Yoga Grandma: Helping my grandmother stretch after a rigorous workout involving breakfast and reading the newspaper. Note the dog lying immobile at our feet. On the back deck. Lake Tahoe. West shore. June 2006.


Yo!: I've been back in D.C. for a week and a half. After a week in San Diego for work, I hopped a plane to Sacramento, where E. picked me up and we drove, with the dog, northeast 2 hours to Tahoe. Spent the weekend at his brother's place for a family reunion of sorts.

Full house: For the first time in seemingly forever, (almost) all of E.'s siblings and their families were in the same house: E's sister, her English husband and their two sons, who live in the north of England, in Bronte country; E.'s brother and his wife (they own the house), one of their sons and their daughter; and me and E. Oh yes, and E.'s sister's tennis instructor. Who also flew in from London. No, I'm not joking.

Good thing we had a big, sprawling 2-story house. Or we would have killed each other. After 2 days of hiking, talking, and eating and, oh yes, running 10 miles in the high altitude, I hopped on another plane to Silicon Valley. I spent two days interviewing sources at several high-tech/research firms for a news story, then I boarded a final plane for a red-eye back to Washington, D.C. that Tuesday.

Over that week-and-a-half, I flew in or out of four airports: San Diego, Sacramento, Reno, and Oakland. Whew.

It ain't over ....: And guess what? I'm flying back to Northern California (Oakland) next Thursday evening for a three-day weekend. We'll head up to Tahoe again. It'll be my birthday. I'll fly if I want to.

Burying the lede: Oh, I forgot to tell you that when I was in San Diego in early July for a conference, I ran a 5K. It was a conference event, a fun/run, and about 175 people ran or walked it. It was quite hot (80+) and surprisingly humid that morning by the waterfront.

Race results: I finished 2nd woman and 6th overall, with an unspectacular time of 23:53. Yes, that's a PR. But according to Mcmillan's running calculator, I should have finished 23 seconds faster. I blame the heat.

Tomorrow at 6:30 am (!) is a hilly 16-miler with my marathon training group. Supposedly there are people who are beginners, but all of us range between 6:00 (you read that right) and 9:30/mile on these "slow" long runs. Good times .....