Tag Archives: fun

Adele

I’m off a day on picking a song for Jamesy’s Motivational Music Monday, but I think I’m excused. I was kind of busy yesterday. You see, Adele was playing at the Key Arena in Seattle, and we were fortunate enough to be there. A fabulous performer to the very core, and such a down to earth girl to boot. She interacted with the audience brilliantly, even pulling some fans on stage at different times, completely making their entire year I’m sure. Following are scenes from the evening, a couple of videos I recorded, plus my choice for MMM.

Starting the evening off at a local restaurant, The Yard House. The food was 5-star delicious:

Waiting for the show to start. The eyes open when she comes on:

Her set was fabulous and the big screen was great, sometimes zooming in on her face, sometimes showing random stuff:

Sold out concert, and she had everyone lighting the torches on their phones (this was way before the encore):

Last song of the night after nearly 2-1/2 hours:

The Space Needle at night:

The first video I recorded was “Hello.” It’s probably not as intense on the video, but Seattle put off a lot of energy for her last night:

The next one I recorded was “Skyfall.” In this one, you can see just how cool her set really was.

As for my song for the week, I’m sticking with Adele and her latest, “Send My Love (To Your New Lover).”

If there was one performer/group that you wish could see live, who would that be?

Have You Ever Been Geocaching?

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Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which people use a GPS device to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere and everywhere in the world. James found his first geocache in 2004. There are log books within the caches to where you can write a message or just log your user name, saying “I was here.” Some caches are even virtual. There is also an online site to log your finds.

It was a fun “game” that got us out exploring different places where we wouldn’t otherwise visit. AJ was a baby back then, so I’d stay at home while James would go out traipsing in the Arizona desert, mostly to come home with cholla cactus needles stuck in his socks. Thinking back, I have to laugh because it amazes me that he would venture to some of the places he did and put his hands in “holes” where no one would otherwise dare put their hands (because you just don’t put your hands in unknown holes in Arizona).

The geocaching continued on while AJ was growing up. This is AJ taking Flat Stanley geocaching (he’s holding Flat Stanley and a GPS):

And this is AJ getting excited about finding a micro cache:

Lots of caches also contain little treasures and toys, so it was usually rewarding for AJ to find one.

Fast forward to today and we now have the Pokemon Go phenomenon, not too dissimilar to geocaching, albeit totally different. I say brilliant. Okay, not so brilliant when someone is crashing their car into a tree or falling off a cliff due to extreme lack of intelligence (can’t blame an app for stupidity), but still, what a fun family activity when played responsibly!

My name is Paula. I run half-marathons. And I, too, hunt Pokemon.

Howard Jones and OMD

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A long, long time ago in a land far, far away, (okay, really it was just February and it was right here in Lake Stevens), I talked about how James scored us some tickets to go see Howard Jones and OMD (you can read about it here). Last night was the night. Thankfully, the park officials knew it was going to be mostly attended by… older… adults, and as such, the concert started at 6. It’s funny, but James and I were commenting about how, if this were way back when, we would’ve had a “before” party, a “during” party, and an “after” party, quite possibly not calling it a night until 4 or 5 a.m. It’s great to be a grown-up now, but it sure is fun to take a step back in time every now and again. That being said, we were home just after 10, :D. Here are scenes from my evening.

Howard Jones: He was rockin’ the tight white trousers that were so popular in the ’80s. The man can still sing.

OMD: They rocked it as well. Totally impressed.

There was lots of dancing (this man is gearing up to spin her around):

Lots of people:

Great food:

Great ambiance:

A young girl who was none too pleased about hanging out with a bunch of middle-aged rockers:

Even with an outside concert, there were fun stage effects:

And, finally, me… so very happy to be spending an evening with my honey and Howard Jones:

Are you loving the comeback of the great ’80s bands? Do you enjoy outside venues for a concert setting?

Friday Five: Favorite Cold Weather Drinks

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Today I’m joining the DC Trifecta, Mar On The Run, You Signed Up For What?!, and Eat Pray Run DC, for their Friday Five Linkup. This week’s theme is your favorite cold weather drinks, but I’ll actually drink these anytime of the year if the mood suits me (because that’s how I roll, baby).

1. My all time favorite: Water!!

I’m from Arizona and learned at a very young age that water is the absolute best drink at any given time. I never go anywhere without a water bottle, and I always carry a purse big enough to fit a bottle inside. I’m not picky… good old tap water works for me. I’m one of those that drank out of a hose in the olden days and survived.

2. Hot black tea.

I don’t drink coffee, but my day doesn’t start without a cup of tea, or two. I do exactly 5 things before I have my tea which are totally routine driven so I don’t have to think about them, but if you threw in an extra task at me before I had my tea, I’d be like:

3. Chocolate Milk!

This is how I start the recovery process when I get back from my long runs. The longer the run, the bigger the glass and the more chocolate I put into the milk. Don’t judge… I earn every gram of sugar it gives me.

4. Moscato!

On Friday night, unless I have a race the next day, guaranteed a bottle of Moscato is being consumed by yours truly. So if you see a blog post from me on Saturday morning, be kind… it was the wine talking.

5. And last but not least, hot chocolate!

Okay, this one I’ll only drink in the winter, but I love making a big mug for myself and my son… with lots and lots of chocolate and lots and lots of marshmallows! Again, I’m in it for the sugar, what can I say!

Tomorrow James and I have the Redmond Turkey Trot. Afterwards we will go out to celebrate our success with a huge stack of pancakes and bacon!! (Oh yeah, I said it!!) What’s your race schedule this next week? Got any Turkey Trots planned? Any favorite cold weather drinks you’d like to share?

Liebster Award

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I am honored and thankful to have been nominated for the Liebster Award by two wonderful bloggers. First was Lydia of aidyl93, a brilliant story teller happily living her life, and the other was Niki of 11months26miles, a fellow runner from the UK who is training for the Edinburgh Marathon 2016, more than 13 years after completing her last marathon. I really enjoy following these ladies and reading what they have to say! Please go check out their blogs!!

First, I’ll post the rules, then answer the questions given to me (I combined the questions), then post the bloggers I’m nominating, and then my questions I’d like for them to answer! I think this is a super way to get to know other bloggers!

Rules for the Liebster Award:

Once you are nominated,

Make a post thanking and linking the person who nominated you.
Include the Liebster Award sticker in the post too.
Nominate 5 -10 other bloggers who you feel are worthy of this award. Let them know they have been nominated by commenting on one of their posts. You can also nominate the person who nominated you.
Ensure all of these bloggers have less than 200 followers.
Answer the eleven questions asked to you by the person who nominated you, and make eleven questions of your own for your nominees or you may use the same questions.
Lastly, COPY these rules in the post.

How, why, and when did you start blogging? When running, I tend to have all kinds of things go through my mind. Blogging is basically a way of releasing those things and moving on. As well, I wanted other slow/beginning runners to know that they weren’t alone, that there are others out there just like them, and vice-versa, although I have yet to find someone who runs as slow as I.
Have you ever had a truly life-changing experience? No, not in a shocking sense. But I do feel that every life experience I’ve had has helped shaped me into who I am today.
Why do you run? It’s all about the bling… and maybe it has a little bit to do with the sense of accomplishment too (there is no greater feeling).
What is one thing on your bucket list you absolutely have to do? Run a Disney marathon. For the Bling. And the course. I’ll bet they’re the best courses ever.
Describe a beautiful place that you’ve been. I actually live in the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. There are trees, mountains, trails, lakes, beaches, green everywhere, and 4 seasons. The bees are small and there are no poisonous snakes. I was born and raised in Arizona, and the Pacific Northwest is polar opposite from what I knew for the first 40 years of my life.
What makes you happy? Being with my family. And naps after a long run. And nachos. Definitely nachos. 🙂
What irritates you? That Common Core rubbish they teach in school these days. My blood pressure rises every time I think about it. And every time my child brings home homework. And every time that stupid assessment is taken at the end of the year so that the stupid school can have a stupid state rating, because after all, they teach to the test, NOT the kids. OMG. This might have to be a future blog post.
Which song will always cheer you up? Anything sung by Michael Buble.
Can you play any musical instruments? Violin and Piano (in the past).
Did you enjoy science at school? Why/why not? Ummm, I could take it or leave it. I can’t really remember anything that stands out in my memory about science other than dissecting a worm and a frog and learning about dinosaurs. I did enjoy the dinosaurs.
How many languages do you speak? One; uno; un; einer; odin; en; et… 1.