getting into the christmas spirit.

I live with Ebinezer Roommate. She sucks all joy out of the house everyday, for every holiday, but especially Christmas.

One way I get to have a little Christmas fun is our annual Christkindlmarket walk. Christkindlmarket is a huge craft fair under heated tents. In theory you're supposed to Christmas shop but rarely I do. I just walk around and look at the cool stuff. And visit St. Nick (aka Bud). For about 20 years it was on the north side of town, and last year moved to the Steel brownfields that are being redeveloped.

Today we met at my house and headed up Sioux, then up 8th street and thru Lehigh's campus. We came down Buchanan Street to the front gates of the Steel. Of course they were closed, so we headed down to Polk and went around. We spent the next two hours walking around the market.  One of our first stops was St. Nick. And I bought the digital version of the picture. Expensive but nice.

When we came out it was raining. We walked to the casino to meet Bonnie's husband for dinner. Lydia had won a gift certificate at the Celtic Classic 5K for the Irish pub there. Dinner for the four of us was $1.85 and the bar bill. Not bad.

When we finished dinner, we headed to the parking deck, grabbed the car and drove back to CKMT to watch the holiday light show. Christmas carols and colored lights flashing on the blast furnace. It was kind-of lame, but fun anyway.

Between the walk down, and the walk to the casino, we might have done two miles. And at least another mile inside the festival.

Yesterday I walked with Betsy. It was kind-of rainy, so we did several small loops, so we were never too far from her house.

Tomorrows walk is to the supermarket. Exciting, huh?

what a day!

And it isn't over yet.
7 am -- began wash. Multiple trips up and down stairs to machines, and outside to hang wash.
8 am --  walked with ML. She's recovering from back surgery and uses a walker. We didn't go far, maybe 3/4 of a mile, but it took a while. Maybe 35-45 minutes
10 am -- walked Adonis. That's Lyds dog. He was visiting the lady in the yellow chair. (aka the roomie.) 1/2 mile, 1/2 hour
11 am -- went to Greek Food Festival for lunch. Okay, not much walking
1 pm -- 3 miles, 1 hour with Betsy in the 'burbs.
3 pm -- walked Adonis again. This time we took Sharon along too. See above.
4 pm -- wash finally dry and done.

It's 4:30-ish now. I'll be making supper and then heading off to ...

6:30 pm -- Zumba Party in Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.

I should sleep well tonight.

By 9:30 am, Lydia will arrive to go walking. Hope Bonnie does too.

half marathon training has begun

It's a really nice day today if you like humidity. Right now it's 83 with 71% humidity. Goody.

Lydia is doing home-stuff this weekend so she didn't come. I didn't even invite her. She loves mowing the lawn so much that I feared she would choose walking over mowing!

Bonnie arrived at 7 and I was still doing the wash. Need to work on my timing. The last load was on the line and we hit the asphalt by 7:10.

First stop Bob & MLs house to deliver the paper. Then we headed up to the hospital, out Ostrum across and under the Hill to Hill Bridge. We encountered the food graffiti on the 2nd Ave. ramp.  We continued up Center, then out Church and up to Broad where we stopped at the post office. It's not busy at 8:10 on a Saturday!

Then it was off to the Mini Trail bridge. I took a glance over the side and noticed the old graffiti on the stairway was painted over, and replaced by some new, mostly not vulgar (so far) stuff. 

The old stuff was pretty awful, but the new stuff was a little interesting. We headed down the stairs, and back up again. I took pictures.

Now this creature I liked. They even painted the banister.

 Clearly this person is not electronically connected with his friends! His message will last for decades

 He's fun. Looks a little like my doodles.

After crossing the bridge, we headed toward the casino, walked thru the Steel, and encounter much needed sprinklers at ArtsQuest. We headed up Polk, and walked the Greenway. This beautiful set of stairs leads to Touchstone theatre. Yes, we climbed them.

Then we stopped at a diner on 4th street for breakfast, headed up and thru the university, up Wyandotte and back to my house.

Tomorrow is another 6 miles on the Ironton Rail-Trail.

yoga day

Over 1000 people showed up for yoga on the steps of the Philly art museum today. It was great. I could do maybe half. Certainly no downward dogs. Plus lots of money was raised for Living with Breast Cancer. My friend Karen's charity. (Karen died in 2008.)

The class was about an hour and a half.

So my challenge for June will be to do a downward dog. Sounds simple, right. But I am not agile. Bonnie is. Replacement knee and all. It must be all the gym time she logs.

I used to be. Back in the 80s when I was young, Bonnie and I did the Jane Fonda workout in her living room, two three times a week.  (OMG it still exists online!) That combined yoga and other exercise. I was agile. Heck, I could even do the plow. Not anymore.

So I'm checking into some yoga studios. I guess I could buy a tape, but I know me. It will sit there sealed. I'm much better if I have to hand out cold hard cash.

The closest one is The Yoga Loft above Cantelmi's hardware store. I could get a 3-3.5 mile walk in round trip if I pick there. They offer Kundalini Yoga and plain yoga. I have no idea what the difference is. Plus Belly dancing and Pilates.You can sign up for a free Friday, and then pay for a 2-day Saturday Sunday class before making a serious commitment. They have a drop-in rate of $7, and then plans starting with 5 classes at $60. Not horrible. If I could get someone to go with me it would be even better.

Easton yoga has a free community class the first Sunday of every month. That might also be an option. They offer a variety of activities. It's on Northampton street which is quite a hill, and would make a great walk if you also hiked up the hill to the cemetery.

Back in my 20s when Bonnie and I tried different exercise programs, we'd go to eat afterwards undoing all the good we did that day. Today was no exception.

We parked in front of Eastern Penitentiary, a really scary gothic prison in Philly. We discovered walking back that there was lots of restaurants. We ended up eating at Jacks Firehouse Grill. Bonnie kept thinking the name sounded familiar. We finally put our finger on it. Remember when the Food Network was Food TV and Bobby Flay was young and grilled outside with a hick in overalls? Grilling and Chilling was the show. That was Jack. We ended up at his place. I think he has another one at the Reading Terminal market.

The food was great. A good portion of it raised in Pennsylvania. They even had fresh apple butter and right from the churn butter.