2011 Recap

Once again, another year has absolutely flown by. Maybe it's just me getting older, but they sure do seem to be going way too fast. There's something about turning thirty that makes you sort of stop and think about your life. I remember when I was in high school thinking how old thirty seemed... but now that I'm there, I keep thinking well, it's not that old! Without further ado, here is my recap of the major things that happened in 2011.

January

My Flaming 30th Birthday Cake

• Jan 2: My 30th birthday! I went to dinner at Sudwerk Riverside with my family and then we went to the movies. As you can see to the right, I had a crazy flaming cake... that's what thirty candles looks like! In my "A New Decade" post I looked back on all of the things I did in my twenties... I accomplished a lot! 
• Jan 15: I picked up my wedding dress. It was just as amazing as I remembered it and I was so excited to finally have it here!



Engagement Pictures!

• Jan 22: Mike and I had our engagement photo session with Michelle Trujillo of Michelle Trujillo Photography. We had decided that we wanted to take them at one of the local fire stations so that we could include an engine in some of the pictures. Michelle was amazing and managed to get some shots in three or four different places on the fire station grounds so that it actually looks like we were at a bunch of different locations!
• Jan 30: Mike and I saw Daniel Tosh from Tosh.0 in San Francisco. I bought Mike the tickets for his birthday in November... we've been hooked on this show for a while now. It was a really fun show!

February

• Feb 20: Alyse's Baby Shower - little McKinley arrived later in the year and is absolutely adorable! The shower was a ton of fun!

March

Eric Clapton

• Mar 4: Eric Clapton concert. Mike and I gave my parents tickets to see Clapton for Christmas, but feeling a little selfish, I bought some for us too. It was an amazing show. The man can seriously play guitar and it was really cool to actually see him do it! As my mom put it, he plays his guitar so well that it sings. Los Lobos opened for him - they were great too!



Mike And I At Cooper Vineyards

• Mar 6: A Weekend of Zin. This is the annual Amador County event and it was my first year going. There were twenty people in our party, two vans and two designated drivers. We made it to eight vineyards total... it was definitely a good thing we had designated drivers! We had some amazing wine, delicious food and had a great time with the Blankenheims. We broke a total of three wine glasses (average for the event, I'm told) and had a lot of fun!
• Mar 13: We registered for our wedding at Williams Sonoma and Macys. We had so much fun running around the stores with the scanners!
• Mar 14: An 8.9 major earthquake hit Japan, sending tsunami waves up to 133 feet high towards land. Reports were that the earthquake lasted twenty seconds and shifted the entire island of Japan EIGHT feet. The confirmed death count was 15,842 people with an additional 3,485 people still missing. It was completely horrible to watch and for a while there were serious concerns that the tsunamis would make it across the ocean to California (as it turns out, waves about 8 feet high hit parts of California and Oregon).
• Mar 28: Our house was broken into. Definitely a very sucky time. I chose not to blog about it at the time, but it was not an experience that I would like to repeat. I lost every piece of jewelry I've ever owned, but even worse, they took my jewelry box which had a lot of sentimental stuff (notes from the tooth fairy, etc).

April

Oma's 82nd Birthday

• Apr 5: I learned how to fire my first shot gun. Between the break in and the mountain lions, I decided it would probably be best to know how to defend myself. I was scared to death, but it wasn't that hard once I did it!
• Apr 13: I took a biofeedback class at Kaiser to help with my migraines. It was an amazing class and in the personalized sessions afterward I learned a ton about how to help fend off the headaches and how to deal with them when I already have them!
• Apr 17: We celebrated Oma's 82nd birthday. I sincerely hope that I am as healthy as she is by the time I reach that age! She has early stage Alzheimer's, which is seriously awful, but beyond that, she's as healthy as a horse!



Droopy Tail Shadow

• Apr 18: Shadow gets "limber tail". The poor little guy couldn't lift his tail up or even sit down and spent the entire night pacing the downstairs bedroom with me. It's basically a very painful syndrome brought on by cold water (we had taken him swimming the day before). The vet gave us some fantastic medicine that made the pain go away and about four days later he was finally able to lift his tail up again!



Kati's Bridal Shower

• Apr 24: Mom and I threw Kati's bridal shower. Kati had wanted a big tea party, so I spent the entire day before making homemade scones and other yummy treats. We stuck with pink and white (which went along with her wedding colors) and had an absolutely wonderful time. My favorite part was the toilet paper game where the girls were broken into teams and had to make wedding dresses on one of their members out of rolls of toilet paper. It rained at the very end of the shower, but other than that, the weather completely cooperated!
• Apr 29: Prince William marries Katherine. Their wedding doesn't hold a candle to mine or to Kati's!

May

• May 2: Osama bin Laden is killed. More than anything, I think it was a symbolic act than anything - obviously it didn't make everything better or bring back anyone that was killed.
• 

  

  Mike and I at CATS

  May 7: Mike got to see his very first musical - we went to the Orpheum in San Francisco to see CATS. It was every bit as wonderful as I remembered it from seeing it when I was younger. The one complaint we had was that the seats were a little close to the seats in front of you, but other than that, it was wonderful. Next up, opera!
• 

  

  Kati's Bachelorette Weekend

  May 13-15: Kati's Bachelorette weekend. We headed to Aptos for the weekend to celebrate Kati's final fling before the ring. We rented a beautiful beach house and had a total blast hanging out. There were 14 of us girls total... we pretty much took over the bars! As it turns out, it was my cousin Jared's 21st birthday that weekend, so they met up with us at the bar too, which was pretty special. The weather was not entirely cooperative, but we did get some nice walks on the beach in. And, of course, no bachelorette party is complete without "Pin The Hose On The Fireman". Yup, we went there. It was one of the most exhausting weekends of my life, but it was loads of fun!
• 

  

  Mr. & Mrs. Wood!

  May 18: Amgen Tour of California. Mike and I headed to the Bay Area to watch the pros ride Sierra Road. We rode our bikes to the top to get a good view of the finish. What took me almost two hours took the fastest rider sixteen minutes. Yeah, I'm still working on that.
• May 22: Dave & Courtney get married. This was the first of eight weddings (including ours) that we went to or were invited to this year. Their wedding was absolutely beautiful and they had the same colors that we were going to use, so it was really need to see a preview! The weather was beautiful, the ceremony was perfect and Courtney's dress was stunning... the food was absolutely yummy too! We had a wonderful time and, as always, it was so much fun to see good friends get married!

June

Kati & Nate's Rehearsal Dinner

• Jun 3: Kati and Nate's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. In hindsight, their coordinator was quite entertaining, but at the time, I would have called her a name I shouldn't say in church. The dinner was amazing - we went to Sienna in El Dorado Hills and had a really fun time. We had the whole little patio area to ourselves and they had an outdoor fireplace to keep it warm! Nate's mom even brought stuff to make smores! The best part (besides celebrating Kati and Nate's marriage, I guess) was their world famous donut holes - they bring them to you with a bunch of different dipping sauces that are amazing!



Mr. & Mrs. Barcklay!

• Jun 4: Kati and Nate get married. Despite some crummy weather (hey, it's good luck to have rain on your wedding day, isn't it?), Kati and Nate's wedding went off without a hitch. It was absolutely beautiful. I have to admit, I was skeptical about the hot pink wedding dresses, but I think everyone looked amazing in them. We really had a lot of fun - from the limo ride to the reception to the party itself! Kati was a beautiful bride and Nate looked good, too. The weather was crappy for most of the day until just as the sun was setting - when Kati and Nate got some beautiful pictures out on the golf course. It was a perfect day!
• Jun 11: I bought a new bike. The obsession with cycling began. I bought my first road bike, a Specialized Dolce Elite Compact. Since then, I've learned how to ride downhill fast and have fallen off twice, once on account of gnats. Yup, gnats. France 2012, here we come!  

July

• Jul 8: I picked our wedding flowers. Gordon Hill Flower Shop in Jackson did them and they were absolutely amazing! I went in with a vague idea on colors and where I wanted them and the folks there delivered an absolutely amazing end result!



Mr. & Mrs. Hawkes!

• Jul 16: Emily and Graham get married. Kati and I were bridesmaids in their wedding and flew down to San Diego for the weekend. The weather was beautiful, the bride was beautiful and the weekend was a lot of fun! 
• Jul 22: First fall off my bike. I was heading uphill, got tired and stopped pedalling. I forgot that my feet were stuck to the pedals and couldn't figure out how to get them out quick enough. Fast forward to me sprawled in the middle of the road.
• Jul 23: Amy Winehouse dies. Not entirely surprising, but sad, nonetheless. The more I learn about alcohol and drug addiction, the more I see how horrible it is for the people caught up in it. It's never as easy as "just quit" and it never goes away. I hope she's resting in peace after her struggles.
• Jul 25: Mike and I met with our cake baker and picked our wedding cake. We went with an almond cake with an orange filling. It was absolutely amazing! Ingrid Fraser was our baker and she's both affordable and does fantastic work!

August





Mr. Remington Porter


• Aug 6: I made the trip to Lodi to see Brigitte and Dan's beautiful new house and meet their super cute new puppy, Remington! That little guy is super smart and we had a fun little BBQ while I was there!



My Bridal Shower

• Aug 13: Kati and Mom threw my bridal shower. They did an amazing job - Kati had chosen a tropical beachy theme (hello, perfect!) and completely decked the house out. She bought me a real lei (sent from Hawaii!) and did these amazing centerpieces that were made out of fruit and flowers. One of my favorite parts was the cake decorating contest - each lady got a cup cake that they had to decorate in the style of a wedding cake - some of the girls got really creative! We all had a really good time!
• Aug 20 - Aug28: Lake Almanor vacation. As always, our annual trip to Lake Almanor was wonderful. We fished, we kayaked, I napped and Mike climbed Mount Shasta. Just another typical vacation for us! 

September

• Sep 3: Kati & Nate's housewarming party. They put a ton of work into making their house exactly what the wanted it to look like and it's absolutely beautiful! We all had a chance to visit and have a delicious BBQ!

  

  Never Forget

  
• Sep 10: Rivercats game. Dad got us some great tickets to see the Rivercats in the playoffs, so we headed into Sacramento to watch the game. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of just how great baseball is live (I can't stand to watch it on TV).
• Sep 11: The 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, my parents wedding anniversary and the Capital Air Show. It was a busy day. I took some time to reflect on exactly what I've done over the last 10 years and how devastating that day was. The air show was a lot of fun - I got some great hands on EMT experience. Finally, it was my parents 35th wedding anniversary!
• Sep 13: Merritt's funeral. A friend of Mike's passed away far too early at 40 years old of cancer. She left behind a husband and a sweet little boy. Her funeral really opened my eyes - there was not a dry eye in the house and there was standing room only. The only people who weren't there were the firefighters that were out on the wildfires. That's a life well lived.
• Sep 17: Fiddletown Fiddlers' Jam. This was Mom's first year attending and the bummer of it was that it was so dang HOT. We didn't stay super long, but the few that we heard were really good!



My Bachelorette Party

• Sep 24: My bachelorette party. Kati threw me a really fun bachelorette party. We started at her house with some girl time in the afternoon. Nate had made us jello shots that were, well, potent. They did the trick! She had shirts made that said "First the rock, now we roll" on the front and "Anna's Bachelorette Blowout" on the back, all in the browns, oranges and reds that were my wedding colors.We then took a limo to Buca di Beppo for dinner and then downtown to The Park for more drinks and dancing. It was a really great time! Needless to say, I had a pretty spectacular hang over the next day!

October





Meghann's Bachelorette Party


• Oct 2: Meghann's bachelorette party. Like I said, lots of weddings this year! This bachelorette party was for my friend Meghann, who I went to high school with and later reconnected with in Choral Society. We started the evening off with dinner at Mas Mexican in Roseville (yum!) and then headed over to the Glass Turtle for a night of drinks and karaoke. It was a blast!
• Oct 8: Dancing with the Sierra Stars: Our friend Kassie works at a local hospital that did a fundraising dinner. The end of the dinner was capped with several of the nurses, staff, volunteers who had been training to ballroom dance! Kassie and her partner did the freestyle salsa and were absolutely amazing! In fact, they won the competition!

  

  Mr. & Mrs. Blankenheim!

  
• Oct 21: Our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. We had spent the few days before the wedding working on getting the hall ready for the reception, so it was really nice to sit down and enjoy some time with everyone! The rehearsal went very smoothly (I swear, our priest could moonlight as a comedian) and we had a delicious dinner at the Blankenheims house. We had invited everyone who was coming to the wedding to come to the rehearsal dinner so that we could spend a little more time with them, especially our out of town guests. What a great night!




The Ol' Ball & Chain


• Oct 22: OUR WEDDING DAY! Honestly, it could not have been a more perfect day. Us girls spent the morning at the hair salon and then headed over to the church to start taking pictures. Finally, the time was near and I was smushed into a tiny room (with a whole lot of dress) so that no one would see me. Walking down the aisle with my dad was really special, as was stopping to give my mom a flower from my bouquet (like her mother had done, she had done and Kati had done). Finally, I was at the alter with Mike. Our ceremony was sweet, funny and just what we had wanted. I still catch myself thinking that I can't believe we're actually married! The reception was everything we had dreamed it would be - one great big party! Our DJ was awesome - he even dressed up people and taught them choreography for YMCA! And, of course, there was the Blankenheim ball and chain tradition that became this year's Christmas card! At the end of the night, Adam and Eva whisked us away in our decorated car for some much needed sleep!



Honeymoon In St. Lucia

• Oct 23 - Oct 31: Our honeymoon to St. Lucia. The one thing that people don't tell you after your wedding is how exhausted you're going to be. Going to St. Lucia was the perfect remedy - we went to Sandals which is all inclusive and therefore we had to do nothing! We did choose to do two excursions - deep see fishing and horseback riding. My drink of choice for the week was the pina colada... and I drank a lot of them. The bar opened at 10am and I feel like we both had drinks in our hand the entire rest of the day! We also did a candlelit dinner on the beach, which was super romantic and really beautiful. It was a fantastic, relaxing week and we had a great time together!

November

• Nov 1: I officially became Anna Blankenheim (according to the State of California and the Federal Government). Yay!!!
• Nov 12: Meghann and Bryan get married. It was our eighth and final wedding of the year and it was as wonderful as the rest of them. They also had the fall colors but they were done differently than ours - still absolutely amazing. Their wedding was at the Forest House Lodge in Foresthill and Meghann was a beautiful bride - I loved her red heels!

  

  Mr. & Mrs. Stedman!

  
• Nov 24: Hullaballo 2011, hosted by Adam and Eva. This Thanksgiving tradition never ceases to satisfy... as always, it was a complete blast. This year Aunt Sandi and Geoff joined us and really took the pajama contest to heart - Aunt Sandi won the contest and looked super cute! The food was delicious - Adam brined the turkey for the first time this year and Eva decorated the table so beautifully!

December

• Dec 6: I accepted a new position at work. I'm super excited to be starting it after the new year and it's a great opportunity for career growth.
• Dec 10: I done lost my mind and signed up to run 26.2 miles in San Diego next summer. Yup, I signed up for a marathon!
• Dec 12: The madness continued with me signing up for a half marathon (you've gotta train, right?) in March.
• 

  

  Raymond Shooting

  Dec 18: Welcome home party for Shane. Shane is my new nephew (new by marriage) who just returned home from serving in the Army in Afghanistan. We're so incredibly proud of him and can't believe he's done what he's done. Tim and Nicki had a great big party and pig roast to celebrate his safe return at their new home. It was a blast!
• Dec 24: We spent Christmas Eve with the Blankenheims. Church was great and we had a lot of fun watching the kids excitement when they opened presents!
• Dec 25: We spent Christmas Day at my parents house. It was a lot of fun, but both Mike and I were still sick, so that was a little bit of a bummer.
• Dec 26: The Blankenheims, Smithsons, Barcklays and Counts' hit the shooting range. It was a total blast and we had some serious weaponry out there.

As you can tell, 2011 was really a wonderful year. I am truly blessed to have the friends and family that I do. I can't believe how quickly the year has gone by! I can't wait to see what crazy adventures 2012 bring us - sabbatical being one of them!

Happy New Year to you all and be safe!

Book Review: D Is For Deadbeat

Like I've said in the last zillion posts about the Sue Grafton Alphabet Series (ok, three), these books are great, fast reads. I got through this one in a week! The latest was "D Is For Deadbeat".

Synopsis: (from Amazon)

The client came to Kinsey Millhone with an easy  job -- just deliver $25,000 to a fifteen-year-old kid. A little odd, and a little too easy, but Kinsey took Alvin Limardo's retainer check anyway. It turned out to be as phony as he was. In real life, his name was John Daggett, a chronic drunk with a  record as long as your arm and a reputation for  sleazy deals. But he wasn't just a deadbeat. By the time Kinsey caught up with him, he was a dead body  -- with a whole host of people who were delighted to hear the news. But how do you make a stiff pay  up what he owes you?

This one really delves into Kinsey's relationship with police officer Jonah... which I both love and hate at the same time. He's a bit wishy wash, and you just want him to make up his mind!

I'm now taking a break from the Alphabet Series and am starting on "The Help". I've wanted to read this for a while and have heard great things about it!

First Long Run

Today Kati and I ran our first long run for our half and full marathon training. We did five miles out on the American River Trail - there's pretty much not a more fantastic place to run, if you ask me. Mike and I have done several bike rides down there and this is where most of my very long runs will be. The trail extends almost 30 miles, so there's plenty of space to run without having to do loops or repeat. The other nice thing is that there are mile markers every 1/2 mile... so if you forget your Garmin, you can still tell how far you've gone.

I did discover something fairly shocking... bananas are my post-running food of choice. Many of you know my general disdain for food I have to break into and bananas specifically due to some bad experiences in my swimming days, but this thing tasted fantastic after today's run.

The rest of today I will spend cleaning up the house and perhaps enjoying an afternoon nap.

In other exciting news, the pig showed up for the New Years party! I love how I make it sound like the pig walked up to the front door and knocked. Actually, it was a little more "Godfather" than that:

This Year's Pig

Let the festivities begin - I can't wait!

Christmas Weekend Recap

I can't believe Christmas 2011 has already come and gone. I got the stomach flu last week for the first time since I was a little girl. I can't believe how incredibly awful it was. I'm talking every last flu symptom you can think of, including a fever. I was miserable. It sort of put the damper on Christmas in general since I didn't actually leave my house from Tuesday through Friday of last week. It's hard to feel festive when you're hanging out with the toilet.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Blankenheim side of the family. Mass was at 4:30pm and was said by the same priest who married us. He never fails to make Mass fun and to keep it a bit lively. After that we headed to Mike's grandma's house for a meal of appetizers - the best kind. Unfortunately, I was still feeling the ill effects of the stomach flu and didn't do too much eating. After a couple hours there, we headed over to Ray and Nancy's house (Mike's parents) for the gift exchange.

Christmas morning Mike and I spent with Shadow. This dog loves to open presents. He'll lick them, tear little pieces of paper off and generally work the whole thing over. Over the years, he's actually learned to pick out which ones are his under the tree and he stalks them until Christmas. Anything treat related has to go in his stocking because otherwise he'd open everything!

Shadow Opening Presents

I decided to give it one more go with the stuffed animal thing. Everyone else's dogs have cute little things that they carry around and I wanted my dog to have one too. He played with it for about ten minutes before the disembowelment began. And by disembowelment, I mean he flipped it over and basically gutted the stuffing.

Disembowelment

We decided that since we were watching, he could do it just this once (since I normally take them away at this point. He seriously took every little piece of stuffing out. The funny part is that now he carries around and snuggles with the "pelt". I guess my dog likes his toys without stuffing after all!

After opening our presents, we headed over to Mom and Dad's for the Christmas festivities with my side of the family. They made a fantastic prime rib dinner with all sorts of sides and a ton of desserts. Unfortunately, again due to tummy issues, I pretty much stuck to mashed potatoes and green beans. Mike sampled everything (including Mom's Yorkshire pudding) and said it was pretty yummy! That said, I did bring some fudge home and was finally able to sample some tonight... as always, no one makes fudge like my mama! We opened our presents, hung out for a while and had dinner. It was great!

Today we headed out to a ranch in Ione to go target shooting. Sounds odd, I know. One of the gifts that the family got Raymond was a gun similar to the one he carried in Vietnam (the legal civilian version, of course) and he wanted to try it out. We were also given a rifle for our wedding (it has our name and wedding date engraved on it too!) and my dad brought a bunch of the guns that my grandpa had given him. One of them is a rifle that was made in 1900... it was beautiful and still fires like a dream! We had a blast shooting at buckets and stumps!

I Still Like The Shotgun Better!

Check out my Facebook page for more pictures... it was a great time! All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas, I just wish Mike and I were both feeling better (he's fighting a cold). We were spoiled by our families and had a fantastic time!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmastime Is Here

In case you missed my overly descriptive Facebook posts (sorry!), I had a run in with the stomach flu for the first time since I was like two years old. It was awful. I thought I was going to die. I hate nothing more than throwing up, and that's exactly what I did for two days straight.

I think the thing I hate the most about being sick is how disruptive it is. I had a lot of stuff planned this week that I didn't get done. I hate that! Fortunately, I seem to be on the upswing now... I'm not craving In-N-Out yet, but solid food stays where it should and I'm just really tired.

In other news, the last of our gifts got here today and is now wrapped under the tree. Hooray! We have quite the collection of presents under there this year!

Our Happy Little Christmas Tree

I had really been looking forward to baking cookies today because that always puts me in the Christmas spirit, but was very gently told by my family that no one else wants the stomach flu and if I did bring cookies, they would be boycotted. So I settled for wrapping presents. It will have to do for this year!

I plan to finish up some work stuff this afternoon, then be fairly lazy until tomorrow. We'll spend Christmas Eve with the Blankenheim clan and Christmas Day with the Smithson/Barcklay clan. It should be a lot of fun!!! Do you guys have any fun and exciting Christmas plans?

Book Review: C Is For Corpse

I just finished reading the third book in the Sue Grafton Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Series, "C is for Corpse". As you can tell, these are much easier reads than "War and Peace" was, but I'm really enjoying them.

Synopsis: (from Amazon)

How do you go about solving an attempted murder when the victim has lost a good part of his memory? It's one of Kinsey's toughest cases yet, but she never backs down from a challenge. Twenty-three-year-old Bobby Callahan is lucky to be alive after a car forced his Porsche over a bridge and into a canyon. The crash left Bobby with a clouded memory. But he can't shake the feeling it was no random accident and that he's still in danger…

The only clues Kinsey has to go on are a little red address book and the name "Blackman." Bobby can't remember who he gave the address book to for safekeeping. And any chances of Bobby regaining his memory are dashed when he's killed in another automobile accident just three days after he hires Kinsey.

As Kinsey digs deeper into her investigation, she discovers Bobby had a secret worth killing for--and unearthing that secret could send Kinsey to her own early death…

I sort of liked the attraction that lies between Bobby and Kinsey... throughout these three books, you just want her to find love. Sadly, when Bobby is killed, you feel like all hope is lost. This book was very intriguing... I did not figure it out until right at the end, which is something I love in a book. It always sucks to know exactly what's going to happen two pages into the story. This one keeps you guessing!

Next up, "D Is For Deadbeat"!

Misery Loves Company

I think I've almost convinced Kati to run the Shamrock with me. Either that, or I just convinced her to spend a lot on running gear. You know that old saying "Misery loves company"? Well, apparently I'm misery. Tomorrow begins official day one of the training regimen (the last week or so has just been "getting back into running"). This week calls for 9 miles during the week and 4 miles on the weekend. Yup, we're running on Christmas. Best.Runners.Ever. I'm actually a bit excited to officially get going on this!

In other fun and exciting health news, I managed to almost cut my finger off yesterday. It was bound to happen - we got fantastic new Henkel knives for our wedding and they are SHARP. I was cutting some cheese yesterday for a pasta salad (haha... cutting the cheese... haha!) and the knife slipped, catching my thumb. For a split second it didn't hurt or bleed, so I thought I was safe. Fortunately for my cooking, but unfortunately for my finger, they are surgeon scalpel sharp and it sliced right into my thumb. I even managed to cut through half of my fingernail. Mike was fantastic - calm as a good paramedic should be. I'm a typical EMT - great with everyone's blood but my own. I'm laying on the sofa, feeling clammy and I yell "even my feet are sweating"! So, being the best husband and paramedic in the world, Mike takes my socks off.

For those of you who love a little gore on a chilly December evening, here's a pic from tonight:

The First Cut Is The Deepest

Let me first tell you that yes, I have awful nails right now. I'm still growing them out from having the fake ones at my wedding. Secondly, yes, it hurts like a mother. You never really know how much you use your left thumb until you have a cut on it. Thirdly, yes, if I push down with it, the nail separates. Gross, I know. I'm trying to figure out if the tip will fall off before I catch it on something and accidentally rip it off.

Sweet dreams, my friends, sweet dreams.

What's Black & Blue & Pink All Over?

Me!!!

Everything's New Except The Undies!

Notice on my left wrist I have my RoadID... best invention ever! Mine has my name, city, two contact numbers and that I'm allergic to augmentin. Super important for all you runners, cyclists and athletes since most of the time we're not carrying wallets or IDs with us. Mine is the Wrist ID Slim (similar to the Livestrong bands) and Mike has one that just velcros onto his shoe. They have all different kinds depending on what you are comfortable with.

This morning I did a short long run to just start breaking in my new shoes. It was 3.44 miles with a total 499 feet of elevation gain (yeah, that reads HILLS). It felt really good! So far I love all my new gear - the arm warmers were awesome and so were the tights!

If The Shoe Fits...

Today I decided to head down to Fleet Feet in Fair Oaks to get fitted for some running shoes. I figure if I'm going to invest the next six months of my life running tons of miles, I'd better have a damn good pair of shoes. The guy who fitted me is actually a marathon coach as well, so he gave me some very helpful tips and tricks as well as answering all of my questions.

Here are my brand new shoes:

Asics Gel-Kayano 18 Running Shoes

As it turns out, he says you're supposed to run in shoes one full size bigger than the shoes that you would normally wear. I typically wear a 6.5 to 7 - I have been wearing a 7 up until now to run in. He said that especially with the longer distance running, you need to have room for your feet to move ("How much do you like your toenails" was his actual question) as well as room for your feet to swell.

I also got some Superfeet Insoles - since I had surgery back after college to have a bone taken out of my foot, I've had a mostly numb big toe. When I run, I roll that foot inward a little bit, which ends up making my hip hurt. These insoles are supposed to help with that.

I also got some running tights (full length - I have shorts and capris but needed some cold weather ones) as well as a couple shirts. Probably my favorite purchase is my new arm warmers... they're hot pink and made by Saucony.


Hot Pink Arm Warmers!

 The beauty of these suckers is that I can wear them with short sleeve shirts, but when I get really hot, I can either pull them down or take them off without having a whole shirt to carry with me.

Finally, I got fitted for new jog bras. Gentlemen, you probably want to stop reading here. I've never really been fitted for a bra before, so it was kind of nice to go through the process here. She completely changed the style that I wore - normally it was the standard racer back from Target. As it turns out, for those of us who are well endowed but have smaller rib cages, those are really bad. We stretch the elastic out pulling them over our heads, so there's not a lot of support happening. Instead, we're supposed to wear jog bras that actually clasp in the back (like a regular bra) so that we don't stretch out the elastic. When I put it on, it definitely had a lot more support than the jog bras I have but was really comfortable.

I'm so excited to get running!

Book Review: B Is For Burglar

I just finished the second book in the Sue Grafton Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, "B Is For Burglar".

Synopsis: (from Amazon)

Although business has been slow lately for P.I. Kinsey Millhone, she's reluctant to take on the case of locating Beverly Danziger's sister Elaine Boldt. It's a small matter that Beverly should be able to handle herself. So why is she enlisting Kinsey's services? Beverly claims she needs Elaine's signature on some documents so that she can collect a small inheritance. But the whole affair doesn't sit well with Kinsey. And if there's something she's learned in her line of work, it's to always follow your instincts…

Kinsey's hunch proves true when she begins her inquiries into Elaine's whereabouts and discovers that the attractive widow was last seen in a flashy lynx coat boarding a plane for Boca Raton. But the more Kinsey searches for Elaine the more questions she encounters. Is Elaine's disappearance tied in to the brutal murder several months ago of one of her bridge partners? And what happened to Elaine's Persian cat who seems to have also vanished?

Things take a turn for the worse when a stranger vandalizes the home of one of Elaine's neighbors and another neighbor turns up murdered. With her reputation and career on the line, Kinsey risks all to find a missing woman and a killer who's waiting in the shadows to strike again…

I really do like this series. Yes, they're very easy reads, but they've got some good plot lines and they keep you guessing. I like that the stories are a little bit out there. In this one, there's this whole scheme to take over someone else's life and all of the sinister things that happen along the way. This one seems a little more realistic to me that the first book, but again, definitely a fiction book.

In other exciting news, I'm working on my yearly recap. I absolutely love doing this every year because it gives me a chance to look back over everything I've done (both good and bad) and reflect. This year was definitely a great year!

Halfway

Are you tired of hearing me talk about running yet?

I just registered for the 2012 Shamrock'n Half Marathon. This is the one I did a couple years ago and it's perfect for my training for the San Diego Rock & Roll. Kati is probably going to do it as well... it's going to be her first half marathon and I'm so excited for her!

Here's me looking all nervous before my first 1/2 marathon:

Shamrock'N Half Marathon 2009

Yup, I look like I don't know whether to barf or cry. I sort of felt like both at that point in time. Now that I know what to expect, I think I might feel a little better. Or not, considering how nervous I got on behalf of Mike for his Ironman. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it... but there's a lot of long, cold miles between here and there!

Training Tracker

Today was the first day of my marathon training - I hit the gym and did 4 miles on the treadmill. I found a cool little tracker that will post my runs and totals to the blog. Just look over to the left, under my profile information in the orange boxes.

In other exciting news, my sister-in-law, Nicki, has decided to run the marathon with me. I'm super excited about it... it will be nice to have a training partner for the really long runs and to have someone to help hold me accountable. Plus, Nicki has run like a million marathons, so I'll definitely be leaning on her for some of the tips and tricks!

26.2 Miles

Well, I may have actually lost my mind. I just signed up for my very first marathon. Yup, I've completely lost it. On June 3rd, 2012, I will be running the San Diego Rock & Roll Marathon.

Running a marathon has always been on my bucket list - something I've wanted to do before I die. It's one of those things that I've been saying "someday", but as I get older I'm starting to realize that someday is now. I'm not getting any younger. I did a half marathon a couple years back and swore at the finish line that it was not the halfway point to any race... yet, here I am, committed.

Finally, I thought I'd get my current bucket list published on here, since it's been a while since I discussed it on the blog. I'll keep adding to it as I go - right now it's kinda short, but I'm sure I'll think of a couple more things I want to do. It's sort of nice to have a blog because then it's out there. The four of you that actually read this can hold me accountable. Or something like that. :)

• Own a horse
• Buy a house - completed 2007
• Run a marathon
• Get married - completed 2011

So, long story short, you'll probably see a lot more posting about running on here in the next six months. Kati is going to run her first half marathon (Shamrock) and I'll run that with her as part of my training - the timing works out perfectly! I'm sort of excited to have a major goal like this to work towards!

Never Forget

No, I'm not talking about September 11th. I'm talking about Pearl Harbor. In a surprise attack by the Japanese, on December 7, 1941, we lost 2,402 U.S. service men and women. This led directly to the United States entry into World War II. From a military strategy perspective, this was brilliant on the part of Japan - their goal was to disable the Pacific Fleet to keep them from interfering in the actions they were going to be taking in Southeast Asia. It is speculated that a third wave of planes was called off and that the third wave would have been completely crippling to the United States.
I was able to visit Pearl Harbor when I was a lot younger... even as a child it was something that left a very lasting impression on me. To this day, when I hear the air raid signal (like in movies for tornado warnings) I get goosebumps.

Battleship Row Being Bombed At Pearl Harbor

CNN published a really cool story this morning of Pearl Harbor told by a survivor. The link is here: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/07/pearl-harbor-survivor-90-still-on-mission-to-tell-story/?hpt=hp_c1

Both of my grandfathers fought in World War II, although on opposite sides. My dad's father served for the United States in Iwo Jima, while my mom's father served for Germany on the Russian front. Over the years, both of them told their stories of war and it's just really heartbreaking.

This tragic loss of life makes me wish that there was no such thing as war and that we could use our words to fix problems. I know, too idealistic, but it's a wish.

Pappardelle with Pork Ragù - It's What's For Dinner

Today I finally started to feel a little better (either that or it's just the DayQuil talking), so I decided to make a fabulous dinner for my husband. I found a couple of really great looking recipes to try out. I made pappardelle with pork ragù and zucchini with olive oil and garlic.

The Final Presentation

You start the dish with a soffritto - this is basically the base of any yummy Italian dish. It is basically celery, onion and carrot cooked in olive oil. There is something about these three ingredients that is so delicious. The entire house smells delicious and I was ready to eat this on it's own. Here's what my soffritto looked like:

Yummy Soffritto

I wanted to incorporate a vegetable side dish, so I decided to take some zucchini and cook it with garlic and olive oil. It was fantastic!

Zucchini With Garlic And Oil

Pork Ragù Recipe:

1.5 pounds of meaty pork spareribs, cut into individual ribs
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
2.5 pounds fresh Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 pound fresh pasta dough

Pat the ribs dry with paper towels and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven or large heavy pot over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the ribs and cook, turning as needed, until nicely browned on all sides, about 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer the ribs to a plate.

Add the onion, carrot, and celery to the pot, reduce the heat to medium and cook stirring frequently, until tender and golden, 10-15 minutes. Add the wine, bring to a simmer and deglaze the pot, scraping up the browned bits from the pot bottom. Cook for 1 minute to cook off some of the alcohol. Add the tomatoes, 1 cup of water and a pinch each of salt and pepper, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Return the ribs to the pan, cover, reduce the heat to low and cook until the ribs are very tender and the meat comes away easily from the bone, about 2.5 hours.

While the ribs simmer in the sauce, make the pasta dough.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the ribs from the sauce and let cool slightly. Remove the meat from the bones and shred it. Return the meat to the pan and cook, uncovered over low heat until the sauce has thickened, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the pasta. Drain and add to the sauce, tossing gently to coat evenly.

The pasta is very easy to make - take two cups of flour, four eggs and two teaspoons of olive oil and blend them up in a food processor for 10-15 seconds. Take that dough and knead it for a couple minutes on a lightly floured surface. Then take that ball, let it rest under a bowl for about 30 minutes. I use my Kitchen Aid pasta attachment to roll it out into thin sheets and then cut into about 1 inch by 4 inch strips. Since it's fresh pasta, it only takes about 2 minutes to cook.

Homemade Pasta

The nice thing about this dough is that it's a basic egg noodle dough - you can make it into whatever shape you want to!

This dinner was absolutely fantastic! Mike and I both loved it. The one thing I would do a little differently is cook down the Roma tomatoes a little bit before I added them in... I would have liked to have them be a little more incorporated.

Enjoy!

Book Review: A Is For Alibi

After tackling the moster that was War and Peace, I decided to start a somewhat easier to read series - the alphabet series by Sue Grafton. Each of the books starts with a letter... so the first was "A Is For Alibi".

Synopsis: (from Amazon)

A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she’s got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes.

 

Eight years ago, Nikki Fife was convicted of killing her philandering husband. Now she’s out on parole and needs Kinsey’s help to find the real killer.

 

If there's one thing that makes Kinsey feel alive, it's playing on the edge. When her investigation turns up a second corpse, more suspects, and a new reason to kill, Kinsey discovers that the edge is closer—and sharper—than she imagined.

I really liked this book. Kinsey is a really likeable character and I think Sue Grafton does a good job of portraying what a private detective's life would really be like. Grafton's style of writing draws you in and this book became the book that I started reading with the intention of reading just a few pages and then realized it was an hour later.

 

So far, I'm really enjoying this series and fully intend to read all of the books. I think she's made it through U or V now, so I've got a lot of reading ahead of me! I really like when a series gets you hooked on a character and you're eager to see what sort of trouble they can get into next! "B Is For Burgler", here I come!

Eating Horses

Yup, you read the title right. I posted a link to this story on Facebook earlier today and couldn't help but also do a blog about it.

Apparently, back on November 18th, without much pomp and circumstance (ok, without ANY), Obama signed into law the reopening of US horse slaughterhouses. The argument here is that no matter what, hundreds of thousands of horses are slaughtered every year - without this law, they are inhumanely shipped to places like Mexico where they are very inhumanely killed. The idea that Congress had was if we do the slaughtering here in the US, we could do the deed more humanely and follow standard practices that are used for other animals consumed (not that all of those practices are humane... I've seen a show about some awful things done to cows...).

All of that said, would you eat horse? Fortunately for me, the state of California has banned both the slaughtering and sale of horse meat for human consumption since 1998... but there are other states that will move forward with this.

I have such a hard time with this one. On the one hand, I know that horse abandonment is up some ridiculous amount (last figure I heard was somewhere in the 60-65% range) and many of those horses die horrible, painful deaths. That said, my worry is that this now creates an industry for breeding horses for their meat. People who abandon their horses now are likely to continue with those behaviors (after all, we have vets that would euthanize their animals now, if necessary), so does this law really stop anything?

I'm actually quite surprised that this made it through Congress with little to no publicity... it will be interesting to see how the backlash is as the story gets out.

What do you think?

Click HERE for just one of the many articles on this subject.

It's Time!

I can officially listen now! This has got to be one of my favorites! My favorite part has to be "Eight maids a milking, they were milking just for me". Haha!



The Legend of Hullabaloo

As always, we gathered at Adam and Eva's house this year for the annual Hullabaloo. For those of you unfamiliar with the traditions surrounding Hullabaloo, let me fill you in on the "Legend of Hullabaloo". You see, we've gone there for years on Thanksgiving. One year, someone mentioned that due to the large quantities of food we consumed, their dressy clothing had become uncomfortable. It was then mentioned that it might be more comfortable if we all wore comfortable clothes the next year, such as pajamas.

Ever the competitive family, we decided to include prizes for the best pajamas that people could find, as voted on by the other Hullabaloo attendees. My most fantastic pair was the red footie pajamas from several years ago. While extremely hot, they nosed me ahead to win the prize. Keep in mind that we live two and a half hours away from the Bay Area, so we end up driving in our pjs. This morning I pumped gas at Safeway in them. We're a bold people. This year, Aunt Sandi won the contest - amazing since she has not attended before and jumped right in with this adorable ensemble:

Aunt Sandi's Prize Winning Pajamas

Adam and Eva have added a few more games as well. They normally have some sort of jar filled with candy that we have to guess the number of pieces (the winner gets the jar). We also play a great game before dinner... there are several words (this year's were Thanksgiving, turkey, bird, delicious, yummy and love) that you can't say. Each person is given a bunch of clothespins and if you catch someone saying one of the forbidden words, you get to take one of their clothespins. The person with the most when we sit down to eat wins. Kati or Jared win this one every year - this year it was Kati.

The food was absolutely amazing as always. Adam brined the turkey and it was deliciously juicy (notice I'm using all the forbidden words - they're all pent up). It's a fine art, and this man has mastered it:

The Turkeymaster

Oma was feeling a little out of sorts today, so she didn't join us at Adam and Eva's... instead, we headed over to her place on the way home. She looks wonderful as ever!

Kati, Oma & I - Thanksgiving 2011

There are more pictures at my Facebook page - head on over to check them out!

I did want to take a moment to reflect on the things that I'm really thankful for this year. First of all, my fantastic husband. I'm so thankful that he met me at the alter and said yes! We've had a wonderful first month of marriage and I can't wait for more!

Secondly, my family. They're the best. Ever. Nothing more needs to be said.

Thirdly, my friends. The help, love and support we got from our friends leading up to our wedding was absolutely amazing. I could not ask for a better group of people to be standing by my side.

Finally, my dog. He really is the best dog we could ask for.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Vanilla Pear Muffins



Vanilla Pear Muffins

One of the cookbooks that Mike and I got for our wedding was the Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook. It wasn't one of the books we had picked on our registry, but it's actually had some amazing recipes in it, so I'm really glad we got it! We've been making a big effort to cook more at home (especially since we have lots of really cook gadgets now!) and to work on developing our pallets. We're now trying to pick out flavors in meals and almost every time we cook, we talk about what we could have done to make it better and whether we would make the dish again. We've even started joking about plating our meals (although presentation really does make a big difference!).

My most recent and favorite discovery is the vanilla pear muffins. I saw the recipe and decided to try them for breakfast last weekend... they were absolutely amazing. They're made with buttermilk, nutmeg, vanilla, pears and a cinnamon sugar walnut crumble on top.

I think what makes these taste so yummy is the nutmeg and vanilla combination, along with the sweetness of the pear. I guess I've never really thought much about pears as a holiday fruit, this tastes pretty darn Christmas-like. I think they taste best fresh out of the oven, but they're not bad the next day or two later either. I took what I had left from the weekend to work on Monday and they got rave reviews there as well. 

I'm actually making a double batch right now to take to Thanksgiving tomorrow... I think they'll be great as an appetizer or as dessert!