I'm a Mermaid

I am always looking for new races to keep me motivated for running so I signed up for a Mermaid Series run geared just for women.

This was the 10K East Bay version (6.2 miles). Unfortunately the wind has been terrible here and I almost didn't do this race due to breathing issues, but I prevailed!











I finished with a terrible time due to walking about half of it - 1:20:54 but I got my finishers necklace.

Of course I was at the doctor later that week to get antibiotics and an inhaler. Still fighting breathing issues nearly two weeks later.

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Never S10P

If you paid any attention to the news this year, you know that April 22nd marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Pat Tillman.  It also marked the 10th annual run in his honor.  I believe I've done seven or eight of them.  And on April 26th I joined other ASU alumni, family, friends and strangers on the 10th annual Pat's Shadow Run through San Francisco.


This year's motto - Never S10P (where the 10 represents the 10 years and the "TO" in stop).  I did this run without Dave or Drew this year because they had an early baseball game.  So I joined about 60-70 others to complete the 4.2 mile run - Pat's ASU football number was 42.

Here's the official picture I grabbed from the Alumni Facebook page.

I am just to the left of the person holding the Tillman jersey.

Here was my view when I arrived - this is just before the run.  The halfway point is just before the bridge.


And Alcatraz before the run... it was a great clear day.  You'd never know it was raining cats and dogs the day before.



And a selfie before...

Just a random shot of the gathering before the run.





And here I am on the run... I'm maybe 1.5 miles in...


I've already reached the halfway point, but turned around to grab this gem...


...And selfie...


The San Francisco skyline....


I stopped to take a ton of pictures for tourists - since this race isn't for time, and there was a March for Babies event going on at the same time making the running path tough tough to maneuver - I figured what the heck.  Let some of these tourists get pictures of their party together - with the bridge in the background.

Then about 3 miles in I caught a glimpse of the Palace of Fine Arts..

My "unofficial time" was 50:08 which is terrible, but I was just enjoying the scenes and wasn't in any rush.  I really want to make it back to Arizona for the official race, but I'm not sure when that will be possible.  Drew's baseball season kind of puts a kink in those plans.

Easter 2014

Well the next few posts are going to only have pictures from my phone - I lost my camera for about a month and had to rely on our video camera (which doesn't take great quality pictures) and our cell phones.

So I present you our Easter Egg dying session - which was Saturday afternoon.



Drew made his own - Yankees and Dodger eggs... if you enlarge it you may notice that he tried to make the NY on the blue egg and LA symbol on the orange egg.


Mom got into the action by drinking wine and playing Photog... Dad did a few eggs.


Then sometime that night the Easter Bunny came!  You may remember last year, the Easter Bunny got his tail caught in the "doggy door".  So this year the Easter Bunny left a "neener neener" note... and a few treats.


Drew's loot...



And then he had something like 70 eggs to find!










After our Egg Hunt at home we headed to church for the annual breakfast (which starts at 7:30am) and is followed by another egg hunt.

Drew is on the middle left of this picture in the doorway wearing the striped polo.  He came away with a ton of eggs and had fun with the hunt.  Unfortunately the sprinklers came on while they were "hiding" the eggs so all the kids came back pretty wet.








But he had a great time!


After church we took our annual family photo in front of the Living Cross.

And then we headed to Grammy and GrampC's for dinner.  Oh Drew had another hunt at Grammy and GrampC's as well.  In fact a month later - we're still nibbling on Easter candy!

Rookies visit the Big Leaguers

At the beginning of April we brought Drew to Little League Day at the Oakland A's game.

(We're Canyon Creek Little League)

Of our team of 8 Yankee players - only two made it to the game.  Drew and his friend from class (he went to TK with him last year as well).  We took BART and then got right into line for the chalk walk/parade - where you get to walk around the bases.

Last year they were very strict about who could get on the field - I was banished to the stands - but this year they were much more lax, which was great!  I and the other player's Dad were both able to walk the stadium without any issue.

Here we are going down the tunnel into center field... the start of the "parade".

Our Rookies pretending to be in the Bigs.  Our Little League Division is known as the Rookies.

L-R: Drew, Ben

The boys and their Manager

 L-R: Drew, Dave, Ben

The A's played the Mariners... here they are warming up.

Drew was begging players for a ball...

Well one of these players ended up throwing a ball to him, and then some punk ass (excuse me) older kid took the ball right out of Drew's glove and ran off!  Drew chased it down, got on top of it, had it in his glove and the brat went into his glove and pulled it out.  He sat there a minute as if going - hmmm what do I do.  I went up behind him and yelled at the kid telling him Drew had that fair and square - he should give it back.  You can't steal from younger kids (mind you this kid was maybe 10 or 11)... well the little shit ran off!  (pardon me again, but I'm still mad about it).

Dave felt much worse than Drew who got over it in a few minutes.  One of the people who were walking in front of us saw the whole thing and felt terrible for Drew so she gave him a little squishy ball she must've picked up at some giveaway.  Drew was fine.  It actually took a few days for Dave to calm down.

Here are the boys as we're nearing the end of the "parade".

And getting high fives from the A's players...

And we made it to our seats!  The Cubs are photobombing our "team" picture.
He's a boy from our team last year.

I promise Drew's not bulimic... I'm not sure what he's doing here...

And we had great seats yet again! 

We left just before the end of the game.. A's won 6-3.

In Wine We Trust

You're in for a plethora of blogs now that I found my camera :)

At the end of March we ventured out for our 2nd annual Livermore Barrel Tasting weekend.  For the record this is our second year, but the wineries in the area have been doing it for a few years.. we're just a bit slow.  This year Dave and I did the 2 -day event solo... well Drew tagged along for day one and then was rescued by Grammy and GrampC for the second day.

But Drew's a trooper and was very patient with us while we did our tasting.  We started at our Wine Club favorite - Cuda Ridge.  Drew happily played with his workbooks.

While Mom & Dad did some sipping...

Day 1 was a wet one - it was pouring rain!

We managed to make it to a few places...

Dave and Drew were hamming it up in the cellars of Concannon...

Drew is really trying to "Press" his luck at the huge wine press.

Have no fear.. no wine was consumed by any minors....

Our bribe to get Drew to hold out for wine tasting in this capacity (normally we do a few hours then go home) but we stayed at a hotel in Livermore and he got pizza for dinner and was able to swim in the indoor pool.  Shazam!  Grammy and GrampC joined us for the night out and then rescued Drew the next day - taking him to a movie while his lush of parents continued barrel tasting.

It was cool - we tried a few new wineries - one of which is a small winery Caddis.  They were showing off their new wines and we were shocked to see one of our "wine pourer friend Kathy" from another winery pouring at this one.  Turns out his son is making wine under this new label.  It was very good!  But also a bit pricey for us.  We did walk away with one bottle - since our tasting fee pretty much went into it anyway.

A successful barrel tasting weekend completed again!