I Won!

I've been waiting something like 3 months to be able to post this blog, and here it is!

I was on a game show in August...and I won! Yes, I am a certified nerd for life because of this, especially since it wasn't some cool game show like Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy or anything. It was a show called "Bingo America" (oh my gosh, so nerdy) and it only shows on the Game Show Network. So the likelihood of anyone EVER seeing my super nerdy, overly-smiley (according to my mom), ridiculousely-easy-trivia-answering performance is very small. Darn!

I won't tell you how much I won, but suffice it to say it was not a life changing amount (especially after taxes)...though it will certainly be very welcome during these tough times!

15 and a half miles

Today I ran 15.5 miles. It was easily the second hardest thing I have ever done in my life, right behind moving to California. Physically, definitely the hardest thing I've ever done.

We've been doing these Sunday group runs with our half-marathon training program at Griffith Park for 5 weeks now, doing long slow runs ("Aerobic" or "Aero" running, keeping our heart rates low, the idea being you develop a good aerobic base this way, allowing you to eventually go faster for longer on the actual race day). We've increased our time each week, to culminate in our longest run today: 2 hours and 40 minutes. And I thought 2:20 was hard!! Several times I seriously considered slowing down, walking, stopping to stretch, but I must say I am proud of myself for pushing through to the bitter end... Or should I say blissful end? At any rate, I made it thanks to my awesome pace group comrades and especially my wonderful hubby who always encourages me when I start to falter. This week is our "cut back" week, and after that we start working on speed, so no more long runs until race day! I can handle that. :)

Erika and Tyler return from their month long European honeymoon tonight. We're excited to have them back! I'm already mulling over our own return to Europe someday, I'm sure we'll be even more inspired when we see all their photos and hear their stories. Just got to figure out how to pay for it all I guess! I'm also excited for Erika to hopefully join our training program so I can have someone to run else to run with on race day. I'm not sure if our paces are the same, but it's so nice to run with someone for a little ways if not the whole way and I will be eating Chad's dust on December 7th. :)

I hope you are all enjoying the fall weather wherever you are. These chilly(ish) LA mornings are just what the doctor ordered for me! That and some ice for my knees and a couple ibuprofin. :)

10 on 10 :: October

10 on 10 :: October was an absolutely perfect autumn day in LA. Too bad I didn't spend more of it outdoors! Nice cool breezes all day, it didn't get above 72 degrees and the sun was shining just as bright and lovely as can be! Nice break from the 90+ record setting days we've been having...

Hope you enjoyed these photos of our autumnal home decor. I can't take credit for hardly any of it--it's allll Erika. Except the Fairy Tale pumpkin, that's me. I'm thinking of carving it up a little untraditionally...maybe will post more photos if I actually make good on that thought!

Hope you all enjoyed this first 10 on 10 of the fall season!

Phoenix, Marathon Training, and CSI: NY: Revisited

Last Saturday we drove five hours East on the 10 for a lovely long weekend in Phoenix with Jim, Patti, Grandma O'Brien, Julia, Erina and the girls. Phew! Quite the packed household! We had a truly wonderful time: relaxing by the pool, teaching Sinclaire how to swim, catching up with the fam, and just being away from LA for a couple days. I did come home with a pretty ghoulish cold, which manifested itself inopportunely on a 13 hour day on "Bring it on 5" (coming to a video store near you in 2009!) I'm over the worst of it now, though, and I've had some glorious, beautiful cloudy and cool days to spend in doors mostly getting better. Finally! Bring on the rain, SoCal!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Chad and I joined a training program for the City of Angels Half Marathon, which is on December 7th. Chad has done two halfs (halves?) in the past; I, on the other hand, have never ever done anything even close, so this is all very new to me. I have never, I repeat, NEVER enjoyed running, but in the past month I have really developed quite a taste for it! Now I find that when I'm on set working, mostly what I am looking forward to all day is getting home so I can go for my 30 minute run. So far we've been building "an aerobic base" in our training program, meaning we do lots of slow, low heart-rate running. We'll work up to 'race day pace' eventually, but honestly my goal is to finish, and to run the whole way without walking or slowing. And if the all goes well with the half, we may very well continue on to train for the full marathon in early March! It's actually very nice to have something other than acting to work towards--I am definitely feeling much happier and healthier physically and psychologically since we started training.

Also! If you've been waiting to glimpse me on the small screen, I think you may have your chance this coming Wednesday. Remember that episode of CSI: NY I blogged about forever ago? Well that episode is airing this Wednesday, October 8th, at 10pm on CBS! My part would be basically in the very beginning, and I'm seated on the "hero" side of the airplane, about five rows back from Gary Sinise, on the aisle. I'm wearing a striped hairband. If you miss it or don't have tv, it also will be posted the CBS website I'm sure. I'll also post my bit here someday, with the other ones. Once I figure out how to do that...