Training Wheels...

So I just realized my "competition calendar" for 2006 is already semi-full.

• 5/7 - Napa Sprint Triathlon
• 6/10 - Camp Pendleton Mud Run
• 10/8 - San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon

That doesn't sound like a lot but things are spaced out enough that I will be consistently training all year. And considering the additional events that I am thinking of adding, I think I'll just be at this schedule for a long time...eek. Crazy part is I want to do more.

• July - Another Triathlon (I'm thinking Donner Lake Tri)
• 10/28 - Nike Women's Half Marathon
• April 2007 - Boston Marathon*

*I don't need to qualify, I just have to be selected from the employee lottery. Being a division of EMC has its perks...as EMC hosts a team for the Boston Marathon every year and allows their employees to enter a lottery for a chance to be a part of the team :) keep your fingers crossed.

All Dressed Up

"I feel like a grown up" to which Forrest replies.."Betty, we are grown ups." Oh yeah. I keep forgetting that tidbit of information. But when you're hanging out with real grown ups like parents and stuff, you always still feel like a kid, you know?

We got all decked out and went to the Heart Association Gala with Forrest's parents. I got all excited because, being a girl, that means the opportunity to buy a new dress (always thrilling, sometimes heartbreaking). That's a pic of everyone just before we headed on out. An evening of silent auctions, lots of speaches and surprisingly good hotel banquet food.

And the kicker - we got to see a police helicopter circling a few miles from Forrest's parents' casa with their high beams focused on some felon and saying things like "stay on the ground" "stop moving" "blah blah blah " "we're going to shoot you" just kidding, they didn't say the last bit...

Still the happiest place on earth

A brighter, shinier, more colorful Cinderella's castle.

Book Review: Julie & Julia

Totally not what I had expected...maybe even better. The story had much more depth and substance that I was expecting - because I was expecting to basically be reading a Food Network TV Show for 300 pages.

Welcome Clara Brynn Choy

First DG baby

Movie Review: V for Vendetta

Watched this on Sunday night with Forrest at the AMC Mercado while on our way back from Disneyland. In the realm of movie ratings .... this is definately worth full price. The movie is based on a comic book whose premise is...what if "false democracy" got out of hand... think of how people say Bush is touting democracy but is turning into a semi-dictator, doing things in the name of safety and blah blah blah.

Take that a few steps further and mix in the imagination of the Wachowski brothers and you get a movie full of familiar political imagery -- repurposed with new characters for this movie. Worth it...go see it...then we can talk about it.

Creepy Cabbie

So last night Forrest and I returned from our little Socal jaunt to Disneyland (pictures to come) and lo and behold when we got into a cab at SFO....we got the same creepy cab driver that we had during our return from Mexico. We rented a car for the drive so we had to return it to SFO...that's why we were there.

I don't care what we have to do next, but we're NEVER taking a cab from SFO at that time of night ever again.

Book Review: Smashed

So this book was written by a 23 yearl old who has been getting wasted since she was in her pre-teens. Not quite an alcoholic...but an alochol abuser who used it to desensitize and help her in social situations. Painful to read only because I can see likeness of her actions in people around me and in ways I've pursued booze at various points in mylife. It's strange because in a life of priviledge like Koren you drink to escape...much like the less fortunate who abuse substances...it's all about escaping or running away from somehting, even if that something is different. I've never had my stomach pumped and I've never puked up the black specks that are indicative of stomach poisoning but I know myself and plenty of my good friends have been goodheartedly embarrassed at or even laughed at out black out follies. This book has really made me see those excursions in a different light - one that doesn't cast a rosy glow at the experience but makes it look all the more harsher and more troublesome.

Aviationally Challenged

I seem to notice that I face many more delays and cancellations and mishaps on the road than the average traveller. Maybe I am the one out of a whatever number traveller that happens to always cross paths with an irate hotel attendant or mother nature with her snow storms. Regardless, I am faced with interesting challenges when traveling for business or leisure...

Namely, here are some things I noticed while on the road last week....

• At O'hare airport, I walked past a girl puking into a garbage can with a cell phone positioned neatly at her ear...heaven forbid she stop her conversation to toss her cookies
• The amount of time spent on planes last week is greater than the requirement for a part time job at the Gap.
• I was repeatedly told "NO" by a Delta ticket agent by the name of "Bigot" while in the midwest (funny, if not ironic)
• I think I prefer my own cooking to a vast majority of food available for purchase
• I should know that crab dip in Cincinnati really means fishy smelling warm mayonnaise
• Solo cab rides still creep me out....no matter what time of day or night
• I love my new noise cancelling headphones...huh? what? did you say something?
• Flight delays are my curse

And finally, I am strangely drawn to this transient life of living out of a suitcase. If I had no compelling reason to ever come home...I don't know if I would outside of visiting friends and refreshing my wardrobe

Forecast calls for....flight delays?

That's the weather report for Chicago...lots of snow...supposedly they are expecting almost a foot of the fluffy white stuff today. Sounds like I'll be sitting on the tarmac again today. See you'all eventually...

Business Travel V2.1

First trip with the new company...3 city seminar tour. There's a total of 21 cities and each Marketing manager takes 1 track of cities to act as site manager. My citites included Toronto, Chicago and Cincinnati -- one night in each city then off to the next. Right now I'm sitting in my hotel room (sober) and blogging. If this had been my former company, I would be out at the bars with my coworkers tearing up the town...but I would also be coming back to some roach motel so the company can keep the costs down.

I'll trade in the extra few pints for a big name hotel chain room anyday.

Book Review: The Tender Bar

From the author's website:
"In the grand tradition of landmark memoirs, The Tender Bar is suspenseful, wrenching, and achingly funny. A classic American story of self-invention and escape, of the fierce love between a single mother and an only son, it's also a moving portrait of one boy's struggle to become a man, and an unforgettable depiction of how men remain, at heart, lost boys. "

What I think is I need is...is to start reading happier books. I

rrespective of my depressing choice in reading material, this book really touched me. The young boy against all odds, gets into Yale believing he's finally made it only to feel ostracized by the new environment and is constantly pulled back to Manhasset where the familiar faces are drowned in high proof alcohol. It's like an addict finally kicking his habit and being released from rehab full of hopes, dreams and resolve to lead a better life...and then the prejudiced reality of those around him only drive him back to the once place he's been trying to leave behind. Sometimes it's true that no matter how hard you try, you can't get past those in your way...because there are those that are holding you back and those that won't let you in. The realization that sometimes trying and succeeding isn't enough becuase it only leaves you more alone.

Some touching passages from the book:
At different times I'd worried about harboring some dark attraction to failure

Against all odds, my team and I were no longer losers. My new life, my real life, my life as a winner, was under way at last

Though proud of me when I succeeded, the men celebrated me when I failes

...that it was healthy for a young man to distance himself from his mother, but in truth I was distancing myself from unfulfilled promises, from the awful guilt I felt over failint to take care of her

Book Reivew: Memoirs of a Geisha

Started this book last week or so...then demolished it on the plane out to Toronto. Really I think I do my best reading on the plane... I was fascinated by this book because I didn't know all of the details of a geisha's life. I had no idea that some thought of them as prostitutes while others considered them artisans and how maybe a little bit of both is true...similarly to how we view Hollywood celebrities -- but in a strange, more revered way. However flawed or archaic the practice and life may be, there was sort of pride? no like an honor associated with being such a lovely, lonely creature. Can't wait to see how the movie adapts this story.

Book Review: The World is Flat

Finished this book a few weeks ago..LOVED IT...ABSOLUTELY FUCKING LOVED IT. It's a study of globalization: how it presumably started, the signs of it's progress and the relative benefits and pitfalls associated with it. Given that he references the internet era...dot com and post dot com...it's an era I can understand, relate to and also start to see things I didn't see before...

It's interesting to hear the likes of Vivek Paul from Wipro speaking about the changes in India and the outsourcing boom and what that means in globalization...especially interesting to me because he just bought cMango my former company...heh

What does this mean???

The other morning, I was driving northbound on 280 and this police car zooms past me and then proceeds to swerve back and forth across all 4 lanes from Cupertino to Palo Alto. It slowed down traffic but I couldn't figure out why he was doing this... We didn't pass any sort of accident and well, it kind of irked me because I had NO idea what it was for...

Any help would be appreciated.

Movie Review: Hustle & Flow

Stage 1 of my Oscar Round-up includes watching all the damned movies that won awards...
Nothing groundbreaking by any means...the premise of the story has seen life in many different variations with different characters. However, it was a good movie...entertaining and really even though this guy was a pimp, you were rooting for him to make good by getting his single played.

side note : Good to know that Taryn Manning went from Britney Spears sidekick in the ill-fated movie Crossroads to a hooker in Hustle and Flow. Has she been in ANYTHING else?

Movie Review: Saw I and II

Welcome Resse Gardner!

So there she is...Reese Gardner, the latest addition to the growing Gardner family. In the background is her older sister Zoe. So I can't believe the full head of dark brown hair! For those of you who have met Sarah and Scott, you'll know that they are both blonde haired and blue eyed. Sarah's maternal grandfather had dark hair and olive skin...much like her brother Chris. Scott says Reese's hair is lightening every day..so we'll see where it ends up. And where as Zoe looks like a little Scott clone...apparently Reese looks just like Sarah. Can't wait to meet her.

Look, I'm snowboarding!

blue runs..more of the same at Squaw

Squaw Day 2

View from the top of the Searchlight/Expedition run at Squaw. Strong winds forced them to close the upper mountain so only the bottom 4 lifts were open. Still nice to get out for a few hours.

Girl Scout Cookies

I swear, I'm such a sucker for kids with their fundraising...this year I was going to buy 6 boxes from a co-worker's daughter then another email went out with a different coworker's kid... I had to split up the order to spread the love. I don't even eat the stupid cookies....I just buy them to support the Girl Scouts..

Me, this way...

Hollister Clothing Company has this sign in their entryway...the other side just says "dudes."

Swimming Aids

My goodnes, I look like an alien...but Hiroko and I thought this picture was just too funny to not take.