My birthday!!

Happy Birthday, to me!  This was back in the middle of June - so yeah, still catching on these blog postings. Ha ha!  There's been some news lately... (no, I'm not pregnant, LOL!!).  I applied for a "real" job in the middle of June/last month and got it! I'm now a Golf Instructor/Assistant Coach at a golf academy :-)

Well, more about that in a later posting - back to my birthday.  Yikes, 48 years old this year. What?! Getting too close to 50.  Aaaahhhh...!!!

I actually had some errands to run on my birthday and so, we stopped at a new spot for boba/milk tea along the way.  This makes Charlie a very happy boy.  It's like his favorite drink!

Geez, such fancy containers:

I didn't like the fact that you couldn't adjust the sweetness level.  At almost all these places, I will tell them to reduce the sweetness by half.  Needless to say, the boys were extra happy with their drinks because it was extra sweet!

We went to pick up a disc golf basket.  Yeah, I don't know why I wanted one but I figured perhaps the boys would actually spend more time in the yard.  Unfortunately, they haven't really gravitated towards the game.  Perhaps I need to actually get some proper "clubs".  Ya, it's just like golf where there are different sized and weighted disc. So you can have 14 "clubs" in your bag, which in this case would be in a form of a disc from drivers to fairway woods to irons and also the putter.  It's pretty crazy when I first saw this game while driving out on tour so many many years ago.

Well, ours isn't anything fancy. It's a portable one, so it's easy in and easy out:

I wanted an ABBA record the other day but didn't buy it, so I thought I'd buy one of their newer albums at this same store where the disc golf basket was at:

So it's seems that ABBA Voyage is actually a concert?! But they use digital avatars for the group members.  Wow, that's interesting! It's amazing what technology can do for your these days.

And, weirdly enough, I've also always wanted a Coyote ice hockey jersey (like back since college!!) and what do you know? There was one hanging on the rack!

Thankfully, it wasn't too expensive, so it was definitely a must-buy for the day :-)  And unfortunately, the Phoenix Coyotes is actually moving away to a different state. Looks like they went to Salt Lake City, UT!  Well, maybe the jersey will be a collector's item??! Or just junk. Who knows... LOL!!

The boys bought me a pair of pretty earrings.  I will never say not to earrings.  Although I do get lazy about changing them all the time. Ha!

So not too much going on for my birthday.  I definitely didn't want to forget about eating that mango pudding that we had bought earlier in the day. Yum!

Well, another year older... more achy fingers? I think I'm in denial about having arthritis.  I know my mom had it.  I do have an appointment for a Physical in a couple of weeks.  We'll see if I actually do need some meds for it, or perhaps just some CBD ointment? 

There's definitely been some exciting opportunities lately in this new year for me, especially with it also being the Year of the Dragon (which is my Chinese horoscope).  I've been busy making Kokedama and painting wine bottles for my new side biz/gig. Although just last weekend, my friend suggested that we only sell Kokedamas at the market, giving it a more organic vibe. It's definitely been keeping me busy.

The house is getting more messy each day as we speak though and the yard is starting to get overgrown. I do blame the mosquitoes - O. M. G., there are so many! I've never experienced such vicious mosquitoes before. Yikes! So anyway, that's my excuse for not working outside during the summer.  Ha!

Well, if anything, I should be looking forward to my 50th birthday in a couple of years because I'm thinking about climbing Mt. Kinabalu in my hometown of Sabah.  And my cousins from Australia are planning to join in on it too.  So that should be exciting. I hope it works out.  Planning will need to start next year.  Supposedly the mountain gets really busy with hikers and only a limited number of people are allowed to climb it each year.  Wish us luck. And until then, wish me luck at my new job! ;-)

Memorial Day 10K (May 25th)

Looks like I've missed posting about our Memorial Day 10K!  To Charlie, it was a run, but to everyone else, it was more like a walk :-)  Although, it was suggested that you should have a 15-minute-per-mile pace (4mph).  I didn't really think about that actually until I read the info after sign-up.  And then I started panicking a bit?! I was too lazy to do the math (converting miles to kilometers) so I figured if I can keep up with some other people during the 10K, we should be alright :-)

Brr... it's a cold morning!

And we were actually on-site super early.  I can't remember what time Race Time started but it was a 1-hr drive in and then having to figure out parking, which thankfully was easy-peasy.  We were super early and had plenty of time to even use the bathrooms twice before the run/walk!

Part of the reason signing up for the race was to actually see and be in Soldier Field.  This is where the Chicago Bears play their football home games.

We are hanging out by the side of a tent, trying to take cover from the wind.

I think it was like a 3:30 or 4am wake up call??! Well, we are finally able to get inside the stadium.  Woo hoo!

Pretty cool! But I have to say, the new SoFi stadium in Los Angeles is a lot more impressive:

Family we-fie!

The number of people are definitely adding up:

There's a 10-mile race prior to our 10K race.  And so most of these people were getting ready for the 10-mile.  I'm trying to think back on how many people - maybe like 7,000 people or so altogether for both events?!

Graham is busy on his phone while we wait:

Daddy has found some food in his pocket:

Charlie and I are just chilling and people-watching :-)

Trying to get another family we-fie but almost looks like Bobby is trying to pick Graham's nose??! LOL!

Okay, Graham - can you please take a family we-fie for us?  And can you please include the field?

Wait... no, can you now actually include the field and all of us and not just half of Daddy's face?? Ha ha!

The 10-milers have all left and it's our turn to get on the field!

Into the tunnel and to the starting line:

Graham and Charlie have already walked to the front of the line. Charlie is determined to run it!  Looks like Daddy and I are just going to hang back and pace ourselves:

And we're off!  A quick snapshot of the outside of the stadium:

We decided to follow these 2 ladies. They were our pace-setters for the first half of the race.  We figured if we could keep up with them, we would be A-ok!

Look at all the cups that have been thrown after the participants take a drink.  Wow!!!

When we were just starting our race, we could hear the announcer calling out the winner of the 10-mile race. It's insane how he was already running back into the stadium!! Well, we are definitely pretty slow as more people are already heading back. Ha ha!

The Mile 2 marker and 2KM marker were together.  Hmmm, that doesn't seem right?!

It was quite pretty along Lake Michigan.  You can see the city in the backdrop:

I was also taking photos of some flowers for reference - for my mural which I had completed and posted on the blog recently:

We finally caught up with Graham!

Halfway point and we actually did see Charlie - well, he saw us when he was heading back towards the stadium:

Daddy and Graham are such slow pokes! I would have set a quicker pace if not for these two :-P

A quick stop to take a photo of downtown Chicago:

1 hour and 50 minutes later, we are finally back in the stadium, by the 50 yard line!!

I stayed back a little because Bobby wanted me to take a photo of him on the jumbotron.  Ha!

Yay us!! :-D

We couldn't find Charlie so it was just a tad nerve-wrecking.  We told him to meet by a specific statue.  Thankfully he was sort of close to it.  Pridgen family reunited!

Charlie finished in 1 hour and 22 minutes.  Nice!!  So he had been waiting for more than 30 minutes for us.  Oops!

Time for a quick snack:

Decided to go look for some free food at a field near by:

Music was a tad loud but we found a shady spot away from the music speakers. And looks like Daddy is already taking a quick nap. Ha ha!

Pretty fancy medals for participating!

We did also receive the blue fancy shirts that we were wearing during the race and also a nice picnic blanket.  Boys can take their blankets with them when they go to college :-D

Tired Charlie!!

I decided to hit the Asian grocery store before heading home.  This one has frozen "man tou" or buns.  At some point I guess I'll figure out how to make it, but until that happens, we will have to swing by this supermarket whenever we are downtown!  

Boys waiting for their drinks before we hit the road:

1 hour drive home and of course, both boys are completely out!

Once we get home, Charlie can barely go up the stairs. His legs are so sore from all that running. LOL!!

Here's a glimpse of how far ahead he was:

Here are the results of the boys under 14 years old.  The winner ran the 10K in just over 37 minutes. And he blew the field by 12 minutes!! Sheesh!!

Charlie was super excited to have completed his run the way he did. He was already talking about doing another one!

I really like how all of these results were emailed to us.  And you can also see how you compared to the rest of the field, based on your category:

I just realized they also tracked your pace - it's at the very bottom of the page.  Hmm, looks like we didn't really make the 15min/miles pace!

I should probably try and train for the next one.  Ha! Pretty embarrassing results!!

Some shots taken by the photographers en-route:

Yeah, looking pretty chilled for sure :-)

Poor Graham had to carry that water/bag for almost the entire route.

Here's Charlie running in!

I love how he wanted to wear my compression leg sleeves. He is stylin' for sure!

Yup, Graham and Daddy are just still chillin' :-)

I would definitely do another race but maybe not this one again. It was actually rather expensive but we can now check Soldier Field off our list!  Maybe we should all sign up for a 5K instead and actually run in it!  Perhaps the neighborhood Turkey Trot in November??! I guess time will tell :-)