Showing my Tiger stripes

I'm a graduate of the University of Missouri, and a proud Mizzou Tiger.
Living in Atlanta, being a fan of Mizzou sports meant catching the occasional Tiger football or basketball game on ESPN or ABC when they aired, always taking a second seat to ACC and SEC games, since Atlanta is home to teams in both of those conferences.
I'd talk about the Big 12 conference and watch co-workers or, worse, Georgia Bulldog fans, roll their eyes at me.
Well, all that changes on July 1, when Mizzou enters the SEC conference.
I have mixed emotions about the change, but then, when I was going to Mizzou, we were still the Big 8 conference. Then we became the Big 12, and now we're an SEC school.
I hate to admit it, but I am going to miss the rivalry with the Kansas Jayhawks. I'll miss the Border Wars.
But what I am going to enjoy is being able to see my team play games, either in person or on TV with more regularity. The last time I saw a Mizzou game in person I was a senior in college and now I'm planning to drive to the OTHER Columbia, Columbia, S.C., this fall to see the Tigers play the Gamecocks.
And I am completely enjoying that Mizzou officials have been courting the Atlanta alumni base.
I've already seen Mizzou head football Gary Pinkel TWICE in the past month in person.
I met him a few weeks ago at the Coaches Caravan, when he and head basketball coach Frank Haith came and talked with about 150 alums. I got to meet Atlanta Falcon Sean Weatherspoon, who is also a Mizzou grad.
I had a nice chat with Frank Haith, even showing him the silly photo my college roomie Patti and I took on our campus tour last summer.

Parking in Frank Haith's space

Coach Haith laughed at my photo and my belief that the Tigers had a stellar basketball season because Patti and I parked in his spot. He said that sign is actually no longer there. It kept getting stolen. D'Oh! Silly college pranksters. ;)
Coach Pinkel was nice, too. When he introduced himself to me and shook my hand he said. "I'm Gary Pinkel." I replied, "Yes, sir, I know who you are. I'm Lisa."
Coach Pinkel was back in Atlanta on June 6 for a "Welcome to the SEC Party" at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Buckhead. What a party! Alumni from Texas A&M, which is also entering the SEC, were there as well. Hundreds of people showed up, and I'm not sure they thought that many would be there.
Both schools had team merchandise shops set up, and I bought these Tiger ears.

Sporting my new Tiger ears

The photo isn't the best. My iPhone is the 3GS and doesn't have a flash, so in low light I get a photo that looks like this.
And later that night, a fellow Tiger pal and friend said Gary Pinkel had tweeted me and my Tiger ears. What?
I joined twitter just to see what she was talking about. And there I was, in all my Tiger ears glory, looking on as Gary Pinkel rallied the faithful. I'm on the right in the background.

I'm famous!

So, I really did show my Tiger stripes this week!

In the Garden

My side yard summer garden is coming along quite nicely, other than that disquieting incident with a chipmunk or squirrel that dug up my eggplant.
I tried to find another Black Beauty eggplant at Home Depot, Walmart and Pike Nursery, but had no luck. Ended up replacing what I wanted with Ichiban eggplant, which is long and thin, rather than fat and round. I'm sure if I can get several fruit off the plant, it will taste just fine in my homemade eggplant risotto.
This year I planted some string beans. My dad gave me some seeds that he used in his garden last year and I have been eating string beans for a couple of weeks  now. I should have checked the plants tonight to see if there were more to pull.

string beans out of the garden

I've also gotten the first few Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes from the garden. That's about as early as I have ever pulled tomatoes from my garden in Atlanta. When I lived on St. Simons Island, Ga., and then in Jacksonville, Fla., I could almost bank on getting ripe tomatoes in June, but in Atlanta that is rarer. We had such a mild winter this year, I planted my summer garden in mid March, so I should not be surprised I'm getting the first early produce now.

I don't just have produce coming in. My blue lace cap hydrangeas looked really pretty this spring.

Blue lace cap hydrangeas

I got this plant because a friend of mine, who happens to be a master gardener, gave me some cuttings from his plants. Actually, Bob gave me lots more than just this one plant. He gave me a dozen cuttings. I dutifully planted all 12 down the ugly chain link fence along the left side of my yard and knew that in a few years I'd have lovely flowering shrubs to look at and not knocked about metal fencing.

Well, that was a lovely plan. Unfortunately, I hired Daryl to mow my grass and clean out the gutters. And Daryl, God love him, took his weed whacker and went along the fence line and killed every last one of those hydrangeas I'd just planted. I did not rehire him.

Lesson learned? Always mow your own yard if you don't want anyone to cut something you'd rather leave growing.

And that's what's been happening in the garden.

Summer fun at Summerfest

For the second year in a row, I ran the Summerfest 5K in Atlanta.
This race is in the Virginia-Highland area of Atlanta, a fun, hip, urban neighborhood. The race is part of Summerfest, a weekend arts and music festival. The race sort of kicks all of that off.
What's nice about running the race, other than it has a couple of challenging hills, is when it is finished, I can walk around the festival before the actual festival starts. It was nice to be able to talk to the artists about their work.
And the race morning could not have been better. A storm the day before brought in a cool snap, so it was about 55 degrees and very low humidity. Not bad for June 2!
Along the course, and just around the neighborhood in general, was this message by a graffiti artist:

As you can see, they were in all different colors all around Virginia-Highland. I don't know who WB is, but I really liked the message.
What I took away from the street art was this: I need to allow that my body is a little slower after all of my cancer treatment. I need to accept that. And I need to appreciate what my body can still do. I can still run races. And I can still have fun doing them.
Now, onto the found money pig. I realize that anyone who has just started reading this blog might not know about how I collect all of the money I find on races, and other places. I've found several pennies over the past week. All of them got deposited to feed the pig.

The found money pig

I didn't find any running the Summerfest 5K, but that's OK. There are lots more races coming up for me this summer.

The change up

Every now and again, I like to change up my running routes and routines.
I recently did both, and benefited immensely.
The first change up was to my running route. The weather has been a little stormy in the evenings in Atlanta and I was running my usual route around my neighborhood recently when I heard thunder. I decided I'd probably better cut my run short for fear of rain and lightning and turned down a side road I don't normally run. That's where I found this beautiful art as part of a mailbox.

The Phoenix

I just love this art. So cool.
Then last weekend I met a friend and co-worker for what I thought was a 5K run benefiting women with gynecological cancers. I corralled Doug to do it with me, and realized when we got to the event it was not a run at all, but a walk.

Doug and I before our non-run 5K

 We had really wanted to run the 5K, so we decided to forgo the walk and head to a nearby park with a running trail. Doug is a much stronger and faster runner than I am and keeping up with him challenged me in a very good way. Doug was chatting away easily while I was trying to catch my breath during our run together.
But I didn't mind at all.
As a runner, you need to run with fellow runners who are faster and slower than you are to change it up, make your body work in different ways.
I got a great workout and new experiences.
All because of a change up.

A kid in a candy store

As I've mentioned before, I do get to do some fun things through my job, and recently I was invited to Loews Atlanta Hotel to see its new event space it calls The Overlook.

The hotel created three different themes within the event space to show how the space could be used. At one end was a black-light room, complete with an ice bar.

The ice bar at Loews Atlanta Hotel

The ice bar served up a variety of ceviche, including tuna, scallop, and shrimp. It was all good, although the tuna was my favorite.

A little later in the evening, the black-light room even offered some performance art.

Performing in black light

Glowing art

The middle part of the event space was pretty much a straight up bar area with some food tables displayed. But this was a fun display area, and I could not stop eating the smoked salmon lollipops! They were so good.

Salmon "tubes"

Smoked salmon lollipops

But the really fun area of the event space was a candy shop.

Welcome to the candy bar!

I brought home way too much candy from the candy bar. Good thing I had some 5K runs and training runs to work it off! The candy bar was filled with jelly beans, candied fruit slices and other retro candies.

Entering the candy shop

Sitting in a bath filled with gum balls

I'm not exactly sure how comfortable the model in the bathtub was all night, but she sure was a trooper. So many people were taking her photo (including me) or posing by the bathtub with her. I did ask her if this was one of her more unusual jobs and she said it was.

On an unrelated note, I ran the Tucker Road Race 5K last Saturday and found 32 cents along the route, including a well-worn quarter. For me, finding the cash made me feel like a kid in a candy store.

If you haven't got a penny, a ha' penny will do

I ran the Big Peach 5K on Saturday, a race I've run before.
There are some serious hills on this course, so I was pleasantly surprised that I came in around 37 minutes. I think that was better than last year.
But the most interesting part of this race was the found money I collected along the route. I found a penny and then I found another. Well, sort of.
I've said before, some of the cash I find while running and walking is road weary. Here is what I mean.

A half, or ha' penny

I have to wonder when I find a penny like this: How in the heck did that happen?
I found this penny last year, and again my question was: How the heck did this happen? I even tried to unbend this penny with some pliers and a hammer. None of that worked, clearly.

A bent penny

On the way back to my car on Saturday, I found a quarter, so the pig got fed this week, 26 and 1/2 cents. It's the ha' penny that was the most rewarding.

Take Back the Night, Take a Nap

This past Saturday I ran the Take Back the Night 5K for the second time.
This evening race on April 28 reminded me of why I swore last year I wouldn't run it again.
Starting temperature was 84 degrees. Whew!
Summer temperatures have arrived very early in Atlanta.
Here's me huffing and puffing toward the finish line.

Finishing strong at Take Back the Night 5K

The race starts and finishes at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, which is really a lovely campus. This race is fun because they throw a pizza party at the finish. So I didn't feel so guilty having a slice of pizza after the 5K.
This week was a bit trying.
On Sunday evening, my cat Felix disappeared again. I called my neighbor and asked him to check his tool shed. He did, but couldn't find Felix and Felix wouldn't come out for him when he called. I got home from work Monday and called to Felix, who peeked out from the tool shed. Stinker.
On Tuesday, I brought Pollock in to have her abscessed tooth extracted. Well, turns out she had really bad teeth. The vet removed three of her four canine teeth and one molar! Now she's my little snaggle toothed kitty. She's recovering and eating pretty well, so I hope all of that is behind us.
With all this activity, I'd really just like a little nap.
Hmmm, I wonder who could show me how it is done.

Felix taking a true cat nap

I envy that he can just fall asleep anywhere, including my window sill! Wish I could sleep that soundly!