Aug 18th 2010 02:03:57 pm

At Team in Training practice my coaches are often telling me, “if you can carry on a conversation you aren’t working at a hard effort.” I usually nod my head, keep running and talking, and then come home to Travis and complain that I try to work at “hard effort” but I just love the social aspect of practice. Why can’t I have fun and train for a marathon at the same time?!

Well, I think these photos from the Bronx Half Marathon have finally made me realize that I should probably start focusing more on my running and less on chatting! I mean, look at me. I barely even look like I am running! It cracks me up. It looks like I am taking a walk with my friends and telling some silly story…. I definitely don’t look like I am in the middle of a half marathon. And it definitely shows that I could be pushing myself to go a little bit faster.

As the race progressed, I started to look more like I was working hard…

But I still think I need to concentrate on improving my running during my races and practices, and try to save all of the chatting for after… at least for the sake of my poor running buddies who are forced to listen to me blabber for hours on end!

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My fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is going very well! I have raised over $3,800 thanks to my awesome friends, family, and Swap-bot members, but to reach my goal I still need to raise over $1,100 more. Would you be willing to help Team In Training and the LLS find a cure for blood cancers? Any donation amount is awesome and will help make a difference! Visit my fundraising page to learn more.

3 Comments » Categories: Exercise, New York, Photos, Team In Training, Thinking

Aug 5th 2010 12:46:45 pm

The very first time I went to Disneyland (with Travis for our high school spring break over eleven years ago), I took a silly photo with the wooden indian statue that they had in Frontierland. I thought it was such a funny photo that I tried to recreate it on my second trip to Disneyland last year. So… when we were in Disney World last week, you know I had to search out that indian for the traditional photo op. I am a huge dork.

5 Comments » Categories: Just for Fun, Photos, Trips

Jun 21st 2010 09:38:36 pm

While doing some research for my Team In Training fundraising letter, I came across some old photos from when I was training for my first marathon 10 years ago. Most of the photos are stills from video Travis took at some of my practice races. (He had just bought a new video camera and we were pretty enthralled with it.) The photos above were taken from a video we filmed for my first marathon website, a really classy geocities site. We are trying to resurrect it from the archive we saved… but I don’t know if we will have any luck.

You can check out all of the photos from my running adventures of yore over on Flickr. Just please don’t mention anything about the difference between my past and current rear end size.

2 Comments » Categories: Exercise, Photos, Team In Training

Jun 20th 2010 02:06:26 pm

1 Comment » Categories: Family, Photos

Apr 2nd 2010 04:44:33 pm

Two of my very cool and creative internet colleagues, Deb & Christy from Toolulu.com, visited New York City for business early this week and they were kind enough to invite me along sight seeing on Tuesday. The weather on Tuesday was actually horrendous. It was cold and windy and pouring rain nearly all day – not the weather you want for sight seeing on foot. But we were determined and we managed to hit many of the crafty destinations in the city.

The two photos above were taken at Mood Fabrics in the Garment District. The warehouse store has become something of a tourist attraction since it has been featured on Project Runway, but it was my first time there. I would guess Mood has any type of fabric you could possibly be looking for… but you definitely need to have a project in mind if you go there to shop. The choices are overwhelming! I bought some neon pink & grey ribbon that jumped out at me.

Next, we trekked over to M & J Trimming. (You may recall my previous trip there.) I bought a bunch of ribbon – including more neon, it is sort of my new thing – and some pom-pom fringe. We also checked out Fishs Eddy, where we saw the bowls pictured above, and ABC Carpet and Home. Swoon! I love that place so much. We picked up Crumbs cupcakes, had ‘Wichcraft sandwiches for lunch, and then headed to Soho before the girls had to leave for the airport. It was such a fun “vacation” day for me even with all the rain!

Good thing the Toolulu girls’ visit happened in March and I got all of my ribbon buying out of my system, because this month I have taken the April Stash Bust pledge. I have committed to not buying any new craft supplies this month and instead to making things only with items I already have in my stash. The intention is to help the earth a bit in honor of Earth Day on the 22nd and to think about how we use the things we buy. It fits in perfectly with the idea of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Swap-bot is one of the sponsors of the April Stash Bust “event” and you can learn more over on the Swap-bot blog. There is even a stash craft contest with some awesome prizes, but you have to take the pledge in order to enter! I am also hosting an April Stash Bust craft supply swap in conjunction with the Challenge and I’d love to have you join. We are each going to send an envelope of extra, unused supplies from our personal stashes to our swap partner. It’s a great way to give new life to neglected supplies and get some fresh stuff in return! Fun!

No Comments » Categories: Crafts, Friends, New York, Photos, Projects, Swap-bot

Feb 10th 2010 12:14:18 am

Travis got me this mini, instant Polaroid printer for my birthday (which is tomorrow). And I have been playing around with it today. I think that counts as a creative endeavor for thing-a-day. That little photo of Crusher (stuck to my computer with a heart sticker) is an example of the prints it produces. They actually have sticky backs on each of the prints, but I just wasn’t committed enough to peel off the back of the print to stick on my computer forever. It is a pretty fun little printer! The photos print out in less than a minute. You can even send photos directly from your cell phone. I need to keep playing around with it! (Sorry for the burned out photo – I had to use flash.)

Since I am doing a little birthday gift preview, check out this amazing La Mer treasure trove sent to me by my parents! I feel so spoiled! …and that was only a part of the gift package they sent! Stay tuned for more birthday details tomorrow.

9 Comments » Categories: Birthday, Photos, Projects

Jan 17th 2010 04:41:07 pm

These photos are some of my submissions to the Mugshot Thursdays group on Flickr. Mugshot Thursday is just a silly, social project-thingy started by me and my friend, Jen. Basically, you just add a photo of yourself with a beverage of your choice to the group photo pool each Thursday. Just for fun. No pressure or rules, and everyone is welcome to join!

3 Comments » Categories: Just for Fun, Photos

Jan 11th 2010 11:47:53 am

4 Comments » Categories: Crusher, Photos

Nov 28th 2009 11:35:40 pm

After fueling up with our traditional Thanksgiving meal we were ready to hit more sights on Friday and Saturday…

Friday started with our usual walk to Prospect Park. Then, the three of us traveled to Bloomigdales and 5th Avenue to immerse ourselves in the shopping insanity. It was crowded, but not much more so than on normal weekends. I bought my first pack of Nuts 4 Nuts from a street vendor. Seth really wanted me to eat street food while he was visiting. I told him that Nuts 4 Nuts would have to count because I am not willing to risk eating street meat.

After we got our fill of shoppers we headed up to the Museum of Natural History. This was my third trip to that museum and I think that affected my enjoyment… It was incredibly crowded and very hot in the museum. We only stayed for a couple of hours because I pretty much freaked out. A nice stroll through Central Park cooled me off, though. We ended the evening in my new favorite location: Dylan’s Candy Bar. A magical place filled with candy where you can pay a dollar to dip a variety of items in a chocolate fountain. I bought a chocolate-dipped rice krispy treat. So tasty!

Saturday is waffle truck day in Park Slope. After a walk to the park, we all got waffles covered in chocolate and whipped cream! You can’t really ask for a better breakfast. Just ask Crusher. He is obsessed with waffles!

We tried to get to Manhattan a little earlier on Saturday so that we could catch the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands. Unfortunately, every other tourist in the city had the same idea. After Seth and Travis tried some more street food, we waited about two hours for the ferry in the cold wind. We had an interesting encounter with a Churro vendor, went through a bunch of security, and final boarded the ferry. It was fun to see the Statue of Liberty, but we were not able to go up inside of it… I think you have to get special tickets way in advance to do that. We took a bunch of silly photos with Lady Liberty and then took another ferry to Ellis Island. I had high hopes for the museum at Ellis Island. I am really interested in the island from a historic preservation standpoint, but the museum was not quite as fantastic as I was expecting. It was fine, but it did not have many artifacts and the exhibits were a bit sparse and spread throughout the huge main building. I would love to tour the complete grounds of Ellis Island someday and peak inside the unrestored buildings!

Standing in the wind all day really tired me out, but the boys motivated me to go back to Manhattan by promising another trip to Dylan’s Candy Bar. We ate dinner at Patsy’s Pizzeria first, and then went wild at the candy store. I got another rice krispy treat at the chocolate fountain and we bought a bunch of fudge, chocolate, and gummy candy… Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs, though, because we barely made a dent in our sugary loot when we got home. We capped the evening with a viewing Home Alone to further cement our holiday spirit. Fun times!

1 Comment » Categories: Family, Food, New York, Photos, holidays, museums

Nov 27th 2009 10:19:06 pm

I meant to do a re-cap post for each day on the day it happened… and I should have! Now it is overwhelming because Seth, Travis, and I have done SO MUCH STUFF! Be warned, this is a giant post with all the details of our touristy adventures!

Monday

Monday, we started with a trip to Prospect Park with Crusher for the off-leash doggy time. Then, we headed to Manhattan and ate lunch at Hello Deli. Seth got his photo taken with Rupert! We stood in line for the Late Show with David Letterman for hours, but it paid off because we got to attend the day’s taping. We also walked around Times Square and went to the giant M&M and Hershey’s stores. They gave out free candy samples! Yes! I got scanned by an MnM machine that determined I was Mega Mix flavor. Hmmm. Even after free candy, we had a craving for cupcakes, so we stopped at Crumbs and picked up a few to take home. Then, we met Travis at the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across to Grimaldi’s for pizza, but you already know that.

Tuesday

Tuesday started with another walk to Prospect Park, then a very tasty lunch at Brooklyn Fish Camp – we had lobster knuckles, a trout sandwich, and conch soup. Then we headed to the Upper East Side and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We viewed just about every gallery! After taking in all of the art, we walked down Madison Avenue. I love window shopping at the ritzy stores, but I think Seth was bored… until we hit FAO Schwarz on 5th Ave! Toys! Seth got his photo taken with the Lego Chewbacca. After all of our walking, we met Travis for dinner at Shake Shack.

Wednesday

Wednesday was our “rest” day. After a long walk around our neighborhood to Brooklyn Bread and Gorilla Coffee, I worked on some Thanksgiving meal prep. Then, we headed to Chinatown to check out the scene. We walked all over the Lower East Side and ended up at Yonah Shimmel’s Knish-ery for lunch. The restaurant is 100 years old and the potato knishes were delish! You know that I can’t pass up a cupcake, so we had to stop at Babycakes bakery for a box. Babycakes is a gluten-free bakery and the cupcakes were adorable and surprisingly tasty! We also shopped around Soho for a bit despite the rainy afternoon weather. Seth bought a new scarf at UNIQLO. For dinner, we came back to our apartment and ordered JPan. Crusher was happy.

Thursday

If you have already forgotten, Thursday was Thanksgiving. We woke up at 6:30 am to head out to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We did not have any reliable intelligence as to where the best place to watch would be, so we blindly headed up to the Upper West Side. After a lot of walking and maneuvering, we found a place to stand in Central Park at about 64th Street. The parade was fun and the little kids watching it were cute, but I don’t know if I need to attend it every year… We didn’t get back to our apartment until after 1 pm. On our way home we made a quick stop at Grand Central Terminal so Seth could check it off his NY sight-seeing list.

I started the meal prep right away when we got home, but we didn’t sit down to eat until about 6. Our meal was very good, but I’ll save discussion of the menu and the full critique for a future post… After stuffing ourselves, we watched Christmas Vacation and relaxed. It was a great Thanksgiving!

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You will have to wait for the Friday/Saturday installment of our adventure until tomorrow…. This post has gotten out of control! You can view all of these photos, and more, on my Flickr.

2 Comments » Categories: Brooklyn, Family, Food, New York, Photos, holidays