You might ask, is he a regal beagle?

A happy puppy?

Nope, just a weir-do.

Gotta love the weirdo.

Starting with the most recent 4th of July events.  Here is Marley and I heading off to a little 4th of July celebration.

Marley, stop drinking all the beer!

Roo and I

And Caroline joined us

Lovely party favors

Roo made a funny!

Now, backing it up to where I left off….

I finished the Boston Marathon in 4:22 at a pace of exactly 10 minutes.  My pace was 10:00.00 and my goal was to have it under 10 minutes.  So, it couldn’t have been 9:59.59??  Really Boston Marathon clocktimer people?

But overall, it was an incredible experience.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.  The weather was perfect, the crowds were amazing and I got to see my friends and family along the route!  But enough of the emotional stuff, here are the pictures!

Starting with a shot of Sarah, Kristie, Johnice and I waiting in Athlete’s Village:  I miss my early Saturday morning runs with these girls!

Then I saw my family and friends at the start of the Newton Hills.  As you can tell, I’m not excited at all.

And then I got back to my house and got flowers from my mom! (please ignore the hair.  That’s what 26.2 miles will do to it)

And then I even made the school newspaper.  The news must have been slow that month.

And then I continued to run too much, bike too much and exercise too much.  So I got two new trophies for running the marathon:

Nothing like a hip fracture at 29 years old.  Didn’t you hear, 80 is the new 29.  Or is it 29 is the..new…80….forget it.

But having crutches gives you perks, like taking the elevator at work, getting seated at a bar on a busy night or being given a wheelchair at Foxwoods.  I should have splurged for the motorized scooter upgrade.

Speaking of Foxwoods, my friends and colleagues had a wonderful end-of-the-year trip to the ol’ casino.  Still not sure where it is in Connecticut…..Forget the all-you-can-eat buffet, this placemat map of Connecticut is clearly way more intriguing for Annie and I.

But a good time was had by all

Speaking of good times, there have been a lot of good times with friends and family over the past few months.  Like our all too frequent trips to the Local:

(Roo, Elle and I at the Local)

Da Fam plus Caroline at the Local

And then there are the times when we tried sitting on a Porche in the Local parking lot…all for a good laugh….yeah, don’t do that.  Someone must stop our shenanigans.

Another fun time this spring was when we saw a tornado.  No big deal.

We were just on a casual 8th grade fieldtrip when all of a sudden, we saw a tornado from our bus window.  I was actually very concerned about that TJ Maxx.  There are some good deals in there!

So, this summer will be spent in the garden, tending to something I like to call plants (some refer to them as weeds….bah).

And web designing!  I will be posting about some new projects, but until then….

And that my friends, is a nutshell….or just a nut.

This morning consisted of a team brunch and a carb loading session.  With the way Seth ate, I could have sworn he was running a marathon….or 3.  We then cruised over to the Expo and picked up my number.  To track me, you can visit www.baa.org.  My number is 21,770    Can’t wait!!

21770—-> That’s my number!  You will be able to follow me at www.baa.org on Marathon Monday (April 18th).

Yesterday I ran the 21 mile training run from the start of the marathon course (Hopkinton) to the top of Heartbreak Hill in front of Boston College.  They say Boston is a challenging course because the first 17 miles are downhill and when you “hit the wall,” you encounter the Newton Hills for several miles.  Well, I wouldn’t say it was exactly downhill.  Lets not get crazy here.

Kristie, my fellow liver teammate, and I will be having a marathon fundraising party on April 9th at the Playwright bar in South Boston.  You know you owe one to your liver.  All are welcome! Here is the Facebook link to the event.

And lastly, I have been busy plugging away at a lot of web design work.  I’m really excited about a project I have been working on with the Women Innkeepers of Provincetown.  I will have more info on this later, but here is a preview!

Sarah and I after my run (it was COLD next to the beach.  I think I have 5 jackets on).

Tim and Sarah passing the baton.

One of the many beautiful views up the coast in Big Sur.

Seth was trying to be all fancy pants and took a picture behind a rock.  Either that, or he was trying to hide from me (well, I don’t blame him..  He is spending 24/7 with meeeee!)

Happy cows do come from California.  They have a million-dollar view from their pasture.

Sipping jasmine tea at lunch and nestled among redwood forests by 2:00.  What’s next for the these old farts you ask….yoga and dinner at 4:30? Actually, yes.

Don’t worry about it black ice, my kneecaps were overrated anyways.  Actually no, no, no…despite all of the ice and snow, my legs are still intact.  I’m not much of a treadmill runner (and by not much, I mean never) but I considered a gym membership at the beginning of my Boston Marathon training.  But I thought “nah, I love to run outside, why would waste my money on a gym membership?”  Well, if you live in the Northeast, you’d know that it’s been quite the winter to be training for a marathon.  Oh well…I love it.  Especially the days I look like Bambi on the ice.

But I did complete the team “Love Your Liver” 17-mile run yesterday morning.  It was a great run and we all proceeded to love my liver even more at the Pour House in downtown Boston afterwards.  Seth was the official team bag boy for the event and he snapped this photo of me (I’m in the sweet hot pink shorts and pink jacket.  I’m really not that colorblind…we were told to wear pink for Valentine’s day):

Please notice the guy with the chocolate boxes taped to his chest and behind.  Very classy, I tell you.  I followed him and his chocolate boxes for several miles…talk about distracting.

ps–I had a hard time finding the finish line for the race…I might want to have these things figured out before the official marathon.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m working with a B&B in Alaska.  Here is a rough draft of the website: 

I’m also working on a website on Cape Cod.  I will have more info on that later!

But to leave you with a taste of this past weekend, here is a picture of the cupcakes that arrived at our door Thursday afternoon.  I’m going to give birth to a cupcake beh-bay:

I need to update my ipod with some new songs.  Up until a few months ago, I never listened to music when I ran.  Not really sure why.  But then again, up until a few months ago, I was never almost hit by three cars…Maybe I should go back to running sans music.  Let me think about that for a second…um…no.  I guess I should be wearing my I-might-as-well-be-directing-traffic-reflective-gear more often.

So, if you had to pick one song for me to add to my ipod for my runs (and it can be super cheesy) what would it be?  Email me (rachel@hillsidewebdesigns.com) and let me know!   If you would like your selection posted on my next blog post, let me know.

I’m also very excited about two new B&B web projects that I will be working on this month.  I will have more on this soon, but one is in Alaska and one is in Hawaii.  How cool is that?

Here is a photo of the view from the B&B in Alaska.  Ah-maz-ing!

And here is a photo of the cottage in Hawaii.  A web designer’s dream!

The Boston Marathon--training is going well, despite all of the SNOW.  I ran 14 miles yesterday morning with the team.  Even though the snow banks are about as tall as me and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t feel my fingers, it was great.  I’m trying to run at least 30 miles a week right now.  Good times, good times.

Snow-speaking of snow, we had another snow day on Friday.  I might have the mentality of a 10 year-old when it comes to snow days….I never get sick of them.  I’m also really excited when I’m watching the news and the words “Newton-closed” roll across the bottom of the screen.  It never gets old.  I love my job, but the impromptu snow day is always the best.  I will be eating my words in June….

What’s a blog post without a picture?  Here’s a picture from our first storm.

And just to remind myself that winter will come to an end, some..d..a..y…

Yours truly planted all of the landscaping.  Now the only thing I’m planting are face plants in the snow.

Bonnie’s 60th birthday–  We went to a little cool place called “Cava” in Portsmouth, NH for Bonnie’s 60th birthday party.  We had quite the sampling of tasty little tapas and yummy margaritas.  Portsmouth is a funky little mini-Boston.  I love it.

Web Design–I have been making a lot of updates on several websites lately and I have a new project in the works.  Bill and I are also putting together a site/page to focus on his B&B consultation services.  With his innkeeping expertise, I think he has a lot to offer other innkeepers.  I will post his consultation services once I add it to my website.