Californ.i.a.

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This week has been pretty ridiculously busy, and I’ve spent a lot of it being Cranky McCranksterpants.  So it’s probably best I didn’t do any sort of commentary.  Last week, though, was amazing.

Started out flying into LA and renting the cheapest car possible:

Fiat 500.  Booyah.  Every time we saw another one the driver would give us a thumbs up.

First up was a 20-hour trip to SD, where I visited my old friend Jen.  We hit up Comic Con…

…and ended the night at a gay bar with everyone was dressed like superheroes with inflatable flamingos everywhere.  There was some carnage the next morning.

Kind of tragic.

After that it was up the coast to Santa Barbara

where we ate some good produce from my parents yard

enjoyed local brew

and binged on Blenders and burritos.  Lots and lots of burritos.

There was also Red Rock

and some kayaking

and Hendrys.

It was a pretty fantastic week of relaxation and sun.

Then it was up the coast again to Carmel for a really spectacular wedding.

Instead of a traditional rehearsal dinner, Alix and Christian threw a rock legends party where everyone had to dress up like rock stars.

The blushing bride.

The wedding itself was out on a reserve

and the reception was held in a barn.

Alix and Christian run the Lazy Parrot CSA, and our tables had basil plants and all sorts of fresh produce to make our own bruschetta.  That was awesome.  As was the dance floor.

It was a spectacular weekend.  The next morning we drove up the coast a little further to SF, which isn’t a bad place to recover with friends and fish tacos.

Then the red-eye back to Kentucky and right into the week from hell (OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it was busy.)  I’m still exhausted.  And tomorrow, assuming the weather mellows out, I’m on another flight solo out to DC for Kristin’s 30th.

But for now, enjoy the picture from our front porch tonight before the deluge began.

Back home

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After two rocky legs that made for zero sleep, our flight from California landed in Louisville at 8:30 this morning.  It was a quick drive back to Lexington, hop in the shower, a coffee the size of my head, and then off to work for back-to-back meetings all day.  Wheeeeeee.

Sorry there aren’t more details at the moment, but I’ve gotta go faceplant in my pillow.  More to come soon.

Farm Update

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“‘MERICA, F**K YEAH!” say the chickens

Paul put a little addition on the chicken coop.

Aaaah, rain.  It is raining this morning.  We got a few afternoon storms mid-week and the heat finally started to mellow out, thank goodness.  Without our usual rain everything was starting to get all brown and parched…and look a lot like California.  I was worried the garden wasn’t going to make it.  Our flowers out front are dried husks of what they used to be.

So sad and ugly.  That used to be a beautiful big blue delphinia bush.  Some of the herbs took a serious beating from the heat too, especially the cilantro.

Our back lawn is brown, which is gross.  And the chickens eggs the past few days have been smaller than usual, which is weird, so I’m blaming that on the weather too.

Speaking of the chickens, the whole time we’ve had them they have laid their eggs in their respective places: Romy is usually in the corner in a nest, and Michelle has been laying them from her perch in the coop.  Yesterday morning I went out and found this:

Aw, nest love.

But not all is lost in our garden.  The basils and oregano are hanging in there.

…and of course, the tomatoes.  We had our first real harvest the other day.

They’re still small and they have a seriously weird shape with a pointy end, but they are tasty.  And the Kentucky Colonel mint is kickin ass and taking names.  That stuff grows like a weed.  And with the rain scheduled to hang around this weekend, I’m hoping by next week things will start to perk up again.

This weekend we continue 2012: Year of the Airplane.  Tonight Paul and I are hopping on a flight…TOGETHER…out to CA.  He is done with boards (but his scores don’t come back till next week…so don’t bring it up) and we are spending a week at my parents place where my plans consist of laying in the sun and eating avocados.

But first, off to U of L to take a final for an online class I’ve been taking. Don’t be too jealous.

Hot Hot Heat

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Yes, that’s right.  Hotness to the max.

Weather forecast for today…and yesterday, and the day before that, and tomorrow: too hot to move with lots of humidity.

The good news about the heat is that it’s PERFECT weather to go enjoy a swim outside now that the public pools are open.  And considering I’m registered for the Big Shoulders 5K open water swim in Chicago in September and have swam exactly twice in the past 5 weeks, this pool motivation is a good thing.  Got a long swim workout with Allison on the calendar tomorrow morning to get the ball rolling.

Time to get back in the water.   Aw hecks yeah.

The secret to these pools is to get there early, before the hairballs and bandaids take over.

Speaking of sporting events, BIG FAT SHOUT OUT to everyone who is racing the 70.3 in Munice, IN tomorrow.  Please don’t melt.  Remember, ice is your friend.

I’ll leave you with A Midsummer Evening’s Walk With Spike: In Pictures.

We got about a block before he plopped down and wouldn’t move.  So he got carried home.  Fortunately his baby pool was waiting for him there.

And yes, for reals.  Dog ice cream.  WTF Marsha.

Enjoy the weekend, stay cool.

The 4th

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The 4th of July is quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the year.  And I don’t even like fireworks.

First off, they line the entire main street in town with these little tiny American flags.  I have no idea how long it took someone to do this.

Secondly, Wednesday off work.  WHATTUP.

Then of course was the BG 10K.

I ran the race last year as part of an 11 mile training run.  This year, my long training runs are over (YESS!!) and I haven’t done a very good job at keeping my running up to par, so this time around it was just for fun.

To make things even more fun, it was almost 80 degrees with 87% humidity at 7am.

My entire in-law family did the race.  Paul ran with his dad, and my sister-in-law and ran with their mom.  I ran with my friend J whose goal was to not walk at all (she has been known to take this race out a little too fast) or barf before mile 4.

the starting line

I absolutely love love love this race.  To me, it embodies the all of the good things about living in small-town America.  Most of the run is through downtown and on one main tree-lined road.  Everybody and their mother is out, either running or hungover on the side of the road supporting somebody.  The entire course is lined with people cheering and little kids holding signs and the owners of the houses along the route hosing you down.  There is a band at mile 4 wearing boating hats and that plays When the Saints Go Marching In.  Everyone is in a good mood.  Every time I run this I feel like I’m in a movie.

Anyway, J and I made our way down the vomit-lined chute (the heat was a problem) without walking once.  There was also no barfing, and she PRed by like 2 minutes.  Win.

For my sister-in-law, 10K was the furthest distance she had ever run by like 2 miles.  She came in at just over an hour…and ralphed at the finish line.  Another win.

Because the temperature just kept going up and up, after the run we headed over my sister-in-law’s boyfriend’s mother’s pool (get that?) where we lounged around and his mom served us post-race spiked lemonade and snacks.  It was…amazing.

And of course the evening ended with America-inspired dessert.

Special shout out to my sister who is serving over in Afghanistan and celebrated the 4th by getting beat in a 5K run by a bunch of Spaniards at her base.  I asked her how it was and she said, “Hot.”   Which probably trumps the hot we felt here.

How to prepare for a race in the heat

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The long taper into the 4th of July 10K continues.

This weekend it was over to Denver to visit some friends.

…where, like most of the country, it was blazin’ hot. We avoided the fires, but it was still too hot to run. So I figured the best preparation would be a lot of walking

…in between breweries.

Which resulted in the impulse purchase of a cheap pair of sunglasses that look almost exactly like the ones I already have.

hipster

And a few tasty snacks to cool us off.

And some of this.

I’m ready to PR.

Jam Sesh

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A The Roots / Carly Rae Jepsen jam session with preschool instruments.  What more do you need on a Monday.  The rainbow xylophone is clutch.

Per one of the comments, Questlove (bottom left) tries to play the recorder upsidedown around 2:32.  Hilarious.

Small and Tiny

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Paul asked me the other day, “Have you seen our raspberries?”

We planted our berries over a year ago, and the raspberry bush is the only one that survived (Spike ate the blueberry plant and the blackberries just never came to fruition…literally.)  So the fact that this plant was producing its first berries was pretty exciting.  I told him, no, I hadn’t, and he said, “I tried one and it was DELICIOUS.”

So yesterday when I was out feeding las pequenas and watering the garden, I stopped by to take a look at these delicious berries.

They are about the size of my pinky fingernail.  I am (kind of) surprised Paul ate it.

So while our chickens have been producing mondo eggs, our produce seems to be taking an alternative route.  Much like the tomatoes, our berries appear to be dwarfed.  It has been brutally hot here, and we haven’t gotten a lot of rain, so maybe that’s why.

And speaking of our eggs (which I promise, will stop soon), this morning Romy unleashed one egg to rule them all.

Those eggs next to it are the big ones in this picture.  It weighs like 5lbs.  A monster.

It’s going to be a hot hot weekend almost everywhere.  Stay cool and be sure to hydrate before you recreate.