Triton Run with Irene!

This morning was the last long training run with the SDTC for the Rock n' Roll Marathon and 1/2 next weekend.

Side note: OMG! It is next weekend!

This week, instead of running from Hospitality Point, we trekked to La Jolla and the UCSD campus to do our run. To be honest, I love this run. UCSD is full of interesting things to look at. To be honest, the run is quite hilly, but none of the hills are exceptionally long, so every uphill is followed by a down (and of course vice verse).

Even though there are about 700 people in the track club, and probably a good 300 who turned up this morning, I thought I'd end up running pretty much on my own since none of the rest of the herd could make it. Where were Mik and Kat? (running at Mission Bay) Where was Betty? (on a vay-kay) Where was Elsie? (I have no clue. I'm guessing with the BF). Where was BBJ? (????)

Then as we were stretching, I spotted Michael, Irene's DH...and then I ran into Irene. We decided to run together. I figured that Irene could pace me, and since she's coming off an 8 week foot-injury hiatus, I thought we'd do just a leisurely run for about 1.5 hours.

Boy was I wrong.

I'm not really sure who was pushing who, but we did manage around an 11:02 pace for a little over 7.5 miles

This is something I need to work on next weekend so that I can finish the race without a major meltdown at mile 10 or 11 (such as what happened at Surf City or Las Vegas). I tend to go out pretty slowly (which is a smart thing), then about mile 4 or 5, I start to feel warmed up and pretty good, and then I speed up.

Speeding up to an 11:15 or even an 11:10 pace is one thing. Speeding up to a 10:35 pace (see Mile 6) is a recipe for disaster come mile 9 or 10. You'd think I'd know that by now, but you'd be wrong.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun running with Irene. We chatted about families, races, running, remodeling. We both laughed when the sun came out noting how we both think of Penny (and how much she'd hate it) whenever the sun comes out...and this morning it did.

Which brings up another issue for next weekend, the sun. It's been a relatively cool late winter and spring in So.Cal. Typically by now, we've had a couple of opportunities to run in the heat. Not this year, this was the first long run that I've done this spring where I actually noticed that it was getting warm and I started actively looking for the shady side of the street to run on, which during the RnR next weekend, won't matter so much because by the time the sun comes out, if the weather is like this morning, by 7:55am, I'll be in an area that pretty much has very little shade anyway.

((sigh))

After the run, Irene, Michael, and I sat with the rest of the club  to take the RnR oath (I, state your name, ...) in which a good number of people say, "I, state your name..." and then we promise to have fun, run our race, and know that we are already winners. It's corny, but it's not a bad thing to do before a race.

Irene and I baking in the sun

The club listening to Coach Paul. We also had a guest speaker who gave us some last minute "hints" before the race next weekend. Also, in the background is some college or high school soccer tournament...which was quite the distraction to Michael and me...The best part was when Michael audibly appreciated a Goal Shot by uttering, "NICE." Luckily, I think the comment also fit whatever the speaker was talking about at the time. I, of course, giggled. I'm pretty sure Irene was mortified.

So...training is over. I'll do some really light running this week and I'll have another 1/2 Mary  under my belt. This will be my 9th half marathon, which I guess qualifies me as an "experienced" in the event.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. I'm going to go have a margarita (I fresh squeezed lemons and limes from our tree for the mix) by the pool...like I said, it finally warmed up around here.

YUM!

Three Signs

There is no rhyme or reason to this post other than I really, really, really needed to take a break from grading final exams, exams which make it painfully clear that my students really never mastered basic notions about where in a sentence a modifier goes that don't study...(see? I created a completely misplaced or dangling modifier, and it a has verb agreement error to boot...that don't study clearly is describing my students, however since it is nearest to the word "modifier" it makes it sound like the modifier doesn't study...which might be accurate, I mean, parts of speech don't study, right? But if that were true, then we have an agreement error... not that ANY of that would be noted by too many of my students even though this doesn't even make any sense...I mean, clearly, why would a modifier study?)

It really doesn't make sense! But then again, neither do other dangling or misplaced modifiers. However, I do think the above parenthetical may hold the record for the longest parenthetical of all time, or at lease of this blog.

I know; I know; I should have a grammar blog for these kinds of grammar outbursts and not bore you with them here.

Feel free to commence with the comments about things left dangling or that are misplaced...g'head.

DramaGirl-GLEE update -  Also, you should g'head and ask me how many GLEE inspired days of gratefulness and agreeableness I got from DramaGirl before "The Attitude" returned.

Answer: 'bout a day and a half...so the post-GLEE glow ended abruptly and we are back to our regularly scheduled program. Here's why...observe the map.

A = roughly where we live. B = roughly where DramaGirl wanted to go over Memorial Day with another family for four nights on a camping trip. Yes, to me, the overprotective mother (and I'm not even that overprotective), this is FAR, but more significantly, I've heard many, many, many wild stories about camping on "The River" over Memorial Day weekend,  so I said, "no, you can't go this time" and have, thusly, ruined her life FOREVER! 

Running update - I ran two days in a row this week on Monday (3 miles on the 'mill) and Tuesday (4x800 repeats with the track club) which means that my knee has been a little twitchy. I am settling into the tapering thing. Today, I'm going to the gym for some time on the elliptical an some light weights.

Which leads me, with an extraordinary lack of a clever transition, to this, which at one point yesterday I thought would be the main point (if there ever was one) to this post...

Random signs that have made me laugh this week.

Margarita Man - I don't know why I took this, but that there is a local business in which a man delivers margaritas I think is a sign of a recovering economy.

Then, on Wednesday night as I was leaving Trader Joe's, I saw this...

I think someone wants to be a heffer (this is not my licensee plate, nor does it belong to any of the heffers) 

Then, Turbo was quite amused because I ran back into TJs to take a picture of this...

Gotta love Trader Joe's for their continuing attempt to educate the populace. That first bullet point says: On average, every American enjoys 2.48 gallons of wine per year. Gosh, I hope that statistic includes children because I'm pretty sure I drank that much wine in the last two weeks!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous week. I'm giving two more finals today...grading them tomorrow...and I'm DONE for the SUMMER! WOOT!

GLEE-ful

How does a mom make her 14 year old daughter really happy?

1. Have a friend who works on the set of her VERY FAVORITE TV show.
2. Say "yes" when aforementioned friend asks if she's interested in getting tickets to a Cast Show.
3. Arrange entire weekend around getting daughter to show, which is in LA, and which requires fighting awful LA traffic.

How come the photo of really bad LA traffic never looks as bad as the reality? I think we were going about 3mph at this point, which is why I felt safe taking a picture and driving at the same time.

In other words, it was a VERY good weekend for DramaGirl...mostly thanks to Penny who is a complete rock-star-goddess in both my and DramaGirl's books right now.

Before the show, we met up with Penny and her friend Naomi at a restaurant called Henry's Hat, which was right across the street from Universal Studios. Penny even had me download an iPhone Ap called Junowallet, so I could get a promotional gift card that saved me seven bucks off dinner...Can you say Rock. Star!

The tix

Pre-show - we had great seats!

The show--OK, it may look like we are far away. We weren't, but we were dead-on center. Penny said she was a little disappointed in the seats, but I thought they were excellent. We could see the whole stage. They had multiple screens if you really needed to see a closeup. 

So...It was a completely fabulous show...EXTREMELY LOUD with lots of screaming pre-teens, teens, and OK...I'll admit it, some moms as well. I wouldn't do justice to a complete review...there are plenty of them out there. If you can get tickets (the show was on it's way to Chicago and then New York), you should. Although my understanding is that they sold out within' minutes of going on sale in LA. 

But the best part for DramaGirl (and OK...me too) was that Penny managed to get us back stage...and then even in the back-stage, back-stage area, where DramaGirl got to meet, get autographs, and her picture taken (by her very own personal photographer...me) with almost all of the cast members.  

I didn't post all of the photos I took here, but here are some of DramaGirl's faves (I know this because the photos were posted on her FB page within hours of getting home so that she could make all of her friends insanely jealous).

DramaGirl with her favorite "Finn" (Cory Monteith).

with "Mike Chang" - who is a completely incredible dancer (Harry Shum)

With "Kurt" (Chris Colfer) and Penny. Chris has the most beautiful voice. He sang "Defying Gravity" during the show and it gave me the shivers...

With Mercedes (Amber Riley)

With Brittany (Heather Morris).

I can't say enough how wonderful Penny was. She works on this show and she certainly didn't have to stay late to see people who she works with every day. In fact, I think that at about 11:00, we'd seen two of the cast members and I told Penny that DramaGirl was happy and we REALLY didn't need to stay any longer. She just looked at me like I was nuts and said something like "Oh no. We are doing this." That was when she ran into another colleague of hers who got us into the super-VIP-back-back-stage area (I'm sure that's what they call it).

All of the cast were adorable, and young, and you can tell that they are all just a little overwhelmed by the fact that they are all going to be famous. When they met DramaGirl, they were sweet and talked to her, asked questions, asked how she liked the show, thanked her for coming and for being a fan. They all allowed me to take photos and were not at all pretentious or what you might think celebrities might be. They were just kids who put on a show.

Afterward, we drove to my sister's house in Manhattan Beach. I think we got in about 1am. I was EXHAUSTED*, but it was well worth the day. How can you not just LOVE to see that smile.

I do wonder how many days of "good attitude" I'll get out of this?
_________________________
* Part of the reason for my complete physical exhaustion, aside from being up past midnight, was that I'd been up since 5:30 to get in that 11 mile run...and since this is, sorta, a running blog, I'll take a moment to recap that. It wasn't quite 11 miles (10.65) and it was SLOW (11:26 pace), but I completed it. 

Ruminations on Training for a 1/2 Mary

Yesterday was the last day of classes at the college where I teach. Next week is finals and then...

I AM DONE!!!
Compose
Thank goodness because my running and training and blogging has been suffering lately. The running part is the most troubling, since I am running a 1/2 marathon in just two weeks. I feel more ready for this race than I was for the debacle in Huntington Beach, after which I swore that I would never, ever, again run a 1/2 mary that I hadn't prepared for.

So, the question is...am I prepared for this?

Touch question to answer. There are those factors that suggest that I am prepared:

1. I have been running regularly (if three times a week counts as regular).
2. I have been running faster and stronger in both short and long runs.
3. I have been consistent with speed work (see #2).
4. I am not hurt.

Factor that suggests I am NOT prepared:

1. The longest run I have done recently thus far was 9 miles, and that was back on April 24. 
2. While I have been running regularly, there are some weeks (like this one) when I've only run twice.
3. I have done almost NO strength training in over a month and no strength training means that I am more at risk for hurting myself.

To me, this lack of a 10+ mile run before a 1/2 is the biggest factor. No 10+ mile run causes me to have doubts about both my physical as well as mental readiness. 

After I ran in the Surf City 1/2 Marathon in February, I made the comment that I was very well trained for the first 7 miles; I endured the next three, and gutted out miles 10-13 on sheer will alone.  Looking back at my training,* I can see clearly that I WAS SOOOOOOO unprepared. I was coming off that foot fracture. I hadn't run much at all. The longest run I'd done was about 6 miles (which explained my being prepared to run 7).

Heading into the Rock-n-Roll 1/2 Marathon on June 6, I've done MUCH more training than I did before SC, BUT the fact that I haven't run over 10 miles since April 3 worries me. There's something about getting over that 10 mile mark that gives me the mental confidence to know that I have the physical strength to run only 3 more miles.

So, tomorrow morning, I'll be putting in an 11 mile run. The rest of the Track Club will be tapering, but most of them are running the marathon and did a 22 mile run last weekend. For me, this will be the longest run of the season. Finishing 11 miles in around 2 hours is my goal.

After that, I'll start doing some light strength training (daily...back to those P90X CDs that are currently gathering dust). I just don't want to hurt myself again...

Is Alice ready?** (dontcha just love when bloggers write about themselves in the third person? pffft)?

We'll see.***
__________________________________

* Gotta love Daily Mile and Garmin Connect for housing all my running info as I'd have absolutely no recollection of what and when and how far I'd been running. Actually just looking through that and comparing my pre-SC 1/2 training with my current training makes me feel much better.

** I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to make a comment like "that's what he said" right about here. Mostly because if I don't then GlavEn will berate me for missing that opportunity since in my last post, I missed the double-ententre opportunity when I rhetorically asked, "How small was it Alice" about the number of runners in the RiverFest 5K.

*** That's what she said.

River People

Oh my....

Has it really been over a week since I last wrote? I don't think I've missed a whole weekend update since I started this blog... It's been so long since I last updated, I had to re-enter my password in Blogger...

My excuses? The usual. Work. Kids. Work. Life. Work. Blah. Blah. Blah. The good news is that the semester is almost over and I'll be back to my regularly scheduled lurking, commenting, posting life.

In any event, I won't bore you with the excruciatingly dull details, but I do have to post this little update...

Two heffers, and one heffer offspring won age group awards at the first annual San Diego RiverFest 5K on Sunday.

A bevy of medals! Alice 2nd - Women 46-55, Mik 2nd Women 35-45, Turbo 3rd Men 12-18

Let the disclaimers begin...

• First of all, and let me make this perfectly clear, it was a REALLY small field. You ask, "How small was it Alice?" It was so small that even though I registered the morning of the race,  my bib number was 42. In other words, no need for a wave start.

Mik, Betty and I pre-race...can you see the crowds around us? Yes, we parked our asses on the VIP parking area...If we weren't VIPs, I don't know who else was...

Turbo and Walter (numbers 43 and 44), standing on the San Diego Chargers old practice field.

• Second, it wasn't really a 5K. My Garmin says it was more like a 2.8 mile (how many Ks is that? 4.5K?) run. My finishing time was 27 minutes, and let's be honest. I do NOT run sub 9 minute miles.
• Its a shame it wasn't a full 5K, because I was on pace to have a new 5K PR.

The start (I know...duh)

Turbo at the start...yeah, I know, you're starting to wonder whether or not there were really even 40 people there, aren't you? Yes, Turbo sprinted the first 1/2 mile at full speed. He does need to learn. Still he placed third in his age group (please don't ask me how many were in his age group, but it did include a 2 year old in a stroller).

• Anyway, the guy starting the event gave us some directions...we were to run the perimeter of the parking lot at Qualcomm stadium, follow some cones, run around the stadium, then follow the cones back into the Chargers old practice field 
• BTW...it was a complete surprise to me that there was, in fact, off of the parking lot to the football stadium, a grass field.

• Third disclaimer (or at least an explanation)...there actually is a river that runs alongside the stadium parking lot, although we didn't see it...maybe next year.
• The starter said, "On your marks, get set, go!" and we were off.
• It was actually a pretty nice run...relatively level although the parking lot has some pretty serious cant to it (in addition to being a parking lot, I also think it's part of the flood channel). When we ran around the stadium itself, I stayed as close to the building, where it was level, as I could. I might have shaved some distance off this way.
• With about a 1/2 mile left, I actually passed the woman who eventually came in first in my age group, but I couldn't stay ahead of her.
• When I crossed the finish line, I could see the race official look at me, look at the clock and then write down on a large poster my time and my number. I was pretty sure right then that I'd come in second.
• I heard the race director decide that since there was nobody running in the 55-65 age group, and since there were 3 kids (including a 2 year old in a stroller) under 18, that they'd just do an under 18 division. Turbo got a medal.

So, all in all, team heffer swept the team medal race (if there was such a thing). Most importantly we had fun, we laughed, and I have my first place medal...gotta be happy with THAT.

Turbo, Me and Mik with our bling-bling

After the race, we wandered around some of the booths, got some breadsticks from Pat and Oscars (a local pizza & chicken place with just downright awesome breadsticks). Betty, Turbo, and Mik climbed the rock-climbing wall.

No, I did NOT attempt this feat...

Betty made friends with the firemen who's station is (and I am NOT making this up), in a trailer and an effing TENT in the Qualcomm lot.

Seriously...the fire station is a TENT! WTF?

The two firemen we talked to were very cool (as firemen usually are). They explained that they ARE the fire station for that area and that someday a real fire station might be built. I told them I'd give them a shout out and harass some local officials for allowing those who are willing to risk their lives to save us to be stationed in a trailer and a TENT! 

Honestly, something is seriously wrong with that...or am I alone here?

Gotta love the potted palm trees on wheels though

So...got a really busy week ahead of me, so I might not even be lurking much. This weekend, I've got an 11 mile run planned for Saturday AM, the DramaGirl and I are going up to LA to see GLEE with Penny (can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!)

Have a great week everyone!

Dog Poop & Used Condoms...Running through OB

Ocean Beach is a little beach community in San Diego. It doesn't get the press that Pacific Beach does (with its bars and the "beach party scene"), or that Mission Beach does (with its roller coaster and surfers), and of course it is definitely NOT La Jolla Shores (with all the chi-chi people).

OB is a place that is, sorta, permanently stuck in the retro 60's.

I love running in OB in the morning. There's always something to see: the beauty of the pier as the waves crash against it, the majesty of time and water that created Sunset Cliffs, the quiet of the streets (that were clearly the place of some serious partying the previous night as evidenced by broken bongs, bottles, beer cans), the die-hard partyers getting high at 7am (they are our best cheerleaders BTW!).

This morning, however, it was all about the dog poop, used condoms, and smashed watermelon, all of which required careful attention. One misstep and....eeeeeeeewwwwwwww...

First...dog poop. I'm not a dog owner, but I get it that dogs poop. Sometimes a dog get's out and it poops in the middle of what would otherwise be a public walk area. This kind of shit happens, and it may or may not be the owners fault, or sometimes the dog's owner just doesn't bother to clean up after his or her dog, but it really doesn't matter because running on a narrow path or on the sidewalk or on the street and having to avoid dog poop is a pain. We had to avoid at least three piles this morning. GAH!

Betty reported seeing two condoms this morning. Who leaves a used condom on the street? THAT I will never understand. Some couple was copulating on the street? (unlikely, but I've seen a couple going at it on the front lawn before). Probably in a parked car, but then driving along decided to just dispose of it...HERE? GAH! GAH! GAH! (I did not see the used condoms this morning. I must have been on the lookout for dog poop).

As for the smashed watermelon? I just chalk that up to partying kids. At least the poop and the watermelon are bio-degradable. The condom? I'm not so sure about that. Is latex bio-degradable?

In any event, it's things like this that always make an OB run full of distractions and offers me things to ponder along the way.

I got to ponder another thing as well...which was how GREAT I felt during this morning's run after NOT drinking three glasses of wine last night...hmmmmmm. I read somebody's blog (I can't remember who) who wrote earlier in the week about how she was giving up drinking because it was not really conduscive to running. I can see what she means. This morning's run was. not. painful.

Imagine that?

Does that mean that I'm giving up wine? and mimosas?

Not likely! But I am thinking I will for the next few Fridays.

This morning, the whole herd showed up for the run. I saw BBJ and gave him a welcome slap on "the hip." He was feeling the same way I felt the last two weeks because he was at a "math teacher party" last night. Elsie and Mik met Betty and me at Hospitality Point. We took off at a really reasonable 11:15ish pace and kept at that for the first four miles.

As I said, it was a great morning for a run. Clear and cool (until the last 30 minutes or so, when the morning haze passed and I started to feel the heat and humidity).  I managed a sub 11 minute mile pace for 8 miles. This gives me a definite shot at PRing at the San Diego RnR 1/2 on June 6. I haven't had what I would consider (for me) a decent 1/2 mary time since the Nike Women's 1/2 in 2008! So I'm rather excited about that.

Have a great day everyone! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms

Running With the Herd (even when the herd's not around) and other randomness

In the last month or so, Elsie, Mik and I have burned CDs for each other with some of our favorite running songs (Betty doesn't listen to music when she runs. She says she has her own "internal" iPod. I'm pretty sure it contains, almost exclusively, tunes by Cheap Trick).

Mommy's allright, Daddy's allright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender

So, I've had some pretty entertaining runs this week. I'll be running along and then "Milkshake" (Kelis) will start playing:

My milk shake brings all the boys to the yard,
and they're like,
its better than yours,
damn right its better than yours,
I can teach you,
but I have to charge

And I'm thinkin' "is THAT what makes Elsie so happy when she's running?"

Here's the rest of Elsie's playlist

Mik shared her VERY eclectic taste in music...everything from the Beach Boys to Paul Simon to The Kooks...and lots of Irish tunes. Quite frankly, I think this explains why Mik runs so fast!

My list is pretty standard compared to theirs...some '80s pop and some current tunes. The lyrics to "Fish Heads" (They Might be Giants), is always good for some giggles...


Fish heads, fish heads,
rolly-polly fish heads,
fish heads, fish heads,
eat them up, Yum,

In the morning,
laughing happy fish heads,
in the evening,
floating in the soup,

Ask a fish head,
anything you want to,
they won't answer,
they can't talk,

I took a fish head,
out to see a movie,
didn't have to pay,
to get it in,

As I alluded to in my last post, I arrived very late to last Saturday's run. Both Kat and Elsie (who were there) were convinced I'd missed what is arguably one of the most scenic runs, so both took photos...just in case...

At the north end of Pacific Beach, near Tourmaline. Photo by Elsie

I think this is above La Jolla Cove...Photo by Kat

Yesterday, I solo'd it at the SDTC track workout where we did 7 x 800 Repeats. Spring has sprung here (finally...I think...), which means that at 6pm, it was still about 80 degrees on the track. Silly me, I forgot my water in the car. Can you tell from my Garmin Connect stats when I went to the water fountain? What this also means is that after the 5th 800, I did a set of steps at Balboa Stadium...LOL

Despite this, I managed to keep my 800 splits below a 10 minute mile pace (well...once was 9:59, but that's still under 10, right?).

In other news, the herd has registered for two more spring/summer runs.

Inaugural RiverFest 5K
In the last four years, we have spent PLENTY of time on the San Diego Riverbed, so it seems appropriate that next Sunday, Betty, Mik, Elsie, and I (and maybe a few more) are going to do the Inaugural RiverFest 5K. RiverFest is a full day festival which is the capstone to two weeks of events sponsored by the San Diego River Park Foundation called River Days. There'll be a 5K run/walk and a 1 mile kids run. If you are local and want to join, here's the link to register. It's for a really good cause (improving the river area). The foundation does some really good work.

San Francisco 1/2 Marathon (the first 1/2)
After much discussion, we've decided to complete the California Dreamin' Racing Series. We already ran the Surf City 1/2 Marathon in February, so now we're headed to San Francisco to run the San Francisco 1/2 Marathon on July 25. Then in October, we'll do the Long Beach 1/2 Marathon. It also means that we have to run Surf City again in February so that Betty can officially run as Betty and not Tiger (although she says that her pseudo-pseudonym for all races IS going to be Tiger...grrrr), so that she'll have finished the series as well.

My goal? To run all remaining 1/2 marathons this year sub 2:30 AND not get injured again!

Weekend Update: Part 1 - The LA and The OC

I almost missed Saturday morning's SDTC run completely due to my day on Friday, which didn't end until about midnight when I got home, but I'll get to that in a minute.

The really important thing is that I did run this morning, and even though I didn't run for very far, or for very long, I DID RUN...and that is the most important thing, isn't it?



OK...I established that I did run on Saturday morning, but back to Friday. On Friday, Walter, the kids and I went to a memorial service for a distant family cousin. We hadn't planned on going until almost the last minute, but for various reasons, including the fact that I was planning on going to Orange County in the afternoon (more on THAT in a minute too) anyway, and if we all went together, we wouldn't have to figure out what to do with the kids, we decided to all go together.

Geez...when I write this kind of stuff, it sounds like we have such an overly complicated, life, and sometimes I do think we tend to overbook ourselves. Lord knows I do on a regular basis. Also, I don't have to explain every blessed little detail of why I do this, or where I go, or why I do that...but I do...

Anyway, we went to LA.

The man who passed was a lovely man. I met him several times and he was always generous and the epitome of old-school politeness and graciousness. I was completely blown away when he showed up at my mother-in-law's funeral service in February despite being in a walker and clearly having difficulty getting around. But that's the way he was...which is also one of the reasons we went to LA, to show our respects to him and his family.

After the memorial, there was a reception at the Brentwood Country Club (la de da). Funny side story - before we left, Turbo went to the men's room. He came back out looking very spiffy, hair combed, fresh breath. He was pleased that the men's room had COMBS and PRODUCT and MOUTHWASH just sitting there for him, so he availed himself of it.

So DramaGirl and I went to check out the ladies room. It was quite lovely. I probably should have used the hairspray.

DramaGirl and I in the Brentwood Country Club Ladies Room - Mandatory RR Shot. DramaGirl needs to learn to look at the BR window and not the screen :-))

First snarky comment of this report...at the Brentwood County Club our almost 10 year old Honda Pilot was very low class. DramaGirls comment was that she wished SHE had a LIMO. (I guess the mom-limo doesn't count).

Also, I have not done nearly enough plastic surgery.

We left the reception to head south. My sister had a pre-grand opening of her clothing boutique in Coto de Caza (sorta inland Mission Viejo, Orange County) which didn't start until 5pm, so we meandered through LA on Sunset.

Second side story. On several occasions, Walter has suggested that we go to LA on vacation. I laugh...I mean why in the world would I want to go to LA? Usually, going to LA is something that I endure, but I'm rethinking that right now. There are some cool things in LA that my kids haven't ever seen before.

The Pantages Theatre--I had to settle for photos like this when I was in Hollywood. It was far too early in the day to take pix of any of the REALLY interesting sights...those come out later at night.

DramaGirl and Turbo on Hollywood and Vine. Mostly Turbo was disappointed that he didn't know who any of the stars were in this part of town.

For example...isn't this the Mad Magazine guy? Clearly I don't know my Hollywood history either

Walter went to UCLA, so we had to drive by the campus and let him relive a few moments of his youth.

Actually, this is a street in Beverly Hills, not in Westwood, but when Walter was in college he delivered for a pharmacy (or at least that's what he SAYS he did...anyway, he says this is one of his favorite streets. I'm always struck by how close Beverly Hills, and Westwood, and Hollywood are to each other (in a city where I think everything is pretty spread out). It is a really pretty street. The trees form this canopy that is very cool. I think this street ends up in A LOT of movies. I can see why.

I also thought about how the LA marathon ran down Sunset, so I thought of Glenn. I'm not saying I'm doing the LA marathon anytime soon, but I do think it'd be a great marathon to do. Lots of distractions and interesting things to see.

Finally, we got on the 101 and headed for the 110 and made our south...GAH! Friday LA traffic. Geniuses that we are, we decided to take the 101 (which goes right through downtown LA) right at 4:00...which means we were going nowhere.  Penny called (I'd been posting some updates to FB, so she knew I was in LA), and we got to chat for a bit. She ran the OC 1/2 Marathon this morning...woot woot girl!

We made it to the 405 (which for non-SoCal peeps, means that we were close to OC) ...we don't know what this was about at all, but as we headed into OC, we saw this car, which appeared to have a pretty serious cake in the back seat..

Can you see the yellow in the back window? That's a cake top...or part of the cake top, there was a box on the very top that the kids SWEAR had the Food Network logo on it.

And this car, following it with the camera crew...

Again, can you see the guy in the front passenger seat has a big camera? (yeah, yeah, that's what SHE said). I know, my mad photo skilz are really shining through here.

Since DramaGirl is a HUGE Ace of Cakes fan, we were screaming at Walter to speed up, slow down, speed up, so that I could take some really bad pictures... Although I don't see how it could be Ace of Cakes since they're in (I think) Baltimore, but it could have been the new Private Chefs of Beverly Hills, but then why would they be taking a cake to Orange County? OK...I've already spent too much time thinking about this...

Finally we got to OC and I went to my sis's grand opening (shameless plug for my sister's store Olivia's Closet Boutique...if you live in OC, go visit her and see her clothes. They are way cute. Tell her that you found her through my blog :-))

Adorable little shop, just my sis's style

Racks of trendy (but not over the top trendy) clothes - very cute stuff for summer (am I a good sales person-sister or what?)

My sister Doni (third from the left in the black and holding a drink) and some of her friends. Yes, that one. She is beautiful and fabulous, but don't let that intimidate you. She is really one of the nicest people around. Everybody loves her. Try growing up with THAT! (just kidding. I adore her).

It was a fabulous event. She's opened her own store! I'm so proud.

I'll save all the details of my Saturday run for another post, let's just say for now that I did it and it's done. We didn't get home until nearly midnight, so it wasn't my most stellar effort.

Shoutouts to everyone else who is running the OC today.