What I've Been Up To

Amongst all this crazy Hood to Coast business I haven't related to you the VERY EXCITING things that have been happening with me lately.  I know you've been dying to know too. 

1) A baby rabbit (we named Chopper Junior - don't ask), got spooked and ran from us directly into a trap - getting caught in between a rock and a hard place quite literally. 

Don't worry - we rescued him.

2)  We went to Emerald Downs, the local horse-racing arena.  It was a gorgeous day, and I love horses, so it was win-win-win. 

Look at that mountain!

Unfortunately, that win-win-win attitude didn't translate into any of my horses' minds.  I did not win a single $.  Though since I only bet approximately $6 (I've never been much of a gambler) I suppose I didn't lose much.

3)  (This happened before the great cat runaway incident of 2012!)  I thought I was getting a steal of a great deal by buying this cat carrier for $5 at a garage sale.  The cat no longer tolerates just being shoved in the cardboard box we brought him home in (it has air holes!  Don't look at me like that...) so his last vet visit was canceled at the last minute after we couldn't haul him there.  So when I found this I was ecstatic.

At least until I got it home and tried to put him inside.  Uh... guess I underestimated his size.  By a lot. 

He also didn't tolerate being shoved inside this either.  

4)  We went slip n' sliding in the backyard.

I SWEAR we only left the slip n' slide out there for a day or two, but this happened nearly immediately:

And now our backyard looks awesome.  Whoops.

5)  We recently discovered this AMAZING place that just opened in Bellevue called Total Wine.  It is SERIOUSLY a grocery store full of every beer, wine, and liquor in the WORLD.  It. ROCKS.  

I love trying new beers (which I think you've already gathered) so it took me a long time to make my selection - but this is finally what I settled on:

I had been looking for the Rogue Voodoo Donut beer EVERYWHERE (including at the real live Rogue in Newport!) so I was really excited to find it.  It was good and you could definitely taste the maple and you could kind of taste the bacon - but it's not something you'd want to drink a lot of.  I was kind of tired of it after half a glass, though it was interesting and I'm glad we got it. 

I love Wailua Wheat so that was an oldie but a goodie, and the Pumpkin Cider was delicious. 

6)  I won a Nuun swimcap in a Facebook giveaway!  I was seriously excited about that.  Now I just need to get my hands on the Nuun cycling jersey I have my eye on...

And that's about it.  Can you believe all these exciting things going on in my life?  Ha.

What's new and exciting in YOUR life??

Should Sandcastle Building be in the Olympics?!

On Saturday I somehow found myself at a SANDCASTLE COMPETITION!  And let me tell you, there was some serious mad sandcastle skills going on.  I am definitely impressed.

People had their sprayers, paint brushes, and other tools you wouldn't normally think of as needed to build a sandcastle.  There were all kinds of categories, kids, families, groups, and for all different kinds of sand castles: best turtle, best mermaid, best chowderhead, etc.

Here are a few of my favorites:

That's a zombie crawling out of his grave, in case you couldn't tell!

This is Homer Simpson in case you can't tell. 

 This one was probably the best one.  Look at those "rocks"!

I love me some elephants.  

I was also seriously impressed by this one. 

Anyway, this was a pretty pointless post - but I was way too impressed with these sandcastles to not share.  Perhaps we shall see sandcastle building in Rio in the 2016 Olympics?!?! 

What kind of sandcastle skills do you possess?  Didn't think anyone would ever ask you that question, did you???

Random Random Random

First off - did you go enter my ShowerPill giveaway?!  GO DO IT! 

Second, there are so many random thoughts running through my head and you are so lucky to get to hear about them!  Aren't you?!

1.  I finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  I LOVED it - go and read it.  It was confusing and I found it difficult to keep track of what was happening, but I blame myself this time (instead of the author).  I even went and looked up reviews on Wikipedia and a few other places to find out what others thought had happened!  But I think that just shows how invested I was in it.  You can't really describe it without giving a lot of it away, but basically Margaret Lea is asked to write the biography for a famous author, Vyda Winter, who is dying.  Vyda has always been extremely tight-lipped about her life and you find out why: it's kind of a mysterious story about twins.  Read it.

2.  I can't believe Girls On the Run is almost over!  Tuesday is our last practice.  :-(  I'm going to miss the girls so much - they are so hilarious!  For example: at the last practice we were planning our community impact project.  So the girls are supposed to come up with something they can do to help their community, but they have to bring all the supplies (if needed) and it has to be done within the practice, which is 90 minutes long.  So we were brainstorming things that we care about and I mentioned that I care about animals that don't have homes.  SO, one group decided that our project should be rescuing dogs from the animal shelter and teaching them how to be police dogs.  Yep, in a little over an hour, with my dog-training skills (Cooper STILL doesn't walk on a leash properly), it seems totally doable that we will rescue some dogs and teach them to be police dogs.  At least the girls are dreaming big? 

This is totally an appropriate activity for Girls On The Run practices.  source

This is the more feasible project that we did instead: cupcakes for their teachers and cards for the kids at the children's hospital.  

3.  In other dog-related news, on my run the other day I found a cute little dog who was practically in the middle of this busy street, and I went door-to-door trying to find his owners.  Finally this lady pulled up and she didn't seem a bit concerned to find her dog roaming free and when I told her he was nearly hit by a car she shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly and was like "oh, thanks".  GRRRRRRR.  WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE????  They don't care at ALL that their dog is in danger?  Major major PET peeve of mine. 

4.  DailyMile is so ridiculous.  You guys all remember how terrible my training was last week right?  Well apparently DailyMile is a bit confused.

Uh, Gnarly?  Really?  More like pathetic, DailyMile.  Don't try to sugarcoat it.  Just tell it like it is already.

5.  Why the heck are they canceling Make It or Break It before they get to the Olympics?!  They've been working their whole lives for this!  Ridiculous.  And whatever happened to the poor pizza girl Emily, anyway?  She had better things to do?

How convenient that they all made the Olympic team even though Lauren's heart might stop at any moment and Payson is probably pregnant.  And what the heck - there's no judges at the Olympic Trials and only 30 spectators go watch it?!?!?! 

6.  Speaking of bad TV, did you watch the season finale of The Vampire Diaries?  I totally don't watch that show, but IF I did, then my mind would have been blown and I would have called it the best episode of the whole series.  IF I watched that show that is...

source

Tell me something random about YOU!