Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a difficult time getting into this one, but since it was for book club I plowed through the slow beginning. BUT! It was totally worth it! This historical fiction had much more depth and feeling to it than I was expecting, and despite the discomfort caused by the relationship between Alice and Mr. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)- who was 20 years her senior, there was much to learn about life in the Victorian age, and love. And yes, there were tears too on my part.


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Snakes and BFFs.

I found a snake under my car at my parents' house this weekend and Ashton took this photo of me. I can officially say that my boys now loooove snakes. Thanks to me. :) I hate spiders but lurve snakes! You?

I also took this photo this morning- it is our triplets. What, you say? You only have twins! Well, Okay, yes, but Abbie was born one month after the boys and they have grown up together since the boys' second birthday. So, it's as close to having triplets as I'm gonna get. Except that Abbie and Greg and Jess are in the process of moving to LA and we are going to miss them tremendously! We are all losing BFFs to CA within a week, and life will not be the same without them. Good luck to you Greg going back to school, and Jess and Abbie in a new land with new friends and adventures!

July Vacation!

And it's almost over! I managed to score a 10-day vacation with only taking five days off from work. Not bad, eh? I have a lot of photos to share, so I'll let them tell a lot of the story. To start, we met Kevin's parents for a Father's Day BBQ up at Sand Harbor. It was windy which made it cold, but it was nice to spend some time with the fam, especially Alice who is home from her first year of college! I only managed one good picture of the boys though:
On Saturday, June 26th (right after work, on vacation day one), I drove out to Red Hawk in Sparks for Andy and Sarah's wedding! It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding, if a bit warm in the sun. I snuck a pic of Sarah before the wedding, who was just able to keep the tears back as last minute gifts were exchanged.
Kevin was one of the grooms men (you can see Dr. Mack and Earlene sitting right in front of him),

and Dan & Amy's Aubrie was the flower girl (sweetest ever!) and Chris & Geneveive's Tai was the ring bearer:
Then out walked the bride with her father,

and we watched a beautiful ceremony. Aubrie, as I a fore mentioned, was the sweetest flower girl I've ever seen. Just look at her twisting her curls!

Andy and Sarah, I wish you joy and peace and a long lasting life together! I know you will, with these radiant smiles!

During the photo session, Kevin and I passed around our camera too and got a nice one of the two of us:

And the fun begins!


On Monday, Kevin and I drove through Gardnerville to drop Sean & Ashton off with their grandparents for a few days and headed on through to San Francisco to celebrate our 11th Anniversary (July 3rd). On the way, I suggested stopping at a fruit stand, which also led to a stop at a winery in Davis. How did I choose which one to go to? I typed in "Winery Davis" (which we were soon to drive through), and picked one that was right off the highway. The lucky winner was Rominger West Winery. There were 5 wines all lined up for a free tasting when ever someone walked through the doors. It was neat to see the working winery, with barrels and equipment in open view. I liked the 2008 Rominger Ranch White best, but the 2005 Syrah - Yolo County was also very good, and Kevin's favorite. So. We bought a case! A 40% discount made it totally worth it since the 4 bottles we wanted to get was nearly as much on their own. Never bought an entire case of wine before! Great gifts. :)

On to San Francisco! We stayed in the Argonaut Hotel, which was right at the end of Embarcadero. Our room wasn't huge, but they did offer the guests a glass of wine at 5 every day! Plus the gym was pretty nice.

About once a year, or every other year I make it out to SF for one reason or another, but I've never been to a professional baseball game!

Since the Giants were playing Kevin's team, the Dodgers, and because I've never been, we pretty much had to get tickets. By the end of the first inning and heading into the second, the stands were packed!

If you look really close, you can see the ball just about to pass over home plate (click on the photo for an up-close):

And the best part of the location of this stadium? It's right next to the ocean!

The Dodgers killed the Giants, 8 to 2! And get this. For lunch I went All-American and had peanuts. And a beer. Proud? :) And I have to say that watching a game in the stadium is NOT boring like it is on TV! I greatly enjoyed myself.

Of course there was lots of shopping at Pier 39, and we stopped to watch a show at the end of the pier: Captain Jack Spareribs. And guess who he pulled out of the crowd? You guessed it. Kevin! When asked his name, he gave the first alias that came to mind: Jack. Funny. He was invited on stage to help with the show, and he was game, and even yakked it up a bit!

He got to sword fight, and even poke lances and swords through the basket containing Captain Jack's "daughter"!

Kevin said she was definitely IN the basket the entire time and guided the poking objects through the basket so she wouldn't get skewered. VERY impressive. I wonder if that ended up on YouTube (there were lots of people recording), because while I did record it on my camera, I didn't post it. I would post it here, but it takes forever and a day to upload. Also on the pier is the famous San Francisco Aquarium of the Bay, and for an extra $6, we got a 45 minute behind-the-scenes tour! I learned a ton about sea life, and the kitchen where they prepare animal food is no larger than my own! Seriously, the fridge is actually a double freezer that is only slightly larger than the one in my kitchens. Fish apparently don't eat much, or very often. Most of the fish are only fed once a week, small fish like mackerel and shrimp. The three largest fish they own, white sea bass (average weight is 315 lbs), they feed three times a week- mackerel that are only about 3 inches long. There are schools of sardines in the tanks if the fish decide they need a snack in between meals. It's a very delicate balance- keeping the fish well enough fed that they don't eat each other. For the smaller animals that have mouths too small to eat fish they feed brill that comes in dried form to the aquarium and they add water to. Like sea monkeys! The other thing I learned at the aquarium is how fascinating octopi are! The are VERY intelligent animals (most intelligent invertebrates in the world), and have been known to cause "mischief" at large aquariums. Our guide told us that they are dark-dwelling creatures, and at one particular aquarium (in So. Cal?) they had a small exhibit with a light shining down into the tank. So the octopus squirted water at the light bulb until it burst, and knocked down the power in half the aquarium! Then it was happy in the dark. :) I also watched a video that talked about how they contortionists- they have only one hard bone in their bodies- their beak, and can go through any opening large enough to fit their beak through. Indeed, I watched one problem solve it's way through an underwater gerbil maze into a big tank of water on the other side. I also watched as one octopus took the lid off a jar to get the crab inside it, out. A third experiment they tested their intelligence with was a with a Erlenmeyer beaker with a crab in the bottom. The octopus could see it and smell it, but wound it's way around and around the jar and couldn't get to it. Then it sat back for a minute, thinking (I swear it was problem solving!), then went back for a second go. One of it's tentacles found the opening in the top, and then it sucked it's entire body in to get the crab, where it ate it happily. Amazing!

The other major event of our 3-day trip was to see Wicked!

I read the book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire with my teen book club at the Carson City Library in December (yes, they are a very mature group! Their pick, I swear!) and have been dying to see the musical ever since. I was not let down. And being married to a band director has its advantages- he wanted to see it almost as much as I did! I need to buy the CDs now...

On Wednesday night (July 1st) we picked up the boys and headed home. We were going to plan a trip to Montana to visit my brother Scott and new wife Sara, but decided that my back couldn't cut 35 hours in the car (we were going to come back via Seattle so I could visit the Woodland Park Zoo and see the snow leopards). Instead, I gained some time on the homefront catching up with things like some deep cleaning (weeded the boys closet), and extra workout time, and most importantly, quality time with m'boys! On Friday, we headed out to Virginia City with my co-worker Abbey and her two teens, and while I somehow didn't take any pics of us, I did get this great view of the valley behind VC:

We had a great time window shopping, eating ice-cream and taffy from the Candy Barrel, and Sean & Ashton even picked out a piece of agate to take home. On Sunday, we headed to the Animal Ark (it's no substitute for the Woodland Park Zoo, but I like to support our local animals!). Sendari, their snow leopard, died a few years back, but there are lots of other lovely big cats, including Ashton's favorite: a white tiger!

They also have two cheetas, Moyo and Jamar, brothers from the same litter who can purr loud enough for you to feel the ground vibrate under your feet. They are very close, as you can see here. Makes me think of my own twins who are almost never apart (except not the licking or snuggling part). :)

We also saw the CUTEST arctic fox named Effie! When we walked up to her enclosure, she had just caught something, which she paraded around for a minute before hiding in some tall grasses.

Then she came right up to the fence like she wanted us to pet her! Awwww, I totally would too if it were allowed. :) What a sweet face!

Right by the side of Effie's enclosure was one of the biggest bumblebees I've ever seen. I tried to get a close-up, but it crawled most of the way into the flower before I snapped the shot:

The boys also had fun in the gift shop. Check out that huge stuffed snow leopard!

To celebrate Independence Day, we trekked out to Truckee for the Firecracker Mile and parade (and don't forget window shopping!). Gretchen made a great report on this event last year, and I thought I'd give it a go! I warmed up with a 25 minute jog up a super steep hill (that's about all that was available unless I wanted to head right out of town, and I didn't know of any immediate trails, which is what I would have preferred and looked for), and then stretched and waited with about 350 other runners for the one mile entirely-downhill race. I've never run this short a distance in a race before, so I didn't have much of a game plan other than hold a quick-ish steady pace and try not to slack off. Shouldn't be too hard since it is all downhill, right? I don't normally run so much as a warm-up because normally I use the first 1-2 miles as my warm-up in a longer race (yes Chris, I'm not nearly so competitively built as you!)- otherwise I get too tired at the end of the race. But since my body wouldn't have warmed up until after I finished this race, I figured I'd better change things up. My left knee didn't so much like all the downhills I ran (and jogged), but I was careful of my stride and managed a 7:24.5 minute mile, as they clocked me (I had 7:29ish). New PR! Whoo-hoo! I had fun anyway, and came in 109th. I walked/jogged back up the hill to where Kevin and the boys were watching the beginning of the parade, and was congratulated by many of the bystanders, and asked how I did. I've never run with so many people cheering on the runners before! That was awesome! I didn't get a great picture of the boys begging for candy on the front line, but you can see how many people support this event (especially since Reno doesn't do a parade, or have any $$$ for fireworks this year for that matter).

We didn't actually make it out to see the fireworks this year, much to Ashton's disappointment, because Sean wasn't feeling great, and running around in the sun for 4 hours probably didn't help. So while Kevin headed off to see the Aces game (which DID sport some pretty cool fireworks, apparently) I treated the boys to a new DVD purchase of their choice and we had what they like to call a "snuggle night." Which they are always begging for because it means a movie of their choice, and popcorn. Well, there wasn't any popcorn this time because I made them a very festive dessert, complimented with a glass of Martinelli's.

Spring Green

Yes, I know the summer solstice was on Monday, but only just now is it warming up in Reno. Thought I'd share a couple pictures- one of the ornamental grass that looked so pretty in the setting sun,

and one of the basil plant I recently added to my herb garden. I've been loving fresh basil on my eggs in the morning! I learned a new trick of rolling up the leaf and cutting it into thin strips right on top of what I'm cooking- it's super fast because I use kitchen shears. I hope this warm weather lasts so it doesn't wilt...

Another Spring photo I wanted to post is of my all-star basketball player! Last week Sean and Ashton got to go to an all day, all week camp at Damonte Ranch High School where they learned all sorts of fancy drills and how to shoot and ended each day with a game. A lot of times the coach pitted my boys against each other on opposite teams, but also they played together. Sean got an award for Super Hustler, and Ashton for Great Dribbler.

What talented boys I have! Baseball players and basketball players! :) Lucky mommy~

Burton Creek Trail 10K

Sunday the stars were aligned for Team Library Dork, because for the second week in a row we were able to gather for a race this time up at Lake Tahoe for the Burton Creek Trail 10K put on by Big Blue Adventure, who is putting on 4 races (all on Sundays whoo-hoo!) for a series, and hopefully I'll be able to go to more of them. Well, Dave , Chris and I ran the 10K and Turi ran the half marathon. If my knee wasn't actin' up on me so much this season I would have joined him on the longer distance, but as it was, I enjoyed the 10k train immensely. It was a small gathering for the four distances- 5 and 10k's and half and full marathons, plus there were 5 year age groups, which bode well for TLD. The 10k was 2 loops of the 5k, and the marathon was 2 loops of the 1/2 course. All 4 distances started together right at 9 (and for some reason I was shivering like crazy even though no one else was, so I couldn't WAIT for the start), and started up a steepish climb right off the bat. I ran with Dave for the first couple miles or so before his tummy started giving him problems and he dropped behind. Of course Chris was at the very front, and Turi close to to the front as well. You can see Chris to the right all in black, with long sleeves (thank you for the picture Abby!):

The trail was decently technical with some windy sections, rocks in the path to watch out for and logs and a gap in the dam to jump over. Made for a fun course, and after a downhill and another uphill the course settled into a beautiful canopied section which I truly enjoyed. I could run through the trees all day long! Then the trail headed back downhill again and about a half mile from the start/finish I followed a large group of people down a wrong turn and added about 5 minutes to my first loop back-tracking searching for the correct trail. I wondered how this would affect my placement in my age group. Chris, in the lead, also took this same wrong turn because it wasn't clearly marked, but fortunately he was far enough ahead that he didn't lose his lead spot. The final push to the end of the first lap was all wood chips and rather steep, and I developed a side stitch that I didn't go away until I started climbing into the second lap, quietly as no one noticed I went by. Nothing like a steep hill to slow me down, make me focus on my breathing and stride to make a side stitch go away! I enjoyed the second lap more than the first, despite having to walk a few steps here and there on the hills- the crowd had thinned out and I enjoyed a peaceful run on my own until I caught up to Dave who hadn't taken the wrong turn as I had. We walked a bit and caught up on race details and then I pushed ahead and ran the rest of the way back to the finish (this time not missing the turn!), and I timed myself at about 1:16.40, but they adjusted my time to the shorter course (shorter? Dave measured the course on his Garmin closer to 6.95 miles) at 1:15.30, with Dave only a minute behind me. Chris came in first in 48:19. Nice Chris!

The Big Blue Adventure series is sponsored by Merrell, and how cool is this- they brought demo shoes that they let us try on the trail! Brand new trail shoes! So while we were waiting for Turi to finish his half (in 1:55.25!), I strapped on a new pair of shoes, a half size bigger than what I normally wear because it seems that my shoes are tight on my toes lately. Do your feet keep growing into adulthood? Because I've worn the same size since I started high school. Weird. Anyway, this particular pair were for people who slightly pronate. Turns out, my physical therapist says I do, on my right side. I headed back up the start of the course (by that time everyone had started on their second loop, if they were doing one) and ran a good mile in the Merrells and walked about half way back and ran the rest of the way. (I'm marking this as a 9 mile day, including walking!) I liked them, but they were pretty expensive...

Turi came in just after I ran back in, and then we waited around for awards. Chris placed first as I mentioned, and Dave and I both received 2nd place in our age groups,


and Turi got a 3rd place glass even thought they reported on the results page on the website that he came in second.

I should probably trade him for my 2nd place glass since they're showing a 3rd place for me. I don't care what it says- I just love winning stuff! Here are the 3 10k-ers with our winnings,

and all 4 of us with our glasses, along with our mascot, Hannah:

Chris also scored an awesome waist pack that holds 2 water bottles and lots of pockets for gels and other goodies. Abby drove up with Chris along with Hannah, despite being just about done being pregnant with their second child (thanks Dave for being today's photographer!)- She is such a trooper and gor-geous! :)

One final silly pic of TLD:

Then we headed up to 50 50 in Truckee for lunch, where Hannah would be my booth-pal playing games with me and giving the most awesome little girl hugs! I need a girl-fix every now and then, and she filled that need perfectly. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my boys and they are sweet as can be, but it's nice to get girl hugs too. :)

A beautiful day for a race, fantastic course, and of course great friends made for one happy day.