The Year in Review…About 2 months too late.

NYC Marathon 2008 - Around Mile 17

So it should be a sign of the times that this little review of the past 12 months is a few months old. 2008! What can I say, you have been a dousy. Where to even begin. How about January?

January
The year started off quietly but didn’t stay that way for long
Flew to Dallas to run a gigantic conference with 300 attendees and a $600K budget. Aw the days of endless project budgets!
Gave my notice to the firm. Got a great job (I thought at the time) to be the Director of Diversity for the 2nd largest utility in the US. My mistake.

February
Last day at the firm.
Two week vacation in Argentina with the boy. BEST VACATION EVER!
Two words – Glacier Hiking!
Two more words – Fuzzy Armadillos!
Five more words – Don’t cry for me Argentina!
Started new job at the grid.
Realized my horrible mistake after day three.
Desperately trying to figure escape route
Additional Travel: Boston

March
Still trying to figure out escape route
Start speaking to contractors to gut renovate the bathroom.
Additional Travel: Boston

April
Still POW
Select a contractor and begin the lengthy co-op approval process
Additional Travel: Boston May
Land awesome gig with the association.
Said goodbye to the grid.
Start with the association and realize I am MUCH MUCH Happier
Quick trip to San Francisco while J attends an EP conference out there. Meet his father and sister. Lovely people. Tall.
Run into all sorts of renovation approval snafus
Additional travel: Chicago

June
Get notification, I’m in the 2009 NYC Marathon! Yipeee! Hope my knee holds out this year.
Travel down to attend the wedding celebration’s of dear college mate El and M! Third times the charm! Celebration, not marriage.
Additional travel: Washington DC, Boston, and LA

July
J and I begin cohabitation. Oh what surprises await us!
Ran the NYC Half-Marathon in about 2.5 hrs. Knee holds up splendidly.
Additional travel: none!

August
Attend Wedding in Chicago/Michigan for dear college friend N and M! And it only took them 10 years and two engagements!
Flew out to Jackson Hole, WY for a little vacation and my sister’s wedding! I have a brother in-law.
Got my sexy, sexy new toy. Nikon D300.
Wow! Lots of weddings. But no pressure…you know.
J falls out of the boat while white water rafting…and hilarity ensued.
Ran first 16 mile training run for the marathon.

September
A relatively quiet month personally but quite busy professionally. Traveled just about every week. Chicago, Philly, a week in Atlanta, and rounding out the month in DC.
Got to see the fabulous S in the ATL. Haven’t seen her in like 8 years! I love S!
Ran my first 20 mile training run. Why do I do this to myself?

October
My birthday! 33!
And J and I celebrated year numero duos!
Spent a week in London working with a client who also happens to be a former employer.
Caught up with the slick kid E whilst in London.
Tapering down training for the big marathon.
Additional travel: Boston

November
Ran the 2008 ING NYC Marathon – AND FINISHED in about 5 Hrs 20 minutes! Not to shabby considering that my knee had been out of commission for nearly 18 months.
Spent thanksgiving with J’s mom in Mississippi. I’ve decided I never want to live in Mississippi. The above picture is from a parking lot in Mississippi. I don’t think I need to explain myself further about Mississippi.
I think J and I are finally starting to figure out this whole living together thing.
Started volunteering at the International Center as a career coach. Fun!
Obama wins! The world rejoices! I never did really drink the kool-aid though.
Additional travel: Boston

December
Christmas with the family and post-Christmas with J’s dad and sister in San Francisco.
The fourth annual Christmas Cookie Party with the girls! Hosted by the lovely L. I made ginger-lemon crème cookies. We each ended up with about 9 dozen cookies. J was a very happy man.
Saw longwave in concert at the Bowery Ballroom.
J and I made about 200 mandoos on Dec. 31st. It’s a Korean thing…plus I’m incapable of making food for less than a small crowd.
Went to Alvin Ailey at the City Center. Beautiful as always.
Additional travel: Chicago, and San Francisco (twice in one month)

So yeah, 2008 was a big year of lots of changes, lots of accomplishments, and lots of jobs.
2009 should be another exciting year.

Don’t know what’s in my future but I have a few ideas:
I want to take a pottery class…just cause.
I have my eyes set on the 2009 Reykjavik Marathon in August. Come and join us. It should be fun. We’ll look for gnomes.
J and I also decided we didn't go see enough live music last year. Must remedy that!
And maybe a trip to Greece and Turkey!

2009 has been off to a running start. And no, my bathroom is still not renovated. Sad. :(

Finished!

Finished!

Man Up!

I hate that phrase...hate it, hate it, hate it.

What the f*ck does it even mean?

Here's what I suppose people (meaning men) are trying to convey when using the term 'Man Up!'

"Stop being such a wuss. Don't you realize that as a man it is your duty to never show emotion, never show vulnerability, and never, ever admit that you have feelings. It is your duty to act brutish, barbaric, and testosterone laced. Beat your girlfriend, drive drunk, terrorize your children, and buy a sawed off shot gun."

I almost hate 'Man Up!' as much as I hate 'That's so gay.' and 'Do you.'

Can we just strike all three from the American lexicon?

The Best Granola Recipe in the World*

*At least in my opinion

I love granola but I dislike store bought granola - lots of oats with little to no nuts or fruit, and utterly flavorless. After far too many boxes of disappointing store granola (have you ever seen the fat content on some brands!) I finally tried my hand at making my own and discovered that granola is basically impossible to screw up**. Armed with a fairly simple recipe from Mark Bittman's most excellent cookbook How to Cook Everything I started experimenting and after many tries finally landed on the recipe below. Everything is approximate and I'm constantly making tweaks based on what I have on hand.

Bo's awesome peanut buttery granola

- Approximately 8 cups of old fashioned oats (not the quick cooking kind) - I just use an entire 16 oz drum of oats
- 1 envelope of powdered milk
- Between 1 - 2 cups of sweetened dried coconut flakes
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 2 Tbs cinnamon (or more to your taste)
- 2 Tbs powdered vanilla (not necessary but nice to add if you have some on hand)
- Approximately 1 cup each whole almonds, walnuts, peanuts, macadamia nuts, or any nut of your choice. I usually shot for 4 cups of nuts but you can add less or more according to your taste
- 2 Tbs butter
- Between 1/2 - 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar
- 2 Tbs vanilla
- 1 16 oz jar of natural peanut butter (creamy or chunky - but make sure it's the natural stuff i.e. the nut oil seperates out) You can also use any other nut butter you like, just make sure it is natural
- Apple juice
- Approximately 3 cups of mixed dried fruit. Whatever you like. I usually use some combination of dried blueberries, dried strawberries, dried cherries, dried Turkish figs (chopped), and dried apricots (sulfate free and chopped)

Mix the first seven ingredients (from the oats to the nuts) in a big bowl. Set aside.

In a heavy, high sided pot (make sure it is heavy and high sided - you're going to make a caramel) combine the butter and sugar. Bring the combination to a boil and allow to boil for anywhere from 2-5 minutes. Stoves are different and some are a lot hotter than others. You want to bring the mixture to the point where it smells richly of caramel but isn't burnt. Once you get to the caramel stage pour in the entire jar of peanut butter and stir vigorously to combine. It will become very thick. Add enough apple juice to the peanut-caramel mixture to create a very thick sauce - about the consistency of a pourable yogurt. Add the vanilla and stir.

Allow the sauce to cool slightly (not too much or it will be too thick to combine - if this happens reheat and add a little more apple juice). Pour half of the mixture into the oat mixture and using your hands, begin to combine. I've broken many a mixing spoon during this stage - best to stick with your hands. After a couple of minutes of mixing, gather together the oats that don't seem to have any sauce on them and pour the remaining sauce on top. Combine everything together and make sure all the oats are well coated with the caramel-peanut sauce. The mixture will be coarse and you'll have lots of lumps of various size. Lumps are good. They add texture.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees F. Line two baking pans with either parchment paper or aluminum foil. Evenly spread out the granola onto the pans but make sure not to break up all the lumps. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Stir the granola after 20 minutes and return the pans to the oven for another 10 - 20 minutes depending on how dark you like your granola. Towards the end of the baking time check the granola frequently to prevent burning. It goes from being perfect to burnt in a matter of minutes. Makes about 16 cups. Enough to last me about two weeks.

Annual Wrap Up - 2007 Edition

It's that time of year to write some of the happens in 07.

January
- Went skiing at Mont Tremblont in Canada. Discovered that I STILL have a terrifying fear of skiing. But I am queen of the bunny hill!
- Dinner party with friends. I made TWO kinds of lasagna.
- Saw M. Ward at Town Hall
- Travel: Boston, Montreal

February
- Went ice climbing for the first time. Very fun. J gets a little frostbite in his fingers. Doesn't get proper sensation back in the tips of his fingers for three more months.
- Went skiing again - in the Adirondacks. This time with a trained ski instructor. Have another near panic attack on the green runs. Decide that J is trying to kill me.
- Took J to get a couples massage for Valentines Day. Highly recommended!
- Diagnosed with a bad knee. Started going to PT.
- Travel: Adirondacks, Chicago

March
- Saw The Shins perform at MSG.
- Still going to PT
Travel: San Francisco

April
- Still going to PT
- No travel

May
- Wrapped up PT. Knee supposedly good as new.
- Travel: Virginia, Los Angeles

June
- Began running again after 6 months of 0 miles. PAINFUL.
- Vaction in Portugal with J!
- Travel: Portugal

July
- Question why I run. So painful.
- Decide to opt out of the NYC Triathlon. Not in proper condition. Would have likely drowned.
- Travel: Dallas

August
- Ran the NYC Half-Marathon. Actually finished without having to walk. Time: 2 Hr. 18 minutes.
- Travel: Dallas (Again), Chicago

September
- Went rock climbing with J and friends around Lake Placid. Very fun. Did my first multi-pitch climb. Nearly peed my pants several times.
- Ran an 18 mile long training run for the NYC Marathon. Knee hurts like a b*tch for several days after. Not a good sign.
- Travel: Dallas (AGAIN!!!), San Francisco

October
- Saw Arcade Fire on Randall's Island, Billy Bragg at SEC, and Margaret Cho at the Zipper Club.
- Celebrated one year anniversary with J!
- Turned 32!
- Went apple picking with Sloane.
- Made the decision to drop out of the NYC Marathon - knee giving me all sorts of trouble. :(
- Travel: Dallas (Last time this year)

November
- Travel: Atlanta, Houston (I can't get away from TX)

December
- My sister gets engaged!
- Third annual Christmas cookie party with the girls!
- Travel: Boston, Chicago

Ah...it was a very full year! A good year overall. These are just some highlights.

2008 is shaping up to be an exciting year. Many changes in the works, another shot at the NYC Marathon, a century planned for May, and Argentina with J in February!

I hope you all (or one) are having a great end of year! And Happy New Year!

How much do you want to bet...

That should McCain win the Republican nomination, Joe Lieberman will be his VP running mate. Joe Lieberman was never a democrat.

Cacophany of Christmas Cookies Part 3

The girls and I had our third annual Christmas cookie bake and exchange party this past weekend. A great time was had by all. In total we had 7 different kinds of cookies. We made:

Chocolate cookies stuffed with Rolos and Peanut Butter Cups (Heidi)
Shortbreads dipped in Chocolate (Heidi)
Banana Split Brownies (Liana)
Snickerdoodles (Liana)
Chocolate Chip Cookies (Marlene)
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Dried Cranberries & Walnuts (Adile)
Rugelach with Lemon Curd, Almonds, and Dried Blueberries (Me)

We each walked away with over 8 dozen cookies/person. Eep!

You can see some of the cookies in the picture above.

Already pimping out the baby

This story in the NY Times is truly horrifying! Women now want diamonds and pearls for pushing out the baby.

Talk about priorities in the wrong place.

Meat Deprieved

It is rare that I crave meat. Even before I went vegan and then backtracked (Damn you bacon!) I never ate much meat. Most cuts of meat scare me. You never know what sort of jiggly gristle or vein you might run into (shudder). I like my meat pristine and charred until it is completely dead, dead, dead. I'm also easily overcome by the unctious nature of meat. A few bites and I start to feel a heavy, thick, cloying coat of fat cover the inside of my mouth and stomach. Bleach. The average serving size of meat is 3 - 4 ozs - about the size of the palm of your hand. My tolerance probably hovers around 1 - 2 oz.

It's not that I actively avoid meat - I just don't seek it out. For this reason, I can go days - sometimes whole weeks - without eating a single piece of animal protein (not including fish). It's usually not until I start having weird craving for hamburgers, ham sandwiches, and lasagna (my lasagna has over 3 lbs of meat in it) that I realize my deficit of protein.

Anyway, for the past two weeks - since Thanksgiving - I've been craving hamburgers and bbq ribs nearly everyday. I've been on quite the meat binge as of late. I don't know what's going on. (And no, I am not preggers or anything else of that nature). What's going on here? Has this happened to you?

J and my mom

In a very disturbing turn of events, J and my mom are teaming up against me to make me break some of my less savory bad habits.

On biting my nails:

(Over dinner in a Chinese resturant)

Mom: You should stop biting your nails.
J: Yes, I keep telling her all the time.
Mom: You see, you should stop biting your nails.
Me: Uh-huh
J: (showing her my fingers)...see what she does to them.
Mom: Very bad. Stop biting your nails.
J: Yeah, stop biting your nails.
Me: ....

On running the NYC Marathon:

(While at my Mom's shoe store)

Mom to J: Do you need new sneakers? Which pair do you like? I'll get them for you.
J: No, it's okay. I'm fine.
Mom to J: No, really. Which one do you want? What size are you? I'll be right back with a pair.
Mom to me: Do you need new sneakers?
Me: Yes, how about these?
Mom: Okay, I'll get both your sneakers.

[Mom returns with sneakers]

J to my Mom: Do you know that she's going to run in the Marathon and her knee is injuried? (I'd not told my mother of my knee injury.)
[Mom punches me in the arm]
Mom: Don't run in the Marathon. You'll kill yourself. You can't have new sneakers.
J to Mom: I keep telling her not to run but she won't listen to me.
[Mom punches me in the arm again]
Mom: Don't run in the Marathon.
J: Yeah, don't run in the marathon.
Me:...

8 Asians

Hello to anyone who still reads this. Just a quick note that you can catch my as a new blogger over on the Asian/Asian-American themed group blog, 8 Asians. I've posted about 5-6 new pieces over there since I started about a month ago. Most pieces are about race, society, and being Asian in America. I'll try to cross post when I get the chance. I thought my post about Thanksgiving was most in line with something I'd post here...without the witty verbatim comments my mother would make.

Oh...and for those who miss Mother Lee...here is a little exchange we shared recently.

Mom: I like J.
Me: Thanks, I like him too.
Mom: Does he know how messy you are?
Me: Yes...
Mom: And he still loves you?
Me: ...YES...
Mom: J's a good man. You should marry him.

Happy Crowd

Have you ever found yourself suddenly stumble upon something much bigger than yourself...and also much happier? Well, that's what happened to me last night. I was walking through Penn Station last (having gotten off the 2/3 at one of those annoying exits that force you to exit into the Long Island Railroad terminal rather than the street) when I was confronted by a wall of people - possibly 200 or 300 in total - exiting Madison Square Garden enmass. It being just a bit after 11pm, it was clear this crowd was leaving either a concert or Knicks or Rangers game. See no sports gear I guessed it was a concert. But it wasn't immediately clear what artist. The crowd was largely white and ranged in age from 6 or 7 to late 50s. There was a definite skew toward the late 40s, balding, slightly suburban chubby demographic. The most remarkable thing about this crowd was the uniformly euphoric, almost giddy, and supremely satisfied energy coming off of this crowd. EVERY single person walking towards me was in a good mood...and you could just feel it off of them without even looking into their smiling mugs.

Well, it soon became apparent, I saw of few of those counterfeit T-shirt guys, it was a Bruce Springsteen concert. The BOSS. The scion of New Jersey and Asbury Park. I've always heard Bruce was an amazing performer and a very generous artist...playing encore after encore...even after the house lights are turned back on. And if the atomospher in the LIRR terminal was any indication, he surely delivered last night. It was an utterly unexpected and pleasant encounter for me to walk into this temporary community of Bruce lovers. Happy, polite, and friendly.

Now, the real question is...how do we replicate this same sense of love and family at a Presidential debate?

Rock Climbing in the Adirondacks.

We climbed all the way to the top of Poko-e Moonshine Mountain. If you look real hard, you can kind of see a very small car on the road in the backround...to provide perspective. And yes, that is Burlington, VT in the distance.

And here is J climbing top rope like a rock star!

I Am Not A....

Guillble Consumer.

I don't get this bag. Designed by Anya Hindmarch, it has become the $5 fashion must have for Hollywood and fashion victims everywhere. The bags sold out during its UK launch in 90 minutes. Lines marched down several blocks when it went on sale at Whole Foods in New York. I see many UES-types marching around the city proclaiming thier faux-environmentalism on their arm.

Makes this former-vegan, largely pacifist girl want to punch someone.

Come on people, wake up! It's a marketing gimmic conceived by a very clever handbag designer. It's not really meant to change consumer behavior or raise awareness. It's an experiment to determine who amongst our society are expendable should human sacrifice return to vogue in the next couple of years.

I'll admit that it's sort of cute in that faux-homey, "I was made in China but don't I almost look homemade" sort of way. But it doesn't really do a good job of serving it's designated function - replacing grocery store plastic bags. It's not an exceptionally big bag. Not nearly large enough to carry any meaningful amount of groceries in it - I doubt a single box of cereal would fit comfortably inside. I once saw a woman put her ipod in it. So one ding for utilitarianism. It's not widely available - so it's not actually meant to be used by the masses as an alternative to plastic.

In the FAQ on the Anya Hindmarch site, it states that the company feels the bag launch successfully generated publicity around the use of alternative, reusable packaging. Now there is no way to actually gauge this and there is no way to know if anyones behavior has changed due to the bag but given the fact that I saw a girl the other day laden down with plastic grocery bags in one hand and the "I am not a Plastic bag" in the other - I don't think it's working.

"Learning" American Culture

There has been a lot of controversy of late about various supposedly "non-American" cultural charter schools opening up around the country. The two schools currently at the center of the hullabahoo, the Kahlil Gibran school in Brooklyn and the Ben Gamlan school in Broward County, Florida (Yes, THAT Broward County), are being accused of everything from training terrorists (KG) to violating constitutional seperation of church and state (BG).

There's much for me to comment on (the role of xenophobia and anti-sematism in this controversy, ignorance of the difference between culture and religion, the fact that people seem to forget that Kahlil Gibran was an Christian-Iranian immigrant and also an American citizen) but I'm going to address a tangential argument that critics of these schools seem to bring up. Several critics argue that American schools should only teach "American culture" and English and by introducing other cultures and languages children will have a diluted sense of allegiance to America - thus creating an army of enemy-partriots who will take over the country and spawn a generation of free-love, pro-homosexual marriage, pro-choice, stem-cell researching biracial babies...but I digress.

I don't know about all of you, but I don't have any recollection of being formally taught about "American Culture". It's not like every Wednesday afternoon at the pre-school was America Day where we all ate apple pie and dressed up like Ben Franklin. No, I learned what "American culture" is (if there is such a static, singular thing) by just turning on the TV, seeing a movie, walking down the street, and buying groceries. Everything that I'm exposed to in my day to day life reinforces "American culture", or in my case New Yorkified American culture. A young girl in this country can't get through public elementary school without reading books by Laura Ingalls, EB White, Judy Blume, or Beverly Cleary. And if those books don't provide a healthy does of "American Culture", I don't know what does. American culture is all around us and you can't avoid it if you wanted to. Although my parents put up a heroic battle, their efforts to instill some semblance of Koreanness in their daughters failed miserably. Two parents and a small band of Korean grandmothers are nothing compared to the glamour of Hollywood movies and Saturday morning cereal commericals.

Okay, so then if American Culture is pervasive and unavoidable, a critic might still argue that by emphasizing other cultures in school, you create division in the community and diminish the cohesion created by shared experience. Now, I gotta ask you - how much shared experience do I have with an upper-middle class Southern boy with divorced parents, raised in the suburbs, sent to private school, and ivy-league education? Beats me but J and I seem to be doing a pretty good job of getting along despite how dramatically different our childhoods were.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm not skeptical about these schools (really, what is the value-add of a school that only teaches ONE alternative language - and a language that a VERY small percentage of the world speaks - and never as the only language they speak) but I am saying that a lot of the people critical of the Kahlil Gibran and Ben Gamlan seem to be underground racist xenophobes who are using the schools as an opportunity to express their racism in a safe forum. It's kinda like how SARS became a good excuse for all those Asian-hating people to get their ya-yas out without being labeled an ugly racist.

People Can Be Mean

So J and I were out on Saturday night having dinner at the pork heaven that is Momofuku Ssam Bar in the East Village. As we were leaving the resturant and heading towards a free production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, some random dude walked right by and in a very theatrical whisper sort of way, said to us "You could do A LOT better." We weren't entirely sure who the comment was directed towards and if the guy was even talking to us or into a cell earpiece thingy. It just seemed like a terribly rude thing to say to two happy people walking down 2nd Ave. Was he offended by our happiness? Was he a recently scorned man who wanted to put a damper on our togetherness?

It was just plain mean and rude. J took it in stride. J could tell that I was a bit more put off by the whole thing. To put my nervous temperment at ease he turned squarely towards me, looked me in the eyes and said "I've never been more happy with anybody then I am with you. I love you and you know that."

Sigh. He always knows what to say.

13.1

Sometimes I amaze myself. Yesterday was one of those days. Just a scant five weeks ago my weekly mileage was a big 0 miles. I hadn't run for 7 months. Nada, zilch, nothing. The new running shoes I purchased in mid-November still looked disturbingly clean and spiffy.

My first attempt at running was in Portugal with J. My lungs hurt, my legs hurt and I only ran a mile before I had to quit. Ugh. I saw the 2007 New York City Marathon quickly slipping out of my grasp. But through weeks of slowly increasing my stamina, my lung capacity, and conditioning my legs I rebuilt my foundation.

Yesterday, I ran in the NYC Half-Marathon...and I finished!!! And I ran the whole thing. Didn't stop. And my time was better than I was expecting. Given how much pain I was in during and after a 10K run on July 14th, I was pretty sure I'd completely punk out during the half-marathon. But I surprised myself.

Ran at an overall 11:12 pace with two miles (miles 8 & 9) at an 8:20 pace. I was pretty wiped out afterwards but I'm up and about today and the only reminder of yesterdays event is the mild soreness in my quads - an odd pain considering that it wasn't a tremendously hilly course. The knee felt superb.

Anyhoo, here's to the miracles of he human body!!!

I've now got 3 months to prep for the marathon. Upward and onward!

Joining the Harry Potter bandwagon...

So much speculation on the web about how Harry Potter will end…no reason why I shouldn’t join in the fun.

Any avid children’s literature fan has already picked up on the series use of familiar literary themes popularized in books by Tolkien, CS Lewis, and the like…good vs. evil (Harry and Voldemort), the protagonist’s evolution from a unfathomable naive simpleton to grim realist, the humorous sidekick (Ron), the wise sage (Dumbledore). Given all this, I can only imagine one real ending for the book…the only one that will satisfy and which won’t feel anti-climatic. Harry kicks it.

Yes, I think Harry dies at the end. Voldemort is killed as well, mind you. I don’t think J.K. Rowling is so mean spirited as to allow evil to triumph over good. In quick summary this is what I think happens.

• Dumbledore is not really dead, neither is Sirius. They both come back and play a role in defeating Voldemort.
• Neville’s parents, currently institutionalizes, somehow are snapped out of their trance and also play a role in the end battle.
• Ron and Hermione both die somewhere in the middle to last third of the book. This drives Harry nearly to the point of submitting to his dark side – a la Luke Skywalker. Like young Skywalker, he ultimately defeats his dark temptations and fights for love, freedom, and all that good stuff.
• Snape is good and evil. He wants to see Harry dead but he doesn't want Voldemort to live. He betrays both.

And here are a couple of theories that I’ve mulled over but haven’t made up my final mind on:

• Harry is the ultimate Horcrux. Voldemort, with no other choice, installed part of his soul in Harry when he realized his imminent death. In so doing, he destroyed part of Harry’s soul. The prophecy states that neither can live while the other survives. If Harry is nothing more than a vessel for Voldemort’s soul – should Voldemort retrieve his soul from Harry, Harry would die. However, to stop Voldemort, Harry must sacrifice himself before Voldemort retrieves his soul.
• It is revealed that Harry and Voldemort are distant relatives – remember that Voldemort is a half-blood, his father was a muggle. Harry’s mother came from a muggle family. There’s a connection there. Remember also that it is Harry’s mother’s love that saved him – again a sign that their genetic relationship has somehow made this all possible. Harry is Voldemort's heir apparant and has the potential to be even more powerful and evil than Voldemort. Dumbledore realized this long ago and therefore did everything he could to prevent this from happening.
• And for my most controversial theory – Neville is actually the true “one”. At the end of book six, Dumbeldore stated that it could have been either Neville or Harry who was the one mentioned in the prophecy but Voldemort chose Harry because of his muggle blood. No one ever mentions whether Voldemort made the right choice with Harry. There may be a reason why Neville was raised to be a bumbling fool. No one would ever believe such an incompetent twit would be the one to eventual kill Voldemort. But maybe this was Dumbeldore’s plan all along. Shield Neville and protect him by implicating another child. Neville is the one who ultimately kills Voldemort.

Oh well, we'll know in just a few more days....Happy reading!

Muggles, Motors, and Mobility

Just a random update on activites as of late.

First - Muggles and Motors. Saw two GREAT (and VERY long) movies this week. First off was the most excellent Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Clocking in at nearly 2 hours and 24 minutes, the director did a good job of shrinking the 900+ page Order of the Phoenix into a fast, fun, squeal inducing adventure into magic. My butt barely got numb. Saturday night brought in Transformers. What can I say? I LOVED it. I think I may have liked it more then the 5 guys I saw it with. Mind you, I saw it with 4 doctors and a computer programmer (yes, all of J's friends. Couldn't drag a single female friend of mine to see it) and I was the one most excited. I'm a NERD of the highest order. I highly recommend you go out and see both films, if you haven't already.

Now for the mobility. After being diagnosed with a case of tendonitis and patello-femoral pain syndrome (aka Runner's Knee) nearly 5 months ago and enduring 4.5 months of PT, I finally ran my first race this past weekend. And I finished! Not quickly and not with much effort...but I finished. It was a 10K around the Central Park loop (one of the toughest 10K courses in the city in my opinion - all hills and valley). I finished in just under 1 hour and 10 minutes - are about an 11 minute pace. WAY off my usual pace - but I didn't stop running once. I'm quite proud of myself. And my knee hasn't hurt since. Knock on wood.

All in all, a most excellent weekend.

Portugal

O fim de mondo - The end of the world

Sagres, Portugal - The southern most point of continental Europe. At one time in history people believed that any boat that sailed beyond the horizon from this spot fell off the earth. The earth is flat, don't you know?

Just returned from a week in Portugal with J. Explored countless Cathedrals, Roman ruins, and Moorish Castles, swam in the place where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet. Ate fish, caught hours earlier, grilled with nothing but salt - the smell of the sea thick in the air. Yum.

A busy week, a peaceful week. Never checked email. Never read the news. Never turned on a TV. Books were read and discussed.

The days started cool and crisp, warming to a point of almost discomfort by mid-day, and ended once again breezy and cool...not all that dissimilar from LA in this regard.

Left tawny, freckled, and smelling slightly of the briny sea.

Coffee

How do you coffee drinkers do it? Drink 4, 5, even 6 cups a day. I've never been able to drink coffee. It's not that I dislike the taste. I actually find it mildly pleasing when combined with enough sugar and milk. It's the extraordinary jitteriness, head rush, and overall inability to focus that comes from the caffine that I find utterly bothersome.

I've always had a sensitivity to caffine. I feel funny, nauseated, and jittery whenever I consumed caffinated soda and tea. Coffee was the true killer though. One cup and I'm out for the count for at least 3 or 4 hours. Every once and awhile, though, when I've had a particularly challenging night of sleep (like last night - insomnia) I reconsider my stance on caffine. Maybe this time it will give me the jolt of energy (minus the naseau) necessary to stay awake and be productive. Alas, this mornings cup of iced coffee left me feeling nervous, twittery, and slightly headachy. I just don't understand how all y'all dedicated coffee drinkers do it.

And while we're on the subject of stimulants and sedatives - What's up with the alcohol? How do people deal with the aftereffects of alcohol? I've never been partial to the taste of the stuff. I can't seem to get past that bitter, stingy, burning taste to reach the nexus of complex flavors that everyone extols. I'm like the little yellow canary when it comes to alcohol. Even the smallest amount of it will destroy an otherwise perfectly tasty cocktail. But aside from the whole taste factor, I've never really liked the way alcohol makes me feel. Since I don't drink very often, I'm easily influenced by the smallest amount of the stuff. One cocktail and I'm feeling lightheaded, stumbly, and discombobulated. Furthermore, the effects of the potent potable still linger the next day. I wake up weary, unfocused, and heavy in the body. I'm told that if I drank more I wouldn't be nearly as susceptable to it's biological impact - that's kind of a scary thought.

I guess that's really it. When I use either stimulants or sedatives of any form I feel disassociated with my body. For me, if I'm mentally feeling tired, I need to my body to also feel tired. When I'm mentally feeling awake, I need my body to feel similarly.