Dec 22 - Marty and I used a drill for the first time last night. He also laid tile in our kitchen floor (so what if its peel and stick -- still good for us!). We're both looking forward to a long break. Tomorrow is our last day of work until January 5th. Unfortunately, since I'm only a contractor and not a full-time employee at Lockheed, I will only get paid for Christmas and New Years. Anybody out there want to hire a hard-working young lady with a B.S. in Accounting who is 89% of the way through her M.B.A.?
Dec 16 - For all of you wondering, we did get appropriately rowdy on Saturday night. Marty has taught me how to play poker and I successfully took all of his money last night.
Dec 12 - Tomorrow we're having a big track meet showdown between the Downtown YMCA running club versus the Track Shack Running Club. It should be quite a fun time and hopefully no one gets too excited and pulls a hamstring or anything! I'll be running the girls 4x800 and DMR (distance medley relay for you non-track folks). I think our team is pretty stacked with super stud Katy Radkewich, former Rollins star Kirsten Palacios, and current "no one can touch her in the masters division," Teresa Calio. And in the invite mile, our former Y running club coach has flown down from CHICAGO to participate! Of course, the most fun will occur tomorrow night when we all get rowdy and head downtown :) Don't worry, I'm technically still in college so I can say stupid things like that.
Dec 8 - We are dog-sitting Marty's fathers dog while he is in the Philippines for two months. Choy Choy is the most loveable dog and its great having him around. I'm such a dog person and hate not being around one all the time. Our excuse is that we just don't have a lot of time to devote to one, but in our semi-off season we figured we'd be okay. It should be an interesting Christmas when we head down to visit my mom and her 150 lb. Irish Wolfhoud, Bayley. Choy Choy is about the size of Bayley's head, but I think they'll get along just fine.
Dec 6 - Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. That's the theme for me and the OUC 5K. It was cold and windy this morning, and for the third consecutive year I finished 2nd overall. Aww well, my time (19:05) was a whole lot better than last year and the girl who beat me is arguably one of the nations fastest high school runners right now.
We've got a big day planned - Jeff Cuddeback's Ironman party then Paul Duckett's Christmas party, followed by a little jaunt downtown. Should be a fun night!
Nov 30 - Ahhhh, what a nice relaxing weekend down in St. Pete! Both my sisters and my brother-in-law and niece were there and it was great to hang out and eat all weekend long. My niece is the cutest little girl ever and we had lots of fun playing with her and celebrating her soon-to-be 5th birthday. Unfortunately, none of them will be making it to Florida for Christmas, so Thanksgiving was the big holiday for us this year.
Now I know you all are just dying to know how I did in the Turkey Trot. Lets just say that it hurt a lot more than I had planned! The middle two miles were very painful, but I somehow pulled myself out of it and managed to pick it back up the last two miles. I finished ninth overall and we'll just leave my time out of it ;) Now its back to the grindstone. At least Marty and I are done with our school semester so that's one less thing we have to worry about for awhile.
Nov 25 - Heading down to St. Pete for the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow. The whole family will be there so it should be very fun. We'll also be doing the 25th Annual Times Turkey Trot on Thursday morning (10k). I've never actually tried to run the 10k hard before at that race so this year I hope to make it into the top 10 with a decent time. We'll see how it goes - its always the best excuse to pig out at dinner that night, so that will be the main objective! Have a great weekend, everyone!
Nov 22 update - My sisters volleyball team lost in the State Finals this afternoon :( Aww well, State runner-up is still nothing to scoff at! Congratulations on a great season, Heather!
Nov 22 - Good tempo long run this morning at the Paul DeBruyn 15K. I was completely even and ran 7:01 pace almost the entire way. I hit the halfway point at 32:40 and then finished in 1:05:20. How's that for consistency! The best of all was that I felt controlled the entire way and never really felt like I had to push terribly hard to maintain.
My sister's volleyball team will be playing in the Virginia State Finals at 2:00 pm. Send them good vibes!
Nov 20 - Well, tomorrow I have the day off from work. We work a 9/80 work week at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, so we get every other Friday off. I'm planning on sleeping in (finally!), getting my eyebrows waxed, and STUDYING! Our final Corporate Finance Test is on Monday and I have to do well on it. Marty, on the other hand, has managed to practically ace every test all the while skipping class and not studying much. Don't I feel like a dodo.
On Saturday I'll be running in my first 15K. I'm definitely not racing it - just getting in a good tempo long run. Hopefully, it'll be fun and won't hurt too much. I just don't want to get sucked out and suffer the last 3 miles or so. While I'm doing that Marty will be running a 30K. I know, I know....PSYCHO!! :)
And last, but certainly not least, Happy Birthday to my momma. She is the final November birthday for the family (its technically tomorrow, but I know when you read this, mom, it will be your birthday).
Nov 16 - We just got back into town from spending the weekend down in St. Pete. Marty and I had signed up to run in Richard's Race for the Cure 5k on Saturday night, but I ended up bailing out. I had been feeling pretty sick for a couple of days and decided that trying to run hard that night just wouldn't be much fun. So instead, my mom and I became Marty's cheerleaders on the side. All the proceeds of the run went to the Moffett Cancer Center and Research Institute, and Mr. Gonzmart estimated that when it was all said and done they will have raised upwards of $30,000! WOW.
Two more happy birthdays this weekend: My sister Heather celebrated hers on Saturday, and Marty's mom celebrated hers today. November is a busy month for our family.
Nov 13 - Not too much to report around here. Just the same old stuff, working, running, and studying. Tonight I'm cooking Marty a delicious meal --isn't my life exciting?!
Nov 9 - Founders Day 10K today in Celebration. I met my goal of breaking 40 minutes (39:49, 4th overall) and also stayed mentally strong in a very humid race. I'm pretty happy with the result; I ran very even miles and even threw in some late surges to hold off some tough ladies right behind me.
We're heading to the Orlando Beer Festival in a few hours. Marty's ticket was one of his birthday presents from me. He thinks I'm the coolest.
Nov 8 - Happy Birthday to my Marty who turns 32 today! This is the fourth birthday I've celebrated with him - time sure does fly.
Nov 5 - Yowzaa. Just got back from the track and my quads are screaming. Pat Marshall, the latest and greatest YMCA running club coach administered a very tough workout in 150% humidity tonight (Don't worry, we still miss ya, Dan!). 2000-1200-800-800-400. I managed to stay under 6:00 pace for everything and even pulled together a :77 for the last 400. Nothing to really write home about but I'm glad to see that my running is starting to come together. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress in my upcoming races. Happy Birthday to my Grandma Coppola who turns 75 tomorrow! She makes the best French Toast :)
Nov 2 - Last night we went to Marc Bonnet-Eymard and Amy Andrzejewski's wedding (Mr. and Mrs. Bonnet-Eymard). I can only hope to look as beautiful as Amy did last night on my wedding day! I'm very happy for them; they are one of the nicest couples around.
Halloween was pretty fun. The most original and funniest costume would have to go to our friend Andi Stubbs. She was a weather girl caught in a storm. I saw a handful of pregnant nuns when we went downtown. Must have been the hot costume this year.
Oct 29 - My favorite blonde sister, Shana, is taking the red-eye out of Seattle tonight and flying into Orlando. I hate that she lives all the way across the country because I hardly get to see her. I mean, could she get any further away?! I'm very excited about her coming in for the weekend. I'm going to try to show her a good time on Halloween in downtown O-town on Friday night. I'm going as a French maid, she's going as a devil with a blue dress, and Marty's costume has yet to be determined. Stay tuned!
Oct 28 - My oldest sis, Heather, is a high school volleyball coach up in Virginia. Her team is doing awesome - check out a recent newspaper article: Nice headline!!
Oct 22 - Tomorrow night Marty and I are off to Iowa! It may not sound exciting, but I’ve been looking forward to the trip for awhile. One of my best friends from college, Anne Panaggio, is in her third year of Medical School at the University of Iowa and we’re going up for a visit. I went up there last year, and Iowa City is quite the fun little college town. Look for me at the Iowa v Penn State football game – I’ll be the one trying to keep Marty upright and under control ;) Here’s an interesting side note: Did you know that there are more pigs than people in Iowa?
Oct 19 - UCF 5 miler today. I'd like to give a shout out to my favorite runner Katy Radkewich for once again kicking some major bootie and finishing first overall (you make running look GOOD!). My race was okay. I'm a little frustrated with my lack of intensity and pain threshold. I feel like I'm just out there pushing myself hard but not too hard. I'd really like to drop my times to around where I was in college, so hopefully with a little more serious training I'll see some improvement. I ended up 8th overall and first in the 20-24 age group with a time of 32:08. Blahh.
Oct 17 - All right, people! Listen up! My name is Brianne. With an ‘E.’ There is no ‘A’ at the end of my name, and unless the English language has been changed, an ‘E’ does not make an ‘A’ sound.
Here’s a typical scenario when I meet someone new:
“Hi, I’m Brianne.”
“What?”
“Brianne.”
“Oh, Brianna! That’s a pretty name.”
“Actually, its just Brianne.”
“Oh, right. Its nice to meet you Brianna.”And so it goes and then I’m too timid to correct a person after they have been calling me Brianna for quite some time. Are the Brianna’s of the world ever mistakenly called Brianne? I’m thinking of writing a thesis of why my name automatically gets switched around in people’s brains and comes out as Brianna.
However, thanks to my good friend Gemma who seems to like to shorten people’s names, I am also known as Bri. This seems to be easier for people to remember, and frankly, I like it. (I’m also a big cheese fan, so maybe that has something to do with it). If you are part of my family, or just want to act like it, I also go by Annie. This is my parent’s doing. If they call me Brianne, I know I’m in serious trouble. Obviously, I have a bit of an identity crisis with all of these names, but lets keep Brianna out of them! ;)
Oct 16 - I'm loving this weather! I'm a true Florida girl at heart, but even I've gotten tired of all the oppressive heat this year. I just hope this cooler weather is here to stay.
Oct 13 - So this maybe a bit gross, but I've had a plantar wart on the bottom of my foot for over two years now. It hardly ever bothers me except for the times that I'm running barefoot through a transition area parking lot in a triathlon - then it kills. So I've tried all the over-the-counter medication and nothing has worked. I've been reluctant to go to a podiatrist because the more I've read the more I learn how painful it is to get removed and how easy it is for it to come back. So I've been trying something new the past 2 weeks...duct tape! Who knew? But its working and I'm so happy. Apparently, the AMA did a big study on it and it has proven to remove plantars warts painlessly. Duct tape really does fix everything
Oct 12 - My first update! Due to overwhelming requests (well, maybe just one - Shana) I'm going to try to figure this html mumbo-jumbo out and make some updates. Our second Corporate Finance test is tomorrow night and I'm trying to stay focused and study for it. So far, I haven't been very successful. Wish me luck!