What a Day!!

I have had busy days before today, but this one was pretty packed.

I got up at about 6:40 on this fine Saturday morning. Bill was already gone as he was participating in a triathlon across town. I was up to run a 5K for the Brain Center at a local hospital. I ran this race last year as well. A friend of mine at work is good friends with a brain tumor survivor, so I was able to join her team for the second year in a row. It is such a pleasure to be able to support someone that means so much to a friend. It was a good race, but it was hilly. I wasn't expecting all of the hills, and I hadn't been on a run for over a week. It was also much hotter than I thought it would be (we are supposed to reach 90 degrees, and it is only April!) Still, I finished close to a PR and had a good time. But, there was little time to rest as I needed to continue the day.

This afternoon was our Junior League's Home Roam home tour. We were able to tour 5 different homes in the area to check out their decor. Each home also had food in it donated by a local restaurant. The first home I went to is about the be listed on the market, so their was a fact sheet in the kitchen. The house will go for an asking price of $2.75 Million. It was unbelievable!! There was a pool in the backyard, a home theater, a pool hall, and the teenager's room had it's own study, full bathroom, and walk in closet. It was absolutely gorgeous. That house alone was worth the price of the tour. Still, I made my way through them all in about 2 hours.

I had a little down time at home with my hubby and pups before I was off to volunteer at the APS of Durham's annual gala event. I was the group leader for this event. We were charged with registering the guests and setting up their credit cards for the silent and live auctions. We were slammed busy for an hour and a half, then had a little bit of downtime. It is such a pleasure to work with a great organization like the APS. I really love working with people who care about animals. They were all so wonderful, and I have to give extra credit to the Junior League ladies who were there. Several of them also worked the Home Roam, so they had long days, too. All were professional and just great to work with. We helped out for about 3 1/2 hours when it was finally time to call it a night.

Now, I am home and will probably turn in soon. Between the home tour and the gala, I did get some wonderful news. My order for the Honda Element was completed. The car has been assigned to be and I should be getting it soon. I am so excited that I will have a brand new vehicle. The Mustang was turned over to its new owner yesterday, so I am in a rental car for now. I will be glad to have my own car. I hope it arrives soon!!

Busy week!

I had a rather busy week this week. There were two rather interesting events that I would like to share.

On Tuesday, we had our book club meeting. The interesting thing about this meeting was that we had the author of our book present at the meeting. That was something that has never happened before. The author, Dr. Paul Austin, is a doctor in a local ER. He wrote a book called Something for the Pain about life inside the ER and its affects on life outside the ER. It was an easy read and a pretty good one. It was equally interesting to hear from the author himself. He even read a section of the book for us. It must be so difficult to be an ER doctor. You are the first person a patient sees, but your function is to diagnose and more them through to the next doctor or to home. So many cases have unknown endings. There is also the long hours of shift work. It truly takes a toll on the family when Dad sometimes works overnight and must sleep when you are awake and active. We were very luck to have this experience for our club.

The second big event was Kids in the Kitchen with the Junior League on Thursday night. Once each year, we do a program to educate local kids about making good, healthy choices in the kitchen. This year, we were able to do an evening program at a local elementary school. I was there to volunteer, and I am so glad I did. The kids and their parents arrived at the school at 6:00pm for a two hour program. The kids and parents were given box dinners from Jason's Deli an ate while they heard a presentation from a nutritionist. They then had an interactive session with a PE teacher who talked about the importance of exercise. There was also a drawing for healthy prizes such as basketballs and soccer balls. After the program, the groups rotate through three different rooms. The first room had a local chef from a 4 star restaurant preparing a healthy treat for the kids (a bread and veggie salad - trust me, it was delicious!) The second room was the Herb Garden. Each kids got to plant seeds and take with them a plant that would be either basil or tomatoes. The final room were healthy treat stations where kids made edible jewelry (stringing carrot chips and snap peas on wire), a healthy trail mix, and fruit soda (fruit juice plus a bit of seltzer water). Each child even got a goody bag as they left filled with a T-shirt, a healthy snack, cookbooks, and other goodies. It was a wonderful event and so much fun to help. I was pretty darn proud of our League and my committee for such a great event.

This week will be busy, too - racing tomorrow, hockey, and a committee meeting. Guess I will have another good post soon!!

A Great Night for Beer

Last night, Bill and I volunteered at The World Beer Festival. It is a huge festival with close to 100 booths each representing different breweries. Each booth gives out 2 oz. samples of their beers. It was the first time we had attended the festival as volunteers, not patrons. We weren't sure what to except.

We met Wednesday night for a volunteer seminar. At that time, we signed up to help out at the Breckenridge Brewery booth. We were familiar with Breckenridge, so we knew it would be a good choice.

There was no one from the brewery with us at the booth. Just 3 cases each of 4 of their beers : The 471 IPA, the Avalanche Amber Ale, the Oatmeal Stout, and the Vanilla Porter. Things started slow at 6:00 pm, but before we knew it, we were pouring beer non-stop. It was so cool to talk to the beer drinkers. It was fun to see the reactions of each person as they took a sip of the sample. The Vanilla Porter was by far a favorite. It is such a unique taste - I don't think there is any other beer like it. It was a huge hit - people were coming to the booth saying they were sent to try the porter. So, of course, we ran out halfway through the session. Still, everyone was so cool. There was not a single asshole all night. We must have served 500 people, so those odds are amazing. Then again, everyone there loves beer and was drinking, so there is not much to be unhappy about.

It may have been better without running 16 miles that morning (Bill actually ran 26 miles!), but it is an event I would certainly do again. We were able to try a few of the other beers and we definitely drank a bit of Breckenridge (no use keeping those bottles with just a sip or two for the patrons). We are looking forward to the party for the volunteers in about 10 days. All in all, a great way to spend a Saturday!!

Conservators' Center Inc.

Today, Bill and I volunteered at the Conservators' Center. It is a rescue habitat for big cats as well as a variety of other animals including caracels, binturongs, servals, and even a lemur. We started with a tour of the lions and tigers. It was great fun to see these gorgeous animals up close - much closer than you would ever see them at a zoo. After the tour, we tried to work on hanging a sun screen around the perimeter fence. It was too windy, and the sheet came off. It blew yours truly straight to the ground and knocked all of my wind out of me. My chest is still a bit sore. From there, we went to clean the storage shelter - a much less dangerous job. Our day finished with a last loop of the cages, and an in cage visit with the New Guinea Singing Dogs. These cuties love humans, but they would rip the throat out of a domestic dog. This little girl's kisses made me feel better.

I knew it would be too much

This past weekend I participated in a JL project which we call "Extra Hands." In these projects, we do a one day volunteer activity in our community. These events are usually great fun and really help people. On Sunday, we served a Thanksgiving dinner at The Durham Rescue Mission.

In preparation for this event, the organizers sent out a spreadsheet with items that we needed to bring. I checked it out and went for an easy pick - vanilla ice cream. I was asked to bring 8 gallons of vanilla ice cream, and my friend was asked to bring 8 gallons of chocolate. I thought this was OK - until I went to the grocery store.

I realized that a gallon of ice cream is not the normal size people buy. A gallon of ice cream is one of those huge bucket. Those buckets cost $6.00 each, if you are lucky. Do you think I was going to spend $50 on ice cream?? Heck, no. I wrote 3 e-mails to the organizers telling them that I thought there was going too much ice cream, and that the cost was too expensive for what is supposed to be a volunteer activity. I was really quite pissed, and almost dropped out of the whole project. The best thing I did was to get the other lady involved, too. When she found out how expensive it would be, she agreed it was too much. Finally, the organizers compromised with us and asked us to bring 3 gallons each.

We used one gallon of vanilla and one of chocolate. I am very glad I stuck to my guns.