Home...

Home sweet home.

As much as I love traveling, I'm generally always glad to be back home. And, that was never more true than it was tonight.

K and I just got home from visiting his family in Ohio for the weekend. It was a relatively quick trip - we left on Friday afternoon and had a long day of traveling so we didn't get to his parent's house until mid-evening. The main event was his family's Christmas party on Saturday. I've met all of his family before and even spent Christmas there last year, although I arrived after the big Mohlman family celebration. And, when I say "big" I mean BIG. There are 20 people in K's immediate family. That's right, 20. Um, there's 4 people in my immediate family. Do the math.

I had a really rough time there this trip, generally feeling uncomfortable and not really a part of things "officially." Just to give an example...K's mom referred to me as his "roommate." Ouch.

On a positive note, K and I had a couple of good conversations about our relationship, our future, family dynamics, etc. We went to visit "the ring" at BBB on Thursday evening when we were up at the Domain for a happy hour with fellow Rogues. It's still as pretty as it was the first time I saw it.

We've been exploring possible dates for 2008, mostly in the fall. Coming up with possible choices on our own (without even considering venue availability yet) has proven to be quite challenging. Let's just say that the Ohio State football schedule has been consulted several times.

I think this will be good motivation for me to refocus on my fitness and weight goals for 2008.

On another note, we're going to Denver in a few weeks for a ski trip. FUN.

Better...

K has (finally) learned the power of saying sorry with flowers...
I just hope it hasn't become our tradition to celebrate Christmas on Dec. 26th. We exchanged gifts tonight...stocking stuffers before dinner at P.F. Chang's then the rest of the gifts afterwards. Most of my stuff from K and my parents is fitness-related - a few more pairs of my favorite running shorts in my new (bigger) size; swim cap; gift certificate for massages; gift certificate for shoes at RunTex; running socks; bike trainer; and Garmin Forerunner (which hasn't arrived in the mail yet, but I am super excited to try it out!). Of course, K made out pretty well himself...
He's rockin' out to Guitar Hero right now. How lucky am I?!?!

Not quite over...

All day yesterday I just wanted Christmas to be over. It was terrible. It's definitely not a good holiday when the highlight is running your track workout by yourself (12x200's).

Now, I'm back at work. It's not even 9am yet and I've already had the handful of people that are actually here working today inquire about my Christmas. I can't really tell them that it sucked, can I?

And, then of course, Christmas part III is this weekend when we go up to Ohio to visit Kurt's family. Oh, great, more holiday goodness. Just what I need. I don't have the emotional energy for this.

Bah, Humbug...

Sharing the holidays with a partner is proving to be difficult for me and K. Virtually nothing about the holidays last year or this year has gone smoothly in our relationship. There were apparent compromises made this year, with the beauty of it being that we could do whatever we wanted on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year. A chance to develop new traditions as a couple and future family. But, that has turned out to be harder than expected. I am starting to really just dread the holidays at this point because we apparently don't do it well together.

Christmas, Part I

We're celebrating Christmas in 3 parts this year. First, we made a quick trip up to Dallas this weekend. We left Austin shortly before noon on Saturday, not really taking into account that traffic would be heavy with people traveling for the holidays. I had gotten a last minute hair appointment with my stylist in Dallas for 3pm, so we were pushing it to make it in time. And, of course, we didn't. Fortunately, traffic improved once we got to Waco, so we made it to Dallas by 3:30 and I was able to get my hair done after all. Whew! She always straightens my hair for me when I see her, so it's a nice treat to feel like a superstar for the day.

We had dinner with my mom in Lewisville last night. I've seen her several times within the past month for Thanksgiving, my brother's graduation, and Christmas. I know she'd like for me to come up more often throughout the year. Maybe next year will be different...

We stayed at The Fairmont in downtown Dallas last night. It's a nice, swanky hotel that we got a really good deal on. K loved the flat screen TV...just what he needs to watch sports on! We were hoping to go out with some friends last night, but it didn't work out. I was fading fast after 10:00pm and called it a night at 10:45 before making it out. I know, I know, I'm old.

We had lunch today with one of my best friends, Pete, at a Dallas/SMU landmark...Snuffer's on Greenville Ave. Mmmmm, cheese fries. And, no, I didn't run this weekend to really earn being able to eat them. After lunch, K and I spent some time at the Nasher Sculpture Center before heading back to Austin. What a great private collection of art! I enjoyed the outdoor sculpture garden, particularly this piece "Walking to the Sky" by Jonathan Borofsky (it's 100 feet!):
And, of course, here's K playing in the sculptures...

Elevation...

I'm trying to decide on a new route for my 3-mile easy run tonight. Given that I have chosen a hilly marathon, I better continue to run the neighborhood hills, as much as I hate them.

Here is the elevation map for Big Sur (UPHILL):

Here is the elevation map for St. George (DOWNHILL):

Which would you choose?

Registration for Big Sur is now 50% full.

Lottery for St. George opens April 1. 2nd time is a charm! The good news though is that if I don't get in again this year, then I will be guaranteed entry for 2009.

Birthday recap...

Yesterday concluded K's birthday "week." We started celebrating on Friday in Atlanta with my family and friends and finished last night at Mangia with K's co-workers and our "running family." Thanks to everyone who joined me in wishing Big K a very happy birthday. Pictures from last night are here.

Happy Birthday, Big K!

Happy 29th (I mean, 28th) birthday, buddy.

Atlanta, The Conclusion...

Yesterday was chilly and rainy here much of the day. After having lunch and window-shopping in Virginia Highlands (an area that we really liked last time), we spent the rest of the afternoon at The High Museum of Art. As expected, K closed the place down at 5pm. The funny thing though was that he actually came down and met me in the lobby (where I had been waiting since 3:30) at 4:30. I was shocked that he had finished earlier that I expected. However, we quickly realized that he had missed an entire floor where the big Impressionist exhibition was being shown. So, he ran up to see it and then we were among the last people to leave.
(Big K and Napoleon)

After the museum, we drove around a bit trying to find a place to eat dinner that would be easy and convienent. We ended up at a nice little pizza and pasta place in Midtown. Then, we made our way over to Phillips Arena in time for the pre-game warmup. The Hawks won, so that was good. Interestingly, the hockey game on Friday night seemed to draw more of a crowd than the basketball game did. We spent the night at Stephanie's place last night and have been hanging around here much of the morning. She has a 3-year-old son, who is really testing her patience right now. I don't think it's done much to inspire me and K to have kids anytime soon.

Our flight is later this afternoon, so we'll be back to Austin in time to run a few errands and get settled back at home before the workweek starts tomorrow. As usual, it will be a busy week - I have a massage tomorrow evening, we have our quality workout on Tuesday night followed by K's birthday party, I have ART on Thursday after work, and we head to Dallas for the weekend on Saturday. Whew! I'm already eager for another 4-day weekend.

Atlanta, cont...

We enjoyed ourselves at the hockey game last night. Our seats were pretty good - 6th row, I think. Phillips Arena is such a great multi-purpose venue. It is attached to the CNN Center, several restaurants, and a hotel. The basketball game is there tonight, too. It would be nice if Austin had a professional sports team of some sort.

Oh, this made absolutely no sense to me. On the large video screens at the arena, they scrolled through messages that people sent in as text messages. When I saw the first marriage proposal, I thought well okay, that's just par for the course - there's always one of those at every game it seems like. However, I counted at least 4 during the course of the evening! Are these guys stupid? It was going by so fast and there was no guarantee when it would go by, so there is a very good chance that their soon-to-be fiance didn't even see the proposal! I've already told K not to even think about doing that!
K just got back from running at Piedmont Park. Now, we're off to have lunch in Midtown probably. Then, he wants to check out The High. They have a special exhibit from The Louvre and an Impressionist exhibition too. As much as I enjoy going to museums, I don't always like going with K because he has to read EVERYTHING and I'm usually ready to go in half the time that it takes him. I doubt today will be any different.

Atlanta

Peace at last. We're sitting here in a hotel room in downtown Atlanta; K is watching tv while I upload pictures from our trip, check email, and blog. I'm glad it's finally just us again.

We arrived late Wednesday night. My mom arrived from DFW slightly earlier than we did, so my brother picked her up and took her to my best friend's house to stay. My dad picked K and I up then we headed up to their house and got settled in. We had to get up earlier than we would have liked for my brother's graduation from Kennesaw State University on Thursday morning. My brother and I took very different paths in life. I was the true first-born in every way with clear goals and plans, while he enjoyed life and lived in the moment. We were all so proud of him yesterday.
I was tired, grumpy, and stressed much of the day though. Family dysfunction and lack of control got to me. I got a long nap in the afternoon and the day brightened with a celebratory dinner with family and friends at Strip in Atlantic Station. K and I ate there when we were here back in July. My best friend knows the head chef at the restaurant, so we definitely got VIP treatment last night. The food was excellent! Yummy sushi and so much more, too!
I swear that I have gained 10 pounds from dinner last night and lunch this afternoon. I wanted to have a birthday lunch for K before my mom left this afternoon, so we had another delicious meal and dessert at Stephanie's house before taking my mom to the airport. Steak, lobster, and homemade cake...just a few of K's favorite things!
So, now we're just relaxing at the hotel for a bit before the hockey game tonight - Atlanta Thrashers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs. I think today marks the beginning of K's birthday celebration that will span through next Tuesday! I've spoiled him too much.

Weekend update...

It's Dec. 10th already. We don't have another weekend at home until after the new year. Things are gonna be busy, but in a good way.

We had a GREAT weekend. Friday night out at the Ben Lee show kicked the weekend off to a good start. We spent much of Saturday cleaning the house and getting ready for the party for my co-workers that night. Everything came together nicely, and I think the party was a huge success. We had a ton of great food, exchanged Secret Santa gifts, and got to mix and mingle with everyone's significant others. Thankfully for this old broad, folks cleared out around 10:30 or so. K and I cleaned up before going to bed, which was relatively easy. It was another night though past my bedtime, so we definitely made up for it by sleeping in until 11AM! on Sunday morning. It was awesome.

We did a little Christmas shopping yesterday. And, our trip to The Domain included a stop at Bailey Banks and Biddle to look at engagement rings. We had previously looked at them online a couple of weeks ago, but things looked different in person. "The ring" that I really liked was actually the 2nd one that I tried on. K's anxiety level during the trip was a 6 out of 10 (and it still is). He's doing good, though. :)

I had a super busy day at work today followed by ART afterwards. He worked on my upper back calf for the 1st time today, and it hurt. Hopefully, I'll have a good workout tomorrow - the Warhurst.

A night out...

While K and I stay pretty busy and do a lot of different things, we don't really go "out" a lot anymore. Out meaning going to a club or bar, drinking, and staying out way past my 10:30 bedtime. I'm old. I did all that many years ago and don't really have a big interest in doing it at this point in my life. I'd rather spend my time (and money) doing other things.

So, last night was a rare outing for us. On Thursday morning as I was driving my whopping 1-mile commute to work, I heard on the radio that one of my favorite artists who I have followed for years, Ben Lee, was playing at The Parish on Friday night. As soon as I got to work, I called K to tell him that we were going and got tickets.

We both had not so good days at work yesterday, so it was perfect timing for a night out. As I was getting ready, I even commented to K that it had been a long time since I got dressed up to go out with him. We had a yummy early dinner at Romeo's then actually came back home to relax for a little while before heading over to 6th Street. I'm old, remember. We got to The Parish shortly before 10 to find the 2nd opening band still playing. Good, easy to listen to music. Ben came on right on time at 10:45 and played an entertaining show as always.
Overall, it was a great Friday night with my K.

No big surprise that we didn't get up to run this morning. It's an easy 7-mile run though, so I will get it in on my own this weekend. Today will be busy though getting ready for my work Christmas party tonight. I still can't believe I offered to host it!

Seriously, what am I doing here?

It's been a hectic morning, especially for a Friday. I got called to do an emergency consult on a kid before 9am. Again, I got to flex those clinical muscles that I haven't used in a long time. It felt good. I told the kiddo that she needed counseling, which she was amenable to, but she indicated that she doesn't open up to a lot of people and asked if she could see me for counseling since she liked me (after only a 15-minute interaction with me in a "crisis" situation). THIS is what I should be doing - working directly with kids and families who need help. I also had a speaker come from an outside agency yesterday that works with kids and families affected by medical illness - it reminded me of the work that I did in the children's hospitals before. It made me sad because I realize how much I miss it and that I was good at it. I told her to let me know if her organization is ever looking to hire on a psychologist. She inquired whether I could take referrals for them - I don't have a private practice though.

Action!

It seems like there's been a lot of decisions to be made that have been up in the air lately for me and K. K likes to mull things over and avoid having to make a decision as long as possible, usually until the decision is somehow made by the act of him not making a decision. This drives me nuts. I like to get things done and plan in advance. We have accomplished a lot today though - he decided on his birthday plans (and, then I took over from there to actually implement them) and we decided on our Christmas plans. We're going to go up to Dallas to see my mom the weekend before Christmas then come back and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here. I am really looking forward to spending the holidays together in our house. I have to work on Wednesday and Thursday unfortunately, but I am going to take off on Friday so that we can go to Ohio for the weekend. A good compromise for all, I think. We'll be back to spend NY Eve here (again, I have to work that day) and are toying with the idea of having a fiesta at our place. "We'll see," K's famous last words.

In other news, I had a relatively good workout last night. We did a 10-minute warm-up, 24-minute fartlek (30 seconds hard, 90 seconds recovery), 10-minute cooldown = Fartlek 44. Our coach had us drive over to Zilker and do our warm-up/cooldown over there rather than having to run to/from the Annex. I approved of that. :)

After the workout, we met Phillip and Kellie for dinner/happy hour at Zax. Good food, good company. I miss the P*Dipps happy hours after workouts.

Big Sur is currently 45% full. I think we're going to wait to register until it gets closer to 70%, just to make sure that things are going okay with training.

Sunday in Austin...

We had a great Austin Sunday today. After church, we stumbled into the "Gospel Brunch" at Stubb's. Now, I am not somebody who generally likes brunch - I like my breakfast food at breakfast and my lunch food at lunchtime, but this was a buffet brunch not to be missed - brisket, sausage, chicken, fried catfish, biscuits and gravy, potatoes, and other yummy goodness. It was fantastic! We got to hear some good gospel music too from a live band while we ate. I highly recommend it, and we'll definitely go back.

Afterwards, we went to the Travis Heights Art Trail, a tour through several Travis Heights homes/galleries of neighborhood artists showcasing their goods. We saw lots of interesting sculptures, photographs, paintings, ceramics, glass, etc. And, of course, it was neat to see some of the other houses in the area. We also got a great photo taken of us in a home-made "photo booth." I already have it framed and on display in the house.

Tonight, we went to see the state Christmas tree in front of the Capitol.
Speaking of Christmas trees, we got ours yesterday and decorated it last night (while K watched football, of course).
(And, note that I am wearing a tank-top on December 2nd. It was HOT today! I know last weekend I was complaining about the cold, but let's settle on somewhere in between!)