Lesson 268: Drunk on Life

How are you doing, Readers?

Is it Friday night for you?  Did you wait up for my post?

Is it Saturday morning now?  Having a cup of coffee with a sprinkle of Eloise?

For me, it's Friday night,

and I'm drinking a beer while writing this to all of you.

That is how I relax at the end of a long week.

I like beer, but only on Fridays.  Once in awhile I have another one on an off night, but it doesn't taste as good as the Friday Night Unwind.  Although I enjoy the cold, bitterness of the brew, I'm not that big of a drinker.  Time is too precious to waste it tipsy.  I prefer to get drunk on life.

Drink in the beauty of these trees.

Even without leaves they are pretty against the unpredictable, 

and ever changing fall skies.

There is just too much pretty,

not to catch a buzz from it.

 Eloise also caught a buzz from a few songs this week.  The Country Music Awards were Wednesday night.  I look forward to any music award shows, but Country is my favorite.  After I had just a few sips of the new Little Big Town song Sober, I knew I'd soon be soused on it.  I've listened to it a million times already and it is the hands down choice for my photo story song this week (link at bottom of post).

The CMA's gave me a good chance to scout out Handsome and see if there was trouble in paradise.

Tim and Faith were sitting side by side and seemed tolerant of one another, so maybe the divorce rumors aren't true.  It appeared that they must have had a bit of fight before they left for the night though.  Faith didn't have time to do her hair up nice and her dress was a bit crooked.  Tim left without his belt.  They were probably fighting about that blond that he spotted in the crowd at Darien Lake this past Memorial Day.  Still can't escape the electricity he felt in the touch.

Now Readers, seriously.  What is wrong with Tim's pants?  Eloise sees nothing but Handsome in a very nice pair of trousers.  The first hits Handsome took on his duds were heard in my own living room.  Ellen, my thirteen year old who knows everything about everything, said he was wearing "mom jeans."  Hubby kept walking back and forth through my line of sight with his sweatpants pulled up to his nipples.  I ask you, please, look at his performance in the link below.  THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIS PANTS!!

Go here:  What's wrong with the pants?

While Tim had trouble with his trousers and Faith's hair looked like she just left a Team Adrenaline workout, this gal had no trouble with her look for the night:

  Carrie Underwood's beauty astounds me!

You could put this girl in Ralphie's pink bunny suit and she'd still look like a pin up.

I don't know a person who doesn't admire her beauty, kindness, and talent.

We'd kill for her hair and legs, too.

Speaking of hair, I found a great new product I'll cheerlead for.  It is this:  

Matrix Iron In Heat Protector is a bit pricey for Eloise at $15 a bottle, but man does it work!  

This is my hair after THREE DAYS without washing it.

No sticky hairspray residue.

No greasy roots.

Spray it in and iron, curl, or straighten. 

My hair stayed like this most of the week.

Honest, Abe.

I backed up the shot, too, so you can see that the lamp post bathroom remodel is underway.

Stripping wallpaper is a bitch.

It's almost as hard as my Team Adrenaline workouts that I attend, hoping to earn legs like Carrie Underwood's.

A beautiful night on Tuesday.

Near tornadic activity on Thursday.

It was all fun, just the same.

Other fitness news from the week:

Kenyan, my speedy fast runner sister was happy that her home country claimed the throne of the New York City Marathon.  Kenyans won both the male and female races.

I missed the marathon, but Kenyan filled me in after singing Kenya's national anthem.

Kenyan seemed bummed that I missed the coverage.

Never fear though---she DVR'd it. 

(!?!?!?!)

Here is some sad, but touching news from the New York City Marathon.

The running world lost a loved one.

This is Joy Johnson.

She was the marathon runner who took up running after she retired.  

The New York City Marathon was her 25th marathon at the age of 86.  

She died shortly after her Today Show appearance on Monday.

From the Today Show website:

NBC

Joy Johnson during her 'Today' show appearance Monday with Al Roker, her face bandaged after her fall during Sunday's New York Marathon. She died just hours after this picture was taken.

According to reports, Johnson took a fall on mile 20, but refused hospital treatment.  She returned to her hotel to take a nap after her early Today Show appearance.  Joy Johnson died in her sleep.

I found this piece of an interview from Newswire, written by Peter Gambaccini.  It left me with a tear running down my cheek and a smile on my face.  Isn't this how we all want to go onto the next big thing after our time here is done?  Move on, while doing something that we loved.  From the article:

In a pre-race interview, Johnson said, "I'll be at the back of the pack, but I don't mind. I just praise the Lord I can get out of bed each morning and run. A lot of people my age are in wheelchairs." On some days, Johnson would do 150 push-ups.

She was a gym teacher who took up running upon her retirement. Johnson was one of just 31 starters over age 80 in New York City on Sunday.

"I always say I'm going to run until I drop," Johnson said the day before the marathon. "I'm going to die in my tennis shoes. I just don't know when I'm going to quit."

Joy didn't die drunk, but she sure as hell didn't die sober either.

Make sure you give a song Sober a listen at the end of this blog post.

That comment will make much more sense.

The story of this marathoner left an impression on Eloise, too. 

Meet the beautiful 24 year old Maryland athlete Tatyana McFadden.

I could have told you she was going to win even before she started the race.

She's got my lucky number:  3-5-1!

Here is her story from the Associated Press:

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — American Tatyana McFadden has completed an unprecedented marathon "Grand Slam."

The 24-year-old Maryland resident won the New York City Marathon women's wheelchair race Sunday after taking the titles in Boston, London and Chicago in 2013. No other athlete has won those four races in the same year.

Born with a spinal defect and left at a Russian orphanage as a baby, McFadden was adopted by an American family and got involved in swimming, basketball and track. She's a senior at the University of Illinois.

This is a good reminder for all of you.  Make the most of what you have.  Live every day to the fullest in the body you have, and do what you can to make your body the best it can be.  

While I'm on this topic, let me remind you of an event that includes individuals that are challenged.  The Special Needs Beauty Pageant hosted by Harbor Creek High School is November 22nd.  My daughter Natalie will be participating again this year.  Contact Eloise if you are a local and want more details.

We like to take Natalie out for an ice cream cone after the show (she only has ever eaten a vanilla ice cream cone for 15 straight years.....).  Eloise won't be eating ice cream yet, as I am still on my quest to win $3000 in my 58 Day Challenge.  The person who decreases their body fat by the greatest percentage wins the pot!

I really changed up my eating habits a year ago when I first found Dr. Krauza and my fitness group.  Since then my health has steadily improved.  This fall I tightened my diet up even more because a chance to win three grand is on the line.  Lots of my teammates are eating this:  

So many are that often the shelves at the local supermarkets are emptied of their supplies.

I've always seen quinoa in health food magazines.  I never could find it, and never really knew how to pronounce it.  One looks like an idiot spelling q-u-i-n-o-a to a sixteen year old stock boy.  

This is my friend Alcatraz, the baker.  Poor girl has to be surrounded by sweets all day.  Here she is snacking on a green bean.  She full well knows who she's up against in the 58 Day Challenge.....ME!

Many of my friends turn to Alcatraz for cooking advice.  She's offered her help by teaching us about quinoa, and ways to use it in recipes.  Alcatraz educated us a bit about quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), which is actually an ancient grain-like crop from the Andes Mountain area in Ecuador.  I read a little about it myself on wikipedia.  I stopped reading when I got to the tumbleweed part.  Call me crazy, but I don't think people should eat relatives of tumbleweeds.

Quinoa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Quinoa (disambiguation).

Quinoa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Amaranthaceae
Subfamily:	Chenopodioideae
Genus:	Chenopodium
Species:	C. quinoa
Binomial name
Chenopodium quinoa Willd.

Quinoa (/ˈkiːnwɑː/ or /kɨˈnoʊ.ə/, Spanish: quinua, from Quechua: kinwa), a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edibleseeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the true grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beetroots, spinach and tumbleweeds.

Quinoa comes in lots of flavors.  Maybe that would mask the tumbleweedness of the food.

I bought the plain kind and cooked some up.

I couldn't escape the fact that the beady things looked like fish eggs,

and the white strands looked like pin worms.

(Yes, Eloise had a bout with pin worms....I taught Kindergarten!)

And if you were wondering,  you CAN burn quinoa.

Burnt quiona could fill cracks in asphalt.

Eloise isn't a picky eater.  I'll eat just about anything if it is fuss free and healthy.  I'm going out on a limb here, and have flashbacks of Oprah Winfrey and the Cattle Ranchers lawsuit, but quiona sucks.  I just can't eat it.

4,500 lamp post hits a month.  I hope one doesn't find its way to Ecuador because relations are about to get a little tougher.  

I just couldn't let all that sticky, burnt perfectly good quinoa go to waste, so I did what only Eloise would do with it:  I am making a trophy out of it.  This is the beginning of a project for the winner of the 58 Day Challenge.  I'm making room for it on my own garage shelf.  However, in the event that I don't win, one lucky person will have this beautiful piece of art.  I'll post it after the challenge is over so you can see the final product.  

Since the quinoa recipes didn't pan out, I've been looking through lots of others.  People have been sending me my requested recipes for my third book that I am working on this November.  It is a cookbook-slash-family history compilation including recipes, photos, and stories.  It is by far the most rewarding project I've ever worked on.

It's a slow go this year because I don't have my coffee to keep me typing into the wee hours of the night.  I do enjoy my one morning cup out of my new mug, though.  Thank you for your generosity, Special Reader!  You are too kind!

My favorite recipe so far is this one, hand delivered across the yard by my mother.  I hi-lighted the interesting parts of the recipe for your reading pleasure.

The Little Big Town song Sober reminds me a lot of my mother.  She is one funny Grandma.  She's pushing 70 years old now and still dresses up for Halloween.  Here's one of her this year scaring Kenyan:

Grandma is a little prettier than that costume allows, so I'll post this costume from a few years back:

Grandma's a drunk.  She's who the song is written about.

She's drunk on life.

But then again, we do have a winery across the street.......

Don't miss this song, Readers, because I love being in love, it's the best kind of drug, drunk on the high leanin' on your shoulder, sweet like wine as it gets older, when I die I don't wanna go sober.

 To see the photos this week:  LINK TO VIDEO  This will take you to my youtube account.  The video is titled Sober.

Get drunk on life this weekend,
Eloise