Committed to Rock

Photo today: We committed and paid good money to run the inaugural Rock 'N' Roll Seattle Half Marathon on June 27th. Gulp. I've been a race commitment-phobe for two months now, because I've been just running for fun and I didn't want to jinx being injured. You know that's what always happens when you commit yourself and your money to a big race. You immediately get injured! But I decided to commit to a half marathon first. If my training goes well, then I'll run the Rock 'N' Roll San Diego Marathon on May 31st. I hope I can run the RnR San Diego. I feel like it's a rite of passage since I live here! But wahoo, Seattle here we come! Tonight was WCRR Night at Road Runner Sports. The RnR marathons were giving us a discount for signing up tonight, AND a free t-shirt! Who could resist a free t-shirt that says "Rock Seattle"? And because it was WCRR Night, we got 25% discount off the whole store, so I got some new running shoes. Well, they're exactly the same as my current running shoes, but I need two pairs to rotate around so that I can have a dirty pair and a cleaner pair to run inside on the treadmill. And now I won't have to buy a new pair to run my half marathon. Did you know each pair of running shoes only last 300 miles? So if I run 25 miles/week, they only last 12 weeks. :: stare :: I used to think it was something made up by the shoe companies to get us to buy new shoes more often. Until I noticed that when I run with old shoes my knees, shins, heels, everything hurts. So now I'm sold. And I write the date of my first wearing of a new pair of shoes right on the bottom of the shoe with permanent marker, so I know approximately when to switch. After Road Runner Sports, we stopped at Jasmine for dinner. We had Ginger & Scallion Beef, Harbor Cod Filet, and Salt & Pepper Tofu. We kinda didn't know that two out of the three dishes were deep fried. Yikes. Pretty yummy though, and we got leftovers for lunch tomorrow. The highlight of the dinner was when they brought out a dessert of red bean soup, unexpectedly. Todd loves this stuff and can eat like 5 bowls. He's been asking at every Chinese restaurant if they have it and he's been disappointed for a while now. Until tonight, when they brought it out. You should have seen his face, he was super-excited! LOL, it's these little delights that make my happy memories. Sigh. Ok, enough rambling about running and shoes and red bean soup. This week's Digi Dare is up and it's due by Thursday night at 11:59 PM Eastern Time! We are scrapping our "right now". Come join in the fun for a chance to win some awesome prizes! Here's my layout for it: (ha ha I just noticed it's about running - I didn't plan this to be in the same post, it's a coincidence) Full credits here.

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Busting At The Seams

Ever have one of those days when there's so much life and love that it's just busting at the seams? Yesterday was one of those days. Our next door neighbor Fred turned 60 years old, and all his peeps came to celebrate with him. And when Fred & Annie put on a party, THEY PUT ON A PARTY! So, after our eight mile run yesterday, we hurried home and took showers and cleaned ourselves up. I had balloon duty! The amount of food that Annie got together was... incomprehensible. I bow down to her party cooking prowess! She did order some of the food from L&L Hawaiian Barbeque, but she cooked most of it. ~WOW~

1. Vegetarian and meat lumpia (my favorite Filipino food!)
2. Saffron rice
3. All kinds of nuts
4. Olive goodness
5. Salad
6. Chinese sesame crackers
7. Chorizo cheese nachos
8. Fruit salad
9. Pancit noodles (Filipino) and BBQ chicken (Hawaiian)
10. Baked gnocchi and veggie lasagne
11. Sausages
12. Meffuleta sandwiches

In addition, Annie labeled all of the food so we knew what we were pigging out on. She's very organized! The amazing Annie, doing the "Vanna White": Besides the main dishes, there was a side table of good eats: Heading over to the next room, the desserts: Look how awesome these party favor chocolates are! Heading over to the coffee table: Yes, I'm serious. Fred really is a coffee nut, isn't he? But hey, we all get to benefit, so no complaints from me! Here are some of the labels closer up. Fred actually printed out a menu to hand out to guests. Above the dessert table, we all enjoyed this "Wall of Fred": This one is even funnier. Annie made a panel of "Yes He Can" photos of Fred doing stuff like skiing with a gorilla suit on, riding motorbikes, sailing, etc. Fred is an engineer. This is one of a number of patents that he owns: At one point, some of Fred's friends brought in a well-designed and engineered "gift" for Fred. I present, the Geriatric Toilet: It comes complete with remote control sounds of toilet enjoyment, and the engineering manual. Fred was super-stoked to try it out. Ok, now onto the main topic of conversation of the party: the heralded Bird Poop Coffee. I present, the Brazil Jacu Bird Coffee: Yes, the Jacu bird in Brazil eat the ripe coffee cherries and poop out the beans. They are then collected, cleaned, and dried. The owner of the farm considers it a form of natural selection of beans, whereby the birds pick the best beans to eat. The Bird Poop Coffee offered endless entertainment as Fred's friends jockeyed for position for a taste: (Psst... I used Peppermint's Macchiato Lightroom Preset on these. I rather like how they turned out.) Of course, any good party has a wild party animal who livens up the party for everyone: Andy with Fred. Andy is a huge connoisseur of coffee as well, and performed barista duties during the party: Yvonne with Andy. Yvonne actually has a coffee cart in front of Kaiser Permanente on Claremont Mesa Blvd. She is a high-caliber barista beloved by many who travel far and wide for the pilgrimage to Yvonne's cart. One of the highlights of the afternoon was when Jennifer arrived. She is a hula/Tahitian dancer and she's so graceful and absolutely fabulous. We were enthralled as we watched some hip movements that seemed to take her joints out of place. Sweet Annie secretly took six lessons from Jennifer, and together they performed a hula dance to Elvis Presley's "Blue Hawaii": Afterwards, there were hugs of appreciation of such a sweet and fun surprise: Fred & Annie with Jennifer: Annie is dragging me to Thursday night hula lessons with Jennifer now. I can't wait. I already hurt my neck and shoulder from pilates. Can't wait to get my hips out of joint from amateur hula dancing. Yikes! I did get to talk to Jennifer for a while afterwards, and found out that we went to the same church! Not only is she a Christian, but her husband Shawn plays the guitar and used to play at the Thursday night College & Career service. AND Shawn works directly across the street from Todd. AND they live right down the street from us, within a few minutes of walking distance. I was so glad to meet her! Cake time! Check out this incredible birthday cake that has two of Fred's passions on it, coffee, and guitar playing: Fred after blowing out some candles. I missed the candle-blowing shot! :( Todd helping Annie with the cake: Lastly, Fred got some awesome gifts from his friends. Some were gag, some were not. This was of the gag variety: An oatmeal box that turned out to be prune juice inside. Useful. Needless to say, this was a party to remember. Here's to Fred! Oh and I almost forgot my photo of today! We went to AJ & Meera's church today, and to their house afterwards for lunch. Meera made taco salad and it was super delicious! Then Todd helped AJ with some computer programming homework. I love hanging out with them. :)

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Dirt Don't Hurt

Photo today, courtesy of Todd: Today was our first trail run of the season. Well, we missed the first trail run with WCRR a few weeks ago, so for *us* it was the first trail run today. What a beautiful day to run @ Lake Hodges in Escondido! One of the best things about joining a running club is that I get to see the most beautiful sights of San Diego, at a time in the morning when it's not too crowded, and during the "golden hour" of morning light. Alarm went off at 6:00 AM, and today I was actually awake before that! I was a little apprehensive about running eight miles today because of my strained shoulder/neck, but I felt better than I did the last few days, so I decided to give it a shot. We arrived at Kit Carson Park around 6:50 AM and my group, the "Catalina", took off at 7:05 AM. Everything runs right on schedule with WCRR, LOL. Todd always brings a book because his faster group, the "Marine Corp", always starts 15-30 minutes after my group. (The groups are named after famous marathons.) I brought my iPod today and listened to Tristan Prettyman the whole time. First time I ran with music this season... I was always towards the back of the pack today, just trying to take it easy. Between my hurt shoulder and my first trail run of the season, I didn't want to push it and get further injured. I really enjoyed running on the dirt trails, it really was more gentle on my legs. The views were really awe-inspiring. The crisp, fresh air, and the rolling hills along the water was a feast for the eyes, and the soul. I really like this photo of runners going up a gentle slope on the side of the mountain: More lake: We had to cross a small creek: My strained shoulder did bother me a little bit. Sometimes I felt like the Hunchback of Notre Dame was running, but I tried to keep my posture upright and shoulders back and arms down. My time today was definitely slower. But I did sort of a "gut-check" on why I run, and beating a certain time or going fast was pretty far down the list. I run to make friends, enjoy the scenery, and take photos. So if those things slow me down, well, I guess I'll just be a slow runner then. Todd took some awesome photos with his Olympus 1030SW today. Here is his group running out of Kit Carson Park: Some more pretty scenery: After the run we had a short seminar on stretching and yoga, which was rather enjoyable. I should have taken a photo of the mass of people doing the downward dog on their towels on the grass, but I fell down on the job. :p Oh, my good friend Peppermint has re-launched her blog, and she's giving away a Macchiato Lightroom Preset on her blog. Go over there and check it out! Another thing... I missed my 4 year skydive-a-versary yesterday! It was something that I did once, and it was exhilirating, fantastic, and frightening, but I'm never doing it again! (Despite what I said in the video, LOL!) I remember this day every year and thank God I'm alive! Tomorrow I will be posting photos and story of our next door neighbor Fred's 60th birthday extravaganza party that we attended today, including bird poop coffee. Intriguing, isn't it?

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A Mish Mash of Stuffs

Photo today: We went to Rite-Aid for ice cream after dinner today. Only $1.18 per scoop! And yes what we got was considered only ONE scoop, even though it looked rather large. And Todd didn't really eat both of them, he was just holding it for me while I took a photo of him. Of course, we consider this part of the carbo-loading for running tomorrow. My neck and right shoulder still hurts a little and it's still sore, but I'm going to try to do the run tomorrow. This photo is for AJ: Who's the man, eh? Eh? The Todd finished Lego Star Wars last night! 100% done! It took him a couple of months of playing a few hours a week, but he's finally finished the game. Anyone play Lego Indiana Jones? Lynnette? Is it similar? Is it fun? I found a couple of blog related things lately that intrigued me. First is a freeware software called Blogger Backup that backs up all your Blogger posts and comments and fully restores your blog when you need to. I found out about it from here and several other places after googling around about backing up a Blogger blog. I haven't tried it yet but I plan to. Second blog-related thing is something I saw on Shabby Miss Jenn's blog. You can print your Blogger, Typepad, or Wordpress blog into a book here. I thought that was super-cool. Except that the book isn't big enough if you blog with photos everyday. Something to check out and think about. Last but not least, check out this month's Songbird Avenue kit Bunny Love by Holliewood Studios, Queen of Quirk, Meredith Fenwick, and Amy Wolff. All proceeds minus paypal fees benefit the Make A Wish Foundation. There's been a lot of talk lately about where the money from charity kits really go. You can rest assured that Songbird Avenue donates all proceeds every month to the charity organization that month. Jan Crowley provides a copy of the receipt every month on the Songbird Avenue blog. My layout with it: Pardon the pun.

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