Saturday, December 14, 2013

An adventure run at home

I had to run 15 miles on Thanksgiving weekend for my training, and Sam and Julia were nice enough to join me for most of it. We took an adventurous route that included running down (and then up) a huge hill and crossing a gigantic river:


Ok it wasn't actually gigantic. But it was fun!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Happy Birthday Mom!

It's my mom's birthday today, which is a great day for a birthday, 12/12. Last year was obviously better at 12/12/12, but this is pretty good too. Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Hannukah!

Happy belated Hannukah! We had a nice holiday, partly with my family and partly in our apartment and with friends. The funniest part was what happened to our candles. We had a couple of boxes of candles because we always buy too many when they're on sale. In retrospect, this was not our smartest decision, but we had been storing them in the cabinet over the stove. Here is what they looked like when we took them out of the box:


And a close-up:


So we were able to separate them and still use them, even though some were broken:


They actually looked pretty cool and people said we should do it on purpose and sell them in the future. Here are the nights I remembered to take pictures of:


Ok that one's not that pretty, but just wait.


The orange one was broken in half and I lit it in the middle. It was pretty epic and you can see it burned twice as tall because it had twice as much fuel.


You can also see a sneak preview if my candle color selections for the following nights. Here is a break to see our Hannukah presents:


I sewed Sam a sleep mask with help from my mom. Sam got me a necklace and some mesh laundry bags, both shown in this photo:


I also got him a pizza peel:


Some more candles:





And we also got some great presents from Sam's parents. For Sam:


A slow cooker! Already in use on vegetable soup. And for me, a winter bike helmet:


I hope everyone else had a nice Hannukah too!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

I got a new winter bike! And ran 16 miles!

It was a great day today, and busy. Sam and I ran (16 miles for me, 11 for him) and then we went and got me a new winter bike. I sold my old winter bike before we left for our trip, and I don't like to ride my good bike if it's below freezing (because the grease in the cables can freeze and get weird) or if I'm going to be in gross weather (for obvious maintenance reasons). So today we went to see a bike I found on craigslist, and it was better than it looked in the picture, and I got it! So now I'm ready to commute in worse wintery weather. Although I'm not really prepared for it emotionally, of course.

Here's my new bike:


It's white, not purple like my old winter bike, but that's ok. I'll need to get lights, fenders, and a new chain. I'm very glad that now I can take better care of my good bike!

Monday, November 25, 2013

I'm working from the Philadelphia office this week


Check out the view from my borrowed office:



The sky looked pretty cool. And that's the art museum building on the left. Nice, huh?

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Dusseldorf pictures

I'm at the airport in London now on a layover on my way home. I have wifi here, which is great, so I'll post some pictures from Dusseldorf. 

Here's a view of the area near the hotel that we got while walking back from dinner:


Here is our office building:


And here are some views from inside:






Then here's some places we walked by on the way to dinner another night:





It all looks so cool in the dark, huh? And look what they played on the plane on my way to Berlin:


More posts and pictures coming soon!

Friday, November 8, 2013

Adventures in Germany, with a focus on food

I've been in Germany for the last two weeks for work, and it's been fun but the food is not vegetarian-friendly, to say the least. We've gone to a few nice Italian restaurants, but I've also had to endure some really sad salads at German meat restaurants and breweries. Here are some of my food pictures:

Ravioli

Dessert

Dessert

Pasta

Dessert

Dessert

I didn't bother taking pictures of the sad salads. 

This makes it look like I've eaten a lot of (only?) dessert, which is nearly true. It's been great!

I am typing this on my phone on the train on the way to visit Meredith in Germany. I just noticed I have an Icelandic keyboard installed, so I will share some Icelandic characters with you:ð Ð Æ æ ö Ö and my personal favorite, þ Þ. 

That's it for now so I don't get sick on the train!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

I ran 11 miles in Berlin

I'm in Berlin visiting a friend and I am also training for the New Orleans marathon, which I think I've already mentioned. I ran 11 miles here for my weekly long run, and it was a great way to see the city. Here are some pictures of places I saw on my run:










Saturday, October 26, 2013

Ran 10 miles with Meredith today!

Meredith and Brian are visiting me in Amsterdam and Meredith and I went on a 10-mile run this morning. It was really fun and Amsterdam is great!




Tuesday, October 22, 2013

I'm in Amsterdam!

I'm here for a week for work. It's awesome! Everyone is saying that the weather is really nice for this time of year, so that's nice. My hotel is not great, but it's only a kilometer from the office and it's a nice walk along the canals. I'm still pretty jet lagged, so I'm going to go to sleep.