Hiho, Hiho, It's off to work I go.....

This morning was cool, with the fog laying heavy down Tennessee Valley. As I looked out the streaked window, I decided it was also the perfect kind of day to walk to work. Since I have done this before, I knew the total miles would be over 6 to the office. If I survived I decided I would attempt the return as well. So when Glenn asked if I wanted to walk the dogs, I passed. I knew I would have plenty of walking ahead of me today. After all I am nursing a bum knee!

Over the past month I have develped a pretty sore right leg. The tendon that runs the outside edge of the leg I think could have been tweeked at Yoga or on a walk. Last week, I went for a massage and it felt a LOT better. But I also decided it might rise to the level of other treatment. Yesterday I went to accupuncture.

Marshall Tong had seen me 2 years ago for a bad back and after 3 treatments I was much improved. This is versus the 6 months of visiting the chiropractor last year! So I decided to see if he could help my leg.

It's a strange feeling having someone stick you with a dozen needles in your ear, even stranger when you notice the electrical charge of your nerves connecting through the needles. When Dr. Tong put in the last needle I about hit the ceiling, but it must have done some good, because here I was walking down the HILL from the neighbrhood heading out to the office.

See the speed meter.... I was walking and it read me! 4 mph


The egrets were busy in the wetlands along the path. You can tell they have their own territory. one would come near another and the feathers would bristle, letting the intruder know... this in MINE! I had borrowed this nifty camelback backpack I bought Glenn for our anniversary (ulterior motive revealed!) It has a bladder inside that you fill with water. It holds A LOT! and it helped me to remember to drink more. Water is never more important than when you are walking.

I made two short stops at the dog park and at the town center, and about 10 stops to stretch that leg of mine! Before I knew it I was at the office.

Working after walking must be pretty darn exicting for my co-workers. I am sure I smell abotu as inviting as the sewer plant I walked by! Thankfully I have a nice office, with a DOOR, so I don't think I bothered too many people.


I called Glenn and asked him to pick up his sweaty wife and take her to lunch. As much as I wanted to have a nice cold beer.... I stuck to ice tea.


I decided I had rested enough. Recharged the engines and was ready to head back home!

The way home had one or two more stretches than the way to the office. When I got back to Tam Valley I stopped at the Farmer's Market and grabbed a perfectly ripe nectarine. On the way UP the hill...(grrr) I stopped three times to talk with people. It made the climb much more enjoyable.
Meadowsweet Dairy - CM

Now I am sitting in the chair in the family room very aware that... I AM GLAD...I will be going back to see Dr. Tong tomorrow. The results? The pedometer reads 14.3 miles. It says I burned 959 calories... Time for that beer?

Horse hill ---- horse

We have been quite a few more RSVPs for WINE WARS! I am anxious to send out the real invitations! Don't forget to ask for yours, either by RSVPing to the evite, or sending me a note. Heck you can post here too if you'd like. And if you'd like to DONATE there is still time.

BTW - Dr. Tong saw me the day after and announced...No more walking more than 5 miles a day for 2 weeks! We'll see about that.

How far would you walk for a burger?

Sausalito to Ocean Beach

Patti and I had made a plan to try and get at least one walk into our weekend. She has been busy with producing an ad this week. I had gone to Stockton for the anniversary of Phi Rho. So it made sense to pick Sunday. My open house was scheduled for 2 pm, so we met for breakfast at 7am in Sausalito. A tutti fruitti pancake... good carbs for the walk ahead.

This weekend has been exceptionally warm everywhere. But near the bay and ocean it was just about as perfect as you can get. The temperature was in the mid 70's. The breeze coming from the ocean was a welcoming indulgence. Today there were many boats on the bay enjoying the warmer weather. When you sail in SF bay you can almost always count on a chilling experience. But today would have been the kind of day where you could be in a tank top and shorts.

Crossing the GG Bridge we saw we would have to be careful of the Golden Gate Triathlon. I had totally forgotten this was going on. My hairdresser Janette was participating in it, and had told me about it this past week. Normally the east side of the bridge is almost exclusively walkers, but today there were a ton of bikes too. The west side of the bridge had been closed for just the triathlon.

Heading into the Presidio Patti and I hugged the edge of the road to stay out of the way of the bikers competing in the biking leg of the tri. You know it isn't all that easy to walk on a big sloped road. All in all, we ended up avoiding any unpleasant accidents and passed into Sea Cliff unharmed.

Sea Cliff is a very exclusive part of SF. There are many homes with fantastic views of the bridge, ocean and Pt Reyes. This neighborhood is generally rather cool experiencing a lot of ocean breeze and fog. Homes here sell in the multi million dollar range.I am not 100% sure he still does, but Robin Williams did own a home here. We took a couple of pictures there - because we could! His drapes were all closed at the front of the home, looking a little yellowed for my taste! Patti had run this route before when she trained for the Hawaii Marathon. I have driven it many times. But walking in the neighborhood you had the time to enjoy the enclosed gardens, blooming roses and a little house envy. We were getting ready to turn up 34th street toward the Legion of Honor, but... I saw the coastal trail at Lands End and lobbied for another route. We headed down the trail that took us along the coast, looking over Mile Rock and the great view of the GG Bridge. There used to be a streetcar that ran along this ridge. You can imagine how many ships were lost along this rocky shore. People too have lost their lives, scaling the rocks that tower from the surf below to the city above. Glenn tells me there used to be a road here that fell during an earthquake in the 50s never to be re-built. There were quite a few people running, walking and enjoying the same path. The trail ended at the Sutro Baths. There were with quite a few stairs and some sandy patches along the way.

The Sutro Baths was a huge swimming compound at the water's edge. From the turn of the century until 1966, when it burned down while being demolished, San Franciscans came to enjoy the indoor pool. I know that Glenn's grandparents and his Mom had gone there when they were younger. Now all that remains are the ruins. You can only imagine the grand sight of the pools and people from days gone by. Patti and I walked down as far as we could to walk among the ruins, then climbed the hill to the Cliff house, where we called our hubbies asking them to join us at the Beach Chalet further down the beach for lunch.

It was hard to talk John, (Patti's husband) into coming. The soccer finals were about to be on TV...and being a British fellow, he felt obligated to watch his football. But they did come out and we rendezvoused at the Chalet. We enjoyed a great burger and fine view in this renovated Bath house/and former biker bar. The surfers were out at Ocean beach, dogs running wildly off leash in euphoric bliss while white skinned San Franciscans spread out on blankets catching the all too rare ocean side sun.

We killed some time and added some steps in Golden Gate Park.

What a fantastic way to kick off your day! Now I am typing this at a very quiet open house thinking how lucky I am to live in such a truly spectacular place, with great friends and a husband that will go anywhere with me if he can have a good burger and a beer at the end.

ON that note, for those of you coming to WINE WARS who do not drink wine... I promise to have some Marin brew for you, buzzless drinks too. The caterer just emailed me about her plans to spotlight those fine wines we will be featuring with appropriate food pairings. Be sure to let us know if you would like to come.

THEN regardless of WINE WARS, join our fight to end Breast Cancer by donating to one of the "Are We There Yet" team.

By the way, did you know this is a totem pole that marked the farthest south the Aleutian Indians traveled? Only a few of us do!

UOP Tri Delta 50 year anniversary

Jill and I went to the 50th anniversary of the Phi Rho chapter of Delta Delta Delta at UOP yesterday. It coincided with the University's homecoming, so there were people from all the houses, dorms and colleges there. The following photo's in no particular order, give you a sense for the day and evening. The event is still going on, but I had work to attend to, and Jill needed to get home as well, so we had to leave early.

We grabbed our key at our old dorm, Grace Covell, and headed to the house. The campus is much larger than when we attended here. At one point they merged the old Delta JC campus with UOP. A lot has changed since we were here. They decided to focus more on academics, and ended the football program. They have had an increasingly tougher hand in Greek life, banning keggers and as one person told me all buffoonery. Can you imagine college without buffoonery?! Come on! How could we have survived or become such outstanding people without RFs or Mother's Day races?

When we got to Tri Delta, the house looked somewhat the same on the outside. Inside there were quite a few changes. There used to be wallpaper (paisley) that we called sperm wallpaper... GONE now. The house looks quite beautiful. However, they did away with our sleeping porch, (the sight of many fun nights, shower raids and Phi Tau's taking their dates to the Fireman Fling via ladders. Apparently, the home is owned by the University and they consider the porch a fire hazard. Not to mention the sight of too much buffoonery!

Almost immediately when we opened the door we saw a couple of familiar faces in the TV room. Carol Sexton and Laurie McFarland were there with the hugest of hugs. Robin Page was there too who had done so much to organize the day. Wink sat on the sofa and although she was in a later class, gave us a warm smile. All of them were so excited to see us you would have though we were rock stars. It did my mid century self-image good! Then we saw Barb Colclasure. Barb and I both attended Stephens College in Columbia MO. (We actually met at a prospective student luncheon in Pleasanton). Later it was a surprise when our paths crossed again, not only by transferring to UOP, but when we ran across sorority circle on pledge day. I think we are destined to be friends.

When you are attending one of these events you cannot help but remember the crazy things that shaped us all. Some of these moments were fully of giddy delight, others, well, let's just say were not our finest moments. The one thing that rings so true is that all of these moments helped make us who were are today. At the time you are living the moment you are unaware of how very significant everything is...Then...one day when you come back, to revisit this past life, and you are greeted like a rock star and you know... how incredibly blessed you have been.

Barb, who is a heck of an interior designer is now the mover and shaker of the beautification of our old house. She also is happily married to Jerry Oliver (DU) living in Turlock. I have never seen her with such a HUGE self assured smile. It made me very glad!

Barb's husband Jerry at the cocktail party ....

Jill not happy they put her married name on her name badge!

I don't think anyone called me Cathy or Youngling the entire time. It was COLLIS!

Kelly Dennis Bovee.... My little sister. It was amazing to see her and pick up like it was yesterday. Barb, Kelly, Cindy Bava and Mary Eberhardt all say they are coming to our WINE WARS in August. It will be such an honor!

They also say they will meet us at the finish line during the 3 day in October! Yahoo!

L-R Robin, Barb and Bonnie

When I was at Tri Delta, I was the person who led the porch yells (during my tenure). Last night I did again ... slightly older ,,,ahem,,,,, but still with harmonies that were learnt from Madge Merwin. I have to say some of the older DDDs seemed rather impressed...or intimidated.

I can't decide which!

OHHHHHHHHHHH The Deltas!

There were glass mugs to celebrate the anniversary displayed on a table at the house. Inside the mug Barbara had placed a copy of my handwritten story that I wrote and read at Mom's Day way back when. I was really touched that anyone still had that. I am going to treasure it as it brings back some wonderful memories of my Mother, my sisters and those oh so magical days at UOP.

Bonnie

Laurie

Carol, Jill, Bonnie and me

Jill and Bonnie

After going back to the house and sharing a few stories we ran to grab a bite to eat. I honestly don't remember the name of the place now... but it used to be Lyons! I had a Macy's credit card of my Mom's back then, and they took that at Lyons. We had many a late night meal at Lyons courtesy of my Mom! Last night after too much wine... it felt vaguely familiar!

Then we climbed into bed..Jill in the top bunk and me on the lower. We had a prime room. Rm #1. Somehow I think.... I used to live in that room! The next mornign Jill made me a cup of coffee and we got ready for our walk.

I should have brought along the camera when Carol Jill and I went for a walk. 5 miles through the campus first, then, through beautiful old established neighborhoods. Big tree lined streets and small parks. Charming bungalows and a few large homes. It was HOT... We ended up at the new University Center and enjoyed its air conditioning, a coffee and a bite to eat. Then we headed back to the house, a shower and a couple of goodbye photos.

Somehow Jill and I were talked into organizing our 1975ish group of Tri Deltas for a reunion in approx 5 years. Jill already has ideas. What I am glad about is... we have had a change to reconnect with some really fantastic people. I am thrilled they are planning to come and cheer us on in the 3 day and come and have a gas at our WINE WARS! I don't think we will lose touch for so long again. I mean would you if you felt like a ROCK STAR!

HEY join my sisters in supporting us...Donate or ask for an invitation to WINE WARS!