A Very Nutritious Weekend

It’s a good thing my ‘training’ doesn’t start until Spring. I had quite the un-athletic weekend. Not only did I not do much in the way of exercise, but my diet was horrific. We spent the first few hours of Saturday cleaning the house because guests were coming over that evening. The guests were coming over to sit by the bonfire, but you know Karlo . . . everything needed to be scrubbed down, de-cluttered, every leaf needed to be removed from the deck, etc. I think I’ve decided that we are never having visitors again. I can’t take the stress he puts me though during the preparation.

Anyway, back to my story. After we cleaned we had the lunch of a 10 year old – peanut butter & jelly and nacho chips. We did manage to go for bike ride in the afternoon. Unfortunately my hip and knee were sore during the ride and I ended up with stomach cramps 10 miles from home. Not the best ride to make me feel good about committing to a race. I was feeling old and out of shape.

We went to Buell’s Apple Orchard for dinner. Our neighbor tipped us off that they had roasted chicken dinners. That sounded perfect, as I was not about to cook. So we went to get our chicken dinners, but all they had left were hot dogs and hamburgers. Uuugh. We had nasty hot dogs for dinner and completed the meal with a candy apple (for me) and a block of fudge (for Karlo). And as if that wasn’t bad enough, we finished the night by drinking beer and eating brownies and chips by the fire.

Sunday wasn’t much better. We attended an Oktober Fest party most of the afternoon where we sucked down sausages, pretzels, pie, misc other treats, and oh yeah, more beer. We went home to have another little bonfire. We needed to get rid of lots more brush. That turned into dinner by the fire. You guessed it – we ate smores for dinner! I feel like I need to repent for all my weekend sins.

A Tough Week

I started off this week with my first trip to the gym in months. I can really only bare to be working out indoors when the weather is too cold be outside. So I let Karlo torture me for the first two days of the week. It was hard and I felt weak. I hated it.

On Monday night we went to our swing dance lesson and had a ball. The next day I woke up with a sore knee – my typical bad knee and my typical knee pain. No big deal, but I was feeling like quite the wus being sore from dancing. I must say that hearing about my idol, and Olympic gold champion, Misty ending up in a cast from her dancing stint made me feel a little better.

I went back to the gym with Karlo on Tuesday for more punishment. On Wednesday I was very sore, or at least I thought I was very sore. I had no idea how much the soreness would intensify as the days went on. I thought Wednesday was bad . . . Thursday was even worse. I had a hard time just getting through the normal course of the day. Lifting my arms past shoulder level was simply impossible and there wasn’t a square inch of my back that didn’t kill if touched in any way. Try living with Karlo in this condition. You have no idea!

I actually starting to have feelings of, “I’m getting to old for this nonsense. Why do I do this to myself? I think I should retire from torturing my body.” I was getting comfortable with giving up on the idea of killing myself to stay in great shape. Life would be so much easier if I just let go of this impossible ideal. And this blissful thought lasted for at least 14 hours.

Then last night I went to line dancing class. I talked to a new local friend and got the report on how she did in her very first triathlon. She really inspired me and I made a comment like, “You go girl. I wish I could do it.” That led to her saying, “Hey, maybe next year we can do it together as a team.” My eyes immediately widened and twinkled. I jumped up and shook her hand, “You’re on. Let’s start training in the Spring.” I went home so excited I couldn’t sleep.

Paula For President

I tried really hard to refrain for blogging about politics today. I don’t ever talk about politics. Just the word (or thought of the word) normally makes me break out into hives. But how can you avoid the subject these days? I can’t escape from the nonsense.

Last night I did something that I don’t normally do. I subjected myself to the circus that was playing on all the major networks. I’m almost sure that I never actually watched a presidential debate. Well, I might have sat in front of the TV in the past, but never really paid attention. And now I remember why. I hate it with every fiber in my being.

I feel as though my intelligence was truly insulted. How can anybody watch that nonsense and get anything out of it? I kept turning to Karlo and asking, “What was the question again?” It seemed to be a rare occasion that the candidates actually answered the questions. All the like to do is backstab and attack each other. It makes me sick. Karlo called the whole thing WWF in suits. Too bad they couldn’t actually hurt each other because that would make it more enjoyable to watch.

How can we gain any insight into the candidates with this form of debate? No matter what the question, the answer was a series of attacks against the other. And did you notice that the second candidate to answer the question always had to attack the first candidate’s answer? It was a joke. Now if it were up to me, I would either put both candidates into a sound proof booth or I would put them into separate rooms. Put each of them on the hot seat in front of American citizens with hard-hitting questions and let them answer as honestly as they can without knowledge or concern what the other is saying. No attacks against the other. No grandstanding against the other’s answer. Just answer the stinkin’ questions with your own true thoughts and ideas.

Maybe I should just run for President myself.

Bring It On

I am now ready for winter. After spending hours in my closet last night making the twice yearly season swap, I cleared out the sandals and short-sleeved shirts and brought in the turtlenecks and boots. As much as I hate to see the warm weather disappear something about bringing out the cozy clothes excites me. I really do think I would get bored in a climate that never changed. Not to mention I just adore sweaters in general.

I also love the opportunity to reorganize twice a year. Nancy inspired me last week. She had all her clothes arranged by color. I was all set to follow her lead and steal her idea. But after just a few minutes of grouping my clothes by color I realized that it made better sense to group by type. After all, turtlenecks deserved their very own section. I was genuinely enjoying this task. Maybe only Lisa will understand as she suffers from the same organization affliction. For instance, she can related to the fact that I would rather spend an evening organizing my beads rather than actually beading and making jewelry.

So this afternoon I'm off to the consignment shop. I have the entire back of the Mini filled with sweaters. I know what you're thinking, "How many sweaters is that, 6?" You would be amazed how much stuff fits back there. Once the store decides what they want to take I'll have lots of free sweaters to share. Anybody want any?

Home Sweet Home

We're back. We took off at noon on Saturday and drove 11.5 hours straight home. As Karlo pointed out, my 'driving tolerance' has greatly improved and I was perfectly content for the first 6 or 7 hours. The final stretch through New York and Connecticut got a little unbearable. Even the poor car was getting tired and struggling to pull the trailer up the big hills. Needless to say, we were thrilled to see our driveway.

I'm still marveling at how much I enjoyed a vacation that I put zero thought into and really wasn't all that excited about going on. I am truly in love with VA and there is no doubt that we are strongly considering it as our 'early retirement' spot. I can't wait to go back and explore more of it.

Our visit with Rick & Nancy was simply delightful and we enjoyed every minute of it. The house was everything I expected it to be and more. We really lived it up and got completely spoiled. Rick is a gourmet chef and Nancy is not far behind. Although they both were way too trusting of my kitchen abilities. I didn't screw too many things up and we had a grand feast every night that included special "PPTS" drinks. They tried to liquor me up to help me sleep so that stands for "Put Paula To Sleep" drinks. Not exactly sure why I couldn't sleep. Maybe I just didn't want to miss a minute in that house. Thanks so much Rick & Nancy for your hospitality.

The final pictures from our trip can be found here.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Robin Leech here reporting from the Holzshu's. OMG this place is gorgeous. Funny part is that I'm "roughing it." They only have dial-up. And this town is making Easford feel like a metropolis. There is nothing around here. But then again, why would you want to leave this house?

On Thursday Karlo and took another motorcycle ride. We drove out to Stratford Hall which is the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. This dude is a very popular here in Virginia. You can't go anywhere without hearing about Robert E. Lee. I won't give you a history lesson because I'm not sure I can bare another one. Word of caution, if you visit VA, you must be ready for lots of history lessons. And be prepared to be called a Yankee!

The house was interesting to tour and the grounds were beautiful. My favorite part was hunting for treasures at the beach on the Potomac River. Nancy showed me shark teeth that she found and I was obsessed with finding my own. I could have spent all day combing the beach for artifacts. It took hours, but we finally found some cool shark teeth of our own.


That wasn't the end of our frolicking in and near the water. On Friday we took a great boat ride right from Rick & Nancy's dock. The weather was perfect and we got a nice tour of the area from the water.


After a few gourmet meals it was getting time to say goodbye. But first we took the kayaks out for what started out to be a nice leisurely float along the river. Mac came with me to assist, seeing as this was my very first time in a solo kayak. He did great as my first mate and I was ready to make him help me paddle when we got down to the jetty and the wind was so strong I didn't think I was going to make it back. Now I can fully appreciate the greatness of a tandem kayak with a big horsepower engine in the back.

Life on the Appalachian Trail

This morning we checked out of our motel in Harrisonburg and drove the car and trailer back to Shenandoah. During the drive Karlo and I both agreed that we definitely will come back to drive the entire Blue Ridge Parkway. What we couldn't agree on is whether or not we would drive the motorcycle from home or tow it to Virginia again. There is no guessing who wants to drive the bike from home . . .

So today was all about hiking and driving across the state to get to Rick & Nancy's. We drove up to the visitor's center and researched some nice trails. I planned to do a short hike, followed by lunch, followed by another short hike. Karlo changed the plan midstream and decided to do one big long hike on part of the Appalachian Trail. I was very excited to actually hike on it, but my enthusiasm waned at the 2.5 hour mark. I was getting tired and hungry and sick of climbing. According to the map we were about halfway to our destination. uuugh. Luckily we got hopelessly lost and ended up on in a campground parking lot. Out of pure frustration we decided to give up on finding the right trail and just walk back the 1.5 miles on the road. This easily shaved off about 2 hours from our hike. And it was a good thing.

We walked directly to the lodge and had a late lunch. No sooner did our food arrive and the skies opened up. Boy was I happy that we got lost and cut the hike short. We jumped in the car and marveled at the fog that seemed to roll in out of no where.
- Water and beef jerky at the gas station; $6.50
- Two bowls of soup at the visitor's lodge; $8.00
- Karlo saying, "It sure is nice to have the flexibility of the car and the trailer," as we drove through thick fog in a downpour; PRICELESS

Click here to view more photos from today's adventure.