Top 8 From 2008

a Wandering Illustrator recap, if you will.

(in no particular order...except maybe the top 3)

8. Started running
7. Memorial Day weekend in L.A.
6. Seattle and Vancouver with the ladies
5. Indiana to see Aunnee and Heath
4. Bought a house (and a car)
3. Surprised Bea for his play
2. Emmalyn Louise entered the world
aaaaaaaand the number one event of 2008:
1. I ran a freaking MARATHON!

Wow, it has definitely been a busy year - and a good one. Thanks for reading along. :)

Here's hoping you all have a fantastic 2009!

Still Alive

posts a-brewing.

In the meantime...
...I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Who wants to do something for New Year's Eve?

Sigh.

Jim: How Many Shoes Do You Need?

Dwight: I don't know. Two, maybe three if one wears out. How many shoes do you need?

I went to the mall tonight. I hate the mall. I hate the crowds and the pushy kiosk vendors and the never-ending parade of stores that don't carry pants in tall sizes. I hate the onslaught of store credit card offers and the tittering packs of middle-schoolers shuffling around. I hate it. But...I love finding an awesome bargain. And tonight, I hit the mother lode. Ann Taylor Loft. Four pairs of super-cute flats. $200 worth of shoes. For 20 bucks. $20. Total. Wizard.

I had no luck finding pants though. I mean, come on - how hard is it to find a pair of dark brown, tall-length, non-dressy pants? Turns out: very.

This Is Me Trying To Blog More.

so you get posts like this with scattered bits of information that you probably already know.

I had to crawl around in my attic last night to (hopefully) fix a water softener leak that was causing water to run down the wall in my bathroom. This required quite a bit of crawling and contortions to maneuver past two-by-fours and protruding nails and fiberglass insulation. As I was telling htd and the Bea, it was like that scene from Entrapment with Catherine Zeta-Jones and the string "lasers"...only the non-sexy version.

Some guy wasn't paying attention in stop and go traffic and ran into the back of my car on the way to work yesterday morning. I was PISSED. But it didn't do any damage and, as Bree so astutely pointed out, the FIT is still GO.

I watched two movies this past weekend that have been sitting on my shelf waiting to be watched for a couple years at least. The first one was Sleepers - a really intense movie with a pretty incredible cast and some fantastic acting. I'd recommend it. The other was Suicide Kings - I still haven't finished it (I had to go pick up my cousin from the airport), but my sister and parents tell me I didn't miss much. And then we all went to see Four Christmases. It was pretty funny with the usual just-over-the-line moments. I'd say if you liked Meet the Parents, you'd probably like this movie.

I signed up tonight for a 5K at the fancy little shopping/theater district in Mesa next weekend. It's called the Jingle Bell Walk, but it's really a walk/run. It seems like the perfect way to get back into "racing" before I'm staring down the barrel of the P.F. Chang's half marathon next month.

If you've ever wondered what the literal version of A-Ha's music video for the song Take On Me might sound like, you should go here. "I'm gonna kick some ass with my own pipe-wrench."

Band montage!

A Thanksgiving Feast

in words and pictures. (mostly pictures)

(htd, you will notice that I snagged the pictures from your camera. It was sitting right next to me, so I took the opportunity. And guess what?? I love you I love you I LOVE YOU!!!!) (for all of you gagging right now, that was from Elf, so really, you should be laughing.)

Herbed Turkey Breast (me)
















Aunt Jeanette's Egg Rolls *not the Chinese variety* (htd)
















Classic Green Bean Casserole(me)
















The Family Favorite (Pops)
















I say Dressing (me)
















Jello Fruit Salad (htd)
















Pumpkin Pie (htd)
















Traditional Thanksgiving Trifle (htd)

Bad Poetry?

Oh Noetry!

My sister has a magnetic board with little words on it that you can arrange into sentences and poems and whatnot. Dad started it off yesterday and by this evening all four of us had come up with poems (some more serious than others). Although, it was harder for the last couple of people (read: me) because there were fewer words. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Enjoy.

Pops:
I am a concrete man &
happy to make you house
in the summer or autumn.

Mom:
her morning walk in garden green
with dandelion wind flying full
so dream could stream before
no sad thought blossom there

me:
I want television
people
sound
journey
watch.

htd:
black windows
must be wildest
between snowy dawns
and we almost hear winter
listen he said
as very stilly
night melts me

Hmm. Who are the real poets, I wonder? :)

Slanted Thanksgiving Traditions

tilted so they tumbled southwest.

I am hosting Thanksgiving at my new house this year. My parents arrived just before midnight on Tuesday night. My cousin was here for a night and will be back tomorrow. My brother and sister-in-law and niece would have been here if ticket prices had cooperated. My sister and I totally cooked Thanksgiving dinner. HTD made fruit salad and rolls and pumpkin pie from scratch. I made a turkey and dressing and green bean casserole and mashed potatoes and gravy and...and...and... Pictures are forthcoming (what, like we wouldn't document the one time we actually cooked?).

The house has been filled with that unscented aroma of home, which is strange because in my mind, even now that I have a house of my own, home is still my parents' place in Nebraska. Having them here seems to have brought a little of that homestead magic to the Valley of the Sun. I think a large part of it is the holiday traditions that we continued down here. The food, the laughter, the good-natured teasing, Dad working on fix-it projects, Mom finding holiday bargains, decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, watching/reciting National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation after the tree is trimmed - it all adds a bit to that feeling of home.

I love that a little of that warmth has trickled down to my house.

Some Nights

it's the little things that make us happy.

This is the first weekend in pretty much forever that I haven't had something planned to do. And I am LOVING it. These are the things that are making me happy right now:

1. Sweatpants.
2. Zion Lutheran School 6th grade spring musical t-shirt from 1994.
3. Giant brownie from Whole Foods.
4. TV on DVD.

Bliss.

And, last weekend I did this:

So I Was Playing Scrabble With Bea

and tried to make the word "ok."

Check out the box that popped up (I circled it for you).

See anything wrong with that situation? I do.

Whenever I'm Sick

I just stop being sick and be awesome instead.
--Barney Stinson

I tried that. It didn't work. I may have gotten partway there but now I'm stuck in some sort of sick/awesome limbo. Which is why I'm at home at 12:32 on a Tuesday, sitting on my couch watching TV on DVD and sorting through a monstrous pile of mail.

In spite of my lovely hacking cough and overflowing nose (...overflowing with AWESOME), I am pretty excited about sorting through the mail and homebuying documents. I bought a file cabinet the other day, and multi-colored file folders. There's going to be labeling. And organizing. Yesssssss.

Also, here is a picture of my niece having a freakin' ball at the pumpkin patch.

Here's How You Run A Marathon:

Step 1: You start running.
There is no Step 2.
--Barney Stinson

Well isn't THAT the truth. This past Sunday I ran the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. That's right - I RAN A MARATHON!! 26.2 miles, y'all!

Holy crap was that a long run. But it was so much FUN! (well, maybe not miles 21-25...)

WARNING: long post ahead. (and props to htd for most of the photos)

Htd and I started out the weekend in San Francisco by flying in on Friday morning with the rest of our Phoenix-area Team in Training team. After we had checked into our hotel downtown, we walked over to Union Square to hit up the Expotique, get all checked in for the race, and do a little (ok, a lot) of shopping for cute race-related gear at Niketown. For race weekend, the entire outer wall of Niketown is covered with the names of all 20,000 people running the marathon. Htd and I found our names, bought some hoodies, and headed back to the hotel to meet up with our friends who had flown in to spend some time in SF and cheer us on on Sunday.

Friday afternoon, the five of us spent some time at Fisherman's wharf - an expedition that included sea lions, really good clam chowder, and a bunch of saltwater taffy. Then we caught our ferry over to Alcatraz, where we took a surprisingly impressive audio walking tour. You get a personal headset and follow the directions through the compound while actual Alcatraz prison guards and inmates narrate the history of the prison. We all caught the ferry back to the mainland and met up with a couple friends of mine who live in the area and ate some amazing Thai food at an authentic Thai restaurant - no shoes allowed and reeeeeeally low tables.

Saturday we explored Haight-Ashbury, the hippie sector of San Francisco. We did some earthy, granola-y shopping, met an actual leftover hippie, saw the Grateful Dead house, dodged a few crazies, and spent some quality shopping time in an awesome music store, Amoeba Records. Then we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and took some photos. By then it was time for htd and me to head back to the hotel so we would make it to the TNT-sponsored pasta party that night and get to bed early in preparation for the big race the next day.

We were up bright (well, dark) and early Sunday morning. Our team met down in the lobby at 5:30 and walked over to the start line at Union Square. It was a little surreal walking through the deserted (blocked off for the race) streets of pre-dawn San Francisco and knowing that in about 45 minutes, 20,000 people were going to be streaming down those same roads. We hit up the bag check buses, just happened to run into Brad, Ashley and Lorraine (the friends who flew in to cheer us on) on a street corner, found our corral/pace group, and toed up to the starting line (at least in theory - we were actually about two blocks away from the starting line).

At precisely 7:00 the starting gun went off and we began to slowly make our way to the start. The race was chip-timed, so my official race time didn't start until I crossed the blue mats and the chip tied to my shoe was electronically read. At about 7:06, I was off!

From Union Square, we headed through the still-dark streets of the financial district. After about a mile, we poured out into the Embarcadero and began the trek past all the piers. About mile 1.5 we hit the first live entertainment along the course, a full gospel choir singing their hearts out in the weak light of an overcast dawn. We continued along the edge of the peninsula, past Fisherman's Wharf and at about mile 2.5 we rounded a corner and heard the haunting strains of a group of bagpipers coming from the thick morning fog - our second entertainment of the course. Very awesome.

The miles continued to tick by - the course was flat and fast, my legs felt great and it was so much fun to be running with so many other people (other than occasionally having to maneuver around walkers). Then, at about mile 5.5, I rounded a corner and was met with the holy-crap-are-you-kidding-me sight of the upcoming hill. I knew there was going to be a mile and a half long hill at mile 6. But knowing and seeing are waaaay different animals. You could hear a collective moan from the runners when that hill came into view...until one lady off to my left shouted out "Don't worry about it, just do it! It's going to make your butt look AWESOME!!" Well that cracked everybody up and we began the looooong slog uphill. It seemed endless. Every time I was sure I had to be at the top, we'd round a corner and there was more hill in front of me. Ugh.

Somehow I finally made it to the top and was rewarded with a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The course turned sharply downhill for about three quarters of a mile, and then began another 2-mile ascent. My hamstrings were BURNING. Just before mile 10, I hit the pinnacle of the course with a nearly 350 foot drop over the course of half a mile in front of me. The view was breathtaking - there was the crashing waves of the ocean off to my right and the lush green of Golden Gate Park to my left. At that moment I felt extremely lucky to be doing what I was doing.

After the rapid descent, the course took a sharp left turn into Golden Gate Park, where there would be about a two mile section of steady incline. Just after mile 11, the half marathoners split off to head towards the finish line. It was amazing how much the crowd of runners thinned out after that. I hit mile 13 in about 2 1/2 hours, knocking more than a half an hour off of my half marathon time from August.

This entire section through the park, I was scanning the sidelines for Brad, Ashley and Lorraine - the shuttle was supposed to have dropped them off near mile 11, but I didn't see them. I was pretty bummed, assuming I had missed them altogether and wouldn't see them until the finish line. A few more miles ticked by and as I was nearing mile 16, the end of the park and where the course turns AWAY from the finish line to send you on a 10 mile loop down the highway, I heard some familiar yells - there they were! It was SO exciting to see familiar smiling faces cheering for me. I'm sure I had a ridiculously huge smile on my face as I ran by.

The next 10 miles were HARD. This part of the course consists of a 2 mile section along the Great Highway with neighborhoods and the zoo on one side and the ocean on the other, a six mile loop around the Lake Merced area, and back up that same 2 mile section of the Great Highway. Lake Merced SUCKS. You don't run BY the lake, you run AROUND it, in the street about a half a mile away. There are cars zooming by in the lane next to you, very few spectators, and, I swear, it was ALL uphill. I mean come on! Give us a break! Mile 22 was the Ghirardelli chocolate mile. Before the race I mentioned that I couldn't imagine wanting to eat chocolate after running 22 miles. Oh, I TOTALLY ate that chocolate.

At that point in the course, the race becomes more of a mental game than a physical one. You really have to focus on the goal, remember the reasons you are running, and just. keep. going. I picked out landmarks and told myself "ok, run to the next pedestrian crossing sign. ok, now run to that stoplight." After doing this for a couple miles, I passed a sign that said Mile 25. Mile 25? That meant I had 1.2 miles to go! I picked up the pace and was determined to run the rest of the way to the finish line. As I neared the finish, my coach, Johanna, found me and ran with me a ways just saying encouraging things. With a half a mile to go she said "You can do it! Go get 'em!" and sent me off to the finish line. Right then I saw Brad, Ashley, Lorraine and Haley (who had finished the half marathon a couple hours before) all cheering me on. I gave one last surge of speed and took off for the big pink finish line and the little blue boxes I could see beyond it. I crossed the finish line at about 12:55pm, 5 hours and 48 minutes after I started. I did it!

Now here's where the fact that this was a marathon geared towards women just shines through. Instead of the usual finisher's medal, I got a finisher's silver necklace, designed by Tiffany and Co. Yes, in the little blue box. Handed to me by a fireman. In a tuxedo. I know. I mean, look at that picture ladies. Le sigh. Nike said those firemen got over 200 marriage proposals that day. :) Then it was off to get my fitted finisher's t-shirt, the BEST BAGEL I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE, and the usual mylar blanket to ward off the cold ocean wind. Then I had to go check out at the Team in Training tent, met up with my posse, and got, literally, an armload of food and spent the next half an hour eating.

Monday, I was sore. OHHHHHHHH I was sore. I have never been so sore in all my life. It's like that episode of Friends where Joey has the hernia and every time he moves he makes that "hhheeekkkk" noise. Our friends took pity on us and, instead of doing walking activities, they just drove us down the coast. We got to sit in the car and enjoy beautiful views of the ocean from Hwy 1 and sit in an outdoor cafe and enjoy delicious food in Half Moon Bay. Bliss.

And now I'm back to my life here in Phoenix. I'm a little sad that it is all over, but so excited that I accomplished this huge goal I set out for myself back in January. And I'm hardly short on things to do. I have the new house to put together. I have a freelance project I'm working on in my "spare time." I'm headed to San Diego in a couple of weeks. And I've got to get my new training schedule figured out: the P.F. Chang's Half Marathon is coming up in January. :)

It's Just Running. It's Just... Far.

...right?

I'm headed to San Francisco in the morning for the marathon weekend. Pray for me on Sunday morning/early afternoon, ok? Thanks.

I'll let you know how it goes. :)

[whimper]

I Wish Life Had A Fast Forward Button.

I would speed ahead to next Sunday at 1:30pm, by which time I will either have finished the marathon or collapsed trying. (Please pray for the former.)

[I've literally sat here for the past seven minutes trying to put into words the sheer terror/excitement/wannagetitoverwithness that I am feeling right now. I think I'm just going to move on.]

Saturday was our very last long run with TNT. It was an easy 6-miler and the weather was BEAUTIFUL (seriously, it was about 72 degrees - bliss). I got a bit sad cresting that last little hill that brings me back into the park at the end of the run. As much as I'm not a morning person (still) and as tough as some of those runs were, I'm really going to miss meeting up with this group every week to knock out some mileage.

Top 5 memories from the group runs out on the canals:

1. The very thorough graffiti artists. There was this one tag that cracked me up every time I ran by it (until someone painted over it). It proclaimed in bright fuchsia paint:

[#$%@] the GPD (and all other authority)

I just love how they were so clear, making it obvious to the public that, not only do they hate the Gilbert Police Department, they ALSO hate other authority. Just in case we were wondering.

2. The speedwalking group. Swivel those hips, guys!

3. The friendly early-morning runners. Everyone I passed going the opposite direction had a greeting or a smile for their fellow runner. The bikers, on the other hand, are a surly lot. 98% of them zoom by without so much as a nod. Hrrmph.

4. The duck posse near the Pecos Rd. crossing. There are about 6 black ducks that swim around together and one all-white duck that kind of tags along: I call him Vanilla Ice.

5. The feeling of hitting the Warner Rd. crossing and knowing that after 12 or 14 or 16 miles, there were only two miles to go. Somehow, it always seemed to be the shortest two miles of the course.

And I'm Back In The Game!

It's been awhile, no?

Top 5 items from recent weeks:
1. I closed on my house! If you've never closed on a house before, it involves signing a lo-ot of papers. Well, I was three papers from the end when the Title company lady asked if I had been signing with my middle initial. I said "no, I never sign with my middle initial." She informed me that to be official, I would have to go back and re-sign all those papers using my middle initial. Awesome.
2. I moved! Yep, got all my stuff moved over to the new place. Htd and I decided we are awesome organizers, because it is simply mind-boggling the amount of stuff we had stored in our 10x10 bedrooms and little tiny living room. But we got it all moved, and I've been spending my spare time putting stuff away.
3. I did yard work! I don't think that one really deserves an exclamation point, but I'm keeping with the theme. I bought a lawn mower and mowed and raked my yard on Sunday afternoon. It was a little surreal - I felt like I was "playing grownups" or something. And now I have a wicked blister on my right thumb.
4. I ran at the gym! I've discovered the wonders of running short distances (4 miles or less) on the treadmills at the gym. I get my own tv and they have CABLE! (A luxury I won't be getting here at home for quite a while. $50 a month? Seriously? No thank you. I'll just stick with my internet.)
5. I met my fundraising goal! Yep, thanks to friends and family and acquaintances and coworkers and a few strangers (and quite a few of you readers out there), I raised $4250 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Wow.

K. Bed time. It's good to be back!

Twenty. Miles.

I did it.


(photo by htd.)

Haboob!

And a really great run.

While Texas was getting thwacked by Hurricane Ike last week, the Phoenix-area was experiencing a Haboob. What's a Haboob, you ask? THIS is a Haboob:

Yikes! I was standing at the gas pump when I saw this puppy rolling in. I hunkered down behind my wee little Fit until the gas stopped pumping and then fought the wind and dust to get home.

Saturday morning I ran the scheduled 10 miles out at South Mountain. If you recall, I did this same run back in June, only it was 8 miles then and it just about killed me. Now, three months later, I took off running at about 6am, ran 5 very hilly miles in one direction, turned around and ran 5 very hilly miles back. I even chatted with one of the coaches for about 3 of those miles. I trotted back into the parking lot about 8am, stretched a bit, and headed on home. Awesome! AND, it was a GORGEOUS morning - mid-70's to start, with a bit of a breeze and the view was just beautiful. Here is a map of my run:


And finally, this. is. great. "..nnnoooOOOO MINE!!"

September?

Really?

I'm going to go with...Sunday Snippets:

1. Emma: is ADORABLE! She might be the cutest baby who ever was. I could be a wee bit biased. Whatever. She's the best. I spent five days in Nebraska hanging with the family and getting in some quality Emma time. She was baptized that weekend - my sister-in-law's brother Jake is her Godfather and I get to be her Godmother (htd has dibs on the next one :). It was pretty great.

2. House: is in the works. Like, for real.

3. Running: is going well. I ran 18 miles on Saturday morning. (I know, right?) I think I'm doing pretty well at pacing myself and not starting off too quickly - I was able to run (with my usual "walk through the water stations" strategy) all the way through. Next weekend we're scheduled for 10 miles out at South Mountain (hills, hills, hills) and the weekend after it's the pinnacle of the training season: 20 miles. From there we taper down the long runs to prepare for the Big Day.

4. Fundraising: is a struggle. I'm currently at about 40%. On October 3rd, I will be charged for whatever I have not raised by that point. Yikes! It's so hard to ask people for money, even for a great cause. But, it's a commitment I made, so (bet you totally didn't see this coming): if you feel you are able to donate (even a little!), now is the perfect time. To do so, go here. Or, if you'd rather send a check, let me know and I'll shoot you my address. Hugs and rainbows and kittens. :)

5. Bill Bryson: is hilarious. If you've never read any of his books, you're missing out. He writes about many different kinds of things, but my favorite by far is his travel writing. He's written books about the Appalachian Trail, Australia, England, Europe, small town USA, returning to the US after 20 years away (I've read them all - just finished the one on Australia today). He's also written a great book called A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I read a couple years ago, and one on the English language and grammar, which I haven't read yet. I very highly recommend that you start with A Walk in the Woods - an account of his journey along the Appalachian Trail. It is one of my favorite books ever.

6. Shudder: on an entirely unrelated note... the other night, while walking barefoot through our pitch dark kitchen, I stepped on a lizard. [insert dry heave here] ...I mentioned I was barefoot, right?

Big Things A-brewing

...maybe.

A pretty busy weekend, if I do say so myself (and I do). This was not only due to the fact that I ran 16 miles on Saturday morning (iiii KNOW!), but also...I'm in the market for a house. Yeah. It's a little scary, but also pretty exciting.

HTD and I spent Saturday afternoon driving around with my real estate agent looking at houses. Some were preeetty scary - and no less than three of the otherwise great houses had the pervasive odor of cat pee. I mean come on, people. If your house smells like urine, your walk-in closets and vaulted ceilings are pretty much lost on me. A lot of them were really nice, though...so we'll see.

On another note, I'm really looking forward to Thursday. I'm flying to Omaha for the Labor Day weekend and I finally, finally get to see my little niece! Yay!

Makin' Headlines

cause that's how we roll.

Go here.

:)

Mud, Miles, and Magic

the Big Brothers Big Sisters Run for the Magic Half Marathon!

I ran my first half marathon on Saturday! And yikes, what an introduction to the world of racing it was...

I headed up the mountain to Flagstaff on Friday night and met up with my fabulous cousin Cassie. We braved the rain and went to pick up my race packet at the park where the race would start the next morning. Neil, the race director, was going from person to person handing out the course map and describing the recommended race strategy: walk most of the first two miles. What?? Apparently, the first two miles of the course were going to be incredibly steep and, according to the veteran runners, it was a better use of energy to walk those sections and make up the time in the last half of the course as it headed back downhill. Yeah, this wasn't your typical road race - we're talking full-on trail running here. Hoo boy.

Saturday morning dawned cool and partly cloudy - perfect running weather and like nothing I've ever experienced running here in Phoenix. Cassie and I arrived at the park around 7:00 - she rolled out of bed early to come cheer me on (and take some pictures). I was a little nervous and spent most of the 30 minutes before the race bouncing on the balls of my feet and trying to remember to loosen up a little.

I had on my usual hat and sunglasses (neither of which I ended up needing), a water bottle with a couple gus in the pocket, a small camera*, and my big yellow number 53. The starting gun shot rang out at 7:30 on the dot and we were off!

Neil wasn't lying. The first two miles were just brutal. As we left the park, the course wound through about a half mile of city streets before we hit the trail head and the uphill climb onto Observatory Mesa. Mile 1 was a constant, not-terribly-steep incline - just enough to make your hamstrings burn.

Going into mile 2, we hit the tough stuff - about a half mile of incredibly steep, alpine-mountain-climbing-like section of trail. And I thought mile 1 made my hamstrings burn!

After coming off of this steep section, we hit the mud bogs. Flagstaff has been getting lots of rain in the past few weeks, turning this years' race into the wettest on record. The mud pits took up almost the entire trail at time, forcing us to pick our way around in any semi-dry strip of land we could find.

Other parts of the trail were so choked with rocks, I'm surprised I didn't come across sections littered with the bodies of runners nursing sprained ankles.

The course continued steadily uphill as I came into mile 5. The aid station here was being run by one of the city banks and they were pretty clever. As I ran through and snagged a cup of Gatorade from one of the volunteers, he said to be sure and vote. Huh? Well, about 100 yards down there were two containers and a big sign that said "Vote with your Cup!" One container had a picture of Obama on it, and one had McCain and all the runners were tossing their cups in the bin sporting their candidate of choice. I thought it was pretty creative.

Mile 7.5 brought us to the apex of the run - about 800 vertical feet above the starting line altitude of 7,000 feet. Wow. The downhill direction was a more-than-welcome relief for my poor hamstrings. This section went a little faster. Some of the mud had dried up by this point and there were whole sections of trail that were smooth. Rocks and potholes were still a concern, but the miles seemed to go by much more quickly. I even got to chat a little with a gal I'd been running close to since the starting line (in my head she was Red Headed Pink Shirt girl - whose name actually turned out to be Jodi). Going back down the steep section that we had climbed up back at mile 2 was much faster, but also much more nerve-wracking with the loose gravel underfoot and no guardrails on the steep dropoffs.

Mile 12.5 put me back on the city streets for the final .6 mile sprint to the finish line. The big blue banner seemed to move farther away the more I ran, but I finally crossed the finish line sweaty, mud-spattered and smiling.

What an exhausting, amazing experience! The course was beautiful, but brutal. I would recommend training with trail running before going out and doing a 13.1 mile trail race. Might help a little. But overall, I was really happy with my performance, especially considering how difficult the course was. And especially considering that 8 months ago, I couldn't run for a minute without feeling like I was going to die.

We're heading into the big mileage month for Team in Training. In the next six weeks, we'll be conquering 16, 18, and 20 mile training runs. Here's hoping that those runs go well. I have a feeling that running on the smooth, flat canal trail is going to feel like heaven in the morning. :)

*-I searched high and low for a really small, portable camera to take with me on the run because I knew it would be beautiful. I ended up buying an egg-sized Disney Pix Micro, Pirates of the Caribbean mini-camera. It was either that or Hannah Montana. I mean, please - no contest. I wasn't sure what kind of picture quality you'd get with a Pirates of the Caribbean camera, though. Turns out: not great. But it was better than nothing.

The Running Continues

as does the heat.

Holy cripes it's been a hot week o' runs. And not in the good, "look at me kickin' ass" kind of way. Last Saturday was a 12-miler with the team (pictured) and it was completed on the day of our highest low temperature of the summer so far. It was 95 degrees at 3:45am. That was the low. Yikes.

[htd and me with several of our fellow Full Marathoners at Saturday's practice. I was doing my post-run stretching and chatting with the ladies, hence facing the wrong way.]

And my running partner has been out of commission for the past week and a half. HTD got sidelined by an injury - but, thankfully, the sports medicine doc says she can start running again on Sunday. Yay for that - she's been going stir crazy and worrying about training time lost, and I've been lonely.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm headed up to Flagstaff to spend the weekend with my fabulous cousin...and to run my first ever road race. Scary! I signed up a few weeks back for the Run for the Magic Half-Marathon, which benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flagstaff. My training schedule calls for a 12-14 mile run on Saturday, so the 13.1 miles fits perfectly. I'm trying to stay calm about the whole thing since I've done 12 miles several times and a 15.5 mile run already, but it's weird how much scarier it is going into this knowing it's "official." Especially since the course starts at 7,000 feet (that's a higher altitude than Denver) and climbs almost 1,000 feet in the first half of the course. But, it's supposed to be a really beautiful trail run, mostly on forest service roads with great views of the mountains. So I'm going to think calming thoughts and go for it!

Calmingthoughtscalmingthoughtscalmingthoughtscalmingthoughts...

The Paparazzi Are Just Relentless

~sigh~ it's such a burden.

HTD and I are famous.

:)

(in the actual printed paper version, that picture took up half of the front page of the Living section... yikes.)

Warning:

I cried for pretty much the entire four minutes.

(But it is an amazing video, so you should watch it.)

Backstory:
A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?'

The father who, despite having a heart condition, said 'Yes'. They went on to complete the marathon together.

Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request to race together.

One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.' To which, his father said 'Yes'.

For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile marathon along the coast of the Big Island in Hawaii.

Father and son went on to complete the race together. View this.



I have read about these guys before, but had never seen any video footage. Go here for a great Runner's World article about Team Hoyt.

Amazing.

Terrible Haute:

The Disgusta of the North.

I spent the week before last in Indiana visiting some dear friends and attending the annual med. illustrator's conference. I flew out on Saturday afternoon (the 12th) after a quick 12 mile run that morning (fun times). My friends Aunnee and Heath picked me up at the airport in Indy and drove me an hour back to their little parsonage in Terre Haute. Heath is a vicar (not the "Joey decked out in hockey gear" kind - the "going to be a pastor" kind) at a church there and Aunnee does substitute teaching for the school district. It was so good to see them! They're getting ready to move to Latvia for a year to do mission work - exciting!

It was kind of weirding me out, though - Terre Haute reminds me SO much of Augusta. Everywhere we went things just kept jumping out and saying "hey, remember Augusta?" (not literally. that would be weird. and creepy.) The city has lots of trees and vines and things. It's a little ghetto-y. They have a paper factory that smells like death. The buildings look similar. There are many mulleted people there. The list goes on...

I spent the rest of the week and weekend in Indianapolis for the conference. I saw lots of old friends and met lots of new people, which was fun. I won another award this year, and I was not in the bathroom this time (yay!). I ran 15 miles with the Indianapolis Team in Training group (ohhhh the humidity. blech.). And I went to lots of really interesting lectures and presentations. All in all it was a pretty great week in the great state of Indiana.

And Emma is still adorable. I'm going to meet her over Labor Day weekend. :)

I Would Like To Introduce You To My Niece,

Emmalyn Louise!

We call her Emma.

She's such a wee little thing. SO cute! (She sure is a sleepy little bugger, though. It must be hard work being born - I have yet to see a picture of her with her eyes open.)

As you Friends fans out there might imagine, we are thoroughly enjoying having an Emma in the family. I know just what kind of cake I'm going to get her for her first birthday. :)

(more on my week in Indiana soon)

She's Here!!!

For my very first niece (and Goddaughter), I will break my "only one exclamation point per sentence" rule.

The Stats
Time: 7:55pm
Weight: 7 lbs. even
Length: 20 3/4 in.

She doesn't have a name yet, so until tomorrow she's Baby Girl. (Which I think they should just go with - it's so creative.)

I am one very happy auntie.

:)

This Entry Brought To You By The Letter "F"

as in, "Freakin' long week."

Why, what did you think it was for?

Top 5 reasons this has been the longest week in the history of ever.
1. Having a hypothetical To Do list that could have covered 18 pages. FRONT AND BACK.
2. Putting in somewhere around 65-70 hours at work this week. What am I, a lawyer? (Sorry, Bree...)
3. Preparing two entries for the juried salon in Indy next week - printing, matting, prepping supporting materials, packaging, shipping.
4. Finding out that Keffy had to back out of going to the meeting next week. Who wants to come keep me company in Indy?
5. Having to get up at 4:00am, run 12 miles, go to a Team in Training nutrition seminar, shower, do two loads of laundry, pack for a week-long conference and three out-of-town marathon training runs, eat and get to the airport by 1:00. Oh, no wait - that's what I have to do tomorrow. Sigh.

Speaking of which...I'm off to bed.

Dang.

Blogging has just fallen by the wayside, hasn't it?

Things are busy busy busy (yes, that's three times the busy-ness) here this week. I'm heading to Indiana for 9 days starting Saturday and apparently I need to get projects finished up before I leave. Go figure. Thus, the looong work days (today was only 11 1/2 hours).

4th of July weekend was great! Well, starting at about noon on Friday, it was great. Prior to that it was just painful. HTD and I did our 10-mile long run on our own on Friday rather than practicing with the Team on Saturday so we could leave early Saturday morning to go to Flagstaff. We started running at about 5:20am, and by about 5:40 we were thinking "Holy CRAP it's hot today!" Yikes. It was a really hilly course (gotta get in that hill training for the marathon in San Fran) and it was just hotter than heck with no shade and the sun beating down relentlessly. By the time we finished (around 7:00 or 7:15 - it's blurry) it was already 95 degrees. Ugh. We were mostly recovered (albeit sore) by noonish.

That night we went to my boss' place for the annual fireworks spectacular (a la my first Independence Day in Phoenix). There was lots of good food and nice people and everyone had a merry old time commenting on how much htd and I look alike. If you say so, people. (And they do. Oh how they do.)

Saturday we went to Flagstaff and stayed with my cousin for a couple days. Oh, sweet, sweet Flagstaff. The weather was COOL - I was possibly even a little chilled a time or two. A little slice of heaven for this desert dweller. We wandered through the Art in the Park festival, spent some money in the Basement Marketplace (quite possibly one of the coolest clothing stores not located in Europe), ate quite a bit of good food, and watched some TV. Now THAT is what I call a relaxing weekend.

I Love Working Until 10pm!

...ok, that's a lie. You caught me.

Booooo 13 hour days.

Update

Nichole got mixed news at the doctor's appointment. Her fluid retention was down (which is good), but her blood pressure while sitting was 170/100 (yikes!) vs. 136/70 while lying on her side. So she is on strict bed rest until Monday. At that point, if she has lost some more water weight, they'll discuss modified bed rest. If nothing changes, she'll stay on strict bed rest and have some more blood work done. A long weekend ahead for Ben and Nichole... But, at least the talk of inducing immediately seems to be on the backburner for now.

Quick Request

Look, I didn't even take time to come up with a subtitle.

Please keep my sister-in-law and little incubating niece-to-be in your thoughts and prayers. Nichole has pregnancy induced hypertension bordering on preeclampsia - she's been on bed rest for two days. Her blood work came back good yesterday, so hopefully when she sees the doctor today her blood pressure and fluid retention will be down and they can upgrade her to partial bed rest. If things go in the other direction, she will likely be induced soon (like this week). So please pray for good news from the doctor today - we'd really like the little one to keep on baking for another month or so.

Skidoosh.

I've seen Kung Fu Panda twice now. It's good.

Whew! It has been a busy few days. On Thursday night, htd and I went to the Death Cab for Cutie concert. SUCH a good show. Very chill (besides the 100+ degree heat, of course) and they are great live. By 8:30 the sun had gone down, which really helped with the heat factor. It ended up being a warm night with the stars shining overhead, sitting on the grass in the Amphitheater listening to Death Cab play their awesome songs. And they closed the show with Transatlanticism. I mean really.

Friday night I had dinner with friends. Hanging out with this group pretty much guarantees that I'll spend most of the night laughing. Always a plus.

Saturday night there was a cookout at another friend's house. He has Rock Band, a pool table and a pool, so it would have been pretty hard not to have a good time. I sang and drummed and guitared a little in Rock Band, played some pool badly, and had good cookout food. My pool playing may have been slightly better if I had been wearing a different shirt. While it was a very modest, square-necked shirt whilst standing up straight, it was not very conducive to bending over and lining up a shot, if you know what I mean. ("Joey, we always know what you mean.")

And, on top of all this, the running continues. Saturday morning I was up at 4:30 in order to make it to South Mountain in time for our 5:30am long run training session. This was the same distance as last Saturday (8 miles), but with hills thrown into the mix. The entire out-and-back course was an intense mix of uphills and down. I couldn't even enjoy the periodic downhills in the first four miles because I knew I would just have to go back up them eventually. And South Mountain is classic Sonoran desert, so there were lots of cacti and scrubby bushes, but absolutely no trees casting any shade. It was brutal doing that in the full-on desert sun. It's already well into the 90s by 6:00am.

After the run, though, Team in Training hosted an Honored Patients Picnic where we got to meet and hear the stories of five different people who are either in remission or currently in their treatment cycle for all different types of blood cancers. They ranged from a 13 year old girl to a 45 year old guy and all of their stories were just so inspiring. It was a great refresher as to why I chose to do this - I need to remember that when my alarm goes off at 4:30 on Saturday mornings... :)

They Tried To Make Me Go To Read-hab

but I said no, no, no.


toothpastefordinner.com

A Benihana Baby Shower

"Wait for the onion. Trust me." --Andy Bernard

Two weekends ago, I flew to Omaha for a baby shower that was being thrown for my sister-in-law and brother and little niece-to-be. It was a pretty fun weekend, not only because of the baby shower, but it was also my sister-in-law's 30th birthday. Her parents took us all out to a Japanese steak house (not Benihana's, incidentally) to celebrate.

The baby shower was the best kind of baby shower - no little games (not my thing), just lots of good food and fun people and cute baby presents. Along with a boatload of other stuff, she got a blanket and sheet set and oh-so-cute little sundress from her Auntie Kristen and her Auntie HTD sent her two great books and a onesie that states "Party at my crib. 2 a.m."

The rest of the weekend involved a lot of hanging out with my family, which was great. My brother got to show off his ever-expanding DVD collection and his new Wii (turns out I am very good at Wii Tennis. I thought about going pro, but I'm going to keep my amateur status so I can be eligible for the Wiilympics.) Sis-in-law wanted me to give my artistic skills a whirl on her big, convex-canvas of a pregnant belly - she had stocked up on face paint and broke out the craft brushes just for the occasion. I'll be honest: I was not expecting that. But I am nothing if not adaptable, so Saturday evening found me with paper plate palette in hand painting her stomach into a ladybug. It was pretty fun. Little niece o' mine must be ticklish because she kept kicking a spot to the right of Nichole's belly button when I would paint over it.

A month and a half to go before I get to meet the little one... :)

Because I Said I Would

Remember?

Tornadoes: My hometown was smacked by a series of tornadoes last Thursday night. (This photo was taken just north of the mall.)
Fortunately, my parents live about a mile south of the city limits so they missed the brunt of the storm, which hit mostly the north half of town. There were cars on top of cars, apartment buildings torn apart, huge trees ripped out of the ground, the new Expo center at the fairgrounds was mangled like a crushed soda can. Amazingly, no one was hurt. And then just this past Wednesday, they were hit by another huge thunderstorm: 80mph winds, golf ball-sized hail, and half an hour of nonstop lightning. Yikes. (note: the guy in the video really enjoys shouting things like "WE'VE GOT DEBRIS! LOTS OF DEBRIS!")

TNT Group Run: Last Saturday was my first group run with Team in Training. We all met up at a park in central Phoenix at 6:30am and ran 4 miles along the canal. Our long runs will all be done this way (except they get longer each week...and earlier, to beat the heat). It went really well! The other group members seem really nice, the coaches are great, and a couple people told my sister and me that we were fast. Hookay... I guess it's all relative. I don't think our 10-minute miles are going to break any records. :)

MSNBC.com: So I was perusing the news on msnbc.com the other day and an article caught my eye. It mentioned new practice parameters for the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), which sounded kind of familiar. Yeah, turns out it was all about a journal article that one of the BNI docs wrote outlining the new AAN "standard of care" treatments for a balance disorder. And who illustrated this illustrious article, you ask? (If it wasn't me, this is a terrible story, I know.) It was me! It's not like I was mentioned or anything, but it was kinda cool to have contributed to something newsworthy. Here is the msnbc article. And you can find the AAN article with my illustrations here. (Click on the first link under the green "New Practice Guidelines & Tools" bar - Practice Parameter: Therapies for benign paroxysmal...)

And now I need to go to sleep because I have to get up at 5am, run six miles, shower, go to the airport, and fly to Omaha. Yep.

AAAARRRRR!

My home internet is on the fritz, so I am pirating the neighbors' signal. Don’t tell!

My sister and I drove up to Los Angeles for Memorial Day weekend. We stayed with my cousin Josh up in Santa Clarita (north of the city a bit), and his sister (my other cousin) Sarah and her husband Josh (confusing, no?) flew in for the weekend as well. Fun!

Top 5 Things From L.A.

1. The Grove – an outdoor market area with lots of fun shops and eateries. After trekking to the top of the parking building to look at the lights of L.A., we wandered around a bit and then had a delicious Italian meal at one of the restaurants.
2. The Getty – a fantastic, FREE art museum. The place is huge and beautiful and the landscaping is just amazing. It is set high up on a hill and the only way to get there is via tram – you park in this giant below-ground parking structure and ride the tram to the museum. We saw some great exhibits and some so-so exhibits and enjoyed the afternoon.
3. Wicked – we saw the musical on Saturday night. Holy CRIPES that show is amazing! I’ve loved the soundtrack for years and I read the book awhile back, and everyone I know who has gone to see it has just raved about it. Now I know why. If you ever get the chance to see it, don’t hesitate.
4. Dodgers Game – we saw the Dodgers play the Cardinals on Sunday afternoon. It was a great game (all tied up at the bottom of the 9th and the Dodgers went on to win it in the 10th). It was cool and breezy to start out with, but it warmed up by the end and I sunburned my nose.
5. Universal CityWalk – the nightclub scene at Universal Studios. They have all different kinds of places to choose from; salsa clubs to western bars to pretty much anything you can imagine. We went to the dueling piano bar and had lots of fun.

And I’m going to make that the short story.

Coming up:
Tornadoes.
TNT Group Run.
MSNBC.com and me.

IM Excerpt #2:

K-flix and Bea.

Patrick: sup
Kristen: so the new desk is up and...desking?
P: kinda
i've got it together, but i'm having some power issues
K: You sound like a dictator having a rough day...
P: nerd
K: whatever, Mussolini.

Remember When...

I started running?

Oh, how that day sticks in my memory. The sheer awfulness of running that first minute. Feeling like I might pass out or vomit or both. Ah yes, I remember it well...especially as I'm hoofing it through the last five minutes of a 40-minute run these days. I remember that feeling and how much better I feel now.

So yeah, I have stuck with the running. My sister and I plugged away at our slow-but-sure 8-week training program and by mid-April, we were running 30 continuous minutes. Right away, we started on the next part of the plan - a 4-week pre-training program meant to get us up to running for 40 minutes.

What plan? Pre-training for what? I'll tell you.

My goal for 2008 was to join Team in Training (TNT). By doing this, I made two commitments:

1. To raise $4200 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
2. To run the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco on October 19th, 2008.

Each year TNT trains 35,000+ athletes for the event of their choice (marathon, ½ marathon, century bike ride, or triathlon). Coaches provide daily training schedules, advising on gear and nutrition, organize group runs and track workouts, and motivate all the participants with regular e-mails. By October, I will be ready for the 26.2-mile journey. The money I raise helps fund research and support for blood cancer patients and their families.

Iiiiiii know! I'm crazy, right? But I am SO excited for all this. We had our kickoff meeting last Saturday where we met our Honored Patients (local blood cancer patients and survivors), our coaches, all the other participants, received our training schedule (looking ahead (not recommended) to the miles we are supposed log in September is just scary), and were generally just wowed by the awesome Team in Training organization.

I have moments where I'm so excited for the whole thing I can hardly stand it (when I hear the encouraging stories of the honored patients, when I look at the details about the amazing marathon, when I run longer than I think I can)...and then there are moments where all I can think is "what the CRAP did I get myself into?" (when I think about training for a marathon...in the desert...in the summer, when I see the five months of 5am Saturday group-training runs). But mostly, I'm excited to be doing something. Something in the fight against blood cancer - my Grandpa Larson died of Lymphoma when I was 9 and the mother of my sister's best friend died of Lymphoma when my sister was in high school. Something for my physical well being (still thinking back on that first day of running...). And to be on the road to accomplishing a goal I've been thinking about for a very long time.

And now what (I'm sure) you've all been waiting for: to donate electronically, you can go HERE. Whether you can donate $20 or $200 or even just a few words of encouragement, every little bit truly helps!

I'll keep you updated - wish me luck! :)

Dear US Government,

Thank you very much for my economic stimulus check.

I will spend it on loan payments, car payments, and a little thingy to hold my key while I run. It was very nice of you to think of me, especially during this busy season. The slumping economy sure is a bummer, but at least there's that whole race for the Democratic nomination to keep things exciting, right? I hope you are doing well!

Love,
Kristen

Highlights

(not the magazine)

Here are some photos from the Seattle/Vancouver trip.

Experience Music Project: Great music museum. The building LOOKS like a giant abstract sculpture on the outside and HAS a giant abstract sculpture on the inside (made of stringed instruments).






Pike Place Market: Big, open-air market filled with fresh fruit, hand-made crafts, flying fish, and lots and lots of flowers.





Vancouver: It really does have it all. Mountains. Ocean. City. Small-town vibe. Modern high-rises. Adorable little houses. Great Mexican food (for real). ~sigh~




The Girls: We do have ourselves some good times.







(mad props to htd for the photos!)

"I Was In The Car Listening To The Radio,

and who is this “shorty” they keep talking about in rap songs?"

Holy laugh tumor, this website has taken over my life. Go here. You won't be sorry.

I'm All Aboot Vancouver, Eh

The locals would hate me for that...

A couple friends, the htd and I headed off last Saturday for a whirlwind weekend o' traveling hijinks. We visited Seattle and Vancouver on our 3-day trip and had a really great time. I'll hash it out in detail soon (read: as soon as I can finagle some pictures out of my sister. My camera battery died after exactly 2 photos.).

For now, I leave you with this two-part observation:

a) Vancouver is the freakin' shizz. I love it there.
b) The downtown area looks like some sort of futuristic, movie-set kind of city. Like before you know it, Keanu Reeves is going to go flying by in a long black trench coat and deliver some poorly acted lines. Like Will Smith is going to have to start beating down some robot revolutions. Like any minute George and his boy Elroy are going to come zipping past in their little individual space-mobiles. Like...well...you get it. Here's a picture I found. Hopefully Haley has some better ones.

Who's The Best Poet In All The Land?

Haley!

So I went to the Swarthout Writing Awards presented through the ASU English department tonight. My sister entered a collection of poems awhile back for consideration for some very prestigious awards. Out of 86 entrants, she was one of only three winners! Rock that poet-y awesomeness, htd!

Oh, For The Love...

Cccclllll.

I just got really concerned about a brand new, ragged-edged freckle on my chest that seemed to have popped up overnight. My family is very prone to skin cancer. Thoughts of scheduling an appointment to get it checked out ran through my head. I peered a little closer and rubbed it to see if it was raised or not. It was chocolate.

Gloves And Hats And Baseball Cats

Oh yes. I said baseball cats. But more on that in a bit.

My friend Dominic (the OLDest friend, actually - he and I were kickin' it when we were 6) was down from Flagstaff on Saturday and invited me to the Diamondbacks game with him and a few of his friends. There were free bobbleheads at the door (since we were among the few lucky first 25,000 people), seats in the upper deck, and a big ol' ice cream from Cold Stone. And it was pretty much all tied up until the 8th inning when the Snakes put up 6 runs and held it 'til the end. Yup, good game.

So, somewhere around the third inning this guy comes walking up the stairs near our row. He's holding a towel-wrapped bundle in his arms. At first I assume it's a baby...but then I see this furry tail hanging out the back. Yeah, some guy snuck a cat into the baseball game. Just....why? I don't... yeah... Sixth inning rolled around and the dude (and his cat) were escorted back down the stairs by a couple security guys. Awesome.

Done Laid Around And Stayed Around This Old Town Too Long

and I feel like I gotta travel on...

Sing it, Bob.

Right! So I spent most of the week before last in the loverly state of Georgia. You see, it was the Bea's 30th birthday (shh - don't tell him I told you) and I figured SOMEone needed to go help him celebrate (AKA laugh and point a little). It was a great trip (as my trips to Georgia are wont to be); some highlights follow:

1. I spent the first night with my good friends Alissa and Demis. I got to see their faaancy new house. I also got to see my little Layla all grown up - she was just a pup the last time I saw her. Now she's a full grown flat coat retriever that knows some pretty impressive obedience moves and tricks. And then I got to meet Dutch, the golden retriever - he's not quite as smart as Layla, but he would fetch that ball all the livelong day if you'd let him. I love dogs. Seeing Alissa and Demis was great, too. :)

2. Bea and I went to an Augusta Greenjackets baseball game with his friends Caleb and Amanda. They were lots of fun to hang out with and the game was lots of fun to watch. Afterwards, they had a big fireworks show that was pretty impressive for being a non-4th-of-July shindig.

3. After the ball game, the four of us and Pat's good college friend Hillary (who, it turns out, I actually met for about a half an hour two years ago) played the card game Nertz (Nurtz?). It's basically a big sort of mad solitaire game with as many decks of cards in play as there are players and everyone plays on everyone else's cards until their pile runs out. It requires a sharp eye, quick reflexes, and the ability to not knock over one's water glass mid-game. I was lacking in all areas that night.

4. Saturday night was Pat's big birthday bash. There were board games (Hillary and I recorded the highest Scrabble scores in the history of the game. We may have cheated some towards the end.), pizza, music, TWO cakes, laughter and Guitar Hero. Bea's friends have some serious Guitar Hero skills. It was impressive...and a little frightening. All you could hear was clickclickclickclickclick.

5. I stayed with the wonderful Elsie and Andrew, who were nice enough to give me a place to sleep AND an awesome belated Valentine that was created and sold by the second year med ill class this past February. It is a sketch of a dissected cadaver hand and the card reads "I skinned the palm of my hand...when I fell for you." Maybe you have to be in my profession to think that's hilarious, but, well, it is.

6. Other highlights include: Borders and all Borders-related products; spending time with Bea's family; having his 5-year-old niece stand next to me, look waaaaay up at me and go "Wow. You're a lot bigger than I am."; seeing some RAIN; Chappelle's Show; granola-y Wilderness Nalgene bottles; music at Fort Gordon; Mellow Mushroom and Nacho Mamas; etc.

So, you know . . . good trip.

I Do Love Me Some TurboTax.

A lot. Like, really.

1. I am finished with my taxes. They should be e-filing as we speak. As much as paying back student loans sucks, being able to deduct the interest paid is awfully nice.

2. The Office is back on tv. And I was actually a little disappointed by the episode. Other than Pam's "Awesome." (or whatever it was) when Dwight showed up at the door, there weren't a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. I like it better when the episodes actually center around the office. Go figure.

3. I spent most of last week in Georgia. It pretty much rocked. I will blog about it later (see the time?).

4. zzzzzzz......

What If...

I would actually keep up with my blog?

So the lovely Jo tagged me, oh, about a month ago now. And here I am finally responding. It's sad, is what it is. [shakes head]

What Ifs:

What if I could meet someone in the art world to chat with?
I would want to meet Max Broedel, just to make all the other Med Ill-ers jealous. But he died long ago. Makes it a little difficult to chat.

What if I could have one wish granted for the benefit of all mankind?
(Jo's answer was pretty perfect...) World peace would be nice, too.

What if I could travel anywhere in the world?
Australia/New Zealand or along the Mediterranean - Islands of Greece, Egypt, Turkey, etc.

What if I could live in a period other than the present, for 24 hours?
In memory of my 8-year-old self, I would live in the late 1800s. I was obsessed with the Little House on the Prairie books for years after I read the first book in 1st grade. My mom checked them out of the public library for me one by one, until my aunt bought me the set for Christmas one year. I wanted to be Laura Ingalls. And I hated Nellie Olsen with all the passion a 2nd grader can muster.

What if I could make over three areas of my body?
hips, thighs, upper arms

What if I could become an animal for 24 hours?
Some sort of bird in the wild, so I could fly. But not a pigeon. Pigeons are gross.

What if I could bring someone back to life for 24 hours?
Probably my Grandma on my dad's side. She died when I was 9 and I have all these wonderful memories of her but I never really got to know her.

The end.

Bea, Jerilyn, and Bree - you're it!

Are You There, Blog?

It's me, Kristen.

I have been woefully un-bloggy lately. I think it might be those late-"winter" (I live in the desert, people) doldrums. I'm sitting here passing the time until more exciting things come along, maybe. There are quite a few exciting things on the horizon, but I'll blog about those as they happen. For now: Top Five!

Top Five Things from the Last Five Weeks.

1.New car. That you know about. Go Fit!

2.Great parents. I love my parents - they're the best. They came to visit for their Spring Break (they both work at the University in my hometown - Dad's a professor, Mom's an administrative assistant) and we had all kinds of fun. We introduced my dad to vegan food at the restaurant down the street (his consensus: mock chicken - ok. mock beef - not so ok.), we saw Horton Hears a Who (cute movie) and There Will Be Blood (we're an eclectic family), we drank good German beer, and we took the Fit up to Flagstaff to have dinner with my cousin (the Fit averaged 36.5mpg on this trip - Go Fit!)

3.Easter fun. The children's message at the Easter service yesterday was pretty hilarious. The lady doing the message gave each kid a plastic Easter egg and told them they would all open them together on the count of three. One...two...THREE! 35 kids open up their eggs and find......nothing! 70 eyes fasten accusingly on the Lauren's face, clearly saying "what is THIS crap?" She said "Look! Your eggs are empty - isn't that great!?" "NOOOO!" the kids replied. She went on to tell about how great it is that the tomb was empty on Easter morning because that meant that Jesus had risen from the dead and we could be with Him in heaven one day and the empty Easter eggs would remind us of that. She used lots of exclamations and arm waving to convey the excitement to the kids. At the end of it all, she said "so NOW aren't you glad your eggs are empty?! Isn't it great?!" "NOOOOO!" the kids replied. I think the point was lost on them. My friend Brad later said to me, "well sure, think about it. How exciting would it have been to open up the tomb and find it was empty....EXCEPT for some candy? I mean, Jesus rises from the dead AND you get a candy bar. That's a great day." Hehe. :)

4.Rock Band. Such good times! We keep having Rock Band parties at Dave's house. I'm getting pretty good at the guitar/bass, and I can rock the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis on vocals, but when I play the drums, I "look like a fool, like a FOOL!" (phoebe) Ah well. Can't win 'em all.

5.Baby Girl. I'm going to have a niece! My brother and sister-in-law found out on Thursday that the little one is a girl. Htd already has some teeny tiny pink Chucks picked out for her. And upon lots of perusing of the little girl clothes, I have come to this conclusion: baby bikinis - kinda creepy, but oh-so-cute.

Up next: a long-overdue Tagging (sorry, Jo!)

Having A Fit

and loving it!

(I've been waiting for MONTHS to use that blog title/subtitle!)

After having my old hoopty Taurus for the past nine years (seriously - I found my high school class schedule in the center console as I was cleaning it out), it was getting to the point where lots of things were starting to go wrong pretty frequently. Sooo...I bought a car. A brand spankin' new Honda Fit.

It just might be the cutest car ever. And she's got more than looks, folks. Oh yes, we've got great gas mileage & safety ratings, and a price that won't break the bank.

It's like that guy we all knew in high school (or girl. whatev.) who was SO cute AND smart AND nice AND you knew you could never have him. But then one day he turns to you and says "I really hate doing it this way, but my parents are really strict - if you will spend a hellish 8 hours of your life talking to sleazy people who will lie to you about my qualities, endlessly try to figure out what YOU will bring to the relationship, and then conveniently "forget" what they told you an hour later or get all upset when you call them out on their lies - well, then I'm all yours." Ok, so I guess that analogy doesn't really work, but you're picking up what I'm laying down, yeah?

I. HATE. BUYING. CARS.

I am not kidding, I spent 8 hours at the Honda dealership on Saturday. It is a VERY long story, which I'm not going to go into (mostly because it makes me angry), but suffice it to say that this experience has totally jaded my view of car salespeople. They were SO underhanded about everything and obviously assumed I was either going to be a) so giddy with excitement about actually seeing my "pretty new car" that I wouldn't notice it was missing half the things they flat out told me it had, or b) monumentally stupid and unobservant, despite the fact that they knew I have a Master's degree in a field where obsessive attention to detail is pretty much a requirement. (This wasn't rocket science, though, you guys. It's kind of obvious when a car does NOT have mudflaps on it (that you didn't want in the first place). Unless they're using those new, invisible mudflaps.)

BUT. After probably one of my most frustrating days on record, I ended up making a pretty good deal on the exact car I wanted. And I managed to keep my dad (who was along as moral supporter and general bullshit detector) from blowing through the roof of the place somewhere around the 7th hour. I took him to the local brewery for dinner as a thank you. Somewhere around the end of the second beer I think his blood pressure began to return to normal.