Check out this fantastic kvetching chorus, as found by Gala:
Strikes me as telling how many of our complaints are so cross-culturally universal!

Happy weekend, everyone! I’ve got a fun one planned of trail running and surfing. And cleaning out the hall closet (ugh)… but as I must fetch my ski gear for next week’s trip, and it’s ALL THE WAY IN THE BACK piled under lots and lots of other junk… must be done. Perhaps like the singers above I should put my cleaning out the hall closet rant into a pretty melody

Phew, so last post of the evening. This was exhausting!

Over the past month I fleshed out my training and racing calendar and wanted to share it here.

I decided to put triathlons on the back-burner this season and instead focus on ultrarunning. Something about plain old running just seems so… refreshing. With tris, it was all about the gear gear gear and more GEAR. Expensive. Lighter. Spiffier. Lugging it all over, packing it in separate bags and comparing your gear to the next guys gear. Goos, gels, powders, drinks, bars- getting everywhere, exploding in your bag. And, if I got one more flat tire and had to go through yet another c02 cartridge and tube, I was going to perform seppuku onto my bike pump. It never ends; triathlon started to seem like one big George Carlin “stuff” routine.

So yeah. Plain ole running. That’s it. Easy, peasy, running. Just comes down to the shoes on your feet, really. And if you are so inclined you can go even more zen than that and run barefoot if you please (I don’t think I’m quite at his pitch yet).

Oh and in case I get bored of just running, I’ve got some other fun stuff up my sleeve: capoeira and aerial acrobatics classes at Circus School (strange fact about where we live: there is not one but TWO circus schools down the street from our apartment). And, if I need another fix, I might go show up for the Funkanometry class here. But, I must stress that these are all for sheer fun and whimsy, and thank goodness none of them require copious amounts of *stuff!*

So here’s my rough 2009 TRAINING CALENDAR:

• Monday: Easy medium-long run
• Tuesday: Easy short run, capoeira
• Wednesday: hills
• Thursday: easy short run, capoeira
• Friday: long run #1, possibly surf
• Saturday: long run #2
• Sunday: rest, snooze, brunch/dim sum, read paper, hang out with bf (maybe go to dance class if i am bored)

and my 2009 RACE SCHEDULE

Feb: 6-10th Straightline Ski Camp at Alta & Snowbird (okay not so much training related, but butt-kicking nevertheless!)

March: 21- Pirates Cove 30k

April: 26th- Big Sur Marathon, and, you know who else is running it? My friend Steve, from NY. I am psyched to see him! Also am going to volunteer at the Mount Diablo 50 on the 19th. Will most likely be dragging poor Earl to this as well

May: 9th- Quicksilver 50k, which means that Big Sur Marathon is really more of a training run for me. Also in this month is Earl’s 30th birthday/my twin sister’s 40th birthday extravaganza! Their decade-big birthdays are a mere 4 days apart, so major festivities are in order. I am currently brainstorming something super extra special to do for Earl, although we may all celebrate with ski trip to Park City (currently up in the air, dependent on bro-in-law’s job status).

June: nothing on the books yet

July: 12th- Alcatraz Aquathlon- 1.5mi swim and 7 mi run. As close as I will get to a tri this year. Have the honor of doing this race with the ineffable, indefatigable, illustrious (haha, take that JA!) Mr. Felix Wong. I am currently lobbying him to sign up for Quicksilver with me as well, but so far he is on the fence.

August: 8th- Headlands 50 miler - ooh boy, the biggie. This is probably my “A” race although since this is NOT a triathlon season, I guess you could say there is no A race and I’m just gonna try and have fun and enjoy them all.

I might be throwing in more or less and tweaking this schedule here and there as well. The super exciting thing is Rick hooked me up with Brian and Melissa who helped me plan out plan my season. So far, that seems to be a very funky aspect of ultrarunning: Everyone knows EVERYONE.  It was so funny, because two of my friends from skiing, George and David, each hooked me up with one of their ultra running friends, who in turn knew each other, and also both knew Brian and Melissa.  It really is a small community!

We’ve been going out of the city so much to check out the coast, that we decided it was time we stayed IN the city and saw the coast! On Sunday we puttered around San Francisco.  The first thing we did was hit up the Velo Rouge Cafe for breakfast.  FANTASTIC egg and cheese croissant.  Earl said he didn’t think he’d like to go back (he was a bit peeved at how crowded it was– sidebar: anyone notice that San Francisco “good” places get completely and utterly mobbed?  What the heck?  I think it’s because people out here are so obsessed with being connected and yelp-ified that there is full disclosure of anywhere remotely good.  it’s annoying.  i miss my secret cozy, uncrowded haunts in nyc.  hopefully we’ll be able to find some like that here), but holy cow, that thing was scrumptious.  I’m sure to go back, although I might have to try it on off-hours. Next we went to Golden Gate Park.  We walked with Linus around the perimeter Spreckels Lake, where there were many remote-controlled model boats out on the lake.

Now here is where something hilarious happened. Linus, who isn’t the world’s biggest fan of water, JUMPED IN spreckels lake!! Just about immediately after the below picture was taken. I think he was trying to “get” a seagull. Earl and I were both completely confounded that he outright jumped in, particularly because he’s never really crazy about it when we make him go into the ocean or rivers when hiking.

So immediately after this photo Linus launches himself into the lake. So then he is floundering around like a drowning rat, and can’t get out because there’s a bit of a lip. Earl reached in and grabbed him out by the scruff, but I was almost surprised Earl was cognizant enough to do so, because he was nearly PARALYZED WITH LAUGHTER. Every so often, Earl and my senses of humor just don’t match up. (For example, he thinks the pooping santa is hilarious, and I just think it’s stupid). This is one of those times. Earl was guffawing like a madman after Linus jumped in the lake. I was just standing there like, “stop laughing and rescue the dog! people are looking at us!” Earl continued cracking up for a good 4 minutes, which in turn made ME get the giggles, too. So ultimately we came across as a pair of dog-abusing morons at Spreckels Lake!

Once Linus had been rescued from the lake, we saw the bison (not buffalo!) in Golden Gate Park, which I had already seen when I ran the marathon here a few years ago. Linus did not herd the buffalo. First he throws himself in the lake and then he is a herding failure. Whuttadog.

Next we admired the old wooden Dutch windmill, used previously to power water through the entire park. It is surrounded by lovely tulip gardens:

Because Linus had “fallen” into the lake, we figured he could use a good scrub down in some refreshing Pacific ocean. So across the street it was, to Ocean Beach!
Ocean Beach is huge, and not that crowded considering that it is in the middle of major city. Imagine how packed this place would be if it were in NYC?
Here were some futbol players gathered for a Sunday afternoon beach game:

It was crazy windy at Ocean Beach and there were LOTS of kitesurfers about!

Earl takes Linus to be cleaned off in the waves. I love this shot with the reflection of them and the kiteboarder in the background:

kiteboarder cruising by. we’re hoping to get into kiteboarding in the future, but decided to master surfing first. also, it’s pretty pricey compared to surfing ($350 for gear & lessons and probably about 2k in gear if you want to buy all your own stuff), so the barriers to entry are a bit higher. but doesn’t it look so fun?

a newly rinsed off Linus made a friend and a rousing game of chase ensued

At this point we had hoped to hit up the Cliff House for a cocktail or two, but it was disgustingly packed. Again with the crowds! But the view here was stunning so I couldn’t really blame everyone packed in there. Plus, I’m sure they were mostly tourists. You can kind of always tell the touristy places when they have vendors hawking wares outside on the sidewalk.

It started to rain a bit, and we walked over to go check out the historic ruins of Sutro Baths.
Looking down into the baths:

Walking around the ruins of the baths was very neat. Much like Seward Street Slides, I can’t get over how in today’s litigious society, the city just lets these places… be. They’re completely accessible and you can walk around where ever you please. There certainly are some spots where you could fall over, or into the water, and get hurt! I’m actually surprised how at this site preservationists have not restricted access.
I like this photo of the ducks in the baths and how you can see the waves crashing just on the otherside of the wall:

Seal Rock, from the cave at Sutro Baths. Apparently the seals which gifted the moniker have since migrated to Pier 49. Who can blame them? These rocks don’t look nearly as comfy as flat plastic docks, and also I bet they get lots of food incentive to be tourist-bait at the shopping mecca that is Pier 49!

Afterwards we had planned to go hike Sutro Heights Park and explore the old ruins of the castle, however the rain was coming down harder now, so we took refuge in the car and drove to the Presidio, to the Fine Arts Museum.

While walking out of the museum, we saw the holocaust memorial across the street and went to visit. A punkish-looking group of 4 people were walking over to the memorial at the same time as us, and they walked over to the main placard to take photos of themselves by it. There were two girls and two guys, and at this point I wasn’t really noticing anything they were doing.

Then one of the girls told the guy with the camera, “make sure you get these two lines,” pointing to some specific writing on the memorial plaque detailing the ## of deaths during the holocaust. She then turned her back to the camera and lifted up her shirt, revealing her back (tramp stamp area). On her back (this is when i really started watching, thinking “what the heck are they doing?”) was a thick dark line of 4 swastikas tattooed along with some block writing above it that i couldn’t make out. They spent a lot of time photographing her posing like that, showing off the tattoos. Her friends were kind of cheering and urging her on. After I saw her tattoos, I noticed that the girls had really short cropped haircuts (ie- shaved-ish) and the guys both had shaved heads. So at this point I kind of elbowed earl and pointed out what they were doing.

Then they walked down to the main memorial, which is statues of slain jews and one “imprisoned” figure behind a barbed wire fence. They started shit talking/yelling at the statues in a pissed off fashion. All kinds of slurs and stuff, and they were actually talking to the statues like they were alive, in the first person. This went on for a while and they were still there ranting and raving to the statues when we left.

This was one of the strangest and most disturbing things I’ve witnessed. First of all there’s the audacity of the blatant racism, and then i was hit with absurdity of them trying to “talk” to a statue… hello, it’s a statue, what exactly are you hoping to accomplish by screaming at it? get out your misdirected rage?

Mainly i just felt sorry that other people were there to appreciate the memorial which these fucktards were ruining. In retrospect, I’m sure these people were there more with the intent to bother other people trying to pay their respects at the memorial- more to get a rise out of them, than anything else.

At the time i considered confronting them, however decided it wouldn’t be worth it to engage them in any sort of dialogue… (also, in that case, what would you say? go home you racist kooks? not sure… and, does what they were doing fall under their civil rights to “protest” at a memorial? probably…ugh, what a can of worms).

Anyways, it was weird, and sad. I thought everyone in this city was supposed to be hopped up on peace & love and all mellowed out.

After witnessing this, Earl and I were in somber and quiet moods. We drove to Fort Point to see the historic Civil War fort, but weren’t really that gung ho about exploring all of the intricate armament rooms.
I like how in this shot you can see the Golden Gate bridge peeking over the top of Fort Point:

We stood for a bit and watched the surfers at Fort Point catching some waves under Golden Gate Bridge. They weren’t getting many good waves, and the waves that did come in kind of would steer them right into the rocks!

One thing I was bummed that we didn’t find was Hopper’s Hands. Again, I wasn’t really in the mood to run around searching for them, but think it would be cool to come back to Fort Point sometime for more of the exhibits and also to find them.

Finally, we capped off the day with dim sum in the Richmond district. I love how SF places serve dim sum all day. I finally had some xiao long bao! San Francisco Chowhounders call these XLB. It took me a while to figure that out. For the record, these XLBs were NOT as good as the ones from our favorite NYC dimsum place. So I’ll have to keep searching

These spicy red wontons, however, were superb:

You are not going to believe me when I tell you.  I threw a dinner party and made some fancy schmancy gourmet food, and it came out GREAT!

Many props for my former NYC-tri club friend and chef extraordinaire Andrea, who recommended me these two “no fail, sure to impress” recipes.

When we lived in Manhattan, Earl and I had friends over for dinner on our patio just about every other week, if not more often.   It was so simple and fun.  Run 1 block over to the hungarian meat shop for some meats, hit up the wonderful bakery for dessert, marinate the meats then throw em on the grill.  Add cocktails and the patio and you’ve got your party.

Now, no grill (well, technically there’s a grill in the building’s backyard, but what an endeavor to haul all your food out there etc) and no patio.  So, I’m forced to actually cook stuff when people come over.  ¡Qué horror!   Also, this has scary implications of outing me as the infantile chef I really am.

Hence, last week found me begging Andrea for something easy yet scrumptious to impress our friends Don and Lianne.

Not missing a beat, here’s what the ace suggested:
Sage-Stuffed, Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin over Lentil and Scallion Salad
and for dessert, Nantucket Cranberry Pie, served a la mode.

I followed the recipes to the letter and must declare, I was super proud of how it all came out!  Everything was SO, SO good.  I think I redeemed myself from the disgusting radicchio linguine debacle.

Photos:

I made the dessert first, since it would have to bake for a while and I figured it could be cooling while we ate. I have no mixer so hence the silly “whip batter really fast with a fork” method.  At the least I should pick up a whisk!

I ended up using a few other spices in the pork, mainly because the store didn’t have much sage other than in the “variety park” fresh sage kit. There’s rosemary and thyme in there as well.

In their prosciutto blankets and ready to bake

One thing I did a bit wrong- the lentils were kinda overcooked and a bit mushy. So I wouldn’t cook them as long as recommended on the package for next time.

The final product, ooh la la:

The crowd looks happy:

Even dessert was GREAT. Everyone had seconds, and in two cases thirds of the cake!

After dinner I accosted Don, who grew up on the coast of Australia, with all my stupid questions about surfing. He’s an phenomenal surfer and always takes these crazy month long surf trips to Indonesia and the like. I’m sure all my really beginner-level inquiries, such as “how do you know if the wave is breaking right or left?” were amusing to him.
Visualize the napkin as the “wave” and you can see his demonstration. We also have some drawings on the pad which you can spot in the bottom of the photo. Haha.

All in all, dinner was a raving success and it was so nice to see them again (particularly Lianne, who I haven’t seen as much as Don). They are constantly inviting us to their Tahoe ski house, so it was great to have them over at our place!

Again, many thanks to Andrea for passing along such wonderful recipe recommendations. She truly is a cooking rockstar.

So last Saturday I turned 28, and because the conditions up in Tahoe were pretty bad, we decided to stay in town and beach it instead.

Earl got us three-hour surf lessons and we spent the morning surfing at Linda Mar beach.  Both of have surfed a few times before, but neither of us have had any formalized instruction and are only at the point where we can paddle out and stand on the board coming in.  No turning.  So the lesson was hitting all the basics and also informative on learning how to read the waves, where to go, when to go, etc.  I now feel knowledgeable enough to go out on my own and not get killed.

Post surfing, we picked up sandwiches from the outrageously good Colombo’s deli in Pacifica and headed to Grey Whale Cove for a picnic lunch. I had the tomaso’s which is turkey, melted cheddar and swiss, and bacon on sourdough with mayo, lettuce and tomato.  Earl had the club house- ham, turkey, bacon, swiss and american on Dutch Crunch.  I’d never heard of Dutch Crunch bread before, but HOT DAMN was it good!

tomaso’s special from colombos:

our picnic

here is the view from our picnic site

May I pleeeeease have a bite of your sandwich? comeon, just one bite. comeon, a little chomp. just one chomp. look at how cute i am! don’t i deserve a bite?

The stairs leading down to Grey Whale Cove. You can see part of Devil’s Slide area over on the right. It’s a very common landslide area as I’m sure you can tell!

spotted this little guy near the stairs

Linus is a weirdo. He puts his snout in the sand for who-knows what reason. Then it gets all sandy and I get worried he is getting sand up his nostrils.

We sat and read and hung out on the beach for an hour or so before continuing on down the coast.
Path leaving Grey Whale Cove. Can you spot the surfer who broke his board? It’s apparently a bit of a trouble spot for surfing. Big waves, but rocky and sharks. I thought this comment on a surfing website was amusing:

General Consensus: This spot is good if u dont mind being alone in sharky waters on a heavy powerful wave that can kick your ass.

Needless to say, E and I are NOT good enough to surf Grey Whale Cove yet, so we are just there to enjoy the sand!
The rest of my birthday was a leisurely afternoon cruising down the Cabrillo Highway (CA-1) and stopping to check out cute coastal towns and of course take in the beach views. Our final destination was Duarte’s, a “California coastal instition” (per chowhound) in Pescadero, where we had dinner reservations.
Here’s the view of San Gregoria State Beach. Stunning.

We lingered on this bench sharing kisses for quite a while

There were some neat plants growing near that bench. They kinda look like cactus, but have no prickers and yield lovely pink flowers:

a closeup of the plants and flowers:

of course linus joined us on the bench

We went and toured Pigeon Point lighthouse (we were considering camping on the beach here for the night, although couldn’t really find the right spot).

I witnessed my first sunset over the Pacific (wouldn’t this be a beautiful shot if there were no cars or powerlines in the way!)

It was kind of neat at Pigeon Point- all of these people had driven over here to watch the sun sink over the ocean. We went and stood by the shore and spread along the waterline were many, many couples hugging and holding hands as they watched it set. Kind of unifying, in an odd way. Don’t go there to watch the sunset if you are single. You’ll feel left out without someone to smooch!

Finally, it was to Duarte’s for dinner. Duartes is one of those places where you get the feel that if you were a Pescadero local and ate there ALL they time, they would love you. In fact, we watched on in minor aggravation as ALL the people who knew the bartender repeatedly got served before us. The food was good, however I don’t know if it’s worth the drive alone. If you’re going down that way for the view and the trip, I’d say stop in, but not a stand-alone kinda place. The highlights of the meal were the cream of green chile soup and the WONDERFUL olallieberry pie

.

Happy birthday to meee

What must one do with a stinky, smelly corgi who’s been romping in sand and salt water?

HAhaHAhahaHA.

Why, emit peels of evil laughter while you give him a bath, of course.

You know all the joy Linus has when he runs around the beach?  Well, in the bath he is SO SAD.  These pictures crack. me. up.

ears are all the way back:

makes himself as small as possible

won’t you please save me from this?

getting the scruff

sad dog is sad

He lived through the torture

aww

When he dried off, he was super fluffy and huggable. He was so soft I didn’t take him to the dog park for the next two days just because I didn’t want him to get all dirty again! (We instead strolled the streets). Here’s the shampoo we used on him, and I would say it worked great. He went from stink-o to softy which was splendid.

I have been a bit lazy about getting photos off my camera (and blogging), and I have lots to catch you up on.  So my apologies for the next few mega-posts.  I am going to split them up into a few different posts but put it all up at once so please bear with me!

Why have I not been blogging much?  Where have I been?

Mostly, at the beach!  I am not kidding.  It’s been *gorgeous* here, and the beach is a mere 15 minutes away!  So we’ve been exploring down the coastline on CA-Highway 1 and found a few breathtaking spots.

I have a new routine on Fridays and Saturdays which consists of going to the mountains for a long trail run in the mornings and then hitting the beach immediately after for reading or surfing.  The trails at McNee Ranch leave right from the Grey Whale Cove Beach Parking lot and I found a nice 8-mile loop which is mostly fire trail.   I brought Linus, let him run along with me and then we went down to the beach post-run.  One problem with this is that there lots of unidentified poop on the trail, which you know who constantly stops to eat.  Yuck.

Here’s my report and photos on some of the wonderful beaches we’ve found close to San Francisco.

In the town of Pacifica, 15 minutes outside of San Francisco, there’s Linda Mar Beach.  This town is so cute and has a great little beach-y feel.  I am AMAZED at how close it is to the city, yet how far removed it feels.  I am totally floored by that fact.  Compared to how honky tonk and riff-raffy the Jersey shoreline is, this is just… shocking to me.  And the beaches here are basically empty!!  Check out in the photos below how few people there are on all of them (lightyears away from when Earl and I went to Sandy Hook, NJ- the much heralded “uncrowded” and “undiscovered” NJ beach- and could barely find space for our blanket!).

Linus going for a swim at Linda Mar

Note the lineup of surfers in the background

Check out these dudes who were paddleboarding. It’s apparently like surfing except you stand up and paddle instead of laying on your board.

Haha, he hates the waves:

Another beach we found and LOVE (it’s my favorite thus far) is Grey Whale Cove. Oh my gosh, talk about GORGEOUS. Sheer Pacific coast beauty. It’s stunning. There’s no other way to describe it, I’m beside myself every time we walk over to the bluffs above the beach.
I wish I had better photog skills, because my rinky dink shots below fail to do this stupendous part of the coastline justice! The beach is apparently a nude beach, and we have seen some nudists there over the past month, but they’re not that prominent and infact I venture their presence helps keep away some of the crowds away.
Grey Whale Cove:

Linus climbed up these rocks. They were HIGH, I was impressed he got up there.

Just south of Grey Whale Cove is Montara State Beach, also lovely, and then the town of Half Moon Bay. Half Moon Bay also has a fishing pier with some fantastic seafood shacks.

Crab pots abound

The beach at Half Moon Bay is 4 miles long and seems endless. I did a 6-mile jog (out and back) down it while Earl and Linus hung out. The jog really sucked, the sand was SUPER soft and I was flailing all over the place. It was a disaster, really. It took me an hour and 40 minutes to go 6 stupid miles and I kept taking off my shoes thinking it would be easier to run on the sand without them (it wasn’t).

Post run, of course I took Linus to play in the waves!

Running around on the beach is Linus’ FAVORITE thing. He loves it like no other. He embodies pure doggy glee when he gets to run around and play chase in the sand and bark like there is no tomorrow.

turning on the corgi afterburners

One hilarious thing he does is let us bury him. I have no idea why he lets us do this, but he will just lay down on the sand and stay while we pile sand on him. SO funny.

Post-beach we enjoy pasta, meatballs, leeks and garlic bread (see- New Courtney actually gets some veggies in there whereas Old Courtney would just have a double serving of bread)

E to Linus (wrestling him & teasing him):  “what’s wrong with you, boy?  I read online today that you’re supposed to be the 11th smartest dog.  what happened?  why aren’t you smarter?”

me: (indignantly): He *IS* smart!

E: Name one intelligent thing he’s done other than convincing you to love him.

hee.

Check out these two fakers.  Oh sure, they *play* at being enemies but sometimes I look up from my desk and spy them snuggled together for a snooze.

Just wanted to put up a happy post of warm-wishes to my industrious parents, who finally had their “barn” (aka- barn-style garage) finished on their lovely winter home in Bartlet, NH.

Look how fantastic it turned out!  Can you picture a more “New England” style home than this?! Just looking at it makes me want to bust out my maroon woolen moose sweater and some fuzzy socks and sit with my mother by the fire while chatting over a steaming cup of cinnamon-spiked apple cider.   I love how the barn came out and am so thrilled for them.  Plus this means even more space for us when we come visit (there is an inlaw apartment over the garage).

and a closeup of the barn:

A few notable things from these photos:

• in the first pic, if you squint VERY HARD you can see the very ex$pen$ive lilac tree which Earl and I purchased from a garden store in NJ and planted in a whiskey barrel our NYC patio garden (you can see it here in the very back corner).  It was $150 and it never bloomed where we had it- probably because we had it less than six months before we had to move!  When we drove up to visit my parents before we drove cross country we brought the lilac tree with us (as well as a bunch of other plants!) so that it would live on and stay in the family.  I hope hope hope it flourishes up there despite the frigid Mount Washington Valley climate!!!!
• Also in the first pic is my old Taco Supreme aka my beloved Tacoma Truck, living out her golden years as a worker-bee truck for my parents.  So many memories were made in that baby, from off roading with high school friends to hauling around bunches of sorority girls at UNH to helping move to NYC… according to my father she still runs great.
• In the second photo you can see the weathervane my sisters and I pooled together and purchased for their Christmas present a few years ago.  It has been waiting for proper placement for SO LONG!
• Another notable fact:  the barn raising was delayed many days because the builders had a clause in their contract that they would not work when it was under 10 degrees.  Heehee (seeing that it is 75* here and I went surfing at Linda Mar beach yesterday and layed out afterwards in a bikini I find this somewhat amusing).