Sometimes I like to eat peanut butter.

2011-09-06T23:56:00.001-07:00

I've decided to write a newwww blog. So if you want to stay up to date, please check the following link instead.

runningonramen.blogspot.com

So much to update!!!

2011-05-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Oi, where to start??? There's been so much that's been going on these past few weeks that I can't even really begin.

So Boston is over, and I actually made my big move to my new apartment! Everything is where it belongs, and I managed to downsize my life from a 2 bedroom duplex to one decent sized room in an old victorian house with two other roommates. My stress levels have dropped dramatically - it was pretty intense for a while.

I put up a lot of pictures because a lot has happened lately. Some of the pictures are from the Santa Cruz Half Marathon that I ran two weeks before Boston. It was a decent race. I took it very casually since I had to run Boston shortly after. I had a lot of fun though, and got to spend that weekend with some of my favorite people. :)

There are also pictures of our most recent trip at work. Our team all went out on this fancy boat for a 3 hour cruise along the bay. It was amazing, I was giddy with excitement. We had a fancy three course meal, open bar, and plenty of good company. I am honestly so spoiled at work. I love it.

The last pictures are of today...I had such a niceeee day today, it was amazing. It was exactly what I've been needing. I got to spend three hours in Dolores Park just enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather with Jon. I got a nice little sun tan to prove it. Afterwards we went to check out some apartments for him, and then we got some delicious sausages at this place down the street.

I have to say. I LOVE my new place. I love it. I love being close to everything and everyone, and I have some really awesome roommates. I get serenaded to sleep, and the dogs are ecstatic. There is this super awesome dog park literally two blocks down. I take them there every day. They also get spoiled to death by all of my neighbors (it's just one big house and everyone is very friendly and knows each other). Did I mention that I am smack dab in the middle of really amazing places? So many restaurants and cool shops!

Anyway I'm sure I'm missing things. I feel like I need a vacation already! Hopefully things will start settling down, but for now it's bed time! More later!

Boston!!!

2011-04-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

Instead of annoying the very few followers/friends I have left on Facebook I decided to vent everything onto my poor abandoned blog.

This is probably one of the most exciting weekends of my life. I'm running the Boston Marathon, the oldest annual marathon in the world. I am SUPER thrilled to be running it, just for the experience alone. Never have I been in an event that an entire large city was excited about. It's all over the news, all over everything!

Aside from getting over a minor illness (fever, feeling of being cold but not really chills, achy body, fatigue), and a minor hip problem, I think I should be ok. Haha, we'll see. I'm kind of just winging it. At least I have a friend that I've been hanging out with, and who graciously let me stay with him at his hotels. We went to the expo on Saturday, and had a pre-pre-race day carb loading session at Buca Di Beppo's which in case you don't know, is a family style italian restaurant with ginormous portions. The expo was pretty awesome, the best I've ever been to. Lots of free samples, and nice tech tee's and then I had to buy the official Boston 2011 jacket. It's pretty nice, and everyone is walking around in them in Boston. It's easy to spot a marathoner, that's for sure.

I'm actually really enjoying my little trip. It's been pretty fun wandering around a totally new city. I have had LOTS of delicious food and have gotten a bit of shopping in. ;)

I have to say, I'm pretty nervous. I haven't exercised in a week, and I have been getting over my sickness and my hip still hurts. However I think the adrenaline will take over once I see the crowds of people. It is so exciting, and such a great experience to be in the middle of it all. The race will be on tv, and apparently the crowds are never ending. How cool is that? 26 miles of cheering...

So even if I am crawling to the finish I am already really glad that I bit the bullet and came out here. Big Thanks to Kevin & Jin for giving me that final push that I needed when I was so ready to back out of the race. :)

I'm just chilling out in my hotel room. I ordered some pasta in because I had a huge headache and wanted to just relax. I have to say...this is pretty awesome. I forgot how much I love staying in hotels. It's kind of weird, I know.

I will update you later this week!!! So much going on! I get back tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday I am going to be packing, and hopefully all moved by the weekend! Yikes!

Wish me luck!

I'm on a roll!

2011-03-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

I figured I would post every time that I have a spare few minutes or every time I even remember.

It's only been five days since my last post, and I honestly am not sure if there is anything interesting enough to justify a new one. However, I have been playing with my iphone applications and downloaded a new camera app. These camera apps are so addictive...especially for the stereotypical asian girl like me that always has at least 1-2 cameras on hand at all times.

Gottie is my favorite model. He knows how to give that sad faced, deep and longing stare. He's also not completely dark like Jack so you can see more than the reflection of his eyes.

I had an awesome thing happen to me the other day. I can't say specifics, but it's basically like finding a $20 bill in your jeans. And multiply that by a ridiculous number. Either way, it justified my slightly out of hand shopping spree that I've been going on. I do tend to buy really cheap clothes, but over the year I've been kind of revamping my entire wardrobe that used to be just thrift store finds. T-shirts, baggy sweatshirts, sad jeans and nothing but slip on flat soled shoes. I still have those days when I grab my baggy jeans and hoodies, but lately I've been trying to be a little more aware of my appearance.

I don't know why I talked about that. I really must be running out of things to say.

Last night we had our one year anniversary party for our game that I've been working on. It was kind of bittersweet because a good portion of the team is splitting up and going elsewhere. I'm staying behind because I really love the people that I work with, and I enjoy the art style. I can't complain, my job is good, life is good, and I have great company to spend it with. The party was at a local bar, and we had a bunch of really awesome food and beer. I am not much of a drinker...never was, so I kind of just (very pathetically) played some darts.

I finally got over this stupid cold that hit me out of the blue. Sudden sore throat and sniffles, which was great since it was right before my painful 16 mile run outside. I don't think the ice bath that I took afterward helped much. I even had to miss a day of work, it was that bad. :(

Despite the day off, and the party, this week still seemed pretty long. Tomorrow I'm going to go see Girl Talk up in Oakland. It's going to be a lot of fun, I'm pretty excited. :)

Anyway my time is up. I have to try to aim for my 7 hours of sleep (that I have not been getting). Back in the day I used to get 8 hours of sleep every night. Now I'm lucky if I can get 6. Sighhhh....if only my commute were shorter!

More to come later!

Longest...break...ever.

2011-03-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

Well I'm not sure if anybody even will read this anymore, since I haven't updated in a good three months. However, since it's also partially for my own benefit, I decided to just put up a bunch of random photos from the last three months, and I'll give a brief update on life.

You'll see lots of pictures of the puppies. They are still my boys, and I try to spend as much time with them as I can. Not much has changed. Gottie is just his usual self. Quiet, lazy, chewing on his bone for the majority of the day. Jack Jack is also pretty much the same. You can play ball with him for hours and he probably won't get tired. Playing ball is a little more difficult now a days because he is going pretty blind. Whenever I take him to any new places he's more scared than excited because he has no idea what his surroundings are. It's pretty heart breaking to be honest, but he is still one of the happiest dogs around.

You'll also see some pictures of me looking pretty hipsterish. It was a hipster birthday party for my friend Masato. I had a lot of fun, and we definitely stuck out like sore thumbs at this fancy lounge in the city. I love hanging out with this group of people though.

I haven't been able to see them as much. It makes me pretty sad. I used to go to bootcamp and see them every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday (for our long runs). Our bootcamp group has kind of divided off and I haven't been going to the class recently. I have been putting all of my focus and attention on the Boston Marathon which is sneaking up on me at an alarming rate. Just about one month left before I will compete in probably one of the most well renown and historical marathons in the world. I'm really excited about it, but also really nervous because I have had some leg injuries that I've been taking care of which means that my actual mileage is down pretty steep. I'm not aiming to run a record breaking time, but I just want to finish and be a part of it. I almost considered not running it at all until I found out that Boston changed their qualifications to be even MORE strict and impossible seeming.

Tomorrow I'm going on my longest run yet, 16 miles. :( I am pretty far behind in the training schedule and I should probably already be up to the 20 mile mark by now. Luckily though I am running with my friends which makes the time go by SO much faster. At the hipster party I met a guy that runs ironman races, and he's running Boston this year too so we are going to stay together. If you think I'm crazy, you should meet him. Today he ran his long run (20 miles) and tomorrow just for fun he's running 16 with me.

When I'm not running or sweating my butt off on the elliptical machine (my alternative to keep my cardio up), I am usually working. Work has been alright lately. There have been some changes which I'm having to deal with. Our team is breaking up so I'm kind of sad about that since I have been working with them now for over a year. However I still love what I do, and I appreciate my job every day.

Hmm what else. I am kind of bummed that I haven't found much time to do any personal artwork, but lately I am really getting the itch. I really want to make a piece for my friend's art show fundraiser for Japan. I also have a commission that I really need to finish up, and I would like to get back into painting. Oh if only I could find the time!!! Can we please just make the days a little longer?

Oh speaking of which...daylight savings tomorrow. :( Blegh. The last thing I want right now is to take away an hour.

San Francisco is treating me well. I've been making the commute still from Redwood City almost every day. My car is kind of hating me right now since it's 25 miles one way. I've been looking for a place in the city, and there is a strong possibility that I might move with some friends up in the Lower Haight area. I am nervous mostly about the dogs, because I want to make sure that they are happy and not always on edge. I also reallllly love my apartment here and it's going to be so so so sad to leave. I couldn't have asked for a better place to be...but it's kind of expensive and I really need to start saving some money. *sigh*

Anyway, life is good. I am overdue for a vacation, but Boston is coming up so I will have to just count that as one. :)

I will try my best to post more often, but I can't make promises! A big hello and lots of hugs go out to my family in Michigan and Florida.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T00:09:00.000-08:00

Well things have been fairly uneventful but I figure I still owe my trusty readers an update. My trusty readers = grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles.

I assure you that I'm alive and well! December has been good to me...where has the year gone?

This was an interesting Christmas. I spent it alone, crying in a corner in my apartment. I'm kidding...I'm KIDDING! Well, I was alone but it was a pretty good day. I slept until 11:00am, ate and headed out to get a massage at Happy Feet. I think it's going to become a Christmas tradition. It was so nice (but I won't lie, there were moments where I was biting my lip in pain)! After that, I headed up to a friend's house because I said I would take care of his kitties while he's away on vacation. I have mixed emotions about cats since I used to have to handle and deal with them at the veterinarian's office. The thing I don't like about them is that they are so freaking moody and they don't even give you a warning sign before they lash out at you. I've been bitten twice, but I don't hold it against the cats because both times were in scary situations. So maybe dealing with my friends' cats will help me overcome that bias. I came home and ended the day by seeing a movie with some friends. I saw Tangled which was pretty adorable. I'm glad to see Disney getting back on it's feet. I remember when I used to REALLY look forward to see the Disney feature film each year. And then it just spiraled downhill with Treasure Planet, Atlantis, Home on the Range, and Chicken Little.

The nike shirt is a gift from my friend Crystal. :) I am lucky to have such good friends in the area but I'm a little sad that a lot of them are away on vacation! Some of the other pictures that you'll see are from a night out with friends at some fancy lounge, followed by an ice skating excursion that our team went out. Actually our entire team had a half day, so they took us to see Tron at Imax which was pretty awesome, followed by ice skating, followed by dinner and drinks at Jillians! Did I mention that I have an amazing job? I'll never take it for granted.

Next up is a picture from the Nutcracker. Crystal and I had wanted to see the Nutcracker so we were deciding where we wanted to see it. The dilemma was that we could go to some smaller company and it would be much cheaper, or we could splurge and see the San Francisco Ballet, who apparently started the whole Nutcracker tradition. The kicker was finding a deal online AND free cookies on opening night. Yeah...we splurged for free cookies. But it was worth it. The show was amazing. And not only did we get free oreos, but Capri Suns too!

The following pictures are of the Sharks vs. Wings game at the arena in San Jose. I've been wanting to see a hockey game. Growing up in Michigan kind of automatically makes you a hockey fan whether you like it or not. ;) I always used to watch the local college games, and I would travel around the state with my friends to watch our high school games. I can't say I'm a die hard fan, but I do enjoy a good game. And the wings killed the Sharks 5 - 3. My friend wasn't so pleased about that, but I have to say that it kind of makes the game more fun when you are rooting against your friends haha.

So life is good. This week is going to be a little slow I imagine since most of our team is off on vacation. I've just been running a lot in my spare time. I'm dealing with some major burnout so I might ease off for a week to see if I can get my motivation back. I've been taking this new bootcamp/cross fit class and it's totally kicking my butt. I'm not used to that kind of work anymore! It's been fun though. I need it. I'm getting chubby. Gotta lay off those Zynga dinners.

Friday is going to be an interesting day. I have the day off but I'm heading up to the city to check out an apartment. I've been looking for places closer to work, and there was a listing for a roommate in the Potrero area. It seems like a good deal so I am going to meet up with the girl and see if my dogs get along with her little one. *crosses fingers* I hope my dogs behave. Afterward I am going to get my hair cut and highlighted. Looking forward to that. :) I feel kind of sloppy lately. Then I'll probably go somewhere low-key with a few friends to spend the New Year. :)

Anyway that's about it! I will try to post again sooner than later.

Big Sur Half Marathon

2010-11-27T20:51:00.000-08:00

Here's another way overdue post from me. :) The pictures aren't in any sort of order at all.

So mid-November was the Big Sur Half Marathon. This is the half marathon that started this running madness in the first place...it was the first race that I decided to train for a year ago. The 2009 Big Sur Half Marathon was my 2nd half marathon ever.

I went with our dwindling bootcamp/running group to Monterey. We rented out a fancy house in Carmel. I have to say that it was an amazing weekend. The weather was perfect, I got a chance to go to the beach and play around, the food was delicious, and I couldn't have asked for better company to spend it with.

The actual race was a little more grueling than I would have liked. I was aiming to PR which means that I would have to run it in under one hour 42 minutes. I started out way too fast, and I was not trained to keep up that pace, so I ended up dying at the end and finishing in 1:48. I'll still happily take that time!

As far as running goes, I think I'm going to back off a little bit before I start training seriously again for the Boston Marathon in April. I'm getting burnt out and running isn't as fun as it used to be. Although...I don't know if it was ever really FUN. I'm just a little bit of a masochist.

Life has been good! I am just enjoying this luxuriously long Thanksgiving weekend. I've been putting off a lot of errands so I'm getting those done bit by bit. I've also had a lot of much needed puppy bonding time these past few days. The bottom pictures are of me, Gottie and Jack hanging out in the sunshine.It's been pretty cold and rainy here recently so it was nice to sit out when it was halfway decent and the sun was shining.

Anyway I don't really have anything else to say...so enjoy the pictures!

Halloween!

2010-11-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

Yay Halloween! I've been looking forward to it for a while. I decided to go as Hit Girl. The idea was inspired by my bootcamp crew since that was one of the many nicknames they have given me so far. I went with a few friends, one of who's birthday was that day. It was a lot of fun!

I'm trying to think if anything exciting has happened since my last post. Oh, I got into the Boston Marathon! Officially. Meaning that I will even get a certificate in the mail saying that I am registered. I'm kind of excited about that. Now just to find out where I am going to be staying. I have a few friends that are interested in going and cheering me on (I have some really amazing friends).

I also got a little promotion at work. That was a pleasant surprise! Life isn't too shabby right now.

I'm still working a good deal, and in my spare time I'm usually running or trying to socialize. I went to my first dragon boat lesson last week, and that was a lot of fun! They have free lessons here in Foster City on Saturday mornings for beginners. It's a great sport, such a hardcore core workout. I wish it was a little more balanced though. Since you are usually on one side the whole time, only half of your body seems to really strain. I was sore for days after on my left back, and right leg. It was great though, and I think I might do it again tomorrow. As well as some rock climbing!

The pups are doing well. Jack desperately needs a hair cut, so I think I'm going to be doing that on Saturday. Gottie has just been his usual self...often found happily chewing his bone beside me.

Anyway that's all I have to say for tonight! More later~

Nike Women's Marathon

2010-10-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Big news!

This weekend I ran the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. I had signed up with my friend/trainer Jin a while back (before I even ran my first Marathon at the end of July). It is a lottery, so people are picked at random who can run or not. Both Jin and I got into the full marathon...which we were both happy and not so happy about.

So this weekend Jin and his wife were graceful enough to let me stay with them in a hotel in the city. We went shopping after the expo (which was such a pain!) and then had a late dinner, and then went to bed to wake up 6 hours later.

I was intensely nervous this whole past week because I was going to aim for a 3:40 time which is the time I would have to hit in order to qualify for the prestigious Boston Marathon. This is cutting over 15 minutes of time off of my last marathon time, so it was pushing it.

The run was amazingly crowded. I think there were over 20,000 runners overall (including the half marathoners). I'm not sure exactly how many marathon runners there were but I'm guessing several thousand. A lot of runners would do anything to get into this marathon because of the amazing perks (the finishing medal is a tiffany's necklace handed to you by a fireman in a tuxedo).

I stuck with a pace group, the 3:40 team. I figured it was a safe bet to make sure I didn't go out too fast and burn out. I think it was a wise decision.

I was doing fine until maybe the last 5 miles. The last 3 miles were just awful. I stopped to walk three times. I was so close to just throwing in the towel, but seriously? To give up at the last MILE after holding that pace for so long? I managed to finish with 3:39:37. I was SO so so excited. I never knew I was even capable of such a feat! I was the 124th finisher overall, and the 27th in my class (age group/sex)

So that was that. I got my necklace, stood in the very very cold rain for 30 minutes (not the greatest racing conditions), and then walked a mile or two until we finally got a town car to pick us up.

Not only that, but I managed to haul myself to a rock concert last night from 6:30-11:00. And I danced. That's right. :) For four and a half hours.

I had to wake up at 6am this morning because the Boston Marathon registration opened. I have a feeling it's going to sell out today, but I can't be sure.

Anyway, I'm feeling super excited/happy. Time to celebrate!!!

running running running

2010-10-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

Well here is a random assortment of images if I ever saw one.

I was doing so well about updating my blog, and then I just stopped. :( I do have to say that quite a bit has happened since August 14th but I'll probably just lay out a quick summary for you to digest.

I've been keeping myself fairly busy lately with the usual...running, working, eating and sleeping. Mmmm...not so much sleep anymore though. It got bumped down on my priority list. But I might bump it back up. Apparently if you train for marathons you need more sleep than normal. ;)

Since I last wrote, I finished two half marathons. Let me describe these to you.

The first half marathon was one that I signed up for on a whim because the rest of my running friends were doing it and I didn't feel like running alone. It was a trail race in San Jose called the Quicksilver half marathon. I figured it'd be one of my "easy" runs. Wow was I mistaken.

The first four miles? Uphill. No there wasn't any little spot where it evened out to give your legs a small rest. It was just a steep incline for four miles. I was ready to quit after my first mile, and I was so tempted to veer off to the 10k route. I finished in 2 hours and 19 minutes and 21 seconds. That's well over 20 minutes of what I usually run my half marathons in. I walked a lot. It was so brutal.

I was sore for an entire week.

After that miserable adventure I was signed up to do another half marathon in San Jose. This one was a lot more fun, and I managed to not only reach my goal of 1:45 but shaved another 3 minutes off it, with a final finish of 1:42:06!!! I was ecstatic. I ranked 23rd in my division (1022 women in my age group).

I've still been running a lot, and the Nike Women's Marathon is next weekend. I am shaking in my boots. This is a big deal. This is when I decide if I want to aim for an 8:23 pace and qualify for Boston. I have no idea how I will do.

Aside from running I've been hanging a lot with my friends in the area. :) I have to say that life is pretty good right now.

The pups are doing great as well. I just bought the dogs this new outdoors bed since Gottie loves to lay out in the sun. Lately they've been jumping on the bed as soon as my alarm goes off. At least I don't fall back asleep.

Anyway, that's about it for me! Going back to the ol' grind tomorrow. I'll try to be better about updating...

Hipstomatic and Sushi Night

2010-08-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

The first group of pictures are me playing around with the iphone app Hipstomatic. It's nothing special, and just about everyone else has it. I'm a little slow. Still. There's something oddly mesmorizing about it.

I'm obviously a photo freak. I don't know if I've ever done a completely text blog post. And I'm the type of friend that consistently will have a camera on hand, whether it be an iphone, a compact camera, or the DSLR. But seriously, it's such a cool concept to me that you can actually document these things (life) and look back. It is also because my memory is terrible, and photos are a good way for me to remember specific events.

Such as the dinner last night! It was sushi night, and I was graciously invited by my friend Crystal to join her and her co-workers. I am not generally a big fan of sushi, but it's mainly because I don't like stuffing my mouth with a giant piece of food. I know, I could be all weird about it and cut it up, but it's just not how you eat sushi. So I never even enjoy the food because I can barely taste it and it feels like my jaw is going to snap.

This was fun though. I spent a ridiculous amount of time cutting up the cucumber and the yellow...pickled radish thing. Each of us had some type of job that we took a little too seriously. Such as chopping avocado, or washing bok choy. Haha...

I have to hand it to Masato though for pretty much doing all of the important tasks. Such as making perfect rice, perfect eggs, and slicing up the sushi...perfectly. :)

I came home and then I woke up at a staggering 11:30am. I haven't woken up that late in AGES (I actually fell asleep around midnight). I think I may have been a little sleep deprived, but that's ok. Sleep is kind of getting bumped down in my priorities (from practically #2 to maybe #3). Trying to find some balance though. :)

Tomorrow I will spend the first portion of my day running. And then I will be shopping with Crystal and Masato! :D Looking forward to that. I need to...buy a jacket with pockets. My mom bought me an awesome jacket that I picked out from H&M but it had no pockets. I thought I could deal with that. But I can't. It's just TOO weird. Who makes a jacket without pockets?

Anyway, that's about it from me. Not so shabby...being my third post this month!

The French Laundry

2010-08-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

Lots of new pics!

So a few things since my last post. Well actually the last time I posted, my Mom just came into town and it was my birthday.

My mom was here for a week, so I managed to get a couple of days off and kind of tear up the town with her. We did a few different things. We went to half moon bay and walked along the beach and got some tasty food at Sam's Chowderhouse. I swear...they have the best tuna melts in the world.

We initially wanted to go horseback riding, but the only place near here ended up having a school bus of children arrive just before us. Soooo needless to say, the kids totally wore out the horses. We went back at 3:30 and they said they were retiring the poor horses for the day. I was glad about that though. When I had a horse, we kept her at a trail riding place for a bit, and they totally were not...humane. I feel bad for even bringing here there in the first place. So it's good to know that they care about these horses and give them the rest they deserve after entertaining so man little ones.

We also went up to the city and to the Academy of Sciences before Mom left. I had been there once before with Amandjo when she came to visit, but I didn't get to do EVERYTHING. I have yet to go see the planetarium, and it's driving me crazy. It's hard to get tickets for. You have to be quite the early bird.

The Academy of Sciences was really cool though. They had an "EXTREME MAMMALS" exhibit going on. I took a picture with "Indy" (short for Indricotherium), the largest land mammal. Then they had in a box, the tiniest mammal (Batodonoides Vanhouteni) which was this suppper cute little...mouse thingy. The rainforest exhibit was really cool and had all of these beautiful butterflies flying freely as well as birds. :)

The last group of pictures shown are of my experience at The French Laundry with my Treasure Isle team. I'm just going to go ahead and call it a "once in a lifetime" experience. I highly doubt I'll go again, just because it costs several hundred dollars. It is rated as one of the most expensive (and best) restaurants in the world. I'm not really a "foodie". Food is food. I eat to live, not live to eat. However, I did enjoy every single thing that I ate. And I enjoyed it very much. My favorite part was either the lobster, but it was in head to head competition with the dessert which was this cheesecake/sorbet/strawberries plate. Or maybe it was the BLT appetizer that we had before going into the restaurant. I'm not joking, that was the best BLT I will ever eat. I'm sure of it.

It was really exciting! Our team all went out, and we got dressed all fancy. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves. The service was amazing (as it should be if you're paying hundreds of dollars per person), and at the end we got a little gift bag which included a signed menu, a cookbook, and some shortbread cookies. I had a lot of fun. :)

Since then, I haven't done a whole lot. In fact this weekend I enjoyed doing almost nothing at all. Sunday was near perfect in that I just sat listening to Rufus Wainwright, and then practiced piano for hours. Something about music just makes me so incredibly happy. I kind of abandoned it for a while, but I'm glad to be rediscovering it.

I've also been getting back into running. I took about two weeks off (aside from a little 3.5 mile run). I ran 10 miles Sunday, and 4 today. It feels kind of good! I have another marathon to be training for at the end of October *sigh*. I'm not sure how I feel about this one...but at least I'll be getting that Tiffany's necklace handed to me by a fireman in a tuxedo. Haha...totally worth the 4 hours of pain. (there might be some sarcasm hidden in there).

Anyway, time to go! More later. ;)

Birthdays, Marathons, and More.

2010-08-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

So much to say, such little time.

I'm slowly getting better about remembering to post. I have quite a slew of new photos to show you since last time. They happen to be completely out of order for your convenience.

I'm not going to go through picture by picture like I usually do, so you're just going to have to guess which one is which. :)

So the most important news is that I finished this crazy marathon that I've been training for since January. Who knew that it took so long to train for such a thing? I had no idea what to expect because my runs have been very...unpredictable. Going from a horrible horrible, worst run ever of a 15 miler (that was supposed to be 21 miles) to a great 22 miler. And then a horrible 12 miler. Followed by an a marathon run that went pretty smoothly for me.

The marathon was July 25th. The night before a few of my friends decided that we'd all stay up in this fancy hotel in the city. It was the Intercontinental which was surprisingly in an awesome location. Right across from Buca di Beppo, the restaurant where we decided to "carb load".

That day went pretty well. The guys were making fun of me for having a ravenous sweet tooth. I probably bought 3 different kinds of candy that day. We went shopping for the majority of the day, and then tried to not pass out before dinner. I was so tired and exhausted, I had no idea how I was going to run for 4 hours. Some other friends joined us for dinner later, and we ate TONS of pasta. Brian and I had birthdays coming up (his was the 28th, mine the 29th) so we shared a brownie with ice cream. It was incredible. I ate half of it myself.

I could barely sleep. I probably slept 4 hours. My friend broke out into a terrible rash out of nerves. It was that bad.

The next morning at 4am we woke up, and then at 5 we headed down to the race. It was the perfect weather, I couldn't have asked for anything better. A chilly 50-60 degrees with nothing but clouds and fog. The best running weather ever. I got into the 6th corral, and was hoping to get bumped up so that I could find people running the pace that I was aiming for. Instead I had to run around everybody which was a serious pain across the bridge.

Wow, I am telling things in way too much detail.

Basically the run was great. 13 miles down, and I was good. 16 miles down, and then it was just a countdown to the finish. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2..........1............. .2 left to go. It was rough. The last two miles were hard to keep my legs going.

I finished with a time of 3:54:03. It was better than I expected, and I was pretty satisfied. Afterwards it was SO hard to walk. I kept waking up in the middle of the night because it hurt so much to move my legs. 3 days later and an ice bath, and I'm ready to run again!

Ok that's story is done. I have another marathon in October too...

It was also my birthday this week. Thursday to be exact. It was lovely. I had no high expectations. All I wanted was to not hit a 6 year old german kid on a bike. (that happened a few years ago, worst birthday ever). It was a pretty awesome birthday I must admit. I started it with my weightlifting class, in which my friends stayed up to make me some delicious home made cookies. And get this, SNICKERS bar INSIDE the cookies.

Then I drove to work, got an AWESOME parking spot, and was surprised with flowers, hugs, and a list of reasons why people like me written on the white board behind me. Haha, I'll try to find that pic. Anyway, I also received a lovely unicorn drawing. To be precise, it was me, riding a unicorn, flying over a rainbow. And a tree. And I actually had no hands and legs, and the unicorn was three legged. But really, can you ask for anything better?

I went to lunch with some friends and we sat in Union Square. There happened to be free snow cones too, which I don't think was a coincidence. It was beautiful outside, and it was just so perfect. ;)

Then I worked. Or tried to at least.

I also organized a dinner, and a lovely group of people came with. Including my Mom who arrived just in time for food! She's here for the week, so we've been running around shopping. :)

Dinner was awesome. Shabu shabu! I think everyone had a pretty good time.

Oh, I also put in some drawings from a Dr. Sketchy's that I went to. It's basically where you go figure drawing but get to draw awesome things instead of plain models. Don't get me wrong, the plain models are cool but this was pretty fun.

And I got a haircut. Gottie likes to pose in pictures with me. Not really. He hates cameras. I just like torturing him.

So what's coming up for the next post? How about some pics from our trip to French Laundry??? Yeah, I didn't know what that was either. It's a super fancy restaurant that I would never go to if someone else wasn't paying (think over $200 per person, not including drinks). I borrowed a fancy dress from a friend, so I'm looking forward to going and seeing everyone else all snazzy.

Anyway that's it. More later!

I'm still here...

2010-07-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I'm alive, really! My life, to put it shortly, has been a little chaotic.

I'm not even about to go into all the details.

Anyway. Here's a few pictures from the past two months that I've been dormant. The first pic is of me with my medal from the Giant's Half Marathon in SF. It was the worst race...ever. I think it even beat out
Big Sur for me.

It was over 80 degrees by the time we finished, and there was no shade. I was suffocating. I walked a good portion of it. It was absolutely horrible. And I'm pretty sure that I saw a dog die from heat exhaustion. :( Sadness. I did manage to finish it in under 2 hours though. I think the best thing that came out of it was the pineapple greek yogurt we got. I've been searching everywhere for it (Whole foods, Trader Joes, etc), but can't seem to find it. More sadness.

The next pic is of me and mah dogs. I love them. They are the best. :)

The following two are a little disturbing, I'll admit. I keep developing these "bug bites". I haven't had any super recently, but they keep popping up. I am not so sure they're bug bites. In fact, I went to the emergency room for the one on my foot because I couldn't even walk on it. The excellent Dr. at Kaiser told me that he couldn't tell what it was, but to take some antihistamines and antibiotics and it should work. :P Afterward I got another on my hand. It's quite possible that, much to my horror, there are just billions of spiders crawling all over my apartment.

Speaking of which, I killed the biggest spider ever. With a bottle of Lysol, a towel, and a curtain rod. Don't ask.

Oh what else. My car was hit in San Francisco (parked). I was a little hateful and dramatic. It was only a scratch all along the side. It was a bad day for me. It was a hit and run, but there was a note on my car from a witness. Unfortunately they didn't get a license plate number, but it still makes it a little nicer to know that someone cared. My car is fine, and in running condition. I guess this day was bound to happen, I just hoped it would take a little more than a month. Apparently people's cars get hit a lot in the city.

I'm happy it's the weekend. I am going to paint, and it is going to be glorious. I'm also going to go shopping with a friend, and then run 21 miles around San Francisco. I'm a little less excited about that part. Running has gotten a little difficult mentally for me to do, but I've made it this far, I can't give up.

Ok I'm going to go. I will be back. :) I promise.

Ahh life.

2010-05-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Oi, I am getting increasingly awful at updating my blog.

I can't say that much has happened within the past month though. I'm trying to think back at everything that I've done, and I can pretty much sum it up in "running, working, sleeping, eating".

The picture to the left was just a quick side illustration that I did for a person. :) I like drawing dogs. It really is the best of both worlds for me, considering that I love dogs so much and painting/drawing them just makes my life complete hehe.

The other pictures are from a friend's birthday dinner at the House of Prime Rib. It was prettttty delicious, I must admit. I really enjoyed the night, hanging out with my co-workers. The whole ambiance of the place was really nice. Kind of like a library meets elevator, meets fancy and tasty food.

I have had a few weeks off of running due to a minor leg strain. I was pretty disappointed because running is a nice outlet for me. Luckily I caught it before it got really bad, and I ended up seeing a wonderful sports chiropractor that really helped it heal quickly. I just started running again, and I feel great! I even managed to PR my mile time today, in a 3 mile run at 7:07min mile. Not too shabby!

I've also taken up a spinning class in the time that my leg was healing. It is definitely...different. I can't quite say that I enjoy it...but I'm coming around.

Work has been alright. I've been keeping busy. I've even been *gasp* DRIVING to work, believe it or not. Me, Miss Freeway Phobia. Haha, I don't know why I developed it, but I'm conquering it. I drove all last week, and part of the week before. It really isn't so bad.

That's about it. This upcoming weekend is going to be fun. Sunday is Bay to Breakers, which is this really popular race in San Francisco. It's only a little over 7 miles, but I plan on taking it easy and enjoying all the sights. There's going to be over 100,000 people running this thing. I'm a little scared. Haha.

Well I'll try to be better about updating. :) More later!

Mud Run, US Half, Treasure Isle

2010-04-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while...I'm sadly aware of that.

However! I do have lots to tell. :)

So let's see. I think the last point that I left off, I was about to go down south to Monterey with my bootcamp buddies to run the "Big Sur Mud Run". It is exactly as how it sounds. Muddy. 5 miles of obstacles, I think three mud pits, and a lot of Army dudes telling you to crawl lower through the mud and do push ups at the end. I'm going to be posting a lot of pictures from that trip because it was just...such an amazing weekend. I had so much fun, and it was exactly the get away that I had needed. We had rented out this mansion there, complete with an indoor pool and like 8 different bedrooms. The decor was all stuck in the late 80's, early 90's, and there were about 20 different tv's in the house. It became almost a game trying to spot them.

The actual race was a lot of fun. Our all-girls team were the "She-Hulks". We were all covered in mud from head to toe at the finish. I've never appreciated a shower more until afterward.

I've also been training pretty diligently for this half marathon that was today. There have been many sunrise pictures from my iphone, and I ran a few different locations. I love catching the sunrise. :)

My favorite news to share is that we had the half marathon today, the US Half 2. It was in San Francisco, and I actually ran this race before in November. At the time, I had injured my leg and I couldn't allow myself to run as fast as I could because I didn't want to make it worse. I think I ran it in 1:58 or something. This time, my legs felt strong, and I was trying to prepare for my fastest half-marathon ever. You should know that this is a tough course. Lots of hills. It has haunted the entire group that went last November, and it was difficult to convince some of them to go back.

The total group was Chris (I signed him up hehe), Brian, Jin, and Me. It was at a painful 7am so I had to wake up at 4:50. I got 3 hours of sleep. It was also due to storm that morning so I was a little nervous about just surviving through it haha. Luckily, the rain kind of held back until the end, but it was crazy windy out.

We made it JUST in time. We literally ran there from our car and made it right as the gun went off. I felt great for most of the run, and I knew we were going at a pretty fast clip. My goal was to sustain an 8:30 pace, my ULTIMATE goal was to sustain an 8:23 pace (which would get me just under 1:50). I didn't think that was possible so I was just focusing on the 8:30. I didn't have my iphone with me because I knew it was supposed to rain, so I was a little in the dark when it came to knowing my splits.

My adrenaline surge kind of died out when I hit the 11-13 mile mark. The sand/gravel was difficult to run on. Chris managed to run the entire thing in his new Vibram 5-Finger shoes. Some of the rocky patches were a little rough on his feet, but it's amazing that he can do that. Plus he didn't even go all out, he was coaching me for the last two miles trying to make sure I hit my mark.

We finally sprinted to the finish, and I made it in 1:48:54 which was an 8:19 min per mile pace. I placed 67th out of 741 females and 278 out of 1,432 participants. I was glowing! I don't mean to gloat, but I seriously had no idea that I could do it. Especially with those hills and the wind was a battle the entire way back (up to 30mph gusts). I have to say that I am actually pretty proud of myself for accomplishing that seemingly impossible task. I couldn't have done it without Chris who really kept pushing me the last two miles. :) It was great to have ran with him!

Afterward we hit up Stacks for breakfast. It was awesome.

So that's that news! I have more!

I have been working hard lately. Our game finally came out!!! It's called Treasure Isle. It has been an amazing success, and we have millions of users already. Because it has been such a success, we are still working really hard. I have to give props to the engineers that work around the clock to keep the game running smoothly. They are some REALLY hard workers. If you play the game, you will get to check out some of the artwork I made! There is probably too much stuff to list, but to give you a general idea, I made the boar, the birds (not the seagull), all of the "lost animals" except for the Sloth, most of the plant life, most of the huts/buildings, and more. I hope you will check out the game...I know that Facebook games can get a little annoying, but we have put many hard hours into it!

Anyway that's my life! I'll try to be better about posting. :) Enjoy the pics!

Yay for new artwork!

2010-03-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

Yay, new art!

It is really difficult for me to balance my time wisely between working, running, relaxing, and personal artwork. I have so much that I want to do that it can be a little hectic at time. I've found that sketching ideas on the train to and from work is helpful. Sometimes I just don't feel like it, but it does get the whole "thinking of ideas" process out of the way so that when I have time at home I can just crank the artwork out.

I haven't posted any pics of the pups lately. They turned 7 last month. Kind of scary, I don't want them to get old. Gottie definitely acts like an oldie, preferring sleep (in his specific bed with his specific blanket) to pretty much anything but food. He still has his playful moments though, and as far as physical features he's only gotten a little more white on his chinny chin chin. Jack is as playful as I can remember, except that his eyesight is really going. It isn't even fun playing ball with him anymore. It's more like, throw a toy...watch it go past him...and then have to get up to show him where it is. I really need to find some way for him to find it better.

The image below with me on the dog beds with the dogs was from a train sketch. There are many times in the day when I just want to stop what I'm doing, go home, and lay with them just like this. I do tend to get up from the couch or step away from the computer to snuggle with them on their beds when I'm home. :) They're so cute.

The bottom image is a painting of Lily that I did. I don't know if it's finished. I may go back into it later on, but for now I might as well post it because I don't know when that would be. I know that it probably needs a background though. Hm..

Anyway, doing this side art just kind of releases any stresses that I have. I guess it makes me feel a little more productive.

Life has been good. I've been working and enjoying my work. The company that I'm at really spoils us silly. I'm talking massages, acupuncture, reflexology, delicious meals and snacks. They even have a free nutritionist that I've been going to (hey, it's free!). I have been writing down the things I'm eating/drinking so that she knows how to make my diet better. Apparently I drink a lot. That might explain why every 30 minutes I'm heading to the bathroom. I counted up the ounces, and I drank a GALLON of water. Kind of crazy, huh? I need only 50 ounces, not 128. Haha...

I've also been running a lot. This week I ran a little more than I had expected, hopefully that won't put me at a disadvantage on tomorrow's run. Tomorrow Chris and I are going to go 11 miles. :) I am enjoying running with Chris. It's nice to have him as a partner on the runs. Yesterday I ran with a co-worker around San Francisco. We went down Embarcadero to the Ferry Building and back which was a little less than 6.5 miles. It was really enjoyable! I like running in the city, there are so many sites to see. We ran under the giant bow and arrow that's by the water, we also ran behind the baseball stadium and all that. Fun, fun~

Oh the house is a mess. *sigh* When I choose to do one thing (today's case was artwork), something always gets abandoned (housework). I guess I'll spend some time cleaning it today.

Anyway that's about all going on in my life. I will keep you updated!

It's been crazy

2010-02-27T12:49:00.000-08:00

It's been another giant gap between blog posts. I can't honestly say that I will get better, but this is something, right!?

So much has happened. Let's see...I have a new job. My last job was at a company that was acquired by a bigger facebook app company. It's great to have all of the familiar faces transfer with me. :) I am settling in to the place, and enjoying all of the glorious and insane perks and benefits. Last week I got a massage, and this week I signed up for acupuncture. How awesome is that? Plus we get amazing food every day.

So life has been a whirlwind. I can't say that it has all been a wonderful experience...there have been it's ups and downs, but I think I could potentially be pretty happy there.

I posted some pictures of two weekends ago. The very bottom are pictures of a BBQ that our bootcamp trainer had at his house. It's kind of funny that we work out so much, and then celebrate by eating mass amounts of food. It was a good day.

The 2nd group of pictures are of me and my co-workers on our last day at our old job. It was bittersweet. We are all still pretty close, and most of us managed to stay together in a group.

Next up are pictures from Valentine's day. It was a pretty relaxed day. I went running that morning with my friends in Pacifica. It was kind of a brutal run, very hilly. I got home and surprised Chris with a rose and some chocolates and he surprised me with a diamond necklace that was his grandmother's. :) It is so pretty I love it!

This weekend I plan on getting a lot done. I already got my taxes done, YES!!! That was a huge relief and weight off of my shoulder. I want to work on some stuff for my Zazzle galleries. Apparently I qualified for pro-seller status this year which was a pleasant surprise. I consistently sell items here and there and it's adding up. I think if I invested just a little more time into it that I would sell even more. Now it's just finding the time!

Anyway that's about all that's going on with us. The dogs turned 7 years old this month. Of course we don't REALLY know Jack's age, but I think we are pretty accurate. I'm kind of sad that they are entering the senior age (at least Gottie is, since big dogs are considered senior after age 6), I hope to have them around for a long time.

I'll try to post more often!

Life so far

2010-02-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

I'm getting pretty bad about posting on the blog, sorry about that. :) I have been pretty busy, still working (thank goodness). There are a lot of changes going on at work, I'll hopefully be able to not be so vague in the future. All is well though, and here are some pictures of a little bar party that we had at with our co-workers. You can catch a glimpse of two of my artist co-workers, one is Ki - my art director in the bright blue shirt, and then Kim who is in the red scarf. The two people in the picture above are fellow co-workers Luc and Terri. Luc is a guy full of interesting life stories, and Terri is a crazy athlete (olympic weightlifting, kettlebells, and marathons to name a few) that does front-end work during the day. Yes, the 3/4 (technically five, but she only comes in twice a week) girls that work in the entire company are in these two photos.

The last picture is of a pair of my new shoes that I got, called Vibram Fivefingers. They are made to simulate barefoot running...pretty much the closest thing you can find out there without going actually barefoot. I've been doing a lot of reading into it, and I thought I'd give it a try. Even if it doesn't work out for some reason, they are still pretty awesome to walk around in. :)

I started another side blog to talk about all of my workout adventures. I figure it's kind of clogging up my regular blog and it might bore some people. Check it out. www.letsarmwrestle.blogspot.com. I am horrible at arm wrestling by the way.

My weekend has been pretty relaxed. I had planned on getting some artwork done, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. Chris and I went on a 7 mile run this morning, and then we spent the rest of the day cleaning, weeding the back yard (it's INSANE how many weeds have grown, it's a jungle out there!), grooming the dogs, and for me, napping. Now I have some delicious bison chili cooking in the kitchen, and I'm very much looking forward to that.

Life is good, the dogs are good, and the weather was absolutely beautiful today. :) I love those days when we can just leave all of the doors open to let the dogs roam in to the back yard at their leisure and bake in the sun. No real big news to talk about, so I'll try to update next week!

Florida Part II

2010-01-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted pics of the pups (I think?) so here they are! They are enjoying the sunlight and beautiful weather today. I took them for a nice leisurely walk, and I've had them play out in the patio area for a while. The back yard is seriously turning into a jungle from all of this rain...I will need to figure out how to trim down these weeds.

So here are more pics of our FL vacation as well. :) Included are some more pics of the adorable Lily, as well as some pics of Grandma's birthday party. Also there was a day when we took the Bancroft family ice skating and arcade playing. It was a lot of fun since none of us have gone ice skating in a very long time. The place was surprisingly crowded. At the arcade we had actually initially planned on going bowling, but since we were too late (a league was about to start) we ended up playing some ski ball, DDR, and air hockey. We managed to win enough tickets to buy ourselves two whoopie cushions and some candy, much to Lily's disappointment. For some reason she absolutely hated the whoopie cushion, and it didn't help that Chris kept throwing it under her before she would plop down on the floor. It was really funny though, I'll admit.

On a total different note, I have just been working and running as usual. :P I'm slowly building up my mileage. It's hard getting back into the swing of things, even though I did work out in Florida. I am still preparing to run a full marathon in July, and I'm hoping to raise money for Breast Cancer Research. If you have anything to spare, please consider donating! I'd greatly appreciate it!

https://secure2.merchantcart.net/runsfm/mywebpage.cfm?pid=448386

Florida

2010-01-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Florida. I have several more, but the internet is a little slow so I am going to have to split them up. :)

I didn't mention anything about going to Florida because I was going down to surprise my grandparents for their birthdays. My Grandpa just turned 80, so it was a big surprise party. My Grandma's birthday was a week before, so that worked out perfectly. I was glad that I could be there for both.

I had a good time, it was great to see all of our family. The first few pictures are of Lily & Fam. Lily is Chris' 11 month old niece. Last time we saw her she was a newborn and couldn't even hold her head up. BIG difference this time around. She was such a delight to be around, and we even got to watch her over the week. She was practically all smiles. Don't worry, I have about a billion other pictures of her that I plan on posting.

Next pictures you'll see are of us at Siesta Key. When we were in college, we lived about 5 miles away from one of the nicest beaches in the world. Siesta's white sands are amazing. We never really took advantage of the proximity, but now we tend to make it a habit whenever we visit to go to Florida. It was kind of chilly...not the nicest beach weather, but we did manage to get a little sun.

We loved that it was 70 degrees (even though I would have been happier if it were 80). When we first arrived in Florida, the whole week was freezing temperatures...record breakers for Florida. All of the plant life had frozen and died. It was kind of an unusual sight to see Florida with tons of dead plants. I was not a happy camper. Luckily we managed to miss some killer thunderstorms here at home. Apparently there was hail, and tornadoes while we were gone.

When we were in Sarasota, we got some boiled peanuts. We found this treasure of a gas station that not only had these steaming hot boiled peanuts, but also had an Arby's. Mmm!!! We also stopped by the Nokomis Orange Grove and got some seriously good Orange sherbet.

The next photos are of my Grandma, Mom, and Uncle. My uncle also came down for my grandpa's 80th birthday party. It was nice seeing them!

And lastly are photos at my Grandpa's party. He was shocked to see everyone walk in, and we all enjoyed some mighty fine ribs and home cooked side dishes. I don't think my Mom could have planned it any better. We also got to play with their 5...yes, I said FIVE dogs. They are all really adorable and tiny.

We got home yesterday (smooth flights, and we flew over CA during Golden hour which was amazing), and I passed out at around 9:30. This morning I went running with Chris, and two of our friends. It was a good run, to say the least. While we were in Florida I kept up with my running and working out, but I hadn't gone over 5 miles and they were at a slow and steady pace. Today's run was brutal because my gym trainer was there and he wanted to go 8 miles at a super speedy pace (we finished in 1:06). I thought I was going to die.

So now I have a lot of preparation (mental haha) to do to get back into the work week. I will upload more pictures later on and describe a little more about the two weeks' vacation.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

2010, so far so good. ;) I started off the year with a 10k (6.2 mile) run in Palo Alto with a few friends. I have been slacking a little bit on my running, so it isn't as easy as it was for me before. I finished in 52:25, which averages to about an 8:30 min/mile time. Not horrible~ but definitely something I can improve on.

The run was fun, it was perfect weather...kind of cold, and on the verge of raining. I found myself staying strong through it and being able to pick out the people ahead of me one by one. There were two guys that seemed frustrated to be passed, one guy even asked if he could run along side me after a sad attempt of trying to pass me. Poor dude was huffing and puffing and lasted maybe 30 seconds before he fell back. This other guy was actually making me kind of mad because every time I passed him he kept bolting up to pass me again, and making it pretty obvious that he wanted to stay ahead of me. I am happy to say that I left him in the dust. ;)

This was the first race that I have actually been competitive against any particular person. Haha, maybe it was their attitudes...their genuine annoyance and determination to beat me that made me want to sprint ahead.

Oh, and I definitely didn't stay up til midnight last night. I guess I'm just getting old. I did manage to get waken up by fireworks, so technically I was awake at midnight. :P Who cares, it's just another day.

Other than that, life is alright. :) I am keeping myself busy at work. I am trying to come up with a few New Years Resolutions, even though I don't actually take them too seriously. Let's see:

1. Complain less. I hope I don't complain to much in the first place, but it's something that I'm sure everyone can work on.
2. Run a full marathon. Yes, even if it takes me a year of training, I want to do it.
3. Spend less money on food. I spend a lot on lunches, and even though it is practically what I live for (I do LOVE the endless food opportunities in the city), I need to cut back. A little bit sad about this one.

I just put in some random photos that we've taken in the past week. The first one is kind of silly, I admit, but we don't really have many good pictures of us together. It took several tries to get it right. Probably over 200 photos. I was going to print them out and send them in holiday cards but I got lazy.

The 2nd pic is the group that went on the run this morning. Me, Victoria, Brian, and Jin. I'm proud of us for peeling ourselves out of bed on New Years morning and running. I'm not as motivated as you might think. Most of my events or workouts are an, "I'll go if you go" type of thing. This event was no exception. It works most of the time though. :)

The last pic is from last weekend when I was frustrated of being in the house because I of my horrible head cold, and I thought we should take a nice long walk downtown. The dogs don't get to go on long walks very much anymore, so they really enjoyed it and slept for the rest of the day when we got home. Lazy bums.

My cold is pretty much over. It wasn't very pleasant, but what cold is? I was so stuffy that for most of the week I couldn't even breathe out of my nose. It is definitely something that people can easily take for granted. Such a simple thing as nose-breathing.

I am so happy to have this long weekend. It's a dream. I wish every weekend was like this, haha. I don't plan on doing very much. Yesterday Chris and I lazed around the house and then we drove all the way to Arby's (12 miles away) to satisfy my roast beef craving. It was amazing. I would kill to have an Arby's in Redwood City. Today I plan on working a little bit on some Flash animation, and maybe I'll do more of it throughout the weekend. I'll try to do something art/painting related, but I am not promising anything hehe.

Well I should get going. I will try to update again this week!

Christmas and Christmas Eve 2009

2009-12-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

I tried to organize these pictures in order, but they actually go backwards.

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! The holidays really snuck up on me this year and I found myself rushing to get some last minute presents in. Luckily I wasn't the only one, and everything turned out just fine. :)

So starting from the bottom of the photos is a little chihuahua in a little room. That was one of the windows at Macy's. They had about 4 or 5 of these windows with adorable rooms and adoptable dogs and cats. What a great idea! I think they should do that year round.

the next group of photos (aside from the cookie baking part) was at our friends' house Ron and Ari's. They were kind enough to invite us in and have a great Christmas Eve dinner, Italian style. :) They are both ridiculously good cooks, so we always jump at the opportunity to eat at their house haha. I wish I had taken photos of the actual dinner but I was a little under the weather.

Of course in the first time in 2.5 years I catch a cold, and it's Christmas Eve. It could be no other way! :) It's ok, it's not the worst cold ever, but I really am not used to this feeling of being sick. My head is so stuffy and I always feel like I'm on the verge of sneezing.

We topped the night off with some hot chocolate (tea for me) and dessert. Ari makes these amazing home made marshmallows so we got to take some home with us. Overall it was a great night!

And today was also great (despite a not so great night of sleep). I had wrapped up a few things for the dogs. They knew instantly that it was for them, and Gottie was laying next to the present bag. I had to move the bag to the table while we were gone because I didn't trust him.

they were thrilled to open their presents, and did so with gusto. I don't know if I've ever seen Jack so happy in his life, he had three toys that we was alternating. One was this giant moose with the stuffing taken out that I bought on Amazon and I swear it's as big as Jack.

Then Chris and I exchanged gifts. We both got each other just random little things. :) I got him some workout pants, some shoes, a book, a toothbrush holder, and a "shared" travel alarm clock with a sound machine since it is so hard for us to sleep without the rain noise haha.

Chris got me some fancy reusable bags that I've been wanting. I recently lost one of my other ones, but it's ok because it was the one in the worst shape. He also got me an alarm clock that doesn't sound like an atomic bomb is about to drop. That will be pleasant. He also got me a super fancy shmancy rice cooker! I had said that I always wanted one, even though my $10 cooker does just fine. This one is realllly nice though, but holds 20 cups of cooked rice so we may need to downsize. I love my rice and all, but 20 cups might be a tad bit much.

I am undecided on what we'll do for the rest of the day. I'm feeling pretty worn out, but we had planned on going to a holiday party with some of Chris' friends. We'll see how I feel in a bit. Either way I am going to enjoy this luxuriously long weekend. :)

Aside from all this holiday happenings, work has been great. I've been learning some flash animation thanks to my wonderful co-worker. I hope to do a little bit of animating and playing around this weekend. Watching her make all of my illustrations move is just so rewarding! I will try it out.

Well I think it's time for a nap. :) More later!

Some artwork! Finally!

2009-12-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a little assortment of pictures.

The first two are my most recent digital painting. It has been quite a while since my last one...I can't even remember when it was. I have been itching to do a more personal project because since starting my fancy new job I haven't had a single moment to do anything else (it seems). I did this painting in about 3.5 hours. There are two backgrounds, I started with the brown, but most people have preferred the blue.

The painting is of my friend back in Michigan named Obi. :) He is such a great guy, and he took the time to take great reference photos for me to paint.

The next photo is of my lazy dog Gottie on top of FOUR giant costco beds. The dog beds there are heavenly and almost every time we go to Costco we end up buying one or two. :) We keep stacking them, and Gottie gets even more spoiled.

The last photo is of a dinner last week that I had with my fellow bootcampers (and spouses). I love that group, they really are good company.

I'm exhausted. It has been quite an..."adventurous" trip back home from work today. First, I was delightfully surprised when a nice young man saw me sprinting to the muni bus, and even though he was already walking away from the line, he turned around and held the door open. I wouldn't have made it if he hadn't done that, so it was very kind and reminded me of the simple acts of kindness that can really change a person's day.

I made the 6:33 in plenty of time. Then when we were arriving to San Mateo I felt a minor thud (it felt like the conductor just braked a little bit unusually hard for a second) and then one of the workers' radio I hear "emergency, emergency, emergency!". Then the lights shut off. Sadly a pedestrian was hit by the train. To my complete surprise the man was breathing and being removed from under the train. I am still in awe that he survived it, and even more in awe when I read the news saying that he was laying on the train tracks. I'm hoping he's ok.

Either way, that made for a very long day. Lots of sitting in darkness, and then standing in the cold.

In other news, work is going well. :) I am very appreciative of having a job that I enjoy, even if the commute can be brutal at times. We are working on some fun stuff and I can't wait until it's public to show it to you.

Anyway, I think it's time for me to go pass out. More to come!

A long overdue blog post

2009-12-05T21:12:00.000-08:00

Well here it is. The long overdue blog post. I've been really busy, and part of it is laziness. I had to put up these pictures though.

Over Thanksgiving break Diane and Gary (Chris' lovely parents) came to visit. It was great seeing them and to be able to show them around the city. Diane had only been here when we first moved, and I am pretty sure that it wasn't a great experience for her. 1) I was horribly sick and probably not the most pleasant person to be around 2) we were in the middle of moving from LA to SF 3) she gracefully volunteered to drive the 6 hours between the two cities 4) she slept on the dog beds. Yes, dog beds.

I was determined to show her and Gary a much better time. I even went out and bought a "fancy" comforter for our new futon (guest bed) so that they could have a comfortable and private room of their own. I also had set up some actual things to do, like a champagne buffet cruise on the bay, and a trip to Alcatraz.

In the week that they were here, we definitely did a lot. I won't go into every detail, or this would be a very very long post, but it was a lot of fun and we saw several sites. We took a hop-on hop-off bus tour so that they could experience going over the bridge and learning historical things about the city (the guide pointed out every single restaurant and landmark around). We also did a buffet cruise which was nice and the weather cleared up just in time. We went to all the tourist spots including Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, Haight St, Golden Gate Park, Japanese Tea Gardens, Botanical Gardens, Point Lobos, and Union Square. We got to Point Lobos at the perfect time, just as the sun was setting. The tide was high and the waves were crashing against the cliffs. It was so so so beautiful.

Then there were other smaller things that we did, like eating out at a billion different restaurants, going to Costco and Ikea, getting our palms read (amazingly accurate) by this dude in Little India (our fav. restaurant), and getting some Shabu Shabu in Mountain View. Not to mention the amazing Thanksgiving we had, thanks to Diane who slaved in the kitchen for most of the day. We enjoyed the day with Ron and Arianna, two of our friends. I don't think I could have asked for any better food. :)

It was really great seeing them, and I hope they had a wonderful time while they were here. :)

I've been recovering from a food coma ever since. Haha. I have started getting back into my regular work out routine. My legs feel so much better than before, and while they aren't perfect, I can feel them progressing back to normal. I'm even getting back into Kettlebell and have convinced some workout friends to form a little self-taught class twice a week for some extra support.

Work has been going well. We are keeping ourselves busy, and there were two new artists hired. It's been fun, and I enjoy the extra company. :) I really enjoy my job, and I am really starting to appreciate the city more.

This weekend Chris and I are kind of relaxing. We did all of our errands today, and tomorrow is kind of a work day. I am going to try to learn a little bit of Flash, and work on a digital portrait, and Chris is going to get some overtime done. I also plan on going on a short/medium run to test out the ol' legs. They're a little rusty.

Anyway, enjoy the pics! I can't say when I'll update next but hopefully it won't be that long.

the Big Sur Half Marathon

2009-11-18T20:29:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been really bad at updating. It's getting harder to post more often because of work, and I also spent the weekend in Monterey for the Big Sur Half Marathon.

It was a great weekend! I felt like it was a big field trip with all of my classmates. :) The majority of us were all bootcampers that signed up for this race in August. It's been a lot of fun training for it, despite the calf strain and the sometimes painful training afterward.

We got down to Monterey and hung out around the city. It's a really beautiful place, and my favorite part was hanging by the ocean.

The actual race was not so delightful. Since I had strained my calf I had practically taken the past three weeks off from doing much physical activity (although I did run the last half then, but that was it). My legs were actually fine for the race, but my physical condition was pretty poor. I was dead at mile 4, which is bad when you have 9 more miles to go. I managed to finish it, but it felt so so horrible. I even managed to get a minute under my last time (1:56:21), but it was a bit disappointing because I was hoping to get under 1:50. Oh well! That's what I get for overtraining. :P

I have to give kudos to the whole group though. I think each one of us achieved a goal in one way or another. Everybody ran a great race, and I'm sure we'll keep running more together.

After the race we went where? Shopping of course! Endless walking around the Gilroy Outlets. What a bright idea that was (the idea was mine). I tell ya, by the last store we were all so dead that we would pick things up that we liked and then put them down again because we didn't want to have to physically stand in line. How sad.

This week is going pretty smoothly. I'm still working my little heart out. The commute is smooth most of the time, but public transportation in the Bay Area really sucks. At least once a week there has been some major issue where I have to find another way to get around. Yesterday I got on the Muni, they drove a few blocks and then stopped and told us to find another way to get there because there were major delays due to a derailment of one of the cars. I walked. It's pretty frustrating, but I'm learning to roll with the punches.

I'm really enjoying work. I consider myself to be pretty lucky because I have a job that I enjoy, and my artwork is actually coming through to the finished product. I'm looking forward to the game coming together and seeing the whole thing.

This weekend Gary and Diane (Chris' lovely parents) are coming to visit! I am super excited and trying to prepare. Our house is a real mess, so this Saturday we're going to have to do some major cleaning. I also have some shopping and errands to do! I really am looking forward to them coming here. I am planning a few things to do, some restaurants to visit. I also get most of next week off which I'm kind of excited about. It's like a mini vacation!

Anyway it's time to wind down, but enjoy the pics!

My first Half

2009-11-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since updating...again. I really don't have very much time for anything other than work, working out, and sleeping.

So this past Sunday I ran my first half Marathon! I was a little worried because my lower right leg had been acting up since the previous Sunday and wasn't showing much improvement. I told myself that I would go at a slow pace (which is really hard for me to do) and I managed to keep myself a little restrained and ran the full 13.1 miles in 1:57:24. My goal before the injury was to get it in under 1:50 which I think I could have done if I really could have pushed myself.

It was a lot of fun, and I went with some of my bootcamp friends. It was a great course, although very hilly. The best part was running over the Golden Gate Bridge. I brought my camera since I knew it would be more of a leisurely run. :) I got some fun pics at least.

I have another half-marathon in a week and a half. This is the one that I had been training for since August. My leg was actually great on the 13.1 miles (no pain), but it was probably adrenaline because it's starting to get cranky again. I am considering making a Dr.'s appointment to figure out what's going on. :( Wish me lots of luck, because I really really really want to run Big Sur and I want to be able to push myself to get under 1:50. If not though, it's not the end of the world I suppose. :P

Nothing else new really. Just been runnin'! Work has been going good. I have definitely been busy, and it's starting to invade my dreams. Haha, it was inevitable I suppose. One of these days I'm going to get an art piece back up on my blog. All in good time. Must take things slow. Right now I am enjoying spending my free time hanging with Chris and the dogs.

That's about it! I will try to update the blog more often. :)

Cookies!!!

2009-10-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I know you're in the middle of driving down to Florida but I hope you have a good one, and that you at least get some good dinner!

Sorry, I have been really bad about updating my blog lately. I just don't have very much time!

A quick update on life. I just made these amazing chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. I thought they sounded tasty, but it's been so long since I've baked anything that I was afraid that they would turn out bad. Apparently they're fool proof, and they are seriously good. You can't go wrong. They are soft, chewy, and deeeelicious! They really don't take much time to make either, which is always a plus.

The pic up top is of a few of us that go running on Sundays that are planning on running the Big Sur Half Marathon November 15th. I'm excited. So excited that I signed up for another half marathon prior to it, the US Half which is in San Francisco and is November 1st. I'm getting pretty hyped up about them. All this hard work is paying off!

Work has been good - busy. The other night was such an awful commute home. I think it was Wednesday. It took me 3.5 hours to get home on the train because apparently there was this "suspicious package" found in the Millbrae station which is quite a crucial station. Both trains go through there, so I really didn't have another way to get home. They weren't sending off any trains, until about an hour of sitting on a stationary train, they decided to take a really full one to San Bruno which is just north of the Millbrae station, and have buses take the passengers to two cities south to catch the southern trains.

I was ok with the idea until we got there, it was freezing and misting, and they had one tiny bus for hundreds of passengers. There were the lucky ones that managed to squeeze on this thing, then the remaining majority of us standing waiting to see the next one. Luckily Chris came to the rescue and picked me up, but it was 9:30 by the time I got home, and I had left work at 6.

It was frustrating to say the least, but my work is kind enough to let us work from home when the time is needed, and I worked from home Thursday. It was exactly what I needed. To not commute. Haha

I haven't had any time for any other art. My life is pretty much working out and then work, and then eating, and sleeping with a few errands here and there. I definitely have projects that I want to work on, and hopefully once I really get used to the work schedule I can find time to do those things and still have time to let my brain wind down.

Yesterday my bootcamp instructor had an obstacle course that he was challenging anybody that was up for it to do it. Our bootcamp saw it coming, so we had a fair idea of what it would be like. I got there in the morning and one other girl had done it. She was red in the face and catching her breath, and said that her throat was burning. I looked at her and was afraid for what was coming ahead. I managed to get the thing done in 8 mins and 40 seconds, and afterwards my throat slowly started to burn, and then I started coughing. Then gagging. It wasn't very fun. I don't think I'd do it again. Everyone else that did it also had the same burning feeling followed by coughing. Over exertion?

Tonight we're going to go to dinner at our friends' house. Looking forward to it! They always make really amazing dinners. :)

Well we're about to head out! I will try to update more often!

Joe's Crab Shack

2009-10-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

It's hard to find time to update this thing anymore.

This weekend has been chill. I really have to savor every minute of the weekend now though, so I like to do as little as possible haha. It still always seems to be busy.

Yesterday I hung out with some of my Zazzle friends. :) Evan (the guy in the grey sweatshirt) is moving halfway across the world so we all wanted to get together. We went up to the city (the traffic was insane) and we ate at Joe's Crab Shack. I was really excited because I love seafood. I really like eating crab and lobster, mainly because the process of cracking the shells and everything is really fun to me. It was amazing. :) The music and ambiance of that place was a little much, but I still enjoyed it. We had wanted to see the Blue Angels because they have been practicing and a show had been scheduled, but unfortunately the show was canceled due to the fog. That was a bit of a bummer. Then we had to fight traffic on the way back.

I got home and Chris and I did some serious grocery shopping. With me having to work and being too tired to shop after work, our whole kitchen gets pretty bare.

This morning I went for a run with our group. I wasn't sure whether to do 10 or 11 miles, but I decided to go 10 again so that everyone wouldn't have to wait around for me (they were all doing 9 or less). I ran 10, and coming back I was trying to go as fast as I could to "catch up" but I never did catch up to them haha. The result was my fastest 10 miles yet, at 1:24:30. That hill still kills me though.

The rest of the day will be spent driving up to Mountain View to pick up my new glasses (yay) and relaxing and doing laundry.

I've also been slowly driving more freeways. I drove today from crystal springs to foster city, and then back home, which is pretty good for me. ;) I am getting a little more comfortable, and I've even hopped on the freeway alone. Just gotta get used to it. *sigh*

Anyway, Mountain View awaits us. Later!

Chris' Birthday

2009-10-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

This has been an eventful week!

Yesterday was Chris' birthday. I had already bought him a squat rack so I didn't really have much funds to get him much else. So that morning I went out and got him a lot of fun little stuff to celebrate the day. :) I went to this German store that is filled with all sorts of goodies. I came home with a bag full of gourmet soft pretzels, german chocolate, and I stopped at Whole foods and found an assortment of cheese wedeges and some french bread. Oh and some of this really fancy milk that Chris has been eyeing.

The day went well. It was relaxing, and we didn't do very much. We stuffed ourselves pretty full of bread and cheese. It was amazing.

Today I went for a 10 mile run. My gym buddy is back so it was nice to have someone to chat with on the long runs. It's amazing how much faster it goes. I wasn't even paying attention to the mile markers, and before I knew it, I only had two miles left to go! I went at a slower pace, but it's good because I'm not sore at all.

Then I came home and shopped. There's a new Kohl's that just opened up in Redwood City. It was quite the hot spot. I walked away with nothing, because even though the store is super cheap, I am still too cheap to pay $30 for a pair of jeans. I then went to a few other stores and ran some errands. My quest was to find a cheap but durable laptop bag. The one I have is already ripping, I think from running from train to train. I found two. I have a thing for bags.

And now here I am sitting. I have to finish this painting for Purrcasso because the deadline is sneaking up on me too quickly. I pretty much HAVE to finish it today within the next hour, and have it shipped off since I have no other time to work on freelance.

I also posted pictures of my latest pet portrait for my web designer, BReN. She rocks. Her dog is beautiful so it was really fun to paint. Unfortunately I misunderstood and I did the realistic style when she wanted the children's style. :( I'll have to make it up to her when I get a chance. I'm hoping that this will suffice in the mean time though.

Well time to get cranking! Tonight we're going out to dinner for Chris' birthday. I'm looking forward to the food!

I love my dogs.

2009-10-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

Chris brought home the Monsters Vs. Aliens DVD today, and it came with 4 pairs of 3D glasses. It's been a while since I've taken any funny pics of the dogs, so it was the perfect opportunity. :) It's amazing what they'll do for a treat.

It's funny because Gottie would NOT have anything to do with the glasses, then for some magical and sudden reason he just left them on for a good two or three minutes while we took as many pictures as we could. I was pretty sure Jack wouldn't be up for it at all, but thought it was worth a try, and amazingly enough he sat there too! It was the funniest thing I've seen in a while. :)

This week went relatively quick! I also managed to catch all of my trains. I'm starting to get the hang of it, and the schedule. The first week I'll admit was really rough. I was sleep deprived, stressed, and I had one particularly bad day when I must have been half asleep when I bought all of my train tickets.

That day I sprinted to the train, trying to catch the last limited stop train so that I could get home before 8. Because the muni was backed up, I ended up getting there RIGHT as they were closing the doors, and of course they wouldn't let me slip through. So I had to sit at the train station for a half hour and got home at 8:30. While I was on the train I looked at my ticket and realized I accidentally bought a one-way pass instead of the day pass like I usually do. And of course they checked the tickets, and I had to sprint off one station, buy another ticket and hop back on. Thinking that the day couldn't get any worse, I got to the parking lot and realized I bought the wrong ticket for the parking spot I was in, so hopefully I don't get a parking ticket. Eugh. Just remembering that day is awful.

I do have good news though. I am officially full time at my job, and I'm really enjoying it! It's nice to feel the comfort of a steady paycheck again. Freelance was pretty dry. Well, it's not that, I was always doing work, but I also was hardly making any money for the amount of work that I was doing. It's hard to live like that. I need to build some tougher skin.

Tomorrow is Christopher's birthday!!! We don't have any big plans, but maybe we can just make a good day of chilling out together on the couch and watching dvds. :) That sounds like a good day for the both of us, haha. Sunday we're going out to dinner with a few friends.

Anyway, that's about it for me. Just lots of working, lots of train riding, and lots of running. I've already logged in 12.5 miles, and I still am planning 10 or 11 more on Sunday. I'm way ahead of schedule so maybe I'll keep it at 10.

Happy Birthday Diane!!!

2009-09-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Today marks a pretty important day! It's Chris' mom's birthday~ :) We have a package sent out to her, but I hope she had a wonderful day!

Sorry, the picture of the painting is pretty bad, I was too lazy to take it outside and take a good photo, so I just took a really dark one inside and tried to mess around with it on Photoshop. I think one more day and the painting will be done and shipped off to Purrcasso. I wish I had more time to devote to it, but it's going to have to be a quick painting. I also managed to work on another commission, and it is also very close to finish. I'm looking forward to posting pics of that one too.

The last three pics are of Gottie. One was when Chris put his t-shirt on Gottie because he was sitting on the couch like a human. Next, Gottie's in a raincoat. It rarely rains here when it's not the season, so when it did a week or two ago, we used the raincoat. It's amazing! What a great invention. Jack couldn't use his because he's a pansy and likes to run around in the nude. The last picture is of just a few minutes ago when I was painting and he was sad that nobody was there to pay attention to him.

This weekend has been kind of relaxed. Yesterday I did a big achievement and gathered up the courage to drive on the freeway to Mountain View haha. :) I am getting more comfortable, but it still made me a little nervous. I also drove on the freeway this morning after our run. Yesterday we went to Mountain View so I could look at those glasses that I liked in Wal-Mart. Turns out, they weren't as great as I thought, but we went to another eyeglass store next door and I found a pair that I liked. I didn't LOVE them, but I would be spending days upon days looking for the perfect pair when I really don't even need them all that much. They're still good though, and they're really light and comfortable which is what matters the most to me. :)

*sigh* After that we went to Fry's and walked around. I then spent a few hours running around doing errands, getting groceries, etc. It's hard to find time to do all of that during the week, so my weekend hours have become quite precious. After all of that, we walked the dogs, made some delightful pasta and I crashed into bed. I've been sleeping like a rock lately.

This morning I got up at 6:30 to go running at 7:30 with some friends. It was a big 10 mile day today, and I managed to get it done in 1:27 or something like that. I had bought a hand water bottle (one that straps on to your hand so you don't have to worry about holding it too much) and a bottle of gatorade for the other hand. I was a little worried about how it would be, and man was it a pain! I thought I was going to die. I was so tempted to chuck them into the woods, but I knew that after an hour of running I'd want water and gatorade haha. The run was good. At the 5th mile before we turned around we hit this huuuuge hill that was such a killer. I'm dreading going up it all the way next time around when we do 11.

After the run one of our friends took us to breakfast which was really nice :) I tend to not be able to eat a lot after a long run though because my stomach gets all shaken up. It was still pretty tasty though.

Once I got home I spent part of the day cleaning the house and Chris and I went to Shabuway in San Mateo. It was sooo tasty, and I have been craving it for some time. They have this thin sliced Kobe beef that you swish around in a pot of broth (spicy for us) and you also get a plate of vegetables you can throw in there to your liking. I love it. :)

We stopped through to check out the running store and I bought some "guaranteed blister free" socks and a new water bottle carrier that straps around your waist.

So now I'm just trying to settle down and get some rest before the long day tomorrow. :) More later!

busy girl

2009-09-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

Uhh...so I don't have a lot to say, and I obviously don't have any interesting pictures to post. Haha. This is an old pic of Gottie, and I also posted a picture of the glasses that I want that I saw in Wal-mart. Yeah. I am thinking about going back and getting them.

So I've been working pretty hard lately. I started my first day on Monday, and I've been getting used to the schedule and transportation. It was a little rough at first. I still tend to get dead tired at around 3:00 and I just want to pass out, but other than that, things are good! Haha~

The total commute takes me between 2 and 3 hours a day (round trip). I have been entertaining myself with the fancy new iphone that I got. I enjoy it. It's really funny to look around and I swear 3 in 5 people are on their iphones playing games or checking their mail. It definitely helps pass the time.

I get home at anywhere between 7:30 and 8. Usually around 8. Then I"m in bed by 9:30 and I completely zonk out for the next day.

Anyway, for the first time in several months I'm actually looking forward to a Friday! :D Yay~ this weekend I plan on just relaxing, cleaning, and...running. At least the weather's been cooler so maybe we can afford to sleep in a bit for the run day. I have a 10 miler planned. Pretty insane.

Well, I just wanted to post to tell you all that the job is going well! I probably won't be updating as much because my spare time has gotten extremely limited. :P Maybe this weekend though. More later!

game apps and iphones. :)

2009-09-18T13:45:00.001-07:00

Today is my last Friday of relaxation before I start work on Monday. :) This is a good thing. I did manage to sneak in one final nap that should carry me through this next month haha. It was glorious.

The images above are as follows. Creatures is a game I designed for a company called Stackq and it is out now. :) I haven't really played it very much, but it certainly looks cute, doesn't it? Haha~ I enjoyed the process. The next pic is a quick little portrait I did of my friend Tony as an exercise. It took me no longer than an hour and was just kind of some digital painting practice. I think it's starting to become easier for me, but I still am no pro.

Last is a video I took from my fancy shmancy new iphone that I received as part of designing this new game coming out. I worked on it all week since Saturday for 8-9 hour days, but finally got things wrapped up just in time for the new job to start. I also plan on getting some painting done today, I really want to finish this dog painting I've been working on. I'm pretty proud of it, so a few minor adjustments, and it should be there.

I've been pretty stressed all week. My health seems to waver back and forth between feeling ok, to feeling not so ok. I've been trying really hard to not get sick, since Chris has been sick early this week with a pretty nasty cold. Luckily, *knock on wood* I have avoided it. With this game app, and a few other things, I feel like I already need a vacation, haha. I'm very much looking forward to the new position though, and getting to know everyone at the company.

What else, what else. The dogs are good. I am worried about their well being while we're both going to be away at work. They've really gotten used to me being here, and Gottie is pretty much always at my side. I am considering hiring a dog walker mid day so that they can get some human interaction and then we won't have to stress about getting home early or on time to let them out.

Anyway, that's about it. :) My paint should be all thawed out by now (I put it in the freezer to keep the oil paint wet). I'm gonna get crackin'!

Jack in a basket

2009-09-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

Chris and I went to another thrift store yesterday, and one of the great finds was this brand new Ikea basket that is made for a dog bed. I thought back when I had put the blanket in the laundry basket and found Jack lying in it. Jack loves this basket and sleeps in it. It's adorable.

Of course I had to take a picture of Gottie too, or he'd get jealous. They're both sparkling clean too. :)

These past few days have been busy. I've been wrapping up a few odds and ends projects. Why, you ask? Well...the big news is that I got a job! It's a contract position for the first 30 days, but after that, if things work out than they will bring me on full time. I'm looking forward to starting a new job, meeting new people, getting a new schedule. The bad thing about it is the long commute there and back, but I'm pretty sure I can handle it. :) I really enjoy the caltrain. I find it to be really relaxing.

Oh, and yesterday I drove on the freeway again. :) Of course it was only for a few exits, but I am pretty proud haha. I am hoping that eventually I'll get the nerve to be able to drive to the Bart station so that the commute will be shorter, but that might be in a while. Gotta build it up. I'm getting tired of having to depend on other people though, and it's such a silly fear that I know I need to get over.

This week I am finishing up this bigger project, and hopefully I'll have some time to finish up this dog painting that I've been working on.

Yesterday we ran 8 miles at Crystal Springs. That is the farthest I've ran to date, and it wasn't too bad! I ran at a true conversational pace which is a little slower than I usually go, but it's definitely something I need to start doing more often.

Well time to get back to work!

I did it!

2009-09-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

These are pictures (the ones at the bottom, not the lobster ones) from my friend Rachel's birthday party yesterday. Her husband Didier had cooked up some amazing food for us all to eat. A lot of old co-workers were there and it was great to have us together again. :)

Saturday was quite an eventful day. Mine started super early in the morning and I went running at Crystal Springs with some friends. It was a seven mile day today...further than any previous run before. We ran at Crystal Springs a few weeks back, but I was feeling horrible then and it was a real struggle. This time around my body was in much better shape, and I was able to stay with the fast guys for half of the run despite it being all slightly uphill. I didn't remember it being so hilly, so I was dying. At halfway I slowed down a bit but still managed to finish the run in JUST under an hour.

After the run I came home and Chris and I did some errands. We went to the library, to the thrift store, and then chilled at the house with the dogs until 5:00 rolled around. We treated ourselves to massages at 5. I was half looking forward to it, half not, because I had asked for a deep tissue massage (deep tissue = painful). There were some pretty tender spots such as my calves, IT band, forearms, shoulders, but mainly my neck. I must have some kind of problem neck because each time I get a massage they spend most of their time on my neck. The lady just kept digging into my neck trying to get certain knots out. She said I had a particularly super tight muscle that she just couldn't release, and seemed a little frustrated asking me to come back in to get it out. Haha...

After the massage we decided to go to the Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City. We've been there before for their naked lobster rolls, which were good but only came in chips and for a $20 sandwich you want more than chips. I decided to get the steamed Maine Lobster that was only $22 and came with fries, corn and coleslaw. It also came complete with a bib (now I know why, juices everywhere!) and directions on how to rip the thing apart. Chris got ribs and thought they were decent. My lobster was really good and hit the spot! I managed to eat the entire thing (despite the gross green stuff that some people think is a delicacy).

Why the pampering? It is our 7 year anniversary of being together. :) Lately we've been kind of putting it off and just eating out at a diner or something, but I like the number 7 and thought we should do something kind of fun.

Sunday was a lazy day for the most part. We went to another thrift store and I found two jackets, jeans, and a sweater for $14!!! I was amazed with myself. :) I love thrift stores. In fact we went to another one today because they had a 50% off sale and we got a few more things. Not sure if it was worth it since there were soooo many people. I don't understand how women can take so long in the dressing rooms. I swear, some are in there for 30 minutes to an hour.

This morning I went for an "easy" run with our group. It wasn't as easy as I should have made it. After that we went to the asian market and looked around. I got some steamed pork buns there, as well as a few other things.

For those of you that don't know, I have this irrational fear of driving on freeways. It kind of developed slowly but it just scares me. Maybe it was the move to bigger cities, more lanes,...I'm not sure. However, today marks the day that I decided to go on it (first time in a long while), and I survived! Haha~ I managed to take the freeway both directions too. Of course it was only 5 miles or so, but it's still pretty big for me. ;)

Anyway, time to cook some din din and walk the dogs!

Zerlina

2009-09-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

Blogger annoys me with how the images change saturation and color when I upload them. :( Maybe blogger's not to blame, but I'm still pretty annoyed.

This is a quick digital painting I did of my friend Zerlina. I like to call her Zerlinda because someone accidently kept calling her that, and I think it's hilarious sounding. The portrait isn't that much of an exaggeration. She really is just that cute. :) I wanted to do something different, not time consuming, and fun. Since it has been quite some time since my last photoshop painting, it was perfect. I was also considering doing cheap avatars for Facebook or something, but I'm not sure how much people would be into them. :S

I am tired. My back is starting to ache from yesterday's bootcamp. Today I went to kickboxing and she made it extra hard for the long weekend. :P

I'm excited for tomorrow. Since Chris and My anniversary is coming up on Sunday we decided to just splurge on a nice meal, some kayaking in Foster City, and a massage. The massage had to be planned for tomorrow since they're closed on Sunday. Fine by me! I'll be going on a 7 mile run in the morning, so it will be perfect for afterward. Then I think we're going to be getting a fine dinner somewhere, and I'm thinking it should be either lobster or steak. Mmm!

Anyway I'm going to try to get some more work done on this doggy painting! I'm saving the progress shots for when it's finished but it shouldn't be too much longer!

Happy Gottie

2009-09-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

Gottie is so darned cute...

He had this quiet but happy face on for a while since Chris got home. With Gottie, it's very easy to tell when he's happy. You can just see it in his eyes, and often he'll open his mouth slightly into a smile. I love it. When he's "so excited he can't contain it" happy he races around then grabs one of his bones lying around the house and gnaws on it to calm himself down.

I couldn't resist posting it....it's a surprise he even let me capture it on camera since he's quite camera shy...

AJ's visit Part 2

2009-09-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics from the last half of AJ's stay. They're a little out of order.

Things are a little blurry now, but on Saturday Chris, AJ, and I all went to San Francisco to go on a mini-cruise on the bay. I had scored tickets half off through this one site, and it turned out to be pretty awesome! The buffet was filled with tons of food...it was a little strange. They had a breakfast section, and then some more lunchy sections. My favorite part? The bacon. They had deeeelightful bacon.

After that, we all walked around San Francisco and then went to Haight street to check out the shops. It got really cold and really windy, and it took us forever to find parking there.

Once we got home, AJ was left with some pretty severe stomach pain so we took it easy on Sunday and just chilled out and did crafts. AJ painted a little bit, and then we made some jewelry. Mine...not so great, but AJ's necklace turned out to be amazing!

Monday AJ was feeling better so we went to Kettlebell and she got a taste for the class. She did great! I was proud of her. :)

Tuesday we went to bootcamp early in the morning. AJ did great then too! Afterwards, we went back to the city and on a tour bus to Muir Woods/Sausalito. It was nice to walk around the woods and the tour bus was also pretty convenient. We got some amazing yogurt in Sausalito and then headed home. I had some severe knots in my neck so I wasn't feeling so great until AJ smashed them out. Then I felt much better!

Wednesday after kettlebell we thought it'd be a great idea to head to Chinatown to get a massage. We got some dim sum, but kept striking out. The food was cold, and I hardly ate anything because I get paranoid about meat being out too long. AJ ate a bunch of it, and did not feel so hot afterwards. :( Should have warned her. The massage was great though!

Anyway, that's all.

I just got back from running 4 miles. It was really really hot out. During the day it was around 100 degrees, so by 7:00 when I planned on running I think it was around 80. I thought I was going to die, but I managed to keep decent time. Normally I'd skip it, but I have to get my mileage up a little bit.

I had an interview yesterday as well! It was two hours long, but went pretty well. :) I'm hopeful that something positive will come out of it, but there's a lot of competition that I'm up against. I'll keep you updated!

Website Updates!

2009-08-31T16:10:00.000-07:00

I have some exciting news!!! My websites are officially live, and ready to be seen!!! Please get a chance to visit my original portfolio site, as well as my PetsbyHeather website that displays more of my pet portrait work.

The other image is a sketch of the painting I'm going to do for the Purrcasso event that benefits the East Bay Humane Society. If you're interesting in bidding on it, it's going to be a 16"x20" oil painting, and most likely I'll have it framed up all cute. :) There's also going to be a wide selection of art from some super talented artists. If I had the money, I'd probably buy one myself! If you are an artist, I strongly urge you to donate a piece. Even if it's a cute sketch of a dog or cat, that'd be great! I know that there are a lot of animators that read this blog...so...I hope you consider it. :) Here's some info on submitting your work.

Anyway, I just wanted to post something to spread the word about my new sites. :) I'm prettttty excited about them. A big thanks again to my web designer BReN that did such an incredible job!

New dog tags!

2009-08-30T16:39:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted some pics of the pups. Jack just got a new haircut today, so he looks a billion times better than he did before. He was looking pretty gross. I also wanted to show off their new dog tags that I ordered from etsy. I think they're adorable! I usually stick to dog tags that don't jingle, but since Jack is going blind it's probably best for them to jingle so he knows who is where. :P

I'll post more of the pictures of the AJ trip soon.

Yesterday it was hotter than ever. In the 100's. Friday was also hot, but yesterday was just really insane. I woke up and it was already steaming so I knew that it would just get worse. We managed to keep the house in the 80's, and in the night it really cooled down. I ended up not getting anything done because it was just too hot to even turn a light on.

This morning I woke up at 5:45. Wayyy too early for a Sunday. I had to go running this morning though since I hadn't ran all week. So at 7am I was at the track running 24 laps. I managed to get it done in around 51:30 but I don't really know the exact time because I forgot my Nike +.

*sigh* I am tired. Today was rather uneventful as well, but I managed to clean up the house and get everything back into order. :) We have a futon in the living room again! It's sure easier than sitting on the floor like we have been.

What else? Tuesday I have an interview in the city. I also have a painting I'm working on, and I am going to do another painting for a Humane Society fundraiser called Purrcasso. I have some other work coming up as well, so I'll be busy this week. :)
Anyway, I really have nothing else to talk about. Tonight we're going to dinner with some friends at this Italian restaurant. Looking forward to that! That's about it though...more updates later. :)

AJ's visit

2009-08-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

These are pics from the first few days of AJ's visit.

She came in Thursday afternoon, so we (AJ, my friend Arianna, and I) spent the last part of the day heading over to Stanford (Palo Alto) to check out their Art Center which had some great pieces. It was nice to get a glimpse of the campus, which is completely huge and has lots of open space. The art center was really nice, and right outside of a Rodin sculpture garden.

I am not a huge fan of asian art. I appreciate the detail and symbolism, but it's just not my thing. I thought this little porcelain dragon was pretty cool though. I imagine that it moves around like one of those wooden snakes because it was built with over 180 separate pieces.

We continued through and saw some pretty impressive masks. I've never seen masks so detailed. Many of them had real human hair, but my favorite which is the one with the pigtails (that sounds so demeaning, but I don't know what else to call them) which was horse hair. I could stare at that mask forever. I'm also pretty fond of some of the wooden sculptures they had there.

After the museum we headed to the Stanford Shopping Center which is this fancy pants mall with expensive stores. :P It is still a nice place to walk around at because it has a really peaceful environment.

Next up you'll see pictures of our trip to the city to the Academy of Sciences, this very popular new science museum. I've waited almost a year I think to go because it is quite notorious for being very crowded, and I knew it wouldn't be as fun if I had to wait in line to see every exhibit. We went at a good time...it was still very crowded but manageable. The best part about the place was the aquarium which had a lot of interesting sea life to see - including an albino alligator.

Once we decided we saw everything that needed to be seen, we headed to the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park. It was really nice, but I was surprised that you had to pay to go in. We sat down and had some...you guessed it, tea, at this strange little place in the center of it all. Many of the waitresses were Korean, and they were in shabby kimonos. It was also a flat fee, but I didn't understand how I could manage to get tea and another drink on the side so I just didn't bother.

Anyway, that is all the pics from those days. I'm breaking them up because I took so many.

She left last night, so today I have been kind of cleaning things up and trying to restore some order in the house. I've also applied to a few jobs, and I've been working on my new website which should be pushed live shortly. :) I was very tempted to take a nap because bootcamp was pretty grueling today (I thought my biceps were going to burst), but I managed to overcome it and stay productive. I plan to stay on a roll, and head to the store to get a big canvas to start a new painting for my web designer. :D I am really looking forward to that...it's going to be so fun!!! Alright...time to get to work!

A glimpse of Kettlebell class

2009-08-20T06:23:00.000-07:00

For my instructor's new website, he had one of our friends take pics for him to post. I previously put some up from our bootcamp, but these new pics were more "staged" but still give you an idea of how the classes go.

I think the pics turned out amazing, and Phil's photography is only getting better. He could go professional! Check out that amazing lighting (with help from Chris).

So there you have it. The first few pics are of the group doing some kettlebell swings and holds. I used the 36# weight to look like I'm super woman, but in reality I usually use the 26# bell. ;) Afterwards, there were some very unflattering pics of me doing kettlebell alone. I guess I should have closed my mouth and not had been looking up at the clock like I usually do, haha.

Followed are pics of the other bootcampers/kettlebellers doing their thing. I picked my favorite of the pics. I love the ones with the objects in motion. Lastly is a pic of Chris doing some olympic weight lifting. :)

I am so tired....I woke up at 4am to Jack throwing up. Then at 4:30 he starts hacking again so I carry him outside and then proceed to watch him throw up several times. Poor boy. After about 15-20 minutes he starts to settle down, but I was worried about him so I set up camp on the living room floor to make sure he was ok. Of course his "thanks" to me was constant growling and walking around, followed by a few barks. I did not get enough sleep, and sleep is pretty crucial to me now that I'm running. :P My body needs to fix itself!

I ran last night, but I really should have not gone. One of my friends had wanted to go, so I figured that was a "sign" that I should get to the track. It was a slow run. It only made bootcamp this morning even harder. Yesterday I also did Kettlebell class, and was pleasantly surprised at how good I felt.

Today AJ gets in at around 1. I have to take out the trash, wash the dishes, and then I'm meeting Chris at Dreamworks for lunch, as long as Jack seems ok. Jack is still kind of trembling, so I'm a little worried, but he's acting pretty peppy still. I also have to go to the dentist and get a nightguard that hopefully will work. The other one changed my bite, and pushed the molars inwards. :S I definitely need something though, I have been grinding and clenching my teeth a lot.

I hope to catch a nap between the cleaning and lunch, but we'll see. *sigh*

I AM excited for her to get here though. Once she gets here and settles in, we're going to go to Stanford to check out the sculpture garden and everything. It should be fun! Then I think we're going to get some Indian food at our favorite restaurant. :)

Well...wish me luck on that nap.

No patience.

2009-08-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

So I've spent the majority of the day working on this image. :) It has been sitting in my sketchbook and I felt the need to refresh my buttermilk biscuits gallery.

I tried to create products and spent a good chunk of my time fixing up products and then bam, an error. And then all of my precious products are gone...never to be seen again. I am developing a headache from the frustration, as the site is very glitchy and has been for the past few weeks (or at least every time I try to create anything). I need to breathe.

Gottie says hi. Every now and then when he wants to check up on me, he'll roam into the office and shove his head underneath my arms so I can't type. Then he stands underneath the desk with his butt sticking out waiting for me to scratch it. Such a nice guy.

I have a massive amount of cleaning to do. I've been trying to put off most of it until tomorrow so that everything is fresh for when AJ arrives, but I did manage to get some laundry taken care of.

Man am I sore. Mainly it's my shoulders/arms from yesterday's kettlebell workout. I thought he was taking it easy on us, but I guess not haha. Then today's bootcamp just kicked me further into the ground. :P Ah well. At least the run tonight will be easy.

I should have a new phone within a few days. Thanks Mom! I wonder how many voicemails I have...I know that a lot of people have tried calling me and left messages. At least my new phone will have a keyboard on it. It is so annoying to try to text on a regular phone.

Anyway, time to clean my car and the backyard. AJ is pretty highly allergic to dogs haha, so I am going to try to make things less hairy. :P Gottie makes that a bit difficult around here. I have no idea how he still has any hair left on his body.

6 miles

2009-08-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

Oh man I am so tired. Chris and I just walked to Dairy Queen (we actually were hoping to get some Hawaiian food but sadly they were closed) because he has been hankering for a burger for the past few weeks. On the way there we spotted some free items on several different curbs.

One was a giant 36" Sony tv. The old ones...none of those fancy LCDs or plasma screens. ;) Currently we've been watching tv on this little 20" tv. It's ok, we've gotten used to it, but I wouldn't mind upgrading to something larger. We weren't 100% set on getting it so we decided that if it was still there on our way back that it was destiny.

As we continued, we spotted this wooden tv stand. I like it. It's very old and kind of crappy, but it is like a mini cage! We're going to put Jack in there. :) Not really.

Then we found some free books. Woo! What a walk.

On the way back, the tv was still there so we thought it was fate. We got the car, headed down the street, and I could not even budge my end of the tv up. I had read that these particular tv's weigh between 270-290lbs, so it's no wonder. So it's still there. On the curb. :( But we did get the stand.

The pic on top is of a little shopping girl that I made for my website's "shop" section. The pic below is a pic when my hair was long that I miss. I go back and forth between missing and hating long hair. Right now I miss it. Chris didn't believe me that I had long hair only 2 years ago, so this is proof.

We woke up early to go running at the Palo Alto High School track with Jin, Crystal, Jes, Brian, and John. It's our long run day, so our goal was 6 miles. I'm still not sure what pace I am aiming for, but I think 8:30 miles seem pretty good. I finished 6 miles in 50:33, and the average time came out to 8:17 a minute. I am happy to see that I've improved since in May I ran 6 miles at 57 mins. I'm not sure how next week's 7 mile course will go. It helped to have Jin go because he is so fast and I felt like I needed to keep up my pace. (He still lapped me 3 times). I'm happy that Chris came with. :) It was nice for him to meet some of the group and to run around the track with us.

Afterwards we headed to the gym to get some shots taken for Jin's website. Phil was so generous to meet us there and take the photos. It was fun and relaxed. :) After that we all headed to brunch at this new crepe place in Redwood City. It was pretty tasty. I had restrained myself from getting a big meal because I thought I would get a dessert crepe at the end, but I didn't. :P Next time!

I wasn't tired until we got home and walked the dogs. We went to this yard sale across the street, and the sun just sucked all the energy out of me. We both crashed into bed when we got home and didn't wake up until an hour and a half later. I still dont' feel better after the nap. I have this heat headache.

Thursday AJ comes in from MI to see me! I'm really excited about having her over. :) I'm not too excited about cleaning the house though. It gets really dusty and messy so fast. :P

Bootcamp

2009-08-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to post pics of bootcamp. :) These are pretty much the only people I get to socialize with on a weekly basis other than Chris haha. I don't mind being alone, but being a freelancer can get a bit lonely.

These pics are all taken by my friend Phil. :) He works with Chris at Dreamworks, and just takes pics for fun but has dramatically improved over the short time that I've known him. I swear he could go pro if he wanted to. These pics are actually taken for my trainer Jin's website. He should have plenty to choose from by the end.

We started with a warm up, followed by stretches, and then a mile run. I was huffing and puffing and still can't seem to get past 7:18. :P No excuses there, I guess I'm just going to have to learn how to move my legs faster.

We did lots of various exercises afterwards, but they mainly involved these battling ropes. We had to run around with them on our shoulders, with our arms straight in the air, doing presses, and lunges. Poor Phil didn't realize he'd be in for a workout himself. He was racing back and forth to get the best shots.

It probably can go without saying, but my trainer is the Asian dude with the giant arm muscles and gray tank.

Anyyywayyy I just got off the phone with my very good friend AJ from Michigan. :) She's going to come visit me again!!!! I'm super excited to see her. We had such an awesome time when she was here last, and she's just full of good energy. She's also in med school, and I am just so proud of her! She'll be here in a week or so!

Today I spent some time vectoring some images. It's taken me a while, but I finished them up. I want to get another personal piece out of the way, and also to work on the children's book a bit. I'm also getting a new website up (I think I mentioned it). The person who is making the site is just so incredibly amazing, and fast. I really can't thank her enough. The site is so well thought out, and completely easy to update. I can't wait to show you guys. Tomorrow I'll probably spend some time working on that too so we can get it up and running soon. I also am going to meet up with the people I work for in Mountain View. :)

It is so hot in here.

Uhhh what else? Tonight I'm going running with Jes and Crystal. Pretty much our entire bootcamp has decided to run the half marathon so it's really cool that we can train together. :)
I'm getting excited!

Meditating Girl

2009-08-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is a digital painting I've been working on for a little while. It is a commission, however this version wasn't chosen. Actually the one that was chosen was the simple sketch that I had done first. :) It all worked out in the end, and that's what matters. I just want to make sure that clients are happy.

I had fun working on it. It is definitely different than my usual work on several ways. I did enjoy giving the character an environment.

So that's what I've worked on yesterday and today.

It has been really hot lately...I can't wait for the weather to start cooling down. Even at 7am when our bootcamp is, it was hot. I ran a 7:18 mile. I seem to be stuck at that time, but that's alright. :P I don't know how to get my legs to move faster. Haha~ Our friend Phil came to bootcamp to help the instructor take some photos for his website. :) I think that they will turn out a bit nicer than the ones the instructor took. Hehe...no offense of course, but the instructor was taking photos, yelling out commands, and running with us so it was a little difficult for him.

I have a new website in progress. Actually, I will be updating both of my websites. I posted an ad on Craigslist for commissions, and this lovely girl Bren asked if it would be alright to barter services. She's a web queen, and I really was looking for something exactly like this. I want websites that are easily to update. I want my website to be a place that people will want to visit often instead of just looking at it and knowing it won't change ever. She's shown me some ideas, and I love what she has so far. :)

We are getting a bunch of people to register for the Big Sur Half Marathon. I'm excited! We will have a pretty large group all together. It's nice because we can all train together and have group runs.

Anyway, that's all! Let's see how much more work I can get done before Chris gets home. :)

My Garden

2009-08-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

It's been kind of unbearably hot these past few days. Upper 90's...

I've been working on the Cintiq all day, and in turn it is roasting me. The screen gets so hot! So lucky for you, I'm taking a break to write a quick blog.

This weekend was nice and relaxing. Yesterday I went for a run with a few fellow bootcampers in Foster City. We ran five miles, but I don't really count it as five since about a half mile in we stopped to stretch. It was a weird five miles. But we ran well over 4 continuously which was still pretty good. Even though we ran at 9:30 it was still reallllllllllly hot out and all of us wanted nothing more than to leap into a pool of ice cold water afterward.

The rest of the day I was pretty exhausted from the heat so I lazed around, gave the dogs some baths to cool them down. It never works because they get so excited from the bath that they end up sprinting around until they collapse. They needed it anyway.

I also got my garden started! I have been wanting a garden for ever. I love planting things, watching them grow. I was really excited about the thought of moving into a place with a back yard so that I could grow more useful plants to me like vegetables. It is my first crack at it, so wish me luck! I planted some carrots, lots of herbs, and some lettuce. The lettuce was good because I bought the plants at OSH. I'm eager to plant some potatoes, so I'll probably do that next weekend. All of the plants are in containers. I figured that's probably easiest.

I also got a venus fly trap. I've always wanted one. :) I think they are sooo cool. However I didn't realize that each head only closes 3 or 4 times before turning brown and dying...that is kind of a downer. Especially considering that because I was really curious and I stuck a spoon in one before knowing that they only close so few times. :( Oh well. Watching it close was reallllly neat though...I think it was worth it. I hope that it actually catches something instead of just dying. I am not about to buy any live crickets and feeding it. Although it is tempting.

That's about it for now. Back to my digital painting...

Korean Buffet Goodness

2009-08-08T10:29:00.001-07:00

These are pics from the Korean buffet I went to two nights ago. It was amazing and everything that I was expecting. I was a little annoyed that the $30 price tag didn't include even sodas. But at the same time, after going to this place I realize that in order to survive they have to up the price so much. The strategies that people have when they go there are insane.

This dinner was kind of a get together of all our fellow bootcampers. It was good to be out of the gym environment, and to be around each other when we're not gasping for air and in smelly gym clothes. Most of us had never been to the buffet before, but there were some regulars that knew what to do.

Their strategy was to go straight for the meat. Have a person or two pile the plate high with just meat while someone else gets rice. We went through six giant plates of meat, which was mainly the rolled up short ribs. I forget what they were called but the boys were singing a song dedicated to the "beef blankets". Did I mention that there were only six people at our table? Yeah, that is one disgusting amount of meat. But it was soo good. It's also a fun experience because you get to cook it at your own table. Throw on some kimchi, some octopus, along with some jalapeno peppers and garlic. Mmm! (not the octopus part, that wasn't very "Mmm!")

Some people that are in the pics that I have talked about before are...Jin (the Asian guy cooking with the whitish shirt that has a pan on it) - he's the trainer, he's also my kettlebell trainer. There's also Crystal, the Asian girl with the long hair and brown shirt at our table, she's my gym partner in crime, and also is the person I'm going to the Half Marathon with. There's also Jes (the red hair sitting next to me) who I mention often, and you have seen lots of pics of her. :)

The dinner was fun. Don't eat their ice cream. Bleck. End of story.

Yesterday I worked on a commissioned painting, I also put out some Craigslist ads trying to get some new commissions coming in. I am open for commissions!!! I'm up for doing some quick fun illustrations for $30, which I know is dirt cheap but I plan on spending no more than 1-2 hours on it, and you can't really be too picky about what you receive. The way I say that sounds awful, but I work quite fast and I really care about the quality so if it ends up going over 2 hours I won't charge more of course :P But if you wanted to do something cute as a gift, I can do my little girl or boy characters and turn your friends into them? *shrug* Baby invites? Wedding invites? Birthday party? Haha...

I also did the kettlebell thing at Lucy which was fun. I just was there to demonstrate some things, and make it seem less intimidating for women to try. Two of the women stumbled into the class thinking that it was actually one of those fitness ball workouts, and didn't realize that it was kettlebells and not kettleballs (often mispronounced). They pushed through it though and everyone did great~

Last night we went to this Art Walk up at Haight St. We were meeting up with a bunch of Chris' co-workers. It was fun, but the Art Walk was way too crowded for me. Just to find parking was insane, we drove around for at least 30 minutes back and forth. We didn't see much of the Art Walk before we all decided to just go to dinner instead. We ate at a place called Naan & Chutney which ended up being a big failure. Our food came and it was such a small serving you could have cleaned the plate in 10 bites. Not to mention that you have to buy the Naan and rice all separately. The restaurant was also running out of glasses so they were watching us like a hawk and swiping up the glasses as we finished. Kind of weird...

It was still nice to see everyone.

This weekend I am planning on chillllling out. I really want to just watch tv and get things done around the house. I also plan on going to Home Depot finally and starting my garden! We found two planters for free that can go on our patio fencing out front. I also want to go to the mall, go to the library, get some dog food, get some groceries, watch some Avatar, and maybe get another fun piece done before the week starts back up. Sunday a bunch of us from bootcamp are going to go on a 5 mile run too. :P Gotta start getting these long runs in to train...I definitely wouldn't do it alone so the group runs are awesome. :)

Well it's 11:00 and I'm still in my pajamas. Chris is still sleeping. And the dogs are dying to go on their morning walk. Gotta go!

Cookies!

2009-08-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

I think today was a pretty productive day. Hopefully it makes up a little for yesterday.

This is my latest illustration...it's just for fun and my Zazzle gallery. My Zazzle gallery has been kind of abandoned, so this will hopefully bring more traffic into it. It's also been a really long time since I've done anything for myself. Unfortunately it can only go on postcards/posters/stamps because of the format.

At first she had a face that was more like, "get away from my cookies!" or "don't you dare!" but once I had initially finished it, I realized that the way she's holding the spoon looked like an angry physical threat more than a cute kind of way, so I made her smiling with happier eyes instead. We can imagine that these are actually dog friendly carob cookies instead, and that they were able to feast upon them once they were done.

I also finished a commission sketch~ and I can go into refinements. I'm looking forward to that.

On top of this all, I managed to clean our very dusty, furry, dirty home. It has been hard to find the time to clean lately, so it was way overdue. I still can't get over how easy it is to clean wood floors. I thought that maybe since Gottie spends a good portion of the day outdoors that there would be less fur accumulated in our home...but no. Fur everywhere. I don't understand how he can lose so much and not be bald.

Tonight I'm going to go to a dinner with a bunch of fellow bootcampers. I'm pretty excited about it, because it is a Korean buffet! Not only do I get to eat Korean food, but unlimited amounts! Of course, all of you that know me know that I never can take full advantage of buffet prices. My appetite has gotten bigger, but I can still only handle so much food before I'm about to burst. And yes, it's usually a pretty pathetic amount - two plates, tops. I'm more of a grazer instead of a big meal type of girl.

Tomorrow I'm going to Lucy in Palo Alto to demonstrate some Kettlebell moves. They have this "Fitness Friday" thing going on, and my trainer is "teaching" the first class about Kettlebell, so as a favor I am going to go and show them some things.

Yesterday I went to the Sequoia High School track with my friend, and we ran around for a bit. I wanted to calibrate my Nike +, and I thought I did it right but I made a mistake - I ran too fast. I should have ran at least a mile before I calibrated it so that I could be tired and run my actual steady pace. So I will have to go back...*sigh* The thing is pretty cool though, I am looking forward to getting it calibrated correctly.

Afterwards I went to my friends' house and they made some amazing spaghetti! I love home cooked meals. I really should cook more. I tend to eat mainly frozen dinners. :S

Well time to go put this on my Zazzle gallery. More later!

My painting

2009-08-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

I don't know why the colors on blogger are coming out so desaturated. :P My painting is a lot brighter than this.

This is the painting that I did for "Sweet Streets", a show at Gallery Nucleus. My friend Caro is the co-curator and has been so generous as to let me show a piece. Of course I didn't really know that I could for sure be in it until about a week ago, so I rushed to start and finish, frame, and ship this painting to be there around the 8th of August. It is a pretty big show and features some amazing artists. I really feel quite insecure...but it was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.

I am so tired. :P Last night I had the craziest, most horrible nightmares. It took me a while to fall asleep initially, and when I did I woke up from the nightmare and had a really hard time falling back asleep. I don't know where I get some of these nightmares, they used to occur a lot when I was younger. They feel like they are straight from a horror movie. This one had lots of blood, and at one point this guy was screaming and his flesh and muscles were just falling off his bones. :S And no, I don't watch horror movies.

But yeah, I'm really sane!

I took a nap...I'll admit it. I just couldn't function without one. It was what I needed, and I spent the rest of the day working on the children's book that has been on the back burner for some time. I've almost got another page done, so that's pretty good for me! Only what...28 pages left! haha~ Oi...

I ran a 7:18 mile today. :P I also officially registered for the Big Sur Half Marathon with my friend. I must be crazy! I am pretty excited though...I think it will be a lot of fun. Now I have to get serious about training...I have been kind of blowing off running lately. I am curious to calibrate the Nike + I got and try it out, so maybe tonight I will get that done if I can get my painting boxed up in time.

Oh yeah and I threw some pics of the dogs in there. They spend the majority of the day out on the patio sunning. You can tell by the skin on Gottie's underside. He wasn't very pleased to get his picture taken. The dogs have been well. Yesterday was a bad day for Jack...he was running into things all over the place. The laundry basket, the trash bin. Poor guy. Yet he can still spot a tennis ball in the middle of a giant patch of grass that's 20 feet away.

Well time to pack up this painting!!! More later!

Aloha Fest

2009-08-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

What a week! I've gone out practically every day this week except Monday.

Yesterday I went with some of my old co-workers to the Aloha Festival in the city. It was crazy how many people were there. I was excited to eat Hawaiian food, which is making it's way to my favorite foods. I got this plate that had a little bit of everything, but the best part was the juicy pulled pork. Mmmmmmmm...although the sno cone wasn't half bad either.

All the pics with me are courtesy of my friend Aaron. I'm amazed at the quality of iphone pics.

Saturday we went to the Gilroy shopping outlets with some friends, Ron & Arianna. I never usually get a lot of things there, so it wasn't a surprise that I only got some hand soaps and a few sweaters from the Gap. It is still fun to just walk around and browse. Chris and Ron almost immediately found a little corner in each store where they could sit and draw. After we came home we decided to go to Little India, our favorite restaurant. The food was particularly good that night because it was crowded and they were constantly bringing in fresh dishes for the buffet.

Friday night (yes, I know I'm going backwards) I went to a dinner with some of Chris' friends for a going away party for someone. It was good, we had a lot of fun chatting it up. They surprised me with a birthday card, it was really sweet and unexpected. :)

Thursday night I went out to eat with a few of my friends at BJ's, which is one of my favorite places to go. I had a great time~ It was fun hanging out with them as usual. We ended the night with a candle lit pizookie, a giant oven baked cookie with a scoop of ice cream on top. It was heavenly, but there was no way I could eat it all by myself.

So that's that! Today I have to get this painting all framed and ready to ship. :) I will post a picture of it shortly. I wish I could go down there to see it up and everything, but I am just soooo through with traveling. I also would like to get a personal piece started today, as well as some other projects going on.

More later!

Birthday Goodness

2009-07-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my 26th birthday. I have to say that it was a pretty good birthday, thanks to Christopher. :)

I got to sleep in while Chris walked the dogs, so I woke up feeling really refreshed and happy. I received plenty of birthday wishes through Facebook which is always nice. For the majority of the day I worked on my painting for the gallery show.

It has been a while since I've painted, except for the cat portrait for my grandma. This one is a painting in my style of two girl characters kind of posing together with a city scene behind them. I was debating on what style to do the painting in, and if I should try something crazy, but I decided it's probably smart to stick with something that will emphasize my portfolio instead of making it even more random. I bought liquin which is a medium used with oil paints to make it dry a bit faster. I got the kind of liquin that is good for fine detail and smooth brush strokes, so it has been a dream to paint with. If I had the time, I would probably just love to sit down with the painting and finish it in one sitting. But I don't. I have other work to do as well, which is bittersweet. :)

I also went to kettlebell which was fun but a little discouraging because I just can't even come close with the snatches and long cycles. The swinging motion really tears up my hands. One hand has two eraser sized holes from my callus peeling off...twice. It's pretty deep now, so I bought some stuff that a friend had recommended called "new skin". Apparently I misunderstood him. I bought it, and put it on, only to experience pure pain and agony. It felt like someone was driving a knife through my hand. I probably would have rather put straight alcohol on it instead. I only put it on one of hte wounds, and I let the other one kind of start to heal on its own before I put a layer of it on. I don't recommend the stuff at all though. Not only is it utterly painful, but on the bottle it says to remove it you put either more of the stuff on and wipe it off, or you use NAIL POLISH REMOVER. Yeah, like that wouldn't hurt.

When I came home, I was pleasantly surprised by a bouquet of beautiful flowers on the porch. They are so fragrant I could smell them from the driveway. My grandpa spoils me and every year gets me flowers for my birthday. I swear they just get better and better!

Around 5:30 Chris came home, ran in and had me sit in the kitchen while he prepared the living room. I came out and it was decorated with a little Happy Birthday banner, and a gift bag (I thought it was funny that the "tissue paper" was just a pile of unused poop bags haha). He had gotten me an assortment of things including a Nike + to track my runs, with a watch thingy to go with it that voices out your progress. He also got me some insoles, lots of candy (all my favorites), Little Caesars breadsticks (with sauce) and bought me two kettlebells. On top of that, he also said he would help me get started with my gardening! The card was cute and dog themed, and the plates have a puppy on them, and he got me some candles...I'm assuming for the breadsticks? Haha...

It was very sweet and thought out. :) I am a lucky girl!

I did some serious thinking as to what I wanted to do with the night. I chose to go to Arby's, and Wal-Mart to see if they had this particular kind of ramen noodle that I look for but can never find. It's the chili flavor. Not chili lime shrimp, or chili lime chicken, but just plain chili. Impossible to get around here. Unfortunately we didn't see it at Wal-Mart but I will keep my eyes open for it. The Arby's sandwiches were deeeeelightful! Chris offered to take me to get some lobster rolls at $20 a piece, but honestly I think Arby's tastes just as good haha.

On the way home we drove to Coldstone so I could redeem my birthday coupon (sign up for their birthday club, it's sooo worth it!). I got a free ice cream. It's amazing.

So that was my entire birthday. I really had a good day.

Today I have more painting to do, I also have a logo to create, and a dinner to go to with my friends tonight. It will be fun! We also did a really grueling bootcamp today so I may schedule in a tiny little nap. :)

A big thank you to Christopher, and a big thanks to all my friends and family for the wishes, cards, and gifts.

I lost my phone

2009-07-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

It was inevitable. I lost my phone. I had turned it off before going on the plane and have not found it since. I'm not horribly sad about it because I hate talking on the phone in the first place, but I am a little sad because I usually make all of my b-day calls.

:(

If you need to reach me through phone, call Chris. Otherwise I am pretty much glued to the computer.