Summertime

Howdy Everyone,
  I hope you all are enjoying the sweltering heat of the summer.  Even though the minute I step outside it feels like I am swimming through a swamp and breathing becomes a chore due to the extreme humidity....you wont ever find me complaining about the heat!  I love summer, I love the heat, I love not having to wear layer upon layer of clothing and still be cold.  Bring on the sweat, humidity and 100 degree heat. 

The last few weeks have been super busy.  Three weekends ago Mario and I went to San Francisco for the 4th of July weekend.  I am not a big fan of San Fran, but he wanted to go check out the wine and dinning scene.  So Thursday after lunch we were off.  Our flight went well and the minute we landed we hit the ground running.  The entire weekend was packed full of eating...we had several reservations at Michelin star rated restaurants.  Contrary to popular belief this is not the guy that sells you tires.  Thursdays dinner was awesome and very unique, after dinner we walked around town and tried out some of the local drinkeries.  There are two things we do when we travel.....walk at least a million miles and eat as much food as possible.  I am pretty sure we covered at least 30 miles over the weekend just walking, and it was freezing cold..... 

Friday we were up early to catch the bus to Napa.  I booked a private tour of several wineries in the area.  Our first stop was Reynolds family winery... they have awesome Cabernet's.  The winery was quaint and we were the only guests at the time.  By far my favorite winery in Napa. Our second stop was Pine Ridge, also great cabs, and a beautiful winery. Lunch was up next and we were in for a treat, we stopped at restaurant called Red and it was outstanding.  The weather was perfect so we ate outside on the patio. After lunch we went to the last winery Chimney Rock, the wine was a little pricey but definitely worth it.

We caught the ferry back to San Fran and got ready for our dinner.  The restaurant we went to was supposed to be outstanding, two star rated (out of three), 8 course tasting menu. yad yad yad.  Dont waste your time, the food was good and the service excellent, but if you going to spend some cash on dinner come to Houston and go to The Pass. Saturday we spent walking all over town, check out everything.  Dinner that evening was very good, we were able to sit at the chefs table and watch them prepare all the food.  Quite excellent and entertaining.  Sunday we were off early to get back to Houston to start the work week.

Since then I have been on the road for work.  That Tuesday I left for Lubbock to hang out with our Permian Pipeline North group.  That by far has been the most taxing trip I have taken this year.  I was dreading heading out the following Tuesday to Midland to see our Permian Pipeline South crew.  Thankfully this last trip was a little better.  Being gone for work two weeks in a row, really takes it toll.  I am so glad to be home and be able to catch up on everything.

These last two weekends have been a mixture of working out, cooking, and hanging out with friends.  I recently signed up for my first Crossfit competition, therefore the training has intensified!  On top of that I decided I should take up another sport so now I am taking tennis lessons....really!!! Weekends at home are my favorite I can spend most of the time working out and cooking.  This morning I ran two miles, played two hours of tennis, worked out at Crossfit and swam 1000 meters. 

Hope you all are taking full advantage your weekend.  Enjoy

Until next time
Tory

Ah Saturday mornings

Ah Saturday mornings, the one day of the week I can sleep in, yet I am wide awake and ready to go at 6am.  I guess you could consider it sleeping in...although why cant my body want to sleep in on Saturdays and want to be wide a wake during the week.  Some questions will never be answered.  It is a fantastic Saturday morning, beautiful weather and no set plans for the weekend.  This is the first weekend I have been home in months, which is very exciting.  Although I do have to say the last two weekends were of epic proportions.  Lets do a little recap of those. 

Two weekends ago was Tommy and Stephani's wedding! Best part of the wedding (well besides the wedding) was getting to see the entire family.  I love going home and getting to just hang out with the family.  I wish everyone would just move to Houston, it would make things a lot easier.  The weekend started out early for me, I took half of Thursday off and all day Friday.  Once I arrived in El Paso the first stop was Chico Tacos....naturally.  The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind of activity, lots of wedding prep, family time, food and fun.  Overall it was a great wedding, and a good time with family and friends.

Unfortunately I had to fly back to Houston just to turn around and head to Oklahoma for the week.  Summer time is our busy travel time, you can almost bet that every other week I will be out of town for work.  Oklahoma was good, I found a Crossfit gym there that I like to work out at which makes the trip a little bit nicer.  I get tired of trying to work out in a hotel gym.  Friday I headed back to Houston for another wedding weekend.  Once I landed I jumped in my car and headed straight to Austin for my cousin Elizabeth's wedding.  My flight was a little late so it was a mad dash to get there in time.  Everything worked out perfectly, the drive was beautiful and I made it just in time for the wedding.  The wedding was awesome and fit the two of them perfectly.  After the ceremony and food it was time for merriment.  There was lots of dancing and good times. We followed up the good times with a jaunt to Rainey St in Austin.  I ended up calling it a night around two...some people kept going strong until 5!!!!! 

Saturday morning I was up bright and early....so I took advantage it.  I went for a 3 mile run around Austin and the Greenbelt, even though it was overcast and humid it was a great morning run with awesome scenery. After my run I checked out of my hotel and headed over to whole foods for post run breakfast and early morning entertainment.  Elizabeth, family and friends had a brunch that morning to see everyone off.  I stopped by to hang out for a little while until I headed back to Houston.

Once back in Houston Christy dropped into town to hang out for the weekend.  We cooked lots of good food, watched the symphony at Miller Outdoor Theater, relaxed and had a good end to the weekend. 

This weekend will be full of relaxing, cooking, cleaning and house chores, because next weekend I will be headed to San Francisco!  Hope you all are fully enjoying your weekend.

Until next time
Tory   

November...where did you come from?

Dear Family and Friends,

  I hope this message finds everyone doing well.  Life in Houston is as crazy as ever.  I am still traveling quite a bit for work I am in town this week then out the next two weeks, first to Midland then Lubbock.  The last time I was in Lubbock I was able to visit with Miss Meggie,hopefully she will have some free time this next trip.  Outside of work my weekends are packed full of activities.  Since its football season I have spent quite a few weekends in College Station cheering on the Aggies.  They have been doing OK this year although our defense could step it up! This weekend is the last home game. Even though I am going to miss the fun atmosphere of Saturday football games, it will be nice to have my weekends back.  

Besides work travel I have managed to squeeze in some personal travel as well.  For labor day my boyfriend and I went up to Beavers Bend, Oklahoma for some camping.  The cabin I rented turned out to be amazing, the weekend was full of relaxation, reading, and cooking good food.  Unfortunately it was ridiculously hot that weekend so there was no campfire, the fish weren't biting, and hiking was not very enjoyable. 

At the end of September my friend Maya and I flew to Seattle for a long weekend to check out the town.  It turned out to be an excellent trip.  We flew in Thursday evening so we could have have the whole weekend to explore.  Friday morning we got up and headed to Pikes Place to eat breakfast and check out the market.  After breakfast we met up with a food tour group to get a sampling of the culinary delights at the market.  The tour was excellent and the food was fantastic, I am pretty sure I could live in Pikes Place and never have to leave.  After the tour we were too full to think so we walked over to a local winery and enjoyed some adult beverages.  After wine we walked around and checked out the touristy spots.  Saturday we met up with another food tour group to check out the Capital Hill area of town to try the food around there.  It was also an excellent tour with tons of good food.  Unfortunately the weather was rainy so after the tour and our fill of touristy things we called it an evening and went back to the condo we rented. Sunday morning we packed up and caught our flight to Houston.  Overall I would highly recommend Seattle as a place to visit, its a neat city with amazing food and you can get around town on foot or public transportation.  

November was packed full of work travel with a little bit of relaxation and family time.  After a tumultuous beginning to my parents trip east to visit us, they successfully made it to Houston Sunday morning around 9:30. I know they were hesitant about coming, but I was very thankful they made it.  It was great to have all the family together even if it was just for a short while.  After they arrived we picked everyone else up and headed to the Texans to watch some NFL football in style.  Through my work I was able to get everyone a ticket to a suite that we had for the game.  We had good seats, free food, and adult beverages it was a good way to start the week off. For Thanksgiving we all drove up to College Station to hang out with Christy and eat thanksgiving dinner.  Sadly Saturday morning we had to see the parents off.  Thankfully in a few short days I will be heading to El Paso to see the whole family.  I can not wait  

Until next time...

I am back...hopefully for a while

It looks as though I feel off the face of the earth for about four months.  To be honest I have no idea why I haven’t taken a few minutes to sit down and write.  I really wanted to get a detailed post out about my Turkey trip, but since that never happened I just stopped writing.  There is no excuse for it, although I have been going a mile a minute. 

              
Turkey was incredible; I would even go as far as one of the best trips I have taken outside the country.  I went with a fantastic group of friends, got to explore some incredible areas of Turkey and eat phenomenal food.  I promise I will write about that soon with lots of pictures.  In the mean time I have a lot of catching up to do.  I am going to try and summarize what has happened in the last few months.

Work:  Work has been good.  Busy as always, but I am very blessed to love what I do.  I recently went to West Virginia for a week long corrosion course, which was very interesting.  A lot of my job revolves around understanding pipeline corrosion and prevention so it’s good to get as much education on the topic.  I also spent some time in the field with one of our corrosion managers to see how everything really works. Both of these were very beneficial courses.  I will also be taking a hydraulics class later in the fall.  Plains is really good about providing training and classes for their employees to take.   

Working out:  Working out is probably the main reason I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write.  A while back I decided to buy a road bike so I could compete in a Sprint Triathlon.  The road bike was quite an investment, but boy was it worth it.  I think I am in love with biking, probably one of my favorite outdoor activities.  I signed up to compete in the Aggieland Triathlon on July 14,2013.  It was go time after that.  My daily routine for the last month or so was:

                                4:30-6 a.m. – Crossfit M/W/F

                                                      Swimming T/TH     

                                7-5 Work             

                                6-8 Tri training (biking/running)

                                9-10:30 Dinner

Needless to say I didn’t really have any time to do anything.  Granted I would take a few days off every now and then, but those were normally filled with dinner with friends, concerts, happy hours or going out. Saturdays spent in-town, I was up at 6 am running, biking, and swimming.  It might sound like a little too much exercise, but let me tell you I love it.  I just can’t get enough; I look forward to getting off work and riding my bike.  The running I did more out of necessity, currently it’s so hot in Houston it make running incredibly hard.   The best part was I found some people to train with so that makes it even more fun.

Leading up to the tri I was incredibly nervous due to the fact that I am very competitive.  I had a few friends competing with me and my main goal was to beat them! I also wanted to do well in the tri but wasn’t sure how my times stacked up to the rest of the competitors.  Since the tri was in College Station Christy and some good friends of mine came out to watch me compete.  The tri was a 400m swim, 12 mile bike ride and 3.2 mile run.  Since my swim time was fairly fast I was one of the first few people in the water.  It was a whole new experience trying to transition between events.  After the swim I ran outside put on my bike shoes and hopped on my bike for the ride, after the ride I changed into running shoes and took off to finish the race.  It was so awesome having people there to cheer me on, it really makes a huge difference.  I ended up finishing in 1 hour and 18 minutes.  I guessed that was a good time, but wasn’t really sure.  Turns out I beat all of my friends and got fourth in my age division….WHATTTTT.  If I had only known I was so close I would have put a little more effort in jeeze.  Oh well that just motivates me to do another one! Who wants to join me?

Starting the swim

Swim to bike transition

Bike to run transition

Finish line time!

Some how survived.

The awesome sign the girls made for us.

Fun: If you ask my parents, all I do is have fun.  The last few months have been packed with tons of fun outings.  The weekends have been spent with friends enjoying the sights and scenes around Houston; with side trips to Austin to float the river, the hill country for wine tasting, and Surfside for some beach action.  I have also been cooking up a storm, I feel like I have a small restaurant at my house.  There is always someone over trying my culinary creations. 

Other News: Gabby and I got a new roommate this weekend so pretty excited about having him around.  August will be a crazy month with three weeks of travel to good ol Midland!!  September brings the start of Football season and we all know what that means…College Station every weekend.  I have also booked a few trips with in the country to finish out the year.  I will be heading to New Orleans this weekend, Maya (one of the Crossfit girls) and I will be visiting Seattle in September, planning a group trip to Chicago in October, and then home for Christmas.  

13.1 Miles...Finished Check it off the bucket list

Hello to all

As always its has been an eventful past few weeks.  So eventful that when I have a chance to sit down and write, I am to tired to think of what I need to write about.  My last post I left off when I was heading to New Orleans to run my first half marathon, so I will begin there.

The last weekend of February was the date of my first half marathon, it also happened to fall on the same weekend as the Houston Rodeo BBQ cook off.  Now for those of you that aren't Texans, the rodeo is a pretty big deal and BBQ cook off is quite an epic event. If you live in houston you want to be at the BBQ cook off.  I had tickets for Friday night with the Crossfit girls, but I hadn't planned on attending Thursday night.  I ended up getting a last minute ticket from a coworker and decided why the heck not!  So after work I headed down to the Rodeo grounds to enjoy all you can eat and drink!  I figured it would be a mellow night since I had work and crossfit the next morning.  I met up with my coworkers and we hit a few different tents, the last tent we went to was where the party was happening.  Before I knew it, 3:00 a.m. rolled around and I was just heading home! Whatt...and then my alarm was going off at 6:00 to go to work.  I was thankful it was Friday and only a half day. (This is probably not the best way to prep for a half marathon, but you only live once!) After work I came home, did laundry, packed and napped for a few hours.  That evening I meet up with the girls and we headed back to the rodeo for round two of BBQ cook off.  This evening was much more tame, I was home and in bed by ten.

The next morning I was up early to hit the road to New Orleans.  From my casa to the french quarter it is about 5 hours and 15 minutes,  I really enjoy driving so I put on some good tunes and headed east to good ol Louisiana.  I made it into town around 2 o clock and headed straight to the convention center to get my race packet.  It was quite a fiasco trying to find parking, after about an hour I was exploring the expo and getting everything I needed for the run.  Once I got my packet I headed to the hotel to check in. Now let me explain this hotel situation, I waited so long to book my hotel that there was nothing available for under 300 dollars.  Thankfully I had enough points to book a stay at the Waldorf Astoria.  I travel a lot and I have stayed at some nice place and I have stayed at some horrible places, but now I understand why someone would spend several hundred dollars on a hotel room.  Hello!  It was awesome, the bed was nicer than my bed at home, they provided turn down service and left mints on my pillow.  After a quick nap I met up with the people I was running with for dinner, I had an excellent high carb, high protein meal.

Sunday I was up at 5 so I could eat some breakfast and get thoroughly stretched out before heading to the race.  I drove to the finish line and hopped on a bus to the starting line.  When you register for a run they ask for your estimated finish time, that way they can place you in a corral that has people that run at your pace.  I originally estimated it would take me three hours to run, but with training I was pretty sure I could finish in two hours.  So the day before I switched corrals, well the young man that was making the changes misunderstood me and put me in corral two.  Lets just say people in corral two are pretty serious about this sport of running.  The first corral group the runners were running 5 minute miles for 13.1 miles.  One guys goal was to finish the half marathon in an hour!  Are you kidding me....thats just sick! So after a few announcements they fired off the gun and the first corral was off.  After a few minutes we were off...and fast at that.  When I was training I was averaging a 9:15-9:30 minute miles.  Well being competitive I was off just as fast, after my first mile at 7 minutes I knew I needed to find my pace so I could maintain for 12 more miles.  I finally fell into a good rhythm and as I was hitting mile marker three the guys in the first corral were finishing up mile six...really!! 

The race I did was part of the rock n roll series so every mile they have different bands set up.  It was fun to run around New Orleans and see a side of it that you normally dont get to see.  By far the best part of the race is the spectators.  Most are family members that got roped into standing out in the cold to cheer on their runner, but there are few that just come to support the runners.  They all held signs of encouragement or funny sayings.  A few favorites were "this is the worst parade ever"  "what are you running from"  "run stranger run" (for those that didn't have family members to cheer them on).  The first two miles were smooth sailing, about mile three my left knee started to get tight, but not the "I cant take another step tight" so I pushed on.  The mile markers were flying past me about mile six I caught a second wind and cranked out a good sub nine minute mile.  7.5 miles hit me like a ton of bricks, they had an option where you could split the run with a friend and 7.5 was the splitting point.  I was wishing I had done that and that I could stop and make someone else run the rest of it.  Mile 8 was a gu energy station, the last time I used one of those it worked like a charm, this time..not so much.  I was dehydrated and dying, I was trying to drink water and gateraid, but that is impossible when you are running, I just ended up wearing it.

The next few miles felt like I was crawling, nothing was working everything in my body hurt.  My hip flexers were tight, hamstrings were tight, and then the knees were getting ready to quit working.  I kept pushing on I mean I have already run eight miles what is what is 5.1 more miles.  Then it hit me I still have five more miles to run.  There was no quitting now so I just tried to keep my legs moving even though I couldnt feel them anymore.  Then I hit it mile marker ten...only three more miles...then boom everything just locked up. Both knees got tight and I was done, there was no way I could finish.  Or so I thought, some how I managed three more miles.  Seeing that finish line was the most glorious thing in the world and I managed to cross it on my own two feet, in two hours and three minutes!  I got a sweet medal, lots of food, drinks, and pictures.  There was a large after party, but I was hurting and desperate to roll out my IT bands.  So I hiked a mile or so back to my car and then off to the hotel.

After getting cleaned up and packed I treated myself to a giant bowl of gumbo and then hit the road back to htown.  Even though it was slightly challenging to run with my IT band issues, it was quite an experience. Something I would do again if I can get my knees in shape!  Although now that I know I can run, I am looking at buying a bike and start training for Triathlons...who wants to join me??  I hope you all have a wonderful week and dont work to hard.

Until Next Time ...
Tory

So long February, hello March

Good Afternoon
   I just got back in town from a quick business trip to Midland.  We have wrapped up all the division kick off meetings and everything went smoothly.  I ended up presenting at two of the meetings and it wasn't as horrible as I thought it might be. Besides the insane business at work the last two weekends were quite excellent.

Two weekends ago I had a nice easy Friday night so that I could get up early and run nine miles.  I was incredibly lame, I cooked a nice dinner, read a little, and fell asleep before 9!!  I got up early and met a friend at the park for a run.  It felt great for the first six miles and then I started getting that tightness in my knee and I knew it was game over.  I made it nine miles and called it quits.  I was very disappointing because my training for the half had been going incredibly well with no pain from the knee.  Since my half is this weekend I decided to stop running hoping that it will be better by the time I have to run.  Besides the knee issue I hope I have the endurance to run the 13.1 miles.  I really want to complete that half so be praying that my knee behaves its self on Sunday  (don't worry I am not hurting my knee by running, I just have a tight IT band that prevents full range of motion in my knee causing pain.) I am pretty excited about the run so I hope it goes well.   

After the run I got cleaned up and met up with the Crossfit girls for an afternoon of wine tasting on the Texas Blue Bonnet Wine Trail.  It was a blast, we got to try some unique wines and see a lot of beautiful country side.  That evening a friend came over and we partook in a bottle of wine and went out dancing.  It was a fun Saturday night.

This last weekend was also quite eventful and fun.  Friday evening our Crossfit group had a get together at the gym.  One of the other girls and I went to hang out and see what was going on.  Saturday I ran a bunch of errands and bought boots for rodeo season.  That evening I had a BBQ at the house with the girls and a few other friends, then we went out two stepping.  I met a guy in Dallas that is an incredible dancer and he happened to be a college friend of my roommate.  He came down to visit and we danced the night away.  Sunday was a lazy day of brunch, lounging, sleeping, and getting ready to go to Midland.  Over all quite a few successful weekends.  Hope everyone is enjoying life to the fullest!

Until next time
Tory

February...Already

It feels like it was just Christmas and I was in the store wondering why they had all their valentines stuff out...well because in a blink of an eye its February 4th and you are still trying to figure out where Christmas went.  The last few weeks have busy ones with lots of travel and lots of good times. 

At work we have been making a tour of the US to hit all of our division kick off meetings, first stop Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The kick off meetings have various groups presenting on the events that will be going on in that division for the year.  The next week we drove to San Antonio for the Southern division kick off meeting, from San Antonio we flew to Casper, Wyoming for the Rockies kick off meeting.  The integrity group also gives a presentation, the first two meetings I was able to get out of it as my boss and coworker were there.  My boss didn't travel with us to the Rockies therefore I was expected to give his portion of the presentation.  Now you would think no worries she is a natural at this whole public speaking thing.  I only did it for years and competed in it.  Hum well that was not quite the case, I took notes when my boss was presenting and I studied up the night before to make sure I knew all the stuff I needed to cover.  That morning I felt good, I had this, it was a smaller room I didn't know half the people there. Cake walk...let me start by saying the people that attend these meetings are managers, directors, VP's ect ....people that know what they are doing.  Then there comes me, I have been working for the department for a whole three weeks.  I don't have a clue of what I am talking about and anyone in that room could call my bluff at any minute. So I decided to take notes up with me...that didn't work out at all,  I was shaking so hard I couldn't read my notes.  Notes were gone and I was on my way, it took a whole of 7 minutes and I got more blank stares than I have ever seen in my life and no one asked questions.  So either I confused them so much they didn't know where to begin or they were so hungry they didn't care about what I had to say.  Either way I made it out alive and am preparing my material for this week as we speak! The Mid-Con guys wont be as kind, they know me too well. 

This week we will be heading up to Oklahoma City, the next week I have a pigging and in-line inspection course and the week after that we will be in Midland.  So for the few days that I am in the office its 7-5 back to back meetings and 5-7 work.  Whattt????

Besides work I have been staying busy with Crossfit, and training for the half marathon I run in two weeks.  Wait who's bright idea was it to run a half marathon!  Turns out it was mine and I signed up in a moment of weakness or sheer craziness.  I have been following a pretty strict running schedule trying to work my way up to 13.1 miles or fun running. So far the longest run I have had was eight miles this last Saturday, thankfully it wasn't to bad I just ran out of energy about mile six.   8 Mile Run you can click on this link and view a map of my run and the stats. 

Last weekend was quite a fun adventure we had a girls weekend in Dallas with my bellydance friends from college.  One of the girls lives up there so we all carpooled and spent the weekend with here.  It consisted of late night talks, leisure afternoons and some two stepping. We had a great time and it was fun catching up with the girls. 

Baseball Game

Bingo

This last weekend was my first weekend home so I was glad to get some much needed rest and relaxation.  I also got to keep the girls this weekend so we had a blast!  Friday after work the weather perfect so I took the pups to the the park so they could run around and stretch their legs.  After several hours of this we were worn out so we came home and napped.  That evening a friend and I grabbed dinner and went and watched a college baseball game.  I knew one of the player so it was a fun evening!  Saturday I was up early running with one of the crossfit girls.  We knocked out a solid 8 mile run in 1 hr and 19 minutes, not to shabby.  Then I took the pups to the park to run around and play.  That evening the roomies and I headed to a local bar to watch the A&M basektball game.  They ended up losing, but we still had a good time.  The crossfit girls joined us later and then we headed to dinner.  After dinner we called it and evening and went home to sleep.  Sunday was a nice uneventful day, church, lunch and park time withe dogs. 

How could you ever say no?

Super sleepy after park time.

Here we are back at monday and it time for me to go to bed...430 am jog sounds so enticing right now....

Tory
Until next time