reunion weekend

It’s Reunion Weekend here in East Aurora. That means the 5K, sidewalk chalk competition and sale and, of course, all the high school reunions. Andrew’s is tonight at a local bar, Wallenwein’s Hotel. Hi Bob!

We started our day off with the RERUN 5K at Fireman’s Field. It was the first time I’d been there, so it was neat to get acquainted with another part of the village.

Before:

After (VERY SWEATY):

Andrew ran with me–yay! Well, “with” might be slightly misleading. More like 3:33 minutes behind.

Andrew: “This heat and that hill in the middle killed me.”

Me: “What hill? Oh, I suppose that was a bit of an incline…”

He threw his water at me.

I LOVE just-ripe bananas! And the Braeburn apples. Did you know New York used to be the apple capital of the country, if not the world? Apparently Washington has overtaken NY’s production. Oh well, more for us!

There was also a one-mile kids’ fun run. Adorable.

Guess what?! I won my age group! HOLY COW! This was a shocker, since despite the small size of the field, it was FULL of “real” runners. Not that I’m NOT a runner, but you know what I’m talking about. Teeny sports bras and compression shorts abounded. The overall female winner (with an 18-something time) is a college runner at Bucknell. At least five or six youngsters (16-20 year-olds) smoked me.

I ran the 5K in 22 minutes flat, which is definitely my best time ever. So proud!

The awards were pint glasses and beer mugs. I chose the pint because I love the size and collecting those with neat designs. I picked up a couple colorful ones recently that are teal and brown and say “Buffalo Lounge.” I can’t wait to use them in our future house.

Check it out! Andrew’s high school track and cross country coach was the one handing out the awards–neat!

I’ve come so far as a runner from where I was in college; it’s hard not to be just ecstatic.

After the run we popped by the co-op. Alix Martin and her team had started the mural project earlier this morning and I was supposed to take some photos of the progress. I’ll link to that once it’s finished so you all can see!

We cleaned up at Andrew’s parents’ house, then headed over to Main Street for the sidewalk sale. It’s an annual thing and all the shops along Main Street bring out their wares, as well as typical fair booths and festival food.

Look! It’s Van Gogh’s “Starry Night!”

Kids hard at work on the piece that, I believe, took second place.

What fair would be complete without kettle corn?

Andrew passed on the popcorn in favor of…

…FUNNEL CAKE! I was full of self-control and only had two bites.

It was pretty steamy out (even I was getting warm!), so the mister was a hit with those who didn’t mind getting a little wet.

We took a break from the heat and headed into Tuscany on Main, the newest olive oil and vinegar store in town. They were having tastings and we loved it. We’ll definitely go back. I tried fig, chocolate, blood orange and cherry balsamic vinegars, pear champagne vinegar and garlic olive oil. DELICIOUSNESS!

There was fencing…

…and chess demonstrations, just to name a few.

We’re headed out in a few minutes for Andrew’s reunion–must go get ready!

it’s a jungle in there

Laundry day. Here, it was yesterday.

I’ve been doing laundry about once a week since we’ve been here, which means I have about two bins full of dirty clothes between the two of us. I shouldn’t complain; the laundry room is just down the hall and free to use. All I need to do is provide soap, time and elbow grease.

However, there is a little wrinkle (haha, no pun intended) in my laundry routine. I hang all, and I mean ALL, my workout clothes to dry. The high heat from the dryer breaks down the elastic–I read that somewhere. I did this at home, too, but I always did smaller loads throughout the week, so I never had more than about seven or eight items to hang at any one time.

Well. This laundry-once-a-week-thing transforms my bathroom into what looks like a cramped running goods store. Or a jungle of brightly colored dry-fit wear.

Twenty-five items total hung in my bathroom yesterday.

Sports bras: 8

Shorts: 6

Shirts: 6

Long-sleeve shirts: 2

Yoga shorts: 2

Running capris: 1

ONE of the above items was a “regular” article of clothing; a part-cashmere top I wore to church last weekend. (I have a phobia of drying ANYTHING that might ruin, shrink or otherwise become less nice because of the dryer. I will say, however, now that I’ve lost a few pounds, I’ve been throwing things in the dryer right and left! It’s so freeing…)

On a side note, I didn’t actually wear eight sports bras in one week; I picked up a few more the other day since the last couple times I had to do laundry out of necessity (as in I had nothing left to wear for my workouts)!

I ended up scoring some great deals at Marshalls–two sports bras, a pair of Nike running capri pants for fall and a pair of New Balance yoga shorts for $60! The running capris at Dick’s are typically $60 alone, so I was pretty stoked.

ANYWAY…

…it really was pretty jungle-like in there for awhile! And that didn’t include any of Andrew’s shorts (he’s started running again in the mornings), which I hung up in his bathroom. I guess I should be thankful he hasn’t hung up any of his clothes in his closet (they remain in the Rubbermaid tub and duffle they arrived in) so I have thirty-odd extra hangers at any given time…

running: lessons learned, pt.1

I took Hadrian out for a two-mile run this morning and did some thinking:

1. Don’t run through neighborhoods on trash day–stinky!

2. Just because you CAN run somewhere doesn’t mean you SHOULD run somewhere. This one deserves a paragraph, or two.

I mapped a 5.25 mile loop around our hotel yesterday. Most of it was pretty familiar…the 1.5 mile residential/commercial stretch to Cazenovia Park I’ve been running, then a commercial stretch, thankfully all sidewalk. (Not so thankfully for my knees, but you understand.) Anyway, turns out my last leg of the run included not one, not two, not three–but FOUR interstate on and off ramps. As in I was running two overpasses and had to cross four major intersections. Again, thankfully there was, for the most part, ample room to run by and relatively light traffic.

The best part of the story: Andrew’s face as we drove the route that evening so I could re-count, in detail (because it’s my mission in life to verbalize just about everything I’ve done/said/thought/wondered), my grave mistake that morning.

3. Apparently not all parks are created equal. I was walking Hadrian in the aforementioned park the other day during lunchtime when some nice ladies stopped to chat. I must have mentioned running in the park and she cautioned me about running alone in the park as she’d seen homeless people sleeping in the bushes before. This wouldn’t have bothered me so much except that I definitely ran there, ALONE (relatively speaking–there were a couple other walkers and joggers out as well), Sunday morning before church. Duly noted.

4. Avoid all kinds of wildlife and those on bicycles while running with Hadrian.

…that’s all for now. I’m sure there will be more, hence the “part 1.”