2008 Training Has Been Kicked Off!

Saturday was the first official Seattle Warming Hut Hotties training walk for the 2008 Breast Cancer 3day. I was the training walk leader and picked a nice 6.5 mile route from Greenlake to Maple Leaf through the U-district and back. Last year at this time we generally had anywhere from 5-8 people show up for the training walks. Saturday we had about 25 people show up!! Of which about 19 were new faces and first time walkers. I was amazed, especially since the weather was so crappy (Snow! In West Seattle! At the end of March!). Boy it was fun to be back on the streets though and get some miles under my belt. Time to kick the training up a notch!

To quote my mother-in-law "I'm not amused"

It is March 28th and I just drove home from work in a blizzard. I left early so I wouldn't have to brave the bridges later. There is even snow sticking in my front yard. Insane!

Hello winter my "this is getting old" friend!

Um, ok, so last time I checked it was March. Not only March but officially Spring. So why, oh why was it snowing on the way home last night. I was driving along watching the temperature gage slowly recede from 38 to 37 to 36 to 35 and even down to 34, at the same time watching the precipitation turn from rain to sleet to snow. Crazy. Luckily nothing stuck around for long and this morning the world outside is the usual soggy mess.

I'm so ready for summer.

It is official - I'm a dork!

Yeah, yeah, I know - everyone already knows that, they've known for years. But check out this proof. Hot off the presses from the St. Paddy's Day Dash.

The Easter Bunny Is A Genius!

Over the weekend Chris and I visited my brother and his family in Portland. We had a great time and some really wonderful food (thanks again J&S!!). It is always fun to spend time with my nieces and they love when I visit, mainly because I bring Uncle Chris. As usual he was the big hit. I think my favorite quote from Sadie was "Uncle Chris is really good". My favorite quote from Ella was by far "The Easter Bunny is a genius!". The Easter Bunny had visited during the night Saturday and left a trail of clues hidden in plastic eggs for the girls that led them to their Easter baskets. Chris and I woke up to the sounds of the hunt in progress and Ella's exclamation being yelled repeatedly. Pretty hilarious.

Oh, and uncle Chris taught Sadie how to do "Rock On":





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Success! - $3,200

The 5% day at the Redmond Whole Foods was a huge success. We had a fun time, raised awareness, recruited walkers, and raised almost $3,200 for the Breast Cancer 3-day! That's about $640 for each of us who worked the event bringing me to almost $1,000 raised so far! Only $1,200 more to go.

A shout out is definitely in order for our supporters. My parents made the trek all the way from Wenatchee to help out. Jill came by on her lunch hour. And David and Katherine took a day off from retirement to come hand out flyers. The hotties know some great people!!

Let me just say for the record that hanging out in a wonderful store like Whole Foods for an entire day makes it really hard not to want to eat all of the goodies in sight. Our table was set up right near the bakery section, with all of the Easter treats displayed. Cute cookies shaped like bunnies and chicks. Chocolate rabbits. A tough test of will power for sure.

All in all, it was an awesome event.

Our table:


Balloons!


Sign in front of the store:


Warming Hut Hotties sign:

Wut Kitteh?

I came across this gem today and couldn't resist posting.

Fundraising Update: $240!

Yes, it is that time of year again. The time when I begin to obsess about how much money I've raised and how many training miles I've logged.

So here goes. Training miles logged - technically Zero. Funds raised - $240. Time to step it up a notch I suppose.

Training walks for the Warming Hut Hotties officially start on March 29th and I'll be leading the first one (6 or so miles)!! 5 team members registered as training walk leaders this year so that we can share the responsibility. We've even put together a public calendar so we can plan ahead.

This year I sent a fund raising mailer out to what I'll call the Wenatchee Contingent. Friends and family from that beautiful town in Central Washington who I can always count on for support. Last year I only sent out emails, no mailers, and only to my friends and coworkers from my email address book. This time I broke out my good old fashioned paper bound address book, printed out a flyer on actual paper (pink no less), and mailed it out using actual postage. I even used 3day stickers and a pink ribbon stamp. I sent these mailers out last Saturday and I've already received a $100 pledge online (Thanks Sue & Mark!!) and my mother is apparently delivering a $50 check today (Thanks Chuck & Janice!).

In other fund raising news, tomorrow is the 5% day at the Redmond Whole Foods. If you're anywhere near there, and hungry/thirsty tomorrow please stop in and purchase something! 5% of all proceeds goes to the Seattle Warming Hut Hotties 3day team! I'll be taking the day off work to be at the store handing out flyers and answering questions. I'm really looking forward to it and hope that it is a big success. My parents are heading over today to be supportive and help out with the event. Again, I have the best parents ever.

One last fund raising note. I'm starting to develop plans for this summer's Boobie-Que. Chris and I are going to throw a big BBQ at our house, charging admission, with all proceeds going to the 3day walk! We haven't picked the exact date yet, probably June or July.

Quite a Morning

If the events of this morning are any indication, I should go home and go back to bed.

First, I woke up at my usual time, took my usual shower, combed my usual hair, and went to grab for my usual toothbrush when bamn(!!), unusual yellow jacket perched on the tooth paste giving me look of death. I'm not a fan of bug, spiders, bees or snakes at all so I did what I normally do in a situation like this and went and woke Chris up. He gave it some wackers with a newspaper and I was free to go about my business once again. I finished getting ready, drove to work, and settled into my desk.

Then the next event occurred. I decided to go to the kitchen and toast my English Muffin. Doesn't sound like that big of deal right? Well we don't have a toaster. But we do have an oven with a broil feature. So, technically I broiled my English Muffin and applied Simply Jif. I then filled up my coffee cup and headed back towards my desk. At that same moment someone came through our front door setting off the chime, causing my co-worker to sprint towards the door to see who it was. At the exact moment she passed the hallway to the kitchen (in a dead run by this time) I stepped right into her path, totally oblivious. Result: WABAMN!! My coffee went flying, my muffin went flying, the plate my muffin was on smacked the ground and wound up in multiple pieces. I was in shock, and covered in coffee. And my poor muffin, the littlest casualty, ended up in the garbage.

I think I'll go home and back to bed.

Wasn't it just Friday?

Wow, that weekend just flew by. I'm not even sure there was a weekend. I think it might have been a mirage. I'm pretty sure I didn't accomplish anything this weekend, and yesterday itself is quite a blur.

Saturday Chris and I had an in home appointment with Washington Energy Services to do an estimate for replacing our windows. We knew that getting new windows wasn't going to be cheap but I don't think either of us realized exactly how much it was going to cost. Needless to say the quote to replace all of the windows in our house came in at just under $14,000. I think I'm still in shock. And that wasn't even for the fancy wood windows. That was fiberglass, no fancy stuff, windows. Oh, but they do have a 10 year 7.99% financing option and we'd only owe $149 a month. *sigh*. I think we'll move forward with getting additional quotes but I'm not sure we'll actually be getting any new windows anytime soon.

After that disappointment we decided to treat ourselves to a night out in West Seattle. We tried the newly moved Pegasus Pizza. The food was great and they had Manny's on tap (major plus as usual). Our server was super nice and attentive and their new location is WAY better than their old one. One of the main reasons I didn't like going to the old location was how dirty and grimy it always seemed. Well this place was sparkling clean (of course it is completely new too). I'll be interested to see how long that lasts. I'll surely be trying it again though. Yummy!

Sunday morning came way too fast. I had signed up for the St. Patrick's Day Dash and was to pick up my friend Christy at 7:30am. I've done quite a few of these "fun run" type events and knew exactly what to expect but I think Christy might have been thrown a little off by it. It was super crowded, freezing cold, and there were some really crazy outfits. We had to wait around in the cold for about an hour (we both over obsess about being places early), but by the time the race actually started it had warmed up nicely. The course was great. We started at the Seattle Center on Mercer Street wound our way around the center and onto the 99 (Alaskan Way Viaduct) where we were treated to a fabulous view of Elliott Bay. The sun was out, the ferries were ferrying, and it was pretty awesome to be on foot where usually only speeding cars are allowed. The dash ended at Qwest Field and we treated ourselves to beers at the Elysian Fields to celebrate.

All in all it was a pretty mellow, fun weekend, but it went WAY too fast. *sigh* Back to work....