Baby Knitting

Rich's sister, Krystelle is having a baby girl in the fall. This was the perfect excuse to get back into knitting. Up until now, I've only knitted rectangles, squares, and triangles. I decided that this was the time to branch out and try something circular. Thanks to Shannon's suggestion (one of the contributors of "A Little Loopy" blog), I ended up with an easy baby slipper pattern. The pattern is actually called Magic Slippers and the slippers are adorable. Here are some photos. I was a bit rusty with my technique and had to redo the slippers a few times in addition to consulting my knitting book for help. Also it was my first time to use double pointed needles. I could have used circular needles, however the double pointed needles were quite a bit cheaper and I figured that I would give it a go. At one point I had four needles sticking out of these teeny tiny slippers and was using a fifth needle to knit. I should have taken a photo of that. I feel so good about the project, I'm considering knitting a baby blanket or some other fabulous baby item.

A run to remember

My mother is a trooper. She rose at 4 am to get us fed and ready for the OKC marathon. She then drove us to the race, took photos of the start, traveled the course to find us again for more photos, and then waited at the finish line for us to complete our goal. It was really nice to have someone you know cheer for you at the end of such a memorable run. OKC was hot, humid, and sporting a 20 mile an hour wind. I was happy to finish the half marathon in 2 hours 10 minutes. I was really hoping to PR the race and finish at 2:05, however with the weather conditions I will happily take 2:10. Rich also did amazingly well. He finished the full marathon in 3 hours 42 minutes. He was hoping for a 3:30, but again in those conditions a 3:42 full marathon is incredible. This was a run to remember. The race had one start with all 19,000 runners beginning at the same time. Neighborhoods in OKC, came out to cheer and hand out goodies. Many of them turned their sprinklers on the street, so the runners could cool off a bit. The heat....it needed to be 15 degrees cooler. Running down Classen into the wind, hoping that any minute the course would veer off onto another street so that you could avoid the battle with the wind. Crossing the finish line.....what a relief. This was definitely a race to remember. Thanks Mom for documenting it so we will never forget it.

19,000 runners and I spot my mom about a quarter mile after the start. That's mee waving in the white visor. Again, my mom was able to spot Rich running amidst the many other marathoners at about mile 6.


Rich's running mates, Vishal and Chris. They are all ridiculously fast. Me and some of my fellow runners from my training group.


Rich finishing the marathon. What a nice stride. Here's me feeling tired. Leslie (in the mint shirt) helped me finish the last two miles. Couldn't have made it without her.


Me and my man pre-race.

OKC Memorial Marathon

Two weeks ago, Rich and I traveled to my home state to participate in the OKC Memorial Marathon. Actually I only ran the half marathon. It was kind of nice to run a race in OKC, since I have never done so in the past. This marathon is held in honor of the OKC bombing. Many of the volunteers were either victims or had family members that died in the bombing. I lived in OKC when the bombing took place, so the event brought back memories of that day for me. I lived about 5 miles from the Federal building and worked in Bricktown, no more than a quarter of a mile from the Federal building. I remember waking up that morning and turning on the news. The sun was shining in the bedroom window and then suddenly I heard a big rumble and all of the windows in the house shook. I thought maybe a severe thunderstorm was rolling in from the east and I just couldn't see it from my bedroom and the west side of the house. Those of you from middle America, have experienced those severe storms that pop up out of nowhere. One minute it's beautiful, the next there's a tornado in your area and it's raining cats and dogs. So I turned up the TV to see if a weather alert was going to come on. Instead a reporter broke into the program and started reporting that an earthquake had hit the area. This soon turned into reports of a bombing in downtown. I ended up getting ready for work and drove on in, even though I knew that there was trouble in the area. Once at work, the roads began to get closed off and the restaurant that I worked at went ahead and opened in order to give all of the workers that were being evacuated from downtown some place to go. It was truly a strange and unimaginable day. Definitely one that I will never forget. So the run was a bit personal to me. The race itself starts downtown by the memorial. It goes through Bricktown, past the capital and then winds along fan packed streets in NW OKC neighborhoods. Then the half marathoners cut back down Classen towards downtown, while the full marathoners, headed out to Hefner lake, Nichols Hills, and then back to Classen and then downtown. Honestly I actually liked the half marathon course. Unfortunately the weather did everyone in on race day. It was in the 70s with high humidity and 25 mph winds. Definitely too hot and too windy for a long race. OKC event planners were prepared for this and had plenty of water stops along the course.


OK, next post will be about the race results. Enjoy the amazing photos my Mom took of the memorial.

Earth Day in Oak Cliff

Last weekend, we had our annual Earth Day festival in Oak Cliff. The festival is held at Lake Cliff Park, which is one block from our house. Lake Cliff Park is a really beautiful park that is always full of people. Their is a new large playground and a nice rose garden. It has a pond in the middle with a large fountain that is lit at night. It's actually a mile around, so there are always people walking and running around the entire park. In fact, I missed my group run last week and ended up running my 9 miles around the park. It was pretty boring, however I was able to break it up by taking Numa for a few of the miles. Since it was also the Earth Day festival, people were setting up their booths, so that was interesting. The festival consisted of a lot of conservation awareness booths and information about green things that are happening in Dallas. There were also a few artist booths, with work that used recycled materials. Plants and organic products rounded out the fair. There was also a small stage that had a lot of entertainment geared towards children. We took Numa out and mingled for awhile. It was a beautiful day, so it was nice to be outside. Here are some photos from the day.

Here's a couple of photos of Numa. This girl was sitting across from me eating some fries and Numa was just really curious. Not sure if she wanted the fries or the girl's attention.

I believe this small fountain has been a part of the park for years. The park is in Lake Cliff historical neighborhood, so anything that can be preserved is. The photo on the right is of the Lakewood Bee guy. He shows up everywhere in his bee costume. I've encountered him at the Famer's Market and other festivals around town. He actually sells his honey that is produced in Lakewood.

Here's a shot of some booths and the Lakewood Bee Man's bees.

More booths and a shot of some friends that we ran into. That's Eddie and Barry on the left. Next to Rich is Nubia and Dan.

Beckley Photos

As promised, here are some current photos of Beckley. I remind you that we aren't completely finished with the house. We still need counter tops, fixtures, and a bathroom vanity. Additionally we need to put some wires back into the walls and finish up some miscellaneous plumbing. We also need to acquire a shed or some permanent outdoor storage for the gobs of tools and equipment that we've acquired over the past nine months. We are however happy to be living in Beckley and are satisfied with what we've accomplished so far. It's amazing to look back and see how far we've come.

The photo on the left is of the front door. The long white looking door behind the couch is actually a window. The house had two front doors. The photo on the right is in the living room facing the back of the house. Excuse our mess. Still figuring out where things need to be stored. Both photos really show how good our floors came out. We are really proud of how they look. It was such hard work sanding and refinishing them, but I think well worth it.


View of the fireplace. I think Rich did a great job covering the existing fireplace with slate. The artwork is a gift from Margot (follow the link, last photo, white shirt). She is a friend from Japan, that worked with Rich at Nova. She drove from something like 15 hours from Minneapolis to go to South by Southwest in Austin. We were happy to let her and her friend crash on our couch for a night. Sadly her visit wasn't long enough.


The photo on the left is of our antique sink some of the cabinets. You can get an idea of the color in this photo. The photo on the right shows our ceiling. We actually reused some of the flooring that was in the bedroom when we bought the house. We refinished the kitchen ceiling with it and then white washed it. The doors lead to the backyard.


The pocket door leads to our bathroom. We took two old doors and cut them down and made them into bathroom doors. The other pocket door (not shown) leads from the bathroom into our laundry closet and then into our bedroom.


The shower....... what can I say. We really love it. We have two shower heads with separate controls. One is in the ceiling and one is on the back of column on the right. The slate is colorful and fun. The river rock floor feels good on the feet when we shower. We intend to put a little stool in there and make it more like an onsen. The antique tub on the right is nice and big. We haven't used it yet, due to some small plumbing repairs that are needed.

OK, I'll post more photos as we progress. This is just a sampling of what we've accomplished.

Shameless

Yesterday I ran the Rock to Victory Half Marathon, that's 13.1 miles. I started running with the Dallas Running Club in January and have been training for the OKC Memorial half marathon that's at the end of April. Some of the people (specifically the two in the photo on the left, Nick and Lauren) in my pace group were running this race, so I figured why not sign up and try to run it also. My plan was to run with the 2 hour 10 minute pace leaders. To my happy surprise, I finished a few minutes faster than planned, 2:07. I'm really pleased with my time, but even more pleased that I didn't walk one bit of the course. Speedy Rich finished the race at 1:33. Even more annoying than his fast time, he went out on Saturday and got drunk celebrating St. Patrick's day. Who drinks and runs that well. He is blessed with the natural ability to run.

After the race Lauren, convinced us to pose with Dr. Pepper's

for a contest her work (here's a plug for D Magazine) is

sponsoring. I really can't stand Dr. Pepper, but I'll do anything for

a running buddy. The photo on the right shows me shamelessly promoting Diet cherry Dr. Pepper and the Dallas Running Club. Actually the Dr. Pepper was more enjoyable with the cherry flavor additive. That's Marcie pretending to steal my drink and Rich pushing another Dr. Pepper into the photo.  

So next up on the running calendar.....possibly The Big D at the beginning of April and then OKC Memorial at the end of April. I'll keep you posted. Oh .... I promise, interior house photos will be posted this week.

Home Sweet Home

We have moved into our house and sort of kind of have internet. We are thieves and are using someone's non password protected wireless connection. The house is great, but not completely finished. I promise to upload photos soon. I will say that we are in love with our dual head shower and tankless water heater that produces a never ending stream of hot water. Numa quickly figured out that this is home and has gotten territorial about the yard. She watches everyone that passes and declares whether they are worth barking at. We have been running and in fact have a half marathon this weekend. Things are going well, just staying very busy.