Long Time No Post

So it has been a crazy couple weeks and time has just flown by. We are currently back in Oregon for Christmas spending time with our family. It has been great and filled with fun, food and lots of activities. We have seen Travis' folks new remodel, Ahna and Kyle's newly painted and wonderful condo, and my parents and their ever changing home.

As someone pointed out, we have a blog named Bay Area, which I thought is pretty funny too. However when we started this blog who knew we were going to be moving. So maybe in the next few weeks, I will start a new blog and we will link this one to the new one. :)

Christmas was good to Travis and I and we are very happy with how are lives are turning out. We both have great families, and Pam's is getting larger as Kyle just proposed to his girlfriend of three years, Ahna. This was also the first Christmas with out Pam's grandpa Denny.

Who knows what the next year will hold, but as of now, things are pointing in a great direction. :) Merry Christmas everyone and we wish you all a great New Years.

Travis has a Job

So here is some quick news really fast, but TRAV HAS A JOB!!! He is really excited about it and so am I. :) It is even better is it is only about 15 minutes away and in a great area where we have looked and thought about getting a house sometime in the next year. YEAH!!

Thanksgiving 2007

So for Thanksgiving this year Travis and I decided it would be best for us to stay in Colorado. We have just been traveling and gone so much that to be home for a good month straight and to save our money and tickets for Christmas would be best. As I sure most people have heard it finally snowed here 2 days ago, yeah!!! And for the past 3 days now the temperature has been hovering in the 20's. Life has been good :) Cold but good :)

Today was a packed day and let me say I am definitely beat. Full and tired. I got up this morning at 7am as the just retired President of Ware Malcomb, where I work, asked and asked if I wanted to do a Turkey Trot this morning. It was just 4 miles and a nice way to start off Thanksgiving Day, with a nice 400 calorie burn :) I got the Turkey all ready, seasoned and stuffed and left instructions for Travis to put it in the oven at 11:30 so we could be ready to eat at 3pm. Our meal consisted of a 12.5 pound turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, the special Power Pretzel Crust Salad, green beans, stuffing and of course Gravy.

The Turkey Trot started at 10am so I got up and was out the door about 8:50am to get picked up by my ride. I think the temperature when I walked out the door was about 23 degrees, so it was definitely going to be a brisk run. :) I don't have any running tights or winter running pants so I improvised and wore my favorite capris with a pair of my soccer socks pulled up over my knees so I didn't have skin showing. The day actually turned out to be beautiful, it was cold, but clear skies and hardly any wind. I thought maybe 500-1,000 people would show up, but there were over 5,000 out there to run.

Myself, Jim (the ex-president) and his daughter were all bundled up to stay warm, even for the run. However, I can say people here are die hard and crazy. We saw easily a few hundred people in shorts, some people in just shorts and a tank top or T-shirt. CRAZY! I really understand now that people in Colorado love to run. The run itself was great, we finished in about 34 minutes, which I think we figured out we ran about a 10 minute mile for the first mile and then about 8-8:30 for the next three. Thee were so many people we definitely were people dodging for half the run.

By the time I got back to the house, it was only noon. Trav had just gotten the Turkey in the oven and the house definitely was starting to smell like Thanksgiving. I was able to get all cleaned up before I had to start the full time cooking. I was hoping to squeeze in a nap but there was so much food to prepare and it was by hand, we have no food processor or potatoe peeler, so it took a long time to peel all the potatoes, carrots, apples. YUCK! By the time the Turkey was done and carved, we had a yummy feast. The funny thing is for the 4 hours of cooking and shopping and preperation, Trav and I ate all we could, and that only took 15 minutes!

It was a great day and lots of fun to really get my hands dirty and cook, I hardly seem to have time to do that lately. It would have been great to spend the day with friends and family, but I was happy to have it be just Trav and I.

Running.............

Running is one of the best sports and exercises that exist in the world right now in my opinion. As my mom would say, it is my threapy and my sanity. Not only does one burn over 100 calories per mile moved (on a flat surface, so there is my love/hate relationship to hills) but it allows you to be inside your head and really clarify, evaluate, answer, argue, question, figure out, sing, scream all to yourself over the course of your run. No matter where you run there is always something new to see, a new route to explore and usually at least one person to say hello to.

With winter now approaching running outside is becoming more and more of a luxury because I am not a morning runner, no matter how much I try my body does not comply. Getting off work at 5pm in the dark, treadmills M-F are going to be my best friend. So my long weekend run is definitely a priority to me. Treadmills are great and keep my stamina in check, it just does not give me the same sense of mind clearing euphoria.

I went on one of my long weekend runs today and well I have been sore in my hamstrings going on 5 days now, so I knew this was going to be a rough run. (The area we live in is a deceptively hilly area. They are not the steep hills of the Bay Area, but rolling slight inclines and declines that go for miles and you don't really notice untill you are huffing and puffing and wondering what the heck is wrong with you.) Earlier today I decided to go test out a new trail that shoots off a road about a mile and a half from our house that looked like it looped back to the main road and would be total about 7 miles. So at 3:30 I told Trav if I am not back in an hour and a half, come find me. LOL

When I run it takes me about 1-2 miles to really loosen up and get into my stride, and well today it took about, well never. HAHAHA What is great about our little suburb of Greenwood Village/Centennial is that on the weekends, I swear there is no one here. The roads are so quiet, the air is so clear and the trail system is extensive and amazes me. Where the trail started is right next the most expensive homes probably in the Denver area, at least in our little town. Though I was starting to hurt and I was only 2 miles in, I definitely had some great eye candy with these estate style homes that are worth over $1 million. Honestly these homes are beautiful and eye catching, but not my style. And what is odd, these homes feel really out of place, as the rest of the homes in the area and on the majority of the trail I ran, are ranch style, normal sized, family homes.

As I wound my way down the path, my eyes finally wandered away from the homes and more towards the whole scenery. The path actually splits the monster homes, The Preserve, from a wetland area filled with Cattails, trees, and a cute (non smelling) creek. The path is all dirt and rock and for being sundown in November, packed with people. I love how exercise really brings people to their happy place and literally every person I passed or passed me smiled at least, and most waved and said hello. There were older couples out for their evening walk, people fighting their way through a obviously painful run (like me), families biking, and children out walking with their elderly parents. I got passed by a couple on their horses, ran by a man at least 75 years old jogging (my hero), and even a man who was juggling while running, really I swear!!!!

I was awestruck on this run by the shear beauty of the area I now call home. It is the middle of November and I was running in shorts and a tank top, and I was warm!! The area, homes and land, I saw were beautiful and really made me feel like I was running in a small town in the countryside. The majority of homes are built ranch style and many have acres of land. These homes have a very warm and inviting feel and the people in the area are very warm and friendly as well. To make the views even better, I watched the sun behind the rockies. Hopefully next weekend I can take the camera and show you really how beautiful the area is.

When I am out there and happy and sweaty and taking everything in, I realize how wonderful and clear life really is. I came to a realization about things, that well once we get through the holidays, I have a great plan that I hope to start on. I feel very fortunate to be able to call this place home and hopefully in the next few years, buy a home here. (wink wink)

To sum my ramblings up and focus on what I am trying to say, lets just say that running may be great for the body, but it is like chicken soup for the soul. It not only allows me to clear my head of all the garbage that I throw and pile in there, but it allows me to eat ( because I love love love love to eat, just ask Travis) and not worry. For those who don't run, just try and walk, find a neighborhood that is pretty, a path you haven't gone on, or drive to a favorite spot you used to go to. Nothing like fresh air can really put things into perspective and give you the motivation to keep on walking or running again and again.

My Job Search

I suppose a few of you have probably been wondering how much longer I am going to be mooching off of pam and whether or not I will be getting back into the wonderful world of work.

I have decided to switch up career tracks and pursue a career in financial planning. This is something that I've been thinking about for a long time. I even signed up and began an online program to gain a CFP certificate so that I may skip past the fact that I don't have a degree in finance and sit for the Certified Financial Planner Exam.

Recently I have been trying to become employed with a financial firm close by our apartment. Its actually closer than where Pam works! Its been pretty tough though jumping through their hoops. So far I've been through 3 interview type sessions, completed a business and personal expense worksheet, submitted a business plan and submitted a list of 200 contacts that could possibly be leads. With our traveling its kept me quite busy keeping up with this. I've also launched a website to assist in this endeavor.

For those of you that don't know about this type of work, basically its like starting and running your own business. You sell services and financial products to people and make comission of of them. The firm is there to back you up, provide technical support, as well as specialists when needed. They also provide a roof, and personal support and instruction when needed. The first two months I would be payed a minimal amount until I pass 4 exams. Then I would start out with a base pay which would deteriorate over the next months until finally I would be 100% commission based.

So next Friday I will be meeting with some principles of the firm and go over my business plan, and answer any further questions. The retention rate for them is 2 out of 3 so I can see why they really want to spend their time figureing out if this is something I could do or not. I really want to work with them and make this change so hook up a little prayer for me if you will.

Travis

Clarification

So in reponse to my post last night I want to let everyone know that all in all I really happy with my life. I have a great family, a wonderful boyfriend and supporter, a good job, a great new home and really a good life. So at times one feels stressed, worn out, frustrated but that does not override the absolute fact that yes I am, and we are happy. :)

Thoughts and Ramblings

So I know I have not actually written more than a few sentences in the past month or so. Lets just say thing have been a bit strained/draining to say the least. As most people know my grandfather, Denny Proctor, died the week after Travis and I moved to Colorado, Travis has not been working, we just went to Cancun and work well it is work. My brain has been all over the place, one day I am fine and loving every minute of life and the next, well, every little thing seems to send me over the edge. I just don't get it and try my hardest to maintain a sense of normalcy.

I have been thinking about things and I know a lot of it has to do with the stress of knowing that my income is the sole and steady income that is holding the pieces together and for those who have been in a one income situation knows that it can be a very tough thing. Add traveling on top of that back to Oregon, to Mexico and now Christmas is coming and well stress, stress, stress......Thank goodness for the gym and food.

Let me say that the move to Colorado for me and Travis has been nothing but wonderful for us both mentally and for our relationship. We no longer pick at each, argue like we did, or just feel constantly on edge. We no longer feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel and that we are moving along in our goals in life. We have already made a few good friends and with hopefully being here for the next month we can really start to become involved in a church, maybe a soccer team for Travis and well I am looking at taking a part time job to allow us some extra money in our budgeting.

Cancun was great as you can see from the pictures and it was a great stress reliever and break that Travis and I needed. Honestly when I say I have been difficult to deal with, I am not exegerating. I feel like I am doing it all sometimes and that I take that out on Travis and that is not fair to him. It is just so hard sometimes to look at the good things you have in life when it seems that so much is falling apart or rough no matter how hard you try. Well luckily I have a wonderful man who always helps me try to see the best in life, and he is really helping me through one of the toughest times I have been through lately.

So now I need to finally fall asleep and get ready for another day at the office.

Cancun Trip November 2007

Weekend

Well after a two day work week for Pam we headed into the weekend. Pam has developed a nice little cough that gets worse in the evenings. She hasn't been feeling sick, just coughing and hacking so Friday night, we decided to play the sims, chill at home and get a decent sleep in. Unfortunately, my brain was going crazy trying to figure out how I'm going to come up with 200 contacts for this third round interview I've got at a financial firm.

Saturday morning we got up early by weekend standards and pounded a few buckwheat pancakes and got ready for paintball. Aaron, a guy Pam works with set up this unofficially Waremalcomb paintball excursion. I hadn't been paint balling since high school and so I didn't quite know what to think but it turned out to be a blast.

There were 17 of us, which was large enough to have all the games with just our group. That made it more fun since we were all on the same basic skill level (Beginner) and we all had the same gear. In other words, there wasn't a high and mighty hick with a cranked nitrogen canister shooting 30 rounds a second at you while you try and scream hit hit!

The fields were had trees and barriers to duck and hide from. There were objectives also like raise a flag, capture the flag, or the last map was just to point this gun thing at the other side. We mixed the teams but and I think everyone got to win at least once. No big injuries except I got a mild sprain to my left wrist which kept me out of the gym today. :( I was storming this camping spot where I knew a guy was and had been trying to shoot me. Well I came around the corner and stumbled sideways which made it look like I was diving. At the same time I popped off a few rounds to get the kill. I had to put my hand down at some point and thats where I tweaked it. So I got the kill but when I had gotten to my feet again I got capped in the side of the head. So my dash for glory didn't turn out as well as I had planned.

Pam had gun problems the first few games but then someone took her gun by mistake and she was fine after that. We got on the same team for the last 4 games and she started having more fun. She managed to go through twice as many paintballs as me though and on the last map she rain out of compressed gas which basically rendered her useless. A bit trigger happy thats for sure...

I think the ref got a few action shots of us and we had some group shots that we will share after they are shared to us. :) It was a lot of fun, and even made us pretty sore today!

In Progress

So our apartment is definitely in progress, but we finally have furniture in place, things are slowly getting on the walls, and well my clothes are finally off the floor. Can't wait to have our first visitors :)

Camping day 2.

So we moved...and for those of you who have been on the edge of their seats waiting for me to write about the second day of my camping adventure with Jason, well I'm not sorry. Its kinda like when you watch a Macgyver episode that gets the "to be continued". You know its going to happen...you're looking at your watch thinking, hmm this isn't going to be wrapped up at all. Then bam!! You have to wait another week to see what happens next! Anyways, prepare yourself for another long post because I can't seem to keep these short, and I'm sorry.

Day two...hmm. Well yeah we woke, a bit cold, but both excited to be alive. We cruised over to our food sling and found that despite everything we had heard that night that it was in fact, still intact, and without any sorts of animal tracks. I actually thought I saw one odd looking footprint but it turned out to just be Jasons shoe smeared a bit. The morning brought an awesome sunrise to us and the pics don't do it justice. We thought we were in the perfect spot for some killer pics but the sun managed to fool our instincts and come up to the right of the mountains.

Breakfast was quick and easy. Bran muffins, yum yum. I love them, and ate two to Jasons one. Next we proceeded to pack up our campsite, without speaking more than 10 words the entire time. Jason and I worked like clockwork. It was as if our ESP powers were screaming loud and clear. I don't know how long it took, because I don't wear a watch when camping (who does, really...) but I swear we were packed up and ready to go before that bear behind the bush was finished taking a dookie! JK, no bear sightings yet.

We cruised up to this place called "Lovers Trail" as I mentioned before. Most popular trail in the area. I found this to be pretty funny because when Jason and I were painting houses together our boss used to call us the "gay duo". So here we were the gay duo heading up to hike lovers trail, hoohhaww.

The weather had taken a turn. I was pleased that it was cooler because I sweat and warm up pretty easily, however, it was really starting to threaten rain. I didn't have nifty rain gear like jason and his water PROOF titanium columbia jacket, but then again what are we, little fruity wimps that even need rain proof jackets? :) JK Jason. After memorizing the map, which was horrible by the way, we headed out onto the trail which we thought would be either 7 miles round trip or 7 miles one way to this cabin up in the hills. Either way, we were going to go for a few hours and then turn back because the last thing we wanted to do was find and setup camp in the dark.

The trail was cool. At first, I was all eyes and ears making sure we didn't run into a bear and spook it into bear hugging us. As the miles wore down our bodies though, our focus became less and less for bear watching and more of just getting up that trail! Towards the end it got steep enough that stairs were made out of the rocks to help hikers. Also, the higher we got the colder and windier it got! I had three layers on and was fine but with the way things were going, I couldn't help imagine us getting stuck in a storm and ending up on an episode of, "I shouldn't be alive"!

Boy the trail was scenic though, almost taking away the pain of hiking. The forest was full of both deciduous and fir trees which created a beautiful yellow/orange/red and green array of colors. We couldn't hear a thing from the outside world, I mean this was wilderness baby! It was pretty cool.

Near the top we came to a meadow and an area with benches around a fire. It looked like a popular spot to hang out with hippies and smoke the reefer. Only when we found it, there was nobody there, not even an old marshmellow wrapped up in some dirt. This bothered us a bit...I mean, here we were, hiking just fine out into the wilderness on a nice weekend, and nobody else was here? Were we missing something? Was there supposed to be a blizzard coming through at 6000 feet that is going to put us on ice?

At this point we almost turned back. We had been hiking for roughly 2 hours and knew that pretty soon we would have to turn back to have enough time to scout out a new campsite and setup before dark. It also hard started to drizzle a bit. Not being ones to puss out when the going got tough, we decided to press on for at least 20 more minutes.

We were lucky, because after roughly another 200 yards we came to the cabin! The cabin was a bust though, all boarded up, worthless to us. However, the view was great. The marble mountain posed in front of us majestically as we took it in. We could see the trees thin towards the top of them and knew we were high. The wind started to pick up and snow began to fall. We stopped to eat cold meatloaf in tortillas and reveled in our accomplishments. But for Jason, it was not enough.

Jason has this weird thing that he explained to me as an urge to reach the highest point. For the most part, he wanted to do this in his truck, but now that we were at the cabin, he really wanted a few more hours to go explore up to the top of the marble mountains. Unfortunately, we couldn't...the rest and food had made us cold and the conditions were getting worse. I had three layers on but was beginning to shiver! We had to head down now...

The snow turned to rain as our elevation decreased and what used to be a nice little drizzle turned into quite the downpour. Rain began flowing down the path, eroding little streaks of water into the landscape and making it slippery to navigate some portions. The canopy was not thick enough in most places to stop it, and I began to get pretty dang wet. I had a wool button up shirt on the outside, cotton long sleeve as a middle layer, and a wick-away shirt under that. I was warm, just wet!

Soon enough, water was everywhere, running down my face, neck, nose. Spots on my pants got wet as they were continuously exposed to the rain while walking, and I could feel the water soaking into my outer layer pretty bad. No worries, though, I'm an oregonian right? :)

We reached the base of the trail in good time and tried to figure out where we had hiked and how far by looking at the map. Like I mentioned earlier, the map sucked and so we couldn't figure out either. Next on the agenda was finding a new campsite! Not that the old one wasn't good but Jason wanted to explore the other side of the mountain range we were on and I had to oblige. I'm not gonna hold a man back...it took a long time though, lol.

We wandered down the face of the mountain on back roads, then split off up into the hills on the other side. The problem we encountered though was that with the conditions of where the roads were, there weren't a lot of eligible campsites. We wanted cover from the elements, flat ground, and then perhaps another magnificent view. Most of the places on the sides of this road we were on, were steep, with wimpy pine trees. Plus the road went higher and higher, and that made it windier and colder!

Finally, our "view" dreams had to be compromised. The sun was setting behind the dark clouds and light from it began to dwindle. We had seen a spot down low on the mountain next to a creek that we though might provide us with at least 2 of our three reqs and so we headed down to check it out further and make our camp.

Well it turned out to be a perfect spot. Pat ourselves on the back for just being perfect campsite pick-er-outers! The tree cover was great, but the rain had permeated so thoroughly through that it was now throwing big droplets down onto us. Our first engineering task was to setup a tarp to keep our new found home dry. Under any other circumstances, I believe this would have proved difficult. However, with Jasons civil engineering background and my mechanical engineering skills, well this was just another day at the office.

As you can see from the pics, it turned out pretty good. The tarp spread over a sizable portion of ground space, in which we were able to place our tent and gear. The fire pit, which was bigger and better this time around, was on the fringe as to not choke us with smoke all night....or so we thought. Seemingly the only thing we hadn't thought of was wind direction. The wind ended up blowing away from our fringe fire, right into the rest of our covered area which meant our faces and tent! Eventually, after a few more adjustments to the rain tarp, we were able to sit comfortably apart from each other and watch the smoke go between us.

Actually jason was able to sit comfortably. My chair had gotten all wet and I was having a heck of a time getting it dry! I ended up mostly just using the cooler to rest my buns on. Jason made stroganoff for dinner, one of my old favorites from college, and I ate about twice as much as him once again.

The weird thing about the campsite was that with all the large droplets of water falling, it always seemed to sound like a bear or deer was coming up on us from behind, which would be the steep rocky grade going up to another road. I swear, it was like rocks were cascading down a hill all the time. We looked and looked and there was never anything there! Talk about screwing with your mind!

The evening wore on and we quickly became bored with the smoke, rain, and being damp. We decided to turn in for the night and retire to the warmth and comfort of a 15F sleeping bag and an air mattress. I pulled myself away from the wall of the tent so that I wouldn't get wet through the night and focused on not trying to let the sounds of the rain and night trick me into being frightened. I chose to suck it up that night, rather than freak out the night before and it worked well. Jason and I slept roughly 12 hours!

Jason really wanted to call in sick for Tuesday and stay another night out there with me. There was lots more exploring to be done, hiking, and fighting the elements. These are all the sorts of things that make you feel like a man and we liked that feeling. Plus, you couldn't beat the camaraderie and respect we had for each other. Oh...and not to mention the fluid way this "gay duo" just works.

Jason if you're readin this I love you man, and next up - the Rockies!

-Travis

Denver Apartment Pictures

Camping with Jason

I'll write more later about this adventure!

So this was the last weekend before we will have moved and I wanted to get some good hang out time with my main man Jason. For those of you who don't know, I have two really long time friends. On, Chris, whom I've known since like 1st grade or something, and the other is Jason, whom I've known since 7th grade. Really good guys, really good friends.

Jason and I met up in Yreka which I'm not sure how to pronounce because the founders of that city seemed to spell it wrong. Its interesting because a little more east is the other yreka (Eureka). Anyways, we met up there, got all my gear packed into Jasons truck and headed up into the wilderness.

The first idea was to go to some mountain and hike it. This was Jasons idea and I'm glad it did not come to fruitition because that peak was over 9,000 ft and I'm not entirely sure we would have made it! The problem we had was we had no map and couldn't find anybody or anyplace in town that was selling maps with the fireroads and service roads in the area. So we had no clue how to get anywhere. Even the dang ranger station was closed!

After driving around for about an hour and half we decided we didn't like the area so we changed up the plan and headed for the scott creek, salmon river area. We drove and drove and drove up high into the hills on dirt roads looking for a cool spot to camp. We wanted a view site, and weren't having very much luck until we cruised down an overgrown road off of another service road, off of another road. We had no clue where we were but we managed to find a sweet spot with a view of what we thought would be a sunrise in the morning. Despite the numerous cow pies, the site was perfect.

The one thing that the ranger station had lots of was bear brochures and warnings. We read them, and decided to put our engineering know how to good use! According to the wildlife professionals, our bear basket should be suspended 10 ft in the air, and at least 4 feet from either of the trees. The picture presented to us was a simple system. Throw a rope over a branch and pull the basket up. Well, the trees in the area didn't have any branches like shown! So the brochure was pretty much good for nothing. As you can see in the pics, we managed to string up a pretty good setup, which we placed our food in at night.

Bears were constantly on Jasons mind and he made both of us paranoid. With a campfire our viewing distance was like, 10ft if that. Pitch black and our ears began to trick is. We heard lots of sticks being broke and our minds got crazy on us. We decided to point the truck towards the road in case we had to have a quick getaway. We didn't have a gun or anything and hoped our bear basket thingy was good enough to keep them either away, or busy enough to let us get away! Did you know bears can climb trees and run up to 35 MPH?

The first night I slept very little. Jason snored the night away. Between his snoring, bear sounds, and my dreams I didn't sleep very well. When the morning came I was ready to go though! Today was hiking day.

A quick breakfast and packing up camp took us on our way to "Lovers Camp" which was a trailhead for one of the most used trails in the area. Don't know what it was but we went on it...remember we had no maps this entire time.

Power Family Trip

The Power Family Trip

There is so much that has been going on over the past few weeks that it is hard to post all the time. Right now Travis is out camping with Jason at Marble Mountain out past Yreka. I am so glad he was able to get away and hang out with Jason before we moved. We just celebrated our one year anniversary, though it was very basic it was great to get an evening together and be able to celebrate it with each other. I thought a long time about what I wanted to get Trav and with the move we don't need just thinga. I decided to bring the Blazers to Travis, with NBA League Pass and on every Blazer game night he gets free reign of the TV. So he is excited to be able to watch the Blazers. :) Trav got me a great new watch, as mine had finally bit the dust and well I just haven't wanted to spend the money to get myself a new one.

After our anniversary dinner the weekend was just beginning. Trav's whole family came into town to visit us. It was a busy and fun filled weekend. We did all the tourist things like the Cable Cars, Ghiradelli Square, the Cannery, Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge. Also in addition to the tourist things, Trav's gift from his parents was dinner and a night out doing anything he wanted. So Trav picked this fantastic restaurant called Ana Mandara in Ghirardelli Square. It was French Gourmet meets Vietnamese. It was wonderful and a great treat from Travis's family. The night out was a hillarious comedy show with Tammi Pascatelli from Last Comic Standing. See her if you ever can. LOL

It was so great to spend the weekend with Travis' family and luckily they planned it for right before we moved, so we announced it at dinner on Saturday night. LOL It went over well and they seem really excited which makes me happy and him happy which is even better. So now we are down to six days till we move and I can not be more excited and so happy. I really feel like this next move is the settle down place. The save for a down payment, get a dog and not move again for a long time place.

So as things develop and we move and I get new pictures I will post them. And so until then I will be enjoying my chick flicks, my runs, some work and probably packing. :)

Pictures from Colorado Trip

Hi everyone! So it has been a rough night tonight and because when someone (Grandpa) gets home from the hospital I wanted him to have some new pictures to look at from our Labor Trip to Colorado and the area we are moving to. So Dad and Mom I would love it if you could show him these. :) Thanks!!!

Workin out...

I'm glad to see Pam posted...yeah its been a bit crazy lately, but I had started to think my writing had suddenly silenced everyone!

Anyways, a little bit about workin out.

About a year and a half ago I underwent surgery on my lower back. I had a herniated disc, disc bulge, disc contusion whatever the heck you want to call it. For about 6 months it was very painful. My disc had blown out into the nerve bundles that ran down the backs of my legs. The pressure put a constant pain down my left one when walking, and would just got worse as time went by. Eventually I was hopped up on vicodin for the last 3 months there, and it was still pretty painful.

My health had slowly been in decline over the past few years, though. By the time I was a junior in college I had ballooned to a husky 225 lbs, gaining 20 lbs over my first 6 month internship. Sitting behind a computer 8 hrs for work, and then at least another 4 afterwards playing games, or watching TV was doing a number on my waistline. The number 38 to be exact. So after graduating I had joined a gym and was determined to get back in shape, not just to look better but to feel better...and attract the chicks!

Unfortunately for me, my lower body fell apart. It wasn't any moment in particular, just prolonged bad posture, a lot of driving and slouching, and also I think the stress of working out. During those 6 months of inactivity I went from 200 lbs to 190lbs, losing 10 lbs of muscle. I let 3 months pass before heading back to the gym, this time being very, very careful what exercises I did to limit pressure on my spinal column. It was pretty depressing at first, only being able to lift like 60% of what I was doing previously!

Well here I am today, a "svelt" (as my aunt puts it) 187 lbs. Strangely enough, 187 is obese for my frame according to the worlds BMI standards. So for all you people out there that are using weight, waist size, etc...basically any standardized number to gauge your body against, DON'T! In addition, what you may think attractive is, probably isn't what others may think...so when you start thinking am I overweight, or whatever ask yourself how you feel and how you think you look. Try and achieve what you think is cool, rather than being stuck on numbers.

Whats worked for me...

Unlike Pam, who seems to be like a freaking die hard, gym rat, I don't like spending hours in the gym. I've got better things to do than to lift weights with a bunch of smelly, sweaty guys, who grunt and flex into mirrors. So I always try and limit my visit to the gym to around an hour. After about 35 minutes of lifting your body start to lose its gains anyways, so get in, get out, add some cardio at the end too.

I also picked a muscle group that I really wanted to develop and made that the primary focus of my workout. Why? Well, because that area that I wanted to build up, would see the most gains, and therefore excite me to keep going. I picked chest and starting doing a lot more bench, declined bench, dips, and flys. Now I've got a decent size pillow for Pam to lay her head on! Obviously you're not going to just to chest in the gym, as this would basically create an unproportional body and look funny...however, if I were to blast one area on the body, I would blast the chest...Now that I'm fairly happy about that, I'm trying to focus more on my delts and lats so that if frames my upper body better.

Set goals, but don't make them too big... You want a goal that is easy enough to attain in a short time, but not so easy that it doesn't make you try hard. Without goals though, you're just going to the gym. Set goals and make a plan to get there. Do some sets to find a max weight and then set a goal up a few pounds depending on what exercise. If its walking, maybe its going to the same distance but at a larger incline.

Mix it up. I've read some articles on the importance of mixing it up. The body is smart, and it will adjust eventually to anything and everything you do. If you constantly lift 8-12 reps you're gonna plateau. Mix it up...change the reps to 15-20 and do lighter weight, or 4-7 with lots of weight. Do different exercises like I discovered the freemotion cable machine that is pretty cool. If you're on a machine, you move to the same exercise but with free weights or a less assisted motion. The body starts to use more of the stabilizing muscles and you'll get a new burn.

I also tried to get into swimming...its a little hard here because most people at the pool do breast stroke, which basically takes up the entire lane and goes very slow. Also a popular thing is to bob up and down the pool which also takes up quite a bit of room in the lanes. Swimming has been really good though cardiovascularly (very challenging to say the least) as well as good at stretching and developing of the abdominal muscles.

Form when lifting is way more important than weight. Who cares if the muscle head next to you is trying to curl 60 lb dumbells. You could too if you thrust with your legs and back like he's doing.

Anyways, didn't mean for this to turn into a freaking how-to or motivational speech! All this to say that I've been taking this whey protein supplement to try and encourage muscle growth. I'm not interested in being so muscle bound I can't wipe my own you know what, but I'd like to see a bit more definition. Anyways, did some research and your muscles need like a gram of protein per lb of body weight. So I need 185 grams of protein a day? WHAT!

One scoop of this whey stuff is like 24 grams. I woke up this morning and decided that have a scoop with my oatmeal. I do not reccomend it, at all. I choked about 3/4 of it down and thats all I could handle. So nasty. Then I went hungry because I hadn't eaten enough breakfast...just a bad start to a day.

So to sum the last 1105 words up, go work out but don't put whey protein powder in with your oatmeal. Bet you wish I had put this at the top of the post, huh.

Moving Again

So here is the latest news. I just got back from another work trip to Irvine, but this this time I had a second stop, Denver. I will officially now be transferring to our Denver office, in THREE WEEKS! SO I have lots of pictures to post for everyone to see and I will fill everyone in tonight. I got home late last night and they left my bag in Denver so I am a bit empty handed and need to get an early start for work. I love you all and miss everyone!!!!

Camping over yonder...

Well I'm a little bit dissapointed with the font selection for the blogs...I just used all of them and I'm not satisfied with any of the choices. I think I'll pick courier because I used to watch Jim Courier play tennis when I was young...

The magnum was packed to the hilt. Pam had decided it would be best to carpool, and so we had two friend, Tim and Cathy, in the backseat joining us. They had a lot of stuff...I tried to shake off flashbacks of driving the U-Haul 600 miles down here 6 months ago while we headed down the street to the highway.

Slowly, and when I say slowly I mean, SLOWLY, we entered the mass of people heading towards Tracy on East 580. The time was 4:11. I began to wonder if all these people commute all the way into the city every single day. What a depressing thought, to have to sit in traffic and waste away precious hours out of the day. Hours that you could be spending with your wife, kids, dog, hampster, or just plain by yourself in a happy place, rather than in a car on a hot freeway. If only we had communicated better, I thought, we might have been able to get on this road 30 minutes ago and avoided some of the rush.

I manually shifted through the gears to ease the use of my brakes. The magnum almost felt a bit sluggish being settled with camping gear and 4 people but as a tradeoff it looked a little more sleek. The weight had dropped it about 7/16ths of an inch. I had hoped it would have dropped more so that I could see what some new sport springs would do to the stance but I hadn't been so lucky.

One by one we began to see cars on the side of the road. Some just seeming to be sitting there, broken down. Others had a few marks from accidents. Some people looked like they had just stopped on the side of the road because they were tired and wanted to switch drivers. Let me get one thing straight...if you're driving in California and your car is powering down the street on its own, you SHALL NOT at any time stop your car on any freeway, even if you are way over on the shoulder. People are stupid and no matter what, they will slow down, look, rubber neck, look back and slam on their brakes because they weren't paying attention. The ripple effect spreads back from that point and suddenly you've got thousands of people who just want to get out of town for a simple camping trip but are now STUCK in YOUR traffic!

The other half...

If you have been a very astute reader you may have noticed in a few posts where the author, Pam, has alluded to another person who may write a little more about this or that. Well that person would be me. I am Travis, the other half of this bay area adventures relationship. You may have seen me in a few of the pictures...you know, that strong, studly looking guy?

In any case, I've been asked to contribute to this blog for a few reasons that up until this point, I didn't really care for. This blog was created so that Pam would not have to write multiple emails to multiple people about things that we are doing, simplifying her life. Please take note, that what I said was so that Pam could reduce the amount of time spent emailing the same story to different people. So...where do I come in? Well you have to read the fine print.

This blog was created so that together, Pam and Travis can reflect together on their experiences in the bay area and share these experiences with the rest of the family.

Result = Travis feels as if he has been bullied into writing a blog about everything fun we do down here. My initial reaction is in defiance of being told what to do, which is countered by guilt trips from Pam. This is a classic example of how the idea of "compromising" (which I feel was created by women to get guys to do women things) has faltered to produce desirable results. Since I have a feeling our reading audience is primarily women, I would like to present a new model to consider.

Compromising

The problem with the whole compromising thing is that at any given time, one person is still doing something that they don't want to do. This in itself creates so many potential problems that unless the relationship is firmly bound together by the strands of love and history together, it will eventually fall apart. Too often than not the focus turns to what am I doing for you and what are you doing for me. Eventually one person will start to think that he/she is compromising more than the other, and might start cutting back. Then the other person sees this and cuts back...resentment builds and eventually an argument over putting soap in the dishwasher but not turning it on turns into, "I watch basketball with you even though I hate it, so why can't you go to knitting classes with me"?

As you may or not see, my initial reaction in defiance was more or less an attempt to not go down the compromising path and end up in knitting class hating my life.

Least common denominator

If you can remember back to the least commong denominator rule from elementary math class you will know that in order to add together two fraction, the least common denominator first needs to be found. For instance, in order to add 1/3 to 1/4 they must be converted so that the denominator is equal. Therefore, you get 4/12 added to 3/12 equalling 7/12. The least common denominator then is 12, which then allows the numerators to be added together.

Finding the least common denominator in a relationship is another story. It sometimes can be difficult but the idea is that neither party feels like they are compromising and both parties are getting what they want. Here is an example. The girl has this book called "All about us" which is basically a book of questions about this or that which calls for answers from both him and her. The girl likes it because she enjoys learning things about her partner and also the quailty time portion of it. The guy hates the book because he thinks that the questions are retarded, and that he is being forced into answering things that he would rather not. Rather than compromising and having the guy feeling like he is having to do this or else, lets try and find a least common denominator.

Girl wants: Quality time and to learn about her partner.
Guy doesn't want: lame questions that he is forced to answer.

Least common denominator is - if the girl comes up with specific questions that she is interested in knowing about her partner, then he won't feel that they are lame. So long as there is a stipulation that he does not have to answer any question he is uncomfortable with he is fine with answering them.

Applying LCD to this blog

At this point its important to resist the urge to call me a geek. All comments of this nature will be deleted before feelings are hurt.

Applying LCD to this blog is simply supplying other reasons as to why its important that I write.

First of all, writing is something that actually does interest me. I enjoy it for the most part as long as I'm not required to do it. What makes blog writing so great is that it allows for an authors voice to truly come out. This is the most important reason why I would like to contribute to this blog that I've recently just figured out. For those of you that were hoping to get a straight up, narrative about what we did over the weekend from me, all short and concise...well sorry you're out of luck. I am taking this opportunity to give you readers a window into myself, to get to know me, how I view the world, various thoughts that go through my head, and feelings as I experience life with Pam.

I hope that our least common denominator is not just writing to inform, but writing to expose ourselves to each other and our family, that you might get to know the real us.

-Travis

Car sales...

Today is August 8th, which will go down in my book of history as the day AFTER Barry Bonds surpassed Hank Aaron as the all time home run leader. The 6-2, 235lb left fielder is 43 years old. Its too bad his career and record has been tarnished by doping charges.

Nonethess today also marks the day Pam completed the transaction of her car sale. Ok you may be saying, "big deal" with a sarcastic tone, but what you should be saying is "big deal" with a very serious tone! Mobility is a very huge thing to Americans. Its in our culture to have personal vehicles and our cities are designed around the fact that every American over the age of 18 most likely has a vehicle and over 60% of households have 2 or more cars. Unfortunately for us, American society is designed around a post world war II idea of suburbia. With all the GI's coming back to the states housing was a large concern. The solution was to create small communities, outside of the city, with a pattern of houses and a couple different floor plans that are easily constructed and attractive to a particular social group. The automobile enabled this model to become true because people could then commute from the burbs to their jobs instead of having to live near them. Americans have been tied to their vehicles ever since.

So what...so what is wrong with the suburbs? Whats wrong with personal vehicles? Social segregation. As technology grows our world becomes smaller and one would think that the number of interactions becomes greater but this isn't necessarily true. I think what technology does for us, is simply enable us to communicate with anybody, anywhere in the world. Whether or not we actually do communicate with them, is another story. Because of the way our communities are setup, the only communication across social groups that we recieve is at work, politically and for our kids, at school. Without communication we cannot learn, adapt, and accept other social groups, lifestyles and cultures. I think this produces a strain on our communities, and hampers growth of cross social and cultural relationships. Our current community setups allows for easier living but hurts our culture in the long run by greatly defining the lines between people as opposed to greying them out. Everyone around me at the store, on the roads, at the gas station, serving me food...well they might as well be robots.

So we will be down to one vehicle. This will save us money and require us to increase our communication. We'll have to plan a little bit more, talk about transportation a little bit more, and possibly move outside our comfort zone a little bit from time to time as we go someplace using public transportation, or a bike, or just plain walking. In these times however, I will try my best to embrace the discomfort as an opportunity to slow down and watch the kids laughing on the playground, day dream a bit, and maybe even smile and say hi to another person as they walk by...

Bye bye Honda CRV. I've only known you for a few months. Your front seat seems like its loose and the brakes seem to have warped rotors. The hum of those all season/winter tires almost put me to sleep many times. I'll miss the sheer coolness of being able to thrown 2 bikes in the back, our camping gear and just going! Make me proud with your new owner...

-Travis

And more from the camping trip

So now almost two weeks after our camping trip my legs have gone from bruising and cuts, to now Poison Oak!!!!!!!!! Yeah about three days ago I started getting some bumps, thought they were bites, well then they spread and I when I had my yearly doctor appointment I showed her the bumps and yeap, Poison Oak!! So now it has spread, is swollen and weepy. So our plans for doing a heck of a lot this weekend have changed. Because well it itches too much to walk anywhere and be in the sun. Here are pictures of the bruises and cuts and now the Poison Oak.

Camping & Biking

So because it will take way longer to write than I want to tonight (hopefully Trav will write some) I will post pictures from our weekend.

The hike we did on Sunday before leaving, Tahoe National Forest, Upper Sardine Lake.

Trav trying to see if we can find a way down to the lake, Look how blue it is!

Upper Sardine Lake

Our trail Sunday Morning, well a view from it.

Our actual trail Sunday Morning, we started riding at 6am.

Our new friend Trav scared off the trail.

Our friend a little farther away.

Our awesome new tent! Even has doggie doors. :)

Our campsite......Packsaddle Campground, Tahoe National Forest.

Before our ride on Saturday.......

Me after falling off my bike about 4-5 times. I was still smiling some how.......LOL Thank goodness for good company and scenery.

Trav and I said no way to this part of the trail.

The river we rode along, North Yuba River, we even went swimming in it to cool down and clean up.

Me riding on Saturday. I think I had not fallen yet..........

Karaoke!

So last weekend was another fun filled weekend. Friday night we drove up into Albany/Berkeley for Karaoke with a gal I used to work with and a bunch of others, some I work with now and some other random people. Karaoke was a ball and I even got Trav to sing a few songs, he has the best voice! I even sang three songs. :) Saturday was a sleep in day and by the time we got done at the gym and grocery shopping it was time to get ready to head into San Jose. We went to the Improv Comedey Palace (LOL palace) for dinner and a comedey show. We had so much fun!!! I love a good show. The main comedian was hillarious. He was Korean Comedian, but was wearing cowboy boots, was from Knoxville and had a southern drawl. So FUnny! He was like yeah I am Korean and I am fromt he South, so I am a South Korean LOL Sunday was low key which was nice. We got things done and ready for camping as well as just the normal Sunday things. Oh and I think Trav's parents are coming down for his birthday, middle of September, so that should be fun!!! Here is a picture of us from Karaoke on Friday night. :)

Camping

So I am super excited! Trav and I aer going on our first camping trip this weekend. We are heading north of Sacramento to Downieville area to a place called Packsaddle Campground. I am so excited as it is my first camping trip in years. We just got a new tent and went through all our stuff and we are pretty much ready to go. We are also going to be biking while we are up there which should be even more fun. I will make sure to post pictures for everyone :) Oh and if anyone ever wants to come down and visit we are all about having visitors. :) So keep you all posted on our camping adventure!!!

Pictures from Jim and Lin's trip

4th of July

So I can not believe it has already been a month since we have posted anything, and I guess Trav may not be writing much on Chris's wedding so I will post some fun pictures that we have from it though. The past month has been a whirlwind of traveling and work crazyness. Since the marathon we have been to Irvine/Huntington Beach for my work summer picnic and then back up to Oregon for Travis's grandma's memorial service. This weekend will be just as filled as Jim and Lindsay, Travis's old roommates will be down to visit. They are driving down Friday and then driving home early on Sunday. I have some pictures to post but will have to do that tonight when I get home. Otherwise we have just been biking a bit, hiking a bit and going into the city to a new club we found that plays some great Techno/Trance music we both really enjoy. So stay tuned for more updates on work, our weekend and pictures. :)

Marathon DONE in 4 hours 12 minutes :)

So I don't want to bore everyone with the details of the marathon but lets just say it went awesome and now I am addicted!! Trav was great and rode his bike around to give me food, cheer me on and be my paparazzi. :) The time flew by. Here are pictures from the race for everyone to see.

Pictures from Memorial Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend

So this is going to be a two part post, as Trav is going to write about Chris's wedding and how great it was, because well he was the best man! I will tell everyone about the rest of our weekend.



So for Memorial Day weekend Trav and I took off Thursday and Friday before to fly back to Portland for Chris's Bachelor Party (Travis) and so I could go to Seattle to see my favorite new mom, Jacinda. We flew in Thursday morning around 9:30am and about noon went our seperate ways, Travis to the coast for the party and I went for a nice short run and then headed up to Issaquah. The drive up there was horrendous as it took me over an hour to get from my folks house in Tanasbourne to the Columbia River, horrible! The rst of the drive was great, a beautiful time of year and it was great to see a lush forest after being down here. When I arrived unfortunately her son had just fallen asleep and her husband said he would stay home and take care of things so us girls could go chat and catch up. Whih we did. :) We went to the Rogue Brewery in downtown Issaquah which is so cute and fun! We sat there had a glass of wine and beer, talked about everything under the sun and never felt like we missed a beat. I was thinking about driving home that night but after a glass of wine and chatting till 11pm, I decided to stay the night and just drive home the next morning. The next morning after a night of sleeping on the couch, and with the cutest text message at 3:30am (thanks Trav :) ) I got to meet Jacinda's son Sean, who at 4.5 months old looks much older and is very adorable.

I got back into Portland from Seattle just in time to get my hair done, I am finally back to a darker brunette/red head. After the hair I got a nice short run in and then it was time for the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner (Trav will talk more about this in his post at some point). Saturday was the wedding and it was a great wedding.

Sunday was so much fun! We got up at the crack of dawn and heade out to Madras to go see Jim, Lin and some other friends of Trav's. The weather in Portland when we left was not so hot, misting and cool, so we were hoping for sun and heat over on the east side of the mountain. We made great time, since no one was really driving on Sunday except for a few trucks. About the time we hit Warm Springs the clouds had disappeared and the sky was clear, YES! We were planning on going out in Jim's Boat on Billy Chinook so clear skies and some warm weather was perfect!

The weather at the lake was great, there were not many people at all and we had music, food and drinks. However, once on the lake we found out why not many people were out, it was super windy and there were even white caps on the lake. We toughed it out, got some awesome sun and then all crashed back at Jim and Lin's.

Monday was spent with a BBQ for Caris' Birthday, Travis' sister. It was a great weekend, with a ton of family time, both sides, and busy at the same time. Hopefully Trav will write about the wedding soon, as that was a majority of the weekend. Talk to you all soon!!!!

Mountain Biking

So a quick little update about our weekend. Our weekend was great and full of adventure. Friday was a relaxing evening at home, yummy boneless pork ribs that Travis had made and all the trimmings. :) It was so great to be asleep by 10:30pm.

Saturday we got up early, around 7:30am, ate breakfast and then decided to go try out a park near our house that supposedly had decent mountain biking. Well it didn't but it had some major hills, so Trav helped me get better at how to position myself for going up steep hills. I fell a few times, just going slow and actually once while Trav was holding on to the back of my bike, but it was fun. Afterwards because we were done by 11, we went over to the gym for a good workout and I ran about 2 miles, just to get the kinks out.

We were going to spend the rest of the day reading and hanging out at home, but with the weather so nice, we decided to head out instead. So we headed to the mall, LOL I know inside, but at least we were out of the house. We wandered the mall a bit, found lots of stuff I wanted and Trav wanted, and by that time, luckily it was time to head over to our movie. We saw the new Anthony Hopkins movie, Fracture. We both loved it. Makes you think, trying to figure out who did what and where.

Sunday, well this is where the weekend gets interesting. So we had made plans with Tim and Kathy, a guy I work with and his wife (will post pictures later) to head out to try a different spot over in Lafayette, yes where I used to live. The park is called Briones and it was supposed to have some single track, be rolling hills and have some good tree cover as well as open space. Well the single track, not too sure about. Hills, yes there were hills, but I climbed them all, as did Trav, we both are pretty happy with how in shape we are for climbing, but there is always better. So after we got to the top, had a little picnic, enjoyed the view, we headed down. We all made it through the first down hill stretch, about 400-500' drop in a mile I would say, with loose dirt. Then since I was feeling so confident I decided to go first and just took off. Well about half way down, I got a little out of control and my front tire went into a rut and got stopped by a nice root. Well I did what is called an endo, I went end over end, over my handle bars and landed on my butt and back. However when my tire got stopped, I think I locked out my arms and so when I tried to get, there was no way I could push myself back up. I ended up with some help getting up, back on the bike and going down one handed the rest of the way, luckily it was a very slight decline the rest of the way. Trav was a sweetheart and got my ice, Advil and helped me ice them the rest of the night.

On Monday, we noticed there was a bruise on my right elbow and it was all swollen, however the left, which I thought I hurt worse, was just still sore, but not swollen. I went in to see my doctor, who then sent me to X-Rays. She called and told me I had fluid in my right elbow but the left was fine, probably just bruised. So yesterday I went and saw the Orthopedist she referred me to, and with a week and a half before my marathon, I have a stress fracture in my right radial, just below the head of the elbow joint. Luckily we are out of town every weekend for the next 4 weeks, so I can't mountain bike, but he did say I could run the marathon, just be careful and ice it after and take some anti-inflammatories before and after the race.

So otherwise I am a bit banged up, which I am sure most people will see when we are in town this weekend. The blue bruises will match the blue and white dress I have to wear. LOL

The Embarcadero and us at Kaboom

Kaboom!

Another week has flown by and here I am just posting about our fun times down here. Travis is finally back, after what felt like the longest three weeks, though I really only went 2 weeks of not seeing him, and what felt like never talking to him, but probably text messaging at least 20 times a day. :) He had a great time with the guys, I think missed me a ton (I like to think so), got a nice tan, and learned a lot.

Friday night was a relaxing evening. Just dinner and a movie, just enjoyed being home. Saturday was a great day! I bought a mountain bike while Trav was gone, and don't laugh too hard, but it is the exact same bike as Travis, except made for short people like me. HAHAHAHAHA I got a smoking deal and am so happy because now we are going to go at least once a week, I am even going to try and get him to go after work somedays. So Saturday, was a very full day. We slept in a bit, then had to hurry off to get Travis fitted for his tux for Chris's wedding which is now only 2 weeks away! After driving around for 30 minutes, because well I thought I knew where the place was, but really I had no clue and now I am banned from guessing where places are and must have a map, Travis made me call the Men's Warehouse and ask where they were located.

Next it was off to the city (aka San Francisco, everyone just says the city because well it is the biggest city there is pretty much on the West Coast) for a bike tour on our own, plus testing out my new bike. We parked down by AT&T park, which is on the South side of the city and looks towards Oakland, and headed around the Embarcadero and by all the Piers, the Ferry Building, through Fisherman's Wharf, up and through Fort Mason, down through the Marina District and then up the Presidio and over the Golden Gate Bridge and finally down into Sausolito. The ride was so much fun but had a killer headwind, so it was a great workout! I have never ridden or walked over the bridge so to do that with Travis was just Amazing and the day was so clear it was beautiful!!! We took the Ferry back to the city and biked back to our car to change for the second part of the day.

The afternoon and evening we spent with people from my office, some of my friends, at an event called Kaboom, a series of 3 concerts and finished off with a fireworks show out over the Bay, right behind the Pier the concert is held on, put on by a radio station. Work purchased the tickets for everyone which was great. However since this was my first time at the event, I did not know that the line to get in started first thing in the morning, so we got in line about 4pm, when the concerts started, well the line was over 1.5 miles long winding all the way down the Embarcadero. Luckily about a mile down the line, my boss Gary was there with his son, and with no cops around they waved us in. So indtead of an hour wait we only had about a 30 minute wait. CRAZY!! I guess 50,000 people were in the event on the Pier and over 350,000 gather in the city and in Oakland to watch the fireworks. I forget how big this area is sometimes. Two of the concerts were ok, but they had GUSTER! and you know i LOVE THEM! However, when the sun dropped the temperature plummeted. We were prepared to be sitting out with it somewhere in the 50's but it was easily mid 40's if not low 40's. So from about 7:30pm and on, I was pretty much attached to Travis so we could try and keep each other wamr, lots of people didn't stay for the fireworks because they were shaking it was so cold. Being out on a Pier the wind just blew and cut right through every layer you were wearing. My warm coat was no longer warm. But the fireworks show was the best one by far Trav and I had ever seen and well worth chattering and freezing. After the show, we got out as fast as we could and cranke the heat up in the car, which when the heat finally blew, I was so cold it stung to feel the warmth.

Sunday was a nice day of rest and errands. This upcoming weekend sounds like it is going to be a great weekend, more of an adventourus one and of course the running. Which if anyone is keeping track, I am down to 2 weeks before the marathon, yikes! So we hope to see lots of you when we are in Oregon for Memorial Day weekend. Stay in touch!

Arizona Trip

So I know it has been a while since my trip to Arizona to visit Trav while he was down for work, well I just haven't had time or energy to post anything yet. The tip was fantastic. Trav has been in Arizona, Phoenix, since April 22 and I am very ready for him to come home. I went down the weekend of the 27-29 and got a rental car so we could go all over the place, which we did. I flew down Friday afternoon and met up with Trav at the hotel about 6:30pm, and it was so great to feel the heat, be able to wear a tank top, short skirt and flip flops, to actually feel like summer was coming, and was there in Phoenix. Trav had the night all planed out so we dropped my bag off and got back in the car for a dinner date.

We drove out to Tempe, probably South Tempe I am guessing. We parked at the bottom of this hill and up on the top was the restaurant Trav had made reservations at. The place was called Rustler's Rooste and it was so cool. It was all decked out in Western Decor, saddles, horse shoes, live country band, the servers wore cowboy hats, and boots, the whole nine yeards. By the time we got there, we were both starving so we get this meal called the Cowboy Meal or something to that extent in which we got bread and biscuits, salad, and the whole platter of meat (see the picture below with Trav and I and that is only like half the food maybe). After we finished off our wine, beer and meal I swear I couldn't eat anymore, but of course we had to have dessert. We had the funniest dessert. It was called Cowpie. So just imagine what a cowpie would look like, that is what the dessert looked like. It was a ice cream cake basically. It had an oreo cookie crust, filler with coffee ice cream and a hard chocolate topping. I looked like poop, but it was the best poop I have ever tasted, well the only one actually. LOL The rest of the night we just relaxed and talked and crashed early so we could enjoy our full day Saturday.

Saturday we got up kind of late, had a quick breakfast then headed out to explore north of Phoenix. Trav had heard about a place called Montezuma's Castle, a state park, that is famous for its 500 year old pueblo dwelling. We get out there and we thought you would be able to walk through it or at least up to it, nope. LOL So we walked over in front of it looked at it, said well that is cool, read about the building and what little is known about the tribe that built it then turned around and left. Nothing exciting. The next stop, after a few bathroom breaks (Trav hates me and my small bladder) we made it up to Sedona for lunch, which we did, loved the view from this second story cafe we had found. We then headed up to Slide Rock.

Slide Rock was so amazing. It is this little canyon that is bathed in sun till about 5-6pm and has this creek running through the middle of it. The creek has carved a natural slide through the rocks that people can slide down because the rocks are so smooth from the water running continuously through them. Trav and I both slid down it once before we tried to take pictures, but I guess Trav wore the wrong shorts so it gave him a major wedgie so the first time was his only time. HAHAHA, but I did it a few more times, so Trav could get some pictures and it was so much fun! However there is one spot that hit the same spot on my hip everytime, left a sweet bruise. LOL The price to pay for a great time. We went and found a spot away from everyone and laid there for a bit till the park closed to just enjoy the heat and the sun, it was so wonderful so be able to just feel the suns rays on our skin.

We drove back to Phoenix once the park closed, which only took about an hour and a half, and I think I slept a lot of the way LOL I can sleep anywhere, especially in a car with sun beating down on me. We went back to the hotel and got cleaned, because besides playing in the water, while we were walking around I slipped on the rocks and totally soaked all my clothes. Trav found this great sushi place in downtown Scottsdales to try since I had been craving sushi for weeks. Since neither of us have ever been anywhere, we didn't know what to expect, and we found out the Scottsdale is where all the pretty people hangout. LOL The restaurant was great though, and we walked around afterwards, stopped for Gelato and sat outside and people watched. It was great!

Sunday was another fun day, we got up early, ate breakfast and went to the gym. We tried to find one close to the hotel, nope. LOL So we ended up back in Tempe, which the gym was nice and big. I got in a nice sprint workout doing about 5 miles and trav got to lift and do a little cardio. Felt great to be active after feeling like we were eating the whole weekend. After the gym we wanted to find a water park or go float the Salt River, just because it was 100 degrees and being in the water just felt so nice and we wanted to enjoy the heat. Well I guess neither open until at least the middle of May so that was a no go. So we decided to go to the zoo. The zoo was ok, but we still had fun, plus it was Mexican Day. I am not kidding. All the Spanish Radio Stations were there, all the exhibitors were in Spanish, that was the theme. Plus the zoo wasn't really broken up into different areas around the world, they just showed African animals and animals in Arizona. I guess Penguins wouldn't do well in the heat. :)

All in all the trip was a blast and Trav gets back this Friday and lluckily no more trips till Memorial Day. :) Have a great day everyone and hope to hear from you guys!!!

Where Pam Works

Skeggs Point Pintures

Another Long Run

So Travis is officially in Phoenix for the next three weeks and the place is already really quiet. We had another great week down here, and an even better weekend. Travis' job seems to be going well with some sweet hours, he leaves when I do or after me and gets home at least an hour before me. Sweet Deal! Friday we went into the city for dinner and dancing, was a great night. We tried this Mediterranean/Greek Restaurant called Ziryab which is a tiny whole in the wall, with a great patio seating out front, which will be good in the summer when the weather is warmer. Trav had a delicious chicken breast and I had the lamb kabobs with couscous, YUM! The club we went to was called Slide, was supposed to be where the pretty people went, not too sure about that LOL, and the music was ok. The DJ was playing 80/90's and current hits mashups, I do have to say he did a good job at the whole mashup but the music was great for about an hour then just got old. We definitely both prefer techno at a dance club, so we will have to try some new places once Trav gets back form Phoenix. :)

Yesterday was another great day. :) Trav, myself and Tim (a guy I work with and am friends with his wife) we all went into the Santa Cruz Mountains basically halfway between San Mateo and Half Moon Bay, it was a gorgeous view, to go Mountain Biking! Wish we would have remembered to get pictures. But I pulled some off the internet I will post. So this was my first time Mountain Biking, and I am hooked! Tim let me borrow his wife's bike so I could see if I actually like it, which was super nice of him. I was really happy because I didn't completely suck wind, I think I kept up with Trav pretty well on the uphills, the downhills I need to get used, not used to speeding downhills that are uneven and have roots or rocks in the way. After the biking we went back to Tim's place for a great BBQ where we ate our weight in chips and burgers. It was an all around great day! Today, I got up, did Trav's laundry, got him all packed up and took him to the airport. So now I am all alone and have no one to bring me food after I ran my 18 miles! Three more weeks and I will do my 20 mile run.

So I am off for the evening, have a great week everyone!!!