Bad news...

About the same time Blondie got sick at Thanksgiving, the father of a good friend of mine from TX got sick with the exact same thing, but it wasn't able to get back under control. Her father is in critical condition, on life support, and they are all praying right now for a miracle. For religious peeps, please keep them in your prayers. For non-religious peeps, please keep them in your thoughts.

So-so news...

My work Xmas party is today. At 3 pm. That's right. Thursday, 3 pm. Hmmm...

Good news...

Bootcamp, in 3 weeks, has completely changed my body. All of the pants I've been wearing are loose, and my muffin-top is gone. Blondie has decided to join up with me for the January session, and I'm looking forward to having him suffer every morning with me. ;)

--K

HAPPY REALLY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!! I totally suck.

Happy 5 days late Birthday Shugs! Hope you had a great day!

You can kick my ass for the late wishes at Xmas time.

--K

Supa Star!

Pic taken by Brother R - an awesome photographer!

Feeling much better...

My body has adjusted to bootcamp somewhat, so the muscle pain has settled down to a dull roar. Of course, it was at a "F you Fattie McFattButt", so *anything* less is welcome.

For those who wonder exactly what happens at bootcamp, here is a description:
1) Run until you want to puke/pass out/kill yourself so that you don't have to run anymore.
2) Stop running and immediately jump into resistance band exercises or situps or pushups or lunges or crunches or a million other things that hurt.
3) As soon as you finish step #2, start running again. Run until you achieve how you felt in #1.
4) Repeat #2.
5) Repeat 1-4 x 1 hour.

All said and done though, OMG, bootcamp is the best. It's 1 hell of a workout, and I love my group and my instructor. The group and instructor are able to push me without pissing me off (this is HARD to accomplish), and I come home really really feeling like I've accomplished something.

Between bootcamp and Bikram, I have a feeling it's time to say goodbye to the gym.

Bye gym.

--K

Current pose...

I'm at work, slunk down in my chair with the keyboard pulled almost to my chin. I have a coworker's chair (he hasn't been sitting in our new space) pulled up to me, with my legs on it.

This is how I'm rolling today.

So, Bootcamp started on Monday, and I've never been in so much pain in my life.

Okay, that's not entirely true. I broke my left arm when I was a kid - that hurt worse. But not by much.

--K

Owwwwwwwwwwwwwww....

Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.....

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW....

That's me today in case you were wondering.


Hahahahahahahahhahaha....

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha.....

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH....

That's my boot camp instructor today.

--K

Catching you up...

So, what has happened since I last blogged... hmmm.... In order (I hope).
1) Yours Truly received the employee of the quarter award for her company. It's a total turn-about from the despised old job (but then again, my attitude is way better here than it was there).
2a) TEXAS! Yours Truly, Blondie and Slick hit FtW for one last weekend in our old stomping ground. We had a blast. It was so good seeing everyone, all my friends from the despised old job and all my friends from the job previous to that one. We hit our favorite bars, ate a lot of bad food, and in general, just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
2b) Blondie's last day at his job. Go Blondie!
3) Blondie got a little sick after our Texas trip, and ended up enjoying a few days respite in a hospital. He's fine now, but was not feeling so great last week.
4a) BIRTHDAY - Happy 4-day-late birthday bald pa!
4b) THANKSGIVING! We cancelled our Spokane trip b/c Blondie's health is way more important. We gave thanks on Thursday that Blondie got to come home, that the PACKERS WON, and that we have such good friends who checked in so frequently on how things were going.
5) MORE BIRTHDAYS - Happy 1-day-late birthday mom and TT! My best friend in the entire world and my mom share the same birthday - how funny is that?
6) BOOT CAMP! (I'm in a capital-words mood today). My boot camp class started today. It was thoroughly embarrassing (4 push ups, 30 sit ups, and 19:36 1.5 mile run), but I am very excited about it and thought everyone was so friendly and encouraging. When I was the last person to finish my 1.5 mile timed run, nobody ever was like "go faster", it was just "you go girl!" Woo hoo! Boot camp!

--K

Project Runway!

If you don't love Heidi Klum, I can never be friends with you.

If I am already friends with you *and* I don't realize you don't love Heidi Klum, don't tell me.

--K

Yai yai yai!

I'm on a mission this week. An important one. One that involves, well, not doing much.

You might be asking yourself right now - isn't that an oxymoron? A mission of not doing anything. That's not possible, you might be saying.

You might be right. I'm too lazy to look up the definition of the word "mission", and besides, looking up the definition would be doing something, and that's against my mission. Regardless of what mission means.

I'm pretty psyched about my Texas trip on Friday. I can't wait to see everyone again. I'm doing a countdown in my head - it sounds like this "51 hours from now, my plane will be taking off". I annoy myself sometimes. Okay, a lot of the times.

Also, Friday for lunch, I'm meeting up with my old work group for lunch. So it's kind of fitting - seeing everyone I used to work with in SF around noon-time, and seeing everyone I used to work with in TX around dinner-time.

I'm also psyched about my big plans for Thursday night. I need to explain - I like to watch really really truly bad TV. I like it a LOT. Blondie does not. Blondie is out of town. So, I'm DVR'ing my shows this week, and plan to watch them with a pitcher of lemonade and gin (and maybe cookies) tomorrow night. The line-up includes: Nip/Tuck, America's Next Top Model, and OMG - PROJECT RUNWAY!!!!!

So basically I have to survive today. It's smooth sailing after that.

--K

P.S. HI BLONDIE!

Texas. Revisited.

So, Blondie flew out to TX yesterday morning to start his final week of work at his company. He has many plans for the week, which involve BBQ, fried chicken, poker, and beer. And saying goodbye to the job he has had for awhile.

My Blondie has always been a hard worker, and has in fact had a job since he was a kid in the Land o' Cheese (what a cute little newspaper-boy!) He is more than due some time to relax, kick back, and enjoy this incredible city we live in. I'm excited for him, but than that, I'm proud of him. This is his time now, and I can't wait to share in these upcoming months with him.

Yours Truly is flying in on Friday along with Slick from Chi-town to help Blondie, along with all his work-friends and old friends from TX, celebrate the end of this era.

Here's hoping Blondie is having a good week!!! And Blondie - your cat misses you!

--K

All About "Chomp"...

Blondie and I have a code-word. We use it A LOT. If you've hung out with us for more than 30 minutes, we've probably said it at some point. That word is "Chomp".

I'm not sure how we came up with this word as our word, but we used to pretend take bites out of each other. I'm sure it came up as some form of that.

To me it means a lot of different things. I say it to Blondie instead of "I love you". If he makes me laugh, I tell him "Chomp". If I think he just looks really cute, I bust out with "Chomp your blonde head". He's about the same way. I admit. It's kind of sickening.

The whole point was that Blondie made my birthday weekend special and unique. He made it full of "Chomp".

Blondie met me on Friday night so that he could finally meet a good friend of mine from work. We all went for some drinks, before Blondie and I headed back to the hood to meet up with The Gang for more drinks.

Saturday, Blondie and I got up late, lazed around, and then finally headed into GG Park to see (how appropriate) "Chomp", a carnivorous plant show at the Conservatory of Flowers. We got to see Venus Fly Traps in addition to about 200 other plants that eat bugs for nutrients. It was such a nice day, and we did something we wouldn't normally do, which made it even better. After the park, Blondie and I caught the bus to outer Richmond district to get some sit-down Mexican food and margaritas. I had been complaining for about 2 months that all I wanted was this, so he finally took me to get me to shut up. ;)

Sunday, we met up with a friend of ours in Sunset and watched football ALL DAY LONG. We hit our favorite bar, where our favorite bartender was working, and literally drank and watched football for about 8 hours solid. GO PACK!

So thanks to Blondie and all my friends who gave me a great weekend.

And CHOMP!

--K

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KERRI!!
CHOMP!

-S

What a fun-filled Halloween weekend! It all started on Thursday night at a friends apartment with some pumpkin carving with lots and lots of punch. Mmmmm... Punch... Toward the end of the night when the punch ran low, it turned to orange juice and vodka. Mostly vodka. OK, pretty much all vodka with a splash of what was left of the orange juice. We divied up into carving teams of two by picking names out of a hat. So we had 7 pumpkins slaughtered by the end of the night by the teams and needed a way to judge them. Hmmm, what better way to judge a bunch of pumpkins at 10pm on a Thursday night than to line them all up outside and go through them one by one and scream the loudest for the ones that you liked? Pretty brilliant, I must say. Of course the neighborhood probably thought it was the most obnoxious and irritating thing ever (which in a sober state I might have to agree with them). However, need I remind you about the punch... errr... pretty much straight vodka... that hindered all logical thought at that point. So here are some pics of the whole punchy filled night :)

Our hostest with the mostest!


PC carving it up:


Drinkin' Da Punch!


The new pumpkin patch.



Saturday night was the start of the next punch-filled party. The food was excellent and the alcohol was plentiful. A success! This was a costume party, so we did our best to dress up. K's costume suffered a setback right from the start. Her wand broke and her fake eyelashes didn't stay on. However, her boa was fantastic! I played the part of Gene Frenkle of the Blue Oyster Cult playing "Don't Fear The Reaper". If you're saying to yourself, you must still be drinking that punch cuz there is no Gene Frenkle in the Blue Oyster Cult, I beg to differ. Here's a quick refresher: Here So yes, I played the cowbell guy (Will Ferrell). Complete with gut hanging out and everything ;)

Here's the gut along with PC as "Little Red Riding Hood that didn't get away from the wolf", and The Duker as the great mountain climber.


Our hosts:


Party pics!





Sunday was also a blast. We went to April and Brad's place for the final Halloween party of the weekend. Plenty of booze and lots of friends make for a great day.

Did you catch that awsome Packers game last night? Whoohoo! Go Pack Go!

--S

BOOTCAMP!

Yours Truly signed up for a 4 week bootcamp session. They are going to whip me into shape (a shape other than "pear")!

Blondie had enough bootcamp with his time in the army, so it will be just me suffering 4 days a week. But I'll complain about it so much that Blondie will feel worse than if he actually just took the class with me. I'm good that way.

11/26/2007 - watch out - it's the start of a new Yours Truly!

--K

Celebrity Sighting!!!

I forgot my most excellent news. Last Friday, after picking up our race packets from the Nike Expo, Blondie and I were headed to a bar for a quick drink before going to Sweetie J's for some tasty din din.

On our way to said bar, we were following a guy down the street, who was stopped by 2 people coming towards us for a picture.

It was Tyler Florence from Food Network (Food 911!). He's also the Applebee's Chef in the Applebee's commercial.

It was my second celebrity sighting (the first being Blue from Old School), but my first sighting in SF!

--K

PICTURES!

The Pooh Family at Mr Pooh's Graduation!

Mr Pooh and The Cutest Kid In the World!

We ran like girls!

Like girls who kick ass!

Last year's theme for the Nike Half-Marathon was "Run like a girl", and the t-shirts at the end said "I ran like a girl" on them. That's a farking cool theme. Or at least I think so.

This year's theme was much lamer: "Run together". YAWN.

Blondie and I definitely did NOT run together, b/c Blondie KICKED SOME MAJOR ASS and RAN LIKE A GIRL ON STEROIDS, and finished the course in 2:22:41. That's 13.1 miles, over SF hills, in 2 hours, 22 minutes, 41 seconds. Which is AMAZING.

Yours truly also finished, but nothing rock-star like (although considering my lack of training, just finishing the thing was amazing in itself). I did in 3 hours, 10 minutes, and I can't remember the seconds. I'm a slow runner, and did have to walk a good portion of the course, but I was out there, sweating, panting, running, walking, for 13.1 miles.

We are now both in possession of pink t-shirts cut for a woman (sorry Blondie!) that say "Half-Marathon Finisher" on them, and silver Tiffany pendants (sorry again Blondie!).

Blondie is also in possession of distance-running bug, so I will try to catch that also. I honestly would like to be able to run a half-marathon in under 3 hours (2:45 sounds good to me), so I am going to start training seriously (none of this "I did 3 miles today, that's enough" which I have been doing) for another half in spring '08.

This is all thanks to Bikram - my lung capacity has improved so much due to yoga, that if I hadn't been doing it, I would've been looking at a 4+ hour half-marathon.

Funny coincidences from yesterday - I had read somewhere (I think my Runner's World magazine) that a lot of people focus on people in their lives for each mile they run - like mom for mile 1, dad for mile2, etc, and it makes the time go by faster. So for the first 9 miles, I focused on the people in my immediate family for each mile, before letting the pain take over for the last 4 miles.
1) My sis-in-law Mrs Pooh - when it was time for her mile, I ran past a gospel chorus (the only one on the entire course). Mrs Pooh is a church-goer, and this seemed pretty cool that this happened on her mile.
2) My mom - when it was time for her mile, I was running along Embarcadero/Crissy Field - which is right on the water-front. My mom loves the water, and being on the bay/ocean seemed pretty appropriate.
3) Funniest of all though was when it was Shug's mile - and I saw a GUY WITH A COWBELL! He was just standing there clanging away. It was so freaking random - when Shugs graduated from graduate school, her entire family brought cowbells and rang them like crazy when her name was called. It was sooooo funny, and seemed totally appropriate for Shugs' mile!

So give Blondie a HUGE hand and congratulations for how great he did! You can just give me a hand and a small congratulations.

-- Half-marathon Finisher.

A visit...

The KY visit was this past weekend. WE HAD A BLAST!!! I seriously did NOT want to come back to SF. I'm on serious sleep deprivation right now BTW - so if this blog makes no sense, that's why.

Flew all night on Thurs night, landed in KY on Friday. We were met by Mr Pooh, and mom and sis. Specifically, we were met by Mr Pooh doing jumping jacks, and mom and sis laughing their asses off.

Blondie rode with Mr Pooh to pick up Sliders (White Castle hamburgers to the lay person), and mom, sis and I hit The Pooh's home to visit with Mrs Pooh and The Cutest Kid in the World. We all went for lunch, before I collapsed from lack of sleep on Mr Pooh's carpet.

Brother R woke me up with a phone call, and then we were off and running. The beer drinking started. The revelry started. The card playing started. And then it was 11 pm, and Blondie and I were dead.

We got up the next morning at 5:30 am (this is all ET, and it makes me cry a bit) to go see Mr Pooh get his MBA degreee! And his President's Cup Award! We ended up sleeping again that afternoon on Mr Pooh's carpet (once again), before the UK game started.

Then it was time to drink beer, and watch the Wildcats beat up on LSU! We ended up at Brother R's house, enjoying his new deck and his beer fridge, and listening to the fireworks they exploded after UK won the game.

On Sunday, we had a layover in our old stomping ground. We spent the 2.5 hours watching the Packers play at the airport bar, getting drunk, and striking up random conversations with the people around us.

I am so tired today I can hardly see straight. And it's only 2 pm. And it's only Monday.

Thank you L-Clan for everything this weekend. We had so much fun and it was killer to leave on Sunday! Congrats Mr Pooh!!!!

--K

Dear Giant Zit On My Chin -

I know we've had some good times together these past 48 hours, but it's time for you to go back to where you came from. I don't know how else to say this. It's not you, it's me. I'm not ready for this kind of commitment.

Sincerely,
Yours Truly

Funniest thing I've heard in a long time...

The Cutest Kid in the World (my niece) calls her grandfather (my dad) "Bald 'Pa".

Bald 'Pa. HAHA HA HAHAHAH! I love it!

Keep in mind my niece is only a little over 2 years old.

--K