SkinnyRunner

Part 1 of the recap

Part 2 of the recap

On Thanksgiving morning we went to the Astoria Column, which is a 125ft monument that you can climb up.

There’s 164 steps up to the top.  I didn’t stop but by the time I got to the top my legs were on fire.  On fire like Taylor Swift’s career right now.  Not on fire like Tiger Woods and all that drama.

Finally!  No more stairs.

It was a really foggy day so we didn’t get to see much.

Looking down.

I’m only happy because we’re going down.

It was a beautiful day on Friday so we took the dogs for another walk.  Because no one likes a fat yorkie…

Driving back to Seattle to catch our flight I took a couple car pics because the quality doesn’t get much better than taking pictures out of a moving car.  And I’m all about quality photography.

The Longview Bridge.

Mount Something or Rather.  Raineer, Baker, Bachelor, I don’t know.  Geography isn’t my bag, baby.

Marnia Mania at the aiport.  She was mad at me the whole day because I didn’t book her a first class seat.  diva.

EATING 101

One of the popular holiday eating tips is to get rid of the leftovers right away so you don’t keep eating them.  Have Thanksgiving dinner once, not 3 days in a row.  If the food’s there, we’ll all end up eating it.

So do the opposite with healthy foods, like vegetables.  If they’re available and staring their soon to perish faces at you, you’ll probably eat them.  Even if you don’t feel like it, you don’t want to waste them so you end up eating them.  which is the point.

This will probably mean more grocery shopping… at least once a year week or whatever. I hate to groc shop but I find that when I have a fridge full of veggies, I eat them more often.  If for no other reason than I’m being cheap and don’t want to throw them out.

Note: If there’s a vegetable you hate, don’t buy it.  Even if the store’s offering free diamond tennis bracelets with it.  You won’t eat it, and it won’t become any more appetizing as it rots.  There’s not too many vegetables that I don’t like except mushrooms so guess what’s not in my kitchen right now?  some good candy.  and mushrooms.

These pictures are from the past week that my lover boy and I spent in Astoria, Oregon, with my family for Thanksgiving.  Part 1 is here.

One day we drove 10 miles to Seaside which is like Laguna Beach: a cute little touristy beach town that is kinda dead in the winter.  There is one difference though.  Seaside has a massive love affair with candy, salt water taffy, and fudge, and sells a butt ton of it.  People in Laguna Beach are way too health conscious for that; their big seller is probably wheat grass smoothies or soy popsicles.

I swear every other store on the boardwalk was a candy store.  I obviously thought I was in some level of heaven (I’m not a Mormon and don’t seriously believe in levels of heaven; I’m with the big JC) because I love candy and anything that will rot my pearly whites faster.

A massive fudge log that I bet went as a turd for Halloween.

Jay is happy because he IS a kid in a candy store.  We ended up buying some spicy cinnamon bears and a couple truffles which complemented our lunch of burgers and fries perfectly.

Supposedly this is the world’s largest gummi bear weighing in at 4 lbs.  Player,  please.  I could eat a 4 lb gummi bear for breakfast. 

We went to Sam’s Seaside Cafe for lunch.  Mostly because my nickname is Sam.  But I also respond to Killer and Turd Log.

This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone but Seaside is by the sea.

So we had to go see it.  See the sea in Seaside, haha.  im funny. not.

I think these fine ‘gents are Lewis and Clark, the explorers whose expedition laid much of the groundwork for the Westward Expansion of the United States.  You didn’t know I was such a history buff, did you?

 Ok, I completely copied all of that from Wikipedia.

My own explorer… of shopping malls and discount stores.

After getting our fill of historical smartness, we hit up the arcade.   Because where else would 2 grown adults hopped up on sugar go?

Kickin’ it old school with the NBA JAM game.  Jay is nearly 9 years older than me so he was probably playing this game back in the day trying to impress all the ladies while I was still in diapers.  But as I like to remind him, he’ll be the next in diapers.  adult ones.

A new game, instead of playing the race car game, is to take pictures of yourself.  Bonus points if it’s somewhere socially awkward.  like the little boys room.

We are winners after all!!!

On to the big Turkey day…

My one thanksgiving shot.  Notice there is no food and an abundance of ugly chairs.  I can say that because when my parents bought the condo, it was already fully furnished and decorated in a Chinese/Oriental style, which in this case, is not cute.  My mom would like to redo it in a beach cottage style eventually.

My little brother Matti and his girlfriend Marlie holding our dog Marni. that’s M cubed.

Matti has a miniature weiner dog named Nancy who weighs 7 lbs.  Her and Marni fight and go at it like they’re castmembers on the Real Housewives of Orange County.

The finale, part 3, will be next so don’t be a weiner and miss it!

WORKOUT – (39) Ran outside 60 mins/7.0 miles – hilly

Like I said in the last post, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna run today because I have a massive head cold.  Of course I’m being a baby and acting like it’s a rare strain of H1N1 mixed in with a little bubonic plague.  Nevertheless, I got out the door and ran some hills.

I felt like I was running with a Missy Elliott-inspired rubber suit on, I was sweating so much.

I don’t know if it was more the head cold or the fact that I wore long sleeves in the 900 degree weather here, but I felt like Owen Wilson after about a mile:

So I broke my cardinal rule of Never Pull a Britney and Always Wear Clothes and I took my shirt off.  I tied it around my neck because I hate anything tied around my waist.  It just always looks bad on me.  Like this but worse:  (I’m sure somehow it even makes my hair look bad)

So instead I looked like Superman with a cape, no powers, and a drippy nose:

And my less-than-super version:

Ok, that’s slightly more more mummy than Superman.

That’s more like it.  You can tell by my face that I’m really taking this seriously…

MOTIVATION 101

Can I get a little Tony Robbins on you for a second?

Sometimes the hardest part of working out is literally getting out the door, just getting the workout started.  I DID NOT want to run today and for the first mile (or two) I wanted to throw in the cape towel.  But after 15-20 minutes you get in a groove, your endorphins start doing their thang and you’ll probably end up finishing your entire workout.

So if you’re really dragging your feet on working out, make yourself do just 10 or 15 minutes worth and if then you want to quit, fine.  But chances are you’ll start feeling it and finish strong.  or at least finish. 

I’ve had bad workouts, bad runs, and bad races, but I’ve never once regretted getting that workout in.  You always feel better afterwards, even if it’s just a 10 min run instead of a 10 miler.

Off to polish my kryptonite.

WORKOUT - (yesterdays) Elliptical – 35 mins/ full body strength conditioning with medicione ball/balance ball

I might try to go for a short run this morning before church.  I don’t know, I have a head cold and feel like this:

photo credit

But not as cute. 

And sound a little like this:

photo credit

But not as annoying.

I was going to wait until Monday to recap the week’s pictures, but since my life is boring and I have nothing else to say, it just made sense.  Like Miley Cyrus and age-inappropriate pictures, it just went together.

My parents’s condo is on the Columbia River in Oregon and looks out on the Astoria bridge.

 This picture sums up last week’s weather report: wet.  Actually, it was nice for a little bit… like 30 mins at a time.  We’d watch these huge ships go by which was kinda fun.  for the first 100.

Apparently my penchant for taking bad pictures runs in the family.  Love ya Ma!

Jay and my mom trying to figure out what country this ship was from.  They were looking at a book of national flags to identify the flag.  Trust me, it was just as dorky as it sounded typing it.

I only ran once in the 4 days we were there but the day that I did, the sun got all dressed up and pretty for me.

The day before Thanksgiving Costco opened a brand new, bigger store in Astoria.  Being the socialites that we are, we got there right at 8am for the grand opening, the social event of the year.  Have I mentioned how small Astoria is??

I married this fine specimen of a man.

And he obviously scored big marrying me.  This was early in the morning, pre-under eyes bags concealer.  We were headed down to the boat to clean and load groceries on it.

The entire week I wore some variation of this outfit: pea coat, lounge pants and UGGs.  By “some variation” I mean I put on clean underwear for Thanksgiving.  Everyone was thankful for that.

This is the middle school that Kindergarten Cop was filmed at.  My dad went here back before the wheel had been invented.  It looks huge in the movie and in reality, the building is pretty tiny.

Astoria is a fishing town that was built on the Columbia River so there are a lot of draw bridges like this one that open for boats to pass under.

We took the leader of the free world for a walk to one of my favorite manifestations of capitalism: cupcakeries!

Go get it boy. Jamie had coconut and I had vanilla and lemon.

On the Richter scale of cupcake nirvana, I’d rank it a 7 of 10.  Decent, but won’t put Sprinkles out of business.

Does that picture remind you of this picture:

Lilly Allen twitpic’ed this.  Might seem like a good idea until you wake up and see your sheets resemble candy canes, striped in white and barbeque.

I’m back in SoCal!  And it is not sunny here, Al Roker.  Full recap of the week to come Monday.  Until then, here’s a little JHUD and a taste of the Oregon pictures:

What the heck is that turd log doing here??

From InTouch Magazine, the November 9 issue, about new mom Jennifer Hudson and how she lost the baby weight.

Three months post-birth, she looks amazing.  I mean, not Heidi Klum, strut your naked stuff the day after giving birth amazing, but then again, that’s why there’s only one Heidi Klum.

How she did it:

What she eats:

I have a gym date with my lifetime boyfriend Jamies this morning.  Toodles.

Happy Thanksgiving! This post has nothing to do with the day of overindulging because I’m in the Oregon rain and I wrote it a couple days ago while still home.  On the top of my thankful list right now would probably be California sunshine…

What’s one of the dumber/you’re nearly embarrassed to say things you are seriously thankful for but that no one puts on their grateful list??

I’d probably say world peace the bounty of running races in my area.  You can run a race nearly every weekend if you have Nigerian legs.  At some point I’m sure we’ll move out of CA and I think I’ll be missing that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reader Christy named the new segment of gossip magazine articles pertaining to celebrity weight and body issues “Magazine Madness” and that’s what it’s going to be called because “gossip magazine articles pertaining to celebrity weight and body issues” sounds pretty much on par with Adam Lambert-gay.  So let’s do this.

This is from InTouch Magazine, November 2nd issue about Valerie Bertinelli’s weight loss on the Jenny Craig program.  The Before and After pics:

She lost 40 lbs on the program and has maintained her size 6 figure for nearly 2 years.

Her trainer Christopher Ross Lane says,

“Valerie relies on exercise and uses it as a crutch, as opposed to food.” The star agrees, saying, “Even if it’s the last thing I want to do, a nice jog really clears my head.” Along with cardio, Valerie incorporates body-weight resistance work.

I think these are great tips.  Do you have any fabulous “surviving the holidays” tips?

My top tips are to get tape worm, the swine flu (so you don’t have an appetite), or have jaw surgery so your mouth’s wired shut…  the shining beacon of health, that’s what I am.  Be thankful for that.

WORKOUT – (38) Ran outside 60 mins/7.15 miles

Remember how Competitor Group, who does the RocknRoll races sent me a medal for races that I’d already received medals for?

Well, back in October I decided to sign up for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas half marathon.  So before I made the purchase, I looked for a promo code online and found that if you signed up on the 13th of the month, you got $13 off the registration fee.  sweetness.

Seriously, do this before you buy anything online; go google “the store name” promo code.  I’ve saved a butt ton of money this way.  I’ve found free shipping codes, 10% off at hotels.com (saved $26 booking a hotel for San Fran last month), free cinnastix at Dominoes.com (obviously my most important and cherished find), 70% off restaurant.com, 15% off at Road Runner Sports, and on and on.

Anyways, so look what I just got in the mail, a $25 gift card to P.F. Chang’s that I won apparently for signing up for the race on the 13th.  I didn’t even know there was a contest!  I just wanted my $13 off.  Now that’s what I call a double whammy.

Who says that running doesn’t pay big benefits?

Have you ever won any contests or prizes? Jaybob won $5 with a scratch off ticket once.  And $700 at a casino.  Me, nothing.  Well, besides my big win today.  All I gotta say is watch out, Vegas.  Watch out.

Hi from rainy Oregon! We went over to the boat this morning and cleaned it from top to bottom.  DIRTY!

Kim Kardashian posted a pic of herself on twitter saying that she was headed to a Quick Trim photo shoot and that she’d reached her goal.

photo credit

I think she does look a little skinnier.  and a lot darker. 

This picture is from earlier this summer:

Ok now that we’ll all had our fill of Kardashianville, let’s move on to more important questions: If you HAD to take buy diet pills, for some weird reason it’s now a law and you have to, WHO would you want to endorse your particular brand that you purchase?

I might be inclined to say Jessica Biel.  She has a strong, fit body but has recently lost a little weight.  But still she looks good and not sickly. 

Someone I would NOT choose to buy their diet pill would be Kirstie Alley.  ’nuff said.

WORKOUT - Elliptical 60 mins

Tonight we are flying out of Orange County, CA to Seattle for Thanksgiving.  We’re not staying in Seattle; it’s actually a 50/50 toss-up whether we’ll go south to Oregon or north to almost Canada.

My dad’s boats crab in the winter in Washington, Oregon and California so the holidays are always crazy as to where we will actually spend them.  Most likely it will be the small town of Astoria, Oregon.  It is not famous for a couple movies that were filmed there:

photo credit

I think it was probably TMNT III that really put Astoria on the map.  I even refer to it as Astoriawood because Hollywood has nothing on it.  Ok, maybe Stephanie Pratt’s new face, but that’s it.

I’ll try to be awesome as I possibly can and take lots of pictures of all the stars fishing boats while I’m there.  I’ve got to go pack… and cry over the clearly Oscar-caliber delight that is Free Willy.

Speaker to husbands, “The three most imporant words you can tell your wife are – Tell me more.”

We spent the past weekend in La Jolla (outside of San Diego) at the FamilyLife Marriage Conference at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla.  Our room:

We have a queen sized bed at home so whenever we get a king, it’s like a party in bed.

The conference started Friday night, went on through Saturday afternoon, then we had date night and ended the conference at lunch time on Sunday.

Let’s just say that Jamie wasn’t exactly wetting his pants in excitement over missing Sunday football, but at least he was there…  (This is the 2nd year we’ve gone and he really does enjoy it.  Or so he says.)

Ready to go learn about marriage, men and sex!

Saturday during our lunch break we went to Michele Coulin Dessertier, the French bakery that made our wedding cake.  And look what I found in one of the cake books:

Jason’s Texas Tech grooms cake!

I complemented my healthy lunch of organic lettuce salad with free-range chicken with cake for dessert; I had a slice of the most popular flavor and one of the flavors of our wedding cake, Gateau Aileen, which is “hot milk spongecake filled with buttercream and lots of fresh berries.”  Sounds gross but I bet my hot buns that you’d fall in love with it.

Jamrock J had 5 different samples of cake with homemade vanilla ice cream.

And to top off the terrifically calorific meal, I had a massive cup pot of coffee with real cream.  REAL CREAM.  This stuff was thicker than (deceased) Tammy Faye Baker’s eyeliner.

photo credit

Saturday night was date night so we went to Cozymel’s.  Because you can’t go wrong with mexican food.

And because nothing’s sexier than a man about to dive into a swimming pool of guacamole.

Or mojito madness.

As if our date couldn’t get any steamier or hotter, we went to Marshalls for a little shopping.  Yeah, definitely a sexy night.  I bought a pair of Hudson jeans which my mom is going to be giving me for my birthday next month.  Yep, I’m one of those people who picks out all their own gifts.

Saturday morning I got up and ran for an hour, 6.9 miles.  Sunday morning I decided to use the gym, The Sporting Club, which gives a discounted rate to Hyatt guests.  It was still $13 a day, but I thought if I got in a long workout, it’d be worth it.  kinda.

So I get up at 6am, get all ready, and walk over there to find out that they didn’t open until 7 am.  That didn’t leave me with enough time to get a $13 workout in.  I mean, my monthly dues at 24hourfitness are only $21 for a whole month.  So I said forget you Sport Club, and I forgot them like Lady Gaga forgets to wear pants.  every. single. day.

photo credit

That big round building is the darn Sporting Club.  I hate when hotels charge to use a gym.  Vegas hotels are notorious for this, but it’s more like $25 a pop there.  What a rip off.  Unless you’re giving me a massage and a deep conditioning hair mask while I’m on the treadmill, I shouldn’t have to pay.

FamilyLife does Christian marriage conferences around the country as well as internationally, and I’d HIGHLY recommend it to anyone in a relationship… if you’re engaged and not even married yet, if you’ve got a fabulous marriage like Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey and just can’t find enough spots on your body to tattoo your lover’s name fast enough, or if your relationship is more like that of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richard’s, where you want to carve each other up with knives and then push the other person in a salt bath.

photo credit

You get to spend a weekend improving your marriage, talking about sex, learning how to fight fair, how to communicate effectively, you write love letters to each other and go out on a date…. 

Any time I can pull my husband away from the fantasy football ticker, write me romantic poems and feed me mojitos, I deem a raging success.

Excuse me while I go sharpen my kitchen knives….