Add it to the list

I can go on and on and on about how much I love living in Colorado. In fact, I am pretty sure I have gone on and on about it.

My morning computer routine includes checking weather.com for the forecast. It's a habit, and it usually doesn't change from the forecast I saw at 6:00 the night before, but you know routines. My day just isn't complete without checking the weather. Sometimes several times. My name is Jenna, and I am a weather addict.

Well, to add to the list of reasons I love living in Colorado, I have to add this:
I could live without the wind tomorrow (it puts our area at high risk for another wild fire), but Saturday is my birthday and Friday night is my birthday dinner downtown, and opening day of the Colorado Rockies baseball season. Sunday is back to sunny and 54, but I don't care. I leave for Florida Sunday morning for work for the week! It's gonna be waaaaaaaaaaaaarm!! YAY!!

Thanks mother nature! This is the BEST birthday gift you've ever given me!!!

Spring in my step

On the heels of yesterday's "YAY me" post, here's one for a good laugh. Every morning I get up and cross another running activity off my list. Today, at 5:45 am, woke up to my alarm, rolled out of bed and peeked out the window to make sure there was no fog. I'll run outside in the dark, in wind, rain and snow, but not fog.

With a light dusting of snow glistening from the streetlight, I geared up and headed out for a 4 miler. The air was cool and damp which is a nice chance of pace from the incredibly dry air we've had all winter. It smelled of spring and damp grass and wood. You know the smell.

And then it started. 0.67 miles was the first sneeze. 0.75 was the first blowing of the nose. I continued to alternate between sneezing and nose blowing through 10 tissues and one sleeve (gross, right?!?!). My second mile took me through a sidewalk-less street and forced me to run on the side of the road which was all mud (see above dusting of snow satire). So now I am snotty and muddy but keep going. Overall, I feel OK.

At some point my ears said "this playlist is no good" while my legs simultaneously said "you've got to be kidding me, was this hill here last week?" and my new fancy-pants watch said 3.25 miles. I was totally spent, but I only three-quarters of a mile left and I still had one sleeve in reserve, should I need it.

Running through the park, all I wanted to do was finish. Dog owners are 50/50 about picking up after their pups, but at least the messes are never on the sidewalk. Apparently the coyotes didn't get the "only poop, or do other gross stuff in the grass" memo and it appeared they were particularly active last night.

So, my last three-quarters of a mile were spent running in a zig-zag pattern around piles of coyote stuff. And then I sneezed.

I was closest to home at 3.90 and called it a day without finishing that last tenth of a mile (although I did walk it). Abby was up this morning, which is rare for our dog, and she couldn't get enough of my shoes. Curious as to what she was smelling, I picked them up and looked at them when I realized that my last sneeze must have propelled me into a gift from a coyote. And it wasn't poop...

So, today, with some "spring" completely compacted into the sole of my shoe, I declare war on allergies and coyotes. Not sure what that means. But it feels good to say it!

Friends, Family, Mentors and Heroes

I update my iGoogle homepage frequently with a countdown timer that keeps me excited for events and vacations. In 47 days, 20 hours, 57 minutes and 12 seconds (give or take a few minutes & seconds for writing time!) I will be running 13.1 miles.

I want to start by saying, Lisa K., I know this is hard to read (assuming you are reading it) but there is something you should know...you and my cousin Allison are HUGE inspirations to me. You are true runners. Your love of running, for a long time, I thought was a little crazy. But now I get it. Lisa K., I am so sorry that your love has been taken away from you for a while, but you will get it back. Alli and Lisa, thanks for being my mentors and heroes, friends and family. Maybe this fall we can all run together...Whether it's around the river or around the block makes no difference to me.

On Saturday, my long run was 6 miles, and I ran all of them without stopping (except for 2 stoplights) and finished in 1 hour, 14 minutes, 5 seconds. While I am not setting any land speed records or shattering any 6 mile run records, I am breaking my own records left and right!

With every passing long run, I run longer and farther than I ever have before. And with every run I fall deeper and deeper in love with running. I had no idea I had it in me. I figured I had the determination, but didn't think I'd actually like it, let alone love it this much!

As I think about this coming Saturday, I get a little excited. Not only will I turn 35 on Saturday, I will also run 7 miles for the first time in my life. That's more than half the distance I need to run in 47 days and is more than three times the distance I had ever run before (who am I kidding, before training I had never run two whole miles!). I so wholeheartedly KNOW that I can do this and hope that I get to do it again and again and again.

So, with that, Lisa, as you continue your journey back to your wings, thanks for being one of mine.

The Lumber Company

As a kid, I have very fond memories of going to "the lumber company" with Dad on Saturday mornings. I really don't know what we went for, but remember it being during the spring and summer months...you know, the months where you can smell grass and trees (insert sneeze and sniffle!!) and flowers and the sound of children playing outside mixes with sounds of home improvement projects.

The smell of the lumber company, which holds the formal name of Mission Lumber, is not so unique, but is very distinctive. It's the smell of sawdust, varnish and... popcorn. That's right, popcorn! On those beautiful Saturday mornings when I was lucky enough to be able to tag along with Dad to the lumber company, I remember having small paper bag of popcorn as we walked through the countless aisles of nails and wood (or at least that's how I remember it!).

Very close to our house we have an ACE Hardware. I love that place, and it smells just like the lumber company of my memory. Chris and I went to get some ant killer (which is a story for another day) on Sunday morning, and as soon as we walked in, it smelled just like it was supposed to. So, I walked to the back of the store, past the paint department, grabbed a small paper bag and put a scoop of popcorn in it. We walked through the store, lollygagging through the grills, paint color choices, hoses, and rakes as we ate one perfectly delicious kernel of lumber company popcorn at a time.

I want to go there every weekend. It's a happy place for me. Too bad happy isn't the same as cheap! They are selling the daddy of ALL Weber grills there...it's HUGE and completely AWESOME! And 300 bucks! Stupid lumber company and your hypnotizing magical aroma of popcorn and manual labor. You make spending money smell so wonderful.

We didn't get the grill, but Chris said that if I make him go back there and smell the wonderfulness of the lumber company and share my happy memories on a 70-degree weekend day again, we are coming home with that Weber!

We're gonna need a bigger deck.

There will be no photos in this post

I went to the dentist this morning to have 2 cavities filled. One tiny one on the bottom and a slightly larger one right above it...both on the right side of my mouth. I pride myself on having pretty good teeth. This is only the second and third cavity I have ever had, so you can imagine how upset I was to learn that my 16 years of being an boring dental patient had ended.

So, this morning I got up a little earlier than normal, ran 4 miles, jumped in the shower and was in the dentist's chair by 7:45. As was no surprise, he had a little trouble getting my upper jaw to numb. My lower jaw and tongue have no problems, but the upper, well, let's just say that after the initial round of shots that numb most human mouths, I got 4 more shots. We waited 5 minutes, then 4 more. Then I got two last shots in the jaw for good measure. And all that finally did the trick.

This dentist, Dr. Mack, numbed me SOOO well that I can't even take a sip of water at 9:45. And I know this because I tried. Cold water down the front of your shirt isn't very funny. And now my jaw (back by my ear) hurts bad enough that I really just want to take some Advil and maybe have a little breakfast. But again, can't swallow anything and my tongue and cheek are still numb.

Get it, my tongue and cheek are still numb! That's funny. I guess I will end the satire on that note.

Airport Redemption

Sometimes traveling for work is the pits. Strike that. MOST times traveling for work is the pits. But the personal benefits often times make up for it. With all the loyalty rewards I receive from my business travel, Chris and I are almost always guaranteed space in the overhead compartment for our carry on suitcase, a free rental car once or twice a year and at least one trip to Michigan paid for with miles. And let's not forget a night or two at a Hilton property. All are very nice perks.

The down side is a trip like my Sunday-Monday adventure. The last two days have been absolutely brutal! Saturday night we changed the clocks and I am pretty sure everyone has read a post, made a post or thought about reading or making a post about how the time change really messes up their little ones. Well, it messed up this not-so-little one something FIERCE!

My flight left on Sunday morning at 6:00 am. We live 40 minutes away from the airport, but with parking, shuttles and security, we budget for an hour to get through security, and boarding was to begin at 5:30 am. That means I needed to get up at 3:00 am in order to shower and get to the airport on time. Funny thing, the actual time change was to occur at 2:00 am. So, if we spring forward at 2:00 am to 3:00 am, then it could have been possible to miss the time of 3:00 and move straight to 3:01 depending on how many seconds ahead my clock may be. And with the whole new year thing and iPhone alarms not working, I was a little worried. I set two alarms for 3:05 just be be safe. And because I was so worried, I looked at the clock every 30-45 minutes or so. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep on Saturday night.

Sunday, the flight was non eventful but I had to connect through Chicago O'Hare, which I typically avoid like the plague. For me, my on-time departure and arrival stats in and out of ORD is about 50%. Not very promising. But Sunday was uneventful. And for as tired as I was, I got to go through the tunnel that was surely designed by Jerry Garcia, or maybe Pink Floyd or some other drugged-up rocker. Nevertheless, even the crankiest of travelers can appreciate the effort ORD makes to garner a smile out of travelers, experts and rookies alike.

I remember spending hours in the tunnel of moving colors as a kid when we were stuck in Chicago on our way to Florida. The walls are lined with gigantic paint chips in order of color and the ceiling with squiggly lines of color that move opposite the moving walkway. They change color and dance through the "sky" causing anyone who's not immune to smiling to look up. If you are really into it, you won't hear the constant repetition of "moving walkway is ending, please look down." 9 out of 10 times through that tunnel, I have seen someone stumble at the end.

So, my goal for the rest of my business travel this year is to find the redeeming quality of the airports I go through. O'Hare, thanks for the tunnel! It always makes me smile!

I will start trying to think of something nice to say about the North Terminal in Detroit. So far I am coming up empty. OH, EMPTY! That's it! It's empty! Which means there's always a place to sit! Thanks DTW for allowing me to sit by an outlet and charge my phone before my flight!

Cooooooooooookies!

To those who know me well, you know that I inherited a MASSIVE sweet tooth, likely from Grandma Peg. And for those who don't believe that can be genetically passed through generations, the nurture vs. nature battle continues. I will agree that I may have learned my sweet tooth, but that learning would also be from Gram. So, I will still say I inherited it!

For my practice wedding, Gram gave me a wooden recipe box that had several of her recipes in it, hand-written when her beautiful handwriting was still fairly decipherable. Some of the recipes include Almond crunch brittle, Texas sheet cake, vanilla ice cream, German chocolate cake, Gram's chocolate cake, and yes, her infamous chocolate chip cookies. Can you see the theme?

And those recipes I have made taste just like I remember. I will also say that the cookie recipe make a lot of cookies. Maybe because the 3 cups of chocolate chips bulks up the volume. Or maybe it's the three sticks of butter. Regardless, they are pretty darn good cookies!

And I made a batch last night. I have found that sometimes after lunch I like to have a bite of something sweet. And while Whole Foods makes some pretty awesome chocolate chip cookies, they are 99 cents each (which is not THAT expensive) but they are really big. And here's my problem: when I want a cookie, I want A cookie...meaning the WHOLE thing. I try to break it in half but always end up eat both halves. So isn't it better to make cookies at home that are small in size so that I can scratch the itch without over indulging? I sure think so.

And I've tried "healthy" cookies, but they aren't the same. On the days when I want a cookie, I want the dumb cookie. I have found that it's better to have one good cookie than to eat the healthy one and still want a good one. So, here's the justification for me:

For as long as I am running 12 miles a week or more, and have activity a total of 5 days or more every week, we can have cookies in the house and I can have a cookie on the days I want a cookie, which is most of them. If I stop running, I stop baking. If that's not incentive to run, I don't know what is!

Oh, and I am taking half of the cookies from yesterday to Mom and Dad on Sunday. They are meeting me in Detroit for dinner Sunday night and staying the night at the same hotel so we can hang out. I have a presentation Monday morning and fly back to Denver Monday night. Quick trip, but I'll be back in April for a couple of days.

And we couldn't possibly eat all the cookies this recipe makes before the go bad. So, it's better to share! And we have a really small freezer.