Monday, July 15, 2013

Virtual Running Date No. 17: Bikes, babies and gardens, Oh My!

Good morning, Crushers!

What a weekend! If we were on a virtual running date today, I would have to admit that I didn't do any running all weekend long except to chase my nephew, Ben, in a game of tag. We did however, bike 18 miles! Boo-yah!

Friday, we ran a whole bunch of errands including out to Waukesha to pick up a box that I had left behind at an old apartment. I'm really glad we picked it up for two reasons: 1) it had my college diploma and a few other important things in it and 2) we were near an Outback Steakhouse (gift card!). I had the new Great Barrier Trio. Let me tell you, it was not like dining in Australia, but I would gladly order that again. It was just the right amount of food and the crab and avocado salad was delicious! I need to figure out how to make that at home.

If we were on a virtual running date, I would tell you that I was really hesitant about biking from our house on the northwest side of Milwaukee all the way to the Wauwatosa Farmers' Market. I knew that the terrain was pretty flat except for one big hill. I'm usually a parkway biker and I avoid busy streets as much as possible. Fortunately, we only had to be on a busy street for a little while. Just like I advocate for runners to wear bright clothing, I'm going to throw in an encouragement for bikers to do the same. I try very hard to share the road with all bikers, vehicles and pedestrians, but I know that I'm probably not as vigilant of a driver as I could be when it comes to bikers. I figured I had best assume that other drivers were less vigilant that I can be.
We made it! I have no idea why this picture is blurry.
Dressed to be seen!
Steve in front of the Little Red Store, and yes, he had a helmet.
 Steve, bless him, wore a big-ish backpack for our ride with a soft-sided cooler in it for any/all of our farmers' market finds. We made it all the way without mishap and rewarded ourselves with coffee from the Valentine Coffee Co. I highly recommend their Bering Sea Blend for iced coffee. It was delicious! We also picked up some rosemary sour dough bread from Waterhouse Foods from Lake Mills, WI. They have cooking classes and you can bet that I'm going to jump on that!

The rest of the day was spent celebrating our nephew's 4th birthday, helping mom clean out closets at Grandma and Grandpa's house and then going to meet our friends' new addition, Baby Levi. Adorable! I offered to make dinner for them since sometimes the best way to show people you love them is by cooking them tasty food. My Opa! Greek Seasoning from Wildtree is running low, but fortunately, I happened to have most of the ingredients growing in my herb garden! A little grapeseed oil, lemon juice, rosemary, parsley and ground pepper plus chicken = delicious baked chicken that was juicy and fragrant. Even 2-year-old, Liliana was a fan!
Before: This is when I planted stuff earlier in May.
The big yellow bucket on the left has green peppers and nasturtium.
The one on the right is all tomatoes of different sizes.
Sunday was spent in the garden. If we were on a running date, I wouldn't be able to show you these photos until after we stopped running, but I'm sure I'd chat your ear off telling you about them anyway!

After: Tomatoes
After: green peppers!
This was just one afternoon's harvest. We have three other containers like this already picked.
We probably have to pick raspberries every other day from now until the end of July!

Lots of greens including kale, bok choy, Swiss chard, and arugula 

Our Easter lily that was transplanted to the garden from two years ago - finally bloomed!

Since this is a virtual running date post, please don't think that I've abandoned running entirely. We still get up early before I have to go to work to run. We just didn't run last weekend. It's OK. We'll be back at it soon!

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