Chicago Air & Water Show

This weekend, the Chicago Air & Water show was happening so we went to check it out. Actually, we tried to check it out on Saturday but the weather was just awful. With a little help from our RAW shooter program, JJ managed to capture a few sweet shots.




Sunday was a lot nicer and I biked down towards Fullerton to get a better glimpse. I've never seen the bike path so busy and it was quite difficult to manuever around the walkers (who aren't watching where they're walking because of the jets up high), the kids, ice cream trucks, and other cyclists (also not really looking where they're going). I didn't take the big camera out but this one basically captured the air show experience along the lake in a nutshell.

Nike Run Hit Remix

I really do feel great. I accomplished a summer of running and I capped it off with a 5 mile (~8K) race! I made it in under an hour too! 57m 40s to be exact :)
JJ couldn't run with me because he was working out-of-town but he was definitely there in my head encouraging me on :)

I've never run a 5-mile before so I was definitely nervous! On the website, it said you had to keep a 12 min/mile pace and I wasn't sure I could keep that up for a whole 5 miles! It was a lot of fun though; you can tell it was a really "rich" race because they had so many sponsors: Jamba Juice (free juice!), Clif Bar (free bar!), free refreshments (apples, trail mix, chips), one free beer (Goose Island - which I didn't have), and bands! Bands played at every mile and the half mile in between there was some entertainment (confetti, Elvis impersonator, Japanese drums, bagpipes!) so it kept me entertained.

At the end of the race, I was so happy to see my accomplishment summarized as this:


I'm so happy that I'm proud of me! Yay me! Of course, JJ is proud of me too! If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even have run as much as I did this summer! Yay JJ! :)

Edit 8/22/2006: Here are photos of me after the race, courtesy of the photographers at the run! Thanks!

Spoils of the day

Yesterday, JJ came back from a full week of work in Fort Wayne, IN. He got me these fine chocolates!


Apparently, DeBrand chocolates are "world-famous". I tried the "I Love You" chocolate but didn't find it "world-famous" but indeed, appropriate. I have yet to try the other bar though but I am excited because it has almonds :)

JJ's order of soap (slickdeal!) came as well. 64 bars of soap!!! I don't know what he was thinking!


Finally, marvel at the incredible memory of JJ's new desktop. We ordered 2 gigs last week (slickdeal!) and I installed it myself!

Race Judicata

I ran another race this summer and I'm feeling great!
About 3 months ago, I ran the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. That race was 3.5 miles and I achieved my goal of running the whole thing without stopping and finished in 42m 45s.
This race was a 5K (3.1 miles) and again, I ran without stopping and finished in 32m 30s! And I didn't hurt myself too bad after either! You can see the results here.

I know, I'm only 954 of 1192 but that's fine! Ever since I saw the orthopedic doctor about my knees, I've tried to make a better effort in stretching my muscles and it helps. I'm glad JJ made me go get it checked out so I've been running and exercising a lot more this summer.

Now, I've got more t-shirts to add to my "Free T-shirts of Summer 2006" collection. I'll post a picture of all of them at the end of summer :)

Dear Canadian Friends

Have you seen this at Loblaws/Zehrs/etc?


Please send me a message or write a comment if you've seen this as I would like to get some. I really like this chocolate and I can't get it in the US! Please help. Thanks :)

Italy through our eyes (complete set)

All right everybody, it's been at least three weeks since our trip to Italy and we finally had a chance to sort through all the doubles and the multiple shots etc but we've put together a photographic experience of Rome (and Florence and Pompeii) for you as close to our experience as possible! That means that of the hundreds of photos we took in a day, we've pared it down to a manageable size even though it's still quite large (averaging 100 photos a day).

So do you really want to feel like you visited Italy? :)

Italy Day 1

Jul 12, 2006 - Airports, Colosseum, Roman Forum, surrounding neighbourhoods

Italy Day 2

Jul 13, 2006 - Florence

Italy Day 3

Jul 14, 2006 - Vatican City (Vatican Museum, St Peter's Basilica and Square), Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Castel Sant'Angelo, etc

Italy Day 4

Jul 15, 2006 - Naples and Pompeii

Italy Day 5

Jul 16, 2006 - Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo, etc

Italy Day 6

Jul 17, 2006 - Various churches and markets, Jewish Ghetto, Mouth of Truth, Circo Massimo, Villa Borghese, Termini, etc

Italy Day 7

Jul 18, 2006 - Inside Palatine Hill and the Colosseum

Enjoy!