denver.

of all the potential places we could live, i think i would love denver the most. we visited for just two days, didn't even do any of the colorado stuff--like hiking and skiing--except for shop at REI, and i still managed to fall in love with it. we stayed with one of ario's friends from residency and his wife (scott and megan). they have a kickass apartment in a highrise in the center of downtown, easy walk to everything...so that had a lot to do with why i loved it so much there. it made me wonder if i wanted a house with a yard in the suburbs, or less space close to everything (and as much as i love target, it doesn't count as a store i want to be able to walk to...) anyway, it definitely made me question how i want our eventual living situation to be.

megan's friend from college and her husband (lisa and chris) were visiting too, along with their adorable australian shepherd, digger. i pretended that the dog was mine and got my doggie fix for the weekend too.

we got in friday night around 9:30...megan and lisa picked us up and we went to the apartment and hung out. i passed out around midnight, which was really 2 am my time! the next morning i woke up around 6 and decided to go for a short run around their neighborhood. long story short, i got lost somewhere and the short run ended up taking an hour and a half. but when i got back around 7:30, everyone except ario was still asleep. i was very careful not to make too much noise at first, quietly took a quick shower, put off using the coffee grinder to make coffee...then by around 8:15 i was getting bored so i started banging things around in the kitchen and dammit i used the coffee grinder. by 8:30, everyone was awake...SUCCESS! :)

we went to a cafe for breakfast and we took the dog with us. inside the restaurant. how? oh, the dog has a "service dog in training" vest. everyone smiled, made way, and didn't even question anything. don't ask me how legit the vest is, because the dog is awesome and did exactly what he was supposed to do--that is, walk directly next to me, go under the table, put his head down, and wait for us to finish. so as far as anyone knows, he IS really in training. besides, lisa uses him as a therapy dog for children, so anyway, my point is it was all very legit. kinda. and also when i get a dog i am totally getting a service dog vest so i can take him everywhere.

after breakfast we walked around, went to the awesome REI store, i bought a pair of flip flops and ario and i mused on how awesome it would be to live in denver. then we went to the park where i learned how to play (and became slightly obsessed to) bocce ball. so much so that we bought a set when we came home. actually two sets, one standard, and one with smaller, lighter balls so the kids can play.

dinner that night was on a rooftop deck (seems like i tend to like rooftop decks...) at a mexican restaurant. awesome food, even better conversation with genuinely lovable people. we walked to and from the restaurant and i was wearing my new most favorite pair of shoes ever. high heels that are comfortable?? bring 'em on. after dinner we stopped at a little pub and everyone had drinks. i put my head down on the table and i actually fell asleep for a little while. i remember people's voices in and out of my head, but don't recall much of what they said. i woke up to laughter--at me, for sleeping in a bar. is it that unheard of?

the next morning we walked around the neighborhood some more, bought some stuff for the kids, (looked at a couple of houses, holy shit expensive)...and headed to the airport. at the airport security line, i was informed that my license had expired in july. uhh...oops. the chick asked for another form of ID and all i had was my costco card. this could've potentially been disasterous, but she accepted that and we were on our merry way. not the worst thing in the world, to be stuck in denver...too bad i missed the kids.

so. pics.

this was my breakfast saturday morning. carbs rule. i shared a little, but mostly i ate it all by myself.


me and digger the australian shepherd, aka the service dog, aka the coolest dog in the world:

denver also rocks because they have a printed version of "the onion"


heading to the park (they're carrying the bocce ball case...it's heavy!)


at dinner:

my models:

at the pub, about 5 minutes before i fell asleep:

maybe i was hypnotized by the green.

and here a couple of wanna-be artsy pictures the morning before we left.
there's a chick painting in that window, if you squint you can kind of see her.

i'm already trying to plan our next trip back. sometime in february maybe? i don't know...but i wanna. :)

surprise 30th

do you remember my friend that was nice enough to humor me and sign up for the half marathon this past may? the one that walked 13.1 miles with me after i convinced what a great workout start that would be? well, her husband and i planned a surprise 30th for her. we threw around a lot of ideas, from a luau to a rooftop party on top of the observatory here in cincinnati. unfortunately, we didn't know where to have a luau, and they don't rent the observatory for private parties. so we decided that you can't ever fail with a short bus and lots of drinking. also, i learned that there are actual cool places in cincinnati (and even north kentucky...gasp!) that you can go to if you don't normally spend your friday nights at home :)

we met at a restaurant for the surprise--she had NO clue--and then hopped on the Petermann bus, which is used to transport mentally handicapped children and adults, and partied. i decorated the bus and the cake, so i got my crafty urges taken care of too :) also? lots of jello shots. i tapped into my former 21-year old self for this one. everyone had a blast, the birthday girl was genuinely surprised...party was a success :)

at Pirate's Cove at the marina, where the initial surprise took place...i say initial because the second surprise was the short bus.


the birthday cake:

(it was windy...)


On the bus:

(you can see some of the decorations. trust me, it looked good. as good as a bus for retarded people can look anyway.)

Chez Nora, a cool little jazz bar (IN KENTUCKY. HOLY SHIT.) with a rooftop deck:

(see the red wristband? that was so the bartender could keep track of who was on our tab. we're so helpfully clever!)

At some new bar, called The Righteous Room. It was...righteous. Uh...righteously crowded:

what am i saying to ario? i don't know--but i want to know!!

so. as it turns out, i enjoy throwing birthday parties for other people. it's fun planning, decorating, AND shopping for it...especially when someone else is (happily) paying for it all. if you would like my services of spending your money, call me! :)

artin's first day of elementary school

artin has officially started what ario called "the first day of a very long time of torture"...he never liked school, if you didn't catch that. i, on the other hand, was so excited for him! well, really just excited for me because i got to go school supply shopping!! it was awesome, even though i didn't like how artin had his own preferences and wouldn't get what i wanted him to get. damn kid, i'm paying for this shit, what's wrong with a thundercats lunchbox??? he chose a super mario galaxy backpack and a mariokart wii lunchbox. i also bought him a bento box because i thought it would be cute for him to have a little bit of everything without all the millions of plastic bags etc. i was also so happy he could take a lunch he would eat--his preschool and kindergarten school had a "no nuts" rule because of all the kids with allergies, so you can imagine what little choice that left for a kid whose entire diet consists of nuts or soy of some sort--peanut butter, almond butter, tofu, and the likes. you have no idea how excited i was to make him that almond butter and honey sandwich, cut it up and put it in his bento box with clementines, fruit snacks, and a little tiny snickers. lookie:


cute, right?? well the shit didn't eat any of it. not that i blame him. i guess i left some room for things to move around, so when he brought his lunchbag home, i saw the pretty little bento meal all conglomerated into one nasty-looking mix of a sandwich conglomerated with fruit snacks and snickers swimming in clementine juice. i didn't take a picture because it was a hot mess of a lunch and frankly it kinda depressed me.

anyway, the school is very close to us and it's been very...quaint and suburb-y walking with the kids in the morning. there is one little street to cross and the rest of the way artin can go by himself. which he pretty much does since he walks ahead of us (niek likes to stop and look at every little thing on the ground. and avisa, while fast, is inefficient sometimes as she runs in zigzags instead of straight lines.) i'm thinking second grade he can go by himself, if we're still here (a constantly changing thing for us, where we'll be).

anyway, here are some pics of the milestone day:

my half-assed marathon training

i can't for the life of me get into full-mode marathon training, and it's not for lack of trying. the last (and only other) marathon i trained for seemed so much easier. the marathon is in a little over 2 months, and by next month i should comfortably (well, not comfortably, but capably) be able to do a 20-mile run at about a minute/mile pace LESS than what i hope to do on marathon day. the most i've done so far is 11 miles and it was HELL. i picked a route with a lot of hills (to try and prepare for san francisco's hills) and i just about crawled the last mile. hills suck my ass*.

to make myself feel better and feel like less of a lazy ass who signed up for something she wasn't mentally prepared for, i made a list to compare my previous marathon training experience with my current one. as you can see, odds were definitely in my favor last time. basically, this little list makes me feel better about being a fatty mcfatty mofo.

last marathon experience will be in blue
this time around will be in red

why the colors you ask? because i don't know how to make a table in this thing.

anyway.

number of kids while training: 2 3

pregnant: yes no

# of days working: 2 3, sometimes 4 OMG,WTF!!!!!!!

raising money (ie feeling obligated to run since people were giving money): yes no

weather humid outside: no yes

ario had crazy call schedule: yes no


CLEARLY, other than the fact that i was pregnant last time for part of training and that ario was home much less, all other factors point to a less feasible lifestyle for attempts at maintaining a respectable training schedule. am i right or am i right??

but i'm trying. yesterday i decided to go for a run before work. niek wanted to ride his bike with me and i (stupidly) agreed to let him come along. it took me 50 minutes to run 3 miles. why? oh, because niek wanted to stop and smell every flower (mostly weeds actually)...finally i had to rush home and shower because i would end up late for work otherwise.

so today i woke up very early and went for a run before the kids woke up, got home right in time for ario to leave for work. i'm really going to try and get my shit together but damn, just thinking about possibly doing 12-14 miles this weekend makes me a little bit tired! oh well. i guess i'll just have to let my prize at the finish line be the goal--a tiffany necklace given by a firefighter in a tuxedo. woot woot!

like i said...i'm really, really trying!

*you know what's funny? hills literally DO suck ass, as hill-running is great for butt-shaping.

another avisa incident involving shit. yeah another one

the last time i recall ario calling for "help" with any sense of urgency was when avisa had rubbed a poopy diaper all over the bathroom floor. so you can imagine my dismay as i heard the severity in his voice yesterday when he went to get avisa out of her crib after her nap.

we were downstairs playing music and dancing around with the boys when i thought avisa was awake. ario went upstairs only to find her sitting butt-naked in her bed, clothes thrown on the floor...along with a diaper chock-full of fecal matter, the sheer quantity of it enough to rival any adult shit.

ario had a little rant-off, the stream including "god was is wrong with her" and "wtf is she going to be like when she's older" and "seriously avisa what's wrong with you?"...

but then we decided to look at it from her point of view. she probably took a fat shit, called for us, and we couldn't hear her because we were too busy blasting music downstairs. she figured that just because her negligent parents weren't paying attention didn't mean she had to sit in shit all day long and took matters in her own hands, took off all her clothes and wiped her ass clean all over the sheets.

honestly, i was a little proud of her. no pics this time, sorry.