That Time I DNS

I wasn't sure how to write up this post but here goes.

It finally happened...my first DNS. I didn't see it coming. I had every intention of completing this race the day before but on race morning I woke up feeling extremely tired. I did my normal pre-race routine. I got up, brushed my teeth, washed my face, stretched a bit but my motivation level to get dress and go to the starting line was zero. I've only had this feeling once but I still ended up going to that race. It wasn't pretty but I still went. Anyhow, I'm a little bit disappointed in myself that I didn't just suck it up and go. I wasn't sick or anything. I just felt fatigued. I keep telling myself that I did just ran a marathon last weekend but that did very little in providing any sort of comfort to myself at all. The only comfort I can extract out of this experience is that I listened to my body and did what I felt was right for my recovery and performance at my future races.

Aside from the DNS thing, I otherwise had an amazing weekend hanging out with my family down in San Diego. The most fun being playing with my niece at the San Diego Zoo!

My Sister's Wedding!

Hello! It's been 14 days since I last blogged, which means that it's been 14 days since anything noteworthy has occurred in my life. But enough about my lackluster social life and on to more exciting news.

My sister who blogs over at A Case of the Runs got married this past weekend! It was super fun! They had a nice Jewish ceremony followed by one of the coolest dragon dance ever. When two worlds collide! :) I will let her tell you more about it when she returns from her honeymoon.

And since this is also a food blog, I wanted to show you this very large loaf of challah bread that was served at the wedding. I love challah and this one was blessed!

Finally, I just wanted to mention that I am failing miserably with my candy ban but I blame it mostly on the end of Daylight Savings. Every year around this time I suffer from SAD (Seasonal Awareness Disorder). I know people must think this is a mental thing but for me it is more of a physical thing in which I get extremely fatigued coupled with an insatiable appetite. Last week, I basically sat around and ate...A LOT! I am slowly coming out of it this week and my activity levels have started to ramp up again. Good thing too because I have a marathon to run in a little over 2 weeks. I've put in my time training for it so whatever happens I'll be okay with it.

Dads & Grads

Happy Father's Day to my daddy and Congratulations to Sister K (UCLA's Class of 2012)!!!

Help Me Pick Out A Swimming Cap?!

Hello hello! I haven't blogged in about a week so it warranted two 'hellos'. I haven't blogged because all I did last week was go to work, recover from the race and celebrated National Running Day (June 6th) by going for a run and having dinner at Souplantation with some amazing local runners. And when I say 'amazing' it is because of the incredible amount of salads these ladies can put down. Overall, it was a good day.

Some time last week I saw Heather tweet about doing her last long run on Saturday, so I got the bright idea to go out there and keep her company for parts of it. I had a company picnic last Friday afternoon. Later that evening I had a bad stomach ache. I may have over done it at the picnic buffet line. I told Heather that I wasn't feeling well and wasn't sure if I would make it out the next morning. But the next morning I was feeling better. I got up later than I was suppose to but I was feeling better. So I laced up and went out looking for Heather. I had started about an hour later than her so I took lots of shortcut in hopes of catching up. But due to starting too late, maybe going the wrong route or running at a sluggishly slow pace, I never found Heather. But due to the June gloom, it was a nice overcast day for running.

After my run I went to the farmers market to pick up some produce for the week.

And it is officially cherry season. Get'em while the gettin's good!

And look Peonies! I love June! Overcast skies, Cherries, Peonies...

After shopping at the farmers market, I went to Salad Republic to get a Greek yogurt snack. It was amazing! This place boasts an impressively healthy and delicious menu. I joked on Twitter that I was going to be the duchess of this place on Yelp soon but I was only half kidding around. I think I am just going to give my 30-day notice and move right on in.

I hung out at the mall on Sunday with my family. It's been a really long time since I've been to a large mall. My niece dragged me to the Baby Gap to help her pick out a swimming cap because well you know...it's swimming season and she has to look her best. She wasn't sure about this one but I thought it looked adorable on her!

Anime Halloween 2011

We had a pretty low key Halloween party this year, mainly because I had stupidly signed up for a half marathon the next morning and because I am not as good as my sister at organizing these events, plus the baby is a light sleeper and kept my sister pretty busy as of late and she has always been the mastermind behind all these Halloween parties. Plus I ran into a snag with my costume this year. :(

P.S. This pumpkin was carved by this sister. 

I was suppose to dress up as Shampoo from Ranma 1/2 but at last it was not meant to be. Well I did manage to scrap something together at the last minute to savage my costume but it was far fetched. I had ordered some wigs and hair pieces from Hello Cosplay (an online anime costume shop) many weeks ago in hopes of getting it shipped from China in time for Halloween. The wigs had to be styled, they were not pre-styled. Apparently if you want anything from this website delivered to you in a timely manner you better order it more than a month in advance. Like two months! That's just insane. Three weeks after I placed the order, I emailed them to check when I could be expecting my order and it was at that time that they shipped it out! WTF?!? Oh another thing, there is no phone number on their site so you cannot talk to a live person. Basically, they had forgotten to send my order out until I emailed them and then instead of asking if I still needed the wigs since my party was about to come and go, they quickly sent my order out on the sly and quickly sent me a tracking number. Again WTF?!? I don't need it anymore because the party has come and gone! Baka!!!

So I had to use my own hair, which isn't blue/purple and looks nothing like the character I was suppose to dress up as. :(

At least the food was good! 

The brother-in-law's famous wings! Yeah they are famous! In these parts anyways.

Group photo time! We are so spread out. Group photo fail. Happy Halloween!

Big Shopping in Little Chinatown

On Sunday the sisters and I had to make a trip here...

Mainly to look at stuff like this...for Halloween! Remember me telling you that we love Halloween around these parts. We do!

But first lunch! More on this place at a later post. TDF=to die for!

We thought about eating here...until we saw the line! Sad!

On the walk to the restaurant, we saw this...I can only assume it is some sort of "dog pile"?

It was located right across from this place...the Japanese American Museum.

After lunch, we made the short drive to Chinatown and passed by Philippe's, home of the famous french dipped sandwich. I haven't eaten here before but that will change soon.

We finally made it to Chinatown.

There was lots of shopping going on...

...until we spotted a snack truck...that specialized in Raspados!

Umm, haha...of course I got in line.

Photo taken by Sister S.

Diablito! Sour, Salty, Icy...I must stop eating stuff like this.

After this one I mean.

Photo taken by Sister S.

There was some sort of break dancing competition going on that day.

More walking and shopping...

...and eating! We ended up finding lots of items we needed for our costumes.

My parents made another amazing dinner later on that evening.

Lobster! Can't believe my dad made this. It was TDF!

Honey Bee Baby Shower

I had a busy week at work and waited until Friday to pick up the last of the materials needed to make the diaper cake for Sister S's baby shower. I was worried that I would not have time to put it together...

 ...but slowly and surely.

Photo credit to Sister K.

Party rental company came to set up the tents, table and chairs for the party amid diaper cake construction, so we went outside to watch the construction process in 96 degree heat. It was a scorcher of a day. As we sat there in the heat, we worried that tomorrow would be just as hot.  

We took a little break from party set-up to get some Taiwanese shaved ice. We thought about going to Yogurtland but this was a much better idea. 

After our little snack, we got back to work and somehow project diaper cake was completed!

We woke up early this morning to put the finishing touches on the party set-up.

Sister K was on balloon duties. I was running around everywhere. 

Diaper cake!

Real cake! 

So many chairs, so little time!

Photo credit to Sister K.

Everyone was working hard to get everything ready in time. 

It was a lovely baby shower aside from the 98 degree heat wave!

The beautiful mom-to-be! Congratulations!

Photo credit to Sister K.