This update is a three-for-one deal.

Nike Women’s Marathon – My first marathon. (Yes, men can participate in it too) Running through the streets of San Francisco with over 22,000 other runners. Despite the cold rain in the end, I managed to finish and collect my Tiffany’s necklace. Although I didn’t make my goal time, at least I can say I ran the whole way and never walked. And of course, there’s always the next marathon (:

Harley Farms – Located in Pescadero, this farm produces internationally recognized goat cheese. We took a tour of the farm that included lots of hanging out with the goats and a tour through their facilities.

San Francisco Zoo – Lions, Tigers, and Bears! Oh My! Actually, I don’t recall seeing Lions or Tigers…

And finally, at UC Davis’ Picnic Day, they handed out free cherry tomato plants. Fast forward several months later, my balcony tomato plant is bearing fruit (note: singular). I ate this red one this morning…there are two more left, one per tomato plant. Considering the cost of the pots, soil, and water, this is going down in history as the most expensive cherry tomato plant ever. I still count it as a victory though. For those of you observant ones, the brace holding the tomato plant is made out of chopsticks, kebab skewers, and dental floss…like a pro

I have finally uploaded pictures from our hiking and camping trip to Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous 48 states at 14,505 feet/4,421 meters. Arguably one of the harder things I’ve ever done. Our schedule:

• Drive the ~6 hours from the Bay area to Lone Pine, CA Friday morning
• Spend Friday in town, camp at night. Go for a short practice hike Saturday during the day, nap and wait.
• Start hiking towards the Summit at 9PM Saturday with our headlamps
• Arrive at the summit at around 9-10AM
• Head back down, arrive at the car at 6PM to round out 20 straight hours of hiking (our group ended up taking between 15 and 24 hours to make the round trip)
• Wait for everyone to regroup, start driving back at 11PM, arrive home around 5AM.
• Nap for about 2 hours, get ready for work. Sit and stare at monitor at work in coma-like state

Enjoy the pictures, my suffering is your gain (:


Mount Whitney Conquer

Every year I post the same comic on my birthday. A little black humor. It’s one of my favorites (:

Today’s my birthday!

Over a month after returning from China, I am finally ready to put up the pics. It was a combination of being busy at work and laziness. Lots of pictures! Enjoy!

No pictures from China yet, I just downloaded them from my cameras today and have over 1,000 to go through. For now, you can enjoy some pictures from our vodka tasting at Hangar One Vodka yesterday. Pretty much just like a wine tasting except in smaller quantities (which is a good idea). I’d have to say probably some of the best vodka I’ve ever had, especially their fruit infused vodka. I ended up going home with two bottles of vodka.

On another note, finally did a 5 mile run yesterday after an entire month of not exercising (plus eating for 20 days straight in China). It was slow and exhausting but not as bad as I thought it’d be. After the half marathon in April, I was in as good a shape as I’d probably ever been in terms of running. Now, it’s time to start over again in preparation for the full marathon in October. Yikes.