The business case for running a race: Seattle Half Marathon 2010

This morning I ran the Seattle Half Marathon and it was a ton of fun.  The race started at 7:30am right next to the Space Needle.  The race was super hilly which was surprising to me as I still live under the delusion that Seattle is flat (which it's not).  Much of the race was along the water which was beautiful.  I wound up running 1:36 - not my PR, but not horrible either.

The starting line had a lineup of characters depicting those you might find in business; such as:
Do and ask for forgiveness: up close to the starting line it was packed.  One guy kept bumping into people, then apologizing, then bumping into the person in front of him as he tried to get ahead.
The victim: after getting bumped by a handful of "Do and ask for forgiveness-ers" a woman next to me looked like the world hated her.  No one should look like that at the starting line of a race (or in business for that matter) ... so sad.
The get ahead when not ready peeps: Behind me I heard a group of guys talking.  "What time are you going for?"  "Probably something like under 2 hours ... I dunno." (we were in the section for 1:30 - 1:40 runners).  "Yeah, me too.  I don't really care."  "I'm probably going to go out slow and then we'll see."  Argh - I can't stand these runners because it means others who are going for time are stuck tripping over feet just trying to get out of the gate.
The stud:  There was a woman standing next to me (it was 40-degrees this morning) wearing racing underpants (I don't know the right word for these, but they look like big panties) and a t-shirt.  Stud.  She passed me at mile 6 and I never saw her again.  She was good, and she knew it.

Snow day, Turkey day, Rain day - YAY!

What a week!  On Monday it started snowing.  By Monday evening the roads were a madhouse, and by Tuesday Seattle was completely covered in white.  So covered, in fact, most of the schools were closed and my office instated a "work from home" option to avoid having people try to get on the road.

Introducing - snow day.  Our nanny couldn't make it Tuesday, so work from home day was a work from home / snow day with the boys.  And it was SO much fun!  Oddly enough the day was packed with nearly hourly phone meetings, but people didn't seem to mind the howling and laughing of the boys in the background.  Matt and I traded off play time with work time and the boys entertained themselves quite a bit.  One new achievement?  Lego palaces.

Thursday brought one of my favorite holidays of the year (second to Easter).  Thursday morning Matt and I packed up the boys and hit the road for Portland where we enjoyed an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt Laura's house with her kids (my cousins) Matt and Rebecca, their spouses, and their kids.  The house was full of babies and toddlers as well, of course, as good food.  It was funny, in year's passed, there was the "kids" table and the "grown up" table.  This year the "kids" table was really the parents of toddlers and younger table where we sat spooning mashed potatoes in between bites of our own and sips of wine.  Funny.

Friday the weather turned and we were greeted with rain.  Again.  The drive home was quite nice (it's a 3-hour drive from Portland to Seattle) - the only traffic was at off-ramps to malls.  When we arrived home there wasn't a speck of snow on the ground.  Crazy.  Seems the rain coupled with the "warm" 40-degree weather cleared it all up.

Now I'm prepping for the Seattle Half Marathon which I'm running tomorrow.  And by prepping I mean getting in some holiday movie time while the boys nap.

Snow!

The weather outside is ... NUTTY!  It's snowing.  A lot.  This morning it was somewhere in the 30s, and now it's the low 20s.  I typically bike to work, but with all the black ice on the road I ditched the bike for the bus (lots of isms there, I need to write some musings soon).

On my way home I again caught the bus.  By 4:45pm (I don't usually leave that early, but when it's the first snow and the roads are bumper to bumper, there's no option) I was out the door and on the 16.  After 45min in traffic, and a 10-block drive to the Space Needle, it was apparent we weren't getting too far.  So apparent, in fact, that a guy across the aisle from me took a look at traffic on his phone only to reveal that cars were bumper to bumper for miles.  Another woman asked the driver "how long to Fremont" (the town next to mine) to which he responded "at least 3 hours."  Oh boy.  First off, there is NO way I'm going to miss dinner with my boys if I can help it.  Second, the bus smelled like pee.  I needed off.  So the guy across the aisle and I decided to walk ... the 4 miles ... up hill ... in the snow.  The walk was actually quite nice - I learned all about him applying to med school, his family in South Africa, his visit to San Francisco (where all he saw was China Town), and his hipster brother.  Just not a first name.  The problem was by the last few blocks home I couldn't move my chin anymore so conversation froze (get the funny use of words.  Harharhar - my humor didn't freeze.  Oh boy - own biggest fan.)

Here's a look at the front of our house just after dinner:

And here's the great snow in Seattle a few years ago:

I hope it doesn't get this bad.  The problem is it's already looking like this in front of our house.

Feeling beige

The weather has turned in Seattle, and snow is in the forecast.  So - it's time to get out my cold weather duds.  I have fallen for sweater dresses this year and they seem to be my go-to staple.  But, in the dark/cloudy days of Seattle, a bit of color is needed, too - intro, the scarf.

Here's my dream outfit of the day:

Clare Tough Handknitted cashmere and silk-blend sweater
$2,340 - net-a-porter.com
V neck sweater »

Lover / Nellie Long Coat
$840 - lagarconne.com
Double breasted coat »

Marvelous Match Tights
$22 - modcloth.com
Tights »

Suedette Ankle Booties
$23 - forever21.com
Ankle booties »

LOVE QUOTES TASSLE SCARF CONFETI LINEN/VISCOSE MAXI
80 GBP - farfetch.com
Love Quotes Scarves scarves »

cable faux fur lined trapper hat
30 GBP - janenorman.co.uk
Trapper hat »

Weekend Roundup - a whole lotta twin greatness

This weekend was spectacular.  Matt's parents came to town on Thursday to hang with the boys.  Friday night we had a great family dinner (steak, potato, and asparagus - this one tops the list).

Saturday I slept in all the way to 7am.  Upon rising it felt like a whole new world was available... which was quite nice as I had a 10k trail race later that morning.  I won the race (first woman overall) and felt GREAT! 

Saturday afternoon I was off for a birthday facial (a gift from Matt's mom for my 30th birthday (last year - I just turned 31)) at an amazing spa called Jill Bucy.

Sunday Matt's parents left early.  We spent the day cleaning the house, looking for furniture for our 3rd bedroom, and dancing - lots of dancing.  It seems dancing is Cole's new favorite passtime (one for which Wilson grooves in, wiggles, and then runs off to try to climb on anythinghe'snotsupposedto).

Other notables for the weekend include fort making time, reading time, and raking time.  All in all, great times!

 

Seattle's best!

You know, I wrote that and it just sounds wrong ... how about: "Holy Curd What an Amazing Dinner!"  or "Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!" or maybe just to the point "Speechless from eating in Seattle"?

OK, enough on the blog title - let's get to the good stuff - food.  Last night Matt and I enjoyed our first date night in ... hm, 6 months maybe?  Too long, but things have been busy.  We got a babysitter and set out in the pouring rain to find a place my co-worker recommended: "Elemental Next Door" otherwise known of as "The END."  The restaurant is the sister restaurant to "Elemental" down by Gassworks park - the good news/bad news is this is in our hood.  Elemental serves set tasting menus only paired with wine serving six plates in all.  We decided to go to the pick your poison option of the two at The END where we could pick our plates and wines.

We walked in and arriving at a very blue plate special time (6pm) were the first people there.  When we walked in the waiter handed us each a glass of champagne, pointed to a roll of parchment on the wall and said "that's the only menu" then pointed to the back wall which was packed with bottles of wine from around the world and said "any half bottle is $15, any full is $30."

I wound up taking a picture of the menu partly because I wanted to remember it, but also with there literally just being this one menu Matt and I wanted to reference back for more plates.  We wound up enjoying persimmon salad, stuffed peppers, pate, an AMAZING quiche with bacon (all homemade and home cured), and a great dessert tart.  Heaven.

The only downside of the meal is with today being daylight saving's, we were ready to sleep in and sleep off our gluttonous last night.  The boys forgot it was daylight savings and were up and ready to rumble at 5am.  Yeeha!

Wood and silverware

Today is Matt's and my 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!  Wow time flies.  Really, wow. 

Here we are five short years ago:

 And here's us now:

And oh what a 5-years it has been!  So lucky...