Sleep Deprived

I normally need at least 8 hours of beauty sleep a night.  In the last 2 days I've slept a total of 9 hours.  Why?

This is the reason...

This is by far one of the best Kdramas this year.

The New World

By now we all know the Japanese are obsessed with their robots.  They've created robotic dogs for the lonely seniors, and robotic maids to help the frail elderly around the house.  Now they've created this...

japanese robot pop star @ Yahoo! Video

Pretty amazing, but freaky at the same time.  Soon we'll be living amongst robots, and we wouldn't  even know it.  The paranoid me hopes I don't live long enough to ever see that.  Think The Terminator, which, by the way, is my favorite movie of all time because it re-enforces my paranoia.

Dancing Dog

It's dogs like this one that put us to shame...

Stalemate

For the past month Mocha's been on soft food (most recently home cooked beef stew).  Since we're strong believers of 'tough love', we've switched her back to Kirkland canned food, which she is not fond of.  In the beginning she'd walk away without finishing her meal, and Truffalo, who's been fed dry food, would wait to pounce on the unfinished goods.  However, in the last few days, we've noticed that even though Mocha doesn't want to finish her meals, she'd hover over her bowl just so that Truffalo can't get to it, resulting in a stalemate...

Truffalo getting ready to pounce...

The Chipmunks Rock!

You may or may not know who Ke$ha is.  I certainly didn't until I heard her annoying song 'Tick Tock' on the radio a few weeks ago.  However, I must say the song's actually not bad when the Chipmunks are singing it...

The Biggest Fad of 2010

Call me a contrarian, a skeptic, or an omniscient, but I am calling the Vibram Fivefingers the biggest fad of 2010.  Mind you, I'm not calling it a hoax.  Some runner swear by it, saying how all their prior aches and pains just disappeared after they started running barefoot.  Fine.  However, I'm calling it a fad because I see all these people in the weight room 'walking', not running, around in their newest Vibram.  Just a few weeks ago, J asked this guy at the gym about 'the shoes'...

Guy: They're very comfortable.

J: How about running?

Guy: Oh, I don't run.

So there you have it, the biggest fad of 2010...

Its faddishness rivals those of the roller blades of the 1990s (yes, I did get myself a pair during residency, and god only knows I sucked at it),

and spandex & leg warmers of the 1980s (no, you'd never catch me dead in any one of these getups, and thank god I wasn't old enough at the time to feel compelled to dance like these guys).

The Queen Is Home

Mocha seems to be doing well, and if you didn't look closely you wouldn't even know she had surgery.  When the doctors explained that they would need to use the inner lining of her lip to close off the resected portion of the maxilla, they said to expect the lower canine to stick out of the lip, which would make her look vicious.

Either the surgeon has great techniques or Mocha had a lot of lip to go around, because nothing is really sticking out.  Although you can tell that part of her lip is 'tucked up'.

Compared to left side...

Subtle difference...

The right lip puffs in and out when she breathes.

For now, she's a little sedate after the initial excitement of coming home has worn off, and she doesn't seem to be that interested in the canned food (Truff ended up polishing up the food left in the bowl).  We'll have to keep an eye her for the next few days.

Mind Boggling

I love the internet for the simple fact that you can learn something new all the time. For example, I came across this time-lapsed video showing how a crab sheds its shell. First of all, it has never occurred to me that crabs shed their shells, but after watching this it makes perfect sense - they grow out of their exoskeleton.  Duh!

(Ignore the ad before the actual video)

It looked like the crab 'pooped' itself out.

San Diego Marathon Race Report

First things first.  I failed to qualify for Boston again, but this time I was off by 6 minutes, not 6 seconds like last time.  For some strange reason I'm not totally beaten up by fail #2.  Maybe because I've reset my goals so many times during the run that I've managed to do much better than what I had finally decided was my goal.  Along the run, my goal went from BQ to 'just finish' to 'must beat NYC times' to 'under 4 hours'.  I finally came in at 3:52:22 (much better than under 4), so I'm pretty satisfied.  So what happened?  We'll get to that, but let's rewind to the day before.

J and I got to San Diego at around noon Saturday, and headed straight for the expo before grabbing lunch.  The Rock n' Roll marathon is an entire league of its own.  Compared to the miniscule Tucson marathon, this one is huge.  If you include both the marathon and 1/2 marathon runners at SD (there were more 1/2 marathon runners), the field is about the size of the NYC marathon.  

Packet pick-up.  They required a photo ID and a printed signed confirmation sheet.  No other races in the past required a photo ID.  I guess they're trying to prevent people from selling their bibs, or having other people run for you.

Scenes at the expo

Way too commercialized...

Porta potty fitting rooms...

I had wanted to sign up with the 3:45 pace group, but they ended up not having one.  They had a pace team for 3:40 and 4:00 and nothing in between.  That was a sign.  Next to their table, I saw that they had pace bands for each race time, so I figured I'd use that instead.  I was under the impression that they were giving it away for free so I asked for the 3:45 pace band, then they asked me for $2.  What was I going to do?  Fling the band back at them?

I ended up coughing up $2 for a band that I used wisely up until mile 19, at which point I gave up tracking my time since I was starting to lag.

Everything about this marathon is better than Tucson: the expo, organization, volunteers, water & gel stations, and medical aid stations.  With that said, I would not run it again because of its size.

The morning of the race (nice and overcast, but HUMID): on the way to the starting line.  It was a mile and half from our hotel.

I'm the 'short little thing' in the white cap futzing around with my garmin, and finally concluding that my garmin refused to be 'customized', so I turned the 'pace alert' to OFF.

Scene at the start line, with marathoners (blue bibs), 1/2 marathoners (yellow bibs), and relay runners (black bib) all grouped together.

And off we go...

I was running a bit under pace, but made sure I slowed down when I was going too fast.  Things were going great even up that hill between miles 7 and 10.5 that I was fretting about pre-race.  I thought to myself, "This is it?"  Apparently, my hill training had paid off.  However, things started to turn for the worse at mile 13 when I felt the first twinge of a calf cramp.  Alarms were going off in my head, "What's going on?  It's starting too soon.  I didn't get my first calf cramp until mile 19 during the Tucson race."  So I slowed down a bit more to work out the cramps, and it did release a bit from time to time but stuck around till the very end of the race.  This was about the same time the sun came out, and was in full force at mile 16 as I was about to scale a 'mountain'.  

I saw this little blip (between 16 and 16.5) on the chart, but it never concerned me as much as the earlier hill.  Oh, was I wrong...

Finally, at mile 19 I started to fall behind, and that's when I started resetting my goal.  I had felt terrible and entertained the thought of dropping out of the race.  As I approached the water stations I decided to do my walk breaks through the stations and then run on.  So it was: run a mile, walk 50 feet for the rest of the race with intermittent stops to stretch out the calves and quads.  The best thing I got from the medical station was a bag of ice, which I ran with for a mile using it to cool me down (putting it on my head, face, chest, and arms).  It was HOT!  From mile 18 on, it was 2 cups of Cytomax, one cup of water, and one cup of water used to pour over my head.  I was soaked from head to toe.  It looked as if I had peed all over myself, but the strategy helped ease the discomfort, and I began to reset my goals 'up'.  Between miles 21 and 22, I saw an ambulance with a guy in the back and another one being tended to by the paramedics, and I was so tempted to join them and ride the ambulance back, but then I remembered J was waiting for me at the finish.  For the last 1/2 mile, I started to work up to a sprint and actually felt OK sprinting, and questioned myself whether I should have started sprinting earlier.

Finish line

So what did I learn from this experience?
1) Running marathons is akin to going through labor pains.  You're hating it at the time and swearing that it'll be the last, but as soon as the race is over, you're reminiscing and planning your next race.
2) Never run summer races.  Stick to fall and winter races.
3) Run smaller races.  Large crowds mean energy wasted on running around people.
4) Never wear new running shoes for the race, because it gets really dirty with all the water poured down on it.  Luckily, I wore the ones that are about to be 'retired'.
5) If I want to qualify for boston, I should start running flat courses.
6) I need to change my training plan to include long runs that are longer than 18 miles.
7) I need to figure out what's causing these cursed leg cramps.
8) And last, but not least, I have the most wonderful and supportive husband in the world.  He followed me along the course, and was exposed to the 'element' (we all know how much he hates the sun) for 4 hours to cheer me on.  Later I apologized that he didn't get to do anything for himself on this trip and you know what he said? "I got to spend time with you."  What more can a girl ask for...

Sonoita Winery

Who said you can't have wineries in the middle of the desert.  Sonoita, located an hour south east of Tucson, proves that you can (though the wines leave much to be desired).

Yes, these are grape vines.

We got a chance to check out 2 wineries for some wine tasting (only 2 because we had to drive back to Tucson).  The first one was Dos Cabezas located right off route 83.  They charged $7 per person for wine tasting plus the wine glass, which you can take with you to the other wineries for tasting.  The fee came as a surprise as I didn't think wineries would charge you for tasting, and according to J they didn't in Napa Valley back in the late 90s when he went.  Most of the wines were red blends and tasted too spicy/acidic for me, and I was surprised that each bottle was going for $20-28 (and that there were takers).  I would have pegged the wines to be around $7.99.  Cafayate wines are 10 times better and only cost a fraction of the price.

Out of all the wine glasses we saw other people get from the other wineries, Dos Cabeza had the nicest ones.

Kief-Joshua was the next one we hit.

Fancier building, but the wines were just as mediocre (or it could just be that I don't like any other grapes aside from cabernet sauvignon).  This place only cost us $3 each since we already had the wine glasses from Dos Cabezas.  J asked what kind of grapes they were growing, and the owner listed a bunch of them (e.g., tempranillo, mourvedre, petit verdot) because apparently they're still trying to figure out which grapes are best for their particular terroir.

The interior

So what were the highlights of the trip?  The experience itself, lunch at Canela, and the baby lamb.

Canela is located next door to Dos Cabezas.

Cozy outdoor seating

Yummy eggs benedict

A reminder never to eat unwrapped anything.

Finally, a 6-day old lamb we saw at Kief-Joshua.

Baby lamb in action...

Country Hick

What has Arizona done to me?  I always believed you could take the girl out of the city, but not the city out of the girl.  Growing up I have always been the "LL Cool J" hip hop kind of girl, and always poo pooed on country music.  I thought country wasn't quite sophisticated; not like hip hop is any better, but at least you can dance to it.  How do you dance to country?
Four years in Arizona has changed all that.  Now I cringe when I hear rap, and my current favorite song is this...





Next thing you know, I'll be walking down the street in cowboy boots, hat, and a belt buckle the size of the state of Texas...Yeehaw!

Taking A Break From Kdrama

I'm watching this new Taiwanese show 'Down With Love' (就想賴着你), starring Ella Chen and Jerry Yan.  That's right, Jerry from F4.  Ten years later, he doesn't look a day older, but his acting skills have definitely improved since his 流星花園 days.  




I wonder if my mother-in-law still has his life size cutout...

WOW!

Read about this on CNN, and thought I'd check out the video on YouTube.  This Taiwanese adolescent boy 24 year old man singing Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You'.  First off, when you play this video close your eyes and just listen.  It's truly amazing.  




Anyone who can sing like Whitney Houston is god/goddess-like in my books.  In his case, he's Buddha-like. 

Too Much Free Time, But Who's Complaining.

I must have nothing better to do with my time, but I finished this series in 3 days.  Here's the OST of 'The Woman Who Still Wants To Marry'...

Just For Kicks...

Here are the dogs rushing back in for their treats after relieving 
themselves before bedtime.

Pinky & The Brain

This was my favorite cartoon.  Spent a lot of time watching this during sophomore year in college.  J claims he was too busy studying and was never aware of such a cartoon.  All I have to say is he missed out : )

"Gee Brain, what do you wanna do tonight?"
"Same thing we do every night, Pinky.  Try to take over the WORLD!"


They're Pinky and The Brain,
Yes Pinky and The Brain,
One is a genius, the other's insane,
They're laboratory mice,
Their genes' have been spliced.
The Pinky, The Pinky and The Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, BRAIN!


Before each night is done,
Their plan will be unfurled,
By the dawning of the sun,
They'll take over the world.


They're Pinky and The Brain,
Yes Pinky and The Brain,
Their twilight campaign,
Is easy to explain.
To prove their mousey worth,
They'll overthrow the earth.
The Pinky, The Pinky and The Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, NARF!