No Business Like Snow Business

Here is the VERY short list of things I wanted for my 28th birthday, this year:

1) A vacation day from work (No one should really ever work on their birthday.)
2) A day snowboarding with My Guy (Tahoe, here we come!)
3) Ice cream (Chocolate. Obvi...)
4) MBT Sneakers (thanks, Mom!)
5) Birthday Sex (Stop gasping. If you don't want sex on your birthday, you are LYING.)

We planned to leave the office on Thursday February 21 by 2PM. True to form, we busted out of there at 6:05 PM, and arrived to pick up our rental car too late. So... City Car Share Coming Through it was. We walked to my house, packed my bags, picked up the Corolla, grabbed all of his things, bought falaffel sandwiches on Haight, and were on the road out of the city by 8:30 PM.

So typical of us...

A couple hours into the drive, we reached the snow line, and realized the small storm was turning into a rather large one. But after getting kicked off the highway and made to purchase snow chains - which really irritated My Guy from Colorado who has driven across a 14-er in an Acura, or so the story goes - we finally made it to the cabin.

It was an awesome weekend. Foot up on foot upon foot of fresh powder. Which was difficult for me to navigate at times, but incredibly fun to fall in.

Happy Birthday to me...

2008.02.22 - Birthday Weekend in Tahoe

A Ride with a View

It's not incredibly difficult to go on a beautiful bike ride in San Francisco...

2008.02.16 - Bike Ride with Jeremy

...but that doesn't meet I ever enjoy them any less.

Fire Drills

Apparently there was a fire across the street from my office. Not once did I see, hear, or smell a fire anywhere; but the electricity did go out around 1PM. It flickered off and on for about an hour, and then was 100% out by 2PM.

And since all of our back-up power supplies MUST go to the servers that host our systems, we didn't have enough electricity to keep all of our computers on. Which means we couldn't work. We couldn't even work from home, because we need our computers to access our public drives. Nor could we work on our computers to access our email. Which means, we really couldn't work! At all!

-- Power Outtage : Young Professionals :: Snow Storm : School Children --

So I sent myself to the pool. Maybe I couldn't work on my documents, but that doesn't mean I couldn't work on my stroke!

I have been pretty inconsistent with my swimming the past few months. To date this year, I have only made it to the pool twice, clocking a grand total of one hour and ten minutes and a distance of 1.5 miles. So today, given my wide open afternoon and a completely empty pool, I committed to spending an hour in the water.

I had no idea how much mileage I would accrue during the hour. And truth be told, around 40 minutes when I finished my first mile, I was pretty ready to get out of there. But I stuck with it and finished 1.5 miles in 1:02.

I took lots of breaks, sure. My workout had little order, really. My goal was only to stay in the water for sixty minutes. I mostly just tried to remember what it feels like to paddle, kick, and breathe without sinking. But I did a few drills, too. Some catch-up and some 100 repeats every two minutes.

But if I keep up with sessions in the pool like that throughout all of my training, I'll be on fire come Wildflower and Escape from Alcatraz!

The Enemy

I hate my scale.

He is REALLY such a bastard. I can't even tell you what he said about me today! He said I weighed... like, well... a totally unacceptable number. I gave him a chance to tell me something different - to apologize for perhaps mis-speaking. But he had nothing else to say. Just the same old shit, over and over and over again.

So I laced up my shoes and went outside for a morning 5 mile run. Fuming, I dashed through the fog. And after I settled into a rhythm - meaning, I finally calmed down a bit - I began wondering if perhaps I had taken what he said out of context.

But I got home, and after a run, my scale basically said the exact same thing to me.

SHIT!

Strict training, here I come...

Yes We Can!

It is always so great to come home. Really. Especially after traveling abroad.

Normally I'm glad to come home to my 24 hour Walgreens, where I can find anything I could ever imagine I might "need." I tend spend too much time in other countries figuring out what store I need to visit in order to purchase something that I all of a sudden REALLY need. (For this trip to UK what I actually REALLY needed was a needle and thread to sew a hole in my pants. I couldn't find them anywhere, so I walked around all week with a hole in my crotch...)

But today is Super Tuesday! So today, like previous days, I am glad to be back in America. But today, perhaps unlike other days, I realize that I am also really happy to be an American.

All over London, I was asked by the locals, "Who do you think will be your next President?" It was kind of crazy to realize how much impact the President of the United States has on people in other countries. If not because of US international policy, at least for conversation's sake. And it was rather insane to see a picture of an Obama rally on the front page of a London newspaper on Monday morning while I rode The Tube to the airport.

(I don't even know how often Obama has made it to the front page of the SF Chronicle! Perhaps I should read the paper more often...)

However, with this sudden re-realization that voting is awesome, I stopped by my local polling place this morning to cast my ballot in the 2008 Presidential Primary election. I proudly selected my Democratic ballot and cast my vote for Barrack Obama.

It is expected that over 8 million California voters will be casting ballots today, breaking the record turnout for a primary election established in 2000 at 7.9 million. I hope the masses get out there to vote. After spending a week abroad, I think it really is important to make the most of my citizenship in a country that can change.

"YES WE CAN!"

London Pictures

2008.01.31 - London

London Lagging

It has been nearly a full week in London. Working late at night. Only to wake up early in the morning. Sitting down with clients. Eating out with them afterwards. Drinking, walking, drinking, walking, drinking, walking...

I'm bloody exhausted!

The trip was successful, though. Work went well. Mom arrived safely. And considering the fact that she cried at Buckingham Palace and is now passed out on the sofa next to me, I am pretty sure that she had a good time.

I spent Tuesday - Friday working throughout the day and entertaining throughout the night. Saturday and Sunday I traversed the entire city with my mom by foot and by train, but mostly by foot. We clocked about nine miles on Saturday and another five today. Not sure how many on Thursday, but I bet by the time we make it to our gates tomorrow, we'll hit the 20 mile marker.

In our four days together, we drank fewer than two bottles of wine and only a six pack (dispersed in pints throughout the city!) of beer. Only one dessert, but plenty of chips, though!

Not to mention pics! But they are going to take a while to upload, so... Cheers to a long week in London for business AND pleasure. It is time to go to bed.