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Update: new photos and official results after the jump…

David, longing for the days of Turkey Trots, convinced Adrienne to join him in the nearest race he could find – the Ashenfelter 8k Classic. Above, Adrienne is surprisingly cheery on the way there. Perhaps David hadn’t quite yet mentioned that 8k = just shy of 5 miles! I think about 1700 runners/joggers/walkers participated. Our goal was no stops! And we succeeded! David had in mind a 10-minute mile to facilitate that. In the end we came up just a bit shy, finishing at about the 52 minute mark. But that’s great, considering that the longest Adrienne’s ever run, and it was her first race!

Along the way we saw some friends of ours that live in the neighborhood, viewing the race from the sidelines. I think they may have gotten a photo, so we’ll share that if we get it. But here’s a pic of us post race, all smiles because it’s done, and because that means we can go home and enjoy freshly-baked caramel rolls!

Got some new photos, both from our friend mentioned above and from the official photogs from the race. View them after the jump. (more…)

Friday night I met Adrienne in the city for a concert at the Manhattan School of Music. Afterward we strolled down Broadway and found ourselves at a Ben and Jerry’s. We both got 2-scoop mini waffle cones, but Adrienne didn’t/couldn’t finish hers, and so decided she’d take it home… on the subway, then the PATH then walking home. Here’s a photo of it at the World Trade Center, waiting for the 7-minute PATH train ride and then 7-minute walk:

Adrienne put it in the freezer and had it the following evening as we watched “The Wrestler.”

The cats always seem to like laying on my trombone cases, and my new one seems to be no exception. Though due to the design, it’s more of laying in vs. on:

And Sunday evening Adrienne went for a little ride out to the house. We were a bit disappointed to find very few houses decorated for Haloween, but that’s less competetion for us (still hopefull we’ll be in it by then…). We did come across this laying on the sidewalk in front of the house. Hope it’s not a sign…

After a long day at work Adrienne picked me up and we did a little driving/exploring. Cruising along the highway I see the sign in red neon: Red Robin. Suddenly Adrienne is excited and alert. We have to stop! (We hadn’t yet had dinner.) To us, Red Robin is a West-Coast thing: there was one in Salem, OR and I went to one in the Federal Way-ish area when Doug and Aurora were there. So we were happy to find one out here, even if we didn’t get the tower of onion rings (this time around).

And on a related note, we’ve discovered that not more than 15 minutes up the road from the house we may eventually purchase (that’s my new way of thinking about it…), there is a Friendly’s Restaurant. I have fond memories of Friendly’s and vacations, but that could just be because of the make your own sundae thing. We’ll have to go sometime and see if it lives up to the memory – but does it ever?

It’s hot, we’re trying to pack, blah blah blah, and Dudley’s showing Sylvester who’s boss.

Celli always likes to help read the newspaper.

Dinner was salmon burgers, done on the cast iron stove-top since we’re out of charcoal:

Along with the packing come new empty places for kitties to explore.

A Sunday drive took us back out to the ‘burbs to check on the results of our garlic-juice mosquito spray. Let’s just say we’re not quite convinced yet. But there are many variable to control for, so who knows. We’ll keep the hope alive.

We now have a trash can full of weeds, and we’ve just barely touched the surface. That area where Adrienne’s standing is actually a driveway! And the green over the the right should be grass, but isn’t.

Despite the mosquitoes, we remain hopeful we’ll be moving in in the next two weeks, but time will tell.

Don’t have much to share from our trip up North – I spent a lot of time working. Which you can see some of the results of that here. But here are a couple photos from the 1.5 days of vacation we got. We did enjoy some good Ethiopian and Afghan food as well.

I’ve been looking for a good screen protector for Adrienne’s iPod, and I think I’ve found one I’m happy with. Zagg’s invisibleShield is very thin and seemingly indestructible. It goes on pretty easy as well (no word on how it comes off, just yet). They’re pricier than most, but I got mine half off during a Memorial Day sale. Two thumbs up from this picky consumer.

can you see the screen protector?

If I remember correctly, it’s been that many days since I owned a car. No, I haven’t been tallying the days one by one (long ago ran out of fingers and toes…). And I’m only a little better at doing date math then time math (oh, just change it to base-60 and calculate, they say! ha!). But thankfully, the web makes it easy. So as part of our plan of moving to the ‘burbs, Adrienne and I have purchased a car. A 2000 Honda CR-V EX, 65k miles, manual tranny, one-owner (who showed me all the receipts for oil changes, gave me the card of Luigi the service manager at the Honda dealership who knows the car, etc. etc.).

Of course, this will pretty much be a weekend-use car; public transportation will remain the prevailing method. But we think it’s got the right combo of size/utility, reliability, economy (it’s basically a tall Honda Civic) and value. Hope we’re proven correct on all accounts! And we like the boxier yet smaller styling of the 2000 model vs. newer ones (which only get bigger and curvier).

So, what do people reccommend for wax these days? I’ve got a weekend project…

To keep up with Little D, here are some snaps from our lazy weekend, which included non-productive house shopping, some grilling, biking and general lazying-around.

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Adrienne likes cherry yogurt, but our grocery store very rarely has a brand that meets her stringent standards. So when it is in stock, we literally dig through the cooler to find them all!