HAPPY 55th BIRTHDAY, MOM!! I hope you have a great year!

Love ya!

This spring I had decided I wanted to have a garden. Then Chris & I got busy with other yard work, projects inside the house and life in general and before I knew it my window of opportunity was passing…quickly. My mom happened to purchase WAY too many tomato & green pepper plants, so I decided at the last minute that I should go for it. After a trip to Home Depot & a bad sunburn I had something that looked like a promising garden. Unfortunately, only about 1/3 of what I planted survived…but those that did look great and I think I’ll do better next year.

The two tomato plants are out of control. I didn’t stake them up right away & so now there are a few different sticks holding tomatoes off the ground for each plant!

Doesn’t look great, but I think it’s working okay. As of the end of August I’ve “harvested” a TON of basil (and somehow now have 3 plants instead of 2) and 10 grape tomatoes. I will be getting more tomatoes soon I think!

And…finally…not food related, but definitely part of the yard - we’ve got GRASS growing again! After the fence was installed it got really hot and so we didn’t do much yard work. That, of course, meant that the stupid jungle came back. The only difference was, this time we were blocked from seeing the alley side. So, last Sunday we spent a couple hours outside cleaning up the jungle and then finally planting some grass seed. Chris had saved the grass clippings so after the seed was down it was covered with grass and then watered and that seems to be working. I think the cool weather and tons of rain we’ve received has helped too. Here’s hoping the little grass seeds can help keep the jungle away!

Chris & I have a soft spot in our hearts for Saturday night games at the Dome. They start at 6:10 which means the game wraps up before 10 and allows for a full night out on the town, if we’re up to it. I had mentioned this one time to Christy and she agreed that it would be fun so we set a date. We had hung out with Josh & Robyn before so I asked if they were available too and they were so the 6 of us were set. Next, we needed tickets. I had vouchers for 6 free seats which I cashed in & we ended up in lower reserved seats down the first base line!

We sat down in or (pretty good) seats and watched a relatively okay game until the 6th inning. After that, I was getting tipsy & the Twins weren’t playing well so it wasn’t fun. The one thing that WAS fun (sort of) was that a while back Josh showed up with a shirt on that looked like one I had…because it was. Well, we actually ended up trading because mine was too big & his was a bit snug and long story short…
we matched:

Nice, huh? I love the shirt…my “new” one is a little more worn than the one I purchased, but that’s okay. It’s SUPER soft!

After the game we all walked over to Lone Tree for some drinks, because we’re not too old for a little fun (yet!). As you can see, there were a few ‘free’ beers consumed…and then thumbs down. I’m going to say that was for the Twins - not for the beer!

And…yes…we did it. We ended up on the dance floor! I think Billie Jean is Andy’s favorite song & they played it so we danced. Fun, fun times.

We were in Chicago two weeks ago and unfortunately I didn’t do my run on Sunday. I woke up at 8am and it was already 80 degrees out. The thought of running in downtown Chicago when it was already that hot made me go back to bed!

I did run two miles after we got back to Minnesota on Monday so that got me right back on track.

Tuesday I had probably the best run I’ve had since I started the 10k Training. I ran 4 miles and it felt GREAT! Now, I just can’t wait until my 5 mile runs feel like that!!

On Thursday I ran the farthest I think I ever have…6 miles. Unbelievable! It wasn’t easy, at all, but I did it and I’m very proud of that fact. And, once I was confident that I could do it…on Friday afternoon I registered for the Twin Cities 10k which is on Saturday October 3rd, so now this is it…it’s for real…I’m going to run a 10k!

On June 1 I completed the first 100 miles of training with my Nike+. It had taken me about a year to complete and I was hoping that I could do the next 100 quicker so I set up a challenge to complete 100 miles in 16 weeks. That would be just over 6 miles a week which is two of the C25k workouts…seemed very doable to me.

Well…today, August 20th, I ran the last 6 of my second 100! Eleven weeks. YAY!!

Yes, I see that I need .1 to be 100% complete but considering the fact that I haven’t been including my warm up or cool down since the beginning of August, I think it’s okay.

The weekend of August 7th we each had different things planned. Chris went with the guys to the Apple River (aka. Get Drunk Central) and I visited my sister and brother in law before enjoying a quiet night at home. I have yet to see any photos from the Apple River, but I do have some fun ones from Upsala!

I arrived in Upsala on Friday evening just in time for dinner. They had decided that we would have steak kebabs and they were YUMMY! We mostly just hung out that night. We did take a walk outside but it was misting & sorta icky so that was cut short. It was an early night which was nice since we had to be up at 7am to go check in for the 5k. I have always wanted to run a 5k in less than 30 minutes. In the past I haven’t really trained for it, but just figured that if I can run a 10 minute mile then I should be able to race 3 miles in less than 30 minutes. Well, that has always gotten away from me…usually I finish in 31 or 32 minutes which isn’t a bad time at all, but it didn’t meet my goal. FINALLY…running with my sister on a cool, damp morning in small town MN we did it! We finished in 29:04 and I am so, so, SO excited! Nathan finished a few minutes before us and we all actually placed 5th in our age bracket. YAY!

After the run we showered and got ready for an afternoon full of fun. First was the parade which we had to walk 3 blocks to get to (gotta love small towns!). There were lots of cool old cars in the parade…

…and lots of tractors (some newer than others).

We were busy running around picking up candy that was thrown from (literally, I think) EVERY vehicle that went by! I think that we ended up with 1/2 a plastic grocery bag full by the time we were done…yikes! One group also threw beads that went along with their “Go Green” theme & we wore ours proudly all day.

After the parade we walked over to the Borgstrom House which is part of the Upsala Historical Society and is only opened to the public this one weekend a year. It’s an old house that has lots of old stuff displayed in it, most items listing who donated them.

We saw things like old cameras, typewriters and even wedding dresses! One of the coolest things was a tool to help the man of the house get properly dressed. It is a tie rack with a tool on the top where you select the color of your tie and magically displayed are shirt and suit options!

After touring the house we sat outside for a while listening to some live music by local musicians that Becky & Nathan knew. It’s a father & daughter team with the father writing the songs, playing guitar and being the lead vocals with his daughter playing fiddle and backup vocals. They were really good! (unlike my picture)

Finally, it was time to Party in the Park! All the old cars from the parade, plus others, lined up and we were allowed to vote in the Peoples Choice category. Here’s my sister with her vote:

And this is the one I voted for…I mean, they were at the Drive-In!

And I believe this is the one Nathan voted for:

Unfortunately, I have no idea which one won! Oh well. It was fun to check them all out. We then found a burger stand that was raising money for the boy scouts so we had lunch. There was plenty to keep us busy for a few hours. Mostly, a temporary tattoo for Becky, a couple dunks at the dunk tank for some local kids courtesy of my lovely family…

…a kids tractor pull where they rode a tractor attached to a contraption that made it more difficult the further down the path they got. It was adorable watching the little 3 & 4 yr olds!

There was also a petting zoo…



…and a hilarious fireman’s challenge. The local volunteer departments competed to use the water pressure from the hose to push an empty keg along a wire and whoever got it to stay on the other teams side at the end of the event won. It. was. hilarious. So, they bring in two lift machines to be the ‘poles’ for the wire holding the keg:

Each team takes a side, the water is released to the hoses & they’re off:

And, this is so serious that they even have trophies! Check it out:

Here’s proof, in video format:

After all the excitement of the last challenge, I headed home and had an evening alone at home. I got some scrapbooking done and read a lot. It was fantastic!

Wednesday morning my Dad & I headed down to Canterbury (this seems to be a trend) but this time it was to catch a shuttle over to Hazeltine National Golf Course to watch some golfer’s practice. I’m not much of a golfer, okay - I don’t golf at all, but I won Twingo at a Twins game earlier this year and so I figured I’d take my Dad over to check it out. Turns out that MN hosting the 91st PGA Championship is a pretty big deal! There were a LOT of people out there that morning.

To say I didn’t recognize anyone wouldn’t be fair…I didn’t even EXPECT to recognize anyone. I suppose I could have done some homework to try and be a little educated, but really, I was just out to enjoy a nice day. Here’s the first golfer we saw. Turns out, they put their names on the bags…wish I knew that earlier in the day! Oh well…

We strolled around a lot of the golf course, stopping to watch some guys practicing their putting and some other guys hitting balls on the driving range (which was VERY popular, even though we couldn’t really track where any of the hits were going). All over the place you could find these silly Rolex clocks…everything to do with the PGA is old fashioned I guess, including all the players being forced to wear LONG PANTS! Yuk.

So, rather than stand behind other people at a crowded area, my Dad & I decided to hang out and watch this guy chip from the sand onto the greens. It was pretty crazy to see how close each of the balls got to the hole and how consistent he was!

And, the next thing we knew, we were being surrounded by TONS of people as another golfer approached the area. My Dad obviously has no shame because he just turns around & asks someone “Who is that?” and thankfully he asked someone who nicely replied “That’s Phil, Phil Mickelson.” I guess he’s kinda famous, huh? So, we lucked out and were in the front row to watch him do some practice chipping as well.

That’s him in the sand pit too:

Once he was done, the crowds broke up and we decided to move on. We walked past another (or maybe the same) group practicing putting & I got a kick out of the club covers. I’m sure they’re helpful to keep the bugs off or something, right?! At least these ones were cute.

Next we found a couple seats in the grand stand at the greens for holes 9 & 18. It felt good to sit, but it also felt like we were baking in the sun! Here is some proof of the “old fashioned” which we could view from our seats…manual scoreboards!

While we were sitting there, a group of people approached both of the greens so we got to see some more of the practicing. They would hit a ball, and if they didn’t like how it landed they would just drop another one and try again. Practice makes perfect!

And after leaving there we walked down towards the lake. As we were walking my Dad said “Hey, There’s Joe Nathan” and sure enough, riding on a cart right in front of us was Joe along with Nick Punto and Jesse Crain (I think)!

After the lake we walked back through the course and made our way to the gift shop where I got a pint glass (and a golf ball for Chris) and my Dad bought a golf towel. We were there for about 3 hours and I’d say it was a success. I’m not sure I’d pay to go, but since the tickets were free we definitely had a great time. Also, they’ve got the parking organized to a T…it was 100% painless taking the shuttle from Canterbury to Hazeltine and back again.

We stopped at Buffalo Tap for lunch (Thanks Dad!) and then I got dropped off at home where I promptly fell asleep for at least 2 hours. It must have been a combination of the fresh air, sunshine, and huge Bison Burger (with pepperjack cheese, green olives, raw onions and sour cream…it was good!) I had that put me out.

PS - Here’s some practice time video for your viewing enjoyment…Mr. Mickelson, himself:

These weeks usually start on a Sunday & because of that, I usually have a run scheduled. However, this week I went to visit my sister in Upsala and we ran a 5k on Saturday so rather than run 4 days in a row, I counted the 5k on Saturday as my Sunday (4mi) run and did a workout DVD on Sunday instead. I like having the training coach on Nike+, but I’m not going to let it run my life & I think that’s a good compromise. So, here goes.

I ran a 5k on Saturday, August 8 with my sister. She runs too & so we were able to run together for the whole race. Our family doesn’t have what most would call “quick” muscles, but for the longer distances we can prevail. I had mentioned that I’ve always wanted to run a 5k under thirty minutes but that if we didn’t do it that would be okay too. The weather wasn’t the best - in fact it poured about 15 minutes before we were supposed to start running - but it was cool and we felt good. I was planning on using my iPod for pacing help, but it turns out that when you choose a 5k run it automatically switches to meters which isn’t very helpful to me! So…we just ran, and ran, and ran, and in the end, our time was…drumroll please…29:03!!! WE DID IT!! And, the best part is we felt fine after our cool down walk. YAY!

The training program has added a run so I’ll be out four times a week going forward. On Monday, August 10 I was supposed to run for 2 miles. So, hoping to help increase my speed for the longer runs, I choose to run quicker than my normal pace. Hopefully this won’t hurt me when I have to run on Tuesday! I did manage to get a personal best for the mile at 9:27 minutes which I guess is nice. I do wonder how fast I could complete one mile if that was all I had to run. Definitely not the 6:40 or whatever I did one time in High School, but I guess I can just try to keep working at it.

Full disclosure…I didn’t run on Tuesday. I had a headache ALL day on Monday and when I woke up feeling okay on Tuesday I decided not to chance it. So, I slept in a bit & went for a 2 mile walk at lunch instead. I have no regrets because my legs were feeling sore & I just plain old wasn’t feeling up to it.

The morning of Thursday, August 13 it was HOT. 70 degrees at 5:30AM! And, it was still dark. Doh…finally feels like summer and we’re having significantly shorter days. Anyway, I had a 5 mile run to do and I knew it was going to be toasty warm out so I got up at 5:30 and I ran and ran and ran. I came home dripping in sweat, but I did it. 5 miles in 52 minutes. I know that my Nike+ is around .1mi off because I ran a 5k and the Nike+ said it was only 3 miles, but whatever. I’m just going to go with it to stay consistent.

We’re going to Chicago for the weekend so we’ll see if I can get my runs in Sunday & Monday. Hopefully!

Okay, all I can say is that this is a) Awesome and b) a little bit out of hand. FOUR more movies within the last few weeks?!?! Yep. I think I’m addicted.

Transformers 2
July 21 Chris & I met up with Andy & Christy for dinner (Chipotle… yum!) and to see Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. I had heard that it was bad, but I went in expecting it to be good. We saw it on the IMAX and I really liked it. There were a lot of battle scenes & they definitely could have cut out some of the military action to make it a more reasonable 2 hours, but overall, I enjoyed the movie!

The Reader
Tuesday, August 4 after playing Tennis, we had some dinner & watched The Reader. Once you got past the nudity of the first hour or so, it was actually a really good movie even though it was pretty sad, too. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it kept our attention pretty well.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
We had date night on Wednesday, August 5 and finally saw the latest Harry Potter movie! I was really looking forward to it and am sorry to say that it didn’t meet my expectations. It seemed like some of the story-lines from the book were really forced into the movie. Don’t get me wrong, it was good and I’ll add it to my collection when it comes out on DVD.

Julie & Julia
It was girls night on Monday, August 10 and we went to see Julie & Julia after having dinner at Tavern on France. This movie was EXCELLENT. I LOVED it. I can’t wait to watch it again, on DVD, with Chris. I enjoyed both characters and Meryl Streep is just awesome. There were plenty of laugh out loud parts & you could feel the emotions the characters were feeling. Highly recommended.

On the morning of Sunday, August 2 (august, omg!) I woke up and was ready to run around 10am but we had company over & my workout clothes were under the bed they were sleeping in. Because of that, and the fact that the temperature got into the 80’s, my run happened after dinner. Let’s just say that it wasn’t easy. I ran the whole 4 miles but seriously contemplated stopping more than once. I somehow figured out how to slow my pace a bit and that helped. According to my iPod I was running a 10:02 average which is pretty darn good I think. I also did 2 dvd workouts in between the last run and this one and my whole body is a little sore, but it’s a good sore so I won’t complain!

I’m starting to think jumping from 3mi to 4mi wasn’t the best idea ever. These runs are TOUGH! I also have the small problem of not being able to pace myself…my average for the 4mile run on Tuesday, August 4 was 10:15/mi but I know there were times I was running 11 so that means I must have also been running in the 9’s. Oh well. I finished and that is what matters! Also, I’ve stopped tracking my warm up/cool down on my Nike+ because it is easier to let the iPod tell me my pace - but that also means it looks like I’m not doing as much. I think I’ve decided that it’s fine & those extra .5 miles are just bonus.

On the morning of Thursday, August 6 I had a dentist appointment at 8am which meant I had to do my 5 mile run in the evening. I was REALLY dreading it because it was going to be hot, but it turned out to be okay. It was warm, but not so hot that I couldn’t stand it. I ran a different route, thanks to MapMyRun.com which was recommended to me by a friend. I still started out the same way…towards & around Lake Nokomis…but after an almost complete lap around the lake I took off up the hill at 50th Street and ran the remaining few miles on side streets. It was really nice to mix it up a bit, so Thanks Becky!! That’s not to say I didn’t want to stop running at least a handful of times. I did. Want to, that is. But I managed to push through and finish the 5 miles which I’m still very proud of doing. When I started in April I was hoping to be able to run 3 miles & now I know I can do 5…pretty awesome!