warm weekend

And exciting happenings all about. I ran 7 miles outdoors. First outside run since the half marathon on January 18th. Still have splint on arm. In Aiken, Gillian rocked, riding Lesley's horse Choo to a 4th place finish. Choo is for sale and is a phenomenal horse for a young rider or AA to event (or do the jumpers) on. Susie, Lesley and Cynthia also had good finishes at Sporting Days. In Florida, Hilda had a dressage lesson on her new guy Extravagance with Bill Woods and a jumping lesson on Godsend with Karen O'Connor. Karen got up on Godsend and he definitely felt the difference. Looks like it could be some harder work for him going forward. Both Godsend and Extra will do the advance horse trials at Rocking Horse. I hope that you might keep thoughts and prayers open as several friends and relatives are going through health challenges right now. May all your challenges be the good sort.

In which I return to Florida

I spent the (long) weekend at Rocking Horse, apprenticing with Sally Ike. It was great being back down there and seeing the team. I got to see Hilda's new horse Extravagence and my (shared) new horse, Hero. Hero totally reminds me of Gizmo (although a lot bigger), but same coloring and surprisingly similar mannerisms, including pushing food out of the feed tub and eating it off the floor, which apparently is just better. Rain Thursday and chilly mornings Saturday and Sunday, but a really nice weekend, complete with Sand Hill Crane appearance. Made it back in to Urban Flats for dinner and basketball one night. No yoga, since the arm is still healing. Now back to face the major work pile. Teacher's institute starts today.

Another year

The cliche that they pass more quickly is true. Still, I like celebrating my birthday - the more the better. Henry and I had breakfast at the Four Seasons this morning, perfectly decadent and a great way to start the day. This evening the LDI holiday party and then dinner with Susie, Lesley and Chris at Melograno. Gretchen Butts sent a really nice e-card. I got a paper card from an office mate and e-mail singing from my friend Lucy. All is good, and I will stick to the thought of wiser, better, more....

Really sank in today

That I'm not going south to show this year. Last year, I had already done a weekend in Florida and was about to do the first horse trial of the season. Prior years, this was packing for Aiken weekend. It became visceral today. Although, it didn't make me sad. I'm enjoying hearing about Keebler's progress with Debi and not having to go out in the cold (broken arm aside). Looking forward to getting back to a more regular exercise schedule including more running. Have lots of dinners booked with friends that there normally isn't time for. Will even be having dinner with Henry on Valentine's day, which is a Saturday this year -- what a concept!

A new day

I was able to see live feed of Obama's inaguration speech and think it really set the tone for a new direction. A leader in women's health and choice was quoted as saying the last 8 years have been a desolate wildnerness for progress in that area. I've decided to act locally in this year's exercise fund-raising and dedicate the Rock 'n' Roll series to raising money for a really great Philadelphia organization, www.backonmyfeet.org. If you'd like to donate, go here:

http://www.active.com/donate/raceforbackonmyfeet/seema_sonnad

1 down for me, down and out for the Eagles

I ran the rock 'n' roll Arizona 1/2 marathon yesterday. Did running with a broken wrist in a splint slow me down, not really. Did running after 2 weeks of no exercise at all slow me down, possibly. Did running in the Arizona desert slow me down, absolutely. But thanks to my great coach at www.2Lcoaching.com, even after the 2 weeks, I was in good enough shape to run the 1/2 marathon in my usual pre-coaching half marathon time. So I am started on the plan to run all 10 of the rock 'n' roll events this year, 9 half marathons and one full.

The metro light rail in Phoenix is a great thing. I didn't rent a car and was able to take light rail to and from the airport, to and from dinner and from the race finish line back to my hotel. Service was a little spotty timewise on Sunday afternoon, but it was otherwise really great.

On the bad news side of the weekend, the Eagles lost the NFC championship game to the Cardinals. I was at PHX at the time and there were a lot of happy people there, but more disconsolate ones on the plan back to Philly. Still, it was a good end of the year run and two championships in one year would probably be more than the city could really handle.

May I say triple brrr!!

Those of you who spend time with me, know that double brrr is my usual expression for cold weather (well ok, Florida buddies may not know that), but the high today is only 18 degrees and Philadelphia has turned me into a total cold-weenie. Of course, the Keebler boy was supposed to be enjoying being somewhere warm and it is 22 degrees in Alabama right now, so that theory isn't foolproof. Were I at Ashmore, I could be enjoying 60 degrees or in Aiken with a liveable, though still pretty darned chilly 35. Of course, tomorrow I head for Phoenix, where the expected low is 47 and the high 76. I'll be trying to soak up enough warmth to bring some home.