Tag: Wedding

Just keep swimming… + a wedding

~ meh ~ Leave a comment

So it turns out August might not be the best month to really ramp up your swimming regimen in Lexington.  With the UK pool closed and half of the outdoor pools shut down because school has started, and the half that are open usually jam packed with 3 club teams sharing 4 lanes…it’s ugly.  So the only real option is getting up at 5 to go to the Y…which, seriously, I’m just not going to do during the one month of the year that I don’t coach.

But guess what’s just around the river bend.

Training started out ok…I was good about swimming at least 3500-4000 every day when we were out in SB in July, and when I got home from that trip I shocked myself by coming up with long sets and doing the whole thing after work BY MYSELF, including a few 3K swims straight for time.  Like, what?

But last week work got super busy with travel, and this past weekend I was out in LA for my cousins wedding, which calls for a…SIDE POST:

the beautiful bride and father

part of the paternal side of the fam looking so sad because we missed molly so much

a classy granny…i can only hope that this is genetic and i look that good at 86

…and my dad in a yarmulke

So the wedding was wonderful and the bride was stunning and…it was in LA!  So all of my time was spent either with family or in the ocean, or with family in the ocean.  No complaining there.  But none of it training.  Even though I sometimes count body surfing as a swim workout.  Almost.  Because it’s my favorite thing to do ever.

When I got back, crazy work schedule + Paul’s 24 hour shifts continued, along with a peeling forehead from forgetting to put on sunscreen (really great for client meetings.)  But I did finally manage to hop in on Thursday and squeeze a 2000 “for time” (really I just tried to hold a steady pace and feel comfortable) into my workout.  But that’s all I’ve done in almost 3 weeks.

Got another longer swim on the docket for tomorrow morning (anyone who wants to join…call me) and I’ll continue to do my best to cram for the next 3 weeks, but I’m pretty sure things are going to be touch and go until UK opens up again in September.

Moral of the story: might be best to start preparing for a painful swim in Chicago.

pic via

P.S.  Good luck to Joe who is running the Old Farts Marathon this weekend up in Michigan, a marathon that sounds brutal, is full of hills that appear to be named after my father and his brothers (Ed, Chuck…), and that you apparently don’t have to be an old fart to race in.   GO GET EM

Californ.i.a.

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

This week has been pretty ridiculously busy, and I’ve spent a lot of it being Cranky McCranksterpants.  So it’s probably best I didn’t do any sort of commentary.  Last week, though, was amazing.

Started out flying into LA and renting the cheapest car possible:

Fiat 500.  Booyah.  Every time we saw another one the driver would give us a thumbs up.

First up was a 20-hour trip to SD, where I visited my old friend Jen.  We hit up Comic Con…

…and ended the night at a gay bar with everyone was dressed like superheroes with inflatable flamingos everywhere.  There was some carnage the next morning.

Kind of tragic.

After that it was up the coast to Santa Barbara

where we ate some good produce from my parents yard

enjoyed local brew

and binged on Blenders and burritos.  Lots and lots of burritos.

There was also Red Rock

and some kayaking

and Hendrys.

It was a pretty fantastic week of relaxation and sun.

Then it was up the coast again to Carmel for a really spectacular wedding.

Instead of a traditional rehearsal dinner, Alix and Christian threw a rock legends party where everyone had to dress up like rock stars.

The blushing bride.

The wedding itself was out on a reserve

and the reception was held in a barn.

Alix and Christian run the Lazy Parrot CSA, and our tables had basil plants and all sorts of fresh produce to make our own bruschetta.  That was awesome.  As was the dance floor.

It was a spectacular weekend.  The next morning we drove up the coast a little further to SF, which isn’t a bad place to recover with friends and fish tacos.

Then the red-eye back to Kentucky and right into the week from hell (OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it was busy.)  I’m still exhausted.  And tomorrow, assuming the weather mellows out, I’m on another flight solo out to DC for Kristin’s 30th.

But for now, enjoy the picture from our front porch tonight before the deluge began.

On the road again…

~ meh ~ 2 Comments

This has become a pretty common view over the past few weeks.  Georgia last weekend for Molly’s sendoff, and this past weekend out to the west coast for something totally different.

A bachelorette party for Alix in a particularly ridiculous house in Hood River, OR.

That’s Alix.  And yes, those are her sheep.

While a weekend trip to Oregon did mean a little travel time (total: 12 hours on the way out, about 36 hours there, and a 14 hour trip home), it also meant a little bit of this:

(believe it or not, that picture took 3 tries to get us to look “normal”)

…and this:

(a nice little/pretty strenuous hike up to where the hills are alive with Mt Hood in the distance)

…and this:

(which resulted in pretty much everyone being completely fried the rest of the trip)

…and this:

(beer!)

…and a lot of other stuff that I don’t have pictures of yet–including, but not limited to, an afterparty with an up-and-coming boy band (“we’ve never had girls just come up and talk to us before!”) and karaoke at a bar with a guy named Frijoles.  I may end up posting a few pictures as they come in if there are any particularly amazing ones.

So, despite getting home at 2:30am on Monday morning and having to go to work the next day, then traveling to Louisville on Tuesday & Wednesday for a conference, which resulted in me getting sick today, the day before I head to Florida with Allison for our first race of the season (where I fully plan to rub bike tires with Lance Armstrong), it was clearly worth it.  There’s nothing like spending a weekend with old friends.  My body might be tired, but my soul is rejuvenated.

So tomorrow we drive to St. Anthony’s.  Long ride.  It’s a big race for Allison, but considering the state I’m currently in I’m hoping to make it through without hacking up a lung.  So send fast vibes her way.

Also, one additional bonus the weekend: the weather on Sunday was RIDICULOUS, making for really spectacular sights like this from the airplane window:

(Mt Hood, I think)

Can’t really complain.

Weekend Home

~ meh ~ Leave a comment

After a harrowing trip back that involved an attempt to fly through some nasty thunderstorms in the South only to turn around and head back to Chicago, sharing a hotel room with a stranger from my flight, and over 20 hours of delays, I am back in Kentucky.  Though it rained on Friday, there was no snow in Santa Barbara while I was there, and Saturday and Sunday the weather was BEAUTIFUL…

…as was the bride at the wedding we attended.

Saturday morning we woke up to clear skies, so first I went for a run along the beach…

…then joined my parents for stadiums at SBCC…

…then met up with another old friend who just happened to be in town at our old stomping grounds…

…for a swim.

Then we headed to the wedding and reception down at the Bathhouse…

…and the next morning drove back down to LA to begin the 36 hour trek back to Kentucky.

Also got to make a trip to Trader Joe’s (exciting) since there is no TJ’s in the state of Kentucky (a sad truth), see some really good friends for the first time in years, and enjoy the sun.  What more could you ask for.  Hope to be back soon.

Wedding mags, anyone?

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

About 2 months ago a photo editor from The Knot emailed me and let me know that The Knot Northern California wanted to run a picture from our wedding in its Spring 2011 issue.  The issue came out last month, so I went online and ordered a few copies, thinking it might be nice to send copies to our parents or Granny or whoever.  When they arrived yesterday I wasn’t home and Paul, not knowing what they were, opened up the box and was like, “Ummm…are you planning on getting married again in the South?”

Northern California…North Carolina….Dammit.

Update: Turns out this was their mistake, not mine.  I called them and they apologized and said the copies or Northern California are on their way.  The box arrived yesterday…4 more copies of North Carolina.  Seriously.

Updated update: Replacement box #2 came, we now have 12 copies of North Carolina.

Sick Moves

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

I attended the wedding of a family friend this weekend with Paul’s family (where we were seated at the German table, because the family of the bride thought it was hilarious….and super fun for the 2 of us sitting there that didn’t speak German…to sit all the foreigners’ families together).  Somewhere in between the German conversations, Makers Mark, and moving rendition of Hillbilly Deluxe by the groom and his friends, we realized the array of dance moves you can pull off with one arm stuck at a 90 degree angle is kind of amazing.  Here are a few.

The Twist:

Stop In The Name of Love:

The crowd favorite, The Sprinkler (a modified version):

The Robot:

The Ahnold:

And the Hillbilly Jig (poor shot but believe me, you can do it):

The Lawnmower and Truck Driver also work, but didn’t get caught on film.  And I’m throwing this picture in here just because the two guys in the background were in such fine form:

A+.  Kentucky weddings rule.

Random wedding post

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

So i got married in December and just had to put a little promo (for all the heavy traffic on this site) for Lilia Photography and Jaclyn Jean hair and makeup.

Lilia rocks.  Not only is she fantastic at what she does, she is also a great person to drive around the city with (we spent some quality time in the car on the way to Crissy Field.)  She was very flexible and offered up a lot of ideas for locations, and her city hall special is a fantastic deal.

And Jaclyn.  Jaclyn is amazing.  I was lucky enough to catch her up in the Bay Area (she is based out of LA), she woke up at 5am to make the trip over the bridge from the East Bay into SF to get my hair done on time.  Despite somewhat of time-crunch, she was super calm and kept telling me it would be no problem to fix my hair if there was anything I didn’t like about it.  Couldn’t have made better choices, two thumbs up, highly recommend them both.