Easter Dinner

This Easter Debbie and Mike invited me over for dinner with Debbie's daughters Jessica & Britney.  The table setting was great with all my favorite chocolates cadbury milk chocolate eggs and reese's peanut butter cups!  Delicious!

The best part of the night was our surprise Easter bag gifts.  Debbie had purchased for different colored bags and told us each what our color was.  I found everyone else's bag except my own!  I was the last one to find my bag with some help and hints from Mike!  I had a bunch of sweet treats and a delicious port!  Thanks Debbie!

As always, Mike made a delicious meal with so much more than we could all eat.  I left that night completely stuffed and even carting more home!  Thank you for such a nice and memorable Easter!

Marin Half Marathon

This half marathon is my favorite half marathon.  For me it's a do not miss race each year!  This time I ran it and carpooled down to the race with Amanda McGowan.  Somewhere on mile 7 I got "itchy feet" as Amanda describes it and I launched out on my own.  I didn't get too far ahead of her though as it was really steep for most of the last half!  You can see my race map and stats all posted on my Runkeeper.  As we were running the route, we ran past our friend Irene.  It's always fun seeing friends on the run you didn't know were there!

Manufactured Superstars

This Saturday my friend Michael Rolfe and I bought tickets to go see Manufactured Superstars live in San Francisco at the Ruby Skye club.  Since there would be drinking and dancing until late into the night we decided to make a trip out of it!

We started the afternoon by going up to the cliffs above San Francisco on a beautifully clear day and taking pictures of the bridge and the city.  Michael hadn't ever done that before and had a great time snapping pictures.

Then we checked into the JW Marriot SF, Union Square which was just a block or so from Ruby Skye- Perfect!  The doors were supposed to open at 9pm, but didn't until after 10pm.  We were still some of the first people in the club.  Fortunately they had some pre-concert entertainment!

Ruby Skye has a great layout with large dance floor.  It's great looking out over the crowd and the stage.

Of course the most fun is being right up front in the midst of the craziness dancing and having a blast!  Such a great setup.

I had a great time at the concert, Manufactured Superstars played some great mixes and even had a few with vocals here and there which always makes my day!

Alliance 2013: Indianapolis!

This year the annual HEUG (Higher Education User Group) conference "Alliance 2013" is being held in Indianapolis.  I wasn't too excited about the venue, out in the middle states lost in the 'red zone' but alas, it was an educational trip with my co-workers and others like us from around the world so yay!  Most exciting this year was that me and Jaime Russell presented on "Block Enrollment:  Pre-enrolling your First time Freshmen into their coursework".  I was very anxious for my first time presenting at the conference.  It was nice being the first presentation out of the gate, Monday morning at 8:00am.  The presentation went great, even had a few familiar faces in attendance asking some great questions- thanks Jami and Kimberly from Boise State!

Once our presentation was over I was ready to enjoy the rest of the conference, for sure!  I got several great runs in with my friends.  The normal iO Consulting "Fun Run" 5k was Sunday morning and it was so cold that our eyes were tearing up and we were chattering our teeth, certainly not weather we were used to.  Once we'd ran the 5K race, Trisha, Amanda and I went around the loop one more time to get in almost 6 miles total.  Trisha and I braved the cold one other morning and looped out again that day too.  Can't believe we did it though, the wind chill must've had the temperature down in the single digits.  SO COLD!

Each year the iO Consulting company also has a customer appreciation event.  This year it was held at the NCAA Hall of Fame!  Apparently this is very cool!  I had some good snacks and drinks at the event.  It was also where I got to see most of the Boise State contingent and chat with them for a bit.

The closing night celebration was over the top.  I had more drink coupons than I could count and my Alliance water bottle was filled to the brim with vodka cranberry drinks!  That's how I roll at the parties.  There were three stories of events.  At the top were dancers and performers with drinks and food a midst Nascar race cars and promoters.  The middle level had the deserts and a very chill atmosphere.  The sea of desert tables (this is just one of them) was overwhelming.  Thanks to Amanda for helping me not eat myself to death!

The lower level had dueling pianos and games.  This is where I met up with Michelle and Jami from Boise State and had a few drinks while singing along with the piano's and watching the crazy dancers heckling each other and the pianists.

Yeah, that's me with my vodka water bottle... so clearly a great time by all, wonderful event and of course most importantly we learned a lot from each other that we can take back to our campuses!

Cheers to Alliance!

To The City!

After my crazy day barrel tasting through Sonoma county what better way to spend my evening than bar hopping in the Castro?!  It's always awe inspiring to me to be greeted by the massive Golden Gate bridge.  Such a welcoming and powerful feeling every time I pass under the arches.

We started out at the Market street Safeway where I picked Brandon up after work.  Then we went down the street to Martuni's Piano bar where I had a delicious blueberry lemon martini and met Brandon's friends.  After our drinks there, we went up the street to the Castro, stopping at Hi Top.  Absolutely loved this place; a gay bar with sports emphasis it had a great atmosphere and the Wild Thrill drink I had was...well, a Wild Thrill!  Then we ended up at Toad Hall for a bit of dancing and people watching.  Always have a great time with Brandon in the city.  I'm already looking forward to my next visit!

Barrel Tasting Weekend

This Saturday morning started out like most weekend mornings; with an early jog with Amanda McGowan!  Amanda met up with me in Rohnert Park this morning and we jogged around the city.  It was a good 10 miles.  I'm always surprised by how much we can chat and before we know it 10 miles is come and gone!  It was the first time I had my new heart rate monitor on me and it was great to have audible updates of my heart rate en route.  You can see the run and all my stats including my heart rate on my Runkeeper page.

Afterwords no time to rest!  I had to guzzle some water, shower and get fancy for barrel tasting weekend!  Tiffany White put together a huge group of friends to go barrel tasting in a stretch hummer limousine - AWESOME!

We had some drinks at Tiffany's house and then loaded up the limo when it arrived promptly at 10am.  I wasn't sure we'd get 20 people into it, but we did!  This stretch hummer had an additional 4-5 seats in the back in a circle seat.  That's where the drinks were poured and passed around to the group.

We started at a winery on the 101 just to check-in then headed up to Bella Winery.  It was probably my favorite of the places we visited.  They had huge wine caves with ample room for the hundreds of people visiting that day.  They had quite the spread of food- the bacon and grits I tried were delicious and of course the chocolate pairings with the wine in the cave was my favorite.  Here's a picture of me and Katelynn inside.

After Bella we went to Chateau Diana.  They had some very good and very unique tasting wines!  I really enjoyed the tastings here.  I took a minute and enjoyed my glass of Zombie Zin on the patio with some fresh sourdough bread.  Outside of the tasting room I snapped this picture of Tiffany, Alin, Katelynn and Kaela.  We couldn't have asked for better weather!

At one of the stops along the way we got this huge group picture with all 20 of us!  Such a fun crowd!

At one point we stopped off in Healdsburg and I walked over to Thumbprint cellars and tasted there and fortune had it they had my wine shipment ready so I picked that up then caught back up with the group.  I don't even remember where they were, but I found them and then we headed back south!  When we arrived back at Tiffany's place I took Katelynn's car back to our house and napped for several hours because tonight I'm headed to the city to go out with Brandon!

San Francisco Brunch

This Saturday I had brunch plans with my friend Brandon in the city.  I was excited to take my motorcycle down there and meet him.  This is the first time I've had my new bike in the city and also the first time I've had a passenger on the back!  I got my bike ready in the morning by taking off the rear seat cover (it requires a screw driver) and then put the spare helmet into my backpack and headed down to meet Brandon at his new place in the Sunset district.  I really liked the location, just off the 19 on 21st street south of Golden Gate park.  I picked him up and we went to his favorite brunch spot Reverie Cafe (848 Cole Street).  I snapped a picture of my crab eggs Benedict and his favorite huevos rancheros.

I had a great time with Brandon and it was such fun catching up with him.  Then it was time for him to work so I drove him down to the Safeway on Market street.  Then it was time for my ride home on which I may or may not have been racing a Maserati headed north on the 101.  I may or may not have gone faster than I ever have in my life, without even noticing it until I looked down at the speedometer.  Without a doubt, I love my new motorcycle.