Have you met my dog?

My dog is incredibly cute.  Like really, really cute.  Just to prove how cute my dog is I'm posting this incredibly cute picture of my dog.

Yep, I told you he's cute. Just 80 pounds of pure cuteness as you can tell from this oh-so-serious glamour shot of him.  Oh Marley we love you!

A Delicious Fourth of July!

I wasn't looking forward to a holiday in the middle of the week but it turns out it worked perfectly!  Any day is a holiday when Ryan is home so it was a great day.  Just the two of us for a run through midtown/downtown Oakland, an A's game (they won!), barbecue at home, and season 5 of Mad Men-- heaven!

Two great food finds for the fourth:

What a heavenly galette!

1) Awaken Cafe @ Broadway and 15th in Oakland.  I drive by this place often and have been wanting to go in but somehow hadn't made it in yet.  Good coffee and delicious pastries!  See the pic of my apricot, nectarine galette.  Yum!

Grilled sweet potato salad!
So good the only pic I got was mid-consumption.

2) Grilled Sweet Potato Salad! I was listening to Fresh Air earlier this week and Terry Gross was interviewing Jack Bishop and Bridget Lancaster from America's Test Kitchen.  Their recommendations for veggies for grilling were sweet potatoes and red onions and after I heard that I could not get the idea of grilled sweet potatoes off my mind.  I modified a Bobby Flay Food Network recipe for Grilled Sweet Potato and Scallion Salad.  I just switched out the scallions for grilled red onions and it was a home run!  I cannot recommend this recipes enough!

The B**** is Back!

Well I'm sorta talking about myself, more like my alter ego, you know like Beyonce has Sachsa Fierce (that's right I'm comparing myself to Beyonce).  Well I'm back to running, or at least for now I am.  I've been a runner now for about five years.  I started back in 2007 when I moved to Merced.  Somehow running just made sense.  I didn't need a lot of equipment, I could do it with the dog, and honestly I experienced such improvements in athletic ability so quickly that it just hooked me.

I did my first half marathon in October of 2007 and I loved it!  After that I lined up race after race to train for and as of this date I've completed nine half marathons and two full marathons. I did my last race in October of 2011: the incredible Nike Women's Marathon, and incredible it was!  However I didn't train as much as I needed to to finish the 26.2 strongly.  I hobbled past the finish line and after that I was just burned out.  I've run occasionally off and on but I racing hasn't been on my "to-do" list, until now.

Half marathon number 10 is planned for September 16, 2012.  That's right, my husband and I are doing The Giant Race this September in San Francisco-- wahoo!  I'm thrilled to be back into training mode and looking forward to the run!