Monthly Archives: July 2012

Sunday Social: Week 8

Posted on July 31, 2012
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1. What is your dream job? I currently do engineering at a very awesome, wonderful corporation. And I absolutely love my job. However, I am daydreaming of completing my PhD and becoming a full-time university professor. I used to teach cryptography and computer science at the university years ago, and greatly enjoyed it….

2. If you had just won the lottery and didn’t need to work for money, what would you do with your time? At least I wouldn’t quit working. There is nothing more rewarding than having a successful, fulfilling career and being able establish oneself professionally. I would, however, take risky projects, maybe being a business angel, or doing more consulting.

3. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? I was always interested in scientific work and engineering. At some point I wanted to be a journalist, and have always loved writing.

4. What piece career advice would you give to someone just starting out in your field? Be ready to work very hard, always raise the bar for yourself and meet and exceed the goals you are setting for yourself. Most importantly, choose your career field based on the passion. If you don’t love, live and breath what you do, you will never be successful and the best.

5. Biggest Pet Peeves either in life or in blogging or at work? In the professional life have very little understanding for unmotivated people as well as I can’t stand people who can’t get things done. Generally in life, slow walkers are my huge pet peeve – especially when they wander in front of me. As well as people who read magazines on the strength training equipment at the gym. Also, people who are constantly late annoy me, just like the ones who frequently change the plans at very last minute. And even worse, email or text about cancellations: if you need to change the plans, have a courtesy to call.

6. Biggest Fears? I don’t really have fears but I live the life to the fullest – every, single day.

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Health Check

Posted on July 29, 2012
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Sports injuries…. Oh boy what a week. Apparently Ironman success doesn’t come without some battle scars already in training. It has been an eventful week on my athletic department….

First I and my bike collided so badly that I ended up to getting a giant bruise on my thigh. Then a couple of days later, thanks to doing way too many bike/run brick workouts my toe nail decided to give up and peeled off. Lastly I then got a blister on my heel. And sunburns in Alaska.

But I am still anxiously waiting for my run in the morning. With a new running team.

I’m writing this in San Francisco, hanging out here for work this week. Since I love to be a social butterfly with other athletes, I tracked down local running clubs prior my trip, and have new running buddies for every day during my stay here. Tomorrow morning meet-up is for semi athletes, running pace 7-7:30 min/mile, or according to the leader of the club, “sometimes even less”. Hopefully I have a great running day tomorrow. Or hopefully it is a short run. Updates to follow either through my blog or maybe I make to the newspaper headlines by been the runner who passed out after two miles.
Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a picture of my bruised thigh. I’ll save you from the grossness of my poor toe, at least for now….

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Sunday Social: Travels on My Mind

Posted on July 15, 2012
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I came across to Social Sunday through a couple of friends’ blogs, and here I am, joining the ride. And the topic couldn’t be any better since I as well as my hubby love traveling – near, far, anywhere.

1. What’s the best trip you’ve been on? I have a bit hard time to name only one awesome trip, after traveling in tens of countries on five of seven continents. Out of the trips I have done before even met my husband, I would think the best one was a couple of weeks I spent in Scotland. But then on the other hand I love France. Even a thought of France makes me smile, and miss all those little towns as well as shopping in Paris. Most of all, I love to speak French. Then on the other hand, I also love Australia: the wildlife, awesome backpacking trips, scuba diving in Great Barrier Reef…….

The best trip with my husband has probably been either our honeymoon in O’ahu, or vacation in Maui where we got also engaged. They both were great, wonderful trips with tons of activities from scuba and snorkeling to hiking, and just being lazy beach bums (although my laziness lasts less than 15 minutes, after that I rather go running or something)….

2. What’s the best idea for a girls weekend trip? For girls’ weekend I would choose a long weekend in New York: it’s a perfect mix of wining&dining, Broadway is always a must, shopping is great, and Central Park’s 6-mile loop makes running addict’s day :-)

3. Best idea for a couple’s trip? Ski trip to Vail – hands down. It’s one of the most awesome ski spots. And lodging at Vail Mountain Lodge is my all time favorite, not only for the resort itself but I have fallen in love with their awesome spa.

4. Best cheap vacation? My cheapest vacations have probably been backpacking trips in Asia: after paying the flights, staying at non-branded hotels or B&B type of places is very inexpensive, and food is cheap outside the bigger cities. Although you may not always want to try to know too many details about the meals…..

Out of Alaska the most inexpensive vacation options are road trips. Flights from Anchorage even to Seattle cost frequently more than flights from the east coast to Europe… However, I enjoy going to see my in-laws who are not only awesome people but they also live close to Chicago, one of my favorite cities. So when visiting them, I can combine seeing my favorite people and getting my city time. And save at least a few $$$ in accommodation.

5. Place you most want to visit? New Zealand. Tanzania and Kenya aka Photo Safari. Antarctica. Galapagos Islands. Our travel destination list is never ending. When we get one or two places checked, we usually come up with five more ….

6. Vacation necessities: Good company is a must – if I am not traveling alone. Luckily my husband is the most awesome travel buddy. Beyond that, I travel very, very light. There is no way that I would be one of the travelers having 28 outfits for a week-long trip. I often have less than five outfits altogether, including my workout gear. If I really need something, I can always go and buy it. But what I save weight-wise with the outfits, I use with the photo gear: my professional stuff goes everywhere with me, and it includes laptop for editing, memory card readers, tripods…. And lastly, most of the time I do have my iPhone and iPad with me.

 

 

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The First Wedding Anniversary

Posted on July 11, 2012
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Hard to believe it has been already a year of wedded bliss! I truly am the luckiest girl in the whole universe: I couldn’t hope for a husband more perfect than Jason. He is the most amazing, hard-working man who truly supports me and us to reach our dreams.

“There is no feeling more comforting and consoling than knowing you are right next to the one you love.”

Monday, July 9th, marked our first anniversary. It has been such an awesome year of being married to my best friend. Since we both were working on our anniversary, we just had dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in Anchorage, and will continue celebrations this weekend at home… We still have our anniversary champagne waiting for us…

The restaurant scene for fine dining in Anchorage is pretty limited, and even at the best Alaskan fine dining equals to moderate dining experience in Lower 48. So as enthusiast amateur chefs, we probably cook our “1st Anniversary, Part II” dinner ourselves in our very own kitchen….

 

“We’re all a little weird.  And life is a little weird.  And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness – and call it love – true love.”  ~Robert Fulghum, True Love

 

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MilSpouse (First) Friday Fill-In #73

Posted on July 7, 2012
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The first week of July is pretty much behind us…. time is definitely moving fast.  And it’s time for another MilSpouse Friday Fill-In. So far the summer days have been few and far between: few warm, sunny days here and there, and more gray, overcasted days. But at least it is not raining nonstop like last year. I have been lucky to keep my running and biking miles up (read: Ironman training is progressing), as well as have been playing golf quite a bit. Earlier in the spring I made a decision to get my golf handicap down to where it used to be before moving to Alaska, around 2. Right now I am closer to 20 than 10 but direction looks good.

But let’s check out this month’s questions! Thank you to Wife of A Sailor  for hosting this lovely tradition of getting to know fellow MilSpouses.

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed? Nothing. Not a single thing. June was a great month, even though work was crazy busy, and I was running behind on my research stuff, including the IRB paperwork.

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in June? Super awesome bear photography excursion on McNeil River. We were incredibly lucky to get a spot to go there, and furthermore the weather truly cooperated. Even a little bit too much based on my sunburns. Photos turned out great, and my photo agencies’ editors have been praising them. I also started two new blogs. While Adventures of The K Family is not going away or anything, I wanted to have a separate blog for my professional writing in the field of behavioral sciences: Action Potentials, and From Rough To Green, covering my golf adventures.

3. What did you do to celebrate Independence Day? Not a whole lot. We went to see the parade in downtown Anchorage, as well as saw the flag ceremony and reading of the Declaration of Independence. After that we were just hanging out at home, cooked steaks with steamed vegetables. And of course had corn on the cob! Jason had Thursday off but I was working, and since the Independence Day was (awkwardly) in the middle of the week, it was hard to get into any longer adventures. But nevertheless, we had a great 4th of July!

4. When you PCS, what items do you take with you and not let the movers pack, and if you do a DITY, what do you take with you and not box up (thanks to Sespi at And You Never Did Think for inspiring this question)? Important papers, some clothes, all the external hard disks and data storage system, laptops, iPads…. Everything else I can usually find along the way or at the destination if the HHG are taking for a while.

5. What are you looking forward to in July? Getting the IRB approved for my research, keeping on track with Ironman training, ….. and we have our Anniversary on Monday, July 9, as well as my birthday is coming up in about 20 days, followed by my husband’s birthday a few days later (in August though). So lots of celebrations in this month. I will also head out to California for a business trip, which is always a blast!

And I am also coaching kids’ soccer on post this summer. I can’t wait to get the practices started – that should be fun!

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