CUTE: Ducklings at Magic Kingdom

RUN: Tuesday 6x600 and Thursday 8x200

I ran twice this week (so far!)... so that's good. I ran Tuesday night over at my friend Paul's. We did six 600s around his neighborhood. It was at night, so it was pretty cool and all. Nothing particularly note-worthy about the run except that it was nice. That was a good evening. I stopped by Publix on the way home and got a roasted chicken and portioned meals (saving money!).

Anyways, and tonight I ran at the park with the rest of the campers. It was my first time back in... three weeks? The usual suspects were there, and it was great to see them. I took some pictures. I was shooting about .500 tonight (half usable, half tossed), but that's pretty good. Oh, we did eight 200 (sort of easy)... I ran them in between 31 and 38-and-a-half. There was a Vietnam veterans gathering at the park, and some sort of carnival festival over by the BCC parking lot.

It was a nice day at work today... some down time, but I got all my work done for the most part. I'm going to be "in charge" of software integration and testing (i.e. pre-actual-testing)... so we'll see how that goes. On the way to practice I managed quite a number of errands: picking up a gift certificate to Downtown Produce for the guy who helped me with the SSL work, picking up my new cell phone from FedEx, and picking up my race packet for Saturday's Flamingo 5K. The string of events was pretty void of traffic even though it was supposedly-heavy traffic time, and it also took me on some small discovery roads (and I didn't get lost).

After practice, I came home, I prepared dinner while making numerous phone calls, then finished watching Shortbus while eating dinner (chicken and rice and snow peas). Now I'm enjoying a beer and about to take a shower before either calling it an early night or giving the supposed website-to-be another stab (bah!). :)

Okay, here are some of my favorite pictures from tonight. Enjoy!

PICTURES: Mow Buddies

JOURNAL: Hugs and Teeth

At Treasure Coast Pride this past Sunday, I was told by the Free Hugs girl that I gave a great hug. Also, while getting my HIV-test done (oral not finger-prick), the lady said that I had beautiful teeth. I don't know if it's the same way with other people, but I feel like I get complimented on those two things quite a bit (and of course, I get many compliments on my Badonkadonk... but it's like Dolly and her tatas... we recognize).

I do kind of lean towards a full-body sort of hug (it's all about the frontal surface areas) with forearms-to-sides maximization.

As for the teeth, I've been flossing everyday, and I'm glad to get positive reinforcement. My dental hygienist will be proud.

EVENT: Treasure Coast Pride, Port St. Lucie

Last Sunday, I went with a couple guys to the Treasure Coast Pride event down in Port St. Lucie. The event ran from noon til 6pm, but we planned on getting there around 1:30pm and staying until 3:30pm.

The drive down was pretty easy. And I wish I got a picture of it, but we saw a truck with children toys and such overflowing in trunk but being held down by strings of Christmas lights (HA!).

When we got to the South County Regional Stadium (Thanks Cindy for directions), we saw rainbow banners, lines of booths, and a stage at the far end.

Long story short (since I'm behind on my blog entries), there wasn't so much to do there (one quick go around was enough for me), but eventually the guys that I was with wanted to go to the local gay bar afterwards, so I found/had-to-find another ride back to Melbourne (kid-hostage all over again).

One of the TLR guys offered to take me back to town, but I'd have to wait until they packed up the booth and all... so staying later than planned/expected. I was bummed that I wasn't going to get anything accomplished once I got home, but still I found some good in it: I got to spend time with Melbourne's gorgeous power couple, and on the car-ride back to town, I got to learn more about someone I may not have otherwise (interesting).
Anyways, so that was TC pride - a different flavor from Orlando's event. At least here, I scored some free hugs.

RACE: Space Walk of Fame 8K, Titusville, FL @34:44 (PR!)

When I woke up Saturday morning, I heard heavy rains. As I prepared for the race the rain settled down, I was thinking up justifications for not going. (I hadn't been training well/consistently/any for the couple weeks leading up to the race (as the blog would reflect), and I just didn't want the embarrassment of either run-walking the race or having my chest/armpits cramp up and having to run-walk the race.

I figured that I paid for the race and that it would be bad for me to be away from the running family for so long (it's been weeks). So I went.

The weather turned very beautiful and asides from a light wind, there wasn't anything to use as an excuse.

The race was a two loop course (a 2-mile loop followed by a 3-mile loop -- more like out-and-backs); it ran along the side roads with the Indian River within ear's reach.
At the start of the race, no one really sprinted out. It was an easy-going start, and that led to a very consistent race for me -- mile splits 6:45, 7:04, 7:07, 7:04, 6:44 (!!!).

There wasn't so much of a carrot during the race, but the knowledge that I wasn't racing anyone except for myself. I usually get anxious about getting passed, but it just doesn't do any good to worry about other people's abilities, and somehow I managed to have a good mind.

Approaching the finish, the guy I had been drafting off of was about 15 yards ahead of me, and there was a high schooler right in front of me. I called out to the kid to encourage him to "keep going" and "just go ahead", but he didn't have the kick left in him, so I moved along myself and ran toward my draft object. On the final stretch, I saw the clock read 34:31 -- I was going to get sub-35 minutes -- so let's gun for a sub-34:45. The draft guy and I took off on a dead sprint, and my Asian legs didn't fail me. It was the most competative finish I've had in recent memory (people usually don't want to challenge)... it was quite invigorating. Granted, it made me start the motions to throw up, but luckily (?) I didn't have any breakfast to lose.

I grabbed my camera afterwards and went picture crazy... it's been a while since I've been at a race, and I've always quite a number of pictures at this race.
It was so nice seeing everyone again.

And here's a pic from the Kid's Race:
And it was very surprising that I did manage 3rd place in my age group (Thanks Ed!).
It didn't take long for the results to be announced, and on the way home, I passed by the bakery where the awesome energy rolls were donated from, so I stopped in, grabbed a couple of multi-grain cinnamon rolls and a loaf of apple swirl bread.
Then from there, it was home, upload pictures, shower, then out to Orlando for an afternoon at the parks, followed by a shindig at my friend Minish's.

Anyways, I really am glad that I went to the race. I would've been okay with not getting an award, but it was a nice surprise. Participating in the race (at any capacity) is always a rewarding experience.

:)

FOOD: Taco Salad!

Yum!!!

RUN: 4-ish miles, Home <-> West

I passed out last night at 8pm and woke up at 6:30am. I put on clothes and went to work... early. I reviewed someone else's code and made some meaningful corrections. I made a sandwich for breakfast then found out we had a department lunch meeting (free food). My boss gave me and my officemate some recognition at the meeting, and we got a little more money (unexpected woo!). I was among those who had 0% timecard error rate (4th quarter in a row baby!) and won the raffle for a prize -- and chose the date/time pencil-holder... which replaces my caution-tape/packing-tape-rolls ghetto pencil-holder. I was able to use one of the two machines for testing all day, and managed to make progress on a couple of test procedures. Then a coworker had a work anniversary party (free cake and free juice&sherbet punch!). I stayed an extra hour at work, and when I walked outside, it was still sunny. I talked to the guy my friend referred me to to fix my car door, and then to a good friend on the ride home. I got home with no traffic trouble (I don't think that I honked... or did I?), then went out for a run... a run!!!... easy-going 4 miles from my house to the west arm of the roundabout... listening to the scientific america podcast (kinda boring but takes the mind to a different place). I came home to good gchats with my sister and one of my friends. Now I'm almost done with this blog, and I'm off to Wal-Mart for some meat for making TACOS tonight! And there's still much to do. We'll just play it by ear. It's been a good day. Here's the obligatory sweaty kitchen pic... kind of looks like the last one (no definition yet, but I'm working on my fitness -- you're my witness).

Today was a good day.

I've got sweat in my eyes.

JOURNAL: Weekend in Pictures