Pining for the Fjords

This past Tuesday night, our tv roster became a bit quieter (and rather a lot sadder) as we bid adieu to both Parks and Recreation and Agent Carter .  Parks has been one of my favorite shows since it premiered a few years back, and although Agent Carter’s run was brief, I really enjoyed watching all eight episodes, and I hope it comes back for subsequent seasons.  In addition to closing out their seasons/series on the same night, I wanted to write about these shows together as both center around the strong female characters I love to watch. Word, sister. Although I’m not old and decrepit yet,** I’ve seen huge changes in the way female characters have been presented in tv shows over my lifetime, and these two shows are exemplars of an ideal we can continue to strive for.  I remember growing up, watching great shows like Roseanne and Murphy Brown , where strong female characters were the cause of controversy (how dare Roseanne act gross, like a man?  How dare Murphy decid

Ah, mid-February in Arizona.  The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, it’s around 80 degrees, and everyone’s thoughts turn to love…of craft beer, that is!  Whee! For one week (although it’s been expanding a few days longer each year, it seems), Arizona celebrates local craft beer and brewing with a slew* of events, including festivals, tappings of rare and unique brews, beer pairing dinners, and other random gatherings geared at the craft beer enthusiast.  This is our third year celebrating AZ Beer Week, and I thought I’d share what we’ve been up to over the past 10 days or so. Thursday, February 12 th We started Beer Week 2015 at our closest craft brewery (and one of the newest in AZ, as well), Dubina Brewing.  We’ve been to Dubina a handful of times since they opened about six months ago,** and we’ve consistently been impressed with their friendly staff, solid food and beverage offerings, and innovative spirit that extends to all parts of the operation.  Dubina c

I know that most of my readers to this blog aren’t really coming here for insightful commentary on politics or religion or world events.*  However, I’ve been spending most of the past week and a half in and out of doctor’s offices, mainly for a chest cold that’s been causing me to cough up all sorts of exciting things, but also to my GI doc to start crafting a plan to better address issues that have occurred “down south” during recent races.**  This immersion into an area where I (very thankfully) don’t normally have to venture has gotten me thinking about the whole measles/vaccination thing. In reading through the information on the subject, which mainly consists of what friends are posting to Facebook, I think I understand why folks are fired up.  I get that some people prefer not to vaccinate their kids due to the link that they feel exists between vaccines and autism, and I get that in some cases, resistance to vaccinations comes from a place of faith or religion.  I also get

Well, as ya’ll* know, I finished the P.F. Chang’s marathon a few weeks ago, and even though I didn’t hit my goal or set a new PR, I still finished with a respectable time for someone of my running caliber.  Thus, it’s now time to set some new goals and start working toward those, with Coach’s help, of course. For the near future, I’m working my way through all of the City of Peoria Runners’ Series races, and I’ll hopefully continue to place in my age group and/or set some personal bests in those.  For example, the Super Day 10K race was held this past Sunday (before the Super Bowl), and I maintained an average 8:22 pace (52:52 total), good for a 10K PR and 3 rd in my age group.**  The series has another six races through mid-June, and I’m planning on running each of them, ranging from a standard 5K to a trail run to a half marathon. As far as my 2015 marathon planning goes, I’m tentatively eyeing the Marine Corps Marathon.  The MCM takes place every year in October in and ar