Time Spent Training

I hadn't gotten a chance to update the blog, but I've got a couple minutes for a brief update. Last week I was in Herndon, VA for a whole week of new employee training (a.k.a. brainwashing). The first couple days weren't so bad consisting of here is how the company works, timecards, etc. The second couple of days though were absolutely awful. They lump a lot of people together for that and I was in the same training people fresh out of college take. Which means, they taught me how to make powerpoint presentations, the do/don'ts of presenting, how to interview a client, etc. It was TERRIBLE and generally insulting that I was there. I took a week off from my actual job (putting me behind on several tasks) to go learn how to make powerpoint presentations? Really? As if all my previous work experience didn't do that enough. Overall, I'd say it is a poor use of company money to fly me to DC to take a course in powerpoint.

The upside of the trip was getting to meet new people and hang out with some old friends. Matt and April along with Nicholas were kind enough to pick me up one night and we got to catch up on old times over dinner. I also met a ton of work people from all over the country. There were several folks from San Antonio and Arizona there and I hun gout with them a bunch. Good times and only their shared disgust over the powerpoint training kept us from hurting someone. We were the "bad" kids making jokes in the teachers very serious class. Oh well.

I arrived back in Houston just in time for Jaime's (not still a) Surprise birthday party. Happy B-day!

Birthdays and V-Days

As an annual tradition, we had a birthday party Friday night. In fact we had 10 birthday parties on Friday night. Among our group of friends, there are 10 of us with birthdays between Jan, Feb, and March (with those March birthdays being the best). Instead of actually trying to have that many "birthday" parties, as if we were short of excuses to hang out, Erin and Cory hosted the big joint bash for everyone. If actually was Erin's Friday the 13th birthday and we all had a great time. Here is the photo of everyone celebrating their birthdays. This preceded the cops breaking up the party for being too loud. Not bad for a bunch of old farts like us anymore.

Following the massive Friday birthday party, was Valentine's day and a day obviously for just two. John had roses delivered Saturday morning to the house for me (what a sweetheart!, love you!) and we went out to dinner at Tommy's Saturday night. It was of course busy but someone must have said they were "John M" and stole our table seating so we waited an extra half hour or so instead of just an hour. But no bother, the manager bought us a round for the delay which is pretty good considering John was drinking 12year scotch and I was drinking Grey Goose. Still and great dinner and a good evening with the hubby.

We spent most of the rest of the weekend house shopping. Given the economy we might take advantage of the mortgage rates of a lifetime and upgrade while there are deals out there. Nothing much to report on this front yet. There *may* be a house we want (that actually meets ALL of our criteria) but no calls yet. Sunday afternoon I finally had time after house hunting to make John his Valentine's present, a German Chocolate Cake from scratch, frosting included.

Ike-tastic Remodel Complete

Finally, we have finished putting our house back together from the Ike damage. The major work in the study was complete in November and we primed and painted the ceiling a month ago. But we finally agreed on a color, painted the walls in the study, hung a new ceiling fan, and got new window treatments for the new room. The only thing left is hanging pictures but the study is complete and is now the brightest and cheeriest room in the house.

Corporate Excess Can Be Great

One of the perks of John's job (never Nujoud's since government contractors get squat) is the perks he gets every once in awhile from their contractors. Saturday night, we both got to go to the Rocket/Timberwolves basketball game in a luxury suite. Having never had the pleasure of a luxury suite before I was very interested to see what they looked like. Gotta say, pretty sweet suite!

We showed up and the contractor had a full bar and the food service included a BBQ brisket carving station in the living room type area. So we chowed down on food and drink and enjoyed the game from some super plush seats, wish all stadium seats were that nice. The contractor also had 4 or 5 seats on the floor, so we also spent the third quarter on the floor in the 4th row and mid-court. We confirm, Yao is a tall mama-jamma. Anyway, nice night, good game, and the Rockets won.

Ferry-Tale Wedding

Just a quick post with the weekend recap. Mona and Shaun got officially hitched Saturday night at a beautiful wedding on the Skansonia Ferry which is in permanent morrage on Lake Union in Seattle. They totally lucked out with some fantastic weather and we even got beautiful sunset shots from the boat before the ceremony. I was freezing my used-to-hot-Texas buns off all weekend but it was definitely worth it.

I was extremely happy to be at the wedding and celebrate with my sister. I got to see some old friends of Mona's who I've know forever too. And also got to steal my BFF from high school Andrea away from her job for a long lunch in downtown Seattle Friday. Saving the environment can wait another hour and a half! John had a good time too getting to hang out with my brother for a day while I ran around Seattle even.

Overall it was a great weekend and the wedding was beautiful on the vintage ferry. I don't have many pictures seeing how I was in the ceremony and running around but here are the good ones I did have. Congratulations, Mona and Shaun! Love you two both!

Shakin' It in Seattle

This weekend John and I are up in the Old Pacific Northwest for Mona and Shaun's wedding Saturday. We flew in Wednesday and had a great view of Mt. Rainier from the plane which was great because it's a nice big welcome back from the big Texas. Wednesday night we hung with the parents and had a nice dinner.

Thursday was the big night for all Mona's fabulous and eclectic crowd of girls to go out on the town. Noelle put on an awesome night and did all the party planning including drinks and apps at the Can-Can for the show, dinner, and more drinks at Barrio (fabulous lamb chops included!) at a VIP table/section, and then the die-hards (a.k.a. people that didn't have to go work in the morning) headed over to Neighbors for some dancing. Ah memories of college dancing at Neighbors. We were also hits of the club looking all fabulous and we even made a new friend "Marissa", which was most definitely an assumed name. ;) Here is Mona with Noi and Noelle and me with Mona's BFF from high school Heather. Good night with some way cool girl's, some old and some new friends.


There was also some minuscule 4.5 earthquake this morning at 5:30, but I think we were all way too tired to notice something like that. Tonight, rehearsal dinner and wedding tomorrow.

What Century Is It?

See I thought we were in the 21st century, but then I tried to install our old printer on the new laptop for use. First, I thought I was crazy because I had to put in the "cd" to get the drivers. Wait a minute doesn't the internet do that stuff? Oh but then I did it and it still didn't work.

So back to aforementioned internet to find in 15 seconds of google, that the Lexmark 3100 series all-in-one printers will not work with the Vista 32 or 64 bit systems. hmmm... so I'll ask again, are we in the 21st century? Because this sure feels like a problem I had back in the 20th century?

Seriously, I was willing to give Vista a chance and now I want my XP back.

On Top Again

My Saturday Gilruth soccer team tends to do pretty well... when we get a full team to show up. This season the games were played on the mini-field they call a soccer pitch at Gilruth and played 9 on 9 to accommodate. Anyhow, we made it to the playoffs (top 4 teams) like we normally do but played the back to back playoff/championship to two wins and the Championship. This season for some fabulous reason, Gilruth decided to give us a big, honking wood-soccer-ball trophy as the champions instead of t-shirts because this is a totally more reasonable item that one person needs in their house. At least I'm NOT the manager and don't have to feel obligated to keep this around. Here is us posing after the game with our prize.

Stats

I already felt pretty good about just finishing the marathon, but for an added boost I looked up the stats on my finish today.

My official time: 4:28:44
My finish was ahead of 50% of the entire field and 62% of the entrants in the Female 25-29 division. So hey, I'm still above average for even what I consider, on a personal level, to be a sub-par run. I'll take it!

Miles in the Rearview Mirror

YAY!!! I finished the 2009 Houston Marathon this morning!! My first marathon and something anyone reading this blog knows I've been training for. Good news from the race, I FINISHED!! This was really my backup goal, my primary being under 4 hrs which I really tanked on.

The recap, I intended to stay with the 4hr pace group (9:10 mile splits) for the race. However, I just could not settle in during the race at this pace and never really got my breathing right which is a sure sign I am going too fast even though by all normal measures I shouldn't have been. In any case, I dropped from the pace group at mile 11 conceding on my time goal at that point. The rest of the race turned into a 'keep moving' event. At a slightly lower pace, I was pretty comfortable up until mile 17 and then everything started to go. My legs didn't want to work and things were cramping. So the last 10 miles was done rather slowly in a jog-shuffle-walk-repeat fashion. IT HURT!! BADLY! But the point is, I kept moving and eventually crossed the finish line in 4 hrs and 28 min. So good enough.

As for what I think happened to my race since I've run longer than 17 miles 4 times and not had these problems, I don't think the taper was as good for me as they say. Its supposedly recommended to really cut back on the running the last three weeks before the marathon to be fully rested. Unfortunately, I think my body goes "oh cool, we're not running anymore" and just drops fitness a little faster than most. Not the first time I've suspected this, but if I ever do a marathon again (and the jury is still out) I will keep this in mind. I could just tell after a couple miles this morning it "felt" like I hadn't run in weeks rather than just being rested and ready to go.

For now, I'm just happy to be done with all 26.2 of the miles. And thank you to everyone who contributed to the Gulf Coast Hurricane Relief Fund in support of this run!

Also congrats to Charlie, Erin, Todd, and Tarik for completing the half marathon!! Josh and Melissa for the 5K!! And thanks to all the supporters that came out to cheer me and everyone else on, it really does make a difference!


Jaime got this picture of me shuffling towards the finish in the last quarter mile.