On Saturday D and I went to an Angels-Mariners game with Debbie, Lisa, and Eugene. This was our first, and will probably be our only baseball game of the season. We usually try to go about once or twice a year. Since there aren’t many good food choices at Angels Stadium, we ate at Charley’s Steakery at the Block beforehand. D used to go there when he worked nearby. Lisa and Eugene introduced us to the $5 parking lots that are near the stadium (as opposed to the $10 stadium parking that we usually use). The game was pretty good, although a little too close for comfort(especially for Debbie) at times. Also, we ended up sitting one row behind a couple of people we know from WPC–what a coincidence! D had a good time showing off his MC Hammer moves during the “Can’t Touch This” break and shocking everyone when he took off his hat to reveal his horrendously short hair cut during the National Anthem.

Well I ran another 10.5 mile run. This time in 1 hr and 53 minutes. Beating my old record by 3 mins. I went out slower and came back faster with only cramping in my right calf. At the end I was feeling light headed, and feeling like I was about to faint, but I didn’t. I am not sure if I am going to run any more 10 mile runs until my race in 5 weeks. I only have 4 more weekends and the 2 before I am not suppose to run long runs. So we’ll see, maybe I will run 8.6 miles and match my Napa run.

Travel & Leisure/AOL America’s Favorite Cities 2004 edition ranked the top 25 cities in the U.S. (they included U.S. territories e.g. Puerto Rico). The rankings included 8 different categories: Family Trips, People, Activities, Romance, Getting Around, Holidays & Seasons, Quality of Life, & Sightseeing. Honolulu had the most top 5 rankings: 6. San Francisco and San Diego were in 2nd place with five categories in the top 5. So having the favorite cities in the continental U.S. in our state is pretty inpressive. L and I are going to go to San Diego next month and I have been doing a lot of research on San Diego. San Diego is a pretty impressive city. It is interesting that San Diego is CA second most populated city. I am looking forward to seeing Balboa Park & Mission Bay.

This past week, people have been commenting that I’m starting to “show”. I think I’ve been showing for a while, but I guess if you didn’t know I was pregnant, you wouldn’t necessarily think that I was–just that I had a little “extra” around the middle. It’s so funny to hear people try to guess the gender of the baby. There does not seem to be a consensus and there are so many theories. (Oh, your stomach is not that big, so it’s a boy; Well, you’re not breaking out, so it’s a girl; Do you crave sweets? Then it’s a girl. Oh, you also crave sour things? It must be a boy.) Hopefully we will find out at the end of the month, and of course, we will write about it!

Although D and I didn’t do anything too exciting yesterday, we were able to sleep/rest a lot, so that was good. Also, I was pleased with some bargains that I found at the 99 cents store and Target, so I thought I would share. At the 99 cents store I found pink grapefruit and peach Mentos (the freshmaker!) for 3/99 cents. This was exciting because I love pink grapefruit flavored/smelling things, and I read that they aren’t usually found in the US. My sister had told me peach Mentos are good, but she was only able to try them because someone brought them home from a trip to Japan.

At Target, my finds came from the $1 bins. I bought a small lunchbox tin of lemonheads (I liked the container, plus I like lemonheads), a new coupon file (the elastic on my old one was wearing thin), and a US puzzle, for our future kid (the one I had really helped me learn my states). Plus, D found a running tank top that he thought was a good deal (C9 brand). Yes, it was one exciting day.

On Friday nights, D and I usually like to go out somewhere close and relatively cheap. Last night, we did exactly that by going to the Mad Greek Restaurant. D said it was “one of the best meals he has had for under $4 per person” and that I could quote him on that. (We did have an Entertainment Book coupon which made it that cheap, but even without the coupon, the prices are low). We ordered a gyro, a rotisserie chicken dinner (chicken, pita bread, greek salad), and their famous fried zucchini sticks (really good). This place has been around for a while, and when I was a kid I was always intrigued by the restaurant’s circular shape. This was actually the first time I’ve eaten there, though, and it is a good find.

Last night D and I went on the Long Beach Memorial Maternity Tour. There were a lot more people there than at St. Mary’s. D recognized some of the same moms that were at St. Mary’s. D started feeling a little light-headed after seeing some of the graphic pictures in the power point presentation and I felt like I needed to sit down while we were in one of the delivery rooms and the nurse was talking about the delivery process. I guess that is why neither one of us works in the medical field! My favorite part was being able to see some of the just-born babies in the nursery through the looking-glass. So cute and tiny!

After last night’s tour, both of us got the overall feeling that we should use LB Memorial. We still have some time to think about it, though.

The baby started kicking a couple of weeks ago and D was able to feel it for the first time a couple of days ago. Such a strange, but wonderful feeling!

On Saturday morning, D and I took the maternity tour at St. Mary’s. We’re trying to decide between St. Mary’s and Long Beach Memorial. There were about twenty other pregnant women, all of whom seemed farther along than me. The rooms seemed pretty nice, and private. It made me kind of scared to think about what I will be going through in less than five months. They provided free bagels/cream cheese, juice, and a not so cute stuffed animal duck. We will be visiting LB Memorial this week.

On another, unrelated note, we are experiencing an ant invasion (brought on by the hot weather last week). Ew!!!

So I am sure you are curious about my training. OK, maybe not, but I will tell you anyway. On July 4th in Napa, I ran 8.6 miles in about 85 minutes. About 10 minute miles. Which I was happy about. I started thinking that I could probably run the half-marathon (13.1 miles) in 2.5 hours. That would be about 11.5 minute miles. Then next week I ran in Huntington Beach, but it was hotter and hillier than Napa. I only ran about 8 miles in about 88 mintues. So I wasn’t happy about that.

Since I only have 8 weeks before the half-marathon, I wanted to boost my long weekend run to 10 miles. So on Saturday I ran 10.5 miles! I ran from Sunset beach to the Huntington Pier and back. I started at a little after 5:30 a.m. and it wasn’t too hot. I started out strong running from Sunset Beach to Golden West without slowing down to walk. However, on the way back I started worrying about the time and not just keeping a good pace. I needed to slow down and walk because my quads were tired. Then my left hamstring started cramping up, later my right quad cramped up, then my left quad cramped up. I remembered what my Pastor said once when he ran a race; he just tried to take one step at a time, and that the Christian life is a marathon. I alternated between walking and running, and I limped to the finish line by the grace of God. My left hamstring was acting up when I was crossing the line. I ran it in under 1 hour and 56 minutes. So I hit my goal of running it in under 2 hours (on pace for a 2.5 hour half-marathon), however, I am not to sure if I can do the half-marathon in under 2.5 hours.

Today D and I went to an event called “Asian Fusion”. It was sponsored by the Asian Business Association of OC and held at Ford’s “Premier Auto Group” building. Since Mazda is partly owned by Ford, Mazda employees were invited to attend.

D is now driving a 2006 MX-5 (formerly known as the Miata) because his Mazda 3 hasn’t come in yet. So, we zoom-zoomed along the 405 with the top down to Irvine.

Then, D gave me a tour of his office building–pretty nice.

Afterward, we headed across the way to the Ford Building–very nice. We were able to sample a lot of food. D was surprised that it actually filled him up! We tried sushi, chocolates, green tea shakes, chocolate shakes, samosas, iced ginseng coffee, Thai chicken curry and chicken wing with rice, shrimp cake, cold noodles, Italian pasta (not sure why this was there), lumpia, mango and saffron ice cream, and non-alcoholic pina colada, strawberry and kiwi lime frozen drinks.

We also listened to a couple of presentations–one by the sommelier of the Napa Rose (D tried some white wines) and another by Ken Cruz, voted #1 sushi chef in Southern California. Here is Chef Cruz:

D won a $35 gift certificate for brunch at his restaurant called Riptide in Mission Viejo. He won by answering the question, “Where was sushi invented?” (Correct answer: China!)

A couple of months ago I did some research on body pillows. Not for my pregnancy, but just because I have always wanted one. I did a search on Target.com and came across the “Snoogle”, which I had never heard of before. After reading all of the glowing reviews, especially by pregnant women, I decided to buy it. Even though it is expensive (closer to $60 inc. tax/shipping), I must say that it is worth it. I’ve pretty much slept with it every night since I bought it. I feel like my sleep is “deeper”, as I have noticed that I dream a lot more now–seriously! Also, it helps tremendously in keeping me positioned on my left side (apparently, you’re not supposed to sleep on your right side or on your back while pregnant). D doesn’t mind the extra space it takes up in the bed (some reviewers cited this as a problem). Plus, my mom made me this super duper cute cover for it with an old sheet I had bought (from Target) a long time ago.