Marc and Marilyn and Andrew!

So I had another brain fart…I don’t remember what Marilyn and I were talking about…I think it was about dogs driving (don’t ask lol).

Marc: The only difference between us and dogs driving are our “disposable” thumbs. 

Marilyn: “Dying of laughter for about 15 minutes”

Marc: ”What?!?!?!” 

Marilyn: ”Do you mean that the only difference between us and dogs is that we can throw away our thumbs?”

Marc: “No!  I thought it was deposable at first but that didn’t make any sense…so I used disposable.  Fine, what’s the right word”

Marilyn: “I don’t know but I know it’s not disposable”

So we go home and try to look for the word…it’s OPPOSABLE!!!  I was close

We were able to celebrate Robert’s graduation at his pad with his family and friends.  Congratulations Robert!

Kara and Marilyn at the photobooth

Shots!!!

Cake…

Cake made by Kara…

Yay for the Graduate!!!

Who broke the door?

Kara tearing up Magic Mic

Check out the rest of the pics here.

So Marc and I are having another debate…

Plurals

Marilyn: Candy

Marc: Candies

Marilyn: Fruit

Marc: Fruits (he doesn’t mean ‘fruits of your labor”, he means “many fruits”.

Marc: When did you learn the rules to these exceptions?

So Marilyn left Torrance Bakery a message yesterday requesting an appointment…after the message (I guess I distracted her or something) but she said “Amen…Bye”  LOL…HILARIOUS!!!

Despite Marc being so hard on himself (like always) I still believe he completed another amazing accomplishment. Only 1% of all people even attempt a marathon and less complete one. So he’s tops in my book . Training alone takes a lot of dedication and determination. Marc gets up nearly every day at 4am to begin his training. He either hits the gym, goes for a run or takes a bike ride all before he starts the work day. When he comes home from work he either hits the pool or goes for another run. On the weekends he does the long workouts, which include 10+ miles runs, or 30+ mile bike rides. Even our eating habits have taking a healthier turn. We try to eat healthy… brown rice is growing on me (though I swear, some meals just demand white rice! Spam?! Sinigang?!) During his cool down time, you’ll find him reading the latest Triathlete magazine or updating his training schedule on the computer. He is, through and through, an athlete. So applause to you, my love, for all the hardwork. You’re a winner!

Sunday: Prep day

Shoes with speedometer and timing chip

The race shirt and number

Fuel belt filled with Accelerade Gatorade and other healthy stuff

The snackies

The hardware

Monday: Race day

Downtown @ 5am

In the Elite Corral

At the Start Line

Between mile 17 & 18

At the Finish Line

Completing this race was pretty bittersweet.  This is probably the most I’ve ever trained for the LA Marathon.  I made sure I followed my training plan (mostly) and did all my long important runs.  I had several 20-mile and 18-mile runs and I was feeling pretty good.  I thought I could PR again this year and maybe go below 5 hours.

As I had told my Dad (who walked with me from Mile 19-21), I guess I’ll never get used to doing 26.2 no matter how many times I’ve done it before.  His response was that each race is different.  Pretty simple and straightforward and true.  I knew that but somehow overlooked it.

I was feeling pretty good when the race began.  Didn’t really know my pace because my heart rate monitor was acting up so I just went with what was comfortable.  I was at mile 11 when I tweaked my back.  Those of you who wear heart rate monitors know that at some point (well several), you need to readjust the strap because it will slide down your chest.  I was adjusting the strap when I tweaked something in my back.  Granted my back started acting up Sunday but it wasn’t enough to really make me think about it.

It went downhill from there.  It was weird.  I was not in enough pain to stop, but  I “felt” the tweak enough that I could not continue to run.  I ended up walking after mile 11. 

I was able to see Marilyn and her Dad between mile 17 and 18.  It was a great pick-me-up.  I was able to replenish my drink supply and after some kisses and picture, went on my way.

I was surprised to see my Dad at mile 19.  Didn’t know he was going to be on the course.  He walked with me for a couple miles and I was also able to see my Mom, who took some pictures.

I guess it’s back to the drawing board for me.  Just very frustrating to feel that I did everything right (or so I thought) in preparing for this race to not even come close to finishing as I expected.  I know my goal for every race is to finish but with all the training being put into this, I have some higher expectations for myself.  Somehow, through this all, I forgot to have fun in all of this.  I always had fun but this year I got caught up with numbers and results.  Hey, fun is when you reach your goal too, right? 

Yeah, this race was pretty bittersweet.  I’m glad I finished it but disappointed at the way it was done.  I have to say that the only bright spots of my day were seeing Marilyn and her Dad and my Mom and Dad.  I love you guys.  Marilyn was such a trooper…she was up at 4AM with me and even stayed with me while I waited for the race to begin.  I know she had a long day as well because navigating through all that traffic is not fun…she’s awesome!

Oh yeah…my time…06:34…that was probably the frustrating part.  I could have gotten that time with no training.  Anyways, moving on.

So do any of you remember Hello Panda cookies? You used to get them at the Asian markets when you accompanied your mom grocery shopping?! It’s like Yan Yan… but not.  I totally just rediscovered this yummy snack… and I’m obsessed. They’re “biscuits with Choco Cream”. Yumm! OK, so I don’t know what “choco cream” is. And I probably don’t want to know what actually goes into making this chocolate-like flavor, but its still yummy goodness. Marc laughed at me when I pulled a box out from my purse. Like he should be surprised I carry snacks around. Anyways, I’m happy because of Hello Panda.

It’s been a long time coming but we finally decided to hold a happy hour to celebrate the re-launch of investors.com.  A whole bunch of peeps came out…which was great because we never really had much of a chance to mingle out of work.

Let’s see…we got to hang out with some of our developers: Genry (our main developer) and Scott (another developer).

Genry taking a shot

Harlan was able to come out for a bit…

Jake, Billy, Harlan and Casey

Production team showed up in full force…

Adam, Sam, Bahareh and Ian

Finally got to meet Arvin…

Bahareh, Arvin and Aimee

Here are some other pics…

Karmen and Billy

 Later on, some promoters from Corralejo passed by with T-shirts.  We tricked them into giving most of the T-shirts they have to us because we knew what the bottle looked like   Well, we do LOVE that tequila…so smooth.  So everybody agreed that we would wear the shirts to work the next day…let’s see who flakes

So without further delay, let me introduce you to the Corralejo Crew

Corralejo Crew

It was a great night out with coworkers…the only thing that would have made it better is if the Lakers would have won…

Group Picture

Check out the rest of the pics here.

Today Marc and I got 2 things crossed off our Wedding to do list: Marriage License and Wedding Bands.

We attempted to get our Marriage License first, but ended up getting lost. We planned to go to the Los Angeles Courthouse to get our Marriage License since it was close to Dan’s (our Jeweler) office. No such luck, we totally got lost and ended up in Boyle Heights. Apparently the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder is waaaaay deep in LA. So we called up Dan and asked him to meet us earlier. Luckily, he was free to see us right away.

We parked at Pershing Square. I’ve actually never been to Pershing Square in downtown. To be quite honest, I’ve never really been anywhere in dowtown, so it was nice to be able to check it out. Today was farmer’s market day. I love farmer’s markets. Tons of good food and tons of people to people watch. It was great.  Farmer’s markets always smell so fresh, but i feel like things aren’t always as cheap as I hope them to be.

Anyways we made our way to Dan’s office. He’s a nice guy. Really personable. We talked about our wedding planning, and his wife and the pregnancy before getting down to business.  Marc and I weren’t really sure what we were looking for. We had visited Robbins Brothers (I highly suggest anyone going there, just to learn about rings. They are a great resource.) to peruse the selection, but nothing really stuck out. The thing with Dan is, he custom makes our jewelry. Marc had my engagement ring custom made by Dan, and we’re going to get our wedding bands made as well. That being said, we have to have an idea of how to design it.  Dan pulled out a few samples and we tried them on, and inspected them. This stuff is tough. I keep thinking “this thing is going to be on us forever. we better get the right one”

We definitely wanted full circle rings… no weird jutting out pieces that took away the circle shape. I’m all about the whole “meaning or symbolism” behind things. So it was important that every piece of our ring had some kind of meaning.  We went back and forth. Marc had this vision in his head of what he wanted, all we needed to do was find a picture of it for Dan’s designers.  Marc’s is going to have a bitmore detail than my ring. He got all fancy . We decided on mine, and every piece is just right. How exciting!

Then we rushed over to the Beverly Hills Courthouse to get our Marriage license. Staci had called me earlier and we talked about when her and Vince went to get theirs. And she got me all excited again. Staci always has great timing. When we got to the Courthouse, I was reminded of Tricia and Jonas’ Civil Ceremony and I got all happy. I used to have automatic bad thoughts when I think of courthouses, but not anymore. Wonderful things happen there too.  Marc and I met with a nice lady named Ruby at the Recorder’s desk. She helped us fill out our paper work. I was totally giddy during the whole thing. What a dork. She asked us to have a seat and wait for our Marriage License. A few minutes later she called our names, “Marilyn and Marc, your Marriage License is ready”  EEEKKKK! We did a mini oath and she sent us on our way. How exciting!

Life is amazing.

I think Courteney jinxed me…in all my years of riding my bike…I have never had an aggressive dog go after me.  Last week, Courteney had a dog go after her in her scooter.  On my way home today, there was this terrier that was on a leash that tried to lunge at me.  The owner had to yank the lil fella before he/she got to me.

One mile down, I came upon a lady pushing a stroller with a bulldog walking with them.  I didn’t realize the dog wasn’t on leash until it charged me and I had to lift my leg up to prevent being bitten.  WTF?!?  I should have kicked the lil sh*t

Two occurences in one day after never happening?  Weird.

That just reminded me…I had placed a call to Omniture Client Care and this one rep was helping me.  We had to continue our call at a later time because we did not have all the information needed to resolve an issue.  I was instructed to call back and ask for the rep (Max) I had talked to earlier.  When I called a half hour later, I was connected to the same guy without being redirected.  I didn’t recognize his voice and I had asked to be transfered to Max…he was like Oh, that’s me.  We were both like whoa.

Crazy…I think I should buy a lotto ticket.