Celebrating 30 Years of Jules

My 30th birthday is fast approaching.    The above photo was obviously not taken the day I was born, but it's darn close.   It was definitely taken in 1983, and that was 30 years ago!   Mom's hair has changed approximately 30 times since then.  (No joke)

A few years ago we had what Hannah dubbed "Festival of Jules" which was basically several days of me having lots of fun with family and friends and eating lots of cake.    I am happy to report that my 30th is shaping up to be a similar celebration.

Saturday May 4
Kentucky Derby
which only means that I am drinking a mint julep and singing My Old Kentucky Home [the only song my Dad taught me] and rooting for a horse with a funny name.

Expedition Everest Challenge
aka "The Yeti Run"
I will be running a 5K obstacle course with Mary Lynn (my mother-in-law) in Disney's Animal Kingdom at 10pm - the park is gorgeous at night and we are excited
Look what we get when we cross the finish line!

source

Sunday May 5
Dinner at Flying Fish with Michael & Mary Lynn
Last summer I ate what is probably the best meal of my entire life.  No exaggeration.   Surf & Surf special.  Fingers crossed they have it again

source

Wednesday May 8
My birthday!
I took the day off work and have not yet decided what we will do to celebrate.  Decisions decisions!

Friday May 10
Dinner at Victoria & Albert's
This is a joint birthday gift for Michael and I.   He turned 30 in April and I did not give him a gift because this is our gift to ourselves.   It is an experience that we enjoyed in 2011 and will certainly enjoy the second time around.    We are so lucky to be able to do this!


Maybe I will actually blog about these things.   I have been on hiatus partially because of laziness and I will try to be better.   a "new year" resolution for turning 30?!

Princess Run Itinerary

3:00 am
WAKE UP
People are on their way home from the bar at that hour.   Alison and I were waking up to get ready for our 1/2 marathon.

3:35
DEPARTURE TIME
Mary Lynn (my mother in law and fellow runner) drove us to EPCOT for the start.

3:55
ARRIVE AT EPCOT
Try to remember where we parked the car (Create 42 and we did!)

4:00
WANDER INTO THE PRE-RACE AREA
Notice there are tons of women wearing tutus and glitter
Eat our PBJs
Pit stop

4:20
HEAD TO OUR CORRALS
Pass expired disney vehicles such as old jungle cruise boats and backlot trams
See a man wearing a tutu
Pit stop

4:45
ARRIVE AT CORRALS
Say bye to ML who is in group A after finishing her previous half in 2:02
We are newbies with no times and head to group D

4:55
DECIDE WE SHOULD SIT
Al finds a garbage bag so her yellow shorts stay clean
Watch the jumbotron which includes a bunch of nutcases 'hosting' the preshow [who Al was convinced were on drugs] act extra cheery about the ridiculous hour of the day

5:00
Outside temperature: 68 degrees
100% humidity
YIKES

5:35
GROUP A START
ML is off!

5:56
GROUP D START
We are off!

During the next 2+ hours, we 'off-roaded' to avoid slow people in our way on the pavement.  We heard words of encouragement from spectators and fellow runners.  We also had Mom, Michael, Sal & Mario there cheering us on.

We ran from EPCOT up to the Magic Kingdom, through Cinderella's castle, and back in 2:21.   Not the time we were hoping for, but you have to start somewhere.   The weather was not ideal.  It was warm and very humid.   I actually got the chills part way through the race because I was drenched.   Kind of gross.   But Al kept me going and we finished strong!

We heard live music and saw countless Disney characters along our route.   It was our first 1/2 marathon and I was so glad my sister was my running buddy.   There were 26,000 runners, and we finished 2842, so in the top 10.9% of runners.   For my first race, even though I did not run quite as fast as I'd like, I am happy to be in that group.

Now all we have to do is decide what race to run next.   Now that we have a time to submit, we can get a closer corral and start working on shaving minutes off our time.

More Funnies from Al

I asked her to be my running buddy, but looks like I got a comedian in the process.  Can't say I am surprised



I ran from E 6th st and East River (involved hopping 2 fences, as technically closed due to construction) .... It was WINDY. Eyes watering, nose running, stumbling sideways.  It was extremely un-princess like. 

Central Park was kicking my ass today ...  the notorious harlem hills necessitated a short walk break. I was thinking to myself "F - - - you, hill!" but that will only take one so far up a 84 foot climb. 

Auditory Amusements: Running Edition

All text messages received from Al before or after long Saturday runs

"Gametime!" -following the iPhone screen shot showing 18 degrees

"Forgot to mention that I raced a horse in the park"
Who won?
"I did!"

"Good news: I saw many dogs today!  Have you seen a dog before?  You probably have."

"I am going to check out the Park in a bit.  I am searching twitter and instagram for info"


"12.06 in 1:56. Take that, hill."

This Princess Wears Running Shoes

It started* last summer with an email to my sister

Subject line: a completely ridiculous question
Email text:
Disney hosts several races throughout the year.   I missed the deadline on the one in November. Boo.

Ridiculous question: would you be interested in running a half marathon?   I am not fast AT ALL and am not even sure if I could run 13 miles, but a Disney race seems the kindest way to start, or try it.   If you would want to try  a race, I would be your buddy.  I am not 100% sure I will sign up but I have been thinking about it.   And you could keep me motivated and make comments, etc. whilst racing

Al wrote back rather quickly:

I actually would consider doing the half. Do you know the date and registration fee?   If we decide to do it, you are in charge of coordinating training plans. Aka tell me what to do each week. I need to buy new shoes, which I am planning on doing as soon as I receive my gym rebate from my insurance. How thoughtful. And Central Park is good for running. I have yet to run outdoors in NYC, but autumn is prob not the worst time to start....

Time to put our money where our mouth was.   I signed us up as a 2-person team so we are guaranteed the same starting corral group, and we were locked in.   We gave ourselves more than 5 months to train, which is oodles of time, really, especially for someone who runs occasionally.  Throughout the 5-month time period, we have been in touch via chat and text and email.

I downloaded the 22 week plan for "running for a time" even though I don't have a firm time goal. "Finishing in the upright position" just suggests some chuggly couch potato, which I am not. I think of myself as an intermediate runner.

It has been lovely, and fun to track our progress.   Because I will forever be entertained by my sister and do not want to forget this training period, (and might need motivation for a future race!) I will be including fun texts and thoughts on the blog over the next 2 weeks.  

*Well I guess technically speaking it started a long time ago when I started to run for exercise regularly and realized if I could run 5 miles each morning 'for fun' then maybe I should try it in some sort of organized fashion as well.  But thinking about it is different than inviting someone along for the ride!

Truck Day Cookies

After a long cold winter, it's time to think about spring.  The Browns season ended more than a month ago, [thank goodness] but Cleveland Indians fans are focused on a fresh start.  Truck Day, the day the equipment truck leaves Cleveland for its cross-country drive to Goodyear, Arizona, is the first of many signs of spring.  My countdown clock tells me there are 60 days until Opening Day but I am focused on more immediate excitement.   And truck day gets the ball rolling.  No pun intended.

When we were kids, Auntie made cookies with a fellow baseball fan to celebrate the day.  Several years ago I rekindled the tradition because I love baseball and I love frosted sugar cookies almost as much.

Earlier this week, I made a batch of cookies so that my fellow baseball fans (Auntie and my sister, Al) would receive the cookies at the right time.  As luck would have it, today, January 31, marks the truck's first day on the road, and the boxes were delivered right on time.

Are you a baseball fan?  Do you want an excuse to make cookies?  Do you love frosting?  Make some Truck Day cookies!


1) The Pillsbury Doughboy is your friend.   Grab some dough and frosting.

Also grab some decorator's icing.   If you're in a hurry [or they are OUT of red decorating icing] grab some food-safe markers!

2) Slice and bake the cookies.  Let cool

3) Frost!   Eat some frosting with a spoon, straight out of the jar, to be sure it is safe for consumption.  

3) Decorate!  I am no artist.  When we were kids my sister was in charge of this part.  She lives more than 1000 miles away so I am on my own.   I am usually a perfectionist but these were all mailed to the Great White North so I figured they would not look Martha Stewart worthy upon arrival no matter how carefully I decorated.  So I did not worry too much about the appearance of the embellishment.   But if you were having, say, a party, you might want to be a little more precise.

You can see I simply used a red marker to create baseball 'stitches' and blue to write the players numbers.   Red, white and blue are the Indians colors.  If I were, for example, an Oakland A's fan I would grab the yellow and green.

4) If you are kind and generous, box and ship your goodies to your fellow baseball friends.  They will love you forever.  If you are greedy or just love frosting, keep them for yourself.   Enjoy, and remember that come April, everyone is tied for first.

GO TRIBE!

American Icons

Via instant message on Tuesday morning:

Me: Did you see the menu for the Inaugural luncheon yesterday?

Al: No

Me: http://www.examiner.com/article/menu-for-2013-inaugural-luncheon-features-lobster-bison-and-apple-pie

Al:  WHAT?!  The bison is an American icon.   That would be like eating roasted bald eagle.  How awful.