Author: Lara

This weekend Ted & I walked in the Guardian Angels 5k Hog Jog near our place in Mt. Washington/Anderson neighborhood. Cincinnati has this weird thing for pigs, by the way, hence the Hog Jog – a takeoff from Cincinnati’s famous Flying Pig marathon. Last year it was the first 5k we ever did together, and it was a ton of fun, so we did a few more after that, and we signed up again this year. We’re also going to be signing up for the Zoo’s 5k and the 5k with the long, steep hill at the end. We really enjoy participating in the 5ks – it’s good stuff!

We’re happy to report that we both beasted the competition, slaughtered our own times from last year by several minutes, both took home trophies for 1st in our gender and age division categories, and Ted also claimed 1st place male overall for the speed walkers. We even bypassed many of the runners. It was a blast! However, we were both whopped, again, for the second year in a row by the same 75 year old granny who books it with a serious vengeance and somehow manages to make it to the finish line at least a minute and a half before everyone else. She’s a demon. Watch out for her. Just to clarify, we register as walkers, so this means we can speed walk, but we cannot run or even jog at all. I’m thinking that since we’re doing so well in the walkers division, that it’s time for us to graduate to registering as runners to see if we can shave a few more minutes off our times. Maybe for the zoo 5k, but not the one with the steep hill…because that one’s a beast.

Here’s the stats:

Ted – 1st place overall male walker, 3rd place overall for walkers of both genders, 1st place in the 30-39 male walkers division, clocked in at 36:59 with a pace of 11:55 per mile. For comparison, last year Ted was 14th overall and timed in at 40:34 with a pace of 13:04.

Lara – 4th place overall for walkers of both genders, 1st place in the 1-29 female walkers division, clocked in at 37:13 with a pace of 11:59 per mile. For comparison, last year I was 16th overall and timed in at 40:41 with a pace of 13:06.

Yeah, I’d say we smoked it. And we always have so much fun and feel so strong and healthy after!

The pictures don’t do it justice.

Step 1: Boil pasta.

Step 2: Add insane amounts of fresh cut vegetable goodness. I throw in everything but our kitchen sink. I’m not kidding. If I have it, it goes in.

Step 3: Add a few goodies – olives, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, a few sprinkles of grated Parmesan, and a light coating of dressing.

Step 4: Realize that you have made enough pasta salad for 12 people. Shrug. Refrigerate.

Step 5: Devour.

Super light, fresh, tasty, and full of veggies and antioxidants and good things. Only 6 Weight Watcher points and 35 carbs per serving – and it’s filling.

But don’t make enough for 12 people if you are not 12 people.

Anyone in Cincy want some pasta salad?

Things that make me happy:

1. Beautiful, fat orange tabby cats that look like Sancho sitting on windowsills.

Things that make me sad:

1. Beautiful, fat orange tabby cats that look like Sancho sitting on windowsills.

They don’t all have to be fat…but it helps.

I see them sitting on windowsills, behind screens, enjoying the spring air and cooing hungrily at the chirping birds. Like a lunatic I prance over to say hello, remind them of how handsome they are, and tell them that I love them. Then I spend the next 45 minutes flipping through photos of Sancho and moping.

Apparently I need blinders.

Like a horse.

But really…this face!!

1. I am plum out of Door County sangria wine until our trip up in September. This is cause for serious concern because summer and sangria really do belong together. I was fool to purchase only one bottle on our last trip. What was I thinking?

2. Maverick has been working up a storm these past two days! Girlfriend has been rearranging the gravel beneath her rock. By rearranging I mean that she has  done nothing but dig deep and remove all the gravel from beneath her rock and stack it up on the sides of the rock, thereby creating an impenetrable fort on the outside and a black hole/endless abyss on the inside. She’s on schedule to reach China by nightfall. It’s so deep in there that you can’t even see her anymore. Which we’re sure was precisely her plan. But since we’ve read that crays sometimes exhibit this kind of trench-digging behavior in preparation for molting, and also because that’s just what they like to do, we’re letting her go to town. She seems to be pretty happy about her newly constructed epic cave of wonders. And we’ve been enjoying watching her – she’s so darn funny! Mav had a pea and a piece of cocktail shrimp for dinner last night – girlfriend eats better than we do.

3. Yesterday we stopped by Speedway to gas up the car. It was 6 pm at the busiest (read: least expensive by a good $0.30 per gallon) gas station in Anderson. It was crowded. We spot a huge fancy black vehicle poorly parked in front of the gas station – not in a parking space, only half pulled up to the curb and half sticking out into the pass-by lane, and completely blocking the only way out of the gas station. Ted and I ruthlessly start taking bets on who the dodo is. Five minutes of traffic-blocking stupidity later, out walks an orange woman (when are people going to learn how unfortunate spray tanning is?) with bleach blonde hair rolled up in four 8″ curlers on the top of her head, wearing the shortest, tightest, most hooter-bearing black mini dress I have ever laid eyes on, with 6″ heels and enough makeup for a national tour. She opens the vehicle’s door, somehow managing to clamber inside despite her ridiculously inappropriate ensemble, and a tiny little yippie dog with a rhinestone studded collar hops into her lap. It was a better dodo than I ever could have imagined! Made. My. Day.

4. Lenten church fish fry Fridays are the best. Tasty!

5. We’re headed to a Cincinnati Cyclones pro ice hockey game tonight at U.S. Bank Arena against the Chicago Express. It’s Pucks & Pinot Night and Singles Night – oh la la & jackpot. We try to hit up one game per season. They’re cheap, highly entertaining, fun, relaxing, and generally have good eats too.

6. Ted’s new haircut = lookin’ good.

7. We finally acquired a really special nativity set for us to display in our home during the Christmas season (thanks mom&dad2)! We’ve been talking about getting a really nice one for the past four years now and have been waiting patiently until the right one came along. Found it! There’s a small group of people that travel to Catholic churches around the country and sell crosses, nativities, and other religious pieces that are hand carved from olive wood by families in Bethlehem. The families make these religious artifacts by hand for a living – and the work is often phenomenal. We love the nativity we chose, and it makes us happy that the money is going to a hard-working family during a time of the year when they often don’t get many nativity sales – which are big ticket items so they generate more revenue for the family than, say, a cross or rosary would. We really love the beauty of the scene we chose and can’t wait to put it up next Christmas.

8. I finally made good on my vow to be a good and loving wife and finally made Ted his blessed, prized, cherished pineapple upside-down cake. For no reason at all other than that I love him (Oh yeah, and that he does my taxes for me).

9. Next week is spring break for Cincinnati Public Schools. Not that I’m in school anymore, so that really doesn’t mean anything special for me, other than the fact that there are a whopping 11 acting classes that I do not have to make lesson plans for or teach next week! And while I have about 175 incredibly awesome kiddos that I’m currently working on plays with, it’s going to be soooooo refreshing to not have to teach for a whole week! Refreshing and unfortunate, because no acting classes = no money, but in exchange I do get a precious few seconds of free time. Such is life.

10. Pictures!

I wish you could see how perfect spring in Ohio is.

I wish you could see how brightly the sun shines and how lovely the wind blows.

How wonderful 72 degrees feels.

How fresh the air smells.

How every driver in every car has both windows down and their elbow hanging out the side.

How every house and every apartment has at least one window open from the time they arrive home from work until the time they go to bed.

How the cats sit at the open window sills behind the screens, soaking in the fresh air and listening intently to the chirping of birds.

I smile at them and stop for a moment to say hello and enjoy them, because I miss my own little window-watcher.

I wish you could smell how the air is perfumed with charcoal from all the people firing up their grills as the sun begins to set.

How soft and lush and green the grass is.

How the trees are just aching for someone to string a hammock on them.

How many people are out strolling with their families, playing catch with their kids, walking with their dogs, and running or biking for exercise in the evening.

How many people I see sit down for a family dinner at the table beside an open window.

How many people sit out on their front or back porches – barefooted – with their feet just grazing the grass, and a glass of sangria in hand as honking geese fly overhead.

How nice it truly is at dusk because it’s too early for the mosquitoes yet, but I can feel how close we are to the impending firefly season.

I wish you could see the fire engine red cardinals, royal bluejays, and orange-breasted robins that have taken up residence in our yard and listen to their pretty songs.

How the trees are in full bloom with vivid pink and white and yellow buds, and how the daffodils pepper the highways.

I still miss the fields of colorful Texas wildflowers and I yearn for bluebonnets, but our own view isn’t half-bad either.

I’ve never liked spring. Until I moved to Ohio.

Last night we slept with our windows wide open. This weekend I washed my car, we swept the porch free of dry winter leaves, and took a walk through a lovely cemetery beside our house. Then we sat on our back porch for a good many hours working on our taxes. Yesterday I drove with my windows down, my elbow hanging out the side. I took pictures of flowering trees. I opened all of our windows and made a dinner of Cesar salad, French bread, garlic dipping oil, green grapes, blocks of pepper jack and cheddar cheese, slices of salami, a medley of olives, and a bottle of sangria. We talked and listened to the birds and ate slowly. Then I went for a long walk around the neighborhood before the sun set, and spent even longer sitting on the back porch with that glass of sangria, barefooted, as the geese honked overhead, until nightfall.

I could get used to this.