Night at the Races

My coworker Matt recently traded his Harley for a race car (I'm not sure what he was thinking - why would anyone want to get rid of their Harley???). He has been really excited about his new hobby, so a few of us decided to support him and headed to the Meridian Speedway on Saturday to watch him race. Of course I had to dress up for the occasion, so I wore my cute pink cowboy hat :-) Camille, Willie, Ross, and I had a great time watching Matt race. I loved his car. It was kind of hard to get a good picture with him speeding around the track, but I tried!

When Matt wasn't racing, we really enjoyed people watching. The Speedway attracts some interesting people! We really liked the mullet lady in the tie-dyed shirt and short peach shorts. And the lady with one of those shirts that had fringe and beads. All in all, it was an enjoyable night. Good job Matt!

New Watch

This weekend I got a sweet new watch. Only it is much more than a watch. It is a pink Polar F6. It not only tells me what time it is (which is super nice since I lost my old watch a few months ago when it fell off my wrist), but it will also tell me my heart rate and how many calories I have burned. I have a problem when I do cardio workouts of going over my target heart rate. My watch allows me to set heart rate zones, and I can have it beep at me if I'm outside of that zone. Yeah, pretty much my new watch rocks. It definitely makes working out more fun to watch those calories click away! And the best part is that I purchased it with the $100 gift card I won at my work conference in Vegas a few months ago, so it only cost me $16! I highly recommend putting this one on your Christmas or birthday list!

Pampered and Loving It!

Okay, I have officially decided that I enjoy being pampered. Last Tuesday, Camille, Kris, and I went to my new favorite nail salon for a pedicure (the one I mentioned back in February that has these really awesome massage chairs that you get to sit in for the duration of the pedicure). I really like my toes looking pretty, especially in the summer when I wear sandals as often as possible. I paint my own toenails every once in a while, but the nail technicians do a much better job (I think it is because they can get closer to my toes to see what they are doing) and make my feet so soft!

To finish off the week, Jen, Andrea, and I enjoyed 90 minute full-body massages. This was my first ever massage, and I absolutely loved it!!! It was sooooo relaxing and felt so good. The room was dark with quiet instrumental music playing in the background, and the lady massaging me did an excellent job. She did medium pressure since it was my first massage, and I think it was perfect. I was a little nervous about being sore the next day, as several people told me I probably would be, but I wasn’t sore at all. It was just fantastic. I will definitely be scheduling one again soon!

Guardian Bell

Jen gave me a Guardian Bell for my birthday. I had never heard of a Guardian Bell before, and I thought it was so cool. I just hung the bell on my bike. Here's what it's all about:

Legend has it that Evil Road Spirits have been latching themselves on to motorcycles for as long as there have been bikes on the road. These Evil Road Spirits are responsible for mechanical problems and bad luck along a journey.

Legend goes on to say that by attaching a small bell onto your bike, the Evil Road Spirits will become trapped inside the bell where the constant ringing drives them insane, making them lose their grip until they fall to the ground. (Ever wonder where pot-holes come from?)

Legend also has it that the mystery of the Guardian Bell carries twice as much power when it is purchased by a friend or loved one and given as a gift.

Hiawatha Trail

I just spent a fabulous weekend in northern Idaho. Jen, Jessica, Andrea, and I took a quick road trip (950 miles in 3 days!) up north, rented mountain bikes, and rode the Hiawatha Trail. The trail is 15 miles long and has some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen. The trail actually used to be a railroad... we rode through 10 tunnels (one of which was 1.66 miles long!) and over 7 high trestles. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather. The pictures don't do it justice, but at least you get the idea.

Me by the waterfall near the beginning of the trail

One of the seven trestles that we rode across

Riding through one of the tunnels

Enjoying the scenic ride

I was Tagged!

I was tagged by Robin and Ashley this last week, so I figured I should play along :-) I shared 7 Random Things About Me from a tag in November, so I'll go with Ashley's tag to give a little variety.

3 Joys
1. Decorating my house
2. Blogging and reading friends blogs (this could probably fit in the obsession category too)
3. Riding my motorcycle

3 Fears
1. Falling
2. Being alone
3. Not living up to my potential

3 Goals
1. Get my PhD
2. Travel to Asia
3. Prepare and try to live on a budget

3 Obsessions/Collections
1. Costa Vida Sweet Pork Salads
2. I collect snow globes from the places I visit (the nice glass ones that are often also music boxes, not any cheesy ones)
3. The Office

3 Random Facts about Me
1. Right now I am kind of addicted to Crystal Light. When I want something sweet in the evenings, but don't want to eat junk food, I'll just drink some Crystal Light to curb the craving.
2. I love having people over to my house. I would much rather have people come over than go to someone else's home.
3. One day I would love to have a cabin along the river in Garden Valley, ID. It's close enough to Boise so that I can go often, but far enough away that I feel like I'm on vacation.

3 People I tag
1. Mandy Nelson
2. Susan Nasburg
3. Erin Colburn

Secret Club

It's amazing the things I never noticed until I started riding my motorcycle. Take potholes, for example - I never realized how many potholes there are in our streets! I smoothly drive right over them in my Blazer and don't think twice (where I completely avoid them on my bike). Or have you ever noticed those little yellow squares painted on the road at stop lights? At each stop light, I park my front and back tires on those squares so I can trigger the light.

Well, one thing that makes me feel cool when riding my motorcycle is that all the bikers "wave" at each other along the road. I remember sitting in the Idaho STAR class a couple years ago and someone asking the instructor if learning the proper "wave" was part of the class. I had no idea what she was talking about. But I quickly learned, as biker after biker began to wave at me as I rode by them. Now I don't mean a cheesy "back-and-forth" wave, or a "hi mom" kind of wave. A motorcycle wave typically consists of the rider casually extending the left arm out to acknowledge the other bike. Every time someone waves at me, I feel like I am in this cool, secret club. I know, it sounds silly, but it seriously makes me smile. But I guess riding my bike in general makes me smile! So now I wonder, how the heck did I never notice the bikers wave at each other?

Congrats Camille!

Just wanted to say congratulations to my friend Camille who was married this evening. The ceremony was pretty, the bride was beautiful, and the food (catered Hawaiian and Costco cheesecake) was delish! I wish you both the best!

Biking and Bagels

Katrina is my mountain biking buddy :-) I can always count on her when I want to go on a Saturday morning ride in the beautiful Boise foothills (and on her husband to watch their kids - thanks Matt!). I have been wanting to go mountain biking for a couple months now, but the weather in Boise has been so weird this year. It was like we had three winters. Just when we thought spring was here for good, the the wind and the rain and the 40 degree temperatures would come back. Ugh! Well, now that it's almost summer, we are having some beautiful weather! Katrina and I took advantage of the sunshine and took our bikes out on the trails this morning. We stopped and took this picture along the way - can you see beautiful Boise in the background?!

This is our third season of riding together, and we started a new tradition today - biking and bagels! We decided that after each of our rides that we would stop at a local bagel shop and split a bagel as a "reward" for working so hard on the trails :-)

Office Remodel

For the last six or so months, our office at work has been under construction. That's what happens when the University President's office moves upstairs and the new emergency exit stairs come right through the middle of the office! In order to fit everyone back into our office, almost all of the hard walls were removed to make way for extra cubicles. I was lucky, and was able to keep my private office (I only had a short stint that I stayed in a temporary cubicle). The best part of the remodel for me was that I got new carpet, new paint (I love the warm beige color!), and new hardwood blinds! And they even cleaned my windows :-)

Bike Riding

I've made some great new friends lately that have some of my same interests. One of the things I have been doing more is bike riding (I'm still trying to convince them to come mountain biking with me). We rode down to the Farmer's Market again this morning... this time I rode all the way from my house which is about 21 miles round trip. I think we'll ride to Barber Park for one of our next rides, and eventually to Lucky Peak and back (about 50 miles round trip). I've definitely been enjoying my summer so far! This picture is of us chilling in a downtown bagel shop before our ride home.

Opa!

Last night some friends and I attended the annual Greek Food Festival at the local Greek Orthodox Church. It was a blast! I had a delicious gyro and tried a couple of yummy desserts that I have no idea how to spell or pronounce. We also watched some Greek dancing and got a tour of the church. I learned a lot about the Greek Orthodox Church in the short tour - they like a lot of incense, their churches have lots of pictures or decorations, and only men are allowed in the room where the alter is at the front of the church. One of my favorite things I learned was about Easter - in the Greek Orthodox Church, they dye eggs, but only the color red (to symbolize Christ's blood).

Here's a picture of some of the kids who were in the dance group. They encouraged the crowd to yell "Opa" while the dancers performed, and throw them money :-)

Training for a 5k

So I've read on a few of my friends blogs lately how they are running and training for marathons or half marathons... Well, I'm training for a 5k :-) You see, I've never been much of a runner. I get tired and out of breath quickly when I am running, and that's not what I call fun. I've never actually run an entire race without walking some (well, maybe like a mile race, but that's it). I've done longer races - 5ks, 10ks, and even a half marathon, but each race has involved at least some walking. A group of friends and I decided that we want to run an entire 5k. To many, I'm sure that would be a piece of cake. For me, I'm hoping to be there in September for the Women's Fitness Celebration.

So a couple weeks ago, my friends and I met with Werner Hoeger, who talked to us about training for races. He even put together a custom training schedule for us so we would be ready to run the Women's Fitness Celebration! We are training 4 days a week, and started out super easy. For example, last Wednesday, we walked 10 minutes, then jogged a lap, walked a lap, jogged a lap, and ended with a 5 minute walk. Today we ramped up a bit and jogged two laps in a row in the middle. By mid-August, we'll be up to jogging 12 laps in a row (5k distance). So, that's my plan. I'd also like to do Barber to Boise in October (10k), and maybe even to Zeitgeist again in November (half marathon). Guess we'll see how ambitious I feel this fall :-)

Stomp!

On Saturday I attended the performance Stomp. I had actually never heard of Stomp before, but a group of my old Albertsons coworkers were going and invited me to go with them. It was absolutely fabulous! The group uses everyday items such as brooms, water jugs, a sink full of soapy dishes, etc. to make amazing percussion ensembles. We had awesome seats in the Morrison Center (right in the center of row B!), and I loved watching the facial expressions of the different performers. Each of the performers played a different role, from ring leader, to wacky guy, to the stupid guy that nobody really liked. Even though not a single word was spoken during the entire show, the performers totally told a story, and it was hilarious! If you ever get the chance to see Stomp, I completely recommend it... Even the cute little 2 year old boy in front of us enjoyed the show!

Here's a clip from a different tour that I found on YouTube. We had different performers and a different stage setup, but you get the idea!