40 acres and a mule

Well, maybe not 40 acres, but enough. The corn, bean, pumpkin, and squash seeds are in the ground. Plants that were too big for their space have been dug up and moved to a new spot. About 5 bushels of weeds have been ripped out of the garden. And both cats have had another good dose of fresh catnip from the garden. Life is good.

Just to prove that there are some bargains I can resist. We spent a few hours yesterday at a farm auction, right in the middle of Gaithersburg. The last big farm is going to be "developed" and Saturday was the auction of all the farm equipment and whatever was left of the household goods. We were too late to watch the bidding on the old tractors and spreaders and things like that (I kept watch for Ron Adams, but never saw him). I wimped out on the one or two bids I was willing to start, and didn't even try on the bird cages, or 50 pint boxes, or 20-ft barn tables that went for $3 each.

So to cheer me up after a total wipe out at the open air auction, we did a quick stop at Tina's. $12.50 for another set of dishes (4 plates make a set?) At that price, we now have some summer dishes [Pfaltzgraff; those coffee cups hold 2 cups (I measured)].

Should I be worried? I had the TV on while I was making a little effort at housecleaning and got caught by an episode of some show about odd houses. You know the kind of show. The woman who has 12 geese living in her house, all wearing costumes she sewed for them. And another who put slate and marble on every surface of her house because it was better for her Black Labrador. Finally, the old guy who "decorated" his log cabin with coffee cups: "there's 97 cups hanging from that beam!" Cups hanging from every rafter and attached to every log of the cabin. And I'm wondering, what's so odd about him?

energizer bunny

We lucked out. The rain that hit us yesterday—2 inches collected in Tom's rain gauge—stopped during the night and Tom ran the Pike's Peek 10-k race this morning in perfect conditions. I like the race because I can make it to a good parking spot and read the paper or knit for half an hour before it's time to get into position to snap a picture.

The race is run on Rockville Pike (that's Wisconsin Avenue if you take it far enough south), starts close to us at the Shady Grove Metro, and ends in Bethesda at the White Flint mall. The route is basically flat, the race doesn't take hours, and there's lots of food (pizza, chili, beef barbecue, cookies, bagels) and a live band in the mall parking lot after the race. (Has anyone else noticed that at events like this the bands are made up of "mature" males, playing music even I can recognize. Would Matt's band play in a parking lot on a Sunday morning?)

This was supposed to be just a slow jog, still mindful of the marathon on Monday, but all the conditions were good, and instead of a 55-minute run, he came in at 49 min 31 sec, 3rd out of 19 in his age group, and ran each mile faster than the previous. I expect Sports Illustrated will be knocking on the door soon.

The picture of the week? For some reason this one kind of haunts me. There's something eastern European, refugee, on the road following the train tracks west about this. There is no way that Martha and I could have been that tightly buckled and belted without some help. I'm also betting the coat I'm wearing was probably worn the year before by Ed or Jim. Plaid, I am encased in plaid. It may be a good thing that this is in black and white.

happy runner

Most of you probably followed Tom's progress on the Web, so I'm assuming you have a litle knowledge, but you may not know all the hullabaloo leading up to and after the race. (I'll skip the 10-hour drive to Boston on Friday. Who has the record for the most rest stops?)

If I do say so myself, he couldn't have had a better support crew, both the one from Maryland and the great crew in Framingham. Saturday night Amelia figured out that Tom would be in trouble if he just sat around eating Mary's very good chili, so she organized some training races for him. She was the starter, Ellen and Tom were in every race, and Ellen won every race. I think those defeats spurred Tom on in the big race. There were "cousins" of various ages all over the place at Mary's and I did a really bad job of documenting all the little ones. But the four older cousins did the lineup thing. I've always said Tom is the happiest runner on any race course. This is in Wellsley, at a little over the half-way point. We followed the Runner's World recommendations right down to parking in the little parking lot about half a block away and we were there only about 10 minutes before he appeared. Notice the headphones. Sprint ought to use him in an ad. A lot of the runners were using cell phones after they crossed the finish line, but I didn't see anyone else talking away during the race.

We made it back into Boston, left the car at the hotel, and were at the finish line before Tom crossed it. If you look really hard, you can pick out his white hair in the center of the picture.

And unlike lots of runners who were the walking wounded, Tom kept moving. A 20-minute walk back to the hotel, stretching, a shower and a good beer at the quietest Irish bar in Boston—surrounded by construction scaffolding, which kept the crowds down, and less than a block from the hotel. Is Bridget the best advance person or what?

wouldn't be a weekend without a bargain

Before I show you the bargain, here's the old photo for the week. It was dated 1981 and labeled as Carol's first visit to Little Valley. We are all a lot younger, to start with, and I'm pretty sure Dad is showing off one of his Polaroid photos. And then there is mother. If you click on the photo and enlarge it, you will feel like she's looking right at you. Ed would also point out the yellow bush in the background, although this kind of reminds me of a photo that was printed in the Salamanca Press years ago, highlighting the great fall colors, with pumpkins and falling leaves, in black and white.

And here's the bargain. We just happened to have the truck with us when we stopped in Tina's on Saturday afternoon. I would not have spotted this because it was covered by odds and ends, but Tom found it. It's a drop leaf maple table that has had some use, but it's sturdy, level, and the drop leafs are fine. Obviously, it's not as pretty as mother's...but it fits and we'll get some use out of it. I'll just let you guess what we paid for it.

The tulips have opened. The blossom of this variety, Wirosa, is more like an old-fashioned rose than a tulip. I'll spare you the shots of all the others. If we didn't have two resident plant eaters, I would have filled a vase and set it on the new table. That's something other people can do...people with dogs maybe.

No coasting...

A lot of good things about the Cherry Blossom race this year: it was relatively warm, both Cullen and Tom were in good shape, AAA didn't take more than an hour and a half to arrive, and it only took the mechanic about 10 seconds to unlock the truck so we could go home. First the postcard view. I had about an hour to walk around while Cullen and Tom were chasing each other around DC. As early as it was, people were settled in around the tidal basin with blankets, breakfast spreads, MANY cameras, tripods, and every imaginable breed of dog. The picture I wish I had gotten? Two middle-aged women with a dog on a leash and a cat in a baby stroller. According to them, the cat loves being out and about, and especially loves shopping. What I didn't ask, but should have, How could they tell?

Proof positive that both runners came through the race feeling fine: Neither of them was out to set a record as far as speed went. For Tom, this was just a light little run in preparation for Boston, and he needed to come out of it feeling good. Mission accomplished.

And here's something I didn't know anything about. I'm standing there holding Cullen's bike while he does his transformation from a runner into a biker when a total stranger pauses in absolute awe to ask about this bike. I'd never heard of a bike with a "fixed crank" and no "coaster brakes," or something along those lines. This is not the bike that went to California. It has the "advantage" of moving only when it is being pedaled. There is no coasting on a downhill. Which I guess means you have to work...to go downhill. Who knew. I'm just happy he's kept the hand brakes.