Saturday, April 25, 2009

Good Saturday!

Well, today has been a day of procrastination (not a great thing with an exam next week, but eh). I headed out for my scheduled 18 miles this morning (tried for early, made it out the door about 9:15...and the temperature was already in the high 70's). Ended up barely shy of 20 before the run was over. That's right, I ran longer than scheduled. I have a crazy watch tan line, and two new sets of tan lines on my arms and back, thanks to the shirt change in the middle. Even with sunscreen, I'm getting tan already.

After my run, I knew I had to take an ice bath, which is partly why I ran longer than I was scheduled to--I hate those things! Especially now, since Eric is off climbing at Linnville Gorge until tomorrow and can't count down from 10 minutes with me! Well, Snowflake turned into a great helper--she tried splashing around in the tub, drank from the ice bowl, and sat at the edge of the tub the entire time. Have to say, I didn't scream nearly as loudly (or as much) as I normally do--probably because our condo is about 90 degrees right now, and after a very long run, I couldn't get my heart rate down past 75%--which meant I was having trouble keeping my core temp down...so the ice bath helped get me to normal temperature too. I didn't even wear my puffy vest and hold cocoa during this one! Great improvement for my bath tolerance today! And as an aside, I am not turning the a/c on in APRIL!!! Eric is already starting to complain, but I will not start paying hella $$$ to Duke Power until we have to! Plus, it will be back in the 70's by Wednesday! :D

Yesterday, I got sworn in to the North Carolina bar. The Judge was quite nice, and everyone was introduced by their attorney sponsors. Lots of photos during and afterward, that I'll post later. First, I have to get on with studying already. I want to watch Spirit of the Marathon tonight, since I've had the movie for over a week, and haven't made time to watch it yet. But I have to get mega-studying done!!!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

April Updates!

When I first set out to write this, I couldn't think of anything exciting that had happened. Then I realized that a TON has happened in the last three weeks!
--I passed the bar and got licensed to practice law in North Carolina the first full week of April.
--Eric moved to Raleigh! This is exciting! He got here on April 21, with a car filled with stuff that he had been hoarding at Michael's all this time.
--We hosted our first seder for Passover. It was lots of fun--our friends came over to eat with us. We served gefilte fish (from scratch), matzo ball soup, brisket, roasted asparagus, lemon cheesecake, apple-matzo kugel, chocolate-covered macaroons, and apricot squares. Big thanks to Rosanne for sending the macaroons, and a Huge thanks to Grammy for sending the haggadahs (haggadot?).
--We went to a black-tie dinner at Georgia Tech where Eric got to speak about his experience as a URS mentor. It was great to get dressed up and eat really good food! I even ate beets, and they were delicious!
--I'm still looking for a job, and am considering opening my own firm if nothing comes through by June.
--Eric met with his new advisor today, and has some reading to catch up on before he officially starts on May 4.
--My next final (capital transactions) is next week. :(

That's it! The rest of this week will be pretty busy--

Friday: Lunch with Lan, Matt & Ryan (in town for the week), then getting sworn in to the NC bar at the Durham County Courthouse. Studying the rest of the day, also planning to run 6 miles and shred.

Saturday: Eric leaving for his climbing trip to Linnville Gorge (with Michael). I'm heading to the trails for 18 miles in 90-degree heat. Also trying out new energy concoction--straight honey. Found a bottle small enough (I hope) to carry with me. Otherwise, studying, and making it a double-run day if I have any energy left at all after the first 18. The plan is for this to be my first really good trial before my race which is 7 weeks from now (see prior post about the hazards of the course!).

Sunday: 4-6 mile easy recovery run, or a bike ride early if I can drag myself out of bed! If I bike, I'll head out for 45 minutes around our neighborhood. Thankfully, only a little traffic on the weekends since we live in the middle of a lot of commercial zoning! The hills probably won't be a welcome addition to my I'm-sure-they'll-be-sore legs, but what do people call it? Character building? LOL.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

This week's training plan

Yikes, I'm turning into an end-of-the-week warrior this week! This is what's on the schedule:

Monday: Off--beach!
Tuesday: 3 miles (with Eric)
Wednesday: Strength, 100 pushups/200 situps program, yoga
Thursday: 14 miles; writing a paper for school, then class.
Friday: 6 miles, then blood drive and scrapbooking (busy day!)
Saturday: 6 miles, optional additional run with NC Roadrunners in the a.m. (Forecast is 72 and sunny, so my main run will be in the afternoon).
Sunday: 3-4 miles easy recovery run, 100 pushups/200 situps program, yoga

Total planned mileage for the week is 32, plus an optional 3-4 miler on Saturday. Goal is 100%!!!

Eric's longest visit yet!

Eric just left a few hours ago from spending an entire week here! It was great--we hung out with each other and with our friends, celebrated my birthday, did some work around the condo, went to the beach, looked at two subdivisions for house hunting, and watched way too much law & order! It was so fun to have him actually living here, instead of just visiting for a few days. Now that he's gone, the house just feels empty :(

But he will be back in less than a week! Passover starts next Wednesday, so he'll be back sometime on Wednesday, since we're hosting a seder on Wednesday night.

So, some details about our week of fun:

My birthday was on Tuesday, so Tuesday night, Matt, Lan, Steph & Brandon came over and brought cake, yum!
Eric sent flowers too, which was awesome--they were gorgeous!

Then on Wednesday, Eric came to visit! My birthday present from him was this VERY cute dress that we picked out together:

Saturday night we went out for dinner with our friends, and although I was extremely disappointed in the restaurant, it was fun to celebrate with everyone!

Sunday morning, we woke up and I checked Saturday's mail (we were expecting a Netflix delivery!), and found the greatest letter of all time! I PASSED THE BAR!!!!!!!!!! Crazy--I'm still a little shocked and surprised. Oh, and North Carolina released the results over a week early--unheard of! I'm still waiting on my MPRE score to be able to get sworn in, but those results should be back this week or early next week.

Monday, we went to the beach for birthday-day-of-fun! We drove down to Wrightsville Beach, Fort Fisher, and Wilmington for the day, it was a lot of fun! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

(Fishing Pier, Wrightsville Beach)

(At the Atlantic!)
(Eric in the Atlantic)
(Beach)
(Aren't we cute?)
(Fort Fisher)
(Fort Fisher)

(Historic Downtown Wilmington, after ice cream :) )

That pretty much sums up the week! Today I registered for the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon, which will be my 8th marathon. Should be fun! I also ordered the greatest toy ever--the Garmin 405! I can't wait to get it (2-4 business days now!)