Kim and Keenan came down to stay with us for Thanksgiving, which I really appreciated given that otherwise I wouldn’t have had much of a reason to cook a full-on Thanksgiving meal.

But before the cooking  could begin, we had to burn some calories!!

Josh, myself, Kim, and Keenan were all registered for the OneLife Fitness Turkey Derby 5k. Josh ended up not doing it because I had screwed up and thought he was off the night before.  Not so.  He worked until 6:30AM and hit the hay as soon as he got home so he could enjoy Thanksgiving before going back to work at 10PM.

Kim and Keenan registered online, but I’m cheap so I mailed mine in on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  Considering it was only going one city over I wasn’t too worried about it getting there in time, and then wasn’t all worried about it because I got a confirmation e-mail from a different race in the same city, that I mailed at the same time. (P.S. I really appreciate races that provide mail-in registration rather than having to pay the online fees).

Apparently, I SHOULD have been worried, though, because they didn’t have my registration and the whole set-up was completely disorganized.  They ended up giving me some random leftover race bibs and having me fill out and sign the waiver again.

So, that was resolved fairly easily and then we just had a little time kill while trying to stay warm before the race started. Eventually it did start and I went out with a vague goal to try and PR.  I was a little worried about this goal when I realized it was a trail race.  Guess I should’ve looked at the course map.

I was doing pretty well and thinking I might be able to do it when disaster struck… in the form of the finish line.  I crossed it with a distance of 2.74 miles on my Garmin.  Yes, they had managed to make the course short by .36 miles or more than 10% short of the distance it should have been.  I was more than a little ticked off.  HOW do you screw it up that badly??

Though stewing over the crappy-ness of the race, I still managed to get picture of Keenan and Kim crossing the finish line.

In addition to all the other ineptness associated with this race, I noticed today that in the race results my age is listed as 35 (I’m 31) and Josh has a finishing time of 25:07.  Odd since he was at home in bed.

My official time is 26:57 and it ticks me off that this is going to show up in AthLinks as a PR for FOREVER, because I will never truly run a 5K that fast.

You can be sure I’ve sent along a nice, long e-mail to the race director.

Anywho…back to Turkey day… {I don’t have a lot of pictures because the lighting in my house is awful. )

When we got back to the house after the race it was cooking time!!  Keenan was in charge of pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, and the turkey.  I was in charge of pecan pie, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and gravy.  Josh was in charge of deviled eggs.  Kim was in charge of alcoholic beverages. LOL

We started on the pies first thing so we could get them done and get the turkey in the oven.  I found this pecan pie recipe online: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pecan-pie-v/ and it turned out great!!  Interestingly, I realized halfway through making it, that it doesn’t require corn syrup.    I couldn’t taste any difference in the finished product.  Surely it’s got to be better for you this way, right?

Again, I don’t have any other pictures, which is a shame because it was a fantastic spread and the house looked lovely with the fireplace lit (for ambiance, it was 70 degrees on Thanksgiving and I was dying!), candles on the table, and good friends all around.  In addition to Kim and Keenan we had two other friends Ken and Jordan (our roommate) and after dinner Betsy and James stopped by which was a lovely surprise.

Josh chillin’ by the fireplace

With the arrival of Betsy and James, thus began a weekend of this:

Cards Against Humanity is apparently a more adult, fun version of Apples to Apples.  I’ve never played A2A, but had a blast playing CAH all weekend.

After a weekend of lazing about and relaxing with friends, I had to pack up and head to Orlando for a conference.  My flight left at 6:30AM on Sunday, which got me in before 9AM.  Luckily that was prefect timing for my friend Catherine (my maid of honor) to come up and show me a good time around Disney.

We didn’t actually go to any of the parks, but we did have brunch at one of the resorts.  I didn’t take pictures of all my food (because I don’t do that anymore), but I had to share this waffle.

In order to justify the $30 pp (!!!) cost, they send around some of the characters for photo ops.

Goofy and I

Catherine and Minnie

After brunch we walked around the boardwalk for a little shopping and sightseeing.  I don’t know if you know this or not, but I lived in Florida for 11 years (Naples 1994-1998 and Pensacola 1998-2003).  I kind’ve miss scenery like this.

After our walk we headed to the outlet mall because we couldn’t think of what else to do.  In retrospect I shouldn’t have been so cheap and we should have gone to the Harry Potter Theme Park.  Oh, well.  Hindsight and all that.

Random skywriting

Around 3PM, Catherine and I parted ways and I headed to my aunt and uncle’s house about an hour outside of Orlando in Geneva.    They live in the boonies in a long cabin with a pond.  It’s awesome!! I hadn’t seen or spoken to them much since the last time I was out that way which was 6 or 7 years ago.  I forgot how much I loved being around them.  They are such genuinely warm and caring people.

I hung around with them until a little after 7PM and enjoyed a fantastic dinner of homemade chicken and dumplings and key lime pie.  After saying good bye I drove back to my hotel and zonked out.  I’d been up since 4AM!!

The rest of the week isn’t particularly interesting and I don’t have any pictures.  Just day after day of the conference.  I did have dinner with a couple of former bosses who were also attending the conference, but that’s about it.  I’m happy to report that I went for a run one morning and a gym workout another evening.

Speaking of gym…that’s where I need to be headed right now! Talk to you later!

]]> http://admeyeringlife.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/a-race-a-turkey-and-a-trip/feed/ 2 Carolyn @ lovinlosing.com Keenan Finish Linw Kim Finish Line Pecan pie Josh Cards Against Humanity Mickey Mouse Waffle IMG_0211 IMG_0210 Crane Sky Writing http://admeyeringlife.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/new-york-new-york/ http://admeyeringlife.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/new-york-new-york/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:34:44 +0000 Carolyn @ AdMEYERing Life https://admeyeringlife.wordpress.com/?p=69 ]]> So I’ve been back from New York for a couple of days now, but I’m just now getting around to compiling the photos for a post.

Sunday

Sunday morning Josh and I got up early to run the Wounded Warrior 5K.  That’s a story for another post, but let’s just say he did fantastic and I’m super proud!  I was worried I was being crazy for running a 5k at 7:30 and needing to be on a plane at 10:15, but it worked out perfectly.  I brought a change of clothes to the airport and was perfectly presentable when I made it to the Big Apple.

I met my mom at the hotel and we immediately found some grub and then hightailed it to the Seaport to get on the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island.  Of course it turned out we were supposed to be in Battery Park instead so we had a short walk back the way we came.  We had no problems getting on the ferry and were soon on our way to see some awesome history.

We chose not to get off at Liberty Island because the monument wasn’t open to the public.  The photo op was enough so we just rode on through to Ellis Island.

I’m not one for museums, but there is a lot of wonderful exhibits and information at Ellis Island.  I highly recommend stopping there next time you’re in New York.  The ferry ride to both islands is only $13 per person.

When we arrived back in Battery Park we had a hard time getting a cab and ended up walking straight into Occupy Wall Street. 

We eventually found a cab and were able to grab our bags and officially check into the hotel.  Check out the view!

Not sure what that is? How about now…?

Monday

I had training scheduled every day until 4:30 so it was always dark by the time we could do anything together.  Since there isn’t a whole lot of sightseeing to be done safely in the dark we schedule shows for every night.  Monday night we went to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes in the Christmas Spectacular.

The lobby was decorated beautifully for Christmas!! LOVED the Christmas tree chandelier.

Here’s a quick video of one of my favorite parts, the toy soldiers!

Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular–Toy Soldiers

The iconic dance!!

I definitely suggest going to see the Rockettes just once in your life!! It was a fun, family friendly show and I loved saying I saw the Rockettes and sat in Radio City Music Hall.

After the show we walked around a bit.

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral

The Christmas windows at Henri Bendels

Trees lit up around Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center skating rink

Tuesday

Tuesday night my friend Tanya came in to the city and met us at Artisinal Bistro.  Of course, my camera died the night before and I forgot to pack an extra battery or charger so I don’t have many photos of the rest of the trip except what I took with my phone.

After dinner we went to the Shubert Theater to see Memphis.  OMG!! It was SO good! I absolutely loved it!  The music was upbeat and the acting was wonderful.  The were plenty of hilarious moments, as well as unexpected *gasp* ones.

(Source)

(Source)

Seriously people…if you get a chance to see it…DO!!

After the show we wandered around in Times Square a little before heading back to the hotel.

We passed the Top of the Rock (where you can look out over the whole city) and decided since the weather was supposed to turn ugly the next night that we had better take advantage.  It was pricey (about $50 for both of us), but definitely a once in a lifetime thing.

The weather was so nice that I was perfectly comfortable in my blazer, jeans, and boots. No jacket necessary.

Wednesday

Wednesday night was our last night in the city.  My mom was leaving the next morning and I was flying out the next evening after my training.  We were contemplating seeing another show, but weren’t sure we wanted to spend the money.

As luck would have it, my brother called that morning wanting to gift us tickets to a show as our Christmas presents.

And that’s how we got to see….WICKED!!

My brother recommended it and we took his advice. I’m so glad we did! It was totally different than Memphis or Rock of Ages (which I saw a couple of years ago) in that the music is quieter and more about telling the story.  My mom appreciated being able to better understand what they were singing.

After Wicked we pretty much went back to the hotel and crashed.  We had walked all the way to the theater in the rain (it took us a while to find someone selling umbrellas) trying to find a restaurant that turned out to be closed.  We ended up at the next Italian restaurant we could find and noshed on our meals while we dried out.  Luckily for us it turned out the theater was one block straight in front of us when we came out of the restaurant.

Thursday

Thursday was fairly uneventful.  My mom left around 8AM for the airport and I headed to training around 9:30AM.  I left directly after training via town car because I was told there was zero chance I’d get a cab to take me to the airport during rush hour (it was 5PM).  It took about 90 minutes to get to the airport and another 30 minute or so to get checked in an through security.  I then played with the iPads at Croque Madame (JFK airport) while waiting for my flight.

I was SO happy to see Josh waiting for me at the airport.  He was supposed to work that night, but took it off to be with me since he was leaving the next morning to road trip with his dad.  Otherwise I wouldn’t have seen him for more than 5 minutes before tomorrow night!!

So that’s my Big Apple trip!! Loved seeing it all decorated for Christmas.

1) In the time since I started my blogging hiatus I’ve done a Warrior Dash, a 9/11 5K, and a Sprint Triathlon.

Warrior Dash Virginia

Richmond Sprint Triathlon

2) Josh and I took a road trip to West Virginia and had a blast with some beautiful scenery.

Cass Scenic Railroad

Dinosaur World

Seneca Rocks

Waterfall

3) TWO of the Girl’s Night ladies (Kim & Jen) are pregnant!! (Hi ladies! )

4) Josh turned 30!

5) Josh and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary (3 years married, 10 years together).

6) I’ve become addicted to Pinterest.

7) I’ve been to Kansas City and then to McDonough (twice!).

Where I’m Going:

1) Traveling to NYC for work Nov. 13th – 17th. Josh can’t come, so my mom is meeting me there. I am SO excited! You have no idea.

2) Not looking forward to Thanksgiving because all of our family that lives nearby are going to my in-laws since my SIL’s boyfriend’s parents are coming down there.  We can’t go because Josh is working.  I don’t know if I’ll even bother to cook. I’m bummed.

2) Josh is doing is first 5k on November 13th and I’m doing it with him. Somehow I’m going to run a 5k at 7:30 am and then be on a plane by 10:15 am.  I apologize in advance if you’re on that flight.  I plan on bringing my clothes to the airport and changing in the bathroom.  A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.  No way am I missing his first 5k.

3) Traveling to Orlando for work Nov. 27-Dec. 1st.  Looking forward to meeting up with some friends and family.

4) Josh and I have started trying to make a baby.  I know I shouldn’t put this out there for a million reasons, most importantly because if things don’t go as planned I’ll get tired of people asking about it.  But, I know myself and I want to talk about it.  Don’t expect me to announce pregnancy before the 12-14 wk mark, but I am putting it out there that we’re trying.

>We’ve been trying for all of about 6 weeks and I’ve already managed to diagnose myself with all manner of dysfunctions including, but not limited to a thyroid disorder and short luteal phase.  This is what happens when you start paying close attention to what’s going on with your body. You start noticing things and then googling.  (I’m sure it’s horribly insensitive to all those dealing with true infertility issues, but I’m not going to apologize for my feelings.)

I think that’s a pretty good update! Anything I missed?  What have YOU been up to?