Feeling HOT HOT HOT

OMG, it was 106 degrees yesterday. That is just way too hot. Not only HOT but the darn holiday traffic has begun. I was not a happy camper yesterday. I met up with Olivia and Amy in Walnut Creek. It took me 50 minutes to get there :o( Not sure if the heat confused people and somehow they forgot how to drive or really people started heading out of town yesterday. Either way it was horrible.

Olivia and Amy had their toosies done and I just met up with them, had mine done last Thursday. Afterwards we headed down the street to Sakana Sushi for some dinner. It was another nice evening with the ladies. I headed home around 7:30 and it was still pretty hot but when I crossed through the tunnel the temperature went down about 20 degrees :o) YAY! I went home and hung out with the hubby for a little while before he headed out to band practice, I caught up on a few shows and then went to bed. I think I was asleep by 10pm.

Today is suppose to be another hot day but we WILL be going to the track workout. Hopefully it'll be cooler in San Leandro.

I've got 12 miles on Saturday which I'll be doing with the team at the Berkeley Marina.

We don't have much planned this weekend. Today is my Friday...YIPEE...so I'll have a nice 4 day weekend. Tomorrow I'm just gonna hang out and relax. Saturday after the run we are driving up to my brother-in-law's house in Granite Bay along with the rest of the Reyes family and will come home on Sunday. Monday we have nothing planned.

Hope everyone has a safe and great Labor Day weekend!

glitter-graphics.com

Executive Decision

A decision was made by Ms. Olivia and Ms. Amy while I was out of the office this morning....NO RUNNING TONIGHT...... YAY! I was out in Walnut Creek for a doctors appointment and oh boy, I almost melted. It was only 95, HA, ONLY!!!, so I was curious if the girls would cancel or not. They did and I'm very happy. It's hot and the air quality is bad. We will once again meet for pedicures and dinner :o) My hubby has band practice so it works out :o)


Last night's buddy run went well. I took it easy and got 3.1 miles in. Tomorrow night I'll hit the track workout and on Saturday we'll be doing 12 miles again. Olivia and I chatted yesterday and we agreed that we needed to change our schedule a little. Our long runs were scheduled on days that we didn't have coached runs which meant that we'd be doing most of them on our own and that is never fun so we switched a few things around and now our shorter/long runs are on YOYO days and our long/long runs are on Coached Run Saturday's. This will work out much better for us.


Today I recieved a very nice gift and I have to share it because you no me, I'm the crazy doggie lady :o) I shop at Pyrenee's Pets in Danvilee for all my doggie goodies, they ladies that own the shop are super nice and I always enjoy going in there to shop and chit chat with them. I had noticed a few months back that they didn't really have a website set up so I offered to help them out, for free. I don't really do this for a living I more do it because I enjoy it and I like making things look pretty. I did Coach Al's website a few months ago also. Anyway, the website is still in the works but it's coming along nicely and the owner is really happy to have something set up now. THANK YOU TINA, I love my new charm :o)




I LOVE IT :o) It's silver and it's a cute little paw. I'll have to rotate with the current necklance I'm wearing.

Heat Wave #2

Nothing exciting to report today. Last night was a rest night for us so that's exactly what we did.

We are are suppose to be having our second heat wave of the summer. It's gonna get into the 100's for the next three days...YIKES! It's already 75 degrees in Danville and it's only 9am :o( This week I am hoping to get in a full week of training especially since I've gotta run 18 miles on Saturday. I really want to feel good. I have to be honest though if it's in the 100's tomorrow, I'm not running :o( I know my body and I just don't do well in that kind of heat. I know Coach would total call me a wimp :o( and I will agree that I am.

Table for 9, Please

Friday?Friday? What did I do on Friday? Oh yeah, nothing. We stayed home and cleaned our house for a dinner party we were hosting on Saturday. We also had to be up early for the run so we tried to be done cleaning by 9ish so we could relax.

Saturday we were up early once again to meet the team at the Berkeley Marina for a run. I was suppose to do 12 miles but only got in 5.5 :o( Because of time I wasn't going to be able to do 12 but I figured I'd get in half of the mileage, I felt icky and my belly was starting to hurt from the GU and GU2O so I decided to cut the run short. Urrrgghhh, I'm really getting frustrated with this issue. Gotta figure out a new solution :o(

Rocky and I had breakfast after the run at our usual spot, The Coffee Mill, YUMMY! Then it was back home to get ready for our dinner party. We invited over the band and their wives and in total there were 9 of us. On the menu:

Drinks

Pomegranate Martini's for the ladies

and beer for the boys

Appetizers
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies
Mozzarella, Tomatoe, Basil Bread Bites
Grilled Oysters with Pico de Gallo

Dinner
Spicy Shrimp
Couscous w/Feta Cheese, green onions, garbanzo beans and cherry tomatoes (thanks for the idea Ms. Amy) :o)
Green Beans w/Butter & Almonds

Entertainment
UFC Championship Fighting....YUCK! Rocky ordered Pay Per View and the boys watched the fight while the girls chit chatted away.

As you can see I had a nice spread planned out for the evening and if you know me you know that I am super OCD and everything had to be perfect. I like everyone to be comfortable and well fed. Making sure that everything comes out of the oven on a timely matter and coordinating that the side dishes are done at the same time and making sure things don't get cold is sometimes a challenge for me. I still have a hard time coordinating all foods to be done at the same time. Anyway, I spent the ENTIRE afternoon in my kitchen getting things ready. We have wood floors and I was barefoot in the kitchen (NOT preggy though....LOL) and it wasn't til everyone had left and I had sat on the couch that I realized how SORE I was. My entire body hurt. My back, my calves, shoot even my butt cheeks hurt from standing in the kitchen all afternoon/night with no shoes on :o( poopy!

The dinner turned out super yummy, everyone enjoyed all the food and we barely had any leftovers. It was a nice evening with everyone.

Sunday, I met Karen for brunch at the Coffee Mill while Rocky was at Kali. After brunch I had some errands to run but I was pooped and still sore so I put my pajammies back on and plopped on the couch for the rest of the day with my hubby and our doggies.

WOOHOO It's Friday!

It was been a LONG busy week, very glad it's over. Tomorrow another 12 mile run at the Berkeley Marina. Saturday evening dinner at our house with the MotherHumbuckers and their lovely wives and Sunday brunch with Karen and the rest of the day should be fairly mellow.

Fundraising is going great, as of yesterday I have $579.00. I still have quite a ways to go until I reach my $3000 goal but I'm certain that I'll get there. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to have a fundraiser, if I do I think it'll revolve around knitting :o) stay tuned.


If you are interested in donating please visit my fundraising website here.


THANK YOU...KAREN, PETRA, MARK, TOM, AARON, OLIVIA, CHARLIE & BRUCE...for your generous donations


Rocky is also fundraising this season, he'll be doing the Nike Half Marathon. He has teamed up with another TNT participant, Hugo, who's also got a band, Pine & Battery and along with the MotherHumbuckers they'll be having a "ROCKING FOR A CURE" fundraiser at Joe's in Lafayette. Should be a fun evening although I'm very bummed because I won't be here :o( I will be in LA for a conference :o( poopy!


If you are open that evening check them out :O) and support their fundraising efforts.

Last night was my knitting night with the girls although no knitting got done. We chit chatted and chit chatted away until almost 9pm when it was time to go home. We had a fun evening at Ms. Amy's house, THANK YOU AMY.

Parrot Stroll

Remeber the dog stroller picture I had on my post from last week? Well on Sunday when Jeanette and I were out for our run on the Ironhorse trail a lady and her husband were out for a Sunday walk with a stroller that looked a little more like these:

The first thing I thought of course was that there must be a doggie in there going for a Sunday stroll with it's mommy and daddy.

Ummm, WRONG, the couple had a PARROT in the stroller. WHAT???? Who takes their parrot out for a walk? Okay, I guess those people do.

See, I'm still pretty sane :o)

It's the thought that counts

Monday's I usually have the night off from running so last night I met up with my best friend Debbie for dinner. I don't see her very often, she lives in Livermore, works in San Jose and her weekend schedule is just as busy if not busier than mine are. Yesterday she had a meeting in Martinez so we decided to meet up after work since she'd be driving by San Ramon to head home. After about 30 minutes of searching for a Japanese Restaurant, that was open, we ended up at a place off Bollinger and Alcosta. It was okay but not all that great. I think I like my two places in Walnut Creek or our Oakland Sushi Boat House better. I'll have to ask Ms. Amy if she's ever been there. We still had a nice evening though hanging out and chatting.

I had seen Debbie on my birthday but we both had forgotten to bring each other's birthday gifts to exchange so we did it last night. She not only gave me my birthday present but she also had a wedding/house warming gift for Rocky and I. It was a nice throw to put on our couch it matches perfectly with our colors and she hasn't even been to our house :o) Good job Debbie!

When I was opening it I noticed that the box had our names on it and I asked if she had gotten it engraved. She said she had. She's said "Oh I think I even got everything right"....haa, haa. Nope not quite. She couldn't find our wedding announcement in her pile of mail at home and she couldn't find in her email any of the stuff we emailed her when we got married. So she guessed. She thought we flew into Maui on Friday and got married on Saturday, April 28. We actually flew into Maui on Saturday and got married on Sunday, April 29. Hee, hee, so our blankie says

Rocky & Claudia

April 28, 2007

Oh well, she tried :o) that's the day we got engaged so the date does mean something to us :o)

Traffic, I hate Traffic!

Friday evening Rocky and I headed to the A's game with Amy, Petra and Olivia. Petra had a bunch of extra tickets so she had invited us. Turned out the game was pretty boring and the place was pretty empty. Oh well, we had a good time chatting with each other and people watching. Everyone except for Petra was running on Saturday so we were good kids and ate pretty good. Well, pretty good for a ball game. Olivia and Petra had brought their own food and Amy and I managed to find a booth that sold stuff other than hot dogs. We had a nice yummy chicken taco salad. Only thing not so healthy in it was the sour cream but oh well :o) Rocky had a sandwich and a baked potato. Funny how much ballpark food has changed and gotten a little fancier. Rocky and I left the game at the start of the 7th inning, my goal was to be in bed by 10pm since I had to get up at 5:00 :o(

Saturday, alarm went off at 5:00 :o( and up I was. I got the doggies fed and pottied and then I got ready for the run. I had my oatmeal and luna bar, woke up Rocky (BOYS! how come it only takes them like 10min to get ready?), he got ready and ate and we were out of the house by 6:00am. I was meeting Olivia at 6:30 so I could get part of my run in before the teams arrived. My original plan was to do 7 miles with Olivia and then do 8 with the summer/fall teams. By the time we got going though it was about 6:45, after our first mile I went back to my car to drop off my sweater cause I was already hot, then we had to stretch. When I got to mile 3 I realized maybe I should turn around and start heading back. Rocky arrived around that time to set up the waterstop for the team but there was a little bit of chaos and confusion. Olivia and I stepped in to help out and by the time we got things squared away it was too late for me to run back so I got a ride back from Phil :o( my run plan wasn't working out so well. I got back to the start and did my Captain duties, I decided it was too late to head out and do 12 miles so I just hung around and helped out. I called Mrs. Jeanette and asked her if she'd run with me on Sunday since she wasn't able to run either. She said, YES! YAY! there was no way I was going to run 12 miles alone.

I have to admit though I was pretty cranky about having to run on Saturday because it meant no sleeping in on Sunday and basically my whole day would be gone :o( I was so looking forward to just cleaning my house, relaxing and catching up on TV. Oh well, gotta do what you gotta do.

Who signed me up to run New York???? Oh wait, I did, haa, haa!

Anywho, the rest of Saturday wasn't so bad, except for the part where we sat in TRAFFIC FOR 2 HOURS :o( We were going to head to Daly City to Rocky's parent's house for dinner and we knew there was a football game at Candlestick so we decided that we'd just take showers, get the doggies packed up and head out. We figured if we left the house by 3pm we'd be safe since the game didn't start til 7pm. We were so wrong! We pulled out of our house at exactly 3pm, I was pretty pooped from the morning and had fallen asleep by the time we got to Emeryville, which is only about 10 minutes from our house :o) I had seen that there was traffic but no biggie because even with traffic it never takes us long to get across the bridge and get to Daly City. I woke up about an hour later and we were still trying to get to the toll booth :o( I was not a happy camper. Lucky for us the doggies were also pooped and were sleeping also. We walked into Rocky's parents at 5 minutes to 5:00 :o( I hate traffic. We had much better luck going home.

Sunday, alarm went off at 5:30 :o( and did the whole routine from the previous morning all over again. I met Jeanette at the trail head starting at Rudgear in Walnut Creek at 7:30. The plan was to run from Walnut Creek to Danville. The trail was pretty shaded the whole way which was nice cause the sun was out pretty early. Going towards Danville is always a little tougher because you have a slight incline the whole way, the return is much nicer. We made it 5 miles out and decided we were feeling great so we kept going and made it to mile 6. The way back was much warmer but we had a nice breeze. We were both feeling great and around 8.75 Jeanette went ahead and took off and ran faster. She's been able to stay under 10 minute miles and feel good. I on the other hand don't do so well going that fast so I stayed back. I was feeling pretty good until about mile 10 1/2 when my belly started bothering me. The Gu was making me sick :o( I walked about half mile of the last mile. Other than the belly issues though we had a great run and lucky for us even though it was warm the breeze and the trail having a lot of shade helped us out quite a bit. We did 12.14 miles in 2:20 minutes. Afterwards we treated ourselves to a yummy breakfast at Sunrise Bistro in Walnut Creek.

I headed home, took a shower and climbed into bed with my little Patchie Poo. Ms. Daisy hung out in the living room with her daddy. 2 hours later I woke up from my nap to find Daisy playing by herself and her toys because he daddy had passed out :o) Uhhh, so much for Rocky babysitting. Good thing she is potty trained and isn't into tearing up our house.

After our naps we headed to Olivia's house to hang out. She made us a very yummy dinner. We read a blog called, Confessions of a Pioneer Women, the lady who writes it has recently started a separate blog of recipes so Olivia took her Spicy Shrimp recipe and cooked it up for us. It was easy to make and very very tasty. We also had salad, rice and bread. We opened up some of the latest wine we picked up at Cline and enjoyed it all. Afterwards we watched a movie, I can't remember the name, it was different but very funny. Of course the evening wouldn't be complete without dessert so Olivia provided us with an Apple Crisp and Vanilla ice cream. It was a nice ending to the weekend.

Circuit Drills

THANK YOU...KAREN, PETRA, MARK, TOM, AARON & BRUCE...for your generous donations


Last night we headed over to the track workout in San Leandro. It was circuit drill night and I gotta admit I really didn't want to go but I did. I decided to follow the workout for the Fall team :o) I can do that right? I'm on both teams, don't I get to pick which workout I do? hee, hee. So here is what we did:

1 lap warm-up
stretch

1 lap
20 squats
10 crunches
10 push-ups
20 squats
1 lap
and repeat and then do a 1 lap cool down

It was a good workout and I took it easy.

This weekend is actually fairly mellow...YAY!!! Tonight we are going to the A's game. Our friend Petra had a few extra tickets and invited us. Tomorrow it's up SUPER early for a 15 mile run and the rest of the weekend, RELAX :o)

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Holy Fastness

Last night I had a great run with Ms. Olivia and Ms. Amy. We met on the Ironhorse trail starting at Stonevalley in Alamo and headed back towards Danville. We decided to only do 3 miles. I've got circuit drills at track tonight followed by 15 miles on Sunday and Amy and her group are doing a 20 miler...YIKES! So we decided to take it easy. The first 1.5 miles was at our normal pace although I can't give you exact times because my darn Garmin pooped out. I think I lost my signal :o( I restarted my watch on our way back and it said I did 1.62 miles in 17 minutes. Um, I have no idea where I got the burst of energy especially because I was a bad girl at lunch and had french fries. My belly wasn't feeling so great but for the last part of my run I was flying. Okay, flying at 9:30/9:50 minute miles. That's probably turtle pace for some peeps but for me it's fast. I got back and was feeling it, I was totally out of breath. It was a great run though. Tonight, CIRCUIT DRILLS, fun fun! We'll see how much of those I get done, I don't want to overdue it before the run on Saturday.

OOHH, and the highlight of last night :o) Ms. Amy brought us back some really cute stitch markers from Stitches-Mid-West. They were doggies. THANK YOU AMY!

I almost forgot, here is what Rocky and I would look like if were were South Park characters :o)

Ruff Ruff Couture

I had a great run at the buddy run last night. I did 3.26 miles in 37 minutes :o) YAY! We had quite a big turnout because the Fall team started their buddy runs last night at the same location. I think from now on we'll have a large group out there at least til the Summer team is done. I ran most of the way with Odessa who's a mentor on the Fall team. I've been on a team with her before but have never really had a chance to talk to her. So we did and I got to know her a little better. It was nice to have someone to run with. I usually run by myself on Tuesday's.

It's starting to get darker earlier so we are thinking that we might switch the runs to be a little earlier. We'll have to see though how everyone else feels. I know it's tough getting out there sometimes by 6:30 so any earlier might be a problem and we don't want to lose our peeps.

Daisy and Patch are doing great. They harass each other like brothers and sisters would although once in a while one of them ends up crying because the other bite too hard :o( Daisy turned 11 weeks old last week and had her 3 set of shots. I think we have one more set of shots in 3 weeks and then the Rabies shot 2 weeks later. I can't wait til we can take her to the doggie park and start socializing her with other doggies.

My friends all make fun of me because I dress Patch and now of course I am dressing Daisy in cute little pink shirts and dresses. I am trying really hard to behave though :o) She is the second child so she's not getting as spoiled. On Monday I had gone to Molly's Pup-Purr-ee to look for a harness for Daisy. The store I usually shop at didn’t have any in her size and I needed it for Tuesday because I was bringing her to work, she had a vet appointment. Of course Molly’s was having a sale on their dresses :o) and I picked up a cute little dress for her to wear on Tuesday :o) Brand name, RUFF RUFF COUTURE out of Beverly Hills. Okay, I don't even own couture stuff. Pretty darn funny.

I’ve gotta say though that even though YES my dogs wear clothes I still stay low key when it comes to their outfits. Patch pretty much only wears tank top type shirts with designs on them and coats or sweaters in the winter. Daisy has 3 dresses but they aren’t too crazy. Here is the dress I got her on Monday. Oh and we found a super cute harness and leash to match all her pink stuff.

I at least don’t dress here in these type of dresses.


I don’t have a stroller for them.


I also don’t keep their clothes in a doggie wardrobe.


and they don’t have daybeds

See there are way crazier people out there and I can see how they get caught up in all this cute stuff especially if they don't have kids, but geesh there is a limit to how silly you should get with your dogs. They sell this stuff so there must be quite a few people out there buying it. I am close but not that close :o)

S.O.S

I don't have anything exciting to report today. Last night was a rest day so Rocky and I just had a nice dinner then caught up on TV shows. Today, my little munchkin Daisy is with me at work. She had another set of shots today so she has pretty much been sleeping all day long. She is so cute :o)

Anyway, here is a funny from Sunday. On our way out of Domain Carneros Olivia, Rocky and I grabbed some sodas out of the back cooler. Rocky and I had diet cokes and Olivia had a fizzy flavored water, we had the radio on and the song SOS (Rescue Me) by Rhianna was playing. Olivia started belting out the tunes

.......S.O.S. please someone help me. Its not healthy for me to feel this Y.O.U. are making this hard, I can't take it see it don't feel right S.O.S. please someone help me. Its not healthy for me to feel this Y.O.U. are making this hard, you got me tossing and turning i cant sleep at night.......

all of a sudden on one of her S.O.S's we hear this PPPPPHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and a big watery explosion. Her fizzy soda had exploded everywhere, we had to stop the car and RESCUE HER :o) it was all over the back seat and her clothes but luckily she had gone for the clear drink and not the diet coke. Good times, we always have good times :o)

WOW and because I am sitting here typing about it and making fun of her, I just spilled orange gatorade ALL OVER my skirt and shirt :o( me go now :o(

Lily Tomlin Moment

Had a great weekend, did a few fun things and also managed to get some naps and rest in.

Friday night after work I headed over to Lindsay's mom's house for her 24th birthday. Rocky was pretty tired and still wasn't feeling great so he stayed home. He wanted to rest up for our run on Saturday. Birthday party was low key but fun. We had some yummy Zachary's Pizza and salad for dinner. A few beers were also had but we all did really great and had no more than two because we had to run the next day. I had hydrated well on Thursday and all day Friday so that helped. We had a good time laughing and being silly as always.

Saturday morning I was up at 5:30am so we could be out of the house by 6:30 and meet Jeanette and Olivia in Berkeley. I thought it was going to be warm because it had been so hot on Friday but lucky for us it was perfect running weather and the sun never came out and it was pretty cool the whole time. The only bad thing was that it was windy so during some parts of our run we had a head wind :o( We decided to head towards Emeryville so we could have a change of scenery. Rocky did 8 miles and Jeanette, Olivia and I did 10 miles. We all felt great and we all had a great run. Olivia and I finished 10.13 miles in 2 hours and Jeanette finished about 10 minutes before us. I was pretty sore yesterday but I'm feeling pretty good today. I am really happy that I am back on track and having such great runs.

We saw a few other people out at Berkeley on Saturday who didn't really feel like making the drive to Fremont for the Mentor Led Run. Brandy was one of those people and I was really happy to see her out there. She's not always able to run with the team and meeting us at 7am was too early for her but she made it a point to get out there even if it meant doing her run on her own. I'm really proud of her. She's been doing great with her training.

Rocky and I had breakfast after the run then headed home for showers and a nap. The doggies decided they needed a nap too but were so busy trying to snuggle with me and make sure that one didn't have more space next to me than the other that I never really fell asleep, oh well. We got up and headed over to Walnut Creek for some shopping. We had some wedding gifts to return and an insane amount of gift cards to use up :o) I love going shopping with gift cards, you get to spend money but not really. We picked out a really nice headboard/footboard for our bed and an extra chair for our dining room table. Can't wait til they arrive. It'll be the last pieces of furniture we need to make our home complete.

Saturday evening we headed over to Daly City to celebrate Rocky's grandmother's 85th birthday. She looks amazing for 85 and other than a bum shoulder she is in great health. We had a good time hanging out with the family.

Sunday we headed to Sonoma for our quarterly trip up there to pick up our wine from Cline Cellars Winery. I didn't think we were going to have time to get up there this month but after talking with my sister-in-law, Minnelli, a few weeks ago we figured that Sunday would work and what the heck we should just head up there. It's always a nice trip up there and we always have a good time. This time we decided that we'd have a picnic since Cline has a great picnic area and the weather was suppose to be nice. I got up at 6am and headed to the grocery store to stock up on picnic stuff. We got salami, turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, avocados and bread to make sandwich's. Olivia brought our favorite Rachel Ray Pasta Salad, nectarines that Martin and Minnelli had brought and for dessert some cookies. We opened up a couple of bottles of wine that we had picked up from our membership and just enjoyed the nice weather, the food and the company. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon. Afterwards we headed across the street to see the new addition to the Cellar Family, the Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. The grounds were really pretty and they did a great job with the new building. We did a little wine tasting there and then headed home.

BUT not before we did a little Lily Tomlin reenactment. The last time we were in Sonoma we had seen some huge beach chairs on the side of the road. They are right at the entrance to the Visitor's center in Sonoma. Rocky had kept wanting to stop there to take pictures so this time on our way out we did, it was pretty funny, especially cause I couldn't get in the chair :o(

When you drive into Sonoma, Domain Carneros is one of the first wineries you see, it's a gorgeous building and I always want to go check it out so on our way home we headed in there. It was really pretty inside and had a really pretty view so we decided to go ahead and have a seat outside and enjoy the view and do some champagne tasting. The champagne was yummy, I think I even liked it better than the one we'd tried at Gloria Ferrer the first time we went tasting in this area.

We got home at a decent time so the rest of the evening was spent relaxing.

More B-Day Celebrations

Tonight we'll be heading over to Ms. Lindsay's house to celebrate her 24th birthday. It feels like just yesterday we (Olivia, Lindsay and I) were headed up to Tahoe to celebrate her 21st birthday. It's already been 3 years since that trip and boy did we have a blast.

Tahoe 2004 - Lindsay's 21st B-Day

Rocky is on the mend. He went to the doctor yesterday and came home with lots of decongesting medicines. I think last night was the first night he slept in a week. Last night we decided to just carbo load and relax some more so no track workout.

Tomorrow we are meeting Olivia and Jeanette at 7am :o( for our 10 mile run. We'll be running at the Berkeley Marina. I sure hope it's cool. In the evening we'll be in Daly City for Rocky's grandmother's bday. Sunday will be a day in Sonoma enjoying the outdoors. I think it's suppose to heat up again this weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSAY AND GRANDMA!

No Arm Twisting Needed

I get up at 5:45am these days. I don't like to rush in the mornings and I'm so OCD that if I don't follow my exact routine I get all weird. So now with two doggies I have to get up a little earlier so I have time to feed them, take them potty and get them settled. I also make my hubby's lunch..aaawwww....and yesterday morning I also needed to pack my running stuff. I was so proud of me cause I packed and had all my stuff ready to go. I actually wasn't even sure if we were running because I thought Amy's mom was still in town and I hadn't talked to Olivia about meeting. I figured I'd be prepared though.

I kept forgetting to email the girls but then we got an email from Amy. It said, "Anyone else feeling like a pedicure tonight"......haa, haaa. Olivia and I did not need much arm twisting at all. We both really needed our toes done and a night of pampering sounded so much better than running especially since it was warm again yesterday. I made appointments for us at the place I got to in Walnut Creek. I made their appts a little earlier than mine since they get off work earlier and I met them there when I got off work. Ahhhhh, nice pedicure and nice massaged legs, just what we needed.

We headed over to Stanford's afterwards for dinner. I shared some calamari with Amy and then had the Southwest Chicken Chopped Salad. Also had a glass of wine :o) We sat outside and although it wasn't super warm it was still pleasant. We had a good time. Thanks Amy for the great suggestion.

Tonight I WILL be going to track :o)

Barry Bonds #756

Chicken Soup for the Sickies

Last night on my way home I picked up some Chicken Soup at a Mexican restaurant in Castro Valley. I used to go there all the time when I lived there and it's the BEST chicken soup ever. It has huge chunks of white meat (my favorite), potatoes, carrots, zucchini and celery. It's the yummiest soup for a sickie. I want to learn how to make it :o)

Last night was a rest night for us although I didn't get much rest. I had a bunch of stuff to do around the house that I didn't get done on Sunday. Had some major laundry to do and clean up a little around the house.

Tonight I have to help out at the fundraising clinic for the Fall Team so I won't be running until tomorrow.

Speaking of fundraising. I finally got my fundraising letters out :o)

THANK YOU...KAREN, PETRA & MARK...for your generous donations

If you'd like to donate please go to my fundraising website at:

http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/tntrunnergirl

From 4 to 10

I think I need one more day off :o(

Well, I am happy to report that my run on Saturday went very well. I wasn't able to get in 13 miles because I ran out of time and had to get back to fulfill my duties as PR Captain but I did manage to get in 10 good miles :o) YAY for me.

I got to the Alameda Ferry Building about 7am, Olivia and I were going to start our run earlier than the team so I could get back in time to do the spirit cape stuff. By the time we got going it was about 7:15. We ran out about 0.75 miles, stretched and used then potty then headed out on our run. It was a already warm but luckily we had a head wind. Not so good for running into but at least it kept us cool. The sun had broke early which meant that on the way back it'd probably be quite warm. It was but we still had the wind keeping us a bit cool :o( We made it to the 5 mile turnaround and were feeling great. We loaded up on our gels, walked for a few minutes and then picked it up again. We finished 10 miles in 1 hour and 54 minutes and we were both feeling great. I had to stick around to do stuff with the teams but when Phil finished his 10 miles, him and Olivia went out for 2 more and did 12...YAY for Olivia and Phil. I wasn't in pain but I decided that I should ice my ankle just in case. Coach saw me icing and got worried that I was hurting which I wasn't but he did agree that icing just in case was a good idea. He asked me when my last run was and how far, it was Lake Chabot and 4 miles. He was proud of me for doing 10 and told me that I was mentally there and that's why I did it. I gotta admit I don't think I was mentally ready, I was kind of freaking out that I wouldn't be able to do even 8 miles without dying. I am happy and I think I'm back on track....YIPEE!!!!

And as for the weather, Sunday and today it's overcast, cold and it's been sprinkling.....very weird.

Saturday afternoon we took Patch and Daisy to a doggie festival in Danville. It wasn't what I had expected, it was much smaller and it was 95 degrees which is too hot for my doggies. Patch hates the heat. Rocky wasn't feeling great and we were both pooped so we didn't stay long. We headed back home and all four us climbed in the bed and took a 2 hour nap.

Here is a funny though from the festival. I bought a carrier/backpack for Daisy. She isn't allowed to socialize with other doggies or be on the icky ground until she gets all her shots but we want to start socializing her with people so we'd like to start taking her out. The carrier/backpack will also serve as her car seat. Anyway, so when we got to the festival I put the backpack on and we walked around I asked Rocky if she was doing okay and she was. She was just sticking her head out of a little window checking everyone out. She was tied in the backpack from a strap that you tie to her collar. All of a sudden I

feel something tug from behind. Daisy had decided to jump out from the little window and I kid you not it was like Daisy had gone bungee jumping. She jumped out and was hanging from the strap she was tied. All you saw was this little thing hanging from the backpack with a little blue dress. I am cracking up right now just writing this it was the funniest site ever. Although at the moment it happened I freaked out and thought she had broke her neck. Ummmm, we won't be opening her window anymore, at least not when we are walking around and just in case she decides to bungee jump again we are getting her a harness so she's not hanging from her neck :o(

Saturday evening Olivia and I headed to SF to watch Rocky's band play. We met up at Chevy's for dinner and then headed to the city. As always the boys put on a great show, it was just a bummer that there weren't a lot of people there. Seems like the place really doens't bring in a big crowd. Oh well, we had a great time.



Sunday was literally a DO NOTHING day. I was suppose to meet Petra at the dog park but I was too tired so I didn't go. Instead we all slept in. Rocky had cancelled Kali also. He hasn't been feeling good and really needed the rest. We rolled out of bed and onto the couch about 11ish, had lunch and then proceeded to watch 6 hours of Law & Order SVU :o) I love that show and they had a marathon going on. I think we even took naps in between, doggies included. We had made plans on Friday to meet Lael, Anthea and Olivia for dinner so we eventually had to get our of our jammies. We headed to Walnut Creek around 6:30 and met everyone for dinner at PF Chang's. We had a late celebrating for Lael's birthday since he had been out of the country on his actual birthday. It was a fun time with the gang. We headed back home put our jammies back on and called it a night. I think we made it til about 12:30/1am before Rocky started a rough night of coughing :o( he is sickie. This weather isn't helping. Hopefully he gets better soon. Tonight we'll just go home , eat some chicken soup and relax. I sure hope I don't catch whatever he has :o(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.....

....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR

DAD
COACH AL
AND MY BOSS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

Last night was a rest night for me. Rocky wasn't feeling good so he decided to skip track and I was just feeling exhausted and a bit sore from the Tuesday and Wednesday night runs. We did make some yummy pasta though and carbo loaded. I just realized I forgot my water and gatorade so I am going to run out and get some. I am hoping that if I drink gatorade today I'll be nice and hydrated and won't have a headache on the run tomorrow. I am really thinking positive thoughts that I will be able to get through my 13 miles okay.

This weekend will be busy mainly with the doggies. We are taking them to a doggie party in Danville tomorrow and on Sunday I am meeting Petra again at Pt. Isabel. Rocky has a gig late Saturday night so we'll be heading to that.

Have a great weekend!

Quick 3 miler

Last night I met Olivia at the Ironhorse trail for our Wednesday night run. I was not feeling very motivated and it was in the 90's. I was secretly hoping she would call and cancel, I know I'm bad :o( but she didn't. I was feeling a bit sore from the run on Tuesday so we only did 3 miles. I forgot my watch but Ms. Olivia had hers and I believe we finished in a little over 34 minutes. Not to bad considering I felt like I was moving VERY slow. I was happy when it was done that we did our run. I've got track tonight and then Saturday my first long run. I am crossing my fingers, toes and everything else I can cross that I am able to get my 13 miles done.

Not much else going on. I haven't had time to do any knitting :o( until Daisy gets a little bigger and I don't need to keep an eye on her life at home is all about the doggies. I will try to get another picture up here of her in her dress that auntie Olivia got her :o)

Meet Daisy

Well last night was my first buddy run in weeks. I was actually looking forward to it though, I've been really bummed about not running. I hadn't really looked at the schedule but I guess last night was our first night to go around the lake 2 times :o( I decided to just go for on and not over due it. One of our participants from the Fall team came out, she is getting a head start on training. She really wants to get in the groove of the schedule and she wanted to see how long it would take for her to get to Lake Merritt from her work. Anyway, so since she didn't really know anyone and she said she ran a 10-10:30 mile I thought I'd run with her....OH BOY...that only lasted for about a mile an a half. She is WAY faster than a 10 minute mile. She dusted all of us on the summer team. She did a great job. As for me, I didn't do to bad. I was breathing pretty hard from trying to keep up with her but I slowed it down a bit and managed to run the entire time. I did 3.31 miles in 36.31 minutes. YIPEEE! I had no problems while running, my ankle is a little sore today but for the most part I feel great :o) Tonight I am running with Olivia on the Ironhorse Trail. Ms. Amy decided she needs to get her hair done so she won't be there :o)

and now I will introduce MS. DAISY - DOB May 28, 2007

Daisy is our new puppy. She is a chihuahua/yorkie mix. She is suppose to be about half the size of Patch, about 6-7 lbs. I won't hold my breath though, Patch was suppose to be small and he's now 15 lbs. We'll see what happens with her. Rocky and I have been going back and forth with the decision to get a puppy for a long time. The biggest reason for wanting another one is that Patch is home alone a lot. During the week Rocky and I are gone 3 days training and poor Patch is home alone from 8-6 and then from 6:30-8/9 depending on how late our runs go. We feel really guilty and thought that getting him a friend would be good. My concern about getting another puppy though was that Patch is a spoiled brat and I wasn't sure if he'd go for it or be a total spoiled doggy and make our lives miserable. So far things are working out though. Daisy is 9 weeks old and a big baby. She knows that Patch is in charge and hasn't tried to take over. For the most part they get along, they play and hang out together. Patch does tend to be a baby sometimes though and is mean to her. Will take her toys away or bones that she is playing with. He also forgets that he is 13lbs heavier than her and sometimes is to rough with her. I know he's just playing but he is a big boy and she is so tiny. We have to keep an eye on him. It also seems like it has calm Patch down as far as how he treats Rocky and I. He doesn't seem to be barking as much and he has been very cuddly and loving with us. I think he might think we brought Daisy home to punish him, haa, haa. During the day Daisy and Patch stay together in the kitchen. I think they pretty much sleep all day. Daisy is doing great with potty training. She had already been using potty pads and when she came to our house she saw Patch's litter box and started using it. She seems to be catching on quicker than Patch did. Once we can take her outside to potty I think she'll do great. Sleeping has been a challenge although getting better. We are on week 2 of having her and each day gets a little better. The first week I had about 3 hours of sleep each night. Now we are making almost through the whole night with no whining. She'll whimper a few times and then fall back asleep. I've got her in a crate next to our bed so she can see me. Patch sleeps in a crate on the other side of the bed next to Rocky. Good thing we have a big room. So we are all adjusting. I think it'll be okay and everyone will get along and be happy. I just need to be patient with Daisy, she's just a itty bitty baby. And YES Ms. Daisy will also be wearing clothes :o) she already has 2 dresses and a couple of pink shirts. Auntie Olivia brought her over a super cute dress last weekend that she'll be wearing to a doggie party this weekend that I'm taking both Patch and her too. I know I'm crazy :o)