Posts (page 2)

Had a great birthday dinner last night, courtesy of the fabulous Dyanna at Bacchanal Restaurant.  The Bellydancers were awesome!  The video on the website doesn't do the lady rolling the quarters on her stomach (one at a time!) quite enough justice.  The music was great too, the greek equivalent of american surf music.  Loved it!

On the menu for today: getting my nails done, playing some World of Warcraft with "The Girls", some chores, trying to get to see my friend Amy before she heads back to Tucson, and dinner with The Greg's parents.  Hoping for some birthday phone calls from some people I haven't heard from in a while, but I don't want a lot of loot this year (makes me feel bad).

I was hoping to sleep in this morning, but a certain orange cat decided he was hungry and woke me up at 6:30.

Bjork!

Still laughing 5 minutes later when I should be finding something to wipe diet coke off my monitor with...

Possibly.  I've switched over to Vox - it wasn't making sense for me to pay for typepad and then never use the damn thing.  :)

Wow.

We just got back from the theatre - I loved this movie.

Spartan Army:  Hot!  Abs!  OMG!  And Gerard (Leonidas) has a great ass.

Xerxes:  Hot, in an "I'm 8-feet tall and a bit androgynous, but I'm WORKIN' this eyeliner, y'all" way.  Also, LOVED the voice.

Cinematography:  Yes, I realize the whole damn thing was blue/green-screened.  It was still beautiful to look at.

Violence:  Awesome!  Especially where they slow down/speed up the killing scenes.

If you can stop yourself from reading any political messages into it, and if the Spartan Army as Drunken Frat House thing doesn't bother you, then you will enjoy this.  Not to worry... its not all beefcake, there are boobs, and Xerxes' harem bitches make out for your viewing pleasure.

If you can, go see it in IMAX.  :)

• Cherry coke zero.  Its damn good for something with fake sugar.
• This sticker for my truck... or is that just too dorky?

My Race was this morning, and the race itself went rather well.  Before and after were kind of a clusterfuck, but I think that's kind of inevitable when you have a huge number of people and an even bigger number of spectators participating in an event.

The race started a few minutes late, and I didn't realize that the wave start they use for the half marathon meant I'd be waiting almost another 20 minutes in line for Corrall #15 to get going.  This was after waiting 45 minutes to get from the offramp at the 202 and Scottsdale/Rural Road to a parking space, and then standing outside in the 30-degree weather for an hour and 15 minutes.  By the time I got on the bus, my fingers, toes, nose, ears, and lips were numb and I was shivering almost uncontrollably.  I can honestly say that I've never, ever, ever been so happy to get on a school bus in the whole of my life.

The race itself was good, it was just entirely too cold.  Cold air burns the lungs!  And sweating at 35 degrees does not warm the body up!  If it had only been 10 degrees warmer, I would tell you that I actually had fun.  :)  I clocked myself at 2 hours, 42 minutes, which is about 12 minutes slower than I would have liked to run (I'll be interested to see what the timing chip says).  I'm very happy to have finished the race at all, so this is not something I'm going to beyatch about.

Intersting things I saw during the run:

• The hospital where I was born
• Jesus freaks with huge "Repent!" signs (whom I flipped off)
• Runners in costumes
• Hot guys
• Hot Firemen
• A unbelievable amount of trash at the drink stations
• Lots of homeless people picking up the clothing discarded by the racers

Things I learned during the race:

• Guys who run are generally in good shape.  If you wait long enough, they start to take their clothes off!  Damn the cold weather!!!
• I'm in really great shape, and I have awesome posture and a cute ass.  A lot of the women running were slightly overweight and wearing unfortunate pants that I wouldn't have been caught DEAD in, even at this weight, much less at 50 pounds heavier.  The older women seemed to be hunched over and awkward (I'm taking my calcium supplements right now!).
• The Clif Shot things they hand out at mile 10 have the consistency and are the color of dog shit when they land on the ground, half used.  Oh, and its slippery!
• I would have had a better morning if I'd had someone to drop me off at the beginning of the race around 8-ish.  I didn't want to wake The Greg up that early though.
• Headbands or beanies that cover my Elf Ears would have been great this morning.
• I need to remember my sunglasses.

Overall, here are my grades for the event:

• Weather: D - the only way it could have been worse is if it had been raining.  When your boyfriend's hand goes numb while he's trying to take pictures at the finish line, at 10 a.m. its too damn cold.
• Race Organization:  B - The wait outside was out of control, and there were at least a thousand people in line waiting for the bus to take them downtown when I got on the bus after 8 a.m., so that's not good.  Then again, I have no idea how you are supposed to organize that number of people.  I guess they should ask if you are taking the bus or being dropped off when you sign up next year for better planning.
• Hot Guy Factor:  B - The guys in the half marathon were HOT, just not plentiful.  I would say nearly 2/3rds of the half-marathon runners are women.
• After Race Organization: C - There needs to be additional spectator control so that runners can actually get out of the race, get water and food, and get to the reunion area in a timely manner.  They also should have funnelled more people to the reunion area rather than let them crowd the first exit gate after the race.
• Overall:  B - I'd run the race again, I just wish it was at the beginning of March.  :)

Update:  Mad props to Brian for recognizing the Mrs. Beasley glasses in the "Baby Nerd" picture.  I seem to remember the doll being way cooler and less creepy than that.  Mine is up in my Dad's attic somewhere...

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Inspired by Brian's post... and for your laughing pleasure, I present:

My half-marathon is next Sunday, so I was determined to run at least 13.2 miles today at the gym.  I actually went 14 if you count my warm-up before I stretch out my legs and my cooldown.

The last two miles were both awful and hilarious.  My ass BURNED.  My ass never burns when I work out, not even when I used to hike Piestewa Peak twice.  My ass is the only place I gain weight (fuck you, gene pool!), and even being the workout Nazi that I am, it apparently has ample cellulite stores to power even the most rigorous workout... until this evening.

So I'm running and thinking "OMG, my ass is on fire!", which morphed into "Ass of Fire", which then became "Asses of Fire", which somehow made the Terrance and Phillip Uncle Fucker song from South Park in my head for the last mile and a half.  Laughing and running are two mutually exclusive activities, so that didn't really work for me.  :)

I thought running was supposed to clear your head, not make you think weird things.  Maybe that's my version of the runner's high?

For some reason, this post makes me laugh until I cry, every time I read it.  I guess its because I had the same reaction?

For the first time in about 6 years, I find myself in the throes of a head cold.  I am most displeased.

The children's triaminic I've been taking at night is making me hallucinate the strangest things.  Thankfully I didn't dream I was the Jersey Devil again, that was rather disturbing.  Why on earth am I taking children's triaminic, besides the obvious fact that the grape flavor is the BOMB?  Because my 24-hour Claritin D pills last approximately 10 hours.  24-hours - my achin' irish ass!  And I can't take a second one when the first one wears out because it'll keep me up all night.  I guess I've decided to settle for the breathing and hallucinations...

I haven't gone to the gym in days because I can't breathe, and stuff.  I'm growing concerned about my performance in my upcoming half marathon, which is now less than 3 weeks away.  This is going to be interesting.