The Great Pumpkin

Last night at track, one of the coaches brought some candy for everyone to share. In the candy mix, he had some Hershey's Kisses that looked like candy corn. The unfortunate thing was that they tasted like candy corn also. Candy corn is strange enough on its own. No need to make chocolate taste like candy corn too... I give this candy two thumbs DOWN.

Today, I spent most of today in a training course. Luckily, they had Playdoh for us to play with during the talks. Here is what I made:

Happy Halloween!

Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween. Some people really like this "holiday", but I've never been a big fan. Even when I was little, I didn't like it much. It always seemed strange to go from door to door to ask for candy. And it was even stranger when we'd get stuff other than candy. There was always the one house in the neighborhood that gave out 5 pennies taped together. Yes, pennies. I didn't mind dressing up, but mostly it was because it was expected.

Now it's my turn to hand out candy and I have no idea how many kids may come by the new house. And I don't want to buy too much candy and have it sitting around the house. I guess the kids who want candy should come by my house early. Otherwise, they may get 5 pennies taped together...

IronTEAM

Well, I did it. I signed up for IronTeam. If I have any chance of making it through the training season to Ironman Canada in 2009, I'm gonna need the motivation of the team.

For now, I'm still coaching the run team and training for my century ride in Solvang, so I won't be attending too many trainings with Ironteam.

I guess I should get in the pool one of these days...

Birthday!

Today is my friend Carolyn's birthday! This is a picture of the balloon she and Carl got for me on my birthday. It's still going strong 2.5 months later... If it's still floating next year on her birthday, she's getting the balloon back.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

Furniture

I'm having a very difficult time finding furniture for my house. I love the few big items that I have, but there is a lot more that I need. For now, I am looking for nightstands. It seems like an easy task, but for some reason it is not.

I'm starting to think I should build my own... but that may be a bad idea since I've never actually built any furniture. I think I've been watching too much HGTV.

Lazy Sunday

I decided to skip my bike ride today to do some chores around the
house. After running 18 miles yesterday, my body appreciated the rest.

After cleaning and a few loads of laundry, I unpacked/organized the
last few boxes from when I moved in 5 months ago.

I even managed to hang my race medals in the bonus room.

Next, I need to hang pictures...

401K into 201K

Poof. My 401K has turned into a 201K. Well, maybe not a 201K, more of a 307K, but it will probably be down to a 201K soon enough. This crazy market is depressing.

I'm cashing out my money and going to live in the forest until things get better...

Weekend

It's Friday! I'm glad this week is almost over. It hasn't been particularly busy, but I'm still glad it's over. Tomorrow morning, I'm planning to run 18 miles (yuck). Saturday evening is a b-day dinner for a friend of mine. Sunday is TBD. I need to go for a long bike ride, but it's going to depend on how my body feels after the 18-mile run!

Have a good weekend!

Drivers

I've noticed that there are more obnoxious drivers in Sunnyvale than in previous places I've lived. It's as if a larger percentage of people who live in Sunnyvale feel the need to cut me off, not signal, cut across 3 lanes of traffic, drive in the carpool lane without having a carpool, and race at high speeds to get around people who are driving at "normal" speeds. This might be ok if we lived in China, but we don't...

While I would like to retaliate and drive like an obnoxious moron also, I feel that would be beneath me and likely cause a worse situation of road rage. Although, some days (today) I feel that I would be justified to drive crazy and piss off some of the obnoxious drivers...

RECORD

I've been in the country now for 11 weeks IN A ROW!!! Now, that doesn't seem like a big deal, but this is the longest stretch that I've been in the US in almost 4 years! While staying in one country for so long is sometimes boring... I have enjoyed having a schedule and routine that I can stick with for longer than a week or two.

I'm supposed to leave on Sunday for Asia. I have tickets booked, but I don't feel like going. I may be able to push this off for another month and combine two separate trips into one longer trip. I think that sounds like a grand plan. Hopefully my boss will see it my way... We'll see!

Busy Weekend

On Saturday morning, I went for a 16-mile run by myself. While it was boring and exhausting, I needed the mileage to be ready for my marathon in December. After, I had a quick shower, then headed to San Francisco for the Nike Women's Marathon festivities.

This is a major team event for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training Program. Most of you know that I am a coach with the team. We had 50+ participants running the half marathon distance yesterday, so I headed up to support. After almost 2 hours on public transportation, I made it to the city (it was $57 for parking, so I decided not to drive).

For Team in Training, there is always a pasta party the night before the event. Nike is by far the biggest event of the year. This is a picture of the people streaming into the convention center. The people on the sides are coaches and support staff cheering for the runners and their families in the middle. This went on for an hour as 5000+ runners and their families entered. We learned that night that we had raised $18 million for Leukemia and Lymphoma research for this event alone!

Here is a picture from the hotel on Saturday. The weather was perfect. Clear/warm on Saturday and overcast/cool on race day! Now I'm exhausted.

updated

updated the glasses post with another picture...

mmmmm.... Hamburger...

I read this story by the Associated Press... (I edited to be shorter)

CLEARFIELD, Pa. – It took Brad Sciullo 4 hours and 39 minutes to finish a marathon. A meat marathon, that is. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound western Pennsylvania chef is the first person to eat a monstrosity called the Beer Barrel Belly Bruiser: a 15-pound burger with toppings and a bun that brought the total weight to 20.2 pounds.

For completing the challenge in the under-five-hour time limit, Sciullo won $400, three T-shirts, and a certificate.

First off, why do they need to sour the name of a marathon by comparing it to eating a 20+ pound burger? Second, who would spend 4 hours and 39 minutes eating a burger for $400, some shirts, and a certificate? And lastly, where do I get one of those burgers?

Public transportation

I've never been a big fan of public transportation in California. I almost never took the bus in Southern California. I can get around on the public transport systems here in the bay area, but they seem really inefficient.

For example, I mapped out taking public transport from my house to San Francisco tomorrow. This will save on parking, but it's going to take me 2 hours to make the journey when I could drive it in 45 minutes. And any savings in gas is going to be wiped out by the almost $10 cost.

In other cities and countries, there are very efficient public transportation systems. I can get from one end of Shenzhen to the other (it's a big city) in 35 minutes. Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Singapore have some of the best public transportation systems. Even Boston and NY have good systems.

And what do we have in the bay area? We have multiple dis-jointed systems. So tomorrow, if I choose to take public transport to get to San Francisco, I'll have to go from Light Rail to Caltrain to BART. I think I'll drive and pay the $40 in parking instead...

Glasses

So, my glasses are finally here. When wearing the glasses, things are much clearer and blurry all at the same time. I know that sounds strange, but I think I've been looking out of my slightly blurry eyes for so long that I've forgotten what it is like to see clearly. When I have the glasses on, it's a bit dizzying at first. I'm hoping that will go away with time.



Here is the best picture I managed to get today and it's not very good (self portraits with an iPhone camera are not easy).

Added a the following on 17 October 2008:

Here is a picture with a smile... And apparently I'm much less tan today than yesterday.

Passport Photos

In order to renew my Visa for entry into China, I have to submit an application complete with a current passport photo. I've decided the passport photo business is a complete rip off. Kinkos charges $19.99 for passport photos! Seriously? In this day and age of digital cameras and photo printers?

Today I headed to Longs Drugs to get a passport photo taken. It only cost $7... but I have to say that it is a very bad picture of me. I think the lady stretched the picture to get it to fit in the required 2x2 photo so I look extra wide in it. At least I hope she stretched it. If not, it's time to go on a diet. I'll see if I can get it scanned tomorrow and post.

For now, here is my very first passport photo.... Maybe I can submit this one instead...

Starbucks

I'm not sure if you have heard, but Costco has a great deal on Starbucks cards. You can get 5 x $20 cards for $79.99. That's a 20% discount on every cup of coffee and every pound of coffee that you buy at Starbucks!

Since then, I've been to Starbucks twice and found out that caffeine makes me bounce off the walls. I think I have $95 left on Starbucks cards at least. Shall we take bets on how long it takes me to finish the cards? I'm guessing it will take me a year, at least. Maybe I should buy some coffee accessories from Starbucks to spend some of the gift card balance...

Rude

People can be so rude sometimes. I went to Costco after work today. I'm not sure I believe our economy is bad because lots of people were buying everything in sight.

Anyhow, I went to pick up a few things and hoped to get out quickly. Instead, the lady helping me was totally rude. Demanding my card after she already had it... Double charging me for an item, not swiping the coupons that I gave her... Just total incompetence. Then she got mad at me for asking about the double charge.

Then I had to stand in line to get a refund on the double charged item, then a separate line for the coupon. So much for getting out quickly.

Since it had already taken so long and I didn't have anything frozen, I decided to speak with a manager about my cashier. I didn't file a complaint but suggested he speak with her.

Remind me to stay away from Costco on Mondays...

The Economy...

Mother's Cookie company went bankrupt on Thursday. It was a sad day. Not because I ate the cookies that often or really liked them all that much. But because the bad economy has claimed another victim. I think it's time to stock up on cookies and start storing my money in my mattress...

Mr. Beefie

This picture was taken outside of a restaurant called Ye Old Beef and Ale. I guess their mascot is Ye Original Mr. Beefie. We went inside to check out what we thought would be a cool bar/restaurant. It was not anything like we imagined, so we left. Such a let down...

Halloween

The seasonal decorations have gone up at work. A lady in my department does all the decorating. This is what I found outside of my desk this year.

Hopefully it's not a statement of how people see me at work... I might need to take it down though. The witch is kind of scary looking and may give me nightmares when I'm sleeping at my desk.

Yogurt Wars

About a year ago, I was introduced to the new frozen yogurt craze and informed that there were two frozen yogurt shops in NYC (really close to each other) and both had lines out the door at all hours of the day and night. I'm sure you heard of both of these, but here they are:

I didn't actually pay much attention to these until my cousin was visiting my family in Orange County and wanted to go to the Pinkberry in Huntington Beach. The original flavor was very tart, but the flavor grew on me quickly. After a few visits to my parents' house and a few visits to Pinkberry, I was addicted. The search began for a Pinkberry in the Bay Area. No luck. Some rumors of store openings, but none of them turned out to be true. So, I had to go cold turkey and come down from my Pinkberry addiction quickly.

Last night, after dinner with my friend Janet, we stopped off to get frozen yogurt at the new Red Mango shop in downtown Palo Alto. While the yogurt was good, it wasn't as tart as the Pinkberry yogurt and didn't set off my addiction again. This is a good thing for both my wallet and my waistline!

Apple Picking in Stow, Mass.

I went apple picking for the first time in my life today. Colleen, Brian, and I went to a orchard called Honeypot Hill and collected a 1/2 bushell of apples and some pears too. This is a picture of Colleen and I after the harvest.

"That's Pretty Slow"

Yesterday, one of my co-workers asked about my running. He is pretty clueless and was trying to strike up conversation... Here's how it went.

Clueless: How is your running?
Amy: It's fine.
Clueless: How far did you run this weekend?
Amy: About 14 miles
Clueless: Wow, that's good. How fast do you run?
Amy: About 10 minute miles... sometimes faster, sometimes slower
Clueless: That's pretty slow
Amy (thinking WTF?): Well maybe you should run 14 miles this weekend and let me know how long it takes you...
Clueless: I can't run 14 miles
Amy: Then it would be best not to make judgements.

That was the end of the conversation because I was pretty annoyed and wanted to throw my lunch at him.

Christmas is here

Well, not really. The Christmas stuff is already in the stores though!

Four Eyes

Yesterday, I went for an optometry appointment. My prescription for contact lenses has expired, so it was time to go back in for a check-up. I decided it would be a good time to get new glasses also.

I don't need glasses most of the time and rarely wear contacts, but it's good to have around when driving at night, etc. Since I rarely wear them, that would mean I should not spend a lot of money on frames and lenses. Of course, I could only find a couple frames that looked good and they were all expensive, brand-named frames.

I finally decided on a pair of Gucci frames. They should be ready towards the end of next week, so when I get them, I'll post a picture.