Saturday Happenings

 It was a really, really long work week. I'm happy to see the end of it. Still reading about the horror stories in Maui, and now thinking about NWT in Canada. M's cousin lives in that area. Our wildfire season typically starts in October, so to be having this kind of fire in August is really scary. 

I leave on Thursday for Portland, and our relay starts bright & early on Friday (6:30 am). I'm in the second van (there are 12 people, six in each van) & the first van starts at Mt. Hood ski area. I'm the first runner in our van, which means I will need to figure out who the runner from van 1 is who is handing off to me. I'm expecting to run my legs at: Leg 1 at 1 pm on Friday, Leg 2 at 12:15 am on Saturday, and Leg 3 at 10:20 am Saturday. I'll also be the first one done in our van, which is kind of nice. On the flip side, it's been incredibly hot in Portland, and I'm really dreading running in the heat. Luckily, I have only the first leg where it could theoretically be hot, which is nice. Some of my van mates may be running both legs 1 & 3 in the heat. The race finishes in Seaside, and then we'll be staying the night at a local beach town. It's also the town where we used to have our vacation house, so it will be so very nice to see Manzanita again! I've missed that place. I do not like running after I've eaten (another reason why I prefer to run in the mornings), so I'm trying to figure out easy food options for the van, that won't be hard to run on (PB&J & bananas, maybe?) My hardest leg is leg 2, and I'm not much of a night owl, so that 12:15 am start time will be quite a challenge. ;-) It's six very hilly miles, through the Neahkahnie mountains. Regardless, it's going to be an adventure!

What am I up to today? Plenty to do, as always. And, some items on this list will inevitably shift to tomorrow, as needed:

• Go to an early workout class
• Review the family rules with the teens. We've always had family rules (curfew, electronics usage, chores, etc) & review them before the start of each school year
• Pack for the relay. It involves a bunch of odd stuff, lots of layers, and you have super minimal space, due to six people in a van. Luckily, I've done this before, and have done the walking version many times, so at least I have some experience.
• Laundry
• Menu plan
• Make shopping list
• Go to TJs & the grocery store
• Vacuum
• Clean the bathrooms
• Clean the kitchen
• Give away a few things on BN
• Review our car insurance
• Go through school supplies with boys/have them clean out their backpacks
• Download books to my Kindle, for the flights to/from
• See if I can make a prepayment on a France hotel, to take advantage of a credit card offer
• Work in the garden

That's it on my side. What about you? What are you up to today? Any food option recommendations that might work to have in the van, & would be easy on my stomach?