Training Log Archive: Yukon King

yay! its still snowing. G exhausted from AM walk. Cardamon-scented cafe au lait after watching Jagge's finnish runners on RG, very exciting! Have decided to celebrate our virtual Prius (NYTimes, Thx, R) by converting a beef recipe (onions, hoisin sauce etc, green peppers) to tofu, yum!

after donning Smartwools, Rockports, & Yaktrax (nothing like Branded Equipment to set an arthritic girl up for a trot in the snow!) we go out into the rain which is making for a serious slush-trudge, we both got pretty soggy. Down to parkway & across. terrorized two batches snow monkeys, barked at a snowman, played very nicely w/ tiny Casper the Yorkie puppy.
BENCHMARK - noticed yesterday & today that I came home tired, not hurting. track this. may be significant. Also, today was intensity two.
Time for tea.

C • Molasses??? 2

it's snowing !!! G's mom Shelly came over and visited last night... it was a whale of a success socially...

Gypsy: oooh!!!!! hi! yer a dog! I love dogs! welcome to my apartment!
Shelly: Grrrrrr....ggrrrrgrrr....this is MY apartment.
Gypsy: uh, OK.... wanna play?
Shelly: Grrrrrrr. grrrr...
Gypsy: uh, OK. I'll go over here. Lemme know if you wanna play.
Shelly: ggggrrrrrrr.....

G is such a nice, hopeful little dog...

out into the snow, about 8 inches out there, played w/ a white mop-dog w/ snowballs hanging off her all over, watched the attack mini-poodle brigade go by, then snorted & flailed our way down the bikepath, thru the woods to the midsection of stairmaster & back along parkway to bikepath to retrace our steps. Snow like lace on the forest, trunks of cedars looked like cinnamon sticks. ooh, it was nice!!!

C • Does G like the snow? 3

C • mmm, sometimes i find your ... 2

evening walk as well, snow still gorgeous, met Shelly who is even more disgusted than previously by her bouncey-hopeful progeny...

on the drive up Whidbey we stopped at Greenbank Farm for some nice quiches for lunch, a great latte, some OK cherry pie...then a fabulous dogwalk/gallop in their gigantic off-leash area; I peeled off presently & scouted the cheeses & the loganberry products (bought jelly & some wine, so fab retro to make wine out of BERRIES - if they had elderberry or dandelion I swear I'd have bought that too. It made me feel like a hobbit, all sort of turn-of-the-century british countryside...)

took G-dog out for afternoon walk along the super-pretty sea-side park below the bluff upon which Langley is situated - out, along the low-tide beach (rotting fish-heads, YUM!!!) , and back, along the very cute skinny grassy park. Then wandered the village for lunch & a bit of sightseeing. THEN... dinner at the Inn....
foie gras mousseline (reminded me of...butter, YUM!) in a wine-poached date crusted w/ lovely almond slivers for an amuse bouche, nice slightly
clove-scented butternut squash soup w/ bits of soft pear floating, slow-roasted salmon and local mussels on a bed of fennel, leek, & artichoke bits that had basically been softened in a broth/butter/cream mix... venison accompanied by shredded brussels spouts subjected to treatment similar to above vegies, & a pile of sweet potato fragments that had been finely chopped & then briefly roasted w/ some savory
yumminess on it, a cheese that was like a brie w/ candied ginger (this was the only teeny non-sequitur in my opinion, a bit too powerful, but I love ginger so I wolfed it down anyhow) & grapes that had been
very briefly roasted in butter (hmmm... Ok, says I, grapes? butter? yum!) and finally a nice vanilla pannacotta in a fab tart/sweet huckleberry compote, perfect contrast. Oh, & then locally made choc. truffles,
two of which apparently involved chile & curry (& gold foil) but to me they were just insanely perfect chocolate richnesses...
wow...

Gonna do 4th enbrel... can't yet tell if I have a cold, so screw it. Called Enliven, & they say "if the cold does not resolve, stop taking enbrel." I don't have a cold yet, so...what a sea-lawyer ;-) gotta get this expt done.

In other news, off to Inn at Langley to loll about in Gypsy-friendly luxury for two days AND eat a 6 course (or sumthin like that) ladidah dinner where the chef dude comes out before the dinner & explains his purchases & thoughts on the ingredients N stuff, is that gonna be FUN or what?! I am so psyched, I couldn't sleep!

Hey. It's still sunny. but snow is coming.

C • 'so psched I can't sleep' -... 1

around & about at a little park as soon as we got onto Whidbey at Clinton, G-dog very excited & unable to do her biznis for quite sometime. But she was a good little girl on the tedious ride down, so I don't grudge her the galloping-about-sniffing-time. Stopped at a PetCo and bought her a Really Nice Collar (inflatable) to keep her from chewing stitches when the time comes & tried it on her in the parking lot -
Me: here. try this on.
G: AAAhhhh! what is that thing!?
Me: hold still. There. ya look great.
G: AAAaaahhh!
Me: don't be silly. you look great. Stylish. It's like those airline neck pillows.
G: ?
Me: Yeah. like in First Class. You're in First Class.
G: First Class?
Me: yeah. First Class. Stylish.
G: hmmmmm...
For lunch had Firecracker Chicken Burger, York Mint Pattie Cream Pie & a big Coke at Burger King. This was almost unbelievably fun at the time but digestively somewhat challenging afterwards.
Later we walked thru Langley village for a a Nicer dinner....

hey, it's still sunny today !! nice... re white trash sweet potatoes, I have perfected my ancestors' efforts, I basically wanted to elope with those sweet potatoes last night, or at least take the dish to a quiet corner & roll around in it like a hound dog...
can't tell if I have The Cold yet, but I got a bad feeling.
BENCHMARK
At this point, I THINK I am seeing some improvement in joint endurance ie I think I can go further without the same amt of resulting pain (this kind of mushy statement is what I was feebly trying to avoid w/ Plan from a few days ago, oh well). Frustratingly, not really quantifiable except the marked improvement in the two behavioral indices ie socks on & sweaters off - assoc. w/ that I THINK the ongoing difficulty in L wrist is that I'm encountering the simple structural weakness inherent in the accrued deformities, NOT the usual inflammation pain. Which is actually an improvement if you can swim thru all the polysyllabics. Also, I've mostly forgotten about the existence of hand & ankle congestion, also small but good. Another few weeks will do it, IF I can keep the enbrel squirting in, in the face of this cold, grrrrr!

back to the film set, to sniff the introduced & native odors, mesmerizing. Played w/ Whistler & w/ Coby, met nameless black cocker & Casper, saw Buddy across the street. Throat sore a bit. Mexican-Asian for dinner, to wit, black-bean tamale casserole w/ avocado & yogurt followed by a pear-apple, & a pile of teensy honey mandarines & longans. yum. (visit to Kin's Produce Market w/ bro-in-law)

no cold, no cold, no cold...hey its still sunny today. Boiling sweet potatoes for triple cooked white trash classic w/ "fancy" addition of a touch of grated orange peel. To go w/ D's choice of "boughten" cabbage rolls, &...asparagus in a complete non sequitur cuz I can. Plus brioche & that bit of bleu goat crumbled into some cream cheese for dilution purposes. All Over The Map food...also started working on G's photo website which I shall presently foist upon selected victims who NEED to see many many pictures of Very Charming Small Yellow Dogs. I am pretty excited.

C • Thanks for the sponsorship! 3

train stn etc for teeth cleaning (mmm, nice), then dog walk under a high light haze doodling around in the woods by the creek, sniffing thru the Smallville post-filming site, apparently olfactorallly fascinating. Very nice walk, felt good, good energy, no cold!
wonder if some toasted walnuts would add to the white trash sweet potatoes...