South Africa!

In just 5 days we'll be boarding a plane for a long voyage to South Africa! Sounds cool, but why South Africa you ask? The short story is that my soccer obsessed husband wore me down after months of begging, pleading, and cajoling discussions, and convinced me that we should travel to the bottom of the southern hemisphere to catch the World Cup live. Finally, I caved. Actually, Uncle Sam helped in the form of a nice tax return, and then I had to agree: two weeks of soccer + wine tasting + wild animal viewing sounded pretty good.

So here we are, just 5 days from departure, and I am frantically trying to cram about 2 weeks of work into the 2.5 remaining work days until we leave. Oh, yeah, and kick butt at my triathlon on Sunday. Plus do laundry, pack, clean, and take care of all that stuff you suddenly find yourself needing to take care of before you leave the country for 16 days. Can you say multi-tasking? But, really, I know I can't complain. I'm getting pretty darn excited.

I'll be back to post pictures of our adventures in late June, but here's a quick overview of our itinerary:

June 8-10: Travel to Johannesburg. Yes, it takes two days. And believe it or not, only 7 hours of that 2 days is due to the time change. We just have two really, really long flights, with a 12 hour layover in Dubai. But that's cool. We plan to leave the airport for a few hours to see if Dubai lives up to all the hype.

June 10-12: Spend some time in and around Johannesburg and Pretoria, including touring a game park and attending the USA vs. England soccer match on the 12th. Go USA!


June 13-17: Travel down south to Cape Town where we'll get our fill of amazing food, see the sights (including Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated, and the Cape of Good Hope), and attend the Italy vs. Paraguay match.

June 18-19: Two words: Wine Country. Lots and lots of good food and wine in a beautiful setting. (My reward for sitting through all the soccer matches I'll undoubtedly be watching at cafes and bars for the first week of the trip.)

June 20-22: We'll travel down to the Whale Coast, for whale and great white shark viewing. No cage diving for us, but we plan to take a boat tour to watch them from a safe distance.

Can't wait for it all to begin!

Relaxation

This weekend has been just what the doctor ordered... after numerous weeks of visitors, my sister's bachlorette festivities last weekend, and plenty of work travel scattered in for good measure, I really needed a weekend to veg out and do nothing. Well, not much anyway.

J was out of town this weekend, so I got home from a business trip to Houston on Friday evening and watched the final 3 episodes of Grey's Anatomy while doing a couple loads of laundry. My interest in that show kind of ebbs and flows, but the season finale was surprisingly riveting. I was totally glued to the TV. Then I got a strange little burst of energy at about 11:45 and wound up cleaning the house for an hour. That doesn't happen often, but when the mood strikes, I go with it.

Saturday I slept in, and then my friend Anne came up from San Antonio. She is doing the triathlon with me, so we headed out to my gym to do a 30 minute open water swim, followed by a 5K. The swim felt great, but we started the run around 1:30pm. Probably not the best timing considering it was well north of 90 degrees and humid. But we got through it and rewarded ourselves a few hours later with a medium pie and a Greek salad at Home Slice. Later, we met up with a few of my friends at Lustre Pearl to enjoy a cocktail and celebrate at birthday.

Now it's Sunday and I've got to tackle one long bike ride-- probably an hour or so-- and then I plan to pretty much just lie around and relax for the rest of the day. Ahhhhhhh.

Bachelorette Weekend

I'm back after my long hiatus and vowing to get back to posting more regularly... let's say at least twice a week. First up, my sister's bachelorette party last weekend in Vancouver, B.C. It was so much fun, and so great to spend 4 days with her after not having seen her since Christmas, but let's just say I am really happy she is getting married at 26 because if she had waited another few years, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the stamina to host the bachelorette party and make it through the weekend!

There were a grand total of 17 girls, and between making sure everyone got to where we needed to be over the course of 48 hours (across the border, to the hotel, to all the restaurants and bars, etc.), doing head counts over and over (um, cruise director anyone?), making sure the bride to be didn't get into too much trouble, and of course partaking in the merriment and late nights to celebrate the end of her singlehood, I think it took me about 4 days to recover and return to my usual energy level. Well worth it, however, well worth it... A few snapshots of the weekend:

L & I getting ready to head out on the town Friday night. Yes, we look just a little bit alike.

Drinks out on Friday night... most of the bridesmaids pictured here.

L with her ribbon bouquet after the lingerie shower. Let's just say she is now more than equipped for the honeymoon!

All of the bride's and groom's sisters and sisters-in-law before heading out on Saturday night.

All in all, I think it was a success, and I'm feeling good that I can check off this maid of honor duty. Next up, showers and general encouragement through the final stretch. Can't wait 'til August!

Whirlwind!

Hi friends-- Sorry for my absence of late. It has been an absolutely crazy spring! We just wrapped up seven nearly consecutive weeks of visitors. Combine that with bi-weekly business travel and trying to squeeze in those um, super fun triathlon workouts, and the result is not a whole lot of free time for blog posting or, you know... cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, eating, sleeping, or generally taking care of business. This Thursday I am heading west to meet my sis in Seattle and then drive up to Vancouver for her bachelorette party. But, upon my return, I promise to get back to more regular posting. Get excited for recaps on:

• A visit from my best girlfriends from college
• Visits from both sets of our parents
• Bluebonnets galore: spring in Austin!
• Final stretch of the triathlon training
• The bachelorette party (duh)
• And, travel plans for our upcoming trip to South Africa in June!

Lots of exciting stuff to share... stick with me as I wrap up one more crazy week!

Love/Hate

Well, it's probably time for an update on the triathlon training. It's been going... OK. Not surprisingly, it's been tough to stick to my (very) aggressive schedule of 5 workouts a week. Combine that with an extremely busy spring with visitors in town nearly every weekend and lots of work travel, and I find myself skipping workouts pretty regularly and worrying that I am am barely going to be able to cross the finish line on June 6th, let alone achieve my goal time.

But. But. When I do get out there for my workouts (at least 3 times a week and often 4 times), I can definitely see that my cardio endurance and overall strength is improving. I'm getting faster at both swimming and biking. And I am successfully avoiding my typical running-related joint problems by only gradually increasing my pace and trying to be diligent about doing my knee strengthening exercises, IT band stretching, and icing afterward.

Of course, in addition to the challenge of finding time to fit the workouts in, I (like 98% of the human race) also struggle with maintaining my motivation. I have a love/hate relationship with exercise. Once I am about 50% through a workout, I love it. And I especially love it when I'm done. I love the rush of endorphins afterward. I love that it makes me feel more confident, calm, and positive about life in general, while also helping me reduce stress and sleep better. I love that a good workout motivates me to eat well for the rest of the day (while skipping a workout has the opposite affect... funny how that works.) I love feeling strong and powerful and vibrant, and (not gonna lie) I love being able to fit into my skinny jeans while still enjoying dessert on a regular basis.

But, I hate the feeling of dread I have at the end of the work day, when I know I still need to cross a 45 minute ride off my list (ahem, today). And I hate waking up at 5:40am several times a week to squeeze in a circuit training class (ahem, tomorrow) or a swim AND a run before work because I know that about 70% of the time that I plan to workout after work, it just doesn't happen. I also hate that sometimes I have to choose between a workout and having a relatively orderly house because there are just not enough hours in the day to do everything, and guess what? After I've put in an hour and a half at the gym and battled traffic home, the laundry just isn't going to get washed, folded, and put away. Let's be honest, doing a limited amount of housework on a work night is a struggle for me even when I haven't spent any time at the gym!

Sigh.

But, this triathlon (although totally a short, beginner race) is something that is more or less on my "bucket list" and I am choosing to keep putting one foot in front of the other (literally and figuratively), so that I can get out there on June 6th, finish the race, and feel good about the fact that I really did give it my best shot. I just need to stay focused for a little more than 6 weeks. (This the part where I emphatically tell myself, "Yes! I can do it!")

I have now sufficiently psyched myself up for my bike ride tonight such that I know I won't come up with a reason to back out. So thank you for listening.

Beef: It's what's for dinner

Along with pork ribs, brisket, and chicken... Vegetarians, this post is not for you.

A few weeks ago, Jason and I found ourselves with a free Saturday afternoon, and somehow he convinced me to make the mother of all Texas BBQ treks. He begs to go have barbecue on a bi-weekly basis, and I usually turn him down. I can only eat meals that are entirely comprised of three to four different types of spicy, greasy meat about once every 2-3 months. But this particular afternoon I gave in. We consulted our Austin Zagat guide and decided to try Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano.

We looked at a map to figure out where Llano was and set off. We could tell it was a ways outside the city, but figured it was probably about a half hour or so into the hill country. It wasn't until we'd been driving for over 4o minutes, wondering when we were going to start smelling the barbecue, that we decided to plug the address into the GPS. Um, yeah. Turns out Llano is 75 miles away from Austin. I am not entirely clear how Cooper's made it in the Austin Zagat guide. But that is neither here nor there.

When we finally arrived, an hour and a half later, we could tell we were definitely the city slickers amidst some real Texans. This was no Salt Lick-- no tourists, no scenic hill country views, no quaint split rail fences, and definitely no Austin yuppies (except us.)

The protocol was simple. Roll up to the giant pit barbecue, hold out your plastic school cafeteria tray (the sanitation of which was somewhat in question), point at the meat you want, and watch as they dunk it in a massive vat of sauce and then plop it directly on the plastic tray. We then picked out some sides in little plastic containers, went through the cafeteria style check-out line, and found ourselves a spot amongst the locals at some long tables with benches. We ripped a piece of butcher paper off a large, communal roll, and served ourselves our meat of choice on the butcher paper. No plates needed here.

Delicious, yes. Scenic, no.

We definitely got some looks from the locals. Turns out most patrons at Coopers don't wear skinny jeans and ruffly J. Crew tops whilst enjoying their pork ribs. And the decor lacked a little finesse. But it sure was tasty.

(I can't help but wonder if some of the wall decor was once dinner...)

OK, so not the cutest pictures of either me or J, but it was a Texas experience we'll always remember. Definitely worth the three hours round trip and full tank of gas. Only in Texas, my friends. Only in Texas.

SXSW Girls' Weekend

I'm baaaaack! And I've got pictures. Lots of 'em. Around the time I last wrote, we were in the midst of South by Southwest, a huge music / film / interactive festival and tradeshow that takes over the entire city of Austin each March for 10 days, and three of my best girlfriends from Seattle were about to arrive for an epic Austin girls' weekend. Austin did not disappoint.

A few highlights: avocado margs and pollo con mole at Curra's, strolling up and down South Congress perusing the boutiques and vintage stores (I finally found a sweet pair of vintage, totally broken-in cowboy boots), lots of sun and a little pool time, 4 consecutive nights of live music, drinks by the pool at the Hotel San Jose, a drive through the Beverage Barn to pick up beer (it's literally a drive through liquor store-- gotta love Texas) en route to The Salt Lick where we enjoyed finger lickin' good barbecue (and where BYOB is mandatory, hence the trip to the Beverage Barn), and, finally, gospel brunch at Threadgill's. Doesn't get more Austin than that.

Lora, me, Ellen, and Sarah in front of the Driskill hotel, on our way into to see a SXSW show.

And later that night, we ran into a random troupe of hula hoopers. They let us hula for a minute.

Walking home one night... this, um, iconic neon sign graces our neighborhood every evening after dark. J was a good sport and hung with the girls a few of the evenings.

And, a trip to Austin isn't complete without enjoying a frosty beverage at the swanky Hotel San Jose's poolside bar. Sporting my new boots here!

A fantastic weekend. Makes me miss my girls. Can't wait to do it again... and lucky me, we have 3 more sets of guests coming this spring, so we'll get to show off our city a few more times.