Running, Running and Running, Running

My plan was to wait to blog about the Trolley Run until after I had received my official race photo, but apparently that’s going to take until Friday, and I don’t feel like waiting that long. (I’ll post it later if I can, but just imagine an awkward me running, red-faced with a less than flattering expression. No matter how good I feel or how hard I try to look normal and healthy, I always look like hell in the end of the race photo.) So…drum roll please…my official time was… 39:12! Not too shabby considering I drank my weight in sangria and got little sleep the night before. Before the race, I had set my goal at a very attainable 40 minutes. So, go me!

Next year, Ryan wants to run it in 30, but he’s crazy. I’m going to shoot for under 36 (under 9 minute miles), which puts me just barely in the next fastest wave. I can do it.

On another fitness-related note, my boss and friend Darryl just competed in a natural body building competition. He totally rocked it! The KC Star's magazine Ink recently profiled his journey from fit man to uber fit man. Be sure to check out the photos -- Neo ain't got nothin on him!

The Nut Warming

On Saturday, Ryan and welcomed our respective families to the Nut for our belated house warming party. Everyone got along, mingled and generally made merry, drinking sangria and feasting on Waldo Pizza.

Inside the house, people congregated around the food (devouring my black bean brownies and pumpkin muffins without knowing they were low-fat, mwahahaha!), and Ryan and I gave everyone a tour of house, noting what we had changed/renovated. I even created a nifty slide show that we displayed on the TV screen so that people could see before-and-after shots of the Nut and photos of us working on the house.

Here's everyone in the dining room:



Here's Nana and Pa outside. They were both in a jolly mood:


Here's Siena* with my grandma and my future cousin-in-law Brandi. Siena is shaking for pizza. I'm telling you, the dog has delusions of grandeur.


Here Siena realizes that she's not getting a bite of pizza. Sad.


But, don't feel too sorry for her. She got plenty of food from people dropping crumbs and received a ridiculous amount of attention, including endless rounds of fetch that left her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth. Here's one of those rounds:


The weather was beautiful Saturday, and I took a couple of minutes away from the party to take some pictures of the neighbor's lilac tree (without their permission of course). Our neighbor's yard is seriously a page out of Better Homes and Gardens. It's awesome, but, at times, makes me feel entirely inadequate. On a side note, Ryan* is getting sick of my flower pictures. With this spring being so bloom-alicious, I admit that I've gone a bit overboard. (I've taken like 40 shots of our potted plants in a week.) Despite my apparent obsession, I'm sharing this one. Sorry, babe:




And it just isn't spring without a toes in flip flops in the grass pic. (Plus, I'd just painted my toenails.)

Later in the day, the fam headed out, Ryan and I cleaned like Tasmanian devils, and the friends started arriving for the second round of the house warming. Here is Adam enjoying Ryan's home brew, aptly (and somewhat grossly) titled Ryan's Red Nut. I like to think that Jen's reaction below is in disgust of the beer's name.

Here, Siena participates in/disrupts another rousing game of backyard croquet.

That evening, Ryan and I both went to bed pretty late. I crashed at 12:30 am, and he called it a night at 2 am. After enjoying four glasses of sangria and little sleep, I awoke Sunday morning with a decent headache, but Ryan and I stayed true to our word and walked over to 75th and Wornall for the 7:45 am start of the Trolley Run. Heh. More on that later.

*On the day of the housewarming, two other events were being celebrated: Siena's six-month birthday and Ryan and I's six-month wedding anniversary. Woohoo!

Happy Belated Earth Day

I ended up taking Tuesday afternoon off and enjoying myself a beautiful Earth Day. In celebration, I went to Sutherlands and bought $60 worth of flowers and pots to perdy up our porch. (I had originally intended to put some out back, but after learning #2 in the post below, I thought better of it.) Here are the fruits of my labor:


Earl left this little stand that I believe used to go with a picnic table that was at the house when we first looked at it last June. Instead of it just taking up space in our garage, I decided to make it a plant stand. Quaint, eh?


I love the color combination of the red pot and the purple pansies (I really need to learn more about flowers, I'm guessing that it's a pansy based on the flowers I learned how to make in my cake decorating class.)

The flowers give me a fantastic reason to use this beautiful watering can that Tish's mom got me at my wedding shower:

Here's one of the Gerber daisies (I know that name cause I used them in the wedding!) before watering:

And, after:

Happy belated Earth Day to all! Go sniff a flower!

Siena's Additional Eccentricities

Last night during a storm, our Internet crashed at home, so I didn't get a chance to upload photos of my Earth Day activities. Therefore, I'm posting about Siena, who is always good material. I have three items to add to her eccentric behavior list. They are as follows...

1) She's afraid of children/short old people. I like to think Siena is particularly attuned to the spiritual world because she does not like people close to the beginning or the end of the life cycle. She likes the 18 to 65 years old best. Particularly, male, huge and in a truck. She loves dudes in trucks. But give her a 8-year-old waiting on a street corner for his school bus to pick him up, and she freaks. Or, my 5-foot-tall grandparents. You'd think they were trying to kidnap her when they try to play a round of fetch with her. When it comes to Siena, the bigger and more male the better.

2) She loves planters but hates potted plants. Every time Siena plays fetch outside, she always brings the ball back to one spot in the yard: the planter. She runs over and jumps into it, dropping the ball and happily wagging her tail. Why? I have no idea. But she loves sitting and chewing in that dang planter. However, if anything happens to be growing in her planter, or any potted plant container (plants in the ground are OK for some reason, thankfully) on the premises, the offender must be destroyed, NOW.*

3) She is a compulsive yawner. The dog must yawn 12 times every morning, usually in somewhat rapid succession. Sometimes I think she does it because it's a way for her to make noise without getting in trouble (sometimes the yawn borders on a whine). But, I'm really not sure. You really do have to hear it to believe it. There's no way she's that sleepy.


*It's for this reason that Siena recently destroyed two of my mums. They were pretty much dead, but she seemed to have completely eaten both of them, leaving her with quite the upset tummy. Hopefully she learns her lesson, but I'm not holding my breath.

Back from the Big Apple

I blame travel for my recent hiatus from blogging. Darn work. Darn New York City. Darn fun (occasionally). Besides spotting the spry Seth Green ("Family Guy," "Austin Powers," redhead, etc.) at Comic Con (cah-razy), the trip was fairly tame. Days on the trade show floor and in seminars and the evenings sharing a room with my boss. However, I was able to see the Broadway musical "Curtains," starring the hilarious David Hyde Pierce (aka Niles on "Frasier) and spent a rushed two hours at the Met. I could have spent hours at the Met. Below are some of the highlights from the rooms I happened upon.

Warhol's interpretation of Elizabeth Taylor and Campbell's:


I LOVE me some Van Gogh:



And it turns out Van Gogh was obsessed with cypress trees, which I have been ever since I went to Italy. I think if Van Gogh was still around, we'd be best buds...except for that whole going crazy, cutting an ear off thing. That might be an issue...



I took this one for Tish and Erin. The woman in the statue is obviously celebrating KU's title.



After my trip, I came home to the husband, the pup, some beautiful KC weather and friends. Although I was a bit of a zombie from lack of sleep on Saturday night (we hit up Carmen's where I proceeded to drink a lot of wine and decided it was perfectly acceptable to stay up until 2 am), on Sunday I managed to get some things done around the Nut and take some photos of Ryan and Mike playing croquet. Yes, we roll like that.

Siena enjoyed the weather, too:

See? That's a happy dog.

And here she is disrupting the game entirely:

After one round of croquet, the boys called it quits, and we ran the dog until her tongue hung outside the side of her mouth. Here's her and Katrina playing fetch:

More blogs and photos from this week coming sooner rather than later (including a post on my Earth Day celebration, wheeeee)!

Renovations at the Nut

This weekend Ryan and I did a ridiculous amount of work on the house. Here's a few shots of the progress:

Living room windows before....



And after!



Bamboo shades up look good, too.



Siena "helps."

No before shot of the other window, but just imagine mini blinds. Upgrade!

And the painting in the office continues...almost done with the first floor!

Freezin at the K, Part 2

You saw it in video. Now, here it is in photos. Because it snowed at a Royals game in mid-APRIL, I feel as though this event must be cemented in PH Balanced blog history (despite the fact that I don't actually have photos of the snow. I tried but you can't actually tell it was snowing.)

First, we arrive at the stadium. Each of us has at least 3 shirts on plus a coat and long johns under our jeans.



I spiked my coffee. Can you tell?



On the day of the game, Ryan's firm gave Ryan the company seats, so Sarv attempted to sell the tickets we had bought two weeks prior to the game. Because of the weather, we didn't have much luck. We ended up selling them to another scalper for $12 total, which is about $60 below ticket value. But, it was buck night so that equaled a hot dog fund of 12. Awesome.



The good ole days. #5!



Cold and losing but happy.



Slugger takes the stage.



Sarv caught a hot dog! [Insert any obvious hot dog joke here.]

Crown vision, baby. Billy Butler, yo!

Despite Billy's best efforts. We're losing and still cold. Sad face.

But hey, if we relied on the Royals winning to be happy, the entire population of KC would have been depressed for the last 23 years, so, smile Sarv!

Freezin at the K, Part 1

Ryan, Sarv and Adam and I bundled up and went to the Royals last night. Despite a Royals loss, being surrounded by Twins fans and even a bit of snow (yes, snow), we had a blast. Here's video from the event.

Happy Twinkies:

Watch the game:

Give me a hot dog, Slugger:

Hot dog derby:

His Name is Earl

Seeing that it's a dark and stormy night in Kansas City, it seems like the perfect time to share something I've been, well, experiencing...

First, a little background. Earl used to live in the Nut before it was called the Nut. Earl bought the house in the late 50s, raised a family here and passed away from cancer last summer. His wife had died a few years prior to that, we've learned from neighbors. Earl and his family were excellent homeowners, taking very good care of their property. The floors are on the whole in excellent shape, the windows are in perfect condition, and despite some questionable wallpaper choices, the Nut was a steal. (The house was only on the market for a day, and we weren't the only offer.) Earl also always kept a trim, weed-free yard and grew tasty tomatoes every summer. This all has left Ryan and I with pretty big shoes to fill. (Crabgrass...what's crabgrass???)

Over the past few months, I've noticed a few unusual incidents at the Nut. All have occurred in the two rooms of the house that connect the house proper to the backyard: the screened-in porch area and the mudroom. I frequently will go into the mudroom (I'm in there often because that's where Siena's food is and gosh knows she's a growing girl), come out and lock the door. Later I'll go back down to see that the door is unlocked. Same goes for the screened-in porch. Once, while Siena and I were watching TV (Ryan was out working late), we heard a strange noise (Siena's ears perked up and she woofed) and found the door to the mudroom open.

Now, it's totally possible that it's just the wind or change in air pressure from the two rooms into the house. Or maybe Ryan is just effing with me (but I honestly don't think he'd play along this long without cracking). But, maybe, just maybe, it's Earl.

Now, I don't feel anything malicious or bad in the house. I feel more like Earl is just checking on things. In fact, to Ryan's enjoyment, I had a quick convo with Earl, telling him that we'd take good care of things and that we're cool with him coming and going if he could, you know, remember to shut and lock the doors. (Just a suggestion, Earl.)

Earl was a smoker, so maybe he's enjoying a cigarette in the great outdoors. Or maybe Earl is heading out to his backyard of splendor to see how we're keeping his outdoor legacy up. I really don't know. I just hope to God he approves.

Just grillin'

Here are the pics from the impromptu grill out last Sunday. As you can see below, the weather was beautiful, and I spotted some more sights of Spring:



I'm such a sucker for close-ups:


Now begins Siena's first experience with a grill. At first, she was puzzled. What is this thing that billows smoke and feels hot but smells like meats?

Going in for a closer sniff:

Back to contemplating the Weber:

Siena's token "Orphan Annie" face. Can I puh-leaze have a brat?

Not to brag but...

I'm on fi-ya!!! With KU's amazing win last night, I cinched the NCAA Tourney bracket pool title from the guys, and today I randomly won four tickets to a Royal's Game of my choice and the special up-close parking spot at work for the month of May just for wearing Royals' gear on opening day.

Some may think I'm "unqualified" for certain things. But, I beg to differ. This is proof that I'm a winner, gosh darn it!

Impromptu Fabulousness

I seriously had the best, most relaxing weekend. We only had a few things really planned and the rest of the weekend just unfolded awesomely. Friday night we hit up an open house at our friend's new design firm. The place was swanky and the food was delicious. (Not to mention that our friend had brewed some tasty beer for the event.) If you're looking to get some graphic work done, Lagom Designs in the place to go!

Saturday afternoon we drove about 30 miles south to "the farm." My friends Alli and Gabe have the sweetest country set-up. With a beautiful home, land, a pond, a barn and a bunch of animals (3 dogs and 2 cats, plus lots of other visitors, including goats, more dogs, horses and cows from their neighbors' land), there's always something interesting going on. We spent the afternoon, chatting it up, enjoying the nice weather and feasting on bbq and margaritas. Can't beat a Saturday afternoon like that.

Here's a few shots of their nanimals:

Of course, Ryan and I brought Siena along to enjoy the country with us. After a couple of hours of playing/tormenting Alli and Gabe's dogs, Alli decided to see how Siena would do with some agility exercises. First, Alli and her dog Cheyenne showed us how it was done, easily jumping over and through an obstacle course. Next it was Siena's turn. Although I wouldn't characterize Siena's attempts as particularly graceful, she did catch on pretty quickly.

Look how long her legs are getting:



She's becoming quite the jumper. Check out that look of determination:

The boys, neighbor dog Buddy and Cheyenee watch on:




Next, Siena and Alli tackle the hoop. Cheyenne gives Siena advice:




It's amazing how focused Siena can be when there's turkey given as a reward:


Finally, success!


After our excursion to the country, we returned back to "the big city." Siena was quite pooped and decided to rest in her backyard spot of choice:


Later that night, we watched KU destroy UNC and then had friends over to play some Wii and drink some Keystone Light. I NEVER drink beer--especially beer like Keystone Light--but I managed to drink three of them, and I kind of enjoyed it. (Must have been a total mood thing. I don't think you could get me to drink three of them again.)

Sunday, Ryan and I watched the Royals win, cleaned the house like a mo-fo and then randomly decided to grill out with some friends. (I'll have to post more pics of this later. It was Siena's first encounter with the grill, and it was pretty funny.)

The whole weekend was just so relaxing. I've always said that fall is my favorite month, but spring is giving it a run for its money this year. There's really nothing better than being outside and enjoying sunshine and warmth after a horrendous winter. Plus, it's really fun to see Siena experience spring for the first time. So many new plants to destroy!