Happy Leap Year!

Here are some facts about Leap Year...Did you know?

• Although the modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, an extra twenty-four hours have accumulated, so one extra day is added to that calendar to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent position.
  
• Every year that is divisible by four is a leap year. However, of those years, if it can be divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year unless the year is divisible by 400. Then, it is a leap year.
  
• In the European Union, February 29 officially became the leap day only in 2000.
  
• In the English speaking world, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years.
  
• In Greece, it is believed that getting married in a leap year is bad luck for the couple. Apparently one in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.
  
• A person born on February 29 may be called a "leapling" or "leaper". In common years they usually celebrate their birthdays on 28 February or 1 March.
  
• For legal purposes, a leapling's legal birthday depends on how different laws count time intervals. In Taiwan, for example, the legal birthday of a leapling is 28 February in common years, so a Taiwanese leapling born on February 29, 1980 would have legally reached 18 years old on February 28, 1998.
  
• In the United States, some people have referred to this date as Sadie Hawkins Day with women being given the right to run after unmarried men to propose. Sadie Hawkins was a female character in the Al Capp cartoon strip Li'l Abner. Many communities prefer to celebrate Sadie Hawkins Day in November which is when Al Capp first mentioned Sadie Hawkins Day.

Weather Watch - 15 days away

I am on official weather watch for our wedding. Accuweather forecasts up to 15 days out, and they now have the weather forecast up to the rehearsal. So far so good, though I know that it is quite difficult to forecast so early. Please keep all of your fingers and toes crossed for us!

Here is Thursday and Friday before our wedding...

Thursday, Mar 13
Sun and some clouds
Low: 58 °F
High: 75 °F

Friday, Mar 14
Mostly sunny
Low: 58 °F
High: 82 °F

Hair Option #1

I know my mom told me not to put pictures of my wedding hair on the web, but Chad has already seen it today...I'm just not going to put any with the veil actually on my head. Also, I am going back next week to try a complete updo, so really this is just an option. I'm not spoiling anything.

Dinner Talk

So, the last place Chad and I ate out at was Wahoo's Fish Taco on Sunday evening. Tonight he is taking me to The Clay Pit because I got my hair done today (practice for the wedding). I thought it would be a shame to let good hair waste at home.

Where was the last place you ate out for dinner (not lunch, unless it was special)?

Book count 2008: Four

I think the last time I posted about reading, I wrote about The Kite Runner. Since then, I finished Eat, Pray, Love, and The Heaven of Mercury without blogging about them.


I bought Eat, Pray, Love at the airport on my way to Mexico in January and read the first half on the way there. On the way home, I finished the book. It was a fun read...deep and fluffy at the same time.

I don't remember when I decided to buy The Heaven of Mercury this month, but I knew that I wanted to read something that was a little 'tougher' in my mind. It was a National Book Award finalist (as you can see from the seal), and after reading the back of the book, I was convinced that I could handle it. It is a love story set in the South, so I thought it might have a nice fluffy side in addition to stellar writing. Well, I didn't get it apparently. I might have missed the point of the book, but I kept waiting for something to be revealed. There are lots of complexities throughout the book that keep you entertained and imagining what might come next, but I guess I didn't expect it to end the way that it did. I finished it on the way to Chicago this weekend. Oh well.

So, over the weekend, both Erin and Tara mentioned that they loved the book 'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger. They went on about it long enough to convince me that I should put it next on the list of books that I read. This book is beyond reviewable. I cannot tell you how much I loved reading it. I could not put it down this morning (thank goodness work was a little slow) and sat at my desk sobbing like I did when I was a little girl reading Charlotte's Web for the first time and still smiling at the same time. I can't really explain what the book did to me while I was reading it, but it was like it (pardon the expression) stopped time for me and made me see everything in my own life with different senses.

I highly recommend reading this book.

Bachelorette Weekend

I had the pleasure of leaving town on Friday to go party in Chicago this weekend. I flew in to meet all of the bridesmaids in our wedding at my matron of honor's house for a girly weekend! Erin (my oldest friend from high school and college) lives in Chicago, Jana (Chad's sister) lives in St.Louis, and Tara (my best running friend who knows all of my dirt) lives in NYC, so it was just as easy to meet in Chicago as it would have been in Austin.

Of course, I won't divulge all of the details of the weekend, but we enjoyed drinking wine, getting pedicures, a girly movie rental, and good girl talk. They all got to meet and know each other better, and it was fun to see how they all got along so well even though they are all from different parts of my life. I feel so lucky to have these ladies as friends and family. They are truly a blessing in my life!


Here we are at the Red Door Spa on Michigan Avenue...4 chairs for the 4 of us.

Pay it forward (or back, in this case)

If you are reading this blog and have ever run the Turkey Trot, you need to do what I ask (pretty please)...

I read Carrie Barrett's blog (don't know her at all). She went through a weight loss similar to me and is enjoying her new lifestyle as a kickass runner and triathlete. She also was race director for the Turkey Trot for several years.

She has made it to the final four in her goal of becoming part of Team Evotri and needs as many people to vote for her as possible...send an email to vote@evotri.com and put CARRIE BARRETT-FINAL ROUND in the subject line. It will only take you about 3 seconds and will help her out. Please remember all of the Thanksgiving day fun you had with your family (or running family) and do it right now! To find out more about her goals and training visit her blog.

I thank you in advance.

Early Voting - I Voted!

With all of the attention given to Texas and tonight's debate, I thought I would share...I voted! I had already made up my mind, and the debate will not change my opinion.

I am also tentatively planning to caucus on March 4.

Who is out there? - Roll Call #2

I know some of you out there love your anonymity! My blog has had a lot of hits this week and I am curious to know who is out there! (I love that there have been so many comments from you guys after the marathon!!!)

I know that I check up on lots of blogs on a regular basis, sometimes just to be a voyeur into someone else's life, sometimes just because they are my friends. I'll share if you share. Send me an email at sadiebarrsataustindotrrdotcom, or just leave a comment! If it is not obvious by the tone in most of my emails, I am really friendly!

Here are some blogs that I check on a fairly regular basis. Some of you have made it onto my Google Reader subscription...I don't really know everyone on this list, especially not on a first name basis, but I know it might be fun to know that I read your blogs too!

Oh and if I don't have you on my 'regulars' list, share your blog address with me, too!!!

Chad
Erin
Diana
Melissa
Mike
Erin
Shorey
Meredith
Carrie
Kerry
Katie
John
Holly
Glenda
Jane
Laurel
Dreena
Sisson

License to Wed

Yes folks, it's real. Chad and I went to the County Clerk's office today, paid our fee, showed our IDs and we are licenced to wed. We have to wait at least 72 hours, but I'm sure we'll make it 'til March 15th.




Yeah, they made a movie about getting married with the main character named Sadie Jones, but we haven't seen it...

My Man Wears a Mullet...and wears it well!

It has been a tradition for a while now for the 3:20 group at the Austin marathon to be paced by guys wearing mullet wigs. For those of you who are confused by the word 'mullet', think Billy Ray Cyrus or 'business in the front, party in the back'.

Chad picked out this awesome brown mullet wig, made even better by the coordinating orange headband. Very Wayne's World!

Here we are at the expo...


Here we are just before the race...

Day after the marathon...sore legs

Of course yesterday hurt like hell. I was hopped up on Advil most of the day. The pain started in my hips, mostly hip flexors and some glute min acute pain. I went to pilates at 9:00 am and thank goodness for the Advil, or I wouldn't have gotten through all of the movements. I still couldn't do everything, but I truly believe that it helped loosen up my legs. The pain went away for about 30 minutes then resurfaced as severe quad pain.


The rest of the day I hobbled around, trying to avoid curbs and stairs. The one thing we did have on our plate for the day was going to the UT basketball game at night. I had visions of mountains of stairs on the way up to our seats at the Erwin Center. We had stairs in the parking garage, stairs leading up to the Erwin Center, an escalator (taken by choice) up to the mezzanine level, a ramp up to the seats and then stairs down to our seats. Reverse all of that on the way back to the truck and that is some serious pain!

This video gets sent around the day after a marathon, and at first I just thought 'yeah, yeah, seen it before'. Late last night I watched it again for about the 4th time and got a good giggle out of it.

Proud to admit it

I had to pee twice during the marathon today. I have never had to pee during a race before today other than after 5 hours on Pikes Peak.

This morning the lines were way too long for me to stop at a port-o-potty. There were at least 10 people in line for each porto until mile 19. (Pacers have to stay as close together as possible and cannot just wait in line for everyone to get through...we would never catch back up.)

You guessed it, I had to run to the side of the road, pull my shorts down and squat on the side of the road. Twice. The first time was on South First street with very little cover and the thick race crowd could definitely see me. There was even a lady who said 'oh that's gross!'. Oh well, she will probably never know what it is like to have the responsibility of staying on pace.

The second time was coming up Shoal Creek, and I had a lot more cover, so I don't think anyone actually could see my butt from the side.

It is a record number of stops in a marathon for me, and I officially have no shame.

Here's the adidas ad that Mike sent the link to...yup, that looked like me, except I had hundreds of people who could see me and the first tree I was behind was not that big.

AT&T Marathon

I have had a secret for a while now. Many people knew that I had agreed to pace the marathon this year, but few people knew how utterly unprepared my body was. After my injury in August that took me off of the roads for a good 10 weeks, I had not really trained with any substantial volume until the very end of December. I mostly did a 10-12 mile long run with 2 or 3 4 mile workouts during the week if I was lucky. Yes, I managed to complete the required 22 miler on Jan 19, but other than that run, I had not gone further than 16 miles in a really long time and had only done up to 14 miles for the first time on New Years day.

Anyhow, since the 22 miler on Jan 19, I have only run 11 times including today. That was a month ago. Yes, 10 times in an entire month leading up to the marathon...most of those were measly 4 mile runs and I had no long runs over 12 miles under my shoes from that point forward. I had set myself up for complete failure today. Both Chad and I were really nervous about my ability to finish. I had my mom and him on alert for a phone call anytime after 4 hours.
I put on a confident face in front of most people at the expo and just tried to pretend that everything would be okay. I was living in a world of worst case scenarios.

The bad part of undertraining this year is that I had people depending on me to be strong and to finish on time. Not only was I going to be on my feet for 5 hours straight, most of the time it would be with first time marathoners and people desperately trying to break through the 5 hour barrier. These are people who need a positive leader and someone who they could depend on. I was fearful that my hip or knee would give out, that I would start cramping, or that I would simply bonk hard like other folks who try to go out an run a marathon with complete lack of training. I was trying to avoid the mental image of me on the side of the road in cramps or passing out.

Secretly, I was terrified this morning when I lined up for the start with my pace partner, Jennifer.

So, after completely setting myself up for failure, the end of this story is a good one...Jennifer and I rocked. We were not only able to finish, but we hit every single timing mat within a few seconds of when we needed to. Both of our official times are 5:00:00 and we are certainly in the running to win the pacer award for 'pacer king/queens'.

I usually learn something about myself with each marathon...I had already learned that I could overcome tremendous pain and obstacles with Boston 2006 and Pikes Peak. Today I learned what my body could do on the bare minimum of training and that it is a wonderful organism. The marathon is truly a mental feat. My body performed wonderfully today and I am so thankful to be healthy and strong both physically and mentally. I endured today.

I just realized!!!!

In exactly one month (29 days this time) I will be getting my hair and nails done on our wedding day!

It is almost here!

Valentine's Dinner

So, yesterday, I cooked for my darling. I posted the menu already and am pleased to say that it was delicious. I am thankful to have leftovers to munch on for a while, especially since the marathon is Sunday.

Please visit my food blog to check out pictures of the food and a description of each dish.

What are you good at?

I don't know why I feel like sharing, but I am curious to know what everyone out there is good at. Please share...post a comment on my blog, post your answers to your own blog. I thought it would be fun to learn a little bit more about each other and to acknowledge to ourselves what some of our strengths are. I think a lot of us tend to focus on our weaknesses while constantly trying to improve ourselves.

I'm going to limit mine to 5 things for now...Try to think of a few of your own, or copy one of mine if it fits you.

1) I am good at smelling and tasting...I can pick out flavors and scents that others can't. Well, actually I have been blessed (or cursed sometimes) with 5 really sensitive senses.
2) I am good at reading people's faces and gestures. I can often pick out feelings that are not necessarily expressed in words.
3) I am a naturally good swimmer.
4) I am good at finding the positive in situations, even though I am equally good at whining sometimes.
5) I am good at wrapping presents. Shallow, I know, but I like that kind of stuff.

Happy Valentine's Day

Vday is here again. This year Chad and I are going to eat in again and then go out to the Clay Pit for Indian food on some other night. I have been busy organizing the feast. I have convinced Chad that a vegan meal will still taste really good, so I am really excited to try some recipes from one of my new cookbooks, Veganomicon. Here's what's on the menu tonight...

Salad - Roasted Fennel and Hazelnut Salad with Shallot Dressing
Main course - Spinach Linguine with Basil-Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes
Bread - Fresh Rosemary Foccacia (yes, I'm baking a yeast bread today)
Dessert - Strawberry-Plum Crisp

If he is really nice, I may open my bottle of Muscat that I have been saving for a special occasion to sip on with dessert.

I will probably post about these recipes in my food blog, but I will definitely give an overall report here.

Bridal Shower

I have been to so many showers over the years...I have lots of girl cousins and I taught school, so naturally there have been lots of young women in my life who have been married and are having babies. I genuinely like attending showers and I have organized one, so I can appreciate what goes into the gathering.

This weekend my day finally arrived!!! I was so thankful to be surrounded by family and friends in a lovely room on a gorgeous day. The shower was held at Barton Creek country club in a beautiful room overlooking the course. The menu had been adapted so that there would be plenty of vegan food for me to eat as well as some of the traditional non-vegetarian options for everyone else. We also were served yummy raspberry lemonade and white-on-white cake with light green details in the icing. It was a beautiful set-up!

I enjoyed chatting with everyone while we were snacking. The games were fun as well. One of the funny moments came when Rose gave me her 'prize' for winning one of the games...Check out the bag it came in...



She hadn't noticed that 'Great Expectations' wasn't for a bride-to-be, but rather a mommy-to-be. I had a good laugh about it and got to play it off as a 'hint' from all of the mothers about what is expected. I love that this little oops happened!

Opening presents was fun (though a little stressful to be the focus of everyone's attention). Everyone was incredibly generous, and I hope that I came across sincerely when I expressed my gratitude to everyone. It was also touching to me that we received a lot of towels. For years, my Dad has always given big towels as a wedding gift and had even gone so far as to let me know that towels would probably be my gift from him at my wedding. Well, he doesn't need to give me any...the rest of the family unknowingly helped him out.



Another detail that I was totally thrilled with was the creation of my rehearsal bouquet. One wedding tradition is for the bows and ribbons from the bridal shower gifts to be used as the practice bride bouquet for the rehearsal. Typically these bows and ribbons are carefully arranged on a paper plate and then held by the bride as she walks down the aisle at the rehearsal.

Well, my friend Diana (who is also going to be part of the wedding as a member of our house party and a reader during the ceremony) took over the bows and created the most beautiful bouquet as I was opening all of the presents. The first present that I opened from Kate had a gigantic colorful bow that was perfect and sturdy enough to stand alone as the base of the bouquet. From there, Diana carefully assembled the rest of the bows to create a gorgeous bouquet. Thanks Diana! I love it!!!

Expiration Dates

I just noticed that the expiration dates for both the soy milk and the orange juice are after we get back from our honeymoon. Yaaaayyyy!!!! It's less than 5 weeks away!!!!!!!

More on my bridal shower soon...

The Merging of the Cats...Day 1

Felicia has arrived!

I thought I would have to keep her in the office for a week or so until the kitties had time to adjust...Well, they all seemed to be just fine. There has been some hissing and growling, but Beans and Miko have let Felicia roam around the house without attacking her. Also a bonus, Beans and Miko do not like her food, so I don't have to worry about Beans pigging out all day and Felicia starving.

Here they are in the office this morning...less than 24 hours after the merge. Felicia seems more nervous about the camera than anything else.

Miko makes the funniest sound when she is scared and wants to hiss. She sounds like she is snorting like a pig...

Weekend Update

This past weekend was pretty low-key, but turned out to be fun. We kicked off the weekend by having dinner at my dad's house with my uncle Gregg in from Charlotte, NC. He is always fun to catch up with, and his accent always tickles me.

Saturday morning started with a 12 mile run from the new Rogue store. I met up with the Boston and Spring marathon groups at 7:00am to find that I would be running by myself (Melissa was apparently still in bed :)). I am not fast enough to keep up with the Boston group, and the Spring group ladies were a little too far behind me to be a comfortable pace. Oh well, Chad was nice enough to run slowly through the east side to make sure I was not by myself. He claimed that he didn't want to run that section alone, either. It was nice that he made that excuse.

We followed our run with coffee from Progressive and Chad got some tacos from Taco Shack. Next on the agenda was the UT vs. Baylor basketball game. The crowd was great and Baylor gave them a good game, especially at the beginning. I was particularly pleased to see that the Wabash Cannonball student dancer was replaced and that he had learned the pom routine well enough. I could tell that the guy was not the same as the old dancer...his moves were not as sharp and he lacked some of the showmanship that the previous guy had. Nevertheless, it was fun to watch him dance in the aisle. Also, the Chic-fil-A guy made all of his shots, including the half court shot in one try, so it was a great day to be a fan at the basketball game.

We ended the evening with the Rogue Equipment opening party. It was nice chatting with running friends from all around, and really cool to see people in their party clothes. After the party we went to Home Depot to scout paint colors and Oakville Grocery for a glass of wine and some dessert...mmm.

I don't know how I did it, but on Sunday I slept until after 10:00. We missed church and didn't get out of the house until after 1:00 for lunch. After a few errands to Home Depot and Crate and Barrel, we settled back in to watch the Super Bowl. What a great game!!! It was no secret that I was rooting for the Giants, as I think Tom Brady is a loser and a dork, so the end of the game was so exciting! Go Giants! It was especially nice to see all of the defensive pressure on Brady the whole game.

We finished the evening by testing the paint colors on the walls...they look okay at first glance. Hopefully they will continue to look good with a second coat.

Hope you had a good weekend, too.

Oh....I almost forgot!!!! We have mailed our wedding invitations! We are thrilled that our day is approaching fast! (40 days from now)

A year later

It has been just over a year since Miko came to live with Ben and me. It is amazing how well they both have adjusted. Ben had never been very tolerant of anyone else introduced to him in the house. He was a fierce fighter, and definitely took some time to adjust to Miko hanging around.

This pic is of her first day...the tub was a safe spot to hide in.



Miko is such a resilient little cat. She put up with all of Beans' crap (literally and figuratively) and after about 3 months started dishing it right back at him. I catch her sneak attacking him from behind a corner and nipping under his neck almost every day. Beans has returned the favor by teaching her how to talk. Miko never used to meow or make any sort of noise at all when she came to live with us. Now, she has her little routines of telling me when she would like a snack. She likes to come in the bathroom and look me in the eye and let out the cutest little meow...clearly it is an effort for her to do so, and I don't think she is used to the sound of her own voice.

I also love that Beans and Miko are bench buddies in the office during the day when I work. They hang out on the blanket on the bench and catnap all day long. I will look up from working and see Miko cleaning Ben's head and notice that he has a look of bliss on his face as she meticulously grooms his ears and chest. Here is a video of them playing this morning. I am so thankful to Miko for teaching Ben how to play fight instead of just fight. She is a great addition to our household.

Happy 1 year anniversary, Miko!