Weeks 35-37 Happy Birthday to Me

I'm a little behind on my blog posts. That's because I've been busy celebrating my birthday this month. I decided instead of only having a single day or a birthday week I was going to celebrate all month. If I was going to celebrate all month it couldn't just be in Seattle there had to be multiple cities and not just cities but countries.


Week 35: A Room With a View

I kicked off the birthday celebrations with a weekend trip to Puerto Vallarta with my friend Helen. A few days at the beach, a few drinks (ok maybe more than a few), and some sleep. This is a view from the balcony at our resort.


Camera: Canon 7D
Location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Week 36: Soaring

We spent a day sailing in Puerto Vallarta saw dolphins, birds and I swam with the fishies.

Camera: Canon 7D

Location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Week 37: Lobstah Roll

After Mexico the next logical stop for me was Boston. It has been years since I celebrated in Boston. When I first moved to Boston my first birthday dinner was at Legal Seafoods it seemed only fitting to have my Boston birthday celebration at the new Legal's Harborside. It was great to catch up with friends from both Boston and London and of course enjoy a lobster roll.

Camera: Android

Location: Boston, MA

Week 34: Musical Sunset

Wednesday evening I went to the Brandi Carlile concert at the zoo. It was a great show and an amazing sunset occurred during the encore which made it even better. As the sun was going down Brandi Carlile was singing Johnny Cash, maybe I should have shot video instead of a photo so you could hear the soundtrack to this beautiful sunset.

Camera: Android

Location: Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle

Week 33: Triday

I just love getting up at 5 AM on a Sunday followed by strenuous exercise. Today was the triathlon I've been training for. This year I decided to do a longer distance tri but still a sprint the total distances were 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike and a 5K run. That's a lot of exercise for early in the morning. The weather was perfect today about 60 degrees the water was about the same temperature so it wasn't all that cold. I always find the biggest challenge of the swim dealing with all the other swimmers. I've gotten much better at getting around people and getting my own space. Overall I was very pleased with my times, I actually did much better than I thought I would. I was expecting to be a little over 2 hours I had assumed 20-25 minutes for the swim, 55-60 minutes for the bike and 45 minutes for the run plus time for transition. I was quite surprised when I ended in under 2 hours. Here are all the pertinent stats:

Clock time: 1:53:28
Overall place: 976/2036
Division place: 120/207
Swim: 19:00
Swim rank: 444
Transition 1: 6:59
Bike: 45:53
Bike rank: 799
MPH: 15.6
Transition 2: 2:22
Run rank: 1455
Run: 39:12
Pace 12:38


And now onto the picture. This is what I treated myself to after the race. My body was so sore and was in need of grease and sugar. Dork burger (duck and pork), banana cream ice cream sundae and sweet potato fries.






That concludes all of the photos that I took today. But I'm sure some of you are interested in seeing pictures of the race so now onto some of the photos that Dave took of me.



Wondering if I still have time to change my mind here.

I'm somewhere in the water can you spot me. I'm not sure where I am so if you can spot me you're better than I am.





Returning from a nice ride across I-90

The end is in sight.

Thankfully I didn't actually need the first aid tent.

Week 32: Gasworks

One of my goals of this 52 week project was to get over to gasworks park to take some photos. I've been there a couple of times but never have taken my camera. This week provided me just the opportunity I needed, a friend from the UK office was over and wanted to go on a photo stroll. Luckily the weather co-operated for us.

I really wanted to make this my photo of the week as I do love signs but I resisted.

Oh wait no I didn't I just posted it.

For additional photos from gasworks see my photostream

Location: Seattle
Camera: Canon 7D

Week 31 Stuck in the Middle

I dedicate this blog post to my sisters Amy & Melissa. While we have had our shares of fights and drama it always works out in the end. I consider myself very lucky to be your middle sister. I would like to say I will save this wine until we are all together to drink it but who knows when that will be so instead just know that I will be thinking of you as I drink this.

Weeks 29 & 30 On The Road Again

Things have been quite hectic lately so my apologies for not updating the blog. I've been on the road the past week a mix of both pleasure and business. We'll start with the pleasure. I went back to where I grew up for my high school reunion. It's amazing that it has been 20 years since I graduated, it doesn't seem like it at all. It was great to catch up and reconnect with friends I hadn't seen since graduation. I am totally cheating with my photo for week 29. I didn't actually take it I had a friend take it but I did configure the settings so I am counting it.

Location: Rome, NY

Camera: Canon 7D

After the reunion I was off to Chicago for my company's customer and partner conference. On Monday evening I got to enjoy dinner and drinks at a roof top deck overlooking the city.

Location: Chicago, IL

Camera: Canon 7D

Week 28: Food Porn

Saturday night decided to try something completely different for dinner. Original intention was to go to Dahlia Lounge but unfortunately we didn't have reservations it was an hour and half wait for a table and there were no seats at the bar, as a result Dave & I ended up at Lola right across the street. A quick glance at the menu and I noticed the tangine section, I immediately knew what I was getting - Kid Tangine. Yup that's right this dish is made with real kids - goat kids. Goat, turnips and peas absolutely delish. Eating this dish brought back memories of my old tangine, I must buy a new one to use in my new kitchen.

Location: Seattle, WA
Camera: Android