"Dad, you are such a girl"

I got this comment from my son when I came home from vacation and decided to buy this:

This is one of a pair of Asic's Gel Cumulus 15s which got great reviews on Runner's world - http://www.runnersworld.com/shoe/asics-gel-cumulus-15-mens
My son is a bit sexist and he doesn't get it from me.  His comment comes from a perceived bias that women like to own more shoes then men.  I'm not sure that is the case, but I do remember Imelda Marcos, and here impressive array of shoes. 

Okay, okay, in the past year of running, my first year of running, I may have managed to acquire a few additional shoes.  When I first started running with my dogs, I just wore my New Balance generic sneakers.  Here are my dogs - Wally, then Poppy.

 

Cameras make Wally nervous, actually lots of things make Wally nervous.  He really blends into the wall and floor - great camouflage for a nervous dog.

Don't they look like they are ready for a run?  Yeah, for about 3 miles, and that is about it.

I decided I needed real running shoes to protect my poor feet from injury and bought a pair of Saucony's at the local Big 5 store and actually put several hundred miles on them:

They were a bit too narrow (10D) but otherwise comfortable.

 Then I decided I was an overpronator/undersupinator or something and bought these:

 They have become great walking shoes, and the cushion is amazing, but running in them hurts my gastrocnemius, soleus and peroneus muscles (calves).  I decided I wasn't an overpronator and these stability shoes with their amazing cushion and rollbar (or some sort of bar) were likely to lead me down injury lane.

I drank some Koolaid and read:

 

 

So suddenly I wanted to run Ultramarathons barefooted in some remote place, well, no.  It is a great read and goes into some depth on the shoe industry, injuries, motion control and stability shoes.  It advocated for at least a minimal shoe.  Still, with my 50th birthday just around the corner I though I should have some shoes with a little arch support and bought these:  

 

Nice shoes, very light, not enough comfort for me on the long run and they only had them in a size 10D.  It was fun going to the outlet stores and looking at a lot of shoes though. I have wide feet and prefer a 10EE.  At least I resisted ordering the five toe shoes:

 

I just couldn't take myself seriously running in them, and the lack of cushioning...ugh. 

 

Don't ask me about the sandals, I still had a sugar high on the Koolaid when I ordered them online.  Still, they were good travel sandals on the RV vacation.

Still feeling the Koolaid, I ordered the below minimal shoes for trail work on my vacation. 

I was so enamored with them I wore them on my first half-marathon, big mistake, but I recovered.  Too minimal on the cushion for running, but great trail shoes for short hikes.  The zero heel to toe drop was also an interesting feature.

Finally, while on vacation, at spots where we had WiFi, I started researching neutral, cushioned shoes and settled on the Gel Cumulus in a 10EE.  I just ran in them today and you can see the dirt in the above picture. they were awesome, like walking on...clouds...  I didn't go for the Nimbus because:

1. They were more expensive - I got a great deal online for the Cumulus
2. They struck me as being for a bigger runner - I lost weight over vacation and now hover around 143 pounds.

Did I mention that I've started looking at running shorts, shirts, pants, gloves, etcetera?

Culinary

I finally thawed the ham from the Gloucester Old Spot we bought in February.  It was supposed to have the skin still on it:

 Above you can see it has no skin and it is square.  I like that fact that I am now getting free-range pork, not so happy with the butcher that we have to work with.  They don't even know what a Capicola cut is, sheesh!

I decide to debone the ham since prosciutto is out of the question:

 You can see the femur above.  Did I mention that I am an Anatomist?

Below the femur and what remained of the Os coxae is removed. 

I salted the smaller piece on the right, the larger piece on the left I was able to reduce to two pieces along natural fascia, or muscle divisions.  The largest I will smoke on the Primo and the smaller will be salt cured for drying in the wine fridge.  For the dry cure I went with a 3% salt cure, the other two pieces destined for the smoker had a 2% salt cure.  I used 0.25% pink salt on all three pieces to give them a ham flavor.

My principal training is in Microbiology, so I have a handle on all the safety issues of dealing with raw pork.  When I set up the dry cure I will post again, but the real expert on this process who keeps a regular blog is here.

Anybody want to guess what I'm going to do with the bone?