8.18 - DRIVING

Well I slept in a tent in the wilderness. Add that to my list of firsts from this vacation. The coloring is all wonky because of the lack of flash.  We hung out in the tent for a little bit before getting up.  I kept going back to sleep because nobody else was awake. Later we all learned that we were all doing that.

After we woke up, we got ready to head out. We didn't even cook breakfast.  The funniest part of the morning was when Timmy came back to the area saying how Reef came over and peed on him when he was peeing. He used rubbing alcohol to clean the pee.

Then we went to Irwin Lake to take some pictures.

Then we headed to Aspen via Pearl Pass.  After a long time the jeeps in front of us had car trouble and ended up stopping. Someone came to talk to us and then told us how we wouldn't make it to Aspen because on the other side of the pass, it is snow covered for 100 yards and we'd have to slide down it.  We decided against dying that way and turned around.

After Pearl Pass, I think we went up Cumberland Pass.  Then we we went back to Tin Cup and went up Tin Cup Pass.  There may have been one other Pass in there that we went up and failed and had to turn around.  Callie kept talking about how she kept having to eat her words.  She kept saying things like "you won't see that again" and then we did or "we won't be up to Tin Cup Pass again" and then we were.  While driving we talked about how we were eating dirt.

While drivin up the mountains I had to lean in to try to make me less afraid of falling over the cliff. My fear of heights sucks. I had on sunglasses but also had my eyes closed.

We went to St Elmo, a ghost town (another thing to add to my list of firsts).  After so long in the car and being covered in dirt I just didn't enjoy the ghost town.

Timmy learned how to drive a stick shift leaving the ghost town.   On our way home we stopped at some place and walked 15 minutes to see a waterfall and take some pictures.

We arrived at Callie's about 10 hours after leaving the camp site. If we went straight from one to the other without having planned stops, I think it would have taken about 3 hours.

After we got home, we had to bang off all the bags outside trying to get the dir off of them.   We got a lot off, but there was still a ton left.  We were also filthy.

After we finally made it home, we had grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Then Callie went and got Griff. She made him some and made herself seconds. She showed how to eat with class... out of the pot while sitting on the couch.  After playing some music, everyone was so tired. Even the dogs were exhausted from the day of traveling.

It kind of sucked being in a car all day but it was a great experience. Have you ever had a day on one of your vacations where nothing seemed to turn out right? 

To see more pictures click below or check out my picasa.

8.17 - Camping

Early in the morning I spent time lounging around. I was sore from climbing Mount Elbert.  I had quite a few marks from all my mosquito bites.  

Note the chair in front of the window. That's the peeping chair and peeping window. The chair has gotten ruined from the dogs using it that it isn't really meant to have a human sit on it. 

Once we figured we were going to go to the bog and them camping, it was time to use the internet to find the bog. Well what do you know the internet was no help. We called the park service and got our call forwarded to someone and we had to leave a message.  Then we tried to water people and got our call forwarded to someone and ended up learning where it was.

It was a secret. It was also hard to get to.  There were things like you drive on this road until you have about a half mile of pine trees on each side, then you go a little further and there is a spot for 2 cars to park on the side. You walk up there and find a stream. Then you walk 15 minutes along it until you find the bog.  Now to me that made me think we wouldn't know how we were in the wrong spot for over 15 minutes.   But we found it. Our trip started off successfully.  While we were on our way up, the forest service guy (I think that's who he was) called us back.  He didn't want to disclose the location but lucky for us we were already headed up. We told him that. He was shocked.  He was from Greensburg. What a small world. He said yinz there at the end.

I've never seen Callie so interested in taking pictures of anything.  I even gave her my little camera so she could take more pictures after she filled up her memory card.

The day seemed so successful. We got so many great pictures. It may seem like I put a lot on here but that's just a small fraction of the ones we took.

The only bad part about our little adventure was that my shoes got soaked. I didn't have spare shoes with me. I knew I should have packed them. Well I knew I was not packing stuff that I should have.  I was never camping before but I didn't want to pack a million things I didn't need.

I think the reflection pictures are more impressive to me than the plant ones.

I probably took more pictures of Callie and Timmy taking pictures than I did of the pretty things. But I figured they were getting pictures of the nice streams so why should we have a million copies of the same thing.

The bottom left picture was the view coming down from the bog.

Then it was off to camping.  The first spot that Callie wanted to go to was taken, so we had to find a new spot. The car didn't make it over the hill at our new spot but it was fine parking right behind it.  We camped near Irwin Lake but not sure if where we camped has a name. It probably does but I just don't know it. 

We hung out by the camp fire. We made some bratwurst. We talked. We talked about how awful high school was. Then we just decided to do some pushups. We observed so many stars. It was amazing.
We finally went to sleep early for once. In the tent Timmy slept in the middle and 2 dogs slept between me and him. Callie didn't get to sleep with an extra blanket under her sleeping bag because the dogs hogged all the room.  Timmy opened his sleeping bag to cuddle better with the cold dogs. I think it dropped to about 35 degrees that night but we were all warm in the sleeping bag and tents.  Well we were kind of all warm. I woke up cold. I got an extra shirt and covered my ear and neck with it. Then it was all good.

PS The shirt I'm wearing is what I refer to as my fraud shirt. It is a fraud because it says Pittsburgh Marathon but I never ran it.  The Dick's Sporting Goods Marathon bag is also my fraud bag. I took that on this trip too.  I was full of fraud. I had one other long sleeve fraud shirt and I also wore that in Colorado but not while camping.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

08:46:52 AM - I turned off my alarm by mistake. Now it is an hour later.
11:24:13 AM - I decided I like running but hate training & that is why I'm sitting here in my running clothes but haven't gone out yet (now I'm training)
01:38:20 PM - Mowing sucks. But putting away hoses and raking is worse
07:57:11 PM - well it appears I haven't balanced my checkbook since February.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

9.1

My brown pants are back to looking far too big. They just fit now look big. Before they looked alright and they were pretty tight.   This is the first time I wore this combination. The picture quality is bad because it was pouring outside.  

Pink tank: Costco

Cardigan: B Moss

Pants: VS

Shoes: Aldo

Necklace: Lia Sophia

I'm sick of all this rain.

This is my favorite of all my Lia Sophia necklaces I got in the last order. I even got a compliment on it. 

I have to dress like it is winter because it is so cube in my area at work. The weather outside was in the 80s. I figured I'd be inside and it would be OK, but I forgot about having to walk between buildings 4 and 1.  It was far too hot for that walk. 

I don't remember what I did but it must have been TV.  I didn't workout. But I figure I had justification because most training plans call for 2 rest days before a 5k. 

This might be a record for the fewest number of pictures I have taken of Poly in one day. I hope Poly isn't feeling neglected.

9.8.11 - YPE Event

I chose my outfit around my new shirt. Then after I was wearing it, I realized my very similar new shirt was just worn the most recent time I was at work. I wonder if anyone notices. Nobody probably does and they are the same style but different colors and so I guess if I buy similar items like that, I might end up wearing them close together.

Shirt: NY&Co (9.5.11 - $16.17)
Cardigan: NY&Co (11.7.10 - $19.84)
Belt: Kohl's (Spring 2011)
Skirt: Express (August 2009)
Shoes: Hot Cakes via The Shoe Dept (2005)

The only non outfit photos from the day are from after I got home at 1:30 AM. That's what happens when I actually do something and have a life.

I went to work and had about 6 hours of meetings in my 9 hour work day. I always wonder how I am supposed to get work done between all the meetings.

Then after work I headed to the Nuclear focused Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) event.  I helped the planning a lot with this but other people did more. This was third quarterly event. The previous one had about half the people show up who actually RSVPed so I was a little worried.  Well the event was a success. We had a full room (Over 110 people). Lots of people talked about how great the presentations were and how great the panelists were. The panel was really good. They interacted with each other so that helped.

So then the thing was since I helped plan the agenda when all the emails came out with it, I never realized there was an After Event. I did not help plan that.

Event Schedule:

   5:30 Doors open for Networking and Cocktails

   6:00 Dinner is Served

   6:15 Brief Overview of How a Nuclear Power Plant Works

   6:30 Keynote Address Begins

   7:00 Panel Discussion and Questions

   7:45 Networking Time

   8:00 Event Ends and After Event Begins (Sponsored by Turn Right Tools)

Prior to the dinner, everyone that came up to me to talk to me, I actually recognized and knew their name. I must be getting better. Usually I know about half the names. Then after the event, it actually took me until 8:45 to leave the hotel because of all the networking going on there.  The After Event was at Echo. I had never been there. It was fancy. It was nice. With so many people there it was hard to find the people I knew. This forced me to meet new people which was great (and scary).  Later I learned that during this time, Troy Polamalu was there eating dinner with his wife. I totally missed it. I was too busy talking.  Around 11, I see my friend there. I can't believe she was there the entire time. She said there were times she even waved to me. Oh boy, I need to work on observing what is around me while I talk to people I guess.

So I ended up leaving at 1:15 or so. I was out very late for a work night. A lot of the people that were out that late, did not have to work the following day. I met some new people and even got some business cards to help my memory. What I did after I got their card and was done talking to them was grab a pen and jot down some notes on the back of the card about them and our conversation. That has helped me in the past when I have done it.

Some highlights from the night

1. Person 1 introducing me to Person 2 as "This is Colleen. She blogs. Sometimes if I want to know what she wore the day before I check out her blog."  The person I was introduced to got all excited that I have a blog. I went on to tell her how it is boring and that I couldn't believe Person 1 even goes to it.  There was some blog talk and I was rather impressed that someone actually goes to my blog. At one point my blog was described as impressive. 
2. Less than 15 minutes after meeting someone and mid conversation yet Person A asks Person B "Are you gay?" and then that made for some awkward conversation.
3. Being mentioned by a presenter, who is an exec at Westinghouse, about my involvement with NA-YGN and all the time that I put in. He mentioned one other person too.  I was surprised he even knew my name or who I was.
4. Getting to talk to the three panelists after the event to tell them what a wonderful job they did and how I was glad they could take the time out of their day to come to the event.
5. Multiple people gave me goodbye hugs and most of them weren't awkward. (I often say how I'm an awkward hugger.)  But some people just gave goodbye hugs to others and when they got to me they asked if they could hug me. So perhaps my awkward hug fear was showing.
6. I got a compliment on my necklace.
7. I got a compliment on my shirt. Then I even got asked where I bought it. 
8. Two different people asked for my blog address and said they would look at it. (I already know at least one went to it.)

Some random information

1. The food was amazing and I wish I got more of it. Since I was helping with different things, my food got a little cold before I got to eat it and it was still great.
2. I drank water all evening even though drinks were covered as part of the event.  Then a few people ask me why I wasn't drinking and if I ever drink. (I do drink. Not often. I don't like beer or wine which is all that was covered at the actual event. By the time I went to the after event, it was crowded and I didn't figure out how drinks were working and I didn't know how long I'd say. I won't drink close to a time when I have to drive home.)
3. I already forget the names of some of the people I met but other people I know were there too. I may have to ask around to figure it out so next time I see them I will know their name.  I hate how I remember many facts about the person and much of the discussion but then don't remember the name. 

8.19 - Pre-Race

I woke up and Callie was awake. Her alarm was going off. She was running off to do the medical check-in. She was almost late for the window. (or maybe she wasn't. My memory isn't so good.) She got back and cooked us breakfast. It was her most elaborate breakfast she ever made. She picked a bad day to do it, because she had less than a half hour to have breakfast and get to the mandatory meeting for the race. I went with her to this meeting while Timmy stayed home. We got there late. It was standing room only. We actually only got to stand out in the doorway instead of stand inside the gym. It was so hot in the gym anyway that I was glad I was at least close to the outside. After 30 minutes or so we left. It wasn't over, but Callie said she knows what they say and she had to get home to get to Avon to go to Sports Authority to buy things for the race in order to get her drop bags set up in time.

They don't take attendance at the mandatory meeting anyway. Callie looked so small compared to the others that were running the race. The one guy who was near us was 6'4 and has run the race 16 times or so.  I kept peeping people's medical bracelets. Their height and weight were on them. I  also peeped their feet if they wore sandals. I wanted to see if their toenails were all screwed up or if you could tell they were blister prone or something.   I was glad to skedaddle from the meeting because I was starting to get clammy and lightheaded like I might pass out.

We came back and headed to Sports Authority and then to Walmart. Callie had to buy a ton of power bars and gu packets. She also bought stuff like gatorade. At the mandatory meeting, one of the speakers said that it's a marathon eating contest with some running in between.  While we were out or on our way home, I learned there was a crew meeting. It was too late now to go to that since the time had passed. I guess I didn't realize there was one. It was my first time crewing so I probably should have gone even if the information provided was all boring.

Callie drove both ways since she was in a hurry. Then she spent forever planning what water packets and what went with what aid station. We got her bags to the bag drop just in time. Well with about 5 minutes to spare.

Then we went to drive to where a few of the aid stations are so we can find them the next day.  We only went to the close ones. I learned later that we should have read the directions on a race packet because the paths from one station to the next were blocked at points due to the race so we had to go around. (Lesson Learned. Follow the instructions in the booklet and not the normal way to go from point A to point B.)

Then I got dropped off at home and hung out with the dogs while Timmy went with Callie while she drove her book bus (library bus or whatever).

After the book bus, Callie came home and continued to get ready for the race. I sat at my computer super nervous. Callie was more nervous with having to run a race and all but I was also nervous. I was pacing her at elevation and for distances I wasn't used to running and on terrain I wasn't used to running on. Oh the stress.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

12:57:36 AM - Stupid construction on 228. Stopped and waiting.
01:15:25 AM - I hot a compliment on my shirt today. And my necklace. And met and told 2 people about my blog
01:16:13 AM - I got introduced to someone as "this is Colleen. She blogs. Sometimes I go to her blog to see what she wore the precious day."
01:18:32 AM - After @briecs left tonight people talked about how awesome she was
02:03:18 AM - I was told I have OCD tonight.
08:17:27 AM - I finally remembered to bring in my blanket to work today.
11:42:00 AM - @angelineevans I'm always cold and said I was going to bring a blanket for backup if I need it when I wear a skirt.
10:11:14 PM - a 2nd day in a row I didn't workout :( I'm tired. I want to blog but think I'll just read my new book.
10:14:45 PM - I entered the 25 Days of Wellness Giveaway for a chance to win 25 healthy prizes: http://t.co/Kh4eD56
10:22:34 PM - all anyone wants to know is what my husband thinks of things. I got asked what he thought 5 times today and about the same yesterday.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

9.2

Shorts: Mudd but no idea where I got them or when. Maybe they just appeared on my closet floor
Shoes: Target
Shirt: NY&Co.

What a nice 9/80 day off. I did a lot of laundry. I went to lunch with Dave.   I took a nap.

 I probably did other stuff. I have no idea what I did for dinner or what I did all evening and this was 2 days ago.

Oh I did watch Necessary Roughness and Royal Pains. I stayed up too late watching them all.

Here is the small table and chairs I bought a few weeks ago. I didn't have a picture to post then.  It is small, but it at least seats 4 which was better than what was there that sat 0. :) Now if only it wasn't going to rain everyday so I could invite some people over to use this.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

12:49:52 AM - Poly knew I was about to get up and jumped up on me. Now she's on my lap purring but I was about to go to bed.
12:49:25 PM - so much work to do + so many meetings != fun work day.
03:04:07 PM - @TheNewChrissy I'm familiar with dogs loving the couch.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

8.11

Shoes: Connie via Famous Footwear
Shirt, skirt, and cardigan: Express
Necklace: Lia Sophia
Necklace (short one): Gifted (this is the first time I've doubled up on necklaces. I want to layer necklaces more. It is really out of my comfort zone.
Bracelet: Target I think.

If I leave for work too late, it is too bright and the pictures are hard to get in my front yard.
I love this skirt, but also hate it. If I have to do a lot of walking it gets more annoying. I can't open my stride as much as I want in this skirt. Also if I walk while holding a bag, the skirt spins. Once it spun as much as 90 degrees.

Sorry it has been too long. I don't remember anything that went on besides work (happens all week days).

9.3 - Exhausting

Saturday started with a 5k.  Then I showered and got ready for the pool.  Dave and I picked up Jen and went to lunch. Then we went to the pool.  We were there over 3 hours. At the pool, I swear we were the palest 3 people there.  We have somehow become old and we needed our sunglasses. We wore them in the pool.  Then Dave and I went to Wendy's for dinner. After dinner, I took a little nap on the couch. This nap lasted 3 hours.  I tried to go to bed shortly after, but got up when I heard fireworks and I wasn't close to falling asleep.  I cropped pictures and blogged until 2:45AM. I kept telling myself I'd go to sleep but the time just kept passing and I kept working at the computer. Then my computer shut itself down. I almost turned it back on but remembered I did want to go to sleep so I just left it at that and went in to go to sleep.

The race had some official photos taken. I pulled some from the website and they are above.

I wore 2 different outfits. I wore a dress over my dress and then I wore a brown shirt and khaki shorts later. I didn't remember to get a picture of me in either.

A Day's Worth of Twitter

06:43:25 PM - Wow I'm so out of the loop. Tonight is the 4th debate. 4th! I didn't know about the others.

You can find me as @smilincolleen on Twitter.

3.1 mile run - 9.7.11

I was going to run my standard loop and do just over 2.5 miles but while I was running I thought up how I have a file that has all my 5k splits and to put a run on there I have to run at least 5k so I changed my mind and decided to add to my run.  The weather was great. It was 62 degrees. No humidity. It was great to be able to run and breathe at the same time.

3 out of my first 4 splits were 2:15. After the first one, I decided to make my goal 9 minute mile pace so then I kept counting how many seconds I had to spare or how many behind I was.  I was ahead for a little but then between 1.25 and 1.5, I got behind. I had to make up time.  That probably helped me push it a bit more. Then I got 2 at 2:12 to help me make up time.

Best split: 1:58. Worst split: 2:29. Quite the range. 

I tried to look back at all my Garmin Data to see each time I ran near my house. I put together a little summary table. It made me a little more disappointed.  I thought today was awesome compared to past times but it wasn't really.  My best split was a short run that wasn't my normal loop. It was mainly flat and I went Ambassador, to Ridge, To Denny, and back.

I have my running data from 2010 but I didn't write where I ran each run so I can't really compare.  Man I tried to refrain from typing all my data and documenting everything and I still spent an hour after each run but now I wish I had different data. I could spend hours redoing things.  I can check my blog because I tend to document on here what I did. I don't know if I always blogged about all my runs though. Just looked and I did not.  I want more data. I'm addicted. Data is so fun. I document as much as possible. Some times I haven't and I always think about it. September of last year I lacked at documentation and now I'm wondering what it really was.  I don't even know how people go for runs without even knowing how far they ran. Or sometimes without even knowing how long they were running for. Man I could not handle that.

8.16 - Mount Elbert

On August 16, we went to Mount Elbert. We were going in the morning, but we didn't quite know what time. Or well I didn't know what time.  Next thing I know Griff and Huck show up at Callie's ready to go. I'm still in my PJs and Timmy was still in bed.  Callie made us breakfast before we left. She made 3 different breakfasts for 4 people. I think she catered to guests a little too much.

Mount Elbert is the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains of North America, at 14,440 feet, the highest of the fourteeners in Colorado, and the high point of the Sawatch Range. It is located in Lake County, approximately 10 miles southwest of Leadville. It lies within the San Isabel National Forest. The mountain was named after Colorado statesman Samuel Hitt Elbert, who was active in the formative period of the State. Mount Elbert is the second highest mountain in the contiguous United States, after Mount Whitney in California, and is only 65 feet shorter than Whitney's 14,505 feet.

We took pictures on the way up.  We also took breaks on the way up. The elevation is hard to get used to. Also walking to get to the top at top speed is a very hard thing to deal with so soon after arriving at a high elevation.

After going up a little (a lot), I started having the dogs help me up the mountain.  They helped but I'd still get out of breath.  I needed breaks often. I felt so out of shape, even though I know it was the elevation. Also having to walk so fast was a struggle.  Climbing a 14er so soon after getting to Leadville wasn't the best idea.

After awhile my head started getting all foggy. I still kept trying to walk up. I got above the tree line.  So in addition to my head being foggy, my fear of heights was coming into play too. Oh man does it suck being afraid of heights.  Then a storm sounded like it was about to roll in. I decided that was the last straw and I decided to be a wimp and stop going to the top. Everyone went without me.  I headed back down below the tree line. I sat there for a bit.  I was forcing myself to eat my snacks but you know how when you are light headed eating feels like such a chore. It was like forcing to get my food down.

I sat for what wasn't long at all and then Timmy joined me.  He couldn't go up any more either.  Then we had fun taking pictures.  We went down the mountain slowly and it was so very nice. We got to take picture of the weather on other mountains.  

I did end up looking at the blisters on my foot and seeing how bad off they are. Having blisters on my feet also sucked. I couldn't bend my feet at the ball or it hurt. I couldn't push off with my toes. It was rough. 

After a little bit everyone else came and joined us. There went our picture time and we hurried down the mountain. Part of the rush was still the potential of a storm coming in. Going down the mountain I kept getting so far behind the group. I swear they didn't even know that I wasn't 2 steps behind them. Downhill was a lot tougher on the ol' feet.  I fell twice skidding down the hill. My shoes weren't the best for trails and lacked the appropriate tred.

After we got back down the mountain we took a group picture. It took a few tries to try to get it right. Note the progress.

1. All in all it was a good mountain adventure even though none of us made it the whole way to the top. 
2. I really wish I wasn't afraid of heights.
3. I wish it wasn't chilly when we left in the morning or that I was used to the temperature swing so I would not have worn pants
4. I got some awesome pictures from the mountain even if I didn't get pictures from the tip top
5. I have a picasa album that has some but not all of the pictures from the day.
6. My calves hurt when I woke up from climbing the dunes so that probably made the climb of Mount Elbert even harder.
7. Mosquitos bit me like crazy on this trip. Even through 2 layers of clothes. 

After hiking up the mountain we were tired. Griff even fell asleep on the floor.  Callie decided she would vacuum up the dog hair. I don't even think Griff woke up.  We had a little yard party. There was also some weight lifting going on while drinking purple drank.