cupcakes!

pictures from our valentine's cupcake-fest have arrived!

>> see them all here

mine:

mad max vs the crusades in bizarro world

(the title of this post was brought to you by my boss)

so - what the hell? you have to read this article.
i don't get the world anymore.

>> Bikers roll to military funerals to oppose anti-gay protests

here's the low-down:

first, you have this priest and his band of merry protestors that travel around to the funerals of soldiers killed in iraq and "carry signs thanking God for the explosives that are a major killer of soldiers in Iraq."... because they believe "that God killed the soldiers because they fought for a country that embraces homosexuals."

???

let me quote some more.

the protestors "danced and sang impromptu songs peppered with vulgarities that condemned homosexuals and soldiers."

???

second, and here is where it gets weirder...

to counteract this, and to protect the families of the soldiers who died, a group of more than 5,000 motorcyclists come to the funerals with american flags and fight back - shouting over the protestors and keeping the families away from them.

charlie's hells angels?

to quote my boss one last time because he is more eloquent than me:

"Who would have ever predicted a future in which biker gangs roam the highways of the country to cheer at funerals to drown out christians cheering about soldiers being killed in the middle east?"

i don't know, man. i just don't know.

the big news

are you ready?

here's my big announcement (i had to wait a day to get at least some of the readers' anticipation levels to their highest):

i've decided to...

START EATING MEAT AGAIN!

my body has been craving so much protein lately because of all the running i've been doing, that that time has finally come to welcome animals back into my diet.

secretly, i always knew the time would come again, but i just figured it would be when i got pregnant or something...

this has been building for a few weeks now... then i made the big decision on super bowl sunday, where i told conor, after our race (i was ravenous), that i'd have half of a grilled hamburger at my co-worker's party, and he could eat the other half.

except that i proceeded to eat the entire thing myself and didn't share.

and then i had 2 more hamburgers in the next 2 weeks.

i'm like a regular jughead from the old archie comics!

exactly 3 weeks later (today), i just had steak and eggs for breakfast. my first piece of steak in over 7 years.

i've also eaten a little chicken on some salads, but i'm not a huge fan of chicken, still. it kinda tweaks me out -- unless it is fried, like you can get at a bar with a big bowl of bbq sauce to dip it in and a beer to wash it down with.

i definitely still won't touch any bacon, pork, turkey, or duck so don't bother trying.

but old cured meats like pepperoni and other aged delights? delicious! the saltier and chewier, the better.

mmm.

you'd think the protien cravings would go away eventually, but i guess i need to keep eating more because i've been craving it like a fiend.

bring on the red stuff!

snow!

who said it never gets cold here in california?

it's snowing on mt. tamalpais right now!
>> see a live video

that's just across the golden gate bridge!

happy late ♥'s day

before i get to my exciting announcement, i wanted to send out a belated happy ♥ valentines day ♥ to all the people out there that i love... i forgot to do this on tuesday, but the love i have for all of you is still just as strong. so:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ happy valentines day! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

i've already blogged about why i love this holiday, so i won't do that again. but i will thank all the awesome people who showed me love this year, which mainly includes my awesome boyfriend, my wonderful sister, my fantabulous friend, and my amazing parents.

if i can get my fantabulous friend to send me the pictures we took of the pink-frosted cupcakes we made at her house tuesday night, i will post them on this blog for all to see and be amazed at.

by the way, i learned one very important thing about myself that same night: i'm terrible at bingo.

bobbing along

it's friday! i'm tired! yay for the weekend!

we're cranking away on a big project here at work and it means lots of long hours. i can't wait until its done, and i'm not even one of the core people working on it! but i have contributed in some significant ways, which is nice because it means i get free lunches, so i can't complain, really.

i'm just tired. i can't wait to sleep in this weekend.

tuesday night i got to run with the next group up, at practice! my coach made me because i wasn't really running with my old group, since i was a little faster than them. this new group kicked my ass, but it was still very exciting even to be left in the dust. i'm stoked to be making so much progress lately.

oh. i just remembered i have a very exciting announcement to make, and it's not my promotion at work (which is also exciting). i'm going to give this announcement it's VERY OWN POST it's just that exciting... stay tuned!

i contact it again

excerpt from an email:

An answer is sorry to be late.

That IS answer's goal in life...
To be on early.

the great water debate: enter mint stage left

as i sit and patiently wait for my computer to find a file for me in the depths of our company's networked file server, i'm going to take a moment to blog about water. it's a very important topic.

so i've been a sparkling water addict since college when i decided to stop drinking soda in an effort to drop weight for crew. the bubbliness was a perfect substitute for the sweet sugary cokes i used to drink, and it served a double-whammy because i was actually becoming more hydrated than ever.

i love the pain of drinking sparkingly water - the way it can sting in your throat, and makes you burp. it settles my always-sensitive stomach, and it's so dang refreshing (particularly when ice cold).

i hate all the flat vitamin waters or water with any sort of mild fruit flavoring in it. if it tastes like watered down juice, it's not for me. i either want juice, or i want water. i don't want a bad combination of both.

i will drink flat water, however, when in need of serious hydration, which happens from time to time. but in general, flat water goes stale after a day and i hate how it tastes at that point, so i avoid it or feed it to my plants.

i fell in love with 'smart water' in college ONLY because of the abosultely sexy bottles that it comes in. i would happily chug my yuppie-expensive smart waters any day if i get to carry the bottle around with me. they are so pretty. plus they tell you how smart you are getting, with the more water you drink, which is quite funny. i will thank shawdee for turning me on to smart water. props to her.

after my race on sunday, i was handed a sample of a NEW water to try - also in a very sexy bottle, though it's not as witty as the smart waters are: metromint peppermint water.

this one i have seen recently in the fancy gourmet food stores and avoided because it sounded so... metrosexual. so... trendy. and, i just thought it would be gross.

but after a half marathon, a cold water of ANY sort is a good water in my book, so i gave it a chug.

zing!

i was totally wrong about metromint water. throw all assumptions out the window.

one thing you should know about me is that i love mint candies, mint ice cream, mint anything (except hard mints for your breath, like altoids - they make me sneeze).

metromint water, is no exception to this rule.

a.) it's minty, but it's not sweet. ingredients: purified water, mint.
b.) when cold, it tastes kind of like mint ice cream.
c.) it freshens my mouth perfectly after drinking coffee all morning.
d.) smells mintirific.
e.) the bottle is oh-so-cute sitting on my desk.

btw - conor does not like this water, so it's not for everyone. but, let it be known that he hates mint everything. he doesn't even like high-quality chocolates with mint filling. or mint flavored gums. he's totally weird.

btw, metromint's website claims that mint relieves stress, calms you down, settles tummies, all sorts of medicinal things. not sure if i believe them, but thought i'd share.

peet's performer of the week

i promise after tonight i won't blog about running so much... but i have one more thing to share.

so every week at practice, we start out the night with announcements from our president, announcements from our race coordinators, and announcements from whomever has something to announce.

then, our coach recaps race results from the previous weekend for people on the team who raced. then he goes over the night's workout plan. and finally, before sending us off to warm up, he announces the "peet's performer of the week."

the peet's performer of the week is basically a little prize -- it's a $5 gift card to peet's coffee. our coach gives them out, with a little hand-written note to the person who wins, and also gives a little explanation to the team about why they deserve it.

the ppotw usually goes to someone who had an amazing race the previous weekend -- it very rarely goes to someone for a workout, and if you race, but perform as expected, never placing in the top 10 or doing anything exceptional, then it's pretty unlikely that you'll get it, either.

in fact, i'm not totally sure the criteria, but you basically have to stand out to our coach -- and on a team as insane as this one is, that can be HARD to do.

in all my (short) time on the team, i can't think of anyone from my "class" (ie, who joined when i did) that has gotten the peet's performer of the week yet... we're all still trying to figure things out, let alone doing anything amazing.

anyways, this past weekend, TONS of people had awesome races... we had runners who placed 1, 2, and 4th of the women at the 1/2 marathon i ran -- with split times sub 6 minutes!. we also had people who had their best race times in 7+ years. we had people who qualified for the ny marathon, or won money for placing first in trail races, etc. it was pretty cool to get our list of race times on sunday in an email, and to see all the people who had "(PR)" written next to their time.

(PR means personal record - i.e, your best time for that race and/or distance)

but...

despite all that...

guess who got peet's performer of the week tonight?

ms. "15 minute PR", that's who! the only person who shaved over a minute off their mile splits!

me!
yeeeeeeee!

i feel like i may as well have won the race!
is it cheesy if i say this is a dream come true? yes?
well, okay.
but it's still exciting.
i can't explain it.

it's like... somehow, all my pain from trying to get better (= not suck) has finally, in a tiny, miniscule, and otherwise insignificant way, PAID OFF...

like, i finally proved to the women on the team (and myself) that i actually deserve to be there.

and now i'm totally motivated to get even better! go impalas!

why i hate the restroom at my new office

1. it's really far away. i have to schedule bathroom breaks now.

2. that also means that i have to walk by over half the office to get to it. news flash! megan has to go... again!

3. the faucets leak all over the counter. accidental counter-leans result in big puddles of water on your shirt. yay.

4. the locks on the stalls have these little nobs that turn the wrong way. do you want to turn the lock out, to the right? turn the knob left! do you want to retract the lock in, to the left? turn the knob right! what genius made those?

5. the light is bad, the mirrors are not flattering.

6. there is a motion detector on an EXIT door just outside the restroom that clicks when you go by it. twice. click click. pause. click click. i can't escape the click. the click drives me crazy!

public transportation

for a city that has such "advanced" public transportation that they can supposedly tell you real-time data about where your next bus/train is via web or cellphone, the san francisco MUNI sucks. their real-time data is full of lies.

and that's all i have to say. ok, maybe not all. but there is no need to get into a long gripe, because i would end up ranting in a tangent about all the ridiculous people who take the MUNI, too -- which although quite funny, they're not what i feel like writing about.

the truth is, budget cutbacks were not kind to MUNI which means the MUNI is not kind to me.

it can be a cruel, cruel world for us car lackers (those lacking in cars), and i frankly don't like what i see.

(however, a big amen that zipcar recently came to SF!)

zoom!

UPDATE:

my official time was 1:37:54, a split of 7:28/mile.

i forgot to mention that conor's 5k was also great - he placed 25th in his age group (out of 367)!

>> race results

----------

i took 15 minutes off my half marathon time this morning! yee!

i'll post my official time when i get it - but i think it was around 1:38.
i'm very elated about this. i've never PR'd by so much in my life.

insert giant grin here.

:)