What I did on my Thanksgiving vacation

I heart 5-day weekends! I know I wrote in an earlier entry that 3-day weekends should be the norm, but man, 5-day weekends are the bomb!

Wednesday was spent doing ho-hum, but necessary, things like laundry, housework and depositing my paycheck in the bank. Kahuna and I headed downtown around 5 to pick up race packages and then we went to this mom and pop mexican food joint that I had been wanting to try. Good eats, followed up by great coffee next door at my fave coffee house. I swear I’ve just about given up on Starbucks after finding this place. Melissa came in later that evening.

Thursday morning the 3 of us headed back downtown after getting up around 5:30 for our pre-race breakfasts. Mine consisted of oatmeal and ibuprofen. I admit to being nervous about eating since I normally go out and do my morning runs on an empty stomach. We parked not too far away from the starting line and by the time we walked over Melissa and I decided to race the 1st race so we wouldn’t have to stand around in the chilly morning. I’m so glad we did, since I got to see Kahuna come in and finish his race (he ran the 2nd one) at a sub-21:00 pace.

The first mile was hard! I remember thinking at the mile-marker that there was no way I was going to be able to finish. It didn’t help much that people were calling out times that were far slower than what I was showing. Right after that was the turning point to head down to the PCH and I remember feeling really good as I ran around that corner. It may have been because I heard Kahuna’s voice and looked up to see him standing all alone cheering us on. That was such a nice feeling. Down, down, down we headed toward the beach. There were a ton of surfers bobbing around and the dolphins were out so it was a nice distraction. And there it was, the finish line! I thought I had finished at 55:20; however, the official times show me at 46:something. Rather proud of myself for finishing and not taking the photographer out who insisted on standing right in my path. Thank goodness he moved at the last minute and I only caught him in the elbow because I was going downhill, there was momentum and I was too pooped to stop! 🙂

After Kahuna finished we walked over to my fave coffee shop to grab some post-race refreshments and walked back to the car. We ended up going out to lunch at Denny’s (thanks again Melissa) because we were all a little pooped. The rest of the afternoon, before Melissa had to leave, was spent trying to nap. That evening Kahuna and I went out hunting for a frozen pizza, a piece of cheesecake and a bottle of wine. Nothing like romantic grocery store fare 🙂

Friday found the two of us deciding to stay put. There’s nothing in any store that I need bad enough to go out with crazy people – my personality doesn’t put up with pushing and shoving and I’d have probably hurt someone. I cooked our turkey breast, dressing, stuffing and deviled eggs that I was supposed to cook on Thanksgiving day and Kahuna tried to go out and do a LSD on the bike, but his legs were still trashed from the day before and I think he was back home in 15 minutes. I did a bit of laundry and organizing in my office and we enjoyed our turkey foods.

Saturday we headed out shopping and bought a new dining room suite and probably picked out new bedroom furniture. We’re probably going to put off buying that until we see what happens with Kahuna going to Iraq and us buying a house.

Sunday was more staying home except for a trip to the grocery store. I did a bit more laundry, bathed the puppies, and stitched for 2-3 hours on French Alphabet Sampler. I put the last photo up on my stitching page at the top. I cannot believe it’s been since February that I worked on it. I plan on continuing to stitch on it until this weekend, then will probably switch over to Justine.

Today it’s back to the grindstone, but I’ve already turned in my request for time off in December. Kahuna and I would like to go back to Disneyland the week of the 10th and I want the week off between Christmas and the 1st.

Tonight starts our working out at the fitness center. I’m planning on getting there before Kahuna and playing on the elliptical (my heel is shot!) and then we’re going to swim. We’re planning on doing this every night this week. Next Monday starts the training program for my first triathlon. I have a 5K scheduled for early February and am wondering if I can beat my 46:something time.