Home Sweet Home

The blacksburg home that is. It's been a busy week, but feels great to be back with all my buddies! This being in town for a weekend is new too. I kinda like it, too bad I know it won't last :) Too much to see and do :)

Let me back up. Got blue back last friday finally! Only $5000 worth of damage! They did a great job on the repairs, she looks great! Now the check engine light is on... has been all week... guess I should check that out huh :) I'm waiting for R to get back in town.. he had the same issue a couple months ago. I have a meeting with State Farm on monday. They claim they like everyone to come in every 3 years to go over their policies with B etc. Sure they do. I know they really want to crank my rates or drop me :) It's not my fault people like stealing and vandalizing my cars!! Maybe if I promise never to go to DC again they will be nice to me!

Last night I went to watch C (4 yrs) play soccer and S (7 yrs) play coaches pitch. SO SO SO adorable. The 4 yr olds play 3 v 3 soccer. This one little boy comes off the field and slaps everyone's hands when he scores. Of course they don't keep score and everyone wins, yeah right every kid out there knows the score :) And the baseball players.. with their little caps. Maybe one throw out of ten is actually caught. Two of them had little batting routines where they streched.. hit the play.. tapped each foot :) Like little professionals :) Then we went for custard. Yeah it was a great night!!

Guess what... less then a week til Gary. At least the first time this summer.. then countdown to the NRV Fair... closest Gary has ever gotten to the burg... I already have my tickets and some to share.. so let me know if you are interested. July 28th!

ROCK N ROLL SLOGAN

I didn't come up with this.. but I think we should adopt it for our group!

"WE DON'T RUN FOR GREAT TIMES, WE RUN TO HAVE GREAT TIMES"

Any other ideas?? We could have shirts made :)

Change isn't always good!

Ok do me a favor. Remember back to when you were a kid. McDonalds was THE fast food place to eat. Happy Meals (with cool toys). Chicken Nuggets (before Wendy's and Chick Fil A of course) dipped in honey.. mm mmm good! So here's my issue. Nowadays... McD's doesn't have honey!! How am I supposed to enjoy my nuggets without honey! It makes me really sad... like a part of my childhood is missing! "I'm NOT lovin it"

On a better note for McDonald's.. they finally have some cool toys again! They've teamed up with ESPN! Tony Hawk Skateboarding, Mia Hamm Soccer, Tony Stewart Auto Racing, Michael Vick Football, Venus and Serena Tennis, and Vince Cater Basketball. Of course I don't have the three I really want yet.. but I will be getting more Happy Meals the next couple of weeks.. guess I should take my own honey though :)

1/2 Marathon - Check

Yep that's right. I completed my first 1/2 marathon and even ran the whole thing. Well all but maybe .1 of a mile on the last hill around mile 11, my heart was real high so I decided I should walk a bit on the hill.. then was like what am I thinking.. keep running! Here are my race stats...

Time - 2:11:29
Pace - 10:02
Race - 3618 out of 9253
Gender - 1535 out of 5477
Division - 338 out of 1028

I had so much fun I've already signed up for my second 1/2 Marathon. The Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Sept 5th! I've even managed to convince M to run it with me :) I am looking forward to finishing a little bit faster :)

The whole weekend was a blast. It was great to spend time with my friends after being in Fairfax for over 3 weeks!! We started out with a night in Knoxville at Cotton Eyed Joe's. Great atmosphere, lacking some in the country music and good dances.. but still a fun night! Even got Mom out there to do the electric slide :) Then it was off to Nashville. We checked out the Expo, got some goodies, found the hotel then headed downtown for fried pickles and a spaghetti dinner. The spaghetti was ehh but the company was great! This whole weekend was filled with laughter! It was sooo fun!! Sat morning came and so did the rain, and thunder, and lightening! The race started 30 min late and no one really warmed up and stretched. The rain stopped just in time though and left a nice cool breezy morning, perfect weather for running 13.1 and probably my saving grace! It's definitely an experience running with 16,000 people, live bands, cheerleader squads, the streets lined with folks cheering you on... the first 10 miles passed really fast. The last 3 seemed to drag on forever but they were still fun! M and M were too busy watching a guy come back to find his wife and hold her hand and encourage her on to the end and they almost missed me.. I screamed at them.. but not in time for them to get my picture.. Oh well :) Next time I will have to try and be part of the cute moment :) All 7 of us that went from the burg finished our races :) And I think all 7 of us plus some more are planning to run in VB :) After showers we headed to Franklin for a bar-b-que. WOW is all I can say about the food! mm mmm good! Then it was off to the CDJ and Brad Paisley concert. It was awesome.. of course Brad didn't play long enough.. but he never does! Then we hit the town. Legends, a Kareoke Bar (printers alley), an Irish Pub, the Wild Horse, Second Fiddle, then pizza at 3am :) (yeah all this after waking up at 4:30am and running 13.1 miles) I don't think Nashville was ready for us! Sunday we hit a street fair in Franklin full of arts crafts and food :) Then headed home. Yeah this is long.. and doesn't include the half of it... it felt like we where there much longer then a weekend!

Now I'm back in Fairfax for a couple more weeks. Still no wheels, I'll update you on that later.

TGIF.... or something like that....

Hmm let's see. This is how my day is going so far....
2:30am... Mom sick as a dog... taking care of her.
5:00am... Potty duty, dad.
6:45am... Look out the window and see this.

7:00am... Sweep glass off street.
7:15am... File report with police.
8:00am... File claim with State Farm.
9:00am... Potty duty, dad.
9:15am... Blue gets towed.

Stupid kids with nothing better to do with their time. They can't even do it right and hit just the window, that would be easy to replace.. no they miss and mess up the whole frame!! I broke down instantly when I saw it.. more the stess I think and the long night. I never shed a tear when they stole the whole darn car.. but this, I cry. Go figure. Well let's look at the positives... they didn't take anything from inside... still have my golf clubs!... the cop was kinda cute.. and J says he was flirting with me... I get to pimp the minivan to VB for K's shower :) Since it was vandalism I don't have a deductible! Can't wait to see what my insurance rates become though! What do I really need. A day spa would be nice!! If I hadn't already been on a shopping binge yesterday.. that would work to!

More Pics...




Hope your weekend is starting better then mine!

I AM THE CHAMPION....

At least I feel that way today :)

I'm in a couple fantasy NASCAR leagues (ok 4), one of which includes my brother. He's 19 months older then me, nicknamed Mr ESPN for his obsession with all sports, and I LOVE to beat him at anything.. especially sports!! Thanks to Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne yesterday was my day! Not only have I won the yahoo league two weeks in a row, a beat J this week 339 to 165.. I more then doubled his points!!, and jumped ahead of him in the overall standings!! Yes it was a great day. And lucky me.. they have this weekend off for Easter so I can rub it in for two whole weeks!!! :) :) :) And believe me.. since I don't get this opportunity often. I will :) Gotta love lil sisters!

I'm still ranked 109,715 of everyone on yahoo, 1637 behind the leader. That puts me in the 70th percentile though! It's fun!

And that's not even the coolest part of the day. I ran my 8 miles! Yes me.. that's 80 minutes of running! Thinking about it stunk.. but actually running it wasn't too bad. The weather was cool... a little windy... but nice. Ran around the lake twice. It was a trail so not too hard on the joints. The woods kept out most of the wind. Being close to water just made it relaxing! My shins weren't painfree, but didn't kill me. My knees were what started to bother me some near the end. I really wasn't dying at any point, just real excited I made it!! I tried to help my mind game by not even looking at my watch til I thought I had hit about 4 miles (40 min)... the watch said 33! That was a bummer :) I wish the trail marked off every mile.. but oh well. Guess what.. I RAN 8 MILES!! Bring on the 1/2 :)

Did I tell you I whooped my brother at Fantasy NASCAR this week??? Whooped him bad! :)

did'ya remember to spring forward?

Too bad it doesn't really feel like spring outside.. cept for the rain! Actually the sun's shining right now, but it's not supposed to last all day :(

I know ya'll are dying to hear how the shoe test went! What a pleasant surprise!! I headed to the gym friday night.. only really planning to run 2-3 miles since I hate treadmills, was worried about the shoes, and was worried about the shins. Well.... the shoes felt great, the shins felt fine, and I ended up running 5 miles! It was what I needed to get recharged and encouraged... cause I had been feeling pretty bummed about my training.. or lack there of. The plan was to run 8 today.. we'll see how the weather holds.

Oh yeah.. speaking of running. Seems my MP3player has decided to go haywire. So yeah no more music while running. It's the excuse I need to buy an IPOD right... haha :) JK!

My Dad, J and I headed to RFK yesterday for DC United's season opener and Freddy Mania! The game was a sell-out probably because everyone wanted to see Freddy Adu's (14) professional soccer debut. Maybe I'm wrong to think the kid should prove himself before stadium's chant "Freddy Freddy Freddy. But nope... as soon as he started warming up on the sideline the chants started. It looked the the paparazzi was there! He got a few touches on the ball.. but nothing amazing yet. It will be fun to watch him through the season though. He wasn't who I was watching though.. DC played San Jose, the MLS Cup defending Champions and team of my fav (active-no one will replace John Harkes) soccer player Landon Donovan. It was great to watch my fav player and fav team even though they were against each other. I wish I had a pic to share of Landon's smurf shoes, at least it made him easy to spot on the field! Ok so besides Freddy and Landon...DC played a great game. Looks like the new coach, Peter Nowac, has worked hard during the off season. Hopefully this win is a preview of how the season will go!

Guess what! I'm 368 points away from my Bronze Award in the President's Challenge!

Anyone seen The Prince and Me yet?? I hope to go this week!

The latest saga...

They say.... "The only really important piece of equipment you need is the right running shoe." .... so my mission of late has been to find new running shoes. I'm happy with my current Saucony 3D Grid Hurricane 5's, but it's time for new shoes and thought I would look around at my other options... aiming for something a little cheaper!!

A couple weeks ago I ordered a pair of Asics Gel-Kayano X's. I tried them out at Runabout. I was aiming for Asics cause C could get a deal on them. Even though I felt some pressure on the outside of my foot... I thought once I wore them they'd stretch a little and be fine. WRONG!! They aren't comfortable at all!! Plus the shin splints seemed to be worse.. not sure if that is due to the shoes or just coincidence?? Then I thought well so I can't wear them to run but I'll just have a new pair of shoes to wear around for whatever. I don't even think they are comfortable enough for that. I'm guessing I'll end up giving Ebay a whirl.

So at this point shopping for running shoes didn't excite me cause I'm so worried about buying another pair that will end up being uncomfortable. The issue is still that I need new running shoes though.. so I braved another trip to Runabout.

I had done some research online at different Saucony, Asics, Adidas, and Brooks that were stability shoes I wanted to try on. So again I started trying on shoe after shoe after shoe. I'm happy to say I found a pair I liked!! Brooks Adrenaline gts 5. They still need to pass the treadmill test so I can see how they feel after a couple miles. I'm very excited to try them out! Hopefully this ends the search for new running shoes!

random stuff

This weekend was tons of fun and very busy. It started with Game night at 1015 fri. There were 10 of us here playing Caccassone (or something like that) and cards. Lots of laughing.. not all at me :) Good times. Sat I had my first golf lesson of the season. I'm hoping this is the year I might actually be confident enough to score a round accuratley! Then it was off to Stampin Up to learn some new tricks. I came home and tried to be creative making R's birthday card. I think I was successful! Helped R celebrate at Macado's. Then cleaned my room some, unpacked etc. M talked me into hitting DT for an hour before watching the ring dance fireworks. We sat in the window seats at Sharkey's. Interesting hour. Sunday I ran for the first time in a week! 4.5 miles.. not bad. Then church... reading in the sun... driving range... 2 hrs of the phone catching up with H... Outback for dessert w H and J. Movies with J. Then bowling w J and all her coworkers. Yeah... it was a busy weekend!

OK the highlights!! At the driving range on sunday I only whiffed once!! I was pretty excited!! I hit a couple solid. I'm focusing on my swing and posture :) Hopefully it will be natural soon! Did I tell you I only whiffed once!!

Bowling.. no highlights here! haha It was fun though!

We went to see Jersey Girl. I think it had a slow start, probably cause I knew bits about the plot and I was expecting something to happen at the very beginning and it didn't happen for about 20 min... so I thought the build up was a bit long.. but again probably just cause I knew what to expect and was anxious. Liv Tylers' character was interesting. I didn't know what direction the plot was going for a second when she entered the scene... it ended up being great though! A tearjerker which I wasn't expecting.. I got emotional multiple times. The little girl is great!! Of course the father daughter relationship was adorable... cute but also real. A good flick about famliy and life's priorities!

I am pretty proud of myself tonight. I think I have officially unpacked all boxes from my move. (I moved in July) I had a pile of stuff in the corner of my room that I just couldn't figure out what to do with. I finally pulled it out and went through it. Even trashed some stuff. It's amazing the stuff I keep. I found a diary my best friend and I use to pass back and forth in high school.. it's real funny... me talking about my first kiss... how mad I got at my mom... my first trip to Tech and deciding it's where I wanted to go to school... lots of crazy HS memories. Also found a post card my first grade teacher sent my in 1985 from England. My gym cards from Myrtle Beach and Nashville. And you thought you knew how ridiculous I am!

Happy St Patricks Day!!!

Yeah I know I've been neglecting to blog... I will try to be better... If anything blogworthy happens that is :)

My car turned over 80,000 miles last monday.. that was pretty exciting!

The belly-off bet ended last week. I lost 8.75 pounds in 7 weeks. 5.5%. Didn't reach my goal, but I was still mighty happy. The winner walked away with $209, not a bad payoff for losing 23 pounds! We lost 136 pounds as a group! It was a lot of fun. We are not trying to come up with a new way to encourage each other towards their fitness/weight loss goals!

Savannah was this past weekend! A blast as always. Every year is so different, A. Because the people are different B. Because I am growing up and C. Because we discover new stuff to do every year! The weather was great, a little chilly in the evenings.. but beautiful! Ok I will try to fill in the details....

Friday night: Ate dinner at Boar's Head Tavern & Grill. So yummy!! We decided this should be kept as a lunch choice next year though. Cool thing is.. Guiness comes with a shamrock image in the foam! Very Cool. The only craziness was when somehow Abby and I got into a bet of who could get the most phone numbers. Abby is WAY WAY WAY more outgoing and forward then me.. took me a while to get into the game. But it got easier... I mean really I would just go up to guys and be like 'you have to help me out with this bet', talk to them some. Most were really cool about it.. some were jerks. Don't know how... but I ended up winning :) Thanks to my coach Ang who wasn't allowed to play the game! It was a fun night.. but I realized not as much fun as it used to be. We still met some cool folks amongst all the drunk idiots.

Saturday: We went to the rugby tournament this year. Learned the rules of the game from some Detroit rugby players Abby met on her flight. They were real nice and it's fun to understand the game now! I really want to try playing :) Ran into a Blacksburg Player I knew... didn't realize he played rugby though! Abby took her picture with a huge snake!! Gross :) Then we headed back towards river street and checked out City Market and Broughten Street. Other places I hadn't spent much time at before. Saturday night we hit up The Lady and Sons for dinner. WOW!!! Even though are arteries were clogging as we walked through the front door it was worth it! Good ole southern style!!! I started the Craw Stew. Amazing. Grilled Tilapia!! Sweet Tea!! mmmm I think I could have eaten there every meal! Sat night held more River Street fun.

Sunday: We headed to Hilton Head Island for the race!! I think we were all real happy with our times! Cris finished in 25 and Joel and I in 27 min!! Then we hit the beach for a while. I little windy but still nice!! Got some sun, played some frisbee, football, and volleyball! Hit a couple places there. The best was the Frosty Frog. We started celebrating Angela's birthday there. Then headed back to Savannah where we headed to the City Market for some dancin :) Angela's goal was to stay out late on her birthday.. I think we got back to the hotel aroudn 1:30. A success :)

Monday: Got up for a leisurely 4 mile run. The weather was perfect!!! It's is a little different running in a downtown area where you have to cross streets constantly. There was a nice park not far away to run around though. As we ran past The Lady and Sons, Bobby and Jaime (Paula's sons) were starting their day folding napkins... I stopped to see if I could bring my shirt by to get signed.. and just cause I wanted to talk to them again. So cute, so nice, so southern :) So I came back with shirt and camera. Unfortunately the picture came out blurry. Still the highlight of the weekend to talk to them though.. and get my squeeze during the picture :) haha. Joel and I hit up Parkers Gas Station on the way out of town. A gourmet station with yummy food. Supposedly the place to get food at 3am when the bars close. Maybe that will be a goal next year!

I was a little surprised at how many VT folks we saw down there. Seemed many more then in past years. Even saw a couple people I knew which was fun!

I think all had a fun time! Savannah is a great city!! I can't wait til next year! Maybe I will have to find another excuse to visit before then. Maybe a golf weekend!

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