thanks, mom...

for loving carol burnett & watching her show.

i grew up watching often the amazing trio of harvey korman, tim conway & carol and heard about this clip this morning on the radio pre-work time. how can you *not* laugh? humor is my savior. (besides running and wine)

thanks for the laughs mr. korman.

tut, tut...

it looks like rain.

which reminds me of eyeore.

always kinda sad.

i know i should be excited about italy. right now, excitement is just not the feeling. stressed is more like it.

maybe it's the weather. let's go with that.

i do plan to blog (shocking i know but honestly it's way easier than sending a kajillion emails) from europe barring how close the closest internet cafe is. will bring the camera cord too in hopes of uploading a few pics if i can right away. cuz i don't know about all ya'll, but i'm a photo nut and love to see pictures.

we leave tuesday. some work, much house cleaning and i hope a little play will ensue this weekend. oh yes, and the running. i haven't talked about it much. it's still happening. grandma's is still on my calendar for june 21st. doubt i'll run like the wind that day tho. more likely run like a slow breeze off the lake. but finishing is still the main goal. and ally, if you read this today, i really hope to see you tonight, rain or no rain.

ciao for now~ jd

refreshment

in a box. i'm addicted to this stuff lately. esp right after a long run. yep, being organic, it's more $$. but so is gas. both are essential in some capacities.

there's my twitter post of the day....

even one night away..

with a friend you can talk about anything with is relaxing and can involve some soul searching.

spent one night of this holiday weekend down in nerstrand with david. & his critters.

talked out so much of life's stresses lately. for both of us. got the 'guy's perspective' on some stuff. good to do that now and then.

also took some pictures, as it's something i wish i was better at but still like to do. maybe it's time for a class or two...follow the flickr show if you'd like a glimpse of how pretty it can be only one hour from home. ps the campground at Big Woods State Park was full for the weekend. really glad to see that! must try it out myself next month...now it's time to make the donuts, as they say....~jd

this rips me apart...

i just can't handle stories like this.

first i get insanely angry. and then the tears just start....these poor poor animals. i literally feel my heart breaking for them and feel sick as i read the deplorable details. and if i catch a story like this on the news with video footage i have to leave the room. i literally can't stand to see it without totally falling apart.

and the sadder thing still is this happens way more often than it ever should. the people who do this to animals should suffer the same fate. i'm sorry but that's my stance. i'm not asking anyone to agree with me.

if i ever win a gigantic amount of money, i will donate a massive portion to non-profit animal society, (i have a few that i try to donate to at least once a year like feline rescue, animal ark, greyhound pets of america, even the DNR for our wild animal kingdom), to help the critters of our world. build new shelters. give those without a voice a chance. and a decent life. i wish i could save the animal world. even more than i wish for world peace.

treasures & itinerary news...

first, i'd like to share some treasures from fargo. i've had many inquires near & far as to how it went (like even mary in oslo asked!) if you haven't read the entire blog, the answer to how it went is there. & my answer is still the same. it went. i am proud but look to improve in endurance. grandma's is 1 month from tomorrow...

so here's the medal, and the shirt that of course i had to have, with ellie-who's-everywhere masking the 'w'. i try to take one picture and of course the cat walks into the frame last second. (god i love this cat even if her timing is poor ;) i'll do about anything to get wine...fly across oceans, drive to the store, run a race. hell, who needs a reason? ;)

italy. here's what i know. (again much asking as it's getting closer. 'where are you going?' 'can i go too?' 'when do you leave?') so here it is. absolutely none of these towns mean anything to me. like grandma's, ask me one month from today and i'll tell you which was my fav. but for now, if anyone has any idea about any of these, find me and tell me what you know. (what a lovely coincidence that italy is known for wine & pasta, 2 top things that runner girl adores consuming...)

6/5-17 La Fabbrica del Canto Choral Festival, Legnano, Italy
June 5 Chiesa Parrocchiale, Legnano, Italy
June 6 Teatro Galleria, Legnano, Italy
June 7 Chiesa Parrocchiale Santa Teresa, Legnano, Italy
June 8 Teatro Di Via Dante, Catellanaza, Italy
June 9 TBD
June 10 Cinema Teatro San Pio, Uboldo, Italy
June 11 Basilica di Santa Maria Nuova, Abbiategrasso, Italy
June 12 Chiesa Gesu' Crocifisso, Parabiago, Italy
June 13 Auditorium Palazzo Terragni, Lissone, Italy
June 14 Auditorium Della Casa Del Arti, Cernusco Sul Naviglio, Italy
June 15 Chiesa Del Convento, Azzio, Italy
June 16 Sala Della Musica, Legnano, Italy

so there it is. not much else is super new. ran both yesterday and today. went swimmingly. well of course. i saved a crapload of energy somewhere on saturday during the half, so of course i'd feel this week is strong and great. OY.

anyway, to end this post, i know i have a europe trip to gear up for, but honestly, i'm really craving hard some solid woods/camping/fire/hiking trip. lake superior and i have not bonded in 3 months. that is too long. as is hiking/woods/campfire time. it's been way longer for that. must get something on the calendar...shameless plug? you betcha! ~jd

monday's ruminations

if that is even a word.

it's full moon today. hoo-ray! too bad it's cloudy and gonna rain later. but it was beautiful last night if you got to see any of it rising.

life around our house has been one vet visit per week the past 5 weeks. ugh. first it was just the usual....annual shots, etc. then cora had a dental cleaning. then over 2 weeks ago she tore open her leg pretty badly and it's *finally* looking better! but yet another visit today to check on it healing...

work is gearing up to be crazy busy for the summer between our building being renovated & added on to in a year, and the big summer reading program to keep all the kidlets busy when school is out (and help keep their brains fresh by reading :)

italy is in less than 2 weeks. amazing how time flies! i'm already feeling guilty though in small ways about missing work and training, but it's italy so i 'll try to get over it ;)

only one thought about running today. that i sure hope that my thoughts about my first half experience lead to that it can only get better. maybe it's like sex. the first time, not so great. but after learning and trying new things, much better ~ here's hoping! live & learn...and always have humor! i'm a big fan of humor in case some of you just met me ;) happy monday...~jd

2:19:15

team roseville post race...., originally uploaded by jenmdietrich.

that was my time. i did it :) am i happy? mostly. i could have done better and mentally am a little disappointed, but that's the truth. that said, in the big picture, i am proud of finishing my first half and plan to do it again. in almost one month in duluth.

weather was great! the warmest long run of our season so far (when the race ended it was at least 70, which for runners in the strong sun is mighty warm) and the winds didn't really pick up to right near the end of the race for me. thankfully~

had a scare...one of our teammates wound up in the medical area at the finish. very scary, esp since the runner next to her needed cpr and shocking. read in the Fargo Forum newspaper online this am that out of 13,000 runners, 6 needed hospitalization. pretty average actually. it happens. but thankfully our teammate came through pretty quickly after some hydration and being checked by a doctor pretty thoroughly onsite.

all 12 of our team ran the same race and all of us finished, 5 of us being first time half-ers. so rock on Team Roseville! (we're all part of the Lifetime Fitness Run Club in Roseville).

inspiring moments were the team of Rollie & Rory (one had a stroke 2 years ago, his friend pushing him in a specialized wheelchair through the entire half marathon) just mere minutes after i finished, and the 82 year old gent named Burton who finished the marathon in its entirety in under 6 hours. phenomenal. the human body & spirit are amazing things.

so it's done. big dance over. overall, had an eye opening weekend. but look forward to just a little bit of personal improvement. call it the small perfectionist part of me. i thank from the the bottom of my heart those who wrote, called, texted, emailed words of support. i can't even put into words how surprsised and touched i was by those messages of encouragement. they really stuck with me through all two hours and nineteen minutes...peace & hugs, ~jd the 13.1 runner girl

butterflies are starting...

well, coach said it would happen. for us half-marathon first timers, that we would feel like taper week would feel like we're not running enough and won't be ready for the start of the race on Saturday at 8am. so true.i vacillate between feeling super nervous and feeling super stoked.

running is 99% mental. seriously folks, it is. I hear it all the time.... 'oh i could never run'. 'oh my gosh, i can't run 4 blocks, let alone 13.1 miles'. okay, if you wanted to, you could. I'm not saying running is for everyone. I am not preaching that everyone run. honest. but for some folks, it's a surprisingly cool thing once you get into it. I have seen all ages, all body types, all variances of runners at races. so i don't buy the 'i can't do it'. yes, you can. it's all up to you. i am a huge believer in you are your own destiny. you make the choices. if you get dealt a bad hand and have a down turn in life, you can turn it around. is it easy? heck no. life is about challenges mixed in with the fun and exciting times. i have stresses too. running helps with that. as does traveling, a night out on the town, or just quiet by myself time.


i'm not a speedy runner. slow and steady JD. that's me. so for my first Big Dance this weekend, I have no goal other than to finish strong (ie not dying at the end), with a smile, celebrating with my new friends and teammates, and having that medal (my first real medal) as the start to a good collection this year....

as a reminder, i didn't wake up 3 weeks ago and decide to just register for a half marathon. i've been training for 12 weeks. and been running for 2 years in varying levels of building up to where i am. there are amazing beginner groups out there. there's a great book called "The Courage to Start" by the famous Penguin in the running world, John Bingham (who started running around age 40 when he was very overweight, smoked, drank, all the 'fun' things in life ;) there's a Couch to 5K program online. (that is 3.1 miles, very very common for first time runner/walkers)....

i'm a librarian. i'll hook you up. IF you want to be pointed to good sources. if not, there are soooooo many other options for being active and doing fun things. life is for living. and since none of us really knows how long we'll be around to do that, take advantage of each day and do the things that you find fun & challenging. that's all i'm sayin'. for me, running is part of it.


so until next week, enjoy the full-ish moon...one of my favorite things....~jd

even more...

new things. new widget. new links. wanted to freshen it up a bit.

and for the 4 or 5 of you who i think stop by now and then, thank you. any thoughts on improvement would be dandy. i'm actually helping assist a class on this crazy blogging thing in a few months. to help others find the joy in writing your outside voice to the world. should be good times. if folks actually sign up for the session. time will tell. i'm not the most patient person. like i'm ready for warm weather. *warm*. warm is not 50. warm is 70+. still waiting....

ps, ds, my thoughts are with you :( i'm here if you need anything.

peace....~jd

new things...

here's ellie showing off our new kitchen floor. in the upper left corner is a tiny splice of what the new carpet looks like but clearly you can't get much of a feel for it from this pic. But believe me, it's so so so much better than the cream colored stuff we had before, and the kitchen flooring came out awesome too! the old kitchen floor was kinda a brown faux brick vinyl sheet. with lots of dings and wear and just not pretty. new stuff is supposed to be indestructible and looks like slate. it worked out super slick ~ come see!! (i swear i didn't plant ellie. she was just there. she's always around...we call her our 'third' dog...very social, very loyal, very loving. 3 of my favorite traits :)

last night i learned a new thing. mark taught me how to make home-made pasta. see, i'm hosting a pasta feed on thursday night for about 10 cool ass runners as we are all running the Fargo Half Marathon on Saturday. So dh said 'sure i'll cook for the party but you must help me make pasta'. no prob. making pasta from hand is a lot like playing with play doh. :) except that of course eating real pasta vs play doh is a no brainer ;) rolling the dough through the machine was very fun, and it only took a few 'mistakes' on the dial of how flat to make the pasta before i learned 'don't do that! remember to move the dial!' mark prefer's these machines. imperia made in italy of course. eBay is an awesome scouting ground for them. he finds em for about $15 new and ends up giving them as presents to folks who want to learn how to make pasta. and he loves to give lessons. i was a pretty good student (except that i get a little mouthy and a little ADD at times ;)

so we made lots and lots of spaghetti and i look forward to learning more cooking stuff as time goes on. it's always been something i've wanted to take real classes for. that and ballroom dancing. right now, there's just no time or extra $ between running and working 2 jobs and really trying to have friend & spouse time once in a while too.

and yesterday's geek moment was me buying the newest running toy that i saved up for months to purchase. i surprisingly ended up getting it for almost half price :) LOVE THAT! thanks claudia!! the one & only garmin 405...i can now pace myself, run against a virtual partner, know how far i ran, know my heart rate, and a ton of other things all in one watch. that works a lot like an iPod (the face ring is a bezel that scrolls through options like an iPod wheel. no, the watch itself is not an MP3. I'm sure that's not that far away....probably in the Garmin 505 down the line...) so far it's rockin' my world. running *and* technology?!? 2 of my great hobbies in one :)

so there's all kinds of new things in jd's world. small as it may be :) happy post mother's day to all my friends who are all awesome moms! ~jd

one second....

one mile. one. not thirteen like 5 days ago. not 13.1 like a week from Saturday. one.

and being this was my first TC 1 Mile, any time i ran would be an automatic PR. for you non-running-folk, that would be Personal Record. I did have a goal in mind, but didn't know how it would go.

i made my goal. by one second. 8:29. Eight minutes, 29 seconds. My goal was 8:30. my high school gym teacher would be proud, since i'm pretty sure i never cleared a 12:00 mile ;)

life is good. i'm feeling ready for my half and running down what's usually a major bus thruway of downtown Mpls, on a cool cloudy evening, with all outside bar patrons cowbelling us crazy runners along the route, for all 8:29 was a blast.

i'm so there next year. high fives to Claudia, Kim, Kristi & Val, who ran tonight too. And a shout out to a fabulous gal named Erin who I met in line at the Biffy's. romantic, huh? hey runners know all about Biffy's before racing, and she happened to be right behind us for 20 min in line and we had good conversation. And runners are all very friendly and have clearly a lot in common so striking up conversation at events is super easy. She too will be at the Fargo & Grandma's Half marathons, just as I will be. So Erin, (who by the way found me after the race by chance and she finished in 6:31!!!!! holy smokin' runner girl!!) awesome to meet you and I hope to run into you again. results for anyone you might know that ran can be followed through the logo...

dream big, guys. anything is possible if you put your mind to it and want it bad enough. anything.
~jd

funny how things trigger memories...

i grew up in arlington heights, illinois. nw suburb of chicago....and there was one of these about 2 miles from our house that we would bike to all the time as kids and teens.

cock robin had*awesome* milkshakes and is totally responsible for my love of butterscotch shakes in particular.

so today i was just being a kids librarian, weeding old books that need either tossing due to age or condition, and i came across a picture book called 'who killed cock robin?'. and my want for a cheeseburger, fries, and butterscotch shake hit me *hard*. that, in addition to it's almost lunchtime, and due to all of this running and training lately (1 mile race tomorrow, my shortest ever!) i'm eating like a COW. ALL the time. sheesh!

sadly all cock robin shops are now gone i believe, but man, they made for some solid childhood memories. square 3 layered sherbet cones and all (another one of their trademarks:)

all for now,

~jd

my latest fav blog...

for some of the saddest reasons.

this was highlighted in the Star Tribune about a week ago. Exceedingly sad story, yes, esp with Mother's Day this upcoming Sunday, but the pure honesty, emotion, love and little bit of hope he's garnering from friends, family & complete strangers is a story I'm following almost daily...i dig his writing style, his realness to the whole situation, and the pictures of his daughter and life are precious and touching. ...so here's the story...first link starts it off. 2nd link works too but gets you to the whole page and depending on your browser, the first link may not show right away at the top of the page like it does for me here at home. so peace to matt, madeline and your angel liz....

http://www.mattlogelin.com/if-you-havent-been-here-before/

http://www.mattlogelin.com/

~jd