Drinking Wine from a Pitcher!

I make wine! usually I buy the juice from a kit, still homemade, but no stomping grapes for me!
But about a year and half ago I made some blueberry wine with fresh blueberries, at least 5 or 6 quarts and water sugar and yeast. They say it needs to age so put it away and forget about it for a year. That is exactly what I did!

Everyone keeps asking if I've bottled it yet and I just keep forgetting. I taste it every time I rack it (move it from one fermenter to another) and it is getting GOOD!

So when we had our big family Thanksgiving dinner, Zack asked about it and of course no bottling had occurred. So we fixed that problem! He poured it directly from the carboy into a pitcher! Wonder how many other Thanksgiving dinners included a "pitcher" of blueberry wine?

Notice the box of bottles in the left corner, just waiting for the good juice!


No Thanksgiving table is complete without a pitcher of wine.


Zack pouring a BIG glass!

Zack stealing some to take home!

Outer Banks Half Marathon

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled

Pretty Fall Leaves

A little colorful on the edges!
The dune grasses are getting a bit colorful.


Pretty cool that some of the leaves have turned while others are still quite green.

A little closer.

Still my favorite sunny spot!

My "Real" Age!

I saw a post on one of Karen's Blogger's Blog (I think it's her mom?) about a website that shows your real age. It is based on your lifestyle and how healthy you are. I thought it was pretty cool.

I am actually 51.
My "real" age is 33.4.
My life expectancy is 93.6!

The high mileage that I drive every year really brought my life expectancy down by 4-5 years. Maybe I should quit my job?

http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/VirtualAge.php

Pet Peeves

Sometimes I just have to complain! Sorry guys; this is one of those days. Nothing in particular happened, but I was just thinking. Scary thought, I know!

When you post pictures to Facebook or another website, turn them around so they are oriented right side up! It's really not that hard and I hate turning my laptop sideways to look at them!

Learn the difference between your and you're. College graduates, heck, high school graduates ought to know this. This also applies to too, to and two; there, they're and their! I imagine I have messed up somewhere along the way, but I do know the difference!

Just because I don't live at the beach house full time, clean your dog's poop up when I am not there. Especially, clean it up when you don't think I am there. Next time, I just might come out and ask you to clean it up!


Ok I feel better now! How about you?

Of to the Endless Summer Festival on Main Street at Ocean Drive Beach................shorts, polo shirt, flipflops! 80 degrees and sort of sunny!

Happy Halloween!

A Big Acomplishment

Now I know you must be tired of hearing all about my running and training for the Outerbanks half marathon! I am down at our beach house all by myself this week to do some intense training (flat terrain makes for good running!) and it's about 10 days away so this is the last week of intense training. Next week I taper down with a 2 miler and a 5 miler and then the big 13.1 miler.

So anyway, I've mostly kept on schedule up until the last week or two. It's hard to do 6-7 miles on a weekday due to it getting darker earlier, not to mention a 3 day shopping weekend with my daughter. I took my running stuff but found other ways to spend my time!

Today was the day for my biggest run before the event. In training you never run as much as the event itself. I heard that adrenaline carries you the rest of the way. Today was my 10 miler! I was really dreading it but it was an awesome run. I ran for 20 minutes without stopping, then for the first 7 miles, I ran 9 or 10 minutes and walked for 30-45 seconds for a little break. It was one of those easy breathing, get a good pace, nothing hurt, no side stitches runs. I call it steady state as I was able to get enough air in to sustain me and when my heart rate got over 165, I slowed enough to get it down to 160.

For those of you who know Cherrygrove Beach, I started at our house on 20th Ave North and ran to Ocean Boulevard (parallels the beach) and turned left and headed north all the way to The Point. This si the northernmost of the beaches in South Carolina. Then I turned around and ran south passing 20th Ave all the way to the stoplight at Main Street in Ocean Drive. I then turned around and ran the twenty blocks back to 20th, then home.

The last 3 miles were a bit of a struggle as I walked more than I wanted. However, I finished the 10 miles in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 19 seconds. Maybe a little more water or some energy gels would have helped? I managed to find a few water hoses along the way after I ran out of water.

My immediate reward at the end was a bottle of water, 4 ibuprofen capsules and a banana! After a cool-down and a quick shower, I sat on the beach in gorgeous fall sunshine and enjoyed a Duck Rabbit Milk Stout with a friend from high school. Not a bad run; not a bad day!

Tomorrow's plan: a 2 miler and maybe a 10 mile bike ride, but first dinner out with Susan (Sink) Bryan and a "good" nights sleep!

Training for the Half Marathon!

My friend, Lindsey, from work who is my daughter’s age, has talked me into running a half marathon. So I decided it could be on my bucket list! What’s a little ole 13.1 miles? The way I figure it, if worse came to worse, I’ll just walk the whole thing. So back in May, I signed up for the Outerbanks Half-Marathon. Then at another friend, Joyce's suggestion, I went to Runner’s World online and got a training plan for 12 weeks. I entered a previous race time, how hard I want to train, the date of the race and what kind of race and lo and behold, you get a nifty little plan telling you when to run and how far in so many minutes. I’ve actually been pretty good at following the plan, but lately they have added a long run in the middle of the week. A five miler on Thursdays! I can just hear it now, asking my boss if I can leave early to go home to run??

Some days I just don’t feel like running and my times are terrible. I end up walking the majority of it. But I figured I am moving in a forward direction so that’s ok.

Today was a good run and it was mostly a run, not much walking at all, 4.5 miles  in 54 minutes and 32 seconds! Let me do that math for ya, oh my Garmin did it already. That’s an average of 12 minutes and 7 seconds per mile. I am getting better!

My goal is to finish the half in under 3 hours! Gotta keep running!

Gel Nails!

Those of you who know me, know that I am NOT a prissy girl! I am a bit of a Tom-Boy, out running and training for my half-marathon (it’s on my bucket list!), riding my bike, painting a room here and there; but I do like to look nice. At least I try! I like nice but comfy casual clothes and I don’t spent a whole lot of money on my hair. Guess you can tell, huh? A few years ago, I started going to a salon and spent about an hour and a half and $$$$$ later for cut, color, highlighting and style. Although my friends said it looked good, they didn’t think it looked much better than when I did it myself! Oh well, back to Great Clips and a bottle of color!

So now my new beauty thing is gel nails! I have never had pretty nails and I always kept them short so as not to draw attention to them. They are thin and uneven where the nail extends past the nail bed. By the way, that is called the hyponychium. I googled it to be sure!

My best friend opened a spa in Pittsboro, Spa at Bell House and I have a monthly membership that allows me a spa treatment every month………for a fee. I have had massages, facials, foot reflexology and last month I tried gel nails. I have had acrylic nails before with tips and ended up removing them shortly after the “event.” They just felt weird, like I had something stuck on my fingers. The gel nails are different. They feel normal, natural and supposedly are better for you than acrylic. I am enjoying them and keep splaying out my hand and fingers and admiring them!

We’ll see how long I keep it up!

Lexington Senior High School, Class of 76, Mini-Reunion

 

Yay for FaceBook! Yes I now some of you are leery of it; afraid someone will find out something about you and invade your privacy. However, you can control what goes on there, who can find you and who to be friends with. Over the past year I have gotten reacquainted with quite a few of my friends from high school and I haven’t seen nor heard from some of them in 33 years! yes, I am THAT old!

Rick Carpenter is a fellow LSHS graduate who went to NCSU and actually became better friends with my ex-husband as they were both in textiles together. He and chatted it up one night and decided that we should have our own little casual, mini-reunion for FaceBook friends. The real, every ten years thing is fun too, but it’s often loud with music and hard to hear when all everybody really wants to do is just sit and chat! So the two of us planned one of our own.

We met on the Saturday after labor day at Lexington Barbeque Center (I think that’s the real name) AKA The HoneyMonk or The Monk. That’s where we all went for lunch (back when you could leave school for that) and after ballgames etc. Then we went to Childress Winery and had a tour and a wine tasting.  The out-of-towners checked into the hotel, Comfort Suites in Lexington, where my cousin, Mark Marley works. he got us a really good rate of $60 a night! Glad we got to see him as he is also in the Class of 76. It was slow, so he hung out in the little breakfast social area with us. We first sat out by the pool and had some fun, adult beverages, then ended up ordering pizza and chatting in to the wee early morning!

I brought along my trusty 1976 Annual and Kathleen being local, filled us in on where everyone was, who married who and sometimes divorced and remarried another who. Sadly, we learned that quite a few have passed on, yet we celebrated the successes of our classmates.

Some of the late crowd. Many had come and gone and some came to only one or the other “events.

Cousin Mark! My mom’s sister’s youngest son. I think we are only about 2-3 weeks apart in age!

Sitting and chatting!

 

Everyone had so much fun and we plan to do it again in the spring. Hopefully the word will get out and more will come. Maybe some  thought we were just “talking!

No More Dark Teal Green!

We built our house and moved in 13 years ago I picked dark green teal with white trim for both the living room and dining room. I swear it looked good back then! I am just tired of it and needed a change. The hubby went to our beach house for three weeks and while he was gone when I could totally control the TV remote, I sweated my evenings away in the dining room!

Moved everything into the living room.

The china cabinet was the last thing out. I bought some cool sliders so I didn’t scratch the floor!

Patched some holes!

Fixed some cracks that have been there since just after we moved in!

Tried out the orange……………….too pumpkiny. You know I hate pumpkin and sweet potatoes anyway!

Lots of priming. It needed 2 coats to cover the green!

Choices!!

Even sponge painted the light fixture. Brass is so last century!

Taped off the trim. Time consuming but so worth it in the end!

Now for new curtains? Ideas anyone?

Pictures all hung too!

Now for the living room!

My Friends Aren't Keeping Up With Their Blogging!

Everyday is a treat to check all of my friends' blogs! It's just the highlight of my day to see cute pictures of babies growing up, silly signs on the road, new recipes, renovation project updates, random thoughts that make me think, race results, vacation fun...................you name it. I think that must be why I like reading them because you just never know what you're going to see.

Here of lately, no new blogs! Come on Jenni, come on Joyce, come on Cathy. And yeah, come on Marianne!

Revolving Door

Sometimes our beach house can be empty for 3-4 weeks, but we love the area so much, we try to go down at least once a month in the winter. Sometimes I even think the fall and winter is the best time down there. October is a lovely month; low humidity, warm sunny days, cool nights and the ocean is still warm enough to go swimming.

But, in the summer, the place is usually occupied! Between us, and all the fun beach holidays like Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, we go down there frequently. We usually do some long weekends every other weekend since I work at Student Health and the students are mostly gone and I can take liberal time off. The we usually go down for a week at Memorial day, 2 weeks over the 4th and extended time over Labor day.

But our house was full non-stop pretty much from early July until mid August. I call it the "revolving door!" Jim, Alex and I went down on July 2nd until July 12th and Jim stayed another week. I went back down for a long weekend, Friday til Monday and came home on the 20th. My son, Zack, and his wife, Amanda went on July 23rd and Jim and I, Alex, our youngest and my daughter and her hubby joined them on July 31st. We all celebrated Amanda's birthday! We left on August 3rd after spending an hour overlapping with my brother and sister-in-law. They came down for a few days, leaving on Saturday, August 8th, just a few hours before my bestie, Pat and her family arrived. They stayed a week, leaving on Friday, August 14th and we arrived that evening. We stayed until Monday. Unfortunately I had to be back for Freshmen move in day at Duke on Tuesday! Now we are headed down Thursday night and my hubby will be staying 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I'll have to work most of next week but will return for Labor Day!

I guarantee you that we will go back for a few "bonus days" before the holidays! And I am sure you all are totally bored with all of these dates about my revolving door. However, I wonder how many of you will offer to pass through the revolving door? :-)

His and Hers Grills!

My husband is the grill master! I love grilled food but I hate the wait and Jim is particular about his grilling. No lighter fluid, use a chimney, stacks the briquettes just so and we usually end up eating an hour later than planned. I don't touch "his" grill! I am afraid to even lift the lid or he will come running to take over. However, I want to grill different foods................................squash, corn, salmon. That's stuff he doesn't like, probably won't eat and darn well won't grill!

So, I bought me a grill today. It's a gas one and fast! Turn on the valve, open the lid, turn the knob, click the button and like magic, there's fire! Now all I need is some grilling food!

Just to check it out, I rewarmed slices of pork loin that Jim grilled on HIS grill last night. Note the pronouns "I"! I foresee a lot of outside cooking!






I got the idea for this blog from my dad after he posted a comment to my status about me buying a grill. He said "that comment deserves a blog!" Here ya go daddy!

Book Club Meeting.......................without a name!

A good boy scout mom friend of mine started a book club and invited me back in February (I think), but we haven't been able to come up with a good name for our fun and lovely group!

We met at my house last night and reviewed "The Art of Racing in the Rain" which was a really good book. It seems that we usually meet at least 2 hours and spend about 45 minutes to an hour discussing the book. The other time is spent catching up with life and drinking wine and enjoying a yummy dessert. We are a group of 10 with different connections and careers but enjoy reading and sharing thoughts. I feel this has given me the opportunity to make new friends since Karen was the only one I knew. Now Joyce and I have become close friends due to our love of running! Karen and Joyce and I follow each others blogs and then I found out that Cathy is a blogger too!

My hubby was the photographer for us last night along with chief wine bottle opener!

Next month we will be discussing "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" at Gretchen's house.
There's the back of my head and then from left; Cathy, Lindy, Charlee, Gretchen (scratching my kitty cat) and Karen.


Here's a picture with the other two, Joyce and Luann.

The Kindness of a Total Stranger

I haven't blogged for awhile..................just nothing special to write about but today was it! I went to the local Lowe's to get a patio set for the deck. I have wanted one with a cute umbrella forever and today was the day! So of course the Lowe's "man" helped me saying sure we can fit that in your Honda Accord........................a 36 inch patio table and 6 stackable wrought iron chairs! Yeah I believed him, I wanted it!

So they were Barney Fife and Goober, real nice, but that table was just about 2 inches too wide and the chairs..............well the back doors just wouldn't open wide enough. And one of them was worried about tearing up my "leather." Funny thing is, hubby had a Ford F-250 truck up until about a year ago which he traded for a Honda Civic because diesel was so expensive! So I went back into the store to "return" the set and get my money back.

Then a really nice "good ole boy" offered to take it to my house. A complete stranger! Just put it in that gray truck out there after you move the saw to the side and I'll follow her home after I do my shopping. After he said it twice, I agreed........................I wanted it! First we put it in the wrong gray truck, it had a radial saw in it, plus so much other junk. The man came out hollering "wrong truck" so we moved it to the right one and it was much bigger and less junkier! So Barn and Goob went back inside and I sat in my car waiting on my delivery guy. And I waited, and I waited, then I got worried. What if he didn't come out and then I went in to find him and then he came out and drove away with my loot?? What if he turned the other way and took my stuff? So I wrote down his tag # and a description of the truck. Called the hubby..............called my son................turned off my car....................turned it back on. Then "he" came out.....................chatting with a friend........................such a nice guy. I got out and he said "just drive slow and I'll follow you home." And he did! He helped us unload it, didn't want any money, saying he hopes someone will help him someday when he needs it. It's the new thing, pay it forward, but I convinced him to take a twenty dollar bill telling him to take his wife out for dinner.
Wow that was nice! A total stranger...........................only in Pittsboro! John Sanderford from Moncure!

The Wrong.............er, well, Shady Side of the Street!

My mom always told me to walk on the left side of the street facing traffic, but I never really understood that til I was older. It just seems wrong since we drive on the right side. Now that I am a runner, I definitely "get it!"

Monday morning I got up early, checked email, worked a bit, then headed out for a run at about 9 am to get it done before it got too hot. I ran down to the boat ramp at Vista Point at Jordan lake and decided to walk/run back. It was beginning to get a bit warm as the sun rose higher in the sky. Normally, I would be running on the left side or the west side of the street on the way back since the road is basically a north south road. But most of the shade was on the right side of the road, so I broke all the rules, chased the shade, and ran on the right (literally and appropriately) side of the road.

I ran/walked 6.5 miles in 95 minutes! And on the way back, it's all uphill!

At The Monk......................30 Years Later!

Today I drove to my hometown of Lexington, NC and met some friends from high school that I haven't seen in over 30 years! We have reconnected on FaceBook. I wonder if I wouldn't have met them if FaceBook hadn't reintroduced me to them?

Who are these old people?

The Monk is a BarBQue Restaurant in Lexington where we used to hang out in High School after ballgames and at lunch. Remember, back in the day, we used to could leave school to go to lunch! A few of us met to plan an "unofficial class reunion" for the classes of the 70's! Probably the weekend after Labor Day at the Holiday Inn in Lexington and just hang around the pool and chit chat, no loud music to get in the way and get a hospitality room for drinks and hob-nobbing. Maybe we will get a winery tour at Childress Winery next door and have dinner there.

Stay tuned!

A Fun-filled Weekend!

This weekend was one of the few weekends that I have spent at home lately and it was still a fun and busy weekend! No laying around the house for me!

On Saturday, my daughter Jenni and I, had massages at The Spa at Bell House. Now if you don't know about this little gem in Pittsboro you must check it out. My good friend, Pat Staley, opened it up in November. No economic downturn for that business! Check out the website at http://www.spaatbellhouse.com/

Then we met up with her friend Tara and her "mommy" for a "mommy lunch" at California Pizza Kitchen at Southpoint Mall. You're probably thinking there must be a story here................well there is. You see, Tara and Jenni are turning 28 and 30, respectively, this week and they BOTH still call their maternal parental unit "mommy!"

Then Jenni and I shopped at the mall, hitting up Ann Taylor, Ann Taylor Loft, Banana Republic and Talbots! She was pre-spending her birthday money and helping me spend mine. Then she dropped me off so she could get home for a birthday dinner with Tara and their hubbies. Jim and I grilled a pork loin and sorta chilled in front of the TV, watching a Pay Per View movie, Bride Wars. It was funny!

When I first woke up this morning, it was not looking like a good boating day but by 11 or 12, the sun peeked out. Zack and Amanda came over and invited us out for a lil boat ride. Zack bought a classic 1972 Sidewinder a few months ago and keeps it at my house. too bad I don't have a car to pull it with!



We went down to Vista Point and put it in and "flew" down to the dam. That baby will fly!


Then we headed out to Redneck Cove, dropped anchor, swam a lil and just sat in the boat, listening to other people's music. On the way back, we were discussing what to have for dinner and invited Zack and Amanda to stay. They said yes! You see, Amanda is in graduate school for Nurse Anesthesia and now just has rotations for the summer. During the academic year, she had classes and rotations and studies so hard, we hardly ever saw them.

So off to Food Lion we went to get meat, hot dogs and buns and the fixins.

It was awesome to spend the weekend with two of my kids. Oh yeah, the other lives with me so I see him everyday! Plus, we will all be getting together on Tuesday at Jenni and Ben's for her 28th birthday!

Garmin Forerunner 405

I have an ipod and a Nike plus thingy to track my distance and pace while I run but sometimes it just doesn't work too good..........quits for no reason. Plus since I run/walk/run, the calibration is different. I have a longer stride length when I walk so it records a lesser mileage. I have been wanting a Garmin Forerunner for a while now. And my good runner girl friend, Joyce WON, yes WON one and she inspired me to go for it!

I had some gift cards from Dick's Sporting Goods left over from Christmas and I recently had a birthday, ok, yesterday, and I got some gift cards from the hubby and my youngest son Alex and money from my daughter. Additionally, I had a $20 off card I got in the mail. So, I bee-bopped down to Dick's after lunch and bought one. Oh yeah, it had a $50 rebate and the nice guy at the register just took it right off the total and credited it back to my credit card.



It's a little difficult to navigate but I am getting used to it. The easiest part was just to press start and go! I'll get to the details later! I downloaded it to the Garmin website and then even exported it as a .tcx file and imported that into mapmyrun.com. Are you confused now?

New Bikes!

As usual, we took our bikes down to our beach house for the week. But sadly, they were stolen off our patio the first night we were there. Our townhouse is in a golf community/development and we always felt it was safe but.......................... Now we know we should have locked them up!

We had plans to do some riding. I like to ride on the beach and Jim and I often ride to the point or back in a residential area of Tilghman beach or the abandoned golfcart paths of the old Robber's roost Golf Club behind us. Needless to say we were bummed! We had thought about buying some new ones while down there, but Performance Bikes at home was having a good sale.

Glad we waited! Jim and I met at the Chapel Hill store after work today and ordered some Schwinn Voyageurs! Black for Jim and Cream for me!

Cute Turtles!

I snapped these pictures on our last trip down here at our beach house. We have several protected ponds in our development, plus I had a new camera and was camera crazy!

Sitting on a log!


Coming up to see me. I think he thought I had some food!


Just the view, showing proximity to the houses!

Things I Hear in the Middle of the Night!

Early this morning, 12:39 to be exact, I woke up to the tune of Neil Diamond crooning his heart out on my ipod. That was really weird! Yesterday evening I had put my ipod on the dock to listen to some good "Sweet Caroline" and then it finshed. We ended up watching TV and I never checked the ipod again. When I woke up to the loud music, I was really frightened since we were the only ones here at our beach house, and I just so sure that someone must have broken in to play music a little after midnight! I was too afraid to be scared and marched right into the kitchen and saw that it was the ipod and no one else. I quickly jerked it off the dock, laid it on the counter top and headed back to bed. As I lay in bed, with my heart pounding, I was trying to figure it out, and it suddenly dawned in me that when you plug in a clock, the alarm resets to the default 12:00 am. I must have accidentally turned on the alarm and it played the ipod at midnight! I was surely in deep sleep if it took me 39 minutes to wake up!

So after dinner tonight, I took a look at the clock radio/ipod docking station and I could not see that the alarm was set to 12:00 or even that it was turned off. I give up! At least I won't have the ipod in there tonight!

Tropical Trash!

When you hear the word "tropical," what image does your mind conjure up? Pretty little umbrellas perched in sweet sticky drinks? Somewhere fun? Carefree and happy times? Special trips with lavish food and drink! I guess people add "tropical" to anything to make it look/seem/feel better!

Does that work for trash too?



This just tickled me funny bone!

Personalized Plates!

We love them! We are hooked on them!

Mine! Amanda and Zack helped me figure out how to make it fit! Plus, that's what my wine label is. Yes, I make wine and that will be a different blog!

My hubby's! Our beach house is at the Cherrygrove section at North Myrtle Beach, SC.

I guess we like Honda's too!

Trying to Keep Up with Amanda

I went over to Zack and Amanda's to run with her after work. There were quite some hills and I struggled to keep up with her! She inspires me to try harder and I love running with her. She might think differently though, LOL!

On the Boat!

My son bought a boat from a friend for a really good deal and keeps it at MY house! hehehe!
So he and Amanda came out to my house on Saturday and took me out for a little Mother's day cruise!They weren't going to be able to come to Jenni's on Sunday for the Mother's Day luncheon so it was really good to see them and spend some time with them.


Zack and Amanda and my mom.



Zack and my dad check out the motor!

Zack had these gorgeous flowers delivered to me at work on Friday. He and Amanda are so sweet!

Mother's Day Luncheon

My daughter, Jenni, invited us over to her house for a fancy Mother's day luncheon! She loves to entertain and enjoys her nice things. So we ate croissant chicken salad sandwiches and a very yummy strawberry spinach salad on her wedding china and silver and we sipped champagne out of crystal champagne flutes! Not just plain ole chicken salad either! She used rotisserie chicken and grapes and almonds. Even the champagne was almond flavored!

My mom and dad came home from the beach to our house on Saturday so it was good to be able to spend Mother's day with them. Unfortunately, Zack had to work and Amanda was studying for her last exam of the year in Nurse Anesthesia school and we missed them.

Three generations sitting on the couch opening mother's day cards! I love this pic of me, my daughter and my mom!

My youngest son, Alex with me and mom.

My mom and dad with Jenni and Ben!