Dana Burland

This year was my first doing the Troy Turkey Trot. That is such a nice race. It's close to where we stay while in town, well organized, easy parking, good music, good mood and good weather. I'll be back again for sure. I've been on my workout routine, but it's not running specific. I certainly had enough of a base to tackle this 5K, but my goal wasn't to PR, it was to run strong and steady, to have fun and challenge myself. And I did! Mile 1 felt really strong, and same with mile 2. I needed to pull back a bit on the last mile to not over do it, but still had enough in the tank for a super strong finish.  My overall time was 27:07. If I hadn't accidentally entered the race as a Male I would have placed 12 in my age group. If I had ran 8 seconds faster I would have been under 27.  Oh well! I enjoyed the route, the crowd, and gained another year of being immensely grateful for my body & health which allows me to do silly Turkey Trots and more.

Do you need a between-end-of-summer-and-holiday-season reason to get together with buddies? If so, I highly suggest a soup party. This is not my idea. This is the brilliant idea of my good friends Jill & Dave. They've been throwing an annual soup party in Eastern Pennsylvania for a few years now, and I finally got my act together to put together a West Michigan version. The premise: invite several families over, ask them to make whatever soup they'd like (preferably with a little group communication so you don't have 15 chicken noodle soups), and prepare to feast. Our entries this year were: Tinola (a chicken, ginger, broth Filipino soup) Mexican corn chowder Chili French onion soup Wild rice soup We had 3 other families over, making for 9 total adults and 8 kids.  I put together a basic salad and a big bowl of rolls. We had wine flowing and my brother made a signature cocktail--hot chocolate with peppermint vodka.  It was a blast. Everyone was re...

Today my extended family met up at the cemetery, around my Grandpa's newly placed headstone . I bought a bag of rocks, so did my Dad, so did my Auntie Marian.  It's one of the Jewish traditions that resonates lots with me. My Dad read something prepared by the Rabbi who spoke at my Grandpa's funeral. I loved what he wrote, and wanted to keep it here: It is customary for Jews to place a stone by the graveside of one they respect and love. Some say that this is just a marker to commemorate the visit. Some say that it is to weigh down the spirits of grief that haunt us, anchoring our pain so that we do not dismiss our destiny and walk the path of a mourner forever.  I like to believe that the stone has more to do with "foundation", the first brick laid in building a future that at one time seemed inconceivable: a future where he is not at the table--at our side, a phone call away--a world without his radiance. That future once seemed inconceivable but here we are an...

Ya know... we didn't love Cleveland.  Last weekend we took a long weekend trip there with another couple. We needed a near-by-ish, drivable city, and wanted to explore somewhere new. Google made Cleveland look like it had some fun weekend potential.  And maybe if we stayed in a different part? Or explored further? I don't know... trying to cut the city some slack here, because what we experienced downtown and around that area was real "eh". However, the company was A+! We always have a good time on a kid-less, friend-filled few days away. And we made the most of it as best as we could.  Ohio City was a spot we spent most of our time in. It was fun to duck in and out of breweries, restaurants (Townhall shout out!), go duck pin bowling, enjoy Mitchell's Ice Cream and to explore the West End Market. If I played my cards better we should have picked up a few odds and ends from the market for a solid in-AirBnB Cleveland inspired dinner. Cuyahoga Valley National Park wa...

Weeeee this year was another one for the memory books! This was our 3rd annual? 4th annual? at home Halloween party with our good family friends/old neighbors.  Again I made Pinch of Yum's queso chicken chili . Again I made a pumpkin snack plate. Again I threw a few drops of green food coloring in a pitcher of lemon-aid and called it Goblin Juice. And again we had an absolutely wild A+ time.  C- on my pumpkin face this year, don't you think? Ah well. This year C was Black Panther (a super hero), A was Blippi (a kid's TV show character), Ben was an inflatable man riding a dinosaur and I was Wonder Woman.  5-year-old C ran basically sprinting speed through almost all of the neighborhood before stopping back home for a snack and bathroom break which turned into a "eh, I'm done" conclusion. 2.5-year-old A made it to about 10-12 houses, all on his own two feet much to his dismay ("uppies, please!!"). Good records set by both. By the end of the night the h...