i might have a problem

Sunday, we bought two pounds of strawberries, two pounds of blueberries (I think anyway - it was a huge package) and a pint of raspberries. I made a huge fruit salad from it. I packed 3 cups of it with Princess Charming's food for the week (no, I am not a psycho ration-er, but she takes most of her meals with her to work 90 miles from home).

That left me with about half of a gigantic pyrex bowl full of fruit salad (lets guess 6 or 8 cups). Today is Tuesday.
I am out of fruit.

My problem is that fresh berries are kind of expensive, and I want to go buy more tomorrow.
I suppose this isn't a terrible problem to have in the scheme of things. It is a wonderful indulgence, and if I have a $30/week habit of fresh berries now till its out of season ($5 for a single half pint of raspberries in mid-winter doesn't work for me), I think that is ok.

explain please

(Yes, I snapped this furtively while in line for my fancy overpriced but amazing salad).

The back buckle says Gucci. I don't care if its Gucci (or if its real). You're wearing a fanny pack. And, you're wearing the fanny pack with what I assume are your gym clothes, unless full body spandex has also made an unfortunate comeback, so you're not even wearing it fashionably. Can you wear a fanny pack fashionably?

goals for the week

Last week went OK...

Kitchen paint touch ups - check
Kitchen ceiling - check
Lift 3 times - only 2...but I did do 6 30 Day Shred sessions, so that counts for 1 total, right? :)
3 cardio sessions - 4 - two elliptical, 2 swim!

This week...

Kitchen paint mistakes clean up
Paint den ceiling
Lift 3 times
3 cardio sessions
A positive visit to the podiatrist that clears me for rugby camp this weekend (ok, out of my hands, but its still sort of a goal, right?)

Alaska Cruise

Cruise fabulousness.

We've never been on a cruise before, so you can understand how awestruck we were by the Norwegian Star. 14 decks, 2 pools (plus slides and some hot tubs), over a dozen restaurants, a movie theater, a game room, etc...

Our cruise was round trip Seattle, with 2 "sea days" to rest and relax.

First stop: Ketchikan. The southeast peninsula of Alaska is a rain forest, getting over 140 inches of rain a year. Its also surprisingly temperate (well, if by temperate you mean not frozen...its chilly year round). Given this was our belated honeymoon, we decided to spring for awesome excursions. First up: Ziplining in the canopy! 8 zips through the trees, a few hundred feet up in the air, for as long as 800 feet at a time (well over a minute of free fall...er...slide). There were also three suspended bridges. Needless to say, Princess Charming had the camera the whole time, as I had my hands full holding onto cables (yes, we were triple clipped onto the cables, but its still nerve racking to be on a 10 ft diameter platform 300 feet off the ground with 9 other people!)
Next up: Juneau. This Alaskan capital is only accessible by boat and plane, unless you're up for a longggg hike across one of the biggest glaciers in populated territory! Our sea (very calm bay-like sea!) kayaking trip gave a great view of the Mendenthal Glacier, the 6000 ft snow capped peaks, about half a dozen bald eagles, some jumping fish!, and a seal!
We went back to the boat a bit early for lunch, so my one regret of the trip is not walking around Juneau more.
Next stop: Skagway. Darling little town of 750 people. The National Park Service has done (and is doing) some excavations and has set up a little museum. The town was a key supply stop for the Yukon Gold Rush around 1900, so it has historical significance (especially when you think about how important the Gold Rush was to the development of the Pacific Northwest cities!).
Here we did a ride on a historical rail up into British Columbia, CA. I have no idea how this track was laid or how the miners made it - the end of this 25 mile train ride is several thousand feet up (and they mostly walked it up a 1 man wide path, 25-30 times to get their 1000 lbs of gear up!) and gets 40+ feet of snow in the winter with cold we don't want to think about!
We took a bike ride back down the Klondike Highway, including a pit stop to refill our water bottles from a 38 degree glacier fed waterfall.
After that, the boat turned south for our Inside Passage cruising and a stop at Prince Rupert (I imagine there's nice hiking there, since its a good sized terminal...and had a cute passport stamp...but we didn't do much there). The ice flows were so heavy on the normal route we couldn't go and had to take an alternate way. Really quite impressive. Besides a few more glaciers, we saw several seal families with their pups hanging out on the flows (oh, to have a digitial SLR with good zoom!).

And, alas, after another sea day, lots of good entertainment, several games of Scrabble (and Princess Charming's 83 point point word 'Blunder'), all good things must end.

suspense

Well, for me.

Next Friday morning is my follow up with the podiatrist about the sprain-that-wasn't (CT scan revealed a fracture in the old break and a lot of "ununion"...thanks low blood flow area)

So...can I play rugby this fall? Am I flying to Orlando for 1 day just to hang out and experience Air Tran? Should I be saving to go to FL and CA for playoffs? Should I be figuring out how I'm going to draft three dissertation chapters, take a second class, go to work, coach, and go to rugby AND feed the dog and shower without losing my mind? Can I run the Philly Distance Run? 9/16...unlikely, seeing as that's 4 weeks from next weekend and 2-3 days of elliptical isn't exactly the 20ish miles/week I'd like to have under my belt for a half, besides that is it a good idea to run a half 12 weeks after a fracture? Can I run the Philly Half Marathon in November? That would be 12 weeks from next weekend, perfect time to ramp up from 12ish miles/week to 20ish (Hal Higdon Novice!)...I could do it.

But, alas, planning for all of these things, figuring out how much travel (rugby) the fall can hold amid school etc., and allowing myself to obsess over athletic training of some sort is all on hold. Dr. W, your verdict next week about what I am permitted to do and when I am permitted to do so (I HAVE to listen since even if this fall is a wash, I'd like to not be out of commission for the rest of eternity) holds more weight than you know.

produce

Garden Harvest 2.
Harvest 1 yielded about a dozen tomatoes, a few jalapenos, and two large green peppers I cannot name, a good chunk of which went into an adaptation of Jo's Texas Caviar (it ended up being, due to cabinet contents, three cans of various beans, half an onion, some tomatoes and a couple of hot peppers from the garden, garlic and red wine vinegar....blended in the food processor into a dip. Definitely a thumbs up).

Sadly, I think those might be the only three green beans I get. I had about a dozen flourishing plants Sunday with little seedlings. Now I have three and a bunch of, effectively, sticks. I have a feeling its the rabbit that's been taunting Bailey in the yard in the mornings...

But, in positive garden things, I had my first ripe blueberry off our new bush today, and that was pretty sweet!

goals for the week...

Its August. How did that happen?

August 2 = two more weeks till rugby camp = 4 weeks till StL/Labor Day = 3-4 weeks till the floodgates at work = 4.5 weeks till the semester starts for me = approximately 28 weeks till this peaceful existance that allows for Wii and reading fiction on the train ends till late December (since the busy parts of work, rugby and school come in waves).

I've had almost a month school free, and since its off-season, I've had a lot of time on my hands for the last two weeks (we were away for a while). What have I gotten done? I've watched all of Jericho, done some gardening, and spent a lot of time not being anxious.

But its time to get moving...the kitchen makeover we started in MARCH still has some cosmetic touch ups to finish, I need to get serious about working out even though I am not allowed to run right now, and I really want to get the den wired and painted.

For this week, my goals are to finish the kitchen paint touch ups, do the kitchen ceiling, and lift three times & do at least 3 cardio sessions of some sort...