Birthday Pictures

Okay, I'll let DeeAnn fill any details she deems necessary, but here are some pictures (you can click on them to get a larger view) from her Birthday

(short version - there was a surprise trip to DisneyLand )














We went on the Screaming Eagle at California Adventures (DisneyLand sister park right next door)

















DeeAnn didn't feel very well afterwards. Apparently in her old age she can't handle roller coasters very well anymore ;)











We went on Space Mountain (no issues she said, although we didn't ride any other roller coasters. . . )

















Had a Birthday Party













Mickey and Minnie came ;)


















Saw Goofy in Mickey's ToonTown


















Saw Pooh in Critter Country


















Saw Tigger too (he and I were amused by DeeAnn's ears) ;)

DeeAnn's BDay Weekend (Norm's view)

Well, I reviewed DeeAnn's posts, and at least it would appear that she enjoyed dinner. (yes, for those of you who noticed, I commented on her grammatical and spelling gaffs - I'm pretty sure she does it on purpose to see me get all exasperated - as if I needed any more stress after the marathon cooking session.)

Anyway. . . my one comment is that I will be adjusting DeeAnn's workout schedule in order to (and this was probably obvious to you) make sure she does NOT have time to shop.

But. . . on to the weekend. It's been fun so far - minimal workouts, lots of time hanging out. And way too much food. For those that really care, following is what we had tonight:















- Mushroom, Bacon, and Swiss Burgers
- Sweet Potato Fries
- Almond Gremolata Stuffed Tomatoes
- and momentarily, two layer cake ;)

For those that really want the recipes, read on (they're relatively simple - and actually mostly healthy - well, except the cake )

Mushroom Bacon Swiss Burger
- Bacon's bacon - cook it
- ditto with the burger, I grilled it with miscellaneous spices (I'd specify, but it was mostly whatever I found - don't forget salt & pepper. Also Worcestershire sauce is a nice touch)
- The mushrooms (baby portobellos) I sauteed in the bacon grease (mmmm) with some sage and garlic.
- DeeAnn just reminded me that I grilled the buns - just trying to keep up with Emeril dontcha know.
If you really need instructions on assembly I'd rather you not read our blog anymore, but just in case: bun, burger, cheese, bacon, mushrooms, bun - yes, you could vary the order to your taste.

Fries
- Step one is actually getting the sweet potatoes - remember that in the states they're called YAMS!
- peel 'em, cut them into strips ~1/2" x 1/2" (the length of the potato/yam)
- toss them in some olive oil, pepper, salt, and chili powder just trying to coat them evenly
- bake them for ~30 minutes at 400F, turn them halfway through to make sure they cook evenly. Also try to leave some separation between them so they don't stick and get somewhat crisp

Tomato "thing"
- This is a bit trickier; the tomato is easy, cut off the top, scoop out the insides ("gut it" DeeAnn says)
- Take the following and chop it somewhat finely in a food processor:
- 1 cup parsley
- 2 cloves garlic
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 3 sprigs of rosemary (just the leaves)
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- a bit of salt
- a bit of pepper
- scoop the above out of the processor and jam it into the empty tomato.
- Garnish as desired

Cake
- Yeah, we haven't eaten this yet, so I can't spoil what flavors it is, but a secret (shhhhh). . . . . they were from a box! (I feel NO guilt, DeeAnn typically uses boxed cake mixes. At least as far as I remember - been a while since there has actually been a cake day )

Okay, I'm off to eat cake. Tomorrow is DeeAnn's actual birthday, but alas, it's a school day :( But there is leftover bacon (and DeeAnn says there will be leftover cake - you think that by now she'd know me ), so I might give making bacon a second chance and make her bacon wrapped bacon for breakfast!

Birthday Weekend, Continued

DeeAnn here, posting from Norm's computer. My battery died. I'm full!!! Burgers were great, sweet potato (note no 'e') fries: great, the tomato thingie was great, spicy. I still do not know exactly what it was, but it was lemony and spicy, it was good! Norm can tell you what is was when he uploads the photos. Cake is still to come!
Dogs eating now, Joey ate up the biscuits and some bacon drippings from our dinner. Bailee had her new meal of broccoli & cottage cheese, she is on a diet and Norm is making her follow it! That is good. Norm is cleaning up the kitchen and I am entering this while watching CSI, of course, and finishing up the 2006 Felta Creek Zin...this wine we picked up on our honeymoon in Sonoma at De La Montanya Winery in Healdsburg. Their website is www.dlmwine.com if you are interested... we tried several of their wines and this was by far the best they had to offer and not too pricey considering. Anyway, Norm has been in the kitchen since we got done walking the dogs, 6:09 pm it is now 8:22! Holy cow! I am truly very spoiled this weekend AND most of the time to be honest!
He also spent a significant portion of his day writing out my training plan for the next week or so. I am now 16 weeks away from my first marathon, the kind that does not follow a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride. He is helping me by setting up my training plan so that I can focus on running a 3:50 marathon in January 2009. This week came out to 11 hours 15 minutes...whoo hooo. After what felt like a year of IM training, I love the sound and feel of an 11 hour training week! I will have time to nap, shop, get a massage, get work done, get the office organized, do laundry...you get the idea! Anyway, Norm has spoiled me rotten and then to add to his tasks, 66.7% of all the gifts he (& the doggies) got me need some sort of mechanical or technical 'set- up' which of course require his brains and skill! I am a very lucky woman!!
I will finish up now and let Norm do the next posting so he can catch you up on all the photos and maybe if you are lucky he will share his recipes from dinner with you!!

Birthday Weekend!

Well, Friday afternoon a big bouquet of balloons and a cute stuffed doggie arrived at the door around 4pm to begin my B-day weekend! I have awoke each day to a sweet Hallmark card and a fabulous gift! Not to mention, a short shopping spree before our movie (Nights in Rodanthe, yah, bring the box of kleenex...my choice of movie of course, seriously bring Kleenex the ones with lotion because you will use a lot!) then Sushi, my favorite at our favorite Sushi spot! Then today after our run and spin class (I had to teach) we went to Don's!! Those of you who live here, or have visited know Don's Country Kitchen! The best breakfast ever! We had 2 orders of biscuits and gravy!!!! It MUST be my Birthday....needless to say Joey will have biscuits and gravy tonight for dinner and tomorrow am for breakfast (he does not mind!) So, after breakfast Norm wisked me off to have a foot massage and pedicure while he shopped for the extravagant dinner he is at this time preparing... when asked what I wanted a few days ago I answered, honestly, swiss & mushroom hamburger with sweet potatoe fries....not only am I getting all that but it is a bacon, swiss & mushroom burger w/sweet potatoe fries and some fancy tomato thing AND a double decker (because one layer was not stable enough to hold all the candles) Birthday cake...photos will be posted later, as Norm is still in charge of the Smith family photos...gotta go eat my burger now.

Official Friday Post!

This evening, we had a fabulous dinner of Stuffed
Bell Peppers served with Asparagus, it was paired with a lovely 2004 Malbec from Argentina. Very nice. The dinner looked like this:














(for the curious, the recipe can be found at azcoaching.com)

After we were done eating, the doggies were allowed to eat (we have to make sure they know who's in charge!) Joey had his usual yummy elderly dog food with glucosamine for his joints. Bailee had a (VERY) small portion of the elderly dog food along with broccoli, a little bit of cottage cheese (for flavor) and the glucosamine. Bailee looked something like this whilst eating her dinner (note the cottage cheese strewn about):
We're not entirely certain as to what else to type as DeeAnn (in an unprecedented move) reviewed the blog and noticed the post made earlier today. Luckily, by that time, the dogs were outside and she was unable to interrogate them as to their plans for her Birthday Weekend! Bailee did, however, deliver to her Mother a Starbucks Gift Card that she and her brother had gotten for their mocha swilling Mom.

Who knows what might be next. (After all, I do happen to know that there are milk bones left in the treat box. And since Bailee isn't allowed to have them anymore, she might be willing to give them away. )

Friday Update

Okay, so today is the 26th of September. Very exciting. No, not because it's the first Friday of Fall (although that does make for a nice alliterative touch), but because Monday is DeeAnn's Birthday. Which therefore makes this her Birthday Weekend.

So. . . we have big plans. Tomorrow we'll go for a little bike ride (yeah, not a surprise - I voted for just eating pancakes, but apparently we're not a democracy), and then.....oh, sorry, can't write about that on the off chance that DeeAnn will actually check out the blog and ruin the surprise ;)

But then Sunday, oh. Yeah. Same problem :)

Okay, well stay tuned! ;)

(just in case DeeAnn actually does read this - don't get your hopes up, any alleged surprises would be from the dogs, and they aren't very good at planning. And gift-wise, they're pretty much limited to milk bones, tennis balls, and, well, poop.)

TGiF

Indeed and TG Norm gets home tomorrow! I have been adding random doggie photos because I do not have access to the latest and greatest Smith family photos, that will be Norm's job next time he posts.
Today was my first MTB ride in nearly one year! I have to say that I really love mountain biking! Shalyn took it easy on me today and good thing! I had to keep reminding myself that I did IM less than 3 weeks ago, my legs just had no 'zip' - I would open it up and feel strong for about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes and that was it, and if I hit a hill, forget it! We rode mostly fire road and a great section of single track called "tunnel of love", which we rode twice - that was a great section for me to get 're-acquainted' with the dirt, some calm whoopdies, nice corners, some loose dirt and ruts...great! I am pretty sure Shayln was bored, but I did have her do her taper reps (she is racing tomorrow) and that was her ride protocal for today anyway, easy w/4 taper reps!!

The rest of the day was filled with errands, housework, laundry, a quick pedicure, walking the dogs and beginning to update my website. I also began packing my bag for Portland. It bothers me that I have to take off to Portland approximately 15 hours after Norm will get home from China. The only good thing about this is the doggies will not have to have foster care! They miss Norm a lot, Bailee pouts and Joey does not eat much....I am sure they won't even know I am gone!

Plans for tomorrow: 3 hr road ride, then home to eat and eagerly await the arrival of my handsome and loving husband!! (nap!)

Thursday 9/18

So much for collaborating. Well, Norm is in China and I have been inspired recently by one of my new clients who writes a great blog and posts quite often! So, here I am.
Norm has been away since Sunday evening and I have been intent on getting SO much done while in reality it is just not happening. I have completed some housework tasks which I had procrastinated on for quite a while and got a few tedious organizational things done but the list is still very long! I have now set the list aside for a quick blog note while I wait for my long time friend Gail to call and give me an update on her psycho ex-biz partner's latest drama and then I get to prep my mountain bike (yes MOUNTAIN BIKE!!!!) for her first ride in nearly an entire year!!! The list will wait tomorrow morning as well as I drive up to Temecula and meet my new client (same one mentioned above, the great blogger!) for the first time in person. We will ride together for about 75 minutes at Vail Lake, then grab a bite and chat! I suppose the remainder of my day will have to be filled with more of those tasks on my list....one of which is to write Norm's list. That is one of my favorite tasks is writing Norm's 'Honey Do' list. This one will be quite lengthy as I have had a few days to accumulate things for him to do!! And I need to keep him busy when I am away in Portland at the USAT conference!
Plenty to do with the dogs. Bailee had a check up at the vet yesterday and the Dr. seems to think she is on the border between 'overweight' and 'obese'. If you know Miss Bailee and if you know of one specific cat named Garfield, here is what comes to mind: "I am not overweight, I am undertall!" And Miss Bailee does have that 'big-boned' stature as well. Nevertheless, the Dr. wants her to loose 8 pounds, she now weighs 88 lbs. which is 2.4 pounds more than her brother, Joey. We will have to increase exercise AND Miss Bailee will start on a regime of 1/2 her normal kibble plus steamed broccoli/cauliflower. No table scraps and NO treats, tell that one to Norm..... Needless to say she is NOT happy about this. The vet is also checking her thyroid med dosage to see if maybe that needs to be increased. Both Joey and Miss Bailee are starting on a daily dosage of Glucosamine/Chondroitin MSM, in liquid form.
Gail is calling, all for now....

September Update

Hi.

Since the last post DeeAnn and I have decided to collaborate and do the post together so she's dictating and I'm typing as I don't have any exciting news. This way I don't have to get on DeeAnn's case about not writing in the blog [Norm's comment: I don't, FYI, just my slightly snide comments when I post.] (pause as DeeAnn chases me around the room) Since we had only 6 weeks between the Lake Placid Ironman and Ironman Kentucky, most of our time was spent recovering and trying to mentally prepare. And umm don't put that don't put that! grrrrrrr

...mentally prepare for what we knew was going to be a tough day. We had the luxury of getting there (KY) several days early and enjoyed the time eating local Louisville cuisine. The R&R was nice and the race was tough - as expected. Now we can lounge around and plan next year's race schedule.

Joey and Bailee's activity levels have increased as we are not training as much. Bailee is in near tip-top shape and Joey is still getting out there, although he needs to take more frequent rest periods. They are both enjoying full days outside as the weather has cooled off nicely [Norm's comment: the weather has "cooled off" from high 70s to low 70s vs. the 120s that are still prevalent in AZ.]

New recipes have included:
- Apricot and red pepper crusted chicken
- Stuffed bell peppers
- 3 and 4 bean salads [Norm's comment: they actually have many beans (probably ~200-300), but 3 or 4 TYPES of beans]
- heart shaped anniversary month cake
- extra large (GIANT) cupcakes
- Carmel oatmeal chocolate chip cookie cake
[Norm's comment: note all the new treats - that's all fine and good, but today is Thursday (ie - Cake Day) and there is nary a sweet to be found! ]


Okay, I've (Norm) been tasked with writing something. As stated, we're recovering and essentially taking it easy after IMKY. DeeAnn is currently a bit under the weather (potentially because I was that way 3 days ago), but the rest is good for her. She'll be better by the weekend. Next week, I'm (unfortunately) off to China - but only for a week. I get home just in time to see my lovely wife and then she's off to Portland for some Triathlon camp thing :( (Conference she says - whatever - she asks me to type and then complains when I don't get it right.) Uh oh, I had best stop lest I get into trouble. We will update this again soon. Thanks for tuning in!!!

And next time - pictures!