Ahh the Chuckster

Ok for some reason I can't embed this but I thouht you all might be entertained by an ever so articulate and witty Chuck Liddell, well when he isn't falling asleep during the interview that is.

Busy week ahead!

This is going to be a rambling post, you have been warned.

So Thursday my sister and her new husband are coming to town so we can throw them a reception (they were married in Costa Rica in April). I get along really well with my sister so I am very excited to see her and I very much like her husband Chris too. They met on Match.com, but I like to say that I was the real reason they got together because she wouldn't have gone to Texas if it hadn't been for me. Texas may not have worked out so well for me, but it has worked out very well for my sister. That reminds me, I have to write a toast. Damnit.

So Thursday I am taking them to dinner, Friday I am having dinner with Kristens new in-laws and meeting them for the first time then I am going to join Kendall's b-day extravaganza, Saturday is the big reception, and Sunday it is a day trip to the cabin. I wonder how long it will take before we are all sick of each other. My mom and sister have similar personalities so they have a tendancy to butt heads, which usually leaves me in the middle to calm everyone down. I am definitely the peace keeper in the family and the one that everyone complains to. I put all of that communication training to good use in my personal life at least.

Ok this is starting to sound like a Dear diary post, time to stop.

Person of the Week

Well I thought about having Samantha Larson be my person of the week for being the youngest non-native to climb Mt. Everest at 18 years of age, but it has been all over the news lately and I wanted my post about someone a little lesser known.
Then this kid came along - Jamison Stone - who claims to have killed a 1,051 pound wild pig. If true this is certainly not a worthy of being a person of the week, unless the enormous wild pig was on a rampage and threating the lives of children (it wasn't), but I thought the picture was worth sharing. Young Jamison will no doubt grow up to be an overweight, sweaty, beer drinking southern stereotype so hopefully he is enjoying 5 seconds of fame. Oh yeah he also said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50-caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot. How pleasant that must have been for the pig.
So the title of Person of the Week goes to 14 year old Catlin Snaring for wining the National Geographic Bee. She is only the second girl to win this title and answered every single question she was asked correctly throughout the bee. The question she won the competition with was "What city, divided by a river of the same name, was the imperial capital of Vietnam?" -- And in case you were wondering, Hue is the answer.

My hiatus

So I have been on away from blogging for a short spell so allow me to catch everyone up on my goings on:

• Got my truck back with a newly replaced clutch and something fixed on my muffler and it was indeed a chunk out of my pocket. She drives pretty now though and I even took her to Red Carpet today (more on that later) to get her all shiny.
• Had tonsilitis last week and then had an allergic reaction to the amoxocilin that resulted in a lovely itchy rash on my back and stomach. Switched perscriptions and naturally the new perscritpion wasn't covered by my insurance yada yada I feel much better now.
• Back to Red Carpet. I rarely go to what I call the extaravagant car washes, but the truck was running like new so I thought it should be sparkling like new too. So when I get back in the truck and did the cursory once over, everything appeared good and clean so I tipped the guy a few bucks. As I am driving away I realize that my stereo is not playing the Muse cd that I had left playing but was instead playing the White Stripes. Strange, but I thought that perhaps while cleaning they had accidently hit a button and changed it to the radio. The radio was not playing however and when I ejected the cd, it was a burned cd I had made awhile back that I hadn't seen in months. I had moved all of my cd cases to the bed of my truck prior to it being washed as well so there were no cd's in my cab at the time of washing. I thought perhaps I was losing my mind (or maybe just smoking too much lately) and was not actually listening to Muse when I got out - but I know for a fact that I was, plus I certainly don't remember changing the cd to that particular one since I hadn't listened to it in a very long time so no my mind was indeed intact and functioning properly. As I was driving I was looking for my Muse cd, wondering if they had taken it or where it could possibly be. When I stopped I checked all of my cases, no Muse. I looked in my disc man, no Muse. At this point I am thinking it sure is strange that someone would steal a burned Muse cd, replace it with another one and hope I wouldn't notice?? So when I got back to work I looked around the cab of my truck and there it was, my Muse. It was under my seat so apparantly one of the Red Carpet employees (now a fan of the Muse perhaps) ejected Muse, found a cd that must have slide under my cd awhile back and switched them. It is all very strange. I also dont think they did that great of job inside the cab, too busy laughing at their prank but I would have been the crazy lady making a stink at the car wash had I gone back and complained. Yes I believe one of your employees switched my cds...
• I need to get working on my person of the week! Maybe I should change it to Person of the every 2 1/2 weeks or so. Hmm, doesnt really have a ring to it.

Monday, bleh

My poor little truck finally crapped out on me yesterday. Just last week I made the comment that it was funny that Potter's car broke down when it was brand new and my old, high mileage truck was still going strong so I guess I asked for it. On Monday afternoons my mom takes a friend of the family who has Downs Syndrome out for the afternoon to do things and yesterday they were going to get their nails done. Well something came up and my mom wasn't able to make it so she asked me if I could take her place. I of course took her up on it and when we got in my truck to leave the nail place I couldn't get it into gear. I tried forcing it, but to no avail, it was AAA to the rescue. I will find out today what the damage is, but I am sure it will be cringe worthy. He has been a good little truck to me since 1998 and has driven me cross country and back twice and this is the most major problem I have ever had with it. Perhaps it is time I face the fact that our relationship may be over and it is time that I move on.

the weekend

This weekend, Kendall and I ventured down to Los Angeles to help celebrate our good friend Melissa's graduation from USC pharmacy school, congrats to her.

(Melissa is the dork giving the thumbs up in the background)

When we arrived, her entire family was there as well as her fiance's family and all were blissfully drunk while Kendall and I were stone sober and crabby from the long week and the drive. So we quickly grabbed a glass of wine to counter the Debbie Downer-esque attitudes we were sporting. Soon, we were happy clams.

What made it a little awkward was that Melissa's fiance's brother is my ex-boyfriend and he was there with his new girlfriend whom I have never met. This is the first relationship he has been in since me, and I don't think she was all that thrilled to meet me (understandably). She was also apparantly pretty drunk so I really didn't get to talk to her much. They seemed happy though and a much better match then he and I were so cheers to them.

The next day we went to the beach in Santa Monica and set ourselves up for the day.

Kendall and I are "amazing" at this beach game as my excellent form while the ball sails past me in this picture shows. Kendall also has some skills she was showing off.

I also went for a barefoot run on the beach while I was there and my calves are still tight and sore from it, but I don't often get that opportunity so it was a happy time. Unfortunately I did see a dead seal that had washed up and there were seagulls eating it so the ambiance was kind of ruined after that.

Other beach activities were volleyball, flying a kite, and I actually got in the water for the first time in years. When I do go to the beach I usually don't get in the water because it is too cold but I polar beared it and got in and it felt very....refreshing (sorry, no pictures of that).

Then we all went to dinner at Bubba Gumps and had a lot of shrimp. Our waiter also quized us

in Forest Gump trivia, and we all got the question "Which leg did Lt. Dan lose in the war?" I answered the right leg. I am a smarty pants aren't I? Damn that waiter and his trickery.

Then we walked around the Pier for awhile and came back to Melissa's condo and hung out. Melissa's new puppy Lucy is the most adorable puppy I have ever seen and Melissa's sister little dog was there as well, but I wasn't a huge fan of her because she was a little yippy white dog with a bow in her hair (too much foo foo for me) .

And seeing as I seem to post a lot about old people, Melissa's 83 year old Grandma Helen was also there and she was a spitfire. She asked if any of us had tattoos and then proceeded to announce that she has always wanted to get a bumble bee tattoo on her shoulder. Go granny!

The trip concluded the next morning and the drive home was uneventful, although Kendall and I did see a big rig being towed and the front of the cab of the truck was facing traffic which was somewhat unerving. We (Kendall might have actually had the idea- I cant remember) then had the brilliant idea that this would be the perfect opportunity to scare the crap out of someone if they were sleeping in the car by pulling up very closely behind the truck cab, screaming at the top of your lungs and breaking until the person wakes up and sees this huge big rig right in front of them. We did a dry run where I pretended to be sleeping and I think you would probably crap your pants. Unfortunately it it isn't very often that you have that opprtunity so I can only hope the opportunity presents itself again at some point and that I am not the one sleeping.

I also had dinner with my parents for Moms Day at Million Elephant. If you havent tried their mango and sweet rice, you should definitely order that someday. Also finally watched Tao of Steve last night and it was pretty funny although I started dozing off towards the end so I think I missed some things.

Good weekend.

if you have some extra time...

Well there has been a furry of posting by me today, but I found this website that is kind of cool and I thought I would share, although I wouldn't be suprised if some of you have already heard of it. It is a project that challenges you to get out of your comfort zone and interact in different ways with the world (ie going around and taking pictures blindfolded). Take a look see.

hee hee

Was browsing thru some news stories and this headline caught my eye. The assosciated picture they use is also fantastic. This is journalism at its best.

Taste and Toast of Tower

Kendall and I decided to venture out to the Taste and Toast of Tower event last night, here are our stories:

One of the stangest places for wine tasting was the International Furniture Store (Yes, they have leather). They had two tasting stations set up and a long line snaked thru the store. The first taste was decent, however unmemorable cabernet (mabye?). As we were standing in line for the second taste however, our patience began to wear thin. The one man that was pouring was really going thru the pitch as thoroughly as he possibly could and the tasters seemed completely oblivious to the long line of tasters waiting for their turn, our impatience growing with each irritating second. A rather high pitched bell rang each time someone came or went from the store, which was particularly brutal when it got stuck and rang continously for several minutes (ok probably only 7 seconds or so but my patience was really low at this point. I just wanted some friggin wine!). A group of 4 tasted every wine selection and happily listened to the man pouring give the history, discuss the flavor and talk about all the other typical wine chatter for each bottle. As we sloooowly progrssed to the front we thought our saving grace would be the cheese and cracker platter we were approaching. As Kendall and I grab some cheese, I notice that something is amiss but am unable to put my finger on it. Then Kendall being the brilliant cheese connoisseur that she is, identifies the unnaturally orange substance as Kraft American cheese slices, cut into fours. Finally making it to the wine, we took a quick swig and walked away. This is how it is done people. You are at an International Furniture store that has a life size ceramic dalmation dog and is serving Kraft American cheese slices, this is clearly not Napa Valley, keep it movin!

Besides the Kraft American cheese fiasco, most of the other restaraunts offered some great food. Typhoon had pad thai (or pad tay which is apparantly from Tayland - we actually overheard someone pronounce it pad tay) and some apple peanut thing, a potato chip with a spicy sauce and a tea. I believe this is the best food we had all night although Veni's also had a nice little spicy pulled pork taco that was also pretty good.

Besides the food and the wine it was also fun running into people; John Mayer- So are you gay because you were wearing a pink shirt and talked sort of fem (Yes Adam, I took away some man points for the pink shirt)-just wondering; Wally-you are an anomaly with your unibrow and lack of those typical good looks but you are still most adorable and and sigh inducing; boy wonder, hard to get a word in with you but I hope you enjoyed your shot of patron you crazy animal.

We got a bit of a late start so several places ran out of wine (boo hiss) but it was an enjoyable and entertaining time. And cheers to the Tower Theater ball finally being lit up:)

Person of the Week (5 days late)

I have been busy at work and forgetful and unwilling to get online at home lately so I missed my person of the week last Friday. This one comes to me via Miss Kendall Kelly. It involves an old lady, a marathon runner, and a criminal getting busted. A week after running the Boston marathon at the ripe old age of 70 Judy Brenner chased down and caught 18 year old Curtis Smith who had stolen whiskey from the liquor store where she works. Curtis definitely lost a lot of man points in that incident! Ouch.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/13216147/detail.html

Bravo Judy!

(By the way, not all my persons of the week will be old or runners. It has just worked out that way so far)

Fresno Marathon? Sweet!

Last week I read in the Fresno Bee that they are going to be adding a full marathon to the Trail of 2 Cities Half Marathon that runs annualy in November. The innagural race will be in November of 2008 and the course runs from Woodward Park to Dakota and Clovis and back again. This is very exciting news! I have always wanted a local marathon to run in so I don't have to drive to another city and sleep at a hotel and then drive home the same day as the race and I can be familiar with the course before I run it. Fresno is also the largest city in the state not to have a marathon. However there have been marathons twice in Fresno's history, one from 1978-1987 and the other in 1999. The running community is growing in this area and it is about time there is marathon that reflects this. This is a great opportunity for people to try long distance running out and also for people to watch a marathon if they haven't seen one run. There will also be a field of elite runners and if you have never seen an elite runner race it is unbelievable. One year and seven months to go!

Person of the day: Nola Ochs

Taking the long road, Nola Ochs of Kansas will be graduating form Fort Hays State University at the age of 95 making her the oldest college graduate ever. Nola started taking college courses 35 years ago when her husband died and has earned enough credits to now have a degree. Citing a love of learning last fall Nola moved into a one bedroom apartment 100 miles away from her hometown to earn her degree in general studies with an emphasis on history. She hopes to become a storyteller on a cruise ship when she graduates.

Cheers to Nola!

What I do at work

kclu80 (12:49:25 PM): so what do your checks look like?
redpennylane (12:50:28 PM): they have travel images on them. European landmarks and NYC, with that sort of aged travel look
kclu80 (12:50:41 PM): oh thats cool
redpennylane (12:50:45 PM): like old luggage
redpennylane (12:50:47 PM): haha
kclu80 (12:50:46 PM): I have a stagecoach
kclu80 (12:51:04 PM): hahaha, those last few lines were comedy if read in isolation
redpennylane (12:51:18 PM): hahaha
redpennylane (12:51:26 PM): seriously what the heck are we talking about
redpennylane (12:51:41 PM): yeah I like picking out all the personalized stuff
kclu80 (12:51:43 PM): I dont know but I have a stagecoach which is totally bitchin
redpennylane (12:51:56 PM): there was a whole lot of nothing to choose from
redpennylane (12:52:00 PM): hahaha
redpennylane (12:52:05 PM): just standard bank checks
kclu80 (12:52:05 PM): unles you want to go puppies, kitties or patriotic
redpennylane (12:52:24 PM): Well, the wells fargo wagon is a comin' down the street
redpennylane (12:52:39 PM): yup
kclu80 (12:52:38 PM): haha, what if I drove a stagecoach?
redpennylane (12:52:47 PM): lol
redpennylane (12:52:59 PM): I am cracking up picturing it
kclu80 (12:52:58 PM): take it to Landmark, park where JD does
redpennylane (12:53:06 PM): lol
kclu80 (12:53:32 PM): that would be awesome
redpennylane (12:53:45 PM): fantastic!
kclu80 (12:54:06 PM): I think I am oin to post some of our random funny conversations on my blog, we are on fire today
redpennylane (12:54:09 PM): now would you drive it or ride on the inside and have a driver?
kclu80 (12:54:17 PM): I would be the driver
kclu80 (12:54:21 PM): cracking the whip
redpennylane (12:54:39 PM): can I ride inside and step out all lady like?
kclu80 (12:54:46 PM): yes with a parisol
kclu80 (12:54:56 PM): or those frilly umbrellas or whatever
redpennylane (12:55:02 PM): yes! And a powdered wig like Manon's
redpennylane (12:55:10 PM): yeah parisol
kclu80 (12:55:31 PM): those big bustles certainly are fantastic for hiding body inperfections arent they?
redpennylane (12:55:50 PM): I gave my kids 15 extra credit questions having to do with the opera...YEAH THEY ARE
redpennylane (12:56:07 PM): to bad the corsets caused women to pass out
kclu80 (12:56:13 PM): yeah, thats a downside

Implicit Association Test

I recently came upon a HArvard study that uses an Implicit Association Test (IAC) to determine individuals automatic preferences for categories such as race, sexual orientation, gender, religion etc. The IAT measures implicit attitudes and beliefs that people are either unwilling or unable to report. Considering myself an educated, open minded woman, I was horrified at the results of some of the tests I took. I find the study itself incredibly interesting and I encourage everyone to take a few of these IAC's to open your mind to what biases you have that you may not eve be aware of.

A Ramblin Tuesday Morn

A few rambling thoughts for the day:

• I love the new no envelope deposits at Wells Fargo. It is a small thing I know, but it makes me happy.
• I have a huge knot in my neck, it hurts.
• I have started to read a book that has gotten some attention in the past so I thought I would see what it was all about. The book is Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell. Basically the book argues that your "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet-- provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea (yup, I plagerized that synopsis). He uses interesting examples like speed dating and how by observing a very small segment of conversation between marriage couples you can predict with a very high degree of accuracy if the marriages will last etc. Coupled with the fact that this book is a fairly easy read, all the neccesary criteria for a best selling pop pyschology book are covered. So far no major ah ha moments but it has kept my attention. I also bought the book American Vertigo by Bernard Henri-Levy. It is a somewhat aristocratic frenchmens perspective on America as he travels through America and re-traces the steps of Tocqueville when he wrote "Democracy in America". I hear the French are assholes though so we will see how I like it.

nuthin but a g thang

So my keyboard at work has decided that the letter "g" is only going to work, sometimes. Seeing as I type looking at the keyboard, I won't notice that the "g" is missing right away so I have been typing like I imagine Britney Spears talks most of the time; roofin, nothin, paintin, fixin, lookin, typin...oh southern/okie/white trash venacular, you make me want to pull up my britches and walk around a public restroom barefoot.

About two years ago I hiked to the top of Half Dome and absolutely loved it and plan on going again this year. Unfortunately when we finally got to the cables and pulled ourselves to the top, clouds rolled in so there was no view to speak of. All you could see was a white abyss of fog that enveloped the rock which of course dissapated by the time we got back down the cables. In any case it is something that I would reccomend everyone do at least once and if you have never been to Yosemite well shame on you and get up there, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth in my opinion (despite the many tourists). So, if anyone is interested on doing this with me (so far I am flying solo) please let me know and we can go up there for the day. They usually don't put the cables up until Memorial Day so it would be a summer venture. Yes, this is a somewhat long and taxing hike that is pretty much all up hill (all down hill on the way back though) but kids were and old people were doing it when I was there so pretty much anyone can make it.

Also, if you want to listen to a high energy band that has a bit of a rock/funk sound may I reccomend Robert Randolph & The Family Band. I have been listening to them lately and they just put you in a good mood.

Burritos, running and more!

I am feeling sad and angry from the horrific events of yesterday. Not much else to say about that that hasn't already been said, just a very tragic and uncessary event that should not have happened.

I got a free burrito from Chipotle yesterday. Mmmm Chipotle and yay to free food.

I had trouble sleeping last night, first time in a long time that has been a problem. I was hot and I couldn't get comfortable and my stomach was hungry for some reason (despite eating the entire Chipotle burrito).

My running is on a steady incline lately. I have been running faster and easier this past week and hopefully that continues. I still can't seem to pinpoint why some days are great running days and some days I struggle despite keeping a food journal and paying attention to how well I am sleeping and what I did the previous day etc.

Currently listening to some Social Distortion. I wish I could have caught them when they were in town last week, but they sold out. Good stuff none the less.

grrr Kasey

I have a confession. I did not end up running yesterday, despite the snot to the wind comment, it was just too windy and kind of cold and I frankly didn't get my ass out there. What really irritates me though is how irritated I am with myself when I skip a run. For most people probably not a big deal, but I get guilt ridden and dissapointed with myself so I cant even really enjoy the time off. It is dumb, however I can't get those thoughts out of my mind. I will make up for it today with a nice long run.

Tay in da wind

Today I have a middle of the week long run scheduled to boost up my mileage. Typically I will do a long run on the weekend and do shorter maintenance runs during the week. Since I get off work at 4 and it stays light until probably around 8 or so I have plenty of time to make one of my maintenance runs into a training run during the week. Unlucky for me I decided to do that today, which is freakishly windy. I really dislike running in the wind for various reasons but mostly since I do my longer runs at Woodward my allergies are really going to act up which as any allergy sufferer knows is generally unpleasant and down right irritating. I have however been looking forward to the run all day because I am stressed out about work and in an overall bad mood and running is always a cure for that. Snot to the wind in an hour and a half.