Jax and Jewels

Are you sure they're the same breed?

2012-01-27T07:45:00.000-05:00

I honestly do not understand how two dogs of the same breed could be any more different.

Exhibit A: What I was trying to do the other day in my photo of the week submission.

The happiest pooch you'll ever meet when there's snow on ground. Actually, the happiest pooch you'll ever meet if there's snow, rain, sun, wind, acorns, squirrels, and/or butterflies around. He's not a fan of cats though for the simple reason he doesn't know what to do with them. Loves to give kids puppy kisses, but he's really trying to lick the dried ice cream off their faces.

Exhibit B:

The angriest dog in the world when it comes to any natural elements besides sun. Snow is her absolute least favorite thing in the world, only second to cute babies. Those little mini humans steal her thunder and she's not cool with it. She'd definitely eat one if given the chance.

At least she looks adorable in her little hoondstooth jacket. Thank you Martha Stewart! That bad boy fits her perfectly and the hubs and I have picked up more than one in different colors for Jewels. If you're near a Pet Smart and see one in a size small, please let me know!

What's old is new again

2012-01-26T07:45:00.002-05:00

Inexplicably, I've wanted a pair of black leather pants my whole life. There is no rationalization for it or any semblance of rhyme or reason. Whenever Anh, from 9 to 5 Chic, wears her leather Balenciaga leggings I feel the need to drop some serious dough on a pair of leather pants. I either need to start selling things on the black market (like what I have no idea) or pick up a side job to pay for all the things I want to put in my closet.

However, reality usually sits in. I think to myself, "where the heck are you going to that you'll wear leather pants? Do you realize you hate your thighs and leather pants will highlight those bad boys?"

Darn.

Of course, I then recall the episode of Friends where Ross gets stuck in his leather pants. Hehe! I just get giddy and realize there's no way in heck I'll ever own leather pants.

Last week I joined some friends at a Stella and Dot trunk show hosted by my dear friend Miss M over at District Sparkle. The show was held at Second Affair Consignments store in Dupont Circle (a future post on that it coming). While oogling all things sparkly and shiny two black skirts caught my eye. The one was a very simple velvet ballet type skirt on sale for $2.50 even though it still had the tags on it. The other was tagless, but was a leather skirt that looked about my size.

So I snatched that bad boy up and made my over to the dressing room. Sure enough, it fit. Even better... it was only $25. I walked out of that store with both skirts. Honestly, who doesn't need two more black skirts in their closet?

Um, yes please!

Yesterday I had to drive to work and decided since I wouldn't be spending much time outside it was the perfect day to rock my new leather skirt.

Blouse - Express. Seriously, I've had it since high school or college, so it's super old.

Skirt - Vintage

Shoes - Cole Haan. Scored for $50 at Rue La La.

The greatest thing about this skirt, beside of course that it's leather? The sucker fits me perfectly. It tapers at my waist and has enough room for my big ol' soccer butt.

The only foreseen problem with such a cool skirt is that I can't wear it all the time. That's the tough part of statement pieces. They lose their unique value if they're worn over and over again.

Anyone own leather pants? Leather skirt? Leather dress? Or do you stick to leather handbags and purses?

Photo of the week: January 24, 2012

2012-01-24T07:45:00.002-05:00

A hint of snow descended on the Baltimore region over the weekend. Even better is the fact that there is still a bit of the white stuff lingering around. It appears I purchased my new Hunter Boots at the right time because they are getting a serious workout this winter.

Ugh, I woke up this morning and all the snow is gone! Stupid rain.

Photo of the week: January 17, 2012

2012-01-18T07:35:00.001-05:00

I was enamored last week with this article I read on the Digital Photography School titled, "How to Use Zoom Blur to Add Action In Your Photos."

Sunday morning I found myself over at M&T Bank Stadium for the Raven's playoff game. I hope to post more pictures tomorrow, but for now here's my photo of the week where I was messing around with my camera in the fourth quarter while freezing my bum off!

I took a few other pictures with slower shutter speeds, but was focusing on the players as they lined up over center. I quickened my shutter speed up to 1/50 for the photo above. In hindsight, I wish I would have kept it slower around 1/20. I think that was a nice amount of blur, but focusing in on the large Ravens field graphic would have worked better than focusing on the players.

(1/50 above)

(1/20 above)

How about you? Have you played around with your zoom while taking a picture? On purpose? Any suggestions?

The difference between men and women

2012-01-12T07:45:00.001-05:00

Way back in early September the hubs was getting ready to begin one of his fantasy football drafts. Unfortunately, this was a draft with real live people and not random strangers on the internet. One of the dudes couldn't join in at the last minute and the guys were about to lose their draft time slot if they didn't have someone else join their league.

Enter: hubs' red head and tom-boy wife, who has never played any type of fantasy sport.

I won't go into details of how the hubs was guiding me through my draft choices and he said, "no, don't take that guy." Then, he proceeded to take that guy .2 seconds after I picked someone else.

All is fair in love and fantasy sports it seems.

Flash forward 14 weeks and I beat my own hubs in order to secure the fourth and final spot in the playoffs. The hubs didn't even make the playoffs :)

First week of the playoffs I take on the #1 seed, who just happens to be my brother-in-law. Yeah, I squeak out a nail biter and beat him by 1.28 points. There was some play in which a penalty that is never called on a field goal was called and the team received five yards and later drove down the field to score a touchdown, which took points away from the kicker, but gave me the victory.

Weird stuff like that happened.

Then, the during the final days of the championship week I ask the hubs, "do I get anything if I win this thing?"

"Yeah,, $160."

Buddy, that changes everything! That's some serious coinage for my shoe budget!

In a very odd twist of fate, I had to play my own brother, my ginger blood, in the championship. He actually beat me, until I checked a few days later and there was a stat correction and it turns out I beat him by .44 points. Yeah, it was absolutely ridiculous.

At the end of the season, I was the only girl in the league and I took down all the boys.

Not too shabby.

Now what did I do with my winnings? I bought a pair of Hunter Boots! I've wanted a pair for years, but could never stomach the $125 price tag. So two years ago I bought a pair of $25 rain boots from Target and called it a day. Yeah, they sprung a leak after a season and then when I kept wearing them it looked like I wasn't even wearing rain boots on my one leg.

I figured it was probably time to join the big leagues and buy a proper pair of rain boots. I've read the reviews and these bad boys tend to last for much longer than a season. If I can get a few years out of them, then they were definitely worth the investment.

But let's be honest, I don't pay full price for things. Neiman Marcus, of all places, slashed the price on select colors to $80 last week. I called customer service to ensure they were the Original Tall Gloss and once confirmed I placed my order.

Just in the nick of time too! It's been raining all day and the rain is forecasted to continue for the rest of the week.

Dress - Banana Republic

Cardigan - J. Crew

Tights - Target

Boots - Hunter

So really the moral of this story is: Guys, if you invite a lady to join your sports league or whatever and there is money on the line, I suggest you don't get upset when you find out her winnings went towards shoes and not beer. Sure, I only spent half my winnings, so I'm definitely up for buying a round or two at the next happy hour with the guys, but if it's raining I'm definitely wearing my boots and showing them off to the guys.

As the hubs said, "they're the best looking rubber boots I've ever seen."

He was being sarcastic of course!

Photo of the week: January 10, 2012

2012-01-10T22:51:00.004-05:00

I swear, the intention of this photo of the week series isn't to have yet another excuse to post pictures of my dogs.

I had a nice photo picked out to share this week and then it went and snowed on Monday. I mean, quasi real, sticked to the ground for a night, fluffy stuff. By Tuesday's sunrise the white dandruff of the gods had quickly disappeared. On Monday night, though, I had two polar opposite dogs - Jax was in heaven while Jewels was in hell!

Another "goal" of mine this year with my camera is to get more comfortable shooting in manual mode. When it comes to shooting something quick or shooting when I'm with a group of people I tend to favor my camera's standard shooting mode. I just don't trust myself yet enough to shoot fast in manual if that makes any sense. So, Monday night when the snow was falling I relied on my T2i's action mode to capture Jax's crazy behavior as he sprinted through the snow and leaped the desk's steps before crashing into me. True story. He hasn't quite figured out how to use the stairs and instead his preferred method of coming into the house is to charge into the house and slide across the den carpet to slow him down before crashing into a wall or human being.

Back to the photo, perhaps I should have moved the outdoor chair that was casting a large shadow in the middle of my photo. There is a solid chance that's where my camera was focusing and reading a large dark spot there the camera decided to use a slower shutter speed. Or, maybe I shouldn't try to take action shots in a poorly lit night time setting.

However, I did want to try to capture Jax's reaction to the first real snow in the new house. Even though he's blurry, you can tell he's happy.

Even without the night time issues, action is such a large part of my life that I need to get better at capturing these motions. My life is far from static and therefore I need to get better at documenting those crazy moments in life. At least that's my goal to work on this year.

2012 Race Calendar

2012-01-05T07:35:00.000-05:00

I haven't signed up for too many races yet for this racing year, but here's what I'm thinking for right now. Any other fun races in the Baltimore/Annapolis/DC area I should look to add into the mix?

March:

3/4 B&A Half Marathon - need to sign up soon

3/11 Kelley St. Patrick's Day 5k - already registered

April:

4/1 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler - already registered

4/15 Clyde's 10k

May:

5/6 Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon - registering this week

June:

6/16 Baltimore 10 Miler - registration opens in March

August:

8/26 Annapolis 10 Miler - registration opens later

September:

TBD Parks Half Marathon - registration opens later

October:

10.28 Marine Corps Marathon - registration opens March 7th (already have a calendar appointment created)

November:

TBD Annapolis Half Marathon - registration opens later

Wild Cards:

I really want to run the Baltimore Half Marathon again, but I don't know if doing a race that close to Marine Corps is a good idea. I'm going to mull that one over for a bit. I can always sign up for the half at a later date.

I also really want to run a turkey trot and a winter 5k in December. I missed running a 5k this past Thanksgiving, but at only four days most-marathon it probably wasn't the best idea to race.

The only thing that is really depressing is how much it costs to sign up for that many races! I'd love to do a race a month, but the money really does add up. I think the hubs is going to start to deduct my racing fees from my annual shoe budget. Good thing we have a rule of thumb that athletic stuff isn't calculated into our personal budgets for the year! That's what happens when you have to jocks in the same household.

Yeah, the more I look at it I need to pick up another half marathon. Right now I only have three really planned and four just sounds better than three. Although, I only did two half marathons last year so maybe the smart play is to increase it to three this year.

Have you made your racing calendar yet for 2012? Any races you can't wait to run this year? Any new distances you're trying? Anything else you want to share?

18 Weeks Out: Up next Flying Pig

2012-01-03T07:35:00.000-05:00

After a disastrous showing at the Philadelphia Marathon, my bestie and I verbally committed to running a spring marathon. A quick look at what was available in May 2012 led us to finalizing our decision on the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. Darn, that is a mouthful. She's going to call it Flying Pig and I'm going to call it Cincinnati.

However, just a few weeks ago we were talking about our different training plans and I commented, "you know, 18 weeks out from Cincinnati is the first week of January."

Echoing silence.

It's a amazing how quickly these things sneak up on you!

As I thinking up this post last night, I was sitting on the couch, wrapped up in a warm blanket, watching tv with a hot water bottle puppy at my feet. Outside the wind was shrieking and I thought to myself, "bring it!"

Running in the cold may burn my lungs and chap my lips, but I can always throw on another layer of clothes run hard enough to warm myself up. Running in the dead heat of summer makes me melt faster than Frosty the Snowman in the desert and it's not a pretty sight. Perhaps training for a spring marathon will go better than training for a fall marathon.

No matter what happens, signing up for a spring marathon should prove to be much more beneficial for my health than any New Year's resolution. I can resolve to give up Chick-fil-A until I'm blue in the face, but I know if I'm running the next day I can't get moving with that sludge in my body. Mmmm, no wonder most runners are so damn skinny. I think they're on to something!

Anyone else gearing up for a Spring 2012 marathon? Which one? What training plan are you following?

I'm going to post my tentative 2012 racing calendar in the coming days as more inspiration to get my butt in gear.

Photo of the week: January 2, 2012

2012-01-02T09:13:00.003-05:00

I'm starting a new blog series on this little ol' blog. I've decided that I'm wasting my camera by not playing with it more often, so in order to kick my butt in gear I'm going to start posting a photo of the week. I'm kind of cheating because I took this last Sunday, you know, on Christmas. So in my very first entry I'm being a bit liberal in the timeframe of a week.

The picture above is of my Aunt's Christmas tree. I absolutely adore bokeh.

In these new weekly photo postings I hope to accomplish two things:

Attempt to take more creative pictures and possibly less dog pictures. Don't get me wrong, I will still take a million and one pictures of my dogs, but maybe I don't need to take 50 on a daily basis of them doing the exact same thing.
Get feedback on my photos. I'd like to get better with my camera and any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T17:21:00.003-05:00

I really wanted to title our holiday cards this year, "naughty or nice?" but that was just too mean to Jewels. Everyone knows she's the "naughty" puppy of the group.

Yes, we also turned into those people who only send out holiday cards with photos of their pets. That so happened!

However you and yours are celebrating this weekend, our household wishes you nothing but the best. Be safe! Have fun! Eat lots of good food! And if you can, drink a bit of wine!!!

The annual office holiday party

2011-12-19T21:09:00.011-05:00

I love my job. There, I said it. I know that's taboo to say in some places and it can be quite uncool to proudly proclaim it, but I really do love my job. Are there days that I'm not feeling the love? Absolutely, I am human after all. However, those days really are far and few in between. It's not just working in housing and community development that makes me happy, but it's also the company that I work for and the amazing people that I work with that keep me in a perpetual happy state. I can honestly say that I have friends who get sick and tired of me always saying that I love my job. It's that annoying.

This year I celebrated my two-year anniversary at my company in October and last weekend enjoyed my third office holiday party. Let me just get something out there about my office: we like to work and play hard. We take our work very seriously and we take our holiday parties very seriously. This year was a very nice affair at a lovely locale in downtown Washington, D.C. and the hubs and I decided to abandon surburbia and spend the night in our nation's capitol. I told the hubs that before we headed back to the hotel I wanted to walk by the White House to see it lit up at night. Yeah, that so didn't happen :)

About two hours into a wonderful party the company president and vice-president started the annual speeches and gave out a few awards. The hubs and I snagged a nice, quiet table in the back corner and had a wonderful view of the whole room. All in all things were going well.

Then, disaster stroke.

The ridiculously tall, yet gorgeous Miss M over at District Sparkle took my camera from me. I stood up to take a few pictures during the speeches and she just sauntered over in her 6inch sparkly high heels and red dress and just snatched my camera from me. My 5'7" self couldn't match her height, so I just handed the camera over and trusted that she wouldn't drop it.

Seriously people, don't be fooled by her love of all things sparkly. She's intimidating!

One year I'm going to learn how to keep my eyes open in a picture. I swear that's going on the New Year's Resolution List for 2012!

Then, the biggest award of the night was being handed out and I was sitting quietly in back paying attention when low and behold, my name got announced.

Yeah, that's how I roll. Win an award and I cover up and try to duck under the table. Chances are I covered my mouth because I was afraid I'd say something really embarrassing like "Jean Louise Finch" because when I swear, I don't actually swear. Or, I said, "you've got to be kidding me." It's a toss up really.

The next half an hour went by in a blur. You know why I don't like winning awards? Because then everyone wants to come up and congratulate you and even worse, take their picture with you. I actually like giving speeches, but I really just don't like standing up in front of people. I despise having my picture taken. I have terrible posture, smile too big, and more often than not give off crazy eyes. I can usually get one normal smile out of about ten pictures. I know a few of my co-workers flipped through their pictures from the holiday party and thought, "why does Heidi look like she's about to be electrocuted?"

However, I do remember being happy to have a picture with my two office "moms." We travel together for work quite a bit and there have been numerous times where each have been accused of being my mom.

Seriously, also adding "stand up straight" to the 2012 New Year's Resolution List. No wonder I always have back pain!

Thanks Miss M for the pictures and for letting me borrow your sparkly gold belt. It really helped jazz up my $25 J. Crew dress :)

(Sadly, the office crew is a blonde short! These chic ladies are part of the reason my bank account hates my shopping habits)

The funniest part of the night was when of my co-workers came up to the hubs and I and said, "great, Heidi, you got me in trouble. He's (pointing to her husband) mad at me for not thanking him during my speech."

Whoops! Of course when I got up and thanked my office for the honor I told an entire room of people that I didn't do anything in life without the support of my husband and I thanked him for being my partner in crime.

Was I not supposed to do that?

When we were getting ready to leave (*cough* to head out to a bar) after the party the hubs and I were saying goodbyes to a few co-workers and someone said to the hubs, "are you proud Heidi won?"

His response, "I'm proud of her every day."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I typically avoid wearing mascara. The dude barely talks and then he has to lay out something like that on me. I know he's proud of me, but I don't typically think it and I don't remember the last time he said it out loud or even to another person.

That's enough attention for me. I'm going to go burry my head in the covers and not come out for a few days.

Coming home for the holidays

2011-12-14T07:27:00.003-05:00

Due to some pretty intense travel schedules to finish off the year, the hubs and I haven't spent a full week together since the beginning of October. Actually, the longest amount of time we've spent together during that time period was the four day weekend for Thanksgiving. It's been hectic and crazy.

To make matters worse, downtown Detroit is lit up like a Christmas tree. Well, actually there's a giant Christmas tree, plus a whole host of other Christmas trees. It's making me miss the hubs like crazy. To me, the holidays are spent with family and just thinking about the holidays makes me think about family. The hubs is the biggest part of my family, so not spending time with him is making things pretty rough.

This sight last night wasn't making things any easier:

Festive holiday lights - CHECK!

Giant Christmas tree - CHECK!

Adorable kids ice skating - CHECK!

Hot chocolate - CHECK!

Families with dogs - CHECK! (can't see them in the picture, but there was a very cute dad with two beagles cheering on his kids out on the ice)

The saddest part is I'll be home Thursday night and yet the hubs is working over nights this week, which means I won't see him until Friday night. Not terrible, but it's getting old.

I know I sound really whiny and I know there are families who spend far greater time apart than we do. My heart goes out to them and I hope my whines don't offend them. This is just unusual for us and it's the switch in routine that's really got me out of whack. I'm tired of cooking for one, I'm tired of eating out, and I'm just tired of not having my nightly laughter filled moments with my best friend.

I'm looking forward to Christmas more than ever this year because we'll both have a full week off from work and we'll get to spend almost every blessed moment together. Then, we'll probably be sick of each other!

Happy early 30th birthday to me! (Almost)

2011-12-05T07:35:00.000-05:00

Well, not really. I don't turn 30 until February.

In the year 2012.

As in well over a year from now. So far from now that I should take down the mental countdown, delete my birthday list, and just focus on the present. Wait, did someone say present?

In true crazy form, I've not-so-subtly told the hubs that he has to buy me a, "rocking pair of shoes" for my 30th birthday. The heels better be thin and high, you know, everything my legs aren't. They better be from somewhere awesome. Honestly, if Choo, Louboutin, Prada, or Manolo aren't involved, well then I'm not interested.

Oddly enough, the hubs gets it. I mentioned buying a baseball glove one time for him and apparently it didn't contain the right word and he looked at me and asked me if I was crazy. The only minor difference in this story is that the hubs went ahead and bought his crazy expensive glove and well I am still waiting on a cool pair of kicks to show up in my closet.

But that day almost happened yesterday. I was at Neiman Marcus and I still can't figure out why, but there were 10 pairs of Christian Louboutin pumps just sitting out on the sale rack. Like a kid in a candy store I grabbed whatever I could get my hands on and ran to find a nice, secluded bench to caress my precious loves.

I know sizing can be off, so I grabbed the first 9 and 10s I saw and figured I'd try them on first.

The 9s weren't even close!

Up next I tried the Verde in a 10. It fit perfectly! However, even though the color is Amethyst, it was a bit too pink for my liking. Plus, it's a suede shoe. I have a few pairs of suede shoes and while I love them, I know I'm rough on the material and they won't last as long as a nice leather pair will.

However, it was very difficult to leave them when they were on sale for $402. Yes, that's a TON of money for a pair of shoes, but they're on every major website right now for $945. They had the smallest scruff in the sole on one shoe and that's probably why they were heavily discounted. Seriously, if you didn't have your soles treated that scruff would have happened in two seconds on any hard floor. Sigh!!!

Then, while I was heading out I saw these.

I die. The shoe of all shoes. The Christian Louboutin Very Prive. I want her. I need her. In nude patent leather. An absolutely timeless shoe.

They were a 40.5 and the tiniest bit too big. But, I didn't care. I had them on my feet and I wanted them. I immediately did what anyone would do in a situation like this.

I called for backup. Thankfully, I know a semi-rational fashionista and we've been lusting over a pair of Louboutins for years. She said exactly what I didn't want to say aloud.

"How high is the heel?"

(in a whisper)

"They're the 120mm. So a bit higher than the Simples I really wanted."

After a few agonizing minutes I knew my friend was right when she said it. "Are you going to be comfortable in them? In that color these are an everyday shoe. Something you're going to wear every where. Can you walk in them that much? If they were black or had spiked heels they'd be going out shoes and then completely appropriate. "

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly, I knew what she was saying was true. If they were in purple I would have easily thrown down my Visa card and called it a day.

They're too high for me. There I said it. I wore them for 10 minutes and I can't get them out of my head. However, they did make me almost six foot tall, which is far too tall for me! I wanted them so badly. Did I mention the price? They were marked down to $380. I know, they were practically FREE! I couldn't find a single imperfection on the shoes anywhere. On the other hand, their box was ripped. Yeah, ripping a box causes the shoes to drop for $785 to $380. It was insane.

Sigh....

I even sent the hubs a text asking him if I could get my 30th birthday present in advance. I think the hubs needs to send flowers to Miss M over at District Sparkle for rationalizing with me and allowing me to walk away from those shoes.

I'm fighting off every form of temptation to drive back to the store and see if they're still there. If I see them again, I might not be able to walk away! One day my precious ... we'll meet again.

Cupcake Container Rec's Needed

2011-11-30T22:42:00.002-05:00

Dear Santa,

Hey buddy. How's the weather up there in the North Pole? Cold? Okay, sorry for bringing it up. Anyway, for the past few years I've hinted that I would really like an airtight cupcake carrier type contraption for Christmas. Now, I'm not naming names, but thus far I have yet to receive one. I don't know if there is a miscommunication between your various departments, but I know I'm on a the nice list, so please send one my way.

Sincerely,

Red Head Bakeaholic

P.S. I'll even leave out some cupcakes for you... again.

In all seriousness, I need a cupcake storage contraption. I bake a treat for every one in my office on their birthday and cupcakes are just so easy to divide up in the office. There's no need for plates, utensils, and zero arguments about someone taking a bigger slice of cake than necessary. However, transporting cupcakes an hour to work on a train can be a bit dicey. Especially if the weather is bad and I have to juggle a laptop bag, cupcake tray, lunch box, and an umbrella.

Can anyone recommend a good airtight container that's easy for carrying? Preferably would like something that is made in the USA. I know, it's weird, but it's a thing I'm going for in the kitchen.

It's 10:30pm and I just finished up the mocha chocolate with vanilla meringue frosting cupcakes shown above. The hubs just had one and he said it was amazing. I hope the frosting holds its shape overnight.

Honey! I'm home!!!

2011-11-28T20:51:00.003-05:00

I don't know about your house life, but my house runs on a fairly tight schedule. There are so many standardized times in my work day that any major deviation from the schedule could cause a catastrophic risk to my day. Okay, most of my times focus around food or commuting, but that's normal, right?

5:45am - wake up

6:43am - leave for work

7:00am - park car/kiss hubs goodbye if carpooling

7:05am - catch train

7:45am - arrive at work

8:00am - drink coffee

9:00am- eat banana and yogurt

12:00pm- eat lunch

2:30pm- eat snack

4:40pm- leave work

4:51pm- catch train

5:24pm- get off train

5:55pm - arrive home

5:57pm- get mauled by two dogs!

Seriously! I try to come in the house all nonchalant and low-key, yet if the hubs is home already he gets the dogs all riled up and they go nuts. If I get home first or we come home together then they usually leave me alone and attack him.

Tonight I had to pin Jax to the ground and give him a serious belly rub before he would let me get out of my boots. I was terrified he was going to rip my hose or worse cause a drag in my favorite silk duponi skirt!

Other days, it's rather hilarious to come home "early" and catch the dogs by surprise. I got out of work early last Wednesday and when I came home both dogs were still asleep upstairs and it was hilarious to see them stretch themselves out and sleepily saunter down the stairs to greet me. My absolute favorite "trick" was taking a half day at work and coming home hours early and seeing Jewels' little head pop up in the window upstairs and look at me like, "what the heck are you doing here?"

Honestly, I think after a four-day weekend in which the normal schedule was thrown out the window both dogs were ready for the hubs and I to go back to work. They had 20 hour sleeping days to get back to!

How about you - do you have a fairly tight daily schedule? More flexible? Any pets that like routine?

It's beginning to look like Thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T21:17:00.004-05:00

What? That's not how Thanksgiving looked for you?

Oh. Maybe someone in the house has a problem. I swear it's not me. All I did was finish a bottle of wine and then two stiff vodka and cranberry drinks to polish off that bottle of Ketel One. That took me the entire four-day weekend to accomplish!

Honestly, I'm just prepping for Christmas because that's when I'm around my family next and I need to be consuming an alcoholic drink at every moment to cut down on those, "when are you going to have a baby," conversations! I hardly ever drink and now that I'm done training to run a marathon I need to train to run the marathon of baby questions that are aimed for my almost 29 year-old self!

For the record, I'm an old fashioned black label type of Jack girl. The single barrel stuff almost burned a hole through my throat. I can't believe the hubs bought himself the "whole Family of Jack" as a Thanksgiving present. Actually, buying it I'm not surprised by, but calling it a "Thanksgiving present" threw me for a loop. Who gets presents on Thanksgiving?

Any tidbits on getting through the holidays? Have a good Jack drink recipe?

Philadelphia: A Tale of Two Marathons

2011-11-21T15:11:00.003-05:00

Saturday afternoon my bestie, Bee, and I hopped on an Amtrak train and headed north to Philadelphia, PA. We checked into the Marriott Downtown and were quite pleased with ourselves that we didn't even have to venture outside in order to get to the Convention Center for packet pick up. As soon as we received our packets, walked through the expo we picked up take out for dinner and ate on top of our king bed and watched "The King's Speech." All in all a solid Saturday evening even if it didn't include any wine!

Sunday morning began like any other race morning - up well before the crack of dawn! We left the hotel at 6:10am and walked the mile down to the race festival. It was hilarious because as we were making our way down the hotel hallway Bee asked me if I knew how to get to the start line. "Heck no! But I imagine we can just follow the other runners." Um, yeah, it seemed like 25,000 people were heading in the same direction which meant we were just sucked up into the hive. Except for that one block that the police made us avoid because there was a bomb scare. Not exactly what one wants to hear at 6:20am, but we both work in the DC area so it's not the first time we've heard that phrase shouted over a loudspeaker.

After checking our bags we hopped in line for the port-a-potties and at 6:57am abandoned any hopes we had of making it through the line. Looking back, we could have stayed in line and used the facilities, but we were both fearful of missing the start of the race. The gun actually went off late and the volunteers did a great job of actually walking the corrals to the start line to stagger the start. We were in the fourth wave, so we had an extra 8 minutes that could have been used to take care of business!!! Oh well, we learned a valuable lesson for the next race!

However, we were in great spirits because the weather was absolutely beautiful. I think at the start of the race the weather was 50 degrees, which for a marathon in the third week of November is absolutely pristine conditions! There was barely any wind and it was slightly cloudy. Sure, sunrise didn't occur until 6:51am so it was slightly dark, but it was nice out! I wore my beloved Nike capris (seriously, I don't race without them!) and my short-sleeve Under Armor Baltimore half marathon shirt.

I decided to stay strong and ditch Bee at the start of the race. I started with the gray corral because that's where the four hour pacer was located. Traditionally in long races I go out way too fast and wanted to avoid that problem in this race. I was going to stick with the four hour pace group and that was the end of the story!

Look, running with a pace group isn't for everyone. I actually had difficulty staying close to the group because I tend to wander while running. However, I did like the fact that I didn't have to think about my pace. It was quite comforting to know there was one less thing I had to think about at 7am on a Sunday! A four hour marathon breaks down to 9:10 miles, so the goal was to be close to that throughout the race.

Mile 1 - 8:58.4

Mile 2 - 9:09.4

Mile 3 - 9:03.9

Mile 4 - 9:06.3

Mile 5 - 9:13.9

Mile 6 - 8:49.0

Mile 7 - 8:29.3 (This was going up Chestnut Street and the crowds were amazing! More than one person chimed in that they thought the pace group was going a bit fast though!)

Mile 8 - 8:56.1

Mile 9 - 8:50.4

Mile 10 - 8:54.9

Mile 11 - 9:11.9

Mile 12 - 9:06.1

Mile 13 - 9:36.5

Okay, this is when I lost the pace group :( I really, really, really, really had to go to the bathroom and I'd been eying the port-a-potties at the previous two water stops. Finally I saw a huge line of port-a-potties and almost zero line of runners so I made my way over and took care of business.

Mile 14 - 9:51.3 Crap!!!! Got too slow.

Mile 15 - The wheels feel off. I don't know what happened, but whatever was in my stomach at that moment in time decided it didn't want to be there anymore. The first incident wasn't too bad. However, after a few more minutes of running I had to stop completely and empty the contents of my stomach. That followed a horrible series of jogging for a few minutes, walking, getting sick, walking, jogging, getting sick, etc. It was absolutely miserable. I could muster together a few minutes of jogging before getting sick again.

Honestly, the second half of the race was the worst two-hours and forty minutes of my life. I stared shaking, couldn't feel my fingers, and started to wander all over the course. I was actually thankful there wasn't that much crowd support during the second half of the race because then I could vomit in somewhat privacy. Honestly, every time I saw a medical assistance person I thought about asking for help and then I would notice that the medic had someone hooked up to an IV. Look, there's one thing I hate in this world more than vomiting and it's needles. So that was not going to happen.

Yes, I probably should have stopped, but I'm a stubborn individual so I didn't. I planted myself on the yellow line of the road and forced myself to move forward, even if it was in a drunken slumber type motion. For the record, I wasn't drunk. I had a beer Thursday night and that's all the alcohol I've had in the past 10 days!

When I crossed the finish line I was miserable. I wanted my gear and to get back to the hotel ASAP. As I told Bee, I wanted to have the dignity of getting sick in a proper bathroom. Also, I wanted to brush my teeth. It's the little things in life that keep me going :)

Bee, on the other hand, KILLED IT! She did so awesome and I was so happy for her! Her previous PR was 4:01 at the Cleveland Marathon. She started off Marine Corps last year with the 3:40 pace group and was absolutely devastated when she bonked in the second half and finished in 4:06. On Sunday morning she started with the 3:50 pace group and stuck with them until mile 8-9. Then, she had to use the bathroom and fell behind the pace group. Once she started up again she had to remind herself that she didn't had to catch up in the next mile or two, rather she would just pick it up little by little and catch up. However, she just clicked. Things fell into place and she passed the 3:50 pace group and finished in 3:45. She was so happy! She suffered a terrible fall last month and had a nasty cut on her knee that required quite a bit of down time. So she's felt like she's been tapering for a month and was worried her endurance would suffer. Even in my sick state back at the hotel I kept mumbling to her, "you did awesome and I'm so happy for you."

While we came back home with completely different races, we both have verbally committed to a spring marathon, yet for completely different reasons. I want to get that horrible time off of my mind as soon as possible! Bee wants to see if she can add in more speed work and qualify for Boston. The game plan is to run a spring and fall marathon next year.

It's kind of crazy because on Saturday I was actually thinking of taking next year off from a marathon and instead do more half marathons. Then, one horrible day came in the midst of months of training and it lit a fire under me to do better. I know I'm better than that time and I'm not going to let that time sit out there for too long without crushing it.

Yet, the whole weekend wasn't a complete and total lost. I got to spend two solid days with my best friend. That's worth the price of any race fee right there.

Or, as so many signs proclaimed during the race, "You've been training for this marathon longer than Kim Kardashian was married!" So yeah, it's on to the next one. Marathon that is, not fake showmance.

No Excuses!

2011-11-19T10:53:00.003-05:00

Old soccer t-shirt from college that says, "No Excuses" on the back. I've had this shirt for so long and will keep it until it literally disintegrates.

Just Do It

That's probably one of the best sports marketing campaigns of all time. Seriously, shut up, stop whining, and just do it!

Ah Nike, how I love you.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to continue on my journey to find my inner runner. I know that person is in there somewhere. While I haven't trained for this next marathon like I would have wanted to that's the last time I'm going to say it. I'm going to hop on a train in a few hours, head to Philly, and enjoy myself for the next two days.

Tomorrow morning it's on like Donkey Kong!

While I run another 26.2 miles tomorrow morning I know I'm going to have to dig deep and pull out some mental toughness to finish the race. With that in mind, I'm going to blow through these excuses and tell them to shut up.

Excuses for not running: (in no particular order)

It's dark outside.
It's cold outside.
It's raining.
It's hot.
I'm tired.
I worked all day.
I ran yesterday.
I just ate dinner.
I need to make dinner.
I need to take the dogs for a walk.
My foot hurts.
My back hurts.
I have dodgeball, softball, or football.
I have work to do.
The _______ needs to be cleaned.
The hubs won't go running with me.
I'm in ______ city and don't feel comfortable running outside.
I hate treadmills.
I just don't feel like it.

It's kind of funny, but thinking of all of the excuses I've thrown out there usually ticks me off and drives me forward in a run. It's that mental push I'm counting on somewhere around mile 20 to get me through that last 10k.

This year I have a leg up on my mental toughness because I've done this once before. I've run 26.2 miles before. Been there, done that! Whereas last year there was 6.2 miles where I thought to myself, "this is the farthest you've ever run! I hope you can handle it!"

Tomorrow when I'm running I'm going to remind myself of all those people out there in the world who have serious excuses for not moving and yet they do it anyway. The cancer survivor, the wounded warrior, the paraplegic, the asthmatic, etc. Basically, just anyone who has been told in life more than once, "you can't run a marathon."

Last year I saw a guy will himself forward in the Marine Corps Marathon with one arm. I have two legs and two arms, so what's my excuse?

Alright Philadelphia Marathon - let's do this thing!

One Mississippi

2011-11-15T06:53:00.007-05:00

Not to sound like a a broken record, but I'm behind on blogging ... again!

Last month I hopped on a series of planes and by way of Chicago found myself in Minneapolis for a few days. I was out there solo, but managed to have a good time nonetheless.
The first night when I was walking to my hotel I noticed a series of bikes scattered around the city. When I looked up the name online I was pleased to find out there was a cool bike share program in Minneapolis. Score! Thankfully I had a few hours to kill before catching my return flight and I was able to pick up a bike to get around and see more of the city. So I did what any normal person does, I strapped my bag (with laptop!) to the front of a bike, stuffed my camera down my coat, and zoomed around the city. You know, sans helmet and all!
When I picked up my first bike I refreshed myself with the rules and found that if I "rented" a bike for 30 minutes or less it was free. There was a $5 daily rental fee, plus an additional charge for renting bikes for loner than 30 minutes. So for the next two hours I hopped around from one bike station to the next and was able to see most of the city for a whopping $5 24 rental fee on my series of bikes. There was only one 30 minute period that ended with me peddling furiously towards a bike station to return my bike, get a new code, and check out the exact same bike! I got there with 2 minutes to spare! Not too shabby!

Don't let the straightness of this pedestrian overpass fool you! The 90 degree turns at the end proved to be a bit tricky on a bike!

I have to admit, it's been a long time since I've been sharing the road on a bike with vehicle traffic. I was slightly nervous and at first stayed on as many side streets as possible! I also didn't stop very often to take pictures because I was having too much fun peddling around.

There was a really interested and complicated series of skywalks throughout the city. I guess folks there like to have a way to travel from building to building in the middle of winter without bundling up. It took a lot longer than walking on the street, but it was kind of cool to walk from a downtown office building back to my hotel without stepping outside.

I'll search out a baseball stadium any day of the week. Unfortunately, tours weren't given on the day I was there. Maybe next time I'll be back during baseball season.

One of many bike pit stops!

I left my last bike where I began my journey, grabbed my luggage from the hotel, and then walked up to the light rail headed for the airport.

See you later Minneapolis!

Go West!

2011-11-10T14:52:00.004-05:00

I'm not quite sure how this topic came up the other day, but one thing led to another and next thing I know I was clicking on states that I've visited. When I was done I had clicked 32 states and was left with the following map.

It really made me think that I need to get my butt out west more often! Watch out Alaska, I see a vacation to your great outdoors happening in the future.

If you're interested, make your own map here: http://www.ammap.com/visited_states/

Any noticeable trends in your geography? Are you a West Coaster? East Coaster like me? Southern? Or is the Mason Dixon Line a line of demarcation that you'll never cross? Maybe you're a central states person and you're sticking in the heartland?

TIMBER!!!

2011-11-08T18:51:00.007-05:00

As I've mentioned previously, we have a giant dead tree in our backyard. We didn't give it much thought when we moved in, but during Hurricane Irene the terrible thought of a tree crashing down on our house forced us to sleep in our living room and has driven fear into our hearts every time there's a drop of rain in the forecast.

Like any rational person the hubs suggested that he could get a few of his "buddies" to "take down the tree." Seriously, it's like sometimes he doesn't even know me. Like I'm really going to let a bunch of his "buddies" come to our house, use chainsaws, and have the ability to leave us homeless if they "mess up" and drop a tree on our house. Trees on houses are not cool!

The next logical sense was to hire individuals who actually take trees down for a living.

Of course, there was one slight problem and I was the problem.

How do I put this delicately?

tree

hugger!!!

I drive a Prius, use reusuable grocery bags, re-cycle, take mass transit to work, avoid bottled water, and have 800 additional quasi annoying qualities because I want to "save the environment." Having a tree cut down on my watch drove a stake through my heart. Really, I pushed it off for as long as I could, but I knew deep down inside that the tree had to come down.

So before the "guys" came over to take the tree down, I had one last heart to heart with one of God's most beautiful and life giving creatures. Okay, that was probably a bit much. But I did hug the tree to prove my self-proclaimed "tree hugger" status.

The guys who came to our house were comprised of a three man team. Really, I didn't think it would take so many people to take down one tree, but what do I know about such things. The one guy was all over the tree. I swear, within 60 seconds of being in our backyard he was climbing up the tree like Spiderman. I was thoroughly impressed!

I retreated inside so that the tree guys couldn't see me cry as they cut down the tree.

Each and every time a cut piece hit the ground the house shook, I flinched, and the pups went nuts. I calmed myself by making scones.

Seriously, these guys knew what they were doing. The two guys on the ground were responsible for hooking up a series of ropes and guiding the various tree limbs down to the ground once they were cut. They placed everything right where they intended for them to go or at least that's how it looked to my untrained eye!

About 90 minutes after starting the process the tree was down, stripped from this earth, and chopped up like old parts at a junkyard. We could have had the crew take the deceased pieces of evidence, but with a fully functioning wood stove in our man cave we knew we would use the wood. The hubs and I were left with two large piles of wood and only one little wood shed. We decided that first and foremost we would cut up the small pieces of wood and store those. I actually suggested not cutting up the huge pieces of the trunk and using them as mini patio tables for our next few summer parties. We'll see how that goes next summer.

In the meantime, the hubs was far too excited to buy an ax and get his Paul Bunyan impression on. I think he needs to add a flannel shirt or else it's like he's not even trying.

The hubs actually presented me with a peace offering knowing that I was really upset by having to have a tree cut down. We're going to plant a smaller tree in our front yard next spring. It'll be kind of nice to say, "we planted that tree our first spring in this house" and get all sappy like that. Any suggestions on what to plant?

The Dreaded 20 miler

2011-11-04T08:05:00.003-04:00

The 20 mile run. It leaps off the page of any marathon training schedule and stares you down. "How many 20s are you doing?" or "When is your 20 miler?" are common questions that inevitably come when you're training for a marathon. It's a run that needs to happen, but has the potential to suck at the same time.

Well I did mine last Sunday and it did indeed suck.

1. The weather: Thankfully, it wasn't snowing, sleeting, or raining on Sunday like it was on Saturday. My bestie did her 20 miler on Saturday and I got myself threw a few miles just by thinking, "look it's only cold and you're not dealing with the yuckiness that she did yesterday."

2. Timing: I usually like to start my long runs between 8 and 8:30 am. I don't know why, but at 8am on Sunday it was still below freezing and the frost buildup on my car kept me from venturing outside. So like a whimp I waiting inside until the temperature rose to 35 degrees which meant I didn't start running until 9:30am. Finishing up after 12:30pm SUCKED! At the end of my run I was still saying, "good morning" to people and they probably thought I was nuts.

3. I'm an idiot: There I said it. I'm still not running with much pace these days, but when I started my run on Sunday there was a guy just starting out on the trail. I don't know why I do it, but for some strange reason I tried to keep up with him. Okay, fine - I lied, I tried to pass him. The dude stopped running and turned back at four miles into the trail! As he ran by me he says, "have a good run."

Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! I went out way too fast for such a long run. My goal for my 20miler was to run 9:45 to 10:00 minute miles and I went out in 9:15, 9:10, 9:12, and 9:15. Stupid times four! I ignored my Garmin and just kept up with the guy. Those faster miles did indeed come back to haunt me during my later miles.

4. Running by myself: I know I just complained that I went out too fast because I was trying to keep up with someone else, but it would have been nice to had someone to run with for the entire 20 miles or at least someone to run with during those last four difficult miles. The hubs ran the last four miles with me last year, which was nice, but unfortunately he was out of town on Sunday. Maybe next year I'll actually join a running group!

5. Mental deficiencies: During the last four miles all I could think about was getting Chick-fil-A for lunch. Yes, on a Sunday. Anyone who has a CFA obsession knows that CFA is closed on Sunday! I didn't even realize it until I was driving past the CFA by my house. D'oh!

Post-run I napped and lounged on the couch for most of the day. My legs felt good and I was surprisingly happy post-run. However, on Monday morning I lost my phone (twice!), forgot to pack my toothbrush, and had the attention span of a gnat at work. Clearly that 20 miler got the best of my mental capabilities. Good thing I'm taking off from work on Monday, November 21st!

I am the fire starter

2011-10-30T18:39:00.010-04:00

Here's the listing photo of our den area. Doesn't this photo just make you want to run over to a house and drop more than a quarter of a million dollars on it? Yeah, it didn't make us want to do it either and that's why we passed up on the house more than once. Oh well, it was fate I tell you.
Seriously, what is that? I'm not kidding you, this photo has not been doctored or manipulated in any way. That is exactly how the listing photo appeared online. I don't even know if it is physically possible to take such a bad picture of a still object. Camera phones take better pictures than what was shown online for our house.

Okay, rant over.

Here's the first photo I took of the area during the home inspection. Note - it was POURING outside during our home inspection and even though it was 2pm in the afternoon it was nearly pitch dark outside and the lighting was off.

It's not a bad space. It's cozy, has character, and is dark just like the hubs wants it to be. The weird little window in the corner is odd, but we're kind of digging it. The long-term plan for this room is to get rid of the dreaded popcorn ceiling and put in wood panel ceiling, paint the walls orange, stain the bricks*, put in hardwood floors, wall mounted flat screen tv, and get a sectional. Piece of cake!

Well, step one was really to get the wood stove in working order. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't a fan of the wood stove. I actually suggested to the hubs very early on that we could have it removed and convert the fireplace back to a fireplace. "How about no, Scott!" was his reply. The wood stove was staying and that was it! Turns out that wood stoves are quite a bit more efficient than fireplaces so I had to give him that. We took a trip over to Ace Hardware to talk to the Jotul representative since we have an old Jotul Series 8 wood stove and I was pleased to see that we could re-enamel the stove. I'm immediately thinking a nice glossy black would look great. Honestly, they had a stove that was blackish-purple and I wanted that color, but the hubs vetoed that option because it's his man cave and purple is not an option.

Fine, whatever.

Like any overprotective and anal retentive first-time homeowners we had our chimney and wood stove professionally cleaned and inspected prior to lighting our first fire. The chimney sweep suggested that we re-gasket our stove since the gaskets looked a little worse for wear. He could have done it, but he said his price would have been nearly double what it would actually cost to do since the parts are so cheap. So we picked up the appropriate sized gasket ropes and cement at Ace Hardware and re-did the gaskets ourselves.

We found this video on You Tube that showed us how to re-do the gaskets and followed the video's instructions:

Post-removing door: ripe up all old gaskets. All of them came right out and we were both shocked!

Scrap the crap out of the grooves with an old screwdriver. The hubs was all over this part.

After scrapping we used our vacuum to get up all the little fuzzy pieces of old gasket. Then we wiped down the channels with a damp rag to clean. Next, we poured our cement into the channels and let sit for 10 minutes so it could take on a "tacky" feel to it per the cement's directions.

Replace gaskets. Go slowly and don't pull the rope taunt. Trim the edges. Wipe down with a dry rag to pick up the excess cement.

Replace glass and then rehang the door. We put newspaper in between the freshly cemented pieces and the rest of the stove just so we didn't have to worry about the pieces getting cemented together!

The specific cement that we used said to wait 2 full hours to let the cement dry so we gave ours four hours before we went all pyro on the poor wood stove. Our best guess is that our wood stove was put in the house in the early '80s based on the stove model type. In a nutshell, the stove is just as old as us and it takes a lot less work to get it in firing condition!

Build fire and instantly brag to your husband that you build a better fire. True story! My years of Girl Scouts and camping came in handy as the hubs couldn't get a fire to stay and my fire game was on FIRE!!!

The man cave just got bumped up on our priority list because hanging out by the wood stove on a chilly evening was really nice. Jewels was also a big fan because she loved the extra warmth the stove provided. I think it's save to say I'm buying the hubs a flat screen tv for Christmas this year :(

*In keeping with all things manly the hubs refuses to pain the bricks white. He's not a fan of the look and instead we'll be staining the bricks to bring back some of their original color. It kind of works for me because Baltimore has so many brick rowhouses so it's kind of like we're keeping with the look of the area.

Who says red heads can't wear red?

2011-10-20T18:26:00.007-04:00

There are numerous fashion rules in this world. I'm not the biggest fashion risk taker in the world so it's safe to say that I generally stay within the confines of the "rules." One rule in particular is that I've followed semi-religiously over the years is the rule that states red heads don't look good in red. If you looked in my closet, you'd probably think I followed that rule because there isn't a lot of red in my closet. What is red in my closet is a Caps shirt, running shirts, and a few old school pride shirts from my black and red high school days.

However, when I saw these Cole Haan Air Violet pumps on sale at Nordstrom's for $95 I had to have them. They were deemed a necessary purchase and part of my Shoe Upgrade project. I have the Target Pearce shoes and while they are indeed comfy, they don't even hold a candle to the real deal.

I've had them safely tucked away in my closet for a few weeks and I've been saving them as a personal treat after running my latest race. It might be weird, but I like to give myself a little treat after running a race and shoes are usually the best way to go. One thing I absolutely adore about running is how strong my legs are and I don't have a problem clicking away in high heels for hours on end. Now, I don't break out the new shoes immediately post race, rather I like to give myself a few days to let any lingering soreness subside.

Dress - Target.

Cardigan - Jackie from J.Crew

Belt - Target

Necklace - Ann Taylor

Shoes - Cole Haan "Air Violet" from Nordstrom

Adorable Boston Terrier - Private breeder in Delaware

The hubs was having some difficulty with the white balance and by difficulty I mean he said, "you look blue in these pictures." I'd also like to point out that I'm not in focus in the picture either, but I'm fully prepared to only fight one battle at a time.
Gotta love my chubby boy.
Sure fire way to make any outfit look better - pose with adorable dogs of course!

How about you: what are the fashion rules you like to break?

2011 Baltimore Running Festival Recap

2011-10-19T07:15:00.000-04:00

Notice the title above - yeah, I'm hoping that I make the Baltimore Running Festival a yearly occurrence and therefore need to date the post each year. At least that's my game plan and I'm sticking to it, for now.

Friday night my bestie came over and we hopped over to the Baltimore Convention Center pick up our bibs for Saturday's Half Marathon. It was an expo - nothing too glamorous and nothing to complain about. My only complaint is that in my transaction to drop down from the marathon to the half two months ago my projected finish time was never adjusted. I'll take some blame for that, but I was a bit ticked when we picked up our bibs and I found out I was in the fifth and final wave. That was so not happening. Add in my bestie was rubbing it in my face that she was in the first wave. Whatever.

On Saturday we slept in and then I woke up to make my go-to race food: Banana Bran Muffins with Flaxseeds. Two of them are all I need to get through a race and with a 9:45 a.m. start time for the half marathon I had plenty of time to whip some muffins before hopping in the car.

I will say, living 15 minutes from the start of the race is incredibly nice. We didn't leave the house until 8:45 a.m. and that gave us plenty of time to get to the race, check my bag, and then walk over a few blocks to the start line.

Some of my bestie's DC friends didn't have it so lucky and we actually missed the start of the race waiting for them to show up. Once they were accounted for we hopped in at the tail end of the second wave. Yes, I ditched my wave assignment - sue me. I didn't feel bad about it considering my bestie was supposed to be in the first wave and I'm not that much slower than her!

Off we went! It was nice to run a race on my home turf. I knew all of the streets, I knew where the hills were (hint - almost everywhere), and I knew where the hubs would be waiting for us. It was super nice because my bestie's friends made a big sign for us and they were camped out about a mile from the finish line. That was a nice kick to get our butts in gear.

My bestie ran with me the entire time and it went much better than the last time we ran a half together, which in my defense was my first half. We actually chatted during most of the race which was nice. Both of us are training for the Philadelphia Marathon and were treating the half as a training run with the intention to continue running once we were done with the half. Well, by time we got through the finish festival that was jammed full of people and picked up my checked camel pak my legs started to tighten up and I couldn't get in more than another mile.

That was the most frustrating part because I didn't fully race the half. I came in under two-hours, but just over two minutes slower than my fast time. GRRRR!!! If I didn't plan on running an additional 3-6 miles after the half I think I could have easily trimmed off some time. The worst part is everyone I've talked to keeps saying something along the lines of, "you ran just 2 minutes slower than your PR, in BALTIMORE?!?!?!?"

Apparantly, Baltimore is known for it's hills. I don't know, I grew up in the Catskills and I kind of like hills. I actually remarked to my bestie before the race that I was slightly nervous about the hills for the first time in my life because since I've moved I haven't run any significant hills. The two main trails that I do my long runs on don't have much in terms of elevation. Back to Saturday's race, my bestie yelled at me, "Heidi" every time I started to charge up a hill. Excuse me, but I truly believe that if attack a hill it takes less time to get up it and then you don't have to deal with it for as long. That's my defense and I'm sticking to it.

However, I will say it'll be nice to go from this:

to this in November:

Everyday I'm shuffling

2011-10-17T19:14:00.003-04:00

Party Rock!

I get the most random songs stuck in my head sometimes and it drives me bonkers. However, it's a decent and fairly accurate description of my life in general. I become absolutely obsessed with something and then as always my interest inevitably flounders and I move on to the next obsession. Except for the things that make up my inner soul: I'm not committed to anything. Have no fear hubs - you're definitely a key aspect of my inner soul :)

When I started this blog back in July 2008 I didn't have any grand intentions of what it would turn into. As like most things in my life, it's turned into a random hodgepodge of things that pop into my head. Some say I probably have ADHD, I like to say I'm well rounded. The funny thing is that when I'm at work, I'm intensely focused and organized. Unfortunately, when I come home I spiral out of control and I'm the most disorganized and unstructured person humanly possible. At this moment right now there is literally a dozen projects sitting around me in some various form of production, yet nothing is close to being finished. Let's be honest - I no longer care for the fabric that I was using to make throw pillows for last Christmas and somehow I doubt they'll be finished by this holiday season.

Wait, back to the blog. A few weeks ago I gave my little ol' blog a minor face lift with a new background and such. It needed more yellow or at least that's my general rule of thumb for most things. As I was scrolling through a few pages of older posts I developed my own headache of disgust. What the hell was I thinking in that post? That doesn't make sense after that post? Who the heck came up with these post labels? In a nutshell: when you can't even follow the bouncing ball on your own blog it's probably a good idea to step back.

No, I'm not taking a leave of absence or some other form of forced hibernation. I post infrequently enough that there's no warrant for a formal dismissal. Part of me wants to cut ties and start over new, but another part of me is quasi-proud that I started something in 2008 and haven't completely abandoned it yet. That's progress in my book!

All rubbish aside, I'm hoping to make things more organized around here. Kind of give this blog a purpose, which would help both me and you (if anyone is still out there) follow the bouncing ball.

Here's what I propose:

- Shoe posts. I'm obsessed with shoes. To me they both finish and start an outfit. It's not a random coincidence that my second post on this blog was professing my love for a pair of Kate Spade Pumps. I've already informed the hubs that all I want for my 30th birthday (in over a year!) is a pair of Christian Louboutin's. The river of my eternal shoe love will never run dry.

- Fashion. This might seem like a funny topic from a self-proclaimed tomboy, but it's a secret that I've been a fashion loving closeted individual for years. My biggest struggle is I always think, "oh, that won't look good on my shape" or "if I lost 5lbs I could pull that off." Guess what, I ran a freaking marathon last year and didn't lose that infamous 5lbs. It's not coming off and I'm finally okay with it. I have thighs. I have an ass. Now I'm slowly learning to embrace them and I'm going to belt my dresses and start to show off the curves that I have. Plus, I'm really hoping that if I post more of my outfits here I can get constructive feedback and that's a perk for me.

- House projects. Words like "demolition," "permit," "custom," and "insanity," get tossed around my house these days in such frequency that you'd think we either lived by HGTV or were fighting crime. Our little foreclosure needs some serious house loving and the hubs and I are itching to get started. First up, we're ripping apart our half bath before the end of the year.

- Food posts. I bake a treat for every single one of my office co-workers on their birthday. I make pumpkin rolls on random Wednesday evenings for the hubs. I seem to come alive in the kitchen and it's because I love how you can take such simple ingredients, combine them, and come up with something amazing. And I love chocolate. I do, however, absolutely stink at remembering to take pictures of said baking creations. It's a weakness, but when I'm in the thick of things in the kitchen the last thing I want to do is stop, take a picture, and blog about it.

- Running posts. The hubs said this to me the other day and it might be the most profound thing someone has ever said to me, "Do you ever think that the reason fall is your favorite season is because you're running the most then and the happiest?" Now, fall has always been my favorite season. I think it's because of the colors, the crispness in the air, and my favorite holiday is Halloween, but it also used to be the prime soccer season for me and I absolutely loved playing soccer. I'm miserable in the summer time because my body just doesn't do well in the heat, so when the temperature starts to dip is when I truly come more alive. The last part of the hubs proclamation really hit me, am I happiest when I'm running? The answer is most likely yes. I feel sluggish on days when I don't run. If I go more than a few days without running I have trouble falling asleep and then I'm lethargic. As I get older and move farther and farther away from labeling myself as a "soccer player" I become closer and closer to labeling myself as a "runner."

- Random things. Yes, even if I try to be more organized it's going to happen that complete and seemingly random things are going to pop up. That's life. I hope you stick around to enjoy the ride.

Oh, and don't even think you're going to get less of the pups. Jax and Jewels are here to stay and they will make appearances in just about every aspect of this blog.

I will not wear suits...

2011-10-13T20:08:00.006-04:00

three days in a row. It's a quasi work related rule I try to self-impose as much as humanly possible. I feel far too masculine in suits and even as a self-proclaimed tomboy, I love to throw on a dress or skirt and wear a pair of high heels from time to time. So after a quick trip up to NJ* for two days and in full suit mode, I decided to go the opposite way the next day when I was back at my office.

Shirt - Banana Republic
Skirt - J. Crew
Tights - Target
Boots - Cole Haan (the most expensive shoes I currently love and by far my favorite pair of 4 inch heels)

Ugh, note to self - take a picture in the morning and not 12 hours later and having running through a rainstorm.

Now, that might just look like any run of the mill black skirt, but it is most certainly not.

It's the softest, lace, tulip skirt and one of my favorite skirts. I've always thought it was too mini to wear to work, but throw on black tights and it worked. I'd love to get a chunky colorful necklace and a pair of black booties to wear it with.

* Family members - I was in NJ as part of a team and was in-state for less than 48 hours. There really wasn't time for a family get together. Maybe next time.

Cranberry and Chocolate Chip Scones

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

Yum!

Saturday morning was slightly gloomy and the hubs and I needed a bright start to the day. Okay, really I was just excited to use my new scone pan, which just came in the mail from Rue La La. There was a Nordic Ware sale last week and I picked up a few new baking items.

Don't worry, I washed the pan before I used it.

Flipping through my cupboards I realized I had just the right amount of ingredients to make Cranberry and Chocolate Chip Scones from The Joy of Baking.

Here's the recipe:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/2 cup milk or semi sweet chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in middle of oven.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. (The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.) Stir in the chocolate chunks (or chips) and dried cherries. In a small measuring cup whisk together the buttermilk and vanilla extract and then add to the flour mixture. Stir just until the dough comes together (add more buttermilk or flour as necessary). Do not over mix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 11/2 inches (3.75 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 4 pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk.

Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Finally, nestle on the couch with one or two scones and a glass of milk. Repeat the eating process in a few hours.

Any other recommendations for scone recipes? I'm so happy to finally have a pan even though I've made scones in the past, just plopped them on a baking sheet.

Miles Run in September

2011-10-01T11:58:00.003-04:00

93.63 Miles run in September

I almost broke a 100 miles in one month! Clearly, that's the goal for October, which should be easy to do because I've got a 20 miler scheduled for later in the month.

In August I had a serious discussion with myself that I was in no way shape or form ready to run the Baltimore Marathon in October. I just hadn't been running and getting in marathon shape in two months sounded like a sure fire way to end up back at a doctor's office or worse, hate running forever. I was able to switch my registration and will be running the half marathon distance instead.

That's when my best friend, B, stepped in and convinced me to sign up for the Philadelphia Marathon in November. Sure, having three months to get back in running shape sounded a lot more realistic. Tit for tat, I was able to convince B to run the Baltimore Half with me. Thankfully, she just received her notification that she gained entry from the wait list.

It's on like Donkey Kong. My long runs have been slow and with intermittent walking breaks, but so far I've been feeling pretty good on my runs.

Except for the half marathon I ran on 9/11/11. I got tangled up with a group of runners trying to avoid a massive mud spot on a trail and I got clipped by a guy behind me. I SLAMMED my hip and knee into the ground and actually had to walk quite a bit for the rest of the race. On the plus side, this happened after mile marker #8, so it wasn't like I had that much farther to go.

How not to paint a room

2011-09-29T10:10:00.001-04:00

This sucks, really, really, really, really sucks.

The hubs and I were so enthusiastic over the weekend and happy because we painted our first room. Saturday we painted the ceiling white, then waited the until the evening before applying any tape to the ceiling. We taped the room and did all the prep work.

Sunday, while I was out for a long run the hubs began to paint.

This sight instantly warmed my heart after a difficult 17 mile run.

We felt bold! We felt good. I even proudly proclaimed, "goodbye beige lifestyle!" I should have known that triumphant proclamation would come back to haunt me.

The first coat when on and then four hours later we were back upstairs adding the second coat.

The above picture was taken almost at 8pm with only one little lamp in the room. Needless to say, the paint is NOT that dark and there will be more light in the room.

Then, the hubs went out of town for two days. I didn't want to do anything to the room while he was gone so we could see it together when he got back in town.

With the hubs back in town I started to peel off the painters tape used on the trim and ceilings. That's when I noticed that the paint started to peel away from the top of the wall. This is also when I wanted to start to cry!

And curse. I really wanted to drop consecutive, multiple f-bombs in a row, but I didn't.

It's not the end of the world, but it's bugging the daylights out of me. I really don't know what to do. Clearly, the top and bottom sections of the walls are going to peel. Do I just ignore it for now and move on? How the heck do I fix it? Do I have to literally peel the entire two coats of paint off the wall?

We used the same brand of zero voc latex paint on both the ceiling and wall and the walls peeled, but the ceiling didn't. That's what's bugging me the most. The ceiling looks GREAT and the walls, not so much.

Thankfully, we started with our future guest bedroom with the intention that we never use the room. If something went bad, it'd be okay because we don't go in that room. I guess I need to do more research on paint and hopefully we never have this problem again.

However, this completely ruined my happy attitude towards the house. We went bold and ended up flat on our faces. Not fun!

Any suggestions on what we did wrong? Recommendations on how to fix it?

My guess is that our decision to skip a primer came back to bite us. From the limited reading I've done in a pathetic attempt to understand what we did wrong was that we used a latex paint on top of an oil-based paint. An oil-based primer would have worked for us and saved us this mess, but alas we skipped the primer step. We thought with such light walls we didn't need a primer. Looks like we learned a very valuable lesson in home renovations: don't skip steps, even if you think you don't need to do it.

:(

Wordless Wendesday

2011-09-21T10:00:00.001-04:00

Source

Announcement: We moved!

2011-09-19T19:16:00.003-04:00

Well thank you Captain Obvious!

Turns out rather than hitting publish post way back when I actually just saved this post. Whoops!

Roughly 47 seconds after switching the front door locks on our house the hubs and I had to jump in the car because I was late for a ten hour road trip up to New Hampshire. However, the car ride back to our rental abode gave us a few minutes to bask in the happiness of being a blissfully married couple who now owned a big baby of a house. Besides the common sense first thought of, "we need a fridge ASAP!" I thought, "we need to send out moving announcements."

Enter the deafening sound of bewilderment coming from my husband.

"Seriously, we don't even have a fridge, washer, or dryer and you're worried about moving announcements."

Hey, I've got weird priorities man. I just knew that if we didn't jump on the moving announcements they'd get shuffled to the back burner and never happen.

Well, what do you know ... life happened. Massive amounts of unpacking, cleaning, and multiple work trips left both of us exhausted and the very last thing either one of us wanted to do was design a moving announcement.

Enter Etsy or Happiness on Crack as I like to think of it.

I showed the hubs a few designs and within an hour we had a proof back of our announcements. Just a few days later these showed, beautifully packaged, in the mail.

I love everything about thing: the recycled craft paper, the green color, the stencil. Nothing but love. And the price was awesome too!

They're from Etsy Seller Jack and Ella. I'm in no way getting anything by sharing the seller's name other than maybe some good karma if someone goes and orders something and loves their order.

Hello Lover!

2011-09-14T08:23:00.003-04:00

I sent out a calendar appointment to my female co-workers in July asking if they wanted to accompany me to Target on Tuesday, September 13th. Why? Because that's when the limited run Missoni for Target line arrived in stores.

Confession: I went to Target on Monday night just in hopes that they would have some of the stuff out early. Verdict - NO!

Then, on Tuesday morning I hopped online at 6:35 am to check out what was available in my local stores. Yes, stores. I checked every store from my office outside of DC to my house just outside of Baltimore. The store closest to my office listed everything as "limited stock."

I almost thought about going to work late and hitting up Target early in the morning. However, I couldn't do that and leave my girls behind.

At 5:00pm sharp we piled in our cars and raced each other to Target. I've wanted the chunky heels since the moment the first look book was visible online! My girls knew this and as soon as we entered the store we bypassed the clothes section and ran right to the shoe section. I swear, we looked like a SWAT team because we immediately broke off from formation and went down separate aisles.

That's when I heard one of my comrades scream, "HEIDI! They're HERE!"

CRAP! I was four aisles over and a mass of 10 women were heading straight for my shoes. Without missing a beat my friend instinctly pulled the size 8.5 and 9 shoes off the rack and charged over to me.

That, my friends, is what a good shopping partner does! We giggled and laughed as I tried on the shoes, decided the 8.5s fit better, and happily danced in the aisle. Afterwards, we had a fun girls trip trying on everything imaginable in the store and running around to see what Missoni items were left. In a nutshell: all that remained with a decent selection were the tights.

It was hilarious, I was the one who wanted to go to Target and I was the one who ended up buying the least amount of stuff! I never knew that four women could have so much fun in a Target store.

And now, these lovely shoes are all mine.

I'll randomly check to see if any of the scarves are in stock the next time I'm on a Target run. I'm not an addict and I'm not paying above retail price for anything listed on Ebay.

How about you? Did you like any of the Missoni for Target pieces? Did you get anything on Tuesday? Are you ordering anything online now that the website is back up and running?

September 11, 2011

2011-09-11T16:09:00.003-04:00

The wounds may have started to heel, but we will never forget. Today is not just about remembering a few buildings or one particular city. Rather, it's an American day of remembrance because every American has a 9/11 story. Stay strong, treat your fellow man with respect, and let's all try to do our small part to make this a better world for future generations.

Laboring at the State Fair

2011-09-05T17:47:00.006-04:00

Summers are not quite complete without a trip to the fair! When I was a kid my family used to go to the Orange County fair every summer it seemed. Then, when I became a teenager the cool thing to do was to travel down to the Sussex County fair in NJ. As with all things driving related, you were cooler if you were able to either drive somewhere or had friends who could drive you somewhere.

Well, I'm old enough to drive now (yay!) and this is the first summer that the hubs and I actually made it up to the Maryland State Fair. That's hilarious because when we lived up in Towson we were only 10 minutes away from the fairgrounds and we never made it over for the fair. Oh well.

I was craving a funnel cake like woah, but unfortunately so were hundreds of other people because the line was ridiculously long. It's funny, but after walking around the fairgrounds for hours and seeing all of the greasy food the hubs and I wanted nothing but a salad for dinner! And we like to pig out on fattening food every now and then just like everyone else!

Crazy note, but I love to look at candy apples, but I'm terrified to eat one. I haven't had one in years and the last time I had one I took it home and cut it up in order to eat it. I don't know why, but I have it stuck in my head that my teeth will get ripped out if I try to eat one. Maybe that's just my body's way of trying to keep my sweet tooth under control.

Yuck! I've lost my appetite.

I used to be so good at that game!

Although, after petting all the cute animals I wanted to become a vegetarian. :( I think that's why I gravitated to the sheep and lambs because I don't eat those little guys!

Help me!

2011-08-31T09:08:00.001-04:00

Seriously, I need help.

I have two sets of lovely, double windows in my house. One set in my living room and the other set in my soon-to-be guest room. Look at the picture above closely and you might notice that the window frame runs smack dab into the corner of the wall. How the heck am I supposed to put up a cool curtain rod above the window when the wall is right there? That means I either can't have a decorative end on one end or no decorative ends at all. That sucks and I'm not happy.

I became even more upset as my pathetic and useless attempt to track down Roman Shades have left me window fixture-less for over two months now. Why hello neighbors! I didn't think it was so bad until I came home the other night and realized from the street I could see all the way through our house to the dining room, where I could make out the wedding pictures on the back wall. I told the hubs getting curtains up on the front of the house just became top priority. Even more important than the dead tree that may fall on our house at any given moment (Dear Mother Nature: please stop with the major storms!).

After some Googling I thought I was on the right track when I found these lovely custom Roman Shades from a fantastic Dwell Studio fabric. That's when I noticed the price tag.

$306 for one window! And that wasn't even the right size! My windows are over 40 inches wide!!! And I have four of them! $700 for curtains per room is NOT in the budget.

Okay, realize, you don't need a cool custom fabric. Instead, go for a simple linen fabric because that's got to be cheaper.

Really, for that price I might as well get the cooler fabric.

I, personally, love this answer in the above website's FAQ:

In a nutshell, I'm screwed. I need help. Please recommend any and all affordable places to get decent Roman Shades. I swear I've looked everywhere, but so far I can't seem to find any fabric shades I like that come in weird sizes. When we bought the house we thought having 8 feet of window space would be so much fun. Lots of light! Big windows!

Stupid windows. This makes me miss our old townhouse with it's four windows total. So what if the dogs love sunning themselves all over the house now. So what if I love reading books in natural sunlight. Totally overrated.

Can we please not repeat last week?

2011-08-29T20:24:00.006-04:00

In one week our house has survived a pig roast for 50+ people, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake, and Hurricane Irene. It's been a rough week and thankfully we pulled through just fine.

The hubs and did everything we could do to prepare for the oncoming storm, short of boarding up the house and buying a generator, on Friday night. He climbed the roof and broke out the 20ft ladder to cut down as many tree limbs near our house as he could. We were both terrified that the dead tree right behind our house would come crashing down. So scared in fact that we bunkered down in our living room on Saturday night for a restless night of sleep. We stayed up until 1am just listening to the wind howling outside and hoping that a tree didn't come down on our house. I was worried about our cars too, but in the grand scheme of things I would have gladly taken a destroyed car over a destroyed house.

We tried to be jovial and joke that we had enough booze and water stashed in our house to survive a few days without power, but really we were both on edge. A large tree limb came crashing down at 11:30pm Saturday night and in my paranoid state I threw on my rain boots and slicker to go outside and dragged the limb to the back of the yard. I was certain the wind would pick up the limb and throw it through either our patio door or bay window. If I would have had some rope or a fisherman's hook I would have been a great character on a horror movie set.

My brother was supposed to come over and ride out the storm with us, but unfortunately the high winds came sooner than expected and it wasn't a good idea for him to drive over in 50+ mile hour wind gusts. That was just another thing I worried about, my poor brother stranded all alone during a hurricane.

Thankfully, we're all okay. We were even in the very small minority of people who didn't lose power on Saturday. Sunday afternoon we took a walk through the neighborhood to get the dogs out of the house and see the extent of the damage. I couldn't bear to take pictures because how do you stop and take a picture of your neighbor's house with a tree on top of it? I couldn't do it. One of the great things that attracted the hubs and I to our neighborhood was all the trees. However, this week it looks like a pack of monsters ran through the neighborhood and ripped down every tree and tree limb they could get their hands on.

Jewels needs a vacation because she didn't sleep a wink over the weekend. She was really on edge and had so much to do with all the growling every time our house was pelted with another acorn or tree limb. Both dogs had to be coaxed out of the house anytime we made them go to the bathroom during the storm. We tried to pick times when the rain was less of a monsoon, but it rained for almost 24 straight hours!

I hope you and yours made it through the storm. Irene caused a lot of damage, especially in the Northeast, and people died during the storm. Of course that made me want to cuss out the idiots shown on the weather channel even more.

What the hell was that?

2011-08-24T08:35:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you know by now that an earthquake rattled the East Coast yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, it appears that although the 5.8 magnitude quake was strong enough to do some damage it didn't do nearly the damage it could have caused elsewhere.

I, however, failed miserably at all forms of disaster preparedness. The rattling came in two waves with the second being the more powerful wave. At first one of my co-workers and I looked at each other and thought, "what the hell is that?" Then, when the second wave hit most of my co-workers ran for a doorframe and looked somewhat prepared. Like an idiot, I ran to the window to see what the hell was going on. Finally when I looked outside and didn't see the end of the world coming at me, rather that the trees and light posts were shaking too, I figured out what the heck was going on.

I'm probably to blame for the cup of water that was spilled all over my desk. I still maintain that the quake was the sole responsible party for the flipped picture frames.

Then the building was evacuated, no one could get a darn cell call out, text messages were getting dropped, yet I could post on Facebook with zero problems. Note to self: if the end of the world comes, get the word out quickly via Facebook. I really should buy the hubs a smart phone already so he can see my last post. I couldn't get ahold of him for 30 minutes and that bugged me.

While marooned outside everyone seemed in good spirits as news was traveling in that there wasn't extensive damage. Relief overcame pockets of individuals as one heard from so-and-so that so-and-so was fine. But then, we all saw the look of panic on one of our co-workers faces.

She couldn't reach her husband. She couldn't reach her daughter's school. She couldn't reach anyone.

Unfortunately, she'd been in that very same spot before except the last time the world went crazy her daughter was at a daycare facility in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 where she had been dropped off just an hour before by her dad, who worked there. Seeing that look of panic on my co-worker's face really brought everything back together. That's when I felt really bad for everyone in downtown DC, who probably thought something a lot worse was happening. Many people are already on edge because the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is coming up and the ground shaking made people start to think the worst was happening.

Fortunately, cell service came back in. Everyone was fine. The mood quickly lightened and later in the day my formerly-freaked-out co-worker sent this along to cheer everyone up:

I'm happy to report that when I finally got home (note to self: mass transit sucks during any type of disturbance) all we had were a few upturned picture frames and items. The dogs didn't even soil anywhere and Jewels didn't look like she spent all afternoon growling at the ground.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-08-22T22:32:00.005-04:00

Way back on August 11, 2007 aka just over four years ago I said, "I do!" to a pretty sweet guy. Unfortunately, on August 8 - 12, 2011 I was scheduled to be down in Puerto Rico, again, for work. Well that just wasn't going to do!

So the hubs tagged along for a few days. We had a very frank conversation in which I outlined that he couldn't get mad at me for working 8+ hour days because that's what I was there to do and the reason he could stay in my hotel room for free.

In the hubster's own words he had a great vacation acting as a "trophy wife." Venturing around shops, hanging out in the pool, laying out, walks along the beach, etc. Although, in typical man fashion he would go gambling in the morning and then that would be his "drinking money" for the day.

Thankfully the guy was sober enough for breakfast on our actual anniversary! I kid, I kid! He had to hop a flight home later that day, but it was sweet to go out for breakfast overlooking the ocean. Not too shabby.

The pups are running amuck!

2011-08-03T20:01:00.004-04:00

The hubs and I were very fortunate that we closed on our house on Friday, June 3rd and our rental lease didn't end until June 30th. That gave us almost an entire month to clean up our previously vacant and foreclosed upon house, move our stuff, and then clean up our rental.

We were also insanely fortunate that once we had installed the new door locks on our house we were able to bring over the dogs well because we owned the place! Our intention was to bring them over as much as possible that way they could get as comfortable with the house and feel like they were home themselves. We knew we'd be moving them in on a Saturday and then leaving them all home alone on Monday morning while they went to work. Actually, the hubs went to work and I hopped on a flight to Puerto Rico.

Note to self: next time you buy a house, don't leave on a work trip less than 48 hours after moving in. The hubs will make a few comments about how he's unpacked more than you.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I remember when we first moved from our little apartment in Newark to our duplex in Towson. The dogs were amazed by the stairs in our house. They ran up and down the stairs for hours on end and it was exhausting just to witness. There was no need to take them for a walk because they would wear themselves out on their stair workouts.

With that in the past, we were kind of curious of how they would react to a much bigger place. Well, here's the video to show you.

I cut off the video in the end because you can imagine what Jax continued to do once the camera was turned off. He has a few "favorite" trees and likes to rotate between them.

Hopefully, we can get some grass growing in the backyard next year and then we'll all enjoy running around like a crazy person.

The dogs have been great over these past six years with all the moving we've put them through. This is their fourth place of residence and very sadly it'll be their last. I promised myself I wouldn't think like that, but it's true. We're going to make this the best darn house for them possible because they deserve it.

Can we go outside

2011-07-30T10:52:00.004-04:00

This seems to be the traditional position the pups take during any time the hubs is outside tinkering in the yard. He was outside cleaning our gutters and we both thought that the dogs shouldn't be outside in case they wanted to eat any of the junk being tossed on the ground.

Jax has the attention span of a gnat and gave up after 10 minutes. Jewels, on the other hand, is completed dedicated and stayed there the entire time the hubs was outside.

But seriously, did the previous 5 owners of our house never clean the gutters? How in the world did that much dirt get up there? Gross!!!

San Juan... again

2011-07-28T18:49:00.001-04:00

Yeah, so it looks like I'm going to be flying down to San Juan quite a few more times for work.

Even this beach hating, anti-swimming, pale person really can't find too much fault with this.

Our House: The Hunt by Numbers

2011-07-06T19:34:00.003-04:00

So, here's the skinny on our house hunting process.

2/4/11 - Date in which we first met with our realtor to discuss our finances and see if we really could afford to buy a house.

13 - Number of houses we walked through and jointly said, "nope."

2 - Number of houses we entertained putting an offer in on, but decided not to.

3 - Number of separate trips we took with our realtor to look at houses.

7 - Number of days that the hubs and I completed an awkward dance around each other as we were both completely baffled how the other person could love a different house. It was awkward. There was even a conversation of, "what does this say about our marriage if we love different houses." Yeah, I'm an oral communicator and over-talk everything.

45 - Number of days in which we decided not to look at our house even though during our first trip out with our realtor we looked at a house literally the next street over. No worries, that visit is what led us to fall in love with the neighborhood and really focus our hunt.

147 - Number of days our house sat on the market before we decided to stop on by.

5 - Number of crappy, cell phone quality pictures that were listed online for our house. Seriously, we couldn't even make out what 4 of the 5 pictures were trying to show. The listing agent should have been ashamed.

8 - Number of minutes we planned to spend in the house. It was the last house visit of the day and we were thinking, "the price did just drop another $15k, let's just look and see if it's liveable."

12 - Number of minutes it took us to walk around the house and yard. Finally, in the basement our realtor asked, "what do you think." The hubs didn't even look at me and said, "I'm done." I was already saying, "this is our home." It was perfect. There was no need to discuss it because it was everything we wanted, except for a garage!

35 - Number of minutes it took our realtor to call us after we left the house and informed us that there was a counter-offer already out on the house.

Eternity - Number of minutes the hubs and I just looked at each other and thought, "why didn't we go see that house sooner! It was right there!"

4 - Number of sleepless nights I had waiting for the damn bank to accept our offer! It didn't help that I was out of town and was getting very little updates via text from the hubs.

60 - Number of days we requested for the closing period.

67 - Number of days the bank counter offered for the closing period. That should have been the first hint.

11 - Number of days it took to get a signed contract back from the bank. Grrr!!!

20 - Number of days prior to our closing date in which the water was finally turned on. Double GRRRR!!!

6 - Number of days prior to closing in which a plumber was finally allowed to go into our house and fix a leak in order to gain FHA clearance for our house. At this point we were thinking we might be house-less very soon and getting extremely frustrated.

2 - Number of days prior to closing in which we received our final closing cost numbers.

16 - Number of hours prior to closing in which we received the final time for closing. Nice!

35 - Number of minutes the closing agent showed up late to the closing.

1,000 + - Number of pages of paper it felt like we had to sign at the closing.

I made the joke again and again during this whole house buying process that I finally felt like an adult. You can be a teenager or a drunk in Vegas and get married. However, having a bank verify that your qualified to buy a house felt much more adult-like.

Buying a foreclosure was incredibly frustrating. I never seemed to fathom why the listing agent and/or bank was so slow in their responsiveness. I understand that they both had a lot of volume, however the hubs and I were highly qualified buyers trying to take a foreclosure off of their books. It was really tiring and wore us down towards the end. We closed on our house over 30 days ago and there's still a lock box on our front porch. The key inside it has been removed, but the box is still there. That just says how lazy and unresponsive the listing agent acted from day one. I'm taking bolt cutters to the box this weekend and getting rid of it.

San Juan, Part Dos

2011-06-28T21:23:00.008-04:00

Let me first say that my Spanish is absolute crap! Seriously almost a week in San Juan and I got by with a warm smile and four simple things:

"Hola!"

"Gracias"

"No hablo Español."

"Cafe con leche."

Yeah, that's about the limit of my Spanish speaking abilities, which means I really need to dig out the Rosetta Stone CD and dive back in. However, all those of years of taking French were not wasted in vain because I was able to read plenty of documents written in Spanish and ascertain enough information to finish my work.

And next time I need to figure out how to buy more than 2 bags of espresso and 1 can of coffee beans to take home with me! I love dark coffee and being back in Puerto Rico was like a flashback to honeymooning in Brazil where the coffee was divine.

Besides working 10-plus hour days, I was able to enjoy a few moments of fun in San Juan.

Amazing celebration for Noche de San Juan celebration in the hotel's pool area. There was a beach chic fashion show that started at 11:30pm, which meant I drank even more coffee the next morning after being up until 1am. I'm way too old for that behavior on a work night!!!

Why hello there San Juan

2011-06-22T22:51:00.002-04:00

I've been racking up the air miles as of late with quite a bit of work travel in the past few months. Some of my destinations haven't been that glamorous, such as Detroit, but this past week I've been holed up in West Palm Beach, FL and San Juan, PR. It's a rough life.

However, I have some very over-protective family members when it comes to living out of a suitcase. Back when I first started traveling for work, I had three quick trips in succession to Denver, Fort Lauderdale, and Newark, NJ. While having a celebratory birthday dinner with my parents in Newark my dad leaned over to me and said, "if I find out you went for a run in downtown Newark like you did in Denver, I'll beak your legs." He may or may not have repeated the same warning when I've went to Detroit, but you get the picture.

To add injury to insult, when the hubs found out I was going to take a train to go from West Palm Beach to the Miami airport so that I could catch a direct flight to San Juan he immediately responded with, "wait, you're going to go to Miami by yourself, in a suit?" My other option was to take a non-direct flight that had me backtrack to Atlanta and then fly to San Juan. I picked a train ride over the chance to have to run through the Atlanta airport and hope not to miss my next flight. Gesh!

Goodness gracious! I'm a big girl, I can handle myself on these trips.

And here's my hotel in San Juan.
It's not like I'm staying in a motel that rents out rooms by the hour here people. I just need Hilton and Marriott to like each other and let me combine my points total for a sweet vacation stay. Or, the hubs needs to tag along on a work trip.

We're homeowners!

2011-06-07T21:37:00.004-04:00

As you may or may not have noticed, I've taken a nose-dive from posting and this little ol' blog has been collecting dust much of the past year. Well, I've had my reasons, but the main one being that the hubs and I were in full-on house buying mode. It seems every waking second has been consumed with house-buying relating things since January. The past 65 days since we put in an offer on our house have been exhausting. I'll go over everything in greater detail in the future, but for now I'm busying packing up and moving to our home.

Our home.

House.

Casa.

Maison.

Permanent place of residence for the next 12-20 years.

Like already bought a mailbox and cemented that bad boy into the ground. For the record, I was completely against the cement aspect, but the hubs went a head and did it while I was out of town. You win some and you lose some.

It's a cinch!

2011-06-01T18:33:00.003-04:00

One of my "goals" this year is to take more risks with my personal style. I'm a big black/grey/beige person when it comes to my office wardrobe. Sure, I have a few polka dot pieces that I like to mix in from time to time, but overall I'm pretty bland.

With this amazing bland outfit I did three things I don't usually do. And yes, my legs are that pale in person!

Cardigan - Banana Republic
Dress - Target (I've had this since college and wore it to both my undergraduate and college graduation ceremonies!)
Belt- Target
Shoes - Nine West

1. I wore a non-black, non-J.Crew cardigan! Yeah, you think I'm kidding, but I own the J.Crew Jackie cardigan in four colors: black (obviously), white, grey, and mint green. I'm twitching because I haven't purchased one yet this spring and I feel like I'm so far behind. And that's just the Jackie cardigan. I don't want to count the additional number of other black or J.Crew cardigans I own.

2. I belted my cardigan. I'm struggling to find skinny belts that work and the hubs keeps taking his darn braided belt back from me. The nerve of that guy! I'm not sold on the whole "high belt" look yet because I feel it just amplifies my already short waist and makes my top look even more stumpy.

3. I started my "new" job in October 2009 and this is the first time I've worn open toed shoes to work. They aren't explicitly outlawed in the company dress code, but I'm quasi-old school and I just don't like open toed shoes at work. However, it's been ridiculously hot this past week and peep toe shoes sounded amazing.

I'm also going to try to post more outfits here on a routine basis for a variety of reasons:
- there's enough daylight when I get home to take a picture. Taking a picture at 6:30am is just not going to happen.
- allow me to see just how much black I actually do wear.
- give me something to post on a routine basis
- get feedback on my outfits. The hubs is king of Mr. "you look great in that!" I'd like to believe he's telling the truth, but I know on some days he's totally full of it.

One of those little moments

2011-05-31T21:53:00.003-04:00

Life is full on crazy right now. I feel like I can't get my head above water to share anything, but hopefully soon all will be revealed.

No, I'm not pregnant!

In the meantime, I can sit back and laugh at my two dogs who are like crazed, mini Tasmanian Devils, fly to a complete stop to watch the hubs eat a Klondike Bar. It's the little things in life.

Miles run in April

2011-05-03T20:25:00.003-04:00

24.8!

Yucky! I actually decreased my pathetic mileage total from March. The really sad part is I ran a short leg in a marathon relay over the weekend and I had a blast. My team actually was the first mixed relay team (girls and boys) in our age group. Out of 54 mixed relay teams we can in 7th overall!

My four person team had a team member drop out the week before the race and my bestie ran a full half-marathon rather than doing a measly 8 mile run. That's my goal. To be in the shape and conditioning needed that I could have a week's notice and run a 1:50 half-marathon. Considering I haven't even come close to running a 1:50 half-marathon, it's safe to say I have a lot of work to do.

The frustrating thing is I know I can run quasi quick. I busted out a 7:36 mile during my race, so I know the speed is in there somewhere. I just really need to focus and start running on a more consistent basis.

I need to sign up for more races because those seem to keep me somewhat honest in my running. I have a ton of excuses, again, for why I didn't run this past month. I really need to pocket those and just head out for more runs.

I'm such a hypocrite

2011-04-13T20:53:00.008-04:00

There I said it. Admitting it is the first step, right?

You see, I have zero problems dishing out my opinions on a variety of topics, but watch out if I do something that contradicts one of my previous public rants. I have so many rants it's hard to just choose one, but this time I'm specifically talking about shoes.

In a nutshell, I have chastised some of my female friends over the years for buying cute athletic shoes and then complaining about how they weren't all that comfortable. Insert me going on a massive rant here that covers everything from how that's stupid to how that's really stupid.

Foot. mouth. done.

Last month on a trip to the Leesburg Outlets with my bestie, B, I knowingly bought a pair of uncomfortable athletic shoes.

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

In my defense, if I'm allowed one, I didn't buy them because they were "cute." Rather, I purchased them in a somewhat pathetic hope that by suffering pain in the interim, I would actually feel less pain in the long run. Yeah, I read "Born to Run" and while I don't plan on rocking the Five Fingered look anytime soon, I do admit that there's probably a bit too much cushioning in my running shoes. I'm starting to run more in preparation for a half-marathon and I'm already starting to fear that first step in the morning.

What happens if the pain comes back? If it comes back then notions like, "needles, "orthotics," "lasers," and "physical therapy" might come into my life and if there's one thing I know, I'm not a fan of doctors and I'm definitely a pansy when it comes to needles. I tried to limp out of the podiatrist's office when he wanted to give me a cortisone shot last September.

So, I plunked down $55 bones for these Nike Free Hyper Trainers. I hate that everyone tells me they're cute. No, they're badass, they used to hurt to walk in and still hurt to run in. However, last night I ran 4 miles in them and finally felt good. Maybe there is hope for me after all.

These shoes are part of the whole "running barefoot" movement. They're a minimalist shoe designed to mimic the individual's natural gait, which really boils down to running on the balls of your feet more and not striking with your heel first. My pathetic hope is that these might help build up some foot strength and that will cut down on the amount of fluid that can build up in my foot. The fluid buildup is what causes the pain aka plantar fasciiitis.

I'm eating my words and wearing uncomfortable athletic shoes. I'm going to give them another month and keep trying to get in shorter runs in to see if that helps with any of the pain. I really don't want to go back to that crazy foot doctor!

In the meantime, I'm wearing them every day on my walk to and from work and whenever I walk my pups. I have gotten a ton of compliments on them because they are badass. Although, every time someone says they are, "cute" I want to cringe. Hopefully, I can get over that pain as well.

Our first apartment

2011-04-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

In February the hubs and I took a quick weekend trip up to Atlantic City, NJ to cheer on one of our friends who is an aspiring UFC fighter. On the way up the shore we met with our real estate agent for our first big meeting and then decided to stop for lunch in Newark, DE. Being that I went to grad school at the University of Delaware, I wanted to poke around Main Street and see if anything had changed in the past few years (it had!).

On our trip, we drove by our old apartment complex, the site of our first step into cohabitation. Also the site where the hubs firmly entrenched himself in the, "I'll spend the rest of my life with you and share everything, except for the hamper" weird stance that he has going on. More importantly, our old apartment complex is completely different. When we lived there it was a sketchy place of regular ol' folks and poor college students, complete with a murderous backstory. Seriously, a female student was murdered there the year before we moved in (hence why we got two dogs ASAP, jk) and we found out later watching Animal Planet that years ago another resident was eaten by his illegal giant lizards. SWEET!!!

Now the complex is "Green" and is solely off-campus housing for students. It also has this massive community center with a full-length basketball course, 3-D private screening room, bar, and tanning beds. Clearly the Jersey Shore influence has migrated south into Newark!

It was kind of a throwback for the hubs and I to think of that first apartment and how the only new pieces of furniture we bought when we moved in were a tv stand, coffee table, kitchen table & chairs, and a breakfast table. They all came from Ikea and the breakfast table doubled as a great beer pong table. Yeah, that's how grad school rolls. The rest of our furniture was all hand-me-downs or leftovers from college.

Here's the floor plan for that old 855 square foot apartment.

Don't let the floor plan fool you. There was no way in heck a dining table fit in the "dining area." We kept the table over in the "study." However, the kitchen was just as tiny as it looked. We couldn't have our microwave, toaster, and coffee pot all plugged in at the same time.

It wasn't a total waste. Jax actually ate a 6 x 6 inch hole right dab in the middle of the living room carpet. I patched the spot, extremely poorly, with carpet from the closet and then replaced the carpet in the closet with the closest Berber carpet I could find at Home Depot. Then, the apartment complex still gave us the pet deposit back after we moved out! After all of the disgusting things we saw while we lived there, I'm not surprised if we weren't "tenants of the year."

It kind of sucks to look back at it because everything in the apartment itself was new, so it could have been a really nice place. However, the sketchy people living next door, their annoying 50lb mutt who attacked Jewels, and most people's total disregard for common decency made the place into a dump. It's funny to see it now.

I tell you what, the pool certainly did NOT look like that when we were there!

Miles run in March

2011-04-03T12:46:00.004-04:00

25.58

I think that officially classifies me as the non-running runner. I'm going to have to get over my hatred of the treadmill because I'm scheduled to go to Detroit for work for a few days every three weeks for the next three months. Plus, running around Detroit at 9:30 at night doesn't sound like the greatest of ideas. Running around any city at that hour in the night doesn't sound like a good idea.

Okay, I also need to stop having excuses for skipping a run, "it's cold outside, I'm tired, I've been up since 5:30am, I'll run tomorrow night, etc."

Any Detroit folks recommend any other restaurants than the 24 Grille at the Westin? Don't get me wrong, it's a great place, but I might get tired of eating there every dinner I'm in the Motor City.

Shoe Karma

2011-03-23T21:54:00.007-04:00

Last week started off with the great news that I won a pair of Starla Sandals courtesy of the awesomeness that is Stacy from A Girl's Guide to Shoes.

In all seriousness, I've been an avid follower of Stacy's blog for years. It's a constant source of shoe giddiness and delight all wrapped up in one neat package. Being that I have a limited shoe budget, I especially like that she highlights fantastic deals all the time. It gives my closet hope for brighter and future packages.

My mid-week got a boost this week when those blinged out sandals above showed up at my doorstep. I've been prancing around my house, blinding my dogs, and fantasizing about warmer (and drier) weather so that I can wear my shoes. It's only been a day, but in that short amount of time I can say that these sandals are going to get some serious wear and love this spring/summer and beyond because they're gorgeous and comfortable. My head is already spinning with how many outfits I can spice up with them :)

Thank you Stacy and Starla Sandals so much for the shoes. They are loved and will be continued to be loved by this red head.

And so, it is only fair that since I was gifted an amazing pair of shoes, that I gift an amazing pair of shoes to someone who deserves some good shoe karma. You see, I was out and about looking for a baby shower gift and ran into TJ Maxx to get more baby clothes when I found these lovely shoes just sitting on a table.

They weren't even in the shoe section! Someone clearly picked them up, carried them around, and then ditched them at the last minute due to a poor moment of indecisiveness. I instantly picked them up because their silver metallic patent leather just called to me. I saw that they were a size 7 and thought, "ugh, why don't they ever have cute shoes like this in my size?"

I flipped them over and here's the crazy part, they were marked down from the TJ Maxx price of $159 to $39. Yeah, my jaw hit the floor. Seriously, why were these in TJ Maxx and why on earth were they so cheap?

These are Guiseppe Zanotti mirror-like pumps. Yes, they're a few seasons old, but come one! These are designer Italian made shoes. These things are ridiculously expensive! They're Cinderella shoes.

I found these shoes from the 2007 Fall Collection and I think TJ Maxx held the conservative sister shoe.

Most importantly, my sister deserves some flash and sparkle in her life, therefore she needs these shoes. So they're in the mail and should hopefully bring my sister some happy shoe karma in a few days. I hope they fit her, otherwise I'll have to find another home for those beauties because they are not getting returned.

Isn't Carrie Bradshaw a size 7? It figures... when you find something adorable in a size 9, let me know.

He did it!

2011-03-18T08:22:00.004-04:00

Well, he took a big step in the right direction.

One of my "big" goals for running this year was to get the hubs to run a sub-28 minute 5k. I figured that would be the time it would take based on his normal running pace to get him to run an entire 5k. Turns out he's never run an entire 5k before and that really bugged me. It's just weird because we do 5-6 mile runs together all the time, so a 5k should be a piece of cake!

We ran a St. Patrick's Day 5k together and I stayed with the hubs the entire time. I told him how far we'd run, what our pace was, where the next hill was, etc. I even volunteered to fetch him water so he didn't have to slow down in the water line! I think I was his personal trainer for the short race.

It was really funny because in the last half-mile I kept nudging him to go faster and he'd refuse. At one point he even said, "I'm good right here, you go on a head." Right, like I'm going to let that happen.

Then, a solid 20 feet before the finish line, my loving hubs darts between a group of people and charges across the finish line. As soon as we get across the finish line he has the dumbest smirk on his face. He knows that he can say forever that he beat me in that race. PRICK!!!

Fine. Whatever. It's cool.

Actually it's more than fine, it was really nice to hit up the post-race festivities, while noshing on bananas, chips, and beer (the runners diet!). The hubs was in a very good mood after the race and he was pretty stoked that he ran the whole thing. Of course, it certainly helped that we started the race with a bunch of our softball friends and the hubs was more than happy that he beat all of them. And they say that I'm the competitive one!

While he didn't finish in under 28 minutes, he did run the entire time, and he's looking forward to running more 5ks in the future. In the interim, I'm training for another half-marathon and the hubs is going to join me on all of my 5 mile and under runs, which will be very nice.

Enabler!

2011-02-28T19:49:00.014-05:00

Seriously dude, you're an enabler.

Last year for my birthday I asked you to split the difference and chip in for my beloved Canon T2i.

Then, for our third wedding anniversary you gifted me with a fantastic Kelly Moore Hobo bag in Muted Teal. Okay, it's not technically leather, but it's clearly the thought that counts.

It even has a purple liner. If that isn't perfect for me, then I don't know what is!

For Christmas you went a head and bought me what I hope is the first of many prime lenses. She's fast, heavy, sharp & blurry and all loved.

You surprised the daylights out of me on Valentine's Day (we don't usually do gifts) and gave me the futuristic looking and very groovy Joby Gorillapod tripod.

Finally, you went above and beyond the call of lust and presented me with Adobe Photoshop CS5 for my 28th birthday. I can now magic wand away the slight wrinkles that are starting to appear on both of our faces. You more than me, seriously use a night cream every once in a while!

So really sir, you have absolutely no one to blame when I pop up out of nowhere and take your picture. You're an enabler in every sense of the word and I love you for it.

Now, if you can not buy me a gift for the rest of the year and then plop down a 70-200 lens next year for my birthday... well I might just die and head off to Canon heaven.

Let's do this thing

2011-02-23T19:48:00.002-05:00

I'm a bad runner. I'm currently in a lull or more likely a low-point with running as of late. If my Garmin 405 is accurate, it means I only ran 11ish miles in January. Yes, 11 miles total.

That's bad! Really, really, really bad. And February hasn't been any better!

It's kind of normal because I suck at running in the cold and it's nice to take some time off every once in a while, but it really stinks trying to get back into quasi-shape once the thermometer jumps over 45 degrees. Even though the Baltimore area just got more snow that darn St. Patty's day 5k is quickly approaching and I need to start running again.

Today is the first day for open registration for the Marine Corps Marathon, which is bittersweet for me because I won't be running it this year. Instead, I have a different October marathon on my calendar :)

Today is also just around 100 days until my first half-marathon of the year. Yes, I'm hoping to do more than one this year. The first half is going to be an old school college road trip of hopefully epic proportions, but I'm hoping to have a somewhat decent time. That darn time is goal is what is prompting me to publicly do the following!

Here they are, my "goals" or "to-do" list for the 2011 running season:

1. Track all runs. This one is kind of a no-brainer, but it'll still be good for me to see how much I actually run a year. At this point I really have no idea. Next year I'd like to say, "I want to run XXX number of miles this year" and actually have that be a challenge. Oh, the Garmin will be handling this responsibility and since I can hardly tie my shoes without my watch, I'm fairly confident I'll meet this objective.

2. Break 8:00 minute miles for a race. This will most likely have to occur in a 5k, but maybe I can squeak this one out to a 10k. A 10-miler or half-marathon would be amazing, but I'm not trying to kill myself in the first year of, "I know I can run the distance, so now it's time to get faster."

3. Run Topless. Got your attention on that one, didn't I? Not fully topless, but rather go on more than one run wearing just a sports bra on top. This is all about self-esteem, plain and simple. I'm scared to run in my sports bra because I'm convinced I, "don't have the body for it." Yes, I'm an intelligent woman with serious body issues, except my body issues aren't really body issues, they're more of "skin" issues.

How do I put this delicately? I'm white. I don't mean Caucasian, I mean, whiter than the blank white space on your computer browser. So white that my ex-boyfriend called me, "Casper." I'm that person you stand next to in a photo when you want to look tanner. I'm so white that whenever I would run around and my shirt would fly up people would shout, "my eyes! my eyes! I'm blind!"

And no, I'm not kidding on any of those... all true stories. Last year I managed to run 1 race in a sports tank top and I had to be talked into it by my bestie. She may or may not have said something like, "look skinny bitch, if you don't run in that I'm never speaking to you again." She knows me all so well :)

4. Get the Hubs to run a sub 28-minute 5k. This is going to be the most difficult of my goals because I can't make him run faster! Well, I do, but he doesn't like it. Apparently, the hubs has never run a 5k before. I mean "run" under the definition of "running the entire distance." He's always had to walk at some point. Granted, he's never actually trained for a 5k, but it still bugs me that he hasn't run the entire distance. We do 6 mile runs all the time. Why can't he finish a simple 5k? I figure based on our normal runs, a 28 minute 5k will ensure that he's running the entire time. *

5. Run a sub-4:10 marathon. I want to run a sub 4-hour marathon, but Baltimore is known for its hills, so I figure I better give myself a bit of a cushion. However, it's on like Donkey Kong.

Last year I came out of my comfort zone, literally and figuratively, and now this year I need to step it up a notch. Last year was all about the distance, whereas this year I want to start to focus on the times. I'll never be a competitive runner or probably qualify for the Boston Marathon. However, I want to constantly challenge myself and that's good enough for me.

*stopping to get water during the race doesn't count as "not running." Yeah, this is my dictionary, I get to come up with my own definitions.

Up and Down

2011-02-15T21:29:00.005-05:00

Life has been more than a proverbial roller coaster in our happy little rental household the past month.

We met with a realtor to discuss our house buying plans and charged up that monstrous first hill.

Then Nana, the hubs's grandmother, passed away which brought us tumbling down low.

We're both hoping things look brighter, but in the meantime we're laying low and staying in.

And during our downtime we're trying to figure out a way to run back to Ohio and dognap this guy:

I almost left the hubs out there just so he could roll around with that pup and smile a bit more.

Oh, Flor how do I love thee?

2011-01-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

Let me count the ways.

I need a small area rug for our entry way. That's over-reaching it just a tad, I need an interior door matt because the hubs and I are trekking water, salt, and slush all over our hallway and kitchen. I'm really grossed out to think that all that junk used to just get mashed down into our living room carpet. YUCK!

Of course once I started looking at rugs I would find the gorgeous 8x10 or larger rugs. Then I'd I start dreaming about what they would look like in my house. At this point I'd have to snap out of it and say, "WOAH! This isn't your house and hopefully you're moving again this summer. Calm down!"

But, in all seriousness how awesome would this rug look in a mancave. Yes, I'm totally appealing to the male demographic in the house because if I can swing this rug for him, then it's just all to easy to design my own custom entry way area. That's a totally logically leap of faith, right?

Sigh... I should go to HomeGoods, use a coupon and buy a generic area rug for $25. But, a girl can dream right?

Anyone order a rug from Flor? I'm thinking I need to keep this one earmarked for when I finally buy a house.

Taking fashion advice from a metro-sexual man...

2011-01-17T17:24:00.005-05:00

might just work out in my favor.

My hubs isn't really a true, "metro-sexual" as he isn't into hair gel, skinny man jeans, murses, skinny ties, designer duds, or almost anything at Banana Republic. Well, the last one is only true because his massive and broad shoulders barely fit in their polo shirts, never mind any of their fitted shirts! But, my hubs is somewhat a connoisseur of quality shoes.

Flash back six years ago and the hubs had just picked up his first pair of Johnston & Murphy dress shoes. I think he got them on sale at an outlet for close to $100. I thought he was kind of nuts to be dropping that amount on a pair of plain Jane men's dress shoes, but that was my own personal opinion. If I had a $100 to spend on shoes I would have tried to get two or three pairs of Nine West shoes from an outlet.

Spring a head six years and take a peak in our separate closets (yes, you read that right! it's a key to marital bliss in our house) and the hubs still has the same pair of brown shoes whereas the vast collection I had compiled during college and graduate school of Nine West and Bandolino shoes has diminished to just a few remaining pairs. And the ones that have survived... they weren't my "favorites" by any stretch of the imagination. The survivors are those shoes that I don't wear all that often either due to comfortableness or they're strictly special occasion type shoes.

So in my corner was well more than $150 spent on shoes and almost nothing to shoe for it. I used to buy on average somewhere between 4-6 pairs of non-athletic shoes a year. Say the average price tag was $50, (way too low, but easier for math) and I was spending between $200-$300 a year on shoes. And they wouldn't last! The hubs, on the other hand, would buy maybe 1 pair of nice dress shoes a year. He was spending less money a year on shoes and his shoes were outlasting my shoes.

Two important things happened this summer that led me to drastically review my shoe purchases.

1. I started running a lot and I expected a whole lot more comfort from my shoes. Plantar fasciitis then dictated that my shoes be extremely comfortable. I was totally screwed when I only had one pair of flats in my closet and had to plan my wardrobe around flats and flip flops :(

2. The hubs wished for a pair of Allen Edmonds "Park Avenue" shoes for our 3rd wedding anniversary.

They're cute and all for men's shoes, but they're $325. Yes, $325 for a pair of plan shoes. There's no fancy heel, no cool embellishments, no frills, zilch, nadda, nothing! Of course, us being us we found them on sale at Jos A Banks for $250 and used a huge Ebates credit to make them much more affordable, but still! That is a lot of money to spend on ONE pair of shoes.

Well, wouldn't you know that when we were discussing the shoes the hubs went over to his closet and pulled out those ol' Johnston & Murphy shoes and said, "these have lasted for 6 years and I've beat them to hell. Those Park Avenues are the same shoes Obama wears and I bet they'll last longer than 6 years."

I hate it when he's right, especially about shoes. He loves his Park Avenues and for Christmas I gifted him with two more pairs of Allen Edmonds. Don't worry, I found them on sale!

So, in preparation for further bouncing along on this thing called "being an adult" I'm slowly going to upgrade the shoes in my closet. The greatest part is the hubs is fully on board. :)

It's snowing!

2011-01-11T21:12:00.003-05:00

It's pretty bad when I was scheduled to go to conference in Atlanta and it ended up being canceled because HOTlanta had more snow than Baltimore.

But the white stuff is finally coming down in Baltimore. I hope it lasts until the weekend because this whole taking pictures at night thing isn't working for me! Man I'm envious of those who have a profession that allows them to play during the daylight hours.

(Dear snow, if you come and ruin my upcoming trips to either Los Angeles or Orlando, FL I will be very upset with you. Let's not have a repeat of last year's trip to Denver!)

Alright, pink elephant in the room

2011-01-05T19:44:00.005-05:00

It's 2011 and everyone and their mother is making resolutions. Here's a few things I want to add to the pile:

1. Track my running mileage. My Garmin 405 should make this much easier, as I've sporadic with Strands.Com or any other type of journal log. I can't even estimate how much I've run in the past few years because I've been so up and down with my mileage and frequency. Plenty of other runners are proudly proclaiming, "I'm going to run XXXX number of miles this year" and I'd love to say something similar, but I'm afraid I'm going to over or under shoot what I'm capable of doing. Baby steps people, baby steps.

2. Get over my fear of open water. Okay, pools too. I know if I was on a boat and had to swim for my life, I'd be able to do it. Other than that, I'm insanely uncomfortable in the water. But, I did go water skiing for the first time ever last summer and I didn't die, which is clearly a step forward in the right direction. Ideally, I'd love to do a triathelon at some point, but the whole swimming thing makes me want to hurl.

3. Take more risks with my personal style. I wear a ton of black. I wear a ton of grey. I don't have "going out" clothes anymore because my closet is one giant Banana Republic/J. Crew/Ann Taylor/Gap/Nordstrom Career section department store. My idea of a shoe splurge is Cole Haan Nike Air pumps for work. I also tend to wear the same hair style year in and year out. I started things off right and had my hair chopped on January 2nd. I'm not saying I'm going to wear pink any time soon, but I really miss my crazy polka dot days.

4. Get back in touch with my creative side. I've been a serious lull lately. I haven't even used my sewing machine since before I moved. My health nut craze has significantly decreased my creative baking routine. I feel like I'm not even doing my camera justice anymore. I'm in a funk and I need to SNAP OUT OF IT!!! I want to highlight at least one creative a project a month. I hope that will be a good starting point.

5. Buy a house. The hubs and I are so ready. The game plan is to really take a look and hopefully find our dream home this year.

So that's it 2011. Balls in your court.

This Christmas

2010-12-30T18:47:00.004-05:00

Was a very good Christmas! Sure, I might have dozed off for the quickest of moments during Midnight Mass, but at least I went to church on Christmas.

The hubs continued in his "spoil my wife" game plan and gave me the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Autofocus Lens for Christmas. My infatuation with all things Canon related continues to run deep.

I also have to give a little shout-out for B&H Photo Video for their amazing wish list feature. All I had to do was make a wish list and the hubs could see exactly what I wanted for my camera. It really made made things easier because the hubs had a variety of gear pieces listed and he didn't have to worry about if something was right for my camera, since the list was all pieces I put together.

Now I'm off to play with my new lens and figure her out.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T17:01:00.003-05:00

Have a very Merry Christmas, it's the best time of the year!

(The above image is a screen shot of our Christmas Card made by Shutterfly. They were free and came out fantastic!)

Is it Spring yet?

2010-12-20T21:21:00.003-05:00

Because these indoor tennis games are really starting to worry me. I'm afraid Jax might knock over the china cabinet. I'm fearful he'll take out a stair railing. I'm nervous he'll run into a table.

Most importantly, I'm petrified he'll bump into Jewels and then she'll beat the crap out of him.

Vegas Baby!

2010-12-19T21:51:00.007-05:00

After years of complaining about my husband going to the same spot every year and backing out of last year's trip to Sin City, I finally made it to Vegas. Sure, I huffed and I puffed about not wanting to go, but at soon as we rolled into BWI I was incredibly ready for vacation. Then, I lost both my boarding pass and driver's license for a whopping 95 seconds in the airport. Whew! That was almost a bad start to the trip!

Without further ado, here's a few pictures from the trip. I will be totally honest, I was completely blown away by the amount of Christmas decor in Vegas. For some strange reason I thought such a hedonistic place would be devoid of all references to the birth of Jesus Christ. Then again, prostitution is in the bible, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised to see a few Christmas trees here and there.

The hubs booked a private limo tour of the strip just for the two of us on our first night there. That had to have been the coolest way to get a lay of the land and see almost everything along the strip. The two bottles of Champagne didn't hurt either :)

I couldn't figure out if Starbucks or Louis Vuitton was more abundant in Vegas. It seemed you ran into either store every time you turned around!

The morning we left our home away from home, The Venetian, the Rock N Roll Las Vegas Marathon and Half Marathon had taken over the Strip. I had entertained thoughts of running the half, but I must confess that it was much more enjoyable to walk around and watch people run while drinking coffee at 8:30 in the morning rather than running. I don't know if Vegas and running that sort of distance would have agreed with me ;) There's always next time!

It was a fantastic trip and I honestly might go back again. Not next year (it's my turn to pick the destination!), but certainly again in the future sometime. We've got nothing but the rest of our lives to head on back there.

The big 3-0

2010-12-08T20:24:00.005-05:00

No, not me silly. I still have over two years left before I cross that bridge! Rather, one of my friends turned 30 last week. Since I happen to work with her I got to bring in her something tasty at work.

She absolutely loves my pumpkin roll, red velvet cake, and peanut butter chocolate balls, which meant I wanted to make something grand for her 30th that combined her favorite things.

I present:

Red velvet cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and garnished with a marzipan pumpkin.

I really need to get a cupcake pan. Any recommendations for a good quality airtight carrier?

When the directions say you should wear some type of gloves while using the coloring it's probably best to follow the directions on that one.

2010 Holiday Card (50 Free Shutterfly Cards for Bloggers!)

2010-12-06T20:28:00.013-05:00

Last month we met up with the insanely talented Mandi White and did a quick photo session in Ellicott City, MD. I've had Mandi added to my Google Reader since before I got married and she's a fan favorite on the Baltimore Knot/Nest boards. All for good reason, she's awesome and crazy Boston Terrier friendly.

Honestly, this picture encapsulates Jewels' complete and total boredom with me, her human, that I see every single day.

There are no words.

And we have so many more to pick from! It's crazy. I squealed like a small child when I opened the email from Mandi that shared our online gallery. I looked at a few pictures on my phone, but my little Droid screen didn't do them justice. To sum up, later that week I ran into one of the hubs' co-workers and he told me that the pictures were adorable. I gave him a confused look and he said, "well of course your husband showed them to everyone at work!"

Heart.melt.love.

Next, I have to pick a photo card design. I've used Shutterfly in the past for cards and then this year I heard about a promotion Shutterfly was offering for bloggers. If you have a blog and would like to partake in this promotion, click over here and follow the instructions.

Joy to 2010 from the Holiday Collection.

Shimmering Stars from the Christmas Card Collection.

Snow Flurries Cocoa from the Christmas Card Collection.

Glitter Glamour Joy from the Christmas Collection

Or perhaps I can just make photo calendars for the whole family for next year! Nothing like a daily dose of the hubs, pups, and I to get the morning started. :)

I can't make a decision! Do I pick a card design first or photo? There are too many fantastic options and combinations available.

Normally, I'm not one for taking something free in exchange for advertising it, but I feel very comfortable with this Shutterfly deal. For one, they're a reputable company. I've used them in the past for prints, photobooks and photo hosting and with nothing but good results. Two, the rules were plainly described to me in an email and I felt like I wasn't "selling my soul" for some free goods. Third, I've read comments on other blogs that posters did in fact receive their free cards. I wanted to wait a few days and make sure that others were receiving their cards before I went a head and posted about the giveaway. Finally, maybe you haven't heard about this deal and I would love it if someone else was able to partake in it before the December 10th deadline. Money doesn't grow on trees and the stamps will still set you back a pretty penny, so why not have free gorgeous cards?

Enjoy!

Turkey Coma

2010-11-28T20:07:00.005-05:00

The hubs and I started a new tradition this Thanksgiving by running in a local Turkey Trot. I don't know if we'll do the same 5k next year, as neither one of us were fans of the course, but we're definitely up for running pre-turkey filled coma.

The course was on a high school cross country course and with the early morning rain it was quite slick in some parts. Yeah, clumsy me fell on a hill roughly 2.5 miles in. Thank goodness I was wearing tights!

I made the hubs stay after the race for the awards show because I wanted to see where I finished in my age group. Well, technically I finished 3rd in my AG, but the first two runners finished the race 1st and 2nd for women, so they automatically forfeited their AG finishes. I won $75 worth of gift cards to two restaurants.

SCORE!!!

The hubs was pretty ticked off with his time, so now he wants to run another 5k in December. Fine by me!

After the race we came home and started the turkey prep. Clearly, we needed a 20lb turkey to feed three people. No babies in my tummy! My brother-in-law joined us for dinner.

Yes, the hubs and his brother eat Thanksgiving dinner in their PJ's. It's weird and they made fun of my brother and me for dressing up last Thanksgiving.

Boys are so weird!

This isn't what we consider doing the dishes, I swear!

The rest of the weekend was spent in a flurry of shopping, decorating, playing video games, and napping. Oh, and there's still 5lbs of cranberry and apple dressing in my fridge... someone please come eat it!

Yuck! I joined a gym

2010-11-22T21:38:00.003-05:00

I loathe the gym.

I hate the gym.

I despise the gym.

I, typically, would rather be tied to a chair and forced to watch re-runs of The View than go to the gym.

It's really weird, but for such an active person I really can't stand "the gym." I think it's because I'm spoiled. Ha! The hubs would have loved to been the one to say that line! I've never had to be a person who slaves away at the gym to stay in shape.

Anyway, I find most people at "the gym" to be completely pretentious buffoons. You have the women in their Juicy Couture-esque outfits, full makeup on, and more concerned with chit chat than working out. Then, there are the thugs... the huge guys who only seem concerned to either out grunt or out lift each other. There are a few others who don't fall into those two completely ridiculous groups, but in my mind they're lost to the crazies.

That sounds like just the place I'd like to pay to hang out! NOT!

But, a co-worker of mine finally convinced me to head to the office gym after work three weeks ago. It was a very small gym with just a few machines, a full mirrored wall, a water dispenser, and a really, really, really loud tv.

I kind of like it :)

Typically there's only a few people there and I can get in, do some cardio, do some arm workouts, and get out in just over an hour. It's really nice going with my co-worker because then she and I can walk back to the train station together. Since it's completely dark out at 6:15pm it's nice to have a partner in crime for the mile walk.

It looks like I'm forming a gym habit, which is a good thing. I have a bad tendency to forgo all forms of physical activity during the winter months and I hope to break that vicious cycle this year. Every year I say I'm going to take a yoga class, but that's yet to happen so I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

Oh, the best part is the price. If I go with my co-worker it's absolutely FREE!!! If I want to go and she's not going I can do one of two things: borrow her card (free!) or finally get my own key which costs me a whopping $10.

That's it! The gym could cost only $10. That's barely more than two cups of joe at Starbucks and probably a lot better for my personal long-term well being.

Now I just need to figure out to use that dorky looking weight machine in the corner :)

And out of left field...

2010-11-15T21:34:00.002-05:00

I know people think I'm slightly crazy for saying things like this, but I really think dogs are like children. You have no idea when they are going to batshitcrazy on a dime.

But, it makes for a highly entertaining few minutes when it happens.

Lazy weekends...

2010-11-07T20:19:00.003-05:00

are by far the best.

Now only if there was room for a 125lb red head on that little twin bed.

Marine Corps Marathon (The Race)

2010-11-01T12:20:00.015-04:00

One last wave to my dad and I'm off.

Let's do this thing!

The start line.

That is A LOT of RUNNERS.

I started the race with B and Kristen and figured the first three miles would be completely jam packed. It was definitely crowded, but the crowds weren't moving nearly as slow as I anticipated they would be.

Here are my splits from my Garmin. Now, please keep in mind I forgot to turn off my auto-pause so my Garmin did not take into consideration the time I lost when I stopped to stretch, re-tie my shoes, and stretch some more.

Mile 1: 8:45. A bit fast, but I'll slow down. I'm just hyper at this point.

Mile 2: 8:50. Okay good, slowing down. Ditched my hoodie, but kept on my gloves.

Mile 3: 8:30. Crap, got faster again. There was a big downhill during this mile, so maybe that's what happened. No worries.

Mile 4: 8:16. Heidi, what the hell are you doing?!?!?! Slow the hell down! There was another down hill, but this is ridiculous!

Mile 5: 8:40. Okay, this mile is only slower because I WALKED through the water and Powerade stop.

Mile 6: 8:17. I am the dumbest smart person in the world. I am going to crash and burn and I'll be telling myself, "I told you so" the entire time.

Mile 7: 8:50. Again, only slower because I walked through the aid stations and ate some jelly beans. Also stopped to tie my shoe and stretch my calves.

Mile 8 8:44. Settling in, went up a hill, but still going way to fast. Water stop right at the end of the mile.

Mile 9: 8:45. Well at least I'm consistently stupid. Gotta have some credit for that!

Mile 10: 8:25. Getting dumber. The course split into two sections here and I had no idea which way to go. My family was supposed to be looking for me around 10.5 and I got worried that if I ran on the "wrong" section I'd lose them. I saw my dad's head (thank goodness he's tall!) and heard him yell, "holy crap! There she goes already!" They weren't ready for me yet! Still walked through the aid stations.

Mile 11: 8:55. Thank goodness. Still too fast, but getting better.

Mile 12: 8:31. Damnit, getting faster.

Mile 13: 8:51. Saw a water stop coming up and figured I should eat more jelly beans and switch my piece of gum. Dropped a fresh piece of gum :( Realized I probably just PRed my Half-Marathon time and that wasn't a good thing.

Mile 13.5. The pain begins.

Mile 14: 9:37. Slowed down and stretched, again. Pain is picking up steam, but I'm trying to be positive. I keep telling myself that I'm going to see my family again soon.

Mile 15: 9:20. This is still faster than I wanted to be, but I'm getting better.

Mile 16: 9:40. Was able to slow down.
Saw my family and it was fantastic! I heard my dad yell for me around a slight turn. I saw my brother kind of point (honestly he could have just been moving his arm to wave) but that made me look across the street and I saw the hubs. Instant life high. Since my brother was close enough to the course he handed me a pack of jelly beans. I had given my brother, dad, and hubs each a pack the night before and told them to hand them to me if I look like I needed food. My brother just figured that was his best chance to fork 'em over.

Mile 17: 10:18. Houston, we have a problem. I'm in pain and it's not going away. I think this is where I started running on the grass for a bit just to have a softer running surface. I again walked through the aid stations. I swear as the race progressed there seemed to be more distance between the Powerade and water stations. I would just walk from as soon as I got my Powerade and continue walking until I finished my water. I just can't run and drink at the same time!

Mile 18: 10:50 Yucky!!! Slowed down too much, stopped to stretch again. Legs are definitely heavy. Foot is definitely not happy.

Mile 19: 9:41. Getting better. Saw my co-worker and about tackled him. He didn't see me at all and I popped out behind another runner and definitely scared the daylights out of him.

Mile 20: 11:11. Running over 395 was miserable. I've avoided running on concrete as much as possible because it's such a hard surface. That bridge hurt. I realized I had two options. 1 keep running and risk either getting injured and/or finish the race absolutely miserable. Or, option 2, slow down, walk a bit, stretch more often, and finish the race happy. Slap hands, "hoo-rah" and in general have a good time. I went with Option 2.

Mile 21: 10:47. This is now the farthest I've ever run! There was an aid station right before the mile 22 marker.

Mile 22: 13:44. I had to stop and use a port-a-potty. I didn't want to stop completely so I would just walk around in a big circle around the port-a-potties! I guess that never caused my watch to stop. There is a funny dark red dot on my GPS tracker during this mile! Oh, dear mean lady spectator! When a runner stops to use the bathroom, please be kind and don't skip the runners walking around and dive into the next available bathroom. The port-a-potties are there for us first and then you!!!

Mile 23: 11:09. The wind through Crystal City is ridiculous! There was a tiny water stop, but the street was looking gross because so many red Powerade cups had blown onto the street that the street looked bloody. Yucky!

Mile 24: 10:48. I am officially very tired and on the verge of getting cranky.

Mile 25: 12:22. Walked for what seemed forever between the two aid stations. Honestly, don't care because walking felt nice at this point.

Mile 26 and .2: 11:03. Started off slow, but got stronger as the race progressed. Saw a woman pass out, but a Marine caught her before her head hit the ground. I had no idea where the finish line was so I kept looking for it. Now, I'm running back where the course began, so at least I've been here before. Running by Arlington Cemetery calmed me down and made me focus on the hill that I knew was coming. When that road started to incline and I heard a Marine yell, "you're not done until you take that hill!" that's when I knew I was close and I just let loose.
I heard my family yell for me, but I didn't see them. I was just looking ahead and focused on a group of people a head of me. I said, "you are going to pass every single one of them."

I did. I tore ass up that hill. I honestly don't think a single person passed me on that hill. I just wanted to be done running and all those painful training runs popped up in my head and I figured I could tough it out for a few minutes longer.

The end.

Haha, just kidding. After finishing I fell in with a mob of people. I think the first thing that was handed to me was a blanket. 10 seconds later I got freezing cold and said, "wow, these Marines are brilliant! They must have known all these runners would get cold once they stopped running." Yeah, my mental capabilities at this moment were slightly lacking.

Next, I got herded into a line to receive my finisher's medal. A very nice and courteous Marine told me to stand up straight and then he put my medal over my head, said congratulations, and shook my hand. That was awesome! I think I stared at my medal for a minute straight before I tried to figure out where to go next.

My next stop was to weakly walk to my left where another Marine put a bottle of Powerade in my hand told me that in continuing with the course, water was at the next table :)

Now, at this point there were so many people I had to stop moving, which was not the best idea. Once I stopped moving I wanted to just lay down and not get back up. So I started taking mini air steps while waiting in the next line. In that line I received a food bag from a Marine. Bagel, fruit cup, banana, wheat thins, and pineapple chips.

Here the mass of people got really annoying. Apparently people were trying to go into the Finish Festival and a bunch of people coming out decided to exit via the entrance. That caused a massive pedestrian traffic jam!!! After navigating through that mess I found a Verizon stand that was letting people make free phone calls. Of course the only cell phone number I know is the hubs so I called him. Like any rational person, he was over at family link up!

I wondered over there and found the hubs and B. At that point everything became a blur! We got my bag, found the rest of my family, said goodbye to B and headed home. The metro on the way home was packed, but we got out safe and sound.

I'll have one more post of crazy costumes people wore during the race and a few other pictures my dad took during the day.

I just wanted to end with the most moving and emotional thing I witnessed that day. There were so many runners who were running in memory of someone else. Many of them had a picture of their fallen loved one pinned to their back. It was beautiful. However, around mile three I heard runners cheering. As I continued forward I found out why. There were four Marines running in full gear. I mean the 60lb backpacks and everything. They were surrounding a hand-cart participant. As soon as I got closer I could see what all the runners were cheering about. The two marines flanking the back of the cart were each carrying a prosthetic leg. One of the Marines running up at the front of the cart was carrying a prosthetic arm. When I started to pass the cart I was able to see that the hand-cart participant was a wounded Marine. He had no legs and only one arm. He was willing himself forward with his comrades, his own arm, and a prosthetic arm.

Every single runner who was near this group cheered in some way shape or form. Many cheered, "USA! USA! USA!" Others yelled "SEMPER FI!" I went with "HOO-RAH!" Runners were patting these Marines on the back and one runner offered to carry a backpack. I honestly started to tear up.

Anytime I started to feel weak and thought about giving up I thought back to that moment very early in the race. If you witness something like that and your heart doesn't swell up with emotion for your fellow man, then you need to get yourself to a hospital because you're dead inside.

Marine Corps Marathon (The Pre-Race)

2010-11-01T09:42:00.013-04:00

At work on Friday morning one of my co-workers, who runs, gave me a gift bag and said, "two are for now and one is for later." I imagine that she meant the Gatorade and pasta were for now and the big bottle of Champagne was for later. That was officially the kickoff to my marathon weekend!

Friday afternoon I met up with my bestie, B, to head over to the Expo for the Marine Corps Marathon. On the metro ride over to the Convention Center B was telling me of a few other people she knew that were running the race. She didn't have her old skate coach's phone number, but she had heard from through the grapevine that her former coach was running on Sunday. Sure enough, out of 30,000 runners B ran into her former coach at bib pickup. It's a pretty funny and small world in Washington DC.

The Expo itself was pretty crowded, but that could be expected since we got there right around 4:30pm on a Friday workday. Of course, it is the Marine Corps Marathon, so there were Marines everywhere! It was very refreshing to all the mannerly Marines help anyone and everyone who needed assistance during the Expo. I honestly couldn't even guess how many times I heard the "Hoo-rah!" chant made during that afternoon and it carried over during the rest of the weekend.

There were so many things to look at and buy during the Expo. It was sensory overload for runners! The One Mile and Brooks shops were fantastic. Both B and I really wanted a few different shirts from the Brooks shop, but we didn't want to wait in the long check-out line. Only later did we hear from Kristen, B's old skate coach, that the line moved insanely fast :( Oh well, I think we'll both take a look online and see if we can order something.

B and I did stop at this one booth and pick up these amazing t-shirts. B's boyfriend found her t-shirt to be hilarious, whereas the hubs didn't roll over with laughter when he saw my t-shirt. Oh well.

I almost bought this t-shirt just on principle!

Saturday the hubs and I had a fairly low-key day. My initial plan was to go to the Expo on Saturday and then swing by the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally on Saturday afternoon. My plans changed when my parents confirmed that they were coming down Saturday afternoon.

Later on Saturday night I welcomed my parents and grandma to Baltimore for their first official visit. Coming down the weekend I got married doesn't count as a visit! Hopefully, they liked my dinner consisting of shrimp scampi, grilled asparagus, green peppers, and whole wheat pasta. Maybe that will entice them to visit more often. Plus, I had leftover pineapple upside down cake, which is my dad's favorite, to encourage them to come for more food.

Sunday morning my family left in two waves.

When I came downstairs in my racing outfit my dad said to me, "you're so skinny. I'm worried you're not going to have enough in you to finish."

My response, "dad just wait until you see the skinny chicks running today."

My dad and I left my house at 4:30am sharp. From there we drove down to the Greenbelt Metro Station and made the trip over to the Pentagon Metro Station. My dad had never been on the Metro before, so he kept saying, "I'm following you!" There was a 15 minute delay when we went to switch from the Green to Yellow lines and for a brief moment I panicked, but we made it to the Pentagon just after 6am.

Then, we joined a mass of people and made our way over to the starting area. I think the walk was something close to a mile. It was dark and kind of calming to be walking with so many other people. To put it into perspective it took us close to 15 minutes just to get out of the metro station because the line was so long to swipe your cards to get out.

I had a minor freak out moment when we started to get closer to the bag drop-off point because police officers were stopping everyone to make sure they either were a runner or they were with a runner. My hubs, mom, brother, and grandma left my house at 5:30am and were on the metro. I was worried they wouldn't be able to get in without me! Thankfully, they got to the start line just fine and dandy.

I've waited in some pretty long port-a-potty lines in the past at races, so the first thing I did was seek out the lines and decided to go then. The lines were only two people deep at that point, which made me very happy.

My dad and I then met B and Kristen over at bag drop off. We all checked our bags at one of our assigned UPS trucks (there were 30 trucks!). Then, B gave my dad her phone because she was hoping her phone would circulate from my dad to my hubs who then in turn would give it to her boyfriend. That didn't happen, but it worked out just fine.

Now, it was after 7am so we figured we'd make our way over to the starting area. B, Kristen, and me heading off to the start line.

I swear my dad isn't an alien and he wasn't wearing a costume. Just some strategically placed street lights happen to behind him.

Hilarious story, but you can see that my dad is on the taller side. I was telling him on the metro that B can't reach the tall "Oh-crap" bars. Well, at this point in the morning my dad shared with B that he had to duck under those bars or else he would have banged his forehead.

On the way over to the start we passed a ton of port-a-potties. We saw the Brooks VIP ones which were heated, had flushing toilets, and running water. Pretty spiffy!!!
In continuing with my game plan to have as much fun as possible I was a complete and total ham as much as I possibly could be.

I threw out all conventional wisdom and decided to start the race with B and Kristen. You know, in the 3:40 pace area. Not that I expected to finish ANYWHERE near that time, but I just wanted to start with people I knew.

B and me rocking our Goodwill gear. I didn't go to Frostburg State, but $5 for a comfy and warm hoodie was good enough for me! I also had on magenta fleece pants. In line with other large races any clothes that are "ditched" along the course would be donated to local homeless shelters. The hubs and I had just cleaned our closets out when we moved over the summer, which meant I didn't have anything I wanted to get rid of. A trip to Goodwill was in order!

I don't know what the actual temperature was at this point, all I know was it was cold! I think the temperature at the end of the race was 61 degrees, so that tells you it was probably a bit cooler at 7:30am.

At this point I saw that the port-a-potty lines were nearly non-existent, so I jumped in line for one last stop. I was really hoping not to have to stop during the race!

Finally, we took our places in the mass of people. My dad was able to retreat back up a tiny hill and follow as us three ladies as we weeded through a mass of runners. I'm going to have to remember to wear a bright colored shirt before every race start from here on out. The red hoodie definitely came in handy.

I didn't get to see the hubs before the start of the race :( I told my family that my realistic finishing time would be between 4:30 and 4:45 hours. So when the rest of my family got to the starting area they stayed at that spot. Oh well, next time I would have had my dad called them and told them where I was.

Next, it was off to the races!!!

Taking photos is not one of his strengths

2010-10-19T18:46:00.011-04:00

The hubs is afraid of cameras. There's really no other logical explanation for his anti-camera stance than pure, absolute fear because I can't fathom why a grown man would be so hesitant to ever take a picture of his wife. It's comical because every year for Christmas I put together a photo book for our grandparents and ever year it's a struggle to find a decent picture of me.

I had a somewhat important down in Washington, DC the other day and decided to ditch the traditional power suit and instead wear a somewhat cute and youthful dress. I am on the team as the technology person, so I really shouldn't hide from the fact that I'm there because I'm young and I know the current technology systems that pertain to my work's project. I wore, what I considered, to be a cute dress I just picked up from Banana Republic. I'll be honest, it's more fitted than what I normally wear, so all day long people at my office kept saying things like, "I really like that dress" or "you look great!"

Then, at my meeting an Assistant Deputy Secretary at a very important government entity said to me in the hallway, "that dress is fantastic. It's business, but with a side of fun." I replied, "I just got it at Banana Republic and there are a quite a few more to be purchased." She laughed.

When I came home late (again!) from work I asked the hubs if he could take a picture of me in my supposed cute dress. I made the mistake of already pulling my hair back in a pony tail, but figured at least I could show my aunt that I don't wear only ill fitting clothes.

That quasi head-less shot above is what the hubs took. Thankfully, the pups wanted in on the action and the hubs kept shooting away.

Seriously, all I wanted was a picture where I was smiling and both of my eyes were open, how hard could that be?

Finally, here's a picture of the dress. It's cute and I love it.

As for the hubs... I'm working on that situation!

This boot was not made for walking...

2010-10-12T22:02:00.004-04:00

Now that the weather has turned a few degrees cooler it certainly seems that summer has come and gone. Which is a pity because I had a pretty good summer, but alas fall is my favorite season.

One of the things I was looking forward the most to this fall was finding the perfect pair of fall boots. I was thinking a gorgeous suede knee high boot with a nice stiletto heel.

This thing, however is what I find myself wearing around my house.

Yeah, it's not attractive. Even worse, I could barely sleep with it on the first week. I may or may not have kicked the hubs multiple times and I definitely scratched him with some evil Velcro straps.

Just a few short weeks ago I went to hop out of bed on a Saturday morning and by time I dragged myself down the hall to my bathroom I was assuming the fetal position while wrenching in pain. I only dragged myself to the bathroom because after the first two steps I swore there must have been a metal or glass splinter penetrating the heel of my right foot. Upon further inspection there was no such splinter. There was however a decent bit of swelling in my foot and some ugly discoloration. Panicked, I called out for the hubs and the moment he saw my tears he was gathering up my wallet to take me to the emergency room. There are two things I don't do when it comes to sports: I don't bet and I don't show pain.

I dislocated a finger once and still finished a game, drove to the bar, downed a drink, sobered up and then drove home. Let me say trying to drive a stick shift with a busted right index finger is not an enjoyable task. I didn't even cry when I tore my quad in college. I just don't like to show pain.

My tears on this particular Saturday morning where twofold: first I was in a lot of pain and more importantly I've been training for a marathon which was right around the corner. I had a 12 mile run to do that weekend! Plus an 18 miler to do the next weekend. This was not the time to get hurt!!!

My intense fear of doctors let me persuade the hubs that I didn't need to be rushed to the emergency room. Rather I'd take it easy for the day, including a scheduled two-hand touch football game, and schedule an appointment with a specialist if I was still in pain on Sunday.

Yeah, I tried going running Sunday morning and came home after .5 miles, again in tears. Pride-0, Heel-2. So that Sunday I asked for doctor recommendations with all of my running buddies. Monday morning I scheduled an appointment for the very next day. I had to drive into work on Tuesday and even driving Peggy was painful.

$300 later at the doctor's office and a cortisone shot later I was diagnosed with the dreaded plantar fasciitis. The aforementioned ugly boot shown earlier is apparently some evil contraption to help keep my foot stabilized and decrease the amount of fluid that builds up in the heel of my foot. I've got to say, the boot definitely helps. There have been a few nights where I have forgotten to wear the boot and the next morning the pain in my foot is quite a few decimals higher than average.

So the past few weeks I've been trudging around the house wearing the boot as often as possible. Thankfully, Jax and Jewels no longer growl at the boot and I don't have to worry about Jax trying to make it into his next favorite chew toy.

However, my endurance took a significant hit. I missed two long runs and did a pathetic attempt a running for two weeks. I kept struggling with pain management and I was in this gray place where each day the pain started to feel a little bit less than the day before, so I wanted to rest more and not risk aggravating things and making it worse.

Any conceivable time goals I had for my first marathon were tossed out the window. My doctor advised me to start walking in stints while running anytime I felt the pressure in my heel reach a certain point. I've found that running down hills is more painful than running on flat surfaces, which means I'm the crazy person walking down hills for the moment.

In a nut shell, it sucks. I'm extremely disappointed that I won't be able to finish in a time that I wanted to, but I'm going to focus instead on finishing. I had to walk over the weekend for a few bits while doing my big 20 miler, but I finished it. Slow and steady will get me across that finish line.

13.1 miles (part deux!)

2010-09-20T19:58:00.004-04:00

I recently completely my second half-marathon. This time, I hoped to improve upon my finish from last year.

I went into the race with three goals:

1. Walk through the aid stations and actually drink some Gatorade and water. Success! I remembered that I tried to run through the first few aid stations last year and I wasn't very successful at actually downing any fluids. So, this year I specifically told myself to walk through the aid stations. Sure, I hated slowing to a walk, but it was rather refreshing to pass people after each stop :)

2. Finish strong. Success! I wasn't running this particular race as a true race. Instead, I wanted to run at a strong, but comfortable pace. In an ideal world I wanted to finish the race and feel two things: I could have run faster and continued running. When I came through the final stretch and out kicked a guy, I felt really good. I got a shout-out from the race director at the finish line, which has never happened before because people are too intimidated to try saying my last name aloud (silly hubs!). But after I crossed the finish line I found my bestie B and grinned, "I could have kept running!" This was a drastic improvement upon last year's race when B practically had to pull me across the finish line.

3. Finish in under two hours. Success! I'm even more impressed that I finished with running sub 9minute miles because I did walk through every aid station and I kept telling myself to slow down during the race. I was running really well despite the low temperatures, rain, and mud during the race.

Overall, I'm really happy with the race. My goals were all met, which is fantastic. I wanted to run a decent time, but also know that I could have continued on for 16-18 miles at the same pace (or somewhere close to the same pace). The objective wasn't to run the fastest time I could, rather keep in mind that the bigger picture, aka the full marathon is just over a month away.

I'm also proud of my running because I ran by myself. When I convinced B to run a marathon with me she remarked, "I know I ran your first half with you, but if I'm going to commit to training for a full marathon I'm going to run it for time." Her time goal was to run in the 1:45 area during the half, which is a time way beyond what I could have run. So, I borrowed her boyfriend's Nike watch because my cheap Target watch broke on me! At some point I'll upgrade and get a Garmin, but for now I'm happy just knowing I'm running distances rather than times.

Unfortunately, I don't have a single picture from the race. Well, that's kind of a lie because there are pro pictures online and I do actually look somewhat decent in some of them (that never happens, I think the rain helped). B and I ran this race on our own and treked back to her place on the DC Metro. Note to self: taking the Metro after running for nearly 2 hours in the rain sucks. You're wet, cold, muddy and did I mention cold? B and I decided that a half was a little ol' thing and told the boys they didn't need to come.

Dear Significant Others: when your ladies tell you don't need to come, that means you should still get up and be there at the finish (preferably with a warm towel or sweatshirt).

It's fine, I'm not bitter at all. After the race we had a girl time and went and got pedicures. :)

We moved!

2010-09-14T21:01:00.003-04:00

(that would be a past out hubs tired from moving all of our furniture in 90-plus degree heat)

That's really the reason I haven't posted practically all summer. The hubs and I moved over the summer and it's been quite a long process between finding a new place, packing, moving, and unpacking.

Moving away from Towson was bittersweet. We both loved the area, but my commute was just too miserable and I was an uber bitch most nights. Not exactly good for the home life. Leaving for work at 6:30am and not getting home until 12 to 13 hours later wasn't making me all giddy and sunshiny happy. Certainly, carpooling with the hubs 90% of the time was nice (he did most of the driving!), but I can't say that sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic could be construed as "quality time."

So, we left Towson. It's really sad because I really liked living within 3 miles of everything. Seriously, Trader Joe's, Safeway, Michael's, Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Louis Vuitton (like I shopped there!), PetSmart, Target, Joann's Fabric, Sports Authority, Chipotle, Green Turtle, and possibly every other store you could think of was right around the corner! I'm going to miss Trader Joe's, Chipotle and Sushi Hanna the most. Every Friday the hubs and I either stopped off at Sushi Hanna or Belvedere Square for dinner.

But, that killer commute was figuratively driving me crazy.

With that being said we had to find a place that was within our budget, close to a train station, had a fenced in yard, central air, and would take two Boston Terriers. Oh yeah, we're renters... so much fun! The most annoying thing about renting is that you're almost forced to wait until the very last minute to find a place. Nothing showing is available in two to three months. Everything is available NOW or in two weeks.

I'm actually proud that I was able to convince the hubs to take a serious look at living in Baltimore. We went to quite a few places in Federal Hill, but in the end the lure of a larger yard pulled us to a townhouse development just south of Baltimore. That and I'm now a whopping .8 miles from the train station! It's absolutely magical leaving the house 9 minutes before the train arrives and having plenty of time to park and make the walk down the train station parking lot. It's even better to not have to listen for the traffic report in the morning because my "commute" doesn't involve a single highway.

So, we're slowly starting to decorate. Okay, that's a bold faced lie. I'm slowly starting to decorate. The hubs could live in a card board box and be happy as long as it had a big screen tv and a PS3 hooked up!

Hopefully, in the coming weeks I'll be able to pull my head out of a closet and start posting more often.

Because really, moving absolutely sucks!!!

Perhaps there is hope for a new pair of jeans

2010-08-29T22:06:00.003-04:00

Finding the perfect pair of jeans is a fashion myth. I haven't actually heard of a flesh and blood friend finding the "one" pair of jeans for them. Finding the perfect man, piece of cake, but the perfect pair of jeans... totally not going to happen.

I, myself, didn't wear jeans for nearly four long years because I grew to get so frustrated with the limited options available for curvier women (aka the jeans at JC Penny's weren't doing it for me!). I've always been a white girl with a big ol' bubble butt and in the late 90s to early 2000s that translated into jeans that didn't fit. I'd have a size 6 waist and a size 10 butt. Jeans just weren't cut for the masses to include curves. Thank goodness J.Lo and Beyonce came along! Then, it was cool to have curves. I think Nelly even came out with a line of jeans for curvier women (not that I ever purchased a pair).

Still, finding the "one" never happened for me. It's mostly because I'm a cheapo when it comes to jeans and I can't stomach to pay more than $80 for a pair of pants. Actually, that's a bit high, I don't like to spend more than $50 on a pair of jeans. Basically, I can't even shop at Express anymore for a pair of jeans and I'm too old to go in with my grandma and have her buy me a pair (man, I long for those end of summer ritual back-to-school shopping sprees thanks to a very generous grandma).

Lately, I've been rocking my Old Navy jeans because I've scored them every Black Friday for $15 the past few years. The suckers shrink in the wash and then I have to go through that jumping up and down routine post-washing to get them to fit right again. Insert massive amounts of laughter by the hubs and you can see why I avoided jeans for quite some time.

Last year, I believe it was the Gap that became the moderately-priced "go-to" jeans place. Like a lemming I went in and tried them on and left the store empty handed. The dreaded waist gap got me again. Sure, I'll take my ill-fitting ON jeans because they're $15! That's like three cups of coffee! But if I'm going to spend more than $50 on a pair of jeans well then I want them to fit. Is that too much to ask?!?!?!?

Apparently so because I'm at the point where all I have are ON jeans and a few leftover Express jeans from back when flared leg jeans were all the rage. Seriously, buying or attempting to buy jeans for me is like a Road Runner episode except I'm the darn Coyote. I know full well going in that the jeans aren't going to fit and yet I'm shocked when I come out of the fitting room and hand back the attendant a mountain of ill-fitting jeans. Okay, skinny jeans are solely responsible for my .000 batting average as of late, but that's just because my damn calves are too big. Seriously, I tried on a pair Citizens because I was willing to spend $150 on a pair of jeans if they would fit and my frickin' calves were too big! It's bad enough that my calves don't fit into Hunter boots, but now I can't even try to buy a pair of fancy trendy jeans.

Sigh....

Anyway, the original makers of jeans have apparently heard that women experience some frustration in their endless quest to find the "one." I'm a bit skeptical of the perfect pair of jeans coming to my womanly butt by a man, but whatever. I'm also skeptical that 80% of the world's women fall within three body types, but again I'm willing to suffer the humilation in effort to find a pair of jeans that fit me. I'll even slide for a pair of jeans that make my butt look bad if the suckers fit the rest of me!!!

A fellow curvy and frustrated friend sent me the video below and suggested we make a shopping date in the near future. Levi's please don't let me down!!!

Anyone else struggle to find the "one" and care to share? As soon as I try on some new Levi's I'll report on how I faired.

Third time's a charm!

2010-08-12T19:25:00.003-04:00

The hubs and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary last night and in his typical fashion the hubs blew me away. I must confess, the hubs doesn't do those large scale, grand, romantic gestures. You know how Seal proposed to Heidi Klum in an ice castle (or igloo!)? Yeah, my hubs would never do something like that. He's never even bought me roses before!

Anyway, I digress.

I was actually running a bit late on my way home from work and he called to make sure I was alright. The silly train was running a bit tardy due to the high temperatures (something about continuous lines and the metal stretches and bends when it's ridiculously hot out. I'm not really sure, but the hubs could break it down for you.).

I walk through the front door and there's the hubs putting the finishing touches on dinner. I immediately looked confused because I thought we were going out to dinner.

There's the hubs wearing a purple collared shirt I bought him, striped tie, dress slacks and dress shoes in the kitchen. We're not really wear shoes in the house type people, so it really was the shoes (and tie) that caught me off guard. He just looked up and said, "dinner's ready!'

I sat down and realized I would trade those large romantic gestures for my hubs any day of the week. Just a simple meal for two and I'm set. Of course it helps that the hubs has a penchant for details. He bought a candle for the table and picked up a small bouquet of fresh flowers just to spice things up a bit.

I've got to say, we're really found our grove here lately. We've never been a couple that fights all the time, but we haven't even had a serious disagreement since March. Trust me, we're too opinionated people, but we really respect each other's opinions so our little banters never come across as arguments.

How bad could it be? I make him cheesecake even though I hate it and he brings me fresh cappuccino when I'm stressed out and doing work on a Saturday afternoon.

He's a keeper!

One of my worst fears almost happened

2010-08-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

I know the more I run the more I run the risk of something happening.

A fall.

Breaking a bone.

Tearing a ligament.

Getting hit by a car.

Seeing something really gross (I almost stepped on a dead cat once and that freaked me out).

Well, I started out on my long run on Sunday morning and it should have been a nice and easy 7 miles. The weather was gorgeous and I didn't hit the road until 8am because it was so relatively cool outside.

Half-a-mile in and I had a side stitch. Okay, fine, whatever. Maybe my english muffin hadn't digested enough. Maybe I was dehydrated because I was outside in the sun from 10am to 3pm on Saturday watching the hubs play baseball. Maybe my terrible night of sleep on Thursday night was coming back to haunt me. Maybe my midnight deadline for a work project on Saturday was the final straw. Who knows what caused the stitch because I certainly don't.

I kept running because it was a simple stitch. They come and they go.

At mile one I started to get a bit lightheaded, so I slowed down a bit. I thought maybe it's too bright outside. Yes, my super pale self actually thought the sun was causing my issues. Whatever, I kept running.

At one-and-a-half miles I started salivating heavily. For the first time I realize something wasn't right. My pace was now a cross between a jog and a drunken drag.

Quickly I turned down a little side street, found a bush and lost my breakfast. For about 10 seconds I thought, "okay, I'll just go one with my run now because I got that out of my system." Then the chills came. Then the panic set in. I'm dizzy, puking, cold and not in any shape to get back to my house in any quick amount of time.

I called home. Thank GOODNESS I run with my phone now. Sure, I really run with it because I can listen to music (thanks Pandora!) and track my runs with a GPS trainer, but in that moment when I wasn't feeling well it was really nice to have a way out.

Me: Babe, I need you to come pick me up. I just threw up and I'm really dizzy.

Hubs: Where are you?

Me: Clarkville Street.

Hubs: Where?

Me: You know, the street that if you towards the train station the way you drive and not the way I drive. The big street.

Hubs: Don't sit down, I'll be there in a minute.

Three minutes later my knight in a shiny Escape came and picked me up. Dude even brought me water, which I declined until I had the opportunity to swish something and spit it back out.

Later in the day the hubs flat out demanded that he wanted to know where I was when I went running. Normally, I'm not one for demands, but the guy really had a solid point on this one so I gave in. Now, whenever I head out I'm going to leave a map up on the computer so he can see my route. In the past I usually tell him roughly how long I'll be so he knows when to start worrying.

I keep trying to tell him that he could put any fears he has of me running by myself aside if he came out with me. His response, "well who's going to come pick us up when I pass out and land on you?"

In all seriousness, I felt fine later in the day. It was just a bit scary of how that could have been a lot worse of a situation. I could have been 8 miles from home and on a crazy back road. I could have been out running and not have had my phone on me. The hubs could have been out walking the dogs or not at home at all.

It could have been a lot worse. I'm so thankful that all I lost on this run was my breakfast. Sure, I hated missing my long run, but I'm happy that I made it home safe and sound.

Do any other runners get worried something might happen to them while they're out for a run? What precautions do you take?

Come back!

2010-08-03T19:04:00.002-04:00

Don't run away! I swear I'm still here.

Actually, I'm completely flabbergasted that I haven't posted in nearly two months. That's a really, really, really, ridiculously long time for me to go without posting. I've had multiple posts thought out in my head, but unfortunately a variety of things have kept me away from blogging.

I'm sorry about that. Plus, I'm sorry about the absolutely craptastic posts I've been putting out there in the past year or so. I'm going to shake it up and hopefully hone in a proper voice for this thing.

So come back, I swear I'll try to make you laugh a few times. It'll be good for both of us!

World Cup baby!!!

2010-06-11T20:46:00.006-04:00

I am a self-proclaimed soccer fanatic. It's okay, I've been playing since I was eight years old. Of course, I hung up my proverbial competitive cleats once I graduated from college and I'm ashamed to admit that I can't even find my right Copa Mundial cleat! Honestly, I only have three pairs of soccer shoes in my house (okay, five if you count two pairs of my Puma sneakers). I have my Puma six studs, turf Adidas Copa Mundials and a cheapo pair of Puma Kings I bought on sale at Sports Authority. A pair of Nike women's cleats got thrown out earlier this year after I destroyed the front toe, but I've had those since college so I definitely got my money's worth out of them! This is a drastic step from when I was in high school and my soccer gear stashed in trunk of my car cost more than my car itself.

Sigh.... getting old certainly stinks!

Once every four years I get super excited. Okay, that's a lie because I get really excited during the Olympics and during the Women's World Cup too!

Anyway, I love soccer and I'm on cloud nine right now. Every four years I keep hoping that the USA Men's team will step up and play extremely well at the World Cup. Then, soccer will magically hurdle over the plateau and take off in this country. So far it's been baby steps and I swear a few steps backwards, but I keep holding on to that hope.

Next time I go up to my parent's house I'll have to track down some more pictures because a quick scan of my Shutterfly account pointed out that I have a pathetic collection of soccer pictures.

Ah the good ol' days.

My junior year of college my team had one of the lowest goals against averages in the country (seriously, we were ranked in the top 20!). Yet, when we went down to Trinidad and played their women's national team we got our butts handed to us. The Trini women moved the ball around like it was a highly sophisticated game of pinball. The ball never stopped!!!

Playing in Trinidad was one of the best experiences of my life. These kids stayed after the game and wanted our autographs. I swear to goodness because I sweat so much my hair looked brown and I wore # 8 this little girl asked me if I was Shannon MacMillan. That was an undeserving compliment!!! I loved Big Mac and wore #8 for her.

I love soccer so much that when the hubs and I were on our honeymoon I asked him if we could watch a soccer game. Thank goodness the English blokes we went with called it by it's true name, "Football." I should have been born across the pond! No, who am I kidding, I love America and I'll be screaming bloody, "USA! USA! USA!" when our men take on the English blokes in the first round.

Anyway, when the hubs and I decided to go to Brazil for our honeymoon, this was as close as I thought I would get to a soccer stadium. That spaceship looking blob in the background is the famed Maracanã Soccer Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Historians say 200,000 crazy fans packed into and on top of that stadium to watch a soccer game. Now, that's dedication!

Luckily for me, I married a sports fanatic as well. He just happens to be a bit nutty about baseball (and so am I). We had fancy dinner plans for one night, but the hubs overheard our English friends talking about going to a soccer game. The hubs quickly ditched our dinner plans and made arrangements for us to go to the game. Okay, I know going to a sporting event might not meet your particular parameters for a romantic evening whilst on your honeymoon, but the hubs could have offered me the Hope Diamond in one hand and soccer tickets in the other and he would still have a big old diamond in his hand!

Brazilians take their football very seriously.

I know I haven't been posting much and I can't make any promises, but I would expect a few more soccer related postings over the next month. It's going to be a beautiful World Cup!!!

Lights Out!

2010-05-31T21:20:00.002-04:00

We had yet another Thunderstorm and another power outage. Thankfully, I have tons of candles to survive.

Reading by candlelight is so much fun!

Not a fan

2010-05-26T22:14:00.004-04:00

I think it's safe to say that both Jax and Jewels are not fans of the Canon.

Actually, I think they would both prefer to eat the camera. Then they would at least be able to see my face and not here me say, "stay" all the time (like they listen to it!).

I fell in love with a Canon!

2010-05-19T20:47:00.007-04:00

I know it isn't proper to fall completely head-over-heels in love with an inanimate object, but I don't care. I've talked about buying a camera for years. Of course, that's all I've done... talk, talk, talk and more talk! Something always seemed to come up and there never seemed to be enough money in the bank to justify such a splurge.

So for this year for my birthday in February I asked the hubs not to buy me a gift. I really didn't want another pair of shoes or yet another fantastic purse (well, I did, but that's normal). Instead, I asked him to cover the difference between whatever funds my family members gave me and then I could finally buy a camera.

And the hubs listened!

Then, me being me I waited and waited to make my purchase. I heard that Canon was going to introduce a new camera in the Rebel line and the camera would launch in early April. I did my research and decided I wanted to be a full-fledged technology innovator and to buy the latest and greatest camera.

Now, as a practical person there was no way I could buy a camera without seeing it in person. Yeah, stores in my area had the camera in stock, but they didn't have any floor models. Certain stores weren't cool opening a box if I wasn't ready to purchase said camera on the spot!

Two weeks ago a new H.H.Gregg store opened in Towson and on their shelf was a very new and untouched Canon T2i!!!! I picked her up and played around. The hubs told me to buy right then and there.

My response, "no way dude! I can buy online from B&H Photo and not have to pay sales tax! For this expensive of a purchase that six percent adds up!"

Sure enough, I was right! Then, there was a rebate on the kit lens, so it only cost $50 to get it. I figured it would be a good lens to practice getting used to my precious love.

I'm still getting the hang of her, but I'm so excited to see where we go on our journey together. I've already convinced the hubs that I should rent a wide angle lens to take on our vacation next month!!!

No, you shouldn't take pictures in a dimly lit room at 9:30pm, but I was too excited. 1600 iso and my yellow roses look pretty darn good!!!

I brought my lover to the hub's softball game tonight and let my friend Paul take her for a spin. He shoots Canon as well and as an extensive collection of L lenses I can't wait to try! We're going to have a camera date at the next sunny softball game. Needless to say, Jax is getting left at home because we don't want a hyper puppy playing around the expensive equipment!

Preakness!!!

2010-05-18T20:28:00.006-04:00

We finally made it to Preakness!!! Okay, this is only the third year the hubs and I have lived within 7 miles of Pimlico, but whatever!

Anyway, after much drunken shenanigans in previous years the masterminds behind Preakness decided to outlaw attendees from bringing in their own alcohol. As expected attendance numbers were way down last year. In order to lure some of the infield crowd back, but not contribute to the "running of the urinals" mentality of yore the powers that be decided to implement a $20 Mug Club this year. So, for $20 you received a plastic mug and you got to fill it with beer all day long.

The hubs was very proud of his mugs or maybe just happy for an endless supply of beer and the chance to bet on some horses.

My co-worker got incredibly sunburnt! Hey, don't knock the red head and her 70SPF sunscreen! I came home without a stitch of sunburn.

Go! Go! GO!!!

Yeah, Super Saver let me down. Oh well, we had a great time and my sunscreen regime really made me happy. The hubs got a little red of course that gives me bragging rights for a week or so.

Babies, babies, babies (Part 1)

2010-05-11T20:33:00.002-04:00

Babies, babies, babies... the little poop machines are everywhere!

Yes, pick your jaw up off the floor because I just called babies little poop machines. Honestly, it’s true and you know it, but you just don’t normally say it aloud.

I am so sick and tired of babies, which is absolutely terrible because I love babies and would like to have one or two later in life. “Later in life,” that’s my current predicament it seems. I would like to have babies, L-A-T-E-R!!!!

As in, not right now. Not in the next two years. Oh for Pete’s sake, I’ll be older than 30 when I have one.

Of course, in some crowds if you make it known (which I don’t normally advertise) that you don’t plan on having children until after 30, then that acts as an open invitation for people start to criticize you. It’s almost as if I said I wanted to pick up a drug habit, eat fish everyday, down a few bottles of wine, get knocked up and then give birth on the moon. Or maybe Mars because I think that’s probably a more hostile environment than the moon (anyone?????). Honestly, there could be more destructive things to do while pregnant, but I’m slightly out of the loop on those topics. It’s a perk of being not pregnant.

I’m tired of babies and I fear I might be alone. Well, not completely alone because the hubs is tired of them too. Woohoo, solidarity!

The hubs and I have entered our late-twenties. If you judged our internal time clocks by the cover of our refrigerator, then you’d probably think we were getting ready to have a baby. Not quite, just the vast majority of our friends and family members are having babies. Right now we’re outnumbered in the baby announcement/baby shower/little child photos to wedding invitations/bridal shower invites 4:1. Those are either amazing odds or terrible odds depending on your point of view.

Around us everyone is hopping on the baby train. I’m sure it’s a fun ride, but I want to stick with the adult roller coasters for a few more years before I settle in for hours and hours of going around on Dumbo the ride. Dumbo’s fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but I’m still in the mood for rides that have minimum height requirements.

Babies make me tired because it seems every time a little poop machine makes his or her presence I have to start playing defense. I have to defend myself against the world who seems to think that I’m a freak of nature for not wanting to have a baby ASAP. Look, I played defense on my soccer teams for years. I can play defense and I can play defense well. It’s just a bit draining sometimes, which so are babies for that matter. Or, so I hear.

The hubs and I were married young, well, I consider 24 years old to be EXTREMELY YOUNG, but the guy really wanted to get hitched. I, personally, would have preferred to stay engaged for a couple more years, but I think I pushed the hubs nearly to his breaking point when I went with a two-and-a-half years engagement.

Being 25 was nice and fun. I could play the, “oh, we’re newlyweds” card. That thing worked like gold because everyone would just smile and nod along in pure agreement. “Sure, there’s no reason to settle down with a bunch of kids right now. You’re young, you’ve got plenty of time.”

Then, I turned 26 and the hubs and I crossed over the newlywed threshold. Thankfully, people mainly kept their distance about the kiddo topic. I think there was a moment of weakness on my part when I was cornered and I may have said, “oh, we’ll probably have a kid right before I turn 30.”

Yes, “I turn 30.” Not, when “we turn 30.” Because I’m just over four months older than the hubs and goodness gracious he likes to rub that sucker in sometimes. But, he’s on my team, so it’s cool.

February came and past and low and behold I was now 27. I don’t feel any different than being 26, but apparently I missed some massive memo of epic importantness.

The baby gates were thrust open and I was the person trying to duck out of the party. I’ve had to retract my previously coerced statement and backed as far away as possible from saying anything about kids and being under the age of 30. I tried to soften the blow and say, “kids are probably somewhere in our five year plan.” That sounds reasonable enough, right? It’s a nice noncommittal way of saying, “sure, but let’s really not get nailed down to any specific timetables.”

So for now, I’m tired of babies. The little poop machines are stressing me out and I don’t even have one or want to have one in the next few years (is that too vague?).

Oh, and for future reference. To all my friends who either have babies, are currently pregnant and/or are trying desperately to have a child please keep this in mind: this post isn’t about you. Really, you guys aren’t part of my current issue. Your kids are are adorable. I’m so happy for you it isn’t even funny. I'll even volunteer to babysit your little ones. Of course, poop freaks me out so if you could wait until your little bundle of joy is potty trained, well then I'll cut you an awesome rate on a night of babysitting.

(Part 1)

Well hello DC!!!

2010-04-30T06:15:00.004-04:00

I've wanted to live and work in Washington DC since I was 8 years old. Unfortunately, I neither live there nor work there. I'm getting closer, but I just don't see myself being able to afford DC's cost of living any time soon.

So, when I head down to DC, I act like a total tourist.

I mean, stop-in-the-middle-of-the-road and take a picture tourist.

Yeah, I'm a dork like that. DEAL with IT!!!

It's alright, I get my best friend in the touristy action. She took a picture post-race with the Washington Monument.

Hopefully, the hubs and I will make a few more trips down to DC in the next few months. I can't believe I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and only saw TWO blooming cherry trees!!! That makes me the anti-tourist because I didn't get a single picture of the trees. Crazy talk!

On a plus note, I finished the race way faster than I hoped/intended. I had barely been running and somehow managed to average sub 9 minute miles. Not crazy fast, but a heck of a lot faster than I thought I would run for 10 miles. Now, I need to do the same for a half-marathon and I'll be happy.

Craziness (Part Deux!)

2010-04-18T21:16:00.004-04:00

I swear to goodness I haven't been hit by a bus.

Or, a train (which is more likely given my daily commute).

I've just been living my life. The somewhat carefree life of a 27 year old. Oh who am I kidding, I'm stressed out like crazy, but haven't fun while doing it.

In a nutshell my daily routine goes something like this:

5:40am wake up, shower, eat breakfast, get ready for work

6:30am leave for work

7:13am smooch hubs goodbye when he drops me off at the train station

7:48am get off train and walk to work

8:00am to 4:40pm the daily gig at work. The thing I love and happens to pay me so I can buy shiny stuff*

4:58pm catch the train home

5:31pm smooch the hubs and frantically listen to the traffic report

6:05-6:45pm get home sometime in this time frame. I'll stay it again, "I HATE rush hour traffic!!!"

So from 6:45pm to 10:30pm I get to cook dinner, walk a pooch, possibly go for a run, sit down and watch some tv, call friends, and try to do as many errands as possible because the last thing I want to do on a Saturday afternoon is clean the bathroom!!!

Oh wait, Monday nights I play in a softball league, so those nights are different. Crap, Thursdays I play in a kickball league, which means I'm anti-routine on Thursdays as well.

I love my job, but it does irk me that the mere thought of hitting the snooze button in the morning paralyzes me with such a fear that I'm worried the entire axis of my day would be so far shifted I wouldn't be able to function anywhere near normal. Craziness indeed!

Add into all this the fun times that I'm running again and the hubs and I are seriously starting to look at homes because our lease is up in a few months and that doesn't leave much time for free time.

Honestly, what I'm saying is that when I come home from work the last thing I want to do is plop down in front of my computer. Thus, my blogging lifestyle has taken quite the hit. It sucks because I've been doing fun stuff: baking new recipes, sewing new things, visiting interesting places, and drinking quite a bit of wine :)

But, here is my pledge to start blogging at LEAST twice a week. Although, I'm out of town for work for two of the next three weeks, but whatever. I can do it!

Don't abandon me, I promise I'll get back on track. I've got some cool things to share in the next few weeks, so keep checking back for updates.

*Shiny things is what my boss calls fun, but not always tiny, indulges. It's funny because every Monday she'll go, "get anything shiny this weekend?" Sometimes it's a cool electronic (hello iMac!) and sometimes it's new clothes (guilty as charged).