Workouts

Saturday - Long Run - 7.4 miles

Definitely a harder run for me, but I think that can be attributed to the poor diet and lack of workouts. I think I've felt entitled to eat anything and not work out because I didn't have power. Well, the power's back on and it's time to get back on schedule!

****************************************

Sunday - Bike Ride - 1 hour

Well my group of friends doing the Bike Barn's Haak Winery ride on Sunday fizzled out. Rather than go it alone, I decided to save my gas and some time by riding around the 'hood. I checked out all the new streets in the undeveloped side of the hood, which made for some good, car-free riding!

Sunday night, I met up with some former co-workers for dinner and The Color Purple. Both the dinner and the show were awesome!

****************************************

Monday - P90X - Shoulders and Back / Ab Ripper X

I decided rather than start the program completely over after my 2-week hiatus that I'd pick up where I left off...it turns out the 1st week and 9th week schedules are exactly the same anyway! OMG, I thought I was going to die! What a difference 2 weeks make! I honestly felt like I did the 1st time I did this workout. My arms and abs felt like jello afterwards and today my shoulders and back are super sore. It's awesome!!!

****************************************

Is it just me, or for the past week has everyone else seen convoys of Centerpoint (and other company) trucks all over town? Those guys are working their asses off, so kudos to them. Hopefully, the remaining 100,000 people will have power soon!

****************************************

Looks like I should have gone ahead and bought my road bike with my bonus last year, rather than being sensible and putting the money in our house fund. My company paid bonuses early this year to offset some of the costs employees were facing due to Ike (which was nice)....but, somehow my bonus was half the size of last years! And, I didn't start working for the company last year until mid-April! Looks like the MS150 might be out this year unless I can convince myself to splurge and get a bike...although it won't be the one I really want. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Pictures of the Ike Aftermath...

After Ike, I took my camera with me everywhere I went and tried to snap a few pictures when I could. Most of these pictures were taken near my house...keep in mind that I live approximately 80 miles inland!

Saturday - after Ike

The kiddo in her "helmet" and rain boots with my Dad just checking out the damage. Fortunately, there were only fences down and tree debris everywhere.



A common sight around the city - billboards...or at least they used to be!








Water! This was taken on the I-45 feeder near 1960:


Trees, trees and more trees....

A few harmless ones in my neighborhood (there were lots!). This one is at the entrance to the subdivision.



This one is near the elementary school. There was an even larger one down at the playground across the street.


The next two are in my parent's neighborhood:




Almost every palm tree at this dealership was lying on the ground!


Some not-so-harmless trees. This one is in the neighborhood about 1/2 mile from where I live:



This one is in my Sister-in-Law's neighborhood in Humble:



Gas lines - this became a way of life for the week after Ike. These were taken off of I-45 heading north. I am lucky that I never had to wait more than 45 minutes the week after Ike.





This was taken at I-45 and Rayford and shows only 1/3 of the line. Behind the truck on the left was a weaving theme-park type line with at least 100 people in it. And this isn't even showing all the cars lined up down the feeder road!



This was taken on my way to work - excuse the crack in the windshield.


More damage from Ike:

This was also taken on my way to work.


1960 near I-45


On Rayford...


In Humble...


At 2920, I think. Oh and most of the Sonic restuarants in the area had damage similar to this.


1960 - dangling lights everywhere!


A part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife convoy on Saturday afternoon...

A part of the Border Patrol convoy...

The creek near my neighborhood...you can usually see the sandy bottom!



An attempt at humor during the storm. I have a picture of the same store with a similar scene from Rita.

Guess What!?!?

WE HAVE POWER!

Hallelujah.



At 2:16 pm (about 5 minutes after my last post) on Wednesday, the hubby called with the most wonderful news. At the same time, I swear I looked out my work window and saw the clouds part and heard a chorus of angels. We got power at 1:58 pm - the hubby said he knew that because the clock was blinking and showed that we officially had power 18 minutes earlier.



I almost didn't believe it until I arrived home to find the garage door opener working. Then, I walked into a nice, cool, air-conditioned house. After dark, every time I turned on a light, everything seemed just too bright! LOL, after living with one lamp and a lot of flashlights, it's hard adjusting to full lighting again.



There are so many things I took for granted before Ike:

1. A dishwasher


2. Electric stove


3. traffic lights


4. washing machine


5. cable tv/internet


6. my treadmill - since DH was working strange hours, it was near impossible to get in a run outdoors which meant I didn't get to run much at all!


7. street lights


8. gasoline - readily available with no lines


9. fresh produce


10. frozen foods - they are still hard to find in my neck of the woods

I know I'll think of a million more, but that's it for now. I am just happy to not have to wake up at 4 am to fill the generator with gas while trying to hold my flashlight under my arm and fight off mosquitos!!!!

Thank.You.God.

Oh, and I'm praying that Centerpoint can get the rest of the area's electricity working again soon. I know what a pain in the ass it is to live without it!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Update - Thursday, 9/25

When we arrived home at 7pm, my garage door opener wouldn't work. I must have pressed the button a couple of times before it hit me - the freaking power is out! Again.

As I unloaded the kids from the car I said hello to the neighbors, who informed me that the power had been out for about an hour. And, they had just bought groceries - including frozen foods.

The kiddo ate her dinner by candlelight and we hung out for awhile. The hubby wasn't home and I was trying to decide if I should grab the dolly and attempt to get the generator out again - most of our neighbors already had theirs going. I opted to just wait and see what happened.

Finally, about an hour later the power returned!

I went on a 25 minute run around our section of the neighborhood. It felt great to get out of the house.

Day 12

Still no power. We're still on the Thursday list, but rumor has it that Centerpoint is "locked out" of our section of the grid (whatever that means) and we won't have power until Sunday. Whatever. I am getting used to the hum of the generator and waking up at 4 am to fight the mosquitos fill up the generator with gas, lol!



We did get power at work, so things are slowly getting back to normal there. I will be happy when our offices are rebuilt and we can move back in. Right now, I'm with the accounting department in an open space rather than an office. It's noisy, but it will work until the construction is over.



Speaking of work, yesterday I had to travel to Austin for a career fair. My co-worker and I ran into Jack Black at the Austin airport when we were waiting for our flight! He was there with his co-star in the movie "School of Rock", Mike White, apparently for a meeting with Richard Linklater. Here's a picture of the 4 of us....sorry it's so blurry, the man working at the chinese restaurant took the picture and I didn't want to ask everyone for a do-over:





I realized yesterday that I had not gotten in one workout this week...ummm, time to make some time to workout!!!

Powerless

Still no friggin power!



To add insult to injury, a large section of our subdivision got power back last night around 8:40 pm...just not our section.



I am trying to be patient, especially since as of this morning there are still 750,000+ of us without power...but it's getting difficult. I just want to cook indoors again soon. :-)



I intend to get on my bike tonight for at least 15 miles. I have to ride 30+ on Sunday and haven't been on my bike in over a week.

Still Okay

But still no power. My in-laws actually brought us a small a/c window unit, so that has helped immensely!!! I am currently using the internet at my parent's house, so I can check work e-mails.

I met up with Woodlands Fit yesterday AM for our long run - 7.4 miles! Our average pace was 11:30. Not bad considering I had only run once since Ike and have been eating all kind of crap this past week. Luckily, I was able to get lots of fresh produce and some chicken breasts at HEB yesterday, so the diet will get back to normal.

I'll check in again soon. Take care!!!

Checking In

Hi all!
I just wanted to get a quick post up to let everyone know I'm a-okay. Since the hubby was at work during the hurricane (and 2 days after), the kids and I stayed with my parents. Lemme tell you, that was some scary shiat! If Ike was a cat 2, I don't ever wanna be here for a cat 4 or 5!!! We had no damage to the house, but like the majority of Houston, we have no power.

Still.
Day 6 of no power.
Ugh!

We do have a generator, so that's been awesome. This cold front has also been awesome (huge thanks to the big man upstairs for that one!!!) For awhile there getting gas for the generator was a pain in the ass, but that seems to get better each day as more and more stations open up.

I can't complain, cause like I said, there was no damage to the house! I have a couple of family members who live by the coast who did have some damage and my friend Marlina who lives in Shore Acres had 3-4 feet of water in their house. But, everyone is alive and well, and that's all that matters.

I am at a Starbucks near my office using their internet so I can get some work done. Our office building suffered some major damage, so we've been in and out all week trying to get stuff moved into other parts of the building. We have no power there either - good thing we're a commercial general contractor, because we have a huge generator and the crews are already making great progress in the reconstruction of the damaged areas. I went to the Dallas office yesterday just to get some work done and met with the General Manager there.

I hope all is well with everyone else. I haven't had a chance to check anyone's blogs and may not until we have power again. The hardest part is not being connected to the rest of the world with no cable and no internet. We bought some rabbit ears, so we can watch one channel - 13 KTRK. I swear, after this, we are getting Direct TV, our breaker box wired for the generator and a gas cooktop. I love camping and grilling, but I'm getting tired of pulling out the grill every night for dinner. :-)

Take care and stay safe!

Take care everyone!!!

Never, Ever Forget!

I know those of us in TX (especially those near the coast) are preoccupied with Ike, but let's all take a minute to remember those who perished on 9/11. May it never happen again!

Take a Hike Ike!

Well, as of tonight, it looks as if Ike may be visiting a little closer than we originally thought! I get to help make the decision tomorrow morning whether or not the office will be open the full day tomorrow and whether we'll be open at all on Friday.

I thought we had plenty of the usual crap we get at the beginning of every hurricane season - batteries for the radio and flashlights, some extra canned stuff like Ravioli (for DH), tuna, PB&J, etc., and some extra bottled water. Of course, we were low on the one thing I am completely not used to buying - BABY FORMULA! Ummm, hello! Until last week, I didn't need baby formula if you catch my drift. Figures I would pick the week a hurricane is coming to visit to stop nursing. So, I made the trek to my local Krogers. It wasn't as bad as the madhouse I encountered before Rita was supposed to hit, but it was definitely not your normal trip to Krogers - the parking lot was full and I had to circle a bit to park, the canned goods and water aisle were looking bare and the checkout lines were stupidly long. Fortunately, they were moving fast...even the store manager was ringing people up. Thank God I filled up my gas tank earlier today, because the lines at the Kroger gas station were several cars deep at each pumping station.

I've been through this before, but back then I was 11 or 12 years old and it was all so exciting. It was hurricane Alicia. My Aunt Joyce who lives in Bacliff came and stayed with us. I remember waiting up for the storm until about 2 am - for me, it was like a slumber party. I finally fell asleep only to wake up around 7 am to find that we were in the eye of the storm. Many of the houses in our neighborhood flooded and we were without electricity for 14 days! 14 friggin days! We didn't have water for the 1st week of that and stayed with my Grandma and other relatives during that time. I remember seeing footage from Galveston and seeing the glass flying from the windows of the buildings downtown. I remember that our neighbors had a generator and they could get power to their fridge, a fan and of course, the TV. My friends and I would head over there during the day to watch The Price is Right or General Hospital and sit in front of that fan for awhile. I remember that while it was exciting at first, it got really old fast.

So, I am hoping that Ike is not quite that bad, mainly for selfish reasons (because the hubby will be forced to stay at work all weekend and I'll be here alone with 2 kids!) I'm also hoping that everyone out there in bloggerland stays nice and safe!!! And, I am a bit annoyed that this is going to screw up our Saturday run dammit!

Hallelujah!

Woohoo, hallelujah for cooler weather...most importantly, hallelujah for the lower humidity! To make matters even better, it's FRIDAY!!!! And, this weather is supposed to stick around long enough to make Saturday's run much more pleasant than the previous few weeks.

I just realized that I never blogged about last Saturday's long run. It was ~5.55 miles at an incredibly slow pace. I actually remembered my Garmin this week and overall it was about a 12:15 pace. Could it really be possible that we ran that 10:43 pace last week? The run did feel more comfortable than last week, but I thought it was just because the humidity wasn't as high. I don't know, but I
am not going to get all freaked out about my pace. Seriously. I feel like I am still in the process of rebuilding the base (stamina and endurance) that I had pre-baby. It's going to take awhile to get where I need/want to be.

Here's what has been happening all week:

Sunday - 1 hour P90X - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps and Ab Ripper X
Monday - 1 hour P90X - Plyometrics
Tuesday - 1 hour P90X - Back & Biceps
Wednesday - skipped P90X yoga - 30 minute run OUTDOORS (yay outdoors! 11:40 pace)
Thursday - 1 hour P90X - Legs and Back and 25 minute treadmill run (11:30 pace)
Friday - see below

Okay, so I actually slept in this morning. Normally, I'd be doing the 4:30 am wake-up thing to do the P90X KenpoX workout before the kiddos woke up (yeah, that 4:30 thing's getting real old!). However, my left shin has been bothering me and I just felt, well, tired. I have been staying up late the past 2 weeks watching the DNC and RNC, then the news, then Nightline. It makes the 4:30 am wake-up call come really early. So, I gave myself permission to sleep until 6 am. Woohoo! :-)

I also skipped the P90X Yoga workout on Wednesday. In addition to my morning P90X workout, I was supposed to run on Tuesday night. But the baby would just not go to sleep (very rare for him!) and well, life happens (right?). Since I have to be at work at 6:45 am on Wednesdays, I knew there was no way in hell I'd be getting up before 4:00 am to start the 1 1/2 hour routine!!!!!!!!!! So yeah, Yoga was out. But, I really needed to get in a weekday run and I also knew I'd have a chance to run OUTDOORS on Wednesday evening after the kiddo's dance class and before the hubby had to get ready for work. Yep, that's right...the hubby got to have the joy of trying to bathe the kiddo while holding the starting-to-get-tired-and-cranky-baby while I went out for a run. LOL, I have the multitasking thing down, but the hubby's been fortunate to miss out on the fun due to his Hapkido classes for the past several weeks! I thought about doing the Yoga workout after the kids were in bed, but decided against it since it would be 9:30 before I even started.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's run in the cooler, less humid temps. We'll see if I can get the pace up just a bit. I know there are others out there looking forward to this as well. Happy running and happy weekend!

Ps. I hope you liked the joke in the last post. :-) I really haven't decided who I am voting for just yet...I have some more research to do on each candidate and I want to take a better look at their past voting records. I like the charisma of Obama, but seriously, charisma can only take you so far. And if I see/hear the McCain POW stuff again...seriously. I loved Palin's speech and the idea of having a female veep. She is an excellent speaker and her daughter was beyond cute slicking down her little brother's hair! But, I don't agree with her on A LOT of the issues. Biden, well his speech made me want to take a nap, LOL! This is going to be a tough decision for me!

Huge news...

Most of my friends know that I am unhappy with both Presidential candidates. Well, the big news is that I've decided to take matters into my own hands. This is huge for me, so I appreciate any and all support. Thanks!

http://www.inews3.com/topstory.php?id=436872697374797c476f6e7a616c6573