the panic before the weekend...

Well.. I'm not very inspired to post much lately.
I'm trying to keep up with the DNC, especially since it is going on here in Denver. I'm also one of those Independents they keep talking about at the DNC that they are trying to sway. So I will be watching next weeks Republican National Convention as well.

Anywhooo, my laptop adapter cord died I think, so today I'm trying to deal with that and how to get a new one, so my laptop isn't dead forever.

I'm going out of town for Labor Day weekend to Minnesota to a friend's lake house with a bunch of friends. It should be a great time. I called Mia's usual doggy daycare/boarding place on Tuesday to find out that it's full for the weekend. I should have known to call earlier. So that sent me into a bit of a panic because going to a new place for boarding seems to usually require a trial day with the dog or an interview and, really, I just don't have time this week to run around and do that. Also, her shots are a little out of date, so she can't have a trial day or interview unless her shots are up to date, which I did make an appointment for her shots to be done today. Getting them done today, Thursday, after work doesn't leave much time for interview/trial day, so I was a bit stressed about this on Tuesday. I also had a lovely gift certificate my friends gave me for my bday to dog-topia- Mia's usual place, so I was bummed I'd have to pay loads of money for the weekend.
I found a place that sounded pretty good and set up an interview on Friday at 9 am.. what an inconvenient time.. but what are you going to do.

Well... to sum it up and end the rambling, the lovely Ben has agreed to watch an extra dog this weekend. He's saving me big time. I was also worried about leaving Mia in a strange place, so this made me feel much better. She'll get to spend the weekend with her bff Ema. My brother will be in town and can watch her Friday night and Saturday morning, but then he has a busy weekend, so he'll drop her off Saturday over at Ema's for the rest of the weekend. I hope she's a good dog for them!

So tonight I will be getting shots for the dog and packing for Minnesota, which I'm excited to be packing some sweats and sweatshirts for the cool evenings there... This weekend should consist of playing around all day in my swimsuit and on dirt bikes and then evenings in sweats around the bonfire. Sounds pretty awesome to me.

I think I need a new book, too.. so maybe a trip to Barnes & Noble with my gift card.

And lastly, I'm super excited about a snowboard I just bought!! I've been keeping my eye on it and I thought it disappeared on the website yesterday, which made me SO SAD since it's a good board, 40% off and short enough for little me. So I finally found it again on the website and decided I should probably buy it, since I would be really sad if I missed it. Sniagrab for Sports Authority (their big sale) starts this weekend and goes on for awhile, so hopefully I can get prettty cheap bindings and boots from them.
So here it is:

time to breathe!

I went on a run with the dog last night and it was a gorgeous evening! We ended up running to Wash Park and it was just one of those scenes that was so perfect. The weather was absolutely perfect, the sun was setting behind the mountains, the light was shining through the trees in the park and hitting the lake in the park. The bustle of the park with people running, biking, playing volleyball, playing with their dogs, playing rugby was going on all around me. To top it off there was a bag pipe (band? group? whatever..) playing in the background. It was a little surreal.. Wash Park is so pretty, especially when you are there at just the right time like last night.

So we ended up going on a bit of a long run - the dog and I - a long run for her, but since it wasn't hot out she managed just fine.

This week I've just been trying to get back in the groove of running.. I took some time off and with all of the weekends out of town, there hasn't been a whole lot of exercising... eating, yes, but exercise, no.

It's been nice not having much going on this week and I'm home this weekend! Just for one weekend, though, then out of town for labor day. Labor day weekend will be a blast - Minnesota at the lake with all the friends from Denver... it will be so fun.

Last weekend in Oklahoma City to see the family was really fun. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and seeing the cousins' kids, too. The Big Brothers Big Sisters event we went to was really nice and it was great to see my grandfather honored. I met one of his oldest friends and heard some stories of when they were lawyers up against each other in court. My grandpa is pretty amazing, so it's really fun to hear those stories!

It was a short weekend and I got back to Denver on Sunday with time to relax, which is always good. I finally was able to go to the grocery store and get some food, since I have been scraping by for the past few weeks - with money as well as constant busyness.

Well, just a random update. I will try to have some better posts at some point! Hope everyone has had a good week.

and another out of town weekend! and I love the olympics...

Well, tonight I'm off on my third of 5 Frontier round trip flights that all happen within the span of less than 2 months.

This time to Oklahoma City where I will be seeing a lot of family! Our whole family on this side hasn't been all together in a VERY long time. There are some new kiddos I haven't met yet, too. Our grandfather is getting a big award from Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Oklahoma City on Saturday, so we are all going to cheer him on. It's going to be a short weekend, but it will be so nice to see everyone - Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Brothers and Parents too!

Mia will be staying with her puggle boyfriend, Marvin, for the weekend, so I'm sure she will have a great time. They help me out SO much with her... maybe I should show up with a present for Marvin this time...hmmmm... maybe lunch time will be a Target run.

The last weekend trip to KC was a great time! I never really said anything about it, but it was so great to see and hang out with the AXO girls. We have so much fun together... although they are all starting to get married- which is just crazy how it seems to happen at the same time for a lot of people!
I must say, I would maybe start to go a little on the crazy side if I lived in Kansas, as everyone I know is in a relationship there...

The weekend was fun, but also very quick! It was fun to be back in Kansas and see familiar faces around. Friday night we went out for a couple drinks.. saw atleast one familiar face, Saturday night after the reception saw quite a few K-State faces, Sunday on the plaza I spotted a familiar face as well. I'm so not used to that in Denver, but it would be nice!

In more notes..
I have been loving the olympics more than I thought I would. I do live with guys that are all about sports, watching sports, talking about sports, playing sports..etc. so maybe I have watched more because of that. It's just so fun to watch. Although, I wish coverage was a bit different. With gymnastics, I would really like to see more than 2 Russians, 2 Chinese and the Americans perform (I'm pretty sure there are more than that competing...but we WOULDN'T KNOW BECAUSE THEY DON'T SHOW THEM). Sorry.. outburst..

Anyway, obviously I do like watching the Americans.. I get so tense watching them in gymnastics. I'm sure everyone can imagine how nervous you'd be, but maybe me being an
ex-gymnast adds to it a little. I can't take my eyes off the screen when they're going!

So I have been staying up late watching the olympics and then this morning was a rainy morning...and getting out of bed was ROUGH. I do love me some rainy days every now and then, though.. so no complaints.

All I want to do is go on a run.. and was so ready to hit the park after work yesterday.. but no. A surprise deadline. Why they feel the need to surprise me with deadlines is beyond me.. seriously. And no matter how many times I tell them "I have to completely redo this when you guys make changes" it still doesn't process. So at 2 pm I am told to 'print off' these renderings, but 'it needs the changes'.. So that went from 'print off' to 'completely rerender' in 5 words... at 2 pm for a meeting they are leaving for the next day at 7 am! What the F!?

So, not only was it a Monday, but I had to work 11-12 hours. MIS_ER_ABLE
And it wouldn't be quite so mis_er_able if when I went into work yesterday I knew that I'd be working that evening, but it has to be a surprise.. almost every time..

So I am busting out of here at 5:00 and going to the park and running..

shoes?

I may or may not have worn two different shoes to work today.

Still drunk from the wedding Saturday night? That'd be a good excuse..

One thing I've learned.. these two pairs of shoes are exactly the same height.

So yeah, I guess I'm a little tired from the weekend's festivities and with clothes and shoes still in the suitcase, I just reached and grabbed the first two heels I saw out of my suitcase. Turns out I had multiple pairs of shoes in there. So I was rounding up the dog and hopped in the car, then on the walk into work I looked down and realized...

The next weekend excursion...

Excursion.. I remember the first time I used that word. I wrote a fun little letter to my friend and used a thesaurus to use bigger words than I normally would to write the letter. Fun stuff. That's the only word I remember using.

That also makes me think of the show Dawson's Creek... if anyone used to be a fan, I know I was. They used ridiculously big words when they talked to each other.. in high school.

ANYWAYS..
I'm taking off for Kansas City this afternoon. One of my roommates in college is getting married!!! I'm pretty sure this is going to be a fun time. I'm excited to hang out in KC, too! I think it's weird how I know so little about Kansas City. I grew up in Wichita and went to school at K-State, but I rarely spent time in KC. I know the plaza area a little, but that's about it. I get to see some people I haven't seen in awhile..so yay!

I'm sad to be leaving my pup again though :(
That's the hard thing about going out of town so much.. I feel bad and I have to figure out who is going to be watching her.

We booked our flight to Minnesota to go to a friend's lake house over labor day weekend. It's going to be so fun! I am going out of town way too much.. it is RE-DIC. Oh well. I'll be broke and stay in town for a long time after this next month and a half.

Next Thursday I get to attend the Broncos Cheerleaders Calendar Release Party.. wahoo! In support of my Broncos Cheerleader friend. We like to brag for her..haha..since she doesn't. Anyways, free beer... maybe some football players? I don't know.. we shall see..

the San Fran trip

So.. I just don't even know how to sum up the weekend, so I've been putting it off!
It was a really good weekend in San Francisco! Of course everything revolved around us running the 1/2 marathon on Sunday, so we tried to be careful about how much we walked and what we ate - okay I lied not so much what we ate.. haha. I did stay away from dairy, because I was afraid that helped in my stomach issues I have after I run. We chowed down on pizza, Ghirardelli chocolate and whatever else we felt like eating.. The run was a fantastic excuse to eat as much carbs as possible and being in San Francisco, I was all about the sourdough bread.

So Friday morning we all drowsily made our way to Allison's at 5:30 to meet and leave for the airport. The flight took off at 7:15 am. Luckily, we got a ride to the airport from Sarah's new man, so that cut out some time that we would have had to spend on parking and taking the shuttle to the terminal and all that jazz.

We landed in San Fran at like 8:45, but I think it was like 10:00 by the time we got to our hotel. We couldn't check in yet, so we dropped our bags off with the dude at the front and meandered around town, made our way to the Marathon Expo and picked up our race numbers, free shirts (that were really cool - dry fit material) and much more free samples of stuff. That area was out a little ways on a pier that's not so touristy and we found a nice place where we had a CHEAP lunch, so that was good. We headed back to the hotel to check-in, we all collapsed on the bed, the tired from getting up so early hitting us, then we headed back out. This time we asked the dude at the front where a good place to go would be. He told us an area, Fillmore St., that would really give us the character of the city. So we headed there by bus, hoping the guy wasn't delusional and that it really was a cool area. It was a pretty cool street - we later found out the 'Painted Ladies' weren't too far from there, but we didn't know it at the time and never saw them. We found a place to eat there - very cool place - where you could chill forever. Luckily, the three of us are similar travelers and didn't mind sitting back and relaxing and talking.. not too hurried to move on. We had two drinks that night.. in celebration of my birthday on Saturday - let me tell ya, we got wild.

Not so much.. we were exhausted from the early morning still.

Saturday, we headed out to the Wharf, took a duck tour (so touristy - love it), went to Ghirardelli Square.. basically hung out with the millions of tourists that take over the city. We also did some shopping, as we were staying in Union Square and there are stores all around! So we did some shopping - H&M! and then we headed over to one of our favorite Brits' hotel! She kinda spurred the whole San Francisco trip in the first place since we knew she'd be visiting from England. So after some time we met up with her and headed to dinner. We found the first Italian place we could find and headed in. We didn't really look at the menu.. or the prices first.. woops. It was a little on the fancy side, but we got our carbs and since it was fancy, the meal was smaller, which means it was the right size portion you actually need! so we weren't stuffed, but just right, afterwards. We had to get some sleep, so we couldn't party it up with the Brits, so we said our goodbyes, took a pic and parted ways.


RACE DAY!!!! We got up bright and early again.. about 5:30... were on our way about 6:15 to the Ferry Building... got on a shuttle bus to take us to our starting point (since we did the second 1/2 marathon). Our starting point was in Golden Gate Park - we got quite a tour on the bus.. the ride was quite long.. probably had to do with the streets blocked off for the marathon. We made it to the park and it was SO COLD.. we were pretty close to the water and the breeze was COLD. The sky was overcast, which turned out to be quite nice for the run, but cold for the waiting.

San Francisco does not get hot - so weird that the highs were in the 60's in August... I didn't know this until I started checking out the temp for our trip.

So we had to wait around for over an hour before starting the race. The line for the porta-potties was great. There were about 20 porta-potties and, obviously, everyone wants to go to the bathroom before running for hours, so the line was LONG. A guy that was helping organize the race was walking around yelling for people to use the bushes if they could.. and he had to keep saying 'seriously' because people would just start laughing...

So, now, to the race. We were waiting in the crowd and everyone just started cheering and clapping and before we knew it we were starting. So, you start off pretty freakin' slow since there are so many people around. Then it thins out and you have to weave your way through. The good part is it's pretty distracting and the first few miles go really fast.

Sarah and I ran the whole way together, which was awesome. I think I would have slowed down quite a bit at one point if I wasn't trying to keep up with Miss Speedy..haha..

We ran through golden gate park for 6 miles, then we were out on the streets of San Francisco. There were hills, but they were pretty short, so it wasn't too killer, although I could feel the quads getting tight by the time we were out of the park. While we were in Golden Gate Park, we got to run past the de Young Museum.... which is neat to an Architect :) so that was kind of exciting, and again, distracting.

Then we ran down Haight, which also gives you plenty to look at. There were some big downhills on this street, one being really steep. It was weird to run down, not knowing how fast I should let myself go.

One of the funny things we noticed was at the cross streets that were blocked off, they had motorcycle guys/ladies that were the 'guards'. It was funny - not police officers (there were some), but most cross streets were leather clad folks and they were cheering us all on..

The stations for water, electrolytes and gel were pretty awesome and I think ended up helping me a lot. The first water stop after we started, had all these things, but then had a guy dressed as the devil and holding a sign for beer and they had a table set up with little dixie cups of beer. Pretty humorous.

I found this pic on flickr... from the race

So, we made it through the race, the last mile definitely being the longest/worst. We finished in 2:07:24... which is like 9:44 minute miles.. Not too shabby.

Our legs felt so weird afterwards! We collected our free food, headed to get our sweats bags, found the free massage tent and met up with Allison! We all made it!!

It was pretty fun! I think we all said we'd do it again, too.
Also, I think it was pretty huge that we trained in Denver at 5,280 ft and went down to sea level for the run. It's so much easier on the lungs, it's amazing. I'm not sure I'd want to run one in Denver, I think I'll just keep traveling around to new cities, with fun, new stuff to look at!

pheeeeeeewww. that was long!

me.. running...



Duck Tours!

looking oh so good after 13.1 miles



And after the race.. we had time to shower but that was all.. we had to check out, so we spent a good amount of time chilling at this park..

little red corvette

So my friend won a corvette. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!?!?!? He had a bottle of Mountain Dew and entered the little code from the cap on the Mountain Dew website and he won a corvette! They've sent him the affidavit.. however you spell that. I'M SO JEALOUS. Who does that!? Who wins a corvette from a bottle cap..makes you never want to throw one of those bottles away again without entering that code in..

I will post a bit later about the weekend and the RACE. I survived and made it through. It wasn't as bad as I thought. It was kinda fun!
More later! :)