Fall Visit

We finally have some visitors for a few days! Mom and Jill came out Friday night and we've been super-busy the past few days... Saturday morning we went to the Heard Museum downtown and were treated to a tour given by Native American (one Hopi and one Navajo) high school students as well as a Mexican art fair in the courtyard of the museum. The Heard Museum is one of those things in Phoenix that I've wanted to do since we moved here and I finally got to! It's a Native American history, culture and art museum that was well-worth the admission fee. After a healthy lunch at Zoe's and a stop at World Market, Mom and I head up to north Scottsdale for my 2nd AZSR race.

I was a little put out by the 4pm race start (who wants to run a race at 4pm?) and the location was really far from where we live downtown but the course was nice and flat. We were doing a 10k this time instead of a 5k and most of the kids ran well. I ran a 52:30 and ended up winning my age group; Mom got 2nd in hers. We came home to get Jill and Keeper (who was at a medical business conference all weekend) and went out for quality Mexican food. Yum. Yesterday morning we took Chloe for a nice long walk, went to church and then headed up to Cave Creek for our horseback ride at Spur Cross Stables. We had made a 3pm reservation for an hour and half trail ride. As we were loading up the horses we heard thunder rumbling and saw very dark clouds... but we started the ride anyway. I was glad that we had our own private guide just for the three of us instead of being included in the group of 10 people who were there at the same time. We rode off on the trail (that's me on Diamond, Mom on Dustin, and Jill on Hershey) and the clouds just kept getting darker. Our cowboy, Ian (or Slim), told us story after story and we noticed lightning and then we started to get wet. After a while, even Ian got spooked and we had to turn around and cut our ride short. He informed us that all the metal parts of a western saddle made us "human lightning rods" and that he'd actually seen a horse get struck by lightning before and it "wasn't too pretty". We followed him back to the ranch and the owners were kind enough to reschedule us for Monday morning. We drove back downtown with a stop at Dreamy Draw Park to watch the sunset.

We got up bright and early today and were at the ranch again for our 8:30am ride. It was a beautiful, cool, sunny morning and we had a different guide this time. I rode Hershey, Mom again got Dustin, and Jill rode Handsome. We had a fabulous ride and saw all sorts of wildlife (deer, jackrabbits, birds, etc). I absolutely loved being out in the "real" desert. It is so peaceful and quiet. I hadn't ridden a horse since middle school (probably) or even earlier but it was really fun and I will definitely go back to Spur Cross Stables again. The people (and horses) were fabulous. We followed up our ride with a hearty breakfast and a walk around Frontier Town in Cave Creek. We headed back down to Phoenix in time for the first day of soccer tryouts at my school.

Make no mistake: Radiology is every bit as boring as it sounds

Happy Halloween

New Haircut

Stay Tuned. Someone might be dressed up like a bumble bee for Halloween.

Week Off

Well, quarter 5 (of 16) is over, and it ended in a flurry of work. 12ish finals and a term paper brought mixed result. It was probably my worst quarter grade-wise, but one of the more enjoyable. We're getting out of the (necessary) hard sciences and into the doctor stuff: doing physical manipulation, making medicine from plants and the diagnostic techniques of traditional Chinese Medicine (looking at tongues and feeling pulses, who knew?). The picture to the right is not from some strange ND-student party, it's from my final project in botanical medicine: the beginnings of a liver tonic made from real live (dead) plant roots.

Now it's a week off to try to clean our nasty carpet and do other odds and ends.

In other news, I brewed my own beer for the first time, an IPA that we bottled (I had help with the capping from my blogging partner) almost two weeks ago. It gets better every day! I was too busy this time to remember to take pictures, but next time I will.

2 5K's

This was a weekend of 2 races for me. I decided to run the Phoenix YMCA 5K because I ran their half marathon last fall and decided the course was way too boring (and kinda hot by the end) to run it again, but I wanted to support the organization anyway, so I opted for the shorter race this year. The race had a 7:30am start time on Saturday morning, so Keeper and I arrived bright and early. I had been gearing my training towards this race the past 2 months and I was feeling pretty good so I thought I had a chance at a PR. No such luck. I did not warm up enough and did not anticipate the hilly course (it was located at South Mountain Park, which is in fact, a mountain). There weren't many people running the 5k and among those who did, there were a lot of dogs, strollers and little kids. Although it was nice and cool early in the morning and the views on the mountain were nice, I was disappointed in the organization of the 5k. It was an out and back course that did not designate which side of the road was "out" and which side was "back". Looping back brought much dodging and weaving among walkers and cars (which were allowed to drive on the course). Upon finishing, I was told by race volunteers that was no water, 0nly Gatorade. WTF?!?! No water at a race? The shirts, however, were very cool and Keeper and I headed to our favorite breakfast spot for a post-race pig-out.

This morning was another 5k. It was our first AZSR run and was at Kiwanis Park in Tempe. It was interesting to see our whole group of mentors and students together because during the week we train separately (high school and middle school are split). Because none of the middle school kids were my pace and I didn't know any of the high school kids (I coach the middle school group), I was told to just run my own race and see what happened. So I did. It was a much flatter course that looped around a lake and I just felt more relaxed (and warmed up) than yesterday. I ended up with a PR of 23:33 ( I had never broken 24:00 before!) and first place in my age group! The kids did great as well. We liked the race organization and atmosphere and I would definitely do this one again next year. Next up: a 10K with AZSR in two weeks!!!

East Coast Trip

So last week was the much anticipated trip back east to meet my nephew/godson. I had a blast. Despite the delayed flight into and out of Atlanta, I finally made it to Baltimore, although Mom, Joy and I didn't get home until about 3:30am (sorry, guys!). I slept a few hours, then went up to Grandma and Pap's for some homemade chicken pot pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. I'm not making it home for Thanksgiving, so the pumpkin pie was a welcome treat!

Late in the afternoon we headed up to J & A's house for dinner and I got to meet the little BB. What a cutie! At 7 weeks old, he is so alert and responsive it's unbelievable. You can also make him smile and laugh which is just so much fun. On Friday morning, I did a tempo run in J's neighborhood. Although it was warm for October, I love running out in the fall weather with rolling hills and leaves crunching under my feet. We spent Friday pretty much playing with the baby and getting ready for our Lehigh tailgate party on Saturday morning. We set up camp in the parking lot and pigged out. The group consisted of me, Joy, Mom, Dad, J, A, BB, and two of J and I's sorority sisters, their husbands, and kids. It was a beautiful day and Lehigh actually won, although Dad and I were very disappointed with the lack of student tailgates when we walked around. LAME! There were no shotguns, beer slides, and bag-o-wine chuggings to be seen. I got nostalgic for the good old days, although my Dad has far better stories from Lehigh in the 70's then I do. After the tailgate, Mom and Dad left and the rest of us pretty much fell asleep at J & A's house. BB and I claimed the recliner and had a nice nap! A had a boys' poker night and me, J, and Joy had a quiet evening with BB.

Sunday was another beautiful run and a brief shopping trip (with a stop at RITA'S on the way home) with BB. He was a good sport and slept the whole time. I love his blue hoodie (see above pic). In late afternoon Joy and I headed back to York for dinner with Mom and Dad. Monday was spent running and a late lunch with Grandmom Schroeder before Mom dropped me off at the airport. This visit was too short! I am so glad I got to spend a few days with the little BB and can't wait to hang out with him again at Christmas!