SLO

san luis obispo, aka SLO, was where jeremy and i spent sunday afternoon and monday. we left berkely after lunch and drove down, checked into our bed and breakfast and attended the manager's reception. they featured wine from local wineries, cheese, fruit and cute little meatballs with american flags in them. we met two other couples and talked for about two hours with them. jeremy and i left to find dinner - we would up walking just across the street and having a really nice dinner there. we went back to the b'n'b and fired up the jacuzzi tub. our suite was themed - they all were - and ours was "ah louis." mr. louis started one of the first chinese grocery stores in SLO way back when. they had framed receipts from the 1800s and pictures of him and his wife. the wallpaper and bedspread were silk with an asain floral print. we peeked into a couple of the unoccupied suites upstairs - they were so cool. we woke up the next morning and went down to breakfast - baked eggs with little american flags in them (serious obsession in the kitchen with american flags glued on toothpicks). we met the same two couples and had an enjoyable breakfast. we checked out and went walking around SLO, looking into some cool boutiques and visiting the local mission. the mission was really cool - we went through the museum that had all the original stuff that the mission people used and wore and looked at. the actual mission still holds mass but we got to look inside in between services. it was really pretty. we walked through the gardens and gift shop and then hit the road.

then, we drove out to a local winery. on the way we stopped at a stop light behind another car. when the light turned green the car in front of us started to go and a truck came barrelling through the intersection and took off the entire front bumper and demolished this poor girl's car. she had just bought the car 4 weeks ago and now it was destroyed. the kid that hit her was really shook up too but he was driving an old truck that barely had a scratch on it. we waited for the police to come and they took our witness statements and then we continued on our way. it was really really scary!

we went to the first winery we saw, the tolosa winery. we went into the tasting room, decided on our picks and enjoyed the different wines. we browsed the scent gallery, checked out the vats that they store and age the wine in and saw the big grape stomping machines. i really wanted to stomp some myself but they didnt offer that particular activity. we made out selections of which wines we wanted and then got in the car to look for some lunch. we found this great little pizza place and ate quickly then headed for home. we followed the coast all the way home - it was gorgeous!

cricket was SO happy that mom and dad were back and ready to play with her. she was very lonely while we were gone. auntie kris came over and played with her and made sure she stayed fat and alive but it isnt the same as having someone there to cat hat in the middle of the night!

berkeley/albany

saturday night and sunday morning we spent time with kevin and nikki in the berkeley/albany area. we toured around the cal campus (gorgeous and HUGE) walked on telegraph street, and ate in the gormet ghetto. we also went to the berkeley bowl which is nothing like the hollywood bowl. the berkeley bowl is like if ralphs and trader joes had a baby, and that baby was really really big and cool. it was an amazing grocery store... really more of a tourist destination. they had everything there. we bought stuff for dinner then went home and ate, then of course played settlers (i won!) and watched ratatouille. sunday morning we went to mosaic berkeley and kevin spoke. they are doing the every[One] series right now (i was even sleeping in my every[One] t-shirt randomly - oh the irony) and sundays topic was what if everyone showed gratitude? after church was over we went and ate at the gratitude cafe (could it have been more appropriate?). it was this vegan, all natural, mostly raw food place. i loved it - couldnt eat there all the time but it was fun!

i didnt leave my heart in san francisco

umm... i am going to be that person who doesnt like san fran. to be fair to the fair city, i caught her on a really bad day. it was cold and foggy and we got lost multiple times and the people in the part of town we were in were weird. i really enjoyed the touristy things that we did but san fran on the whole wasnt my favorite vacation destination. here are some photos from our short time there (about 4 hours):

we rode a cable car around. first, we got to watch them put it on a giant cable car turn table and spin in to face the opposite direction, then we climbed aboard. we sat right by the operator, which was noisy, but also informative. we got to watch him changing the gears and braking, both of which were rather complicated. he also yelled at pedestrians and was generally grumpy.

we exited the car in chinatown and walked back to rex, who we then took on a jaunt down the windiest street in america. the windy part was only a block or two but the wait to go down the street was remarkably long. there were houses lining the street - i cant imagine having all of that traffic and tourists outside my door all day everyday and not even being able to get out of my driveway without worrying about hitting someone taking a picture of my house for no apparent reason.

we stopped at fishermans wharf and took a picture in front of the golden gate bridge, then drove over it into berkely to see kevin and nikki.

our sons' graduation

russ and andy have graduated from seminary and are moving on to bigger and better thins! we had the privelege of attending their graduation last saturday night and of meeting russ's real dad. we ate dinner on the top of this steakhouse on the beach, watched the sun set over the water, and spent time with some of our favorite people ever. the graduates made a video and part of russ andandys most memorable time in la was when they were very first living with us (it had been like three days or something) and russ had to call jeremy to ask him where the plunger was because he stopped up the toilet. we still laugh about this two years later.

jeremy and i are so excited to see what is happening next for these guys (big moves - back to their homelands and at least one marriage...) we love you guys!

broke: the aftermath

the show turned out amazingly well. while it was prolly over 90 degrees in the room we were in and we couldnt have very many fans on because we werent using microphones and they were drowning out the performers and sweat was dripping off every single one of us, we had an amazing time.

we actually had to do a second show because there were so many people there for the first one and they wouldnt all fit. we raised thousands of dollars for the breath of heaven orphange in zambia. also, everyone who came was given a stone and they put it into a frame so that everyone's stones combined made a giant mosaic that the team that is going in january will take and install in the playground they are building for the kids. it is going to be awesome!

we didnt get home until 1:30 saturday morning after tearing down the set and resetting the room how it was before we came. lots of people stayed around to help so what took two days to set up came down in about an hour and half.

the actual show went off without a hitch. there is one point in the show when the casting director yells cut and the music is supposed to stop and the dancers stop... during the first show the power went off right at that instant. jeremy was able to flip the breaker really quickly and some people didnt even realize that it wasnt part of the show. pretty cool. people were asking us to do it again, so we will see what happens...

the 200 club

which has no relationship to the mile high club just in case you were wondering (and i know you were). this morning i finished my 200th book of the year. thats right. thats more books than there are days in the year. an average of about 1.5 books per day. admittedly i have been reading a lot of young adult fiction but there were some thousand plus pagers in there too so it evens out. when kris and jennifer said i should go the reading olympics they weren't just saying it.

they meant it.

what's the best book you've read lately?

broke

This is an original production inspired by the artists of Los Angeles. Three stories of being BROKE, BROKENHEARTED, and in BROKEN PIECES are told through elements of dance, drama, spoken word poetry, music, photography, and video. You do not want to miss this one-night only performance!

$10 ticket sold at door or online. you can MAKE A DONATION online too.

proceeds are going toward Breath of Heaven, an organization devoted to building an orphanage village for children whose homes have been devastated by HIV/AIDS.

this is the show jeremy and i are stage managing on friday night. it is in a really cool space in downtownish la and the dance, spoken work and drama are awesome! if you live in the area come check it out!

www.brokela.com

i did it!!!

i ran the whole 3.1 miles! my final time was 29:18. i felt amazing when i finished for so many reasons. first, since it was a race to support research into womens cancers (breast and ovarian specifically) all of the women who were running that were cancer survivors had specials hats and signs that they wore. out of the 45,000 or so runners and walkers, there were a ton of survivors. it was great to see them all out supporting each other and their friends who are still living with cancer.

secomd, the end of the race had us running into the coliseum (where sc plays their home games), through the tunnel, and onto the field. i felt like a real athlete.

third, i ran the whole thing by myself. normally when i run by myself i can only run about half as far as when i am running with kris. she had to work today so she couldnt run this race with me. my miles werent quite as fast as when i run with her, but considering that at our race last weekend the farthest i could run was almost 2.5 miles and this week i ran 3.1 i feel great. also since one of my new years resolutions was to run an entire 5k i can now check it off the list.

I DID IT!

!m!

ps shout out to jeremy for driving me and navigating through the messy parking while i walked really really fast to make it to the starting line in time for the race only to find out that they were running about 30 minutes behind schedule. but he is amazin for coming to all my races thus far and being our official photographer. love him!

this week in review

paj and raj came over again this week. i was out running (as i seem to be doing a lot when they are there) and when i got back after like an hour they were still talking to jeremy. finally they left but are coming back again next week. i will be running with kris and the dogs and at pilates though thankfully.

last night we watched the office and gave cricket her first manicure. jeremy held her while i clipped all her nails and filed the front ones. i didnt cut them very short because i remember one time my mom cutting shadows nails on the dirveway at our arlene house and getting the quick and him crying and her crying and blood everywhere. so i prolly didnt cut off as much of crickets nails as i could have but i was scared. she was very well-behaved for the whole event and even snuggled me afterwards so it must not have traumatized her at all.

bryce and hans arrived in la this morning for a concert. i am getting ready to leave and pick them up form the van nuys fly away and take them to our apartment. tomorrow after my race we will hang out with them and show hans around la a little bit.

tonight's agenda: yoga, laundry and phone date with anna. its gonna be a good night!

!m!

desire

Two hearts fading like a flower and all this waiting for the power, for some answer to this fire. Sinking slowly - the water’s higher. Desire.
With no secrets, no obsession, this time I'm speeding with no direction, without a reason. What is this fire burning slowly? My one and only. Desire
You know me. You don't mind waiting. You just can't show me, but God I'm praying that you'll find me, and that you'll see me, that you run and never tire. Desire

-ryan adams

i dont know why i like this song so much. i had it in my mix during the 10k and when he sang the line that you'll run and never tire i was flying downhill at remarkable speeds close to the end of the race. and it was cool. desire

cat in the pot

i know the title of the book is cat in the hat but we have a different dynamic at our house...

we had all of our stuff from camping sitting in the floor of the guest room to be sorted, cleaned and put away and she was helping. she loves being in the guest room - whenever we open the door she will come running from wherever she is in the house to go in and sniff around and sleep on the bed. jeremy thinks it is because she likes the pillow top mattress.

sometimes she also practices what i fondly call cat hat. for example i am asleep. the alarm doesnt go off but something wakes me up. oh its crickets foot in my eye because she sleeps curled around my head like a fur hat most nights. but she is so cute she can get away with most anything... with me at least!

!m!

1:04.54

kris and i ran a 10k today is just over an hour. we actually ran over 4 miles of the total 6.2. i am so incredibly proud of myself right now! lance and jeremy showed up to cheer us on. they are such good husbands!!! it was a great time. the hardest part of the race for me was miles 1-4 were consistently uphill. i have been consistently running at least 2 miles with kris when we take the dogs out but those first two and a half miles were hard today! we ran walked ran walked for the rest of the first 4 and then ran most of the last two. mile 5 was a fast mile because we were really speeding down the hill. the route was really pretty though - for most of the race we were running along the beach and could feel the cool ocean breeze on our faces...

the main difference i noticed in the people who were running the 10k compared to people who sign up for a 5k... these people today werent messing around! a lot of them had those goofy looking fanny packs with all the water bottle and expensive running shirts and pants etc. i felt a little out of my element. thankfully i have a regular old 5k to look forward to on saturday. i am still working on my new years resolution of running an entre 5k (3.1 miles) in a race.

we got our "free" food and t-shirts and running beans (special jelly beans made by jelly belly that have electrolytes in them - kris was feeding them to me during the whole race) after the race on the santa monica pier. thats the real reason i run - t-shirts. :) there were no medals this time for the participants - only for those first through third in their age and gender category and i was no where close to that.