Final 2015 Audiobook Roundup

So, this is part 3.  Parts 1 and 2 available as well.  I managed a total of 48 full audiobooks in 2015.  I think it's safe to say I'm addicted.  In my mind, it's not a bad thing.  I get more exposure to art, culture, writing, etc.  But, I'm still an addict.

If you're looking for feedback or options on what's been occupying my time doing chores, driving, and non-super-strenuous workouts, here you go.  Enjoy!

41	Middlesex	Jeffrey Eugenides	Hilarious.  Poignant.  Exploration of gender and society and history and racism and more.  Every bit a classically impressive work of art as its reputation claims.  22 hours of audiobook. Excellent narration.
42	Underground: the Tokyo Gas Attack and the Underground Psyche	Haruki Murakami	The last in the audiobooks seeking to educate me on Japan before the trip.  An in-depth set of interviews with survivors and Aum cult members regarding the Sarin gas attacks.  Fascinating.
43	Wildflower	Drew Barrymore	Drew and I are so close in age that I feel as if we grew up together.  This memoir was so touching -- if you're in my cohort, you knew some of the basics of her background and history, but this filled in many details and humanized her as well as helped explain how she's grown into the successful entrepreneur, producer, and mother that she clearly is today.
44	Oryx and Crake	Margaret Atwood	I'd read this one in 2004.  Book club wanted to read it, so I listened to the audiobook as a refresher.  It held up surprisingly well.  The themes and concerns she has are all applicable today and the science and reality she describes are equally as possible today as they were a decade ago.
45	Furiously Happy	Jenny Lawson	Perhaps the best book I've ever read (listened to) about mental illness.  Funny and entertaining, but also so endearing and educational.  I applaud her efforts.
46	Adventures of the Karoake King	Harold Taw	Perhaps the most random book selection of the year.  Plot points include, karoake, divorce, multinational corporate development, a self-help guru, a retired porn-star dwarf, and a thai child who was sold into the sex-trade and now works as an adult sex-worker, perhaps willingly?  It's complicated.
47	Self-Inflicted wounds	Aisha Tyler	Light.  Comical.  Breezy.  Fun to learn about the 70s and 80s in Oakland and San Francisco from someone who grew up there.  If you watch Archer, it's odd to have Lana's voice narrate...
48	My Life In France	Julia Child & Alex Prud'homme	Now I know that Julia Child is my spirit animal.  I do love France for many of the same reason she does.  This book made me realize just how different the pace of life is today versus the 50s, 60s, and 70s.  It's not like she didn't accomplish a ton of things, but she also had so much time for leisure and pleasure.  Everything about this story screamed at me "Choose your life.  Make it what you want it to be."  I don't think the goal of this book was to be inspiring, but I found it to be one of the best stories I've ever read about choosing your own authentic path (and how everyone has obstacles, you just have to find a way through them).
49	Purity	Jonathan Franzen	I started this one on December 16th, and didn't finish it until today, because, in typical Franzen style, it's LONG.  I am part of the camp that believes Jonathan Franzen is one of the greatest living American Authors.  I just love the way he strings words together to describe things perfectly with descriptions I've never heard before, but instantly recognize as true.  I learned at a lawyer's lunch that he's pissed off some women/feminists when I explained I was reading this book and one of my colleagues shook her head and another literally tusk-tsked.  When I asked why they had such a negative reaction, one of the ladies replied with a screwed up face, "He has a woman problem."  A couple other women at the table nodded.  "Huh."  I said.  "I've only read The Corrections, and it seemed to me that all of the characters in that book were equally insufferable.  I didn't find it particularly harsh on women.  And with this book, the main character is a young woman.  And she evolves and is interesting and carries the story well."  I then went to reserach the history of the criticism and personally concluded that he's an awkward dude with a penchant for telling the truth, even if it makes him sound like an asshole (I mean, he pissed off Oprah, which I'm guessing is why he's automatically thrown into the "woman problem" camp).  But, I don't think he's a misogynist.  This book does have some scenes of violence (including violence against women) and horrible emotional manipulation (including by and of women), but really, to me, it's just a great exploration of the dark depths of humanity in a complex tale of interwoven characters and American culture.  I very much enjoyed it.

 

Hawaii Wrap-Up

We agreed, it had been at least 5 years since we'd been as relaxed as we were as we headed to the airport after our final hike.  (I'd done a nice 6ish run/walk in the AM to lead into the final exit.)

Iao State Park -- The Iao Needle (or "phallic stone" if you want to go with the local signage)

The hike rewarded our relaxation with not much in the way of physical demands at all.  This was kind of funny, because, I'm a freak about getting to the airport with enough time, so I'd built in all sorts of spare hours and assumed the hike would take at least an hour (and we'd packed clothes to change into after the hike before the flights...).  Despite our preparations, the Garmin informed us that it took less than 25 minutes from parking, to hiking all available trails and taking photos, and exiting.  We changed into our long pants and other plane-appropriate attire, but not because of the hike -- I didn't even bother to change socks...

One of the many river views - refreshing spray and cover, a rarity on Maui.

For once, we actually managed a very solid selfie with a view in the background!

It's all about the front lighting!

After the hike, we headed to the Kahului Ale House for lunch.  It was a wait, but I had the best Saimin (and E loved his buffalo boneless chicken wings)!

Dashi-based broth, fish cake, mushrooms, cabbage, hawaiian chashiu, spam, 2 hard-boiled eggs, AMAZING.

I'd done about 2 days worth of research re: saimin and I was committed to getting some authentic saimin before we left. (We'd already returned to last visit's ramen winner for a dinner of Agu Ramen after watching The Big Short thanks to mahalo Tuesday at the Ward Center.)

This option did not disappoint.  Our server informed us that they often run out - because while they are a sports pub, people just come in and order their Saimin 'cause it's that good.  And it was.

Overall, given this singular exposure to the dish, my take is that the noodles are thicker than ramen, and have more fat (possibly egg noodles?), but shockingly, for Hawai'i, the basic broth and soup is actually lighter than what I associate with the Japanese version.  The preparation was a DELICIOUS broth.  I forced E to taste some (despite his focus on his boneless buffalo wings...a man has to have his vices), and he agreed, it was delicious -- light, protein heavy, but flavorful and easy to drink.  In addition to the broth and all the other soup components,  I was surprised to find that in addition to the fish cake (which I know I love), I enjoyed the sliced spam that had obviously been stewed into the dashi more than I expected - it was delicious, which is not something I've ever said about Spam before...

Anyways, that was it for us.  After this visit to the Ale House, we went to the airport and despite airline delays, eventually ended up at home.  So the Saimin was my final Hawaiian meal this visit, and I think I'm totally cool with that outcome.

2015: The Year On My Feet

Total Mileage:  1,262.57  (the least since 2012, which was a lazy recovery year following the epic 2011 where I ran most of the 1,660 miles I clocked, including 4:13 and 4:09 marathons -- I'm tired just thinking about that year.)

Portion running (vs. walking or hiking): unclear, but likely > 66%

Races:
-kaiser half
-oakland half
-SLO half
-Seattle Rock 'n Roll half
-Dirty Dozen 5K
-49ers rush 4.9K
-Rock 'n Roll San Jose 10K
 (First year without a marathon since 2010)

PRs:  None.  But, I think my PR days have sailed.  Running is not anywhere near the disciplined training plan hobby for me these days that it has been at times in the past.  These days it is something I do to relax, chill out, listen to audiobooks, and get in the miles.  It is rare for me to find the will to really push myself on a run, and I'm okay with that.

Injuries:
-Sliced toe
-rolled ankle a few times in October and November

Best Running Memories:
-Group runs with the bay area running ladies and post-run brunch
-Meeting up with friends and/or cheering them on at races

Goals for 2016:
Well, since my best half last year was Oakland at 2:22:09, (I told you I've really been struggling with pushing myself), I think a good reasonable goal to start with is to shoot for a a sub 2:22 half in Oakland.  I've got the Hot Chocolate 15K next weekend, which should give me a good assessment of my actual fitness right now, and then 5 weeks 'til Kaiser and another 5 'til Oakland.  Other than that, I think I'd like to increase my overall mileage and not worry too much about pacing again this year.  One thing that should help is the new treadmill.  I may try to get out and on it for at least a walking uphill mile or so at the end of every day as a supplement to my running and see how that treats me.  I should probably try to get in some more speed work...

Decompressed (with the most miles since September)

For the 9th time in my life, I'm taking refuge and refreshing in Hawaii.

This is the first time that I've come twice in one calendar year.  Note to self -- It doesn't suck to return to HNL in the same year, turns out there's more than enough good stuff here to support enjoyment on two separate trips.

Sunsets over the ocean never get old.

So, we arrived on Saturday night and Sunday AM, I headed out for my "typical" Waikiki run around Diamond Head.  In case I haven't been clear, with the toe, ankle sprains, food excess, etc -- I'm in serious need of some fitness work.  But I forced myself to do the hot, hilly, humid loop (I did 4 X 1 mile intervals with 0.1 mile walk/water recovery and then let myself walk the last mile or so back to the hotel).  Victory!

First vacation meal was Hawaiian Pork nachos at Duke's with a margarita.  It's a tradition.  Also, I'm going to have Kalua Pork nachos at some point in every Hawaii trip, so I might as well own it and do it as the first thing.

Have I mentioned E & I are suckers for rotating restaurants?

Dinner that night was a couple of glasses of wine in the rotating restaurant watching the sun set followed by a nice light selection of hand-made musubi, plus some delicious treats from the ABC store on our hotel balcony.  I must say, one of the best things about traveling with your best friend is that you agree on what makes sense, even if it's odd meals, like standing in line for 45 minutes in the dark with a bunch of Japanese people for made-to-order Musubi in a plastic bag.  Seriously, warm, hand-made seaweed wrapped rice triangles made to order, this place was awesome.
 

 
The next day we headed out to hike the Koko Crater Railway Trail.  You know, the same one POTUS and FLOTUS hiked a few days ago (I'd researched it and planned to do it *before* they did it, of course).

View from the bottom of the trek.

This was the best selfie we could do in the glare.

3/4 of the way up

 I totally started using my arms to push my legs down for a more full body workout at this point, just like the guy above...

Keyhole view from the bunker at the top.

View from the top of Koko Crater -- gorgeous!  (Diamond head in the distance)

1,048 steps up and down, plus an additional mile walk to lunch destroyed my quads.  Today's Diamond Head loop was an average pace of 13:43 per mile.  Yikes.  But I got it done, and we've been averaging 7 miles per day between running, hiking and just walking, so I'm trying to enjoy the activity level and just assume it'll all translate into heat training, hill training, humidity training, and general goodness when I get back home.

In other news, last week's total mileage was 26.42 (including walking and hiking, as always), which puts it as the highest mileage week since September...  so that's something.

Happy almost New Year!

Christmas Eve... Content

Two days ago, E drove through the crazy traffic and storms to ensure that we could be in my hometown for our family's early celebration of the Christmas holidays.  We have a complex family tree on my side, so we do the early big meal with group blessing followed by presents and stockings to ensure that those of us who can be local for a celebration may avoid conflicts with other family members who may want to claim the actual holiday for themselves.

Sunset view on the drive, almost to my childhood hometown.  Such a different sky than the bay area can offer.

After the drive, we spent the night with a 25Y+ friend, went out to dinner, caught up, and the next AM, she and I did a 6ish mile run together.  She was so much more fit than me... I felt so grateful for her waiting for me and holding herself back to allow both of us to enjoy the joint workout -- talk about a Christmas spirit of giving!  She was even kind enough to wait for me while I had to use a construction port-a-john.  For the finale, the last .6 miles, she ran uphill hard (Sierra Nevada Foothills are no joke), easily putting distance between us with every step to solidly close out her workout, while I walked, doing my best to jog every 1/10th of a mile or so, totally wasted from the hills on the loop (have I mentioned I lost quite a bit of fitness over the last several months?).  It's hard to explain how much I enjoyed all of this -- the shared dinner, wine, evening, workout conversation, and recovery.  True friend moments like these are so precious, few, and unique.

From her house, we headed to my brother's.  We picked up lunch and lounged through a pre-family-big-Christmas-meal snack at his place with my niece before heading to my mother's for our Christmas celebration.

We had too many presents (but that's fun, right?).  My mom asked my niece if she had any idea who had sent 2 John Green books and some coloring books, pencils and sharpeners to my mom's, saying, "It's really weird, they are addressed to me, but I think they were meant for you."

My niece replied, "Well, they were all on my Christmas wish list, so I think someone knew what they were doing..."

At which point, my mom, sheepishly said, "Oh, I should probably check my Amazon.  I probably ordered them for you off your list..."

No harm, no foul, though.  Niece got double presents from grandma, so all is well.

E & I went to bed at 11:30 and I slept 'til 9, he slept 'til 11 AM today.  Amazing -- longest night of sleep for both of us in ages.  After an easy 3 miler, we headed to Beach Hut Deli for lunch, where I silently toasted Dad with my beer and wished him and all of his heavenly cronies a Merry Christmas.

From there, we drove to Santa Rosa, taking highway 37, which was so picturesque I regret not taking photos.  We shared a loud and celebratory Christmas Eve dinner with my dad's sisters, my uncle and my cousins, and tomorrow AM we're returning for aebelskivers.

If all goes well, I'll win the text war I've got with my brother to send Xmas wishes out at midnight first (and if I lose, I'll still be second, 'cause mom and sis don't even know there's a contest).  From there, it's off to bed, and up for a run before brunch with the family (and hopefully a videocall with my sis and her kids) followed by a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge home.

All in all, I couldn't be happier with my stereotypically Californian Christmas celebration.

Oh What Fun...

It's been a celebratory couple of weeks.

Twilight During The Holidays in SF -- So Festive.

In the last 14 days, I've attended 7 holiday parties.  Each and every one of them was great and something I'm very pleased I did.  I met new people and people I'd only known virtually.  I had fun and enjoyable conversations.  Good food, wine, and hugs.

About 50% of the parties were professionally related (fun, but also a kind of exhausting and hard work), whereas the other half were purely social (less exhausting, but if you're me and bad at names, still a type of hard work).

So, yikes, am I burnt out.

See, I'm already fairly deep in the throes of  my 10th straight year of practicing law without any significant break.  And even without the 10 year whine, when you take normal end-of-year legal work stress, add large social obligations (often multiple events on multiple consecutive days), and insist that all the regular life stuff keeps chugging along as well?  What you get is a fried BT.

Two weekends ago, on Sunday, it was very stormy.  I'd put in an 18 mile week, half running, half walking, and I really wanted to get fit in one last run since my ankle seemed to be holding up.  So, I went to my gym.

Or, where my gym used to be.

Turns out, my gym closed on November 1st (and I'd been traveling so much this fall that I hadn't been there to see the announcements, assuming there were some).  They also charged me the annual renewal fee on November 23rd, which I found particularly cheeky.  My treadmill in the garage had died about 6 months ago, so that option was out.  And the storm was too windy and rainy to make running outside a reasonable option.

So, I took the hint that life did not want me to run, and E and I went out for delicious pho instead.  Last week was slightly better on the running front.  While Christmas shopping, I bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 620 to replace my very dead 310XT.  I expected to be annoyed by something because every time I've tried one of the smaller Garmins in the past, I can't believe the design choices they've made, but so far, I've been very pleased. 

Saturday, for my own virtual jingle bell hell, I headed out for run/jog/walk intervals totaling 6.04 miles and averaging 13 minutes/mile.  One of the walk breaks was longer than expected because the treadmill outlet called me back -- yahoo, I've got a replacement treadmill scheduled for delivery tomorrow.  This is a good thing since I no longer have a gym, and I'm signed up for a 15K in 3 weeks.  This is possibly the worst-prepared I've ever been for any long(ish) run.  The longest run I've done without a break since July is 6 miles (2 weeks ago, with the local running club).  The good news is, the ankle seems fine, so I *should* be able to work my way up to 9 miles over the next 3 weeks so long as I can find some time in between all of the holiday festivities.
   

A Tale of 2 Soups

Sunday night of last week, I made soup number 4 for the season.  A tomato-lentil option that was almost identical to the delicious lentil soup from last week, except with canned garden tomato purée subbed for some of the broth and less added lemon and vinegar due to the acidity of the tomatoes (and, of course, since I'm spicing as I finish the soup, no doubt it ended up differently).  Overall, delicious.

We have one serving left, and it was slated for tonight, but then I took the spare time in my day today to make a new soup and it smelled so delicious that the last of the lentils will have to wait for tomorrow night.  Such is the conflict of plentitude in homemade soup season.

Today's soup was a modification of a bunch various recipes I read about mung beans, and in particular, preparations involving coconut milk.  E & I are very happy with the result (recipe below), so much so that I tried to take several photos after we'd lost most of the day's natural light to celebrate the awesome outcome.

Post last seasoning taste, cooling on the stove, delicious (not well lit)

Ingredients:

4 T high heat oil (I use safflower oil)
1 T cumin seeds (I may consider increasing to 1.5T next time)
2 T mustard seeds (I think I'd go for 1 T next time)

3-4 T of garlic powder (I'm not proud of this, but I ran out of garlic)
2 minced hungarian hot peppers from the garden (sub 2-3 minced peppers of your chosen heat, be ready to turn hood/fan on high to minimize capsaicin smoke)

3 C preserved tomato puree from the garden (sub 1 Q canned stewed tomatoes or lightly cooked down sauce with water)

2 T ginger powder
2 T ground coriander
1 T mustard powder (optional, didn't seem to add to the flavor much)
1 tsp turmeric
1+ tsp sea salt

2 C mung beans


4-6 cups water (depends on your preference of soupiness)

1 can coconut milk
Juice of 1-2 limes (or 1/4 cup lime juice)
1 C chopped fresh greens (I used arugula, 'cause it's what I had, apparently cilantro is traditional -- use less, or spinach or kale will work too)

On the kitchen table, under LED lighting.  Too much reflection.

Perhaps my favorite part about this recipe is step one:

1. Heat the oil 'til boiling and brown the cumin seeds (which crackle) and mustard seeds (which pop, like little tiny popcorn) as the first step for 1 minute.  Turn down to low.  Super aromatic and fun.  If you love cumin (like I do) you will find that the roasted cumin seed flavor that cooks into this soup is amazing.

2. Add minced onion and peppers and garlic powder (or 9 mashed cloves, which I really would have preferred to do, I just found myself without fresh garlic for once).  Cook down on low/medium for 1-2 minutes.  Add tomatoes and all spices.  Bring to a boil and then turn down to low and cook for 5 minutes.
 

Outside, soup's done, on the cover of the BBQ, black background and fading natural light.

3.  Add 2+ C of mung beans and water.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and turn down to a simmer.  Set timer for 30 minutes and stir 2+ times during that period.  Check for doneness.  If not done, add more water, 15 more minutes on low.  When mung beans are just past al dente, you are ready to finalize the soup.

4.  Turn off heat.  Add coconut milk, chopped greens, lime juice according to what you think you'd like and taste.  Stir more.  Add salt, sugar, lime juice and cayenne until the flavor is perfect.  Spoon it out into a bowl and try to take pictures.  Fail miserably when the bowl is overturned onto the ground, giving you an excellent opportunity to show the true texture of the final product. 

Perhaps the best photo to show texture, after the bowl fell off the BBQ cover and spilled all over the ground.

Enjoy warm.

Back On My Feet

My ankle is still a little sore.  But I did 4+ miles on the trails on Saturday (with a group of lovely bay area running buddies) and 6 running with the local running group on Sunday.  So, I finished the week with 21.28 miles total and a feeling like I can actually start building up my mileage with a goal of doing some early 2016 racing.

Totally worth the long drive to run in this beautiful setting.

Meeting up with the runners who did the full loop on our out and back.

All of us.

Other than that, not too much to report.  It was a gloriously lazy easy week at home.  I made a gigantic lasagna on Sunday afternoon and will likely be eating off of it for most of the week.  It had been years since I'd done the multi-hour effort that is making a proper bolognese sauce from scratch and layering it with ricotta and greens and lasagna noodles and cheese.  I even made a spare smaller lasagna that I gave to our across the street neighbors -- they were so happy (they have a 1 year old, they didn't have food for dinner on Sunday night, and one of the couple will be traveling this week, leaving the other as a single parent who can dine on leftovers).  This week's soup option?  Assuming we actually finish the lasagna, I'm going to try to experiment with a tomato lentil soup.

Soup #3, and Still Healing

Soup #3 is one of my default go-to options:  Lentil Soup.
 

Yellow Lentil Soup

Course 2: The last cherry tomatoes & sauteed shishitos from the garden.

Lentil Soup Recipe:

1 cup chopped onions (I used red 'cause I had one half cut, but ordinarily, I'd use yellow)
4 cloves garlic
1 chile
1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup yellow lentils
6 cups water/broth

(1 Cup leftover roasted carrot soup)

cumin (2 T?)
turmeric (1 T?)
lemon juice (1/4 C?)
white vinegar (splash)


1. Sautee first group of ingredients 'til onions are translucent, stirring constantly.

2. Add 2nd group of ingredients, stir, bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer, cover with a lid, and set kitchen timer for 35 minutes.

3. At 35 minutes, taste.  If more cooking time could be used, add time and continue to simmer, otherwise, move to step 4 after turning off the heat.

4. Blend all ingredients with a stick blender until smooth.  Taste.  Add leftover soup if you are planning to add it and re-puree.  Taste.

5. Based on taste test from #4, add ingredients from last group to taste.

6. Let soup cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm.  Enjoy!


On the workout front, the ankle is slowly but surely healing.  Last week the mileage totaled 16.76 including a very exciting 3.06 miles of jog/walking with my sister-in-law.  I can jog.  My ankle can handle the load.  I can't jump without extreme pain (thanks to tabatas, I know this), and I'm apprehensive on uneven terrain -- so we'll see where I end up with the planned 8 mile trail run with the bay area running folks this weekend...

Today, starting a new week where I  have 75% mobility, I did 3 tabata workouts, with the jumping modified (because my ankle still can't jump).  I also did 15 minutes on the elliptical on level 9 (1.06 miles) and 15 minutes on the treadmill including 2 X 0.25 @ 10 min/mile 2% incline with incline walking heartrate recovery.  Overall, the workout felt like a good effort, and I feel comfortable that I'm headed in the right direction.  The next big test will be yoga... Wish me luck.