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Ah... Workout shoes. So important. The foundation of your workout. Body alignment, shock absorption, padding, saving your joints, etc. It all depends on a good base. And with as much as I work out, all the above are paramount. I don't want to kill my joins before I'm 30! .

I guess the importance of it is what makes it so challenging for me to find good shoes. My favorite Rykas that I like, they don't make any more, so I went on a scavenger hunt to find good shoes.

I do both high-impact aerobics with a lot of lateral movement as well as some running. That means I need two entirely different types of shoes. At the strong encouragement... I mean... After being yelled at by my hard-core runner friends, I went and got fitted for running shoes at Roadrunner Sports.

It was pretty cool. I walked on this pressure-sensitive floor pad thing that saw pressure points and where my foot hit first, arch size, etc. Then, I got on a treadmill and jogged for a bit while they videoed my feet. Watching the video, they could see how I ran, if I pronate, etc, etc.   Then, they dragged out a few shoes they recommended for my running style.  I ended up with a lovely pair and arch-supporting insoles.

Here are my super girly pink Asics Gel Kayano 16 shoes! I've taken them out a few times so far and I like them! No rubbing or blisters or anything! Yay.



As for lateral movement trainers... That's a whole other dilemma. As much focus as there is on getting fitted for running shoes, it's next to impossible to get fitted for trainers. And trust me, I've tried. Since I like my Asics so much for running, I thought I'd keep with that brand and try some of their trainers out. Thankfully, Endless.com has a great free shipping/free return shipping policy. So, I bought 4 pairs and will send 3 back once I make my decision.

I think I've decided on these Asics GEL-Fluent 2. I'm not 100% sure yet. I need to try them out a bit more before I decide. They seem to have good lateral support and lots of forefoot shock absorption, which I need for my on-the-toes kick boxing classes and aerobics. 



Take care of your feet. They are worth the extra $$ it might take for good shoes.

A tweak to an entirely overplayed song with great harmony... Best part is at 2:03! Enjoy!

E thought it would be more simple to just throw her in the laundry on gentle cycle. :)

The only clothes I've bought for her... A Halloween costume. It was on sale. I couldn't resist.  She's adorable and doesn't seem to mind it too much.

We're hosting this year's conference at our church. I'm also doing the design of the flier, the website, online registration, facilities coordination, etc. It's been a bit wild planning the conference. I'm looking forward to the event, though! I hope we can get it all coordinated and together. Whew!

www.westcoastdeafconference.com

E took me to The Slanted Door at the Ferry Building for my bday this year. I LOVE that place!



I even got a special 'happy birthday' dessert! (that was not only pretty, but also tasted amazing!)



The next day, we went to Taylor's Refresher for (veggie) burgers and sweet potato fries. YUM!




We all came - including babies and doggies!



Then, we went next door to Kara's Cupcakes for bday cupcakes. My favorite - ever!!!





To work off some of that burger/fries/cupcake, we went for a walk downtown Napa. It was a gorgeous day.

I went on a business trip to San Diego in September. It was partly a "scouting" trip since E and I will be going down that direction on vacation in a few weeks. I came in early to look around a bit. It was a blast (outside the training). I can't wait to go back.




I wandered around the Gaslamp Quarter. What a great area with quaint restaurants, etc.




I stayed at a hotel that was a converted bank. Fun.




I took myself to Balboa Park carousel and rode it by myself. Yay for riding a carousel by yourself as an adult! Whee! :)




Each trip, I try to find a local vegetarian restaurant. This trip, I went to Spread. It was pretty good. You can read my full report at Yelp.




I had a recommendation from a friend to go to Extraordinary Desserts. And they truly were Extra-Ordinary! This place was spectacular! I had a Lemon Berry Napoleon. I also had amazing Lion Macadamia Vanilla coffee served with rock sugar and cream.





Along the food line, I also went to Chopagn Afghan Cuisine. It was great. That was my first taste of afghan food and I really enjoyed it.

I popped into the US Grant Hotel and ended up getting an hour long tour by Clifford - the hotel historian. This place is spectacular!

... Because she's so cute.  Well, at least, I think so.  :)

In August, I went to my first Football game. Hello Ghetto!!!

Since I really don't like sports, I usually go to sporting events for the experience. I guess I expected it to be a bit more like baseball (not sure what I was thinking...). It was a lot more roudy than I anticipated with a different group of folks. I'm still glad I went to say I've experienced it. Not sure I'll be going any time soon. 

And I had no idea what was going on. A bunch of ants running around on the field in big shoulder pads. Whee! :)

At the end of July, my sis, mom and I took a day off to hang out and have a day trip. We were going to go into the city, but the ferry was full, so we ended up in Napa Valley instead. Cupcakes at Karas at Oxbow, lunch at Mustard's and a lovely lunch at Mustard's. 

And a good time was had by all.

We had a lovely 4th of July with Family and Friends this year.



And Laila got her "rat cut". She looked like a shaved rat, unfortunately. I like her fluffier. Here she is sneaking food from her friend's food dish. heh.

Every dog needs a turn in the photo booth, right?

And being shoved toward a computer makes for a great opening bug-eye shot.

Planty has officially bit the dust. I tried desperately to save him, but alas, his time had come. I think he led a good life. Rarely do poinsettias live past the Holiday season, much less a full 4 years.  He has moved onto "plant heaven" where the sun is shiny and the watering is regular.

RIP Planty.

Now, what am I going to do with the empty pot?

I've been absent for blogging for a while. I just have no gumption to write or post anything. I've been so incredibly busy. And when I'm not busy, I'm trying to catch up on my sleep.

Bear with me. I will try to be back and do better. But I make no promises.

1) Organizing my life
I took on a bit of a kitchen clean-up project and installed some drawers to organize my tupperware and food pantry. They were a mess! I installed elfa brand drawers from the Container Store. They weren't too difficult to install.


And then, bordering somewhere between OCD and utter COOLNESS, I labeled my baking cupboard with these free labels downloaded from Mer Mag of Tuesday Mourning.




2) Enjoying spring flowers
Peonies that I picked up at Costco. They smell heavenly. And they look good, too.


3) Church Life
Between working kinks out of our new sound system, hosting and teaching "girl talk" once a month, coordinating "Friday Night Live" and a special Deaf Event this weekend (come if you can! 10am service, 5:30pm bible study & social) I've been very busy.



4) Rolled the Ankle
My right ankle was jealous of the left. My left has been sprained at least 3 times. My right has avoided this spraining fate until two weeks ago. I was meeting with our pro audio guys at the church for tuning and as I was walking down the stairs, I slipped on the bottom step and fell, in full on 'classic' style. cell phone one way, sunglasses the other, papers in my hand flying everywhere. It wasn't TOO bad. Just enough to knock me off my feet for a couple of days. It's better now, but not quite to 100%.



5) Shopping
I bought 4 pairs (yes 4) of shoes the other day on one day. Major shoe damage - and not all that cheap. So half of them have to go back. I think I finally weeded down which ones I'm going to actually keep and take back. In the meantime, I've found about 15 other cute pairs of shoes that I am dying to buy. Here is an example.


Clockwise from top left: 1) Debating if I should buy. 2) Definitely going back. 3) Keeping because they were cheap. 4) Have nothing to go with them but I love them and they're 'out of the box' for me. 5) Don't fit right so I may try another size and then make my decision).

One of my friends mentioned I know a lot of sites for shoes as I was helping her shop for some cute brown flats. Yeah, I guess I do. Can I blame my job? :) Here are some of my favs:
Zappos
Nordstrom
Solestruck
Shoes
Endless
Piperlime
Lulu
Lori's Shoes

I also bought this cute dress and am seriously hoping it looks good on me when it gets here. It's scary buying online from a brand you've never tried before. It's a good thing they have a decent return and exchange policy.



6) Trying to keep Planty alive
For some reason planty has taken a turn for the worse. I'm not sure what's going on. I think I may have neglected giving him some water on time and now he's looking pretty bad and dropping a lot of leaves. Poor planty!

Learn More and Download from iTunes here



If you browse the other "LSTN" albums, you'll find more free music downloads also (LSTN 2, LSTN 3, LSTN 4)

YAY for freebies!!!

Thanks, UO, I knew I liked you for a reason.

Are these not the cutest things EVER???





From Domestic Construction

Some new Laila pics for your enjoyment:





Mid-Lick.

My husband asked me why I hadn't been blogging as much as usual. Was it the dog? Was it life?  It's probably been a little bit of all of the above, but the primary reason?

Facebook

Instead of spending my time updating my blog, instead I spend my time updating my status so that all my FB friends have real-time information about me and what I'm doing.

So, that's the answer for the wondering minds.

:)

Among other random things left in my new cube (such as a blackberry device, training manuals, etc), my lovely previous cube occupant left me...

Half used, grimy deodorant.

I disposed of it immediately after snapping a cell phone pic.

:)