Friday, May 29, 2009

Just in case...

This morning, I went a little bat crazy around the house after Todd had left for work. With 25 minutes remaining until I had to leave for work, I was left with some pretty serious time to do something around the house.

Generally speaking, I hate clutter. That doesn't mean that I maintain a state of organization (unless you count organized chaos...I always know where just about everything is, even if it's in some random pile on the floor), but I do hate clutter. I'd like to live a very minimalized life (like K&P appear to live...their apartment is nice and clean every time I'm there), but it just doesn't happen on a regular basis.

So this morning, and with a hopefully-pending move looming in September, I went a little nuts on the house. Shredded a ton of bills and other misc. items, packed away the balance on Christmas crap (don't judge), got a box ready to take down to the garage, purged my vases collection (Todd is a master at sending me just the right flowers, but the subsequent vase collection is overwhelming), attacked the desk cabinetry with a vengeance and still managed to be in the car one minute prior to departure time. Holy crap.

Suki seems to get nervous when I spend too long working in the guest room. So she watches me like a hawk. I always remind her that she's coming with us wherever we go and that our next move will have a big yard for her to play in. Leo couldn't really care less.

At any rate, I did some serious purging this morning and fully intend to do more when we get home from camping on Sunday.

Holler!

Oh and if you know anyone that might be interested in buying my old car, please pass along my information.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

You will not soon forget this.

So sayeth my knees to my brain after running the Bolder Boulder.

This will serve as my "update" from last weekend, now that I'm finally finding the time to do that!

I love long weekends and tend to "live 'em up" as best I can without killing myself...and boy, did we do that last weekend!

Friday night was date night (as it always is) so we went to Gordon Biersch for dinner and indulged in the best hamburger known to man, margaritas for me and beers for Todd. Then we went and saw Wolverine which was good as far as that's concerned (and Hugh Jackman is nothing to balk at....homina-homina!), but the story line had some spots that made absolutely no sense to me. But at face value, a good action-y superhero movie...I'm glad we finally got to see it!

Saturday was mostly me just hanging around after going for an early morning run with Todd in preparation for the BB. I'll give it to Tony....running in A.M. is probably my favorite time to do that! We run a route that takes us through some of the best parts of Arvada (yes, they do exist) and it was just so peaceful that morning! By the time Todd got home from Writers Group, I was itching to go to the mall and FINALLY do my Build-A-Bear that Todd got me for Christmas! I got a cute little grey kitten and dressed him in Batman jammies...his name is Bonecrusher. Some of you will know why that's his name :o) Then it was off to Kelly's for movie/dinner theme night. This is one of my favorite things that happens in the summertime, honestly. We pick a movie and find some kind of corresponding dinner and all get together for a grand ol' time. This time, it was Breakfast At Tiffany's and breakfast foods...yum! Karla made the evenin'gs best offering - her mom's famous morning casserole. I had two servings and threatened to eat everyone else's helpings...it was that good. Way to go, Karla!

Sunday was a fun day in Boulder, after church, with M, P & H...M and I got henna tattoos (which are frankly way more effort than I think they're worth. We're getting jewelry next year), Todd got an eccentric writer's hat, P got a free chiropractic adjustment and H got...a bottle.
H in Todd's (other) hat, loving life

Monday was THE BIG DAY!! Up and at 'em by 5:30am and at the start line by 7:30am (after a brief pit stop at an apartment complex's clubhouse to use their bathrooms rather than Port-a-Potty's)...I was rocking out to the random music being played at the start, while eating a banana and sucking down water.
L & R met the three of us at the start and opted to run with us rather than start in their own heat (about 15mins prior to ours) so that was fun! I'm still in a bit of shock that I ran the entire thing and did it in 66:43!! It was incredibly exciting! I've never had runner's high and still haven't had it, but I came very close when I got to the end and said, out loud, "Yeah. I could totally do that again, very soon!" We stayed around for a little while longer, watching people run in to the stadium while enjoying Michelob ultra (in a can...classy), hot dogs and various edible swag contained in our post-consumer recycled lunch sacks from Celestial Seasonings...YAY!

After a quick shower and nap, it was off to celebrate L&R's new house in Wash Park, which is quite lovely!

Now it's back to the grind...and has been that for nearly a week.

Who wants to go running???

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Now that things are slowing down...

I can actually make an attempt to catch up on life. SUPER!

Not that much has really been going on in the last few weeks. I've been über-stressed because of work. It's the nature of the beast really. Seasonal stuff is absolute madness. I can't keep numbers straight, I have found it hard to sleep and thus stay awake, and I can do little more than watch trash television while trying to distract myself from eating trash food.

Fortunately, school has ended for the semester and the madness of work is starting to calm down just enough that I don't wish for a bullet to meet my head every day. So that's good news!

I'm already ready for another break though. We're going to Seattle for my sister's graduation in June and we're very very excited about that. Four days away from Denver will be a relief and being able to celebrate one of the biggest accomplishments in my sisters life, thus far, will be extraordinary! She's worked so hard the last two years on her graduate degree...she's gone through a lot and too much and it's all finally coming to a head. She'll be DONE! It's very exciting, to say the least!

After that, we have to wait until August for our next big adventure when we hop a ship to Alaska. It's too far away to think about right now, so I digress.

Todd and I are (quite literally) running our asses off lately in preparation for the Bolder Boulder. I shaved 2mins off my time the other night and Todd shaved another minute off last night. I intend to do the same tonight. All I know is that I MUST be able to sprint the last 1/4 mile of the race, through the stadium. So that's the goal for tonight's workout (even if I have to do it inside because of all the damn fog and cold)...70mins of running with at least 1min of sprinting at the end. And that had better cover 6.2miles...or else.

In other, highly unanticipated, very random news: Todd and I are considering buying our first house. With the first-time home buyer's credit of $8000, it's insane not to look. We just need to chat with some lenders, realtors and our parents (for the advice factor) and see what we come up with. It would be nice to have our own place, but that does come with it's own set of (occasionally very expensive) issues. I'd love for the pups to have their own yard, for one. I'd also like to come "home" to my wonderful husband and our two adorable pups and not have to fight for parking spaces or be annoyed by rude smokers in the breezeways or trashy teenagers at the pool. There are pros and cons to each situation, I know. It's just something we're tossing around.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Micah v. May....so it has come to this.

I hate this month. Why, you ask? Because work makes me want to put a bullet in my head nearly every day. It's too busy right now. So busy, in fact, that because there is just so much to do, I don't want to do ANYTHING.

I should enjoy this month much more. School ends for the semester, my birthday, summer is well on it's way...all things that I enjoy. And yet, all I can do is hope that it goes screaming past me so that the madness just ends.

And now that school is over for the next 3 weeks, I think I'll take some time to remember some of what happened this month.

First, we went on our first hiking trip of the year, but to Cub Lake in RMNP. It was absolutely beautiful and we got to share it with M,P & H, which was a lot of fun. It was a good way to break in the new boots and gear up for the season. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this a lot. And as I'm writing this, I'm pretty sure that I've already discussed this in a different entry. Ah, madness is slowly setting in.


Next came my birthday. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I remembered that my birthday was upon me. The day just comes and ... that's that. This year, it was on a Saturday, which was glorious. Todd took me for breakfast at one of my favorite restaurants in our old 'hood, Kyle's Kitchen, and I got to have an English muffin and cream of wheat with brown sugar...a personal favorite (really, I just love hot cereal...mmmm....)! Then I spent the afternoon alone cleaning up and putting some finishing touches on a school project. By late-afternoon, it was time to head to my pin-up girl photo shoot, which was spectacular! I felt so ANTM...and got a lot of really nice photos of me done...then it was off to M&Ps house for Cinco de Drinko with lots of good friends. Party lasted until about midnight which was purrrrfect! It was a ton of fun and just nice to relax and laugh with people I love.

School ended for me officially on Tuesday, but the semester is *actually* over on Saturday. Whatever. I've been done since Tuesday. I think I did well on my final that night and hopefully that will pan out in the gradebook. I really enjoyed all my classes this semester, ass-kicking as it may have been. It felt good, most of the time, to be challenged the way that I was. But don't kid yourself...I'm way ready for a break.

I'm teaching myself how to run, as well. Todd and I are running the Bolder Boulder this year, which is one of the biggest 10Ks in the state. It's on Memorial Day so I have one more week to get into shape for it. I did 6.2miles this evening in 1:13:30 which is about 7mins faster than I was predicting for myself. But damn did my right leg start hurting toward the end. I walked the entire last half-mile, which will be totally unacceptable at the actual Bolder Boulder. I think I would have completed my run faster tonight had I not gotten a horrible cramp in my right foot. Boo hiss. But really, the fact is, I finished 6.2miles...a feat I have never even dreamed possible.

I've been wanting to do the BB for several years now, sort of in honor of my mom. She ran every year for as long as I can remember and then her knees just gave out on her. Ever since then, I've wanted to do the BB at least ONCE before mine do the same. I have terrible knees so while I'd like to run the BB every year till I'm at least 35, I won't be surprised if I can't. So this year is it. And the BB is on my list of things to do this year and I'm very excited for it.

Turning 29 this year has been hard on me. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Happy birthday to me!

Yes, I forgot...again. Sort of. I mean, I know that tomorrow is my birthday, but I typically always just let it slip my brain until that day.

Today, I walked into my office to find it covered in all things pirate. I asked "What inspired the pirates?" and my office-mate said "Because of your cruise!" (to Alaska...in August). It's hilarious. Chandra looked up all kinds of pirate-y phrases and then some random quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean...and my window and desk are covered in photos of Johnny Depp. What a tragedy *wink wink*

It is absolutely outrageous...I love it! haha!

And Sue got me a nice card with a gift card to Starbucks and well-wishes for "happy studying"...she knows that I eat lunch at my desk every day so that I can spend my official lunch hour studying at the Bux...very thoughtful of her...

Tomorrow will be a glorious birthday, starting with an early morning run with Todd, then breakfast at a favorite old haunt, then relaxin', then birthday present time from Todd, then Cinco de Drinko with the crew. Weather be damned...tomorrow is going to be spectacular!

At least it won't be snowing!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Look out, Rocky Mountains!

It has come to my attention, in recent months, that I am not a "winter" Colorado girl. Rather, I prefer the warm. I love when it's blazing hot in the city and 70-75F in the mountains. I love tooling about by Boulder Creek and going to Blackhawk for picnics and camping off of Hwy 285 (no idea where, but I've been there twice and it's perfection) and while I bitched heavily about it when I was younger, I do enjoy hiking.

I love skiing, don't get me wrong, but if I only go 1 -3 times a season, my heart isn't broken. I just haaaaaaaate being cold! So spring skiing is for me (and for Todd, as well) and we've made a pact to go hiking as much as we can this spring/summer/fall.

I'm VERY excited! We have our first foray into hiking this weekend with M, P & H, weather permitting. We're staying at these super swank cabins tomorrow night in Estes Park and then heading into RMNP on Sunday to get our feet wet (probably literally). I've done a LOT of hiking in my day and even did a 14-er when I was 10 or 12 or something. All I know is that every time I've gone hiking, I tennis-shoed it up and went for it!

So when M asked Todd and me what our hiking shoes situation was and he told her I was planning on bringing my trusty tennies, she about fell out of her chair. "Meet me at REI at 630pm" she tell me.

So Todd and I made our way to REI, a store which I have absolutely no business being in, and M took it upon herself to show me all the shoes that I could try on to make for a reasonable, safe and fun hiking season.

I wound up trying on 4 pairs and walking all over the store and up and down their little mountain test-your-shoes-out thingy and I would up loving these ones:


M bought them for me as an early birthday present and Todd and I got him some awesome LOMAs and we each got a pair of good wool socks. I'm wearing my shoes today to start getting the broken in before the weekend and so far, I totally love them! They're incredibly heavy compared to what I'm used to having on my feet (3.5" stilettos and standard running shoes) so that'll take some getting used to. But so far, very very good!

Also, I ran 3.1 miles in 35mins last night which is a massive accomplishment for me...and I did that outside, not on the treadmill. Yay!