PF Chang's Part Deux

One thing that made it easier to leave family on the east coast after the Christmas visits was knowing that J & A would be coming out in less than a week. We picked them up at the airport on Friday, January 11th a good two hours later than expected. After we fed them a late night dinner prepared by Chef Keeper, we all went to bed.

Saturday morning we hit up a farmer's market at Road Runner Park and bought wild-caught salmon, salsa, jelly, etc. Then we checked out REI's sale (unimpressed, we left with only some GU and Clif Shots). We headed downtown to the Convention Center for the Race Expo. A and I got our race numbers, chips, t-shirts/goody bags and decided the Expo was mayhem and opted to eat lunch instead of shop. We went down to Tempe to Keeper and I's favorite lunch spot: Dilly Deli (thank you Bronders, for introducing this place to me exactly 2 years ago, the day before my debut marathon!) After lunch, J and I claimed the couch and passed out (picture to come later) before moving the nap party to my room. It is nice to have someone to be lazy with!

Sunday morning: Race Day!!! A and I were up early, eating breakfast and getting dressed (i e finding nasty, old long-sleeve t-shirts to throw away after the race started) . Keeper drove us down to the start village and we saw the marathoners take off. I can't tell you how great it felt to "only" be running the 1/2. We wandered around and found water and bagels, stood in line for nasty port-o-pots and jumped in our start corral. We ran the first 5k together then I realized A's pace was a little too much for me and I decided to slow down and lost him in the masses. It was really cool to run the race as a citizen of Phoenix, because I knew exactly where I was at all points during the race. I thought my 8:30+ pace for the first five miles might be a bit too ambitious, so I slowed to around 9:00 miles the next 5 miles and, feeling great at mile 10 (a first!), I decided to push it the last 5k. My last two splits were exactly 8:30s. I finished strong with a PR (I hadn't PR'd in almost 3 years!!!) of 1:56:14. This was a full 6 minutes faster than the 1/2 marathon I ran at the end of October....feels great! I met up with the fam at the "Y" section of the "Family Reunion Area" and found out A had finished 4 minutes in front of me. Great Race! We happily sucked our popsicles and headed to the car, passing by mile 25 of the marathon to cheer on the finishers. After showers and ice baths (which although torturous, help tremendously) we headed to Pei Wei for a post-race feast. Once again, J and I passed out on the couch after being well-fed and the rest of the day was spent lounging. J & A left Monday morning and it really was a great visit, although much too short. I was hoping the snowstorm back east would've been a little bigger and they could be "stuck" here for an extra day. No luck. We are already planning a March rendezvous, place: TBA.

Holiday Travels

I'm back out west now, after 2 weeks on the east coast. I guess Keeper and I are going to have to deal with holiday travel absolutely sucking ass the next few years... because we don't have much of a choice in the meantime. We left for Baltimore on Saturday, December 22nd. Our 10am flight from Phoenix to Chicago didn't end up leaving until well past noon (fog in Chicago). We got to Chicago and learned our flight to Baltimore had been canceled and there wasn't another one until Sunday morning. We refused to accept this and tried other airports in the PA vicinity and got on a flight to Philly that was supposed to leave around 8:30pm. It should be noted that BWI is only an hour from my parents' house and Philly is a two hour trip. Nice. We finally left Chicago at 11:30pm. That put us in Philly, sans luggage (of course) at well after 2am. Thanks to Mom and Andrew for trekking out there in the middle of the night for us. After sleeping in on Sunday, Keeper and I made a trip to TJ Maxx for some underwear and shirts to hold us over until our luggage arrived. It finally made it at 5:30am Christmas Eve morning.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family. Andrew and I did a 12 mile run mid-morning and then we had a huge dinner with my family. We went to church and then headed up to my grandparents' house for late night snacks and visiting with my aunt, uncle and cousin. Christmas Day was spent at my parents' house. After a morning run with Mom and Joy, both Mom and Dad's families came over at various times throughout the day and we really did get to see everyone. Yay!!

On Wednesday Keeper and I flew into West Palm Beach to spend a few days with Dad and Cookie. Although I was glad to get back to warm weather, I really wasn't expecting the mid-80s with high humidity. I guess we are just spoiled now, but both times I ran in Florida SUCKED because I wasn't used to humidity! Keeper played some golf Thursday morning and we went out to dinner Thursday night at City Place. Friday the two of us rented a car to drive out to the gulf side of Florida to see Keeper's mom, grandparents, and aunt and uncle for a day. We somehow lucked out with the rental car and ended up with a black Pontiac Solstice convertible and it was really fun to drive. We spent all of 24 hours in the Tampa area and then headed back to the east coast. On Sunday, I played my first 9 holes of golf. I had fun and it was a positive experience overall (especially since I was allowed to tee off numerous times on the fairway and we only kept my score for 2 holes).

On New Year's Eve we drove to down to the Everglades for a 2 hour tram ride to see some birds and gators. It was a really great time despite our way-too-chatty tour guide. She kept promising to "be quiet for a few minutes and let us view on our own...." but that never happened. Oh well. I want to go back again next year and rent bikes to ride. We had dinner outside of Miami and then headed back to Palm Beach Gardens for a heated game of Trivia and watching the ball drop on TV.

On Tuesday I was supposed to have a direct flight from PBI back to BWI. It shouldn't be much of a surprise to learn that AirTran oversold the flight and I got bumped, leaving me with a much later flight out of PBI and a connection in Atlanta. My plans to see family at my grandparents' house on New Year's Day were shot. Keeper's flight to Tampa got delayed, he then missed his connection and finally got back to Phoenix much later than expected. I did get some compensation for my troubles and those 2 free tickets will certainly come in handy this summer/fall. I spent Wednesday to Saturday back in York with my family. I did some tax-free clothes shopping with my sisters (yay, PA!) on Wednesday, and spent some time with Pappy, Grandma, and Grandmom on Thursday and Friday. It was nice to have a few days at home playing with Cooper (see right) and spending time with my little sister who was home on college break and my parents. We got up at the butt crack of dawn (well middle of the night) so that I could make my 6am flight out of BWI on Saturday morning and now I am back to the land of 60 degree weather with no humidity. School started back up for me today as well as soccer practice in the mud...we have 7 games left of our season and I'd like to pull a few more wins out.

Long Overdue Post #1: Thanksgiving

I am aware that it has been more than 2 months since our last post, but all I can say is....soccer season started. Keeper has been busy with school (and doing great!) and I have been coaching; some weeks both varsity and jv, as the head coach's wife just had their first baby on December 12th. I am having a lot of fun with the girls and as usual, soccer season makes my teaching experience in general more fun.


We only had Thursday and Friday off from school for Thanksgiving so we opted not to travel. On Thanksgiving, I ran a 10 mile Turkey Trot out in Peoria. The race took place at the baseball spring training facility where the Mariners and Padres play. The picture to the right is of "Spike", the mascot for the 2008 Super Bowl. I thought it was pretty neat that he graced us with his presence. The picture to the left is of me finishing the race on the field. It wasn't a very exciting course (out and back) but I really like the 10 mile distance and any run on a holiday where much pigging out will follow the race is fine with me. We didn't actually do much else on T-day after the race because our guest wasn't getting in town until Friday.

K's mom flew on Friday and we went out to lunch and then relaxed the rest of the day. Our Thanksgiving feast took place on Saturday and Keeper did an excellent job with the cooking (with a little guidance from Mom). Gayle and I did some shopping while Keeper slaved away in the kitchen.... my kind of holiday! Sunday we took Gayle to the Desert Botanical Gardens. We decided to get a yearly membership so any of you who come out to visit can expect a trip there since a) it's a really cool place and b) we now have tons of guest passes.
We enjoyed the gardens again, and Gayle's visit in general. It was my first Thanksgiving not spent with my family and my grandparents' house and that was very hard for me. It was nice to see some family.

Half Marathon

This morning I ran the Phoenix YMCA Half Marathon. The race officially started by a shot from the double-barreled shotgun of Wyatt Earp. You can see, Keeper got a picture of him firing the gun. We thought that was pretty funny. The race started in South Mountain Park and ran down Central Ave. and then out on the canal. It was an out and back course. The canal down on the south side of the city is pretty crappy compared to where I've been doing my training runs in Scottsdale. The canal is more of a creek and the path isn't very wide. The race was small ( a couple hundred people doing the half) but the volunteers were plentiful and very appreciative of the runners, because the money from the race funds their youth and teen programs (which is pretty cool). They had no gatorade at the water stops, only water. The weather got hot and sunny pretty quickly, and I got bored pretty easily on the canal, especially knowing I'd have to turn around and do it again on the 2nd half. My first 2 miles were faster than I wanted to go but I settled into a comfortable pace around mile 3. I was very pleased to have no leg cramps (yay!) and I saved some much needed juice for the last 2 miles, which were uphill (going back up South Mountain, into the park). Darsh. I had hoped to break 2 hours, but finished (strong!) in 2:01:34. I am looking forward to a flatter (and hopefully faster) PF Chang's in January. The post race organization was well-stocked with water, gatorade, cliff bars, and Einstein Brothers bagels. We didn't stick around for the awards, but instead headed up to the mountain to the very top (Dobbins Lookout). Chloe was a great spectator with Keeper at her first race. I'm sure she wondered why she wasn't running.

Graduation

Chloe graduated from Basic Obedience I class this past Saturday. Our instructor set up six stations around the room for us to complete. We had as much time to practice as we wanted, then we had to call him over to evaluate us when we were "ready". She completed every station (amazingly). We did not win the "competition" (the highest score got 20% off the next round of classes) but we had fun. We're not quite sure whether to sign up for the next seven week class quite yet because our Saturday mornings are going to be busy the next few months, but we definitely felt this session was well worth the money.

I have turned into one of those "people" who buy Halloween costumes for their dog. I swore I wouldn't, but I did. I just couldn't resist the $10 Bumble Bee outfit they had at Target the other week. I showed my students the picture on the right and they told me she looks "humiliated" in the picture. I can't really argue with that.

The training class we took was held at at a place called Paws Resort and Spa for pets. They hold "doggie daycare" there, as well as grooming and boarding for dogs. We talked to them about boarding since we have to leave Chloe for the first time this weekend. I thought their prices were really high for boarding but then we learned that it's not conventional boarding at all. There are no crates/kennels. All the dogs are "evaluated" prior to being kept there to make sure they are sociable with other dogs. All day long the dogs are kept together and are supervised by the staff there. It's really like summer camp for pets. To make sure that the dogs aren't upset or "traumatized" about being left there for the first time, you have to bring them in for a day of regular "playtime" just to get them used to it. Chloe goes on Thursday for her first day. Can you tell we don't have kids???

Grand Canyon Trip

Last week J & A came out to visit for 5 days. We spent 2 days & 2 nights camping in the Grand Canyon. Keeper unfortunately couldn't come because he was studying and couldn't miss class last Monday. We got into Grand Canyon Village around 7:30pm Saturday night, grabbed dinner at the deli, then set up the tent and went to sleep. We woke up pretty early and Jen set to work making eggs and bacon (after wrestling with the camping stove). We decided to drive up to Mather Point and take some pictures of the view before heading to the visitors' center. We then took the shuttle bus to Hermit's Rest, and began our hike to Santa Maria Spring down Hermit's Trail. This particular hike was only 2.5 miles into the canyon and 2.5 miles back up. The altitude change really got to me on the hike back up; it was really tough! We made it up, refueled, hopped on the shuttle to see Hopi Point and finally made it back to camp. After a firewood chopping session, Jen made us pile back in the car for some sunset pictures near Mather Point. It was well worth the arm-twisting! After sunset we headed back to camp to made a delicious dinner and s'mores by the campfire. We were so tired from hiking, that Monday morning we decided to head to a lodge to have a hot breakfast. We shopped in the general store and then drove to Desert View to climb the tower and take some more pictures. After leaving the canyon on our way back to Flagstaff, we stopped off at two more National Monuments: Wupatki (pueblo ruins) and Sunset Crater. We got back into Phoenix around dinner time and tried a new restaurant that turned out to be great. It was a great visit and we miss them already! I took too many pictures to post here so if you want to see all 110 of them, email me and I'll send you the link.

A Familiar Face

Management has received several complaints about our lack of posting so.... here you go. In K and I's defense though, most of the time we are very boring people so there's nothing exciting to blog about. Two weeks ago, my college friend and sorority sister, Lorraine, was in town on business. We had her over for dinner one night and K made his famous (or should I say Gayle's) shrimp pasta. It was delicious, as usual. Then we went to a trendy wine bar in Scottsdale. It so nice to see a friend out here! L was in town until last weekend so we got to see her for dinner again on Friday night.

K's father flew down from Vegas last Thursday and stayed with us until Sunday. We tried two new restaurants, both good. We had amazing seafood at Wild Fish and good old fashioned Italian at Tutti Santi. K and his dad got a round of golf in Saturday morning and we amused ourselves in the afternoon with baseball playoffs. We are eagerly awaiting our next visitors, Jen and Andrew, who are flying in Friday night. Yay!!!!