If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Saying Goodbye to Friends

Last Sunday our friend Amanda threw us a going away party.


So long Amanda, thanks for the party:)





See ya later Corinne.







Goodbye Cathy.


Goodbye Rechele.










Good luck in life Sarah and Chris.











Bye Baldy (Adrian)







Goodbye Sam from work.







So long Dustin and Andrea.

Mom and tomatoes

After Jared and I got all moved out, we celebrated and went to dinner, we each had a beautiful and delicious dish.


Then we went to stay at my Parent's house for the week and my mother's tomatoes from her garden.


Monday, September 24, 2007

Moving

The other day Jared and I were packed up (thanks to Google) and moved out or our apartment. We made a huge pile of things to get rid of and take to the D.I. trailer. For the items that I never use but was still a bit sentimental about Jared suggested I take a shot of it and then get rid of it. (This is his new philosophy on sizing down. It works really well in becoming a minimalist, an art I'm afraid I will never achieve.)


I took a shot of this bag I bought in NZ and used all throughout Australia and had added patches to from all the places I visited.

Here is the green couch that the movers miraculously got into the elevator. It's the one that my brother Sam and Jared painstakingly carried up 3
flights of stairs when we moved in.













Here are the movers with all of our belongings to be shipped or stored. We only shipped our bikes, skis, computer and a few clothes. Hopefully they make it safely.







Here we are in an empty apartment chillin' on the floor because our furniture is all packed up. We had internet (a staple in my life) until the last moment.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Shoes...

As we make preparations to move to Switzerland next week I went through all of my shoes and narrowed them down to ~ 1/6 to take. Here are the boxes of shoes I am leaving here in the states.

Heres are the few shoes that I am taking with me to Switzerland. I think I narrowed it down to 10 pairs. I don't know. I should probably count. It was a tough call but these are the pairs that made the cut, (they had to pass mine and my mother's approval:)

Saturday, September 15, 2007

CAR SOLD:(

I will have to admit, I did get a little teary eyed when I had to say goodbye to Lola (my Subaru) today. When buying this car I thought I'd drive it until it died. Well, now we're one step closer to Switzerland. I did sell it to a wonderful couple who I know will appreciate it:) They were worthy of my Outback! So long....

Anyone want to buy a Saturn L200?

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Pacific Grove Olympic Triathlon

Earlier this year Jared suggested we do an Olympic Triathlon. I had done a sprint tri a few times including one earlier this summer to warm up for this big one. So we signed up for the Pacific Grove Triathlon, on Saturday Sept. 8th.

Distance: 1.5k (.9m) Swim, 40k (~25m) Bike, 10k (6.2m) Run.

I was super nervous because the month prior to the race I got burnt out and didn't really train after. I hadn't swam, or run more than 3 miles at a time in the month prior to the race. The week before I even considered backing out. I woke up Friday morning making the decision to do it along with some encouragement from Jared and other friends. On my way to rent my wet suit, I got rear-ended at a stop light. Yup, I definitely wasn't doing it. After exchanging information with the nice gentleman, I headed back home to crawl into bed and mope. Well, I got about one block and thought SEIZE THE DAY. I'll do it. So I headed down to Sports Basement and got my wet suit and headed home to get things ready. Keep in mind I was still extremely nervous, and a little upset at the fact the color for my wave/swim cap was purple. I hate purple. I'm yellow and it's my opposite. I got there to pick up my registration packet and swim cap to find that it resembled more of a periwinkle. I felt better.




My wave started 1 hr. and 30 minutes after the first one, the one Jared was in. So I had 1.5 hrs to stand around a be nervous. The swim was called the "kelp crawl." It's because half the time you're swimming and the other half you're literally crawling over tons of kelp. This is a shot of the boats bringing in the buoys.




After only 5 hrs of sleep and severe nervousness I was on the verge of tears. Then I saw my savior. Kim! I just fell into her arms as she sympathized with me about the swim ahead. Here she is with Adrian (nice onesie) who does is every year. She gave me some encouragement and then we went to search for Jared coming out of the water.

















I survived the swim. It was actually a breeze. I just took my time and didn't worry too much about overall time. I tried to think of a primary song to hum, or sing in my head. However, out of the 57 billion primary songs I know I could not think of one. So, I enjoyed the beauty of the green kelp in the blue water. Here I am on the bike portion. It was the easiest part since I had been biking more. I'm the second biker in the photo.

















Here I am wondering if it's ok that I can't feel my feet. They were asleep for the entire run.
















I actually ran the entire 6 miles. With feet that were asleep. I did this with the help of my cheering section, Jared and Andrea and Dustin.




















I was super happy to only have one more lap.









I was so ecstatic to be done. And excited to have burned about 2500 calories. Jared and I were eating for the rest of the day:) I'm sad we don't have more photos of Jared, especially of him in motion. He finished in the top 100 our of 1000, including pros!


Here I am at my transition station. My final time: 3:27 Hrs Flat. Swim-43:49/Bike-1:28:35/ Run 1:06:27 My transition times added up to ~8 min. Yeah, I didn't really rush. It's hard taking off a wet suit. I bet if I trained better than I would have knocked off about 15-20 mins. Maybe next time. There's a Triathlon in Zürich next August;)

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Lunch

I had lunch at Google today with Jared:)

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Going Tandem




On Labor Day Jared and I went up to San Francisco and rented a tandem bike. It was hard at first but we got the hang of it. Thank goodness for his master steering skills. And thank goodness we didn't crash when Jared started standing up on the bike while attempting to put his legs on my shoulders.










Our friends Andrea and Dustin came along. It was tons of fun.














Here's our course!







We biked across the Golden Gate Bridge.




















This was my view of the bridge:)






It was a beautiful day
















Here are some house boats in Sausalito. We stopped there for lunch.











View from the Tiberon side of the bay!











We took the ferry back like everyone else.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Friday Night Date

Thursday I went to the local Farmers Market that's just down the street and picked up some fresh Salmon. So, I decided to make a nice dinner with it on Friday. I set up the table by the window.


Red mashed potatoes:
w/ garlic, green onions and buttermilk.
Salmon:
Broiled with a honey, lime, chili powder sauce topped with some tomatoes and basil.


Our usual spinach salad:
pine and almond nuts
sunflower seeds
feta cheese
baby cucumbers
all the colors that tomatoes come in.
Home made dressing:
grapefruit vinegar
some oil
dash of S & P
lime juice
a bit of Dijon mustard.


Then Jared and I decided to go see a movie. But first we did poses for the camera:)

I was testing it out.


This one's my favorite. Notice the look of glee on Jared's face!









We're still getting a hang of the handstands and timing.












On our way down to the parking garage to see Stardust...which I quite liked!

But first we picked up some Redvines:)