Crossed off, Sweet Tomatoes sweet, Bike and broccoli, Requirements
So I was up bright and early Saturday morning to go time a large local invitational cross country meet. This was the second year I have done the event. Since it was the second time I had pretty smooth sailing even with the number of participants increasing quite a bit this year. Actually the most troublesome part was getting accurate team rosters from the various coaches prior to the race.
One of the cool things about this race is we set up in the football stadium. When we get started it is pitch dark so they flip on the stadium lights to make it even cooler. Next year I need to remember to bring my football and kicking tee to knock a few field goals through. The field is even the expensive NexTurf variety that many pro football teams utilize.
Even with the lack of race day issues, it still made for a long morning since I was literally timing 4 different races back to back. I didn’t leave until 11:30. During the race I was approached by a coach of another team to ask if I would be available to time a meet they have coming up in a couple weeks. I sent him a proposal to do so but it is at a rate that is actually worth my while. I timed the meet Saturday at a bargain basement price because the coach that hosts it is a running club board member.
Saturday evening we went out to dinner for the second week in a row. I called to invite my mom but she already had other plans. We went to a place called Sweet Tomatoes that went into the building vacated by Macaroni Grill years ago. I didn’t realize it was a buffet.
Now when you think of a typical buffet you think of rows of calorie and fat stuffed selections along with the herds of fat asses and old people that flock to these type of establishments. Sweet Tomatoes is a different type of buffet. Instead it is filled with mostly vegetarian selections, Ali was in heaven.
Along with a massive salad bar they had a great selection of other entrees. Best of all we wound up spending a total of $20 for the two of us thanks to kind patron that shared a discount code that knocked 4 or 5 bucks off the tab. Now of course there were still the typical big sides of beef walking around the restaurant, loading up their plates with heaping servings of cheesy entrees and finishing up with massive soft serve sundaes but for the most part people seemed to exercise moderate self control.
Ali and I were both quite impressed with the place and enjoyed what we picked out. Sweet Tomatoes will definitely be added to the places we like to eat rotation.
After dinner we had a couple stops to make. The first stop was Marshall’s across the parking lot. Ali pointed out how much of a pain in the ass our one large piece of luggage is to manage, which it is. It is basically an oversized duffel bag with wheels that we bought out in Denver years ago before we were married. Although it holds a lot of shit, it has a small grab handle which makes it very awkward and uncomfortable to pull for any appreciable distance.
Ali’s point was that when we go to NYC our plan is to take public transportation to get to our hotel. Dragging that bag around would suck ass quite simply. So anyway Marshall’s evidently sells luggage. As I walked in I saw they had a big NOW HIRING display at the entrance. Wow, Marshall’s wouldn’t be a bad place for mom to earn some bucks I thought. I know she likes the store and I saw other women working there that looked close to mom’s age.
I snapped a picture of the sign and emailed it to mom to let her know. When I talked to her on the phone earlier she indicated she had escalated her job search priority so I figured this could be a decent lead.
We grabbed a large Samsonite piece which was gray in color, helping it stand out from the oceans of black bags on the luggage carousel. Pulling it was a delight, it will be a nice addition for the NYC trip. Unfortunately there was an unwanted side effect of the luggage purchase. Ali’s match-aphobia kicked in.
Ali loves when things match, so even though we have another 3 pieces of perfectly functional luggage at home she started talking about buying another matching piece. Often I will just concede to this matching madness as it usually isn’t even worth the effort to point out the flaws in the spending logic. Well I decided to stand my ground in this instance, reminding Ali that we are not world travelers that are constantly in and out of airports. I agreed with her that the old duffel bag was an issue so I was fine with replacing it. I had no desire to replace other pieces unnecessarily. I will just deal with the points and snickers from people at the airport that notice our luggage doesn’t match.
After Marshall’s we went to the Bonita Home Depot to get stuff to fill up our garden. We loaded up with a ton of different things like cauliflower, tomatoes, two varieties of lettuce, eggplant, peppers and more. We also bought several bad bug repelling good bug attracting flowers to plant around the outer borders of the raised beds to help protect our crops naturally.
I noticed that Home Depot had a now hiring sign as well, another place that mom considered as a viable place for employment. I actually had told her a few weeks back that a guy I go to the gym with who works at HD told me they were in full hiring mode. Mom refreshed her online application with them but was not moved to actually visit the store to inquire about openings specifically. It certainly wouldn’t hurt. Since mom’s unemployment benefits have expired she is going to have to do something.
Sunday morning Ali and I went out on a bike ride. It was the first time Ali has ridden a bike since her Olympic triathlon a month or so ago. We went somewhere different, a residential area across the road from the pool Ali trains at. It is the area that her tri training group do many of their bike rides in. It didn’t take long to see why.
The area is quiet residential neighborhood with empty roads connected by long straightaways. It is a great spot for Ali to ride since she is still gun shy riding among traffic. We maintained a mundane 13-15mph pace for most of the 16.28 mile ride but it was a good start for Ali. The cool temps and low humidity meant I hardly even broke out in a sweat, even wearing a dark colored, long sleeve shirt.
My early Sunday afternoon was actually free since the Eagles were off this week. We used that time to plant everything in the garden. I am hoping everything takes, if so we will have quite the supply of fresh vegetables rolling in for quite awhile.
Later in the afternoon I decided to take another shot at the Bar-barian requirements. My first attempt was 2 weeks ago at the gym. Doing it there was a pain in the ass first because the “bar” they have is rotten for muscle ups and second because I had to work around other people. As a result my time was a pretty slow 23 minutes to do it all. My hope was doing it on my “home court” would offer a time advantage.
My attempt started out surprisingly well. I was able to string the first 5 muscle ups together back to back, something I never pulled off prior. After that as I got into the meat and potatoes of the attempt things got progressively tougher.
I broke the dips, pull ups and push ups into smaller sets and then had to do the last 5 muscle ups 2,1,1,1. My total time was under 18 minutes, at least a 5 minute improvement over my gym effort. I was pleased overall with the set and I hope I can keep driving that time down as I do the routine more and more.
Here it is if you have 16 minutes to spare.
After my workout Ali was dressed to go out on a run. She was originally planning to run with Michelle, unfortunately Michelle called earlier and said she was sick. I asked Ali if she wanted me to trail her on the bike. She said she would be fine but I said I would do it anyway. At least I could carry the water bottle on the bike. Ali put in a total of 6 miles and struggled to do so. She said her legs felt pretty spent.
The entire weekend was filled with wonderful weather. The AC was off and the windows open the entire time.