Cooler Weather

It's cooling down (again), but I hope this time it doesn't get back too hot again. It was nice to run in the cool without having to get up at 5am!

The past month and a half has been quite busy. The latest was going up to Carson City for my cousin's wedding. It was really nice to see family and visit with everyone. I would post pictures, but I left my camera in the hotel room :-(

Stone Brew Celebration

Yesterday was the 13th annual Stone Brew Anniversary Celebration. $35 for ticket gets you a cute glass and 10 tastes to over 140 beers. And the money raised there goes to charity. It's great fun for a great cause! My husband and I went last year and had a blast. This year my youngest daughter and her boyfriend met us there. I think they might come back again next year. I know we will!

Disneyland

Not a lot to catch up on. I've been running and reading. Trying to do my weights at home. But I did manage to go to Disneyland this month! Great fun. We went with my parents and actually rode a lot of rides. They bought us the three use tickets, so we went back again with my daughter and her boyfriend. He hasn't been in years and prefers that faster rides. So we did a lot of roller coasters and such. I did make him go on It's a Small World though. Poor guy. I thought they had updated it to be more current. Nope. They just added a few things like the little mermaid. It was still quite old fashioned and rather long. I think he may have fallen asleep in it. But the two of them had a good time and I'm glad we got to go with them. Now it's back to normal hours at work, so I guess summer is officially over for me. Oh well. At least I'm getting my running back up in mileage. I lost some ground when I was on vacation and then sick. But now I'm working it slowly back up again :-)

Back From Vacation

Vacation was wonderful. We went to see my family, then up to Trinidad for a week. From there we went to Fern Canyon:
A few hikes in Patrick's Point:

And a couple of trips into Oregon. Unfortunately, the second day on vacation Jim got sick. About the time he was starting to feel better, I got sick. So, we were able to do a decent amount of hikes, but no bike rides or runs. I wasn't even able to run at home until today. And it was 82 degrees when I finished my run this morning! Coming from 65 degrees in Trinidad, it was too hot to do any more than the 6 miles. And I know it's going to hit 100 degrees today before the day is over. Oh well. I'll get back into a decent running schedule now and slowly add some miles back in. I wasn't planning on doing another half marathon until December, so I have time. But I'd better find a good 5k or 10k in the next couple of months to keep me focused!

Almost Summer

Summer is almost here. Earlier this week I would have said it didn't feel like it. I ran my long run in the rain and wasn't able to ride my motorcycle. Then Thursday it was so warm that I was hot on my run (bad news - I should have hydrated better), but I was also able to ride my motorcycle to work (good news)!! Things around here and work have been pretty stressful. You would think with the added stress I would be escaping more into my books. But I have not at all. Nor to the television. I've kept up my running and pretty good about the gym (which I think exercise is about all that is keeping me sane right now), and it's been listening to music and playing number and word games. Kind of a mindless thing to do, but it seems to help. I still have my martini nights on Saturday after my long run as well, but I've started mixing them with lighter items (low-cal cranberry juice, diet ginger ale. . . ) and that seems to be helping with the weight as well. You know, you control what you can and do the best you can with the rest! On another good note, my husband and I are enjoying or time together. We may not being going out to dinner as much, but we cook together at home, do walks together, the gym, brew beer. . . basically we still enjoy each others company. And after almost 25 years, I think that's a really good thing :-) And, looking to the future. . . I'm hoping to do another half-marathon with my daughter in October! We're looking to do the Rock n Roll one in Vegas and my friend and her daughter (if it's not finals week) may join us as well! Of course my husband will go, but he'll sit on the sidelines and cheer with my daughter's boyfriend because neither of them like to run those kind of distances!

Bay to Breakers

I just finished the Bay to Breakers race. What an experience that was. All good and fun though! Here's a picture of my friend, her daughter and me after the race. Also, one of one of the many costumes that I thought was funny. And yes, I have pictures of people running naked. And no, I won't post them on the web!

Catch up - again!

I see it's been over a month since I last posted. Lets see, work is going as usual. The big event of the year is over and just one more week of actual school for the students left. It's always nice to go on to summer time! Running is going well. I've been averaging just over 20 miles per week. It feels good - although I keep thinking I should lose at least a little more weight. Then again, my eating is not the best. It could be a lot worse though so I just need to be thankful for what I have. And maybe go to the gym more than twice a week! I've also been catching up on a lot of reading. Now that I'm buying less book (and actually using the library), my tbr pile is getting smaller. In a couple of months it may get to the point where it's just books on my bookshelf waiting to be read, and not around the floor as well!

As for future plans, we're planning another trip up the cost in July. We have the trailer, and a place to stay the first few nights (going to see my Grandmother!), but we haven't made the reservations for the rest of the nights. I've picked the places and written down the phone numbers. My problem is that I do that late at night, and these places are only open for reservations during normal business hours. So hopefully today we'll get that done! And, next week I'm running in the Bay to Breakers race (I think it's just over 7 miles with a killer incline around mile 2.5) with a friend of mine. Since it's a hilly race, and more run for the fun and scenery, I plan on slowing down my pace and just enjoying the people and such around me. I'm really looking forward to it though. And when I get back, I need to buy some new running shoes!

Napa!

Well, my youngest just turned 21, so we all celebrated by going up to Napa for some wine tasting! Here is just one picture of my girls and their boyfriends.

Birthday Celebration

We had a fun time celebrating my birthday last night. It was a murder mystery party set in the Renaissance time. Everyone did great getting into a costume and trying to act their part. I do wish the kit we bought gave us a bit more detail, but not bad for a first time. I'd love to try this again - not sure if the others would or not! Here is a picture of my girls and me in costume.

Catching Up

I feel like I'm behind on everything right now! It took us almost 6 weeks to bottle the honey ale. But the reading were really good and so is the taste (so far). But it's done and bottled and now we're getting the yeast starter done for the next hef. And I went to get a Belgium, and there were only three small bottles left in the pantry! So, I went to order the supplies to make another next week, and the website is down. Oh well. One day later for that as well! I also want to get my exercises done, but I keep putting them off or only doing one type and calling it quits. I need to get up off my behind and get back going. Not to mention my online class is taking a lot of time as well. And I feel like I'm behind with it because every week we have to post on the discussion board and then take an online test - but the test isn't even available until tomorrow morning! And I've read the chapter, done the pre-tests, completed the online homework (that doesn't get turned in), and yet I feel like I'm behind. I guess I don't like thing left undone! Oh well. On the running side I'm still keeping up with that. I signed up for the Women's Nike half-marathon lottery. The race is in October, but you have to sign up now and then they draw names by the end of the month. We tried last year and didn't make it in, but we're hoping for this year!

I finished it!

The race was good. Weather was beautiful, cool and no rain. Not too many inclines and I felt really good. I ended up running the whole race! There was not any chip timing, so it was just when you finally made it past the starting line, so that will add I think less than a minute to my time. Plus, when I used my GPS it showed a little over 13.2, I think from dodging people! But, I did it in under 2 hours, so I'm really happy. Looking to do another half in December - maybe in Las Vegas!

Here is a picture of me and my friend Bev that did the race with me:

The race is in two days and it's been raining almost non-stop this week! I did manage a couple of runs outside, and I was very bundled up. I've been watching the predictions, and so far it's supposed to be overcast and cold, but hopefully the rain won't come until after the race. Either which way, I'm getting excited/nervous about it. I'm looking forward to it very much though. I have most of my stuff laid out to pack and I'll get my running belt ready tomorrow morning before we leave. Next time I do one in the Spring or Fall!

Almost Ready

I've been training for the upcoming half-marathon and I think I'm almost ready. I've been slowly increasing my long runs up to 12 miles last weekend. Keeping up three shorter runs during the week. Then instead of running and working out yesterday I felt like being a blob and came home and opened a bottle of wine instead :-/ Well, instead of letting it get me down, I changed my running schedule around this week and ran on a Friday night for my last short run and now I'll be doing my long run on Sunday. It's not too bad to do that one week before the race. First, I'm doing only approximately 7 miles for my long run since I'm supposed to cut back the week before. And two, the race is on a Sunday so my schedule is just off one week earlier. But the bad thing is that I really like doing my long run early Saturday so I start of my weekend feeling like I've accomplished something. Oh well. At least I didn't give up, I adapted!

Getting Things in Order

Today is my last day off of work from the holidays. My work is great in that they give us a week and a half of paid vacation over the holidays. I added four days to that to get just over two weeks off! It's been nice though. I've got back into the swing of things with running and bike riding. I've read quite a lot of books. Scheduled the things I need to do. Brewed a new batch of beer and bottled another (Belguim and peach wheat) and ordered supplies for two more. And I just downloaded a new accounting package and I'm going to get that set up and start from January 1st. So, everything I really wanted to accomplish at home I did. And now tonight I will get everything ready to go back to work tomorrow and hope I can learn to get up a couple of hours earlier than I have been so I can continue to run in the mornings!