California July 2009...Goal: recover from the house disaster

We went to California in July this year. Had a great time. Here are a few pictures I put together in a collage to test it out. The picture of us was taken one day when we stopped along the coast of the PCH and snapped a self portrait. It has become our favorite. It represents our future goals of living near the beach. While we were there we ate at Bubba Gump's restaurant in Santa Monica. I had a great shrimp meal. During the weekend the US Open was happening at Huntington Beach so we stopped at Newport beach instead where I was able to capture a great picture of the record breaking waves that were happening that weekend. We stopped at all the little beaches along the PCH. I snapped a picture of Mariner's mile.

Half Marathon Week 2 - Update

Week 2 was a total bust, we're human and it sucks sometime. Only one workout was completed. However we repeated week 2, and below are the stats. Last week and this week together made one good week. I don't think it's supposed to work like that.

OMG we actually finished our first real long walk. We went at night, it was hot and it seemed to go on forever but an hour and 30 minutes isn't bad for 5 miles! Next week is 6 on Sunday.

Week 2 (repeated)- Total 14 miles
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 miles (missed - lazy)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 3 miles (completed 53:49/avg 3.38 mph/3.03 miles)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 3 miles (completed 52:24/avg 3.46 mph/3.02 miles)
Sunday - 5 miles (completed 1:30:03/avg 3.37 mph/5.05 miles)

Week 2 (original) - Total 14 miles
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 miles (completed 59:59/avg 3.12 mph/3.12 miles)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 3 miles (missed - lazy)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 3 miles (missed - lazy)
Sunday - 5 miles (missed - lazy)

Half Marathon Week 1 Update

We completed week 1 of training. We actually went a total of 10 miles not 13 because we missed Thursday's training session. Saturday and Sunday were tough because neither of us are morning exercisers but we made it through. After Sunday's walk I have huge blisters on the back of my heels which are almost healed in time for tonight's walk (Week 2 covered in next post). Wish us luck this week in completing week 2!

Week 1 - Total 13 miles
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 miles (completed in 56:25/avg 3.23 mph/3.03 miles)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 3 miles (missed due to scheduling conflict)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 3 miles (completed in 52:46/avg 3.12 mph/2.74 miles) lost data due to texting :(
Sunday - 4 miles (completed in 1:17:13/avg 3.21 mph/4.13 miles)

Slight disturbance

Today we completed our 2nd training session for the half marathon. During the run I ended up texting with a friend so the map my run program on my phone lost about 5-6 minutes worth of data. We walked the exact same path today as the first day so I know we probably kept up around the same pace. It was hot, and a little difficult to get out the door this morning since we stayed up so late but we did it and got it out of the way. Hooray for us! We missed Thursday's workout due to scheduling conflict but we're going to try our hardest to stay on track. Tomorrow we will do our first long walk. Afterwards I will post the weekly stats.

The Myers are training for a half marathon...follow our progress!

Today was the first day of training for the PF Chang's half marathon. We tried last year and let the trainer talk us into trying to run it. Very quickly we became discouraged at the daunting task and we dropped out. This year we decided to do it at our pace (Walking). We will be walking 13-24 miles each week. I will be updating on Sunday's after our long walk. I was able to track all of our stats using iMapMyRun app on the iPhone and also MapMyRun.com. Show us your support by leaving a comment if you like!

Week 1 - Total 13 miles
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 3 miles (completed 56:25/avg 3.23 mph)
Wednesday Rest
Thursday - 3 miles
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 3 miles
Sunday - 4 miles

Harvesting Sunflower Seeds

In our garden this year I planted Sunflowers. They are one of the few things that are really doing well. My tallest Sunflower reached nearly 10 feet. I grew them so that I could harvest the seeds out of them. Here is the recipe.

2 qts of water
1/4 c of salt
Fresh Sunflower Seeds

Combine water, salt and fresh seeds. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 hours, drain. Spread on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until seeds are dry.



1) This is a bug I found on my sunflowers. I haven't been able to figure out what it is.
2) This is a picuture of my tallest sunflower. I think it's about 10 feet tall.
3) This is a picture of a sunflower before it opened.
4) This is a picture I took with my macro lens of the center of the flower
5) This is a sunflower right after blooming
6) This is a picture of Michael standing next to a sunflower that's close to 9 feet tall
7) This is a picture of the sunflower seeds after the petals fall off.
This is another picture I took with my macro lens. It makes up the background.

Not a lot has been going on with us lately. We are waiting to find out the final answer on the house. We were able to get a second extension through July 6th, which is great. I hope to have a final answer within the next two weeks. Then we can breathe a sigh of relief, do a happy dance then gear up to move and get our house into shape.

I have been working on a photo a day project for the last couple of weeks and so far it has been going well. Some days it's easier than others to find something worth documenting. I hope to have an entire year to look back on one day. I think it would be really interesting to look at.

My new favorite fragrance for my home is Lemon Basil from The Body Shop. I wish computers had scratch 'n sniff so I could share!

Some of my favorite Videos

Evil Eye Baby

Snowball the Dancing Parrot