Lesson Learned #1: Gel Nail polish

I like, and rather enjoy, things that are neat, organized and pretty.  This is not limited to "things" such as shoes, jewelry, cookware or my standing mixer (I have an unhealthy obsession with my KitchenAid mixer. Seriously) but extends to keeping house, caring for my clothes and having pretty nails. So, the Sunday after my Ironman, I decided to get a manicure and went to the place in DC where I had been going for years.  It is not a spa, but a standalone storefront whose primary service is nails.

After picking out my color, I sat down at the station and the manicurist told me about a new product (or new to this particular location) that she guaranteed would stay on my nails for 2 weeks without chipping or coming off.  I was sold on the product immediately, even though it came at double the price of a manicure.  I figured it would save me time, as the polish would last twice as long and she had the same color in the long-lasting polish as the regular nail polish that I had in my hand.  I work on my computer, cook, clean, do laundry and dishes, workout... I thought if this product could keep my nails looking great through all of that, than I was sold.

The product, called gel nail polish, is NOT an acrylic or fake nail that would ruin my natural nails, but just a longer lasting product, I was assured by the manicurist.  Thirty minutes later, my nails looked great and I was headed out to continue with my day.  I was told to "cook, clean and do all of the things you normally do, and they will look like this 2 weeks from now!"

About a week later, they started to chip and then started to bubble around the bottom where the nail meets the skin.  When I went back, I was told that's what happens when water gets under the polish and the piece of gel starts pulling away from the nail, and that my nails grow too fast which was why the polish was coming off (Really?? Because I'm pretty sure that I don't have control over the speed at which my fingernails grow).  She "fixed" them by pulling the polish off of my nails (the polish laughs in the face of nail polish remover) and painting over them.  They looked awful.

I decided to go to another salon to have a manicure and the woman proceeded to tell me "the real truth about gel polish."

While it's not technically acrylic, it is somewhere in between that and polish and DOES ruin your nails, making them weak and brittle.  As she was pulling the strips of product off of my nails, I was cringing as it was taking a thin layer of nail off with it.  After spending some time buffing my nails, they looked a  lot better, but they are still not smooth on the surface and you can see the ridges where the nails are thinner in some spots from pulling off the gel.

Lesson Learned: If it sounds too good to be true, than it probably is.  I will continue to get manicures, but I will NOT be getting the gel polish.  Ever.

Rachel's Getting Married: Bridal Shower

My good friend Rachel is getting married in September, and we recently celebrated this with her and 25 women with a bridal shower. Earlier in the week, while planning for aforementioned shower, I discovered the wonderful place known as Costco. What a spread they have contained within those 4 walls! Everything one can imagine; meats, large blocks of cheese, a bakery, produce... Costco to me is like Disneyland to a child. It visits me in my dreams and I can't wait to go back. But, I digress.

Yesterday, as I was shopping for paper goods and decorations, I realized that this is the third party I have planned in a year, 2 bridal showers and one baby shower, and am considering hanging up my party-planning hat after this one. I tend to have an idea of how I want the decorations to look, the kind of food served and how I want the party to play out and it's hard to "play nicely" when I want things a certain way when others want to help. I make note of my control issues and recognize that this party is not about me and what I want, but about celebrating my friend's upcoming wedding with lots of other wonderful women! And then I think "Hmm... maybe I WILL plan another party!"

Rachel's colors are red, gold and white, so we went with this color scheme for the decorations and the paper goods. The party was planned for 2pm, so we wanted to go with lighter food options, assuming that most women would have eaten lunch before coming to the party. We did a spinach dip and guacamole, mini quiches, spanakopita and fruit. For dessert, Rachel chose a chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting and beautiful sugar flowers all over the cake. Rachel is the kind of woman that thinks of others often (read: always!) and her reason for choosing this cake, rather than the ubiquitously popular, her first choice and the well loved cupcake, was: "This way everyone can have a sugar flower."
Even when the party was supposed to be all about her, she was thinking of others.  Those are the people that I want to surround myself with... the ones who have every right to make it about them, but do just the opposite.

Congratulations on your engagement Rachel and Mark... I'm looking forward to celebrating with you in a few short weeks.

The vegetarian and the roasted chicken

For dinner last night, I decided to make a roast chicken. Doug had been working long hours this week, and I thought that it would be special for us to have a nice dinner at home. Since I started re-introducing meat to my diet (I was a vegetarian for 5 years), I've been trying new recipes and experimenting with different meats. It has opened up my eyes to so many new menu options!

I brought the 4 pound chicken home and cleaned it, taking out the insides, rinsed it with water and patted it dry. I dry it, as to not create any steam which would allow for more dry heat to cook the chicken. When cooking with dry heat, you want to cook at high temperatures for a shorter period of time. I sprinkled the cavity with sea salt and fresh black pepper, and did the same on the outside. I didn't have any kitchen twine, so the chicken went "un-tressed", but I did cover the drumstick bones with foil so they wouldn't burn. (Mental note to pick up some kitchen twine!)

I preheated the oven to 450 (see note above on dry heat) and put the bird in a shallow medal pan. I'm still in the process of building my kitchen, so I don't have a roasting pan and I thought the substitute would work fine. Now, chefs and cooks tell you never to leave anything in the oven unattended, however, I had to leave for 5 minutes and I figured the bird would be just fine, as it would be roasting for 90 minutes, so what was a measly 5 minutes left alone? I mean, really, what is the worst that could happen?

Well, I was welcomed back by the beeping of the fire alarm. And while it could always be worse, the house was filled with smoke and the loud, irritating alarm was going off and we could hear it from down the hall. Long story short, I had to trouble shoot by transferring the chicken into a deeper, glass cooking dish, covering it with foil and turning the temperature down to 400 degrees. The juices from the chicken were splattering all over the bottom of the stove and creating smoke. When I removed the chicken from the oven, I sprinkled it with a few pinches of dried thyme and let the bird sit for 10 minutes while I made a salad.

Other than the fire alarm mishap, the chicken was perfect. Roasting a chicken seemed intimidating, but it was simple, relatively hands-off and delicious. You get more meat for your money, can use any leftover meat to make chicken salad and use the carcass to make chicken stock. What's not to like?

Some recipes call for butter or require you to baste the chicken while it's in the oven, but I left my bird alone and let it do it's own thing. Whichever you decide to follow, give it a try and let me know how it turns out!

Happy cooking!

11 days out of Lake Placid

Playing catch up on the past few days, and have really been thinking a lot about Lake Placid, the experience and what it means to me to have finished the race.

When I signed up for Lake Placid, I loved the IDEA of an Ironman. It was something I had never done. And people were shocked when I told then. Truth be told, I liked that expression of "are you serious?" people gave me every time I mentioned it. And then the excitement of seeing the shock wore off quickly when the serious training started. I fell off of my bike while on a long training ride (I had only used clip-in shoes literally a handful of times) and had to take 10 days off of training. The whole left side of my body looked like hamburger meat - I was bloody, bruising quickly and experiencing a pain that I had never experienced. Being a year round competitive swimmer for the majority of my life meant not having to deal with cuts, blood or contusions. I was swimming again after taking 10 years off... and for those athletes out there, you KNOW how tough it is mentally to get back into your sport, when you're comparing the times you are currently doing to the ones that you used to clock back in the day. And the running! Goodness. I am a WATER SPORT person, people! I was seeing a PT on a regular basis, so I could get my knee and foot carved, hip flexors loosed, and a massage every now and again. But then I thought of why I was doing it.

I did this race in memory of Cynthia Lynn Sherwin, while fundraising for the National Brain Aneurysm Foundation. Cindy was my age when she started training for her first Ironman in Lake Placid and died while out on a 100-mile training ride of an undetected brain aneurysm that ruptured. She was beautiful, an experienced marathoner and triathlete and just started working with and reading to children about the benefits of being healthy. Her mom, Elaine Schaller, started Team Cindy in memory of her daughter, with 100% of the fundraising money going to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

When I thought of Cindy and I thought of all of the generous donations that I has received, I couldn't give up. When I thought about a family friend who has had 55+ brain surgeries, who is 16, I couldn't give up. I thought of the people who weren't able to compete and I trained harder. Physically, I was arguably in the best shape of my live. Emotionally, I was a wreck.

The 30-day count down to the race began, and there was not a day that went by that I did not cry at least once a day, sometimes more. Looking back, I think it was fear, but it could have had a little bit of nervous pride in there. This was the first thing I have ever signed up for and stuck with until the end. I registered for a marathon and only ran half. I had signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon, only to pull out. This was a huge commitment and seeing it through to the end not only gave me the confidence that I really can do anything that I put my mind to, but that my mind is stronger than my physical body. When the race got tough, I didn't give up. And when I say tough, my body hurt a little bit, but it was my mind that was telling me to quit. My mind was telling me that I didn't have anything to prove, that I gave it a good run, that it was ok to lay down on the side and snooze for a few minutes... but I put one foot in front of the other and finished.

When I ran into town where hundreds of screaming supporters were cheering for us athletes, I smiled. I had one mile left until I was an Ironman. When I ran into the Speed skating track that was used in the 1980 Winter Olympics and served as the finish line for the Ironman, my eyes started welling up. Bruce Springsteen "Born to Run" was playing over the loud speakers and I saw familiar faces of friends and family. When Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman, said "Hilary Phelps, from Baltimore Maryland, you are an Ironman!" I let it all go. I let go of all of the fears that I wouldn't finish, all of the anxiety that I was going to fail and all of the unnecessary expectations that I had put on myself to succeed. My mom, sister, niece and brother were all waiting just past the finish line and I ran into their arms and cried. My mom put the finisher medal around my neck, wrapped me in the silver foil and my brother gave me an M-dot pinky ring that they had all picked out. We laughed, because my hands were so swollen from the 14 hour race, that the ring didn't quite fit!

As I write this, sipping coffee from my Ironman mug and proudly wearing my M-dot ring (which now fits perfectly!) I smile thinking about my accomplishment, although I'm still not quite sure that it has all sunk in. I still look at the experience and think that it wasn't all that bad, it didn't hurt that much and anybody could go out there and do it if they really put their mind to it. Maybe it's because I think everyone is a star in their own right, that everyone deserves to feel the elation and joy that I felt as I crossed the finish line and the old adage, that when you put your mind to something, you really can accomplish anything.

Weekend in Arizona with Sisters

So, I'm sort of backtracking, as the last few weekends have been eclectic and amazing, which rolls into a pretty interesting month.

My sister, Whitney, and I accompanied our Mom to Arizona, where we stayed at the Biltmore and were inducted into the Phi Mu Fraternity. My Mom has been a Phi Mu for years (since her college days) and wanted to share her incredible experience with her two daughters. Whitney and I were under the impression that we were traveling with Mom, who was the keynote speaker at the Sisterhood luncheon, for a "Girls Weekend." We were told we would need certain outfits for certain days and activities, and didn't ask any questions.

Little did we know, that our Mom had other plans for us! Saturday morning, Whitney and I went for a run, a nice 7 miles along the base of the mountains, before getting into our white number and heading off to the morning's event. What did we discover? That the morning event was an induction ceremony and Mom had nominated her two girls for sisterhood!

Now, the proceedings of the ceremony are top-secret, but all in all we had a great weekend and met lots of special women, who are now our sisters. It's now the joke when we say that our Mom is also our big sister. The Phi Mu Foundation and Organization is so well run, and we met a lot of dynamic women who truly have a passion for the Fraternity and a commitment to their sisters, to which Whitney and I are now a sister!