I hope I can do it!!!

Today was the first day of training for the Carlsbad Half Marathon. Race day is January 25th - so I have a bit over 3 months to train... which is good because I haven't been running much lately so it's going to be slow and steady to get ready for the 13.1 mile race.

The furthest I have ever ran is 7 miles - so according to my training schedule Dec. 21st I'll pass the 7 mile mark - which is exciting.

My goal is actually to run a marathon but I am shooting for the half first and see how that goes. If all goes well, I am hoping to run my first marathon this year. It's a pretty big differnce between 13.1 miles and 26.2 miles so that'll be quite an undertaking. I have heard horror stories of people getting sick, toenails falling off and all sorts of nastiness that occurs when running a marathon BUT if Oprah can do it - I can do it!

Scott has started riding his bike to the BART station and to work and seems to be enjoying it. It beats cramming in on the Dirty 30 bus and the Coast Guard shuttle to get to work. He's all geared up with headlights, a tail light and reflective tape on his bike and helmet - very Rico Suave. : )

Yea, I cheated and posted a picture from the Gold Nugget Triathlon this year - but what can I say, I like this picture!

The Voting Conundrum

So I have decided that this is the perfect solution to our political dilemna. What do you think?

8 Months Already!

So I have been reminiscing our wedding lately. I am tackling the wedding photo project so I have been sorting through photos. We've already been married 8 months so it seems a shame that it's taken this long to do the wedding photos and get our album ordered but then again we've had a few things going on!

So I plan to have some of our professional wedding photos printed and sent to family by Christmas time. There are so many great pictures and it gave me butterflies in my stomach to look through them all again. I was also reflecting on the story of our wedding and wondering how I made it through all that alive!

Looking at my pictures also made me miss everybody!!! I wish that everyone could live their life and follow their dreams and all that good stuff but we could also live close enough to meet up for lunch or visit on every holiday. It seems strange that we only get to see the ones we love most a few times a year but we are stuck with the creepy guy at work every day. (that is if you have a job of course!) But the beautiful thing about it is that with your true friends and family distance doesn't matter and you pick up right where you left off.

We had a great visit with Nancy. She was our first visitor and had a great time so we're ready for the next batch! Let us know if you want to come check out San Francisco - we have an extra room and there are plenty of things to do and see. We're a bit homesick so bring some Alaska with you when you come! : )

Stompin' Grapes!!!

Scott's mom Nancy got into town on Thursday and we have been doing a lot of exploring and hanging out.

We went to a museum on Friday (De Young) which was having an exhibit "The Art of Americas" so it was art spanning a variety of mediums, time periods, styles, etc. All I can say is "Wow - you better eat your Wheaties before you hit up a museum in San Francisco!" We were there for 3.5 hours and we still only saw half of it! I saw ancient Mesotopian sculptures all the way to abstract metal sculptures with a spray painted Mickey Mouse doll. It was very cool but I got burnt out before we got to the second floor.

We went to Sonoma yesterday to the Harvest Fair (imagine the Alaska Fair only it's smaller and the focus is wine). Scott and I entered a grape stomping contest that was a lot of fun. I got to stand in a wooden barrel in my bare feet and try to squash grapes for 3 minutes while Scott tried to get as much grape juice into our jug. I have always wanted to stomp grapes and we came in third place in our heat - not bad for first timers. Nancy has some great pictures but her camera won't connect to our computer so that'll have to wait a bit.

The Harvest Fair had people from all walks of life. You could eat a sausage, milk a cow, drink wine in a very sophisticated manner, or dance a jig. We met up with some of Nancy's cousins and went to a big family gathering in Sonoma. I felt a bit like I was crashing their party but we're family (in some distant way!) so it was the more the merrier. Next year we're going to enter the costume contest and rock those grape stomps like they've never been rocked before!

Looks like we're heading to Vegas in November for Karla's (my sister-in-law) 40th birthday party. You know, we are just doing our part to be good family members and make sure we're there for big occasions so we'll take one for the team and stay at the Mandalay Bay. I won $500 last year on the nickel slot machine so that means I'll probably lose half of that trying to recreate my winning scene.

I hear that its beginning to snow in Alaska. I equally miss it and am thrilled to still be having sunshine (it depends on what day you talk to me). I love this time of year in the AK so I think about home often.

I turned down the PR job last week so I am still out there job hunting. Every day could be a wild card day so we'll see what the week has in store for us!