Marin Half Marathon

Of the handful of half marathon's I've run over the last year, so far this one is my favorite! Trisha, Amanda, Irene and I took this race on. The jog is along the ocean and through some of the back trail areas in Marin County. I had my iPhone tracking my race as usual and also playing music out loud. There was a gal that said "Follow the DJ!" and we kept pace for quite a while. There were beautiful views all along the way. I pushed this run a little bit hard and had some shin splint pain on mile 11. I had to walk through it and was able to do a half-jog-shuffle for the last mile finishing the race doing OK! I plan to do this one again!

Chuck Meets Sonoma

This weekend Chuck flew in to visit me, celebrate my birthday (a little early) and see Sonoma where I've been living. The first night we played some games with Dustin, Emma, Evan and Emily. It was a fun evening. The next day we went to the city and walked along the wharf. We had some chowder and then walked through Ghirardelli and ate some delicious ice cream sundaes! Then we walked along the ocean and took some pictures.


The next thing I know, Dustin and I were alone with no sight of Emily or Chuck! Apparently the two of them hit it off right away, it was very cute!

Peter & Michelle

Are now Married! After the Alliance conference in Denver, CO, I flew directly from there to San Diego, CA for the Flores wedding. Peter's brother Gabe picked me up at the airport and we headed to the brewery for Peter's bachelor brewery party! The beer tour was amazing. It started at the Karl Strauss Brewery, then over to the Lost Abbey and finally the Stone Brewing Co. Even Evan had a few tastes of the beer flights we had! We crashed at the Valley View Casino for a bit, and then gabling! I doubled my money, then quit. I then gave some to Peter who'd lost his money and he tripled it! Then I placed a roulette bet for Emily and lost that so I stopped. We crashed that night at the hotel. The next day Evan and I went to Balboa Park and checked out the Air and Space Museum and a few others. What an expansive and beautiful park! That night I played some Wii golf with Evan and his Mom. The next night was the Flores wedding! It happened so quickly! There was drinking and dancing and everyone was dressed so nicely! The next thing I knew we were headed back to Sonoma and Peter was finally married! ^_^

2011 Alliance, Denver CO

This was my first Alliance (Higher Education User Group) conference with my Sonoma State co-workers! We planned to arrive in time so that we could do the IO Consulting 5k fun run. Amanda, Trisha and I got up early in the cool Denver morning and joined some of the other conference goers for the run. Jaime and Meryl cheered us across the finish line. After the run we took a short break, and then ran it again! HaHa! It was a lot of fun.


We got out one evening for some delicious drinks, one with pear and vodka and one with blueberries vodka and dry ice. Another evening IO Consulting hosted a party atop one of the Denver city skyscrapers. There were beautiful views all around the city and delicious hours'doeuvre. It was fun catching up with the Boise State contingent too! The conference was busy back to back sessions each day. It was great seeing all the other schools up on the next version of PeopleSoft. All in all one of the best I've ever been to!

Emerald Across The Bay 10K

One of Trisha's favorite runs- so we had to give it a try! Dustin and I were already in the city for his Birthday weekend. I left him sleeping in the room and headed out to meet Trisha, Emily, Amanda and Irene for the Emerald Across The Bay 10K. The weather wasn't the best, but it was a beautiful jog. The hardest part was running from sea level up to the Golden Gate bridge! Phew! It was a nice jog- but there was no time to fraternize with my street team afterwards. I had a call from Dustin and apparently the wine, vodka, redbull and beer didn't mix well. He was very very sick! So back to the hotel where a late check out was in order.

Dustin's Birthday Weekend!

What a crazy, crazy weekend. Friday night I drove down to UCSC and we finished moving Dustin out of his apartment. It was a hard night for him, to pack things up, marking a closure of one chapter and the beginning of another. After packing the last few items, we celebrated his birthday with the college roomies. Saturday Dustin and I went to the city and had dinner at our favorite spot; The Sausage Factory in the Castro. We had a bottle of red wine with dinner and Dustin was enjoying it! Then we headed over to Lime and met Jeremy and Merrit for drinks. Dustin kept saying "Where's my birthday drink!?" so I would oblige. At first he wanted vodka red bulls, and then later it was blue moon beers. We had a lot of fun talking with the guys and having drinks. Then we headed over to the Cafe where we danced the rest of the night away. We had a room in the city so we didn't have to drive too far. It was a really nice weekend. The cake pictured is actually from the next weekend- when we celebrated his birthday at his grandmother's home in Sebastopol.

Headlines

I don't generally blog about politics or the headlines, but GESH what is going on!? Finding out today that the house proposed NPR be defunded just pushed me over the edge. The political agenda from the right seems to be slash all domestic programs to the point of dysfunction and ensure those most in need of assistance will not find it, more tax credits for corporations (because we all know profits go to the "workers" not the top 1%), and bust collective bargaining for people who get up each day and work for a living. All of this points to one thing; bad news for middle class America which is good news for the richest of rich.

Here are some highlights from the news in Idaho (one of the reddest states in the union) over the last few months... What is going on? I feel like we're in crazy country USA.

2/28 Lawmakers will roll out their proposal to cut more than $38 million from the government health care program that covers the most vulnerable people in Idaho.

2/25 Senate passes two-thirds of Tom Luna's reform plans

3/5 Lawmakers cut higher ed to year 2000 level

3/14 Governor of Idaho disappointed in Idahoans (Wow Otter... Wow...)

3/17 House passes bill to allow guns on Idaho college campuses (Had to include this, it's just so tragic)

Some relatively recent statistics on how "Average Joe" american is loosing ground faster and faster each year.

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

Click here for the full article.