Yes, friends, I am in fact alive. And I have not completely abandoned this blog... only for the last almost-month. Oops. I have good excuses, I promise! First, Lisa visited at the end of July into the beginning of August. We had a blast with lots of travels and adventures including Paris, London, Warwick Castle, Hunstanton Beach, and Cambridge, among other things. I have exactly 472 pictures from the two weeks of her visit and therefore have not even begun the task of sorting through them for a sampling to post online. But when I do... you'll be the first to know. :-)
The weekend after Lisa left, I went to Nottingham for my half marathon. Bad news first: I did not hit my goal of running it under 2 hours. This was really frustrating because the weekend prior, I had done a 10-mile training run in 1:31... on track for sub-2 with minutes to spare. The day of the race was hot and humid, and the start wasn't until 10:30am. To make a long story short, I couldn't keep my goal pace past mile 5, and ended up finishing 10 minutes slower than my current PR. So I was kind of grumpy after the race, but then we spent the rest of the day having fun in Nottingham, which was an awesome way to end the weekend! Lots to see and do, plus great restaurants and shopping... I will definitely be going to Nottingham again. :)
Then my life was taken over by work. We are finishing up a two-week-long exercise on base, plus the weather flight is going through a really important inspection this week. This translates to work days so long I stop counting the hours, exponential stress levels, working through the weekend, and running around in chem gear at all hours of the day and night. Sigh. ENDEX is by far my favorite word in the Air Force. (If you aren't Air Force, just trust me on this one...) The exercise officially ended yesterday evening, but I am working a night shift tonight to cover for someone doing a weather equipment display at an air show tomorrow. This means I should probably be getting some sleep first, so I'll leave you with...
Good List:
1. ENDEX!!! (I guess it's fairly intuitive, but just in case... this means end of an exercise) :D
2. Hooters Hot Boneless Buffalo Wings. Yes, Nottingham has a Hooters, and yes, that was our post-race reward dinner... and I was mega-impressed! I had only been to Hooters once before in the States, and this one was wayyy better, both the food and the atmosphere. I will admit I was surprised... most American restaurant duplicates in England are not very good, but this one was awesome!)
3. Shopping with Lisa. :)
4. New SSgt-selects. I can't believe how many I know on this list, so excited for all of them!
5. Diet Dr Pepper.
6. People who make me smile even when I am stressed and exhausted.
7. Driving the Mini again! (Well, almost... needs a few things fixed before it is entirely legal)
8. Making travel plans.
9. Digital cameras. I don't know how I ever lived without them, and I definitely couldn't have during all my traveling in the last year.
10. Old mix CDs in the car. Music brings back memories (good and otherwise) like nothing else.
Woohoo! Glad to have you back (& that all is well) -- I missed you! :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the Nottingham 1/2 (I figure each race has it's merit, even if it doesn't end in a PR -- 1:31 for 10 miles is awesome!!)-- and I'm glad things seem like they might be slowing down soon...