I’ve wanted to tour Keel and Curley Winery for a while, so of course I jumped at the chance to go to a complementary tour and wine tasting with the Tampa Bay Lady Bloggers in exchang for blogging about the experience.  Sounds like a win-win to me!

Blueberry fields!


I actually wrote a post about their Wild Berry Fusion Wine in a infrequently updated wine blog my friends and I created ages ago. (Who knew we couldn’t drink enough new wines to blog consistently? or that by the time the bottle(s) was gone we’d forget to blog at all?) Also, I once bought bottles of their dry and sweet blueberry wines for a taste-test of my own. I like them both by the way, and also the semi-sweet. Back then I preferred the sweet, but now I prefer the dry. I would say that means my wine-tasting ability has matured, but I kind of doubt it.

All of their wines were good, but then it would be difficult to find a wine I don’t enjoy. If you prefer a wine that isn’t too sweet and dessert-y then you would love the dry blueberry and the dry blackberry. They were both wonderful; I will beyond a doubt be buying them again in the future. Since you shouldn’t really trust my ability to not like a fruity wine I’ll tell you that my boyfriend really liked both of them, and his taste usually runs the opposite of mine when it comes to both wine and beer. If we agree on a wine them you need to try it!

The Black Raspberry Merlot was really good as well. Honestly the only wine I was disappointed in was the Key West- Key Lime. It’s one of the ones I was looking forward to trying and it smells divine, but the taste wasn’t what I expected at all. However, it won gold at the 2010 Florida State Fair International Wine Competition so what do I know?

If you prefer a sweet wine them you have to get the Sweet Blueberry and the Tangerine Zinfandel. I actually called that last one candy wine, and I have to admit I was the only one at my table that really liked it. But I REALLY liked it.

The wine I was most excited to try was Monica’s Florida Frost, an ice wine. I’ve read a lot about how excellent ice wines are but have never tried one. It was beyond a doubt excellent. And the boyfriend hated it, so any dessert wine lover would be happy with it. I have to admit, my wine-snob taste buds came out (I only have like 2) and I think that it would be more enjoyable as a full glass of wine. It seemed to be one of those wines with a lot of layers, as you drink it different tastes may come out. I don’t know, but someone may have to get me a bottle for my birthday so I can fine out for certain! At $25 a bottle it is a little out of my everyday wine price range.

April 27-28th will be Keel & Curley’s annual blueberry festival. It’s free admission with music and lots of food and vendors. It sounds like it will be a great family event if you are in the Plant City area. They’re even going to have blueberry wine making and blueberry farming and growing tips classes both days. I am very tempted to go Sunday just for that (and the wine of course)!




Sam and the wine bottling machine



Well, I have been doing a good job eating healthy this week, but not an excellent job sticking to my strict plan. Biggest win? Staying away from the vending machine (except once, but they were baked chips!) Biggest loss? The fact that they make popcorn 3 days a week at work and as soon as I smell it popping I find myself walking away with a bag. This isn’t air popped popcorn, this stuff is worst for you than the stuff at the movies. I guess next week’s big goal is no popcorn! What the heck, start small.

I’ve never been one to look at the calories on stuff, and now that I did I wish I’d never looked! Turns out one of my bigger calorie splurge is my most-nightly drink.

• Angry Orchard Ginger Hard Cider = 210 calories a bottle (yes, one, single bottle!)

• Mike’s hard lemonade = 220 calories

• Sangria = about 150

• Captain Morgan and Coke= 127 calories for 5 ounces

Since I’m on a hard cider kick I grabbed a 6 pack of Michelob Ultra Light Cider and would you believe it is 120 calories a bottle??? Seriously. It has the word light right on the label. Not just light, ULTRA light! All the other flavors only have 95, that’s just not fair.

I can see I’ll be done with this whole reading calories thing soon. When I started reading labels for sodium and weird stuff I cut out a ton of food, if I keep reading calories I’ll just quit eating before you know it. OK, that was a lie, I like eating.

On a more interesting note, I ran about 2 miles last night. It was my first run in a bit over two weeks. It was freezing (for FL) for most of that time and I am a huge cold wimp, and then it just took me a few days to remember that I like to run.

The interesting part is I almost tripped over an armadillo! I was running along watching for whatever might be in my way in the street and this thing was right on the edge of the grass, I didn’t see it until I was about a foot from it. Apparently I tend to focus a bit too much on what is directly in front of me. That resulted in a graceless but funny side jump of a few feet. Thank goodness I my neighbors on that part of the street are rarely out!

Oh, another cool thing.(Nerdy cool, but whatever) I realized on my run last night that I am no longer having an issue with pebbles and little things bothering my feet when I run barefoot! I read that eventually that would happen but I didn’t think it would so soon. I haven’t barefoot trail-run in well over a month; I think it’s time to try it again! I just need to find a running partner, I get way too nervous listening to what sounds like a bear and is probably a lizard in the trees.

On the way home I was thinking my most common train of thought lately, I need to lose some weight. For quite a while I was down to 124 which is low enough that I don’t feel the need to change when I pull on a snug t-shirt but I still felt like I’d like to get down to 118. Why? I don’t know; that just is the number that is always in my head to aim for and I would have liked to lose a couple inches.

Then I crept up to 128 and was not thrilled but ignored it, four pounds didn’t make a huge difference in my opinion of me. Now I have been consistent 135 for a couple of weeks and I think I have finally had enough. When I got pregnant with my first son I only weighed 96 pounds, and I went up to 140 something. That was a huge weight gain, and here I am almost to that weight for absolutely no reason.

Changing jobs from unloading trucks and stocking shelves to sitting at a desk made a huge difference. But that change happened 8 or 9 years ago, I think by now my body’s used to it. I have no more excuse except that I’m eating too much and moving too little.

There are lots of things I am not thrilled about in my life that I can’t change so I look on the bright side and deal. But this is not one of those things. This is all me, my daily choices got me here and now I chose to go back to not feeling the need to wear baggy clothes all the time and not feeling bad about myself but ignoring it.

So Monday I’m going to start my first ever real diet, planning all my meals and the whole 9 yards. There are a couple of things that always get me when I try and eat better.

• I don’t want to think about what to have so I just grab a cheese crisp or even a donut on the way to work

• No accountability. I always try this on my own and since no one will even know if I cheat it makes it awfully easy

• I decide to change something and to start NOW. Yes, at midnight or 5 am or whenever the thought crosses my mind

So how am I going to avoid these pit falls? Planning!

1) For a couple of weeks I’m making food painfully easy for myself.

• Every morning I will have a whole grain cereal. If it’s a work day I’m going to have Bob’s Red Mill 10 grain cereal with just a touch of honey. It’s really good, healthy, filling and its 140 calories a serving, plus the honey.

• For lunches I’m going to make a big pot of cabbage soup just because it’s nothing but vegetables and for some reason I’ve been craving it lately.

• For dinner I’m going to have a smoothie. I always have to wait for my dinner to digest before I go running and a smoothie is few calories and not too heavy to run after drinking.

• I’m a big snacker at work so I’ll bring bags of veggies to snack on. I love grape tomatoes and sugar snap peas so that will be my staple.

2) I still have no real life accountability, but I’m going to use this blog and the online communities to post how I’m doing- good AND bad

3) Instead of jumping into this I have been planning to start Monday. Between a birthday party and Easter this weekend I know I’d be off to a bad start, so I’ll try and be smart about things and start on Monday. Plus, I’m giving myself a pass for a weekly night out. I may make up for them by fasting a day until I get down to my ideal weight, but either way I’m taking them.

Wish me luck – I’m at a place where this HAS to happen, I am just tired of me letting myself become this other person who I just do not like. I can even tell a difference in my energy level and mood from before I gained this weight.

I’m 5’2”and small boned. Starting at 135 pounds and a pregnant looking 35 inch waist, but on my way to where I want to be. Anyone else starting a get-fit, back to yourself journey? I’d love to hear from you!

I took Tuesday off work to go kayaking. Why don’t I do that more often?

Monday it poured and Wednesday it was windy and wet out but on Tuesday the water was smooth as glass and the weather was perfect.

We set out from the pier in Philippe Park and instead of going towards the bay we went left under the 580.  I’ve never gone over there before just because we tend to head towards the bay hoping to see wildlife.  Kayaking under the road while cars are breezing overhead is pretty neat.  Whenever I kayak near a bridge it makes me think of driving to work and looking over to see someone boating.   Always a wish I was there moment.

On the other side of the road is a train track you could go under and just a large peaceful area to drift in. We didn’t go as far as the tracks though, I definitely want to go explore over there another time. We saw a bald eagle fly right over us; I’m always amazed to see one. 

When we headed back we had to wait to go in because a boat was being put in the water.  While waiting we saw a dolphin a ways away, so of course decided to head back out.  They never go too close but there were a few of them jumping and playing pretty close to the park. I knew we’d see dolphins since I forgot my camera!

I think that makes it officially kayaking season again, I am so glad winters are short and mild here!

After that we stopped in for lunch at the Bar and Grill we usually go to.  It’s so nice to be able to stop in a restaurant still wet from the bay and no one says a word, they just point you to a table and bring coffee.  Just another positive about living in vacation land!

I’m already planning my next outing, looking for new places to set out from in the area.

I started the 100 pushup challenge on the 4th. Tomorrow I’ll be doing the last day of week 2. I have to say, it’s do-able but brutal. It went from intervals that added up to 24 to doing 71 last night! The most in a row was 17 though. May I just say 17 is a LOT? My form kind of went to hell on the last 2 or 3. I’m going to try and do W3D3 tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be re-doing this week.

That’s not a bad thing though. The bad thing would be to give up. Which, actually, I’ve done before. This time I decided to start easier and I am going through the plan using modified pushups. My plan is to get to the end of the program and then start over from the beginning doing regular (real?) pushups.

I always say that people should start from where they are, but the idea of actually doing it myself seems to have completely slipped my grasp until lately.

Starting from the beginning really worked for me running barefoot. I’ve skipped from the walk/run program to the run/walk program (confusing much?) in the book I bought, Running for Mortals. I have to admit I also skipped a few days here and there. But overall I have been following the plan and when I am sore I take days off until I’m not and that is really working for me.

I’m already running as far as I was before I hurt my hip and started running barefoot. I am progressing as slowly as I need to to get used to the barefoot thing and I am finding that the simple act of adding a minute of walking here and there makes running not only less intimidating, but also easier to progress.

So far the only aches I’ve had since running barefoot are my actual feet and sometimes ankles. But it’s not an I hurt myself ache, it’s an I’m using muscles that didn’t know they were there ache.

Hmm. Turns out my advice isn’t half bad. Maybe I should start taking it more often.

Went and did the Pirate Booty Hunt at Varn Ranch in Plant City last weekend. It was definitely different than any other run I’ve done yet. Three and a half miles, but I don’t think anyone ran the whole thing. The trick was you had to look for little pirate chests that could be traded in for booty.

It started on a narrow path – we had to walk because everyone in front of us was and there wasn’t any way around without being a bit pushy. But soon enough the dirt road opened up and everyone was able to space out a bit.

They put little orange flags all along the path to follow, and pirate signs that meant time to start searching! Around those everyone spread out off the path looking for the booty. My friend’s daughter found one that got her a entry to another Beach Beast run, can’t beat that!

What made it fun is the flags led us completely off the path quite a bit, through the trees and close enough to the swamp that the water was coming in my shoes. I kept my eyes open for alligators or snakes but all I saw was ample evidence of cattle that had been there. I had asked if it was barefoot friendly and was told there were no rules against it but they’d prefer no one ran barefoot. Gotta respect the people putting on the race and due to the frequent cattle bombs I’m kind of glad I did!

I have finally stopped cycling once every three or four months and started riding a couple times a week. Not seriously, just about 30 minute at a time. When I rode completely randomly I’d ride way too far and then want to die or at least not walk for a few days when I was done. I’m being a bit more reasonable now.

But here’s the thing. I can’t find ANYTHING about how I’m supposed to be doing this. I don’t know how I’m supposed to sit, what to do with the gears, or why so many people have those bikes were they lean forward against the handlebars. Not a clue.

Go Google running and you will find 400,000 plans to follow depending on your goals. You’ll find you should relax your shoulders, not cross your arms in front of your body, and hold your hands relaxed like you’re holding raw eggs. Google barefoot running and you’ll find you should NOT heal strike; you SHOULD run tall and look where you are going (not down) and all kinds of other interesting tips.

Now Google cycling. You can find how to choose a bike. Who cares? I already have a super groovy radio flyer looking bike my mom got me at Walmart for my birthday a few years ago. You can find how to change a tire. OK, that’s good stuff. I watched the videos and poured through the articles a few times. But that’s about it. Is there no particular form you are supposed to strive for when cycling? No tips and tricks, no way to hold your arms, no warnings to relax your shoulders or anything else. Is it really that easy? Just get on your bike and ride?

Somehow I think not. Maybe you have to be in a secret circle to learn this stuff. So my current goal is to figure it out. What DO you do with those gear things? One way and it’s too easy to spin the pedals, the other way it’s too hard, sounds like a losing proposition to me.

But I WILL find out. Stupid secret circles.

Saturday my sister called to let me know she had rented a camping spot at the lake about 5 minutes up the road and wanted to know if we wanted to go with her. Mind you she didn’t want to SLEEP there, just hang out until we were ready to go home and sleep in our warm beds.

A five minute drive and I get clothes that smell like a camp fire AND s’mores? I’m in!

After s’mores we got bored of course (no food?) and decided to drive over to the very long more-grass-where-there-used-to-be-a-lake-than-lake pier. A fun trick we’ve found since living in Florida is that if you shine a light at an alligator you will see the red reflect off its eyes, it’s an easy way to find them in the dark.

We saw one and were properly awestruck (Arizona-ans never seem to get over Florida stuff). Then it decided to check out the light being shone on it and swam right up to the pier. Very cool! Except that my mom was quite convinced that alligators could jump and tried to convince us it would jump 20 feet straight up to get us on the pier. Sometimes I think she’s crazy gullible, sometimes I think she gets us with more jokes than we will ever know.

Anyway, on the way back we saw more eyes and my dad turned the truck to watch what turned out to be a rabbit in the woods. After being silly amused at watching a rabbit for a while we turned away and saw a bobcat that was also watching the rabbit. I don’t care what state you are from, that’s dang cool. It was looking at us over a little log for a minute or two, probably thinking of how he could repay us for scaring away the rabbit.

Why is it that when I bring my camera I see pretty flowers and when I don’t I see everything else?

I can’t believe I haven’t posted in two weeks. Not because I am so consistent in writing here, but because I usually write when I run and stop writing when I stop running. Which I’ve actually been doing consistently!

I have been running ever since I decided to go barefoot, just kind of leaving the house and running till I didn’t feel like it anymore. That was getting me a bit further than a mile, but not much.

I was still more in the reading about running mood than an actually running mood, so I picked up another book, this time Running for Mortals, co written by The Penguin himself. I loved his articles in Running World!

The book is greatly motivating (as expected) and it has the biggest variety of running plans you can imagine. For 5 and 10K it has a walk, a walk/run plan, a run/walk plan, a run plan, and a kick butt run plan. I decided to swallow my shouldn’t-be-existing-anyways pride and start with a walk/run plan. To make myself feel a bit better about it I’m doing the 10K plan instead of the 5K plan. I started on the 12th, and actually haven’t missed a day yet! That’s somewhat miraculous for me.

I squished and modified the first few weeks into two, and will be starting week 5 next Sunday. No further modifications though, I want to be sure not to overdo it and not to hurt myself. I keep reading that a relatively lot of people get stress fractures in their feet barefoot running and though I don’t know exactly what that is I DO know exactly that I don’t want to find out personally.

There are a few things that are making this work and helping me stay consistent when I usually wouldn’t.

• Running barefoot is new to me and just fun
• All but one night of my no-run nights I bicycle
• I’ve never ridden steadily so it’s double the fun and double the I’m actually getting better at something
• It’s written down on a paper calendar, so I get to cross each day off. I love to cross things off a list!
• The running days go back and forth between harder and easier days, so I’m not ALWAYS trying to do better than the day before, some days are just easy-breezy
• The plan calls for running 4 days a week starting this week, which I’ve never done before!

Long story short, I’m easy to amuse and always have been. But also, it’s nice to have a running plan to follow. I haven’t done that since starting running with the Couch to 5K program.

This is a (squished) 10 week plan, I’m hoping I can last the whole thing, and then move on to something a lot more running and a lot less walking. Every time I look at the plan my mind wants to start cutting out weeks, but I am going to try and follow it pretty close so I don’t end up hurting something.

Did I say I was going to keep that short?

I hate to admit it, but I am not generally a people person. People are just so mean and rude; it makes me crazy and a bit ashamed to be one of us sometimes. But as great as I can be (being human and all) at having a negative attitude someone always has to come around and change it.

Tonight I was heading out to the dentist’s at the last minute, of course. I have to drive quite a ways down a narrow, one lane in each direction road to get there and not far down it there was a car parked funny almost in the trees off the side of the road and a guy standing in the road, waving his arms.

My bad karma thought process… car jackers? An accident? Why are they making us stop when I have somewhere to be in 20 minutes and I see someone with a cell phone?

As it turned out there was an electric wire down, right across the road from windshield height to the ground as it crossed, completely blocking the road and strategically placed to cause a horrible accident. These people had seen it about a minute before we came up the road and stopped what they were doing to direct traffic in both directions around the wire. We could only pass on one side of the road so the 2 directions had to take turns to get by.

I find it amazing that there were about 10 strangers there working together to make sure everyone else was safe. After all, they too were driving somewhere and they could have just driven around it and went on.

I don’t know if I am just easy to impress or not, but it seemed like a really big deal to me.

I see people go out of their way for others fairly often here, though usually it’s for animals. There’s a lot of opportunity for that in Florida! I’ve seen a semi pulled over while the rough and tough looking driver carried a big turtle to the side of the road, people stop for ducks, deer too close to the edge of the road, even a big alligator once.

My favorite was a red corvette that whipped past me on that same narrow road. He was in such a hurry I jumped when he went by because he wasn’t even in my rear view mirror a minute before. Then I came around a corner and he was just stopped. Why? We waited about 5 minutes while a couple of sand cranes walked slowly across the road.

I saw these cranes at the lake, not crossing the road (insert joke here) but still. Kind of makes you all warm and fuzzy doesn’t it?