Happy Halloween!

The 10K race wasn't in our stars today, so we will be running at the trail at Allie's soccer field in a little while - it is a crisp and sunny beautiful fall day. I am in my running outfit and feeling a lot fitter than I did at 2:45 this morning when I first woke up - oh jetlag! I will be ready for a nap this afternoon I think but we need to get ready for our road trip to San Diego, which starts tomorrow.

A HUGE congratulations to Jenny and Mark who both ran PR's in their half marathon this morning - Jenny also placed 2nd in her age group and Mark placed 3rd in his Master's age group - WOW - I am sure proud of my fast sister and speedy brother-in-law! I envision both of them running Boston this spring! Be sure to check their blogs (on my blogroll at left) for their race reports later today.

Landed!

Wednesday morning I still got my last workout in at the gym, but things were so hectic that I never had a chance to blog before I left. I had a smooth flight from Brussels to Washington, the flight from Washington to Dallas was very bumpy and came in two hours late, due to tornados in Louisiana. But it was all worth it to be welcomed home by Mom, Dad, Christy and Allie, where there was a delicious vegan birthday cake waiting for me - Pumpkin Crumb Cake with Pecan Struesel from Veganomicon - mmmmm! And some very nice presents too!

Today will be a lazy day and running some errands, tomorrow (weather permitting) we'll be running a 10K in Las Colinas and watching Allie's soccer game.

More craziness

No concerts this week, just lots of crazy errands. So to save time, I walked Felix to school, ran home (I always put my workout clothes on when I get up on days I plan to work out, so I have one less excuse not to get it done, so I had my running shoes on already!) and immediately started doing my usual Monday workout at home, modifying here and there for the gym machines I didn't have. I couldn't believe actually how much of sweat I managed to work up! It still took me 80 minutes, but at least I saved the get there and back time, the locker room time, and the chit chat time!

Now I am off to get some things taken care of - why oh why do I always think I will have plenty of time and leave everything til the last minute???

Just make it four!

Friday night we were at the Frank Vander Linden concert, and the second song starts and my phone starts vibrating - holy crap, my first reaction is that the kids are calling and something happened, like someone decided to climb on the roof, the TV exploded, the hamster escaped or something disastrous (we were a ten minute walk away from our house, just so no one thinks we are totally irresponsible parents!). I don't dare to get up and leave to answer it, so once it stops vibrating I look to see who it was, and to my great relief, I see it was a message from our piano teacher Pieter - phew! The funny thing was, it was a message to invite us to see his band perform on Saturday evening because they made it to the semi finals of the Nekka competition, a pretty prestigious competition for pop and rock bands that sing in Dutch. Another concert to be added to this crazy week - why not? Just make it four!

Luckily I could then relax and really enjoy Frank Vander Linder, who was great. Just him and his guitar, and his beautiful songs. It was a small venue, and at the end he sang his last song standing on a chair two feet away from us. Wow! We even bumped into a couple we know, parents of one of Felix's friends, and went out for a drink with them afterwards. It was a very nice evening.

So last night I took my two oldest boys to see Pieter's band, Levien, compete in the Nekka competion. It took place right downtown in the beautiful city theater in Leuven, so it was easy for us to walk down to (one of the great things about living in Leuven - we walked to every concert we went to this week). He had told us he was playing second so I was thinking we could just see him and then head home again, but we were having such a good time seeing the different groups perform, that we stayed to see all ten of them. It was great to see Pieter behind the piano, we were very proud! Levien's songs were excellent, if you click on the link above you can listen to them. They even have their first song being played on the radio here! Each band got to perform two songs, and they were all very different, and all very professional artists. I think it will be difficult for the jury to choose the finalists, but of course we are hoping Pieter's band makes it - the winning group gets a record contract!

Luckily it was time to change the clocks last night, otherwise it would have been harder to get up and get to the lake to run at a reasonable hour, after our two late nights. But we did and it was well worth it, as it was perfect running weather. I was determined to run 10K, since the plan is to run a 10K race in Texas next Saturday, and I wanted to get the distance in my legs at least once before I leave. It went quite well, even though my legs felt tired towards the end, but it reminded me of my Monday workouts where I have to get back on the treadmill for those last five minutes of fast running after doing all those lower body resistance exercises and my legs feel so shot! Doing those five minutes on Mondays, and telling myself that I CAN do it even though I feel tired has been great training for pressing on in spite of having that feeling in your legs that they are made out of cement! We ended up doing our ten kilometers in about 70 minutes, nice and easy with regular walking breaks. I really wonder how I will feel next Saturday with jet lag and time change, but I hope I can get a good time. We shall see.

And now I need to go get a shower and lunch so we can go to our last concert of the week - number four! - but the lucky thing is, we only have to cross the street to get to this one - it is at our neighbor's house, will be cello and piano, and is being held to raise money for a charity. Should be a very relaxing end to a wild and crazy week! Hope you all have a great Sunday!

Crazy culture week

Why does it always seem like special events seem to be clumped together, instead of nicely spaced out? By Sunday I will have been to two musuems and three concerts, aside from my usual daily life and getting ready to leave on top of that.

The Nouvelle Vague concert was a blast! Neither one of us were expecting them to be so good live, but it was a very entertaining evening. I loved their version of "So Lonely" by the Police, and Stefaan got a huge kick out of hearing their covers of the Dead Kennedys, Bauhaus and the Sex Pistols. Here is another link to them singing Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Yesterday Kristel and I went into Brussels to see the Magritte musuem. It's a permanent new museum that just opened this summer, but I had two free tickets that expire the end of October, so I really wanted to go before leaving. We really enjoyed it, the musuem is incredible - well organized in chronological order, with lots of information on René Magritte's life and times, his wife Georgette, their group of friends, and most of all, his beautiful works of art (see above). We ended up having lunch at one of the most spetacular views in Brussels - the Musical Instrument Musuem's Café on the 10th floor, where you can see all the Brussels landmarks, including the Atomium from your table. It ended up being a great day out.

Today I got off to the gym in time to do my upper body weights before the Zumba class, which seems to be getting harder everytime I go - the teacher keeps on adding steps and variations to the songs. Well, at least it won't get boring!

Tonight Stefaan and I are going to concert number two for the week to see Frank Van der Linden, a Belgian musician who used to front the group "De Mens" but recently released a solo album. Stefaan actually purchased the CD (a good sign) and played it a ton this year, so most of the songs will sound very familiar! Here is a link to one of his new songs, Nachtwaker.

Finally!

Yesterday my friend Catherine and I visited the Rogier Van der Weyden exhibition at the brand new art museum here in Leuven. We couldn't believe how busy the museum was, but the exhibition was well worth braving the crowds - there were several incredible paintings there. Rogier Van der Weyden was one of the so-called Flemish primitive painters in the 15th century, but his work was anything but what you would call primitive - on the contrary, it is exquisite.

So today, finally, I got to get one of the Wednesday workouts in from my Matt Roberts program. I had missed the first two weeks with Felix always being home sick. The first part of the workout is a 26 minute HIIT run, which went really well - it felt good to run. Then there is a circuit of 9 resistance exercises, alternating upper and lower body, which you do twice. After that another 11 minutes of cardio intervals, which I did on the elliptical. Finally 6 ab/core exercises, which are also done twice. Phew! It was super busy at the gym because they had a group of students who were learning how to use everything.

Tonight Stefaan and I are going to see Nouvelle Vague in concert here in Leuven - he surprised me last night when he came home with two tickets! Nouvelle Vague is a French group who do covers of 80' new wave and punk songs in bossa nova style - really eclectic and fun. Here is a link to them performing "Blister in the Sun" by the Violent Femmes - remember that song? They have three albums out, with things from Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, the Sex Pistols, etc.

Now I am off to plant the tulip bulbs that arrived last week from the Netherlands - Dad ordered us a selection when we visited Keukenhof in May and there are 120 of them in the box! Thankfully the weather is really nice today, perfect for being outside in the fresh air.

Boo-day!

My mom always made the coolest birthday cakes!