One Month Down...Two to Go!

Today's long run offically completed my first month of marathon training. To change things up a bit, I decided to run along the American River bike path. The plan was to run for 90 minutes. My goal was to get in at least 9 miles. It was quite a pleasant run. Normally I run through the neighborhoods. I might see a few kids walking to school, or a few bike riders, but on the whole I typically do not see a lot of people. The bike path is so much different. Bikers, walkers, runners and roller bladers are every where. Running through the streets of Folsom can be a bit boring. Passing all the runners on the bike path was very motivating. When I felt tired, I would see another runner coming the opposite direction and I could take comfort in knowing they too were feeling the pain of running. They felt the same way I did. The only downside to being with other people is the extra effort one uses saying hello to everyone. Having not had a lot of human contact while running, I initially enjoy saying hello. I started the running with a very chipper "Good Morning" to everyone I passed. As the miles pasted, I tamed down to a "Hello" then "Hi". Eventually it dwindled down to a wave, then a nod, and finally a lifting of the eyebrows. It was still fun though. The river was beautiful and I entertained myself by watching the kayakers (my music died 30 minutes into it) Ultimately I would classify this as a great run. I ran 9.64 miles at a 9:22 pace. I came home and downloaded my running data from my GPS and discovered I ran about 90 seconds per mile faster than I did last year. Over the past year, I have burned 107,437 calories and have ran 820 miles. When I look at those calorie numbers I think, if I've burned that many just running, think how can I possibly not be at my goal weight? Kinda cool, yet depressing all at the same time.

Marty...A Saga Continued

Well Marty seems to be getting better. He is eating on his own and I no longer have to force feed him. He eats both his dry food and his wet food. I cannot tell you what a relief I feel. Over the past few days he has returned to his normal behavior. He is still rather skinny, but you can tell he has gained a few pounds. Marty is meowing and playing like he use to. He had another liver enzyme test yesterday and the results came back good. Although his billirubin count is still not normal, it has decreased by half. That means his liver is becoming healthy again. As for the FIP, he does have it; however, I learned there are two types. One that he recovers from and one that he doesn't. At this point, we still don't know which one he has. We will be able to test him again in about three weeks. If the count goes down, then he has the non fatal FIP virus. My hopes remain high because of the progress he has made. Wednesday night I was in tears. I was convinced that I was going to lose him. Then Thursday morning rolled around and a miracle happened. Marty ate all day long. It all happened so fast. I was thrilled! So I'll let you know in a few weeks how the FIP test comes back. In the mean time I am going to enjoy having a happy cat around again!

A Frame From the Sea

When Jim and I went camping at the beginning of the month we went to a place called Glass Beach. It's in Fort Bragg. The beach use to be a landfill, or somthing like that. As a result, the entire beach is covered with sea glass. It was the neatest place. I spent about an hour gathering as much glass as I could in a ziploc bag. I brought it home with the intention of making a frame. I would then place a picture for our trip in it. Tonight I finished it. I was really happy with it. The colors are a bit limited, but I still like the overall effect.

The base of the frame is clear and then I accented it with the colored glass. I got the frame at the dollar store and used a hot glue gun to glue on the glass. This is the picture I'm going to put in it.

A Marty Update

Well I thought I would give an update on my baby boy. Saturday was not a good day. Sunday, however, turned out to be better. He ate a little bit of food on his own. I still force fed him a little, just to make sure he would keep his strength up. In general he was more alert and more interested in what was going on around him. He came out into the livingroom and sat in the window for awhile. In the middle of the night he snuggled up to me and was purring. He hasn't done this since he got really sick. This morning he seemed even better. He ate a little more and right now he is sitting in the sun cleaning himself. I can't remember the last time he used the scratching post. After I fed him earlier, he came walking into the livingroom and began sharpening his claws on it. I have to call the vet a little later to give them an update. I think it's a good sign, all of the progress he has made in just a few days. Hopefully he will continue to get better. I also want to thank everyone for their warm wishes. It means a lot.

P.S. The other boys in my life are doing well too. Football got a little boring yesterday I guess.

A Tribute to James

Yesterday Jim and I celebrated our 1 year and 5 months anniversary. Dopey, I know, but oh well. In recongnition of this date, I decided to give you a deeper look into the man we all know as James. One could say he is a bit of a mystery. He never seems to talk and you can't be sure what he his thinking. In general no onew really knows much about him. So here is a list of 25 things about Jim. Hopefully it will shed a little light and you will be able to get to know him the way I do. Here we go:

1) He does the laundry every week without being asked. Since we have lived together, I have probably done maybe 5 loads at the most, and usually that was because he was out of town.

2) He can cook the best roast. It's always tender and juicy. I'm not sure how he does it, but he is fantastic at it.

3) He loves time travel movies. Back to the Future, Planet of the Apes, and Mysterious Island are some of his favorites.

4) He really can Name that Tune in one note!

5) He treats his wardrobe as if it were a baseball team.

6) He used to represent the Green Party at Town Hall meetings.

7) Yes, he does talk to me on a regular basis.

8) He doesn't really like sweets that much.

9) He adores Starwberry and Chocolate Chip ice cream.

10) He will sit and study a Map for hours at a time.

11) He will read a travel book cover to cover the way I would read a novel.

12) Dates! Oh my gosh! He can remember every date of everything he has ever done. It is incredible.

13) He has worked for Progressive insurance since he was 18. He is now 29.

14) History has always fascinated him.

15) Who needs a newspaper, Jim is always up-to-date on all current events. You can ask him about the war in Iraq, or the last on Lindsay Lohan and he will know the answer.

16) He prefers not to use my name when he talks to me. Instead I am refered to as "cupcake soup" or "Mother Crumpett." I'm really not sure where he gets some of these.

17) A great deal of his vocabulary is made up from "Seinfeld" and "Leave it to Beaver".

18) He channel surfs way too much.

19) When he was a kid, he was an all-star pitcher in Little League.

20) He has quite the temper. It usually comes as fast as it goes.

21) He once threaten to kill the guy taking his bet at a Tahoe casino. Apparently the guy enetered it in wrong. When Jim told him, the guy refused to change it. In the end it got changed, and thankfully Jim did not wind up in jail.

22) His laugh is contagious.

23) He gets along great with my mom and dad.

24) He is way smarted than I am.

25) He would have no problem staying home with the kids while I worked.

So there you have it. Twenty-five things you may not have known about Jim. So hopefully the next time you see him you will feel like you know him just a little bit better.

Pets and Their Problems

This is our baby, Marty. About a month ago I was noticing that he was becoming quite a fat cat. Then he started to drop a few pounds. I wasn't really concerned. We were going through a heatwave and I figured he just didn't have much of an appetite. A few weeks ago we returned from a week long camping trip. When I walked through the door I was shocked to see how skinny he had become. Once again I just assumed he didn't eat much because we were gone. Everyone knows it is not uncommon for a pet to stop eating while its owner is on vacation. When he continued to lose weight following our return, I decided it was time for a trip to the vet. I thought maybe he had a tooth problem or something along those lines. Unfourtnantly it turned out to be more serious then that. Initially the vet diagnosed him with Hepatic Lipidosis. Here is a little more information on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_Hepatic_Lipidosis. Basically Marty's liver is having trouble because his lack of food intake has forced his body to convert fat into energy, thus clogging the liver. While this article makes it out to be worse than Marty's case, it still wasn't the news I was hoping to hear. Because he is still refusing to eat, we are stuck having to force feed him. It is a time consuming event that we must do four times a day.

With syringes full of food and Marty wrapped in a pillow case, I'm ready to feed him. It's a messy process and I can't seem to get the smell of the food out of my nose. I can only imagine how poor Marty feels about it. The purpose of the force feeding is to get enough nourishment in him so that his body will stop converting the fat to energy. Once this happens, he will most likely go back to eating on his own. The chemicals his liver is currently releasing, due to not eating, makes him nauseous, therefore he doesn't want to eat. It is a vicious cycle.

When I went to feed him at lunch, it did not go so well. After a few minutes, he regergetated everything I had fed him this morning. Not knowing what to do I called the vet. The receptionist told me the doctor would call me back in a few minutes to discuss the situation and to talk about some of the lab results of Marty's blood work. I knew that wasn't a good sign. When he called back, he informed me that Marty may have FIP, Feline Infectious Peritonitis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_infectious_peritonitis, a fatal disease that occurs in cats under three years of age. It is a very difficult disease to diagnosis because it often mimics other diseases. While Marty has several of its symptoms, he also has all of the symptoms of Feline Hepatic Lipidosis. The scary part is that Jim's mom had to put down her kitten less than a year ago due to FIP. We got Marty, and her kitten on the same day from the same shelter. At this point I am not sure what to think. I remain hopeful that Marty will be fine. He has been battling this for about a month. If he did have FIP, I think he would be at his ending point by now. But at the same time I do have to accept the possibility that we might lose him. I never thought this was something we might have to deal with at this point in his life. He is only a year and a half old. A mere baby. So send happy thoughts to him. He sure does need them. Below is a picture of Marty's brother, Rusty, checking up on him. Rusty and Marty have been best friends from the beginning. Rusty always makes sure Marty is looking his best. Most mornings you will find them lying in my bed snuggled together. Rusty usually cleans himself and then his brother. I've always said that Marty has the cleanest ears and butt because of his brother.

Boston Bound

For those of you who don't know, I am currently training for my second marathon in December. I just finished up my second week of training. Before I get into this years training, I will give a little background info on how I got into running in the first place.

I came from two running parents. My father has run more marathons than I can count. He runs almost everyday and is considered by some to be a running legend in Diamond Springs. Everyone knows who he is. How can they not. One minute you'll see him and then an hour later you'll see him 15 miles away and he's still running. My mom, also a runner, is a bit of a legend herself. Although she does not run as much as my dad, people know her too. She is know as "that lady who runs a bit funny and is always smiling" My mom tells me she isn't really smiling, it just looks that way because she breathes through her teeth when she runs.

As a child my father encourged me to run. I would often participate in fun runs, and the occasional 5K but I really didn't like it all that much. As I got older, I kept trying to make myself like it, but I was never successful until a few years ago. My sister, Holly, started what we now call Team Slim. It was a group of family members, and later on, friends, who banded together to lose weight. Initially I lost about 25 pounds but soon found that I had reached a plateau. After talking to my sister, she informed me that she had begun running as a way to combat the calories. In attempts to be just like her, I too took up the habit. I started out slow, just running a mile or two a day and eventually worked my way up to three. My sister then told me she was going to attepmt to run a marathon. Once again, I hold to do everything she did, so I started training. In December of 2006, I successfully ran the California International Marathon in four hours and thirty minutes. It was one of the greatest days of my life! The day after, however, was not as glorious. So that is how my running came to be.

I am the type of person who needs goals to stay motivated. Marathon training, not only motivates me to continue my running, but it also reminds me that I can do anything. Last year my goal was just to finish the 26.2 miles. This year I have a different goal. I want to qualify for the Boston marathon. I am well aware of the fact that I have my work cut out for me! To qualifiy, I need to run this year's California International Marathon in three hours and forty minutes. That's fifty minutes faster than I ran it last year. A challenge, yes, but not impossible. If anyone can do it I can. I have been reading running magazines for the past year and have been working on ways to get faster. After completing my second week of training, I can already see and feel the difference compared to last year. I feel stronger, and I am running faster than I ever have. Once I lose my last fifteen pounds, I will be at my optimal running weight which I hope will allow me to run even faster. As I get further into my training, I will begin running with my dad. If anyone can get me to Boston, it's him. So hopefully I will be Boston bound!

My First Post

Well I have finally entered the world of blogging. I have been wanting to create a place for my thoughts for quite some time. I have enjoyed reading my sister's and my sister-in-law's blog and decided I too wanted to participate. Much to my relief, I see there is a spell check tool at the top of the page. As spelling is not my strong point, this is a tool I am excited to see. As the title says, this will be a place to put my "Plethora of Thoughts". I often find that I "blog" inside my head while I run. I figure perhaps someone might find my thoughts of interest. My sister tells me blogs are quite self indulgent and I agree, but that is what makes them fun. So I hope you enjoy what my brain has to offer and if you don't, I do aplogize in advance.