In a Lather

The Prison Rodeo

2012-01-09T18:34:00.003-05:00

Buying a plane ticket to Tulsa, Oklahoma is not cheap these days. I just bought a plane ticket to go to the NALS Professional Development Conference in March, nearly $500?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

THAT is crazy. Apparently no one flies to Tulsa from Michigan that often, at least often enough to lower the airfare. At least my flight is going through ORD, then I can stop off for Garrett Popcorn in the Terminal between flights.

And why did I title this entry Prison Rodeo? When I when to my first Tulsa conference, Steve told my Aunt that I was in Tulsa doing missionary work at a prison rodeo and she believed him. So since then, we've called it my prison rodeo trip or any NALS-related trip as well.

Good times...I'm hoping to make a stop off at a Whataburger while I'm there. Never been, should try it once. Or maybe, a Jack In The Box. We'll see what the schedule allows.

New Sneaks

2012-01-04T21:29:00.002-05:00

I stopped to get a new pair of running shoes last night on my way home from work. New brand to me, Brooks. Went for a 3 mile spin in them tonight and they work great.

I hope they make me run faster.

Quoting Me

2012-01-03T18:51:00.002-05:00

My two favorite quotes, of my own, from yesterday when watching bowl games.

"I have a hard time taking anyone seriously when they are wearing a visor." Referring to the Oregon Ducks head coach when he got upset about a call.

"How did Wisconsin become Big Ten champs with a defense like that??" While watching the Rose Bowl.

I thought they were pretty good ones myself--patting myself on the back.

Why?

2012-01-02T11:12:00.001-05:00

Why is it that with a major news story developing anywhere in the US or the World, that our local news station has to find or report a "West Michigan connection?"

Who frickin' cares?

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T22:11:00.004-05:00

Man, this is the most snow we've had all year! :)

No New Year's resolutions for me this year, at least none that I have set in stone. I haven't had time to think about it. Too busy doing everything, everything, and more of everything.

Half marathon training begins next Sunday for the Borgess Half Marathon on May 6. Always need to have a long-term running goal to keep us running. We've been slacking a bit in the past couple months.

Spent yesterday sleeping, literally. I woke up early Saturday morning vomiting at about 3am and slept until about 6:30 last night. Crazy! I haven't slept like that since I had mono in college. I think it's gone now, whatever it was. But geez, I haven't vomited in years. Guess my no vomit streak begins today again.

Looking forward to staying indoors tomorrow and watching the Rose Parade.

Will They Go All the Way????

2011-08-21T19:38:00.002-04:00

By the looks of the series this weekend against Cleveland, I would have to say, "seems likely."

By the looks of this play, I would say, YES!!! I LOVE when the commentators get so excited. Makes the games all the worthwhile to watch!!

A Whirlwind Vacation (1 of 2)

2011-07-04T08:16:00.007-04:00

We were on the go, all the time it seemed, but it was fun and we didn't wear ourselves out too much.

I flew out on a Wednesday morning but I went East to Cleveland first to catch my connecting flight to LAX. A two hour layover in the exciting CLE airport, then a long flight to LAX. But it wasn't too bad, I loaded Breaking Bad on my iPad2 to watch and I watched a lot of Season 2. Good show if you haven't seen it yet. I used to watch the show with so much anxiety but now I've related it to a sort of "what kind of hijinx can these guys get themselves into now?" kind of attitude. Makes it much easier on the tummy.

Anywho, landed in LAX, got my luggage, found my sister. She doesn't have a cell phone mind you so I just have to find her, not call her when I get to the baggage area. From there, we waited for my friend Kim who also happened to be flying to LAX about the same time for the Team Beachbody Coach's Summit 2011. We escorted them by bus and then metro rail to their stop at LA Live. We took the Metro to my sis' place in Pasadena and walked the half mile from the train station to her house. We picked up the rental car that afternoon since my vacay included a side trip to Las Vegas.

On Thursday we did a side trip to Galco's, a/k/a the Soda Pop Stop. I love this place. You can find EVERY soda possible, I mean every kind--Shandy, Maple, Vanilla, Lavender, Mint, Cucumber, Honey, Birch, Etc. I love walking through this place and seeing what's available. And, of course, we talked to John Nese, the Soda Pop Stop guy, actually he stopped to chat with us. I told him we had to visit again and load up for the week and that Steve wants to visit this place after seeing the video on Devour. He laughed. I noticed that they started carrying beer and wine and I know Mr. Nese has tried all of the soda in his store, I asked if he's tried all the beers and wines. He said he's working on them.

Thursday night we went to the South Pasadena Farmer's Market, which is near the metro station. I tried a Pluot, which is a cross of a plum and an apricot and it was DELISH! I haven't found them yet in Michigan, but I'm looking. After the farmer's market, we went for dinner at Radhikas, a yummy Indian restaurant near the farmer's market. So good!

Going to California . . .

2011-06-07T21:16:00.005-04:00

I can continue with the lyrics of one of my favorite Led Zeppelin song's Going to California, but I won't. But I am going to California in a week and I'm looking forward to it, the being away from work part that is.

U2 rescheduled last years' North American leg and my sister Peggy and I are going to see U2 at Anaheim Stadium on June 17th, yay! Can't wait for that!

Also on the agenda for our trip, many trips to Trader Joe's, Bristol Farms (similar to Whole Foods), Whole Foods, the South Pasadena Farmer's Market, which is just around the corner from my sister's crib, a drive to Las Vegas for a couple days, with stops at the Barstow Outlet Stores and the Alien Jerky Store in Baker, and the topper--dinner at the Magic Castle on Saturday night.

I LOVE going to the Magic Castle. It's a magical place with TONS of Hollywood History. When I was in Cali last summer, we went for lunch at the Magic Castle and as we were valeting our car, cuz that's the only way you park your car at the Magic Castle, I recognized an older man leaving his Honda for the valet. I'd seen him in movies before but I couldn't remember his name. Return of the Living Dead from 1985, James Karen. If you Google his name, you'll know who he is. Before lunch, and it was dead in the place for lunch, we wandered around the halls. The walls of the Castle are absolutely packed with photos of past magicians and we walked past James Karen and he said something to us about beautiful women there, meaning us as there was no one else around. He has a recognizable voice as well. Anywho, the Magic Castle has the BEST Beef Wellington I've ever had and I intend to have it again for dinner. There are always magic shows going on each week and we will take in at least one or two, depending on the time and how busy it is. The food is always superb at the Magic Castle and you can only go if you are a member or guest. Luckily for me, my sister is a member!

Las Vegas is just a side trip. It's like a 4 hour drive, roughly and we'll stay at a cheap, but clean hotel on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. We'll just wander around Vegas, with nothing in particular planned for that trip, just something fun to do and the only big expense being the gas as the hotel is like $34 a night and as of now, we're not planning to go to any big shows. I remember the first time my sister and I went to Vegas, we stayed at a Sleep Inn just off the strip and it was $2 a night! I'm totally serious! And, that included a "continental" breakfast! That was back in 1997, when Vegas WAS cheap. It's too bad the Liberace Museum is now closed or I would drag my sister there as I've never been.

And, Flavor Flav's House of Flavor may not be open yet in Vegas, but if it is, we'll be sure to check it out!

RIP Rusty

2011-05-18T21:19:00.005-04:00

It is sad that I need to update my blog for this reason but I feel the need to do so.

My friend and guitar instructor Patrick passed away on May 15, 2011. Patrick had been battling two different kinds of cancer over the past 3 years and he lost, and so did everyone else when he passed.

I met Patrick four years ago when I started guitar lessons with him. Before we met face to face, we exchanged a few emails about what I wanted out of my guitar lessons and how things would work and I mentioned something about wanted to sing and play in a coffee shop. I don't think he ever gave guitar lessons before but he used to be in a band when he was young and knew his stuff. He really did. I learned more about playing guitar from him in those four years than I will from anyone else. I remember muting was probably one of the hardest tricks for me to master. Singing and playing came easy compared to muting the strings, at least to me.

Patrick pushed me to master skills I wouldn't otherwise have learned and didn't learn from my previous instructor. Patrick taught me entire songs from beginning to end instead of bits and pieces of songs, like my previous instructor. We even played a few "gigs" for family and friends, so I would get used to playing in front of people other than him. I'm glad we did the gigs too. It helped me build my confidence a bit in playing and singing in front of people.

Patrick was also a friend. In those few years, we got to know each other pretty well and I'm glad to have had the privilege to get to know him. I know I'll never find another guitar instructor as patient and as dedicated as Patrick was.

Why did I title this "RIP Rusty?" We always had a joke between us that we'd have a gig at a place called the Rusty Bucket. Patrick was Rusty, I was Bucket and we even called each other that.

Vacation Summary

2011-03-14T20:56:00.005-04:00

Not much to tell really.

It was just as we expected it to me. Beautiful, warm, and great, great food!

This was pretty much our day: Wake Steve up by 10am since breakfast was served until 11. Go get breakfast, come back to the room, change for the beach, go to the beach, lay on the beach, alternate between the sun and the shade, go get lunch by 4pm, go back to the beach for another couple of hours, head back to the room, chill for a couple hours or so, get dressed for dinner, go to the bar first for a drink, head to dinner, go back to the bar. One night there was a magician at the bar, he was cool and very good at the card tricks. VERY good. Come back to the suite, relax, read, watch a little TV, veg a bit, then head to bed. Next day, the same thing.

We did very little and that's exactly what we intended with this vacation and it was GREAT! We did leave the hotel once to do a coffee/cocoa bean/dune buggy ride that was way overrated and not much to write about. That 3 hours was the only time we left the hotel to do anything.

Every meal was great, the staff was SO nice and accommodating, and the weather couldn't have been better--roughly 85 every day and with a good wind at the beach each day.

Our room was beautiful, the resort was gorgeous and very small, which is what we prefer, and the stars at night were spectacular!

We absolutely LOVED this vacation and intend to return to Zoetry in the future. I can't wait!

Zoetry Agua Punta Cana

2011-03-07T07:43:00.001-05:00

Here are pics from our vacation last week to the Dominican Republic. We had a fabulous time and I'll blog more later this week about it.

Punta Cana

Rolling Off My Back

2011-02-21T19:23:00.004-05:00

Usually, I let everything roll off my back. No sense in stressing about it. But today, I didn't. We had a snowstorm last night and for some reason, I thought I would be able to pull out of my garage and get out of the complex and get to work at a reasonable time. But NO, not a chance. I back out fine, but I was stuck there and couldn't get my car moving forward or reverse. I had two 40-lb bags of kitty litter in the garage so I put them in my trunk and tried again. No frickin' luck. So, I busted open one of the bags and poured the litter in the front and back of my rear tires. Nothing.

SONS O' BITCHES!!!! I was livid.

A call to Hudsonville Towing to find out 45 minutes to get here. Turn on the frickin' hazards and go in the house. Of course the plow and front-end loader shows up about 10 minutes before the tow truck does. Steve thinks their in cahoots with each other. The truck pulled me about 20 feet onto the plowed area of the complex and then I was on my way. Still steaming about the whole thing because it cost me $100 to get to work this morning.

I would like to mention here that I HATE REAR WHEEL DRIVE!!!! My car is useless in winter conditions.

Just a few more days and weather permitting, we'll be in the warmth of the Dominican Republic. I hope I can hold out and not have to pay to get to work anymore.

My favorite SuperBowl commercial

2011-02-09T20:30:00.003-05:00

I can't watch this enough. Maybe it's the mini hands of Darth Vader. I just love it!

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47 Days, and Counting!

2011-01-08T07:55:00.004-05:00

It's been way too long, like 3 years too long, since Steve and I took a real, leave the state for a warmer climate vacation together. In 47 days, we'll be leaving on a jet plane to the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana particularly. Steve booked us for a week at the Zoetry Agua Punta Cana and I am SO looking forward to a relaxing vacation with warm beaches, lots of sun, and lots of fo fo drinks!!

Inspiring Story?????

2011-01-01T11:07:00.005-05:00

I saw this article on MLive this morning and I couldn't quite figure out why this would be a main page article.

Am I supposed to be inspired by this elective surgery? Am I supposed to look for the easy way out of things? Now maybe this man's only choice was to have surgery at this point in his life, I don't know the situation surrounding his health but hopefully they'll realize the immediate lifestyle changes they've imposed on themselves and that they're forced to live with now for the rest of their lives without making it a habit first and learning to live with it.

Does that make sense? Did this couple contact MLive about their story thinking they'd be an inspiration for the new year?

I dunno. Doesn't make sense to me.

My Bah Humbug!!!

2010-12-11T17:27:00.003-05:00

So, as usual on a Saturday, I got up early this morning and went to Dunkin' Donuts to pick up Steve's breakfast. Then I went to Meijer and Target after that to get some Christmas shopping done. We have both family Christmases next weekend, both on the other side of the state so I had to get my ducks in a row on this since I haven't started shopping yet! I had to split the trips between Meijer and Target since Target didn't open until 8am and I was done at Meijer by 7:15. I texted my sister to let her know I picked up a bunch of the Zhu Zhu pets/toys for my nieces but I left my phone in the car after that trip to Target and was wrapping all those gifts.

I despise wrapping gifts, especially for kids when I know they'll be torn to shreds in a matter of seconds. I have yet to see a kid unwrap a gift carefully to save the paper. So as my wrapping got worse and worse, I decided to stop and go to Target again. I forgot my nephew's list on the first trip. I look at my phone when I got to the car and my sister texted me back to tell her what Zhu Zhu stuff I picked up. F!!! I wrapped it all already and the receipt doesn't tell you anything!

So, when I got back home, I unwrapped all the gifts and sent her the list. Now I gotta frickin' wrap that stuff AGAIN! Ugh!

Henna Hair Dye

2010-10-23T20:27:00.002-04:00

So in my attempts to "go organic," I have been researching alternative, more natural ways to color my hair rather than paying $50-60 at the salon. I know I could go cheaper at the drug store, but I'm good at not choosing the right color and either making my hair too red or blue black.

I found a VERY inexpensive, organic way to color my hair--henna hair dye. I looked at a few websites and decided on Coastal Classic Creations. I found this company by looking researching some of my own makeup collection at the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Safety Database. A LOT of Coastal Classic Creations' cosmetics kept popping up as very non-toxic. By the way, I ending up pitching a lot of makeup that I owned once I determined that what I was using wasn't "safe."

Anywho, I went to the CCC website and found that they had henna hair dye. There were a LOT of shades to choose from. I choose Dark Brown. Now, I'd also done a lot of reviews on YouTube as well for people and their experience in using the henna. For me, when I read review on any product sometimes one bad review will keep me from purchasing something, but with this, I still thought I'd give it a try. After all, henna is one of the most natural hair dyes out there. A bazillion times safer than the salon, unless it's an organic salon and those are few and far between, and non-toxic.

Now, I'd heard henna smells bad, it stains, if you choose the wrong color, your hair might be too red. For me, I didn't think it smelled bad and I bet when I return to work on Monday, no one will have noticed. I chose the perfect color and ended up coloring my grays pretty well.

Henna comes as a green powder, at least through CCC it does. You mix it with hot water to a yogurt consistency and add essential oil to deaden the smell and even without the essential oil, I didn't think the smell was that strong. Wash your hair before you do the application. I had a few supplies that I needed as well--a processing cap, a color application brush, rubber gloves, and essential oil. I made the yogurt paste, added the oil, and went to work. I put the yogurt on my head, added the cap, wrapped a towel around it and waited 2 hours. Washed my hair twice and then I was done.

You're not supposed to wash your hair for 48 hours after the henna, that's one of the pre-planning things you have to think about and the henna is still processing. Also, CCC recommends keeping the henna on for 30 minutes to 3 hours. I lasted almost 2 hours before washing my hair. Next time I'll leave it on for 3.

I can tell a few spots where I need to be more OCD about the coverage. There aren't any obvious missed spots and you can't really tell that I did anything other than cover my grays, which I have a LOT of. And, henna is cheap! I bought a 200g amount for $16 and I really only need a 100g amount. Henna is the way to go peeps!

Another Half in the Bag

2010-10-17T17:13:00.005-04:00

Completed the Grand Rapids Half Marathon this morning in just under 3 hours. My intended goal was to meet or beat last year's finish time.

The weather was perfect this morning for running. We all started in garbage bags to keep us warm and I had peeled mine off after the first mile. Peeled the headband off shortly after that and pitched the gloves about 3 miles in. I think it was probably about 10 degrees warmer than last year, which helped immensely when it came to drinking the water and/or Gatorade at each aid station. Not nearly as hard going down and the coughing was at a minimum this morning. I was on pace with 11 minute miles through the first hour of the race, walking for a minute after each mile.

I think when I made the turn onto Butterworth and started a bit of hill climbing that I thought, Eff this, I'm walking this hill. It was also at this point that I felt like the bottom of my left foot was splitting in two. I had generously "Vaselined" my feet this morning but when I checked the bottom of my foot to make sure my shoe wasn't filled with blood, there was no sign of Vaseline anywhere. Of course people running by me ask if I'm OK. That's normal. Not long after that, I ran past the next aid station and there was a guy there with a rubber glove on loaded with Vaseline. I should have turned around and let him fill my shoes, but I didn't and I kept thinking about it, hesitating on whether I ought to quickly turn around, but I thought I'd be alright. I saw a huge rock to pop a squat to double check the bottom of my foot and as long as I was more conscious of the way I was running with my left foot, I'd be O.K. to the finish.

Less than 1 mile past the rock, I saw my friend Lisa ahead of me trudging on. I was surprised to see her. I had expected her to be far ahead of me as they took off quickly from the start and I knew I couldn't maintain a 10 mile minute pace through the race. I'm just not that fast and I'm fine with that. I'm not in it to win it. I'm just in it to finish.

So, I knew that Lisa had an injury for about a week now and so I told her I would stick with her through completion. I didn't care what my finish time was. I didn't want her to finish the half alone and in pain. What I didn't realize until late this afternoon was that she had run the previous 6 miles alone. And with that, we finished in just under 3 hours, running slowly, sometimes walking, but finishing.

And there he was at the finish line, Don Kern, shaking EVERY finisher's hand. He's awesome. The emails he sends to everyone leading up to the race date that are so inspiring and that fact that he's there to congratulate all 4,000 finishers, it's just so personal and he does it every year. He's probably the reason that I'll run this again next year.

My Claim to Fame

2010-09-19T14:43:00.003-04:00

on this National Holiday today, National Talk Like a Pirate Day, is that in the Grand Rapids 10 Mile Bridge Run is that I was the last person to finish the race. I just didn't have it in me today. I knew at Mile 2, which is sad. I did all the right eating leading up to it but it just wasn't there. No biggie. The one bonus of being the last runner is that a volunteer on a bike follows you and for the last 4 miles, we talked about lots of things and he had a full water bottle that he shared with me. I did not, however, care for the Grand Rapids Police Department cop car following me though. He was a good distance behind me, but THAT was a bit of pressure.

Oh well, there are good days and not so good days.

What Steve Creates

2010-08-13T21:52:00.002-04:00

He is responsible for a few of my monsters, one being Chris Isaak. The newest one, going organic. I just finished the movie Food Inc.. If after watching that movie, you don't decide to switch to organic meats and dairy OR become vegetarian, then I don't know what will change your mind.

Thankfully, there is a good supply of organic farmers in the West Michigan area and great farmer's markets around here as well.

And the best part, Steve is on board with it.

Organic

2010-08-08T20:28:00.002-04:00

I started watching the movie Food Inc. today. Only about a half hour in and I'm convinced organic meat is the way to go. Bleh! I won't go into detail and let you watch it for yourself to decide.

At the Holland Farmer's Market yesterday I picked up a pound of organic ground beef from Crane Dance Farm out of Middleville. I made some burgers on the grill today with them and I did alert Steve to the fact that he was going to have an organic beef burger today. His response, "But I'm on vacation!" He's been chanting that since Friday night. I didn't notice any huge difference in taste and Steve's body hasn't rejected it so far. Yes, it is expensive, $7/pound, but with the few times that I actually purchase beef or poultry, I think it will be worth it. Watch the movie and you'll understand why. The nice thing about the Crane Dance Farm is that you can buy the meat by the cut and you're not forced to buy a whole side of beef or however that works. They also have organic poultry, lamb, pork, and eggs.

I also found milk in glass bottles at the Harvest Health Foods here in Hudsonville. The milk is organic, and non-homogenized. I don't know that I've ever tried non-homogenized milk before. Yousa! It will take some getting used to. The taste is definitely more "raw" than I'm used to. Next time I'll see if organic milk is sold homogenized to see if the taste is not so raw, if that makes any sense. Milk in a glass bottle is absolutely the BEST! The typical plastic containers tend to dull the taste to me. Organic, non-homogenized, AND a glass bottle might be too much for my taste buds to take in all at once. We'll see how that goes.

No, I'm not going to become a tree-hugging hippie, just exploring my options.

IsaakFest 2010! -- Part 2

2010-08-05T19:37:00.003-04:00

On Friday, Susan and I were heading to Troy. I figured Troy was a good, somewhat central location to stay for the Ann Arbor and Midland shows--close to lots of shopping and good restaurants and my sister's house as well.

We checked into our hotel and got ready for the Ann Arbor show. Troy is about an hour from Ann Arbor so we knew we could get to Ann Arbor about a half hour into the Marc Broussard's show. Our tickets had us sitting in Row L and when the usher showed us to our seat, we realized how much they sucked. Too far back from the stage, but in front of us, and we were on the right hand side of the stage, were loads of empty seats. Yep, we decided we'd move up there for the show.

Unfortunately, those volunteer ushers at Hill Auditorium were pretty Nazi-ish about you sitting in your own seat. So we went to the lobby and formulated a plan. We'd wait until Chris' show began and then make our move. The lights would be off and the nazi-ushers would know we'd moved. It worked. We ended up in the first row to the right of the stage in front of the speakers and stood there dancing through the whole show. It worked out because there were about 6 of us doing that in the front row but Susan and I were far enough to the edge of the stage that we would be in anyone's way. BUT, someone would be in ours. A Doug Henning-ish looking guy that was totally drunk AND smoking in the venue. He kept pounding the stage with his hands, ANNOYING as hell! With that kind of behavior, Chris was not going to come play to that side of the stage and he barely did, which is perfectly understandable. I'd avoid him too.

Susan bought me a concert t-shirt so I could have it autographed after the show. Meaning, we'd find the busses, talk to the band, and get autographs. We did. There were a bunch of young girls getting pictures and autographs. While we were waiting for Chris to be free, Roly (the bassist) was talking to us. Susan asked which show they really enjoyed so far. He said last night's show was great, which was the Grand Rapids show. Bonus.

The first thing Chris said to me was something to the effect of "thank you for standing and dancing through the show, I appreciate it." Anytime!

IsaakFest 2010! -- Part 1

2010-08-03T19:15:00.009-04:00

The journey begins on Wednesday, July 28, 2010, when my friend Susan, whom I met at a Chris Isaak concert back in 2004, flew into GRR for an extended weekend. It was great to have her visit. It'd been about 2 years since I last saw her when she flew into Detroit for a Chris Isaak concert in Detroit.

We made plans to go to all of Chris' Michigan shows. The first being on July 29 here in town at Meijer Gardens. The second on July 30 in Ann Arbor at Hill Auditorium. The third on August 1 in Midland at the Center for the Performing Arts.

I took Wednesday through Monday off from work and so I thought we'd head to Meijer Gardens early on Thursday to take in some of the Chihuly glass exhibit that's been going on. But first, we drove by the Ampitheatre gates to see if anyone started lining up. Yep, sure enough, there was one woman there at one of the three gated entrances and so we decided we'd better start a second line, this was about 3:30 and the gates don't open until 5pm. Thankfully the weather was cooperating that day and it wasn't very humid outside, just very sunny. So we parked our chairs and cooler at the middle gate and sat in the shade nearby and waited. The wait wasn't too long, we brought magazines to read.

Susan and I had a plan. We knew they'd look through bags and coolers so we decided she would take the blanket and I'd carry the chairs and cooler. No biggie. While they checked my cooler, Susan would run up to the stage and find our spot. Worked well for us. There is a cement pad between the stage and the grass seating area and they said we'd be able to sit on the cement pad, so we did, right in front of lead guitarist Hershel's location on stage. It was perfect. My friend Kim would be joining us a bit later and we had plenty of room.

The opening act, Marc Broussard, started at 7pm. He was great--kind of a cross between Stevie Wonder and Johnny Lang as far as the voice. He played for about 45 minutes and then the stage gets reset for Chris. The people to my right had never seen Chris in concert before, they didn't know what they'd been missing all these years. I told them they were in front a great show and they'd be addicts after tonight. Chris and Silvertone put on a great show and entertained the crowd between songs. About 4 songs in, he took the mic and went into the crowd singing Love Me Tender. The crowd loved that! And yes, this show was sold out too! The venue holds about 1,750 people and they were everywhere, it was a fantastic evening.

Now, this was my 18th time seeing Chris in concert. Crazy you say? No. I've never been disappointed in ANY show I've seen of his, they all ROCK! By this time, when you see them this many times, the band recognizes you. And I'd like to point out here, I am a fan, NOT a groupie. There IS a difference. Groupies probably have restraining orders against them. Anywho, I think they did recognize me.

The crowd was on its feet at the end of the show and I knew there was an encore. With the exception of a couple of Soundstage tapings that I'd been to, Chris always has an encore and the couple next to me were blown away when Chris came out in his mirror suit. The crowd absolutely loved it too and they were on their feet through the entire encore. I love that. We stood very nearly the entire show dancing and soaking it all in.

At the end of the encore, Chris re-introduces the band again and Kenney, the drummer extraordinare, always gives his drumsticks away. Well, I happened to be in the right location for that. I know where he goes after the show to do this and I called out his name and like that! I had the drumsticks. I did give the woman next to me one of them and told her next year she could get a second one.

I talked to the couple after the show and they were so thrilled with the show, they each gave me a hug and said they hoped for him to return next year.

Next stop, Ann Arbor.

Lazy Weekend

2010-07-05T20:41:00.004-04:00

What a nice lazy weekend! Sort of lazy by my standards.

Saturday morning I met Steve's mom and grandma for breakfast and then off to the Holland Farmers Market. It was crazy busy, but not too busy for me to buy a buttload of veggies--cherries (okay, that's a fruit), radishes, rhubarb, cucumbers, green beans, green peppers, sugar snap peas (love them!), and two kinds of hummus (okay, again, not a vegetable).

The folks selling the rhubarb, canada red rhubarb that is, supposed to be sweeter, had various rhubarb recipes. I grab a few, one of which was rhubarb crunch. I made the recipe on Sunday afternoon and it's awesome! Even better with vanilla ice cream. I have to pat myself on the back for that one.

Sunday morning I met my friend Kim for 5 miles at the Hudsonville High School Track. It was probably 65 degrees at 6:30 in the morning and we warmed up fast and talked too much!

It was too hot this weekend for Steve or I to go see any parades, let alone fireworks. We watched the NYC ones for a few on TV and that's about it.

Today, pretty much a morning nap, hair cut and fix the sparkleys in my hair, and then steaks on the grill.

Then, just earlier I made another great salad that I had at a baby shower a couple weeks ago--Couscous Salad with Dried Cherries, it's DELISH and so easy to make!

Back to work tomorrow, bleh!

Lessons with Rusty

2010-06-17T20:28:00.005-04:00

Nah, this isn't about running this time. It's all about my guitar (which I haven't named) and my guitar lessons.

For some reason, I thought I could teach myself how to play guitar some 5 or 6 years ago. Who was I kidding? I had my first guitar for close to a year before I found lessons near my house. In hindsight, those weren't lessons. I wasn't learning whole songs, just bits and pieces of songs. Sure, I learned the 7 basic chords, but I didn't learn any techniques. I did learn strumming Simple Man, but never the whole song. I think I took those lessons for about 6 months or so before the place closed, long story. In a good way, it was good the place closed, not because the instructors weren't good, they were, but it lead me to my current instructor, and friend, Rusty.

Now, after the first place closed, I was on the hunt for a new instructor and more lessons. I did some searching on Craigslist and had a response from some guy in Muskegon, but I wasn't willing to travel all the way to Muskegon for lessons, especially in winter, screw that noise.

My second response was from my current instructor, we'll call him Rusty. I remember emailing something like, "I'd like to be able to sing and play songs and guitar and maybe play in a coffee house," or something to that effect. Ugh! Why did I say that?

So, about 3 years ago, I think, back in January, I started lessons with Rusty and I haven't stopped since. With Rusty, I can now play a buttload of songs

Dust in the Wind by Kansas
Where Do The Children Play by Cat Stevens
Hurt (Johnny Cash's version of the Nine Inch Nails Song)
Waiting by Chris Isaak
Imagine by John Lennon
I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
A Place Called Home by Kim Richey
While My Guitar Gently Weeps by George Harrison
For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield
Forever Blue by Chris Isaak
Garden Party by Ricky Nelson
Space Oddity by David Bowie

Yeah, that's a lot in 3 years. Now some of those songs we're still working on. It's not easy to sing and play guitar simultaneously, at least at first it wasn't. It's getting easier though and don't know how, but it is. I sing and play Imagine, Hurt, I Will Follow You Into the Dark, and Space Oddity and we're working on me singing some of the others.

We don't play all of them currently. For some, it was technique that Rusty was teaching me, like muting. I thought muting was the hardest thing in the world to master, but I finally did it and now it comes easy to me.

The singing thing, well, I am always working on that. Rusty thinks it's improved because of my running. Maybe, who knows?

We had one "gig" for friends about 2 years ago it seems now. I was nervous as hell and I didn't sing at that gig. For my next gig I will sing. I have to get used to playing in front of people and it's probably a good thing that it's been a while between gigs. We don't have a 2nd gig scheduled yet, but we're furiously practicing now to get one scheduled.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I've learned with "Lessons by Rusty." Tons I would say. Rusty is a great guitar player. I enjoy the lessons, they are a great stress reliever after work each week, and we have fun.

And Rusty occassionally reminds me of the whole singing in a coffee shop thing, damn you Rusty!

Off the List

2010-05-29T20:02:00.006-04:00

I can now check running a marathon off my list. It's done, thank goodness!

I ache all over. My butt is sore, I'm sunburned, I have blisters, and I'm tired, but, I finished, in 5 hrs, 53 min, 18 secs.

I was hoping to finish closer to 5 hours, but it was brutally hot out there. I think the temp was near 85 as I finished.

I started out great, keeping on pace with a 12 minute mile and walking a minute in between. I did that pretty consistently for the first 10 miles and pretty close to maintaining that as I neared 13 miles, the turnaround. My goal was to run a consistent, somewhat slow pace to enable me to run the entire race and finish with a reasonable time. I'd say I was really good through mile 15 or so and then when I hit 17 and 18, I walked. I was completely exposed to the direct sun through these two miles and I didn't want to overheat in this stretch. I didn't have a hat on or sunglasses, should have, that would have helped, I think.

Anywho, I was happy that I didn't hit any walls along the course. Running by myself through about 23 miles, it seemed to me that it would be easy to hit a wall, but once I was past 18, I kept thinking about how many miles I had left and roughly what finish time I would have. I'd heard they would stop timing after 6 hours so finishing in under 6 hours was my main concern and I had my watch with me so I was able to keep myself occupied with those thoughts and that helped keep me focused.

One of my concerns was that I was actually the last runner out there, but once I hit the turnaround, I realized that there were about 15 people still behind me. I wouldn't have minded finished absolutely last, but I was happy to know that I wasn't last, especially if there was a cop car or something following the last runner/walker, which thankfully there wasn't. I wouldn't want that pressure. I'd just hop in the frickin' car.

I was the last finisher in my age group. I suppose that's something to be proud of.

I knew that Jan was going to get each of us (Robin, Lori, and me) across the finish line as she always does. With between 5-6 miles left to finish, I kept thinking that if Jan came back THAT far to get me, I was going to let her have it! It was too hot to be running that much today. At about 1.2 left, I saw Jan running at me. She rocks. I was walking at that point, very sore, and with her, I started running and stopping every once in a while to walk.

As we got closer to the finish, Jan said something like, "Can you hear the crowd there cheering people in?"

My response, "Is there anyone left over there?" I was serious too.

As we turned a last corner and I could see the yellow gates we started out of, I started crying and I had to stop to walk for a bit to compose myself. It is impossible to effectively run AND cry at the same time. So I quickly did some forceful patterned breathing to get back to normal and started up running again to the finish. Once I crossed the finished line, I lost it. I couldn't help but start crying. My friend Robin's daughter Gracie handed me a much needed water, bless her! Robin gave me a hug and I said something to the effect of, "I'm so glad it's done and I don't wanna do this anymore." She agreed and said childbirth was easier.

Steve was at the finish as well. He took some pics as I was running in and then of our group as well. I was so happy to see him at the finish, I was still crying at this point.

On the way home, Steve drove, yay! My legs were so restless, I'm not sure I would have been able to drive home. We got home, I showered, I slept for a couple hours, went to bed early last night and I got up this morning and went for a 30-45 minute walk at the suggestion of my marathon runner sister Peggy. I do believe the walk helped. My leg muscles were pretty tight when I started the walk but I felt much better about halfway through.

I'm not sure about continuing on running full marathons, it is a LOT of work. I must admit I was jealous to see the half marathon runners go past and I was still heading out towards the turn around. I know the weather was a bit unseasonably warm for this time of year and that totally played into the whole day. I'll just have to think about it before I register for a full marathon.

I am grateful that Steve put up with all the time that I was away running and running and running. Some people wouldn't stand for it, but he put up with it and I'm thankful that I'm such a lucky person to have him. I even tried to give myself an out for all the time spent running, but he wouldn't let me. I'm glad he didn't.

Bayshore Marathon

2010-05-27T20:36:00.003-04:00

Yikes! Saturday morning at 7am I will do something I've never done before, run the Bayshore Marathon. 26.2 miles, flat miles thank you, in Traverse City, Michigan.

I've trained for this since I ran the Grand Rapids Half Marathon back in October. I'm as ready for it as I'll ever be. Weeks and weeks of long distance running--hitting the wall only once back on a 14 mile run. I woke up this morning with some butterflies, not nervous, just anxious to get it started and get it under my belt and say that I've run a marathon.

I never thought this would be something I would ever do, but it just makes sense. Run a bunch of 5Ks, a couple 10Ks, a 10 mile race, a half marathon, and now a full marathon.

I know I'm not as emotional about this as I was in the week leading up to the half marathon but I'm sure it will all wash over me tomorrow and tomorrow night when we all get together for a pasta dinner and pick up our race packet at the high school and the reality of it all will finally set in. There's a group of us running the full, half, and 10K combined. We've trained for a long time for this, seems like forever when I think about it. It was forever. We serious started the mileage in January--up a mile each week for two and then down for one week.

I'm so glad I'm not running my first marathon alone. Coach Jan, Robin, Lori, and me will be together to start and finish, not necessarily finish together, but we'll all be there at the finish, in tears I'm sure, congratulating each other for all the hard work we've put in through the cold and heat.

Unfortunately, my friends Mary and Kim are unable to run on Saturday due to an injury and a newly adopted baby from Ethiopia. I'm sure they'll be on my mind while I run, especially when the miles drag and my swear buddy Kim is not there to say, "Why are we doing this?"

My guess is that my best friend Robin will be there waiting for me with a bottle of water in hand. She rocks, she truly does.

I love these women that I've trained with and I can't imagine having trained with any other group of beautiful women.

Good luck to all the runners on Saturday running the full, half, or 10K.

Like Robin says, "If it were easy, everybody would be doing it."

Two Weeks Left and Tapering

2010-05-16T19:01:00.011-04:00

Less than two weeks now to my first marathon, the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City.

We began tapering down in the past couple of weeks. I had a 20 mile run two weeks ago, a 15.5 mile run last Saturday, 12 miles yesterday, and I think 8 this upcoming weekend.

The 15.5 mile run was actually the Fifth Third River Bank Run 25K as part of our tapering. It is the largest 25K race in the country with a $91,000 purse for this year's winner. The winner came in at 1:14, or something like that. That's crazy. I came in at 3:15, that's 3 hours, 15 minutes. I'm not ashamed of my time. I had just run my 20 mile run 6 days before that and a 6.5 mile run in between the two runs.

Mary, Kim, and I stopped at the 4.5 mile aid station to go to the bathroom and had to wait behind 4 people to go to the bathroom.

I had a cramp at mile 6 and my friend Kim told me what to do to get rid of it and the cramp was gone by mile 7. In case you don't know. Raise the opposite arm to the cramp side and exhale out hard, like you're blowing out birthday cake candles. I was actually surprised that the cramp went away so quickly and, it never came back.

I should also mention that the weather sucked that day. 40 degrees, windy, and rainy at times. Our group did a half mile warm up in the parking garage, all wearing garbage bags to keep us warm. And for as thin as those garbage bags were, they helped to keep us warm. I kept mine on till about mile 3 or so. I also had a thin headband on to keep the wind out of my ears, a baseball hat to keep my head dry, and thin gloves to keep my hands from getting too cold.

Thankfully the wind didn't really play a huge part of the race, a major part of the course goes through wooded areas and if there was a light or medium rain falling, we didn't notice it through the woods.

The hills started about mile 7 or 8 and lasted through 11 or 12. Not extremely difficult hills, just a few rolling ones. The hills didn't discourage me, I was just looking forward to knowing where the last one is all. Once we got to the hills, I alternated between walking and running. The aid stations were every 1.5 miles and I was thankful for that. It was nice to know that water and gatorade were not far from the last aid station.

At about mile 13 is when you reach John Ball Zoo Park. At this point you're running through a residential neighborhood and again the wind didn't really whip too much but the rain started as I reached the Park and it started coming down a bit heavy, enough to make me put my headband, hat, and gloves on again. The rain didn't last long, maybe 10 minutes or so and then it started clearing up a bit as I was nearing the finish. The sun actually came out for a few brief moments and it actually felt a bit muggy to me but I wasn't going to remove my hat, gloves, and headband again. Screw that. I got tired of taking those things off and on throughout the race.

Now I should mention that my group did not run as a group through the race. My awesome friend Robin wanted to have a 10-minute pace so coach Jan paced her to enable to reach her goal, and she did. Once Jan and Robin crossed the finish, Jan ran back to get Lori, helped her finish, then back to Steve, helped him finish, then back for Kim, same thing, then Mary, then me. That is awesome and crazy. The other runners in our group ran the 10K so they finished a lot earlier than us but I saw them all a half block from the finish cheering as we finished.

A nice thing about being a slow runner is that the announcer has time to look you up and call your name as you cross the finish line.

I will run the 25K again next year. I can't even begin to tell you how much support and encouragement you receive from the volunteers AND spectators. It was really incredible and I tried to thank each and every person for coming out to watch or for volunteering. I know those people were A LOT colder than I was standing out there watching everyone go running or walking by them.

I believe there was over 21,000 people that participated in either the 5K Run, 5K Walk, 10K Run, or 25K Run. That's a LOT of people and if you never participate, being a spectator is just as fun. I always like to watch the start of these races because it takes so long very everyone to run past you, it's just amazing to watch. Even running the 25K, it took me 5 minutes to get to the starting mats.

Now less than 2 weeks to the marathon. I am really looking forward to doing this. I am really not looking forward to carbo loading that week. I dread pasta so I keep looking for alternatives. I found some good bagels in the store yesterday that are pretty high and rice krispy treats are my favorite recovery food right now, but I do fear I will get tired of them. Pancakes, I can do without them for a while.

I'll try to update more as the marathon nears. I can't believe it's this close. Seemed like forever ago that I registered for this.

It was forever ago that I registered for this, December 1.

Some people say I'm crazy and sometimes I think they're right.

I Forgot to Mention That on Sunday,

2010-05-03T21:19:00.003-04:00

I ran 20 miles.

NEVER said that before. Now we start to taper down for the next few weeks before the marathon on the 29th.

A 6 mile run tomorrow night.

15.5 miles on Saturday in the Fifth Third River Bank Run 25K, the largest 25K race in the country with a purse of $91,000!!! I had no idea! I'm definitely NOT a contender.

It will be fun to participate in this 25K though, long as it is. Roughly 7-8,000 run this race. I'm interested to see how long it takes me to cross the start line in that crowd. I'll let you know!

Weight Loss and Stomach Flu/Food Poisoning

2010-04-26T19:00:00.004-04:00

Okay, time to update. Even my Mom got on me the other day that I hadn't updated so I better get to it.

Busy running of course, 5 weeks left to the marathon. Not dreading it either more like looking forward to getting it done with and out of the way to have a little time to NOT run.

Last Wednesday night I woke up at midnight totally ready to yak. My mouth wasn't salivating, but my tummy was incredibly achy and I felt like I was getting close. Needless to say I had a hard time sleeping for the rest of the night because I was so worried that I'd puke. Why didn't I make myself puke you ask? Well, I thought about it, but I hate throwing up unless it's necessary and I was so tired, in fact too tired to get up and do it. I was quite lethargic in trying to get ready for work that Wednesday morning that I was late getting into work and just miserable that morning so I decided to leave at about 11:30 to try to sleep it off and I slept but I didn't sleep it off. It stayed with me for a few days. I don't know if it was a combination of food poisoning and stomach flu or what but I had NO appetite until yesterday. I tried to eat and I did, but not at the level that would be considered normal. I can list off everything I ate between Wednesday of last week through Sunday night because I ate so little. Partly I was afraid to eat and when I was hungry, I just wasn't able to eat as much as I had wanted to. Whatever it was, I am so glad it's gone. I was miserable and I wouldn't wish whatever I had on anyone. Bleh!

I could write out a short list of everything I ate between Wednesday and Sunday because I ate so little. Coffee didn't even taste good to me and I swear my sense of smell was totally heightened while I was sick. Not fun.

So, with that said, my 20 miles on Sunday ended up being only 13 so I'll have to do 20 this Sunday to get that run in and under my belt.

Some Serious Catch Up

2010-04-04T08:40:00.004-04:00

Sorry, it's been a while. I know. I've been very busy in the past couple of weeks. Mostly working a LOT of OT to get my boss out the door for Spring Break. Now that I'm done with that, I have a few minutes to write.

Last week Sunday--18 miles and it was purely brutal. Why am I doing this? Am I crazy? I'm going to have to modify my New Year's resolutions to read: Participate in one full marathon instead of two. It's not that I hate running, I love running. It's the whole time suck commitment that a full marathon requires for training. Last Sunday we started our 18 miles at 1pm and I was getting into my car at about 5:15 to head home after that 18 miles. Thank goodness Steve said, "Let's order in for dinner that night." Bless him! Some of the girls in our running group are starting to take some heat from their kids and husbands because they're gone for so long. I understand that. I even offered up to Steve that I'd back out of the marathon if he wanted me to. No go from Steve. Dang! Thank goodness the weather is much nicer to run in otherwise the 18 would have been even more miserable.

Next Sunday is 19 miles. We need to figure out a route where we're not going to run out of fluids at 3 miles left. The Powerade Zero on long runs only makes me more thirsty so I need to switch to plain water at some point in the last half. Thankfully last Sunday we past a McDonald's and so we were able to refill on water and it was awesome.

I think after the marathon I have the girls talked into a 10 mile and two 5 miles runs each week. 10 to us is not that long and it keeps us at a good base for when we want to do a half marathon, which sounds like an absolute piece of cake compared to what we've got going on now.

Well, this summer is shaping up to be a spectacular one as far as concerts go so far. First off, I'm heading to California at the beginning of June to visit my sister for another U2 concert in Anaheim on June 6. I can't not go. The airfare out of Grand Rapids was $240 round trip. THAT is a great price. But then I just added $100 to the cost of it by opting for the United Airlines Economy Plus seating. For the legs between ORD and LAX, I pay $49 each way and get an additional 5 inches of leg room. SO worth it to me. I did this for my last trip out and it made all the difference in the world for a roughly 4 hour flight.

On June 30, U2 is playing in East Lansing at Spartan Stadium. Bonus.

On July 29th, Chris Isaak is playing the Meijer Gardens right here in town!!! THAT is crazy! I don't know that he's ever played Grand Rapids and I am so geeked about this.

On July 30th, Chris Isaak is playing Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. I bought tickets for this show last Monday.

On August 1st, Chris Isaak is playing the Midland Music Festival.

Believe me, I had a near coronary when I found out 3 dates in Michigan for Chris! That's insane! And as you can guess, I'm going to all 3 with my friend Susan. It will be great!

And yesterday, I got an iPad and I love it. I'm still figuring the whole thing out, but it's very cool. It's a great computer for traveling with a 10 hour battery life (that's longer than my MacBook battery life) and I can load movies and books on it to lessen the load when traveling. I'm looking forward to my trip to LA in June and not lugging my laptop bag with me and all the weight that goes along with the extra books and whatnot that I tend to shove into that bag.

This afternoon I'm heading to Saginaw and Frankenmuth for Easter. Saginaw first. My Dad has been in the hospital for a week now, a UTI that really knocked him out. The first antibiotic wasn't doing the trick but now that he's in the hospital, he's getting better. He will most likely need to go to a Tendercare facility before coming home for some therapy. It's a good thing. After a visit with my Dad, then on to Zehnders for dinner with my family. We thought it best to meet for dinner instead of everyone cooking and my Mom probably doing too much work in the kitchen with her traveling to Saginaw every day. I'm looking forward to it.

16!!

2010-03-21T20:35:00.005-04:00

As you could probably guess from the title of this entry, I ran 16 today. It was great! I didn't dread the run leading up to it. Everyone else was running 8.5 so I started an hour earlier on my own and ran 5 miles before heading back to the parking garage for the rest of the 11 miles.

The first 5 started out great. I was actually a bit surprised at my drive in the first 5. If I had been on a treadmill, I'd have stopped at 2 miles easily with some negative self-talk, cuz I'm sometimes good at that. I was proud that I had prepared well at far as diet and water hydration for at least 24 hours leading up to my start. I stopped at each mile for a one minute walk and it was a very well-disciplined run for me.

Back in the garage I had to peel off a layer of clothes, it was getting warmer and the sun decided to shine, thank goodness! THAT ALWAYS HELPS! Instead of going the same route as the 8.5 milers, a smaller group, me included, did the same 5 mile route that I just completed. I also couldn't keep the same pace as the faster folks doing the 8.5, not since I was doing 16, it would have killed me early. After 4.88 miles, we headed back to the garage to pick up Jan and drop off a couple of runners.

So, I have 6.2 left to go and I asked Jan if we could do a somewhat flat run for the last go-round. With that, we ran to John Ball Zoo and about halfway through that run, 2 others turned around and headed back to the garage. I was the only one running 16 today to catch back up with the group and to get back on schedule for the long distance runs. We ran through the Zoo parking lot and headed for the trail that leads to Millennium Park to see how far it was open for running and to check for flooding.

Last summer we scheduled a majority of our runs through these trails, they're great. I remember a longer run last summer that was probably an 8 or 10-miler where I remember running past the sign that reads "Grandville City Limit." We didn't go that far, only about .7 into the trail and then turned and headed back for the garage. I thought for sure I was dragging a bit more but Jan said I was running 11:30s and I was surprised. I thought my attitude was great during this last 6.2 miles and I only asked about how much farther during the last mile of the run.

My knees are a bit achy this evening but that will go away when I get up in the morning, thank goodness. I did manage to get a good blister today, not sure why but it might be because this is the first long run in a different pair of shoes.

I think I did everything right today to avoid hitting the wall and I'm sure the sun had something to do with it and the warmer weather. It sure is nice not to run in so many layers. I can't wait to run in my skort again!

I'm Screwed

2010-03-14T18:54:00.003-04:00

I think I'm finally over that viral pharyngitis that I acquired a couple of weeks ago. Not 100% sure because I could feel the sore throat and earaches sometimes at night still, at least through this last weekend I did. I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the NALS Professional Development Conference this past weekend. It's held every year at this time and I thought I was in good shape to run 17 miles through the course of the weekend to catch up with the group. Wrong. There is a huge difference between running on a treadmill indoors and running outside with a group. The outside with a group thing is MUCH easier. I lasted for about 2 miles each night on the treadmill at the hotel and I would have loved to have run outside BUT I'm not familiar with the neighborhood around the hotel to run any long distances and there was no one else at the conference to run with me.

I'm going to have to do some serious catch up running in the next couple of weeks to be able to run 18 miles two weeks from now.

Like I said, I think I'm kinda screwed in that respect. We'll see.

16 Didn't Work Out So Well

2010-03-07T21:09:00.002-05:00

So a week ago last Thursday, I left work early because I could tell I was coming down with something so I thought I ought to go home and get to sleep to fight. No go. I ended up getting viral pharyngitis, who knows how, and it affected my attempt at running 16 miles last week Sunday. That previous Friday and Saturday nights, my throat was terribly soar and it hurt my ears so bad to swallow, every time. On Saturday night, I drank two Powerade Zeros to get myself in shape for the 16 mile run the next day. I thought I'd be in decent shape.

On Sunday, I started with my ears covered and my hood on, it was pretty cold and dreary that Sunday. I definitely wasn't feeling 100% that day and I realized that as we started, I was sweating more than I normally would in that weather. At 3 miles, I felt my neck and my face and to me, I was totally burning up. I had someone else check me as well and they thought the same. It was then I decided to give in at 4 miles and take myself to the med center on my way home.

Thankfully the med center was not busy and I didn't have to wait long to be seen. The doc wanted to do a strep throat test. I told him I'd NEVER had strep before, it was going to be negative. But, he still wanted to test me. DAMN! They sure swab the very far reaches of your throat for that effin' swab! And, it was negative, as I expected. The doc said my throat was very red and raw and that's what was affecting my ears when I swallowed. Nothing he can give me, of course. I went home and slept for 2-3 hours with Ibuprofen.

It's been a week now since I went to the med center and I still am not 100% back to normal but in a couple days I will be.

But, last Wednesday I got 5 miles in and today we ran 8. Next weekend I have to get 17 in while I'm in Tulsa OK at a conference. I'll have to break it over over 2-3 days but that's okay. I gotta do it. We have 12 weeks left until the marathon.

Holy Shitballs Batman! I HAVE 12 WEEKS LEFT TO THE MARATHON!!!

15 Miles and My First Time Hitting the Wall . . . Very Hard

2010-02-14T17:48:00.004-05:00

We ran 15 today. It was brutal--cold, windy, and mentally draining. I was okay through the first 8 miles or so and then it started getting rough. We came into the parking garage at 10 to refuel and I don't like breaking for too long between miles. It's very hard on your knees to start up again. Starting up the last 5 hurt, big time.

Kim and I were perfectly content to run slow today, Mary too. We were behind the others a bit, but I didn't care. I wanted to last through the whole run, and I did, but not without some very tough spots.

The wind seemed to blow at us no matter which way we went and I think we got slower with each of the last 5 miles. At 11, I was starting to break down mentally, hitting the wall so to speak. I mentioned to Kim that I'd be happy to finish the last 4 in the parking garage but she wouldn't let me.

At 12, I was nearly in tears and I fought very hard to keep that back. I don't know why this run was so tough for me today. I did everything right leading up to it. Carbo load yesterday and a bit this morning, Powerade Zero last night. Plenty of water between yesterday and today. Maybe it would have helped a bit if the sun was shining, I don't know.

At 13, I was in tears, but no one saw and I started that hyperventilating breathing that comes with tears. I really hit the wall here. Jan was there for our last 5 miles and she stayed back with us to keep us going. I am happy to say that the only time I walked through the whole 15 was in between miles when Jan allows us to do so, for a minute. And Jan knew how hard it was for us today too. She hung in there with us the whole way and meanwhile, Kim and I kept saying, "What in the world were we thinking?" but not in so many nice words.

For some reason unknown to me, the wall started to diminish as we conquered the last 2 miles. I don't know what it was, but things got better for me mentally during those last 2. I know my attitude was picking up compared to the previous 3 miles. I could just tell.

I was so excited to run the last 2.5 laps in the parking garage, I can't even begin to tell you my excitement--just knowing we were that close to finishing.

Jan, she rocks! She had chocolate milk and peanut M&Ms for us when we finished!!! I couldn't talk much about the run when we were done, too emotionally drained, but I could see the same look on my friend Robin's face as well. And if we started talking about it we'd both end up crying for sure.

And now I know what it means to "hit the wall" when they talk about long distance running. I need to start working on math problems in my head or something to keep my mind off the fact that I'm achy and we still have a distance to go. I also need to work on not getting so worked up to the point of breaking down in tears cuz that kind of "crying breathing" and running do not mesh well together AT ALL!

My Civic Duties . . . and then Running

2010-02-10T20:06:00.004-05:00

I became a blood donor in high school and still continue to donate blood. This morning at 8am I donated blood at work. They have a quarterly blood drive which makes it so much easier to donate.

I was laying on the table as the bag was filling and the phlebotomist said that I filled the bag quickly. I then looked over at the attorney laying on the table donating across from me and I said, "I like to work on my speed when I'm in here." I thought it was funny.

When I was done the phlebotomist said to drink plenty of fluids, the usual, and then I mentioned our 7 mile run tonight after work and then she emphasize LOTS of fluids. I did. I drank a LOT of water.

But when it came to the 7 miles tonight, I was mighty sluggish through ALL 7 miles. Mary too. She donated at lunchtime. After each mile break for a minute, we'd have good energy for about a 1/3 of a mile and fall back behind again. It probably didn't help that it was pretty windy out tonight but DANG!

I know next time to not donate depending on our distance later that night or donate on a different day of the week.

Sunday we're running 15 miles and I'm already dreading it. But I know that the training is the hard part and the races are the fun part.

As I trudge on . . .

Snowmageddon 2010

2010-02-06T22:13:00.001-05:00

Korean War Veterans Memorial, originally uploaded by Juan Ignacio Caviglia.

While people in DC and the surrounding areas are freaking out with all this snow and wiping out grocery store shelves, I thought this was a pretty cool picture of the Korean War Memorial.

A Long Trek Today

2010-01-30T21:15:00.003-05:00

Yousa! We ran 14 miles today. Needless to say, it's catching up with me now and I'm thinking about collapsing in bed very soon.

It was about 22 degrees during the whole run, not very windy, just freezing ass cold. I carbo loaded last night, today, and even took a 2 hour nap this morning, hoping it would have me all prepared and ready for running. The good thing about today was that our coach Jan said that we'd take it slow. Yay! I'm better at running longer distances if I can keep a nice steady pace, especially when you're breathing in this cold air. I keep my face covered but after a while the balaklava gets pretty damp and I need to lower it. Off and on with the gloves all day too, pain in the ass that they are. Have I mentioned before that I hate running with gloves on?

After 7 miles we ran back to our cars to reload fluids, potty break, and drop off one of our runners that was only doing 7 today because she's not up to our distance yet. Back out for the last half of our run. My knees were still good and not aching at all after 7, but my buttcheeks were freezing!

As we got to 10 and 11, I was getting a bit weary and tired. My knees didn't start to ache until the last 3 miles and we ran the last 1.5 miles in the parking garage--still cold in there but at least we weren't exposed to any wind.

I was so happy to be finished. I immediately popped a couple of Ibuprofen for my knees and headed home, coughing from the cold air until I got home and into a steaming hot shower for a long time.

We drove to Holland for dinner and it took us forever to find a restaurant that wasn't crazy packed with people and settled on Margarita's Mexican Restaurant on 17th Street. Damn that place has good food.

Home again home again and I'm ready for bed, jiggity jig.

Decisions Decisions . . . the Chicago Marathon

2010-01-30T08:39:00.006-05:00

Jan, our trainer, just emailed us (the running group) yesterday to let us know that registration for the Chicago Marathon opens up on February 1st.

Of course my curiousity got the best of me and I immediately went to the marathon website to check it out. Very cool route that starts and ends in Grant Park. But, chances are, no one else in my running group at my pace, would be doing this as well. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.

Jan stopped by my desk and we started talking about it. I said something to the effect that I'm wasn't sure about doing a full marathon on my own. What a frickin' wimpy statement that is! Jan of course gave me a motherly look and stated that she's run 12 marathons all on her own and that if I was going to run a first marathon solo, Chicago would be the one to do it at--45,000 runners along side you, one big parade.

I probably have a good month or so to think about it. There are pros and cons to it.

Pros:
1. It's frickin' Chicago
2. The route is cool.
3. 45,000 people
4. It'd be a good test of my solo running and a good mental challenge for myself.
5. It's frickin' Chicago

Cons:
1. It's frickin' Chicago, inflated hotel rates, 3 hour drive, etc.
2. $135 registration
3. I wouldn't be able to participate in the full Grand Rapids Marathon. That is on October 17th.
4. I'd be running solo. I can imagine what kind of negative self-talk I could come up with. "You should walk for a little bit, just up to that hydrant, nah, maybe to the next street corner." I'm good at that stuff sometimes and I gotta work on that.

Steve's all for it. He said he'll be in the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue the whole weekend.

I'll let you know what I decide when I finally decide.

Like I Said

2010-01-20T19:39:00.002-05:00

Running in this winter weather sucks.

On Wednesday nights, we usually run for an hour or so. That time will grow as we increase our long runs but generally we run 6 miles on Wednesday nights and tonight was no exception except for the fact that it was damn cold and windy out this evening. I have to admit though, after 3 miles I hit my grove and I was just cruising, not at a fast pace, just a bit of a runner's high I think. I was a little bit ahead of the pack but not going fast. In fact, I think we ran our 6 miles a bit slower than normal, I don't know why.

Every time we turned a corner to head north, I had to put those damn gloves on again and pull my balaclava back up over my head because of the cold, nasty wind.

And now, I am enjoying a nice peanut butter and dill pickle sandwich on whole wheat bread. Don't knock it until you try it. It is my favorite sandwich. The combination of dill pickle and the sweetness of the peanut butter is exquisite!

Back in the Swing

2010-01-14T20:23:00.002-05:00

Yay! My guitar lessons are now back in full swing again after a 4 month long hiatus. It doesn't seem like it was that long but when I started up again and was a bit rusty on some songs, then yes, it was that long.

Already working on some new songs too, which I'm excited about. The first one that we started on before the hiatus is Kim Richey's A Place Called Home:

The second one is Remy Zero's Fair:

Not the original video but it's from the movie Garden State--a great movie by the way.

I'm going to have to start singing more too. My friend and instructor just finished six weeks of chemo and radiation and his voice has not returned to normal--yet. I pray for him that it does.

Now I just need to learn how to balance my life between home, work, running, and playing guitar. Easy enough eh? Yeah, that's what I thought!

I Don't Like Mondays

2010-01-11T18:04:00.004-05:00

Ugh!

First of all, I worked on the SAME 25-page document for nearly the entire day today, THAT's how bad it was. I was warned yesterday about it so I can't complain too much but I swear I got dizzy working on it. I felt discombobulated all afternoon.

And then, I'm working to buy my leased car right now. The lease expires on January 30th. My contact at the dealership said that the bank had a couple of questions about a mortgage still open on my credit report. WTF? That was over 2 years ago! I'm trying to find out which credit reporting agency they're using and getting the paperwork to prove it's been paid off. I sent the recorded discharge of mortgage that states it was paid in full and satisfied but I don't know if they'll accept just that or if they need a letter from the bank stating it as well.

And THAT my furry little friends, is why I dislike Mondays!

I'm Gonna Gripe Now . . . and Later I'm Sure

2010-01-10T20:48:00.005-05:00

and then again when it's scorching heat and humidity in the middle of summer, I'm sure I'll gripe again. Today we ran for 2hrs 24mins, hoping to get 12 miles in. We were close, 11. There were a couple of sidewalks that were not clear and I know for at least me, that as we go farther and farther in long distance days, I drag a bit more towards the end.

I had 3 layers on top and bottom and I was fine for warmth. I kept taking my gloves off and putting them back on. I HATE running with gloves on but I don't want my hands to freeze so I wear them because I have to. After the first mile or so and because the sun was out, I pulled my balaclava hat back off my head so it's just around my neck and I'm okay with that too. But today, that damn wind was strong around nearly every corner we turned. It makes running hard, at least for me, when all you're doing is running against a strong wind in 23 degree winter weather.

As we enter the last third of the run, my knees start to ache a bit, especially with the wind and cold and if we walk for too long in between minutes, it only makes it that much harder to get to pace again--your knees stiffen up. It sucks. That happened once today when we ran back to refill fluids. You'd think I sleep like a baby tonight. Hell no. Not a chance. My achy knees will keep me sleeping restlessly for at least half the night and then I'll be fine in the morning. That's how it always works.

When will the snow go away? I'd much prefer to run in my tank and a skort and sweat my ass off in heat than be bundled up in this crap.

And with the wind comes a cough for a couple of hours until I'm warmed up completely, then it's gone.

I may bitch sometimes about running but I'm not about to give it up for anything. I DO love it--totally clears my mind. Sort of my "quality time with me."

I'm starting to work with an employee that is convinced she can't run at all. We started out the other day running 1 minute, walking two, and alternating for a half hour. She did great. I told her that we'd increase the running time gradually so that she could complete a 5K in May. That's my plan for her and I'd love to be able to prove to her that she can do it. The good news is that after her one night of "training" last week, she wants to go a couple times this week too. ANYTHING to keep me running outside instead of trying to stay on a treadmill at the gym, even in this blasting weather.

Today, I'd move to a warmer climate in a heartbeat.

The Time is Now!!!

2010-01-06T21:44:00.002-05:00

If you're at all considering the Fifth Third River Bank Run 5K, 10K, or 25K, now is the time to start training!

I'm registered for the 25K Race!

The kickoff for training begins this weekend for the 25K race.

No negative self-talk here folks. Believe me, last year I never thought I'd run farther than a 5K and now I'm training for a full marathon?!?!?!?!?

It can be done. Even some of Grand Rapids' homeless participated last year!

It Sucks

2010-01-05T22:38:00.003-05:00

when you can't use your debit card. I noticed a $13.28 charge on my visa check card that I didn't recognize so I had to cancel my card and it will take a week to get a new one. You never realize how dependent you are on that card when it comes to grocery shopping, getting gas, getting lunch. Bleh!

Now I gotta go old school and actually go to the credit union, in person, and get cash! I haven't walked into my credit union in years!

Celebrity Winter Advice

2010-01-04T20:18:00.001-05:00

We'll See How Long This Roll Lasts

2010-01-04T18:52:00.002-05:00

A post for each day of the year so far. I'm on a roll!

Correction, Peter Spencer is now on Day 43 of his hunger strike. I was off by a couple of days in my previous post. His hunger strike began November 23rd.

Yesterday, we ran for 2 hours in 13 degree temps and wind. It was brutal and my knees ached when I was done. We initially froze as we ran up the parking ramp to exit the parking garage but I would guess that between 1-2 miles into the run, we finally warmed up and the sun came out. My knees were pretty stiff for most of the day but I'm fine today.

I think a co-worker and I are going to start a run/walk program tomorrow after work with a woman that's interested in joining our group but claims she can't run at all. We'll get her going on that!

Reflecting on 2009/2010

2010-01-03T18:17:00.003-05:00

Here are a few questions to consider as you reflect on 2009 and look forward to 2010. I'd throw my answers in here but I don't want to bore you.

2009 / 2010
1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  

4. Did anyone close to you die?  

5. What countries did you visit?  

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  

9. What was your biggest failure?

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

11. What was the best thing you bought?

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?  

14. Where did most of your money go?

15. What did you get really excited about?

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder?
– thinner or fatter?
– richer or poorer?

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?  

20. How did you spend Christmas?  

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

22. What was your favorite TV program?  

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?  

24. What was the best book you read?

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? 

26. What did you want and get?

27. What did you want and not get?

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

32. What kept you sane?  

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

34. What political issue stirred you the most?  

35. Who did you miss?  

36. Who was the best new person you met?  

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.  

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Peter Spencer Hunger Strike

2010-01-02T14:35:00.003-05:00

This story was brought to my attention by my friend Donna at work. The connection here is that Peter's daughter Sarah, who is a nurse living in Cedar Springs, Michigan, dated Donna's son Jon in high school. Jon lives in New Zealand and brought this hunger strike to our attention.

Today, January 2, is the 38th day of his hunger strike.

Here is the first radio interview:

Here is the second radio interview:

One kind of interesting aspect of this story is that Sarah arranged for Donna to be interviewed by an Aussie radio station a couple of days ago. I'm searching for that interview online to add it but after Donna was interviewed, a lot of Aussies called in to express their disappointment with the Austrailian government based on Donna's comments.

If you Google "Peter Spencer Hunger Strike," you can find a lot of news articles and a support site for Peter.

Finished!

2010-01-01T11:14:00.006-05:00

I just finished reading Jody Picoult's, My Sister's Keeper this morning. Good book and the ending was not as I expected. I did cry just a little bit at the end, a little bit.

I'm about to start the book Steve just finished. Cuz ya know, I'm always fascinated with topics of death, mafia/mob, terrorists, plane crashs, and the like. A bit morbid, but what can I say? Those are the topics that peak my interest.

I have my all of my new year resolutions in place, at least a dozen of them. One of them, and probably one of the biggest resolutions if I had to rate them, would be to run a minimum of 1,000 miles in 2010. Broken down, that equates to 2.8 miles a day. Doesn't seem so bad when another resolution for 2010 is going to be to complete 2 full marathons, the 25K Fifth Third River Bank Run, and 15 additional races (be it a 5K, 10K, or whatever) throughout the year. Fifteen is probably a low number for the races considering I participated in at least 15 or more last year. I don't know the exact number. I've been trying to locate all my race bibs and I'm still collecting them to figure it all out.

I've become addicted to listening to the Kent County Police Scanner lately. Steve just laughs at me every time he comes upstairs to Level 2 (the main floor of our townhouse--Level 1 is the basement, Level 3 is the upstairs) and hears the scanner going. Well, we don't have a TV on Level 1 so I put it on for background noise while I'm reading or cooking. By listening to the scanner, I did realize how many ambulance calls are taken every day. The ambulance will call in to dispatch to tell them the address their coming from, the age and sex of the patient, which hospital they're heading to, and the chief complaint of the patient. The dispatch person gives them a number. In the past few days the number was like 51,000. This morning, I listened in to an ambulance call and the number given was 64. THAT is a LOT of ambulances calls in a year and for only Kent County.

Some of the calls that go in to dispatch are funny to hear, like on Christmas Eve when someone reported two men walking down a street in East Grand Rapids carrying a flat screen TV and a large backpack. Needless to say, the suspects were caught and they had broken into a house in the area. Criminals sure are stupid, especially in the winter time. Do they not ever think about the fact that they leave footprints in the snow? The cops nearly always say something to the effect that they'll follow their snowprints. Idiots!

Anywho, oddly enough, blogging more often is not one of my resolutions. I suppose I always hope that is the case and it is. More so that Steve doesn't give me a hard time and threaten not to read anymore if I don't blog often enough. I'll work on that. Maybe since one resolution is to journal every day, the blogging more often will come naturally. One can hope!

Year End

2009-12-27T21:02:00.004-05:00

I've been a bit busy and lazy lately to update this. Sorry 'bout that. Meanwhile, I've let nearly 500 emails accumulate in my email, mostly crap though. Last minute deals for Christmas, free shipping, free overnight shipping, etc.

Good thing is that guitar lessons are starting up again in another week. YAY! Gotta work up those callouses again, big time!

Running is going strong, even through this winter weather. No weather has held us back from running outside yet this winter. We have flathead sheet metal screws in the bottom of our shoes that give us traction in the snow and ice. No one has fallen yet and the screws have not made their way through the soles of the shoes for anyone yet. I do feel pressure from one, but not enough to move it to a different part of my shoe, lazy I suppose.

Christmas was nice. I spent one evening with my family in Frankenmuth about 2 weeks ago feasting on the All You Can Eat at Zehnder's, it rocked. We had chicken AND duck, along with mashed taters, buttered egg noodles (the absolute BEST you can find!), dressing, squash, and a ton of other plates of food and topped off with sherbet for dessert with the little plastic animals on them. It was great. My family has been going to Frankenmuth since I was very young and you STILL get the little plastic animals on the sherbet, THAT rocks!

Steve and I spent Christmas eve with his family and that was nice. A yummy lasagna dinner and TOO many desserts! On Christmas Day (a/k/a Steve's 40th birthday), we met Steve's family for Chinese and then went to see Sherlock Holmes, good movie.

Right now I'm working on finishing a book. Yep, you read that right, I'm reading! Usually I start books and never finish them. I started Dracula some time ago, like 2 years ago, and never finished it. I'm determined to finish this one. I started it yesterday and I'm more than halfway through the book now, Jody Picoult's, My Sister's Keeper. Good so far. I'm not a huge fan of fiction, unless it's a classic novel, but this has kept my interest so far.

Also working on some New Year's Resolutions. One of them is to keep a runner's journal. In other words, a diary of my eating habits and running logs so that I can go back to refer to days where maybe I didn't have such a great run and I can figure out why. I'm not sure if I'd be able to figure that out, but I'm sure it will help. I have a few other resolutions, like making 2010 the Year of Me, my vanity sure plays a bigger role in my life as I get older. I have no explanation for it, but I tried to get a prescription filled the other day for Retin-A and my insurance company doesn't cover it because I'm over 30! WTF? Part of the reason I was wanting Retin-A is to prevent wrinkles--see, vanity here--and to help my skin. I've never had great skin thanks to some gene issues that I've been meaning to speak with my parents about but I thought, "If nothing else, I want to get my dermatologist to prescribe me Retin-A, and she did, but I'm old. What? Do insurance companies think that no one gets acne over the age of 30? I'm hoping to win this battle and it doesn't sound too difficult to do, wish me luck.

Okay, back to reading, or something a little more productive, like finishing this book to prove to Steve that I can finish a book!

It's a Festivus Miracle!!!!

2009-12-15T18:40:00.005-05:00

For a long time now, I couldn't even tell you how many years, my eyes water. I've always put up with it. Just figured that's what I have to live with. One day at work I was in the elevator and wiped my eye and said something to another person in the elevator that my left eye was having a bad day, it wouldn't stop watering. She said I should talk to my eye doctor about it. So, with that, I made an appointment.

At my appt, Dr. Miller did a tear test on my eyes. He took something that looked like a tiny thin strip of paper and dragged it across my eye and then looked up close through whatever the machine is and counted. My eyes started watering at 5 seconds, most people do it in 10 seconds. What can I say? I'm an overachiever. My problem is that I actually have dry eyes. Go figure.

I got prescription eye drops, Lotemax, and then I also started taking OTC eye drops, Systane. I could tell a difference within the first day, but that only lasted for a few days and then they were back to their fierce, watering selves daily, for half the day, at least.

I just had my follow up appt yesterday and told Dr. Miller that the dropped helped for the first few days and then nada after that. Then, he put a silicon plug in my right lower punctum and I've been tear-free in my right eye since yesterday's appointment. I will go back in 2 weeks for the other plug. He wants to make sure the one works before putting a 2nd plug in. The whole procedure only took a couple of minutes. He anesthetized the inner corner of my eye and then popped the plug in. It didn't hurt and he said it might be uncomfortable for a day or so, but I feel nothing and can't even tell something is there.

So far, so good with the right eye. I hope this does the trick for the next 2 weeks so I can get the other plug put in. I didn't realize what a pain dry eyes were until today when the right eye performed so well. Not a single tear!

My Newest Musical Obsession

2009-11-27T18:55:00.002-05:00

The Tiger Lillies

I'm sure you've never heard of them before. I didn't until I visited my sister in Cali. She was going to see them play at UCLA on Halloween. She showed me a few of their videos on YouTube and since then, I became obsessed.

Gypsy cabaret, dark, blasphemous, rude lyrics, not suitable for children or even some sensitive adults for that matter, probably just a few ways to describe them. But they're freaky weird and I'm all about getting more of their music. I bought their most recent release Freakshow on iTunes and I listen to it all the time on my iPod.

Here is the first video that I'd ever heard or seen of The Tiger Lillies:

Yeah, a little odd but fascinating to me. I don't know why. I went to The Tiger Lillies website to buy more of their music but since they're from the UK, it wants you to pay by using "SECPay" which I have no idea what the heck that is. Some UK version of PayPal, no thanks. I'll find their music elsewhere.

Just thought I'd update this with something that's going on with me right now.

My Awesome Trip to LA (4 of 4)

2009-11-09T19:26:00.010-05:00

So now it's Monday and I think we got to bed sometime after midnight the night before, after the awesome U2 concert. It didn't take us long to get home from the Rose Bowl because we didn't drive to it. We walked about 1.5 miles to the train station, took the Gold line to Pasadena and then walked .5 back to my sister's house from there. There were heavy crowds walking immediately from the Rose Bowl. I can't imagine the nightmare of driving out of that place.

On Monday, we slept in, I THINK I may have slept until 10am that morning, which is rare for me, but we were whipped. Taking in all that fresh air all day long, the concert for about 7 hours on our feet, and then walking home afterwards, just a lot of everything that day, but ALL SO WORTH IT!!! I STILL watch the U2 concert on YouTube when I have a few minutes to relive it all.

We did take a drive down by the Rose Bowl the next day and to our surprise, the entire golf course where we sat all day Sunday was immaculately cleaned up and people were golfing. THAT was a serious clean up crew going at it all night long. I was impressed.

The stage was still in place too. I learned from an article the next day in the LA Times that there are actually 3 stages that travel and 1 screen. The screen is the first piece of equipment that gets disassembled and packed on a semi to head to the next location. It takes 30 semis to haul all of the equipment for the show, and understandably so. We stood on a steel/metal floor during the entire concert and it covered the entire field. I suppose they do this so everyone doesn't destroy all the football fields that U2 plays on.

Anywho, I don't think we did too much on that Monday, at least I don't remember a whole lot of detail. I know we went out for lunch at El Chulo and then we went out for dinner that night at Pink's, a famous Hollywood locale, which I'd probably heard of I'm sure. I got a chili dog and my sister got the Mayor's special. It was frickin' HUGE!

On Tuesday morning, we went to Marston's for breakfast. Marston's is famous for their french toast, which we both had. It's coated in crushed up Corn Flakes and they were delish!!!

After breakfast, we made our way to the Griffith Observatory. This is one of my favorite places to visit in LA. It's close to the Hollywood sign and you can see a GREAT view of the LA area

and the Hollywood sign

and lots of Birds of Paradise bushes were around the Observatory too!

In the lower level of the Observatory there was this statue of Albert Einstein so I had to get a picture with him.

I also picked up my own Albert Einstein Action Figure in the gift shop. He's holding a piece of chalk and he's got crazy whacked out hair, he's awesome!

On our way back from the Observatory, we drove through the campus of Occidental College, where your current President went to school. It seemed like a tiny school to me, our drive was very short.

After the college, we went to Galco's to pick up some sodas, unique sodas. I think we ended up with a Chocolate Cream soda, a Mint Cream soda, a Mr. Q. Cumber, which was very good, Manhattan Special Espresso Coffee Soda, Fentiman's Traditional Victorian Lemonade which was very good, and a few others. And, did you know that Coke is still made in glass bottles? Galco's had cases of it along the wall!

Later that afternoon we took the Gold Metro line to downtown LA and made our way to the LA Live area, don't ask me what that really is. I know the Staples Center is located there, as well as the Nokia Theater. As luck would have it, the premiere of Michael Jackson's This Is It was going on that night. It was crazy! Paparazzi everywhere and people all dressed up, just to go sit in a theater, in the dark, to watch a frickin' movie! Seems crazy to me! So with that, we stood along and people watched for a while, it was interesting to see what all these folks were wearing and I did recognize Jose Eber, the hair stylist, and then in the staged area, or where the famous people were being interviewed, we saw Adam Lambert and some guy from one of the boy bands of a few years back.

Once we got our fill of people watching, we went to Trader Vic's for dinner, again, delish.

After dinner, we made our way back home and then started packing up for my flight the next morning. It sure sucked going back home, but the whole trip was awesome! We packed tons of stuff in for that week, but all worth it.

My Awesome Trip to LA (3 of 4) . . . a/k/a U2 Concert!

2009-10-31T16:45:00.011-04:00

And now it comes down to U2. What can I say? October 25th was a day I won't soon forget. It began about 8am that morning with us getting up and getting ready to head to the Rose Bowl for the day. My sister lives less than 4 miles from the Rose Bowl, certainly within walking distance if we had to. But thankfully, she lives .5 miles from the Metro Gold Line and that took us 2 miles closer and we walked the last 1.5 miles or so to the venue. First we stopped up at Trader Joe's for food for the day and a portable cooler to bring with us.

At first I thought we'd get to the Rose Bowl at 8am to get in the general admission line up but since we were out late at the Magic Castle the night before we got to the Rose Bowl not long after 10am and had to walk around the Rose Bowl to get in line. The stage was already in place, we could see it above the top of the Rose Bowl, it was awesome. It took a good 15 minutes to walk around to the backside of the Rose Bowl, mainly the golf course side, but once we got around it, we could see where the general admission line up was. We got in line and took a seat on the ground, where we'd be until about 4:30 or so, the gates didn't open until 5pm.

Of course everyone around us was wondering if we'd get into the coveted inner circle, or ellipse, a/k/a the inner part of the stage, the best spot to watch the concert. There were rumors that the first 2500 people in the GA line would be able to get into the inner circle so when they came around and numbered our hands 1708 and 1709, we were all very excited.

Now this whole hand-numbering thing happened roughly around lunchtime if I had to guess so we still had 5 more hours until the gates opened. So, we brought magazines to read, talked with the other people around us in line, and just waited. It was about 82 that day and we were in partial shade for most, if not all, of the day in the line. We also brought water, pop, protein shakes, sandwiches, and other snacks. One thing my sister got me hooked on a while back was Wasabi Peas, good stuff!!! We brought those too.

Surprisingly, the afternoon went pretty fast. I actually thought I'd go over to the porta-johns, not because I thought I needed to go to the bathroom, I just thought I'd "Potty Up," as my Dad would say. By this time, maybe 2pm, U2 was doing a sound check and everyone could here it. It was pretty cool to listen to it all. I'd say the sound check went for at least an hour, maybe longer. There were a dozen or so porta-johns and the lines were 20 people deep so I was nearly the 5th person in line and then a girl in the line next to me got a call and she alerted the guy in front of her in line that they were giving out wristbands for the general admission people. The wristbands got you to the main floor. I saw the number on her hand was 1585 and panicked a bit, so I jumped the line and headed back to our spot. Of course I couldn't find my sister right away and freaked for a minute or two but she was there, behind some others. Everyone was standing to get their wristbands and so the whole situation was a little exciting for everyone. Got my wristband and sat back down in line. I wasn't going anywhere now and I was okay with that.

It was now after 4:20 and suddenly everyone was standing up and moving. The gates didn't open until 5 but we just followed the crowds and ended up in a huge mass of people at the general admission entrance gate. It was hot out and we were packed up there. People around me, as well as myself, started expressing concerns about a stampede through the gates. There was no order whatsoever. Pasadena police were yelling through a megaphone but the band was still doing a sound check at this time and it was impossible to hear what the police were saying to us. FINALLY, they herded people back into a line with SOME type of order, not much order, but it lessened my fears of any possible stampede.

Once we got in, we headed to the field and secured out spot on the field, about a dozen rows back from the outer stage. Not what I had hoped for, but it was still close. The Black Eyed Peas were the opener and though I don't know a lot of their songs, I knew most of what they played, especially when they brought a special guest onstage to play with them, Slash! It rocked! They played Sweet Child of Mine with Fergie singing. I didn't care so much that she sang it, but with Slash, it was awesome! I think they played about 6-7 songs and then left. I knew U2 would be coming on about 8:30 since they advertised that the concert was going to be simultaneously broadcast on YouTube as well. I think it was closer to 8:45 when they came onstage and they WERE FRICKIN' AWESOME!!!!

You can watch the concert in its entirety HERE. It's about 2.5 hours long, but AWESOME!

Again, I was totally blown away by the whole show. I think my favorite songs of the night were Magnificent, Sunday Bloody Sunday, One, and Moment of Surrender, the closer song.

Here is the Set List. Some of these songs are direct links to the video from the concert:
Breathe
Get on Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stuck In A Moment
No Line on the Horizon
Elevation
In A Little While
Unknown Caller
Until The End of the World
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy - Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Where The Streets Have No Name

Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Now I just sit and wait for the Spartan Stadium U2 tickets to go on sale!!!

My Awesome Trip to LA (2 of 4)

2009-10-31T08:58:00.003-04:00

So it's Friday night and we're back at Peggy's house in South Pasadena. We unloaded the car and then loaded the car back up because we were going to be running 9 miles in the morning along Venice Beach. My sister is a PaceLeader for the LA Marathon and Saturday mornings is when they all get together for the long training runs. The LA Marathon is at the end of February but when you're going to run 26.2 miles, you need to start training for it early to build up the miles and endurance.

We drove about a 1/2 hour to Marina Del Ray and checked into a hotel there. We had to meet at 6:30am the next morning for the run. I'm sure we collapsed into bed that night, we'd done SO much walking in the past couple of days and I'm an early bird when it comes to bedtime.

The next morning we were to the school by 6:30, along with all the other pace leaders and I got to meet a few of them, all very nice folks. Once everyone's group arrived and they did the pep talk for the pace leaders and the runners, we made our way to Venice Beach. I believe Peggy said that there are roughly 1500 people doing this training between all the running groups and THAT's HUGE! Peggy, Mary, and Walt's group this morning was 35 plus me. They started with 68 and you pay to be in this group. It includes a nice wicking shirt and the training for all those weeks as well as guest speakers every so often. And since the LA Marathon is now owned by Frank McCourt, the whole training experience is even better than before. There were even water stations along the training route with Gatorade and bananas at the finish! How nice is that!

My sister's group is called Run/Walk 5--meaning run for 2 minutes, walk for 1 and alternate that through the entire marathon, which equates to a 15-minute mile. I ran towards the back of the group and talked with some of the ladies training with my sister, who was leading the group. At 6:30 in the morning, there are very few homeless people along Venice Beach at that time of the morning, but on our way back, that number multiplied by about 100!!! TONS of homeless people, and a lot of them yelled at us, obscenities, whatever, you name it. It was kinda funny in a way. And then Mary ran back to me and asked me if I saw Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson pass by a few minutes ago. Damn! I totally missed them! In any case, it was a great time and I loved the fact that I ran along Venice Beach that morning, if only to experience the homeless people yelling at us.

Once we got back to Peggy's house, we headed to Bristol Farms to get some Sushi. I absolutely LOVE sushi and they had a great selection of it. I think we ended up with about 6 or 8 different trays of sushi and then I picked up some coconut water as well. Coconut water you say??? Yep. I was just reading about it in the in-flight magazine about the benefits of coconut water and it's high level of potassium, more than 2 bananas and 15 times more electrolytes than the average sports drink with only 60 calories per serving. I'd rather drink coconut water on a run than have Gatorade, bleh!

Later that Saturday night, we were going to the Magic Castle for dinner. Even though I'd only been here once before, I LOVE this place. It is a private club that my sister belongs to and they have magic shows each evening and a great dinner menu to choose from. Our dinner reservation was for 9:30 so we had time to wander around the place and watch some of the magicians, which we did. Now, when we got seated for dinner my sister said that she'd had the beef wellington and it was the BEST she'd ever had and that on a radio show, someone was asking about the best beef wellington in the LA area and the radio host said something like the ONLY beef wellington in the area is served at the Magic Castle. So of course that's what I choose for dinner. It was the BEST. I swear to goodness, that it was at LEAST 1.5 inches thick and I ate EVERY single bite of it and nearly licked my plate clean. I don't think I could ever attempt to make it because I know it will never be as good as when I had it that evening.

After dinner, another magic show in the Palace of Mystery, we saw three magicians--Derek Hughes, David Kovac, and Hong Jun-Pyo. They were great and very entertaining. If you EVAR have an opportunity to visit the Magic Castle, DON'T pass it up. This place ROCKS!

My Awesome Trip to LA (1 of 4)

2009-10-25T11:03:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday morning, I flew out of DTW for ORD, then LAX. Easy peasy flights, no problem. It sure pays to have an extra 5 inches of leg space on a flight. I could actually cross my legs if I wanted to. Both of my flights landed a little earlier than scheduled, which was nice. When I landed in LA, my sister and I went to the Encounter restaurant for lunch at LAX. This restaurant is also known as the Theme Restaurant. Wiki it for more history if you want to know.

From there, we headed to South Pasadena, where my sister lives to gather a few things, get to the Hertz rental to pick up a car, and then head to Vegas. On renting a car, I was pretty sure my full coverage on my auto covered me on a rental but I wasn't sure about the loss damage waiver coverage. Before we stopped to get the rental, we stopped at a AAA office and inquired about it. I was right, loss damage waiver is NOT something that my own personal insurance covers on a rental car. Now, if I were renting the car for a day, I probably wouldn't worry about this coverage, but since I have it for a week, I got it. With the loss damage waiver coverage, I can pretty much return the steering wheel back to Hertz and not worry since I got the loss damage waiver coverage. Otherwise, I'm screwed ten different ways without it. Again, to save time, Wiki or Google it if you want to know more.

Now, on Wednesday afternoon we're on our way to Vegas for a couple of nights. This time, we are staying at the Four Queens on Fremont Street in Las Vegas. The room rate there with tax was $28.25 a night and it was a nice, clean room with free parking.

With that, we ventured onto Fremont Street. If you've never been to Fremont Street, it's pretty cool. This was the first time I really went there. I remember years ago with my sister that we only drove by it but never stopped. At that time, back in 1997, they didn't have the Fremont Experience and you could drive down all the streets. Now, Fremont Street is closed to traffic for about 3-4 blocks and there is a screen above the street and in the evenings on every hour videos are played. I remember seeing a KISS and Bachman Turner Overdrive display and I think that was about it. For the experience, all the other lights on Fremont Street are shut off for about 10 minutes or so so that you can see the video above you without lights disturbing it.

One thing that totally captured Peggy's and my imagination was this guy:

We saw this thing go off about 3 or 4 times that night and were quite amused by it. I videotaped it with my iPhone to replay it over and over again.

Now, unless I dig through receipts from that night, I don't remember what we ate for dinner. It's all a blur and I wasn't drinking a lot either. We did get $.99 margaritas from Binions but just a couple. Plus the fact that I was up since 4am EST, or 2 am MST, made for a long, long day. My flight left Detroit at 7:44 that morning for LA.

Oh, and it's a 4 hour drive from LA to Vegas, not too bad really. Since we went on a Wednesday afternoon, there wasn't as much traffic going East as there would be on a Thursday or Friday night.

On Thursday morning we got up and went for a buffet lunch at the Golden Nugget Casino next door. Before we were seated, the woman asked me what I wanted to drink, I said a pop and then she immediately asked me where I was from. Apparently they don't say "pop" out there. And then Peggy and I got into a discussion about the Michigan accent. That is for another blog entry.

After a great lunch, and it was a good buffet lunch, we heading to Caesar's Palace to park and walk along the strip. We had to stop at the MAC Store in the Caesar Forum Shops. I had a very small list from that place, 2 items is all. Then Peggy introduced me to the Thomas Pink store, which I fell in love with and I almost bought myself a VERY nice shirt. But, it was expensive and I had to think about it, so I didn't buy anything, but I remembered the name so I could check out the website.

We walked ALL over the place along the strip, to the Miracle Mile shops in the Planet Hollywood Casino to the MGM, to New York, New York, and back. We made a stop at he M&M Store in Vegas as well. That place is HUGE and if you collect M&M stuff, THIS is the place to go. I believe there were 4 floors of M&M collectibles, ornaments, NASCAR crap, and whatever you wanted with M&M all over it. We did stop in the Harley Davidson Store in New York, New York and I found a new pair of boots to get, they rocked! I'll order them when I get back to work next week. I get them at cost!

On Friday, we left the hotel about 11:30 or so and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe and Casino for lunch. There was a LARGE picture of Bono on display at the Hard Rock Cafe and we figured out why. He created a t-shirt for sustained development in Africa, along with other artists for various causes. So after lunch we stopped at the shop thinking that the shirts were going to cost a fortune since it was the Hard Rock Cafe, but they were $26! So, thinking Bono would notice us in the crowd with them on (silly eh?), we each got one.

After lunch, we started heading back to LA but stopped in Baker, CA for some Alien Fresh Jerky. A family stop that began with a trip my sisters and brother made back in 2002 I believe, when we last drove to Vegas from LA.

It's Official: I am a Runner!

2009-10-20T18:57:00.002-04:00

It all started Sunday morning at 6:30am when Steve and I left the house for downtown Grand Rapids. Yep, Steve got up that early too! Our group met at 7 in the basement of our parking garage when Jan had garbage bags for us to start running in to keep our core warm, and it really did help. After I put it on, Steve said, "I think you have it on backwards." I did. The cut was lower in the back so I turned it around and it wasn't cutting into my neck. With all our garbage bags in place, we walked up the ramp and started running as we neared the top because someone was at the top to take pictures of us.

We jogged the .6 miles to the starting area. At this time, the temp was about 30 and I don't think by the time we were all done that it got much warmer than 35. The garbage bags really did help to keep the heat in. Looking among all the runners, we were among very few that did it.

Once we were lined up to start, the excitement set it. I could hear a countdown over the loudspeakers and then air horns going off to signal the start of the 2009 Grand Rapids Marathon. It probably took up about 3 minutes to walk up to the start line. There were roughly 3,700 runners that morning.

It didn't take long for me to warm up and peel off that garbage bag, about 2 miles in. It was kind of funny to see, most particularly, in the first 3-5 miles of the course, to see all the clothes and gloves that people pitched on the side of the course. I did have gloves on but I couldn't stand them after 3 miles and pitched them somewhere on Leonard Street. The gloves were $2 so I didn't have much invested in them.

We started out at a good clip in the first couple miles, actually faster than I'd hoped and we probably did the first 3 miles, with the exception of walking through the water station, without stopping, and at a nearly 11 minute mile pace. Our goal was an 11:30 minute mile pace. Finally, when I saw the 5 Mile market, I asked for a minute of walking, and we continued that at each mile marker, thank goodness!

The run became a little more strenuous, at least for me, as we were on the bike trail near Millenium Park, roughly mile 7-8. It's crazy how many people were along the route for a major portion of the half marathon. After the 8 mile marker, we turned around and headed back to downtown. I knew the rest of the route was not going to involve any hill climbing and we'd run these trails before so I was familiar with them. I was excited to see mile 10 just underneath the I-196 overpass and under the highway, they were blasting music and a woman was "playing" a guitar hero guitar, she was hilarious and it was nice to have that to break up the monotony a bit and there were LOADS of people cheering us on at this point. People we didn't even know, cheering and clapping for us. It was great!

Once we passed that area, we had a long trail that curved south of the Coca Cola bottling plant near John Ball Zoo and from that point, downtown seemed so far away, but we did now that we had a 5K left to finish, thank goodness.

There was a pace leader for one of the groups that we saw running back and forth along the route encouraging people and making sure everyone was in good shape and spirits. I can't even imagine how far he actually ran that day but I did see him in the finish area so he was done not long after us.

As we passed the 12 mile marker, I was looking forward to being done. This was my first run at 13.1 total miles without much of a break really. The pace guy did tell people around us that when we turn the last corner before the finish that it's a good 4 blocks and don't start pushing yourself too early or you'd be walking across the finish line before you got to it.

As we did turn the last corner, I was so excited to see the finish line that I did start to cry, I couldn't help it. I quickly stiffled it though. I knew there was no way I would be able to run and cry for 4 blocks with any success. So, I looked everywhere but the finish line ahead of me.

I was elated to see that finish line get closer and closer and briefly looked at the clock on the ground as I passed it, 2:35 something. Don Kern, Race Director, shook EVERY finisher's hand as they crossed the finish and I thought that was awesome! I've never seen that at any race.

We were given mylar blankets to keep us warm and they did, I'm keeping mine! And Robin was there waiting for us, she finished in 2:14 and we all cried and hugged each other, it was great. We all trained so long and hard for this and it was so worth it to have that medal put around my neck. And then I found Steve on the side and walked up to him crying and hugged him. This was the first race he came to see me finish. It was awesome. I was thrilled that he came to watch me/us/everyone.

The hardest part about running this morning was the cold. Breathing in that 30 degree temp and then drinking the ice cold water and Gatorade was tough. Needless to say, I coughed a lot and had a runny nose through the whole 13.1. I'm not sure if it's easier to complain about ice cold drinks on a freezing cold day or warm drinks on a hot, muggy day.

My finish time was 2:32:08. That's crazy huh? 2 and a half hours of running? What was I thinking? But, I love it. No one can call me on my cell phone, there's no radio or TV, just me and nature, or the gym, with my thoughts. It's my ME time and I love it.

Wednesday morning I fly out to Los Angeles to visit my sister in Pasadena, a quick trip to Vegas, back to LA, run 9 miles on Saturday morning, Magic Castle for dinner that night, camp out on Sunday morning for the U2 concert at the Rose Bowl. We'll be busy! But, I'm looking forward to it, especially the run along the Pacific Ocean in Marina Del Ray.

Next on our running agenda is to start training in January for the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City on Memorial Day next year. Yup, just like that guy's shirt reads, "Running is mental and we're all insane!"

OMG

2009-10-19T17:08:00.005-04:00

This coming Sunday, you can all watch the concert I will hopefully be up close and personal at:

When I found this out, I really got SUPER excited!!!!

Yay!!!!! I did it!

2009-10-18T21:49:00.000-04:00

I'm working on a follow up entry of the days events.

Who Knew?

2009-10-16T20:13:00.007-04:00

I've run many 5Ks, a few 10Ks, a 10 Mile Run, and now, 2 days before THE BIG RACE, I'm very emotional. I just got off the phone with my sister and couldn't talk about the race too much because I started tearing up. Call me a baby if you want but I've worked a long, hard time to get to this point and it all is becoming very surreal to me now.

It doesn't help that Don Kern, the Grand Rapids Marathon creator and Race Director since its inception sends us the most inspiring emails on a nearly weekly, and in the last ten days, daily basis. Here's an excerpt from the email we received from him today and it brought tears to my eyes reading it.

Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon Newsletter
Sponsored by Sportwax
16 October 2009 --- THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

AND NOW, LIVE FROM GRAND RAPIDS MICHIGAN

(theme from Rocky playing in the background)

The preparation is over. The contenders from all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Germany are ready.

The leaves are turning. The bike paths are repaved. The numbers are painted on the road. The course is ready.

And now...live from Grand Rapids Michigan....

LLLLLET'S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLE!

It's time to step into the ring. Step up to the line. The training is over. It's you and a few thousand of your best friends hitting the roads.

It's all about you now! You are ready. You're strong, you're amazing. You're about to do something that only a fraction of the population can or will ever do!

You are going to have the time of your life. This is your weekend. This is your race. This is your day! You're gonna be awesome out there!

Our running group, me, Kim, Mary, and Robin got Dr. Jan, our running coach, a big gift card to Macy's and a bouquet of flowers today. I had to leave them in her office when she wasn't there. The excitement of this upcoming race is making me a bit weepy these days. Within minutes we all got an email from her, she was crying over the sentiments we wrote and the gifts. It is THE LEAST we can do for ALL the time and energy she's put into us. I think I wrote something like she's the first step in my "journey" for the rest of my life and that I hope to keep running until I can't do it anymore. And IT'S SO TRUE. Words cannot begin to express my gratitude for what she's done for us.

I will blog a post-race entry sometime on Sunday with pictures of me PROUDLY wearing my medal. Who knew something so small could mean so much to me. Okay, I gotta stop now, tearing up again.

I would like to thank EVERYONE for the well wishes I've received in the past week leading up to Sunday. It has been a GREAT journey so far.

And the race continues . . .

Less Than Two Weeks Now . . .

2009-10-05T18:07:00.010-04:00

until I run the Grand Rapids Half Marathon!!! I'm getting excited for it now. It seems like forever ago when I registered for it, actually it was forever ago, May! Now, the countdown begins!

Yesterday, I ran the Big House Big Heart 10K on the campus of the University of Michigan. It was great and I had a decent time, 1:10:41. That means an 11:23 mile pace. Not bad since we train at a 12 minute/mile pace. My only choice to line up was at the 10 minute mile pace, after that, the stroller/walker area, and I got passed by a few of them. I walked through the water stations and walked for my gel pack. Other than that, it was a great race. The best part was when I was entering the tunnel. I was getting a bit excited as I neared it because they were blasting The Victors outside the entrance and through the tunnel. The tunnel was probably the most emotional part of the whole race. Okay, except maybe the finish, but that later. As I ran down the tunnel to the stadium, I just had thoughts running through my mind of ALL the great Michigan players that have run through this tunnel, Anthony Carter, Ali Haji-Sheik, Rick Leach, Tom Harmon, Tom Brady, Charles Woodson, to name a few. And then there's Bo. My guess is that he ran through that tunnel at least 150 times for game day. Those thoughts just kind of overtook me there for a bit and then I entered the field, started picking up my pace and booked it from the endzone to the 50 yard line and the finish. I always finish a race running my fastest in the last .3 mile or so.

Ditched my timer chip and sat there for a few minutes to bask in the glory of Michigan football that I've known and experienced for so long, at least since I was 10. How many times have I seen the goalposts get torn down after a Michigan victory? Lots! And I couldn't even begin to count how many rolls of toilet paper have been wasted at a Michigan game after a touchdown. Those were the days. :)

After resting for a few minutes, I went to find some food and water. I had no idea what lay ahead of me, but it was glorious!!! Domino's Pizza on three very long tables and it was warm!

I carried my iPhone with me during the race so I could take pictures on the field after the race. My thumb is in the way of this one.

They weren't going to be running out of water here either. I ran a 10K this summer that did.

And then, there were cookies! I didn't have any of these, but there sure were plenty of them!

And lots of bagels! And this was just one of the bagel tables.

I saw this man before the race and I was glad to see him at the end of the race. I love his shirt and sometimes when I'm running, my mind wanders to this thought.

I stayed in the finish/food area long enough to eat 2.5 pieces of pizza, grab a water, and grab 3 Rice Krispy treats and then I was outta there and on my way back to my car, I was following this guy. I think he needs to invest in some moisture-wicking shorts!

So we have a 6.2 mile run on Wednesday, a 4 mile run on Saturday, and then just a 4 mile run next Wednesday before the 13.1 on the 18th. I can't even imagine what I'll be like when I cross that finish line. Shoot, I can cry on a good commercial. I KNOW I will probably be a wreck. I've trained a long time for this and it's all been SO worth the effort and pain (actually, not much pain but a LOT of effort!).

And HERE is what I'll get at the finish! Plus, Don Kern, the Race Director for the Grand Rapids Marathon said he will give each and every one of us a hug as we cross the finish.

I'm looking forward to that too. And I hear there is beer and chili in the finish/food area, yay!

Paper Airplanes

2009-09-28T22:42:00.004-04:00

I was downtown on Sunday and I didn't expect this many people to show up. I don't know why. Restaurants ran out of food yesterday because there were so many people.

This is the video of Rob Bliss' Artprize entry.

Or, you can watch it in HD HERE.

U2 at the Rose Bowl Update

2009-09-23T18:39:00.003-04:00

I received an email from the Rose Bowl venue today alerting me of limited parking and such. They also mentioned that 96,000+ people are expected to attend the concert, the largest concert in the history of the venue. How awesome is that?!?!?!?!

Here's a clip of Elevation from the Soldier Field Chicago show to give you an idea of the stage set up and I'm hoping, hoping, hoping, that my sister and I get into the inner circle!

I got giddy just watching that clip. It's amazing with all the camera flashes!

13, ArtPrize, and Other Stuff

2009-09-21T21:16:00.004-04:00

13 miles on Sunday morning. Yep, I ran 13 miles. I am certifiable.

On Sunday morning, our Wednesday night running crew participated in the Gazelle Sports Bridge Run, a 10 mile run that starts and finishes in Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids. It goes 5 miles north through Riverside Park and then back to downtown. It was pretty cold to start, about 46 degrees and before the 8am start, we ran a warm up mile. I believe there were 521 other crazy people running it too. I wore a long sleeved henley to start and pitched it after the warm up mile.

Note to self: Head to Good Will to find throw away tops for running.

The 10 miles weren't bad. Jesus, did I just say that? The hills were a bit hard on my knees and I'm working on preventing that pain, weighted leg exercises. The folks all along the route were very encouraging and enthusiastic as we went by. At mile 3, Jan, our Buddha Coach, told us there'd be a surprise and it was great! Her daughter and friend were there with a big sign with all of our names on it. That was awesome!

We all finished at about 1 hour, 57 minutes and some change. All except for Robin, she shot out ahead of us and finished the race in 1:40 something. Her PR and the first time she ran a straight 10 miles. I'm SO proud of her.

Then, at the finish, Harvest Health Foods, local health food store, provided all organic foods at the finish. There was even a smoothie area where the ladies were using the Blendtec blender and they were delish! We waited for the raffle prizes and a couple of our gals won gift cards. By this point, my knees were doing some serious barking, but we had 2 more miles to go to complete our weekly mile roundup of 13. So, we pitched the goodies in our car and took off.

At first I was miserable, but after the first half mile, I was in a groove and the 2 miles seems to go by pretty quickly. Jan reminded us again about taking an ice bath for about 20 minutes to heal our muscles. On my way home I considered buying a bag of ice at the gas station, but I thought for my first cold bath, I'd just go with the cold water out of the tap. I have to admit, I really think the cold water helped heal my legs a lot faster than if I didn't do anything. On the next long run next week, 7 miles, this Wednesday is only 5, I will buy a bag of ice.

Robin told me she cried a little bit after she crossed the finish and I can understand it. I imagine I'll be bawling my eyes out when I complete the half marathon on October 18, less than a month away already!!! It seems like forever ago when I first registered for the half marathon and I think I am/was the impetus for this Wednesday night running crew. I told my friend Kim that I signed up for it to keep me focused on exercise and to have a goal in mind to work toward. Already knowing this half marathon is less than a month away, I'm thinking about the Bayshore Marathon next May in Traverse City and what I need to "gear up" on for that. Running through the winter, outside, crazy thoughts, but I am looking forward to each and every minute of it.

Now, on to ArtPrize. ArtPrize starts on Wednesday and runs through October 10th in the downtown Grand Rapids area. Running yesterday gave me an opportunity to view a lot of the ArtPrize exhibits and some of them were very cool.

A huge mobile in the Grand River, a HUGE table and 2 chairs on top of a pedestrian bridge over the Grand River, a mural on The B.O.B., there's TONS of stuff all over downtown. I'm hoping Steve and I will have some time next weekend to head downtown and take a TON of pictures. If you go to Flickr and search ArtPrize, you will come up with a load of pictures. The stuff is all over the place. ArtPrize is an international competition with a $250,000 prize and is voted on by the public. I got to run under the huge table and chairs in the 10-mile route yesterday morning and it was pretty huge, and pretty cool.

If you have an opportunity to see any of the exhibits, I highly suggest you do so. A shuttle is provided for part of the route. All the information is posted at the ArtPrize website with venues and artists. CHECK IT OUT!

Other stuff, hmmm, I have less than a month before I get ready to fly to Cali!!!

I Swear It's a Cult

2009-09-13T17:43:00.002-04:00

What the F was that? I will always associate this song with my Spin Class, where I first heard it, because I live in a box.

Less Than Two Months Now . . .

2009-09-05T08:03:00.002-04:00

MySpace Countdown Clocks

I'm starting to get a little excited. I've been listening faithfully to all of my U2 collection, and I'm dreading a long day of waiting in line to get up close, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I don't know the true GA admission procedure yet for the North American shows, but I'm hoping they follow the same protocol as they did for the Vertigo Tour back in 2005. Otherwise, I think my sister Peggy and I will be lined up early to get in and get up front.

Holland Farmer's Market

2009-08-23T20:56:00.003-04:00

I used to think I had a good thing going on Fridays at lunchtime when some friends and I would head to the local farmer's market in Grand Rapids, until Saturday, when I went to the Holland Farmer's Market.

All I can say is "WOW!" I was blown away at the beauty of this market. The set up is ideal and I think the City of Holland must have hand a hand in this. There's a brick road that's closed down at the end of the downtown area closest to the water/Lake Macatawa/whatever it's closest to and so that leaves plenty of walking space for all the patrons. And, there are 45 vendors! 45!!!

From breads and baked goods, to fresh cut flowers, perennials, fountain grasses, fruits, vegetables, fresh eggs, fresh hot coffee, organic fruits and vegetables, hand made soaps, jerky, hand made Adirondack chairs and similar furniture, and lots of everything else that goes along with a farmer's market. There was even an information booth for the farmer's market and they sold those re-usable bags to use at the market.

Even the set up that a lot of the vendors had was beautiful. I think it was the Visser Farms stand that had an impressive display of tomatoes set up pyramid-style like in the stores and it had to be 3x7 feet long. Made me want to buy tomatoes and I'm not a fan of tomatoes but I eat them because they're good for me, and that's it.

I ended up buying a TON of produce--radishes, huge-ass green peppers, huge-ass cucumbers (seriously HUGE), small zucchini, large zucchini, yellow squash, banket (for Steve), kettle corn (for Steve), a 1/2 a peck of pickles (Yep, I made refrigerator pickles, for Steve!), green beans, and a lavender and mint chapstick.

The Market is open 8am to 6pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays. When I'm not running a race on Saturday mornings, you will be able to now find me at the farmer's market in Holland, loading up on fresh everything for the week.

10

2009-08-21T20:17:00.002-04:00

Yep. We ran 10 miles on Wednesday night. And because of the change in the weather, it was much easier than 9 the week before. We also ran a different route this week too. Some trail near John Ball Zoo that led us to near Millenium Park, which I've never been to.

In the first mile my friend Robin yelled "Snake!" and then I took off running even faster and everyone screamed, at least all the girls in the group did. Steve, cousin of Kim, did not, and he thought it was hilarious that we all did scream. A snake is a snake is a snake and it doesn't matter how big or small. I'm outta there. Thankfully it was a 2-3 foot garter snake, but still a snake all the same. Needless to say, I continually scanned the path ahead of us for signs of snakes or predators or who knows what.

First we went 2.5 miles out on the trail and then returned to our cars to refuel. Then 1.5 miles out because one of our runners was not going to do the whole 10. Then 1 mile out and back.

I thought we did really well on this run. We walked the 1 minute between each mile and only added one additional minute before the very last mile. I begged for an additional 30 seconds and then Kim did some begging for an additional 30 minutes after me. My right knee was a little tender and then I realized from Hitler, er, I mean Jan, our trainer, that I need to strengthen my hips because that was causing my knee problem.

I only joke when I call Jan Hitler. She really is awesome as a coach for us and she is not in the least bit mean at all. We all can't say enough about what she's doing for us. We really would not be at this point in our half marathon training if it were not for her.

Ever heard of Chi Running? Jan was talking about it and suggested we all take the class. She was able to shave 11-12 minutes off her marathon time and qualify for the Boston Marathon after taking the class. Hopefully we'll have enough people to bring the guy to Grand Rapids. He's based out of the Tri-City area of Mid-Michigan.

Next Wednesday will be a much easier run, only 6 miles. Did I just say "only 6 miles?"

Now I just gotta work on getting a good night's sleep on Wednesday nights. I think I need to try drinking a beer when I get home, at least one. I sleep restlessly every Wednesday night since we started this 7 weeks ago. Long, hot showers don't seem to help either. I mean, they help wash the stink off, but that's about it.

My next race is a 10K on August 29th in Hastings. It will be my first 10K and thankfully Kim and Robin are doing this run as well and I think we're going to run together as a group, which always helps. Having others to hold you accountable sure helps to make the training go a LOT faster and a LOT more fun!

Really Effin' Hot Out There

2009-08-12T21:02:00.003-04:00

Never thought I'd ever utter these words, "I ran 9 miles tonight."

I'm tired. I thought it was brutally hot out there and I swore a lot. It wasn't bad in the shade, but running in the direct sun was a killer.

Time for Ibuprofen and hopefully sleep. I tend to have a restless night sleeping after these long run days. I call it Restless Legs Syndrome. I'm just not used to the exercise so late in the day.

We ran for 2 hours.

I am crazy.

RIP Funnyman

2009-08-06T19:53:00.004-04:00

"How would you like a nice, greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?"

"He's eating our garbage!"

"Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"

"I knew I knew you!"

I remember one Christmas break when I was home from college, all I did watch watch Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles back and forth, back and forth. Love them!

Pretty much anytime I flip past a John Hughes film I stop and watch what's left of it. They are all cult classics of my time.

Sad to See It Go

2009-08-04T19:49:00.002-04:00

I don't know about you, but I love those Pure Michigan ads they play on the radio. I just realized a week ago that Tim Allen is the narrator. I don't know how I didn't place his voice before when I heard the ads. Duh?!?!

The ad for the Buick Open is one of my favorites.

I suppose it's one of my favorites because I've gone to the Buick Open for the past three years and I'm sad that I won't be going to it next year. My siblings have kind of made it a family tradition to go. I know that a lot of people don't like golf, let alone watching it on TV. But seeing it live is different, especially if you've golfed. I never appreciated it on TV until I played it.

Last Friday when I met my brother and nephew at the Buick Open, I knew it would be a nice relaxing day, and it truly was. Here's hoping the PGA will bring a tournament back to Michigan quickly so my siblings and I can continue the tradition and enjoy it as we have for the past few years.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-08-01T16:42:00.004-04:00

July was a very busy month. I'm so glad it's behind me now. I had four 5K races and improved my time with each race, ridiculously so at times, and traveled all over.

I went up to Tawas to visit my parents for a long weekend early in July. I traveled to Ypsilanti first and picked up my nephew and brought him and his bike with us. It was a great weekend. He had ice cream each night after dinner. What could be better than that? I had a 5K race up there, the Run by the Bay on July 11. It was very humid running back in the woody neighborhoods and very hot in the direct sun, but I improved my time to 34:20 with that race. My parents were at one corner of the race and video taped me while I ran by each time. It was a great relaxing weekend up north.

I took my friend Toni and her husband Rick to a Chris Isaak concert at Meadowbrook Festival in Rochester. Chris, of course, rocked! I was only disappointed in the fact that there was no meet and greet after the show this year.

Old 97s a few days after that, you already know about that with my previous post.

Last weekend I went to the NALS Region 3 Conference in LaPorte, Indiana. Those meetings have very little business and a lot of legal education. It was nice. We also had an opportunity to stop in at the Michigan City outlets. Bleh! I can do without a trip to those outlets. Birch Run is a LOT bigger and much nicer than the Michigan City outlets.

Things are starting to slow down, a little bit.

We (a few ladies at work) started our half marathon training about 3 weeks ago now. We do the long run of the training on Wednesday nights after work. We started 3 weeks ago with a 6 mile run, next week 7 miles, last week 8 miles. This Wednesday we'll drop down to 5 miles, then after that we'll start building it back up again, 9, 10, 6, 11, 12, 7, 13, 10, 7, 4, then Race Day!

The 6 mile week was pure hell and my friend Kim and I swore A LOT. Jan is our trainer. She is awesome! Jan is doing 12 triathlons this summer and Kim and I are going to start a fan club in her honor. The 7 mile week was MUCH easier. No swearing this week. I think it was easier because of the 6 miles the week before and we knew what we were getting into with 7 miles. This past week of 8 miles was also easier. No swearing and I thought we all did really well for 8 miles. We ran for 1 hr 43 minutes. That's crazy isn't it? This Wednesday's 5 miles should be a cinch! We don't run fast either. We can't. If we want to build up the capacity and endurance to run long distances, we have to take it slow. 12-minute miles is what we're doing. We run a mile, walk a minute, and do that for the entire run. And if one of us needs a little bit of a walk, Nazi Jan, er, I mean Jan, says, "30 seconds!" So we had a total of 3 runners the first week, 4 the second week, 5 last week, and I'm anticipating 2 more, maybe 3, people joining us this week.

And, while we were running this past Wednesday, Jan mentioned something about since the fact that we're doing this half marathon in October that we should just keep running through the winter and train for the Bayshore Marathon next May. I said, "Sure!" If I had to pick a marathon to be my first, it might as well be a beautiful one eh? That means we would continue running on Wednesday nights after work outside through winter. I'm game for that! I'm not getting any younger and I can't come up with any excuse NOT to do it.

Yesterday, I got my butt up at 3am, showered, and heading to meet my brother and nephew in Grand Blanc for the Buick Open. What beautiful weather yesterday! It was a LOT of fun! This is the first time Tiger Woods has participated since I've been in the past 3 years. You could definitely tell a difference in the crowd size, it was a bit crazy around him. Tiger started at 7:54 on 9 and John Daly followed him. What a crowd surge around them! If you were sitting on a hole, you could tell by the crowd noise where Tiger was golfing and the fact that he finished -9 yesterday added to the crowd noise. We sat in bleachers on 17 for a while knowing that Tiger was going to be coming through in about 6 shifts and you could tell when he got close. When John Daly came through after him, he was +3 and then later, when he finished on the 9th hole, he was +17. Not a good day and he obviously didn't make the cut to the third round. But he did wear some bright blue plaid pants and it was obvious that he's lost weight since last year.

A co-worker compared watching golf to watching paint dry. I used to have this same mentality until I started playing golf. Watching a golf tournament live is so relaxing. I really enjoy it and beer is served when you walk in the door at 7:30am! We of course waited until 9:12 to drink. I learned my lesson from last year's Buick Open and I didn't bring anything in the gates with me but my keys, cash, and ID.

Next weekend I have back to back Detroit Tigers games with Toni and Rick. I ended up buying tix in the first row of Section 144 right behind the bullpen in left field. I've never had seats here, should be interested to be right in front of the bullpen.

Dance With Me

2009-07-23T21:13:00.003-04:00

I went to see the Old 97's last night at The Intersection here in town. They rocked!

Kerri, the paralegal I work for, went too. I told her she'd be in love with Rhett Miller when the night was through and I was right. At the end of the show she said "I heart Rhett Miller."

The Old 97's is an alt-country band from Texas and they have some great stuff out there. If you've never heard of them, you ought to check them out.

Murry Hammond, the bassist, opened solo, then Rhett Miller, the lead singer, followed solo as well. He played Buick City Complex, which is one of my favorite Old 97's songs.

When the Old 97's came on, they started with Won't Be Home, another favorite and played a good mix of old and new--my favorite olds being Rollerskate Skinny, Designs on You, Doreen, West TX Teardrops, Smokers, The New Kid, Indefinitely, Crash on the Barrelhead, and one of my all-time favorites, Question.

Here is the video from their new album "Blame It On Gravity." The band is barely in the video, but the song is great:

The More Serious Training

2009-07-17T17:32:00.003-04:00

I think I've mentioned all the 5Ks and such that I'm doing this summer. Tomorrow morning will be my 9th 5K since March. I know, I'm a glutton. I really enjoy them, what can I say. Well, I have my first 10K on August 29th and had my first go at a 6 mile run earlier this week, Wednesday to be exact, after work, when it was pretty hot and muggy outside. The weather sucked and the sun was beating down on us when we weren't running in shade.

The route was north of downtown Grand Rapids for a couple of miles and then we circled back and went south for a bit then back to the middle of downtown. Needless to say we didn't run the entire 6 miles. We ran a mile, walked a minute, ran a mile, walked a minute. That lasted for 3 miles or so and then we started getting tired. We did carry water bottles with us the whole time and that helped a ton. The back of my head was sweating so much that I was getting chills every time the wind picked up against the back of my neck. But, we did it. We probably ended up walking about a 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile if I had to guess and we ran for about an hour and 20 minutes or so. We finished up the last mile in the parking garage at work by doing laps and it was way cooler in there and that made it much easier on us to finish that last frickin' mile.

I suppose running in the heat is probably a good thing because we won't be running at this time of day when we do the actual 10K or the half marathon in October. I'm hoping by doing this that that the 10K on August 29th will be a cinch at 9am.

The next 6 mile run is Tuesday night after work and the high for the day is 79. Wow. I am so looking forward to all that sweating again.

Seriously!?!?!?!?!

2009-07-06T20:07:00.006-04:00

There are losers and then there are losers. Those folks that got Michael Jackson Memorial tickets and then those that are willing to pay a fortune for them. I don't see the desire to pay that much and the link might be dead by the time you read this post, but the going bid is $666,000. Seriously?!?!?!? WTF!?!?!?!

So, whoever wins that auction, do you really get excited about paying more than half a mil for a dead guy's memorial service? And shame on the people that are putting these memorial tickets up for sale on eBay and Craigslist. Profiting from someone else's death is what it is. To me, that doesn't seem moral. And to most people it doesn't seem moral. You can watch the memorial service for free on TV, like most people will.

I just don't get it.

And that's my rant for the day.

What Akeem Has to Say

2009-06-28T13:29:00.006-04:00

So most of you know I've been steadily losing weight since mid-January, 52.6 pounds to be exact. Yes, it's been a lot of weight in a somewhat short amount of time but I've been very strict, very diligent, and very obsessed about it. And since about mid-May, I've stopped wearing black clothes all the time and started wearing non-black clothes, tucking my shirt in, and even wearing more fitted clothes--not sleazy clothes, nice stuff. I don't own any tube tops or daisy dukes, thank you.

There is a BP Gas Station right on a corner about a half mile from our townhouse and we frequent it all the time. All of the employees there are very nice and all Indian. One man that works there, Akeem, usually works the late shift, like 10pm to 7am. I usually see him there if I'm stopping in the morning for coffee or gas on my way to work. I stopped in one Sunday morning for coffee on my way to work, in my "skinny" blue jeans and a t-shirt.

While I was getting coffee, Akeem said something like "You've lost a lot of weight no?"

I replied, "Yes, I have been."

Akeem seriously said this: "You were really fat before." Now, I let this slide and I didn't get offended because he's from India and I don't know if that's something people India freely say to other people. I figured he doesn't know better, at least a common-sense American wouldn't say something like that. At least I hope they wouldn't.

A little background on Akeem. He's a nice man, probably in his late 40s or early 50s would be my guess. His family is back in India and he's told me that he makes more money working at the BP than he did as a police officer in India and he sends money home to his family. I believe his cousin owns the BP Station, I'm not sure.

Anyone, a couple weeks later I was getting gas on my way to work and I was dressed in work clothes. I went in for coffee and he told me that I needed to stop losing weight, that I was getting too skinny. He was guessing that I lost 25-30 pounds, but I informed him that it was more like 50 at that time and you'd think he'd have a heart attack from what I said. And then again he nearly scolded me in the store and told me to stop losing weight. Funny stuff.

Today I went in for coffee again on my way into work and he said I looked good, actually like I put a few pounds back on, or at least that's what I gathered from his comments when in fact I haven't gained anything back yet. I just told him that I was running more now and eating more because I'm doing more. That kept him from making anymore comments.

I'm sure the next time I walk in there with work clothes on he'll have something to say.

Akeem actually is a very nice person and we chitchat often when I go in there. I just think he's pretty funny because I never know what to expect him to say when I walk in there for coffee.

I'd get a fountain Diet Coke, but they have Pepsi, bleh!!!

He Made That!

2009-06-23T21:34:00.003-04:00

If you know anything about Steve's family, you know that there is a LOT of talent among them all. Be it woodworking, knitting, crochet, painting, stained glass, sewing, and whatever else I can't think of off the top of my head. Last September, Steve's Grandfather was asking all the women in the family what their favorite flower was. Mine, Birds of Paradise. I think I like them so much because they are so exotic to Michigan yet when I go to California, there are Birds of Paradise shrubs/bushes all over the place in people's yards. Anywho, I like the uniqueness of it, the vibrant oranges and the shapes.

So I was curious why he asked and when I saw him on Father's Day, I found out. He made me this lamp. It's awesome!!!

Grandma told me he had a total of 17 lamps to make for all the women in Steve's family. That's crazy!!!

Here is another picture with the light on. Since I can't have real flowers around the house because of the cats, these Birds of Paradise will never go bad and the cats can't eat them.

Dear Sister

2009-06-17T21:40:00.003-04:00

This is prolly one of my favorite SNL Digital Shorts, I think mostly because of the Imogen Heap song Hide and Seek played during it.

This SNL spoof is based on the season finale of the second season of the OC. I don't watch the OC, but I like the SNL spoof better.

Immigrant Tale

2009-06-17T18:04:00.001-04:00

I think this clip is hilarious with Justin Timberlake on SNL.

36:35--My Personal Best

2009-06-13T19:49:00.003-04:00

My best time for a 5K evar! My best friend Robin and I ran the Brian Diemer Amerikam 5K in Cutlerville this morning in a light rain. At the start of the race, it seemed like the temperature was just right, but dang, once we started the first mile, it got humid. I didn't overheat myself at all and I was thankful for the many water stations along the route, more than I've seen during any 5K this year. My goal this summer is to keep improving my time with each 5K I run. My next 5K is June 27th--Reeds Lake Run in East Grand Rapids. Five more 5Ks, one 10K, and a 1/2 marathon yet for me, all through October 18th. I'm actually hoping to find more local 5Ks through July and August to keep me busy. I really enjoy them. WHAT? Did I just say that?

I had my first go at a spinning class last Wednesday night. I have a summer membership at the Athletic Club in the basement of our building where I work. Anywho, it was a spinning + abs class--spinning for 45 minutes, abs for 15. I haven't ridden a bike in a few years and I really wasn't sure how rough the class would be on me. Yousa! It was rough, but it was a GREAT workout and I'm going to continue this class twice a week through the summer. And, I just picked up a pair of padded bike shorts so my butt won't be nearly as sore as it was after class this week.

Because I'm Crazy Like That

2009-06-01T18:55:00.003-04:00

Yep, I think I am. I'm running more and more each day, or rather each trip to the gym or now outside on my 1-mile stretch that I measured out about a 1/2 mile from our townhouse. Yesterday morning I walked to the start of the 1-mile strip intent on running at least 2 of the 4 miles. Unfortunately, I made it about 1.75 of the 2 miles and walked the rest of it, 5 miles total. If there was someone along that route in the morning with a small water station, I'd be golden and would probably be able to run farther. So if anyone saw me running along 32nd Avenue yesterday morning at 7:30, here's your hint to get that water station going.

I need to start adding more miles to my route at least on the weekends so that I can prepare myself for the 10K I have on August 29th and then for the half marathon I have October 18th. In between today and those dates, 5Ks. What can I say, I'm hooked on the junk!

I've also settled on terms that my head is an odd shape--please, no comments from the peanut gallery. I tried wearing one of those grippy headbands yesterday morning to hold my hair out of my face and I thought it was working well and holding up until I started walking and found the frickin' thing on the sidewalk. Steve always said I had a big head and I thought it would hold this thing but apparently not. I've given up on those things. Until my head starts sweating a lot, I'll have to push the hair out of my face until the sweat keeps in in place.

So I'm up to running 30 minutes straight on the treadmill and I need to slowly increase that. I figure if I can get to 45 minutes by the time the 10K rolls again, I should be in good shape.

5Ks yet this summer to run--7 through October
10K--August 29
1/2 marathon--October 18

Kronwall Hit On Havlat

2009-05-23T10:30:00.002-04:00

Wow! If you don't have Versus and missed last night's Red Wings/Blackhawks game, you missed this HUGE, LEGAL hit by Niklas Kronwall.

He got a 5 minute major misconduct and ejected from the game, which he shouldn't have because it was a legal hit. I can't tell you how many times this hit was replayed but it was painful to watch because we seriously thought Havlat was knocked unconscious and then players fell on him and then everyone was fighting over him.

I had to cover my eyes after the 3rd or 4th replay. Thankfully, Havlat was able to get up after that. He didn't return to the game that night but from what I read on the Blackhawks website, Havlat's condition improved last night and he'll be re-evaluated today for Sunday's game.

It's Not All Talk

2009-05-17T13:44:00.003-04:00

Here's pictures of me running the 5K of the Fifth Third River Bank Run. Not great pictures of course, but proof. I must have had my hands over my numbers at the finish, otherwise there'd be some crossing the finish, but I did finish.

Here's my best friend Robin running as well. She TOTALLY kicks ass compared to me. Robin runs a 9 minute mile. Me, more like 13. AND, the folks at the Fifth Third Run still haven't found Robin's actual finish time. The clock at the finish reads 31 minutes, but Robin didn't start running right at zero, more like 3 minutes after that. Hopefully they will find her time. I think she had a PR that day, but we don't know yet.

There won't be too many 5Ks we participate in this summer that will have pictures, so I'll put them up while I can. And if you really want a coffee mug with one of my pictures on it, I'd be happy to oblige.

Next 5K is the 23rd. I'm hoping to run all of it, but that all depends on the weather. If it stays cool, I have a good chance of running the entire thing AND improving my time.

5Ks and Hockey, What Else is There in Life?

2009-05-13T19:57:00.004-04:00

Yep, that's about it right now, at least in our house. I ran the Fifth Third River Bank Run on Saturday, finished it in pouring rain, in 41:11. Not a great mile/minute rate, but my best 5K time of the three I've done so far this year. I had a blast. It took me almost 4 minutes to cross the start line!! There were nearly 17,000 people running between all of the races. I ran farther than I thought I would and I could kick myself for stopping to walk. I was really trying to push myself to run a farther distance than that. Next time, I'll try harder.

I have another 5K here on May 23rd in town, the Reeds Lake Run at the end of June, one in July, the Mitchell's Run Through Rockford in August, possibly the Crim Run in Flint in August, one in Middleville in September, and my most exciting 5K that I've signed up for so far, the Big House Big Heart 5K Run on October 4th, in Ann Arbor.

This Big House run is unique and exciting to me. It starts just north of Michigan Stadium and ends up with you finishing by entering the tunnel of the Big House and running to one end zone and then crossing mid-field at the 50 yard line and you'll be able to see yourself finish on the huge-ass big screens at the end of the Stadium. When I was checking this 5K out this morning, I didn't really get excited until I saw the video on how you finish in the middle of the field. How could I possibly pass up this 5K opportunity???? Yeah, I know!!!! As soon as I saw that, I signed up this morning. I'm geeked about this one!

AND, I believe I'm going to register (by week end to avoid a $10 jump in registration fees) for the Grand Rapids Marathon on October 18th. Mind you, there is also a half marathon, THAT is the race I will be registering for, not the full marathon. I'm not ready for that, YET. I thought this would be a good somewhat "long-term" goal to work on. Plus, I think I'm getting the running bug, if that is possible. Running is such a GREAT stress reliever for me, I can't even begin to tell you. AND, I enjoy it. I KNOW that sounds crazy, but I do. I don't run fast and I don't care about that either. Sure, I'd like to improve my time over the summer, but I'm not going to be fanatical about it. It's a great adrenaline rush to start with all those people.

This may not be a good night to talk about hockey, but if there is a playoff game anywhere on TV, you can bet big money we've watched it. Right now Steve is in the basement suffering through Game 7 of the Capitals v Penguins, now 4-0. I'd turn the TV off if I were him. What agony. Of course we want the Capitals to win, but right now, chances seem astronomical at best.

Less Than Three Days Now . . .

2009-05-06T18:49:00.003-04:00

until the 32nd Annual Fifth Third River Bank Run that begins on one side of the building I work in and ends on the other side.

After I stopped at Target and bought myself a running skort, the excitement has started to build. Tomorrow my best friend Robin and I are going to do a "test" run of the course during our lunch hour.

There are various races, a 5K Run, a 5K Walk, a 10K Run, a 25K Wheelchair Race, and the biggest race, the 25K Run. Actually, it is the largest 25K race in the country. It is anticipated that over 16,000 people will be participating on Saturday and I am looking forward to the adrenaline rush that I'll get just standing on Monroe waiting to start the race. When I'm not running or volunteering for the race, then I come downtown anyways just to watch the start, it's awesome.

I just learned today that there is also a Mascot Division for this race. I thought that was hilarious, but I have to admit, I have seen batman running in the race if I had to think of a mascot or someone in costume.

Here's hoping I finish in plenty of time to watch the start of the 25K!!!!

It's That Time of Year Again . . .

2009-05-04T19:02:00.003-04:00

to make the ascent to the top of the world, Mt. Everest that is. The month of May serves as the best window of opportunity if you're willing. I'm not. I'm afraid to stand on top of a ladder let alone climb the 29,002 feet to the summit. I have a name for those folks and let's just say they have a LOT of crazy on their face.

My fascination with "all things Everest-related" began when Steve and I were traveling somewhere and for some bizarre reason I wasn't driving this time. (Tangent: I ALWAYS drive. Steve likes to read and watch movies while I drive.)

Steve recently bought an issue of Men's Health Magazine and I was thumbing through it and came across an article about the 1996 expedition to the summit. If you've never read the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, you must read it. He was on that expedition led by Rob Hall, who died on the mountain that May. It is a fascinating account of the climb and the dangers involved in every aspect of it. A must read as far as I'm concerned.

And of course, there is a Michigan connection in the 1996 expedition. Lou Kasischke, an attorney from Bloomfield Hills, was on that expedition. I know that he occasionally speaks on the subject and I'd love to hear his account of everything that went on during that expedition.

You can keep tabs on the Everest expeditions this year by going here. Scary but fascinating stuff!

It's Been a While, I Know, I Know . . .

2009-04-29T19:39:00.003-04:00

Time to update. I've been a bit busy. I served as the Co-Chair for the NALS of Michigan 2009 Annual Meeting and Educational Conference last weekend at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel.

The planning was two years in the making and the last couple of months have been insane as far as planning goes. A lot of details to attend to and a lot of everything else to attend to. We had roughly 105 people attend, all the rooms in the block were reserved (thank goodness--I was worried about that in this economy), and it seemed to flow pretty well.

Thursday afternoon it started with the Executive Committee meeting at our firm, Friday is a day of legal education with exhibitors and topped off with a welcome reception at the Gerald R. Ford Museum. Saturday is the general business with a recognition luncheon and a Dinner that saw the installation of the new officers. Sunday is the get everything packed back up, transferred to who gets to plan the next meeting, and so on.

I stayed at the Amway the entire time. It just makes it that much easier to get everywhere and everything set up in time for the next event.

I didn't plan all of this myself. I had a lot of help. We had an entire committee that participated and really helped the flow of the whole event.

And, I'm so glad it's all over. So glad.

NOW, I can concentrate fully on my guitar playing. It's been a bit neglected in the past couple of weeks because of this meeting and I've been furiously getting back into the groove of a long practice every night and practicing my playing and singing, still not an easy task.

AND, I've now lost 40.4 pounds! I just think that is CRAZY!! I guess the obsession continues with every aspect of getting in shape and developing healthy habits for the rest of my life, from the exercise to the shopping for groceries to the food itself. I am so loving the smaller clothes, that rocks! And even the smaller clothes are getting big on me. If that's not motivation to keep up these habits, I don't know what is. My smaller work pants are big enough that I can "pants" myself. And you should have seen me in this black dress I bought for the Saturday banquet. I know I was smokin' hot! It's too bad I don't have another opportunity to wear it anytime soon.

I've "run" two 5Ks in the past month as well. I ran the Spectrum Health 5K Irish Jig in March, it was snowing! And then the 2nd race was the Achilles Ale 5K sponsored by a local brewery on April 18th and it was hotter than heck. I walked a lot of that race and I got sunburned as well. Next up, the Hospice for Michigan 5K Walk this weekend in East Grand Rapids and on May 9th, the Fifth Third River Bank Run in downtown Grand Rapids.

Busy, busy, busy. That's what I am these days. Not too busy to take a few minutes to buy tickets for the Chris Isaak show on July 19th at Meadowbrooke. I'm hoping my college buddies Rick and Toni are able to make it as well. It's become tradition that we go together to see Chris Isaak.

As far as the Detroit Tigers go, I haven't purchased ANY tickets to ANY games yet! I'm planning on a game August 8th with Toni. We had a blast last summer and the fireworks show after weekend games is quite impressive since they light the fireworks off right in centerfield. Color me impressed!

My current viewing obsession right now is watching Mad Men. I LOVE this show!!! I could TOTALLY live in the 60s era, such a slow pace of life compared to now--regular rotary dial phones, I'm all for eliminating all modern forms of communication for that! I just love every aspect of the show, it rocks.

Is that a decent update? I hope so.

Life is Good, Really Good

2009-04-10T17:00:00.008-04:00

I turned 40 today.

I kind of dreaded it at first until I realized that 40 doesn't really mean anything. If I were to turn 50, then I could look forward to my auto insurance rates to drop a bit. I can wait for that.

Steve got me a new white MacBook, which I absolutely LOVE!!

My friend Robin and her boss came over to my desk with a cupcake cake decorated like a baseball. It was so cool!

AND, they got me a Detroit Tigers Mr. Potato Head, AWESOME!!

This morning at 11am the receptionist in our office called me to say I had something at the receptionist desk and I needed to come upstairs right away. I was a bit cautious heading up there cuz I had no idea what it could be. I saw my twin nieces, Colette and Elyse staring and smiling at me through the glass at the top of the stairs and I freaked! My sister Denise, my Mom, and the girls TOTALLY surprised me by driving over from Detroit to take me out for lunch for my birthday. I was in tears it was so thoughtful of them to do something like that. I NEVER expected it. It was AWESOME and SO totally made my day.

AND, the Tigers won their Opening Day game tonight and Steve and I are going for Thai food for dinner.

I count my blessings every day--a totally awesome family, a hilarious husband that I so truly love and adore, and GREAT caring, thoughtful friends. I couldn't ask for anything more.

All the More Reason to Love Mike Ilitch

2009-04-05T10:18:00.002-04:00

ARTICLE

Who Has That Kind of Time?

2009-04-05T09:50:00.003-04:00

I certainly don't. I have a Twitter account and I follow about 35 people or so, roughly. I prefer to follow people that don't fill my home page with replies to every tweet that someone makes and they follow. Follow me so far? I don't have time to keep up with that stuff.

Yesterday, I saw a tweet by someone I follow in which he posted a pic and said that the first person to name where the pic he uploaded was would get a retweet, or he'd reply back to you. Simple enough. I Googled what the picture was (luggage tower) and found it immediately on Flickr. So I replied directly back to him with the Sacramento Int'l Airport. I was the first and I got a retweet back from him.

After that, I got 2 new people following me on Twitter. This morning, I went to my Twitter page and both of those people apparently have a lot of time on their hands to reply to A LOT of tweets. I'm not complaining about them in particular and maybe they had a couple days off to catch up on Twitter, but I don't have that kind of time so even if you direct message me on Twitter, I may not get back to you for days. Nothing against you. I'm just a busy girl (girl, not woman--I haven't grown up yet) and Twitter is no priority to me these days, just fun stuff.

It's funny how people find you on Twitter too. I made a comment in response to a tweet someone posted about airport security and that Steve would prefer to fly naked in a bathrobe and flip flops to get through airport security faster and then minutes later, Flip Flop Shops started following me. Weird.

I suppose if I traveled a lot and had a Blackberry or iPhone that I'd tweet more, but I don't do either and so I don't "Tweet" that often.

Heart Attack on a Plate, Literally

2009-03-26T20:42:00.003-04:00

Ugh, this much beef in a sammich gives me a tummy ache just thinking about it. But, as in the past, the chefs at the park try to come up with something different for each new season--deep fried twinkie and deep fried pepsi are a couple that come to mind, but this sammich is freakin' huge!

And here's how it's made.

Irish Jig

2009-03-21T22:19:00.003-04:00

This morning I, along with my friend Robin and 2 other co-workers, participated in the Spectrum Health Irish Jig. When I say "participated," that doesn't mean I ran the whole thing, of course not. I tried. It was a little difficult to breath properly when it was lightly snowing, there was a more than light breeze, and the snot was freezing in my nose, at least in the first 1/4 mile anyways. I had to start walking to get the snot unfrozen and finish the rest of the race breathing through my mouth. I did run a lot of it, but I walked more than I ran and as I turned the last corner towards the finish line I started running it.

Thankfully, I wasn't the last person to finish, there were a LOT of walkers in this 5K as well. I was just happy to finish and I definitely wasn't cold by the time I finished, in 42 minutes. Even if I were to run the entire race, my time wouldn't have been much greater than 42 minutes. I tend to jog more than run, and I'm okay with that.

After the race as we were walking back to our cars, some genius in the group suggested we do one 5K a month through fall.

Okay, I suppose I can do that.

California, Here I Come!

2009-03-18T18:43:00.003-04:00

In late October that is. I've been occasionally looking online for flights, both out of Grand Rapids and Detroit. The lowest I saw yesterday out of GR was $318 and it wasn't much less out of DTW. But today, I checked and a flight out of DTW to LAX was $250 so I bought a ticket. I checked out of GR for the same dates and it was nearly $400! So, I'll bite the bullet, drive to my little sis' house in Ypsi and leave from there.

My sister lives in South Pasadena, what better location in Cali to live eh? Less than 10 minutes from the Rose Bowl, about 14 miles from LA, distance-wise that is. It's about a 45 minute drive in LA traffic. Crazy that!

I'm excited though. I haven't been out there since before my nieces were born and they'll be 6 this summer. I do have a few "MUST DO/SEE" items on my itinerary already.

First off, U2 will be playing at the Rose Bowl on October 25th and my sis has never been and so I'm going to take her. This item is actually a MUST SEE for her and I'm excited to go along with.

Secondly, the Magic Castle in Hollywood. My sister is a member there and this place was the top highlight of my last trip out there. It was me, my bro, my other little sis and the Cali sis that went for dinner and enjoyed a show after dinner. It was GREAT! I had such a blast on our visit there that I'm jealous when I see it on TV or when my Cali sis talks about going to it. The Magic Castle is a MUST SEE for anyone that has an opportunity to go.

Thirdly, the Griffith Observatory is ALWAYS a MUST SEE for me whenever I go. I LOVE this place. It's nestled in the Hollywood Hills very near the famous "HOLLYWOOD" sign and at night, the view of LA is AMAZING!!!

Here is a pic of the view from the Observatory, very very cool stuff!

The famous Hollywood Bowl is also located very close to the Observatory.

Lastly, I just LOVE everything about California, the landscaping, the architecture, and the atmosphere. California was the first place I saw actual oranges on a tree, which was weird at first and the fact that people just leave those oranges lying on the ground, kind of like we do apples, is a bit odd to see. But that's just me I suppose. I also LOVE the fact that people have Birds of Paradise bushes in their front yard, they're so pretty.

I know this trip is a few months away and I have plenty of time to get excited but I just can't help myself.

Almost 25 lbs

2009-03-11T18:40:00.004-04:00

That's how much weight I think I will have lost when I weigh in this week. I think I'll pass it, but I won't know till tomorrow noon. People at work are starting to notice, it's pretty cool. And still obsessed with the gym as well. My goal each week is 6 days, but it ends up being 5 most of the time, which is good. I probably need to rest from it once in a while.

Still obsessed with what goes in my mouth as well. I'm surprised I haven't had a craving for peanut butter since I haven't had any since mid-January. I've found my new favorite chinese dish lately as well. Mixed vegetables in garlic sauce, it rocks.

If I think about it, I don't believe I've had any fried foods since mid-January either, mostly vegetables, lean protein, lean dairy, etc.

Wish me luck at weigh in tomorrow, I'm geeked. I'm already loving the fact that my new smaller pants are a little bit big on me in places. :))

The Crack of the Bat . . .

2009-03-06T20:23:00.004-05:00

The roar of the crowd . . . Opening Day tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 10 am at the Detroit Tigers' website!!! I'm hoping hoping hoping that I am able to secure 3 tickets for Opening Day. I'd be so geeked if it all works out. Two friends of mine from work and I are hoping to go to our "annual Tigers' game" on Opening Day, also my 40th birthday.

My brother and I were lucky to be able to go to Opening Day last year and froze our butts off, but that's also when we met "NASCAR" guy and it was cool to see all the stats for the season starting at zero and batting averages for everyone starting at 1.000.

In case you missed the video of our "NASCAR" guy from last year's Opening Day, here's the link to the entry and video I captured.

CLICK HERE.

I can't frickin' wait for the season to start!

If I Don't Update Soon . . .

2009-03-03T18:59:00.003-05:00

Steve will start giving me crap about it, so here goes it.

Still obsessed with the gym and getting up at 3:45am. I really thought I was the only crazy one to get up this early. Nooo. There are typically 3 other people already at the gym when I get there, go figure. Down 20.6 pounds as of last Thursday and still cranking. I was able to buy smaller dress pants the other day, you gotta love that. I only bought one though. Industrial strength safety pins are holding my bigger pants up for now. Hey, don't knock it, you can't see them and it works. Plus, the dept store only had one of the size pants I was looking for anyways.

Work, still busy as heck. The paralegal I work for today told me that the attorney I work for said that my messy desk causes her a lot of chaos. Well, as soon as things start slowing down, it won't be so messy. In the almost 14 years I've worked there, it hasn't slowed down for me. I can't do much to help there.

Why is it that I never bother the cats while they're sleeping but when I try to sleep in, no can do. Teller will come by my pillow about an hour or so before I'm to get up. Somehow she senses that stuff. She sleeps right next to my head and as it gets closer to my wake up time, she flops her butt in my face, not once, every few minutes. On Sunday morning I tried to take a nap after getting back from the gym and she kept flopping so I got up and gave them cat treats thinking that would make her go away. Not so much. Less than 10 minutes later, she was flopping again and meowing this time. I suppose when Teller's up, everyone's up. And, while I'm typing this, she's sitting on the desk between me and the computer. Some people's kids!!!

We do the Netflix thing now and this past Friday we watched Animal House. Steve had never seen it. Still as hilarious after all these years. And, we've been watching all of NewsRadio, all seasons. That show TOTALLY rocked. We laugh just as hard now as when it first aired and I'm sad that we're almost near the end of the episodes. Of course, the last season started out with the cast returning from Bill McNeil's (Phil Hartman) funeral and I was a slobbering idiot at the end of the show. It's such a shame the good ones are taken away too soon. He totally carried that show. I love Phil Hartman.

And, the some of the best updates today? Single game Detroit Tigers' tickets go on sale this weekend, including Opening Day, on my 40th birthday!!!!

It's a Good Sign

2009-02-25T18:55:00.002-05:00

The Detroit Tigers won their first exhibition game today 5-4 over Atlanta. I was able to listen to a lot of the game online, but I've been so frickin' busy at work lately that just the couple of innings that I did listen to was totally worth waiting for.

Now I gotta head down to the basement to see what games are being rebroadcast on MLB TV.

If anyone has Dish and actually has the MLB channel, I need to know which channel that is so that I can find it at the gym.

39 days to Opening Day on April 10th baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Swear By This Stuff!!!!

2009-02-21T12:20:00.003-05:00

Vita Cold. Best stuff EVAR! We have it in our medicine cabinets at work and I started taking it in mid-October before we went to Vegas. I DID NOT want to get sick before or during our trip. And I've been taking it every day since and I've not even had the sniffles yet this winter (knock on my noggin)! When there are sick people around me at work, I take it every 4-6 hours. There are no side effects to this stuff. The ingredients are: Astragalus, Echinacea, Elderberry, Goldenseal, Ligustrum, Vitamin C, Zinc Gluconate, and Zinc 3x.

Our medicine cabinet supplier has been slacking as of late and there's been a dry spell of this stuff, but I had a small stash at my desk, thank goodness. And, I found an 80 count box online at Clark Safety and stocked up.

Vita Cold is now my winter MUST HAVE!

I've Committed Myself

2009-02-16T21:03:00.002-05:00

Today I registered for the Fifth Third River Bank Run. NOT the 25K, or the 10K, but the 5K.

I'm not getting any younger people, I'll be turning 40 in April, much to my dismay. Devastating isn't it? I think so. I'd prefer to be like 34, 35, or 36 for a long time before turning 40.

With that in mind, I joined the At-Work Weight Watchers a little over 4 weeks ago and I've lost 13.8 pounds so far with 15 weeks left in this session.

I started going to Snap Fitness at the end of November and I haven't stopped since. Actually I try to get there 6 days a week in the wee hours of the morning, that being about 4:15 am. I know that's early for most people, but if I don't get this done and out of the way for my day, I don't think I'd make it there after work when it's even more crowded and those darn "resolution" people are still around. That's okay, I ignore them now. The old man and I know who started there first that early in the morning when the gym first opened back in November.

I'm actually becoming obsessed with exercise which I was hoping would happen except that I bought new moisture-wicking socks and wore them yesterday and struggled through my hour on the treadmill in pain, only to discover a huge blister and blood on my shoe and sock. No pain, no gain right?

As for Weight Watchers, I have been totally strict about staying on or just under my points range, very strict. I made a bunch of peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies for Steve yesterday and didn't have a cookie or lick my fingers from making them either. The Momentum Plan allows for 35 extra points to be used throughout the week or in a day if you really want to use them and the exercise gives me Activity Points to use/eat in addition to the 35 and I've rarely dipped in to them at all.

I've been walking an hour on the treadmill when I do go to the gym. The key to a whole hour for me is distractions. I listen to my iPod Shuffle filled with rockin' music and I can see 3 different TVs when I'm on the treadmills. If there is a live sports event, which is rare so far with the exception of the Australian Open, then all the better. When baseball gets started, I'll be even more content to stay on for an hour and watch replays of the previous day's games.

Not to mention the fact that exercise is a GREAT stress reliever and the OT hasn't slowed down for me at work whatsoever. Actually, the last two weeks have been incredibly busy even though I work in real estate and construction law, in Michigan. Go figure! Even more reason to drag my butt out of bed and get going.

And, I sleep like a frickin' log every night. I'm out within 5 minutes each night, it's awesome. I barely have time to finish my prayers before I'm out! It rocks!

So, that being said, I've been working on running part of the time while I'm on the treadmill as well to build up my stamina to do THE 5K in May. I did the 5K in 1997 and 2002 and I'm determined to run/jog the whole thing again this Spring, cuz I'll be 40 by then.

Wish me luck!