it's been a while....

but since our last post Norm is back from China and it has been raining A LOT. Friday night I made a new halibut recipe and cooked swiss chard. It was quite yummy, recipe to follow soon. I think that swiss chard may be a regular dish for us as it was really yummy, way better than cooked spinach or anything similar! I also made a "crustini" appetizer (you want this recipe!) which was quite good as well. I will make that for our guest this week, Kay!
We got a later than normal start on Saturday, I will blame that on the 'jet lag'. We set our around 9am or so, headed south on the Coast to Torrey Pines, after about 3+hours I had some nutritional issues (related to the fact that I did not eat quite enough), and Norm had to come pick me up in the FJ about 4 miles from the house. Yes. I know. But the caloric deficit did not last long as we went immediately to Islands and had huge burgers, endless tortilla soup and endless chips/salsa (we had a coupon!). I am all better now and am eating cake, no it is not Thursday. Since Norm was in China Thursday, I planned to make a cake this weekend. Guess what? Norm beat me to it. YES, Norm baked a cake. And I bet LJ wishes she was still here because he baked her favorite, yellow cake with butter on top!!! Hot out of the oven with a big glass of milk!!! Yummy! It was not without some minor destruction to the kitchen of course which I have yet to assess the total damages. Bailee got to eat at least one raw egg, dropped on the floor......We went to spin class this morning cause it was raining and it was supposed to rain all day - -
Kay comes to visit us tomorrow and we are very excited! The weather is supposed to clear and we will be able to run at the coast and get in some good long bike rides. Norm says "we walked the dogs today, then I bribed DeeAnn with a Starbuck's coffee to make salsa for me. It was yummy. It was also quite hot and caused DeeAnn to sweat again." That's all for now, I will have to catch up more tomorrow as my laptop battery is LOW.....
D

Chinese Cooking. .

Well, I've actually managed to eat relatively benign things thus far on this trip, but lunch today may be a bit sketchy - we'll see. It's okay, though, because tonight I head back to Hong Kong (which is very Western), and provided I'm not too sleepy, I will mosey on over to Delaney's Pub and have myself Fish & Chips (and mushy peas, of course.)

But. . . since DeeAnn has not seen fit to post a recipe in a few days, and not wanting to leave people hanging, I thought I'd try to help out. So, for those that like Seafood: A Guangdong specialty: Almond Juice Fresh GrouperPreparation is actually quite easy:
1. Wash almonds. Put into blender. Add 1 bowl water (yeah, I dunno how much that is - sorry.) Blend for 5 minutes. Strain off residue with clean cloth.
2. Hand twist cloth to squeeze out almond juice.
3. Make a cut at the back of fish. Rub a little salt on fish body. Heat up frying pan. Add oil. Put in fish and pan-fry till both sides are fragrant.
4. Add clear stock, carrot and ginger slices (DeeAnn would leave out the ginger probably.) Cook for 3 minutes. Turn fish over (that part is important.) Add almond juice and sprig onion. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn fish over. Cook for 5 minutes. Dish up when fish is done.

See - easy, 4 steps!

Okay, now that I've done my part to progress folks' culinary skills, I'm off to work.
Be good.
Norm

Fun with Google Earth. . .

Well, I'm still in lovely Southern China. Had a bit of extra time on my hands this AM and decided to see if my itinerary made sense geographically. For once, it did! The proof is above (hint - click on the image to make it bigger.) Roughly, my schedule for this trip started at Hong Kong Airport, continuing to Shenzhen (by the ferry mentioned yesterday), staying at the Parkview (in Dongguan), then tomorrow on to Guangzhou, and eventually travelling back to Hong Kong (by plane) and staying in Kowloon before heading back to the states. Yeah, whatever, but if you wanted a primer on Southern China, it's a start.


And then. . . . for those that like the whole run tracking thing; my run from this AM is to the left. It felt good to get out again, although my legs were still sore from Sunday's race (and/or the lengthy trip.) If nothing else, though, there is something quite fun about the looks a 6 foot white guy gets while running in Southern China. Especially this AM as I had to leave quite early (~6am) in order to fit my run in before heading off to work. It was still dark, but some of the roads around here are well lit so it wasn't really a problem. Ended up being an easy 7 miler, with a couple pick-ups thrown in when some of the cyclists commuting to work tried to race. Not to worry - I held my own ;) (much to the glee of the locals, bunches of them yelling "Hello!", "America", "go go", etc.)

That's been the extent of the excitement today (all work stuff excluded - it's either boring or a secret anyway.) So, more tomorrow.

xie xie
Norm

China - and I don't mean fancy dishes

Well, made it to Asia without significant incident. Took a puddle jumper (aka teeny plane) from Carlsbad to LAX, a double decker 747 (aka big ol' plane) to Hong Kong, a ferry (not to be confused with a fairy - image at right to make sure - in fact, it's actually a hydrofoil) to Shenzhen (Fu Yong port if you really want details), and then a car to the supplier I was visiting today (Tuesday - 16 hrs ahead of CA time.)

All in all it was a pretty uneventful journey, I made it, the ferry was a bit delayed, but all the other transits were on time as scheduled. I'm not very fond of the 2 day redeye bit, but it was a relatively short day (4.5 hours of meetings and then out.)

And now, I'm at the hotel (in Dongguan - picture to the left), where I did hit the gym for about 20 minutes (amazing how your muscles will just completely freeze after sitting for ~20 hours after a race .) Luckily the pool (at left) is closed for maintenance so I didn't even have to come up with a good excuse for not using it ;) For those still curious about accommodations, below is the view from my room.





The last time I stayed at this hotel, the park in the picture to the right had a huge Tai Chi class (group?) going on in the AM when I ran by. We'll see if it is taking place tomorrow as well. Of course, with the way my legs feel, it may be more of a morning hobble than an AM run. In which case I may opt for the morning limp to the breakfast buffet 2 floors down ;)

With that, I'm off to rest for a bit (ie - I'm going to lay on the bed and pretend that I'll not go to sleep until a reasonable hour, but in reality I'll fall asleep before 7 and deal with the jet lag consequences later (it's a super-short trip, I'm probably better not acclimating to the time change anyway - rationalization is one of my many forte's.))

Oh, and before I forget, for those of you that have known DeeAnn for a long time - she's changed. Or perhaps someone else forged her handwriting and wrote me sweet notes and hid them in my briefcase and suitcase. Whatever happened to that self centered, uncaring, selfish person I met (oh wait, maybe that actually describes ME)

All right, I'm done.
Keep it real.
Norm

TGiO

....it's over! Honestly, it was not bad! It was a chilly morning but the race started on time and it was sunny from the start! LJ and I had a last minute port-o-potty trip got us to the back of the start line when the race began. As a result, we had to bob and weave our way thru the crowds for more than 2 miles and to our dismay it took us over 16 minutes to get to the 2 mile marker!! We slowly made our way thru, running together until about mile 9!

Norm here. . . alas, I missed seeing LJ and DeeAnn at the start (I'd left the car early in order to get into the porta potty line; it's not a real race unless I make it to the restrooms at least 3-4 times before the start.) So I had to warm up and run alone. (Well, I guess I ran with about 8K other people, but you get my drift.) Decent run, didn't do anything crazy, but at least ended up sub 1:30 (awaiting official results still, but it'll probably be 1:28.) Not great, but respectable and it sets me up to improve at Surf City in a couple weeks.

Anyway, back to DeeAnn now, I have to eat more Chips and Salsa (I already finished the Guacamole) and then finish prepping for China (6.5 hours until I leave .) With that, back to DeeAnn. . .

So at mile 9,LJ slowed a bit and I tried to hang with some girls 1/2 my age. That went well actually because they were holding a consistent pace of about 7:49 per mile. With one mile to go Norm showed up to pace me in. He had me pick up the pace just slightly and it hurt, but was manageable for the short duration I had left! So, I got in barely under 1:42 on my watch, not sure what the chip time will say, but for now it was a 1:41:57! Yeah! Legs hurt now. I made baked peanut butter french toast for our post race feast!
Here are LJ's comments on breakfast, etc:
"Wasn't so sure about the whole baking French Toast thing, but it was fabulous! Even the peanut butter French Toast....and we all know what a picky eater I am. : ) For our football game snacks DeeAnn made homemade salsa....someone needs to tell her that jalopenos are hot, though the sweat beads forming on her upper lip should have been her first clue. Her cooking has come a long way, Alison watch out!
I'm having a great time and the "Smith's" have been nothing but a riot.... I'm so glad I came out and wish I could stay longer. The weather is good, the food is great, probably could have skipped the run and the company is undescribable...I'll let you figure that one out. I love you guys, thanks for the hospitality....I'll be back soon."

Gotta go now - spend time with Norm before he's off to China....Go Chargers! Go Giants!
DeeAnn & Norm

TGiF!!!

Or sort of, anyway. Been a heck of a long week, work has been crazy busy, DeeAnn has been busy which makes her crazy ;)

Anyway, First race of the year on Sunday - the Carlsbad Half Marathon. Should be fun. DeeAnn is shooting for sub 1:45, I'm hoping to go sub 1:30. (It would be a PR for her, and a respectable finish for me.) With any luck we'll both shave a couple minutes off our respective times by the Surf City Half in a couple weeks.

On the upside, work should settle down again after this weekend (this week's work is spilling over into Saturday and Sunday.) On the downside, I leave for China on Sunday night. Bah. A relatively quick trip, though, so it shouldn't be too bad. With any luck I'll even get to run a couple days while I'm there (it's like altitude training due to the smog and pollution .)

Another positive, however, though is cookies - I believe that DeeAnn is currently making them. Peanut Butter Oatmeal. Quite yummy, although not necessarily the best pre-temp run food (yes, I base that on experience. Granted I had about a dozen of them that morning, but still - not recommended.)

Gratuitous image of my Tigger Tool Kit:

(It keeps people humble. Plus it has the advantage of making DeeAnn want to follow me - she likes Tigger dontchaknow.)

On that note, Have a great weekend :)
Norm

Happy Friday!

Yes, sleeping in is a wonderful thing!

Joey had a another good night! He seems near 100% again finally. We have discontinued all medications and things seem to be almost back to normal.

Okay, so 'cakes' is stretching it a bit, they are actually chicken patties. I will tell you why I was forced to make these to begin with a few months ago after I write the recipe:

1 large can all white meat chicken
1/4 cup finely chopped red pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 green onion finely chopped
(if you are in a crunch you can used dried minced garlic and/or onion)
pinch of salt
pepper to your liking
1/3 - 1/2 cup of bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 teaspoons olive oil

Mix in a bowl: red pepper, celery, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and chicken, be sure to break up the chicken until it shreds apart. In a separate bowl mix up the two eggs. Add eggs to chicken mixture and mix well, then add bread crumbs - you want to add just enough bread crumbs so that you can make the mixture 'stick' into patties. Form the patties about 2 1/2 to 3 in. diameter and about 2/3 inch thick - this should make about 5 -6 patties. You can pat the patties on the side with flour, or I just use more bread crumbs.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, be sure the oil is hot before you place the patties in the skillet. Cook about 4 minutes per side. Set a paper towel on a plate, when you take the patties out of the skillet, let them sit on the paper towel for about 1 min each side to soak up any extra oil.
You can serve these a lot of ways: with some rice & veges, on a salad or like last night, with avocado salsa and tortilla chips!!!

Someday I will post my fantastic avocado salsa recipe! But for now you need to know why I make these "chicken patties". Well, when I moved in (and still now) there is an over abundance of certain canned foods (and certain supplements!) - which I needed to (and still need to) be creative in trying to 'get rid of'. The tuna was easy and needless to say we have green beans at least once a week! I am down to only a dozen or so cans of corn left (use that in SW Chicken Salad!), and after last night we have no more 'cans'of chicken in the house! Good riddance!! I have to thank Alison for teaching me her crab cake recipe which I used as reference to making to these! I have a photo, I will have to upload later because Norm has not emailed it to me yet.
Here's to a fun weekend and the first race of the year!
D

Cake Day Thursday

Since we are racing (Carlsbad 1/2 Marathon) this weekend, we came to a mutual decision to have our actually 'cake' this weekend, post race. But in an effort to stay with the theme of the day, I will be making "Chicken cakes" for dinner. Similar to Crab cakes or Salmon patties, only with shredded chicken! Recipe later on.....

Joey's tummy ache seems to be better and he has more energy today and actually played with Miss Bailee for a bit this morning. But he is not eating very much at all and has been following me around way more than normal. It is very obvious that he is not seeing or hearing very much at all anymore.

Much work to do today and need to ride my bike so I will post again later on.

Wednesday January 16 2008

Went swimming this morning and actually swam. This was unlike yesterday when our open water swim workout turned into a lounge on the beach! Which was actually super and well deserved, I think. Especially for Norm who has been working very hard and long hours lately. So, we lounged on the beach and did get into the water up to our thighs to get a feel for the water temp. Chilly, but bearable with a wetsuit if you had to swim (or surf!). We got home and I made my yet to be famous "Stinson Beach Salad" - a household favorite (I think, at least it is one of my favorites), I will put the recipe in at the end of this post. I got it from a restaurant that Kay and I stopped at in Stinson Beach this last summer after our trip to Vineman!
Today is another day attempting to organize the wedding. Working on the invitation list and contacting the reception venue via phone (emails only so far)!
Joey is not feeling well still and we may need to go see the vet again today - He did eat this morning, more than he did last night so hopefully that is a good sign.
More later, here is the salad recipe:

Makes 2 salads (this is a "Meal Salad", not an appetizer salad, but you could make it work for an app if you make it smaller or share it!)
Fresh spinach or your favorite mix of salad greens
1 cup chopped celery
1 med tomato, chopped
2-3 teaspoons your favorite balsamic vinegarette salad dressing
1 cup chopped granny smith apple
1/2 cup glazed or candied walnuts
1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese

8 - 10 slices of prosciutto

There are many ways to put this all together, this is how I usually do it (not how I did it in this picture!) Add the chopped celery and tomatoes to the mixed greens and toss with salad dressing, put on plate. You do not need a lot of dressing for this salad so use less than you think you need and if you do not like a lot of dressing to begin with, you will want to add it very sparingly) Top salad with green apples, gorgonzola and walnuts. Roll prosciutto up and place on salad.
This is a really yummy salad! Do not turn you nose up at the apple, it makes the dish!!!

DeeAnn's first post!

Yesterday was fantastic, easy 50+ mile(60+ for Norm, I forgot my helmet and had to drive back home!) 'recovery ride' up the coast to San Clemente. We enjoy this route very much as our turnaround point is The Bagel Shack (which we have re-named 'The Bagel Shark' because I sometimes do not read very well!). This time I tried a toasted French Toast bagel, need I say any more? With a hot chocolate, it was fabulous! We finished up our ride at the OS Harbor and walked over to Ruby's for some burgers and a malt!!!! We are real good at replenishing glycogen stores! We came home to plenty to do around the house, but managed to relax most of the evening (except for the 'cleaning up after Joey' part, read on).
This week we prepare for the arrival of two houseguests, LJ and Claudia. They are coming by to do the Carlsbad Half Marathon this coming Sunday. LJ, one of my best friends is driving over from AZ on Friday eve. Claudia is Norm's cousin who lives in 'the city'. She will spend Sat evening with us to be closer to the race!
Other important matters to deal with include the wedding preparations and hopefully the final bit of our kitchen remodel. Wedding Plans: Still have not found 'the place'. We have about 3 options which I would secure if I could get anyone to return my phone calls or emails. So in the meantime, I have contacted a local wedding planner who is helping me a bit, stay tuned. Kitchen Remodel: Still waiting on the one cabinet that was not ordered, once we get that in the final 5 cabinets and microwave can go up, the pulls can be put on the cabinets and drawers and we can begin the final 3 day process of installing the backsplash!!! Still thinking that Feb 1 is an optimistic 'finish' date for this project.
Joey is not responding well to the prescription cocktail of Prozac + Phenobarbitol. He seems to be more anxious and dopey (uncoordinated big time!) than usual. This is very bothersome to us as we do not want him to be suffering in any way and most the time he seems either 'upset' or 'confused'. We can tell that his hearing and eyesight seem to get worse each day. The other prescription was meant to help with his 'potty' dysfunction which, as of last night anyway, is not working!! Very glad we now have tile floors. Bailee is fine, she is often annoyed with Joey for some reason but she gets over it quickly, or falls asleep in the sun. That's all for now.......gotta run. D

Palomar Mountain

So, we woke up this AM, I ran off to get the bikes ready (which didn't involve as much cleaning and tune-up activities as planned, but I did fill the tires and raise my seat a bit (~7mm should you need to keep track.)) Then, off to Escondido.

The short version (I think I said last time that I was going to let DeeAnn actually write this blog that she wanted), is that we started at Kit Carson Park and headed to the mountain. One flat on the way up , but DeeAnn got to the top without issue. I headed to the observatory:





DeeAnn headed right back down E. Grade (her first time), and I tried to catch her, but never made it. My original plan had been to ride home, but when I was ~5 miles from Kit Carson, DeeAnn called and had just gotten there, so I decided that expedience was the best part of valor (or whatever), and simply met her at the car. Overall a decent ride, 90 miles on the dot for me, probably ~77 for DeeAnn (although I haven't yet reviewed her data.)

Then, after getting everything put away, we headed home - via the pizza place of course. It's very important to refuel within 30 minutes of a ride. Case in point - note the concentration on DeeAnn's face as she replenishes her glycogen stores:


Then we headed home, and pretty much called it a day. DeeAnn made fabulous salsa, guacamole, and enchiladas (3 separate dishes, not all one big mess.) Yummy. Oh! and mole' sauce. It has chocolate in it :)

Tomorrow. . . an easy ride, not sure what else is in store. Although DeeAnn may and she is making noise about wanting to write a post (and post silly pictures of me), so perhaps she will actually follow through, use this blog thing and then fill us all in on what tomorrow's plans are.

Norm out.

Thursday!

Well. . . . Finally, Thursday is here! And Thursday, as everyone knows, is cake day!!! (also occasionally "pie day", "brownie day", and I believe today is actually "bread day.")

And, tonight (in 15 minutes actually), we get to go to dance class. Yay. Well, sort of - after all, if I go to the class I get some of the cake (or bread - still not sure what the treat is) that DeeAnn made.

Anyway, more on that after it actually happens. . . . today, well, lets see what happened today - I gather that DeeAnn still hasn't posted to this blog that she wanted. Handy, huh - if you're reading this you're stuck with my monologues. Sorry. But this AM went for a nifty ride, DeeAnn slept in. I'm hoping to use that tomorrow when it is time to go swimming (ie - she can swim, I'll sleep in .) Then I went to work, I'll just pretend all of that is classified and save myself the typing and you the boredom of reading it.

I'm not entirely certain what DeeAnn did, although at some point she was going to take the dogs into the Vet for Joey's follow-up visit. I gather the blood tests all came back good (negative?), so presumably he (the dog, not the vet) now has a variety of pharmaceuticals to take care of his many issues. I'll let DeeAnn fill you in on that when she decides to take over her blog ;)

And now I'm off to meet DeeAnn and learn how to dance. (or at least amuse everyone who gets to watch.)

Wednesday Post - just 'cause

Okay, well, it's Wednesday, and we skipped track this AM. I justified it to myself by rationalizing that there was a good chance that the track was still muddy. (Carlsbad High School track is dirt - doesn't take to rain well - and we had a lot over the last few days.) I think DeeAnn justified it to herself by simply falling back asleep. (her exact words were "if we don't go, I'll be asleep in 5 seconds" followed by "just let me knozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz")

So, on the upside, I got a few extra hours of sleep. On the downside, we had to do intervals on the treadmill. Which isn't all bad because I'm not so good at the whole "pacing" thing (it's related to "moderation" - enough said.)

Nothing else too exciting planned, well, except for a wine tasting this evening in lovely Carlsbad. Then a ride in the cold early AM. The real downer will be dance lessons which start tomorrow (Thursday) PM. . Oh, DeeAnn can see this, right; . . . . . what I meant was YAY! Dancing! ;)

First Post!!!!

Okay, happy 2008. DeeAnn has told me that "we need a blog!!!!" and so here is a blog .

It is Tuesday, 1-8-08 (exactly 2 months since we were engaged, for those that are counting - Deeann isn't one of those, for the record), and we've had dinner, I've fixed the fence (Joey - the big white dog, tried to eat it a couple days ago), and now we're about to have cookies. mmmmmm.

Okay, I'm done "blogging", it's up to DeeAnn from now on (but not right now, her hands are full of cookies and milk.)