Belly Dancing, anyone?

On Friday evening, Susan, Ellen, Joan, Kathy and I enjoyed Mediterranean night at T. Ashwell's .

My Zumba teacher, Andria was the floor show. She is an extraordindary belly dancer. She had us up and participating. Goodness!

The menu included a buffet of Mediterranean food and we ate it all. I am sorry to say, none of us hit the YMCA this morning at 7:30 (as is the norm).

I received an email this morning from Susan, with her new rules if she ever sets foot near a buffet again:

One trip; one plate, 3/4 full, heavy on veggies and nothing over 1 inch high. AND have a high protein snack before.

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Acrylics, etc.

To the Y this morning, getting both my personal best in time and distance. So, I rewarded myself with a skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks and a apple walnut SOYJOY. Don ventured to try one. He said it wasn't too bad. He described it as tasting a little like a fig newton.

Where did the rain come from? I kept hearing this noise on the side of the house last night and I woke up to find it was the water running through the gutters. If this was March, you would think we were heading into Spring. California and Arizona are getting all that rain, the jet streams are messed up and we are seeing the result of it. The downside is, it'll probably freeze and we'll have a nasty slippery mess tomorrow morning.

I love my new tubes of acrylics!!! I started painting last night until the lighting wasn't good. Today, I am going to resume. I pushed the dining room table over against the wall and I have my easel up in front of the sliding glass door. Who needs a dining room anyway when you're empty nesters? You never use it. Don wasn't home last night when I was moving furniture. He was racing his RC car until very late. This morning, he admired my brushes and I warned him that I better not find them in his shop or in the vicinity of his metal sculptures.

So today painting again AND making Zucchini/Cilantro Soup. I picked that one because I am looking for a soup that is a good starter/appetizer before meals. If the recipe is any good I'll post it on the blog.

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New Years Resolutions

I wrote my New Year resolutions. I do it every year.

Still thinking.....there is a little room left at the bottom of the page, in case I missed one.

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Erik's Home

http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/national-guard-soldiers-return-home

Erik arrived in Wisconsin today. Don, Cammie, Justin and I met him at the airfield.

We made a big banner for him, he said he saw us from the window of the plane.

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Dog? or no Dog?

I am starting to think about a dog again. I wasn't sure I wanted another dog and that anyone could replace Sterling....and they can't. At least, not another Siberian Husky.

So here's a picture of a Wheaten Terrier, named Dixie , what do you think? Problem is, she comes as a pair with the next dog named Scotty......DARE I TELL DON!!!!!! It'll never happen.

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Online grocery shopping? and then cooking

Today I learned that you can shop online with Festival Foods . They will pick your order, and have it bagged ready for you to pick up from the attendant for a $7.50 fee. What! I thought that was done in Chicago, New York, etc. not Green Bay. Green Bay doesn't even have a traffic pattern unless it is before or after a PACKER game. I wonder if anyone does that? Shopping for groceries isn't bad as long as it isn't a Saturday morning or Sunday at noon (when church gets out). The also have an online shopping list that you can create and save, as you run out of things. Is it better than a pen and paper? I better try that out.

For the Surgical Services Christmas party, we all went to Big Tomatoes. The chef, Larry London, introduced me to a new cookbook, The Silver Spoon. It teaches you to cook anything/everything. Don gave me one for Christmas, I am excited to start using it. After watching the movie Julie & Julia, I am inspired to cook or maybe I should take my new cookbook and sign up for one of Larry's cooking classes.

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Home Soon

Don and I went to the YMCA to run tonight. Our training plan for this week is:

[Walk briskly 5 min, run 3 min] repeat 1x, walk 5 min. Doesn't seem tough yet, but the trainer said we are training smart, to avoid an injury.

I was on Skype with my son, Erik, tonight talking about our training plan, here is our conversation:

Mary Ann: what is ur best time running the mile?

Erik: um idk, we always run 2 miles

Mary Ann: what is ur best 2 mile time?

Erik: 11:30

Mary Ann: Oh my, I am more than double your time, I run one mile in 11:53, but I'll get better

Erik: Yeah that's not bad mom, you can get better

Mary Ann: thanks for the support, I like running

Erik: yeah, of course, you're my mom, you'll always have my support, when I come home I'll run with you at the Y.

Erik is leaving Iraq in 12 hours. He is heading home for good. It'll be good to have him home.

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A better 2010

I just finished my first week training for all the 5Ks and 10Ks I'll be doing this year. I purchased new running shoes from Runaway Shoes and the Nike + IPod Sport Kit from Bestbuy. The IPod Sport Kit has a chip that fits in your Nike shoe (or you can attach to your laces, if you purchase the little velcro pocket) and a receiver that plugs into your IPod.

The sensor talks to your IPod recording your time, distance, pace and calories burned.

I logged into Nike Plus and set up an account. I can send daily workout data to nikeplus when I sync my IPod to the computer. The online coach has set up a twelve week training program to follow. Check out tomorrow's blog, I will post this week's training plan.

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