My, your points sure do look tasty....

Hey everybody! (said in my best Will Ferrel does Harry Caray voice)

So I've just returned from my San Jose leg, and barely squeaked through the last few days without totally blowing my points. One of my 'tricks' is to eat packets of oatmeal in the hotel room for breakfast (4 points), avoiding the minefield of points that is the hotel breakfast buffet. Also, that stuff is nasty. I don't care how many stars a place has, the eggs are always weird and rubbery, the bacon is so thin it's transparent, and whatever you do, don't eat the muffins! They have been in that case since 1983!

So for lunches on the road I usually have to rely on the sandwich cafe found in many of the buildings I teach, but if I order a turkey on wheat with mustard and all the veggies they have, I can keep my lunch down to 6 points, which leaves me with 14-20 points for dinner (grilled or broiled fish/chicken/pork and steamed veggies plus popcorn for dessert!) depending on whether I exercised or not that day. Still, turkey gets really old. So, for this last trip I thought I would be smart and request a microwave and fridge in my room so I could bring my famous (okay not really, but it makes it sound tastier) 4 point black beans and brown rice from home to eat for lunches instead of sandwiches, and it would have worked beautifully had it not been for the increasingly ridiculous dog and pony show that is the TSA. There was liquid in my beans! (which were in my carry-on luggage) So they took my beautiful homemade with enough garlic to kill a camel cuban-style beans! Sigh. Next time, I plan on freezing the beans and checking them. Stupid liquid rules.

*****

In case you're wondering about my current running status... I am still running diligently, have worked up to 5 miles again, and am getting faster! My 'normal' pace is now a 11.5 minute mile. Before I know it, I'll be at the 10 minute mile, which is where I will be happy, and the point at which I'll feel comfortable enough to join the local runners club.

When I'm not running, I'm still riding the blue beast. Our most recent outing was the Bridge Pedal, an annual event where the city pretty much shuts down all the major bridges over the Willamette River to most vehicles except for bikes (and peds) for a few hours on a Sunday morning. It's an organized ride which requires registration and a donation to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) here in Portland, and this year close to 20,000 bicycle riders showed up, from the wee'est of kids to the gramps and grannys, the lycra clad, and hipsters, clowns, and everything in between.

(Doncha just love the groovy vest we had to wear?)

We chose the 10 bridge option which was close to a 40 mile ride, but we got to ride on bridges that are normally too scary for me to ride in traffic, and on a few of the bigger bridges, there were parties! Food, music (bagpipers!), and Starbucks! Check out the line!

It was a very hard ride, and I like to have died the last few miles, but boy was it worth it. Worth at least 15 points, anyway.