Tuesday: It Is Hard To Train In The Rain

It rained all day today, and the temperature dropped throughout the day as well.  I did not find a space to run until about 45 minutes before heading out to pick up Ivan at nursery school.  All day, it felt as if I was hovering about the windows looking for a space of rainlessness to hop outside and get my run in.  I don't always mind running in the rain, but the torrential downpour of today combined with the increasing cold was hard.

My run was reasonable, but only 3.5 miles as I had to get back home to pick up Ivan.  I got in a Gilad workout in the afternoon.  My eating habits were under control, and I only had one errant slice of tart.  This was such a vast improvement over my past few days that I can hardly complain.  For dinner I made and exceptionally healthy soup, that tasted much like Bread and Company's fabulous Creamy Turkey Sage soup.  I have a feeling that Bread and Company uses heavy cream in their soup, and I used Greek yogurt for which I would like a pat on the back.  Recipe as follows:

Cream of Turkey & Wild Rice Soup

This is a healthier twist on a classic creamy turkey and wild rice soup that hails from Minnesota. Serve with a crisp romaine salad and whole-grain bread.

Active time: 35 minutes | Total: 35 minutes

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups sliced mushrooms (about 4 ounces)
2 cups chopped baby spinach
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup or more cooked brown rice
3 cups shredded cooked turkey or chicken
1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms, carrots and shallots and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add flour, salt and pepper and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more.
2. Add broth and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add rice and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until the rice is tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in turkey (or chicken), Greek yogurt , spinach and parsley and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes more.

Makes 4 servings, about 1 3/4 cups each.
Per serving: 354 calories; 9 g fat (3 g sat, 4 g mono); 87 mg cholesterol; 27 g carbohydrate; 36 g protein; 3 g fiber; 378 mg sodium; 577 mg potassium.
Nutrition bonus: Vitamin A (90% daily value), Zinc (20% dv), Iron (15% dv).

Monday: Swim and Let's Just Talk About Holiday Eating, Because I Am Not Off To A Good Start

This morning, Ivan and I were off to swim, and I was in the pool in a timely fashion.  The water was quite cold today, and in the middle of practice the powers that be of the Williamson County Parks and Recreation department turned on the hot water to bring up the pool temperature.  There are no words to describe the great warmth and sense of hopefulness about life in general that I get when I finish a swim interval and get to hug a jet of toasty water while waiting for the next interval to start.  I would say that it is the same satisfaction I get from turning my electric blanket when it is cold outside or putting on my Uggs in the morning.  It is just a general feeling of well-being, and it makes me really proud for the caveman who discovered fire.  Workout as follows:

• 6 x 50 1:00
• 6 x 25 drill :30
• 4 x 50 drill
• 1 x 200 fast
• 4 x 50 drill
• 2 x 100 fast
• 2 x 50 distance per stroke
• 4 x 50 fast
• 400 kick
• 300 pull
• 200 pull
• 100 pull
• 8 x 25 IM

Anyway, swim is about all that happened today, as I was zapped of energy and I am pretty sure I know why: HOLIDAY EATING HAS BEGUN.

Now, I consider myself a healthy eater.  I take copious amounts of vitamins and drink loads of water, green tea and every once in while I get on a liquid chlorophyll kick, because it detoxes free radicals from our body and helps replenish our red blood cells.  Do I know what free radicals are??  Maybe not, maybe I can't remember for sure except that I think they cause wrinkles, and I am against that.

On Thanksgiving, however, things started to slide.  My mother made a cheese ball that involved bacon, and I, in a stupor of hunger one night, ordered two huge tarts packed in dry ice that we thawed out and plowed through on Thanksgiving.  Then my mother whipped heavy cream with sugar to put on the pumpkin pie, and suddenly I was stirring that delicious concoction into my coffee.

Then in a flash it was morning, and I was sitting down to more coffee with heavy whipping cream, a smoked salmon and goat cheese sandwich with a huge slab of pear tart with burgandy glaze for breakfast.

AND THEN, my mother packed up the pear tarts for me to take home, and I ate what I remember to be two slices of tart (though it could have been more, as I pretty much just unhinged my jaw and shoveled in huge amounts of tart) for lunch on the day after Thanksgiving.  I had a healthy dinner of broccoli and turkey, but is that really commendable after ingesting a month's worth of calories in one day in the form of tarts?

On Saturday, I was pretty sure I was back on target with an oatmeal breakfast and some turkey with roasted sweet potatoes for lunch, but after lunch the tarts were waiting on me.  So I made a deal with myself that I would get back on track on Monday, and it would be a new dawn and I would detox and have glowing skin.  I actually ate Yogurt World for dinner on Sunday night, and then planned that today would be my day of health, but no friends; that is not the way it works.

This morning I had sugar craving so intense, that I was forced to eat three of Ivan's gummy vitamins just to stave it off, and what kind of mother am I (I ask) if I cannot stop eating my child's gummy vitamins over a sugar craving.  Where does it end?  Do I drink his candy flavored tylenol in a shot glass or snort his strawberry kids shampoo.  It seems like a long circle around the drain of refined sugar.

Anyway, once home from swim I plowed through the queso that my husband bought for himself, and then it was onward and upward to a hidden bag of chocolate covered cranberries that I found in the kitchen.  I am staring Christmas in the face, and I am acting like a junkie. I have to get a hold on myself before I assault someone over a bag of m&m's.  This isn't pretty.

And then there is the ticking time bomb of cookie dough in my freezer that I bought from some cookie pushing child.  So, I have planned my eating for tomorrow.  I am pulling it together, and I am counting down to Christmas and I AM NOT TOUCHING THAT COOKIE DOUGH.

Sunday: Crafting and Swim and My Yogurt World Confidence is Restored

So last night I did not mention that we went to see Ben Folds.  I am a long time fan of Ben Folds as he is such an amazing pianist and writes such clever lyrics.  Now, last night, I was pretty excited because he was playing songs that he had written in collaboration with Nick Hornby who is my favorite contemporary British author.  Now, the songs that Ben Folds wrote in collaboration with Nick Hornby were rather dark and so so.  Everything else was GREAT, and it was such a nice night.

The concert was a fundraiser for our symphony which was flooded out of their symphony hall.  Ben Folds was affected by the flooding and actually photographed several flood sights that were published on National Geographic's website.  He apparently lost two pianos and some songs he wrote when he was ten.

Anyway, we were out quite late, and it took a bit of scrounging around for personal alertness and punctuality to get to church on time.  Now, from here on out, I will always be at church in a timely fashion on the Sunday after Thanksgiving as it is the first Sunday of Advent, and we all use the Sunday school hour to make wreathes.  It is a fundraiser as you donate ten dollars per wreath.  I made two wreathes, and they are just lovely.  I plan to devote myself to this wreath making each year.

In other news, I worked diligently like a sweat shop employee in making a floor-to-ceiling shower curtain.  Sewing a huge piece of fabric on a sewing machine is a copious amount of concentrated effort as you have to constantly maneuver the unwieldy piece on the machine and around the machine so as not to create ripples and tucks where they are not needed.  It all went quite well, and if I can get the hem right tomorrow I will have successfully dignified another corner of our abode.  THRILLING!!

In the afternoon it was off to swim where we are spending time working on technique.  We practiced our:

•  butterfly strokes
• quite a bit of kicking
• distance per stroke work (where we try to drop our stroke count per lap)
• flip turn practice 
• 8 x 100 swim @ 1:50

Our yardage was only at about 2500, but that is sort of the way of winter swim as we spend more time on technique than distance.

Now, I am happy to report that on the way home I had a very pleasant trip to Yogurt World where all the yogurt was a perfect consistency and they had white chocolate mousse, peppermint and chocolate.  I really cannot tell you how exciting it is to me that the quality of Yogurt World appears to be intact. I can rest easy tonight!

Saturday: Thanksgiving

So Thursday was Thanksgiving and I pulled myself out of bed and headed off to run the Blvd. Bolt.  Now normally, I meet my family at the start, and I must admit that the whole process was a lot faster without them.  I showed up to park at 7:15 AM, parked about 3/4 of a mile away, ran to the start, ran a couple of miles from the start line, started the race and then ran back to the car. Now there were supposedly 8500 people running on Thursday, and I was completely prepared to throw up my hands in despair at the crowd and bale out of ever running the Blvd. Bolt again, BUT it really wasn't that big of a deal.  Parking was not a problem and I like getting in the extra-mileage before the race.  I ran 8 minute miles which is nothing to be really proud of, but under the circumstances, it was fine.

At home, I packed up and headed out for Thanksgiving dinner with my family, which was so much fun and I stayed up way too late locked in a death-match game of Scrabble with my parents and sister.

On Friday, I sat on the couch like a lump working on my needlepoint and later watching the Joaquin Phoenix documentary, I'm Not Here.  It was an abysmal piece of filmography, and while I do understand that a part of you is most likely very broken when you are the one who has to make the call, sobbing from the Viper Room to let paramedics know that you can't find your brother's pulse, you have to move on and be a human of some worth.

This morning, I ran with my running group for the first time in two or so weeks, and I am slow.  I am really dragging and I feel the way I did after I started running following the birth of my son.  It seems like I am running quite fast, but I was pulling out 9 minute miles today.  So, I am opening back up my marathon discussion.  I have moved from 90-95% chance of marathon to 50%

Maybe I should scrap the marathon, sign up for Winter Speed Sessions with Fleet Feet, work back up to my speed as my body allows and not worry about it.  Or, maybe I should just go down and push through the marathon which could be utterly demoralizing.  Bleh

Wednesday: Double Swim, Pure Barre, Marathon Quandary and Yogurt World Quandary

Today I was not only back in the saddle, I road the Pony Express.  I popped up relatively early and got Ivan dressed and by dressed, I mean that I changed his diaper and zipped him back into his footy pajamas and took him to swim nursery in his PJ's.  He was so thrilled to see Miss Cameron and be shed of me for brief hour.

I was excited to get back to swim and the workout was great and not so hard as I was expecting after being out for a week and a half:

• 6 x 75 K/D/S
• 8 x 25 half easy/ half fast
• 8 x 25 half fast/ half easy
• 8 x 25 fast
• 5 x 100 pull
• 6 x 50 fly kick
• 8 x 50 IM drill
• 2 x 100 IM
• 400 kick
• 200 warm down

This was a total of 3050 yards which was just outstanding for a first day back in the pool.  At home, I ate huge salad and generally wasted a huge amount of time as it is the holidays and that is what I do best this time of year.  

I did manage to get in a Pure Barre workout at home, before pulling myself together to go in for evening swim.  I have to say that evening swim was so very difficult that I almost wished that I had stayed home. We had a butterfly practice and we did butterfly drills, and then ended with a 200 butterfly with no fins.  It was hard, but I did finally master the thumb drag on the surface of the water part of the butterfly stroke.  

Now, on the way home from swim I hit Yogurt World and I had a chocolate peppermint swirl with sprinkles, but I have a complaint.  I visited Yogurt World last week, and both tonight and last week, the yogurt was pretty much liquid like a soup.  This is a great disappointment as I have become dependent on my frozen yogurt and the trek to Sweet Cece's is just not as convenient.  In my 9ish week absence from Yogurt World, it seems that their frozen yogurt quality has declined.  It is a bummer.

Finally, my marathon is weighing on me.  I am scheduled to run my marathon on December 11th in Huntsville, Alabama.   My training, however, has been non-existent due to recent events, and I think that  the marathon could possibly be a disaster.  On the other hand, I have really only ever prepared for one marathon out of the 5 I have run and that was Boston.  The other ones, I have basically just shown up at the start line and hoped for the best.  There was one disaster, but all the other marathons have really gone quite well under the circumstances.  I qualified for the Boston marathon three times and only had a really sad bad race one time.  

I only feel unprepared, because I was so very prepared for Boston.  Also in my favor, I have an extra five minutes because I am turning 35 this year.  This means I really only have to run a 3:45 marathon to qualify, and I did run a 3:26 marathon at Boston, so it stands to reason that I have enough of a base to run a 3:45 at the slowest.  

Hmmmm, I think that I have talked myself into it.  I will probably head of to Huntsville on the 10th and give it my best shot and let the chips fall.  

Blvd Bolt tomorrow!!!

Tuesday: Day Off

This morning, I popped up early to get to Cheekwood so that Ivan could do the Thanksgiving craft, which was a construction paper turkey that you cover with glue and feathers.  Ivan loves glue and suffice it to say that you cannot see the Turkey for the feathers.  We then looked at the Christmas trees which were lovely and headed off to lunch where I had a salad and a soy latte and felt like it was a little slice of heaven, as I was eating a salad and Ivan was sitting in his chair like a lamb while we were eating in a public place.  Things like that just never happen to me, and it was almost surreal.

In the afternoon, I picked up my Blvd. Bolt registration, which went off without a hitch, and I was given a number, a goo goo cluster (which I will probably eat with breakfast, because that is what I do) and a t-shirt which I plan to give to my dad.

Today was my day off, though yesterday was sort of like a day off and the sum total goal of my day was to get to the needlepoint shop to get some yarn that I am missing.  I know that this does not seem like the most important goal you ever heard, but I cannot take my child, the shop is closed on Mondays and Sunday and has very short hours on Saturdays so that by the time my husband is home from his bike ride, it is closed.

I have taken Ivan to the needlepoint shop once, and it was most unfortunate:

• he terrorized the pug dog that lives in a baby carriage in the store
• he pulled all the labels off the lower rack of yarn that he could reach
• he threw the Andrew Jackson needlepoint weight
• he unwound an entire ream of yarn all the way across the store AND I HAD TO BUY IT.

We have been kicked out of two places that I can recall offhand, and those were the needlepoint shop and the Biltmore.    The needlepoint shop is an interesting place that I could not fault for kicking us out.  

I think that when you get into the deep layers of any craft scene you run across interesting characters.  Tonight, for instance, the needlepoint shop proprietor informed me that my yarn was very out of date.  "No One, No One uses triple ply wools anymore.  They are very out of date."  Apparently on an 18 count canvas, which I was unaware I was using, you now use a silk/cotton blend that adds a "luster" to the canvas.  It was quite an earful, when I really just wanted to get my yarn and get home.

Tomorrow, I am back at swim!!!  

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Monday: Pool Clearance

So today, I was given pool clearance and I was very excited about it.  Now I did not receive pool clearance until after I had already missed morning swim, but I was excited to have pool clearance.  I got in a Pure Barre workout AND some yoga and sped to the gym around the corner after putting young son to bed only to find that the pool actually closed at 8:00 PM instead of 9:00 PM like it said on the website.

This was a bummer of epic proportions, and I am honestly not quite over it.

Sunday: Run and Pure Barre and MOVIE

So I have not been inside of a movie theatre since the first Sex and the City movie came out (oohh, I take that back, I saw The Girl Who Played With Fire).  I had a Coca-Cola and some raisinets, and went to see Morning Glory.   It was just lovely and reminded me of what Franklin D. Roosevelt Roosevelt said about Shirley Temple during the Great Depression: "During this Depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles."


There were no babies in Morning Glory, but you get the idea.  Also, it cost me more than 15 cents, and you do not even want to know about the cost of my Coca-Cola. It was a romantic comedy, though the love affair was more between Rachel McAdams and her job as opposed to Rachel McAdams and her love interest (Patrick Something Something).  Jeff Goldblum was in it, and I always find him to be hilariously sardonic.  


Also, I just love the clothes in a romantic comedy.  Everyone is so so pretty, and Rachel McAdams wore some LOVELY shoes and dresses.  Diane Keaton wore fabulous pants and was JUST SO THIN.  I also loved the discrepeancies that pop up in romantic comedies.  For instance, Rachel McAdams made absolutely no money in this crazy job that she was married to, BUT she only wore Louboutins throughout the film.  Just so you know, Louboutins are on both my "win the lottery" list and my "what to wear to New York Fashion Week" list.


In other news, for most unfortunate reasons I could not go back to swim today, and I am bummed about it.  I did get in another slowish run and then got in a Pure Barre workout with my DVD.  It was quite hard, and if I cannot swim this week, I may work it out to do the video every day this week.  


We Sloans did not go to church this morning, and I envisioned us having a bed-in similar to pictures and commericals that I have seen of families that cuddle up in bed together on the weekends.  I thought that Ivan would placidly watch cartoons while I, Betsy Sloan, read my one year Bible and the entire new issue of Vogue from cover to cover to cover while drinking coffee.  BUT, no friends, I do not have a placid child and there was much bed jumping and "please be still"-ing, and "stop it"-ing before I had to throw in the towel and drag the both of us out of bed.  


Most likely no swim tomorrow.  Wah-Wah!

Stop the Presses

OK, since I am totally Lincoln-ing right now, I felt it was absolutely necessary to share the news that Daniel Day Lewis has moved to Illinois to prepare for his role as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin!!!!!   The film will not be released until 2012, and that is a long time for me to keep Lincolning, but I think I can make it.  

I know that Daniel Day Lewis will spend the next two years living and breathing Lincoln.  He is probably in a log cabin right now wearing a stovepipe hat and cobbled shoes while he mutters phrases like "fourscore" and "better angels of our nature" and "a house divided cannot stand".  

I LOVE IT!!!

Saturday: Back in the Saddle

You know, I know that maybe everyone is tired of hearing me bang the Abraham Lincoln drum, but I honestly can't help myself.  Doris Kearns Goodwin is just KNOCKING IT OUT OF THE BALLPARK with Team of Rivals.  Here is the unfortunate impact all of my Lincoln reading is doing to me:  I feel like I know him personally and I almost cannot take it that he was assassinated, that he lost two children, that his wife was not more supportive, that he was so stressed during the Civil War.  Attempting to watch The Real Abraham Lincoln on the National Geographic Channel is breaking me.  There are four minutes left, the Lincolns have just left for Ford's Theatre, and I just cannot EVEN watch.  I have definitely Lincolned out this year.  I listened to Assassination Vacation, I read Rebel Giants and now Team of Rivals.

Just a little oddball information about my thought processes:  I keep several running lists.  Many of them involve food, some of them involve what I might do if I win the lottery, some of them involve what I might wear if invited to New York Fashion Week and one specific one is devoted to what I would do if I could time travel.  Now, when I read Loving Frank, my top time travel goal was to go back in time and strangle Frank Lloyd Wright, because he was just an ass hat in my humble opinion.  Now that I am immersed in the life of the greatest president of all time, I can only want to go back in time to administer antibiotics to Willie and at all costs stop John Wilkes Booth.

Now, I have seen John F. Kennedy assassinated 1000's of times in my life.  I sometimes resent the way that earth shattering film footage has been thrust upon my life in every history class or PBS documentary that ever was.  Maybe I have been inoculated against any deep feeling for the Kennedys based on my frequent viewing of their disastrous fates, but they just do not rend my heart like Lincoln.  The Lincolns break me.

Anyway, now that I have that off my chest.  I am still not sleeping in the way that I would like to be sleeping which I can only attribute to the fact that my hormones are probably about to WACK OUT.  I am a little concerned that at any time I may transform in a similar fashion to a werewolf, and go completely berzerko.  There is a possibility that I could eat through 25 chocolate bars, say nasty things and have a full on temper tantrum, though this really is not so different from my normal expectations of myself.  Any of the series are actually par for my course when I think about it, and, confession, I have eaten three chocolate bars in the past two days.

All that to say that I was up early this morning and I popped out for a 5 mile run, which went pretty well.  I was quite slow, and I was overdressed, but it felt good to be out on a crisp morning with a few new songs on my ipod.  At home, I had a smoothie and copious amounts of tea before heading to do some Christmas shopping and taking Ivan to ride his tricycle.  It has made for a lovely day.  Tomorrow, I am rather determined to go swimming and get through a Pure Barre workout.  If all goes well, Monday swim group is happening!!!

Friday: Re-Entry into the Real World

So this morning, I had to put on real clothes and leave the house at a designated hour to accomplish a legitimate work appointment.  I will honestly tell you that is was rather jarring.  After a week of pajama-ing my life away, it was all pretty strange.  Ivan and I spent the morning running about trying to find all the things that we had forgotten we needed for re-entry.  All the extra diapers, the snacks, my work stuff; we barely made it into the car on time with Ivan clutching his cap-gun rifle like Granny Clampett  in the back seat.

After dropping Ivan off, I was able to get to work early, and hit the mall with my mother where we had lunch, perused Kate Spade and invested in Christmas Chocolate.

Tomorrow, I am going out for my first easy run and I may do a Gilad workout as well.  If everything goes as planned, I see Yogurt World in my future.

Nutrition Action Health Letter

I feel that I have no choice but to recommend this fabulous publication.  Nutrition Action Health Letter is completely devoted to the newest research in the area of health, food, exercise, weight loss and exercise.  I feel that their research is presented in a readable format, it is usually only about ten pages long, and it is aimed at our modern lifestyle of traveling, grocery shopping and sedentary jobs.  

For instance, last month Nutrition Action presented menus from Panera and au bon pain, where you can actually find a lot of healthy food.  They explained how to pull calories and sodium content down with better choices, and I felt like I learned a lot.  I always thought that au bon pain, was just a wash if you were stuck in an airport.  It is, however, probably your best bet, unless you can find a Wolfgang Puck.  

Now, this month, there is a fabulous quiz from which I have learned ever so much.  My favorite two multiple choice questions were:

Since 1970, U.S. cheese consumption has:

• dropped by 50%
• dropped by 25%
• stayed the same
• doubled
• tripled

We are eating more now that in 1970 of all but one of these.  Which one?

• beef
• flour
• cooking and salad oils
• sugar and corn syrup

answer to cheese consumption is TRIPLED!!!!

answer to the second question is beef.  Oil consumption has tripled, flour is up by 25%, and sweeteners have risen by 14%. Beef has dropped by 22 percent, and now we eat twice as much chicken.  

Fascinating right??  The magazine is great, and I think my subscription was $9.99 for the year.  

Thursday: Day Four Of No Real Obligations

So today was another day, and sadly my last day, of no real obligations.  On day four, I was kind of thinking that I could get used to this.  It was rather lovely and I definitely felt like a lady of leisure.

I toted Ivan off to nursery school with a big bowl of fruit salad for his Thanksgiving lunch.  From there, my day became a lot more exciting.  I went to Private Edition (a place where I should spend a lot more time) and had a massage.  It was lovely.  I totally recommend Andy, who I feel is a real professional with the fanciest fingers in town.  Also, while I was at Private Edition, I learned how to use dry shampoo, tested so many perfumes that I am not sure what I smell like (maybe rubbing alcohol and a lily and a ripe, ripe pomegrante), and discussed hair creams.  I then waltzed over to the Cotton Mill, where I looked at lovely dresses and decided I definitely needed to incorporate some gold tones into my wardrobe.  Now, the downside to to having a massage is that you cannot really try on clothes afterwards as there is no avoiding being rather oily.

At home, I got in a great yoga session and it felt great. There is really no excuse for me not fitting yoga into my schedule, as I am getting quite inflexible.  When I picked Ivan up from school, we headed off to Phillip's Toy Mart, where I let Ivan pick out his own toy rifle.  This turned out to be a mistake, as the gun was the size of Ivan and he just does not have the physical dexterity to handle it.  He has given a whole new meaning to the phrase "gun-slinging".  The cat, the furniture, and my left shoulder have paid dearly for my lapse of judgement.

Tomorrow, I am working in the morning, and I am stepping back into the routine.  If all goes as planned, I am back on it as of next week.

Wednesday: Day Three of No Real Obligations

SHINE!!!

Today, I actually accomplished quite a bit.  Friends brought me a super delicious lunch, and Ivan and I had a bit of socialization outside ourselves, which was nice.  Other Accomplishments included: one half of my thank you notes,  cutting and measuring fabric for Ivan's new shower curtains, cleaning two closets, prioritizing my New Yorker's and a significant amount of time nosing about on facebook and style.com to see what Karl Lagerfeld is up to.  I saw Lagerfeld Confidential a few years ago, and I think about Karl often.  I am fascinated by him for several reasons:

1. He turned Chanel into a fashion world power
2. He lost 92 pounds in 13 months, because he wanted to wear skinny jeans
3. Before he lost 92 pounds he wore tarps and carried a fan
4. He does not sleep
5. I am pretty sure he subsists on Diet Coke and cocaine
6. I envy his eclectic book collection
7. Once when PETA tried to throw a tofu pie in his face for wearing fur, he ducked and the pie hit Calvin Klein
8. He refuses to be be seen without his sunglasses, which I would sometimes like to do

There are several other reasons that I am interested in Karl, but the list gets too long.  Anyway, he and I are quite caught up now that I have had a chance to peruse all day on Style.com

I will say that this having to hang about the house like I was on a sad holiday that I didn't really want to take feels a bit like a punishment for an offense I did not have any part in committing;  sort of like Lady Jane Grey.  

Anyway, looking forward, I think I will do a tester run on Saturday, just to see how things feel.  I think I will do some yoga tomorrow, and keep my fingers crossed about swimming.  I haven't even thought about my marathon.  Oooh, and massage tomorrow morning!!!  Very exciting!!!

SO, for day four of no real obligations:  

• massage
• yoga
• thank you notes
• completion of shower curtain project

WILL IT ALL GO AS PLANNED??

Tuesday: Day 2 of No Real Obligations

Normally, when suffering a personal disappointment, I run a bit more or swim a bit more or start up some new thing like Pure Barre or a love affair with the mighty Gilad.    This week however, I am supposed to be taking it easy, and I have to say that needlepointing my troubles away just doesn't have the same effect.  We have all had to take time off, and it never goes well for me.  I don't sleep as well, when I really need to sleep.  I feel sort of restless, and it is amazing how much time I have when I am not trying to get in a workout at various times of the day.  It is also amazing how much longer you can lounge in bed or mope about in your pajamas or read fashion magazines.  Today, for instance, I have read a good deal about how necessary sequins are for the winter, also fur and hammered silk.  

Also, I ordered myself a fancy pair of shoes, because I think there is great comfort in knee boots.  

Tomorrow, my day of no real obligations will include prioritizing my New Yorker's in order of articles I would most like to read, needlepointing, and maybe sewing a floor-to-ceiling shower curtain for Ivan's bathroom.  Also, I plan to waste approximately one solid hour facebook stalking and looking at pictures of society parties on style.com.  Also, THANK YOU NOTES.

Will update you on Day 3 of no real obligations!!

Monday: And It Has Not Been A Weekend For The Faint Of Heart

Indeed, it has not been a weekend for the faint of heart.  When I awoke for Saturday's run, I was greeted by symptoms of distress which ultimately ended in the emergency ward of the women's hospital.  Though in good health and with all signs seeming normal, Baby Sloan # 2 was not meant to be at this particular time in my life.  And while the situation has been undeniably tragic and heart-wrenching, there came a point in the eight hours that I spent on a hospital gurney and the night that I spent in the hospital when the drama of the hospital events overshadowed the tragedy of the situation, and I was just sort of glad to be alive.

I feel that the climax of the situation was when, after four hours on the gurney in emergency triage, I attempted to stand up and passed out cold on the hospital floor in my terrible hospital gown.  Coming to with a terrified nurse flapping her arms like a bird and screaming (most unprofessionally, I might add) "WAAAKKKE UPPPP!!!!  WAAAKKE UUUPPPP!!!!" while three other nurses stare down at you like you have two heads or yak horns is most unpleasant.  Also unpleasant is the fact all professionals freaked out and were paralyzed by fear in the face of my full-on physical meltdown.  

The attending physician (who was just a prince of the medical profession) scooped me up off the floor and toted me back to my gurney, where I was housed for another four hours until completely stable.  Finally admitted to the hospital with a painful IV, a slight fever, and forbidden to eat ANYTHING (though I was ravenous), I burrowed down with Team of Rivals.  I will have to say that Abraham Lincoln does tend to put things in perspective, which I mightily appreciate.  Have I convinced you to read this book yet??

Now, you may think that when you have endured a series of unfortunate events your two-year-old will have mercy upon you and behave like a lamb once you return home.  I was, I will admit, completely taken in by his joy at being reunited with me, but it seemed like only seconds before he had become all too quiet in a far corner of the house.  And while I could only assume he was being very very good and allowing mommy to rest, he was in fact dumping a 16 ounce jar of lotion in between my side of the bed and my bedside table while vigilantly wiping his hands on my silk pillow shams.  

Oh, the consequences that ensued, the crying, the stomping and the time-outing (for all parties involved) made me realize that sometimes you do not have a lot of choice but to get back to normal.  So thanks Ivan, but not so much.  

Friday: Swim and Gilad

This morning was pretty uneventful.  Ivan and I made it to swim on time, though I have to say pregnancy laziness is upon me and I felt that I spent most of the time kicking.  I got in about 2800 meters, and I did not  really swim very hard, though I got in some IM.  I really need to pull it together, as the time will be upon me soon enough when swimming is all I have; my stomach will look like a watermelon and my flip turns will look like underwater cartwheels.  

Workout as follows:

• 400 swim
• 200 kick
• 200 pull
• 8 x 25 kick
• 8 x 50 kick
• 4 x 100 swim
• 8 x 25 kick
• 8 x 50 kick
• 4 x 100 swim
• 8 x 25 kick
• 8 x 50 kick
• 4 x 100 swim

At home, Ivan and I played outside and had some lunch and a nap.  Now, today the unspeakable happened.  It has happened once before, and the offending toy was turned out of our home in the way I would vanquish a criminal or a harmful vermin.  The first toy was a talking bunny that shorted out and began talking loudly in the middle of the night.  It woke up Ivan and caused much crying and gnashing of parental teeth.  I plucked the battery from the dastardly toy and threw it in the outside trash can, after I was stopped from setting it on fire.  

Today, in an act of deep betrayal, Ivan's Wiggle Guitar shorted out on the dog setting and started howling at louder and louder decibles for several minutes in the early stages of Ivan's afternoon nap.  This woke him in tears, and HE NEVER WENT BACK TO SLEEP.  He sobbed inconsolably for 45 minutes before finally sitting in my bed and watching cartoons.  When Ivan does not get a good nap, his fuse is short and dropping a toy, not responding to him immediately and not getting to watch "the time warp" dance 25 times consectutively really set him off.  It made for a tragic afternoon of little accomplishment and frayed nerves.  Needless to say, Wiggle Guitar is no longer with us.

I did get in a Gilad workout, which I quite enjoyed, and am glad I am re-incorporating into my life.

Run tomorrow!!!

Thursday: Great Run!!

This morning, I did not make it out of bed to run as I was in the grips of a lovely sleep.  I feel like I may be over the hump of my pregnancy insomnia, BUT my bladder is ruining my life.  I have been trying to pretend that I do not have to go to the bathroom ALL THE TIME, but I can not deny it any more.  I am going to have to develop some sort of liquid intake strategy, as I cannot spend valuable sleep time walking back and forth to the bathroom 15 times before finally falling asleep only to awaken earlier than I would like to begin walking back and forth to the bathroom again.  When I finally got to sleep again after my multiple bathroom pilgrimages this morning, I slept until 7:00 and did not get to run.

Tonight, I am going to cut off my liquid intake at 8:00 PM, which is a piece of advice that I received from a woman in my sewing class when I was pregnant with Ivan.  It allowed me to get good rest with Ivan, but I have to pound water like a camel before a trek across the Sahara until 8:00 and then spend my 30 Rock time, hiking back and forth to the loo.  Thank goodness for the DVR.  The only other solution to the problem that I can fathom is to wear a Depends to bed, and I will be honest, I am just too vain.  I cannot think of myself as that person who wears Depends to bed, because I kind of want to think of myself as a glamorous pregnant person.  Glamorous and Depends just do not fit in the same sentence, and I cannot go there.  Would wearing a depends to bed even work??

Anyway, all that to say that I did not run in the morning.  I had some green tea, some coffee and watched a bit of the Today show, until their fear mongering wore me out.  At which point I read an article in The New Yorker about Sarah Palin's reality show which confirmed my misgivings.  I also feel that when Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich are telling you to back down, maybe your should listen.

After dropping Ivan at preschool, I loaded up the second terrible throne chair and toted it off to the upholsterer's shop.   I have to say, I am wildly impressed with our upholsterers.  They have recovered all of my furniture and most of my parents' furniture for years and years, and they are unexpectedly ingenious.  The shop is a hole of a place, it doesn't really smell great and the inside of it is just stacks of sad naked furniture and a plywood desk set up on saw horses,  where the upholsterers' mom writes out instructions and billing.  The floors is concrete and coated in scraps of fabric and stuffing.

BUT, there is no one else who can so perfectly match up a fabric repeat or come up with an ingenious way in which they can reform a piece of furniture.  For instance, for the love seat that is in Ivan's room, the upholsterers had the idea that they would round the edges of the frame and pleat the skirt to make it more like a french country shape.  It looks amazing, by the way.

Anyway, once I arrived back home from the trek across town to visit my upholsterers (whom I will heretofore refer to as the wizards of furniture fabric), my day was pretty much gone and there was only time for a five mile run before I picked Ivan up from school.  It was a nice run and the weather is pretty amazing right now.  Swim tomorrow!!

Wednesday: Swim, Gilad, NEVER let me cut your hair and I am kind of loving Walmart

This morning, Ivan and I got to swim on time.  I was pretty proud of us, though the for getting to swim on time, I did not actually get in the amount of yardage that I like to accomplish.  The workout involved a copious amount of IM and half of it was without fins, which meant that it took longer and we just did not get in the yardage.  But, I did get in 2900 meters, and that is always reasonable.  Workout as follows:

• 200 swim 
• 400 kick
• 4 x 75 kick/ drill/ swim
• 400 pull
• 8 x 25 IM 
• 4 x 50 IM no fins
• 2 x 100 IM no fins
• 200 swim
• 400 pull
• 400 kick cool down

In other news, as someone who once cut thick bangs with her knitting scissors on an overseas flight, I was not completely surprised today when I was overcome with a burning desire to trim Ivan's hair.  In my defense, Ivan's hair has been way too long and I have been needing to schedule a haircut for him for a while.  

Today, I made one effort to make Ivan a hair appointment, and I am not sure if I thought that someone should teleport to my house with a nice pair of shear within 30 seconds, but that is about all the time I allowed.  I set Ivan up on the counter, gave him a lollypop ("peepop"), and commenced hacking at his hair with kitchen scissors, and it was honestly such a pitiful disaster that I could not bring myself to photograph it.  He looked both homeless and ill-used, and I felt just as ridiculous as the time I gave myself bangs in an airplane bathroom.  

Anyway, I loaded Ivan and I up into the car so quickly you would have thought the house was on fire.  I toted him off to an insta-clip place, and put him in the hands of someone with a decent pair of scissors.  Insta-clip places always concern me, but I have to say that Polly did a lovely job of making my child look presentable. 

 I will also say that his little man hair cut makes it look as if he might put on a suit and pick up a briefcase and head to the office tomorrow.  It makes me quite sad, and it is completely my fault.

In other news, the Cool Springs Walmart is growing on me.  Unlike the Publix, I can get my ghetto toenails there and I can get Ivan's special shampoo.  They have some organics and the array of cereals that they carry is truly astounding.  Also, it leaves me with more cash to hoard away in my knee boot/ leather couch fund.  So, for this reason I am becoming a fan.  I went tonight at 6:45 sans Ivan and it was a ghost town.  Very few people and enough inventory to feed Haiti for three years.  It was pretty thrilling.  

Finally, I got in a Gilad workout, and it has been a nice day.

Tuesday: A Great Triumph and Baby Sloan #2 is the Size of a Prune

So last night, I went to bed at 10:00 PM and fell asleep at 10:15 PM and woke up with no alarm clock at 6:15 AM.  This happens to me about four times a year, and it is the best thing that happens to me.  I popped right out of bed, ran a fast 5 miles before coming back home, where I made an amazing breakfast and had a cup of coffee and made my green tea.  I was showered and ready in time to take Ivan to school and get to Bible study, before coming home and heading out to lunch.

I love it when may day runs this smoothly.  Swim tomorrow!!

PS - Baby Sloan # 2 is the size of a prune

Monday: Day Off

Last night my sister was in town and Ivan and I spent the night with my parents so that we could visit.  My mom made chocolate chip cookies, and let me just tell you that those cookies opened the floodgates for a full day of terrible eating.  It has been one long smorgasbord of cheese, jellybeans, potato chips and chocolate baseballs.  Just not my finest hour.

Not much else.

Sunday: True Story and Swim

True Story:  A Krispy Kreme Chocolate Covered Cream Filled Doughnut has 350 empty calories and yesterday I had two.  How can one doughnut have that many calories?  It is staggering.  They were, I will tell you, crazy delicious.  I did run 16 miles yesterday, and I am round about the middle with Baby Sloan #2 who is the size of a green olive, BUT two doughnuts seems excessive; especially since I went through the drive through and inhaled them in the parking lot as if I were engaged in some sort of Japanese food eating game show.  I am certain that my fellow parking lot patrons were repulsed, or I take that back.  I actually noted that there was more than one person in the Krispy Kreme parking lot who was eating doughnuts in their car in a similar fashion, and they, my friends, may have done many things that morning, BUT they had not run 16 miles.  They may however, have exerted similar ergs while attempting to get into their sans-a-belt pants.  I was right there with them, so no judgement.

Anyway, I hope the that doughnut monster inside me is quelled, much like I hope the mini-quiche monster is quelled, the queso monster is quelled, and the grilled cheese monster is quelled.  I hope it is true, but I think it is most likely not.

In other news, we went to church this morning and I had swim in the afternoon.  Swim ended up being 3000 meters, because we swim long course on Sundays.  Our swim was a series of 200s that were all sort of kick, pull and drill varieties.  It was a hard workout and I think I am taking tomorrow off.  I am trying to fit in one day off a week.

Saturday: 16 mile run, Discussion About Boston Marathon Qualification, and One Year Bible Update

My pregnancy insomnia worked mightily in my favor this morning, because it hit on the back end.  I was wide awake at 4:30 AM, and I dressed leisurely, brushed my teeth even and made oatmeal and tea before climbing into the car for a somewhat longer drive in to meet with my running group.  My normal straight shot down Hillsboro Road was blocked due to construction this morning, and I had to take a circuitous route.  Again, it is very lucky that my insomnia hit on the back end.

So, at the park, I ended up running about 16 miles.  I started off with the group and ran 11ish miles, then I tacked on 6 more miles on my own.  Overall, I was slowish, but my run was nice.  I feel more confident and comfortable about my marathon, but will continue to gauge my progress and the way my body feels.   Also, it was 25 degrees outside.  So cold.

I think in situations of pregnancy, you have to be prepared to drop the race or the workout should your body warrant it, and I think that you just never know when it will.  Also, I have been thinking a lot about my Boston quandry.  It is not integral to my life on this earth that I run Boston again in the next couple of years, but I enjoyed it so much.  Boston has cracked down. Boston does not allow medical deferments anymore, which means that I cannot write a letter saying that I am pregnant in order to be allowed deferred entry.  Boston qualification is only good for 18 months, meaning that I cannot qualify for Boston at Boston and use that qualifying time two years from my qualifying date.  Next, Boston sold out in nine hours this year.  NINE.  This means that if I qualify for Boston at my marathon qualifying favorite Rocket City Marathon in December, the Boston Marathon will have long filled up as registration opens in October.  SO, I would need to qualify In December 2010 to run the 2012 Boston marathon.  I only need a 3:40 to qualify, and it all seems quite possible.  AND, it seems like the best plan.  BUT, again, I need to listen to my body, and no one no has ever died of not running the Boston marathon.

In the evening, I popped out for a quick dinner for a friend's birthday.  I had fish tacos, and they were not at all bad.

So, I have been reading my one year Bible since last January, and it is going pretty well.  NOW, in August, I need to just fess up that I skipped three full weeks.  For a few weeks following my gross negligence, I tried to double up on the reading and it was overwhelming, so I gave up and just started reading at the proper date.  Now, as soon as we crossed over to the New Testament, it was like a breath of fresh air.  For one thing, the four Gospels generally repeat each other, so most days you read the same story four different times.  The repetition makes it easier to remember exactly what you just read.  Also, the New Testament is a lot more uplifting than the Old Testament.  The Old Testament is heavy on the the slaughtering and the wrath, and the New Testament is obviously much more forgiving.  When I finish the New Testament in December, I may catch up on the three weeks that I missed.

Off to bed!!

Friday: Swim and McDonald's

Yesterday, I was too busy to blog.  I was up to my ears in paperwork at 11:00 PM, and it is just really lucky that I am having so much trouble sleeping right now.  Because of my current insomnia issues, I had plenty of time to finish my paperwork, bit did not even realize I had neglected the blog until I was laying in bed at 1:30 AM.  At that point I was engrossed in my favorite insomnia activity (crossword puzzle), and could not be bothered.  

Yesterday was eventful in that I had a great run of a quick 6 mile tempo run and I had a lovely visit with my upholsterers.  They had so many great ideas for redoing these terrible throne chairs that are just stinking up my dining room like so much merde.  I don't know how many of you have inherited furniture from your husband's bachelor friends who must hastily leave town when yet another of their romances go badly awry, but I am in possession of just such a set of furniture.  I had come down to two options, because let me just tell you, I could not PAY anyone to take them away from our house: 1) recover them gloriously and make them the show pieces of our home.  2) Use them as kindling when my husband is gone for a long weekend.  I have chosen the former and am choosing to consider it a character building experience, and I am hoping for the best.  I will keep you updated.

Now today, Ivan slept until 8:00 AM which put us late to swim.  This is just the story of my life, and I am desperately hoping that daylight savings will remedy Ivan's late sleeping, so that I can rejoin the "We get in more than 3000 yards in at practice" club.  It will be pretty exciting.  Workout as follows:

• 600 swim with fins
• 8 x 75 kick drill swim
• 6 x 100 @ 2:00
• 12 x 50 @ 1:00
• 600 kick

It was a great workout, and after swim Ivan and I headed home in a cold rain.  Days like this mean that Ivan can't play outside, and he ferrets himself away in the bathroom, locks the door and covers the bathroom in sunscreen.  It is hard times and I was finally forced to load Ivan up in the car and take him to McDonald's play place.  He was blissfully happy for two solid hours, and I just refuse to think about the germ issues.  

Run Tomorrow!!

Wednesday: Swim

In the second month of my pregnancy, with Baby Sloan #2 the size of an olive, I have apparently dropped my abs workouts.  There is no reason for this.  Abs workouts are completely kosher for the next several months.  I do think that during pregnancy, some part of you just uses it as an excuse and gives up. I also ate a jumbo m & m cookie, cause I can.

 I plan to continue with some weights and abs, but it just doesn't seem to be happening on a regular basis.  I did have a great swim today, though we arrived a bit late, as Ivan did not wake up until five after 8:00 AM.

The workout was great, though my lateness caused me to miss 1000 yards of swim.  So, it was still 2800 meters, which isn't terrible, but I really enjoy getting to swim on time.  Workout as follows:

• 2 x 100 kick @ 2:00
• 3 x 50 zipper drill
• 6 x 25 @ :30
• 2 x 100 kick @ 2:00
• 3 x 50 zipper drill
• 6 x 25 @ :30
• 2 x 200 
• 8 x 25 IM
• 8 x 25 kick
• 6 x 100 pull
• 300 kick

At home, it rained all day and Ivan was sort of trapped inside, so he had some stir craziness and I am gearing up for a sixteen mile run on Saturday, BUT I have just been told that the the temperature is dropping down to 25 degrees on Friday night and that makes me think that there is no chance of a 6:00 AM start time for me.  That is just too cold, and I refuse this earliness.

Tuesday: Great Run

Caroline and I at Boo at the Zoo

Every Tuesday morning seems to hit me like a ton of bricks and I feel like Ivan and I run around in circles getting everything ready for school.  We always seem to get there a bit late, AND since there are only two days of nursery school per week I would like to be on it both days, instead of just Thursdays.   Anyway, no one ever died of being late to nursery school, and I am going to let it go. In a great triumph, Ivan ate his entire lunch today, and it was very exciting.

I went to Bible study, VOTED!!!!, and then headed home to run.  I got in a 6ish mile run and felt great, though I am still concerned about my marathon training.  This Saturday will be telling, in fact, in terms of my long run.  IF it is a terrible run or I don't feel great or even quite right, I may pull the Rocket City Marathon from my competition roster.

Bleh.

Monday: Day Off and Murder

And we were Halloweened out this morning.  Ivan was a quivering lump of sobs this morning.  It took a good half hour to quiet him down once he woke up.  My sleep last night was deeply disturbed, and it just worked out that today was a good day to take off.  Ivan and I watched a bit of The Cat in the Hat and the time warp dance from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  We made breakfast and ironed and painted and it was just a day of house chores and dullness.

I taught Ivan a new skill today:  Picking up dead mice that are killed by "The Beast" with kitchen tongs, placing the dead mice on a tray, and dumping them over the fence.  I cannot even tell you how excited he was about his role in our chores.  Ivan typically needs a new challenge, and he had become bored with putting away the clean silverware in the dishwasher.  I am really onto something with this mouse disposal.

Anyway, on the way home this evening I was driving a particularly dark portion of Hillsboro road: no streetlights and no homes.  It is always very dark, and I always drive it safely.  Tonight, however, I was driving along when all of a sudden a huge deer head loomed directly in front of my face.  It had huge eyes, and it looked right at me in an eerie time stood still sort of way, before it crumpled into the side of my car with a huge thud.  It was just terrifying, and I behaved like I do in all emergencies.  I squealed unintelligibly for several minutes.  If you met me, I don't know that you would think that I would react so badly in scary emergency situations.  Whenever something like this evening's deer situation happens, I realize that I will never be called upon to command any military operation or lead a grass roots revolution.  I am no Abraham Lincoln.