Week #2 Down and on to #3

Well we officially finished week #2 of our training and it went fairly well.

Thursday, June 12th
Olivia and I had another almost 3 mile run. I think I was a bit tired though and it was muggy out so I wasn't really feeling it but we got it done.

Saturday, June 13th
Holy Smokes this was the longest day ever and I felt it on Sunday. I was up at 6:00am to get ready for our Saturday morning run. We were scheduled to do 8 miles at the Lafayette/Moraga Trail. Meeting time was 7:30am and everyone was right on time. We have a few friends that will be joning us once in a while during the runs which is nice. We headed out on the trail for a mile and then stretched and then off to do the other 7 miles. Olivia I made it to 3 miles and then we needed a walk break :o( The Lafayette/Moraga Trail is a gradual uphill on the way out and a nice decline on the way back. Well, we were feeling that uphill.

I definetly feel that had I kept going to my boot camp class (didn't sign back up after my first 12 classes cause it gets expensive) and had I kept running on a regular basis I would not be struggling :o(

Anyway, the rest of the run was pretty much a run/walk for 4 miles. I do think we ran more than we walked but I can honestly say that the last mile was tough for me. It had also gotten warm and I drank all of my water. 2 bottles was not enough, next time I think I just need to take all 4 bottles with me even if I don't use up all the water at least I have them there.

The good news is we got the 8 miles done and it doesn't matter if we walked or ran them it's that that we were out there and the time on our feet is what counts. YAY US!

After the run we headed to breakfast, then I had to go to Walnut Creek to buy a graduation gift and birthday gift, then I headed home to shower, then I got in my car and drove to Granite Bay (without the hubby cause he had to work), spent the afternoon in Granite Bay with the Reyes family celebrating our nieces graduation, then made the 2 hour drive back home at 9pm by the time I got home and into bed it was almost midnight :o( I was POOPED.

Sunday, June 14th
Had a nice brunch at Faz in Pleasanton with my hubby and although we had every intention on going grocery shopping we could both barely stand up and keep awake. Rocky had worked a 16 hour day on Friday and a 13 hour day on Saturday :o( We made a quick stop at Petsmart and Target and then we went home. I took a nice nap and then got up and cleaned the house and did some laundry. Rocky put up our nice new table in our breakfast nook and I re-did our bedding in our bedroom :o) We relaxed the rest of the evening.

the new bedding

Patch approves :o)

and yes that is a stuffed animal on our bed and yes I do sleep with it, hee, hee

the new table, still need to finish decorating the walls

Tuesday, June 17th
We had our first track workout last night and it went well. I am not sore today so I'm not sure if that means we didn't push ourselves hard enough or I'll be feeling it later/tomorrow. We'll have to see :o)

Buddy Run/Hike

Tuesday's are going to end up being a "buddy" run day as usual. The plan for now is to run in Danville unless something comes up and then I'll go to Lake Merritt. After my run I will then go for a hike with Debbie.

Last night I met Lindsay and Olivia and we went for an approx. 3 mile run. I forgot my watch and Ms. Olivia's watch did something wacky so we still don't know how far we are running but we figure it's somewhere close to 3 miles. We had a nice run.

After the run I went down the road and picked up Debbie and we went on a nice hike. It starts UPHILL. We hiked for an hour and then I dropped her off and headed home to relax.

this is the view from part way up the hill we start on

We are back to getting home at a late hour so we need to figure out what meals we can cook the day before that can be used as left overs on Tuesday and Thursday's. Coming home and cooking at 9pm is way too hard and by the time we cook, eat and take showers it becames way too late for me.

Anyway, happy RAINY Wednesday :o(

Slow Start

Well our first official week to training was off to a slow start but at least we got 2 days in of running.

Saturday's run was so so. We (Olivia, Sandra, Leslie and I) met at 7:30am at Lake Merritt to do a 6 mile run. I was tired and since I haven't run 6 miles in a very long time I was not sure how it was going to go plus even just running 3 miles at Lake Merritt always feels so long. Anyway, we all started together and quickly separated. Olivia and I were in front, Sandra in the middle and Leslie at the back (Leslie was only going to do 1 lap). Olivia and I got our one lap in and then decided to do the second lap in the opposite direction but I told Olivia I needed to walk for a minute but she could go. She walked with me..LOL!! We ended up walking 1 mile, running 1 mile, walking 1/2 mile and running the last 1/2 mile. So although we didn't manage to run the full 6 miles at least we got out there and did 6 one way or another :o) Sandra on the other hand plugged along and did great. She ran all 6 :o)

After the run I headed home to meet Rocky and my parents and then we ran some errands, I later had a facial appt and then came back again to meet everyone for dinner at PF Chang's in Pleasanton for my mom's bday.

UGGHHHHH, could not have picked an ickier day to go there. I don't know if that location has gone down hill since the last time I was there or if they were just having a bad day with food but it was not fun at all. First the girl who brough our appetizers didn't bring us plates and when we asked for plates she left to get them and never came back. My dad and Rocky had ordered white rice, they bring it out and it's NOT cooked. We ordered Mu Shu Pork and I'm not sure what happened with that but the waiter himsef decided to take those back. We never even tasted them. My mom ordered Cho Fun, the noodles were so hard she could barely cut them with a knife. We complained and the manager blah blah blah, I"m sorry. Okay fine whatever, he took a few bucks off the bill. After all that my dad orders coffee and the mug is HOT but the coffee inside is cold :o( Never going back to that location again. Luckily we had brought our own cake for her bday and that was super yummy. It was strawberry shortcake from Merritt Bakery..yummy!!

Sunday my parents left early with Hendrix :o( boo, hoo, and Rocky had Kali. Later in the day we hit the Walnut Creek Art & Wine Festival with Olivia, Debbie and Brian. It was breezy but finally a warm day in the Bay. It was a lot of fun and we had lots of yummy festival food and beer :o) we all even managed to get a little cripy from the sun. What's up with this weather? One minute we are freezing the next we can't get sunscreen on fast enough. Craziness!

Today is my mom's official birthday so....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Here I Is :o)

I've been lazy about not updating my blog :o( We's been busy the last few weeks so it's no like I don't thave anything to write about. I'll have to do a shortish recap.

Hendrix

If you're my friend on Facebook you know already that we've had a little guy named Hendrix staying with us. Hendrix is a 6 month old, 5lb Chihuahua :o) My parents had been looking for a doggie and we found this one at a breeder in Walnut Creek. The idea was that we'd pick him up and keep him for 2 weeks until my parents came to visit and then they would take him home. Well the little guy ended up getting bronchitis so he's been living with us for a month. It has been a bit chaotic but it has also been a lot of fun. He is the most adorable doggie ever and him and Daisy have become best buddies. We are all sad that he's going to be going home with my parents this weekend.


Parents Visit

My parents arrived at our house on May 15th and stayed for 5 days. It was their first time coming to visit us in our new home. We took them to Sonoma the first day they were in town and went to Cline's Spring Fling Party for their members. We had a great time but it was in the 90's and even though we were in the shade we were all miserable. I think we lasted about 3 hours and then we headed home. The rest of the time there were here we ran some errands, hung out at the house and ate :o) My dad was very kind and planted some tomatoe plants for us :o) They seem to be doing well and I haven't killed them yet.


Memorial Weekend

We had a nice weekend it was a combination of mellow relaxing and having fun at different events. On that Saturday we headed to Livermore to Coach Al's Fundraiser at Wente Vineyards. The turnout was low but Coach still made over $1000...yay!!

On Sunday we went to the San Ramon Art & Wind Festival with Olivia and WE FROZE. That whole weekend was weird and it was like we had gone back to winter :o( not fun holiday weather. After the festival Rocky and I headed over to the Walnut Creek Yacht Club for their 12 Year Anniversary Party. It was a fun party with lots of different seafood appetizers, drinks and music. Rocky and I are always up for all you can eat oysters especially when they are free :o)

On Monday we had the gang over and we BBQ'd. The weather was actually a bit nicer and we were able to hang out outside and eat at our new patio table. I think it's safe to say the gang had a great time. We chatted, we ate and then everyone spent like 3 hours playing Wii. We had no casualities but lots and lots of laughter.

Last Week/Weekend

On Thursday the 28th we attended the Man/Woman of the Year Gala at the Bentley Reserve in SF. We were there to suppor Coach Al in his quest to win Man of the Year. I am sad to say that he did not win but we are still very proud of him. There were 12 candidates and they raised $307,000 for LLS. The winner, Bill Shen, who I've known since I began TNT was the winner and raised $58,000...wow!!!


Saturay was busy for us and it was a long day. Rocky had Kick Off in the morning for the Summer Season Run Team and I stayed home cleaning up. He finally made it home around 1pm and we headed to San Bruno for our nieces birthday. Once again the weather was not cooperating and it was freezing. We hung out there for a while and then my sister-in-law and I hadead to the Crab House for dinner....YUMMERS!!! We had a nice evening chatting away. We headed back to my mother/father-in-laws house where our hubbies were hanging out and Rocky and I finally headed home around 11ish.

Sunday we got to sleep in a little and then I met Ms. Amy for brunch and then we headed over to the nail shop for pedicures. It was a nice mellow morning and afterwards I headed home to relax for the rest of the day.

That then brings us to this week :o)

Monday night I had a very nice dinner with Meenu at Cafe Esin :o)

We've been having doggie issues and so far 2 of the 3 dogs have had to spend some time at the vet. Hendrix had the bronchitis and now Daisy has a boo boo in her foot :o( On Tuesday I was suppose to run but since I had brought Daisy to work so she could go to the vet to have her foot checked I didn't run and went straight home. Last night I did manage to run and it felt pretty good although I thought it was gonna be cold and it was a bit warm. This weather is so wacky. Anyway, I had a great run and then when I was heading to the freeway I spoke to my friend Debbie and she wanted to go for a walk but her hubby didn't so I offered to go with her. I thought we'd be going for a walk on the Iron Horse Trail, NOPE, she wanted to go for a hike which started UPHILL!!! It was actually fun but today I'm a little bit tired :o) I may try to go with her again next week though. It was nice.

Tomorrow is our first officaly Saturday run for the season and we are starting with 6 miles. We shall see how that goes.

GOOD LUCK TO MR. PHIL who's doing America's Most Beutiful Ride in Lake Tahoe this weekend :o) GO PHIL!!!

Gardening

I think I have admitted on here before that I haven't the slightest clue about gardening.  I've been buying magazines and reading up online to get some idea of what to do.  It's going to take a while or our backyard to fully look they way we want to but in the meantime I'd like to start planting a few things.  One thing I do know I want to do is build a raised bed so we can grow tomatoes and other veggies in it.  I'm thinking maybe next weekend or the week after (I'll be off for a few days with my parents visiting) maybe we can work on that.  Maybe my parents can help me out since they grow tomatoes :o) hint, hint to my dad..LOL!!!

Anyway for now I've managed to replant three items.

This plant which is in our kitchen and I can't remember what it's called. 

a jalapeno plant and a tiny tomato seedling

After I post this I am going to go online and read up on these to make sure I take care of them properly so they don't die.  Wish me luck :o)

Food Pictures

People make fun of us for taking pictures of our food but they also love our food pictures so here are a few from our trip to Vegas.

Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, Caesar's Palace

We started with an appetizer plate of chicken tacos. They gave us 3 small skewers of chicken with a peanutty sause. I forgot to take a picture of those but they were delicious.

This is a picture of my Tuna Steak over couscous. In the middle is a cast iron skillet with roasted corn with cotija cheese...yummy and in the background you can kind of see Rocky's pork tenderloin which was also really good. It came with a small tamale.

RM Seafood, Mandalay Bay

We started with some raw oysters.

I then had the pear/apple and goat cheese salad and Rocky had the clam chowder.

For dinner I had scallops (they came a la carte and I chose not to order a side) and Rocky had the halibut topped with crab and asparagus :o)

Believe it or not I managed not to gain a single pound while gone. I think it mainly had to do with picking lots of seafood for my meals and all the walking around.

Vegas Recap

We are home from Vegas and we had a blast.  

We left from Oakland on Wednesday morning, we wanted to get there early but not too early :o) Our flight got in at 10:45, grabbed our luggage, grabbed a cab to the hotel, checked in and got our bathing suits on.  It was about 11:30 and we were hungry so we grabbed lunch at the Beach Side Grill.  If you've never been to the Mandalay Bay they've got a "beach" there.  They've got 6 pools but the big pool has sand and a wave pool just like a beach.  It's the best.  Anyway after a bit to eat we grabbed a few beach chairs and relaxed by the pool.  We ordered a bucket of beer, people watched, swam a little and just hung out.  It was a nice 88 degrees :o) aahhh, how I love sunshine.  

We managed to hang out for about almost 3 hours and then it got a bit hot for us so we decided to walk around and check out the shops.  We also decided to try our luck at the slot machines and spent our first $20, I won $50...woohoo.  We cashed it out and went about our afternoon, haa, haa, we aren't much gamblers.

After a little walking around we went to our room and took a nap before heading out for the evening.  This was our actual anniversary day so we had bought tickets to see Cher and were having a nice dinner at Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay's Restaurant at Caesar's Palace.

We got ready and then headed out for the night.  We had dinner at Mesa Grill and it was delicious we were so happy with our choice.  Then it was off to see Cher and OMG, it was an awesome show and we had awesome seats.  It was a perfect anniversary evening.

Hubby and I decided to walk around Caesar's Palace and check out the shops and have a little dessert.  Rocky had never seen the Fountain Show at the Bellagio so we decided to also walk over there and check out the show.  The night show is prettier because it's dark and the fountains are all lite up.  

Anyway, we checked out the show and then it was time to go home BUT NOOOO hubby wanted to walk around some more.  I HAD HEELS ON :o( not good.  Next thing I know we've walked almost back to our hotel (not a short walk) and my feet feel like they were going to fall off :o( We were so close but I couldn't take it anymore we finally got a cab to take us the rest of the way and OUCHIE!!! I was in pain.  Don't boys know that heels are only meant for sitting and looking cute and not for walking all over Vegas...LOL!!! Besides the painful feet we had a wonderful  day and evening. 

Thursday I had planned on going to the gym at our hotel but that DIDN'T happen, haa, haa.  I was still sore from walking around the night before so I decided to sleep in.  We got up and got ready and then headed out for the day.  We had breakfast in our hotel and then headed out to the strip.  We were headed to the Bellagio because we had tickets to the Andy Warhol Art Exhibit.  His work was there along with Roy Lichtenstein's and they are both artists we like and have in our home.  We first made as stop at MGM Grand to shop around and we ended up stopping to check out the tiger exhibit there.  

We then headed to the art exhibit and we were a bit bummed though with the exhibit.  There were only 16 pieces and only 4 were of the artist we liked :o( oh well.  It was still something to do.  We then headed down to see the gardens at the Bellagio which I had heard were beautiful and they were but the tulips weren't fully grown out yet :o( bummer.   

We spent the rest of the day walking around the strip and shopping.  When we finally got pooped we took a cab back to Mandalay Bay and headed back to the pool :o) We had had a late breakfast and then a late lunch so we didn't head out for diner til later in the evening.  We had decided we'd had enough walking around so we decided to stay in our hotel for the night.  We had dinner at a very yummy seafood restaurant there, RM Seafood, the food was once again delicious.  We decided to try our luck again at the slots machine and woohoo hubby won $140 so once again we cashed out and decided to walk around.  Some lady approached us and said we looked HOT :o) LOL!!! and then told us we could have a free pass to get into a VIP only exclusive House of Blues Club, The Foundation Room.  This club is on the 23 floor of the Mandalay Bay.  We decided to check it out and ended up hanging out there for a while.  It was a lot of fun and the view was awesome of the strip.  After a while we headed back down, walked around and finally called it a night around midnight.  I gotta say all that walking around and the sun is exhausting.  Not to mention I'm getting old and have a hard time staying up past 10, hee, hee.  We grabbed a few sodas and midnight snacks and headed back to the room.  It was another fun evening.

Thursday was very mellow.  We got up late, had breakfast and then packed up to head to the airport :o( left the sunshine and came home to rain. 

We had a blast!