Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Long Haul

Today was the first time here in Oak Park that I went for a run and Ashby biked along side me.  We had a great time!  It was a six mile course.  We were provisioned for the long haul.

time for a snack break
we should do this every day!

 After a few stops for snacks and water, Ashby was getting cold at about mile four.  I suggested that it's harder to keep warm on a bike than when running, so we decided to switch sports. 

After a few blocks,  I wasn't very pleased with the fit of Ashby's ride, so we switched back, finishing with Ashby on the bike and myself on foot.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Stationary Cycling #1

It's a new day.  I've been thinking a lot lately about how to play the whole cycling thing in the coming year.  I'm having a difficult time talking myself into the usual rides, and have been resigning myself to even more time on the trainer than I usually spend (minimal).  So today I did the following:

yes, I can ride at 1PM in Oak Park!
view from the ride.


wildlife, again. They are everywhere.
 Returning home from midday activities, Ashby said: "The crazy Mama movie on her trainer."
Ashby: ride like you're out with the guys....

has everybody finished cleaning the house, yet?

A day in Madison...

hmmm....do i know you?
 Another evil twin!  I was in Madison today for a conference on progressive education.  I met many interesting people, including someone who has lived in all of my places: East Bay, VT, OR, Madison.
When it was time to leave the conference, there it was, the car!  Witness: i heart Oregon; VT euro sticker; Vermont farmers buy local; keep Tahoe  blue; OR license plate; OR public broadcasting, and of course the roof rack.
here we go again!

The upshot of the day was fabulous. Great conference and great people.  Well spent time with my own colleagues.  I gave a presentation on safe and inclusive Physical Education.  It's always great to get adults running around, playing things like "everybody's it".

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The year of the six-pack

the face or the ass
So Jim & I were out running a few weeks ago and he brought his camera.  It was a truly gorgeous day, and we were saying..."how could it be any better?"  It couldn't have been any better. The air was crisp, sun was warm, trees were shady and beginning to turn.  We topped it off with a fabulous LaGrange restaurant that Jim had discovered.

Jim took a few shots of me running, just to prove how happy I was on that day. This, a sign of a true friend.  He knew what I'd do with these photos.  Jim says that the pictures aren't any good  because my face isn't showing.  Doesn't he know that I don't do all this training so my face will look better?








six pack or flab?

And here we are, left with proof of the results of the year of the six-pack. The best I could muster. I was thinking that at the end of the season we could all compare our six packs, for fun, of course, but by the bitter end I could tell that my friends were more sensitive about these issues than myself.At least one person won't let us see their abdominal area, others insist that they need to lose weight in the next few months, some always change the subject, and on and on. What do you expect from a gang of male triathletes who don't even shave down?








Santa Monica Beach State Park
I guess it's really a political hotbed, whether one is willing to display their abdominal region. It must be the Californian in me.  Only days after this photo was taken, I enjoyed being in LA, on the beach.  I was sweetly reminded that there are all sorts of body types in Southern California and everyone is wearing a bikini.  Yes! Sun! Summer! Warmth! Physical Activity! 





Sometime ask me about the jogger in the velvet skirt and tank.  Now That was a great LA moment!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Wildlife Oak Park

 We walked out the door, ready for the day, and lo and behold, Addie spotted a live critter in the shrubbery right outside the back door.  Look, everybody!!! It's a real cute wild animal!!!  Hey Mom, what is that?
Is this creature afraid of the dogs? the chickens next door? the cats? the squirrels? Apparently not.

absolutely NOT camera shy.
That, my children, is called a possum.  Peter was clever enough to insist that I grab the camera.  But of course!!!!

Monday, October 25, 2010

"Chicked"

OK, enough with all this madness.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chicked

Look at the definition carefully. A man is passed by a woman when he should outperform her. That's just the thing. How can one man be upset that he is passed by a woman, any woman, not knowing or even really caring what her athletic background, ability isI'm so tired of these mainstream guys invading my wild outdoorsy sports. Remember the '70s and '80s?  Half of these guys were either still in grammar school or were still playing rugby and hockey. Capital H harumph!!!!!
no...you had the extra glass of wine, honey.


Today we rolled out of bed, made some coffee, and hightailed it to the corner to watch the annual Frank Lloyd Wright 10K.  It's always fun to spectate after a busy summer slogging through Ironman training. 
Meanwhile, I am near the completion of my first afghan.  It's the '50s pattern that has bedevilled me for nearly a year.  The piece is quite complicated, requiring constant attention and often unravelling.  It's beginning to serve it's purpose now that I'm so far along. 


Ironmen
We saw a lot of our friends running about a mile from the finish.  I was out about an hour before racers passed, so I got a chance to meet neighbors out for their morning routines. We met a guy who used to live across the street, he showed up to chitchat with us carrying a giant lit cigar.  Yes, it's 9AM on a Sunday morning and we're going to watch an athletic event inhaling second hand smoke from a cigar.  We were told by the smoker that, "with cigars you don't inhale."  


We saw Mike, David, Paul, and a bunch of other folks.  I knew that Jack might pull out due to injuries, so it was good to see him come through with big smiles.  I later learned that Mike was running with Jack in order to slow him down

Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Depot

Through OP, Berwyn, Cicero, Chicago to get there. Chicago, OP back home.

iced tea!
 As I mentioned months ago, in Idaho, we weren't too thrilled with what has happened to so-called road food in the US.  I yearned for the Depot, a real American Diner with awesome food, service, design, and music. Here we are today, enjoying some fried chicken and a club sandwich!
coca cola from mexico....no hfcs, only sugar!


Thursday, October 21, 2010

everybody makes mistakes...

So today Ashby insisted that we bike to school/work.  Thank goodness, because I was starting to get lazy and comfortable in that van.  It was a marvelous sunny morning, but quite chilly at forty three degrees.  I knew that we would have to bundle up and bundle we did!  A good ride across town and Ashby didn't get cold, which is a real problem as temps drop.  Here's the magical moment about three quarters of the way to school where we ride over the Eisenhower Expressway (or highway 290 as we might say in other regions).  Every morning it is just jam packed with traffic going both east and west.  Today we stopped to marvel at the newly paved road, moving as slow as ever.  Alas, at least we can imagine a world with fewer cars and more bikes.
The Ike at 8:30 AM
School! Work! Fun!
hmmm....this means go around, right?

And then a day of work and school.  Today I had the honor of visiting Ashby's class after I taught PE so I could help the kids with knit and crochet.  Some say that Ironman is hard, this is Hard!









Right about lunchtime I was walking out to the schoolyard and I must have been deep in thought. Lo and behold, I look up just in time to avoid smashing into these two stanchions.  Holy Moly that was close!!!!  I've walked around these barriers at least one hundred times since the beginning of the school year.  Nonetheless, caught up in my own moment and preoccupied, I expected that the sidewalk wouldn't end.  End, it did, and I couldn't help but be reminded of an incident which involved sawhorse earlier this year.  Alas, it occurred to me, that, yes, in the blink of an eye,everybody makes mistakes.

It wasn't until later this afternoon that I learned about a mistake that Peter had made.  He had dropped Addie off this morning, promising to leave her bike so that she could ride home.  After Ashby and I made it all three point seven miles home, we got the phone message from Addie: Peter had not left her helmet at school, so she was waiting at the library for me to pick her up.  Ashby and I promptly boarded the bike mobile and thus Addie was safe and Ashby had completed a ten point eight mile bike day!  Phew!!!! Ironman, indeed! Those are my kids!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I don't want buns of steel, I want cinnamon buns


I was out and about in the minivan today and I found our evil twin! Another minivan, driving across Oak Park (actually traversing Forest Park and Oak Park), so I got a shot of the rear, plastered in bumper stickers! I followed the woman around for a few blocks until I think she realized I was there and pulled over. What is it about finding another bumperstickeredvan that makes me so happy? I was particularly pleased with a lot of these stickers. For example: I don't want buns of steel, I want cinnamon buns. Sometimes around here a bumper stickered van will have a lot of sports teams & honor roll proclamations and such, sort of an homage to family fun & achievement in Chicagoland. This was an honest to goodness likeness of somebody wearing their opinion and attitude on the outside!  Go Team!

I am not alone!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The WORST soccer Mom

Finally, Red Hawk Park
OK, it happened today. Complete meltdown on the drive (yes, it IS a Sunday) at 7:30 AM to St. Charles and back for a soccer match.  Where is St. Charles, you wonder? Well, it's about TWENTY miles beyond Carol Stream, IL, which is where the match was being played.  Needless to say, we were late.  What's more, since I'm the only woman in God's perfect creation (suburbia) without a GPS, I had to call Peter in DC and admit my total failure and ask for his technical assistance.  This was horribly upsetting to me, because my number one argument with Peter is that he over-uses his i-phone when navigating in the automobile.  So....this was a morning of many many humiliations.  As I was spewing a stream of profanities into Peter's ear he wondered, aloud, if Addie was in the car with me.  Of course she was in the car with me...and so was Ashby! And so it goes....
The WORST Soccer Mom

The BEST Soccer Moms took the best parking spots.

Wait one minute...i've biked down this stretch of St. Charles hundreds of times!

And I got there quicker!!!!
 Finally, ashamed and sitting to the side of On Time parents, I  enjoy soccer!  See, this is fun! It's autumn, kids are running, parents are sitting in portable chairs.  This is the essence of America!!! In fact, this may be the one place where the Red & the Blue come together--to enjoy the life affirming habit of drinking coffee out of paper cups and coaxing small people to force balls through small spaces.
And so, as usual, last to arrive, last to leave.  Most of the other families have some other commitment to race off to. Lucky for us, we're going to drive slowly eastward on North Avenue to discover how tiny the sign for Pleasant Hill Drive is, after all.  Turns out, the sign is quite small and it's not actually on the corner, it's a yellow sign before the split arrives.  What was I doing when I flew by the sign? I wasn't checking my GPS, I wasn't talking on the phone, or even texting.  I might have been sipping coffee out of my fifteen year old travel mug (likely), I might have been listening to the Eagles (likely), and I might have been waxing poetic about how me and the guys ride out here to the DuPage Airport all the time (again, likely).
The fun, for the Steward-Nolans usually arrives after the crowds leave.

Goalie practice.

Safe!

Shoot!
Score!
After we resolve the issue of the signage on North Avenue, I figure we might pass a fabric store somewhere along NINETEEN miles of retail. Well, I guess not, unless Target, Dunkin Donuts, Walmart, McDonald's, Costco, Portillo's, Starbucks, or BP sell fabric. But again, if I was carrying an i-phone, then I would have discovered that there is a joanne's fabric just north of North Avenue on York Road in Elmhurst (this the vortex that sucked Peter and I up a few weeks ago when we were meeting to dine at Zenwich).

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Two of my friends went to Ironman and all I got was this T-shirt!

 So the guys returned victorious from Hawaii this week and we all anxiously await their recounting of adventures at the great Kona Ironman.  I've always said that the closest I'll ever come to Kona was in 1994 when I was third overall and second in my age group, standing right next to the two women on the podium who snagged slots to Ironman.  But I think the gift that EP dropped off today brings me just a bit closer to the real thing.

Yeah...I heard it was really hot out there on the lava beds.
My friends can properly identify my taste!
Now, forever more, I can say: "I may not have raced Ironman, but I have a shirt from the big island, hand-delivered from a Real Ironman."

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Rattler!!!!

Old LA meets New



 So our weekend in LA ends. Monday was all about walking around town.  The girls and I made the trek to Peet's and Noah's for breakfast.  I love the parked car right on this pristine Westwood street.  All of the houses are picture perfect CA stucco, with watered lawns and rose gardens.  LA is so inconsistent that it is absoluteley consistent.
The four of us made it up to Franklin Canyon Park for a short hike.  The air was hot but crisp with the scent of eucalyptus.  I warned Ashby that we might encounter a rattlesnake, but after a lifetime of walking and running on western trails, I hardly believed that we would see a snake.



Our trail summits at a fire station

 It took a while to get down the hill.  Due to our poor planning, the sandals that the girls were wearing were pretty slippery on the dry trailbed.  It was also truly hot.  When we were nearly back at the trailhead, Ashby and Peter stopped ahead of Addie and I because they had spotted a rattlesnake!  It was off to the side of the trail, moving along at a very gradual pace.  I was so happy that I had the camera. Much better than the day this summer when the Gogebic 6 spotted the bear with no camera handy.
the camoflauge made taking the shot a challenge

 And then on to one of the tourist draws of LA.  The house where John Cassavetes filmed Woman Under the Influence, with Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands.  Worth the trip, indeed.
see....i am a good mother. I can do this....


Addie's Gena Rowlands....or is it Peter Falk?
And then it was lunch at Home in Hollywood, then the Airport and back home.





Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Pali & Wedding at Santa Monica Beach

Jim Rockford's trailer park is up the road, in Malibu.
Welcome to the Pacific Palisades.  I always thought that I knew what the Palisades would be like, and from what I saw, my preconception wasn't that far off the mark.  There is, however, one tiny corner of Pali that is ALL about me.  There is a trailer park directly across from the Ocean.  There is even a cross walk that takes a pedestrian or cyclist across PCH (that would be Pacific Coast Highway) and to the beach.  We were standing on a bluff overlooking the trailer park in these photos.  Will and Jen, as usual, have the whole thing figured out.  They are as wonderful and talented as ever, as hard working as ever, and are now positioned only minutes away from year round beach weather.
it is about the sunlight, afterall!

This one is so ready for southern cali.

the consummate host.

All day, every day, play and water & sun.
 And then it was time to sneak into the public restroom to change into our fancy clothes for the wedding.  Only the Steward-Nolans would attempt such a thing....but look at the results!!!!  Addie's dress comes via Jodi, whose hand-me-downs have outfitted the both of us many times. 
witness the shirt dress! Gorgeous!!!

My one and only Betsy Johnson, none the worse for wear, nine years old.

he can pull anything off.
 The wedding on the beach was simply wonderful and we're so happy for S & Xavier.  So many photos were taken, I held off until the reception and stuck to the carousel, at that.  Imagine this...an old fashioned carousel and building all to ourselves for the party!  We loved it.  Later on Addie admitted that perhaps she was dreading a boring wedding, but she said that she had a fabulous night!
Last night was soooo fun!

pure joy!
And so Stephanie's wedding ended.  She was radiant and happy.  Xavier was absolutely riveting.  Stephanie's parents were handsome and lovely and proud.  And so it goes.  Waiting for the next turn in life's course. 

we made it, i can't believe it!