like 5 months.

3 posts a year, definitely does not a blogger make.

so to catch up on what’s been going on, i will use a mix of pictures and succinct copy.

april

bangs.

may

memorial day. show low. cabin. 1,000 piece puzzle. good times.

june

mike and i both went to san francisco for work. lots of fun, food, drinks with good friends, but as usual no photos.

instead, i bring you tomatoes from my uncle’s garden. yum.

july

seattle/vancouver

and san diego

august

no photos from august. highlight was starting a new management position at work. that’s right, i’m an implementation manager with three direct reports. what is that you ask? still figuring that out myself and will keep you posted.

and here we are today in september.

this month is already flying by, but i’m really looking forward to the end of it. that is because i’m heading to minneapolis for work and will get to see some of my favorite friends and the new additions to their families. plus, one other favorite friend is going to join us from chicago. it’ll be like a bay area reunion in the midwest. can’t wait.

so, i’d like to say that i’ll try to start posting more, but let’s be honest, i doubt it. however, i would like to start posting more. so that is my promise. to continue to want to start posting more.

till next time (which hopefully won’t be february).

more recently, i saw the cirque du soleil show love and indeed loved it. i also loved the across the universe movie - especially this song, such a pretty arrangement.

so last night i was so excited to be able to see paul mccartney in concert. it was fantastic to hear beatles music by an actual beatle! and it didn’t sound tribute bandy. it sounded almost real, minus three key musicians. either way, he played my favorite paul song of all beatles songs – hey jude.

i’ve always loved, loved, loved this song. i like that some think it was for john’s son julian during the time his parents were divorcing. i like that john thinks it was for him, paul giving his blessing to be with yoko. i’ve always wondered what the lyric “…the movement  you need is on your shoulder…” means. but that doesn’t really matter. i like that when paul was playing it / writing it, he noticed john listening behind him and offered to change that line. and john said not to, that it was the best line in it. such an interesting dynamic between two of the best songwriters of all time.

anyway, there ain’t no maybe about it, paul is still amazing. and i consider myself lucky to have seen him.

p.s….how can you not love a song that was parodied as “hey food” by sesame street?

ah – in my last post i still hadn’t posted the rest of our europe photos. i since have and here are cordoba and granada, if you’re interested:

Cordoba: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3444048013/a=124228316_124228316/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Granada: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3444104013/a=124228316_124228316/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

man, i miss spain already. holy pork, batman! they had good food.

so what else, hmm.

oh, i did another 1/2 marathon. with minimal training. and therefore it took me 17 minutes longer off my first 1/2 marathon pace. but nevermind that, because i got a souvenir.

a stress fracture.

or, at least that is what the ortho doc thinks. won’t know for sure unless i have an mri, which he’ll determine at my follow up visit in a few weeks if there isn’t great improvement.

there has been some improvement since the race and the first few days after where i. could. not. walk. seriously. even had crutches, but those were a pain; it was easier to hobble around.

so hopefully it won’t be a full fracture and i can get by on rest. which stinks. because i’m feel lazy and gross. bleh. i don’t love exercising, but not getting to do anything is making me a bit stir crazy.

anyway, that’s pretty much all that is up with me. other than being busy, busy at work. will be in charlotte, nc for the second time in a month coming up. which i don’t mind so much because i like getting to go to cities that actually get cold in winter. plus, airline miles!

so…what i have done in the past few months since that 1/2 marathon… well, mike and i went to europe for a few weeks. started in paris and then visited five cities in spain. loved. it. amazing country, culture, food, everything. good times.

i’m not going to post pics because i have twenty bagillion of them. i did post some on snapfish, though.

paris – http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2895028013/a=124228316_124228316/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/ 

barcelona – http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3056468013/a=124228316_124228316/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

madrid – http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3096794013/a=124228316_124228316/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

seville – http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3437858013/a=124228316_124228316/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

cordoba – (still need to create album)

granada – (still need to create album) 

since returning in mid-november i’ve been training for a second 1/2 marathon. definitely not as motivated this time around. it’s the p.f. chang’s rock n’roll 1/2 in phoenix. so basically i’ll be running from downtown phoenix to mill avenue. not exactly the most scenic of all routes. oh, well. if i get bored or too tired, i can always hop on the light rail!

and i did it.

i finished the disneyland 1/2 marathon this past sunday. earlier this year my aunt kristie told me that she wanted to ring in her 35th birthday by accomplishing something she had never done before – a 1/2 marathon. but not just any 1/2 marathon – the disneyland 1/2 marathon.

i went back/forth on whether or not i wanted to try. i hate running. really, really hate it. but then in july i figured, what the heck – it would be a pretty cool thing to accomplish. so with only 9 weeks, i followed a 12-week walk-run training program for completing a 1/2 marathon. about 6 weeks in i started to have extreme pain in my right foot. i ended up having to go to an orthopedic surgeon. he told me i was putting stress on the navicular bone in my foot and that if i continued to train i might end up with a stress factor. his recommendation was discontinuing any foot-related activity for 6 weeks.  i could swim, do the elliptical, but no walking, running or zumba.

but he knew i really wanted to do this race, and said i likely wouldn’t damage it much more if i cut back on training. i ended up only doing five training sessions my last three weeks and was still able to complete the race. the time limit for it was 3.5 hrs and i hobbled in at 3:13.

spending an entire day/night at disneyland two days before probably didn’t help my foot, but i don’t care because i made my goal – i finished it in time!     

and the day at disneyland was pretty fun, too.

i have just the thing to turn that frown upside down.

everytime i see the new “ice cream & cake” baskin-robbins commercial i instantly feel better.

and you will, too. promise.

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/

and, if you are so inclined, you can do the “ice cream & cake” dance and win money! they are having a contest and looking for the best “ice cream & cake” dancers. winner gets $10,000!

check out the videos. some of them are hilarious.

http://www.brvideocontest.com/

liz thinks we should made a video. hmm. most of the video participants seem to be 15 years old or younger. would it be funny to have some late 20 / early 30 year olds doing this, as well? maybe we can include marissa and she can bring our average age down a bit. either way, if we end up doing a video – you all (the three people who actually read this blog) will have to vote for us!

ice cream & cake-y-cake, ice cream & cake-y-cake. ice cream & cake do the the ice cream & cake. ice cream & cake do the the ice cream & cake. now who dat is wit da ice cream & cake?!!!!!!!!

well, i mean, i did just publish a post a second ago, but that was about a wedding we went to in june!

i started doing something in july, something that i’m not going to talk about on here until it is complete. it’s taking up a few days a week for me and i’m excited about doing it, but i don’t want to jinx it. if all goes well over labor day weekend, i’ll have a cool post to publish then.

anyway…what else has been going on… oh! we went to vegas for liz’s b-day a few weeks ago. lots of fun, most of the familia went and some friends, too.

it was a great weekend of hanging out with family (margaritaville), relaxing (by the pool at caesars), drinking (at the bank at bellagio and revolution lounge at mirage), eating (bobby flay’s mesa grill) and even enjoying a show (i already want to see LOVE again!).

we even won a little money. liz, paul, mike and i put $100 into a $5 slot wheel of fortune slot machine and paul hit a “spin” on the first try. $500 – whoo hoo! then liz hit a spin for another $100. splitting $600 may not seem like much to some people, but for me it was great since i have. never. won. in. vegas. ever. always good to leave vegas with some money in your pocket.

some pics:

mike and i at mirage

liz, marissa and i at revolution lounge

with all the girls at the bank

make that a hot, busy summer. it’s freakin’ arizona though, so i suppose that is to be expected.

in june we went to pennsylvania for brendan and jessica’s wedding. it was good times, good times and the area was just beautiful. and lucky for us, not too humid.

beautiful green scenery:

how cute was their cake!

and – best yet – mike wore a skirt!

other fun photos…

wedding party

mike’s groomsman gift – awesome

me and amy lou at smallest airport ever. remember that show “wings”, which took place at a small airport in nantucket? i think this one was smaller…

all in all, a beautiful wedding and weekend.

sing it to the world. sing it out loud.

ma ma se. ma ma sa. ma ma coo sa.

forever.

i got to go to the commencement ceremony where President Obama spoke. excellent speech! not so excellent view.

ah, much better.

it was an excellent night and i am so proud of you, marissa!

now get your CPA license so you can do my taxes!