A successful half marathon!

This weekend we went to Port Angeles, WA so that Kate, SYL, and Brian could participate in a half marathon. For those of you keeping track at home, that is 13.1 miles of running. And you are not allowed to get on a bus or a train even once. Brian's spouse Claire drove, and I just came along for the ride. It was really fantastic to watch. Brian has run several half marathons, and he got a personal best time. This was Kate and SYL's first half marathon, so they also got personal best times.

Here are the runners before the race, showing us their strides:


Here is Brian finishing:


Here is Kate and SYL just after finishing:


Here is Brian posing with the rabbit that was used to decorate our hotel room:


Here are before and after photos of the group on the ferry:

Update: SYL informed me that this was actually her second half marathon, but that the time was a personal best. So, there you go.

Update #2: We just found out that Brian finished 4th in his age group!

Wish me luck!

We're off to the Olympic Peninsula so I can run my first half marathon.

I've been sick this week, so I missed my last long run, but I did do 8 miles last Saturday and 6 miles on Wednesday, so I suppose I'm as ready as I'll ever be. The weather is expected to be cloudy and cool, but not rainy. I'd prefer a little sun, but I'll take no rain (hopefully!).

The good thing about running your first race is that any time will be a personal best! Also, given our upcoming move, I figure that this is one of the last times I'll be running a race outside for a while.

Beisbol Day

On Saturday we went to see the Moaners play the Tiggies. It was much warmer than our last time at the ball park.

It was also "Salute to Latin American Beisbol Day." This meant that the music was considerably better than usual and that all the announcements were also in Spanish. We also got hats that said "Marineros" on them, to match the special uniforms worn by the players.

Thanks to our friend dwatkins, we had great seats.Also, the Mariners won! (although that was the only game of the series they won, but who's counting?)

Summer shows itself

Finally! Just when I was starting to think that all the nice days were going to arrive after we'd left Seattle, we had a few gloriously sunny days.

First, we had a picnic in the park.The picnic also featured a crawling race.The ducklings are starting to swim in the lake!We took a jaunt to Deception Pass State Park. It was a perfect Pacific Northwest scene - tall green trees, deep blue water, rocky cliffs.I also did a little Seattle tourism - I finally went on a Duck Tour (note that it was not especially sunny that day).Here's SYL's old house - the little blue one down in front (not to be confused with the big blue one in back).

The Graduate

So my brother graduated last weekend. From Berzerkeley. With a degree in Environmental Economics and Policy. He is a superstar!

The ceremony was at 9am on Sunday morning in the Greek Theater on campus. 9am seemed early, but since it was a brilliantly sunny day - and the theater has no shade at all - we ended up feeling very happy (and only a little sunburned and dehydrated).

Here are some pictures from the ceremony:

There was a dog on stage! I love that a professor brought his or her dog!

My brother walks

and he shakes (I guess he is kind of like a dog, too).

Obligatory graduation shot

In the flesh.

With his novia.

The whole crew.

Celebrating. With white grape juice, of course.

Jake, the wonderdog that owns my San Francisco family.

p.s. A very happy congratulations to my friend Joanna (if you follow the link, she's the one in the pink, not the one in the wedding dress!) who became Mrs. Joanna over the weekend.

These boots were made for walking

On Sunday I replaced these hiking boots.These weren't just any hiking boots - they were all leather Italian Zamberlans with Vibram soles. In my mind, these were, like, the hot fudge sundae of hiking boots. They kicked, well, you know. . . .

The boots were tough to break in. I remember quarter-sized blisters on both my heels, pressure points on my ankles, and chafing at the spot where the cuff of the boot tightened around my lower calf. But once broken in, these boots were the best.

I've had them longer than I've known Mike, possibly longer than I've known Miso.

They've been hiking, backpacking, and after-ski wearing in:
Montana
Hawaii
Massachusetts
California
Oregon
Washington
Idaho
Colorado
Wyoming
Vermont
New Hampshire
Virginia
Maine
British Columbia
Alberta
Japan
Australia
New Zealand
France
Switzerland

They've had a good, long, full life. No boots could ever ask for more.
I wore out the original insoles, and I wore out the original laces.

But all good things must come to end. And the end has been long in coming; it is entirely possible that the boots needed to be replaced two years ago. The breaking point came last summer after our backpacking trip. I ended the trip with purple nail polish. Except it wasn't nail polish. The boots had finally reached the end of their life and now I was bleeding under my toe nails. Yes, it hurt. A lot.

But it was still with a heavy heart that I went to REI. They were so good, for so long.

R.I.P.

A new power is rising in the (y)east

I spent the weekend making bread.

Okay, so that's a total exaggeration. My bread spent the weekend making itself. And it is awesome. A while back the New York Times published a no-knead bread recipe. I read the article, but it still seemed a little too complicated for me. But last week, the local paper's food writer did a blog post with a revised step-by-step recipe for no-knead bread. After reading that and having pictures to guide me along the way, I figured I'd give the bread a try. How hard could it be?

It was totally easy. The bread rises with a mix of rapid-rise yeast, lager beer, and vinegar. I started the bread on Friday evening, let it rise all night and Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon I put half of the dough in the oven and got this:Tasty, but a little darker than I would have liked. Can't beat the artisan bread look, though.

Sunday, Mike cut the cooking time and baked this with the second half of the dough that I'd begun on Friday evening:Can you believe it? The bread is so good. You have to try this! For real.

Spring-a-ding-dong

Yesterday, it rained.

Today really felt like spring! It was sunny, cool-ish but not cold. So we went to the lake for a walk.

The trees have really leafed out.Some are still flowering.And then we saw puppies!Coming: video and pictures from our extremely delicious dinner Saturday night.

not so much to report

I don't even have any new pictures to share.

What have we been up to these last few weeks?

Two weeks ago I tried to make a famous orange cake. It didn't work out so hot. Oh well.

I'm working on some fancy socks. This is hard. So much counting. Luckily, I chose a colorful yarn, so my mistakes are mostly lost in the color changes in the yarn. Mostly.

Last week we went to Michigan for Passover. Mike presided over two great seders. We enjoyed the warm hospitality of Mike's family - it was so nice to see everyone in Michigan. We also had a few warm and sunny days. It was actually nicer in Michigan than in Seattle [It snowed here while we were gone. Seriously].

While we were in Michigan, much of family - both from the U.S. and England - went to Armenia for a ceremony honoring my great-grandfather. You can see pictures of their trip here.

I've also been working at cleaning out my side of the office, so that there's less to move eventually. I've also started hoarding boxes compulsively [hey, this is a university town - those free boxes are going to be mighty hard to come by in another month or so].

Last, I've signed up and totally committed myself to this half marathon on June 8. Since the course is at the foot of the Olympics and right along the water, I figure it'll be a nice farewell to Seattle. You know, if I'm even able to enjoy it. Seriously, my goal is just to finish before they take the course down. Or even after. Whatever.

Our first goodbye

Tomorrow morning our friend Kris leaves for a three month training in the southeastern U.S. By the time he comes back, we'll have left for Texas. So we said goodbye on Sunday night. I know he'll be busy over the next few months, but I hope that we can all stay in touch and that he and SYL will come to Texas to see us.

I especially remember Kris' kindness that first summer when I came back from Japan alone. Kris always welcomed me, even though we really didn't know each other. I was lonely and he and SYL were always willing to have my company. I must have driven them crazy.

In other news, it's still pretty cold here. Spring, you could show up any time! Instead, they are predicting snow for the local mountains this weekend.

Saturday, however was a rare exception - sunny, warm, summer-like. We went to discovery park, to enjoy the ocean while we still could.And we saw a great dane puppy.And then on Sunday, it poured. Of course.

Chicken and Waffles

I went to a conference in Atlanta this weekend. Before going, I followed the example of Kate's friend Miso, who surfs the chowhound message board before visiting a new city to find good restaurants. I found a restaurant called Gladys Knight and Ron Winan's Chicken and Waffles, and I convinced two friends to go with me on Saturday night. One was a Japanese woman who said that from her perspective, it was one of the most exotic experiences she had ever had. The other friend was a very tall redhead, originally from Texas, who kept ordering more food. It was fantastic, and definitely the most memorable experience of the weekend.

Squirtle / Sheldon

With Mike gone, my big weekend accomplishment was finishing a baby gift for baby Zachary. You know, now that he's eight months old. But, voila, I present to you a knitted turtle:Although small, this was a big knitting project for me - I had to learn how to crochet to finish the darn [ha!] thing. Big props go to Jen Em who, with the patience befitting an elementary art teacher, taught me how to crochet.

I have several other projects forthcoming [in theory. certainly not with any alacrity]: a sweater-vest for my brother, some fancy socks for me [inspired by Dr. M's gift], and a baby present for baby Emma's new brother [who is expected to make an appearance in late May - can that family handle any more cute???].

We'll see about finishing all that before, oh, 2012.

In other weekend news, I went to the fancy Pacific Northwest nursery to help Jen Em shop for plants. Here are a few pictures:I really like the picture of the dog - although the background is a little busy. I'm considering making it my new internet avatar.

And then we went back to Jen Em's house and I got to kick it with the most wonderful [real] dog in the world.As a parting gift, here are some shots of the cherry blossoms on campus. I took this last week when the shone briefly. Now it's back to being rainy and cold.

Opening Day

Yesterday, Mike and I went to Opening Day. It was fun, but it was also really, really cold.

Here's a picture that captures the fun part - all the special things done for opening day:Here's a little self-portrait [note my new baseball hat!]:And here's a picture that captures the cold part - midway through some inning, it started to snow! For real, SNOW! So, the picture isn't that great, but you can see the white beyond the stadium roof.The snow just lasted for a few minutes, and then it turned to rain, then sun-ish. But it was still cold. As we were leaving the park, we saw a marquis that said it was 39 degrees. Brrr.

But we still had a great time, especially since the Mariners won - beating Texas!