Running my First Marathon (May 1)
I can’t believe I accomplished this goal, but I did! And you can re-read my blog post all about it here.

Moving (May 8)
Ok, I don’t like moving either (and we moved a mere week after the marathon, terrible idea)… but I really like the place we moved into.

Driving to Washington (June 30-July 1)
I don’t have a photo for this one but this was the longest road trip Kevin and I have taken together. I really enjoyed our drive, mostly because Oregon and Washington are just so beautiful to drive through but Kevin’s a pretty good road buddy too. And we got an extra special perk by being able to stop in Oregon to say hello to our good friends Natalie and Jeremy and their two boys.

Bachelorette Party & Bridal Showers (June & July)
I was lucky enough to have a wonderful bachelorette party and two showers. My friend Tawny threw the party and it was perfect. Hiking, wine, and homemade food? Yes, please. Then Kevin’s family threw us a shower in Washington, so much fun. It was nice too because many of the people who were at the shower were unable to attend the wedding. And finally, my maid-of-honor threw a shower in my hometown (ok not really but close enough) and it was so nice to have all my friends and family gathered together who don’t usually all hang out.
You can read about all three in my summer recap post.

Seeing Friends Get Married (June, August, & September)
I love a good wedding and I love when I get to be there to see my friends tie the knot. I was lucky enough to attend three weddings this year (Dan & Juliana, Dustin & Erica, and Cedric & Kelly). All three had ceremonies and receptions that reflected who they were and their love for one another. Kevin couldn’t come to Kelly’s wedding (it was his bachelor party weekend), so my mom came with me and made the perfect date (thanks Mom!).

Halloween Party (October)
Kevin and I used to throw Halloween parties all the time (ok really, Kevin did and then I joined the fun). This was the first year we threw a party in Santa Cruz and it was awesome. The costumes were great (I particularly loved the Psycho movie and having both the 99% and 1% represented). But it was extra special fun because we had friends from So Cal, Gilroy, and Petaluma also join in. And anytime I get to bake with Tawny, I’m stoked.

Our First Thanksgiving (November)
I’ve been meaning to write a post about this but not sure that will happen at this point. But this was our first time hosting Thanksgiving. I made two pies, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. Kevin and our friend Pat made the turkey (which I heard was delicious and looked beautiful). That morning Kevin and I also ran our first race together. Some of our friends brought side dishes and it seemed like the perfect night… until three our guests’ cars got towed

Let’s see, I feel like I’m forgetting something about this year that was pretty awesome….
Oh yeah, our wedding!

Our Wedding (September 18)
So I guess technically I attended four weddings this year, but I have to say the last one was my favorite! The venue was perfect and while our wedding was smallish, it was so wonderful to be with friends and family as we made our vows. Plus we danced the night away at our reception. You can read about our wedding in my series Encyclopedia of Me, here.

And while 2011 was exciting and eventful, I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings us! Happy New Years blogosphere

Cold pre race

I had headed out to the expo on Friday (I love when I can go early) and had Saturday to relax before the race day. I ended up running 3.1 miles with Kevin to prep for our 5k on Thanksgiving but it was actually nice. Since the distance was short it didn’t bother my legs and instead seemed to prep them for the race day. I had been reading for the days leading up to the race that it would be a cold, rainy morning. So, I laid out warm clothes and the running cap I bought at the expo. I had my usual pesto pasta pre-race dinner and got to sleep.

4:30am rolled around way too quickly, as it usually does. I got up and decided to wear a running skirt and bring pants just in case (so glad I went with that decision instead of wearing pants). It was not raining, although it sprinkled a bit on the way to Monterey. I went back and forth about wearing the hat, which I had got to keep the rain out of my face. I decided to wear it anyway, just in case it started to rain. But nope, no rain! At least not during the race. It turned out to be a beautiful morning, cold but good for running. The race takes you through the city of Monterey, Cannery Row, Pacific Grove, and along the Monterey Bay. It is a spectacular view!! I loved every minute of it.

I planned for this to be the race that I broke back through 2 hours. The last few races I have run have been slow because of a variety of reasons (dehydration, sickness, not enough training due to my crazy schedule). But I thought I could keep around a 9 minute pace and get back under 2 hours. And I did! Well, ok officially I didn’t but at 13.1 miles by my fancy Nike+ watch (thanks Kevin!) I was at 1:59. I had a little potty break at the turnaround and stopped my watch to account for that. According to my watch I crossed the finish line at 2:01 (at 13.4 miles) and my official time was 2:04. Still a significant improvement from my last race. And I kept to my pace pretty faithfully (except mile 2 and mile 12). Here are my splits:

1 mile – 8:42
2 mile – 7:29
3 mile – 8:52
4 mile – 9:10
5 mile – 9:26
6 mile – 9:03
7 mile – 9:02
8 mile – 9:32
9 mile – 9:30
10 mile – 9:23
11 mile – 9:23
12 mile – 9:34
13 mile – 9:19

I love this race. It will be my first priority of races to do in fall 2012. And I can’t wait to do it again! Thanks Big Sur for another great experience!!

Prior to today’s race, I hadn’t run more than 5 miles since the NWM on October 16. I had bronchitis through most of October and took about 9 days off of running. I did a few short runs this week, but nothing that really counts as training. I was a little worried that I would still feel a little sick today, but no cough, no sore throat, no runny nose, woohoo! I felt good the entire race, my legs got a bit tired (mostly sore feet) but that makes sense considering my lack of training. I am happy to report that I beat my last half marathon’s time by about 7 minutes so I feel pretty good about my performance.

Thankfully, today was fall back and even though I woke up at 4am I was able to get about 7 hours of sleep (maybe the most before a race). I headed up to San Francisco, easily found parking, and made my way to the starting line. There seemed to be many more runners than last year, but maybe that was due to the rain last year. The weather was perfect, cold and clear morning. The city and bay looked great and provided their normal wonderful scenery as I ran. I had planned to do the “run 1 mile, walk 1 minute” plan. I ended up running 3 miles, walk a minute, run a mile, walk a minute, run 2 miles, walk a minute, run 2 miles, walk up hill, run 3.5 miles, walk a minute, run a mile, walk a minute, run to the finish. This was due to how I felt and the congestion of the Golden Gate Bridge.

So apparently due to Presido Park Project, the race organizers couldn’t use their previous race course. What this meant was that runners were only able to use the west sidewalk of the Golden Gate Bridge and we ran up the Marin Headlands (yikes!).  Having 5000 runners on one sidewalk on the GG Bridge wasn’t fun. There were a few bottlenecks and I stood without moving for about 4 minutes (I included this when figuring out my race time, as far as I can tell chip times haven’t been posted yet). I have seen/heard a lot of racers complain about this and no it wasn’t fun. But you know, I’m glad that we were still able to run the race and use the GG Bridge. I felt like the race organizers did a good job of communicating this change and it was beyond their control so it was bottlenecks or no GG Bridge. I was less excited about running up the Marin Headlands but running down and seeing the breathtaking view made up for it.

I made my way back and crossed the finish line to retrieve my metal water bottle (I love that they do this!) and my medal… oh wait no. I guess there was a snafu in the medal manufacturing and they made the medals for the April race. So we will have our medals mailed to us. I also heard a lot of complaints about this too but it sounds like it was out of the race organizer’s control. They announced it at the beginning of the race and offered discounts to future races (that to me was enough to cover the mistake). Last year they mailed my shirt to me and I received it fairly quickly, so I’m confident I’ll receive the medal in due time.

Overall, I’m pretty happy about today’s race. It wasn’t fast but better than my last race and makes me think with some training I might (fingers crossed) be able to finish the Big Sur Half Marathon in 2 weeks under 2 hours.

For those who follow me on dailymile, you know that coming up to this race I had been disappointed with my training. I had run the San Jose Rock n Roll Half two weeks before (with my father-in-law) and had hoped to amp up my runs between the two so I could improve my time. (Somehow with the wedding and school, my training for the SJ RnR had also suffered and I ran a slower half.) But life continues to get in the way and I was too busy to get many runs in and also got sick (I found yesterday I have bronchitis).

But did I let this get me down? No! I drove up to San Francisco three days before the race to pick up my race packet and pick up my goodies. My experience at the expo was better than last year, no lines and not many people – one of the perks of going in the afternoon on a Thursday. I was a little disappointed in the lack of goodies and samples, but nothing to complain about. What I have learned since then is that when I picked up my bib, the volunteer didn’t scan it and therefore I currently have no official race results (more on that later).

At 4am on Sunday morning I somehow rolled out of bed. I put on my Big Sur tech shirt (I thought a little mental reminder that I ran a marathon would help me power through the NWM). I had a little bowl of oatmeal and a bit of coffee and headed out to the city. I arrived around 6:20am, just what I wanted and parked on the street easily. I stopped in the Union Square Hilton for a potty break (much better than a port-o-potty) and headed out to Union Square. I brought a gear check back so I could change into some warm, non-sweaty clothes immediately after the race. In hindsight, I really wish I hadn’t done this. The gear check was a mess, a mob of people surrounded the gear buses and the runners were all trapped in this mess. Finally after 30 minutes of wading through people I got my stuff checked and tried to make it to my wave. The race had already started but I was in the third wave and thought I might be able to make it. No luck. I got through some people, but got stuck in what I think was a 12 minute pace wave (boo). Some nasty girls wouldn’t let me through and I tried to explain to them what I was doing. Here is the convo:

Me: I’m sorry, I’m just trying to get my wave.
Mean Girls: Well, you should have gotten here earlier.
Me: I did, I drove from Santa Cruz.
Mean Girls: Well, you should have left there earlier.
Me: I did! I got here almost an hour ago, I got stuck in bag check.
Mean Girls: <rolls eyes>

Sigh. So 17 minutes after the race officially started, I finally crossed the starting line. I would spend the next 8 miles weaving through the crowds, avoiding those who walk the NWM, alternating between sidewalk and street, and zig zagging across the streets adding about a mile to my overall distance.

While I had a grumpy start, I couldn’t help but be happy as I ran. The NWM has a beautiful course and I enjoyed it just as much as I did previous years. The first 7 miles or so, I was averaging between 8 and 9 minutes miles and feeling pretty good. But then my lungs lost it. Did I mention I ran this with bronchitis? So I slowed down considerably and looked to just finishing the race. This meant more walking than I would have liked, a lot of coughing, and stopping at each water station.

I got excited when I saw the volunteers handing out the Ghirardelli chocolate squares, because I knew that meant it was just over a mile until I crossed the finish line (and that I could eat the chocolate soon!). I finished well over 2 hours But I finished. I was disappointed to see my time wasn’t immediately posted but not a biggie. I waiting in a line to have my photo taken with my “medal” (yep, another tiffany’s necklace!). But the line was long and then I saw the firefighters were in the photos too and I thought that was kind of weird. So I decided to skip it after all and get my gear. Picking up my stuff was painless, I slipped into my warm, non sweaty clothes and took the shuttle back to Union Square. An hour and a half later, I was home.

For the next few days, I continued to check for my official race times. Nothing. Finally, I emailed the official time keeping company, Pacific Sports Events. A very nice man named Jon promptly replied to my email and said that while my bib number had been tracked, my name was not in the system. What?! I have since learned from other NWM participants that if the volunteer did not scan your bib at check-in, you were not in the system. Awesome. (Note my sarcasm.) But Jon at Pacific Sports is updating the records so I’ll have results. Apparently Nike isn’t doing much to rectify this problem (and it seems I’m not alone here).

Overall, I still enjoyed the event because I just can’t complain about running through those parts of San Francisco and there is something amazing about knowing your running with 20,000 other runners. I think Nike was much less organized this year and didn’t prepare their volunteers as well as they did last year. I am happy to have another Tiffany’s necklace (although personally I like the 2010 design better than the 2011, but that’s just my taste). But for the cost of the race, I’d like to see things run more smoothly.

Ok, J is a difficult letter. I couldn’t think of much that started with the letter. Jokes? No I’m a terrible joke teller (I laugh in the middle and usually am giggling through the punch line). Jello? I don’t know the last time I ate jello. Um.. yeah that’s about all I can come up with for the letter J…

Yeah, clearly I was having some troubles. But I have now decided that J is for Just Married… One last excuse to include wedding stuff in my blog. And for the 2 of you who read this and aren’t on Facebook I’m including some of my favorite photos of the night (professional photos aren’t ready yet … so these were taken by family and friends).

So far, we love being married And this past Tuesday marked 8 years since Kevin asked me to be is girlfriend. I can’t believe we’ve been together for 8 years already, how does that happen? But things are going along swimmingly. And while we didn’t have a real honeymoon (hopefully next summer), out little minimoon to Disneyland was lots of fun.

But back to the wedding. The crazy thing about the wedding itself is how fast it goes by. Yes, I know everyone says that. Everyone told me before, “try to soak it all in, it goes by so fast.” No kidding! After the wedding, Kevin & I both couldn’t believe it was already over. I tried after a few days to write down some of my favorite memories so I wouldn’t forget. Here’s what I have:

Kevin saying “You look so beautiful” when I walked down the aisle
Cole playing “I Will”
Moni’s toast
Colin’s toast “Kevin plays A LOT of video games and Meg never complains”
Drinking champagne before the ceremony with the bridesmaids and spilling it everywhere
Taking shots with the wedding party after the ceremony

I wish I would have wrote down more, I’ll keep trying to write things I remember. Oh well. Like every wedding in history, the week leading up to it all was chaotic and crazy. My mom and I had a million projects to do and I think we both made ourselves ill from it. But it was worth it. The decorations and flowers were exactly what I had envisioned and with the exception of a few snafus including a missing handkerchief, everything was perfect.

But here’s what you all want… photos.

Getting Ready

Ringbearer

Wedding Venue

Groomsmen

Cole played the processional

Mr & Mrs

Cakes by Amy D

Flower girl with her daddy

Bouquet Toss

Garter

The competition to catch the garter was fierce

Last Dance

PS, we had the best vendors and I recommend them all! Seriously, we got so lucky!
Venue: The Casino, San Clemente
Catering: Carbonara’s
Photography: Punam Bean (engagement), En Pointe Photography (wedding)
Invitations: Scribble Sketch Press
Cake: Cakes by Amy D.
DJ: Rob Wilkins Entertainment

I think we live in a sadder world today. I never supported the war in Afghanistan or Iraq. I never believed that we can fix violence with violence. I never wanted more lives lost because of what happened 10 years ago today. I believe that in the wake of the horror, there was an immense potential for hope. As our nation united together and worked to show the world that we would be strong, I believed we should also reach out to our would-be enemies. We learn about them, they learn about us. I wanted our nation to work against hate, to create understanding. But instead we now live in a more dangerous world, a world filled with more hate: people of different religious beliefs hate each other, people hate people based on their language, based on the places they are from, leaders with different world visions hate each other, and Americans… we who rejoiced in uniting the days after 9/11… we hate each other.

I visited Ground Zero in December 2005. The ground was a still a gaping hole. Buildings that had once been the neighbors to the Towers still stood shrouded in black tarp. We visited Trinity Church. We still felt the pain of the hole left behind by such loss. Four years later and the NYC and Ground Zero I watched for days after 9/11 still felt fresh. Now they are building new towers, museums and memorials are opening, several movies have been made, and we are in two painful, long wars. We are moving forward. In a day of looking back, perhaps we can also learn from the successes and failures of our responses to that horrific event. My hope is that we remember those who fell not with hatred and war, but with peace.

I should warn you. In the last 6 months or so, I’ve become a wedding blog junkie. I don’t know what I’ll do after the wedding, but I think I’ll still be checking out the wedding blogs. Sometimes you get great ideas and sometimes you think, oh no… no… why did you do that? But the best blogs have more to offer and so I’ve picked my 4 favorites (there was no way I could narrow it down to one!).

Wedding Chicks
Ok, if I had to pick just one wedding blog this one would probably be it. I stumbled upon Wedding Chicks before I found any other blogs. Actually, it featured the venue where I’m getting married and after that I kept coming back. I love all the great DIY projects that Wedding Chicks offers its readers. And even better, free downloadable templates for invitations and save-the-dates. In fact, our save-the-date came from a Wedding Chick template. They also have a cute store if you’re into buying “bride” clothing (which I’m kinda ambivalent about).

Ruffled Blog
This has been my most recent blog discovery. They cover some AMAZING weddings and again have some great DIY ideas. I wish I was more crafty and could take better advantage of these type of projects. I also really love the simple design of the website. While the editor keeps the post brief, I like that they include the bride or couple’s voice. Usually, brides share their favorite part of the day as well as what worked and what didn’t. Knowing that other brides had failed projects is always heartening. Finally, Ruffled just launched a bridal shop. I like the buyer can make the dress exactly what they want. And like Wedding Chicks, they seem to emphasize the vintage weddings from which I poach lots of ideas.

Green Wedding Shoes
Ok stop… look at that cake in my screen shot! Love it! Sorry, back to the topic at hand. Green Wedding Shoes is another blog full of great ideas (are you noticing a theme here?). But really, I had to check out a blog that emphasized shoes (and colored shoes) in their blog title. Another plus for this blog? They featured my friend and amazing photographer Punam Bean. Clearly, the editor has great taste! Like my other favorite wedding blogs, the writing is brief and the emphasis is on the wedding images. Some of the wedding blogs out there can get pretty chatty… I just want photos and maybe some insight of the bride’s experience. That’s it, I’m good with that.

Style Me Pretty
Style Me Pretty differs from my other favorites in that its MASSIVE. It doesn’t highlight specific types of weddings (like vintage for example). It’s kind of like the one-stop-wedding-blog, a little bit of everything for all. But it never feels overwhelming and always has beautiful images. I also love that it has mini-blogs that highlight specific areas (Destination, Australia, Canada, California, Florida, Georgie, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas).

Ok, so that’s it for sharing blogs this month… and my most-wedding-themed blog post yet (I have a feeling there will be one more wedding-crazy blog post after our big day!).

I love homemade pesto! I love it more when it comes from my basil plant. To whip up this tasty pasta sauce, I used the following recipe. No pine nuts this time, saved a little cash and the pesto tastes almost as yummy without!

Basil Pesto (modified from Food Network recipe)
2 cups fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic (mine was from Gilroy, yay for local!)
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (not to be confused with the just plain old virgin stuff!)
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Put the basil and garlic in the food processor. Once all chopped up add the olive oil. I also just mix the cheese right in there but feel free to add it in by stirring by hand. On a special note, I used the salad spinner and food processor I got as shower gifts in this preparation (thanks Sarah & Susan!).

Well, I had to have something to put the pesto on, right? Oh yeah! So of course I opted for fresh, homemade pasta. I really don’t know if I can go back to the box stuff, so spoiled Here’s the recipe I used.

Egg Pasta (modified from Kitchen Aid recipe)
3 1/2 cups flour (you should sift, but I find it doesn’t make that much of a difference)
4 eggs
1 tablespoon water
a pinch of salt
several pinches of dried Italian herbs (for a little extra something, something)
Mix all the ingredients (I use my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer). Then use a kneading hook in your stand mixer for 2 minutes on speed 2. Hand knead for a few minutes and let sit for 20-25 minutes. Separate into four sections and flatten. Then use your handy-dandy pasta cutter to flatten out and then cut into your preferred pasta style (I chose traditional spaghetti). If you don’t dry your pasta, it takes about 2-3 minutes to completely cook. Another special note, I used my new 5.5 quart Le Creuset French oven from the wedding registry to boil up the pasta  (thanks mom!).

I save some of the boiling water to mix with the pasta and pesto sauce (thanks Barefoot Contessa for the tip!). Then I serve with some freshly grated Parmesan.

I drank a glass of Yellowtail Merlot and found the meal to be a perfect end to the day. The boys chose to pair beer with their pasta feast, to each their own.

And now for an episode of the Misfits (if you don’t know about this show, you should!) Perfect day!

The Penny Ice Creamery
I love this place, I mean true, heartfelt love. Sure, it’s a little pricey, but for me that’s a good thing. Why? Because it deters me from stopping by this wonderful place everyday! (And since I’m trying to cut back the sweets as I count down the days until wedding day, that’s even more important than usual.)

Photo compliments of Penny Ice Creamery's facebook page

But why do I love Penny so much? Because their ice cream is amazing! It’s made fresh from all local and in-season ingredients. You never know what will be on the menu when you stop by, but you know it will be different and delicious. My faves so far? Salted Caramel and Mascarpone Hazelnut, so so good. And today’s menu has fresh mint chip, I need to try that! I know, your mouth is watering, right? And to top it all off, they are at my local farmers market every week. Ice cream at 9am? Yes please.

New Find
A few weeks back, at the Target near my parents’ house, I made an amazing discovery: Ben & Jerry’s Volun-Tiramisu. What? Ice cream that’s also tiramisu? Yes please! Apparently, it’s a special flavor, only available at Target (another reason to increase my Target dependency).

Homemade Ice Cream
I love making ice cream and why wouldn’t I? You can combine your favorite flavors and control what goes into you dessert. Recently, I wanted to make some ice cream for a good friend who had done us a lot of favors as of late (pup-sitting, airport pickups, etc). I asked him what his favorite flavor was and he said cookie dough and cookies ‘n’ cream. Me too! I thought why not combine the too. After making chocolate chip cookies, I froze some batter for the ice cream. I added teaspoon-sized balls of the dough along with crumbled Joe-Joe’s cookies to Gidget’s vanilla ice cream. (I doubled the recipe and used vanilla bean paste since my local store didn’t have vanilla beans, but the paste worked great!) My super cookie ice cream turned out fantastic! Good for me? Of course not! But everything in moderation, right? (Well, maybe not everything!)

                  
Craving ice cream yet? Me too! Ok, I admit, I had to get some of this cookie/ice cream goodness out of the freezer!

It’s been a long, long time since my last post. I’ve logged in and started to write posts but didn’t know where to start. Well, I figure no time like the present to get caught up on my blog. I thought about doing a separate post for all the events/things we have been doing, but instead here’s a bit of what we’ve been doing since May (yep it’s a long entry).

Wedding Planning
Not surprisingly since I’ve been out of my course work for the summer I have been focusing on the wedding. We finally have a DJ (yay!) but still have lots to do. I had my first dress fitting a few weeks back (and will have another one on Friday) as well as talked flowers and decorations. My mom, Susan, Olivia, and Tara have some AMAZING ideas!

Engagement Photos
In June, my amazing friend and mom-to-be Punam took engagement photos of Kevin & me. They are great. Here’s a teaser shot, but you can see her blog post on them here.

Bachelorette Weekend
The weekend after the engagement photo shoot, four of my close friends and I went to Sonoma County for my bachelorette weekend. It was perfect, complete with beautiful views, hiking, dogs (you know I love dogs!), delicious food, and wine… lots of wine! One of my best friends, Tawny, planned the whole thing and I seriously couldn’t have asked for a better time.

We’ve Been Here, There, & Everywhere (yeah, I totally used one of my favorite Beatle songs here)
Kevin & I have been traveling all over the place this summer. I think one or both of us was gone every weekend beginning in mid-June until, well, now. As mentioned earlier, I was in Sonoma County in June, Kevin’s sister and his niece and nephews visited the following few days, then we flew off to Texas (more about that later), then we drove up to Washington (with a pit stop in Oregon to see one of my best friends), Kevin’s uncle visited for a week or so, then I went home to wedding stuff, Kevin went off to Taiwan for work… and now we’re laying low. Of course, we’ll be traveling here and there again soon During that time, Kevin also celebrated the big 3-0!!

Showers
While we were in Washington, Kevin’s family threw us a wedding shower. And when I was in So Cal my best friend threw me a bridal shower. Both parties were so much fun and it was great seeing everyone. We really appreciate that everyone came out and celebrated with us. Plus, my mom brought an old high school photo album that my girlfriends and I had a good laugh at!

Dan & Juliana’s Wedding
As I mentioned earlier, Kevin & I went to Texas this summer. Why? To attend Dan and Juliana’s wedding of course! I love this couple, they are fun and sweet and a perfect match for each other. I also got to catch up with some of my old high school friends, as well as visit some of the best that San Antonio has to offer: Alamo, River Walk (ok we barely did this), San Jose Mission, Cavender’s Boot store, and some serious BBQ (the boys ate it, I just stared in amazement).

The newlyweds

Outside the cathedral

The boys & me outside of the Alamo

BBQ!

Summer School
In addition to traveling, planning, and partying, I also worked as a teaching assistant for the first session of summer school at UCSC. I had the pleasure of working with an amazing teacher and fellow grad student who I definitely look up to. This was a class I had TAed for before, but I learned a great deal from above-mentioned-instructor and her great teaching style.

Cooking/Baking
As usual, I’ve spent a great deal of time cooking and baking. I made a yummy batch of cookies-n-cream/cookie dough ice cream (yes together, in one delicious, sugary bowl!). I failed at my first scone making attempt (that’s what I get for last-minute recipe modifications). And I made homemade pasta for the first time, yum!

Drying pasta

Running
I’ve still been running with a few races here and there. Since my last post, I ran 4 races (see my results here). I did take 1st in my age group for one of them, always a nice feeling! And tomorrow, I’ll be running the 1st half of the San Francisco Marathon. Since running the Big Sur Marathon I’ve been pretty slow on my long runs, so I’m not expecting to be very speedy tomorrow but I think it will be a lot of fun. And I have to admit I’m pretty darn excited about getting an Irish Coffee after the race, now that’s a treat I can look forward to post-run (the run is early, like 5:45am early, so I’ll ready for that warm beverage!). Here are some photos from my recent races.

Silly me, throwing my hands in the hair! Crossing the finish line at She.Is.Beautiful 10k on May 22

Post race at Nisene Marks 5k, very rainy race

Coming up to the finish line in the San Lorenzo Train Run 10k

Pre-Race Wharf to Wharf 6 mile (surrounded by 15,000 other runners!)

Well, I think we’re all caught up. I will try to get back into my normal blog routine in August.