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Just a quick blog update - we went running up at the Dunes this morning.

It was pretty chilly - about 24 degrees and a little breeze. It was Bill, Jim, Rachel and me - and Lola, Jim's Golden Retriever.

We headed out through the foresty part toward the ridge. Jim, Lola, and Bill stayed on the forest trail, and Rachel and I headed up the steep sand dune to the ridge - going from west to east in a clockwise direction. We would meet up with Bill and Jim at some point.

It was such a beautiful morning - the air was so clear, and with all the leaves down, you could see way across the forest to the other trails and beyond.

So we trotted along, and I did have to just hike up the steep sand dune, but that is more strenuous than running. Picked up the trot again - Rachel was a little faster, so she moved on ahead of me a little ways, but I just kept jogging along. I did stop twice for a couple of seconds - once because the view out across Lake Michigan was just stunningly beautiful, and once to see that there were a whole bunch of geese at the water's edge.

So I jogged along, lost in thought, in the moment, in the beauty...... and after a while I realized I had run TO the ridge, was running the entire ridge (the downhills AND the uphills!), and I started thinking maybe, just MAYBE, this would be the day I could run the whole way!

We did meet up with Bill and Jim at the east end of the ridge, and headed back through the forest. I told Bill I thought I was going to be able to run the whole way for the first time!

I always think, at that point, that we are probably almost to the parking lot, but NO - it is always so much farther than I have anticipated. But since I had set my sights on the goal, and I knew that I could do it ("I CAN do it" - right Christa and Jo? haha!) I just kept chugging along.

Now the truth is that my legs were a little tired, but I made it! YAY!!!

Here is a great saying I wish I had never thought of (not really! haha!):

The goal achieved becomes the new standard.

So that would mean, now that I have done it, running the whole way every time has to be my standard. But I think I will just put that little thought in my pocket (thank you for that idea, Rachel) to pull out and motivate me when I think I can or should do it, but I won't abandon the other runs that include however much walking and socializing I want to do along the way.

AND - today is Rachel's 25th birthday! Happy Birthday, Rachel! I had brought some cookies to share with everyone anyway (thanks, Waddie! they loved them!), and then I took Rachel out for coffee. It was supposed to have been a "Merry Christmas" coffee, but got to be a "Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas" coffee! Spending time with Rachel was a gift for me, too!

Now back to the real world of errands and WalMart.

Give yourself the gift of setting an achievable goal and reaching it every day!

Jan

Yes! We went to Florence! It was truly more than we expected, and with no mishaps - it couldn't have been a more wonderful trip!

Sept. 22 - depart Chicago for Munich.

Sept. 23 - depart Munich for Florence. We arrived in the early evening and took a taxi to our hotel. It is on the third floor of a building, with probably a total of 15 rooms. We got the best room! The large window looks out at the beautiful dome of the Cathedral and the tall Campanile (freestanding carillon) to the right! What a view! We could even see it at night, since it is all lighted up.

We did our "anti-jetlag" routine. We found a park very nearby, took off our shoes, and stood barefoot on the earth with our hands on our heads for about a minute. Honestly, while we did wake up in the middle of the night a couple of times, we had NO jetlag!

Sept. 24 - we caught the city bus to the Piazzale Michelangelo. It is across the river from the main part of Florence and is up on a hill. From there you look out over the Arno River and have a fantastic panoramic view of all of Florence! There is a bronze duplicate of Michelangelo's famous "David" scuplture there, and some wonderful vendors.

From there we went up to a very old church, San Salvatore, which supposedly was Michelangelo's favorite church - his "pretty country lass." Near it is the ornate church of San Miniato. There were about 6 monks praying in Gregorian chant down in a chapel in the crypt area. What a thrill!

After that we had lunch and then made our way down a LOT of steps to the Ponte Vecchio. It is mainly jewelers and tons of tourists. We were really tired when we got back to our hotel, but found a little grocery store across the street and got items for a little dinner in our room.

We are amazed at the crush of humanity - so many people, cars, bikes, things, on such very narrow streets and sidewalks! How anyone survives living there, I'll never know. We took this advice to heart, though: either walk OR look, but don't do both at the same time!

Sept. 25 - First stop was the Uffizi Gallery. We had prepurchased tickets so that we could go right in at 11 - good thing. There was a long line of people just waiting to buy tickets. There was SO much to see - so many treasures. Mostly paintings, but also some sculptures. It is so amazing to see such famous works of art (The Birth of Venus, The Three Muses, for example) up close! It was there a man who reminded me SO much of Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek warned us that sitting down to drink coffee would cost more than standing up to drink it. Imagine! And that wasn't the only place we ran into that!

From there we went to the church of Santa Croce where Michelangelo and Machiavelli are buried. It is very ornate and beautiful inside. I had to wear a paper poncho, since I was wearing shorts, which are a no-no in some churches in Europe. After that we went to the church of Santa Maria Novella. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to keep the paper poncho, and wasn't allowed inside SMN. We were allowed to go in a little prayer chapel, though, so we did stop in to pray.

Sept. 26 - we went to the Medici Chapel, which is part of the church of San Lorenzo. The church is amazing - the interior walls are all marble inlay - the most intricate patterns made out of different colors of marble. There were also items on display made of incredible wood inlay. The famous Michelangelo sculptures of Dusk and Dawn and Night and Day are in the Medici Chapel. It was great to see them in person! There was also a Pieta - though not the very famous one that is in the Vatican. Mary looks just like Paul Newman!

We did a little shopping in the market around San Lorenzo, and had lunch there.

Sept 27 - Johanna arrived at about 6:30 a.m. from Vienna! It was so good to see her! Since it was Sunday, that was our day to explore the Duomo (Cathedral), Baptistery, and Campanile. We attended a service in the Duomo. We followed along as well as we could, then met the organist afterwards. Wow - does that space have good acoustics! We counted about 14 seconds of reverberation (it was empty of tourists during the morning services).

After that, Johanna and I climbed up the 414 stairs of the Campanile. It was a VERY narrow, winding stairway - so narrow in some places that either the people going up or down had to stand flat against the wall so the others could pass! It was worth it, though! We had a fantastic view all around the city and surrounding countryside. Strangely enough, you can't see any bells when you go up! I don't know where they are, but they aren't where you can see them up close!

We had lunch and then went in to the Baptistery. This is a separate building, but all the Florentine families bring (or at least in the past brought) their babies to be baptized. It is simply unbelievable. It is an octagonal shape, and the floor is covered in inlaid marble - beautiful, complex patterns. And the ceiling is just indescribable. It is all mosaic - much of it gold. There are so many different panels and stories from the Bible represented there, you could spend a week just studying the ceiling.

After that we went to the Boboli Gardens. It was nice, but we never did see the "Dwarf on the Turtle" sculpture. We did see a wonderfully fat cat, though!

Sept. 28 - we took the regional bus to the medieval town of San Gimignano. The simple truth is that it IS a huge tourist area, but it was totally worth it to go! It was fantastic! This was a very prosperous town in medieval times - politically strong and on a pilgrimage route. But then it lost its political status and, due to the Black Death (Bubonic plague), the pilgrim traffic stopped. It fell into dire poverty for hundreds of years. This has turned out to be a blessing, though, since they never had enough money to "improve" the town, so it really is much as it was. They have updated the water and electricity, and there are wonderful shops and restaurants. And people still live there, too! And what a wonderful view across the hills of Tuscany! While there, we went into the church, and it was such a surprise! We thought it might not be anything very special, but the walls were covered in frescoes - all New Testament on one side, and Old Testament on the other. Believe me, anyone who went to church regularly there knew their Bible stories - and lived in fear of doing anything wrong! They were very graphic! We also had gelato at the place that has won the world championship title for gelato-makers for three years. Yes - it WAS the most delicious ice cream I have ever eaten!

Sept. 29 - time to go to the big sculpture museums! First we went to the Bargello, which had been used as a horrible prison. There are unbelievable treasures there - lots of works by Donatello, and some Michelangelo. Again, they are just sitting out there in the room! Seriously - you can get within an eyelash to these famous works of art. You COULD touch them, but you had better not! One of our favorites was a sculpture of a little boy with a fish.

THEN......drum roll, please.....the Academy. Yes, the place where the REAL David stands. That is truly a life-changing event. You first go into a side room, where there are some really fantastic works. Then you walk out into a long hall, look to the right, and there he is. This 14' 8' white marble sculpture of David dominates the entire end of the room. It's just unbelievable. There is a rail around it so you can't get super close, but you can get close enough to study the unbelievable detail - and how it is possible to do that in marble, I will never know. It is so realistic, you really expect to see a pulse, or hear a breath. This is in the moments before David flings the stone that kills Goliath, and the expression of focus and determination, calm confidence (in the Lord, of course) is simply impossible to describe.

Sept. 30 - we spent the morning relaxing with Johanna, since she was getting a 4 p.m. train to Lucerne. At about 1, we waved farewell to her from the train that was taking us to Pisa. Now, here again is a major tourist site, but I am SO glad we went! Man! That tower is REALLY leaning over! It is really a shock to see it right there in front of your eyes! The church there is beautiful, too, and there is a Baptistery, just as in Florence, but we didn't go inside. We had great fun making pictures and videos.

Oct. 1 - time to head home. Our trip back was easy, and Wolf picked us up at the airport. It was good to be home, but we are realizing more every day, as we savor the memories of Florence, that a trip like that is truly life-changing. You sense of history, of art, of culture, of people, is expanded beyond what you thought possible. And that is from just one tiny spot on the globe. I believe, though, that there is nowhere else in the world with such an intense concentration of treasures as in Florence. If you have a week and want to dive headfirst into the world of Renaissance art and architecture - Florence is the place to do it.

My advice to you? Make it happen! There must be a place you feel you must see - GO! Make the time, and just save up the money and GO! You will never regret spending one penny on a trip like that! You will have a lifetime of memories and a trip of a lifetime!

To see the photo album, click on the word "Photo" above the title of the blog, and look at the Florence album.

Yes! This was a day of FIRSTS!

I did, I did, I did "get" FIRST place in my age group at the Michigan City Triathlon this morning! I am so excited!

Now before anyone suggests I quit my day job and go professional, you should know that I was also the ONLY one in my age group! Haha! But, hey! I'll take it any way I can get it! None of those fast ladies my age thought it was worth their while to show up, so it's their loss!

It was a day of several other FIRSTS, though.

It was going to be my FIRST triathlon where the swim was in Lake Michigan, and my FIRST tri swim in a wetsuit.

BUT, it turned into my FIRST duathlon! A triathlon includes three disciplines - swim, bike, run. But there are also duathlons - run, bike, run.

The wind blasting down Lake Michigan was really something. Shoot! We could have had a surfing contest instead! So they canceled the swim, and had us run one mile first, then do the bike and run portions.

And this was my FIRST triathlon in Michigan City. I think it's a nice venue, and a lot of people prefer not to swim in Lake Michigan, but I would have. It was a little disorganized, but will probably be better next year.

We got lots of fun things in the goodie bag - a towel, lip balm, etc. - and everyone got a medal for finishing.

And it was probably the coldest triathlon I have done. My goodness! It was so cold and windy! Well after I finished, I heard we were "up" to 60 degrees.

This was also my FIRST triathlon where they were running both a sprint distance (mine) and an Olympic distance triathlon at the same time. That was interesting, but made it a long morning in the cold wind.

I was SO close to NOT doing this race. I did something to my left leg on Tuesday, and it was really hurting all week. So combine that with the forecast of possible rip currents in the lake, possible "lake effect" rain showers, cold air and water temperatures (coldest Lake Michigan temps in five years - a balmy 60 degrees!), not being experienced with swimming in a wetsuit, and the fact that the darned race started at 7 a.m. and I really almost just stayed home. AND the extremely remote possibility - like near impossibility - that I would EVER even be in the top three finishers in my age group

Anyway, it just goes to show - whatever you decide to do in life - give it a shot! Don't let possible challenges make you back down. Don't just stay home! You just NEVER know when it will be YOUR day to finish FIRST!

And again I have to say how greatly blessed I am that I am able to do these races. It's a gift from God I don't take for granted.

Jan

Well, we HAVE been busy since the trip to Chicago!

Let's see - first we drove to Minnapolis on Wednesday, July 23. We took some important parts of our wind turbine to the expert up there. These were the parts we thought were NOT broken, but Wolf wanted to be sure before we put the thing up again. Sure enough - both parts needed work!

We also took some of Christa's things, since we had room in the truck. Boy, was that fun.....ALL those miles in the 1996 Mazda truck....

We had a GREAT time in MN, as always, with our friends, Martha and Chris. Chris teaches biology, so over the summer takes care of the pair of finches that are normally in her room. Martha had just put a little "nest" in there - a very large cup - and some nesting materials. Wolf added some fern fronds. Those little birds went nuts! AND, there was even a little egg in the nest when we left! Last we heard, there were three!

We drove from MN to Omaha, where Wolf played a recital. It was very well attended, and a great recital! We also reconnected with a friend from Evanston days, Ken Kielniarz. His first wife, Marilyn, was a student in Wolf's first class at Northwestern. She passed away a couple of years ago, unfortunately. Such a loss! We are happy to report, though, that Ken has just remarried and is very happy.

Last Thursday was my birthday. Fifty-five! Yikes! Where do the years go??? I had a great day! Took a vacation day, but invited my coworkers over for lunch. They are a great group of gals, and I really enjoyed having them over. Wolf had brought me the beautiful roses you can see in the photo album, Late July 2009.

My mom invited us over for a delicious deviled crab dinner on Friday, and gave me the wonderful set of bowls, also in the photo album. The Japanese scissors are from Johanna - they are just like Mother's but she got them at my favorite hardware store in the WHOLE world - McGuckin's in Boulder, CO.

Today was the LaPorte Triathlon. I love that race - it is such a pretty park and lake, and is so well organized. My time wasn't too bad, though I still came in fifth - out of FIVE in my age group! Sheesh! Where do these fast ladies come from??? But it was a good race - I enjoyed it!

Wolf was there and made a short video, too, if you're interested in watching it....


http://www.4shared.com/file/122237037/34d28705/La_Porte.html

http://www.4shared.com/file/122237037/34d28705/La_Porte.html

Well, have a great day, and go do something you enjoy! It will keep you young!

Jan

We are having a great time here "on the farm" with Christa and Isaac!

Wolf just got in today, VERY jetlagged, after leaving Saarbruecken early on Thursday morning, playing a recital on Friday in Hamburg, taking a night train, and then flying here today.

Anyway - here are some pictures! All they need now is a pitchfork, and we'll have a famous portrait made!

If you want to see the images full screen, click the word "Photos" above the title of this post, and then click on the "Christa and Isaac" photo album.

Jan