wan's wonderful wednesday

with absolutely no other day available to complete my final long run before the tinkerbell half marathon weekend, i headed out to the rose bowl yesterday morning.  each loop around the rose bowl is exactly 3.1 miles, so it's an easy way to get miles in without having to map out a route to calculate distances.  plus, there's always a ton of people there doing the same thing, so i never have to worry about safety.

except that of course, the forecast was heat.  a ton of it.  unlike the lovely cool, cloudy days we'd enjoyed last week, this week is nothing but sun and temperatures in the 90s.  ugh.  and so with two loops done, i found myself doing a lot more walking than running.  i didn't want to get overheated, dehydrated, injured.  yeah, that would be bad.  but i was so frustrated from not being able to run the last 3 miles.

i seriously wanted to just give up when i passed the car as i started that last loop.  like, i seriously considered it and told myself that i'd be totally fine taking on the pixie dust challenge - 10K on saturday, half on sunday - with a 7-mile final long training run.  i mean, i just ran hollywood a few weeks ago, right?  but no.  i pressed on, determined to finish out the entire 10 miles i'd promised myself i'd do.

pasadena PD rolled up and started setting up some kind of command station, and not long after that i heard the sound of helicopters hovering overhead.  when i came back around, i saw that a whole lineup of local police choppers had landed on the lawn.

i don't know why i kept making this face.  it's way worse than my stupid open-mouthed pose.

but at least it kept me amused.  and then finally, finally i was done with my long, hot, sweaty, superslow training "run."

ready to take on tinkerbell!

as a reward for the long run, i'd promised myself that i could make a stop in old town pasadena at my favorite store to do an exchange on a tank top i didn't end up liking, and to pick up a new headband.  i've discovered that the only headband that stays on my lumpy, sweaty head is lululemon's "skinny fly away tamer," and the magic comes from the velvet lining on the inside of the headband.  it works perfectly, and it's nice not to have to constantly readjust the damn thing when i'm mid-barre.

the universe seemed to agree that i deserved a break, because when i got to colorado boulevard i found a great parking spot in the shade, right across the street from lululemon.  yay for me!  and even better?  a guy in a pickup truck who was parked a couple of spots behind that pulled up as i was gathering my stuff and held out his paid parking receipt.  "did you just get here?  because there's still like an hour on this, and you can have it."  so sweet, right?

yes, lululemon, you're absolutely right.

after i took care of business in there (even finding one of those prized headbands on markdown, score!), i ducked into the starbucks oh-so-conveniently located right next door and grabbed a drink.  and then i figured, hey - i'm in pasadena and i just burned like a thousand calories.  i'm going to dots cupcakes, too!

and then i remembered reading a tweet that said my favorite food truck - the lobsta truck - was going to be nearby for lunch.  i mean, could this day get any better??

later, when i looked at my activity on my nike+ app, i realized that i'd hit two milestones.  over a thousand miles run since july 2012, and i hit 50 miles for the month of april.  most excellent.

happy hump day to me, right?

taking a dump

i was walking the bean in to class one morning when i noticed that the bulletin board outside of her room had been updated.  hers was easy for me to spot, since i recognized her handwriting:

an exciting list, indeed.  that's quite the summer she's eyeing.  i'm not too sure if we'll be able to hit any of those things, but i suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

her art school had their annual showcase recently.  it happened to fall on a day when we were just hanging out at home doing random chores, and all of a sudden she popped up and said "oh no, did we miss my art show??"  a quick peek at my calendar told me that it was the final hour, and we all jumped up and threw some decent clothes on to head out and give her artwork the attention it deserved.  we managed to get there just in time for the last raffle drawing, have her face painted and take a look at the displays.

a ton of lemons on our tree in the back yard had me scrambling to find something to do with them.  and with my recent renewed addiction to starbucks, i remembered that there was a recipe i wanted to try - a copycat of their super delicious lemon loaf cake.  it was an easy one to make, and now i'll never buy theirs again.

the bean cracked me up one morning when i walked out to find her doing this:

i just don't know where she gets it.

speaking of the bean, she's become my little helper when it comes to one of my least favorite cookie making tasks - bagging up the finished product.  she's pretty good at tying bows, which is super helpful for me.

after camporee this weekend, i got the email that said our cookie sale prizes were finally available for pick-up.  with 13 girls who'd kicked some serious butt during cookie season, i headed out to our service unit manager's house (conveniently close to me) and picked up a gigantic box that yielded this cornucopia of fun - samoa-themed water bottles, clipboards, stuffed animals, hats and pillows, plus cookie-themed bandanas, t-shirts and piggy banks.  the girls are going to be super excited when they get their care packages - although maybe not as much as mollydog was to poke through the pile: 

between her job and spending time with her special friend, the teen is so rarely home and available to hang out anymore.  i miss her.

we did get a big laugh one evening when we ordered burrito bowls online from chipotle, though.

the shenanigans never end around here, people.  the house of wan = fun house forever.

no mermaids here

as we approach the end of our first girl scout year, the meetings and events and outings seem like they're coming hard and fast.  this weekend we attended the annual daisy camporee, put on by a troop of local junior girl scouts.  the theme was this:

even though there were maybe only 4 or 5 troops there, it seemed like the room was overflowing with wiggly 5-7 year old daisies.  it was a little chaotic trying to get them started.

the troops were all split up into different color-coded groups.  the bean and a couple of her fellow troopmates were placed in this one:

there were several activity stations throughout the room, into the kitchen, and outside in the back of the church.  the pink jellyfish got to do a craft first - mini tote bags that they used acrylic paint and plastic forks to add a puffer fish decoration.

next was a bingo game, and while they did that i went outside to check on the rest of our troop.  they were having a blast with "captain carl" and his touch tanks.  he goes diving regularly to pick up various sea creatures that are small enough to transport to events such as this and safe for the kids to touch and pick up and examine.  kind of reminded me of the diver from "finding nemo."  he was super friendly and really good with kids.

meanwhile, the bean had switched stations again and this time was working on decorating a camp t-shirt with colorful fabric markers.

when they were done, they put the shirt on (most of them did, anyway) and then posed in front of the backdrop created by the camp hostesses.

i mean, you know...we had to.

having the girls wear that shirt was a great idea, especially for the next activity:

here they each grabbed a twinkie and then received a little cup of frosting and then got to choose a color of food dye to mix in.

the frosting got slathered onto the twinkie and then m&ms and a straw were pushed in to make a "submarine."

they then received a package of two cookies, a set of eyes, a "pearl" and more frosting to make this:

finally, it was the pink jellyfish's turn to go outside and meet captain carl.

"what do you mean, a SHARK?!??"

with all of the stations completed, it was time for lunch.  the bean had made us pb&j sandwiches, which i was happy to devour.  it was the first thing i'd eaten all day, and it went perfectly with the coffee that my co-leader picked up for us.

after lunch was over, it was time for SWAPS - "special whatchamacallits affectionately pinned somewhere."  it's a silly little tradition that serves as an icebreaker for the girls to meet new friends from other troops and involves trading little doohickeys that they make ahead of time.  the girls had never participated in this before, and it was fun to watch it happen.

to wind up the day, the juniors had the girls make a big circle and then they taught them some new songs.  girl scouts are all about singing silly songs, and while most of the daisies were rather hesitant, they ended up having a good time.

the very last thing was the traditional friendship circle and squeeze.

and that was it.  while the others were gathering up belongs and waiting for parents to pick them up, the bean seized the opportunity for another photo.

as did i:

while we waited for the last of our parents to arrive, the girls passed the time with more games.

it was a long, exhausting morning.  the bean and i were happy to go home and just flop onto the couch and relax a bit, and it was even more wonderful when it started raining.

while having lunch, my co-leaders and i happened to be sitting next to the current service unit registrar, who's transitioning into the service unit manager position for next year.  it was good to get some face time with her and chat a little, and i may have talked myself into volunteering to replace her as the registrar next year.  it always helps to have an "in" with the powers that be, amirite?

we'll see.