Signing up for Two Races in Two Days

Well, I've made two of my races for 2012 official in the last two days.  Yesterday, I signed up for the Neverland 5K at Disneyland in a week and a half.  Today, I signed up for the Disneyland Half Marathon in September.  And my pocketbook hates me.

Neither of these races is cheap, especially the 5K.  It does include a "Twilight Ticket" to Disneyland (good after 4PM), so that's half the price, but still, it's going to be a big shock to the system when the credit card bill comes.

But those are races off my schedule and days that should be pretty fun.  I'll be seeing some friends at both races, and running the half with two friends.  Okay, so "with" probably isn't quite true since I'm assuming we'll go our own pace, but that's pretty awesome.

Yep, I'm using the rest of my Christmas money on these races.  So thanks to my uncle and aunt for them.

Now, to be trained for the half.  I plan to be six miles once a week between now and the end of March and start increasing my miles after that with my goal of Tough Mudder's 10 miles in July and then the half in September.  It seems doable.  Hopefully I'm still thinking that during the summer.  After all, I'll have to work my runs around ultimate Frisbee.

Word Association for Jan 17th

Here's this week's word association.

1. Red tape :: Complications
2. Crush :: Puppy love
3. Magical :: Romantic
4. Sticky :: Situation
5. Tile :: Bathroom
6. Doubt :: Worry
7. Inconsistent :: Behavior
8. Kiss :: Wedding
9. Inspiration :: Struck
10. Thanks :: You're Welcome

Weekly TV Recap for January 14th

Once Upon a Time - It was so good to have this show back.  I've really missed it.  I thought I'd be intrigued to find out Rumplestilskin's back story, but actually I was less intrigued after the first flashback.  I wasn't to know what was going on in Storybrooke.  But at least they've given him one.  So, who is the editor of the paper really?  And the Storybrooke Daily Mirror?  How perfect is that.  I had the episode pegged until Mr. Gold walked in at the end and said he'd planned the entire thing.  Interesting twist.  And I'm wondering if he's going to be friend or foe in the end.

Castle - Very fun episode.  I expected Ryan's reaction to Jenny's secret.  He did look so happy at the wedding (and how cool is it that Jenny is Ryan's wife in real life?)  Plus they actually had groomsmen and bridesmaids that weren't part of the regular cast.  Novel idea.  As for the murder, again it wound up no where near what I was expecting, but it was a very fun ride.  Some week, however, I'd love for them to have the killer be someone we've seen for more than two minutes.  That would be a twist I wouldn't see coming at this point.

Wipeout - True confession time, I semi-watched the episode and didn't blog about it right away, so my thoughts will be short.  Wonder Woman has always been my favorite superhero, so I was rooting for her briefly.  She made it further than I thought she would.

The Big Bang Theory - Both storylines were so funny.  Yes, I love Shamy, so I enjoyed that one more, but I do like Bernadette, so I enjoyed that story as well.  But the best scene?  Sheldon and Leonard talking while Sheldon was walking through the video game.  So many classic lines, although my favorite was Leonard turning down the virtual drink because he was going to play Grand Theft Auto later.

Chuck - I've got to confess I didn't particularly care for this episode.  The sub-plot of Morgan and Alex cheating when they were broken up wasn't that great.  And they cheated with Jeff and Lester just to drag that out another episode, although those moments were my favorite.  Yes, it did introduce the last big bad, but that's about all I can say for it.  Yes, I laughed some, but overall it was very disappointing.

Nikita - This show, on the other hand, was awesome!  So many plots moving forward.  Wait, I think I said that last week.  Well, it's true again this week.  How the writers can draw so many things together and make it so intriguing week after week just amazes me.  I did not like the cliffhanger, and I hate even more that I have to wait three weeks to see how it comes out.  But it gives me something to look forward to on Fridays once Chuck is over.

New TV on DVD Reviews:

Royal Pains - Season 3 Volume 1

Running in 2012

Once I got caught up on Christmas and New Years, I was going to blog about what I wanted to do in 2012 running wise.  And I almost forgot until Steve did that today.  (And can I say how happy I am that I'm not the only one just now doing this?)

I've been saying for at least a month that I was going to run a race in every month of 2012.  But as the year is starting, I'm thinking I will revise that to 12 races in 2012 spread out as much as possible.  No, these won't all be mud runs.

Why the change?  Because it is surprisingly hard to find races in my area.  The first one I have found is in March.  I'd be willing to travel, but when most of the races start at 8AM and are an hour away from me plus you need to arrive early and I hate getting up in the morning....  Yes, it's a bunch of excuses, but I'm using them.  Of course, my 2011 goal was 6 mud runs, and I did 9 plus three regular runs, so I think I'm safe here as long as I keep my eyes open and my schedule works out.

I do know of four races I am for sure doing in 2012, and I'm signed up for three of them.  Not surpringly, they are mud runs, which will probably be the majority of my runs this year since that's what I enjoy the most.

Up first is Irvine Lake Mud Run on 3/31.  This was the first mud run I ever did back in 2010, and I didn't race it at all in 2011, so I'm looking forward to getting back there.

Then on 6/9, I'm doing Camp Pendleton for the third year in a row.

As you can see from the side bar (I really need to get the other races added over there), I am signed up for Tough Mudder again.  This time, they'll be here in July (February, too, but I'm not stupid).  Hopefully, this means the weather will cooperate and I'll actually get to do it.  I wasn't going to sign up again, but I want to do a Tough Mudder once.  (Prices are too high to try for it every year.)

And the race I haven't signed up for yet?  That's the Disneyland half marathon.  Yes, you read that right.  I'm signing up for a half marathon after swearing I'd never do that.  Why?  Well, it's two months after Tough Mudder and only 3 miles longer, so it seems like if I were ever going to do it, now would be the year.  Plus my new friend Chris runs it every year, so I would definitely have someone else there, and he's really been encouraging me to do it.  Of course, he still hasn't signed up for a mud run like I want him to do....

It's looking like I'm doing a 5K at Disneyland in a couple of weeks (which is very expensive, but darn it I want to do it).  There are some other races I am thinking about, that would bring my total to 7 without trying that hard.  I'm sure I can get the other 5 in without too much trouble.

Other goals?  Well, I'd still like to get my sub hour 10K, and if I wind up doing a bunch of 5K's, a sub 30 5K would be nice.  Right now, I'm right about 11 minute miles, so I'll have to work toward that.  That means I need to do some runs that aren't mud runs since the obstacles really mess with your time, or at least they do mine.

And for the immediate future, I'd like to run six miles once by the end of the month and then make that distance weekly in February and March before building up to longer distances for Tough Mudder and the Half Marathon.  It would be nice slow training and hopefully make me a stronger runner, so I hope I actually do it.

Word Association for 1/11

Time for this week's word association.

1. Compute :: Calculate
2. Irristable :: Chocolate
3. Unacceptable :: Loss
4. Joy :: Happy
5. Noisy :: Crowd
6. Paid in full :: Bill
7. Desire :: Want
8. One word :: Happy
9. Huge :: Big
10. Motorcycle :: Horse

So I was just reading on a message board a poll on whether you'd ride a motorcycle or a horse.  And then there's this.

New Year's

Yes, I know.  It's the 10th, and I'm finally blogging about New Year's.

My friend Jenn was in town for the long weekend and staying with Angelique.  Since they are both zoo people, we spent one day at the LA Zoo.  I'll admit I'm not that thrilled with zoos, but it was a fun day until we were ready to leave, or so I thought.  I wanted to hit the road and try to beat the traffic, but they kept stopping to take lots and lots of pictures.  But in the end, I beat the worst of the traffic, so it turned out okay.  What was really funny was we ran into three families I know while at the zoo.

Saturday, New Year's Eve, I got up early and came to the college for a 5K put on by the cross country and baseball teams.  I finished in 33 minutes, so I need to work hard to get my 10 minute mile pace back.

The rest of the day was a laze around the condo day.  I wrote some reviews and I played some Wii.  I got a couple new games for Christmas, plus I've been playing through Lego Star Wars. 

That night, I stayed up until midnight not to ring in the new year (I was tired enough to go to sleep at 10) but to register for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run.  Yep, I'm doing it the third year in a row.  Signed up for the second Saturday again, too.  Planning on doing it with Luke again, and he's got a couple friends talked into doing it with us.

I was up early the morning of the 1st to head down to Disneyland.  Unfortunately, not the parks, but Jenn, Angelique, and I went to brunch at the Grand Californian.  It was expensive, but so much fun, and their carmel French toast is so delicious.

The rest of the day was spent hanging around Angelique's.  We did venture out late in the day to figure out what we were doing for the next day.

See, the whole reason Jenn came out was to do the Rose Parade, which was on the 2nd this year.  Every year, I saw I'm going to go.  Well, this year I did.  It was an experience.  We had tickets for seats, which really helped.  It was very crowded with people everywhere.  We took the MetroLink in, which was a great idea with how bad traffic was going both ways.  In many ways, it was surreal since I know that part of Pasadena pretty well.  Seeing it without cars but this many people just didn't seem right.  And many shops that weren't planning to be opened boarded their windows up so they wouldn't be valdalized, which was sad.  And all the garbage afterward was also sad.

Am I glad I did it?  Absolutely.  Next year?  I think I'll enjoy it from home.  It was fun and worth doing, but I don't see a need to do it every year.

I'll say this, we couldn't have asked for nicer weather.  Since we were walking all day, I didn't want to bring my backpack.  So I just wore jeans, a shirt, and a sweatshirt.  I had the sweatshirt off by 9AM and honestly could have been wearing shorts by the afternoon.  It hit the mid 80's that day.  I love weather like that.

It was fun, but it was also exhausting.  I made it home and crashed by 10 PM that night.  And the next day it was back to work.

My December Reads

I missed two books I read in November, so I'll start with those.  The rest were read in December.  Not as many mysteries as normal, but some good books.

All ratings are on a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (great).

THE KINGDOM KEEPERS: POWER PLAY by Ridley Pearson - 5

The Kingdom Keepers have had a breather since the leaders of the Overtakers were arrested.  But a plot to free them finds our heroes in danger and making some shocking discoveries.  Those discoveries really helped make this book feel fresh and exciting and not just enough retread of a familiar plot.

FORMULA FOR MURDER by Diana Orgain - 4

New mom and new PI Kate Connelly is in a hit and run, and witnesses identify the car as belonging to someone from the French consulate.  The consulate denies it, but it leads to a case for Kate when she sees a reporter leaving and the reporter turns up dead two days later.  Was she working on a story on the French consulate that lead to her death?  I love the characters, and the story was interesting.  It did bog down a little in the middle, but it picked up again for a fun finish.

THE ANIMATED MAN: A LIFE OF WALT DISNEY by J. Michael Barrier - 4

I found this to be an interesting and balance biography of Walt Disney.  The author played media critic a bit too much, which bothered me, but in the end I walked away with a clearer picture of a true American success story.

THE END by David LaRochelle - 5

A fun picture book take on fairytales, this one starts at "Happily ever after" and works back to "Once Upon a Time."  Along the way, we get some surprises and laughs.  Highly recommended.

HIDDEN MICKEY by Nancy Temple Rodrigue, David W. Smith - 2

While on a MouseQuest at Disneyland, Adam and Lance find what they think is Walt Disney's diary.   A clue in it leads them on a quest through his life with a possible big prize at the end.  This book is an example of everything that can go wrong with self-publishing.  There are too many data dumps, the action is slow at times, and the characters are flat and unlikable.  I'm enough of a Disney geek to enjoy parts of it, but it needed a good editor before it saw the light of day.

KILLER ROUTINE by Alan Orloff - 3

Channing Hayes' is trying to help his almost sister-in-law begin a solo stand up comic career while he recovers from the accident that took his fiancee.  On the night of her big break, she vanishes.  Why?  Can Channing find her?  The characters were enjoyable, especially Channing, but the plot was a series of events with no real detective work involved.

IN SERVICE TO THE MOUSE by Jack Lindquist - 4

The memories of the man who rose from head of advertising for Disneyland in 1955 to become its first president in the late 80's and early 90's.  As a Disnerd, I loved this inside look at the park's history, although the writing style could have been a little better.

PETER AND THE SECRET OF RUNDOON by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry - 5

The final chapter in their Peter Pan prequel trilogy is the best one yet.  Just be sure you read the other two first because you'll pretty much be lost by everything that is happening here.

Weekly TV Recap for January 7th

Well, shows are starting to come back and there will be even more next week.  I'm not sorry to have shows I love back, but I've enjoyed not having much to watch the last couple of weeks.  It's been nice to come home with no real agenda.  I need to make time for that more.

In the mean time, here's what I did watch.

Wipeout - Not only did I watch, I watched live.  As usual, I loved the Johns.  But Vanessa just isn't doing it for me.  She isn't nearly as funny as Jill was.  The obstacles are very intense right now, and that's make it fun.  I'll stick with it for now, but might drop it at some later point.

Chuck - Laughed multiple times, especially as Sarah spiraling down after she warned Chuck about that multiple times.  You never know when something will come into play, and I loved how they used those guns with the anti-friendly fire feature to save the day in the end.  But what amazes me most is Jeff.  Make the man smart and suddenly he's able to figure out the plot of the show in one episode.  He even had "Intersect" on his board.  That ending was very interesting and I can't wait to see how they play it out next week.

Nikita - It was wonderful to have this show back.  So many stories moving forward so quickly.  And twists and turns.  The writers seem to be pulling together not only things from this season but also season one.  They even had the CIA agent back again.  Great stuff.  And, of course, I was having a 24 geek moment since Sarah Clarke (Nina in season 1-3) guest starred on the show her husband Xander Berkley (George Mason in seasons 1 and 2) regularly stars in.

Christmas

Christmas was different this year.  Not saying it was bad, just different.

As usual, I headed to my parent's house.  I'm so thankful I got two weeks off because I was able to head up there for a week without even thinking about it.  My brother, sister-in-law, and niece were there early, so we celebrated Christmas on the 21st.  Then we celebrated again on the 23rd with my uncle and aunt.  Yep, we'd opened all presents before the 25th, so it was a bit different.  In fact, when the news was talking about last minute shopping on the 24th, we were all wondering why people were last minute shopping still.

Since Christmas was on a Sunday, we went to church that morning.  In the afternoon, we headed back to my uncle and aunts.  My cousin and his family were there, and we had Christmas dinner together.  They live in Washington, so I don't see them very often, and that was nice, especially since it was the first time I got to see his new son, who's over a year old already.

Of course, I got to visit my friends Donald and Heather on the way back down south.  Saw Donald on the way north, too.  We played two rounds of The Stock Market Game, and I won both of them.  Couldn't believe that since he usually beats me.  Also saw family friends while in Santa Rosa.

Word Association for January 4th

I know, I know.  I really need to post something other than Word Association and TV Recaps.  I promise to feel guilty about that.  Meanwhile, here's this week's Word Association.

1. Resolution :: New Year
2. Adorable :: Puppy
3. Fractions :: Math
4. Intensify :: Pain
5. Commute :: Job
6. Job :: Work (I swear, I was typing Job before I saw this was next)
7. Advance :: Forward
8. Audit :: Auditors
9. Highlight :: Hair
10. Disallow :: Illegal