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!