My Little Athletes

So, I think we may be officially crazy. We've signed up O for a three-year-old soccer program. It's only once a week for six weeks ... but I still think we might be crazy. I am sure he'll have a blast and it's the first thing that he gets to do where K will have to sit on the sidelines and watch him. I can't wait to see if we have a future Beckham on our hands. (While K has the heart and enjoys the sport, I think he's inherited my athletic ability ... O appears to be more naturally athletically inclined at soccer. But K has scored a goal this year.)

On the K front, tennis may be turning out to be his sport. While I didn't get to watch him at any of his two-week camp lessons, D says he was impressed with how well he did. Especially since until now he's never even picked up a racket. So, we signed him up for the next session.

Which just led me to look at the calendar and realize how bloody quick summer is going. July is next week ... the state fair is only two months away!!! I have a mud obstacle course run in a month! O will be taking his Kindergarten screening in a few months. Where is the pause button?

Alas, it does make me realize that I like just chilling and hanging out with my boys. We got to do that today after my dentist appointment. D's appointment was right after mine, so me and the fellas walked to the frozen yogurt shop nearby. We each had a little treat (when D found out that the total for all three of us was just $5 he didn't believe me!) and then we just sat at the pavilion outside the shop and enjoyed the summer weather and chatted. It made me realize how grown up my boys are. (Oh, trust me, there was a little reprimanding when they wanted to copy other kids and run and splash in the fountain.)

A lucky lady I am ... but I still want that pause button!

Clearing My Head

This morning I think I finally understood what people say when they comment that running helps clear their head. Saturdays are my three-mile run days (because that is usually the day I run my 5k races) and there came a point where I really was thinking about nothing. My head was completely clear ... and it was peaceful. Slightly euphoric. I may finally be getting the runner high. It only took a year and a half of slow training and six months of more focused running because of the great B & D 5k challenge.

Of course, right at the moment of bliss ... some small wild animal ran across my running path and jolted me into reality. But I guess that's a reminder of how life can be: smooth sailing for a bit and then a bump (or in this case a beaver or something ... I wish I knew what it was ... the size of a cat, dark brown, fuzzy and fast.)

In other news it's soccer tournament weekend! This weekend is always a bit dreadful for the mess it creates out of traffic. But due to some severe storms that ripped through the area last night, many games were postponed to other fields or moved to later times. So, today wasn't so bad ... unfortunately I don't know what it means for tomorrow's game, so will just have to wait and see.

We found a soccer program for O ... our rambunctious three-year-old. So, we'll sign the little guy up and see how it goes. And K has officially (or at least for today) decided he'd rather play soccer than football this fall ... and he'd like to keep up tennis for the summer. I am curious to see how long the boys keep up the joy of sports ... will it be forever or will it taper off when they get to high school (like it did for me)? Or does the fact that D and I run races and infuse the importance of exercise and activity help encourage them to stay active?

Hope that everyone is enjoying summer, now that it is officially here!

Another Race Run!

This morning D and I completed are fifth race of the year.

And I was able to run the whole darn thing. Granted mid-way through mile 2 I thought I was going to throw-up. But thanks to a Runners World tip, I have a handy way of getting rid of a side stitch mid-run if one comes on. Amazing how well it works.

The race was around Lake Calhoun. Well some of the races have definitely been better than others, I love that we will only repeat one course all year (and I have 12 races planned). And we're definitely learning a lot. Like today, because we didn't know where to park ... we foolishly parked on the opposite side of the lake from the start/finish. This meant we got a good 3/4 mile warm up and cool down walk. While it was probably a good thing ... that 3/4 mile felt a lot longer on the walk back to the car.

D confessed about half-way through the runs he wishes he had trained ... but he still kicks my butt from a time perspective. Since my first goal was being able to run through a whole run, my next goal will be to catch up to D. Who knows, by the end of the year ... it just might be feasible.

Wanna Be on TV?

Today was one of those days. Where you start out on a high note ... crash down to a low note ... get grounded back into what's important ... have some fun ... and then relax in preparation for a busy weekend.

I was reminded today that no matter what leadership says about pushing boundaries, trying new things, taking risks ... at the end of the day ... when you work for corporate America ... it's still corporate America. I won't go into the details, but will just say I am deeply disappointed in a lot of things ... I know I'm not alone ... and it once again started the contemplative flame of determining what will truly make me feel fulfilled. My job is often like a roller coaster and I just have to acknowledge right now is one of those grueling moments and if I persevere the high times will come again.

Onto the fun part (because, frankly, that's just more fun.) Today, D and I tried out for a reality show. I won't divulge the show at this point (not sure if that would be a big no-no.) But it's one of those DIY home improvement shows where you get a professional to guide you through things and you work with in a budget. There will be lots of fine print if we sign up for it, that we know (taxes, some of our own out-of-pocket expenses, our house being in disarray ... and on TV). However, D and I decided let's just go for it. If nothing else, we can say we auditioned for a TV show.

The young producers who game to the show to tape our audition were pleasant and provided us the info and guided us through the process. And then they turned on their camera. D froze. As in, the witty and charming man I deal with every moment was replaced with a befuddles, tongue-tied goofball. So, what did I do. I had to take over. I don't know what happen ... suddenly, I became this larger-than-life contestant on HGTV Design Star doing my on-camera challenge. Seriously, that is what I felt like. And the producer's smile just encouraged me to keep going. I walked around our kitchen explaining what I hated about it and tried to be witty (oh, lord, why did I try to be witty?) Alas, I think we did okay. (And based on the episodes we've watched ... Daniel's personality would be just fine.)

They're just gathering applicants and hope to get back to us within 30 days ... so now, we'll wait and see ... if TV is where we're meant to be or if we need to stop making excuses and just start working on our own home.

At the end of the day ... I sit back, sip some Rose and am grateful that I learned some lessons today and can start fresh tomorrow.

Sweet White Wine By Any Other Name Would be Riesling

Another month brings more adventures in Wine Club. This month brought the sweet, sweet offerings of Riesling. Now full disclosure, I am not a Riesling fan. It's usually way too sweet for me. When it comes to whites, the drier the better in my opinion. Now, maybe if summer had actually arrived with sunshine and heat a crispy, fruity white would be appealing. But alas, that is not the case.

The spread of the hostess had a lot of delectable goodies that are supposed to pair surprisingly well with Riesling.

The first wine was from the New York Finger Lakes Region:

Of the five wines, this was my favorite ... and it's probably due to the word "dry" on the label. It was definitely the driest one of the evening. Crisp, appley, it was pleasant. Something that would pair well with spicy food to cut the heat.

The second wine came from the Alsace region of France.

It smelled like diesel and clearly reflected the terrior of the region. This wine did not work for me. I couldn't handle more than a few sips to taste it.

The next one helped erase the taste of the first one, but it was super super sweet ... because it was the ringer:

I didn't think this was too bad, it had a floral angle to it and was refreshing ... but it may have been I just needed something to take away the finish of the second one.

Our fourth wine was a sweet Oregon wine:

It was really sweet, perhaps the sweetest wine of the evening. But again, sweet wine = not my thing.

Before the fifth wine, we got dessert.  A great GF pound cake with coconut sherbet ... it was really, really good. It's amazing how GF foods are pretty much processed and created so that you don't miss the gluten:

The cake was grilled, which added another nice dimension.

The final wine brought us back to Europe. It was our German Riesling.

This was very similar to the second one, so clearly reflecting a European terrior. Not only did it have a diesel quality, but also a rubber quality. The coconut sherbet made this somewhat bareable, but again, nothing I'll be investing in any time soon. 

For those who like Rieslings, you may want to try these ... as for me, I'll stick to my dry wines. 

Things I'm Digging at the Moment

Everyone once in a while I like to give some "props" to things I'm enjoying in the moment, so that perhaps others can enjoy them, too. I'd hope others will share what they are loving right now ... because sometimes, trying something new is just what you need for a pick me up.

So, let's start with a little libation. Yeah, there are a lot of celebrities who've come out with their own wines. And I didn't realize that I think my favorite wine shop even had a bottle of Miraval on display ... (maybe) but what caught my eye was The Dreaming Tree wine in their newsletter. I vaguely recalled that I think Dave Matthews (of DMB) fame was one of the "owners" of this wine. For less than $15, I figured I could give it a sip.

I wish I had bought a whole case. It is seriously yummy stuff. Even D gave it his seal of approval. Very smooth, nice notes of fruit and for me there was this luscious vanilla layer that just brought it all together. (D couldn't taste the vanilla, so it just goes to show you that wine is an incredibly personal thing.)

Another thing I'm into right now is finding some new glasses. D himself just got a new pair, and went with a completely new shape. He's very hip now. Very K-pop hip. I'm a huge fan of Warby Parker. One, they are helping to disrupt the monopoly that is the eye wear world. (I think like 98% of all optical stores are all actually owned by one megacorp.) Second ... you can get a complete set of eye glasses for less than $100!!!
That's lenses and frames. It's amazing what little shops can do. So I'm currently torn between two different frames:

They are quite similar - but a break from my current shape (which are the Miles.) Let me know which ones you think. (And yes, I totally don't smile because it's in pics where I get caught not smiling that I start analyzing if my glasses look good on me!)

Finally, the last thing that's really piqued my interest is Stitch Fix. I don't know about you, but I have no time to shop with a family of boys who are so busy. (Read: I don't really get solo shopping trips.) So, I've started to take to online shopping. Boden is one of my favorite shops. I love it, particularly because I don't see five hundred other women at work wearing the same fashions. So, I decided to give Stitch Fix a try. I won't give you all the detail on the program yet (their site does a fantastic job outlining the program.) But basically for $20 a personal stylist selects five pieces for me, ships them my way, I have three days to select an item. If I select something my $20 goes to that item. If I select all the pieces you get 25% off your order. I did a lot of reading other blogs and it looks like overall they do a good job. If you want to give it a try ... please use my referral link above (then I get credit toward my next fix :)) I should get my first box in two weeks. (That's the nice thing ... it's not a subscription unless you want it to be, so I can just choose to get a box when the funds are available.)

That's it for now ... time to go for a run!