Foto Friday

And welcome back, kids, for a Foto Friday: Marathon Edition!

Last weekend, PJ and I ran a half marathon (which I did mention on here, just not in detail). It was a really cold race – they brought us up to Sundance, (the race finished at the Riverwoods) where we sat around and waited for 3 hours prior to the race. Finally, we got going, and it was chilly and all downhill for the first 9 miles, then we evened out, and I started to get warm. It was a fun race, because costumes are fun, but I just don’t like the way it was planned, so I don’t know that I would do it again. They took pictures of us during the race, and emailed them to us finally a few days ago. I did a (slightly illegal) thing and just saved them to my computer instead of buying them. (Shhhh)

This is PJ and I during the race. I don’t know what mile this is – it must be at least after the 9th or so, because my gloves are off. My hands were getting really hot. Look how great we look as the Power Rangers.

There’s a part near the end where for some reason, the race course narrows so that only 2 people can run through. I was stuck behind this lady, because near the beginning of the narrowing, she grabbed the hand of her son (who was not running, but there to cheer her on) and they were in front of me, and I couldn’t get by, it was driving me crazy. So my face is mad, because I was stuck, but this is finally where I got to get around her and run fast again.

I always look really mad at the end of the race, in every picture. But at this point, I was really close to the finish line, and I was happy to be over, my body was screaming at me to just stop running at this point.

So there it is, the Halloween Half-Marathon. It was a fun race, once it got started, but all the waiting around stuff just drove me crazy. But at least I finished, and had no guilt eating candy the rest of the day. Not that I do anyway…

Skirt Thursday…and Other Musings

I wear a skirt every Thursday. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, I just do. It mixes up what I wear, so that I don’t wear the same thing all the time, plus its just fun. In the summer, a skirt provides a nice breeze when its warm, but in the winter, its really fun to jazz up a skirt with some colorful tights. I enjoy Skirt Thursday, I’ll keep the tradition alive.

Last night, my tenants moved out of my house. I know, they’ve only lived with us for a short time, since October 8th, but they decided to leave us before the before-agreed upon time, to move in with others, to spend time with them. Its nice to have our house back to ourselves (not that they took up that much room, mind you) and not worry about affecting anyone else around. This morning, when I went downstairs to see what conditions things were left in, I noticed that they had taken our towels. I’m not entirely sure why they did this…maybe they wanted to be nice and launder them before they gave them back? I’m hoping this is the case. I’m really not looking forward to making the call that asks to return my linens.

RSL won last night. Well, technically, Seattle beat RSL 2-0, but with the aggregate goal situation, we technically won, 3-2. It was a brutal game, and very nerve-wracking toward the end, but when the final whistle blew, we (Husband, PJ and I) all jumped up off the couch and screamed. It was awesome. I’m not sure when the next game is – there’s another playoff game tonight (between LA & NY) and the winner of that determines where/when we play next. Good luck to NY – I’d like them to win this one.

 

I don’t really like vanilla yogurt. I keep trying it once in a while, to see if maybe my feelings change (its happened before, on other things) but so far, they remain the same against the yogurt. I tried some the other morning, and there’s just a weird taste in the ‘Very Vanilla’ Yoplait yogurt. 

I tried some of Chelle’s ‘French Vanilla’ Yoplait, and it did taste better, so maybe in the future, I’ll switch to that one, and see how it goes. There’s something about the fruit flavors lately that I’m just sick of eating. But eating yogurt is healthy for you, and I’m trying to make healthier choices. Since I won’t give up eating cupcakes/cookies (despite my best efforts) I have to make different choices of healthiness. Because, I’m sorry, but giving up the sweets – its not really fun.

It’s Only Halftime

Last Saturday, RSL played Seattle in the first leg of the 2011 MLS Playoffs. It was a crisp evening (and by that, I mean, I was pretty dang cold) and the air was crackling with excitement. They’ve made the playoffs for the last 3 years, so you’d think at this point that we’d be sort of used to it, but not yet. The 2009 playoffs, which won RSL the championship, happened because of a series of fluke accidental games, but last year was all our talent. After a lot of bad luck this year (so many people getting injured, including Javier Morales’ broken ankle, and a lot of call-ups to the national teams) we ended up doing pretty well, and got into the playoffs in the third spot. But there’s still some work to be done.

Now back to last Saturday. The game was at 8, hence the chilliness. We got off to a good start, and scored before halftime, so thank goodness for that. The team seems to do better when they lead going into a half. After an exciting second half (in which 2 of our defenders got injured, and had to be substituted out) we ended the game with us winning 3-0. It was awesome – the screaming we all did was so loud.

But right now, its just halftime. We play at Seattle tonight, to finish the first round of playoffs. This round is based on aggregate goals – meaning, the end result is decided by who had the most goals when you add the 2 games together. So getting a 3-goal lead last week was the best thing we could do. If we win tonight, awesome! If we tie, that’s good. If we lose 2-0, or 3-1, that’s ok, too, because we’ll still have the most amount of points. I’m going to root for a victory, but I’ll settle for a tie.

Go RSL!

Halloweeeeeeen!

Ok, everyone, here it is. The month of November. And as everyone knows, as it happens every year, it is now National Blogging Month. I will again take on the task of trying to blog every day. Now to begin this year’s attempt, here is my recap of Halloween.

This year was my first in a new place, where I got to be the one who answers the door and pass out the candy. Of course, I had to get ready for it. So when I got home from work last night, I carved myself a pumpkin.

I already know that I’m not very good at carving pumpkins, since I’ve only done it once before, but here is my attempt. He’s just a happy guy, ready for the Halloween festivities to start.

I was in a great costume this year, and by great, I mean, I sort of dressed up. For a half marathon that PJ and I ran on Saturday, we dressed up as Power Rangers, because A: Power Rangers are cool, and B: they were really easy to run in still. So I basically repeated the outfit I ran in, just with minor changes.

The evening was fun, we basically just sat about, handing out candy, and Husband kept trying to scare the kids that came to the door, but I don’t think he was ever really successful. I was just glad when the night was over and we had helped our last trick-or-treater. Happy Halloween (either 1 day late, or 364 days early)!

Food Tuesday

Today, I don’t really have much to talk about in terms of story, but I have a couple of pictures to share (and preserve for future generations) so I’ve decided to make it a picture/food Tuesday.

This first one is a picture of the cupcakes I made last night. We recently got Boo’d in my neighborhood, and this is what I made to give to others. I like them – plus I think they are delicious.

There’s no real recipe to share here, as they’re just plain white cake cupcakes, with black, orange, and white sprinkles baked into them (like Funfetti!) and then decorated with plain vanilla frosting, dyed orange. And on top, sprinkled with more white, black and orange sprinkles with some bats and pumpkin sprinkles tossed in for good measure. So easy. I should have included a picture of the cupcake wrappers – they were Halloween-y, with pumpkins and bats on there too.

This second one is what I did today at work. We (Chelle and I) were taking a tiny break for a little snackage. We pulled out some Mini Triscuits (so good – and totally tiny and fun) and some EZCheese (you know, the kind that sprays out of the bottle!) and had some deliciousness. After a few minutes, I decided to spell my name onto the crackers.

It’s harder to do than you think, because these crackers are dang small. I should have included something next to them, so you could see how small they are, scale wise. They were as good to eat as it was fun to make them.

Anyway, enjoy today’s pointless blog, and I encourage you to seek out the Mini Triscuits.

There are Better Ways to Spend the Game...

I used to never get headaches. Up until a few months ago, when I got a headache, it was super rare, and they only lasted for a few minutes, before they’d either go away by themselves, or I’d take some pills and they’d go away after a bit, no problem. But for the past few months, I usually get a headache on Monday, in the afternoon. I assume it’s because I don’t really look at a computer all weekend, then I come back on Monday, and look at one all day, so my head needs to get used to it. (Which is weird, because this never happened before) So now, every Monday, I just take a little extra precaution to see if I can prevent it. Make sure my eyes don’t get dry, drink lots of water, just in case, that sort of thing.

This past Saturday, I had a good 7-mile run. It was awesome – and my last long run before my half marathon this Saturday. So I came home, drank a little water, and got ready for the day. Throughout the day, I didn’t really pay attention to drinking anything else. During the week, at work, I have my water bottle right next to me, so I drink from it continuously because I can see it. On the weekends, when I’m pretty busy, I just never realize that I’m not drinking. Such was it this day. So onto the game I go, and when we’re leaving Joanna’s, where we ate dinner, I was getting a little bit of a dehydration headache, and that’s when I realized I hadn’t been drinking to compensate for all the running. We get to the stadium, I get myself some water, and settled in for some cheering.

There was a lot of screaming going on, of course, like every game. About halfway through the first half, my head started to hurt more with every scream/cheer that I did. By about the 40th minute, my little headache had grown into a full-blown migraine – complete with a little nausea, and an aversion to the sounds of the stadium. But this was the last game of the season! I wasn’t going to give up! So right at halftime, RSL scored, and we all went crazy. Husband picked me up, and hoisted me above everyone (like he usually does) but this time, the headache, combined with the movement and the screaming of 20,000 people, this was a goal celebration that I wished I hadn’t done.

The rest of the game was pretty boring, for me. I no longer screamed, nor cheered, I just clapped when anything happened. When things got too noisy, either Husband or PJ would cover my ears with their hands so that I could clap, and they could cheer. It was a sad arrangement, but I stayed the whole game. Afterwards, as soon as I got to the car, I took a bunch of Tylenols and ibuprofens – a doctor recommended dosage, don’t worry – and drank almost another whole bottle of water. At the usual post-game ice cream (from Baskin Robbins) I also got a Mtn Dew – to see if caffeine helped. By the time we got home, the migraine had calmed down a little to just be a headache. My lesson here is that I really need to drink more during the weekends, especially if I had a long run that morning. But at least I got to see my team play their last regular season game – and good news, playoffs start this upcoming Saturday!

This picture is of the Portland fans – who were sitting across from us. At some point of the game, they all set off a billion smoke bombs, and a lot of flares, so all we could see of their section was smoke and fire. It looked a little like they had just set themselves on fire. Why would they do this? I’m not really sure.

Foto Friday: Favorite Sign Edition

Ok, I don’t really have any photos to share right now, I haven’t taken any, but I was breezing through my photos the other day, and came across these signs. They are both taken on different trips, and they both made me laugh.

This is the library in Boise. The reason I love this sign is because the library is finished by an exclamation point. How excited is Boise to have this library? This excited!

We took this in Boston. I know what the sign is saying, I get that its warning you of children in the area, but I still feel like there’s a better sign of saying than just announcing “Children”. Maybe I’m the weirdo here, but this sign is odd.

I hope these made you laugh as much as they did me.