Dec

31

Adventure Day on the bikes

Category: careening towards trees at high speed, cool stuff, enjoy the blog, i'm moving here, training | 2 Comments

Yesterday, Ben and I set off for an easy spin, looking for a route where we wouldn't get side-swiped by any cars. We were pretty successful.

Dec

27

They were bigger at the Eddie

Category: family, i'm moving here | 1 Comment

On Christmas day, almost everything on the North Shore was closed, and the waves were big. So we gawked at Sunset a bit and then drove over to Waimea to gawk there. It was pretty awesome. I've been swimming at Waimea before, normally it looks like a big beautiful bay. On Christmas the waves were so big that you couldn't even tell it was a bay, it was just a big foaming cauldron of whitewater. We got there and my brother Than's first comment was "it was bigger at the Eddie" ...
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Dec

23

A millisecond of down time!

Category: Grad School Applications, Lazer Helium, Splish, cool stuff, family, i'm moving here, training | 1 Comment

Christmas is a pretty busy time. I always forget! Here is what we have been up to: This weekend, I finished up my public policy essay. It took me forever to write because I kept changing my mind about the topic, getting side-tracked and off-topic during my research, and tempted by training and the great (warm!) outdoors. But it's done. I wound up scrapping my animal-rights idea that I mentioned on my blog a while ago. Instead I wrote about the obesity epidemic (in 2006, 67% of adults in the U.S. were obese or overweight!) and three suggested policy approaches to get people off their bums and out of McDonald's. ...
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Dec

19

LOOK! (I can’t hold it in any longer!)

Category: LOOK | 1 Comment

I'll have a website-revamp in a couple of weeks to ring in the New Year and announce my exciting new sponsorships, but there is one that I just can't sit on any longer. You all know how I am with news - I like sharing it! I'll be partnering with LOOK for my pedals and bike next year! I'm beyond thrilled. I have been a dedicated Keo user since early 2007, out of all the pedal systems I have ever used these remain my favorite thanks to their superior pedaling platform, low q-factor, and durability (the pair I bought in 2007 is still in action). As ...
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Dec

18

Google tells me it’s snowing in Seattle

Category: enjoy the blog, family, i'm moving here | 2 Comments

But not in Honolulu! Sweet. There's a reason why I always categorize my Hawaii posts as "i'm moving here"! My sister arrived today, my niece and her boyfriend arrive from Holland tomorrow night, and my mom arrives on Monday as long as Maryland's 20" blizzard doesn't get in the way. Yesterday Ben and I wanted to go grocery shopping (two days of one-bonk-per-workout due to no food was two days too many) and also for an open water swim at either Kaimana or Ala Moana, both ~2 miles from my brother's apartment where we're staying. He's got this fancy car that I was very begrudgingly allowed to drive last time I ...
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Dec

17

I Don’t have any Photos yet

Category: family, i'm moving here | Leave a Comment

We're here! We're in Hawaii! It's very warm and exciting. I haven't quite relaxed and gone on vacation yet though. The past six weeks have been the busiest I can remember in recent years - every "down" moment was spent planning what I should/would be working on next. I've crossed most things off my list now, I just have one more application essay to finish and a website update to complete (WOOOHOOO bring on 2010!), totally doable but I'm still finding myself in taskmaster mode a little bit. Tomorrow I hope to take photos - today was spent getting oriented and remembering how to train for more than 3 hours a day. And hanging out with my brother for a bit (who ...
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Dec

13

Countdown Progress

Category: Chemistry, cool stuff, nuun | 5 Comments

Of course I am #1 Europe's "The Final Countdown" (which some of us know from Superweek... day 17, stage 17!, and many more know it from magic shows) would have been an awesome theme song for me this week. Amazon, chemistry class, grad school applications, 2009, Seattle - all are almost over for me. My last day at work was this past Friday, it was my only day of overlapping with the new temp they hired, so I had 8 hours to teach him everything I have learned and developed over the past 6 months. ...
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Dec

8

A small financial tale

Category: enjoy the blog, family, in my opinion | 1 Comment

The other day I got a massage, my first real massage since I'd seen Jeff last November. This time I stole one of Ben's massage appointments and I went to Liam at Inewmed, where before I even got to disrobe and relax, I was accused of giving the whole office swine flu! But the last time I was there was October 29, and I didn't get sick until November 11, but they were all sick the week before that, so who is right? Me. Who got who sick? Not me. Actually, looking at a calendar and considering contagion horizons... Inewmed got ME sick! The massage was pretty good aside from Liam's very depressing conclusion: ...
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Dec

4

Conversation with Grumplestiltskin

Category: ma says... | 4 Comments

oops I mean Conversation with Mom. Sal and her Tractor last summer It seems that parental stress always goes up during the holiday season, regardless of whether your kids have flown the coop and/or have their own kids. At least, this is what my highly scientific experiment of "does my own personal mom always freakout at the holidays" has revealed to me... Last week I called my mom the day after Thanksgiving, which was my own fault, because I already knew that she'd had 22 people over for turkey and food, so obviously calling during the aftermath was a ...
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