Omlette Express

This morning I went on a motorcycle ride for breakfast and I ended up where I usually do; the Omelette Express in the railroad district of Santa Rosa.  My favorite omelette is the herb, cheese and bacon one with a side of fruit.  It's always busy so getting here before 10:00am is usually imperative.  Just one of my happy weekend rituals!

Belly

Tonight after work Katelynn and I headed to downtown Santa Rosa for drinks at Belly!  I've never been before - it was a pretty open space with a garage style opening in the side of the building which allowed for a nice breeze to come through.  We met up with Tiffany White and Emily Seguine.  I enjoyed their sangria while the ladies enjoyed flights of beers.  A fun night out!

Deliveries Waiting At Home

It's always hard coming back from a vacation and this return from Disneyland was no different.  What was very different this time is that I had all sorts of amazing things waiting for me upon my return!  Late last year Yes To products had a $2 sale.  Every item they offer was only $2!!!  (limit 2 per item) Most of their body products range from $12-$20 so this was an amazing deal.  The rush on their website was so immense they had to re-do their sale giving everyone promo codes and specific days to log on to their website and make the purchase.  This of course led to extreme shortages.  So by the time my product was ready I'd already moved.  Of course, while I was out of town the shipment arrived at Evan and Emma's house.  I picked it up on my way back from Oakland.  When I got home I had two more surprises; my new 64G, silver, iPhone 5s and neon green Tuneband had been delivered also!

Tinker Bell Half Marathon

This is my second year doing the Tinker Bell half marathon.  But this year Amanda and Jake joined Trisha, Jeff and me for the race!  Jake hadn't trained up quite enough so we jogged and walked the first six miles and then he stopped at the medical station.  I'm glad he hung in there for 6 miles, having not trained much that was an accomplishment!  After I made sure he was in good hands and said goodbye, I sprinted off to find my street team.  In my haste I passed them up- somewhere!?  HaHa!  I ran 8 minute miles for the second half and came in under 3 hours for the whole race.  This race IS NOT about time, I cannot emphasize that enough, because all the way there are places to take pictures, characters to see - so much going on!  It's like a theme park ride/race for runners.  Hard to describe, it's unlike any other regular race for sure.

I wanted to get more pictures this year, but just enjoyed the route.  You can see the run with the pictures I did take along with my stats on my Runkeeper page, as always!  Here's some of the pictures I got on the route - such a fun time!

Disneyland

This afternoon Amanda and I left work early, so we could go to Disneyland, of course!  Jeff and Trisha are driving down and Jake, Amanda and I are flying.  Jake is leaving Boise and meeting us there later tonight.  Amanda, Jake and I got into the park super early and ran straight for tomorrow land in the Magic Kingdom.  We got there before it was even open, so had to wait behind the rope until they were ready for us.

Once we got through we ran to Space Mountain to beat the lines and so we could ride it straight away without lines and then again before the lines built.  It was a great idea in theory, unfortunately neither Amanda or Jake felt very well after the first run so I went the second time on my own.  (Later that day we met up with Jeff and Trisha, so I put the picture of us doing space mountain in the same collage.)

After taking some time off from the rides and half of a dramamine Amanda and Jake were ready to try out Splash Mountain with me - it was a LOT of fun, and one of the best pictures of us on the rides for sure!

When we met up with Jeff and Trisha it was time for.. more rides, of course!  We spent the afternoon going from ride to ride, having a great time.

We truly felt like kids - even hopping into the circus train for a slow loop around the tracks.  Who says Disneyland is just for kids?

One of my many favorite things about the park this time of year is all the holiday decorations!  Small world was definitely done up in style and in the theme of the season - loved it!

We thoroughly enjoyed the park and didn't let a minute escape us as we went from ride to ride all night long, taking advantage of everything it had to offer.  Here's a few pictures from throughout the day and a couple pictures from Saturday when we visited lego land.

Most of the day Saturday was devoted to picking up our race registration packets, attending the conference and walking through the booths.  No time to rest up, the Tinker Bell Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) is Sunday morning!

Running Sonoma

One of my favorite weekend activities is to meet up with Amanda in the city of Sonoma, CA and go for a run along the paths and roads that curve throughout the town and vineyards.  Every time we near the end of our route I'm shocked that we'd just ran 'x' number of miles.  The time just FLYS by- and before I know it we're done.  I usually joke that we should "bill the hours to work" as we generally talk through our upcoming items, projects and plans.  But seriously, we should bill the University for our time... Here's the route we took today.

As always, you can see my running information on Runkeeper.com.

New Title, New Office, New Building, New Year!

In Spring of last year I was promoted to Deputy, CIO.  Finally, upon returning from the Christmas break my office was ready for me to move into!  It's been hard for several months now with my team separated between two buildings.  I'm glad to be over in the new area now and we'll all be in two consolidated areas within the same building; it's the best we could get!  Starting off the new year in a new location with new furniture is feeling good!  I even made good use of my farkle family white elephant gift exchange gift "Words with Friends" which I'd taken to the gift exchange and sneakily won!  I hung the board on my door so I could leave messages about when I'm in, out, away, in a meeting, etc.  It should be fun.  Looking forward to the coming year with all the things it brings!