Rensselaerville Trail Run and YTD miles

Last night was the second trail run in my running group’s summer trail run series. Last week I opted to go to Zumba instead since I had done a trail run earlier that week. So this was my first summer trail run and it felt good to see the familiar running faces.

The trail run was in Rensselaerville. It was a 3.4 mile out and back route with a beautiful waterfall along the way. There were a lot of roots, rocks and wooden walkways so I wasn’t spending much time looking at the views, that’s for sure. However, it felt wonderful to be out in the woods running in the evening after work. It started to drizzle, which was actually refreshing.

Afterwards there was free dinner at the brewery there, which was delicious. Instead of the usual barbecue there were vegetarian type selections as well as wraps and lots of desserts. My husband and I shared a beer.

Jona, who blogs at zee lemons had a 2019 Craft Beer Passport. You bring it to the different area breweries and get it stamped. There are always new things to do and try if you are looking for them!

Cool sign in Rensselaerville 

Since today is May 31st I am summarizing my year to date running statistics. So far in 2019, I have run 30 times totaling 107.5 miles. That includes 4 races.

Obviously I have a ways to go to meet my 2019 goal of 450 miles and 12 races.

Onward and forward!

Sloan Gorge Preserve and Last Week’s Workouts

On Monday, my husband and I set out to hike Overlook Mountain in the Catskills. I have a habit of knowing what hike I want to do and then winging it when it comes to getting to the trailhead or following the trail. We were headed generally in the right direction when our navigation said to turn around. At that exact point we saw a trailhead with four or five cars. There was one open parking spot which was nature’s way of saying “Hike here!”

That’s how we ended up hiking Sloan Gorge Preserve. It was a short hike, about an hour including a picnic lunch break.

Unique geographical formations

We knew we were right near Woodstock so we headed that way afterwards. That’s when we saw a sign for Overlook Mountain of course! We followed the sign to Overlook so we would know where to go next time. It was a good thing we didn’t hike it; the parking lot was full, and cars lined the side of the road as well. We will save Overlook for a weekday (or a non-holiday weekend).

From there we headed to Woodstock where we did some window shopping and people watching.

Yes, that Woodstock. The 1969 concert was actually in Bethel, NY

Last week’s workouts: On Monday I ran 2.5 miles (trail run), on Thursday I did Zumba with Denise, on Saturday I ran 5 miles, and on Sunday I swam 50 laps, making it a four workout week.

Thanks for reading!

American Pie

”American Pie” by Don McLean has always been one of my favorite songs. For about a year now I have been starting most of my runs listening to it on my iPod. At 8 minutes and 33 seconds long it is the perfect length for my warmup. It’s got a nice slow tempo. Whatever comes up next is always faster paced and then I pick up my pace.

I was 10 years old when that song was released. I never knew what it was about; I just liked it. “The day the music died” was February 3, 1959, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson “The Big Bopper” died in a plane crash. In the song, that plane crash symbolizes the loss of innocence of the early rock and roll generation.

Everything you could ever want to know about “American Pie” can be found at understandingamericanpie.com. If you want to listen to “American Pie” click  youtube.com/American Pie.

Album released November 1971

Anyway, my last three or four runs I had started out listening to “American Pie” as usual and realized that the same songs were coming up. The third time it happened I thought “Wow, that’s a coincidence” but the fourth time I realized my iPod was playing in alphabetical order. Duh!

When I started my run yesterday I started with a “B” song which was “Baby I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton (Frampton Comes Alive album) and went from there. I am going to work my way through my iPod alphabetically. I bet when I have it set to shuffle there are hundreds of songs that never come up.

Now I will get to hear all the songs.

Frugal Friday

Yesterday I wrote a long post about my annoying, miserable bosses. Then I reread it, fine tuned it, added a picture, previewed it, reread it again , and went to bed. This morning I DELETED it. I don’t want to have negative icky posts on my blog. Let me tell you, the writing and deleting was cathartic. Anyway, this is the picture I had selected for that post:

My boss excels at making simple tasks complicated

Today was wonderful because both bosses took the day off. And it’s Friday and the start of a holiday weekend.

On to something else. . . many finance bloggers have a weekly post dedicated to the week’s frugal and thrifty activities. I decided that would be a better topic for this post.

Someone said being thrifty is when you spend less on things you don’t care about so you can spend more on the things you do. The funny thing is my husband and I like all the things we do that save money more than the expensive alternative.

1. On Monday my husband and I did a trail run with our running club. It was the final run and party for the spring series. I brought a homemade pasta salad to share. The run, the delicious barbecue dinner, and the live entertainment were all free.

2. One of our cars had a recall notice and we brought it to the dealership to be taken care of (free of course). Said vehicle also needed an oil change. Rather than pay the expensive dealership price, my husband brought it elsewhere and used a $20 off coupon. He gets major kudos for this; I would have been a one stop shopper.

3. I brought my lunch and beverages to work every day this week. I had salad every day with some type of protein: tuna, chicken or hard boiled eggs. For my snack I brought fruit four days and a yogurt one day. I put the yogurt in the freezer at work and by lunchtime it was a semi-frozen treat.

4. I carpooled to work with my daughter three days this week. Most weeks we carpool every day. Her last job was on the way to my job. Her new job is even closer. See side note below.*

5. My husband mowed our lawn. At least half of my neighbors use lawn services. That can’t be cheap! Someone from the lawn service jokingly (or for real?) asked my husband if he wanted to come work for them. Hubs said his rate is $50 an hour.😉

6. I made homemade iced tea. This costs pennies to make and it’s better for me than diet soda.

Delicious iced tea 

*Side Note Below - I heard from the new job. If you recall from last week’s recap post they called my references. This week, potential new boss called to say they were submitting the appointment package to HR. If I get this job, I will be working even closer to my daughter. Gee, we plan well!

Last Week Recap

Books
Author Herman Wouk died last week. He was nine days shy of his 104th birthday. His major works include The Caine Mutiny which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1951, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. He also wrote my favorite book of all time  Marjorie Morningstar which I’ve read about 6 times. Maybe I will reread it in his honor. Obviously, I recommend it if you’re looking for a good book.

My much loved copy of Marjorie Morningstar

Finances
Last week I signed up for a new Southwest Visa credit card. I used an affiliate link that I found on the points guy.com website. I have to spend $2,000 in three months and will earn 60,000 SW points (very easy for us and card will be paid in full each month). The annual fee for this card is $69. After the fee, this is about a $900 value. My husband and I may use the points to go to the west coast in the fall.

Work
If you read my post three job applications then you know I am job hunting. I had an interview two weeks ago and it went well. The exciting part is they called my references last week, so I am hoping to hear some good news shortly. When I started my current job 6.5 years ago, I truly believed I would be here until I retired. The work is Ok (what can I say, it’s work). The wonderful people who hired me are all retired and the new managers just don’t cut it for me.

Food
Last week I made chicken using a variation of this apple cider vinegar chicken recipe from eating bird food.com. Just like the website’s author, this has become my go-to chicken recipe. It’s low-carb, Keto-friendly, and it takes me under five minutes to throw together in the morning before work. I let it marinade in the fridge until I get home. Sometimes I make it right in a giant ziplock bag. Leftovers are great for lunch the following day in a salad.

For awesome pictures of final result go to the recipe website 

Fitness
My Mizuno Wave Rider 19 running shoes were discontinued so I took a chance and ordered the newest incarnation, Mizuno Wave Rider 22, from Amazon. They arrived last week - major fail. They are on their way back. Thank goodness for free shipping and free returns. As for last week’s workouts, I ran 4 miles on Thursday, did a bike ride on our rail trail on Saturday, and swam 40 laps on Sunday - three workouts total.

On to the new week!

Joyce Meyer

My coworker and I went to see Joyce Meyer. If you’re not familiar with Joyce, she is an American Charismatic Christian author and speaker (as per Wikipedia).

The crowd was very large, mostly women. She had three sessions - one last night and two today. A lot of people attended all three and many people traveled to see her. Admission was free for all sessions.

People arriving at the arena 

Joyce in person and on the big screen 

I have written before how it’s all connected and this was no exception. One of Joyce’s ministries is funding for drilling of wells to bring clean water to villages in 25 countries. In my last post about marathoner Meb Keflezighi I wrote how Meb was inspired by the villagers walking miles every day to get water.

I took notes and I want to share what was most meaningful to me.

Pray for your children. Make your children your best friends. Never speak poorly of your children.

God has been removed from public education and colleges today. Modern education teaches humanism, secularism and socialism. This is ignorant thinking; separation of Church and State is a deception. This is not America’s true history.

Encourage yourself! Think “this is going to end well”.

God loves you unconditionally!

Remove the words “I can’t” from your language.

Make it through one day without complaining. Have an attitude of gratitude.

You’re not too old to do something new.

The key to power is Faith. Faith is the belief that good is going to happen “to you and through you”.

Be childlike in your Faith. Take a leap of Faith. God will give you the perfect timing. When God tells you to jump - JUMP!

When God gives you favor, take it and say “Thank you!”

26 Marathons

I just finished reading 26 Marathons by Meb Keflezighi. Kim, who blogs at Kimhastheruns.com recommended this book a couple of months ago.

If you’re not familiar with Meb, he is one of the few runners who has won both the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon, and medaled (silver) in the Olympic marathon. In his career, he has broken race records, run four marathon finals for the USA; last month he was Grand Marshal at the Boston Marathon.

Meb ran 26 marathons in his career as an elite athlete, one race for each of the 26 miles in the marathon. In each chapter he breaks down one race and relates it to a life lesson.

Some of the memorable parts for me:

1. After his first marathon Meb said “Never again”. Shortly thereafter, he was visiting family in Eritrea (Meb was born there and immigrated to America as a child). He saw the Eritreans walking miles every day to get clean drinking water. Seeing what they did to survive made Meb realize that the pain he felt in the race was nothing in comparison.

2. There are so many things that can and did go wrong for Meb on race day - food poisoning, running 26.2 miles with a Breathe-Right strip in his running shoe, lost luggage with all his gear, and so many injuries!

3. Meb’s strategy of setting multiple goals for a race. Goal A may be to win, however if that’s not likely, Goal B may be to medal or Goal C may be to PR. If that’s not looking good, Goal D may be to  finish in the top ten. Ultimately the goal may be to just finish.   

4. When he fell on the slick road at the end of the 2016 Rio Olympic marathon and placed his hands over the finish line and did pushups (he came in 33rd place).

5. His devotion to his wife and three daughters; the struggles of bringing in and keeping sponsors to make a living.

6. “Underpromise and overdeliver”!

Now that he’s retired, Meb still runs marathons - as a pacer, helping others to achieve their goals, or just in the pack, supporting the recreational runners. I was inspired by Meb; he truly is a class act.

In a running race there are no losers; as long as you are out there, you’re a winner.

Weekend Update

On Saturday we had a small lunchtime party for my older son who is getting his PhD degree. I am so proud of how hard he worked the past six years to earn this. The ceremony for the doctoral graduates is Wednesday night.

My brother-in-law from California was here, which made it feel special as we don’t see him that often. It worked out perfectly for him flying in for just a weekend, as he had another function to attend Saturday night and Sunday morning.

We had the food brought in - sandwiches, wraps, pasta salad, veggie salad, fresh fruit, and of course a cake. Everything was delicious and we had enough for dinner that night and lunch and dinner Sunday.

When my mother-in-law passed away in 2017 (at age 89), she was still living in the huge house in which she had raised her children. Meaning she never downsized anything. There was an estate sale for the big stuff, but 10 or so boxes of photographs and memorabilia have been in my other brother-in-law’s basement ever since.

He brought all the boxes over to our house Saturday. After the party, my husband, my California BIL, and I went through and tossed a ton of stuff. On Sunday, the three of us did some more.

I’m glad to report that we are down to 5 boxes / bins. My husband moved them down to our basement. I’m okay with that as we have the room. I am sure those boxes will sit there untouched until the day we move!  That’s the funny thing about sentimental items, isn’t it? Nobody wants to get rid of them, but at the same time nobody actually wants them.

Boxes of memorabilia in my living room 

Greeting cards from almost 100 years ago 

I must mention that my California BIL is an Ironman and marathoner. He is the real deal - he has sponsors and he medals in his age group. He is modest; he says “I was on the podium”. He also works full time and manages to fit in all his training.

He did a 5.5 mile run Saturday before the party and an 8 mile run on Sunday in a torrential downpour. Like my son and his PhD, if you are motivated you can find time for everything.

Unfortunately, their motivation didn’t rub off on me this weekend - I did nothing as far as exercise. I did get in two workouts last week and, since I forgot to report, four workouts the week before.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and belated Happy Mother’s Day to the moms.

Reading Lately

Vox by Christina Dalcher
In the not so distant dystopian future, women can no longer hold jobs, learn to read or write, carry money, and they are limited to 100 spoken words per day - monitored by a wristband all the girls and women have to wear. Dr. Jean McClellan is a wife, mother and former linguistics expert who is forcibly recruited to resume her old research on Wernicke’s Aphasia when the President’s brother incurs a brain injury while skiing. The research team includes Lorenzo, Jean’s former lover, and sparks quickly fly when the two are reunited. The research team soon realizes that another, more sinister government plan is underfoot. This book is reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale or The Hunger Games although nowhere near as good. It was a very easy read. The chapters with Jean’s family and Lorenzo are fleshed out, but I could have used a few extra paragraphs explaining the technical parts - the research lab, the government’s doings. I guess it didn’t matter, I got the gist of it anyway.

Euphoria by Lily King
This is a fictional tale of three young anthropologists, Nell Stone, her husband Schuyler Fenwick “Fen”, and their new friend Andrew Bankson. The story takes place on the island of New Guinea (north of Australia) in the 1930’s. This was a heyday for anthropologists; they basically boated upriver, claimed tribes to research, and settled right in. Nell is loosely based on anthropologist Margaret Mead, on whom the author did an immense amount of research. The central theme is the main characters’ love triangle, unfolding in the steamy jungle with the tribal activity going on around them. Fen’s ego was already suffering, as Nell achieves international acclaim for her work. When Bankson enters the picture, Fen can sense the immediate connection between Bankson and Nell - tensions rise. In a rash attempt to boost his ego and anthropological reputation, Fen does something that puts all of their lives in danger. This book is well written, draws you in; it’s intellectual and engrossing at the same time.

What have you been reading lately?

Hump Day

I had a job interview yesterday! Last week I wrote a post about how I submitted three job applications. In that post, I wrote about turning down a job shortly before I started my blog. One of the three jobs that I recently applied for is in the same organization as the job I declined.

On Friday, the director from that organization called me; he wanted to talk about why I declined the first position and to tell me a little about the new opening. I explained how Job 1 was not the change that I was looking for and blah blah blah (great blogging skills, right?)🙂

He obviously liked that answer because he scheduled an interview, which was yesterday. Another man from the Job 1 interview panel was at yesterday’s interview as well. There was also a third interviewer, a woman, who was not at the first interview, but she escorted me out afterwards and we bonded. I think the interview went well.

When I arrived at my cubicle after my job interview, one of my staff told me she couldn’t enter data into the computer system she routinely uses. We reached out to IT. Lo and behold, one of my asinine bosses had changed my staff person’s privileges to “read only”. We have a nickname for that boss that isn’t suitable for a G-rated blog.

I notified my immediate boss (aka “useless”) and he was useless - hence the nickname. Meanwhile, I have to complete a friggin TPS Report if I want to so much as move a pushpin in my cubicle! Getting my bosses to sign off on anything takes weeks (and many hours of meetings amongst themselves to discuss). Ugh.

In other news, so much for keeping out of the grocery store midweek - I lasted two days. We had to pick up prescriptions and allergy medicine, so of course we got more groceries!

However, I have been doing good with my little acts of kindness.

I have been posting mostly from my iPhone lately because I love the auto complete feature. The downside is I can’t comment from my phone - either on other blogs or my own blog. Since I’m on a computer all day at work, I tend to avoid the computer in the evening after I get home. I’m going to dedicate some time this weekend to comment on all the great posts on the blogs I follow.

Hope you are having a happy hump day!

Grocery Games

I was reviewing my 2019 year to date spending and was surprised at how much we spent on food. Here’s the chart (I use a plain old excel spreadsheet).

I must have rounded my numbers in January 

The grocery bill covers three adults and a dog. If you have been following my blog, I have posted previously on my grocery savings. Clearly I’m not saving as much as I thought.

If someone asked me, I would have said I spend $500 a month at the grocery store and $100 a month eating out at restaurants.

I can understand the overage in restaurants:
January - husband’s birthday
February/March - on vacation
March - older son’s birthday
April - wedding anniversary

The restaurant meals will be decreasing as we don’t have any special events coming up. We avoid eating out on Mother’s Day; the restaurants are just too crowded. We are also approaching backyard barbecue season. I feel confident that we can keep the May dining out at or below my budgeted amount of $100.

The grocery store is a whole different animal. Since we pay everything using our credit card to earn travel rewards (paid in full every month), it’s easy to see that the biggest culprit is the midweek drop-in shop. Without fail, we are running in to the supermarket in the middle of the week for something!

Unless we’re out of coffee, coffee filters or half and half for coffee, there is no reason to go to the supermarket midweek. Of course, I will continue my usual coupon clipping, rewards card use, shopping sales, meal planning, etc.

So far this month we’ve spent $143.20 which includes a trip to CVS for Coke Zero and candy (that’s not a joke). We could obviously eliminate some costs if we eliminated these guilty pleasures. But that’s a topic for another day.

How do you save on groceries?

Kindness Update

On May 1st, I wrote about my kindness goal and how one of my favorite bloggers was bashed for styling an outfit from Walmart.

First off, this kindness goal is hard! That shows me I have a long way to go before this becomes a habit. I have to remember that I set this goal and I have to make an effort to act on it.

Here’s a story from week 1. My daughter and I took Summer to Petsmart. A lady was juggling a few items plus she had her dog with her. She dropped an aerosol can which then knocked a bag of dog treats off the shelf. I picked up both items, retuning the treats to the shelf, and handing the lady the can. I happened to notice she also had a spray bottle in her hand.

I said something like “Here you go”, and she responded “It fell out of my hand”. That was it, no thank you, no smile. She would not allow her dog to “say hi” to our dog. Clearly she was in a bad mood. Talking about it on the way home, my daughter and I concluded that the aerosol can and the spray bottle must’ve been carpet cleaner for doggie accidents - after all, what else do they sell at Petsmart in that type of container?

Hopefully our kind act was a good thing after she presumably came home to a “present” from her dog.

This pooch is a loyal PetSmart customer

As for Julia the fashion blogger - she followed up the Walmart outfit post with a well-researched post on ethical clothes shopping. It's interesting that her previous posts featuring clothes from H+M, Forever 21, GAP and Old Navy did not generate any criticism.

I learned that 97% of clothes are made overseas, and that the world consumes 400% more clothing than we did just two decades ago. She listed multiple companies that are ethical and sustainable. Here is a link to a good article about buying ethical clothes on a budget.

Personally I’m glad she did not apologize for the Walmart outfit; because she certainly didn’t do anything wrong! She got over 100 comments on the second post and skimming through them, they appeared positive.

Thanks for reading!

May Day

It’s time to turn another page on the calendar. There is so much potential in a new month. I am setting a goal for myself for May.

I am going to Practice Kindness - do or say something kind every day. This isn’t an easy thing for me; I know that it’s something I can improve on.

I actually started on Monday without realizing it. On Monday my husband and I volunteered at a trail run. We were assigned different locations along the route to point runners in the right direction. This particular trail has runners crisscrossing each other so it’s important to keep everyone going where they are supposed to.

It was unseasonably cold Monday, which is fine for the runners, but not so fine for those of us standing around. But volunteering is giving of oneself, and that is kindness. We got to cheer and encourage the runners. We felt good afterwards.

On Tuesday, my daughter and I went to HIIT with our favorite instructor Erin. I complimented a woman in the class on her new hairstyle. Too bad she had to ruin it sweating! Again, the compliment was genuine - she felt good, I felt good - it was win win.

Something that I noticed this week that was anti-kindness: I was reading my fashion blogs, even though I dislike the consumerism, as I wrote about in this post about spring fashion. There is a fashion blogger I enjoy reading because hers is more of a lifestyle blog. She has written honestly about struggling with anxiety, postpartum depression, and even how she wants a nose job but can’t because of her nasal polyps. She puts herself out there.

She had a post titled “Affordable Fashion” and she styled a skirt, top and shoes from Walmart. She stated up front that this was a sponsored post (Walmart pays her). Well, she got a ton of negative feedback for supporting Walmart. I thought she was pretty courageous by leaving those comments up, as bloggers can moderate and delete comments.

I don’t want to get into any controversy about Walmart, but I felt like the comments were so mean and so hurtful. If you don’t like that outfit or don’t shop at Walmart because of how they treat their employees, or because the clothing is made overseas, so be it. But is it necessary to attack the blogger personally? Just stop reading her blog if her values don’t align with yours.

Anyway, this made me even more conscientious of how our words can hurt.

My point is that I am going to be aware of what I say. Down with the negative and up with the kindness.

Let’s make May the month of kindness