Monthly Archives: May 2009

Two Spock Friday

Posted on by Run DMT
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Last weekend, Hubby and I snuck away for a few hours to finally see the new Star Trek movie. 

 

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a Star Trek fan.  As a young child, I would be glued to the television after dinner to watch the Star Trek reruns every week night. 

 

In my late high school years, I became a fan of Star Trek: Next Generation, followed by Star Trek: Voyager in my college years and then of course, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Years later, I even watched Enterprise.

 

Never enamored by William Shatner as Kirk, I must confess my childhood crush on the Russian cutie, Chekov.

 

 

But when Khan dropped a mind-controlling earwig in Chekov’s ear in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, that dissolved my crush away like his brains.  Brain-dead guys have never turned me on.  I like men with brains.

 

 

As I got older, I had the hots for Piccard.  His powerful presence, compassion, courage, intelligence and accent made me swoon.

 

 

BUT, I never thought Spock was sexy. 

 

 

Until, I saw the new Star Trek movie with its new and improved Spock.

 

 

Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes) plays the perfect Spock.  In my opinion, he plays Spock better than Leonard Nimoy.

 

Although I am a huge fan of Hereos, I never found Sylar sexy.  With his creepy mannerisms and cold, calculated psychotic serial killer looks, I don’t think any woman with half a brain would.  (Sylar joke, get it?  Half a brain? Nevermind.)

 

 

 Going into the movie, I anticipated a Sylar-Spock.  I didn’t think Quinto could shake the spooky villain.  Surprisingly, I was wrong.  (It happens.)  Not only did he slip out of Sylar successfully, but he pulled off a better, more sexier Spock.  I now have a new Star Trek crush.

 

 

As for the movie, I loved it.  Sure, the new Star Trek changes the original storylines and timelines a bit.  But you know what?  Star Trek holds its place in this little genre called Science Fiction and as far as I’m concerned, storylines are always changing due to worm holes and time travel.  That’s the delightful dynamic of Science Fiction!

 

According to critics, it reeks of J.J. Abrams, but I wouldn’t know.  I have never watched a single episode of Lost or Alias.  However, I can proclaim that J.J. Abrams puts a contemporary spin on an old favorite.  The action-packed pace and edge-of-your-seat scenes will make you crave sequels or, in my case, more sexy Spock.

 

 

***Disclaimer: Two Spock Friday was cleverly coined by the talented writers of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  After viewing Jimmy Fallon’s interview, I wanted replicate my own spin of the Spocks and pay homage to Jimmy Fallon.***

Morning Glory

Posted on by Run DMT
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My running seems to be picking up a bit these days in more ways than one.  For one, I’ve gotten over that lazy slump and now I’m back on track. 

 

My weird toe/foot pain has gone away, as long as I remember to keep my laces loose.

 

Waking up before the crack of dawn once again, I get the luxury of enjoying early morning runs while watching the sunrise.  And since our Tampa Bay weather pattern has fallen into its usual pattern of afternoon showers, it leaves mostly means clear mornings for my early morning runs.

 

Moving past these few set backs and getting back into my regular running routine, my pace has improved as a result.  I’m back to my normal pace again despite all the heat, humidity, allergy and asthma attacks.  It feels good to be back in the game!  I believe I may actually do well at the Oldsmar Tap House 5K in a couple weeks.  I was nervous there for awhile.

 

Wednesday night, I had some killer headaches, which were either caused by my allergies or the anticipated arrival of my Aunt Flo.  Determined to run 6 miles, I went to bed at a reasonable time and awoke with an unusual zest Thurdsday morning only to discover the menstrual cramps were kicking.  Aunt Flo was on her way and obviously, allergies did not cause my migraines.  However, the cramps did not crumble my ambition to run 6 miles.

 

Many women keep track of their Aunt Flo’s arrival, but I’m not one of those women.  I don’t mark a calendar and I don’t have a clue as to when I’m ovulating.  And for me, each menstrual cycle brings different symptoms.  Hence, my confusion about the migraines I experienced. 

 

Some women are very in tune with their bodies.  I also listen to my body, but I always ignore what it tells me.  As you can imagine, I listen to my body as well as I listen to my husband.  They are equally ignored.

 

On occasion, I suppose I should listen to my husband and perhaps, my body too.  Thursday morning was precisely the moment when I should have listened.  Before stepping out the door for my run, I ignored the cramps and other signs of Aunt Flo’s arrival.  As a result, I was not prepared for her arrival.

 

One of my marathon fears includes losing all control of my bowels during a race.  I don’t want to be this guy.  I don’t care how fast he can run.

 

 

Well, no woman wants to be this gal either. 

 

 

About a mile into my run, Aunt Flo arrived and she made quite the grand entrance.  Thankfully, no evident leakage occurred but I do believe Aunt Flo encouraged me to run faster.

 

6 miles

Time: 57:37

Pace: 9:36

 

Stats of other runs this week:

 

Saturday, 5/23- 3 miles

Time: 29:06

Pace: 9:40

 

Sunday, 5/24 – 6 miles

Time: 1:06:24 – I blame this time on my running partners.  ;-)

Pace: 11:03

 

Wednesday, 5/27 – 3 miles

Time: 28:50

Pace: 9:37

PhotoStory Friday: Baby Got Back

Posted on by Run DMT
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I’ve been wanting to share this Photo Story for some time but decided to save it for a rainy day.  Well that given that it has been rainy for days here and the rain has made me so lazy, there’s no better time than the present to present my poochy past.  So, today is the day I have selected to share my junk in the trunk Photo Story.  

 

I’ve always struggled with my weight and I was never the athletic type.  The chunky little girl inside still craves Kit-Kats and Dr. Pepper for breakfast, which is what I ate every day during high school.  For most of my high school years, I wore an 11/12 and weighed 136.  For a girl just barely 5′ 1″, that is not good.  

 

senior-pic

 

Fast forward to my college years…Somehow the weight began to melt away.  I supposed I became more active, particularly dancing all night long at the clubs.  Then, my best friend died and I became severly depressed and dropped down to a size 1.  My family thought I was anorexic.  When I met my husband, I weighed 105 lbs.  

 

1996

 

While dating Allan, I remained active with aerobics and rollerblading.  Allan and I would rollerblade for 16 miles on any given Saturday. We would pack a lunch and explore new trails.  It was our little weekend excursion.  In a time B.C. (before children), we were also avid SCUBA divers.

 

Scuba

 

About a year after we were married, I became pregnant with our first daughter.  I was under the disillusion that you can eat whatever you want when you are pregnant because it will burn right off breastfeeding.  I satisfied all my cravings by eating everything and anything I wanted.  Snowcaps and sirloin were a staple in my pregnancy diet.   The little chunky girl inside happily ate cake for breakfast once again and I gained 90 pounds all due to my diet.

90lbs

 

Despite popular belief, breastfeeding did not melt the pounds away, but rather stored all the extra fat.  As I weaned my daughter off, the pounds slowly slipped away.  It took two years for me to lose the weight.

Us_2003

I didn’t shrink down to a size 1 again, but felt comfortable at a size 6.  Honestly, I didn’t think I would ever see a size 1 again after having children.

 

2004

 

For my pregnancy with DD#2, I watched what I ate the second time around and only gained 40 pounds.  

Oscar Party 2005

 

 The irony is it still took two years to come off!  Life is so cruel!

 

175

 

When we moved to our new two story home in 2006, the constant climbing up and down the stairs helped to shed a few more pounds. 

 

Dec2006_Stitch

 

Then, my new friends introduced me to running and taught me how to overcome the hurdles associated with it.  I discovered I could run and that I could be lean and muscular after all.   In 2007, my fellow marathon moms encouraged me to run my first race, the Turkey Trot. 

 

Turkey Trot 2007

 

Every day I struggle and fight with fat girl still inside me.  Fortunately, she is a runner now that only moves forward.  

gasparilla marathon2009

Five Minutes for Fitness: Noggin Workout

Posted on by Run DMT
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Rainy days usually bring a lot of television viewing in our house.  I’m not proud of the fact that I use Noggin and Nick Jr. to entertain my children on rainy days, but some times a mom can only play so many rounds of Candy Land and Hi Ho Cherry-O.

 

Too much television will cause my little one and I to get a bit antsy.  Thankfully, Noggin offers music videos between programs to motivate little couch potatoes to move.

 

One of our favorite Noggin music videos is Move Your Feet by David Weinstone.  When his funky beats start tapping, it always forces us to tear up the floor.

 

 

 

Emmalynn loves Dora the Explorer.  Of course, her We Did It will have you twisting along, but Dora’s Bate, Bate Chocolate song sticks in my head and makes me mix it all day long.  I’ll add a few squats while mixing my chocolate.

 

 

The Backyardigans are known for their rad moves, but I love to follow their foot steps in the theme song.  A good lasso can do wonders for your upper body and core!

 

I searched all over YouTube to find a decent Backyardigans theme song video in English, but it seems to be obsolete.  ”Will” and the gang is the best I could find.  ”Will” isn’t doing much dancing, but you get the idea.  It’s a pretty entertaining video regardless.

 

 

Then, there’s LazyTown.  We’re not really LazyTown fans.  Honestly, the wannabe muppet puppet characters scary me, but Sportacus makes for nice eye candy.  When Bing Bang blasts through our boob tube, my girls and I jump up and dance along.  Unfortunately, I still haven’t mastered my Russian jump or backflips.

 

 

If you can tolerate the tunes without wanting puncturing your eardrums, then give my Noggin workout a go.

Blog Link-A-Thon

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The ladies over at momdot.com are always creating craft ways for bloggers to help other bloggers.  Well, they’ve done it again with their mega blog roll scroll, which you can find in my sidebar.  There’s over 300 mommy bloggers listed, including yours truly. :-)  So, be a mother lover and click on a link…or two…or a hundred…or all 342 links to show some blogger love.

 

McSorley’s Old Ale House

Posted on by Run DMT
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mcsorleyAs I mentioned in my NYC post, McSorley’s Old Ale House is the oldest ale house in the NYC.  They’ve even got the dust to prove it. 

 

dust

 

bar view

 

The only alcoholic beverages served at this historic tavern are light and dark ale.  Allan and I preferred the dark ale for its smooth chocolate flavor without a bitter after taste.  My sister, Simone, disagreed.  She preferred the light ale.  Actually, her beverages of choice are white wine and champagne, but she survived.

 

Cheers

 

Dark Ale

 

More known for its ale than food, I’ve heard they serve a pile of raw onions with every dish at McSorely’s, which would explain the condiments on the table.  Would you like to some Hepatitis with your chips?

 

yum

 

Sawdust covers the wooden floors.  Old photographs, newspaper clippings and vintage knickknacks plaster the walls.  Every inch of the establishment has an interesting artifact to gaze upon.

Welcome

 

Us_Wall

 

Old Photo

 

jackalope

 

I want this sign for my house.

 
Be good or be gone

 

When we fist arrived, the bar was standing room only.  After our first round of beer, the server cleared a set of tables for us.  I think the bartender knew we would stick around for awhile.

 

Us_Mcsorleys