My travels

Hi, all. I am sure you have nervously been wondering about me. Where is she? What's going on? The fact is that I have been on the road or stuck at home, so I haven't done much blogging! Last week was a good one. MLK day on Monday, Snow Day at home on Tuesday. Wednesday I was off to Texas to do the following:

7am: Fly to Houston via DFW
12pm: Visit a charter school in North Houston
2pm-5pm: Visit with Mom at the 'rents house
5pm-6:30pm: Dinner with Mom and both the Dads
6:30pm-9:30pm: Drive to deep South Texas to stay the night for my site visit the next day

Thursday also had a fun breakdown:
8:30am: Breakfast with construction specialist
10am-noon: Meeting with my school, the GC, the architect and full site visit
noon-1:30pm: Drive even further into South Texas to meet with the USDA regional office
1:30-2:15pm: USDA Meeting
2:15-6:30pm: Drive to Georgetown, TX (north of Austin) to prepare for next day's meeting

Friday was of course full of travels itself:
8am-9:30am: Drive to Temple, TX for USDA Meeting
10am-11am: USDA Meeting at State Office
11am-1:00pm: Drive to the Austin Airport
2:30pm-9:00pm: Travel home to RDU via DFW

It was a whirlwind trip but a lot of fun. I got to see the parents, I got to visit my home state and I got to meet all the folks from the school I have been working with the past year. I also got some great training in construction management. It looks like I did a good enough job to be sent back once per month and monitor the project from start to finish. I am super excited.

I would have stayed in Texas a bit longer if it were not for the fact that Miss L was kind enough to get tickets to see RENT for that Saturday evening. Our good friend John Watson was staying at the Brady Household during Rent's stop in Durham. It was great to spend some quality time with him while he was here. John has an ensemble role in this year's cast, and he is thrilled to be on the road with the traveling show again. Well, he's thrilled to be performing anyway. Being away from his lovely significant other, Amanda, though is much tougher. He's on the road a good chunk of the year. But thanks to Google Chat and visits here and there, it all works out fine.

Here's a couple pics courtesy of Lauren!

The full cast list - there is Mr. Watson on the right!

At the Pinhook after the show
(thanks for the free beer, random dude at the Pinhook!)

Lauren, John and Meredith

The Davidson Boys Reunited - John and Mike

Our Rent Night Out
L to R: Cookie, Mer, Lauren, Mike, John, me

Dawn of a new day

Happy Inauguration Day! Absolutely thrilling. Bye, bye, W, and welcome, Obama!!!!

Excellent

Today is the last full day with George Bush as President. Excellent.

Happy MLK, Jr Day!!!!!

Running Log: Harsh temps

Wilson/Card Gym at Duke

I managed to do a 3 mile run outside on Tuesday, but Thursday evening it was just too cold to attempt a run outside. I headed to the West Campus Gym at Duke, but the line for the treadmills was too much to handle. I decided to head upstairs and just run a bajillion laps around the indoor track instead. I also decided that rather than running for distance, I was just going to run for time. One of my main problems with running has always been the mental block. My body is getting to the point where it can handle the runs better, but I need to better prepare my mind. I can normally make it through laps because it is quantifiable. I can say, "I've run two laps and I have two more to go." There is a visible beginning and an end. But in the majority of road races, you run from Point A to B, and you normally cannot see Point B from the starting line. You are weaving through neighborhoods and up and down hills. It's then that you need to be prepared to just run. As easy as that sounds, it is probably one of the bigger obstacles I need to overcome. So, last night I just ran. I checked my iPod before I started - it was 5:27pm. I was going to run to 5:57 - a total of 30 minutes. No counting laps, no staring at a clock.

That sucks. It was definitely tough. With the cold weather, there were a lot of people on the track. It did feel good to get passed by someone going pretty quickly only to pass them a lap or two later since they tired themselves out so quickly. My buddy Rod also happened to be at the track at the same time, and we both finished our runs within a few seconds of each other. We were able to chat a bit and stretch before calling it a night.

Tomorrow will probably be another indoor running day. The temps may be as low as single degrees, and I think I am learning that 40 degrees is about as low as I am willing to go on an outside run. That means Saturday morning will be spent on a treadmill (yet another terrible machine I need to learn to live with) or running 40+ laps on the tiny track!

We found our race

May 2, 2009
High Point, North Carolina
7:00am
The North Carolina Half-Marathon
We'll be there and running.

13.1 miles, here we come.

Running Log

I am in Week 2 of the "Week 1" half marathon training. Before I actually start the program in its entirety, I am going to do the "Week 1" runs for about 4 weeks. I am in Week 2 of that now. That means I am doing 10 miles per week for a month before pushing myself to do more. I just need to build up my strength so I don't hurt myself.

I did my 3.4 mile run yesterday and will do one again on Thursday. I am running for 30 minutes straight now without totally dying, so that's a good sign. It still is super tough on that second lap around east though! Yesterday I did a 36 minute run with a few walk breaks thrown in there - but it gave me 3.4 miles in the end.

Here's to keeping up with this!

Running Log: First 4 miler

This weekend, I did my first 4 mile run/walk. I hit the American Tobacco Trail at 11:31 am. I went up to the two mile mark, turned around and came back. It took me 49 minutes. I walked decent chunks here and there, but the end result was still about 12 minutes a mile. Not too shabby. I will repeat the week one training this week, next week and probably the week after. I think we will start official training the first week of February.

Happy 27th Birthday, Lauren!!!

Mer, me and the birthday girl!!

Last night, Mer put together a lovely outing in Chapel Hill to celebrate Lauren's 27th birthday. A big group of us had dinner at La Hacienda then bounced on to the East End Wine Bar in Chapel Hill. There, we danced the night away til 2am. Happy birthday, darling!!!

Duke vs Davidson

Duke vs Davidson means a house divided for the Bradys. Yesterday I went into work at 7am so I could leave at 3pm. Immediately after leaving work, I headed off to Cameron and got in line with the rest of our group. The weather was 60 degrees and beautiful - for about an hour. Then the clouds, the rain, the wind and the freezing rain blew in. Oh, what we will do for some basketball!! Here's pics to share the experience. LET'S GO DUKE!

Running Log

My cool new running shoes - Etonic Jepara SC

I started my pre-training yesterday. Before I really start on the half-marathon ACTUAL training, I need a few weeks of running 30 minutes straight 3-4 times per week. Honestly, I have never done that. At my pace, that means I need to be running 2.5-3 miles three to four days per week. I actually run 1.7-2 miles about two days a week. Therefore, I need to triple the distance I have been running per week. There's no time like the present, so I started yesterday after work. Since it was all drizzly outside, I chose to run on the track in Duke's West Campus gym. The run was:

Laps: 30
Time: 30 minutes
Distance: Approx 3 miles, maybe .1-.25 miles less than that

Next run will be Thursday, and I am going for another 30 minute run.

Favorite New Recipe Blog

Here lately when I google a recipe title, I often end up getting shuttled to this blog: Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. It is a treasure trove of vegan recipes that are fantastic. I'm not vegan, but this roll of recipes is allowing me to build in more and more vegan dishes to our menu at home.

Tonight I am trying cumin rice with eggplant and peas. I bought a cute little egg plant this weekend at the grocery store, and I wanted something fun to do with it. We also happen to have every other ingredient for the recipe on hand at home. We are going to take the author's suggestion of having some roasted asparagus on the side. Our vegan house guest, Stefan, is going to do the honors of making some lentil dip to pair with the whole thing as well. I am actually really looking forward to this meal! Since we have stuff going on every other night this week, it is our one chance to have a healthy meal at home. I hope this turns out as well as it sounds!

RECIPE REVIEW: The Cumin Rice came out wonderfully. I thought we had frozen peas, but we did not. Therefore, I subbed in a can of peas, and it actually worked fine. Just don't overstir (and add the peas at the end when you take the rice out of the oven). We all decided that the dish would possibly even benefit from the addition of some raisins or pine nuts. For non-vegans, a dash of plain yogurt would be a nice touch, too. I added a bit of extra cayenne pepper, and it added a nice back burn on the rice. Overall, a great dish. I thought that with the cumin it would be more southwestern, but the dish was definitely more Middle Eastern in flavor. Very yummy.

A Goal for 2009

I don't make resolutions because I don't keep them. But thanks to Mer, I at least have a goal for 2009 - an extra one anyway, besides all of the goals associated with relocating to another state. On Saturday night, Mer asked if I would be interested in joining she and Lauren to train for a half marathon. I don't consider myself a runner in the full sense of the word, but as I blogged about it before, I am actually starting to enjoy my runs. So, maybe a half marathon would be fun. The training isn't crazy, and the recovery from a 13.1 mile race is a lot friendlier than the recovery for a full marathon. Why not? Let's give it a shot. The three of us will meet in the next week or so to get ready for this - 13.1 miles, here I come. Mer has been through this training before, and she has suggested the Hal Higdon training program. It looks good to me - somewhat scary, but hey, that's what a challenge is supposed to be about, right? I need to build up my endurance a bit more before I really get going, so I will probably extend the week 1 training for a few weeks. We also haven't decided which half marathon we will enter, so we will change the training schedule to fit our timeline. Here's the schedule, unaltered, from Mr. Higdon's website:

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	2 m run or cross	3 m run + strength	Rest	30 min cross	4 m run
2	Stretch & Strengthen	3 m run	2 m run or cross	3 m run + strength	Rest	30 min cross	4 m run
3	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	2 m run or cross	3.5 m run + strength	Rest	40 min cross	5 m run
4	Stretch & Strengthen	3.5 m run	2 m run or cross	3.5 m run + strength	Rest	40 min cross	5 m run
5	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	2 m run or cross	4 m run + strength	Rest	40 min cross	6 m run
6	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	2 m run or cross	4 m run + strength	Rest or easy run	Rest	5-K Race
7	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	3 m run or cross	4.5 m run + strength	Rest	50 min cross	7 m run
8	Stretch & Strengthen	4.5 m run	3 m run or cross	4.5 m run + strength	Rest	50 min cross	8 m run
9	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	3 m run or cross	5 m run + strength	Rest or easy run	Rest	10-K Race
10	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	3 m run or cross	5 m run + strength	Rest	60 min cross	9 m run
11	Stretch & Strengthen	5 m run	3 m run or cross	5 m run + strength	Rest	60 min cross	10 m run
12	Stretch & Strengthen	4 m run	3 m run or cross	2 m run	Rest	Rest	Half Marathon

I'll keep you posted as to how this goes. I am excited and nervous. But hey, I can do this, right???

New Year's Eve 2008

I actually took a half day off work on Tuesday and all day on Wednesday because I got a cold. I rested, rested, rested, and thanks to Mucinex and some other random cold medicine, I was able to follow through with the last minute NYE party hosting Mike and I had agreed to Monday night. I am so glad I was able to muster up the energy to party with our friends. It was an absolutely fantastic evening! Here are a few photos to prove it!

Neil, me and Cookie with Lauren giving the bunny ears!

Hottie Mer!

Dance party with my girls...Cookie, Lauren, Mer and Lesa

My gorgeous husband and me ringing in the new year!

2009 is going to rock.

And if you are interested, here's a more complete collection of party photos. Enjoy!