I'm Going to Whine a Bit Here...

I was at my favorite Sumner restaurant last month with James and I partook of their $5 wine tasting they have on Wednesday nights, or was it a Thursday nights, I forget.  Sorci's is a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant that has great food.  The owner is a wine afficianado and loves to have wine tastings and actually has a huge collection to select from, considering the tiny size of the place.  So this particular Wednesday, or Thursday, his offering was from his sweeter wine selections.  I love sweet wines, so this particular tasting was a go for me.

It was a lovely evening sitting at their antique marble bar (their other 5 tables were full, so we had to sit at the bar that night) enjoying our food and my sweet little tastings. While waiting for our food, I started reading some of the descriptions of the wines that were laying around in various holders there on the bar.  One hit me as particularly hilarious.  I dug in my purse and grabbed my business card and started scribbling the notation down so I would have it for later blogging.  I couldn't pass up the description for the 2007 Catena Malbec.

A sleek, polished style, with alluring mocha and raspberry ganache notes leading the way, backed by dark plum, hoisin sauce and graphite flavors that push through the finish. This has serious weight, but stays focused and driven.  (I didn't make up this punctuation - truly.)

What in the heck does that mean?!!??  Graphite?  Hoisin sauce?  I'm thinking that the vintners were sipping a little too much of the product before creating their little wine-blurb.  Answer me this: how does a wine stay focused and driven?  What does graphite taste like?  Did they throw in some pencils and left over sauce from their lunchtime chinese takeout?

It got me thinking about other descriptors and decided to go do some research.  Here are a few of my favorites that I found off of the Wine Library web site.

2006 Perrin Christins Vacqueyras - Very racy, with lots of red and black currant fruit backed by a great graphite spine. Offers nice hints of licorice, spice and iron on the finish.  Iron?  Graphite spine?

2008 Keller Klaus Westhofen Kirchspiel Riesling Trocken - ...On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very, very pure and seamless, with a rock solid core of fruit, bright acids, superb focus and a classic shape on the very long, racy and laser-like finish. Just a superb bottle in the making.

2005 L'arlot Les Suchots Vosne Romanee - Deep, bright red. Sexy aromas and flavors of bitter cherry, redcurrant, minerals, cocoa powder and flowers. Lush and sweet, with a texture of liquid velvet. Boasts wonderful subtle depth and explosive inner-mouth perfume. A wine of great class and finesse, but also has the strength for a brilliant evolution in bottle. This stains the palate with perfume in a way that just about no pinot made outside Burgundy can imitate.  My palate will be stained; oh dear. I wonder if that will ruin me for other wines in the future; though I would like to find out what liquid velvet tastes like.

2006 Chateau Pape Clement - The dense purple-colored 2006 boasts an extraordinary perfume of lead pencil shavings, creme de cassis, burning embers, and a sensation that can only be described as like walking through a damp forest on a hot, humid day...  Lead pencil shavings?  Burning embers?  Oh,  the walk through the forest sounds nice, unless of course, you're near a marsh with skunk cabbage, or you are in close proximity of some rutting elk; then not so much.

I'm sure there's some wine afficiando out there somewhere who could tell me that some of these words are really important.  There is probably some secret de-coder ring that other wine nuts know about, telling one exactly what to expect from the wine.  But hey, I'm not a wine afficiando.  They sound just plain weird to me.

Everything Hurts

In my inpatient quest to be fit, I've taken up running.  I hurt.  Every muscle, ligament, and bone from my waist down is in some kind of trauma.  My feet hurt (no surprise there).  The small of my back hurts - what's with that?  My left knee twinges every time I put weight on it; and my legs are sore and feel like they weight 100 lbs each (maybe they do?).

Running so far, feels like a love/hate kind of exercise.  Exercise in general is love/hate, but this seems more than normal.  I keep dreaming about the day, months out, when I am trim and vigorous and can run several miles without a second thought.  This is what keeps me going.

I also found a group on Facebook, called Couch-to-5K or C25K that has links to a site: http://www.coolrunning.com/ where there is loads of info for runners; new runners in particular.  The Facebook site has been great with people starting out just like me that can offer support and agonize with me.  Pretty cool.

Today during my run, I was listening to my iTouch and a song "I am free to Run" popped on.  In a word: perfect.

Springing into Action

I'm more focused now than I probably have been in...well forever.  At least about fitness and health.  Oh, I worked out plenty in my younger years, but I sure wasn't as motivated as I am now.  Back then it was about being slender and also about the "me" time I could carve out.  Now it is about staying cancer free and active so I can run, jump, and play with my kids and grandkids.  I want to be full of vitality and not, as I see so many around me, too tired out to engage in anything after a long days work.

My stint with cancer which culminated in 6 weeks of tiresome radiaton and then immediately going into 6 weeks lolly-gaggin' around the house with pins in my feet meant that I had gained weight (again).  Within just a few days of having the pins out, I painfully began the walking again, determined to get fit.  I had been doing quite well prior to the surgery, but 6 weeks off my feet meant it was slow going for a while.  Well it is now 6 weeks later and I can pretty much walk as many miles as before.  I have even started to run a little.  I can't run far, mostly because my lungs start burning and my legs get heavy, but each week I know I'll do better.  The weight coming back off has been slow; or at least it feels slow.  But I now I just have to be patient, eat right and keep active and it will slowly come off.  I am determined.

I tried golf again the other day.  I hadn't done that in years.  Even when I did, I stuck mostly with the driving range, getting pretty intimidated when golfing with anyone since it took me a gazillion shots just to make it to the the par 3 hole, the one time I did play on a course.  Well, maybe I'll try again. We'll see.  I noticed that it worked out my midriff muscles pretty good.  I like that idea better than doing sit ups. :)

I am very excited about my upcoming trip in August/September to Europe.  The last time I went was in 2008 with James.  We visited Romania (spent a week helping with some orphanages) then on to fun in Istanbul, Kusadasi (near the Ephesus ruins), Greek Islands, and finally Athens.  This trip will start in Paris, then move to Venice where we'll say goodbye to a couple traveling wtih us (Jackie and Dale).  James and I will move on to the South of France to see Nice, Cannes, Monaco, and the Provence region.  We meet up again with Jackie and Dale in Barcelona, after they get off their cruise ship, and then head on down to the south of Spain to see Granada, Malaga, Gibraltar, Tarifa, and a day trip to Tangiers, Morocco.  All-in-all, a 3 week trip that is sure to be warm, beautiful, full of history and architecture: everything James and I love about traveling.

I have most of our hotel reservations done, the main flights to/from Europe booked, and the only thing that remains are rental car, one hotel, and then some smaller flights and trains between the cities. We typically walk a LOT when we travel, so this getting in shape will be important so we can stay energetic throughout our trip.

I am focused.  I am driven.  I WILL be healthy.  Watch me.

I Have a Weak-End

I know sounds strange; but I got you to look, didn't I?  The weekend is here and I can't even begin to tell you how glad. 

Our IT organization is in the middle of a big re-org.  We're going through layoffs and many were in the management ranks this year.  So now it is the big shuffle (like they don't shuffle all year long for other reasons).  The good new is that I have a better manager.  Our group was suffering pretty badly with a new management recruit that wasn't working out well.  We now have a seasoned manager who seems to be very congenial and lets people hunker down and do their work without throwing wrenches into it every other hour.  It's only been two weeks, but so far, so good.  He's letting me finally do what I've been trained to do: be autonomous and run my projects. Love it.

I have the pleasure of having Judah spend the night with me.  At 1 1/2, he's a bundle of fun.  Ricky and Rosie (my son and daughter-in-law) are finally moving into their new home, so having the energetic toddler at Grandma's should be helpful.  His vocabulary is growing every day by leaps and bounds.  He's a blast to play with.  I also got my pretty Kayla for a few hours too.  She sure is beautiful at 6 months.  I love getting her to belly laugh.  What a joy.

I'm up to 2 miles walking!  Yeah.  I still can't run more than a few steps, bending my feet that much is still painful, but each day it gets better. I suspect I should be able to start in about 2 weeks.  That's my hope anyway.  I would like to wait until a little nice weather (though last week was awesome).

So, week-end: HERE I COME!

So Far So Good

Well 2010 started out challenging but is shaping up nicely, so far.  After subjecting myself to foot surgery only 3 days after finishing my last radiation treatment, I ended up being mostly sedentary until about 2 weeks ago.  I had pins in toes on BOTH feet. Ugh.  What was I thinking?  I couldn't drive, and could only hobble about for the entire six weeks wearing these dorky shoe/boots.  I was fortunate in that my work let me work from home that entire time.  I am very much a home-body, so it didn't bother me at first, but after about 3 weeks I was getting very antsy.

I only have two pairs of shoes I can wear so far, but I can walk.  Prior to my surgery, I was doing regular walks; averaging about 2 - 3 miles a day, 5 days a week.  I went from that to ZERO in a week.  I started up walking again only a few days after the pins were out.  I moved slow, but I started.  Each day I was able to hobble faster and faster.  Now I can go about 1.5 miles before my feet swell up such that my shoes get too tight.  In only about 15 days, I'm about 80%.  I am hoping to get the flexibility back so I can actually start running.  We'll see :)

I am determined to lose the pounds I gained sitting on my duff, so I'm consuming inordinate amounts of vegetables and very lean meats; very low fat, no carbs, and no sugars.  Hopefully the weight will come off OK. It sure does get harder the older one gets.  I'm determined to keep working on my eating habits and minimizing those that contribute to cancer (sugar is a big no-no).

Regarding the cancer?  Well, I have to go back in again in March and have a baseline mammogram.  I then visit my oncologist quarterly for this year and probably 1/2 yearly next year.  They'll do blood tests to make sure the cancer hasn't spread elsewhere and that I'm still good to go (I'm believing I'm going to be just fine). 

I can't express enough how much everyone's support, prayers, cards, phone calls, emails, and hugs have all meant.  I don't now how anyone could get through a cancer diagnosis, or any other debilitating disease, without the support of family and friends.  I met several while doing radiation - they had no one.  My heart goes out to them.

As a result of seeing those lonely souls, I determined to find a way to help them.  I don't know quite how I'll find the right vehicle to do that, but I'm going to be searching.  My first order of action, now that I can walk, is to contact the cancer center here where I was a patient.  I know there are several volunteer groups that work with cancer patients.  I hope to get that activity started within the next 60 days. (Goals are a good thing to have.)

Thank you everyone for listening to my fears and helping me through the struggle of last fall.  I couldn't have done it without you.

Love Tons,

Kat