Uff Da it's lefse!

Apparently there is a Women's half marathon coming to Minnesota in August 2012. While I haven't decided if I want to run this or not, I thought I'd help some of you prepare for this event with a small lingo and food lesson.

Local lingo:
Uff Da.  Pronounced Oooffff Duh.  It's a Minnesota thing.  The longer you hold the "O" sound, the harder the task or more extreme the connotation is supposed to be.  It can be used in a variety of sentences or it can be an expression all of it's own.  Around here you can easily say, "Uff da it's cold outside!"  Or, if you lift something heavy or have done something hard, you can throw out an uff da without  anyone even batting an eye.  When some people hear I'm training to run a half marathon, I've heard, "Uff da, that's just crazy!"  Really, it's a super handy all purpose expression.  There are more swell local expressions, but let's start with that until you get it mastered....

Local food:
Another favorite Minnesotan thing is lefse.  Yum, yum and super yum.  I grew up eating the flatted potato concoction and love it.  Mr. P tolerates it but it doesn't get his salivary glands flowing like it does mine.   In my mind'e eye, I picture lefse being invented because winter was coming and there were a bunch of potatoes around.  I suspect the conversation went like this, "Well Mabel, how do you propose we eat this winter?"  "Uff da, Edith, use your noggin and figure out how to make something out of all these gosh darn potatoes, would ya?"  Yep.  Just like that lefse was born.

This time of year there are groups of little old ladies and various families that get together and make batches and batches of lefse.  My mother made a big batch last Christmas, but it's long gone now or I'd consider sharing.  Or not.  It's mine.  Get your own.  I'm selfish with my lefse.   It's best right off the griddle when it's warm.  I like it best with a smidgen of butter and sugar on it.  A true northerner also knows how to roll their lefse.  To help you out, I've included a photo of a rolled lefse here.  Feel free to practice with all your soft taco shells in the future....

MMMMMMMMM!!!!

Because...

Just because this makes me smile every time I see it...

Other news, Cally split her nail.  BAD.  Not cool.  It's super glued right now but something drastic will need to be done after Hounds.  Nails make me want to vomit.  Gross.  She's the totally bashful type and wouldn't let me take a picture of it.  I did however, make her move her head after she laid it on her freshly super glued nail.  What a good mom I am....

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season.  

It's that time of year when you see trees strapped to the tops of cars and people ringing bells in front of stores.  It's also the time of year when the grocery store kitty corner from my workplace has their live nativity.  It's really cool.  People dressed up as the appropriate characters of the infamous Christmas story, complete with shepherds, wise men and various livestock.  

I normally don't stop and check out the live nativity, but this week I got off work early one day (rare) and as I was driving by the parking lot I saw two of the nativity donkeys giving the crowds a show of their own.  How could I NOT stop and ogle a couple of big eared well-asses going at it?   You're right.  I couldn't.  The unfortunate thing is that this rarity was broken up by the time I got my handy dandy camera phone ready to take of picture.  When I got out of the car, the wise men had the donkeys separated and behaving in proper donkey manner again.  Bummer.  I guess if you're a donkey, it's a totally different kind of season...

Live nativity after the side show settles down...

This weekend I got to take Bunker and Cally to an AKC agility trial.  Let's just say they're superstars!  And they also seem to be the dogs that attract the laws of stupid stuff that happens.  

Before Cally was to go into the ring on Saturday, she decided to jump up on the table that holds all the treats for the people running in the ring.  She doesn't just jump up there feet first, she jumps up with her whole  body.  This freaks me out and I basically hang her from her leash and she stops mid jump and flips back to me.  In the process of all of this flailing around, her feet hit a container on the table and it flies through the air a good ten feet and hits an unsuspecting lady in the head.  So. Not. Kidding.  That's my girl.  If you plan on being around us, you might want to consider wearing some kind of helmet...

Table full of treats and toys-or weapons??

Then Bunker decided to sniff the derriere of another Lab before going in the ring.  This Lab owner and I don't have the best history (because she hates me) and in my attempt to make Bunker mind his manners sniffer wise, I wrenched my finger in the leash.  Now it's all swollen and ouchy.  Not cool.  An agility injury.  I suppose some Traumeel and ice should help.  That's what I get for sticking my fingers where they don't belong!!!  

Real live custom representation of my hand...
Made by yours truly...

Busted!

A couple of weeks ago I didn't have time to put the towels away after they were done drying.  I know, shocker that I don't have oodles of time to do every thing a person is "supposed" to do.  Actually, it happens a lot but I'm mostly over it.  Or I'm trying to be over it.

So since I did not have time to put the towels away, I just took them out of the dryer and folded them and put them in the laundry basket so I could just take the lot up and put them away.  After a couple of days I went down to get said towels and noticed that they were squished and NOT in the orderly fashion which I'd left them.  Hmmmm.

Tonight while I was running, Mr. P came in and showed me a couple of pics he took with my phone.  It appears our laundry basket is the perfect place for a sixty five pound puppers to curl up and hang out while waiting for his mom to get off the treadmill....

If any of you are thinking of joining him, I don't think there's much room left.  Now if I could just teach him to put the laundry away!!

Why?

Warning: potentially emotional and confusing post

Today was one of those draining days.  Everyone had diarrhea of the mouth.  Everyone had a problem.  Some of them were truly awful.  Everyone needed someone to listen to them.    I'm thankful that I'm in a position where I can help people.  If nothing else, I can at listen to them and let them air their troubles.

 Maybe they can work out their problems on their own.  Maybe not.  Either way, tonight I'm exhausted.  I hope I was able to help.  I wish so many times that I had a magic wand and could just fix some of the problems people have.  Sometimes I wonder why they even have those problems.  Why were they chosen to go through that particular trauma?  Why do they have to learn those hard lessons?
The amazing thing to me is the resilience of people.  Someone told me that the particular type of cancer they have been diagnosed with only has a 5% survival rate.  They don't care.  They said that someone has to be in that 5%, so why not them?  I'm cheering them on every step of the way!

Why is the human spirit so amazing?  Why don't we just quit?  Why don't we just give up?  What makes us want to do better, to be better, to try harder?  What makes us get out of bed each day and do the amazing?  And why is it that something that seems so normal to one person, seems so mind blowing to another?    I can train a dog to do completely unnatural things but if you asked me to teach a classroom of kids, both of us would be traumatized.  But to one person, what I can do is mind blowing and to me, it's no big deal.  But when I think of what they can do, I'm in awe.   There was a time I couldn't run past the mailbox and now I've done four ten mile runs in the last five weeks.  I'm even amazed by that.  But, I know people that do that all the time without even thinking twice.

I don't know the answers.  I do know that I'm blessed in so many ways.  My family, my friends, my health, my abilities, the list just keeps going.

Speaking of abilities, Good luck to all who are running the Rock & Roll Marathon this coming weekend!  Mr. P says he'd like to go there and run that race with me-so maybe someday!   That is another amazing thing that many athletes will handle like a walk in the park!!
And if you need some tips, feel free to read my Vegas post from a couple of weeks back!

New Socks and Pumpkin Smoothies

Anyone that knows me, I mean really knows me, knows that my favorite gift to receive is a pair of socks.  I know it's not fancy and most even consider it boring, but I love getting new socks.  I love putting on a pair of new socks.  I love how soft and gushy they feel right off the bat.  Even better, I love it when I don't have to pay for them.  Socks seem to me like that odd thing to purchase, similar to belts and eyelash curlers.  You should probably have them, but hate to spend money on them.

But ('cause there's always a but) recently the craze amongst runners/athletes is the concept of compression socks.  apparently they help reduce muscle fatigue and promote faster muscle recovery after hard workouts.  Since they're all the rage, I had to check them out.  My friend Pam has some and she says she loves them.  Go do an internet search and you'll read the same thing.  All these people can't be wrong, can they?  I happened to find a deal on schwaggle (similar to groupon) and scored a pair of compression socks for half price.  (like $30-free shipping) There's the other thing, they're expensive.  I've never spent that much on a pair of socks-ever.

But a company called SLS3 had these super cute butterfly socks and I just couldn't resist.  I ordered the blue ones ('cause I like blue, just like my mother) but haven't worn them until today.  From what I understand, compression socks will do you the most benefit if worn during the exercise or directly after the exercise.  I've opted for wearing them after my ten mile run today.  (yes, that was ten, not a typo)  (which I totally rocked by the way!)  (not to brag-ha!)

All wrapped up!

I had to get a butterfly shot!

Does anyone remember those footie nylon thingys?  Do they still make those?  In order to put them on, you had to kinda roll them up into a big circle and then just put them over your toes and then kinda zig zag the rest of them over your foot and up your ankle.  Well, news flash, compression socks seem to have the same kind of application.  It took me five minutes and three broken fingernails to figure this out.  But I got them on, and I have to admit, they feel pretty good.   I've had them on all day.  I'm hoping taking them off won't be as big of an ordeal.   Has anyone else tried compression socks/gear?  What are your thoughts?

I also tried Jess's Pumpkin Smoothie today!!  It's pretty good!  I had to laugh, as I was mixing it up, Mr. P hollered downstairs, "Are you making margaritas?"  Maybe next time dear!

Pumpkin smoothie!

Gobble Gobble Turkey Day 5K Recap Thingy

Gobble Gobble!!  Yesterday I drove a billion miles (ok, like an hour) to Pammy's house and then we headed downtown to the Turkey Day 5K!  It was Pam's first official race.  I'd heard that there are approximately fourteen thousand  people that attend this thing, but really?  That's like a crazy high number for little ol' Minneapolis.  Um-news flash-there are like fourteen thousand people that attend.  Seriously.  Since I don't drive downtown for the better health and well being of the assumingly good people that hang out down there, I made Pam drive. After all,  she is big city and all that.  And I thought she knew downtown like the back of her hand-and she does, but she doesn't actually know what the streets are, she just knows how to get where she wants to go.  Very much like me when I give directions. "Turn at the green house with the chicken barn.." This did cause me some mild inner panic until I remembered that when Pam decides to accomplish a task, it will be done.  Like finding a parking ramp and getting to our run.   Thankfully, we didn't have any issues zipping into the correct parking garage (and forgetting where we left the vehicle) and then we just followed all the people that looked like they were also turkey day runners.  

I thought I was all super cool getting the 2011 number until I realized that EVERYONE got that number!
(looks like everyone is as cool as I am!-HA!)

After we got funneled into the Target Center and then back onto the street, we ended up in line for the start of the race.  Did I mention all the people??  There was great energy from the crowd and the weather was awesome-low forty's.  When the race started, it took us over nine minutes to GET to the starting line!  And then we were off!!

"Holy crowds Batman!"

Like I said, this was Pam's first race and it was only my third, but I'm really thinking I don't like to race.  I suspect it has to do with my aversion to random crowds of people.  I really don't think they're necessary.  But there we were, amongst the crowds of pilgrims and turkeys, all huffing and puffing together.  Pam and I became somewhat experts at dodging the people walking,  admiring the racing costumes, mooning over the people with their dogs (could you imagine what Bunker would have done-eek!)  and let's just face it, anyone with a stroller scared the living daylights out of us.  NO ONE WANTS TO GET CLIPPED BY A STROLLER! 

The course took us down by the river.

Some runners and city buildings of which I don't know the names...

The miles passed quickly and we had a fun! I'm not sure what our time ended up being because in my mostly zombie state of leaving the house, I forgot my garmin, and I really don't care.  I think Pam said we were in the 37 minute range.  We then headed back to Pammy's house (after finding our car!) because I had to get back and make cream cheese frosting for my pumpkin bars that we had to bring to our local Thanksgiving celebration.

Me and Pam in rare turkey form
(In order of appearance) 

It was a great way to start out a great day!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  There is so much to be thankful for in our lives!

Soon she'll make me wear raindeer antlers....