Saturday, November 28, 2009

Camera challenge

This Canon has optical stabilization which is important to me because when I take pictures, I'm often moving or in a moving vehicle.
I love it's incredibly small size that slides so easily into my little shorts pocket or into the new tiny zip "fanny pack" type case that I bought at the expo in St. Paul.
Possibly most of all, I love the lens of this new camera because it doesn't have the spots that my retired camera acquired.

Amazingly, that last mallard was still in the pond when we ran in the park again. This picture was taken later in the afternoon on a darker day than the one on the previous post.

Again with the low-light challenges, this picture of Canadian geese catching breakfast at the bottom of a Stillwater pond was snapped shortly after 7am on our cloudy Thanksgiving Day morning run.

Great corn bread challenge: experiment using different proportions of fine and medium grind of corn meal, addition of dried cranberries, various spices (including Garam Masala)... to make a good gluten-free corn bread as an alternative to wheat bread turkey stuffing.

Either my finest production... or unimaginable good luck... magnificent turkey!
Good to have it turn out well for husband's family.

This camera is sensitive in low light situations.
Glorious desserts, including some gluten-free. Most folks chose the fresh real whipped cream. Have I mentioned that I love ice cream?! (Breyer's carton on the right)

Sunrise over the St. Louis River and the Lake Superior Harbor at Duluth.
Picture by Sweet Pea. (I was driving.)

Oh yes, I bought the red one (Canon).

Monday, November 23, 2009

Camera shopping

Cute little Kodak (M381) for only $99.
I took pictures on our run in the park today. Nearly all of the pictures turned out like this: fuzzy.

Only one picture, which I stopped to snap, is clear and sharp: last mallard in the pond.

Tomorrow I will try a Canon camera. Perhaps this one will do what I need "on the run."

Monday, November 16, 2009

OBX: a few more pictures

(Pictures also on previous 2 posts)

My hero! Twenty-fourth state, thirty-some marathons... since multiple myeloma diagnosis 6 1/2 years ago. Every day is the best day of the year: a masterpiece.


On the day before the race, after finding the start line, we visited the visitors' center in Kitty Hawk.
The map of shipwrecks was awesome.

A celebration of a hundred years of aviation

Don at the Wright Brothers Monument

They could see the ocean from that hill!!

Precious days.... I love the beach.





This picture would be better without spots in the sky, the permanent lens spots inside the camera.
Camera is also wearing out. I sense a Christmas present coming!

I wondered about the damage to beaches in Kitty Hawk, Nag's Head.. and down the outer banks as we watched the weather channel coverage of the Ida Hurricane storm.

I loved the race! (See Make It a Masterpiece report if you haven't already.)
Sign in front of Kitty Hawk Police Station on the race course

Didn't get a good picture of the magnificent bridge to Roanoke Island and the finish line. The view of the sound from the top of the bridge was forever!
(Click any pictures to enlarge.)

Still getting occasional knee therapy. Can't seem to stretch out the tight crunch in the middle of my knee joint.
Sweet Pea and I are running/walking nearly every day. Never giving up.
Looking for half marathons after the holidays.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

OBX Marathon Pictures

An unknown woman walking on the beach
on Saturday morning... across the street from our motel... the calm before the storm of a few days later at Kitty Hawk and the North Carolina coast.

Driving the race course on the day before the race: one of my favorite events of a marathon weekend.
Course included pleasant neighborhoods, trails along the sound, views of the Atlantic, monumental loop around (but not up and down the hill!) the Wright Brothers monument, more neighborhoods, and finally across the high long bridge.
Here we are on a shady road around mile 11.

Late in the afternoon we were back on the beach.

Pre-race dinner in our motel room kitchen ... salmon cakes, sweet potatoes

Ready for the marathon and look at those shirts ahead of us at the start!

Water stop at mile 9: they waited for us!
OBX Marathon provided amazing support (water, sports drink, spectators, cheering) for even very slow runners.

My deep appreciation to the race official who came by at mile 15 and assured us that we were keeping up an adequate pace to make the bridge.
Such encouragement has been, in our experience, rare.
But alas, 15 miles was enough for my injured knee.

After the race
And back to the motel for the rest of the day... checking results, enjoying the good food we had bought at Whole Foods and Trader Joes on the way down the day before.

Monday morning, we made it out to the beach just in time for the sunrise.

Lean turkey bacon, still on the stove, did not make it into this picture.
Gluten-free fresh-blueberry pancakes with Bryers ice cream: morning after the marathon breakfast

Monday, November 9, 2009

OBX Marathon North Carolina

I loved the beach.

OBX Sunday

Sweet Pea and I ran the first 15 miles of the marathon... the best 15!
Through neighborhoods, shade, plus about 2 miles on a dirt road (very hilly) in woods (shade). Late Saturday when we drove the course, that wooded road seemed deserted and a little threatening. When we ran it in the race the next morning, it was not nearly as scary in the middle of the day.. with a couple of groups of spectators plus a water stop.... delightful shade.

Water stops were still working when we came along, spectators far more plentiful than we expected. We weren't last. A course officials assured us that we were keeping the pace to make the bridge.

When we got out on the highway with no shade Sweet Pea and I were both "done"! I want to stop, she said. I was not eager to blast our skin in blazing sun at this latitude even after fall solstice.
We got a lovely ride over a couple more long amazing bridges to the finish where Don had just finished (Good job Don!)

My knee is still fragile, but I think I quit in time.
Also, because of my knee Sweet Pea and I had not managed to get in a long run in training. Good reasons to know when to quit.

Early this morning we got to ride the shuttle (school) bus to the start with Don and have the hour together before the start.

We have no medal, no "time" but we are delighted.
We ran an unofficial half marathon.. Plus!
And had very good day.
Don got his 24th state and had a fun time running, chatting with other runners and taking a huge number of pictures with his phone camera.

Be sure to check out Don's
Make It a Masterpiece entry.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Trail Robbery

On the afternoon of October 27, when we were on Gateway Trail, a couple of young men robbed a Maplewood man who was walking there.
A man on a bicycle stopped, phoned police, stayed until police came.

The item in the St. Paul Pioneer Press did not indicate where on the 18 mile trail the incident occurred. Perhaps it was in the urban end of the trail, but it intrudes on our pleasure of the trail.