This little piggy went home…

Today is the Flying Pig marathon and I am glad I finished the half in less than 3 hours once again! It was a wet drizzly morning but there were no serious rain or thunderstorms. It turned out to be great weather given it’s not too cold nor hot. Luckily we had our hotel room right downtown just a few short minutes from the finishing line and a noon checkout so I had time to relax my sore lower half for some time before driving home.

I had edited more videos from the Sun and Fun airshow and here are the others involving stunt plane and jet performances. The stunt pilots are nothing but amazing – pushing their machines to do feats that would seem crazy but very deftly executed. I am very happy that the day went well with no accidents at all. So often watching TV shows like “Destroyed in seconds”, they feature accidents at airshows….so I was really relieved that everything went well that day and no one got hurt.

Here’s the links to the videos:

 

Of pigs and fly

The poor pig isn’t having its day..and all this scare of the swine flu – it was never reported that anyone eating pork can get the virus. Does that mean it’s the end of bacon? I was at the store today and there was a sale on bacon and pork products…makes me wonder….

I finally got some of the videos edited from my attendance of my very first airshow at Sun n Fun 09. This one is performed by the US Army Parachute Team – the Golden Knights – I am so glad I got to see them in performance and they were nothing but AWESOME!

Golden Knights performance at Sun ‘n’ Fun 09 from Faith W on Vimeo.

It’s 2 days more to the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati OH. I think I’m as prepared as I can be and am trying to get those last training miles in..this Indiana spring weather is rather unpredictable so I never know if I’m training with a sweater, short sleeves or raincoat!

 

flush, fun, sun, surf

Once in a while, something will be said that cuts through all the white noise and travel right into your ears and you take note. That was what happened to me on Thursday on an Airtran Airways flight out to Tampa, FL. Normally I only keep just enough attention to catch anything important or really interesting being said over the PA system and on this flight, the captain who sounds really jovial and he very well might be joking or not…

It started with saying how in these times where airlines are trying different ways to save costs etc and…”each flush in the lavatory is going to cost $1 which we ask the passenger to donate, if you will…and today’s special – 3 flushes for the price of $2!” Now that was interesting! I was wondering if I heard right and looked across to the opposite aisle where a gentleman was looking at me grinning and shaking his head. So he heard it too! We were not sure if there were serious or not but hey… Airtran is already charging $15 for the first checked bag and Delta Airlines are going to charge $50 for the second checked bag for international fliers come this July. Possibilities seems endless….Well, the flight was well on its way when the Captain introduced his staff on board as “Yoda, C-3PO and R2D2..so perhaps the lavatory surcharge is not that “spaced out” afterall…

Yesterday, we were at Sun ‘N’ Fun event in Lakeland FL, one of the biggest airshow in the country. It was my very first airshow. Surprisingly, there were not a single poweredparaglider (PPG) in sight. We visited the “ultralight section” and saw a few powered parachutes (PPC) manufacturers but no powerparagliders, which came as a surprise. It was too windy anyway for flying PPG – and even some of the Golden Knights who were performing that evening were hanging in the air and did not manage to target land on the LZ.

Today, I’m relaxing on the balcony of our room with a margarita, looking at St. Pete beach and the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico where I had my morning swim. “Life is Good”

 

“duo salsa” shrimp dish

I made a cooking demo video on an quick and easy shrimp dish. It was inspired by Pace Pico De Gallo Shrimp and Avocado salad recipe. This dish is very versatile given one can substitute any kind of meat or vegetable in place of the shrimp. In addition, the sauces can be accented with curry powder to make it a curry shimp dish instead.

Ingredients

Raw shrimps – 3/4 pound or 1 pound (more or less) depending on how much you want
1 tbsp of butter or oil
2-4 tbsp of Pace Pico De Gallo and Mexican Four Cheese Con Queso salsa sauces
Jalepeno Peppers (optional)
Garlic powder
Salt
White Pepper
For Garnish

Cilantro (Optional)
Avocado slices
Green pepper

Method

Thaw Shrimps in cold water (add a few dashes of lemon juice to the water to get rid of the “fishy” smell)
Melt butter and add shrimp
Fry a few minutes till shrimps starts turning pink
Add garlic powder, white pepper and salt to taste
Add the salsa sauces
Mix to coat the shrimps thouroughly
(If sauce seems to be less – add more of the salsas)
Cook till shrimps is just cooked

Serve with white rice

Other ideas – serve the shrimps on a bed of lettuce or even in pastry shells.

“duo salsa” Shrimp dish from Faith W on Vimeo.

 

Fliting thoughts…

I can’t shake this loneliness concept off…today I read yet another news article on Twitter – it seems to be the “de-facto” of our everyday lives now and if we don’t embrace this sort of “communication” and connecting mode, we will be abandoned and fade off into oblivion? Yet I don’t feel the “connectedness” to the twittering world. Why am I compelled to jump onto the bandwagon? Human and herd mentality? Or necessity? With the lack of friends…in the worse case scenario, I can be twittering 24 hrs a day and no one would care or bother..why should they? They are not my friend or even if there are friends, do friends always care what other friends do? And surely there are various levels of friends…Now why do I worry so? Is it because I’m not with the “in” crowd? Why am I obsessed to be with the “in crowd”? For survival in today’s world? Is Twitter effective if you do not have a business? Thoughts fliting around in my head – much the same way as birds chirping (twittering)?!?!

Total mileage this week is only 17+ miles – yikes!

 

Just another musing….

With the all hype in social media and particularly, twittering, I can’t help but wonder if blogging is passé? Twittering seems to be the “talk of the town” and “buzz word”. I hear this word almost everywhere I go and they send their tweets from the blackberry or mobile devices. So I’m wondering if people read other people’s blogs anymore, since you can almost twit up to the minute, is there anything else to write about?

But then again, what do I know? First of all, I’ve entered the blogging world late – and am still learning to navigate here and on other social media sites like Facebook. I’m hardly the kind of blogger that writes every day! Plus the lack of friends does not help. When I say friends – online friends and friends one meets and see can be different and interesting. Even friends I’ve made in later life are different from childhood friends. How many close friends does one have as one grows older? Does it seem to have an inverse pattern? The older one gets, the lesser the close friends one has (and I mean close friends where one shares everything-no holds barred or at least, friends whom you can bare your soul without the fear of being judged). Not that this is a bad or good thing. Just that we have lesser close friends as we age and in the context of blogging, well, do we write for friends to see the content? Who’s the audience of our (my) blog or more importantly, what is the (my) purpose of blogging. Did I mention that I got de-friended? Well not just once but twice! Albeit it’s people I hardly know..still..my Ego is wounded! Sigh…

I’ve also noticed on facebook, one can share “what’s on your mind” at any time so one can give a 10 minute update if one feels like it. And with Twitter and microblogging, you can update one’s friends/followers even faster. Funny thing is, who really is interested in my current status at any given time and/or even notices? That is my question. I am but one anonymous person in an ocean of people.

I guess we are all alone – I am all alone – how strange to feel isolated in the crowdedness of a world of people….

 

This week

Increased my training mileage alittle this week: 24.73 miles total. Also started on something that intrigued me when I was much younger – stop motion animation of which I did another short video clip about a rabbit with easter eggs for this Easter weekend.

The weather was beautiful this weekend so we did alot of prep work in the garden in preparation for planting.

 

This week

I got a new experience this week – was defriended on Facebook! Found out when I wanted to suggest this person to other people he might know. Wow! What does this mean? I know we have hardly anything in common except our hobby but he was the one who added me as a friend first..and I’ve not sent him any apps or notifications either so he did not get “extra” mail/notifications from me. Is it because I’m a minority in the hobby? He did not de-friend other mutual hobby friends that we share, so why? He never offered me a reason with the admittance of the defriending. Is he just being obnoxious? First inviting someone as friend and then de-friend them? It does not bother me as much on one level which is the fact we have but one thing in common i.e. the hobby – and even that – it’s remote since he doesn’t seem to be doing it anymore. However on another level, the act of de-listing me is an affront-I take it personally! My ego does not like that at all!

I thought of a new project and did it this morning – my very first stop motion animation short clip – with molding clay; I wasn’t sure how the editing will work out and the transitions were not as smooth as I had hoped but being my first time, I was happy with it.

Training this week has just been 18+ miles total.

 

Last week…

Oh! Last week’s training did not go well! I caught the cold and was feeling really tired and fatigued. So I only managed to put in a total of 16+ miles only.

Tigger was put back onto the antibiotics (amoxilyn) and had been doing better. He was ravenous and I was happy to feed him to his heart’s content! He is still doing his splatter explosion but so far only once a night!! I am SO happy!

 

Cat with a painful behind!

This is my youngest cat Tigger – he’s 8 years old – doesn’t look it right?

He’s been having diarrhea for a long time but it has escalated late last year. He seems to have a an aversion to the food he’s been eating for the last 6 years and so we (my husband and I) switched him to a special wet food diet as recommended by the vet. He has great pain in pooping and we know it from the gut wrenching meow that he makes – the vet suspects inflammatory bowel diesease – and we put him on antibiotics with the special wet food diet and he was OK for a couple of weeks. He still has diarrhea but it doesn’t happen with the painful meow. However, last week, he started puking the wet food out and the painful meows came back with the pooping – now more like severe splattering.

This morning I found a huge poop splatter (and that is just one of three he had sometime last night!) that has quite a few feet of radius – spent at least 20 mins cleaning up the splatter as it spreads far and wide. He’s not eaten so far and I suspect he’s associating pain with eating so it seems he’s slowly starving!! He’s very light in weight currently. I give him human food or anything that he’ll eat and hopes it doesn’t come out a few minutes later. I consulted the vet again and she thinks he may have an aversion to the new food – now what? The options we have is another round of blood test, x-ray or ultrasound in an attempt to find out what’s wrong with his stomach/intestines. It’s a mystery diagnosis…

We’ve not had much luck with tabby cats. My first tabby was with us for 3 years before he contracted urinary tract disease and we had to put him down. “Curious”, my oldest cat became lonely and withdrawn with the loss of her friend and companion and we found Tigger (who happened to be a runt of the litter but a fiesty and energetic little fella) and now they are best of friends. But I’m not sure if we and “Curious” will go through a deja vu and we can’t imgaine losing Tigger. He’s funny and cute and gave us many hours of laughter and joy (aren’t all cats?)

Incidentally, I’ve not seen many tabby cats – even stray ones here either – kind of strange. I’ve seen quite a few strays in my backyard and around the neighborhood – grey, calico, black and even orange cats but no tabby….how strange…are they harder to manage?