50 Things to Distract Me

I am so excited/nervous/fluttery about Saturday! I want to go now now now!!!! We get to stay in a cool hotel, we get to eat at Olive Garden (how silly is it that I am excited about that), and Saturday is the big race! Four months work will finally be put into serious use. WOO HOO. With that being said, here's 50 random things to keep me from bouncing off the walls. (Thanks, Amy!)

1. What color is your toothbrush? The current one is green. I'll get a new one in two weeks at the dentist :-)

2. Name one person who made you smile today? Lauren

3. What were you doing at 8 am today? Making coffee at home

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Talking to a co-worker about the process for ordering Phase 1 environmental reports on commercial properties (awesome, huh??)

5.What is your favorite candy bar? Three Musketeers?? (I don't eat candy bars much!)

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? Yep - I think I have been to 3 actually.

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? "Yep, we can just get a reliance letter!"

8. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Ben and Jerry's Phish Food

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Water

11. Do you like your wallet? I do! It's one of those flat ones that snaps shut - love it!

12. What was the last thing you ate? tomato soup

13. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? I did! I bought a pair of nifty moisture wicking running socks for Saturday

14. The last sporting event you watched? Probably the IRL race on TV last Sunday.

15. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? Popcorn as popcorn works well for me!

16. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? Mike

17. Ever go camping? Yes - but it has been a long time!

18. Do you take vitamins daily? I do! Each day after lunch.

19. Do you give to church/charity? I donate my time to causes more than my money.

20. Do you have a tan? eh - not really.

21. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? uh, no.

22. Do you drink your soda with a straw? In a restaurant, yes. Not out of the can.

23. What did your last text message say? I'm outside!

24. What are you doing tomorrow? So glad you asked! Work til noon, then off to the Grandover Resort in Greensboro to lounge by the pool. Then it's off to Olive Garden for dinner, and early to bed.

25. Look to your left, what do you see? A post it note stuck to the wall that says "QALICB = Qualified Active Low-Income Community Business"

26. What color is your watch? Don’t wear a watch

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia? Nicola

28. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? I rarely eat fast food - the only exception is Taco Bell. And then it is normally drive through.

29. What is your favorite number? Right now it's 13.1 :-)

30. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone? Mike

31. Any plans today? Work, a 2 mile run and packing!

32. How many states have you lived in? Indiana, Texas and North Carolina - so 3 (about to be 4 with the addition of Ohio)

33. Biggest annoyance right now? That nagging scratchy feeling in the back of my throat that is not allowed to turn into a cold until Saturday at 11am...

34. Last song listened to? I don't know :-s I had on NPR on the way to work this morning - so probably some theme song in the damn pledge drive.

35. Can you say the alphabet backwards? Nope.

36. Do you have a maid service clean your house? I wish.

37. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? My Ocean Pacific flip flops :-)

38. Are you jealous of anyone? I don't think so!

39. Is anyone jealous of you? Hoards of people I'm sure. (puh-leeese)

40. Do you love anyone? Yeppers!

41. Do any of your friends have children? Yes, several of them do - and it seems like more and more every year!

42. What do you usually do during the day? Go to work.

43. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? My Mom grounded me once in elementary school for writing "I hate insert some teacher's name". She told me that you never hate anyone. So, I don't use that word when it comes to people. Do I strongly dislike a few folks? Sure.

44. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? I actually use "howdy" much more than hello! (You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can never take the Texas out of the girl!)

45. What color is your car? Duke Blue

46. Do you like cats? I do - I even love love love three of them :-)

47. Are you thinking about someone right now? Yes, as a matter of fact I am. I am thinking of Colin Firth - cause in about 7 minutes they close down Main Street to set up the filming of a scene with him in it!!!!

48. Have you ever been to Six Flags? A few of them!

49. How did you get your worst scar? I opened a car door right into my eye socket. I have a nice little scar above my left eye due to that!

50. What is your favorite website? www.icanhascheezburger.com/

Team "I hEArT Durham" vs "Man vs Food"

Exciting Doughman Development! Turns out that the Travel Channel's "Man vs Food" will be competing in and filming the Doughman on May 23! How awesome is that?? Supposedly the Man vs Food folks are putting together an all star team. This just may mean that Team I hEArT Durham won't come in last. Surely we can beat Adam, Anthony Bourdain, or that Bizarre Foods guy....right?? (we have no idea who the team members will be - I'm just hoping Bourdain will be there!)

ROCK ON!

PS - THERE IS STILL ROOM FOR A FEW MORE TEAMS!!!!! If you are interested, go to the Doughman website: www.doughman.org and sign up TODAY!


Running log: This is the LAST week of training! Half-marathon is on Saturday. This is a taper week, so we will only do the Buehler trail on Tuesday and a short two mile run on Thursday. Friday is off to the Grandover Resort in Greensboro to relax and wait for race day at 7am on Saturday!!!!!

Running Log: TEN

Tomorrow is a milestone. Tomorrow we do a ten mile run. Wish us luck!

Race day is next Saturday, May 2. Where on earth did time go??

15 Seconds of Fame - My Day as a Hollywood Extra

It's all the buzz in Durham. Colin Firth, Orlando Bloom, Patricia Clarkson, Andrew McCarthy and Amber Tamblyn are all in town to film "Main St." The film is set in Durham and is being filmed here in the Bull City, too. How authentic! That means all over town you have no idea who you will run into or what may be going on. My co-workers and I have been able to watch a few scenes being shot from our conference rooms overlooking downtown.

Due to my excitement and mini-stalking of Colin Firth, a co-worker put an article from The Herald Sun onto my desk chair one morning. The article stated that more extras were needed and to be considered you just had to e-mail in a photo. I laughed at first then thought, "What the hell?" And I did. Less than two hours later I had an e-mail back from the casting director asking if I would be available the next day. Thanks to an awesome boss, I replied back that YES I was available. She asked if I would be interested in playing a waitress. WOO HOO. I was told to be at the cast parking lot with a selection of clothing items at 7am to be transported to the set. SWEEEEET.

On Wednesday morning, I arrived in the crew parking lot and was quickly whisked away in a van with a few members of the crew and some more extras. As we headed onto 147 and exited at Broad Street, the other extras and I tried to figure out where we were going. We were headed to none other than The Magnolia Grill. AWESOME. Once we were out of the van, I was brought into hair/make-up. That was fun :-) I had my hair curled and pulled back a bit. My makeup was fine, so they left that as is. Wardrobe didn't like the white shirt I had, so they sent me off and told me they would bring me an outfit soon. I was eventually put into an offwhite dress shirt, a tie and an apron.

We eventually had an extras tent put up for us in the parking lot behind Magnolia. That's when the waiting started. Waiting waiting waiting. Eventually a gentleman and myself were asked to go inside for staging. One of the assistant directors told me what to do - walk around behind the bar (I ended up playing a bartender rather than a waitress), polish some glasses, shuffle some papers, move some bottles, pretend cut some lemons, etc. We did that for about half an hour then were told to just sit on the side. More waiting waiting waiting. Eventually we were asked to go back outside as they needed every bit of space as possible for lighting and cameras. More waiting waiting waiting. Eventually, the 6 or 7 other extras were whisked away in a van while my counterpart and I were asked to stay at Magnolia. Eventually we were brought back in to shoot the scene. Because all background movement needs to be done with no sound, I offered to kick off my shoes so they didn't have to pad the hardwood floor behind the bar. I "bartended" at the Magnolia in my bare feet - don't get to do that every day!! The scene was one between Andrew McCarthy and Amber Tamblyn. My big role was to walk in on cue, chat with the gentleman at the bar, then..........(here's my big scene)......Andrew McCarthy looks at the bar and says, "Scotch and Soda"....I nod my head in acknowledgement and walk to the other end of the bar to pretend make the drink. WOO HOO. My 5 seconds of fame. We did the scene a few times for rehearsal then it was taped a couple of times. It was super fun :-)

Me in my Magnolia Grill bartender costume - I took the photo with my cell phone in the cast van on the way back to base camp. It's the only photo I took all day! I looked much cuter from a regular angle :p

After that we were taken back to the base camp where we had lunch. That was rather tasty. After lunch, I thought I may be wrapped for the day, but was asked if I could stay. I changed into some khakis and a polo shirt for an office scene. We were taken over to City Hall and eventually placed all throughout the lobby to walk this way and that way and create a general busy office scene. My big moment in that is walking down the ramp of city hall while Amber Tamblyn comes down the stairs. Yet another 5 seconds of fame :-)

After that scene wrapped, we ended up sitting around for quite sometime. Long enough for me to almost read The Reader in its entirety. Around 6:15pm, a van picked us all up to take us back to our cars. It was a long day, but a fun one. I met a lot of very nice people - from the makeup and wardrobe folks to the crew and all the extras. While I didn't talk to any of the stars, they seemed like pretty nice folks. All in all it was a good time.

The strange part of the experience was just the "hollywood" of the whole thing. I have heard people say that movie making is in no way glamorous. And that seems to be the truth. It's time consuming and tedious - every sound, every move, every beam of light is carefully placed and controlled. It takes people with amazing patience to make these films. It was crazy to see how much prep time and team coordination went into shooting a scene that probably lasted about 1-2 minutes.

It was also somewhat strange to interact with so many people who wanted to be movie stars. In my group of extras, I was one of only a handful of people that did not have an agent. Several of the people I worked with yesterday routinely take extra roles and audition for parts on TV shows and commercials. Several people were amazed that I was just doing this for fun. I've never had the drama bug, so it had just never occured to me that people did this a lot. But as we all have dreams, many people's dreams involve movies and acting! It's just a scene I am not so familiar with! Overall the day was great. New experiences, new people and even some learning. I just may do it again someday!!!!!

Tofu Virgin No Longer

I have been a vegetarian for 4 years? Three and a half? Something like that. It took a long time for me to learn how to cook all over again. In the beginning, I relied a lot on meat substitutes that provided a familiar style of food and convenience. I still eat fake meat things, but I would like to cut them out and save them for special occasions only. To do this, I knew there was a frontier I needed to conquer - tofu. I enjoy tofu. I order it when I am out dining places, but I have never attempted to prepare tofu in a dish at home.

So last night I tried it. One of the tofu dishes I love the most is at P.F. Chang's. They have a tofu version of their lettuce wrap that is mind blowing awesome. A great mix of salty, crunchy and savory. Just so good. It's normally what I order for my "meal" there. I decided to look up a recipe that would replicate that type of taste. I don't think the recipe I used work perfectly, but it did turn out mighty tasty. Here's what I used:

1 18oz block of extra firm organic tofu
soy sauce
red pepper flakes
3-4 cloves fresh garlic
handful of sliced baby bella mushrooms
half a can of sliced water chestnuts
canola oil

First, I attempted to dry the tofu. I should have done this longer, but it still worked out okay. I cut the block into about 9 slices and put it on folded paper towels on a cookie sheet. I put another layer of paper towels on top of the tofu and then put a kitchen towel on top of that. I gently pressed the tofu to get the water out. Overall, I gave about 5-10 minutes to dry out the tofu. Once that was done, I put some nonstick spray onto a cookie sheet. I cut up the tofu into half inch by half inch cubes and spread them on the cookie sheet. I drizzled soy sauce over all the tofu and then sprinkled on some red pepper flakes and freshly ground black pepper. I popped that into the oven at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

While that was baking, I used my handy food processor to cut up the garlic, water chestnuts and mushrooms. I think I ground them up a bit too fine - try to keep the water chestnuts somewhat chunky as they can add a great crunch to the dish (I lost a bit of that crunch since I ground them up too small). Once the tofu comes out of the oven, put a tablespoon of canola oil into a frying pan on med-high heat. Once warm, add in your mushroom/garlic/water chestnut mixture and lightly saute. Then, add in your tofu. I added about 3/4 of what I baked since i wanted to save the rest of the baked tofu for the panang curry we are making later this week. Mix in the tofu and let everything heat together. Splash on a a bit more soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

I served the tofu mixture over a thai rice mix we bought at Harris Teeter a few weeks ago. The tofu came out really well, and it was almost better today at lunch.

I am glad I finally mustered up the nerve to make tofu - it wasn't tough, and it was actually really tasty!!!!!

Running log: Saturday's run went really well. We lost about .5 miles because of a race taking place on the Tobacco Trail, but overall we did about 8.5 miles. Took us around an hour and forty minutes. This week we have a 5 mile run on Tuesday and Thursday, and Saturday will be a 10 mile run. After that, we almost go on a break for a week - just a 4 mile and a 2 mile run next week and RACE DAY IS NEXT SATURDAY!!!!!!!

Next to last long run - 9 MILES

Tomorrow's run will conclude Week 10 of 12 in Half Marathon Training. I can't believe that Saturday will be two weeks until race day. Crazy. While I feel the most prepared I have been, I am also starting to feel the most nervous. I have been running the Buehler trail twice a week with the addition of the fitness trail. It comes out to a total of 3.71 very hilly miles. While we should be running 5 miles at this point, I am hoping the challenge of the hills makes up some of that distance.

This Saturday, we will run 9 miles. EEK. I am actually rather nervous. We put together a route that will allow us to run from point A to B, which we have all decided is much better than running to a halfway point and turning around. Please send good vibes to the three of us on Saturday morning!!!!

A special guest

Maggie and Mike hanging out on the couch.

For the past week and a half, we have had a very special guest in our home. And when I say special, boy do I mean SPECIAL! We have had Maggie dog crashing with us while her family is traveling to visit relatives. For those of you who do not know Maggie, she is the wonderful doggie that Nathaniel and I had. We got her in College Station and she moved with us to North Carolina. After the split, Nathaniel kept Maggie and I kept the kitties. I kept Maggie for about a weekend a month through the separation, but since then, I hadn't seen her - that was over 2 years ago.

But Nathaniel was gracious enough to give me the opportunity to watch her while he and his family traveled this past week. I am so absolutely grateful. It has been wonderful to have her in my care for a while. We picked up right where we left off. So thank you to all those who made it possible for me to see her. It has been wonderful!!!!

Still friends - Scout and Maggie picked up where they left off, too!
They were back to napping with each other just like the good ole days!

Need a smile on Tuesday morning? Watch this.

I love these. Thanks to M. Munger for posting this one!

A running first: The Al Buehler Cross Country Trail

The Al Buehler Trail Route
(click the photo above and follow the hot pink to see my first running trip around the trail!!)

I finally did it. Yesterday after work, I ran the Al Buehler Cross Country Trail. I have walked that trail many many times. I have walked the trail and run the hills. But I have never gone out expressly to run the course from start to finish. It was always just too scary to even attempt. On that trail, you see the real runners. You know what I mean - "real runners." It's not for wussies. Needing a break from my 6:30am runs down MLK Pkwy, I decided on a 5:30pm run through Buehler.

And I made it. I made it.

Yes, I had to walk a couple of times. There are a couple of hills, one in particular, that are absolutely killer. I had to walk up half of one and another I had to walk shortly after running up the hill itself. I also added on the fitness trail and the connector to Buehler. All in all, it was less than 4 miles, but it was probably the toughest and most fun 4 miles I have yet to run. I know now I can do it. That's a huge first step. I can run this.

I may do an evening run there every so often now. Wow. This is big :-)

I also found a great quote today.

"We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are." - Anais Nin

Nearly there...

I'm going to talk about this one more time. And that's it. I promise. Well, for a while anyway. As I stated some time ago, I haven't lost any weight through this whole training program. Okay, I take that back - I have lost about 4 pounds overall, but that's it. My pants aren't really any looser around the waist, and on average the scale still reads about the same amount every morning. That was pissing me off. Really.

But you know what - it is not worth worrying about. I have been doing a lot of reading about running and runners. What they eat, what they weigh, what they look like. Turns out the only time I have ever had a runner's body is when I was about 12. I was 5'5 and 110 pounds then. Puberty hit shortly after that and I got curves. I was still skinny, but if you asked me to run a mile, I would have looked at you like you were crazy. In fact, I can remember when running was actually used as a punishment in my PE classes. Between that and the "Presidential Fitness Test", it was the only running I did. I doubt I was doing a ten minute mile back then! ha!

Anyway, the point of this whole ramble is that I will never have a runner's body, nor will I probably ever have that tall and skinny look I did oh so many years ago. You know why? It's not because it's physically impossible. It IS possible. But that means I would have to live off carrots and lettuce. I wouldn't be able to enjoy life's luxuries that are BEER, wine, cheese, and all other carbs. I am 30 years old, I work hard and damn it, I want to eat what I want. The fact of the matter is, my body is happy at the size it is. I have busted my ass for almost 4 months now at this running thing. And even before that, I have run off and on for almost 4 years. My body hasn't changed a ton. I've stayed in the same 5-10 pound range since about 2004. That ain't too shabby. But I'm active, and I am running. Me...running. I never thought that would be the case.

Running has toned my legs, my butt (it looks hott let me tell ya - or at least hubby thinks so), and my waist does have definition again. My guess is that I have lost fat and it has been replaced with muscle. Am I back to size 8 pants? no. And honestly, I doubt I ever will be. I'm just not willing to give up the things in life that I love. I have curves, I have birthing hips, and I love beer. I'm not willing to starve myself to conform to someone else's idea of beauty. My husband finds me beautiful, and I think I'm pretty cute too. Do I still give those super hott undergrads the dirty eye sometimes in their size 2 jeans? Sure. But just wait til they're 30. They'll either be the same size and very hungry and pissy, or they will be talking like me. I hope it's the latter :-)

A new love

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

Mike and I finished watching Season 1 a couple of days ago. I didn't want to love this show because it was so popular, so hipster. But I love it. LOVE IT! Mike does, too. We finished Season 1 in about 3 days. I already miss Bret and Jemaine. We don't have HBO, so we will have to wait for DVD. What a long wait it will be.

24 days - and then it's finally over

Don't get me wrong - I am VERY VERY proud of the accomplishments of my running partners and me to the point. We are busting our butts and putting in some serious miles for this training. We have worked really hard the past 8 weeks, and the work is paying off. This past Saturday, we ran eight miles. EIGHT MILES. I had no idea it was even possible for me to do that. The even crazier thing is that our pace is right on track with every other distance we have run. As we add on the mileage, we really aren't slowing down any. That is pretty awesome.

But to keep that up, that means the weekday runs must continue. The weekday runs are now up to 5 miles each Tuesday and Thursday. Technically, I should have also been doing short runs on Wednesdays and Friday. But that ended this week - with the longer distances, we get two rest days. Therefore, I should add in one short run a week. I may try to start adding that in after work one day each week.

The whole point of this is, damn, there is a lot of running in preparing for a race. Sounds obvious, yes? I love my runs on Saturdays with Mer and Lauren. I get nervous before them, but I like them so much better than the crappy solo runs during the week. Since I have also been doing them in the mornings, I very often want to take a nap by mid morning. For some, early morning exercise energizes them and sets the tone for their day. For me, it makes me sleepy.

But, we only have a few weeks left. It's inching up closer and closer. I just reserved our hotel room in Greensboro for the night before the race. We have a place to stay. That is pretty darn real.

In the meantime, I'll keep running.

OH - The Louis CK show was pretty darn good. I just forgot how many stairs are at Charlie Goodnight's. Poor Mike :-(

Bradys Night Out - Charlie Goodnights!

Mike and I are heading out to the big city tonight! woo hoo! Raleigh, here we come? What is dragging us ALL the way to Raleigh on a school night? A comedy show! Thanks to my friend Becky in Minneapolis, I found out that comedian Louis CK was on tour. I adored his HBO show "Lucky Louie" and enjoyed his last HBO special (poster below). Seeing him live would be pretty awesome. I checked his gig line up and found out he was in Raleigh for one night only - TONIGHT. I found this out while Mike was in his second surgery. I debated - should I buy the tickets? Will Mike be able to go to Raleigh? Will he be able to get around in a comedy club? I decided that YES, he could make it work. When I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase the tickets, the 8pm show was already sold out. Bummer. Luckily, the 10:15 show still had plenty of tickets. 10:15 it is. (I checked the site and both time slots are now sold out!)


Therefore, tonight Mike and I will mosey on out to Raleigh, maybe grab a pint and some pretzels at the Flying Saucer, then head over to Charlie Goodnights. We may be a a bit tired tomorrow morning, but with the way the past few months have gone, we deserve a night out on the town! Review of the show tomorrow!

The poster for the current tour!

RUNNING LOG: My weekday run this morning concluded the 4.5 mile weekday run series. While that is exciting, that means starting with next week's Tuesday and Thursday runs, I bump to 5 miles. I will continue that for the next 3 weeks. Egads. Luckily I have been running a very hilly 4.64 miles each Tuesday and Thursday morning for the past 3 weeks. Hopefully the addition of less than half a mile won't make much difference. Today marks 1 month til race day! HOLY CRAP!!!!