PJ Party

It was so nice spending some time with Sally this weekend. For several years we've talked about having a "Hotel PJ Party" so we decided to do! Sally finished up working in High Point a bit early so we met her at the hotel around lunch time. Gina, Sally and I had a nice lunch. Stanage couldn't make it until later in the afternoon because she had some "dog walkin" to do. :-)

After lunch we decided to go back to the hotel and rest/hang out even though we were in the middle a of good shopping area. Sally's feet were beat up, and I was feeling pretty darn rotten with a nasty cold, fever. Felt like I had a bit of the flu. I sure hope my buddies don't catch it! :=(

Stanage came to the hotel Saturday afternoon. We hung out and caught up with what's going on with everyone. Also enjoyed some "ice tea" that Sally brought from High Point. Stanage really like it, and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I felt better.

For dinner we went to a nearby Italian place and met Ron, D'ann, and Danielle(D'Ann's daughter).

Sunday morning Gina and Sally went for a nice long walk. Stanage went home last night because she had more "dog walkin" to do. I stayed in bed still not feeling well.

For breakfast we went to an awesome nearby breakfast place. Stanage and Ron joined us. Gina and Sally had some delicious pumpkin/pecan pancakes. They loved them!

We said good-bye to Sally, and I headed home and snuggled up on my couch for a 2-hour nap!

I plan not to move for the rest of the afternoon, trying to rest up and get over whatever I have!

Great seeing you Sally! I know I was a bit of a party pooper. Wish I felt better!!

I did exactly what I wanted this weekend

After Baltimore last weekend, and the crazy busy days at work last week, I wanted to do NOTHING this weekend. I got exactly what I wanted!
I ran twice last week, amongst other things, and both times I fell. Gina said I must be tired. I think she was right. We decided to run Friday morning, so we could stay close to home on Saturday and not have to get up early to run. I slept until 7am Saturday morning, and Ron finally dragged me out of the house after lunch to run a few errands. After we were out, I talked him into going to Home Arama. WOW, the houses are awesome. My favorite was the 3million dollar house.!! What a house!!!! We also picked up our first Christmas gift!
Sunday morning I slept until close to 8am! Basically, I've done a lot of sleeping, and resting this weekend. I big difference from last weekend. lol....Not sure I'll get any exercise in this weekend, which is a HUGE change for me!! But I'm okay with it. :-)
Ron and I got in a couple of movies the last week or so. Like Dick and Angie, we also watched Ironman again. Good movie~. And we watched "Run Fatboy Run". It is about a guy training for a marathon in 3weeks. It was a very corny movie, but we did have a few laughs, which is exactly what I needed. Nothing to think about, no serious plots, just a few laughs!
Oh, and my new dishwasher was installed! YIPPEEE~

Hope you all have a good week.

Fun in Baltimore

We all left early Friday morning for a trip to Baltimore to run a Half Marathon for most of us and one brave soul ran the Full Marathon! It was the most hilly course we've ever run. I think about 75% of the course was uphill. One leg was a 4-mile uphill. I kept telling myself I will stop and walk at the top, but couldn't see the top of the hill! It was a great running festival! They have the full, half, 5k, and relay. There was GREAT support on the route, with lots of cheers on the sideline. (Not enough potta johns of course) I saw 2 'tigers' dancing on top of a car, with music of "Eye of the Tiger", a huge man in the middle of the road doing a funny dance, which I couldn't help but laugh, and much more. The massage at the end was nice also! It was a very hot race. Salt was visible on our faces and clothes after the run. I don't recall getting salt crystals on my face unless I was marathon training long distance. Most of us didn't finish the race without a mild sunburn also!

We had a great time, laughing and joking all weekend! Friday night we carbo loaded at a Italian restaurant in Little Italy, and hung out and played Yatzee. Early to bed in preparation for the run on Saturday morning. We didn't get back to our hotel room until around 3pm, from the race festival. We all rested a bit, showered, and left for an early dinner and a bit of shopping along the Inner Harbor. The pic above is our dinner at the Inner Harbor on Saturday night. We headed back to Little Italy for some dessert at a recommended spot, then back to the hotel for a good night sleep!

Sunday morning we had breakfast and headed to the airport to close our fun weekend.

We all had a good race, and had tons of laughs over the weekend. All in all, it was a great fun weekend with friends.

Weekend update - Last TRI for the season/year

Hello everyone! Hope you all are having a good week. Work, work, work....that's about all I get done through the week. Wanted to give you all a quick update before this weekend comes!!

Last Thursday night we had a 'girls dinner out' to celebrate Gina's birthday which was in September!! Everyone was so busy we just got around to it! I enjoyed having dinner with the girls. I always look forward to it.

Saturday night was spent at a "work party". Uneventful, and I called it an early evening since I had to get up at 4:30am to do my last TRI for the year. It's the first/only TRI that I did last year. One of my favorite. (Ramblin' Rose). I plan to spend the winter working on my swim. If it don't get better, I may not do any TRIs next year!! boooooo

Finding gas around here is getting a better. That's a good report!!!

Ron is still looking for a job. Charlotte job market isn't very good with what's going on with the banks around the country.

Stay tuned for the "Balitmore weekend" report. Gina, Melinda, Jay, Mike and I are leaving Friday for the race. Mike's doing the full marathon. YIPPEEE for Mike. The rest of us will do the half...YIPPPEEE for us!! lol
Have a great rest of the week!!!

Fun In San Francisco

Hello everyone!
Last Saturday I did my last long run for the Baltimore Half Marathon, which is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Sunday Ron and I flew to San Francisco for a week. I went for a "work" Oracle Conference, and since Ron wasn't working he decided to come with me. We had a great time! Ate at too many nice places and hung out at some fun places.
The hotel was fab!!! We stayed at the newly built InterContinental San Francisco. It was hard to leave the room. We had a corner room, so basically 2 walls of the room was ceiling to floor windows with awesome views of the city. It's probably the best hotel I've ever stayed in. (It's a tie with the Hyatt hotel in Kauai. :-)
Wednesday night was an appreciation party for the approx. 45,000 people who attended the conference. That was a blast! It was a carnival on Treasure Island, full of free carnival games, Ferris wheel and lots of other rides. Also, several concerts, which included UB40, Elvis Costello, Alan Jackson, Seal. Ron and I decided to hang around and drink some complimentary wine and listen to Seal. Of course, Ron found the boiled shrimp and had his share of that and cotton candy! Sounds like a great combination, doesn't it?
Oh, and a surprise speaker at the sessions at the conference was Michael Phelps! That was fun.

We arrived home last night and went straight to bed. We slept 10 hours last night. The plan was to get up and go for a run since I haven't done anything in a week. That didn't happen! Before I knew it, it was time to meet some friends at SouthPark Mall for a fun appearance by Clinton Kelly, with 'What Not To Wear'. I ask Ron to call while I was working in SanFran, and see if he could get me tickets for the show. He was able to get 4 tickets, so Katherine, Stanage, and myself went to the show. Gina was going to go, but called me on the way to the show and couldn't make it because she didn't feel well. It was a good afternoon with the girls. I don't see Stanage or Katherine much anymore, so it was so nice seeing them and catching up! Great "girls day".

Charlotte had another celebrity in town, Curtis Stone from "Take Home Chef", but I had no tickets for that event. :-( Too bad, I would have enjoyed that show was well!

She Swims, She Rides, She Runs, SheROX

It's been a fun, but very busy weekend!

Friday morning Gina and Melinda was gracious enough to run 11miles with me before work, so Saturday could be a rest day. So we met at the Uptown Y at 5am sharp and started running so we could get it in before work. Baltimore is coming up very soon and I don't feel very prepared.

We all had a very busy day at work, and was pretty much done by about 2-3pm that afternoon and wanted a nap!

Saturday was a fun day. I met my TRI friend Lesley and we went to Huntersville, Latta Park to checkout the lake/swim and ride the bike course. Then on to Pilates with Gina.

After Pilates, Leslie met Gina and I and we went to lunch, and then to Inside/Out Sports to pick up Leslie and my race packet. We got our t-shirt that we wanted that says "She Swims, She Rides, She Runs, SheRox". That's the whole reason to complete this TRI is for the t-shirt!

Since Ron(golfing) and DavidI(work) are out of town, Gina and I decided to play Saturday afternoon. We went to Chick-fli-a and had a snack while we waited on the movie to start. We decided to go see Mamma Mia. We laughed and laughed. What a great, fun movie~

Sunday, I got up early at 3:30am because Leslie was picking me up at 4am to head out for the SheRox TRI. It was a great TRI. Great t-shirt, great food, great music...and they even give you a braclet when you finish the TRI!

Ron came home from his golf trip last this afternoon. We have been couch potatoes all afternoon!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GINA!!!!

"Dash for Divas" Sprint TRI

TRI weekend : We thought Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hanna, who stop us from doing the TRI this weekend at White Lake, which is about 2 1/2 -3 hours East. The race officials changed the race from Saturday to Sunday in hopes it would continue. So we headed down Saturday after lunch, instead of Friday morning. The weather was great! The water was perfect temp, but a bit warmer than I like it at the start. This TRI was a smaller "beginners TRI" race than that Lake Norman TRI that I completed a couple of weeks ago. It was nice being there with all girls and attempting the same goal. A lot of encouraging words from girls. Again, I struggled with the swim, which was less than 1/2 the length of the Lake Norman, but again I got through it! They had a "Luau" Saturday night and played the Kona IRONMAN on a big screen. I must say, that was the saddest event for a luau, I've ever seen in my life! It was pitiful!! But watching the Ironman was inspirational. Here's a few of girls from the "TRIITFORLIFE" group. A couple I just met this weekend!

While I was doing my thing, Ron was doing his :-) He went to some "Auto Fair" at Charlotte Motor speedway. I'm sure he had fun as well. As Forrest Gump would say, "that's all I'm going to say about that". :-)

Off to my weekly Sunday afternoon cycle ride!

Hope you all had a great weekend!!