April Recap

Wow, it's been a crazy month! Let's recap, shall we?

1) Easter - Jeremy and I celebrated Easter with brunch at one of our favorite local spots and a long hike/trail run with Ruby up towards black mountain.  It was a gorgeous, warm day and it felt good to be outside.  Here are a few photos and one video :)

 View of the Wasatch from the trail

Shaded, but still a pretty good self-portrait!

Man and his dog... surveying the land 

Not my best animation ever, but I love how the contrail grows!

 

Panorama from the top

  Ruby found a snow patch... her favorite!

Look, Mom! I found a rock to rest on!

 Enjoying the view

 2) April Showers Bring May Flowers - There's nothing quite like spring in the Wasatch.  As soon as your daffodils come up and you start seeing the first robins of the year, it snows.  It might be 70 the next day, then it might rain, then the tulips start to come up. Then it snows! Nothing like a little variety to keep us on our toes.  We've managed to get out and enjoy spring a bit.  Here are some photos.

Our first daffodils

View of downtown on the way up to the Living Room

Our first trip to the Living Room... Found it!

Love the tongue in this one!

 Jeremy, taking in the view

 My new favorite photo!!

3) Roomies for Life - Rachel came to town for a few days mid-April... woohoo!! We were stereotypically girly... brunch, mani/pedis, shopping... it was awesome!  She also had the "privilege" of attending the grand opening of our new building at work.  I'm sure Rach was a little bored, but we got free lunch out of the deal.  We also managed to sneak in a run and some cocktails while she was here, so the visit was a success overall!

4) JEREMY GOT A JOB!!! - I apologize for the excessive caps, but I'm super excited about this one!  Long story short, Jeremy endured an extensive interview process for a Graphic Designer position with a tech firm in Denver and was offered the job. Last week, he flew to Denver for the final in-person interview and nailed it.  He was offered the job on the spot!  He thinks the company is going to be a great fit and has accepted the position. Woohoo!!! The small downside is that he starts May 6th, so he'll be leaving for Denver sooner than we anticipated.  It will be tough living in two different cities for a few months, but having him on the ground in Denver will undoubtedly help us find a house to rent in the crazy Denver market. All in all, it's not much of a sacrifice for a fantastic job.  I'm ridiculously proud of him!!

Ruby's reaction when I told her Daddy got a job :)

Whew, I think that's it!  The weather is getting warmer, and the times they are a changing.  Stay tuned... I'll try to be better about updating the blog, I promise!

Buffalo Run 2013 - Race Recap

 Understatement of the year!! Note the dude being pinned up against the chain-link fence!

On Saturday, Jeremy and I headed out to Antelope Island for the Buffalo Run 25k (me) and 50k (Jeremy). This is a race we've both run before and really enjoy.  I know I can't lead with a picture like the one above and not launch directly into an explanation, so here goes.  Yes, that really happened, and yes, the guy is alright.  The photo was taken on Friday, just before the start of the 100-mile race.  The start line for these races is about 100 yards away from this point.  You start by running up the dirt road and then flip a U-turn through the hole in the fence just past the buffalo.  As the story goes, it was a few minutes before the start of the 100-mile race and these guys noticed that a buffalo (the primary inhabitants of Antelope Island) was roaming in the general path that the 100-milers were about to take.  Now, this wouldn't be the first time racers on the island have encountered buffalo, in fact, it's pretty common.  Nonetheless, the dude on the left apparently decided to try to convince the buffalo to move.  Needless to say, the buffalo was none-too-pleased, charged the guy, pinned him up against the fence, snorted a couple times, then dropped him and walked away.  I interpret this as the buffalo saying "I'm a giant-ass buffalo, I'll do what I want... don't piss me off".  Sort of a warning shot.  The good news is that the guy was OK, although I'm sure he soiled his pants and was probably CRAZY sore the next day.

Our races were far less eventful than this!  First and foremost, we got super lucky on the weather.  The forecast for Saturday called for snow and cold temps, but it turned out to be a lovely (although brisk) sunny day.  It was 27 and windy when we got to the island, but it warmed up nicely as the sun came up over the mountains.

The 50k pack lining up!

(Jeremy is in there somewhere)

I will admit, I was pretty nervous about this one.  I had taken my now far-too-typical approach of not running enough in preparation for the race (I swear I'm going to break that streak for the next one).  Poor preparation, coupled with the fact that Jeremy had taken me out on a ridiculous training run the weekend prior - trashing my quads - and that I spent Thursday and Friday helping move our lab to a new building on campus, and I was going into the race more fatigued that I would have liked.  I don't know if it was my low expectations or what, but I had a really great race!  I went out conservatively and power-hiked the long hill at the start (it usually takes me a couple miles to really warm up anyhow, plus I hate hills).  Aside from the major hills on the course, I'm happy to say that I ran almost everything else.  On what I believe is the worst hill of the course, a relatively short, but stupid steep climb up to the first aid station, I was joined by a super cool gentleman.  He was probably in his 70s and this was his first ever trail race.  He was having a blast, even on that torturous hill, and was incredibly inspiring to chat with.  I wish I had noted his race number, because I would love to look him up and see when he finished - I'm certain he finished.

Photo credit: Jeremy Gleason

View to the NE from the top of the crazy climb to the Elephant Head aid station

I particularly enjoyed the ~2 mile downhill around mile 6.  I had forgotten how good it feels to fly down single-track.  I swear I must have passed 30 people on this section... I guess most folks just aren't comfortable letting loose on the downhill.  To me, that was the best part of the race!

 Self-portrait with a distant herd of buffalo,

near the bottom of the super-fun downhill

I had to pop in my tunes around mile 11 (I rarely run with music), but it was exactly what I needed to get in the groove and get to the finish.  I ended up taking 5 minutes or so off my time from last year.  To me, that's a win!  Plus, I won one of fabulous door prizes at the finish line - new sunglasses from Smith Optics - SCORE!

Modeling my new shades the day after the race

Best of all, I recovered like I champ.  I wasn't nearly as sore as I expected.  In fact, I felt so good yesterday that I wanted to go run (although I forced myself to take a 2nd day of rest).  All in all, it was a great race.  Here's hoping the next one is even better :)

It tastes better when you earn it!!!

Brain Cake and Burning Quads

It's been a busy week here in Salt Lake City!  Last Thursday, my labmate (and good friend) Melissa defended her Ph.D. thesis.  She is now officially part of the Ph.D. club!! Here she is emerging from her defense meeting...

 

It's a little blurry, but I love it!

Our fabulous mentor, Kristen, threw a party in Melissa's honor on Friday evening.  In discussing the party preparations, I somehow managed to get myself nominated to make a brain cake for the occasion. Given my limited artistic abilities, I immediately "volunteered" Jeremy to assist me in this task. Being the fabulous husband that he is, Jeremy rearranged his work schedule so that he could be home Friday afternoon to tackle the brain cake with me.  We decided to go with a red velvet cake and homemade cream cheese frosting.  I documented the cake building process so I could shamelessly brag about his talents on my blog. 

Step 1: Flatten the bottom cake to allow the top cake to sit somewhat level

 Step 2: Carve a brain shape

 Step 3: Add a layer of crumb-coat frosting

Aside from baking the cakes, I was relatively useless until this point.  Right about here, Jeremy turned to me for "scientific consulting" regarding the placement of the "squiggles" (aka. gyri/sulci).  I must say, while not 100% anatomically accurate, the finished product was quite impressive! 

 

 Tada!!

We realized that the brain cake wasn't going to be large enough to feed a giant crowd, so we also threw together a sheet cake to feed the masses.  Jeremy's artistic abilities were put to the test when I asked him to try and draw a neuron and a rat in icing, but he prevailed!

Almost too cool to eat.

The party was lovely, and I think Melissa enjoyed finally getting to relax after months of stress leading up to her defense. A great time was had by all!

 

Kristen roasting/toasting Melissa.

 Melissa, showing off her Super Woman gift bag :)

The lab!!  

I love this photo because not a single one of us is looking at the

 camera or doing what we're supposed to.  Classic Keefe Lab!

The weather was lovely last week and on Saturday I let Jeremy convince me to go on a crazy trail run with him.  I haven't been doing nearly enough training for the 25k that I'm signed up for this weekend, so I thought it would be good for my psyche to get out and do 9-10 miles last weekend. What I didn't consider is that my husband is insane, and runs hills that most people wouldn't want to hike.  We took off from our house, and headed up to the towers in the foothills behind Ensign Peak. We went all the way to the upper towers (a trip I'd only been on once before).  On the way up, Jeremy started putting crazy ideas in my head about taking the pipeline trail down into City Creek rather than going back the way we had originally planned.  "It's fun", he told me.  "You've never done pipeline", he said... "You can cross it off your list of trails to run before we move".  Somehow I let myself fall prey to this logic.  Next thing I know, we're headed down a mile of SCREAMING downhill.  The kind of downhill that you run because it's impossible to walk. The kind of downhill where it's everything you can do to stay in control and not fall tumbling to the bottom. He was right, it was fun, but man did I pay for it.  My quads were burning for the next 3 days.  Today, Wednesday, I can finally go down stairs without wincing.  Why do I let him talk me into this madness?!  On the bright side, it was a gorgeous spring day and I had a blast running the trails with my two favorite creatures!!

 Ruby the trail dog, posing for the camera

 Look, Mom! I found the world's smallest patch of snow to roll in!!

 View of downtown

 Self-portrait at the lower towers

 Heading down towards Pipeline from the upper towers.  Found some more snow!

 Nothing like cooling off in a knee-deep snow patch on a 70+ degree spring day!

 The beginning of the dreaded Pipeline Trail

Notice how it just drops off and disappears?!

 Jeremy, slaloming through the scrub oak on Pipeline

 City Creek - Much less snowy than it was on Groundhog Day!!

Ruby-girl post run: Stick a fork in her... she's done!

Jeremy's birthday party

This past Saturday evening we had the (extended) neighborhood crew over to celebrate Jeremy's birthday.  Curtis made quite possibly his best dessert creation to date and we all over-indulged.  It was a great night with good friends and reminded us how much we're going to miss this crazy bunch when we move this summer.  Here are are few photos from the evening.

Mmm, cake!!!

Really, you're going to sing?

 Hope it was a good wish : )

 

Let's carve this sucker!

 

 

Ruby getting love from Uncle Dave

Happy Friday!

Neither Jeremy nor I felt like cooking breakfast this morning, so we decided to each grab something on our way into work.  When I approached the counter to pay for my bagel and coffee, the woman working the register winked at me, said "He already covered it", and gestured towards the man who had been in front of me in line.  As I went to fill my coffee cup, I thanked him and he just smiled and turned for the door.  Thank you, sir, for making my morning, and for reminding me that there are still people who do nice things, not for the recognition, but because it feels good.  Happy Friday!! Spread the love this weekend, y'all :)

Cheers, kind sir. Cheers.

31?! No, that can't be right!

Yesterday was Jeremy's birthday.  He's now 31 years old, which seems impossible because that would make me almost 31... yikes!  We had a quiet little celebration at home last night, but I think we should gather up the neighbors this weekend to toast him properly.  I wanted to post a few of my favorite photos from last night. Happy birthday, Mister! I love you : )

 Who doesn't love presents?

 We opened one of our "Christmas wines" from Jeremy's folks...

 ... and it was good!!!

 

Poor guy had to grill his own steak for dinner, but he didn't seem too torn up about it!

 

Wow, that's a lot of candles!!

 Got them all in one shot!

Birthday smile : )