Last Chance 8K

I set a goal in 2009 of completing 10 races in 2010. I successfully ran 9 and thought that was going to be it. I had planned on running after work today, but was completely surprised when I found out that I would be completing my 10th "race", just in the nick of time, thanks to a couple of thoughtful friends.

It was a great run - I got to try out my new arm warmers I got as a gift, (which are fantastic!) it was a warm 57 degrees, a run through downtown that included 2 bridges, and even a water station! Despite the fact that I was hurting a bit, since my last run before this was almost 2 weeks ago, I still got 1st place! (and a blue ribbon) And a post race snack was waiting for me at the end - Gatorade and granola bar. AND a t-shirt!

Thank you Stacy for thinking of me and coming up with such a fun idea. And thank you JW for organizing the race and for all the surprises along the way.

Goal completed.

Photo Op

At the family reunion this summer, my mom captured an all too precious moment of Regan and my dad that I am absolutely in love with. I thought it would make the perfect Christmas gift for both Regan and my dad so I asked L if she could enhance it a little and this was the final product:

After putting them in frames, I wrapped them up and anxiously awaited for the big "reveal." I asked that they open the boxes together and the looks and "oohs and ahhs" were exactly what I was hoping for, and even a few unexpected tears from my sister. Success! :) Thanks again L for taking time out of your busy schedule to work on this!

89 Wins and Counting

I won't lie, I'm not a follower of women's college basketball, but it's hard to ignore the accomplishment of UConn's team. After the win over Florida State last night, they have broken UCLA's men's team record of consecutive wins.

Obviously, the 89th consecutive win has captured the attention of millions, including President Obama, who called coach Geno Auriemma during the press conference:



Love it!

Holiday Mixtape

While perusing through some music blogs, I snagged some holiday tunes that I've been enjoying so I decided a holiday mixtape was in order. It is available upon request.

1. It's Christmas - Coconut Records
2. Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming - Feist
3. Last Christmas - Florence + the Machine
4. Believe In Me - Fun
5. Tiny Tree Christmas - Guster
6. We Come Back - Local Natives
7. The Christmas Song - Owl City
8. Christmas in the Room - Sufjan Stevens
9. Got Something For You - Best Coast & Wavves
10. The Lights and Buzz - Jack's Mannequin
11. Christmas Tree - Lady Gaga
12. Christmas Lights - Coldplay
13. Get Down For the Holidays - Jenny O
14. My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) - Regina Spektor

Quotables

Kind of a random post, but I was thinking about this on the way home today. I frequently tend to catch myself thinking of song lyrics with whatever it is I'm working on while in the office. Examples:

*When I'm working on an umbrella policy I start singing, "under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh." Recently, though, thanks to Glee, it's followed by, "singin' in the rain"

*When I'm releasing a policy, I think of Timbaland, "...but first I got to release!"

*There are lots of options when it comes to working on an auto line: "...now I'm feelin' so fly like a G6" or "crusin' top on the 'cedes low" or even goin a little country when I see a truck-tractor - "she thinks my tractor's sexy".

I've noticed more and more that it doesn't stop at work with songs. It continues into my everyday conversations, usually with TV show or movie quotes - Friends, Sex & the City, Anchorman, and Mean Girls - just to name a few.

I'm not exactly sure why I do it - maybe it's because I believe it gives the illusion that I'm actually funny or because I fail to contribute any intelligence into any given conversation. But, regardless of the reason, it's a fun game - you should try it.

Simon's

Went to Simon's for dinner last night with Les, Stacy, and Jared. Definitely one of, if not my favorite restaurant in Des Moines. Here are a few highlights from the evening:

*Name Game: The four of us decided to make guesses on our waiter's name. Matt, Tyler, Ben, and Bryan were the contenders. After giving our guesses, he informed us his name is, in fact, Hunter. Then we told him to guess our names - Les, Stacy and I were a little freaked out when he guessed our names correctly, only to find out that Jared had tipped him off on the sly - tricky.

*Baked Feta: We ordered this app the last time we went there and very much were looking forward to it again last night. Lucky for us, it did not disappoint.

*Dessert: Although they didn't have the chocolate cake, we were able to indulge in a chocolate torte and an oreo dessert - both very good.

*¡Pan! : We were given free loaves of bread to take home with us, to which we decided would be great for making French Toast.

*Vino: We told Hunter we were going to shut the place down and we did, with the assistance of about 5.5 bottles of wine. We ordered 3 bottles and Simon, the restaurant owner, brought us over about 2.5 more (on the house). Both Simon and Hunter pulled up chairs and we all chatted for a solid couple of hours.

It's not just the cozy and quaint atmosphere or the great food that makes this restaurant stand out to me. It's also the excellent and personable service you experience. Not only was our waiter friendly and never seemed too busy to respond to our sometimes ridiculous questions/comments, but the owner, Simon, is notorious for making the rounds to each table full of guests that patrons his restaurant. For him to not only allow us to stay way past closing time, but to also set down a few more bottles of wine for us and pull up a chair and enjoy a few glasses with us, is such a cool thing.

It was a great evening and I think it's safe to say we all enjoyed ourselves and look forward to our next visit.

Faithful Reminder

A couple of weeks ago I was watching a news program that featured a girl who had been in a terrible car accident. She had to fight for her life, and in the end, she won and lived to talk about it. One thing that was highlighted in this story was the amount of faith she had in God and how important her faith was to her.

She has a Bible verse - Matthew 25:23 written on several pieces of paper that are displayed throughout various areas of her room. "Well done, good and faithful servant." When asked why she has this up she said that when her judgment day comes, she hopes she'll meet God and he will say that very phrase to her.

I was moved by this and thought it was a great idea, so I decided to make a sign (a simplistic sign at that) of my own and tape it to my bathroom mirror. Why there? It's one of the last things I look at before leaving to go somewhere, so hopefully it will serve as a reminder to me to be the kind, loving Christian that I am called to be each and every day.

Yes I Can

I've always turned down the opportunity to parallel park, even if it means parking 2 blocks away from where I'm going. Why? I find it intimidating. I've had very little practice - I even managed to escape having to do it in Driver's Ed, due to my partner taking too long at doing it herself. Because of my lack of experience, I have very little confidence in the parallel parking area. I tried to escape the opportunity once again on Saturday, but it didn't work. After the run that morning, JW and I headed downtown to check out "No Room At the Inn", which was an exhibit featuring different nativity scenes. I informed him of my "rule" as we spotted a free spot that would require parallel parking, but he was not having it. Instead, he positively reassured me that I could do it. Thanks to his excellent coaching, I parallel parked the shit out of my car in 3 smooth steps. I was beaming with excitement and pride. (it's the little things in life)

3rd Place Finish

Saturday morning JW and I ran in the CITA WSR 4 mile trail run. I cannot say it was the most organized race I've ever ran in, but the run itself was a lot of fun. It was my first trail run and I hope it won't be my last. We ran it in a little over 33 minutes - not overly impressive but we weren't really pushing it. The path was pretty narrow and made passing difficult. Despite the mediocre time, I managed to get 3rd place (out of about 10 girls) and scored this sweet trophy of sorts.