2/27/2010 Saturday run

This morning, I took Gabriel on a run. He hasn't been doing Running Club at school lately (in favor of going to the library and studying electronics books at lunch, the geek), but he still wants to enter the upcoming Big Bunny Fun Run. He's not in shape for it!

Also, my grand idea of having both boys in the same activity was a huge backfire -- they just can't be in the same class together. Last week at gymnastics, the boys pestered and messed around so much that it disrupted the class, and the coach was frustrated. Today was the last class, and I figured I'd give the coach a break, by giving Gabriel an attractive alternative.

It wasn't as much fun as I thought. He kept stopping, complained about things hurting, dragged along...we ran a short 2.5 mile route, with less success than our previous 4.5-mile run together. I observed with interest that he does better on the uphills, though the uphills tend to be first.

At the end, we ran into my friend Sonia, who had just completed a 15-mile training run. Fifteen miles! And not easy miles; to run that far at Rancho, you go on some long hills. She's training for the Big Sur Marathon. Still, I wasn't too blinded by admiration and envy to miss a photo-op, something Sonia is just as keen on as I am.


An errand this afternoon was to go to Dave's eyecare place to pick frames for his new "computer glasses." It was risky doing this with all three kids, but fortunately some Highlights magazines neutralized the boys. (Oh yeah that was another reason I took Gabriel running this morning, in the generally successful hopes of dimming his energy level today.)

Katrina, meantime, charmed the whole place with her enthusiastic sampling of colorful kids' frames, in a box within reach and (I believe!) intended for kids to try themselves. She had a great time running laps around the place (within reason, I kept a close eye on her), happily declaring, "I can very see now with these glasses!" Then she brought the house down, making all the women laugh with, "OK, time to go!....where's my bag?" She saw her pal Dylan at sleepover last night, and he has glasses now, so I suspect her interest in glasses was motivated partly by that. She sure looks cute though!


(Note to self...she's approaching 3-1/2, time for a pediatrician checkup, which if I recall, includes her first eyesight check. She routinely spots far-away things though, no obvious signs of visual impairment.)

I cooked dinner tonight, even though the pull of frozen pizza was strong. One of my new favorite uber-simple dishes is a Steak Fiorentina: a simple sauteed steak served on a bed of greens with a lemon-oil-garlic dressing. Though the spinach mixture is a decidedly grownup flavor (strong garlic), Julian not only tries it, but I think he genuinely likes it. He'll sometimes eat "grownup food" just to show that he's willing to try -- which is great -- but he likes a lot of it too.

Ah, if only all kids were like this. There would be no macaroni-and-cheese or chicken nuggets. Katrina still won't touch any non-processed meat, and my life is too complex to go cold turkey on hot dogs. Heck, I'd be happy if even Dave had as broad a palette as Julian!

(Sigh...I must resurrect my food blog. I've been cooking so many new things lately, I somehow don't have time to write about it.)


Next weekend, I'm going on a real run -- alone. I sure as heck can't keep up with Sonia anymore, and I'm sorry to say that it appears Gabriel can't keep up with me.

2/27/2010