Water, Water, Everywhere

As most people know there is no shortage of water here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. For instance, this morning it was pouring from the sky. As I went for my run it was fun to watch the water dance around on the asphalt to the musical sway of the wind. Instead of the water moving down the road it swayed up. As the wind died down it went back to the natural movement of flowing in steady ripples like a brook. It is quite a peaceful and relaxing thing to watch. Of course, I was not in a standstill but rather running as I was taking this in.

However, this is not the entire point of this post but rather the lack of pools in my area. Yes, we get a lot of water here! And perhaps this is the reason for not having many pools. Come summer time everyone either goes to the numerous rivers or to the few lakes around here. So if you can do that, why would you want to go to a pool! I know I really enjoy playing in the river and swimming in the lake, but it is hard at times to get in a good workout. First off, you don't know how far you've swam, second, the water often is quite cold and takes awhile till warm enough to swim in, third, there is often too many boats and people that it can be unsafe to swim, fourth, you shouldn't ever go swim by yourself, and fifth, sometimes you can creep yourself out by letting your mind wander about from the many movies that have been watched. Therefore, by all these reasons, it is often best to get the majority of your swim workouts in at a pool.

The closest pool that I live to and can swim at any time is in Corvallis, which is about a 45 minute drive one way. Or I have the option of swimming at the local high school pools, that have only a few designated lap swim times a few times a week. Here lately, they have cut back the lap swim time because of the high school swim team. So this makes it a bit more difficult especially since I do not swim the same days every week.

Therefore, this is my dilemma of not having enough pools to swim at. But perhaps, one of these days I will just build my own pool and be able to swim anytime I want, day or night! Anyone got a shovel?

Dessert Crepes!

I told you I would do another post pertaining to food! This one is going to be about how to re-create amazing yumminess! I was first introduced to dessert crepes in San Fransisco. I was with my sisters and we were out and about discovering all that San Fransisco had to offer (since this was our first time here). We made our way to Japan town. Once there we saw many people walking around eating these adorable desserts that had cute faces made out of various types of food. We finally found the origin of these cute desserts. Therefore, we had to get one.

My little sis and I

They are so cute!

The aftermath of devouring our adorable crepes!

Since I am not in San Fransisco very often and these have become one of my favorite treats I had to figure out how to make them at home. Of course, they don't have the adorable faces on them but still turn out tasty!

Here is the recipe I use for the crepe mix:

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3 tablespoon sugar

I just add them all together until the batter is smooth.Then pour a small amount onto a hot pan. Circle it around the pan until it is thin and smooth. Once the batter is no longer sticky then remove from pan and transfer to a plate to let cool. Once it has cooled for about 5 minutes then you can add ice cream, whip cream, berries, or anything else you wish to have.

The great thing about this dessert is you can be creative with the inside contents! Enjoy!

Christmas Lights!

It is that time of year again to break out all the festive decorations. Among those are the Christmas lights! Every year I am the one to put these up. I'm still unsure why I am the designated one to install these, as everyone enjoys them. I think I've come to the conclusion that I am the most flexible in the family and can crawl all over the roof like a monkey with little effort. Maybe this was developed from all the roofing I did in previous years. Considering that I use to be afraid of heights and edges, I've come a long ways! However, I still have this fear. Just not so much on single story homes that don't have a crazy pitch!

The lights are stored in our attic. So I made my way up to retrieve them. As I was doing so, I was not paying attention to where the ladder was lined up and I hit my head on the garage rail! Ugh, it really hurt. Then later as I was getting the boxes out of the attic I hit me head again in the same spot! It aches a little as I type this :/ I guess it's part of the process?... I'll try to avoid this for next year though!

My dad and sister helped me go through the strands of lights to check which ones worked and to put some of the bulbs back on. Every year they pop off because they get filled with water and then freeze, so off they go! For some reason, every strand that I grabbed did not work. I don't know why this happened cause from what I remember, last year they all worked. I think I was jinxed! Therefore, I let my sister and dad finish up that part as I started to install them on the house.

It actually never takes too long to put them up. My legs just occasionally burn a little from crouching along the edge forever. Since there were so many strands that decided not to work, there wasn't enough to go around the entire house. This makes me very sad! But good news, I found some other lights in the attic that we have never used and put up some of those in our courtyard area. I did not finish, as I was running out of daylight! It is suppose to rain for about the next 2 weeks, so I am hoping that there will be a break in there to finish putting up the lights. Otherwise, I will just have to do it in the rain!

Here are a few pictures from today's work. It was foggy pretty much all day today. Some of the pictures capture it but others not so much.

I think I'm out of shape......for socializing!

It's kind of a funny concept to be out of shape for something other than physically working out. But I am definitely out of shape for socializing. Thanksgiving weekend has been a long weekend of socializing.

The weekend started with picking up my little sister at the Portland Airport. It is not hard to socialize with my sister by any means. Once she was home it was like she never left :D I was glad to have her home from school, so we had to spend as much time with her as we could before we had to send her back this morning. Therefore, it was inevitable that there would be late nights and early mornings.

The weekend continued with working out and putting on a dinner for family (As shown in a previous post). Then a brunch on Sunday. By this point I was starting to drag. But it was very nice to see my family, especially since a couple relatives (that I have never met, or remember) came out from Texas to visit. They were a lot of fun, and now I will have to make my way to Texas to visit them.

Sadly, Monday morning finally came and it was time to take my sister back to the airport to finish up her semester. Got up at 2:30am to make it to her flight on time, but we had to make one little detour before dropping her off. Voodoo donuts!!

We each got a mcminnville cream, which is basically just a maple doughnut with cream filling. I will have to admit though, having sugar at 4:30 in the morning doesn't settle all that well, but it did stay down. It was then time to give hugs and say our goodbyes as we watched her go through security. She won't be back home for 4 weeks.

The rest of the day went by in an unconscious mode. Glad I made it through without a scratch! After doing a swim, bike ride and grocery shopping. Now just relaxing, watching a movie I have not seen in a very long time! The Air up There.

Nom Nom Nom!

This is going to mostly be a picture post. My day started off with an hour run, baking, ice bathing, cooking, socializing with the extended family, and enjoying a hard cider!

It was raining during my ice bath, was quite refreshing

Dozens of pumpkin cookies

One of the tables set

Our beautiful bread

Chicken and saffron rice & Lasagna

Enjoyed a hard cider, would've had another but there wasn't enough 

I Sleep With an Egyptian...

I sleep with an Egyptian...well actually an abomination. His mother is a purebred Egyptian Mau of show quality and his father is a stray, scruffy manx whom we don't know the identity of, therefore my egyptian is a bastard. Not only do we not know who his father is but he was also born with five toes in the front and six toes in the back. He has a total of 22 toes. Not only did he get blessed with extra toes he also got a kinked tail. This little abominations name is Jasper.

Jasper is now 2 1/2 years old. He sleeps with me every night. Most of the time he will sleep by my feet but on occasion when he is feeling the need to cuddle he will work his way under the covers and snuggle with me. However, this usually happens after he has been feed. If he hasn't been feel he is very consistent on trying to get me up so he can go indulge in his breakfast. Here lately, his method has been going under my bed and clawing underneath it as he drags himself across the floor. He will also jump on the bed and whine relentlessly in my face.

Jasper is a creature of habit. After he's done eating he has to go for his nap and that is on a red cushy pillow on the rocking chair. This is his pillow, as he will not let any of his other companions sleep on it. I believe the reason for this is because he is part royalty, tracing his blood lines back to Egypt.

Because of his royalty and mannerism his nickname is "presh presh." It is very appropriate for his personality and his insanely soft fur!

It has now come to that hour of bed time, and I will now be taking my little Egyptian to bed with me!

Just in case you haven't guessed, he is my cat!

Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving is a great holiday. Not only because you get to stuff your face with as much good food as you can but because it is a reminder about being grateful for what you have in life. Instead of doing this once a year I have been trying to make this more of a daily habit. I have found that you go through the day feeling happier because the more you have to be grateful for the less you can complain about.

Since it is Thanksgiving I will share with you some of the things I am grateful for.

My family. I would not be who I am today without them. They have supported me and helped me develop into the person I am today.
Where I live. I love living in Oregon. I know the rain can get old but I love the change of weather here and how it keeps you guessing. I also love how fresh the air is and how green all the vegetation is.
I am very grateful to all the people I have met in the triathlon world that have helped me get to where I am right now. In particular, Gilad who sold me a great bike and has put me in touch with a coach. To all the people that have taken the time to train with me and help give me advice to better my form or give me any other helpful pieces of advice.
I am grateful to have my coach, Erich Wegscheider, who has done a great job with my training and has been very supportive.
I am also very grateful to all my sponsors. They have helped me so much.

Now some details on my day:

My Thanksgiving has been very enjoyable and relaxing. Today it was just my immediate family. My little sister is home from school. We picked her up last night from the Portland airport and didn't get home till about 3 am this morning. But I can't complain for getting home so late because I am glad to have her home to enjoy the holiday with us. Of course, I have been a little tired from it all day. Considering that I was only able to sleep in until about 8:30 (I have a hard time sleeping past that).
Since my little sister hasn't had the opportunity to try some of my pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin pie, I was requested to make those for today, and that is pretty much how I spent my morning. After I was done making those I got to go outside for a lovely 30 minute run. The weather was very agreeable. I hope it holds through tomorrow because we will be putting up Christmas lights.
After I returned from my run we got to enjoy our Thanksgiving meal. Unlike most families, instead of having turkey we always have prime rib. And it, as always, tasted amazing! Along with our other side dishes, the meal was great!
The rest of the evening has been enjoyable. Just enjoying the efforts from this morning while we watch movies!

And of course, I am very grateful to all of you, my faithful readers!!! I hope everyone has had a happy Thanksgiving and is enjoying time with family and friends.

Here is a video that my sisters showed me earlier that should give you a good laugh. Enjoy!