Veggie Delight

The Schnoogs and I were happy to return to our Wednesday night dinner routine this week, celebrating with a Vegetarian Chinese find...a location that is a whopping 4 or 5 blocks away from Holly's dorm.

Touting all vegan/vegetarian options, Veggie Delight had a huge menu that took us some time to peruse. I must admit that I was a little distracted by the funky green decor with pink accents, combined with mirrors, wood carving and blue twinkle lights. I would like to identify the look with some intelligent-sounding name, but perhaps it is best to just leave it untitled or drop it In the larger bucket of "eclectic and almost tacky."

The design of the restaurant aside, Holly and I settled on some orange veggie chicken (described on Yelp as a must-have), lemon veggie chicken, broccoli, brown & white rice and wonton soup. Everything was extremely flavorful. We weren't wild about the texture of the lemon veggie chicken, but the sauce more than made up for it AND the portions are generous, which means that Holly and one of her roommates will be enjoying leftovers for lunch on Friday.

Not a bad deal for a starving college student!

3 on a Leash

David takes on the task of walking our dogs - all 4 of them - twice a day. Admittedly, Shadow does not cover the distance she used to so it is really the equivalent of a 1/4 mile or so with all 4, back to the car to let Shadow relax and then off with the crazy pack for another 2-3 miles.

We like the weekends when I am along for the walks, as it is nice catch up time for David and I, and we can each handle 2 dogs - 1 leash in each hand - without too much craziness. The pups love it and certainly make the most of their time cruising the great outdoors.

Walking 3 dogs, all on retractable leashes is no easy feat. I can hold my own, but must admit that if the pack ever decided to make a break for it on my watch, they could probably orchestrate it between Scooby's strength, Daphne's clumsiness and Fred's deafness.

Don't let on to my weakness with them!

Perseverence

After blogging it up about the 3 crazy dogs on their leashes, it seems only fair to share this shot of Shadow, following loyally behind on her 1/4 mile "victory loop" at the start of our morning walk.

She is 15 years old, arthritic, aching and the sweetest, most tenacious pet we have ever had.

Every once in a grand while she opts to stay home when we gather the pack for a walk, but for the most part, she shuffles along to get up, slowly walks out to the truck and patiently waits to be lifted up and in.

Her portion of the walk is fairly functional as she tends to business and slowly makes her way along the route. She certainly isn't fast, but she always keeps going. That dog perseveres, period.

As Elizabeth is no doubt saying right now, God bless Shadow.

Team Lucille

The lack of postings of late is in no way an indication that nothing is going on. Quite to the contrary, as a matter of a fact!

I will be blogging about things from a month ago at the rate I am going these days, but for today we have to only look back a few days...to Saturday...to enjoy a nice morning in beautiful Huntington Beach with some of my favorite peeps, a very cute dog and a worthy cause.

The Memory Walk is an event introduced to me by my fine friend Elizabeth, who leads a team each year in honor of her mom (named Lucille, hence our team name!) to help raise money and awareness for Alzheimer's, a disease that sadly affects many people - either those who suffer from the illness themselves, or their families who sadly watch the deterioration (and eventual loss, as was the case with David's Dad last month) of the people they love.

Elizabeth has been coordinating walkers and donations for several years now, inviting me to join her this year. After checking out the event on the website, I realized that they encouraged dog participation too, so we decided that it would be a nice event for Fred Fairbanks IV. All dogs were given a purple memory bandanna to sport, which Fred did willingly. The dog costume contest however, we politely declined. Fred is not into dressing up, even if it is Halloween.

We had a great time on the course (we opted to do the longer 4-mile jaunt). Elizabeth, Kris, Terri, Brandy, Jim, Gay, Fred & I all trekked along the boardwalk in support of the cause and the perfect So Cal day. It was one of those events that was just special...it made me think of David's Dad a lot, so I was kind of quiet, but it was a very positive and uplifting experience, especially with all of the volunteers along the course, cheering us on.

Fred did very well in his debut outing and celebrated his walk with a bit of breakfast on the beach after the walk, followed by a long snooze in the car, his fur blowing in the breeze created by the open sunroof.

It was a good day for Team Lucille indeed!

Homecoming

Last Friday was homecoming for TOHS, so like all good alumni should do, Holly dragged us along to see the game and festivities that are always a part of the celebration.

We rolled into the game right before 1/2 time, so we got there just in time to see the parade (I have to agree with Schnoogs on this one...not a lot of effort was put into it, especially compared to the whole halftime show her class produced last year), but the band is always good to listen to.

Fireworks are a staple of the TOHS Homecoming, and this year did not disappoint. While we were enjoying the show, it suddenly occurred to us that Daphne was probably at home under something and shaking; thunder, fireworks and loud noises in general send her into quite a state of neurosis.

The game was an easy win - Thousand Oaks beat Calabasas 42 to 10 - and we avoided all of the post-game traffic by exiting through the side gate and walking home.

It is good to know all of the tricks when you have been around for a while!

Epic

Holly uses the word epic a lot...it is actually a pretty good word and comes to mind when I consider this shot that I took while in NY the other week.

I was walking along in midtown when suddenly I look up and realize that the Empire State Building is just there, right along side me, looming in it's very dignified way. It was enough to inspire me to take out the Blackberry and snap a photo, as evidenced here.

Epic. Epic indeed.

Knott (too) Scary

Sunday was, as I indicated in the last post, a busy day. After completing the Pumpkin Run (that included clean-up and a tasty taco lunch because boy, I was hungry!), it was back home to shower and pack up to head out for an evening at Knott's Berry Farm for their Knott's Scary Farm Haunt.

Not typically a big fan of Halloween, late nights at theme parks when I have to be at work early in the morning, being scared or creeped out or repetitive trips on crazy roller coasters, I have to admit that this was not originally how I planned to spend a Sunday night. Some convincing to "give it a try" and "just come along to be with everyone" somehow caught me at a moment where I decided that it would be a good idea to go.

We took advantage of a VIP dinner prior to the re-opening of the park, which turned out to be great both in terms of having dinner covered and avoiding some of the crowds. We also were able to ride one of the roller coasters "Ghost Rider" before anyone else, so the lines were nonexistent...a fabulous thing if you wanted to ride the thing multiple times, as Schnoogs and Briana did.

I opted to sit it out for round two. Something about the headache, slightly nauseous stomach and fact that I just about wet my pants on the first go-round kept me from wanting to duplicate that experience. That is one crazy wooden coaster, let me tell you!

We went on some other crazy, looping coaster that had us dangling and twirling high above Orange County. It was thankfully smoother and was more of a glider, so I didn't have the same sensation of all of my bones and teeth bouncing apart, but it was still one heck of a stomach turner!

Things got better when we got to the Log Jammer. That is more my speed. It was kind of dark and there were creatures jumping out from every turn and corner...how much can one girl be expected to take? The anticipation of someone jumping out alone was enough to keep me looking over my shoulder for the rest of the night.

We all agreed that going on a Sunday and having dinner in the park was the way to go...we were finished up by 10:45 or so, our fill of mazes, coasters, monsters and screaming filled for the year, whew!

Pumpkin Run

Sunday was a big day for the MIMs! Our Moms in Motion team captains, Anne & Holly, were race directors for the Westlake City Celebration aka The Pumpkin Run. MIMs were crawling all over the place to help, we had a great turnout!

I had the privilege of shuttling the team working at the 5K and 10K turnaround water stations...all were members of the Agoura Hills HS track team (their running coach is our running coach too) and even though it was early on a Sunday morning, they were all enthusiastic and excited to be a part of the event...it is their community too, after all.

Once the water station workers were in place, the 5K race began and then I set out for the 10K an hour later. It was a good course, only about 200 people running the longer portion, so it wasn't very crowded and it was a nice shady downhill for the first 2 miles or so. It got a little hot and sunny on the back portion of the course, so I was glad to loop back to the shade once I hit mile 4, even if it did mean that nice little downhill had turned into a nice little UP hill.

I actually finished 4th in my age category and had a personal record on the 10K according to my Nike+ system. I should just leave it at that and bask in the glory, but the truth of the matter is that there were only 5 people in my age category.

Maybe I need to start competing in the 75+ age group, I bet that I'd sweep that group!

Getting Dirty

While in SF last weekend for the 1/2 marathon, I had the chance to catch with my friends SaraJ and Tina, as well as their kids Luke and Gemma and the dogs, Scout and Memphis. It was a beach outing and I got to come along for the ride to catch up and spend a couple of hours together.

It was a cool but beautiful day at the beach and everyone loved running around the great outdoors, discovering cool things like sticks and rocks and dirt. We finally made it down to the beach, where there were even more fascinating things like seaweed, sand and mud!

These kids are not afraid 0f a little dirt, let me tell you! Gemma rather enjoyed rubbing her hands in the mud, picking it up and moving it in large clumps from one end of the beach to the other, and Luke at one point in time just laid down face first and shoved some sand down his shirt for good measure.

I like the way these kids do things, fully present and all in! Who cares about a little dirt in the car afterwards?

A Funny One

I came across this picture of Holly on Facebook the other day and it makes me laugh.

I can't imagine where she got the idea to do a silly pose and capture the moment to share in a public setting!

That kid cracks me up.