#2 is 34

Happy Birthday

Saving boobies everywhere

Bright and early tomorrow morning, I will begin the Training Program for the Charlottesville Women's 4-Miler. The race is actually on August 30, and training began last week while I was in NY. My friend Diana and I decided to do this together for both accountability and encouragement.

The race is largest all women race in the state of VA and it is done as a way to raise money for the University of Virginia Cancer Center Breast Care Program. Breast Cancer has affected many women in my life: it is the reason I never met my paternal grandmother and 2 of my aunts and my godmother are all survivors. The program also helps women affected by ovarian cancer, which is more difficult to detect in early stages, and I have had friends affected by that as well. Last year the CW4M raised $230,000 for the UVA Cancer Center. If you would like to make a donation and support me while I train for this event you can use the link above for the race. As of today it doesn't look like you can donate online, although they say it will be available soon. If that's not up and running, and this is something you'd like to do, you can mail in the donation. Checks should be made out to "Charlottesville Women's Four Miler" and mailed to:

Women’s Four Miler
c/o Ragged Mountain Running Shop
#3 Elliewood Avenue
Charlottesville, VA 22903

You can include my name for sponsorship, BUT the important thing is to raise the money, not for me to get credit.

Another option, if you are interested, is to support the Motivational Mile. All along the race route, names are posted of the loved ones we race for--a reminder and motivator to keep on fighting and running. The Motivational Mile link is directly beneath the donation link on the Race home page.

I am excited about the training program and the race--how cool to go from not being able to run all that long or far to finishing a four miler??

and there is so much more to the stories....

All I can say is, "wow." So much has happened since last week; I don't even know where to begin.

What I couldn't mention before, but can now, is that we surprised my dad for Fathers' Day and his birthday! Mom was participating in the Strawberry Festival in Mattituck (Long Island) and it was the perfect cover. Greg and Paulette hosted a whole lot of family for the weekend--talk about a full house!! Phil, Shane, Phil's buddy JC and I all drove to NY on Friday, arriving mid-afternoon. Friday night my Aunt Bess, Aunt Myra, dad's childhood friend Linda and her husband (all from out of state!) and my godparents, Dr & Mrs Vaccariello, all came over to celebrate. It was a fabulous weekend, and I am pretty certain that it is the first time all of my brothers and I have been in the same STATE in....roughly ten years.

not a touchy-feely group, eh?

Due to the Friday departure, I took all of Wednesday and Thursday cleaning up what I could of the mess and hours worth of phone calls. It's a good thing I just got an 'unlimited' plan, because I used more minutes in one day that I do in a whole month!

Anyhoo, in an attempt to make my crazy long story only moderate in length: AWESOME weekend in NY (wish they were closer!), car is totaled, trees are gone, haven't picked out a snazzy new shed quite yet.

now my flower circle looks to be in an odd spot

I found out my car was totaled right when we arrived in Southold. SO I spent the whole weekend worrying about what to do, while also realizing there was nothing I could do until I was back in VA. The trick here is that if my car was being repaired, I get my rental for about 3 weeks, BUT since it was totaled: only until Monday (I was in NY), but the insurance guy extended it until Friday for me. Still a little pressure, though, to quick find a new car I can afford.

I am back to work bright and early on Tuesday. As soon as I get home I am car shopping like crazy online and trying to find financing. I secure a loan for an '08 Corolla at CarMax, then discover I can get a better rate buying new from Toyota. After work Wednesday I drive my tush over the mountain to Harrisonburg (recommended dealer, and prices are better there than in C'ville). No dealer will trade them a gray Corolla for one of the tan ones. I hem and haw, they drop my monthly payments by $20/month, and I drive home in my 2009 Corolla LE in Desert Sand Mica (read: tan).

I LOVE my new car. It is fabulous, payments roughly the same as I would have paid for the '08, and it is exactly as I want it--except for color, but it was my second choice!

LOVE my car!!

Aaaannnnnd, today was the first day in over a week where I could just go home and do NOTHING if I so desired. AMEN!!! Plus I finally got to ride my bike again. :)

Mother Nature Redecorates

Well, apparently my landscaping needed some re-arranging and a 2004 Corolla needs replacing, right? (clicking on the picture will make it bigger)

You can see the small shed, but the bigger one is blocked by the mammoth tree that squished it.

What's left of the bigger shed.

The trees in the front came tumbling down, too!

Poor little shed.

At first we thought my car might be okay.

We were wrong.

On my way to becoming a Pedal Head

I finally got to ride my bike more than a couple of miles...a whole 5.5!! LOL

However, I did discover that my foot became numb about 4 miles into my ride. It would seem, then, that bike shoes might wind up being a necessity. This is a new bummer because HOLY COW they're a wee bit pricy! The cheapest ones I found were - On Sale - for $100!!

Shoot 'em up

Sheesh, what a week!

Today I participated in the Crime Stoppers Skeet/Trap Shoot. I had always thought that it looked like fun, and today I confirmed that it is! I am absolutely terrible, but at least I didn't miss them all! For those of you who know what "Five Stand" is, that was the format used. For those of you who don't, I'll do my best to explain.

There are 3 trap houses from which clays are released. One directly in front of you, one to the left and one to the right. The clays from the center go either straight up or up and away from you. The clays from the left are released going right, and the ones from the right....gotcha! One is the "rabbit" which runs along the ground and the other does, indeed, go out to the left. The five shooter positions arc away from the houses like the tip of a fan. At each position, or stand, you have an assigned combination of clays at which you shoot. Once everyone on your team of 5 has cycled through their 3 combos, you rotate stands and cycle through again. This continues until everyone has shot all 3 combos at all 5 stands. I'm sure there's an easier way to explain this, but it's new to me so I'm probably making it sound way more complicated than it is. Despite the 101 degrees and 97% humidity, I had a lot of fun!!

The cages you see are stands 2 & 3, and the green houses are 1 & 2.

This shows a bit of 5th stand and the 3rd house which releases the wascally wabbit!

The 5 Stands:
1) Trap, High 1 & High 2, Rabbit & Teal
2) High 2, Low & Trap, High 1 & Teal
3) Low, Teal & Trap, Rabbit & High 2
4) Teal, Low & High 1, Trap & High 2
5) High 1, Rabbit & Low, High 2 & Teal

House 1 (on shooters left) throws High 1 and High 2 (both got across to the right)
House 2 (center) throws Teal (straight up) and Trap (up and away)
House 3 (shooters right) throws Rabbit and Low (mid level, across)

When I got home I decided to go for a quick bike ride, seeing as how I was already gross and sweaty. I've only been able to ride my bike a few times thus far, which is a bummer. It's been raining (massive understatement) and then when it's not, it's been upper 90's with near 100% humidity. Not exactly weather in which I'm dying to ride in. But again, I had fun. I love my bike!!

Decisions, decisions

What's a girl to do??? I'm trying to relax and enjoy my evening, so I look to see what movies are on TV. I am torn between The Princess Bride and You've Got Mail.

It's chick-flick night!! And if I flip back and forth, it's essentially commercial free!!

Happy (early) Birthday to ME!

For my birthday, my parents contributed a hefty share to buying a road bike for me!! YEA!!

When my parents were here, I went on several bike rides with my dad and have since become hooked. I absolutely love it. I'm sure it helps that it's extremely picturesque near my home, too!

I looked at several bikes and tried out a couple and settled on the Fuji Finest 2.0 women's road bike. For just an extra $200 I could have gotten the next model up, but I like the gear set-up on this one better (and the colour, too). Philip met me at the bike store after work this afternoon to bring it home for me: it won't fit in my little Corolla & he has a spacious Explorer.

After I got it home, adjusted my helmet and looked at all my cool accessories, I took it for it's first taste of the road. I didn't go far, maybe a little over a mile total, and think I will be super happy with it. It'll take some time to get used to the riding position and the shifting mechanism, but then I remember it took me a while to get used to my standard shift car!! I'm going to have SO much fun!!!