I visited the Griffith Observatory yesterday (Saturday, June 27th, 2009) with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. I guess I should have thought this through beforehand. It was the first official weekend of the summer, and the place was packed. The road to the observatory was blocked, and we had to park halfway down the hill. I was NOT happy to have to hike for what seemed forever to get to the observatory. We passed A LOT of empty parking spaces on our way up, too, and that was pretty annoying.

If you haven't been to the Griffith Observatory since the renovation, you are in for a treat. The exhibits have been updated, but it still feels like the old place. There is a whole lot more room, too. There is a new second floor (under the original building). Annie ran from one place to another, trying to absorb as much as possible.

Despite the crowds, we were pretty much able to see everything. We didn't bother with the planetarium, though. That was much too crowded. Maybe some other time.

And we did not get to visit the gift shop. Boo!

Found this website today . . . Walk Score

You put in any address, and the site will tell you how walk-friendly the neighborhood is. It's good if you're looking for a new place to live (which I'm not doing at the moment). My neighborhood scored a 34 out of 100, which translates to "car dependent." Yeah, I kinda knew that.

Anyway, it's a fun distraction.

I've been trying to take Milo out more often. It's good for both of us--we both need the walks. Today we walked just a little farther than we had been, even though it's been unseasonably warm.

As we were walking along, we saw a man with a dog coming toward us. He was several houses away, and, as most people do, he crossed the street to avoid a dog encounter. Milo, true to form, began pulling at the leash and whining. Surprisingly, the man (whose name turned out to be Paul) understood what Milo was crying about. Instead of walking away quickly, he came back across the street to let the two dogs meet. They sniffed at each other, while the "parents" discussed our "children." His dog looked like a beagle from far away, but up close her face looked more terrier-ish. Anyway, the funny thing was that once the dogs smelled each other up close, they were fine--no more crying, whining, barking, or pulling. The four of us parted, and Milo and I continued our walk without any trouble.

So Milo made a friend today, just because someone crossed the street to say hello. I know there's an object lesson in there somewhere. If you think of one, feel free to post it. :)

On Saturday, May 10th, over 50,000 people participated in the Los Angeles EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women's Cancers. It was an amazing experience that I'm happy to tell you about.

I arrived at Joy's house at 6:45, and she, Katherine, and I were off to the L.A. Coliseum. Over 2 hours later, we were finally parking. Yes, it took us that long to get there. The traffic coming off of the freeway was a mess. And the organizers' attempts to make things easier seemed to make the traffic even worse. We were annoyed but still optimistic.

I was off to the volunteer tent to figure out what to do. I received my volunteer t-shirt and was told to wait "over there." A guy came by and said it was too late for me to do my appointed job (water stop #1), but I could help him out by handing out medals. Soon a group of us had assembled, and we headed over to the floor of the Coliseum to line up and hand out medals.

Soon after we'd lined up, the first runner entered the stadium. He had run the 5K in less than 15 minutes. More runners came into the stadium. Unfortunately, I was too far away from the entrance lane for anyone to take medals from me. My arms got more and more tired from holding those medals without my load getting any lighter. I was trying not to get frustrated, but I found myself getting really annoyed.

So I took matters into my own hands and walked over to the medal table. "My arms are about to fall off," I said. "Do you need help over here?" They did, and I found a new job. And could a job be any better suited for me? I untangled ribbons and organized the medal table. I also got to talk to people and watch the people coming into the stadium. I even got to see Susan, Doreen, Joy, and Katherine come across the finish line.

We had gotten there too late to see the opening activities, so we didn't get to see Tom Selleck or Carrie Ann Inaba. But I was in the Coliseum for the entire concert by the Go-Gos. It was a nice blast from the past. Plus, those women look GOOD! I was acually surprised at how good they look.

After a while, all of the medals were gone, but people were still coming into the Coliseum. I really hoped that the line of medal-hander-outers still had enough for them, 'cause we sure didn't. I was a little miffed because I know that some people had taken more than one. I even saw some volunteers wearing them. It's really sad that someone didn't get a medal because of someone else's greed.

Ah well. Enough negative talk.

We all (Joy, Katherine, Susan, Doreen, Robin, Jennifer, and I) piled into Joy's minivan and drove to the Staples Center. Why is there so much traffic on the 110 on a Saturday? Anyway, we dropped them off at their car and headed home. First we had to stop by Jack in the Box to pick up lunch.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at Joy's place with Liza. She had chemo on Thursday, so she wasn't able to come to the walk with us. But we're already making plans for next year. It was a great time. We overate, talked, laughed, were entertained by Brian, played games on the Wii, and ate some more.

It was interesting, too, to spend time with Liza. It really drove the whole point of the walk home. One day we won't need this walk anymore, because someone will find a cure some day.

Until then, we're making plans to do this again next year. Maybe you'll join us?

On May 10th, my cousin Arleen and other extended family and friends will be participating in the Revlon Run/Walk for Women. This important event raises funds for important research into the cause and cure of women's cancers, prevention, education and support service programs. This cause hits very close to home for us, since my cousin Liza (Arleen's sister) was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and is currently in the middle of her chemo treatments. I'm not able to walk this time (though I'm applying to be a volunteer), but I'd love it if some of you would be able to support Arleen on that day. Please visit this page to learn more about it all. Thanks!

Well, week 3 was pretty much a wash. I only managed to earn 10 points. Well, actually, when I realized that I wasn't going to make it to 20, I pretty much gave up trying. Bad Kat. Oh well. It's a new week. I'm considering last week a practice run and am making no changes for this week. Here are my 5 (again):

1. Get out of bed before 8:00.

2. Drink 1.5L of water.

3. Wear pedometer and walk at least 4000 steps.

4. Take medicine on time.

5. Walk the dog.

Well, I didn't do as well as I'd have liked during week 2, but I still managed to earn 20 points. I'm saving my reward for a while, until I decide exactly what I want from the craft store. This week I was a little ambitious. I didn't make many changes, but I tweaked the old 5 just a little.

1. Get out of bed before 8:00. I pushed this up yet another 1/2 hour. I think this is going to be hard to do, since I'm starting most of my classes this week, but it's something I need to do. I really don't like wasting half of my morning in bed.

2. Drink 1.5L of water. I have not been doing well with this one at all. I was hoping to increase this to 2L this week, but, since I almost never reached this goal last week, I had to keep it the same this week.

3. Wear pedometer and walk at least 4000 steps. I increased this quite a bit. I'm getting to a point where I'm working hard on my 5, and that's where I want to be.

4. Take medicine on time. I'm doing pretty well on this one and will most likely replace it with something else next week. Not sure what yet.

5. Walk the dog. This is the same every week, but the distance actually changes. We are walking pretty far now, over a mile, a lot of which is uphill. We'll get to a much longer distance at some point, but the increases aren't too big in order to fool myself into thinking I'm not walking that far. LOL