Mangia!

Last week we ventured out with our friends Mary & James to a new restaurant (for us, at least), Gran Gusto. We had a fantastic time and the food was really suburb. Almost all of us got the arugula salad with special truffles flown in from Italy (which our adorable chef shaved onto our plates at the table). I had a seafood ravioli which totally paled in comparison to Mary's asparagus and goronzola risotto, Serene's homemade hand rolled pasta with shrimp and James' crispy eggplant lasagne. Excellent wine, traditional dessert and a waitstaff that was attentive and fun. We met the owner as well and learned he has another restaurant in Ridgefield, CT (which happens to be where my sister lives). Now I know where to go when she refuses to cook when I'm visiting. ;-)

Anyway, go to Gran Gusto. And if you don't want a full meal, I hear their pizza is amazing as well.

Making The Most Of It

A little reminder to myself to stop whining over the weather. At least I can ride the rollers. This New York Times article reminded me to make the most of those workouts because you never know...life can change in a second.

Not A Happy Camper

I'm SO not happy. I DID drive the MINI today, top down, beanie, gloves and heated seat on HIGH. The sun felt good. Looks like it's going to disappear soon and I'm going to be doing some long sessions on the rollers for the remainder of the week. Wah!

I Hate March

Woke up this morning to yet another coating of snow on the grass and a frozen drizzle, sleet, nastiness raining down from the sky. The workout plan for today called for 2.5 hours at endurance pace with a few townline sprints thrown in the first hour.

~sigh

Headed to the basement for a few hours of fun on the rollers. I tried music, I tried TV, I tried imagining chasing down the leader in a mtb race. The only thing I didn't try was putting on a headset and phoning friends, family, anyone who could keep me from being bored. I really need better weather.

After finishing that, headed upstairs for my smoothie and toast. I was reading VeloNews while eating my breakfast and came across this ad on the left.

Ok - I'll ride rollers for hours and won't complain if it means I'll ride (and look!) like Gunn-Rita. :)

Not A Washout

Summary of IM session with Julie:
J: What ya doin' this weekend?
Me: Nada. S is surfing is CA, I'm off to Seattle Sunday.
J: Wanna go boarding?
Me: It's supposed to be a torrential downpour all weekend.
J: So what. We're still going. Bring snowshoes just in case.
Me: Game on! I'm in!

So I worked the early shift Friday and headed up to J & W's place in Conway. Unfortunately, they couldn't hit the road until 6pm so I had a 3 hour head start on them. My plan was to get up there, throw my stuff in their chalet and do a bit of outlet shopping in North Conway. After the 3 hour drive, I decided to grab some cheese, crackers and wine and spend the time on their couch with my book instead. It was a good choice - peaceful, quiet and restful.

Later that evening, we checked the forecast and thought, eh, no way we're going to be able to board - too much heavy rain in the forecast. Too much rain even for snowshoeing. Lunch and outlet shopping would be our backup activities.

Saturday morning, I wake up to more quiet. The Ski Chalet has a tin roof and I was expecting to be awakened by loud, drumming rain. Peek through the curtains and it's almost but not quite a blue sky. After a brief discussion and look at the radar, we decide we can get a few good hours in before it starts to rain heavily. Off to Attitash!

And so we had a great 5 hours of boarding. While I'm a more conservative boarder, J likes to push the envelope and talked me into doing every trail at Bear Peak. Double black diamonds and all. On one run through the mogul field, I let J go first. Made it look easy on a board. I head down, got 4 or 5 nice turns in and then rammed the nose of the board into one of the moguls. Flipped head over heels, landed on my feet (and board) only to nail yet another mogul directly in the side. Head over heels again. (Very reminiscent of my boogie boarding thrashing at Big Beach, Maui.) I landed so hard on my head I had to scrape snow out of the vents in my helmet. While sitting there in the snow, cleaning my helmet vents, catching my breath, I watched J down below. Sure enough, she did the same cartwheel. Soon I heard her laughing. Two of us, sitting in the snow, picking snow out of our helmet vents, laughing hard. Totally fun.

By 1:30, the rain started. We were pretty toasted anyway so met the others for lunch at the brew pub. Awesome day - fun boarding with friends and then some good food and beer. Made it all that much harder to leave Saturday evening in order to catch my flight the next day for Seattle. Blech.

Gracie Gets A Poodle-Leg

Both S and I were traveling last week so the felines were on their own from Sunday afternoon to Thursday evening. Apparently, they had a wicked house party because Gracie was still hungover when we returned home Thursday. (Our cat sitter didn't see her on Tuesday but that isn't highly unusual).

I took one look at that cat and said to S, "Something's not right." Super lethargic, wouldn't play with any toy (and this is a cat that will say no to treats if you put her favorite toy in view), puking up yellow stuff constantly and if she walked was all slinky, tail down, sad looking. We decided if she didn't look better in the morning, we'd take her to the vet.

My guess was she had eaten a part of a toy and it was wedged in her intestines. X-rays at the first vet showed nada. Same with the blood work - nothing unusual. The vet recommended bringing her home, keeping her quiet and bring her to the emergency vet for an unltrasound if she continued vomiting. As soon as we got her home, "Blech". Twenty minutes later, "Blech Blech!" Of to the emergency vet. The ultrasound showed nothing but by now the poor thing was super dehydrated so she had to spend the night there with an IV.

We got her back Saturday evening. She was pretty low key Sunday. By Monday she was pretty much back to normal. But due to the IV, she had one of her legs shaved in a poodle-like fashion and her belly shaved for the ultrasound. I'm happy to report she's back to terrorizing the household.

Running in Rainville

6 miles around Greenlake (Seattle) in 49 degree heavy drizzle. Still
dark at 7:15 am when I finished. Reminds me of why I moved away from here a few years ago.

Rollers Are A Contact Sport

Who knew? Today we opted for a workout on the new rollers. S and I have our rollers set up side by side with about a 3 foot space in between. Eighteen minutes into the workout, we're both imagining warm weather, nice beaches and palm trees while watching Step Into Liquid on DVD. Out of the corner of my eye, I see S swerve and hear, "Whoa! Uh oh!" Wham! She flies off the rollers to her right and takes me out off my rollers. We both just sat there for a few second, took injury status (we were both fine) and then started laughing. Thankfully, the new rubber floor cushioned our falls a bit. We still haven't figured out exactly what happened. She thinks she simply forgot she was on rollers, started looking around a bit and then just lost it.

I did discover a bit later that my bike bit me as I fell on it. Damn Ankle Biter! Got a bruise inside my knee as well. I'm almost feeling like it really IS mountain bike season. I've been missing my collection of bruises and cuts. :)

Stop The Madness!

I'm so DONE with the snow. Even me, who would love to be out snowboarding today had to take a pass due to dealing with taxes, bills and other way fun stuff around the house including shoveling 6 inches of the sloggy mess. At least we got a snowman out of it. If only he had a brain, he could do my taxes. I REALLY despise this time of year. The weather makes me crazy and I have to face the reality of how many $$$ I let W waste. Grrrrr....

And the snow....early this morning I could hear the plows going by which led to my nightmare of being stuck on the cruise ship in a snow storm. As I tried to get out of the snow, I was lost below deck as I searched to find the gym. Geez.....

In order to cheer up, I signed up for my first bike race of the season, The King of Burlingame MTB Time Trial. April 6th. A month away. Better get riding.