backwards filming?” before my brain immediately clicked in and recognized him – as my best friend from high school’s Dad!  I keep laughing when I watch this video because right around 30 seconds my little voice in the wind is yelling “Tamaaaara!” and we saw each other for approximately 10 seconds but it was a joyful 10 second reunion!

They all did so amazing. For everyone but Rick, it was their FIRST half marathon!  And it was not an easy course - some brutal hills and the April day ended up being near sweltering by the time the race finished  It was fun to bear witness to each of my friends and my husband accomplishing something that they could now check off their bucket list.

Besides the race, we have a great time in Nashville on our short tip.  We went out to dinner Friday night with the whole crew at a cute place called Cabana's where we got our own little private booth and the runners pre-gamed with pasta and lots of water.  It was the first time I'd seen Heather since she moved to CT a year ago!  We were happy to be reunited, even for a brief dinner and a high five at mile 3.

On Saturday, the runners crashed for naps afterward (the BEST feeling) and then we headed back downtown for dinner at Bosco's Brewery (which was really good!) and then we even found a little bit of energy reserve to go out downtown and find ourselves a spot in a Honky Tonk.  When in Nashville, right?  Not bad for a crew of post-racers and a preggo.... although I can't say anyone felt an extra inclination to do some two stepping or even walk to another bar once we got situated in our first one.

Post-race 7pm smiles: Anne, Matt, Locke, Nick, Jane, Steph & Rick

Then we woke up Sunday and headed on back home to the Dash, and just like that an event that was 4 months in the making was over!  Congrats, runners!  (Who is ready to sign up for another????)

24 Weeks

If I am doing my math right, that means I am 6 months pregnant.  I must not be doing my math right, because WHAAAAT?  (The whole weeks to month conversion thing does throw me off a little...)  Anyways, regardless of whether I am 24 weeks or 6 months or carrying-a-baby-the-size-of-a-rutabaga, I am amazed that I am this far along in my pregnancy.  It is going fast.

And my doctor told me not to say this too loudly lest I tempt fate and piss off friends, but it's been wonderfully easy and dare I say, enjoyable so far.  For the most part, I'm not consistently uncomfortable.  My biggest complaints are either from eating too much - something entirely avoidable - and sitting too long.  Unfortunately, my job makes the sitting too long unavoidable but with the help of the most fantastic massage therapist ever and having my coworker fuss at me every time she sees me slouching or leaning to one side of my arm rest, I'm working through that.

Knowing it's a boy and having a nickname we call him has made him feel much more real to us - as has the large unassembled crib crowding our front hallway. (Crib fairies come assemble those things, right?) And I'm starting to feel more kicks and flutters throughout the day, which are a nice reminder that he's in there.

It's also nice to finally really look pregnant and yet not be uncomfortably pregnant yet.  In fact, I know this may sound strange but I really feel better about my body now than I have in probably the last 14 years.  I mean, in general I tend to be pretty comfortable in my body...but I think every woman has moments where they're consciously aware of how they look or think they look with regards to particular "trouble zones."  Mine has always been my stomach and well, there's no worrying about how that looks.  It's a bump!  It's cute!  Moving on!  It's the first time in 14 years I've worn a bathing suit or a form-fitting shirt and not thought once about how I looked in it.  I might feel differently 10 weeks from now when it's the middle of July and I'm in ready-to-pop stage, but right now this is the most accepting I've ever felt about my body.  Booyah.

The whole reality of having a baby has not really sunk in yet.  I'm assuming that happens on the drive home from the hospital when you realize that yup, it's official, you're in charge of a tiny dependent squawking little human.  I've been reading a good handful of books recommended to me by friends (Baby Whisperer, Babywise, Happiest Baby on the Block, Sippy Cups are Not For Chardonnay, etc) but I kind of have a feeling the whole experience is going to be a bit like when I went to Spain after studying Spanish for 6 years and was rudely awakened to the fact that no amount of books can prepare you for a full immersion experience.  Sink or swim, baby. Aye, dios mio, no estoy preparando para esto.

So! That's week 24.  I had every intention of writing an update weekly but I've been busy eating breakfast twice a day, shopping for more leggings and combing yard sales for a good deal on a Fisher-Price Baby Coma-Inducer aka the Snugabug swing.  Oh and getting 8 hours of sleep - figured I better get that in while I still can.

Yard Sale Season

With the early warm weather we’ve been having, I think people have gotten into the yard sale mood early around here.  The last few weekends I’ve been driving around and seeing the bright signs pointing me into neighborhoods and compelling me to take a peek.  (I love yard sales.)

I’ve done quite well getting a head start on Baby Boy Cline’s wardrobe with some of these sales.  I promise not to continually post pictures of every outfit I purchase for this kiddo but considering this is my first foray into all things baby, I can’t get over how cute little tiny socks and itty bitty swim trunks are.  So I can’t help myself to share a few of my finds…

I scored a bunch of basics at one house that literally had tubs and tubs and tables fully of baby boy clothes.  It was pretty easy to pick through and find things in good conditions – half of these white onesies looked like they had never even been worn.  I really want to do some freezer paper stencil onesies (in my abundance of free time before BBC arrives) so I’ll hopefully use these for that project.

I got another batch of clothes the next weekend another sale – the Paul Frank swim trunks were my favorite.  I know it’s bit of gamble to guess if he’ll really be the appropriate month size that he should be next summer, but for 50 cent – I can take that gamble.

Just stop with the cuteness right there, please.

Oh and I may have picked up a little something for myself…. I love this dress.  The bad news is that I have no idea if it’s going to fit me (it’s definitely a post-pregnancy dress, there is no room for a bump in it) but again, it was a $3 gamble I was willing to make.  It looked very anthropologie-esque and I couldn’t help but bring it home.  If it doesn’t fit me, I will just have to bequeath it to one of my skinnier friends.

My true labor of love in all this thrifting has been piecing together my stroller.  This wasn’t exactly done by yard sale, but by patiently stalking Craiglist and eBay.  I don’t know how I got it in my head that I wanted this particular stroller – some combination of the Baby Bargains book, Babble reviews and pregnancy hormones – but once I did, I was on a mission.  I just didn’t want to pay full price for it.  I started off with a frame I found on Craiglist and made my poor sister go pick up, because it was down in Charlotte.  Then I was able to find a new fabric swap kit and the front wheels on eBay.  I eventually caved on my eBay stalking and bought the back wheels and underneath basket/sunshade as replacement parts from the Uppababy website – and found out they have the nicest customer service people ever.  I didn’t get end up getting the bassinet although there’s a handful on eBay, because I figured a car seat adapter would serve the same function for me.  In the end (sans bassinet), I paid about 1/3rd of what it cost retails.  I’m giving myself a high five right now, in case you’re wondering.

And voila, I now have a stroller!

Matt has nicknamed it “the big wheels” or “the power wheels.”  The back wheels are rather large.  We are clearly ready for some all-terrain trekking.  Hopefully he will appreciate that the reviews said it was the ideal stroller for men taller than 6 feet.

The good news is that after doing all this yard sale and eBay shopping, I had a chance to recoup some of my losses with some yard sale selling of my own.  Jamie graciously opened up her yard for the second year in a row since she has an amazing location and 4 others of us dumped our junk on our her driveway and welcomed Winston-Salem’s finest to come and pick through it.  I know I’ve mentioned it every time I post about hosting sales on this blog, but oh man I just love hosting them.  I am utterly fascinated by the things people will take home to their house – and pay you money for! – after you have decided you no longer want them.  The kicker this year?  A can of dog food. 

Yup, a can of dog food.

We had to switch Buddy to soft food for a few weeks after the poor guy had to have six teeth extracted.  I had an order of soft food coming from my subscribe & save account, but it hadn’t arrived yet so I ran over to Food Lion and bought the cheapest canned stuff they had on the shelf.  I’m just going to gently say it didn’t “agree” with the Spuds, so I couldn’t bring myself to use up the final can when his real food finally arrived.

So I put it in the yard sale.

And someone bought it. 

I’m telling you – price it right and anything will sell.

Anyways, we were mobbed at Jamie’s house.  She had said “no early birds” in her ad because the 4 of us had to set up that morning, but the sale started at 8 and people were showing up at 7:15.  It’s pretty obvious that “no early birds” means to most people “You don’t want other people to show up early, but you’ll be okay if I show up early, right?”

I have no problem being the jerk that tells people – nicely with a sweet little smile of course! – to go get back in their car and wait but by 7:50 we had a line of people waiting not so patiently at the end of Jamie’s driveway.  At 8:00 we told them to have at and you would have thought it was the opening of Apple store the way the crowd rushed us.

Not that I’m complaining.  I mean, they bought my dog food. 

It was steady all morning and we all ended up doing pretty well with clearing our clutter and making some extra cash.  We were all also very pleased with Jamie’s brilliant suggestion that we host the sale in April this year instead of July.  Much, much better.  And of course, just like last year, half the fun is just spending the morning with your friends and having the opportunity to do some serious people watching right in your own driveway. 

Yard sale successes, on both sides of the table… and the season is just getting started!

****

Related: Yard Sale adventures from 2011 & 2010

Cook Once, Eat All Week–Recipe Review

After boasting about my kitchen adventures and fully stocked fridge, I thought it only fair that I give full disclosure how each of the recipes turned out after a week of eating.

First I have to say that I think cooking them all and putting them in the fridge sort of backfired.  I thought it would make it easier for Matt to come home from working his 3-11pm shifts and have a plethora of choices for dinners instead of having only one or two things ready and then freezing the rest to prepare as the week went on.  You know how sometimes when you’re standing in the cereal aisle with too many choices all you do is reach for the ol’ stand by of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and call it a day?

No, really, we actually both ate cereal for dinner at least once by the end of the week because we were just so over all the choices.  Note to self: too many choices all at once is not a good thing.  I think it would have worked better to have one or two options ready at a time, use those up and move to the next.  Live and learn.

But more importantly, how did they taste?

Spicy Thai Shrimp Soup

Seriously, that is an unattractive looking bowl of soup.  It looks lumpy and weird colored.

Fortunately, it was delicious.  The texture was perfect and the shrimp and sweet potatoes flavors were awesome together.  I could leave the peas out next time because that threw things off for me.  The only bad thing I’d say about this soup is that after 2 days, it freaked me out to reheat something with fish in it… so it never made it past day 2.  But, on days 1 and 2 it was delicious.  (So again, maybe not cooking all at once – this is probably the dish I would start with.)

Mini Meatloaves

The hands down favorite dish for flavor and reheat ease.  I took these for lunch and Matt ate them at night.  This would be an easy dish to recreate and freeze or to tailor by adding in other veggies or using other ground meats.  This was my favorite of all the recipes and I think it was Matt’s favorite too.  (It’d be a good dish to make for a new mom or someone who is sick too, because you can just reheat a few at a time.)

Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

Again, this is a really ugly dish.  I’ve never made any type of Shepherd’s Pie before and I don’t really know what’s supposed to be happening here – meat with potatoes on top I guess?  Well, fortunately it turned out that this tasted really good too – it was kind of like Thanksgiving dinner all stirred up together.  If you could get past how weird looking it was, it was quite good.  I took it to lunch for 3 days in a row but I don’t think Matt ate any.  Possibly because I ate it all.

Enchiladas

“Why did the enchiladas have broccoli in them?” 

This is the question Matt texted me after eating this, and listen Self Magazine, why did the enchiladas have broccoli in them?  This dish was not a household favorite.  In fact, I threw more than half of it.  (Yup, sad story.)   I don’t really like enchiladas but Matt usually does, so I figured he’d eat them.  He wasn’t a huge fan of these.  But, I think you could keep them in this rotation if you left the broccoli out (which means cooking it separate from the red peppers or leaving the red peppers out too) and I’d probably add some shredded chicken to it (easily added by poaching and shredding while others cook.)

Vegetable & Chickpea Ragout with Penne

“It was like vegetable soup pasta sauce.”

Again, review from the peanut gallery.  And I had to agree.  This one I’ll chalk up to operator error – I didn’t follow the recipe exactly because I thought we’d rather have a saucier pasta sauce.  Maybe the actual recipe is delicious but my version of it?  Eh, not so much.  I ended up tossing the pasta sauce half way through the week, pouring the penne into a casserole dish and added a can of boring old Ragu and a few spoonful's of Ricotta cheese, sprinkling with mozzarella and turning it into baked ziti…. to which the peanut gallery proclaimed, “Now, this is the kind of Italian I can get on board with.”  So, we salvaged that one.

Some hits, some misses and some learning experiences.  I do intend to try and do this a little more often because it was great to have an entire week without any weeknight cooking duties yet still have homemade meals available.  I don’t know if I’ll revisit this rotation for awhile, simply because there were so many other recipe collections I found like when I was searching.  Let me know if you try this one set of recipes (or any other one) – I’ll be curious to know how other people fare with them!

Pitiful

Buddy went in for a "routine" dental scaling yesterday and ended up having to have 6 (!!!) teeth extracted. Someone is feeling extra pitiful now...

I think he feels better today, but he is sure taking advantage of the opportunity for extra snuggles. Not that I'm complaining either...

Seeing a dog in pain is the worst because you can't explain to them it'll be over soon and they can't tell you how they are feeling. Thank goodness for doggy pain pills smothered in peanut butter...they seem to be doing the trick.

Monday Prompts & Weekend Update

Prompts from my page-a-day calendar this morning. My first appointment didn't answer today so I did some quick scribbling to answer these questions.

List 5 things you do for fun. In the last six months, how much time have you spent doing these activities?
1. Wine tastings/visiting vineyards: Clearly, not much. But I think we know why and I think I'll return to this hobby in a few months.
2. Reading fiction: I've read a handful of fiction books lately but I've also been reading some baby books and some other nonfiction (Steve Jobs bio). I read a lot before bed and I listen to a lot of audiobooks on my commute - I probably read/listen to about 2-3 books a month. So… I’d say, plenty. :)
3. Doing crafts: Thanks to Anne's Pinterest party, I got a good fix recently. Can we do this again soon please? My "crafty" board is calling my name.
4. Dancing: A year or so ago, I wouldn't have been able to say I did this very much anymore. Thanks to dance trance, I get my dancing fix at least once a week and sometimes 2-3x/wk.
5. Traveling to new places: San Fran, check. Nashville, check. Palm Springs, check. Upcoming: Nashville again and Emerald Isle. Matt and I are pretty good about making travel a priority - I'm lucky I married someone who loves it as much as me.

I think I'm actually pretty good at including "fun" in my life these days. When I went to coach training back in 2007, they had us do this exercise called "the Wheel of Life." You rated your satisfaction with different aspects of your life (family, health, career, money, etc) on a scale of 1-10 and looked at how balanced your "wheel" was. “Fun” was my lowest then - I gave it a 5, while everything else was a 7-9. I don't think I've really consciously cultivated more fun in my life, but I guess I have made it a point to do things that aren't just simply productive or work related. Yay me! If I was doing the wheel of life exercise today, I'd probably give myself an 8 in that category.

Incidentally, it's something I ask a lot of people about when I'm doing stress management coaching and I have concluded that very few people do things for fun anymore. And I'm not just talking about people who have kids or work longer hours and have less free time than I do. I think a lot of people don't know (or remember) what they like to do for fun, and don't make an effort to include it.) An easy way to figure out what you like to do for fun is to think about what you did as a kid in your free time. With the exception of wine tasting, I loved doing all those things as a little kid and still do.

Okay, off my fun soapbox/coaching moment and off to the next prompt....

Is there a quote, book or scene from a movie that makes you happy?
The first thing that came to mind for me with this prompt was that the other night I saw someone on Twitter mention going to the musical Newsies and it made me go look up some of my favorite scenes from what was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I watched the clip of "Carrying the Banner" about 3 times in a row on Youtube - I had forgotten how happy that scene had made me to watch. So I guess that's what this prompt is going after. The other movie scene that I remember loving - from a movie I probably watched a dozen times in high school - is the "Sugar High" scene from Empire Records.

What 3 subjects fascinate you?
For this one I tried to think about what blogs I am drawn to or books I peruse in book stores - and I purposefully left weight management/nutrition off since that's my job and it kinda felt like an obvious. I came up with:
- home renovations (older homes being redone, like the blog Young House Love)
- money management, savings, financial psychology (I love the blog Get Rich Slowly and the Dave Ramsey books)
- positive thinking/psychology/self-development

These were interesting prompts. I'm not totally sure what the theme was, but I think it was in general to get you thinking about things that interest you, pique your curiosity or make you happy. That's what I got out of it and it was nice to do this exercise following a weekend that was very "productive" - garage sale prep, cooking, laundry, swapping out my closet (summer clothes AND taking out the heaps of clothes that no longer fit me now), etc.

It was definitely a much needed productive weekend, sandwiched in between last week's beach trip and a bunch of upcoming travel though. And it wasn't all work, no play.

I did go to dance on Sat morning and then got caught up on some blogging and photo editing in the afternoon. We had dinner with the Forsey's Saturday night - a comfortable sit on the deck kind of night - and I got to get my snuggle on with this sweet girl.

She is the cutest. Sigh.

Sunday after my cooking marathon and closet swap out, I decided to skip my usual body pump/dance trance and do a long walk outside with Buddy to take advantage of the warm spring weather. Then I eeked out the last bit of Sunday night light on the porch with my feet propped up, a coconut popsicle and a magazine.

It was a good balanced weekend, although I still felt a little sad that the alarm went off and Monday showed up yet again. In fact, I kinda wished I could join this guy and spend the rest of the morning right here:

Somehow I turned this into a two-for-one blog post...prompts from my calendar digressed into a weekend update. Oh well, I'm running with it.