It's mid-September!

Hi all,
Cannot believe how long it has been since I blogged last. Almost a month! Time flies. So we got all our new flooring in and it looks beautiful. We are now looking for rugs to put in certain spots. We found one for the family room which we need to pick up from the RC Willey warehouse. We find that Maggie does leave scratches on the floor, which is hard to get used to. But, we knew when we put in the hardwood that the scratching would be probable. We just found out yesterday that our air conditioner and heater needs to be replaced. That will cost some $$.

Last weekend we had a little birthday dinner party to celebrate Maeve and Noreen's birthday. It was also an opportunity for us to meet James and Liam, Maeve's new beau and his child. Liam is 18 months and is all boy and all GO. You have to chase him constantly. James is a very attentive father. I like how James treats Maeve and he seems like a nice guy with a good sense of humor. Two thunbs up.

School is a mixed bag. I like the piano class and enjoy learning the theory part which I did not learn when I took it as a child. Spanish, however, leaves a lot to be desired. I don't like the instructor. He doesn't really teach. You should see my notebook...it is empty because I have nothing to write down. He gives handouts that we work on in class. He doesn't use the book so I am unmotivated to study all the vocabulary and memorize the conjugations. I don't know how I will last in Spanish.

Nothing else really new. We head back east to New York and New Jersey from Oct 9-15. We will spend one night in NY City and then one night at a hotel where Andy's reunion is. Then we will visit his Dad with the remaining time.
Cheers, Clyde

New Flooring!

Hi all,
Well today is the day they started putting in the new flooring. We are having ceramic tile put in the kitchen, hardwood floors in the FR, LR and hallway, carpeting in all the bedrooms and then new vinyl in the bathrooms. Poor Maggie doesn't know what is going on. She preferred to hang out in the back bedroom so I leashed her up there. Hopefully it will all look nice. We had a heck of a time trying to decide on everything.

We have two birthdays to celebrate, Maeve and Noreen's so we will have everyone over on Sept. 13 for dinner. Maeve will bring her new beau James and his 17 month old son Liam.

Nothing much else is new with us. Getting new flooring is enough for us right now. I plan on running in a 10-miler on Sunday Sept. 7. I just realized book club is the night before so it will be a packed weekend.

Cheers, Clyde

S Yeah! A Yeah!

Hi all,
Well S (Andy's Dad) did have to enter the hospital last Monday for GI problems but all is well now. He had all kinds of tests to figure out what was wrong. They never did figure out what went wrong and said sometime these things just happen. He went home Friday. He is feeling fine but because he was bedridden for so long now he has weakness and pain in his legs from lack of use. He has to relearn how to walk again.

A had a great triathlon on Saturday. It was the Tri for Fun at Rancho Seco Park. He got 5th place in his age group! He came in 33 place out of 300 plus participants. Because they gave out awards 5 deep he received a plaque and had a formal podium finish picture. We will have to frame that.

Nothing else really new. I went for a 6 mile run yesterday and held a 10:30 pace. I ran 4 miles this morning and held a 10:27 pace. I am sore but that is to be expected since I have not been running.

We just got our next book club assignment. We are to read Pretty Birds by Scott Simon. It was my first pick so I am happy with it.

Have a good day,
Clyde

August Already!

Hi all,
Summer is winding down...it is now August. My training program for the Cowtown Half Marathon and maybe, California International Marathon starts on Monday! Ouch! I haven't done anything in 2 weeks so it will be painful. I got an e-mail message about a Buffalo Stampede 10-miler that is in September so Andy and I may do that one also. Andy does a sprint triathlon tommorrow in Rancho Seco Park. It will be his first triathlon of the season.

My latest interest/addiction is HGTV. It stands for Home and Garden TV but it is 99% about home stuff. My favorite shows on this channel is Home Hunters and Whats My Home Worth? On our Comcast Cable it is channel 914. It is so interesting to see different types of homes in different ares of the country and to see what the prices are. It is also interesting to see how the deigners/planners fix up the homes. Also interesting is seeing what people have done with parts of their homes and for what amount of money. Anyway I can turn this station on and watch anything that is showing which is totally unusual for me.

The latest good book I am reading is All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Practically everyone I know has read this book except for me. It is about a veterinarian in the Yorkshire area in the time period of 1937 and on. It is a funny book and full of heartwarming stories about all types of animals. There was a series on PBS many years ago about this book and was available to me through NetFlix so I got series 2 DVD. Series1 had a long waiting list. So far I have watched one episode (there are 3 episodes on this disc) and I found it pretty good but the book is better. The book captures the humor better but I like that it is a period piece.

We haven't gone up to Tahoe all summer long. Maybe we will go for a weekend in September.

Nothing else really new. Hope your summer is going well.
Clyde

Long Time No Write

Hi all,
It has been a long time since I have posted anything. Not much is new I guess. Summer is flying by. I start school again Aug. 25. I plan to take piano in addition to Spanish 3. I have put in the paperwork to get a teaching permit for Placer County but I have yet to get a response that I have cleared all the screening.

We had our book club meeting this Saturday. We had read "Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" by Robert Olen Butler. It was a book of short stories all having to do with Vietnamese whether in Vietnam or in Louisiana. A was the host and she served wonderful Vietnamese Rolls that are made with rice paper and are not deep fried. They have vegetables inside and some she made some with shrimp. The best part was the sauce..it was hoisan with peanut butter. And it was warm. They were delicious. Then she served couscous (first time I have had that) and ratatouille (delicious). She served homemade peach pie with ice cream for dessert. Very good meal!

A may or may not be going to New Jersey to help his Dad out. His Dad has been having GI problems for abut 3 weeks now and has been reluctant to go see a doctor. A may have to visit him to get him to the doctor and through the inevitable tests that he would probably need done. Hopefully when we call him tonight he will say everything is better and that there is no need for A to go back East.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Clyde

Piano! Bears!

Hi all,
Andy and I helped stimulate the economy this weekend by buying a piano. It is a Currier console piano. It is used and in good condition. Out the door with delivery and tune-up it cost us $1700.00. I signed up for classes through Sierra College. It cost only $41.00 for once a week, three hours each session. So, I will be busy between Spanish and piano and maybe, substitute teaching and trying to keep up with running. I went to the Placer County Office of Education today and filled put the paperwork for substitute teaching. It cost $101.00 by the time you add all the fees up.

My sister M went up to Tahoe Saturday and discovered we had a bear break-in. They went straight to the kitchen. They opened up cupboards and the freezer and ate what they liked. They made a sticky mess when they ate Cool-Aid powder. They seemed to like powdery stuff. Poor M had to clean it all up. The door will need to be replaced. We also have some wall work that needs to be taken care of from a plumbing problem. We have also scheduled a firm to come in and do the deck which needs a lot of work. It never ends. Hopefully the bears won't come back.

Nothing else really new.
Take care,
Clyde

It's a Scorcher!

Hi all,
Just got back from my walk with Maggie. We left at 0800 and it was already 70 degrees. When we got back it was 78 degrees. The air quality is really poor today. On KCRA morning news they put up different colored dots to indicate the air quality. Yellow is good and red is the worst air quality. Apparently the air quality is worse than worst so they put up a purple dot. I will run on the treadmill indoors today. The temperature is supposed to get well above 100 today and all this week it is supposed to be hot with probable poor air quality.

Yesterday my sisters and I celebrated my sister J's 48th birthday by going out for Thai food and having decadent dessert at home.

A and I had run in the morning. We both went about an hour. We went bike riding on Saturday for about 2 hours. We biked up around the Whitney Oaks area.

Cannot think of anything else new. I may try swimming today. We'll see.
Clyde

Now It Is July Already!

Hi all,
Just received notification yesterday that I passed the CBEST exam. I heard from my brother D that he also passed. He has the same plans as I do to substitute teach. Now both of us have to figure out how to get an emergency teaching credential and sign up for substitute teaching. Both of us are not exactly pleased with our scores but at least we passed.

Yesterday and today I went on a new running route that hooks up to a bike trail I had not been on before. There is a hill at the end so I may use that for hill repeats in the future. I wore the Garmin and yesterday it said I went 4.35 miles and today it said I went 4.11 miles. Don't understand why there was a difference. My time was 47:40 yesterday and 47:00 today. That is about a 11 min pace.

Since July 4th is Friday and Friday is my usual biking with the ladies day , there will be no ladies who are riding Friday. A has the day off so we plan to ride together.

Nothing else new. A and I are enjoying watching the Olympic Trials on TV and cannot wait for the Olympics in August.

A and I are tentatively planning on running in the Cowtown Half Marathon on Oct. 5. This will be before we go back East to visit A's Dad and go to his high school reunion.
That's all for now.
Cheers, Clyde

Back Home

Hi all,

We are back from Minnesota and we had a wonderful time. We picked up Maggie on Friday from the kennel and of course she was ballisto-happy to see us. She was a leapin' and a jumpin' like crazy.

The weather turned out to be good the whole time we were there in both northern and southern Minnesota. Very little rain. We arrived at the MLPS airport in the late afternoon on Thursday. They did not lose our luggage. Yeah! We drove a rental car from the airport to Duluth. We checked in to our hotel, the Days Inn. They had refurbished so it was a nice hotel to stay at. There was a Starbucks just down a little hill from the hotel (less than 1/4 mile) so we were happy about this. There was a nearby mall with lots of restaurants. There was a shoestore called DSW warehouse where I bought a pair of shoes after the half-marathon. I wish Roseville had this store. They have expensive brand name shoes at discount prices. Anyway, the next day we went to the Expo for Grandma's. It was one of the best Expo's I had ever been to. Very large. I bought a pair of running shorts and a pair of pink socks with a cyclist on the sides. We then took a bus ride that went down the route where the marathon would go. It was a very scenic route. It starts in Two Harbors and goes south along the shores of Lake Superior. You then enter a neighborhood where they have modest homes on the right and beautiful mansions on the left. Then you enter downtown Duluth and head toward the finish line in Canal Park. We ate spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. The next day I got up at 0400, dressed and had breakfast. The hotel was great in that they opened up breakfast at 0400 for the runners. A got up with me and drove me across the street to where the buses would take runners to the start . So, off on the bus I went. So, the half-marathon went Ok. I think I went out too fast and my split times which I got on-line after I got home attested to this. So, by mile 7 I had kind of a weird stance in the way I was running or, bad form I should say. I went on like this until mile 10 where I met up with a gal named Casey who said I could run with her. We paced each other the rest of the way. Since she was walking through the aid stations I did also. And I walked Lemon Drop Hill the only Hill on the course. I finished the half-mrathon in 2:31 at a 11:43 pace which is pretty slow. But at least I finished! A met up with me after the race despite our cell phones not working totally right. We each had peppermint ice cream and some fruit and then headed to the car. A ran in the opposite direction of the course while I was out running so he got a nice run in. We headed back to the hotel and took showers. We then took a drive out to Twin Harbors and looked at some big ships containing ore heading out to the Hudson Bay.

The next day we headed south to Rochester. We spent the aftrnoon at C & G's by their pool chatting away. They barbecued steak and had baked potatoes and corn on the cob. Since I love corn on the cob I had two. The next day we went to the National Eagle Center along the Mississipi (sp?) River. We saw about 4 bald Eagles up close. It was very interesting. I will post a picture soon of J and I with a bald eagle.

We also went to the Spam museum in Austin while we were there and also went on a large paddle boat ride on Lake Pepin (part of the Mississipi River).

We had a very relaxing time with the M's, talking a lot and catching up with talk about family. They are very relaxed so it was easy to feel at home with them. They are the nuclear family A and I do not have other than my siblings.

We flew back home on Thursday and when we got out of the airport the sky was full of smoky haze. While we were gone fires had broken out all over California from lightening strikes. The air quality was very bad. I later heard from my sister M that the air was rated extremely bad for everyone. Officials were saying to stay indoors and not to do of anything with exertion in the outdoors. We then read in the paper that they canceled the famous Western States Endurance Run because of fires near the running route and bad air quality. They have never canceled a race.

Well, that's it for now.

Clyde

Off to Minnesota

Hi all,

We leave for Minnesota tommorrow on a 0715 flight. Guess that means we need to be up at 0400. Ouch! Tonight we are having dinner with our visiting Irish cousins so that should be fun. They will head to Lake Tahoe tommorrow. I am 99% packed. I needed to bring a carry-on with all my running gear in case they lose our checked bags.

I figured out how to load a picture to the blog. This is Maggie our beloved yellow labrador retriever. Her eyes look spooky here. She has green eyes and a pink nose. Maybe I can find a better picture sometime in the future.

Nothing else new. Wish me luck in the half-marathon!

Clyde

Last Run

Hi all,
I ran my last run today before the half marathon in Duluth. I went 10.4 miles and my pace was pretty slow, 11.44. I usually run 11.25 or so. But I have no aches or pains so I think I am in good shape for Grandma's.

I took the CBEST yesterday. It was harder than the practice test that they have on-line. I had to guess on a few of the math questions and the reading section I always lose more points on. But, I think the writing section went better than I expected. There were two pages you could write in and I used about 1 and 1/3. Andy and I celebrated later by going out for ice cream. I had coffee ice cream with brownie mixed in and he had mint ice cream with brownie mixed in.

Nothing else really new. I have cousins from Ireland visiting this week but I will be gone to Minnesota so I will miss them. The rest of my family are showng them around. Of course they will go to Tahoe and then down to Southern California.
Hope your weekend went well.
Cheers, Clyde

It's hot

Hi all,
Went for my daily walk with Maggie this morning and it was pretty hot. It was 70 degrees when we left. Saw a few dogs and people on our walk. More than I have seen this past week. I also brushed her teeth for the first time. Using an honest to dog doggie toothbrush and doggie toothpaste. Maggie liked the toothpaste so she cooperated.

Normally I would be riding with my women's cycling group this morning but there was no one to ride with this morning and I don't like riding alone. I will have to overcome this if I am to get stronger in riding. I think I am afraid of getting a flat and not being able to fix it. I ran on the treadmill these past 2 days. My usual 4 miles ending at 5.5 mph pace.

Tommorrow I take the CBEST. This is the test you have to take to teach in California. I haven't taken a standardized test in about 25 years. Wish me luck. If you pass the CBEST you can apply for an emergency teaching credential from the county and sign up for substitute teaching. This would be one way to figure out if I want to teach.

On Sunday I plan to run my last longest run before the half-marathon in Minnesota, then we're off on vacation soon to see G & C and family in Minnesota.

Have a good weekend. Cheers. Clyde

First Entry

Hi all,
This is the first entry into my new blog. Have never done this before so it is fun! I am going to focus on my activites in my blog. So, I run and I bike. I will mostly be talking about these things and other things that crop up in my life.
I'll sign off now to see how it all works.
Toodles,
Clyde