Another Half Marathon!

Yes - that's right - I did it again this morning! I repeated my route from yesterday and completed another 13.1 miles. That's a full marathon, split into two parts over two days, and it's the first time I've ever done two consecutive runs of that distance.

I guess it was a little more challenging the second time around than the first, because it took me four minutes longer to complete it - 2 hours and 40 minutes today vs. 2 hours and 36 minutes yesterday. And I'm down another pound - which makes sense, since according to my Runkeeper app I've been burning about 1790+ calories per run at that distance, or almost 3600 over two days...and 3500 is what it takes to lose a pound.

Despite all the pounding, my legs and feet feel great, albeit well worked out, but I'm not going to push it any further at this time. I'm giving my running muscles a break tomorrow and am just going to take a bike ride before work. But I'm planning to resume running at the more sane level of three miles a day starting Tuesday and continuing over the next few days and am still well on my way towards earning those Margaritaville Volcano Nachos next weekend! :)

On second thought, I might just attempt another half-marathon next Saturday morning just to make sure...

Lin's Grand Buffet vs. The Half Marathon

Despite returning to work this past Wednesday, I was able to get right back on vacation for a couple of extra days and take Thursday and Friday off due to low work load. As Lynn also had the time off after returning from her recent trip to Michigan, we had the perfect opportunity last Thursday night to try out Lin's Grand China Buffet, which I recently discovered and mentioned in my October 7 post.

Wow! This place was fantastic, and we've now found a new best Chinese buffet in Phoenix. Even despite the fact that it doesn't serve crab legs, it's even better than our previous, now-closed favorite, the Great China Buffet. Unfortunately, as we live in Scottsdale and Lin's is just west of Tempe, it's quite a drive from our house - but it's still worth it. It has an equal or better food selection - and far better decor and ambiance - than Great China, at roughly the same reasonable price (about $26 for the two of us, including taxes and tip, but unfortunately not including the extra gasoline burned on the long drive). 

One aspect of this place that I really liked was that payment including tip may be made by credit card upon entry, so there's no waiting around for a check at the end of the meal, nor any feeling rushed by a check which arrives early.

And the food selection was fantastic! Every Chinese buffet item imaginable was available - fresh, excellently prepared, and well-stocked. There were even some NON-Chinese items available (this is the first time I've ever had enchiladas on a Chinese buffet). In addition to the familiar standbys such as beef with broccoli, egg drop soup, and sweet and sour chicken, I was able to sample some more exotic items including a whole baby octopus. (Reminiscent of the "Chinese Turkey" goose scene in the movie "A Christmas Story," it was smiling at me).

Lin's also features a Mongolian grill section as well as an excellent dessert selection including real soft-serve vanilla, chocolate and swirl ice creams, much better than the watered-down "ice milk" featured at some of our previous Chinese buffets. It was the perfect touch to settle our stomachs after an extended evening of serious eating.

Of course, I did make sure to burn off every one of those Oriental calories - and then some. I had already run 7.78 miles that morning, did 12.21 miles on the morning after - Friday, and then followed all that up with a half marathon - 13.1 miles - this morning. The net result? I won - I'm half a pound lighter now than before the buffet. Even better yet, I set a new personal lifetime record for most miles run in a single week - a whopping 67.7 - as well as a new personal lifetime record for most miles run in a single month - 174.8 and counting, with a high likelihood of exceeding 200 before the month is over.

The high-intensity training continues as I prepare for my next gastronomic challenge: Margaritaville Glendale's Volcano Nachos. That trip is scheduled for a week from today.

My next run is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 0430 hours.

One Last Hurrah!

No - don't panic - this blog is NOT ending! I'm just referring to plans for one last buffet hurrah later today to mark the end of several days of vacation before I return to work tomorrow. A few hours from now I will be at Pancho's Mexican Buffet. Olé! (And no, I haven't been eating buffets every day in between these entries, so Mom, there's no need to put the Arizona Heart Hospital on speed dial for me. I've been good and stuck with my spinach and oat bran blender shakes and eaten all my veggies the rest of the days).

And as I almost always do, I've earned this upcoming buffet in advance. With the exception of one morning last Wednesday when I took a break and only did a 6 mile bike ride, I've been running for extended distances ranging from over 7 to nearly 15 miles EVERY DAY for the last two weeks. In fact, during that time I've actually logged a total of over 98 miles of running, which I'm absolutely sure is a personal lifetime record for the most done in a two week period. (It's just as well I didn't count until after I got home this morning, or I would have been tempted to tack an extra two onto this morning's 10.62 miles just to bring that total to an even 100. But, hey - there's always tomorrow).

So anyway...time to slap together a mariachi playlist for the iPod and get myself in the mood for Pancho's. Then tomorrow it will be time to go back to work and earn more funds. After all, at the rate I've been going, I'd better make sure I have enough saved up for my next pair of running shoes. :)

C.O.L.

If you don't like reading lengthy posts, and you're glad I'm not writing a 5,000 word theme tonight, you have C.O.L. to thank.

C.O.L. is Cat On Lap. And it's a condition that reduces my normal 75-plus word per minute typing speed to that of a paltry two-fingered beginner. 

Lynn's ongoing vacation in Michigan has left me as the sole provider of all of kitty Jerry's feeding - and petting. And he doesn't let me forget it. So you'll have to excuse me for being brief tonight. The cat is demanding quality time.

However, I won't leave without a brief word about - you guessed it - my running. Not to worry. No buffets today. And I've kept up my high level activity and more than cancelled out those prior indulgences. I did 8 miles this morning, and 8 or more miles almost every morning for several days before that - the highlight being an 11 miler this past Tuesday. That run featured doing an EXTRA loop up and back down through McDowell Mountain Ranch just so that I could keep going long enough to see a gorgeous orange full moon setting behind the Scottsdale city lights. Alas, each day the moon sets a bit later, and by tomorrow the sun will already be up before the moon sets, so I won't be able to see another great moonset until at least next month. Nonetheless, I plan to be out there again tomorrow morning before the sunrise, with that full moon lighting my way. And I can be sure Jerry will be lying in wait for me as soon as I get back.

BURP!!

Yep, the title just about says it all - I just got back from a buffet! (But don't worry, I also did a 7.5 mile, 1050-calorie run first thing this morning to earn it in advance)!

My wife, Lynn, is on vacation in Michigan and in her absence I pigged out. :) Unfortunately, when she left she took the heat with her. Every fall it's the same thing; she flies up North to visit her family for a couple of weeks and thinks she's going to escape the heat and cool off - and what happens is it cools down here while Michigan gets Indian summer and warms up. It was down to the upper 50's as I ran up McDowell Mountain Ranch road a couple of hours prior to the sunrise.

Later, in order to replace the calorie deficit, I had lunch at the Golden Corral. This is one place where it is very easy to load up on all of the four major food groups: protein, fried, sweets, and ice cream - and I can honestly say I had a balanced lunch. (I'll also need to at least repeat this morning's running route tomorrow morning to come out even. But don't worry - I will).

And Lynn? If you're reading this, you'll be excited to know that yesterday I was driving around Tempe and spotted a billboard advertising a new Chinese buffet - and guess what it's called? Lynn's Grand Buffet! Oh - wait - not quite. It's actually Lin's Grand Buffet - but that's close. Well, that I had to see. So I drove by to check it out. (And I would have eaten there too if I hadn't already been full from the Burger King Whopper that I had at the food court). Anyway, Lin's looks like a somewhat upscale place compared to the Grand China Buffet that recently closed (see my previous post on that subject). Hopefully it's not TOO up$cale, but we'll still have to try it out as soon as you get back.

Meanwhile, I'm headed for the DVD case. Time for tonight's annual Halloween season marathon one-sitting viewing of Stephen King's "IT." Yep, Lynn, that's the one with "that crazy clown." I know you can't stand it, which is why I'm making sure to watch it now while you're away. 

I just KNOW it was my fault... :(

Wow! I knew I hadn't been here for a while but I didn't think I'd been off since JULY! Well I am a hot weather fan and that is what happens in the summer - I disappear and spend all my free time running and biking in the heat!

Unfortunately, in the interim, disaster has struck, and I've got some somber news today. The unthinkable has happened. Yep, it's true. The best Chinese buffet in east Phoenix has shut down for good. As of late August, the Great China Super Buffet, 4801 E. Cactus near Tatum, is no more. Only last May Lynn and I were there feasting on endless crab legs, peel-and-eat shrimp, beef with broccoli, hot and sour soup, and cheese rangoons, but now there is nothing at the site but an empty building with a notice of permanent closure, and nobody, not even Tom Bodett, bothered to leave the lights on for us. All I can do now is bow my head in a moment of flatulence-free silence.

There are a few other Chinese buffets in the neighborhood, and I know where they are and have been to most of them. However, while some come close, none so far have matched the food selection quality of Great China, which has been my favorite and Lynn's since its opening in early 2005. The worst part is now that it's gone I can't shake a nagging suspicion that I share at least partial blame for its demise. The only thing I'm still trying to figure out is whether they went out of business because I didn't eat there often enough or because I ate there too much. 

The Spirit of 1776 (Calories!!)

(Unfortunately, yesterday, and not today. And it was strictly coincidental and not by design). Nevertheless, how appropriate for ALMOST the Fourth of July. Not to mention that with the hot weather that I enjoy so much, I've been busy making the most of my weekends and have gotten a bit lax about posting here, so I needed the extra prodding provided by this opportunity for a Fourth of July subject line that was just too good to pass up.

Yes, I burned 1,776 calories on a 12 mile run in McDowell Mountain Ranch yesterday morning. And I followed that up with an additional 1,553 calories burned in 10.61 miles of McDowell Mountain Ranch running today. 

Don't think for a moment that just because I haven't appeared on here for a while I somehow got done in by that Thompson Peak hike from my last post and/or dropped off the face of the earth. On the contrary - I've been outdoors and active on just about every weekend since then. Most recently, I discovered for the first time the Reach 11 Recreation Area of Phoenix. It was nice of them to name it Reach 11 because that's about how many miles I have to "reach" - one way - to get there on my bike! 

When I lived in Michigan, my wife Lynn and I enjoyed walks through trails in the woods (during those rare Michigan moments when it wasn't icy or raining). But after a decade of living amongst saguaros and agaves, she had a hard time believing me when I told her I actually found a wooded trail right here in the blistering Valley of the Sun. So here are the iPhone pictures I took to prove it:

So now we'll definitely have to plan to walk this trail sometime. After the temperature descends back down into only double digits. In October.

But I'll try to make a point of posting here at least a few more times between now and then. No matter how alluring the hot weather weekends become.

In the meantime, happy Fourth of July, and console yourselves with this thought: in exactly 565 days, the Kenyan will be out of office!!!! Independence and freedom are once again in sight!

THOMPSON PEAK! Miles: 9+. Time: 3 Hours, 45 minutes. Calories: LOTS!

I DID IT! I made it to the summit of Thompson Peak as planned and returned safe and sound to talk about it and post photos! Unfortunately my Internet and GPS connectivity there wasn't very good so my Runkeeper iPhone app didn't accurately record my distance and calorie statistics, but at least I know how long it took me. 

I parked at the trail head in Fountain Hills and started from that point at 7:53.

The trail was mostly unpaved and easily walked - quite a contrast to the rocky surfaces of Camelback Mountain that I encountered last week. There was lots of great desert scenery.

Further on, the trail started to get steeper, and in the very steep parts, it was paved. That's because this is a service road used by vehicles to get to the transmission towers at the summit. 

Here's a clearing with a great view of Scottsdale and Camelback Mountain (where I was last week) in the distance:

Getting closer to the summit:

5 minutes from the summit, there is a warning sign about excess radiation levels. I decided to snap a few photos as quickly as possible before rushing back down.

The first direct view of the buildings and towers at the summit. THE END IS IN SIGHT!

The locked and fenced off area containing the buildings and transmission towers at the summit:

A couple of close up views of the main tower with great views of the McDowell Mountain Ranch area of Scottsdale in the background. The Arizona Canal runs diagonally across the picture in the background.

Looking down on to some of the "lesser McDowells" from the summit:

I swear the descent seems more physically challenging than the ascent - and the trail seems to go on forever!

Great views along the descent, with Four Peaks in the distant background to the left:

Anyway, that's it for today. This was definitely a sufficient workout for today, and I'm going to use what little muscle strength I have left to hobble to the Jacuzzi for recuperation and rejuvenation. Went out for a little lunch to replenish my energy first: 

NO - scratch that - I'M JUST KIDDING! This is a heart-friendly blog.

I really came home and had soup and veggies. I promise.

2,282 Calories, 33.9 Miles (A Late Entry)

In my last post I promised an update when I hiked Camelback Mountain. But I never promised when!

Well, I actually did that first hike the day after my last post - on May 15. So why has it taken me this long to finally write about it? Was I so tired it took me this long to recuperate sufficiently to type again? Or was I procrastinating? Or just lazy? Or too busy doing other things? I'll let you speculate.

May 15 actually turned out to be a triathlon for me - a run, followed by hiking Camelback, followed by a bike ride, and the above calorie and mileage count is the sum total of all three.

For the run I did 4.63 miles through the local neighborhoods before sunup, taking about 51 minutes and burning 672 calories. But that was nothing special and I'm sure you're more interested in hearing about Camelback, so I'll get to the point.

Wow. The first thing you need to know about hiking Camelback is that there's a bit of a preliminary hike involved as the nearest parking is a third of a mile away - with a respectably uphill walk all the way to the trailhead. So when you start, you're already well warmed up. The trail actually starts out deceptively easy at the beginning, but then gets progressively more challenging as you go on, due not only to increasing grade but increasingly challenging terrain, with rocks and uneven and potentially slippery surfaces. 

On Sunday morning when I did this hike, the trail was CROWDED with other people - which I expected and which I had planned and hoped for (all the better to have several other moving bodies on there to scare away any rattlesnakes or bobcats from my path - or to be aware of my disappearance if a slip sent me down one of the steep dropoffs). 

What was really interesting to see was the wide variety of styles employed by all these other hikers. Most people moved along with a steady speed and reasonable caution. But at the one extreme was a smaller percentage of more hardy souls who actually jogged up and down these slippery rocks with the same nonchalance that might have been expected had they been on level asphalt. A large number of these were teenagers obviously still blissfully ignorant of their own mortality. 

Finally, at the other extreme was an old fart in gray hair, a first-timer, who proceeded with all the alacrity of a snail swimming through a pool of molasses, occasionally down on all fours to carefully steady himself against any possible slippage, and spending half of his time moving to the side every time one of these joggers-with-a-death-wish approached.  Yep, "the snail" was none other than yours truly, and it didn't bolster my confidence one bit as I watched a helicopter rescue some other hiker from somewhere on the other side of the mountain. But on the bright side, all my diligent caution paid off and I'm still here and alive to blog about the experience, and to post the pictures I took of the elements I was up against:

I'd like to say I made it to the summit, but that is an achievement that is probably going to require the experience of many more hikes before I feel comfortable enough attempting it. If I ever do. As it is, what I did accomplish was a more than ample workout, and trained and developed muscles I previously didn't even know I had. Even though I only made it probably about two-thirds of the way up this Beast of a Camel, I did still capture some impressive views of Paradise Valley and Scottsdale:

All in all, the round trip hike took a total of an hour and 35 minutes, and when I got back home I replenished with a quick lunch before heading out on a 3 hour, 8 minute, and 32 second marathon bike ride almost down to Tempe (1125 calories, 26.63 miles). Hey, it wasn't as bad as it might sound - after all, it did use different sets of muscles!

My next goal is literally a bit more lofty - and I hope to meet it tomorrow and then write about it (but note, once again, I'm not saying WHEN I'm going to write about it!) See those mountains in the background of the second picture above? Those are the McDowells. And see the highest peak in the middle of those mountains? That's Thompson Peak. I'm going to try to get there tomorrow morning. I ran pretty close to that area earlier today while on my now-almost-routine 9.5 mile Saturday morning run. I've researched The Road To Thompson Peak over the last couple of days, and learned that it's a 4.5 mile road (over 9 miles round trip), and I'm planning to walk that road to the top tomorrow morning. On the bright side, it's allegedly a vehicle-quality unpaved but relatively smooth road. There shouldn't be any back-breaking boulders to scale. And if there are any bobcats or rattlers they should be relatively easy to spot ahead of time. Walking, the round trip should take me about 3 to 3-1/2 hours. Wish me luck. And stay tuned for the statistics and the pictures!

(Oh, and Mom? The top of Thompson Peak is LOADED with cell phone towers. And I'll have my iPhone with me. So if a bobcat does come after me, I'll be sure to call and let you know). 

37.74 miles, 2749 calories!

Nope, those aren't the statistics from my run. They're the combination of the run AND the bike ride I took today. The run was 2 hours (and one second!), 11 miles, and 1626 calories. From that you can figure out the bike ride (which took 2 hours, 58 minutes, and 44 seconds).

I had another great night-to-sunup run in some of the the hilliest parts of the McDowell Mountain Ranch. It's great when it's 75 degrees and no shirt is required!

Then for my bike ride I went down to the Camelback Mountain area of Paradise Valley which was an additional extreme uphill cardiovascular workout (but the downhill return was REALLY fun!) This time I discovered the eastern approach to the trail up Camelback Mountain. I don't know if it's rideable by bike (I doubt it) but I'm definitely going to be returning to attempt a hike up that trail sometime in the near future - and when I do, you can be sure you'll be able to read all about it here first.

But for now, my energy supply is temporarily depleted. So....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Trounced!

...that is what happened to the reckless spenders formerly on the board of the Desert Shadows II Homeowners Association tonight. 

Tonight was our annual meeting, and for many years these meetings have been relatively serene events. In fact, for the first seven or so years in which I lived in this community, they were attended only by three or four board members, myself, and maybe an extra lone straggler or two from the neighborhood.

That was before the quarterly assessments started drastically rising over the last three years, to a level that now is about double what it was previously. 

What a change! No yawning tonight. This was a room full of one heck of a lot of super-angry people, peeved not only about assessment increases but what they perceived as over-zealous regulation. A lot of the dialog was definitely not rated "G." At one point the property manager felt compelled to move across the room to a seat next to the exit door out of concern for her personal safety. (And no, Mom, it wasn't me who said or did anything that you wouldn't have approved of. There were at least 10 or more who were far more vocal than even I would ever have been, and they said it all for me and then some. But that's not to say I wasn't silently cheering to myself as the crowd laid it on).

In the end, the people spoke. Two extremely unpopular board members, one of whom didn't even have the decency to show up at the meeting, were soundly defeated and ousted, replaced by newcomers who were also very decidedly opposed to the ever-increasing assessments and draconian oversight trends of late and who presented some of the best arguments of the evening. 

If the effectiveness of their actions over the next year comes anywhere close to the effectiveness of their words tonight, we will now be in much better hands. Democracy was in action tonight, and at least for now, justice appears to have prevailed.

11 Miles, 1654 Calories, and LEMONS!

When the subject line of a post consists of statistics, you know I'm blogging about another fantastic run, and this one is no exception. I hit the pavement in the dead of night at 4:32 a.m. today and continued running well into the daylight, achieving the above results according to my iPhone Runkeeper app.

Later this afternoon, I also had a glorious bike ride in the sizzling hot temperatures that I love so much. (Stats: 17.17 miles, 733 calories).

But where do the lemons come in? Right here!

We are just past the height of the citrus season here, and, well...as you can see I got a little carried away! It all started when Lynn brought home a few lemons given to her by someone at work. Maybe five or so. And we at first wondered what we were going to do with all those lemons. 

Last year we actually tried freezing some of the juice in baggies, thinking it would make good ice to use for beverages later in the year. However, we found that lemon juice doesn't really freeze well. It just turns into a slush that loses its flavor. By the time we found the long-forgotten baggies of frozen lemon juice a few months later, the only thing it was good for was to help freshen the garbage disposal.

This year I decided they weren't going to go to waste, so I started taking a few lemons a day and adding them to a blender smoothie concoction that I make myself for breakfast every morning. When added to my usual base ingredients (orange juice, oat bran, banana, spinach leaves, tomato, olive oil and Baker's chocolate) the lemons added a definite tang - and the kitchen also sure smelled great after peeling them!

Well, then I was hooked. There are numerous areas around my neighborhood where people put out piles of fresh citrus with "Free-Please Take" signs - because during the season, the trees rain fruit down and if it isn't disposed of in some way, the varmints known as "roof rats" will infest the area. So over the last couple of weeks, I've gone on regular "lemon-gathering expeditions," and the results can be seen above. Actually the above picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, and I've since used up that entire pile and am working my way through a second of almost equal size. 

I'm sure I'm getting more than adequate amounts of vitamin C in my diet now. And I haven't done this much puckering since my honeymoon!

Topless!

And with that subject line, my readership has just increased by 1,000.

Please stand by for a few minutes while we give all these new readers a few seconds to check out my post from yesterday and realize the obvious: yes, I was referring to finally not having needed a shirt for MY OWN weekly 10 mile run in the mountains this morning - from which I have just returned. 

OK, that did it - all the new readers just left. Whoops - my wife just signed off too! Understandable - she's got to listen to me talk about running all the time, so who can blame her for not wanting to spend all day reading about it too.

That leaves us with just three readers remaining. One of those is my mother, who always reads this and also usually comments, because...well that's just one of the things mothers have to do. (Hi Mom - looking forward to seeing you tonight!)

But this morning, it's those other two readers I'm going to talk about. I've come to find that after actually writing it, the second most fun thing to do with a blog is to check out the statistics. It's possible to get all kinds of information about just how many people are reading my posts, what sorts of computer equipment and web browser programs they are using to do so, and - most interesting of all - where they are reading my blog from and how they are finding out about it.

My blog doesn't get viewed very often. On average most of my posts get about eight views. At least four of those views are usually by myself - because I'm both a perfectionist who likes to tweak things until I'm sure they're perfect and a narcissist who loves to come back and read my own work once it IS perfected! Then I have my wife and my mother as mentioned earlier. So that accounts for six of those eight views. But I had been wondering about those other two.

It turns out that I have one reader who was referred to the site from another blog. I assume that means they got here by clicking on a link posted by the other blogger. The interesting thing was that this was a blog about diet and exercise. Ok, understandable - since most of what I talk about here is running and eating out at restaurants. But while searching that blog the other night, I tried to find the post or the link or the whatever that somebody might have clicked on to get to my blog - and found nothing. So was I just too lazy, giving up before I searched far enough? Or was a link there at one time and then later removed or archived? And if so, I wonder what it said? I mean, inquiring minds want to know. Was I referred to in a complimentary way - as in, "Here's a prime example of a super-buff guy who really works hard to keep himself in shape? (Despite the fact that we have no idea what he really looks like because he refuses to post a picture of himself?)" Or did they say something more like: "No matter how much weight you think you need to lose and how many calories you think you have to burn, you don't have to be like THIS kook who is going to grind his knees down to nothing before he reaches age 55 by running 10 miles in the mountains every Saturday?" Maybe it's just as well that I'll probably never find out. But to whoever you are from the diet and exercise site, if you're still reading this - and up to it - I invite you to post a comment letting me know. I really do wonder how my blog was used on that site.

The other reader is even more interesting. This soul hails from Malaysia. That's right - Malaysia. How did somebody in Malaysia find me? What did they enter in their search engine that led them here? Is this person a potential tourist who was seeking out a warm vacation and somehow grabbed on to something I said about Arizona, or Scottsdale, or hot weather? Maybe I'm going to have to do some Googling of my own on "Malaysia" - who knows - this other person might have a blog of their own that I might start following! (Especially if they blog about running). So, Malaysian reader, if there's anything you want to know from a resident's point of view about Scottsdale, I invite you to comment too - and I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

Now to anyone still remaining who found me today only because you were searching on "topless" - please DON'T post a comment. This is a family-friendly blog and I want to keep it that way! Your cooperation is greatly appreciated! :)

97!

That was the high temperature today. WAHOOO!!!! But I guess I'm getting thin-blooded after nearly a decade here in Arizona, because it only felt like about 85 to me. Unbelievably, even though it was 70 degrees at the time of my early morning run this morning, I still felt too chilly when I attempted to do my first topless run of the year, and had to succumb and put a shirt on.  SIGH! 

Oh well - at least it's the weekend, and I'm looking forward to making another attempt at topless running tomorrow morning! I'm also hoping to see another beautiful thin crescent moonrise over the McDowell Mountains just like the one we had today.

(And you thought it was going to be a whole month before you saw me post anything here again! APRIL FOOL!)

When we last left this story...

(and yes I know it was almost a whole month ago...) I was talking about an upcoming steak dinner at Donovan's steakhouse in Phoenix. Well, I could give a whole-page review of the place like I did for Fogo de Chao in an earlier post.

I said, I could. Unfortunately, it's currently so late that my laziness is exceeded only by my sleepiness, so I won't. However, I will say the quality of the fillet Mignon I enjoyed there definitely made it an experience worth having at least once (and probably only once, as it all but exhausted my 401K-turned-201K-since-the-'08-market-crash). And of course I had already pre-paid the caloric and cardiovascular debt by completing a 10 mile run in the McDowell Mountains. (If only it were so easy to replenish the bank account).

Today I'm celebrating the return of 90-degree weather after a WAAAAY too long Arizona winter. Can triple digits be far behind? I hope not! I mean, come on, it's already almost APRIL and until today STILL hadn't been warm enough to go topless for my evening walk.

Okay, that's it, I'm signing off and absconding to the safety of my bedroom before too many irate readers from the northern states start throwing snowballs at me through the Ethernet!

10 miles. 1,445 calories. BRING ON THE STEAK!

If you read my last post you should know tonight's the big night - dinner at Donovan's.

And I am READY! I was out at the crack of 5 a.m. this morning pounding uphill pavement in the McDowell Mountains, from dark of night through sunup. And I'm finishing up a light breakfast of veggies and chicken soup while typing this post.

So waiter, tonight don't even bother describing the house arugula salad encrusted in wheat germ. I shall have no interest in the broccoli français au miniscule either. I've put in several weeks of heart-healthy dining, thank you very much, and it's time to claim back a few days of that extra longevity I've been building up. Time to be carnivorous! BRING ON THE STEAK!

Wow - did another month really fly by this quickly?

I guess so! And no, I haven't really been under rubble since my last post. I actually successfully e-filed this year's federal return only a couple of days later - although I've got to admit that I'm still procrastinating on our state return. Well, that is easy to do when there are higher priority jobs to tackle - like blogging! But I'm sure I'll get that state return done within the very near future.

One thing that I will be definitely be doing within the next week is dining with my family at Donovan's Steakhouse. That's right, we're celebrating the upcoming birthday of a very close relative of whom I am not going to divulge the identity, because I'm not allowed to, because she wouldn't want the general public to know she's another year older! So we'll all just eat, drink and be merry and it will be our little secret!

Oh - and to all of you unfortunate souls who have been freezing and digging through blizzards in the northern states - cheer up!!! At the rate I've been going, by the time of my next post, who knows - we might already have reached the vernal equinox!

No! I'm NOT going to do it!

I'm NOT going to let a whole calendar month go by without a single blog entry! No matter HOW busy I am. (Guess why?)

Well, I could certainly say a lot about that topic!!!

But it's late. And it's bedtime. So I won't.

"See" you next time I manage to pull myself up out of the rubble.