signage

i took all last week off from running.  i was actually going to go for a short-ish run on wednesday and even got all dressed and everything, but the hub totally twisted my arm and sent me off for a massage instead.  heh.  and of course, it was fabulous - although rather torturous in parts (namely, my entire lower half), i walked outta there feeling like a new woman.  my legs were completely back to normal again!  so awesome.

and then when i saw a twitter exchange between my friends y4m and insomniac about hiking up to the hollywood sign, i totally invited myself along.  okay, that's not true - y4m basically opened it up to anyone who wanted to go.  i decided to consult the google for information on what i was getting myself into, and found a great blog post that outlined exactly what we'd be doing.  i hadn't been on a hike in ages and ages, so i was excited - especially going with friends.

so as the hub and the bean took off to go to "daddy & me day" at preschool, i threw on some yoga pants, a hat, and my old, worn-out pair of running shoes (y4m had said that the trails are easily walkable in just about anything, and tater seconded that as she'd done it in rainbow flip flops once) and headed out west.

as i got off the freeway and headed towards the park that was our meeting place, i passed this sign:

i guess the neighborhoods in the area deal with a lot of tourist traffic, folks thinking they can just drive up to the iconic sign.  guess what, people - you've gotta haul your ass up there on foot.

i managed to find a spot in one of the parking lots near the entrance to the trail, and got out to walk around a little and warm up.

with zero cell phone reception up there, we had a little trouble finding each other, so we got a later start than we'd planned.  no biggie.  and when we finally got together, we decided to take the optional side trip and see the "batcaves" - where the 60s batman tv series did some filming back in the day.  it took all of ten minutes.  duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh, BATMAAAAAAN!

we walked through the cave and at the other end found a hiking group and another bunch of folks doing some filming.  and outside, a lovely view of the sign.  it was such a beautiful, clear day.

really, we couldn't have chosen a better day to do this.  there was such a great view of hollywood from not too far up.

a little farther and we passed a trail that led down to sunset ranch, which offers rides on horseback. 

poor insom, our poo-aphobic.  there were land mines all over the place for a little stretch of our hike, and she kept getting stuck as she tried to pick her way carefully around them.

look, we're almost there!

you can't really see from this picture, but at this point we were at such an angle that it looked like the sign said "ohllywood."  heh.

around the back of the mountain, we were treated to a gorgeous view of the burbank/glendale area.

and around the corner, lake hollywood reservoir.

there's a giant fence up at this part, where you find yourself behind the letters.  and they aren't kidding around with this - cameras are watching.

yay!

plus we were right next to this monstrosity of a cell phone tower:

up at the very top of the hill, which required careful climbing in my running shoes, we found the survey button placed by the group who'd measured the height of the peak.

i'm the king of the world!

as we began our descent, y4m (who'd done this hike quite a few times before, living only minutes away) pointed out this little sign, which has either worn away or been picked at by others - it used to say "you made it!"

look, a baby mole!

all in all, it was a 6.5 mile hike that took us about 2.5 hours to complete, with stops for pictures and water breaks and just to catch our breath.  it was fairly steep on the way up, but with lots of lovely flat sections, and then easy breezy all the way back.  we carpooled to pick up y4m's hubby, and then we headed here for brunch.

such a great day!  and i was on such a high from the experience that i immediately sent a picture to the teen and rock-ell.  i suggested that we go next weekend, so it looks like i get to repeat the experience with the good camera.  and maybe some snacks.  well, snacks for sure.  heh.

let's just hope the weather cooperates.  oh, and that i can somehow get rid of the sick ass tank top lines i got along with my vitamin d fix.  ugh.

everything's better with biscoff

remember my post a few months ago (okay, it was july. how time flies!) about making a sopapilla cheesecake for breakfast?

i did it again. 

except this time, i switched it up a little.  see the difference?

oh, yes.  i threw a little biscoff spread into the mix.  because, as we're learning, biscoff spread goes with everything.  i may have had a little extra cream cheese filling left over from a previous sopapilla breakfast...uh, a few days prior.  so i scooped some spread into a bowl and mixed it all together.

it came out of the oven perfectly golden and smelling pretty darn fantastic.

seriously, i think i'm just going to start adding biscoff spread to everything i make.  beats eating it out of the jar with a spoon, anyway.

breathing easy - GIVEAWAY CLOSED

edited to add:  winner of the oreck air purifier posted here. 

okay, so when people do reviews on stuff they get for free, it always seems like they're just being nice because - well, they got free shit.  right?

and that's my way of telling you that i'm about to dazzle you with a review on a product that i was given at no cost to me.  full disclosure here, people.  and yes, i do feel kind of obligated to be super nice about it because, well, i got something for free.  but at the same time, i don't wanna be a sellout like that.

except that in this case, i really don't have anything bad to say.  when the social media rep at oreck contacted me about testing out one of their newest products in exchange for a review on the bloggy-blog, i was all like "hell yes, i'm in!"  because, as i've said before, i love me a freebie.  but i'll admit it:  i wasn't all that stoked when i found out that what i'd be getting wasn't one of their world-famous vacuum cleaners...i was going to be reviewing an air purifier.

you're thinking, wah waaaaaah.  right?  so was i, but then i realized that hey! who cares, i get to try something out and keep it - and give one away to one of you guys (more on that later) - plus, this thing has a retail value of $499.99.  sah-weet!

so i was excited when UPS dropped this off late one evening:

"what the hell is that?" the hub wanted to know.  and as i went about my business, getting dinner ready, he took on the task of unpacking the thing and figuring out how to get it set up.

i thought it was pretty cool, actually.  kind of space-y looking, and very sleek.

we set it up right next to the dining room and turned it on.  it came to life immediately, and the light inside the round opening went from a light blue to a deep purple.  i wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

the hub, having skimmed through the quickstart guide, said that the color of the light is an indicator of how bad the air is that it's sucking in and filtering through.  and since i'd been cooking in the not-too-far-away kitchen, it made sense that it was working a little extra hard.

we've had it for quite a while now (actually, this review is quite a bit overdue - sorry, chelsea!), and i actually have noticed a difference.  before, when i was at work in the kitchen, the aroma of whatever i was cooking or baking would waft throughout the entire house.  it's actually made to work in a room up to 248 square feet, but it seems to keep the smells to a minimum.  it doesn't make a whole lot of noise, and although an air purifier wasn't necessarily something high on my list of priorities, i'm glad we have it.  the bean doesn't sneeze as much inside the house as she used to, and that's a good thing.

the hub accused me of standing in front of it and ripping one when the light turned an angry red once:

i will neither admit nor deny.  heh.  but i can tell you that if there were any suspicious odors that caused the angry red light to come on, you sure couldn't tell after a few seconds.  you know, IF anything had happened in that instance. 

and now, for the fun part - you, too, can be the proud owner of an oreck air purifier of your very own!  first, here's some boring information that i'm required to provide: 

• you must be a resident of the 48 contiguous states in the U.S.  sorry, alaska, hawaii and oh, the rest of the world.  these aren't my rules.  i got mad love for all of you.
• again, i was given my airinstinct air purifier by oreck corporation at no cost to me.
• oreck corporation is providing the prize for this giveaway, but is not the sponsor.  that would be me.
• you have from right this minute until next friday, february 10th at 11:59 pm PST to enter.  i'll announce the winner on monday, february 13th.
• winner will be drawn via my friend random.org.

cool?  we good?  okay.  now there's one thing that you have to, must absolutely, positively do in order to be eligible to win:

• i need you to visit oreck.com and tell me (in a comment below) one thing you learned about the airinstinct.  kind of like homework, but not really.  but this is the one thing you really have to do in order to be entered in this giveaway.  plus, make sure you leave me a way to get ahold of you.  your e-mail address will only be used for the purpose of contacting you in regards to this giveaway.  if random.org picks you, i send you an e-mail, and i don't hear back from you by friday, february 17th at 5:00 pm PST, i'll pick a new winner.  don't let that happen to you.  that would be sad.

and after that's done, here's a few different ways that you can sneak in bonus entries to better your chances of purifying your own gassy odors with your very own oreck airinstinct:

• follow @oreck on twitter.
• tweet a link to this blog post.  be sure to mention me (@luvbabyb) and @oreck in the tweet.
• "like" oreck on facebook.
• share a link to this blog post via facebook.
• sign up for oreck's e-mail list by clicking on "sign up for e-mail" in the top navigation bar and entering your e-mail address.
• with each of these extra chances, make sure you leave me another comment here to let me know you did [insert bonus entry method here].

simple, right?  now, off with you.  go on, learn about the airinstinct and then earn those bonus entries!  spread the word!  whee!

pixie dust is powerful

after we'd all had a chance to shower and get pretty again, we checked out of our room and headed downstairs to have some breakfast.  happily for the bean, we ended up at the hotel's character breakfast.  she was so excited to have some face time with some of her favorite disney peeps.

when minnie caught sight of the teen's new phone case, she picked it up and showed it to someone she thought might be interested:

and he loved it so much, he demanded to have his picture taken with the teen - after somehow managing to ask her without saying a word as to where she'd found it (amazon, of course).

pluto was really...affectionate.  with all of us.

and the bean surprised us by going up to the "stage" at the front of the restaurant to join in the dance party.

outside in the lobby, the teen reenacted a scene from our last trip to paradise pier hotel (yes, this picture is totally out of order, but do you really care?).

since the hub's super duper value annual pass didn't work that day, he decided to head on home while the rest of us stayed to play in the parks.  i know, i know - i was slightly crazy to even consider this after my extra early morning and, oh, i don't know - running 13.1 miles.  heh.  but i'd promised the bean that we'd go, and so we went.  plus, when else would i have a great excuse to actually wear that medal anywhere?  the attention whore in me was gleeful at the idea of rocking the bling for the rest of the day.  the teen and rock-ell decided to hit up disneyland while the two of us headed over to california adventure to ride some of her favorite rides.

after riding the monsters, inc. ride twice (shockingly, it was wide open with no more than a 3 minute wait), we heard some music coming from the stage right behind us.  and when she saw the show going on - "mickey's dance crew" - she decided to continue the dance party and joined in the fun.

afterwards, we got to say hello to the mouse himself.

it's just not a trip to california adventure without sitting through the disney junior stage show.  and after it was over, the bean was totally stoked to see the title character from "jake and the neverland pirates" just outside, posing for pictures.

bling bliiiiiiiing (those earrings are part of the new stella & dot spring '12 collection, and i dig 'em).

after a spin on the "little mermaid" ride, even the bean was pooped.  "mommy, my legs are wanting to go to sleep," she said.  ha!  and i sure didn't need to be told twice.  i'd been ready to go after round 1 of "monsters, inc."  so i steered her through the grand californian hotel - a nice shortcut back to paradise pier, where our car was still parked - and gratefully sank into the driver's seat to head home.

of course, the bean fell asleep within minutes, and because it was my lucky day, there was zero traffic and we were pulling into our driveway in no time.  i scooped her out of her seat, hobbled into the house, collapsed onto the couch, and dozed off for a well-deserved nap.

oh, and by the way - here are the official results from my first half marathon:

i'm not gonna lie - i am damn proud of that finish time.  i was hoping for 2:45!  and when i crossed the finish line, the clock was somewhere around 2:38 and i was even happy with that.  not to mention, i'd taken the time for pictures along the way.  imagine if i'd just gone straight through without stopping?  man.  and just look - i came in #2479 out of 11,000ish people (the number above doesn't include the men who ran)!  i don't know what "age grade" means, but i don't care.  and now i have a time to submit for the disneyland half in september - maybe i'll move up a corral or two!

and it wasn't till i was almost home that i remembered something - i'd left my race shirt with the wings pinned to the back hanging on the bathroom door.  gah!  i texted the teen and then called the hotel, but had to leave a message for their lost & found department.  i'm sure it was a crazy weekend for them, so i just hoped for the best.

happily, they did call me back two days later to report that my shirt and wings had been set aside and i could pick it up anytime within 90 days.  yippee!

besides, let's face it - we all know that it probably won't be much more than a week before i head back down for more disney fun.  heh.  at least this time i have an excuse to go.

i swear, i didn't plan it that way.  promise.