Friday night hangout

RAIN!!!!!!!!

   I was beginning to think we'd never see it again. A nice rainy Friday night. (And the rain continued for over 24 hours... finally!) Fortunately, it couldn't dampen the indoor activity I had planned...
   I go climbing with friends once a month or so. It's a great way to end a long work week, and Ibex is open 'til 10 pm on Fridays. It is SO MUCH FUN. Mentally, I could go all night, but after 3 or 4 hours my fingers are begging for mercy. Better shape up, fingers! We have more climbing to do!!!

Time to make like a squirrel!

We're slightly less blurry in real life. Unless I remove my contact lenses.

Here, as you can see, Britten's cracking me up.

   Surprise, surprise. Just like while I'm planking in yoga, her jokes make it VERY hard to concentrate! She & Rich & I had a ton of fun.

My new favorite path, if only for the name: Serengeti Yeti.

I cannot wait to try climbing in the wild someday...

Jim, on the right, is a lot of fun. And William, on the left, is FREAKIN' SPIDERMAN!!!

   And after our climb, a great, big burger at Clancy's Irish Pub. The rain was still falling, but it was a quick run across the parking lot. About 20 of us hung out and traded stories over our meals. That's what I call a happy hour!

Working up an Appetite

   Got up this morning with my ankle sore from the hour I walked at the dog park yesterday, and discouraged about how sedentary I've had to be for the last 2 weeks. Decided to get myself back into the gym; at least I could lift weights. That way, if my ankle is ready for Commando Run on March 31, my upper body will be ready too. Spent an hour lifting (as usual, the only chick on the machines!), and did 120 crunches. Felt great!
   Came home inspired to whip up a good breakfast, too: eggs with sautéed portobellos and red & yellow onion, spinach, Italian parsley, feta, Spanish Serrano ham, chorizo, and salchicchon, and balsamic glaze. With fresh pineapple and blackberries. Yum! I could get into this new Sunday routine...

Make like an Ibex at Ibex

   I spent over three hours this afternoon cultivating "trembling hand syndrome" with 33 members of the Adventure Club. A bunch of us had never tried rock climbing before, so we all took a belay class at Ibex Climbing Gym in Blue Springs to learn how not to die, paired up, and then set off climbing the walls. I buddied up with a guy named Kelly—who had climbed years before—so I figured I was in good hands. (At least one of us knew what the heck we were doing!!!)
   The belay class was good... check your buckles, learn to tie a figure 8 knot, hitch up for climbing, tie a safety knot. The belayer takes the safety device and has to constantly pull the rope taught as the climber goes, taking up all the slack so they won't have a large drop if they slip off the wall. Getting my hands in the right places at the right time and pulling the rope the right way seemed daunting at first. (I wasn't 100% sure how bad an accident I could cause if I had my right hand over my left, rather than the other way around as it should be. Yikes!) This was the only time I had butterflies... Turns out this equipment is pretty safe even for dummies. Once I got comfortable with that, I never looked back.

the partner

the challenge

   I started on some easier walls, and pretty much scampered up like a squirrel. (All were approximately 30' high, but the routes for each rope were rated by difficulty.) Fortunately, I don't have any trouble with heights as long as I feel safe and secure with the equipment. So we kept moving around to successively harder climbs, with widely spaced or rounded, slippery barnacles (I don't have any idea what those things are really called!), and sheer angles.

Kelly's having all the fun...

...while I'm belaying.

Go Stella!

Note to self: don't wear light pants; dark harness gives you an outliney, cartoony butt shape! LOL

   After taking turns a bunch of times climbing & belaying, we went upstairs to try free climbing on the shorter (12-15'?) walls. That was fun, too: it was nice to have everyone climbing at once, with no one having to hold a rope. The scariest part of the whole day for me was dropping to the thick blue mats after reaching the top. It crossed my mind that if I landed wrong, this could really jack up my impending snowboarding trip... 

     Those short climbs were surprisingly hot & sweaty. It was a much better workout than I was expecting, which was nice. To "rest", we went back downstairs to scale the tall walls...

Yep, that's me: hanging there & trying to find a place to grab onto  so I can keep going up.

   At this point we were about 3 hours into climbing, and though my mind could have gone all night, my fingers were saying, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?!" I tried the same 5.8 wall twice at the end, and got just  a yard from the top before my fingers completely gave out (while pulling all my weight toward the wall on an angle that came out toward me), and I reluctantly gave the "get me outta here" signal. Honestly, that was the hardest part of the whole day: admitting that I was too tired to get to the top on that last run. I'm gunning for that one next time!!!

Ambush

   Tonight I was in my yoga practice, which is generally a relaxing treat. But as we flowed from downward dog into plank, then lowered to crocodile, with my face just inches from the floor, I saw a spider coming right for me. We were hovering low, arms quivering from the weight of our ow bodies, waiting to be instructed to lower and flow into cobra.

   Not wanting to break from the pose, I blew at the spider a couple of times. (Which probably made the class think I didn't understand the concept of ujjayi breathing!) It didn't even pause—completely undeterred, it continued to stalk my face. As it approached the edge of my mat, I finally wimpered, "Spider!" and everyone in the class laughed. I blew—hard—a few more times, then Britten came over and scooped him up, safely delivering him to the edge of the room.

Britten: my yoga instructor and my hero.

Learning to Fly

   I had my second swim lesson with Delissa tonight at Prairie Life Fitness Center, and it was every bit as good as the first. This may be the best 50 bucks I've ever spent! (I purchased a deal from livingsocial for 8 private 30-minute lessons.) In the first, she taught me how to improve my arm stroke for the freestyle, giving me more speed and power with less effort. Honestly if this is all I had learned I would have been satisfied. I improved in the first 5 minutes of the lesson, and any nervousness I had melted away instantly.

   Tonight, she had me practice my arms some more, and taught me how to breathe on both sides. I had learned to breathe on my left side when I took lessons nearly two years ago, but my subsequent attempts to learn to breathe on the right resulted in me sucking down half the water in the pool and thinking, "Screw this!" Delissa taught me in about 30 seconds.

   Then she taught me the side stroke, which she said will be useful when I try a triathlon, because it will allow me to rest a bit as well as give me a better vantage point to assess the other swimmers, cutting to the left or right to take advantage of any available space. And she told me that they are beginning tri training sessions this fall. Bingo.

   I swam for 40 minutes which left me breathless but feeling on top of the world. I might actually be good at this someday! If you had told me 3 years ago that I'd not only be swimming now, but that I'd LOVE it and feel natural in the water, I'd have said you were crazy. Learning something new is the best feeling ever—especially when you weren't sure you had it in you.

   This confirmed what I learned through snowboarding this winter: a private lesson is the way to go. Focused instruction and dogged determination.

   Speaking of dogged, I headed home to walk the doggies, who have been missing me too much since I've been traveling lately. They have started to become destructive for the first time ever. Recent casualties: Ben's flip flops, a magazine, the newspaper, and a pen. Then they got into the clothes basket Monday night while I was at yoga and destroyed two pairs of Calvin Klein underwear. @#*!!! I came home just in time to stop them from killing two bras. Somebody needs some exercise!

   So we went on a brisk 2-mile walk, our usual route around Strang Park. It wasn't so hot this afternoon, I was still damp from swimming + shower, and the breeze felt fantastic. The dogs were beaming the whole time... I guess we all were! As we rounded the western edge of the park, I heard chirping and turned around to see 2 juvenile robins perched on low branches, just learning to fly. Their mother was nearby, giving them encouragement, and they were taking short trips to test out their wings.

   It made me think about how badly I wish I had learned to swim when I was a child—I could have been enjoying it all these years! But then I reminded myself that it would have robbed me of the sublime satisfaction I have from learning it now. And though it only cost me 50 bucks, that's worth more than money could ever buy.

But I don't wanna blast my a...

   The front window of a gym near my house. Thanks but I'm really pretty sure I don't want to blast my ass off. And do you really think this is appropriate for your window, with kids walking by and all? Really?!

Yoga fix

   I finally got around to using my month-long pass to New Day Yoga Studio that I purchased a while back on Living Social, and it was a great experience! I love trying different yoga teachers and centers, because they all have their special nuances and different series of poses. (But don't worry, Britten—you will ALWAYS be my favorite!!)

   The classroom was small—only about the size of the room at my gym. But by god, Hilary managed to pack 40 people in there! I wasn't too jazzed about that at first, but the others students were really nice, and after all, "yoga" means "union," and with our mats staggered it was never a problem. Man, did that room heat up fast, though! It was already much warmer than I was used to, so it felt like a light-gentle-hot-yoga class. Heat makes your muscles more flexible, but for me it also makes breathing harder and my hands slip on the mat. But challenge is what I was there for.

   The teacher started us by having us concentrate on Ujjayi breathing in unison (sounds like the ocean!), then set us in child's pose and read an inspiring mantra. I'm paraphrasing: Every tree started from a seed; every building from a handful of dirt. "From here, every goal is possible. Be bold and fearless." And then she sent us into a long series of sun salutations, 

Chaturanga and Vinyasa flows that were really challenging, despite the several years of practice I have under my belt. I challenged myself by getting as deeply into the Asanas as possible. It was difficult, but It felt good.

   She ended the class by putting us into Savasana (corpse pose), lowering the lights, and turning on the special effects: a moving field of projected "stars" on the ceiling. I had never seen this used in a class before, and really liked it—very relaxing! To bring us out of Savasana, she read another inspiring meditation. It was a great practice—I can't wait to go back again.

   Here's a glossary of Sanskit terms that I found on Yoga Journal.

Heaven, thy name is Broadmoor Bistro

    Tonight Kelly graciously came by to let the dogs out and feed them so that I could race to the 5:30 yoga class. Even the 6:30 class is difficult for me to catch, by the time I fight traffic coming out of downtown, stop home, feed the dogs, let the dogs out, change clothes, bring the dogs in, and race back to the gym. (Is it just me, or is that a workout in itself?!)
   Britten's class was awesome as always. Fun and challenging. Especially when you're transitioning from plank into a tough pose like crocodile and she intentionally tries to make you laugh: "Lower SLOWLY. Still lowering... now hover... still hovering... if you're already on the floor, smile, press your hands into the floor and PRETEND you're hovering..."
   After class, Britten and I dashed into the locker room to change, then headed to Broadmoor Bistro to meet up with Nicole for dinner. Neither of them had dined there before, so I was very excited for them to try it.
   We had such a great time—it was nice to have a girls dinner and we quickly got wrapped up in the food and the great conversation and completely lost track of time... and at 8:45 they lowered the lights and practically shoved us out the door. There was one other party there with us, so we weren't alone, but of course we felt bad to stay so late (the restaurant is run by high school students). We apologized and left a nice tip. I just hope we didn't piss off Bob Brassard to the point where he'll cancel my reservation if he sees my name pop up again. (Think he has my photo at the register with a note that says, "DO NOT SERVE THIS GIRL"?! The student chefs said he was very irritated.)
   Anyway, as always, the exquisite selections on the menu made it difficult to choose. But in the end, I went with:

Napoli Flat Bread

Caramelized Red Onions, Roasted Mushrooms, Goat Cheese

Tagliatelle “Ragu”

Slow Braised Veal Cheeks, Porcini Mushrooms, Sage Butter

Age Gouda

Chili – Garlic Grilled Prawns

Coconut Tapioca, Sesame Glazed Long Beans

Bananas Foster 

Pan Pardu, Bacon Caramel, Brandied Bananas

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

   Everything was as good as it sounds... the creamy goat cheese on the bruschetta, the incredibly rich and smooth sage butter sauce on the pasta, the tasty-spicy shrimp. But the bananas foster... my knees are still quivering. It was like hot, melty french toast with caramel and sweet, warm, caramelized bananas. WOW.

   Any calories I may have burned off in yoga were right back.
   And they were so, so worth it.

Hike Hidden Valley Natural Area

   It's another snowy weekend in the OP, and despite Taylor's little escapade yesterday, I decided to treat them to a hike. (It turned out to be a long, cold hike with a lot of hills, though, so I hope Taylor learned his lesson!)
   Turns out the valley was even more hidden than I expected... the directions I got from Google were TERRIBLE and had me going the wrong way on Parvin Rd. I drove in circles for a bit, left a message for the hike leader, then asked at a gas station—and none of the three people working had any idea where I was talking about. @$%*!! Finally I found the park and the group, who patiently waited 25 minutes for me. I cringe when I think about it, but they were very friendly and didn't make me feel bad.

Here's the gang at the hike's start:

   The snow was deep—more than ankle deep and occasionally up to my knees! The area was heavily wooded and we often had to trudge along single-file:

Nancy and friends on the overlook:

This was pretty much my view for the 4-hour hike:

   We were up by Worlds of Fun and caught occasional glimpses of the park. An odd sight from a wilderness area, but at least I'll know where to go if Zombieland ever plays out in KC.

   We saw five deer as we hiked around, but the trees were so thick that I never got a good shot of them.

Michal, however, got this:

Here we are again, atop the bluffs:

It's a long way down to the ground, highway and Missouri river:

   The dogs were so energetic and excited that they were dragging me along; Taylor literally dragged me almost all 4 hours of the hike, until the very last hill. (The following day, my arms were as sore as my legs!)

Almost back to our starting point:

   Most of the group was leaving after the first 2 hours, so I had to run up to the parking lot and move my car. Then I raced back to the group. The snow was up to the shibas' shoulders at times, but they loved it!

   We should have called this "The Mike Hike" because there were three of them! Made remembering names easy. Michal was a crack-up. He found icy, narrow logs over creeks and walked across them. He looked, sounded and acted like a perfect cross between my friend Brad Bryant from OSU and Octavio Perez, former Hallmarker and incredible painter.

   Inexplicably, an old rusted-out car in the middle of the woods. So of course he climbed into it.

Getting fatigued. "We're going to what up which hill now??"

   Almost the Iditarod: the dogs pulled me down one steep hill, and up the next, even steeper hill.

Ta-daah! We made it!

Thanks everyone for a fun hike (and for the homemade hot choco!)

   It was nice to have other photographers on the trip—many of these are Michal's from the Meetup site. Thanks, buddy!