whattttt

Why has nobody punched Spencer in the face yet?! That is beyond me. Heidi's mom gave him a little talking to, but seriously, what is wrong with that guy? He is unbelievable. Why does he feel the need to be an asshole to every single person? I would like to meet his parents!

and by 'meet' I mean see them on the show..

Sorry about the outburst, but I can't help myself! That show...ridiculous...

Moving on...

I had a tetanus shot last week.. and goodness.. my arm was really sore! I was completely surprised. I took the shot and didn't think much of it. I went running, played with the dog and all that night, so it definitely got worked and moved, but it was still sore. I couldn't sleep on my arm for a couple nights. Anyway, I was just a bit surprised. I thought sore arms after shots was for wimps... and I am no wimp.

I had a fun weekend and I am so ready for this next weekend to get here. We have visitors! So fun will be had for sure. I am extremely excited for a little hiking action, as well as some k-state football watch party action. Always good times.

Oh and last weekend I did get the creative juices pumping.. I did a couple little projects. One I can't decide if I like how it turned out or not. There's one more thing I want to do with it and then I'll hang it up and decide. The next project will be drawing or painting something I think.. and I am thinking I will try one of the dog, which could be interesting. I've never really tried that before.

One last thing...
These are pretty awesome... and 100 Calories a pack (a pack containing 2)


Okay, well I need to get to work.. I have a lot to do!

I love purses a lot

I used to have quite an obsession with purses. I have toned it down, but when I see a website with so many fabulous ones, the itch comes back..

check it out and you can even win a free handbag!

http://www.handbagplanet.com/

I need to get creative again. Since the days of architecture school are over, the creative bug in me hasn't produced much. It needs to come back, so I am going to try to get inspired and create something fantastic..

wish me luck!

I do enjoy me some free stuff..

So.. it seems like there are many times where I am caught in... a dilemma.. of sorts. A situation where I'm thinking 'Now, how is an adult supposed to respond to this?'. Most of these thoughts seem to arise from an instance where someone is offering to pay for something for me.. or give me something for free.. or something to that extent. I hear people, I've seen it on TV and people have done it to me when I have offered.. the whole refusing to let me pay for something.. are you catching my drift? One thing about me, though, is I don't offer unless I really intend to do whatever it is I offer. I think this is the way everyone should be - maybe they are, maybe they aren't- I don't know.

So that's the problem. It seems like the 'polite' thing to do is to say 'no, no, no' and 'don't do that' when people offer and some people outright refuse for someone to pay for them.

Me, though? If you want to pay, by all means pay!

I think I'm missing something in me. I mean, I do the whole polite thing where I say 'no don't worry about it' or 'really you don't need to do that' or even 'no, no, no', but if you are offering I kind of expect you to win in the end... I will take free things and things getting paid for! Is that bad?!

I definitely just had a situation.. I shall explain.. and it ends with me getting free car work done whenever I need..

I went to get an oil change to the same place I've been a few times before. This time there was a new guy there and he informed he just bought the place about a month ago. So, whatever, I just want my oil changed. I did like the dudes before, they were quite helpful and had done a thing or two for free for me.
Anyway, the guys goes and works on the car, then tells me my battery is starting to corrode, so he says he's going to call around and see how much it would cost for a new battery. He said I should start looking into it, so he's calling around and another guy is cleaning, vacuuming out my car. He calls a few places, lets me know how much it will cost about. He tells me if I pick one up, he'd install it for free.. yadda yadda.

He then says he's going to get my car. So I walk out and I see the guy that had been cleaning it getting picked up by his girlfriend or something. So I wait for like 10 minutes and the owner comes out and says 'well, so I think (whatshisname- we'll call him Joe) left with your keys in his pocket'. So he tells me he's going to call him. I figure it's no big deal - he'll just call his cell phone and the guy will turn around. Well, I can tell he's looking around for his number for a little while, then finally het gets on the phone with this guy's son. I'm figuring Joe doesn't have a cell phone, so great, this is going to take even longer. It turns out, I find out later, that Joe is deaf! So, obviously he doesn't have a cell phone. So the owner has to call his son, who has to call him and communicate in some way. Apparently, Joe didn't go directly home, either. Nobody can get a hold of him.

Finally, the owner, Jeff, decides I can take his car home and then when Joe arrives with my keys he will deliver my car. So, okay, I just wanted to get home. I took his car, drove home, took the dog on a walk.. and kept my cell phone close by. Luckily, my roommate was home or I would have had no way to get into my house, since my house key was with my car keys! I didn't even think about that when I drove home.

I keep thinking it can't take that long for my keys to get back to the car place. Owner Jeff said Joe only lives like 10 minutes away. I make dinner, watch TV and am starting to get a bit nervous about this ordeal. Am I involved in some kind of scheme here? The guy hadn't been in business long.. I just dont' know what's going on..

Finally, Owner Jeff calls to tell me he still hasn't gotten them, but he's staying at the shop until he gets them. I was glad to hear from him again.Eventually, after my dear friend reminds me, I decide to take my spare key so I can atleast have my car and then I can get my keys and car remote later. I called Owner Jeff to inform him of the plan.

Luckily, on the way back to the place my keys get returned and when I get there the whole mess is finally over! Hallelujah! Owner Jeff feels so so so bad and tells me everything will be free for me for now on. What? I thought that might be a little extreme... I mean he gave me the oil change free and maybe he could give me the next one, but he was serious, all work will be free. If I need parts, I will pay for parts, but not labor... ever.

I just don't know if I wasn't mad enough about the whole situation and deserve free things forever or if he is being overly nice. I guess if I had things to do last night I would have been quite a bit more perturbed, but I didn't have anything too big going on. I also guess if I had no way of getting into my house, I would have been a little more angry as well. Hmmm..

Welp, anyway, as thoughts of 'how should an adult respond to this?' went through my head, I just told him that was really nice of him and he didn't really need to do that... but as I mentioned at the beginning, I am not going to turn down free things!

So, I really need to get my life in order here! Lately, I feel like it's been a mess. Ever since I ran the 1/2 marathon, the working out hasn't been as much of a priority as it needs to be. The eating hasn't been all that healthy either. I know I was out of town a lot and that probably has a bit to do with it. It hasn't helped me feel like I have my money situation under control either. The fun things keep rolling in, too.. fun things that require paying ahead, so I feel like I'm writing checks left and right.. and I would like it to stop! I would like a month of nothing special going on. I'm sure when that month hits I will be complaining of boredom, but at least I could save some money!

So there's the rant for the moment.. and this week I have started kicking it in gear with making the changes. I went grocery shopping Sunday and did my very best to get healthy things to eat. I love, love one of the grocery stores near me. The produce is super cheap, as well as organic, so it's great. I stopped there first, then went to the usual grocery store to pick up the other essentials.

I've also marked down the workout plan for the week.

I'm excited for fall, yet fall means the days are getting shorter. I absolutely hate my after-work-outside-fun being rushed.. and then when winter hits, it's dark before I even leave work. MISERABLE. Miserable for me and the dog...

October is going to be another busy one, but not in the same way and I'm very much looking forward to it. Two of the weekends I will have visitors and one weekend the Denver K-State crew is driving back to the ol' Alma mater for some football and friends.

Once October is over, we're on to snowboarding season! The fun never really ends I guess! Which is nice - I guess one day fun trips and such will not be so easy and fun, so I should enjoy them while they're flowing, right?

Fall is here!

Yay for fall being here! The leaves are changing on the trees. It's cooling down, but it could be cooler... Everyone says fall is so short in Colorado, so I am going to have to enjoy every second of it. This is what I heard last year, but I didn't think it was too terribly short. I guess in the mountains it's a pretty quick season. You don't have a big window to drive around and look at fall in the mountains.

Last year, I didn't make it up to the mountains, but this year my lovely friend Laura is visiting at what I think should be about prime time for some mountain/fall action. Maybe, we will grab a pumpkin spice latte (which I have never tried but am hearing an awful lot about), take the pup and we'll head out to the mountains...

I'm looking forward to the weekend (is it only Tuesday...?? ahh!).

Last weekend in Des Moines was great fun. It was short, but great to see the family and other people I haven't seen in quite awhile. The group at the wedding was fantastic and we had a great time celebrating the marriage!

paranoid dog

You would think my dog watches Law & Order all day.. or CSI.. or any of those other crime shows.

She's paranoid! She always thinks someone is breaking in or something. I can never take her barks seriously.

Last night, both the roommates were out of town - already at where I'm going today - and Miss Mia was on super guard. It was ridiculous. So of course, it kind of creeps me out that she's hearing things, even though I know she does this. The worst is when I'm in the shower, so I can't hear anything, but she starts going off barking. I don't like that one bit!

We made it through the night, though. Haha.. I had to keep the TV on in my room until she fell asleep because she kept acting like she was hearing things... and would never settle down otherwise.

Anywhoo.. one other thing..
I ordered a cool little Northface jacket that was super on sale earlier this week and it already came in the mail! Fabulous. I love it. It has those thumb holes so that the sleeves stay down all the way and I'm obsessed with it..teeheee

Football fun

Well, the K-State game last night was not so good... but the watch party was a good time. I saw quite a few familiar faces and, as usual, did more talking than watching the game. woops. I watched the first half for the most part, but the second half only received glances every now and then.

They raffled off some prizes.. one being 2 tickets to the Coors suite for the KSU/CU game... and guess who won them!?

ME!

I think that is quite possibly the first raffle prize I have ever won. It was exciting. A friend and I were jokingly both staring at my raffle ticket, hoping it was a winner, and surprisingly, it was! Unfortunately, it's only 2 tickets and I have 3 friends coming in town. We'll have to figure out how we're going to do it.. maybe I can beg for 2 more tickets when I talk to the Coors guy who is supposed to call me..? It was also a little ironic that I paid for the tickets we had already bought for the game last night. A friend had bought them and I had given him a check for them last night. I will most likely just keep the ticket I bought, so we can go back and forth to the suite, unless someone needs a ticket and then I will gladly sell it and get my $$$ back.

This weekend, I'm going out of town yet again. I had two weekends in town and now I'm back out. Frontier Airlines has gotten a lot of business from me in the past month and a half! I am flying to Kansas City and then my parents are driving through on the way to Des Moines and picking me up to take me there so we can attend a wedding. I'm pretty sure it will be a fun time! My whole family will be there - both parents and both brothers, so it will be nice to hang out with everyone again.

I have to miss another wedding though because they're on the same day :( One of my friends from my sorority is getting married, so I'm missing out on that which is a bummer!

flickr photo

I had an exciting little email in my inbox today...

"Hi Mackenzie, I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the fifth edition of our Schmap Prague Guide, to be published mid-October 2008...."

So, it's only shortlisted, but that's kind of fun that they were browsing around my pictures. The picture really isn't anything fabulous. I definitely would not have guessed it was this one, but if it ends up getting published then my name will be under it. The exciting start to my career in photography ( just kidding!).

It does remind me I need to start adding to my flickr account again! And start taking more photos...

It's such a strange feeling.. it happens once a year.. and you realize it's September 11th. I don't count down to the day in any way, it just happens all of a sudden when I look at the date and realize.. 'wow, today's the day'. I don't know what to do with myself on September 11th. I read articles and watch the news. I tear up and remember how on that day so many people died and so many brave people died saving other people. I guess the most important thing to do is remember.

I stopped by www.pinkisthenewblog.com and they listed every single person that was killed that day. Wow.. you forget how many people. I scrolled and scrolled and was reminded how many people there were.

I was far away in Kansas sitting in my high school. I can only imagine if I had been in New York City.. there would be much stronger memories of the day.

Anyway, it's the day after, but I'm still thinking about it and it's important to take a moment to remember.

fall fall fall

Wow! I was just reading an article and saw that the Stand Up 2 Cancer deal has raised more than 100 million dollars!! That's awesome.. and it's still counting. Yay for you if you helped!

Just thought I'd give an update on that.

Lately, I have had this shopping itch and it won't go away! I'm trying to stop myself. I know it's this fall weather that is coming around and I keep catching glances of cute, new fall outfits online. I really haven't been shopping in quite awhile. Instead, I've been spending money elsewhere, no doubt about that. I now have my snowboard, boots and bindings... as well as two tickets to 2 different K-State football games... so those are the recent purchases..

I have a feeling my next paycheck I'm a goner... you can find me at the mall..
The only thing that will save me is pure lazyness to go shopping or busyness.. so we shall see.

With these football ticket purchases, I'm getting way excited for some good tailgating. For the CU/K-State game I have some friends coming into town and we plan on meeting up with a bunch of other K-Staters for a fun tailgate. Last weekend we gathered at our 'watch party' bar where they are hooking us up with great beer deals and free food! I couldn't ask for more. Of course, I spend more time chatting, drinking and eating than really watching the game, but I check in and cheer when everyone else does. I just like seeing all the familiar faces and meeting new K-State grads that have recently moved out to the great city of Denver.

The dog is at dog-topia today.. so hopefully I have a worn out puppy tonight... because I am worn out!

P.S.

I loooooooove Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers.

check 'em out

Stand Up To Cancer

I've been hearing a lot about Stand Up To Cancer lately. There's a TV special on ABC, NBC and CBS for an hour at the same time, commercial free, on all of the channels on Friday night 8PM ET.
I think that's pretty awesome. There's going to be all kinds of celebrities there to help raise funds and all that jazz.

Click on the picture and it should take you there.

Here's the link as well http://su2c.standup2cancer.org/theshow.
You can donate any amount there.. and there is all kinds of info and cool things going on through the website

I donated and if I feel like balling my eyes out on Friday then I will watch... because any time I watch any kind of special on cancer I cry... a lot.

TV season

Can we get some shows about poor people? Why are all the shows about rich people... it's fun for a little bit, but come on..

The Hills, Gossip Girl, 90210, this new show "Privileged", which I really don't know what it's about, but the name hints A LITTLE. I believe that in Lipstick Jungle they are loaded although I've never watched that either.

I think a show would be interesting about poor twentysomethings - some 'working girl' shows - ACTUAL working girl shows.. where they actually have limited funds.. I think a show could go places with that! I mean then some of them could go from poor to rich... when they live out my dream and marry a rich man.. I mean that's a 3 year span for the show right there.. then it can develop into a show about rich people if it must.

Anyway.. just my thoughts on that...

Moving on to September

Well, I had a great Labor Day weekend. We had a perfect weekend in Minnesota filled with relaxation, drinking and some fun adventures (i.e. running out of gas on the boat)... leaving me with a tan and good memories.

The group was all fun.. no drama..

I skied for the first time in a long time, as well as tubed. I can't believe how long it has been since I have been to a lake - probably 5 years! Weird. We did some kayaking as well, which was an adventure in itself. When you're kayaking with the wind across the lake, it is safe to say the way back is going to be ROUGH. The arms got quite the work out. We pulled an all-nighter Sunday night, as we had a 2 hour drive to Fargo to catch our plane at 6:30 am. So we drank and stayed up all night... which doesn't leave you feeling the best at about 5:30 am. The last night, though, as we were waiting for the time to leave to approach, we found ourselves laying out on the dock looking up at the very starry sky and singing anything and everything that popped up in our heads. Hopefully, we gave some entertainment to those across the lake. It was a grand time.

Getting back so early on Monday, gave me all day to recover. I laid around all day... luckily after Mia relaxed, she realized she was pretty tired, too. So we laid on the couch, sleeping and watching Law and Order all day.. pretty awesome.

Now, back at work where I keep forgetting it is Tuesday.. which is nice when you remember. The emails have already started to flow for this coming weekend...haha... K-State football watch party to look forward to!

At lunch, I visited one of 2 big sales I plan on visiting this week to get the snowboard gear covered. I got some sunglasses for snowboarding, long underwear and new gloves.. I think the second sale I visit will be a good place to get my bindings and boots for my snowboard.. for hopefully really good prices.

The weather today is quite fitting, for the day after Labor Day... which signifies the end of summer. Today is a pretty cool day, reminding me of Fall... which I LOVE.

I had a wonderful summer and now I'm ready to welcome Fall... and I hope Denver gives me a long one this year..

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! :)

list..

I just ate a very large, filling cookie.. UGH.. I'm full! I can't turn down sweets..

To Do Sometime Before I Leave:
_Add more songs to RUNNING playlist on ipod -check
_Write down where to pick up 1/2 marathon info -check
_Print off hotel and marathon important info/confirmation numbers -check
_Write down few ideas of places that are must-sees while in San Fran
_Pack Jackets and Jeans... the highs are about 60 degrees!
_Charge camera batteries
_Pack all chargers - phone, ipod, camera
_Do a load of laundry - check
_Figure out what I will wear for the run!

Thursday
_Pick up dress from alterations place - might be pricey..eek! -check
_Finish a lot of stuff at work..ugh

Friday
_Meet at Allison's at 5:15 am - woohoo!

OH YEAH! Exciting news!! H&M is around the corner from our hotel !!!!! Good and Bad at the same time...

Not thrilled

Not thrilled that I just got referred to as part of the marketing, graphics, interiors area. Not thrilled at all. I went to Architecture school. Just because I'm a female apparently I'm being put into this category at work...

This is exactly why I don't want to stay here long... because that is the direction I will be made to go. I could see that from the beginning when looking at the one other female in the office with an Architecture degree. There's nothing wrong with that area, but I didn't go through 5 years of grueling school for that.. no sirree..

UGH. Not happy at the moment.

Anyways, looking to the weekend.. where I will be freely wondering around San Francisco..
List time...

_Add to playlist on ipod (that apparently we're not supposed to use?!) for the run
_Don't forget to pack ipod charger


Hmmm... that's really the most important thing I can think of right now.. Must have ipod for the run! Apparently, they have started banning them in marathons. F THAT. I better be able to use it...one part of the website says they ask if you use them to only put one earphone in... I guess I can do that


----The girl next to me at work that works on GRAPHICS with me, just got off the phone with the client I did the renderings for last week and he just called to tell us that everything looked fabulous and had lots of comments on how great everything looked...so that's nice!

I lied

I totally lied! I'm getting nervous for this 1/2 marathon!

Well, I wouldn't be so nervous, except my run yesterday turned out to be pretty worthless. I had a soccer game Saturday and that left me more sore and more worn out than I thought it would. So the legs were sore from that yesterday and I decided to run at noon, when it was 90 degrees outside. I did not last long. I didn't want to push myself and make myself feel totally awful, so I had to run/walk for some of it. Not cool at all. If I would have gotten an 8 mile in like planned, I would feel better. Now I'm going to try to get a long one in after work, which it just never seems to feel as good when I go after work. Mornings have been awesome for me to run in, but I really just want to get this run in and don't want to put it off until the morning.


Other than the failed run, the weekend went pretty well. It was relaxing. I didn't do a whole lot. Had a relaxing happy hour on Friday for a few hours after work. I love happy hour on Friday!

I saw Batman on Saturday night and it was really good! I didn't know how I'd feel about it and at one point in the movie I got a little sick of all the crazy action going on. We were also in the third row at the IMAX so it was CLOSE to say the least. The movie started and the sound was off on timing- you heard what was happing before it happened and it was so confusing! I didn't realize that was what was happening for awhile.. I just thought I was confused....but alas everyone started booing and they turned off the movie. Employees came down as we were waiting - to explain how they had to fix it and how it would take 10 to 15 minutes, then another guy to say it'd be on in a minute. The crowd was really lively and funny. Each time someone came to tell us what was going on, the crowd cheered when they were done. One guy would yell 'FREE NACHOS!'. It was pretty entertaining.

The 10:20 show was sold out and then there was a 1:20am show after us. Crazy! It's not opening weekend, but it was still crazy.

In puppy dog news, we've started leaving Mia out for an hour or two at a time if we're all going to be gone. She handles it fine.. we could probably leave her out longer, but we'll get to that at some point. She loves looking out the window. loves it. We have a chair set up by the dining room window, so she can look out and when we're gone it seems like she just sits at the window most of the time. It's so so cute, when I get home and her little head is sitting in the window, waiting. It always takes her minute to see if it's me walking up to the door, so I always wave and when she figures it out she jumps down and waits for me to open the door. SO cute.

music love

Last night, we saw Matt Nathanson perform for a private showing. We weren't supposed to be there, but we got in and it was GREAT. The guy is great. Everyone should see him live. He has a great voice, great music and makes such a great connection with the audience. The little venue it was at was perfect for this kind of a thing. Everyone got to sit up pretty close to him and throughout the show he talks to people and gets the crowd excited. He could hear people being silly and laughing and would point them out and say something back to them.

I would have needed a few more drinks before I would start acting silly/loud enough for him to notice me. I was sitting front and center, though, which was pretty awesome. I got some pics and some videos of him performing, so I'll have to put them on here at some point.

This was the second time I have seen him perform and I'm pretty sure after every show he does he goes out and talks, signs autographs and takes pictures with every single person who wants to see him.
We waited in line so we could get a pic and have a short conversation with him. I got 'Mokies. Bernal Heights' written on my forearm in permanent marker by him. Apparently, it's a great sushi place. I told him I'd be making a visit to San Fran for the 1/2 marathon and that's what I got. So here I am at work with a nice little note written on my arm.

So, yeah, we weren't supposed to be there, as I mentioned. We heard he was going to be here from an email I got on Tuesday and I clicked on a link that took us to the radio station's page to fill out a form and become a 'panel member'. We filled out and figured that's all we had to do. Well, we got there and it turns out that last week they had a drawing of the panel members and whoever was drawn got an email to come. So the email I got was from Matt's email list and was a bit misleading! We had to wait around the door for awhile, but there were plenty of no shows, so we got in without a problem... so it was free and VIP.

Work is killing me..

I had a super fun, super exhausting weekend and now I am SUPER busy at work. That's a lot of supers to deal with at one time.. I know..

With a birthday celebration that got a bit out of control on Friday night and the weekend long Mile High Music Festival, my weekend was pretty packed full of fun. I took the dog to get boarded for the weekend on Saturday morning since the festival pretty much consumed 14 hours straight on both Saturday and Sunday.

With all of that going on, I haven't gotten a run in now in about 4 days. Not good. The 1/2 marathon is in less than 2 weeks! Tonight I am getting one in, although it doesn't appear that I will be getting out of work at 5:00...ugh! I am just sitting here waiting for the computer to render up a model I have built...and it is going SLOOOW. There has been a deadline like every other freakin' day and it is driving me mad. These renderings are for a public meeting for the community of the city to come to and look at and decide how they feel towards the project. Also, they're for some press release. So it is kinda cool that everyone will be looking at them, but they need to be a good representation, too, so kinda scary.

Anyways, back to the running... I'm not too worried about the 1/2 marathon. I've been doing really well on my training..except for this lull, which I saw coming. I don't have any big plans for this weekend, so it shouldn't be a problem fitting a relatively long run in - not too long though because I'm supposed to take it a bit easier the weekend before the big one.

Well, gotta go and hopefully finish up this stuff so I can get out of here!
I'll post some pics soon

country music, you always get me reflecting on life..

I've been listening to a lot of country music lately.
Country music always gets me in a different way than other music. It's about life.. and always gets me thinking about life.

"These are my people" by Rodney Atkins... love it. This will take you to his MySpace page for you to listen.. I can't just write the lyrics - it's not the same!

The stage I'm at in life - along with all of my friends - is pretty interesting! It's hard to take a step back from your own life - troubles and stresses- and just look at the picture.
Here I am in Denver, surrounded by people from pretty much the same area of the U.S. - Kansas and surrounding states...most with some sort of tie to Kansas - school, family... something. It's interesting how that happens. Someone knows someone from home or school and introduces new friends into the picture.. and something clicks when we're hanging out.

Part of me is so looking forward to football season because it is so fun to go to our Kansas State bar and be surrounded by K-Staters... many of them familiar from school, even if I don't personally know them.

Not only are so many of us from the same area, more or less, but we're at this same stage in life. We just got dumped into the real world with these real jobs and we're really just trying to figure out what to do with ourselves! If someone at my age has it all figured out, then that's congratulations... but I don't! All being in a relatively new city to us, we get excited to try new things, go to new places, eat at new restaurants and it's so fun. You can't beat it.
We all have different things going on - job stresses, money stresses, time stresses, relationship stresses- and you get so wrapped up in them...it's just interesting to step back and look at the greatness of it. Making our way, finding out we're able to get through it and figure it out and come out on the other end.

I've been a computer rendering maniac lately! Here's the latest...

ouch

I am in pain from the weekend.. My body hurts. 10 miles ran on Saturday and a full day hike on Sunday leaves me a little sore and it is hard to sit at my desk at work all day.

Lots to do this week...

-Unpacking more - this is going to take awhile.

-Grocery store so I have something to bring to work for lunch.

-Call hotel in San Francisco and beg to have a late checkout on Sunday after our race. If I don't have somewhere to relax after the race, I don't know what I'm going to do.

-Get pictures developed (yes, developed - such a rare thing these days!)

-Make a doctor appointment - these long runs are doing something to my intestines... hence second bullet point

Things are sloooooowly coming together around the house. It is pretty hard to fit in a workout, dog play time and unpacking and organizing all after work. The idea that has crossed my mind is to get the workout in BEFORE work. I might actually force myself up early one of the days this week. It would be a good habit to get into..

I definitely need to get running - I didn't do any running this last weekend, so I need to push myself this week. I'm not sure when I'm going to get the long run in this weekend either! I have a soccer game on Saturday and then we're going on a long hike on Sunday. I guess I'll just squeeze it in before one of those.

I am super excited for the hike, though. I love getting out to the mountains. I've been seeing some pictures from other peoples' hikes and I've been aching to get out there.

A quick tidbit - Mia has been sweetly waiting for me to wake up the last few mornings. Adorable. She's the sweetest in the mornings - she's all about cuddling.

3 days non-stop

Looking back on the weekend, it's hard to believe I did everything I did in 3 days! It was a full weekend.

Thursday night we headed out for dinner on 16th street at Rock Bottom Brewery - which was delicious, then headed to LODO. Sports Column on Thursday night is the place to be, as it is $5 to get in and then $1 you-call-its... Well, since nobody had work on Friday, the place was pretty popular and there was a loooong line winding outside of the bar. We decided to wait - it was moving fairly quickly. We headed up to the the rooftop and spent the rest of the evening there. After we made it home, there was after hours with Mia...she gets lots of play time sometimes at 2 am.

Friday we eventually got up and around and got to Wash Park at about the same time as the rest of Denver. Well, it wasn't that crowded, but spots that had trees for shade were quickly getting taken. We ended up with a nice spot and started to set up the food table, volleyball net and ladder golf alongside another group doing about the same.

The day was perfect.. lots of fun in the sun, drinking, eating and hanging out with friends. Our plans to go elsewhere to watch fireworks faded as it started getting darker and we were still chilling at our spot.. a little too lazy to start packing up everything. There was an orchestra that played on a stage set up near us and then we watched some fireworks over the trees that were being shot off at the Denver Country Club.

We finally packed up, headed home and passed out. Mia was so worn out that she probably would have slept until noon on Saturday, but I had to get up and get ready for the big move. I missed the opportunity to sleep in! It was very hard to get out of bed before my dog did.

Then the moving began. It went pretty smoothly. I had the help of 4 strong guys and all the heavy furniture was out and in the UHaul relatively quickly. We stopped at the Spicy Pickle, I bought them some lunch and we headed over to the new place to unload. There was some furniture shuffling going on since I added two whole couches and another table to the mix.

The Uhaul basically had all the heavy furniture, but I still had stuff at the apartment. So I had to bring probably 4 more loads in my car over throughout the weekend. I did a lot of heavy lifting up and down 3 floors.. I got a workout for sure.

Now, the place is a mess. Mia is currently sitting in her kennel surrounded by boxes.. poor thing. She's a little confused as to what is going on, but she's not complaining because she LOVES Uncle Jeff.. who she now lives with. I'm going to have to get used to Sportscenter on the TV 24/7 now compared to Law & Order on 24/7 from the past year..

pack attack

Well.. the time has come to cram in all the packing! As the extended weekend draws nearer, I am realizing that I really need to get most of this stuff packed TONIGHT. I took one load of boxes over to my brother's (where I'm moving) on Monday. I packed a good amount of clothes and shoes last night. So I'll pack some more tonight and take another load over.. oh fun.

Saturday, we're getting the UHaul and moving all the big stuff over.. I got some boys to come over and do the heavy lifting and I will be providing drinks and lunch.

Besides moving, I plan on having a good time this weekend too! It looks like we'll be going out a little on Thursday and then Friday, the 4th, will be an all day event at Wash Park with drinking, friends and games! I love Wash Park! I can take Mia and get her all tuckered out too.

Also.. changes in the office! We've been bought out/merged with a much larger firm.. so it has been a little bit crazy around here. I had to go through all the paper work you go through when you get a new job and learned about all of the benefits. I now have a 401k. So far, it all seems like it will be a great change.

So, busy weekend ahead of me..
Next week will be a highly unorganized week as I don't think I'll get through all the unpacking this week.

See ya next week.. hopefully through all of the moving debris.

weekend review

Well.. 8 miles and two hours in the sun by the pool later.. I'm pretty exhausted and have a headache.

The 8 miles were rough and I had to walk a little bit, but I ran over 8 miles so I think I was pretty close to running the whole 8 miles. I had a soccer game yesterday and I think that just made my legs a bit tired for the run today. I need to make sure the day before we run in San Francisco, we don't walk around too much and make our legs tired!

Speaking of my soccer game, though, I had a pretty amazing goal! I got high fives from my team as well as the other team. haha.. so that was nice. A girl crossed the ball in right at me - like this line drive. It was coming in 90 degrees from the goal and I took a swing at it and nailed it right in the upper, left of the goal. Pretty sweet :)

Anyways, other than that I had a pretty lonesome weekend. A lot of people were out of town/busy. I don't mind low key weekends, but it's kind of bummer when I realize my lack of many friends in Denver. If my brother's out of town and then some of my other friends are gone, it seems I don't end up hanging out with anyone!

Oh well.. hopefully the circle expands with time!

here's the run

They kind of rock

Brangelina doing more good things with their money..

7 miles!

7 miles yesterday! that seems like a big step for me! Now I'm over the halfway point of the half marathon.. haha.

The stress of paying for Mia's vet visit helped my run I think.. It wasn't all that bad until the awful stomach ache I got after the run. It was pretty painful. I think I was running harder and going faster than usual.

another vet visit...

Well, Mia developed quite an ear infection this weekend. Saturday I got back from my soccer games and she was shaking her head like crazy. I got a glimpse of the inside of her ear and it was all red. A lady at the pool in my complex said to mix together alcohol, vinegar and water to put on it. I did that Saturday and Sunday, but felt I really should talk to the vet, so we went in today. One ear looks fine and the other looks bad. They looked in the good ear first and saw there was a foxtail...



So the doc thinks there might be one in the bad ear and that's what started it. I guess this happens out in Denver - with the dry weather these little seeds fly around more and make their way in dogs ears.. or other places she mentioned she'd pull them from.

So... Mia is still at the vet. They are giving her a little sedative so they can pull it out.. and all I can think of is 'how much is this going to cost!?'

They're going to call me when they're all done with her, which seems like it should be soon. When I go in to get her, I am going to ask them if they have any pet insurance advice, because I think I'm going to get some.

GOALS

Goals are important, right? Well.. my goal for the summer is to look like this...

Two of the greatest moments (okay, I'm exaggerating) of my life were when random strangers - guys at that - told me

First time: 'You probably get this a lot, but you look like Eva Longoria'

Second time (in the ritzy cherry creek area none the less) by a gay/metro sexual man: 'do you know who you like?! I just had to look 3 times to see if you were her.. who do you think it is? come on.. okay.. I totally thought you were Eva Longoria. You look just like her'.. yadda yadda..

So.. clearly I am no spitting image.. haha.. but I'll take what I can get..
So I am working on closing the gap..

1 year!?

I've been in the working world for one whole year! This day seemed so far off awhile ago - it is a bit crazy. Time really has flown by so far. I'm still trying to get over it being June of 2008 and then I looked at the date yesterday and realized I started on June 18th last year! Wow.

So, I realized this at about 3:00 yesterday and the girl who sits next to me at work let everyone know of this accomplishment. There wasn't too much of a response from the rest of the employees - no showering of gifts or cake at least. I had a rum and coke at home at about 9:00pm in celebration..

Anyways, moving on...

_I have to move out of the apartment in 2 1/2 weeks. I currently have about 4 boxes packed. I have no idea how long it will take to pack up everything. I'm pretty sure I will assume it won't take that long and then be very, very wrong.

_I think it's time to get the golf clubs out.

_I'm finally catching up with the rest of the women in the world and going to see the Sex and the City movie tomorrow night! YAY! Drinks with the girls and then movie.

_Saturday night I'm going to see Corey Smith in concert. I've been loving his music and am pretty excited to hear him live.

_Two soccer games Saturday..that could be rough. We had our championship game for last season last weekend, so we missed the beginning of this season, so therefore we have two games this weekend. They cram these seasons in for sure.. I love playing the games once I get out there, but thinking about having to do something on Saturday kind of wears me out. After working all week, I would like the option of just laying by the pool for a few hours on Saturdays. I get to on Sunday, but that's another day I have to wait to get there!

Alright. I better end it there!

Happy Thursday! It's going to be a long afternoon I think...

Whoa! One thing I recommend NOT doing is what I just did! Imagine if you lived at home at your parents' house for the past year and add up all the money you've spent on rent/bills/some food for the past year.. If you lived with your parents think how you could have SAVED all that money! Yikes! It's painful.. you really shouldn't add that up.

Bikes everywhere! I love it!

Yesterday, I turned onto the street leaving work and whoa! Cyclists everywhere! Everyone is biking to work these days. It's fab. It makes me want to bike to work, but I just need to get a bike. I believe next week is bike-to-work week and that would be a good time for me to start. It all kind of scares me, though, with cars that zip by you and the fact that I haven't ridden a bike in quite awhile.
The locations of my work and my home are ideal for biking it seems. I live only about 3 miles from work and for a mile or so there is a designated bike lane, and I need to figure it out, but I think I can jump on another bike path at some point. I need to print out the crazy bike path map of Denver and figure it out. Some kind of "Biking Around Denver for Dummy's" guide would be helpful too.

Well..I had a fun weekend! I was outside in the sun a lot, which is always the goal on these summer weekends.
We went out for Allison's birthday on Friday night - dinner and out. We had a fab night - much needed - we all hadn't been out out together in awhile! I then had a soccer game at 10:00 in the morning on Saturday and didn't feel real great when I left for the game, but the running around and the fresh air must have been good for me because I felt better after about 15 minutes. The field we were playing on out at Dick's Sporting Good's Park had an awesome view of the mountains! It's farther East than the fields we usually play on and must be higher up because I could see ALL the mountains as I played the game... pretty awesome. It was a really clear day, too. Gorgeous.

After the game Mia and I went to Wash Park to meet up with some people (and dogs) for volleyball and BBQ. So fun.. love days in the park. Then had an engagement party dinner that evening. I was pretty tired after the dinner and just went home and to bed..

Sunday was a pretty lazy day.. laid out at the pool, took Mia to the park near-by, ran into a couple of the usual dogs and their owners. Met a lady who thought Mia was SO CUTE! Then found out she was a puggle and told me all about her neice wanting to get a puggle so bad. So that was pretty funny. She was really excited about seeing a puggle. haha.

After all that and a little nap, I mustered up the energy to go on a run. I didn't go that morning and it was pretty hot during the day, so I put it off until about 7:30. I was worried for myself, putting it off like that, but I was going to be SO MAD at myself if I didn't reach my 6 mile goal today.

So I did.. did the 6 miles I had mapped out earlier. YAY!

summary of thoughts

-Glad everyone's okay in Manhattan, KS (my alma mater) with the tornado! Scary!
-Sad about the boy scouts in Iowa.
-Impressed that Katherine Heigl turned down an Emmy nomination
-Noticing I'm looking forward to my runs - that's a good thing!

ohhh boy..8 weeks until the 1/2 marathon! I need to revise the training schedule.

This is what I think I'm going for.. just the long runs on the weekends. In between will be 4/5 mile runs during the week.

JUNE 14/15 - 6 miles
JUNE 21/22 - 8 miles
JUNE 28/29 - 8 miles
JULY 5/6 - 9 miles
JULY 12/13 - 11 miles
JULY 19/20 - 8 miles
JULY 26/27 - 9 miles
AUGUST 3RD - 1/2 Marathon

So the 1/2 Marathon will be at sea level, so that's a plus, since I'm training at 5,000 ft., but it will most likely have hills and that will be tough. It will also be in a city I have never seen though, so hopefully some stuff to look at will serve as a little distraction...

Anyways...
Mia and I had a nice evening last night. Our old puggle friends invited us over for a doggy play date. They had moved and have a good size backyard now. Marvin and Mia hadn't seen each other in quite awhile, so they did a lot of playing. It was still a little hot when I got over there at 7, but cooled down and it was a beautiful evening. They grilled up Turkey hotdogs and Turkey burgers as well. YUM YUM.

Also, it should be a fun weekend ahead. Friday we're celebrating Allison's bday! Then Saturday night I'm celebrating Angie and Corey's engagement at Ocean. More yum.
My soccer team is in the championship game of our league. I wasn't really expecting us to win two games last weekend, but I checked online since I missed them and we won. So, 10:00 is the championship game. After that I'm heading to the pool.. If we win the team will probably want to celebrate, but I need to go to the pool and layout! I haven't gotten the chance to yet and it's making me a little mad.. not gonna lie.

visitors over the weekend!

After taking a long weekend off this was pretty rough.. but I should be on a steady schedule from now on with long runs on the weekend.




I had a superb weekend with the girls! Camdin, Jesi and Megan all came out to Denver and we had so much fun and did a lot. I'll sum it up pretty quickly..I showed them around a bit on Friday, then went to the Rockies game Friday (we left early and ended up missing one exciting game apparently - woops!), but we wanted to get ready and go out in LODO. We got back downtown and had a fun night. Saturday morning we headed to brunch at this place called Bump & Grind. On the weekends the servers cross-dress and are loud and obnoxious... pretty funny. Our waiter/waitress tortured this grandpa from Kansas. He had come over to talk to us when he saw Megan's K-State t-shirt. Anyways, we're not sure if his family and him knew what they were getting into when they came to this place.
After breakfast we headed west and went hiking and camping in the mountains. Very fun!
I'll put some pics up in a bit.

blogtastic

This is a cute blog.. I like this post in particular

http://www.thejinius.com/category/its-hard-being-a-genius

Wednesday's run

So I'm putting these runs in here so I can keep track of what I've done and in hopes to motivate me if I'm putting it out there when I run!

more running

I need to figure out a new run around my apartment.. I'm going to get sick of this one. I am moving in a month, so I guess I will have a new route around then. I'll try to get creative for the next month though.. and I need to bump up the running. I'm hanging around the 4 mile mark too much.. I need to jump up to 6 miles asap.


YESTERDAY'S RUN..



SATURDAY'S RUN...

During this run I went into a really beautiful area with beautiful houses.. well the whole run has pretty houses, but South of 6th street has BIG houses.. in the Country Club area. I hear it's the most expensive neighborhood in Denver. Seriously some beautiful houses in there!

The weekend was pretty uneventful, but VERY relaxing...well except the intense soccer game on Sunday. Those games take it out of me! 90 minutes, coed and no subs for the girls.. and the games are definitely competitive and fast-paced. I love it though, so can't complain. I am kinda glad the season is now over, though. I would like to use my Sundays to lay by the pool! Especially since I won't have a pool to lay by after July 6th.
We were in the playoffs, but lost this game after a long battle. My Saturday team is now in the playoffs - the first game is this weekend, but I will be missing it.

This weekend I will be hanging out with my visitors! Looking forward to it! We're leaving Saturday to go camping and I am so excited for camping this summer. I bought a tent and sleeping bag and was tempted to buy all kinds of fun camping stuff, but I stopped myself.

Also, since the heat has been on in the last week and I've had Mia back, I have noticed how she reacts to hot weather. She does not like the hot weather at all! Last summer she was a little, tiny puppy and we didn't spend all that much time outside in the hot air. It also didn't take much before she was worn out when she was that little. Now it usually takes a lot more to get her worn out and I have found that hot weather wears her out so fast! We can even go to the park and sit and chill because she doesn't want to run around as much. She enjoys hanging out in the shade. So this weekend we hung out at the park and I read a book as she played some with her favorite toy of all time and rolled around in the shade.

I must say this summer might be pretty nice if that's all it takes to get her worn out and in her cute, adorable sleepy puppy state. She might start adjusting to the hot weather and not get worn out so fast. Either way, with her favorite toy of all time it's not too hard to get her tired.

UGH!

UGH..is all I'm feeling like today..

Yesterday's run ... 3.7 miles

Trying to get back in the training.. this was a little rough. It doesn't help that the whole second half is practically up hill. ROUGH.

Looking forward to the weekend

Hopefully this weekend consists of:

-Running (must get back into the running habit for training! we bought our plane tickets to SF!)
-Soccer (it's getting towards the end of both of my seasons!)
-Laying out by the pool (getting a tan!)
-Having some drinks with friends
-Relaxing
-Playing with the puppy at the park (getting a tan!)
-Driving range (get my golf back on)
-Farmer's Market

The past three weeks were not wasted! Thank goodness! I've been studying my butt off for this test I had today and I PASSED! It was a scary test - I definitely didn't know if I passed at the end of it. I didn't know how many I could miss and still pass, so each question could have held the results in it's hands! Scary! So after two hours of an increased heart rate and about 15 seconds of near heart attack, the score came on the screen and I passed.

The people around me at this testing center (taking different kinds of tests) just might have been a little worried about me as I kept making loud exhaling noises.. but whatever..

So I am officially a LEED Accredited Professional. Wahoo! I'm sustainable.

This is something I've been wanting to do for about a year and a half, so I'm pretty excited that I did it. The object of LEED is to create buildings that do not hurt the environment nearly as bad as most do, so it's definitely something that will continue to be a big deal. I would love to be a big part of it.

it's official

We officially signed up for the San Francisco 1/2 marathon! We also have a hotel booked. Just need the flight now... and to do some training, of course.. which is a little off track..

musical summer

I'm loving music lately. I've never been one to get really into music, but I think I'm changing my ways. I'm all about live music these days - which is also a good way to break the bank...

I guess sitting at work all day long and listening to music for some of it has made me want to explore a little more. Also, www.pandora.com is a fabulous way to discover some new music. You put in an artist you like and it plays music by that artist as well as similar sounding artists. Check it out.

Denver has some great little venues for smaller bands/artists to come and play..

My faves right now

Matt Nathanson
Corey Smith (concert June 21st)
Ingrid Michaelson
Spoon

I'm also going to the first annual Mile High Music Festival- www.milehighmusicfestival.com - it's got quite a line up and should be a good time of sitting out in the sun and listening to music. That's July 19th, 20th - can't wait!

The thing about concerts is that you really don't know what you miss until you go.. live music is great.

"There’s something so amazing about music; it can transform the dullest of environments into beautiful places. Put it on, hear it out, look around, revel in the moment. Here lie the beauty and clarity that get you through your day."
- Tristan Prettyman

I really wish there were such a thing as a chill pill.. I would totally mash it up and sneak it in to certain people's water..or coffee..

my neighborhood in Denver

So in July, my lease at my apartment complex is up and I'm moving to my brother's house to live with him and his roommates. It's a great deal - I will be saving tons of money on rent.

I'm going to be a little sad to be leaving my neighborhood, though. I have spent so much of my time in the neighborhood with my dog. I am outside on walks or at the close neighborhood park, Congress park, with her every single day. On these walks and at the park, I have gotten to know a lot of my neighbors in Congress Park neighborhood that have dogs. Sometimes there will be 5 to 10 people there with their dogs, which results in doggy playtime. So it has been nice seeing familiar faces every time I'm at the park and knowing other people's dogs' names, as well as them knowing my dog. There is Aspen and Boogie that Mia particularly plays well with.

Tonight I was at a near-by coffee shop - locally owned. There is a very close starbucks which I have gone to because of it's very close proximity to my apartment, but this coffee shop serves up some great sandwiches, coffee and baked goods. So I sat outside today and had a turkey, avocado sandwich while studying. As I sat there so many people from the neighborhood walked up to either the coffee shop or at the ice cream shop next door to sit outside with family friends and dogs. There was a friendly run-in between one couple and their dog and another guy with two dogs. They clearly knew each other from seeing each other with their dogs and they sat down and chatted for awhile.

It was an awesome evening outside and loved that there was this neighborhood meeting place where neighbors run into each other. The ice cream shop - I think it is actually custard - is a simple store, where they home-make the custard daily. They have chocolate and vanilla every day and then a flavor of the day, today was coconut, and many toppings to pick from. After having my sandwich and studying, I decided I should probably check it out and ended up with chocolate custard and m&m's.. my favorite. While checking out, one of the guys asked if I would like to play a little trivia and try for 10% off. why not.. right? So I picked 'pop culture' and then picked 'sports and games'. I don't remember the question exactly, but it had something to do with "which city has held the olympics twice in (the name of the stadium)." And I totally got it right! Athens! Which if you've been to Greece or know much about it you probably would have gotten it right, because the name of the stadium was pretty obvious - in that it ended -aikos...

So to sum it up, I love the neighborhood and the neighborliness that exists.. a local park and the local shops add to it so much! And I'm going to miss it when I leave. It won't be too far and I could easily make some trips over to visit.

I will be close to an awesome and beautiful Denver park, Wash Park. Not as close as Congress Park, but it will suffice..

Yesterday's run... 5 miles

I went twice around Wash Park..good and pretty run!

This morning's run.. 4 miles

All kinds of things are going on right now!

Well, mainly two things I guess - training for the San Francisco 1/2 marathon and studying for the LEED test.. as well as working. Thank goodness for my parents taking Mia home with them after they visited last week because I don't have time for my little pup.
It sounds like she's having a good time with the grandparents though, so that's good. I think I've talked to them every day since they took her home! I'm going to be one crazy mom to a real human being one day.

My LEED test (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design if you were wondering) ended up being scheduled a little bit later than I was planning, so I have a little more time to prepare. I'm pretty nervous though- I just want to pass this thing and it's not going to be easy! So much studying ahead of me and definitely much running ahead of me.. I have quite a ways to go before I'm at 13.1 miles!

I'm definitely excited for the half marathon and definitely excited for a trip to San Francisco.

I'm up to 5 miles this weekend..wahoo.. just the beginning! I'm also playing in two soccer leagues that have games on the weekends, so it's hard to fit in a run on top of a full game of soccer!

Well.. that's what is currently on my mind, so thought I'd share.

more deliciousness

I'm not turning this into a blog about food..haha.. but here's a recipe to a delicious dip. It's really easy and really yummy

Black Bean Dip

1 pkg frozen creamed spinach

1 can chicken—the one a bit bigger than a regular tuna can.

1 can of black beans rinsed & drained

2 C. shredded Colby-Jack Cheese

1 jar of salsa (I can't remember the exact size. I'd guess about 14 oz.)

Mix everything together. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with Frito Scoop Chips.

YUM

the most delicious thing to hit my mouth

I am not good at waiting...