my old friend

i wasn't really a barbie doll kinda girl growing up. i was an only child with another only child living across the street from me, and he was a boy. my friends have always been males, more so than females. so, needless to say, i wasn't all caught up in the "hype" for the typical girl toys.

but there was one that stayed with me for years, and years and i never let go of. and it was so funny, because this one happened to be discontinued after a while. and i hadn't seen him for years. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was a frog and therefore reptiley and scaley, per se. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was japanese. i don't know.

but i will have you know...i walked into wal mart the other day and stopped dead in my tracks, my mouth agape. and i had to have them. they were pajamas with my frog friend on them. i went and thought, "my god, i can't spend money on these things...anything over a few dollars would be ridiculous"

so there i was, walking out of the store with my $6.00 pajamas...and my childhood memory in tow.

god bless scholarships

i've had a windfall of good karma towards me lately. i'm hoping it keeps up, so i'm continuing to send out good energy to the world!

t and i handle our money, in what some people may say, in a strange way. we do not have a joint account...we pay equally for everything, approximately. for instance, we both pay the mortgage equally, he pays the bills and i buy groceries. this all works out quite well for us, even though, in theory, he makes a LOT more than i do.

however, this predicament, put me in a little bit of a pickle for when school starts. where on earth, was i going to come up with an extra $2,000 smackers every semester to go to school? it had me a little perplexed, but i just figured that everything would work out the way it was supposed to. i thought about financial aid, but then negated that idea, when i was told that we had to claim our taxes, which we file together. i'm sure there would be people much more needy "looking" than myself in those circumstances.

then, a couple weeks ago, i started getting emails from the head of the department where i'm getting my degree.

lo and behold, three weeks later, my school is paid for. it's amazing, i cannot even believe it. and if anything, let me know, if i had ANY doubt about what i was doing....that i am headed in the right direction!

California

skating, running, the internet

this weekend was a mess, in a lot of ways, but a good one at that. not a mess like "oh my gosh, i don't want to have that again" but more in the organized chaos that went around, that i just rode out for a while.





first off, the guys did a 100 mile skate. ridiculous, yes. what is more ridiculous is that they are planning on doing it again, and again. this one was for a boy named nathan that has PKU. Interesting to learn about, because i had heard nothing of the disease at all. This is what t looked like afterwards.

Just kidding. this was a while ago. this is what i THOUGHT he would look like, but he came out just great and could even walk yesterday. it was pretty impressive.

i got the website up, finally. it's http://www.weaselracing.ning.com/ i am pretty happy with it.



i ran my 10 miles on saturday as well. my half marathon is on Sunday of this next week. i'm excited, but really very muted about it. it is very hard when you start out doing a 26.2 mile race, then have to scale it back to 13.1 due to injury, then your husband and all his friends then go out and skate 100 miles in a day. i don't know.

wow, it's been a year

so, it's been a year since my meeting with juni.....what a ride this year has been. J- we wish you and mike could have been here for the trip, but maybe next year. here are some pics to tide you over. or maybe to make you glad that you DIDN'T come! ha ha.

Here is dinner before the race...i cannot believe i didn't take a full on picture of all we ordered, but i'll give you an idea. 1.5 pounds of brisket, 1 sausage, .5 pounds of pork tenderloin, a pint of beans, creamed corn, cole slaw, four beers, 3 cherry limades. oh, and a loaf of bread.

oh i got caught up last night...doing nothing

i've been wondering why i can't get off the stick and post pictures from Austin. i make excuses about it and really it sounds like things are super busy. So when asked what i did last night, i had nothing really to say. i said, "weeeelllll, i picked dinner up, then i went home, then i ate it, then......" and then i remembered.

three hours, oxygen tv, and this...

i can't describe how much i like this movie, and after watching the entire thing again...i just still can't.

i like it.

a lot

the 30 hours in Austin

we had 30 hours in Austin, to be exact. It was a whirlwind that consisted of, among other things:
-a rental car with turbo
-bbq
-beer
-skating
-trophies that you'd rather NOT win
-hooters
-tattoos
-more bbq
-old friends
-a chinese friend that i think would take me on any day that t would not


it was fantastic, and so fast, i can't believe it. i'll post some pics as soon as i download

why CAN'T that last forever

we were somewhere recently, speaking to one half of a couple that we are both friends with. a statement was made, that was startling to me. That statement was, "i hope we make it". i was flabbergasted. i mean, of course they'll make it...they've been together for 18 years.

i pointed this out to t and he hadn't really noticed at the time, but definitely was in tune to it later, when a few conversations after that, some more comments were made to that effect.

we got in the car last night and were discussing this and he says to me, "we are so good and we are always going to be good....even in 20 years"

standing around all night in bike shorts

so, every year, i volunteer for this event in the area called "women on wheels" at this local bike shop. i say volunteer, loosely, because i get way more than i put into it. all i have to do, i stand around in cycling clothing all night and i get shwag from the vendor. it's awesome. i love it.

i'm hoping to get some not-as-traditional bike clothing this year, so that i may represent in the half marathon in style. i have found, that it is incredibly hard to find cute running clothes, that stand out among the masses. if someone is reading this that has an in to the sporting clothing lines...take this to heart.

speaking of the running...i'm getting a sense that i may have been getting some pretty good signs from above or below or wherever. everyone that i was talking to about the marathon either 1. has had to drop to the half. 2. has been unable to walk for some time due to training. and 3. is so unbelievably tired that all they can say to me is "i hope this thing doesn't kill me"

it grows back

i chopped it off the other day. i mean, literally....it was long and dry and gross and i decided that i had had enough. i made an appt and the stars were in alignment because my hair guy was open and had just had a cancellation. it was a beautiful thing. i was so excited, there wasn't even a dramatic "oh, i don't know if i can do this!" during the entire thing. he was throwing hair all over the salon. it looked like a wounded animal on the floor. gross.

But THEN, this is what happened. 1. i have no hair resting on my neck anymore. 2. i have to use hardly any shampoo. 3. i can leave it wet and still somehow look like i MEANT to have it look all messy and great. 4. i need to figure out how to finance the upkeep.

i'm back

so, it's been a while. i have so many blogs to read, i don't know where to start. i have pictures from my trip. it was a wild and crazy one. well, not really so wild and crazy, but more crazy in the sense of "wow, i'm old, i can't even go all day touring around and stay awake past 10pm" type of crazy. anyway, it was a fun time. we did things, some that were must-dos...some that were must don'ts, but it was all in the name of fun and sightseeing. like i said before, i have pictures, but haven't downloaded them, but apparently took some from the trip on my phone. i'll post those. i'm warning...i've not looked at these yet, so they are as much a surprise to me as they are to you.

oh, these are the cupcakes that i made after the trip. they are chocolate, almond, and coconut cupcakes. they were super good.

This was lunch one day. we had no idea what lohan tea was. we thought it might be a throwback to Linsday Lohan. we were wrong...unless lindsay lohan tastes like old, sweet socks. anyway, lunch was good though. and i loved the collection of books on the wall.

Here is the finished blanket. it really turned out so sweet and soft. i think they liked it.