Beef, It's What's for Dinner (And Lunch)

Just got back from visiting my brother and his wife in Oregon, had a blast, will post pix here as soon as I upload 'em. Took lots and lots of pix of Mount Hood (we were 7,000 feet above sea level), a really neat waterfall, the beach (nothing like the Jersey shore), and a very cool county fair.

And we ate. It seems we ate non-stop and we ate things that I normally don't eat at home: handfuls of delicious pistachio nuts, real ice cream (not frozen yogurt) almost on a daily basis, real butter and beef, lots of it. This IS the West after all. My brother and Tom kept telling me to relax, you're on vacation. Eventually, I acquiesced. There was no fighting it. I did tell Tom that I was not going anywhere NEAR a scale until after I had been home for a week.

I lied. I got on the scale the night we got home and to my surprise, I WAS ONE POUND LIGHTER THAN WHEN I LEFT! How the heck did THAT happen? Tom pointed out to me that we did run almost every day that we were there. In fact, I ran more miles during the past week that I have all year, being that we are gearng up for a fall marathon. (On Sunday ran 13+ miles as well). So, that's probably the explanation for it.

I tell ya one thing. If I trained in Oregon with all those hills and at the higher altitudes, I'd kick butt in Jersey. I don't have any races till Sept. 2 and I am anxious to see if all this hill training translates into faster times. If it does, it will be solid proof that I need to ramp up the mileage and hill work if I want to see personal records (PRs).

Anyhoo, the higher altitudes made us both very sleepy the first couple of days. Naturally, as soon as got used to them, it was time to come home!

Some cool surprises: Watching kids throw snowballs on Mount Hood (in August!) The best peaches I have ever had in my life. Ditto for fresh rye bread. How big and good-looking my nephews got (21 and 25, respectively). How dog-friendly Portland is. Lying on the beach and looking at fog-covered mountains.

Well, more on this later, when I post the pix.

Some good news while I was gone: my house closed!
The bad news: We are being raped by the government (both state and federal) in the form of capital gains taxes, most likely to the tune of $20,000 or thereabouts (don't know yet how much). And yes, it's rape from where I sit.

Every time you try to get ahead in this state/country, there's Big Brother with his hand out. I'd like to go back to 1911, before income taxes. Of course, my house would not be worth as much then! :-)