Now it's time to say goodbye...

Don't worry, I won't sing -- LOL!

It's just kind of sad that my whirlwind weekend visiting the 'rents in perfectly sunny So-Cal is coming it an end :(

It was my parents' 40th anniversary weekend. From me they got some CD's that celebrated the Summer of Love ('67), the summer of their honeymoon :-) Finding those CD's was a coup! (still chortelling)

Yesterday Mom and I enjoyed a leisurely 5 mile trail run together in the Santa Monica mountains followed by a crazy baby-filled 2 year old BDay party for my 2 year old cousin Maia in Long Beach.

I "snuck" in my own blueberry Western Bagel (one point) to save points for the delicious chocolate chip chocolate cake with creamcheese icing. Hey, you gotta pick your poison. This way I had my lox and bagel AND could eat my cake too. I ended up slowly savoring the frosting and picking out the chocolate chips and was rather proud of myself for putting down the plate. (I could hear the food police in the background shouting, "Back away from the cake!")

In any case, "no guilt, move on" (as The Dotti says).

I made a conscious decision to forgo afternoon snacking figuring I could survive until dinner. Well after an hour bellydancing demo/practice session for the benefit of my Mom who was impressed with how much I have improved (hey Moms are impressed with anything we kids do, right?) and a couple long drawn-out meanderings around Home Depot (I HATE that place) and the newly remodelled Topanga Plaza Mall (I think I HATE that place too), I was ready for a Cliff ZBar in chocolate chip flavor (tastes like cookie dough -- yum!) for less than 2 points since I shared the 2 point wonder with my mother.

I went to sleep dessertless last night and survived! The sun still rose this morning without the extra treat (rarely does a night go by without a dessert).

Today was a day off from running or the gym. I still spend an hour doing yoga/BD isolations and then freestyling some moves together. Also got out the cymbals and scarf and fooled around with those too. Gotta get a REAL scarf as the one I fashioned for myself from something I got from Ross won't cut it for some of the maneuvers --not flowy enough.

After my cousin C came over. She is studying to be a Plant Spirit Medicine practitioner and was using me as a guinea pig. It took two hours while she practiced doing an intitial work-up which includes a medical history, life story and drawing little dots on different parts of my body.

By then we were famished. The four of us (included my parents) tried a new restaurant called Cici's on Ventura Blvd. The menu was quite varied and creative. The place was noisy with very little ambience. I would go back for the food though. I liked my roasted veggie salad with the feta and dressing on the side.

C and I caught a movie, "Paris, Je T'aime" at the Laemmle and tried a new frozen yogurt place afterward. The yogurt place was good, but I don't know how well it will go over with the senior-set-in-their-American-ways crowd that frequents the area. There were four flavors, one being green tea which wasn't that good. The rest were fine for 25 calories an ounce. The place offered some nice chopped fresh-fruit toppings. I got a plain/blackberry swirl topped with mango chunks. The furniture was plastic neon and the menu sign was electronic and always changing. I felt like I stepped into the anime future of yogurt -- hehe.

The movie was mostly good. It was a patchwork of 5 minute vignettes of various scenes having to do with love set in different neighborhoods of Paris. If a vignette wasn't good, I knew a new one would start soon. Talk about the perfect movie for the arthouse movie lover with severe attention deficit disorder! Now the mime scene had me worried for a minute, but that ended up being one of my favorites along with the Metro scene.

I highly recommend it, though. There will be enough scenes in there you will like if you have any inkling of a romantic bone in your body.

Dinner was the most tender filet grilled on Dad's BBQ along with some salad (made by moi) and baked red potatoes -- yum!

Tonight there was dessert though -- a WW 2 point wonder. The sundae cones are great. This was vanilla, second best to chocolate, but delish.

BTW, my tracker is looking a little blank these days. (looking around innocently) Time to rededicate!

Gotta wake up early for my flight back to Vegas.

Round and Round the Merry Go Round

This weekend I am spending time in CA with my family. California provides great running opportunities so I always look forward to the change of scenery, pace and people when I visit.

Balboa Park was the route of choice and the mileage was supposed to be 8. I was glad I knew the route already since Mom and her friends were running there too (yes I have a mother that runs and has run a lot of marathons and ultras at that!) and were not planning on going as fast.

Not that I am super speedy or anything, but when I am going out for a long run, I don't like it to be any longer than it has to be. It's a mental thing I guess. So when I first found out it was at the park I visualized spending two hours stopping to admire each newly gardened area and lots of walking and then a run cut short since we only have so much time.

But a double loop of the park (a larger outer loop starting at the Golf Club on Balboa, down the dirt path and across Woodley almost to the bird sanctuary and back around the lake plus a shorter loop around the golf course) made it 8.45.

I started slowly, almost feeling sluggish due to sore glutes (Why were they sore? Oh yeah, forgot that new body pump class R and I are taking on Tuesday not to mention the BD isolation exercises). But toward the second half as I started to pass other runners and walkers my inner competitiveness kicked in and helped me bring it home in under a 9 minute mile average.

Glad it is done. First 8 mile run since the LA Marathon.

Tomorrow Mom and I will run together on the trail by her house.

1:22 for 8.45 miles; mood tired and sore but finished strong and energized

PS -- Last night at dinner my parent's friends admired my newly developed abs muscles visible through my shirt (eek!) and asked for lessons on my new signature move, the bellyroll. That was good for a few bellylaughs. Picture a table full of seniors in an otherwise empty Chinese restaurant doing body isolations -- hehe!

PPS -- I was a "good" girl in ordering, but probably ate too much 'cause that food is too danged good! Started with Tofu veggie soup. Next came chicken and string beans in brown sauce followed by steamed shrimp and veggies with black bean sauce on the side. I ordered a cup of brown rice for myself and ate maybe a third of it. By then I was full. We finished with a half an orange and a fortune cookie. Glad I was so full since I didn't care that Mom and Dad's house is strangely "dessertless."

PPPS--Bellyrolls are not a good idea on a full stomach!