Serving up some Christmas Joy!!!

This is the best story ever. Ever. And it is so cool to have been a small part of it.

Towne Family

Sweet Little Ben

A week ago, Carin Towne wrote on their Caring Bridge blog about 3 year old Ben's desire to "serve (a tennis ball) just like Roger Federer." If you have not yet read their blog, do it right now. You will never forget it in your life.

So anyway, compelled by the desire to bring joy (albeit limited) to this family, I wrote Roger's mom and his US agent an email. I told them Ben's story and attached their blog. Why not, right?! Ben's body is ravished with cancer, and his days are limited. He has already suffered more than any human should have to, in his short life. Then my brilliant friend Shannon also cast her net wide and found a friend of a friend (of a friend, you know how that goes) who knew Tiger Woods, and another that had been on the tennis circuit as a pro years back and could call the head of Nike Tennis.

Long shot, right? NOPE!! Less than a week later, little Ben Towne got a couple surprises in the mail and on the phone today and yesterday... I can't tell you how happy that makes my heart. Read his mom's account to hear the story; it is so sweet in the midst of their pain which is anything but that. I am so grateful for all the strings that were pulled to reach Roger, James Blake and Andy Roddick within a week. Their willingness to reach out to Ben makes me even more of a tennis fan! I was partially disappointed, because I was literally praying that Roger would get on a plane in Switzerland, leave his vacation, to come to Seattle and visit Ben. Ben is MORE than worth it. And that hasn't happened (yet). But I'm still overjoyed in the joy that Ben felt being contacted by those 3 guys. Now I'm starting to pray for FREE 2009 US Open tickets for his parents. They want to go in honor of Ben. They have suffered the worst pain imaginable the past year, and are hanging in there by the grace of God. The most riveting sentence in their recent blog is his mom saying she wishes Ben's life could be saved by the love that has been shown to him this past year. So if you haven't been til this point, start praying: who's with me!!!!

Our weekend in FresYES

We had a good time in Fresno with my parents, timing the trip to coincide with my mom's 60th birthday.  We saw a chick flick with her and she puggy-sat while we went to the FSU game the next day.
It was our first tailgate together, Los joining a long-standing tradition in my fam.  Dad made famous tri-tip and there was lots of other good stuff.  Thousands of people tailgate and the band of the week was ( the terrible, one-hit wonder) Smashmouth.
The guys were downing a huge bottle of tequila, I stayed away from that!
At some point my dad had to literally grab the bottle away from my husband, which I captured on film to shame him later (j/k)
It was great to catch up with cousins Jon-Michael and Jo Ann!
Of course the game was fun too, though it got super cold (strange for fall in CA)
We all ended up bundled up


The next day we went to church as a fam and hung out at my dad's with lots of family, as though it was a holiday.  Monday morning we made a pitstop at Jamba Juice and Whole Foods and then hit the road for Arizona.  We'll miss my familia, since we are likely staying in TX (first time away from fam for a holiday) this winter.

Road Trippin'- Portland-style

I have yet to upload all our pics, but we're having an amazing time thus far on our trip. We love Portland, OR! Such a cool downtown area, and urban yuppie, good restaurants, shops, active people and dogs everywhere... Awesome. We had a great dinner at Piazza Italia (where we went for Annie/Ian's wedding rehearsal). Then we went to the best NBA game we've ever seen, TrailBlazers/Kings. We have a crush on Rudy Fernandez, the new Spaniard, he's unbelievable.

We stayed the night at the Bishop's house and got to read lots of books to two year old Julian who couldn't be cuter. Yesterday we drove down to the Bay Area (good to be back in the home state!) and are going to Wine Country today with the Flory's; stay tuned for pics. And Annie, thanks for the road trip cd's, love them!

It's a Bird, It's Plane, nope, it's just my husband...

As if training for a marathon and doing his first triathlon this month wasn't enough, this weekend Los took on the Seattle Oyster Race, which is the "ultimate urban adventure race." He and his two best friends did it as a last hurrah of sorts before we move. They biked, ran, climbed, paddled, rollerbladed, and maybe some other stuff. It took them 7 HOURS to finish!!! Disgusting amount of exercise. Because Los had never rollerbladed before, and kept falling, he opted to run 8 extra miles instead (the rollerblading leg), so all in all he ran 17 miles (on top of cycling 25, etc.) Disgusting, I tell you; who does this for fun? Only strange people:) I say all this in jest because I am truly in awe of him! I'm pretty sure he's ready to do his first marathon, even if he's only trained 2 weeks for it.

So I am taking the big step and registering us for San Antonio's Rock and Roll (marathon and 1/2, respectively) RIGHT NOW! Pray for me:) You could pray for Los too, but let's be honest, does he need it? No. I do. He's a machine.

My Iron Man- the Birthday Boy

I have the world's best husband. Today is his birthday, and we are once again the same age. This is my favorite half of the year, until I sneak ahead of him in March.

Yesterday Los completed his first triathlon, Escape from the Rock in Mercer Island. I have been to more marathons/races than I can count, but THIS was exhilarating. Los is one of those people that people like me like to hate, naturally gifted at almost everything physical. For example: the first 1/2 Marathon he ever ran, he trained maybe two weeks for... and he finished it in an hour and a half! Who does that?! Now he's training for his first marathon, and he's hoping to get a 3:10, to qualify for Boston Marathon. ON HIS FIRST TRY. Again, who does that? He does.

So yesterday, he was kind of nervous going in to his first Tri. No need to be, as he placed 77th of 700+ contestants. When we left over an hour after he finished, people were still finishing! Even with entering the water at the back of his swimming heat and having really slow transition times (the winner took less than 5 seconds to get off his bike and put on his shoes!!!), Los finished in 1:10! That's 16 miles in 70 minutes= amazing! He was running sub-7 minute miles and said he wasn't even trying hard, who says that?! He's gonna shoot to break an hour next time= crazy! And his eventual goal is to do the Kona Ironman (the "Superbowl" of Triathlons) in Hawai'i- which is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile marathon! Just typing that exhausts me:) I just found out that a guy in the Navy invented the Ironman, as a competition for Navy Seals to see who was the fittest athlete alive. It has grown in the past 3 decades into an international competition, pretty awesome. After yesterday, I'm hooked!

We were so excited all day yesterday and today, talking about his race, and looking forward to the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon that we're going to do. It feels good for me to have a goal of completing the half (some friends of ours are doing it also) and he has wanted to complete a full for a while now. It's 9 weeks away, I think, and we're fired up! I joined an online trainer that has been really helpful for me, and have been dragging Burly along on all my training. I am not exaggerating when I say dragging, on today's 40- minute jaunt, he tried to/laid down in the shade approximately 10 times! We are both going to get more fit in this season:)

Tonight, Los and I went down the street to the brand new LuLu Lemon outlet (the only one in the States!! It has all their awesome clothing for less money, awesome!) to buy some sweet athletic gear. Motivated by our victories and aspirations, we then promptly went to Wendy's, and got Frosty's and fries. Oh well, you win some, you lose some:)

8/100 of a second. Au contraire mon amis!

4x100 Men's Freestyle Relay. France- you're gonna smash us, eh? Pretty sure we just smashed you. Anyone who hasn't seen this yet has gotta see it; best swim in history. I just tried to You Tube it, but all the videos have been removed for copyright issues. Unbelievable.

On College Football: Them Southerners Must'a Rubbed Off On Me...

5 years ago I never would have written this blog. 3 years ago this next week, I left Florida and during my time there, somehow, college football seeped into my being, and miraculously, I became a fan. The life-long soccer fan in me feels betrayed by this new part of myself, but it's true. Now I can't WAIT for college football season, which is upon us within weeks. However, I will never be an ardent fan of just one team, that's too limiting to me. Plus I never want our home to be a sports paraphernalia kind of home. No thank you. And since we move around, it is convenient for me to adopt teams at will. Maybe you true blue, bleed-whatever-your-home-team-color-is people will look at me with disdain; but remember, you're dealing with a girl who may or may not also pick my NCAA Basketball brackets by places I like and uniform colors. So there's that...

But here are my self-proclaimed teams that I'm rooting for in my own quiet, non-discriminatory, pan-conference kind of way:

Pac 10- California Bears, no question. If I ever see a Cal hat (in Australia, London, wherever) it is now instinctual to say, "Go Bears!" I am excited if Washington (Los' alumnus) wins too, but let's be honest, when does that happen?
WAC- Fresno State, hometown team. Plus I like saying wiggity Wac.
SEC- Florida, no question. I've been to 5 SEC stadiums, they are ginormous! These are the most zealous, football-is-life fans I've seen. They are an amusing breed. I've seen Gator wedding decorations, birthday cakes, etc. Awesome.
ACC- North Carolina (I have no affiliation, but heart their colors, state, and women's soccer program)
Big East- Syracuse and Connecticut (my mom got her undergrad and Master's there)
Big 12- Texas (our new home, plus I heart burnt orange) and Colorado (I have a thing for Buffaloes and Boulder)
Big 10 (they can't count, it's actually 11)- here's this for unity: Michigan AND Ohio State. What can I say? Great people are BOTH places. Yesterday I was driving with an OSU grad, and I mentioned Michigan in a sentence, as in, "turn left after Michigan," and the guy actually shuttered and said, "Please don't say that word in this car." Amazing. Even though they are sworn enemies, I endorse both:)

Lastly, which doesn't really fall into any particular conference, since my favorite colors are blue and orange, I always like teams that have those colors, such as: Florida, Syracuse, Illinois, Pepperdine, Auburn, who else?

Beijing Olympics

I have mixed feelings about China and these Olympics, but I've gotta say they put on one heck of an opening ceremony!  It was neat to hear all the underdog stories and see people (like the 14 year old British diver- so cute!) who are so excited just to be there (since they have no real chance of winning a medal.)  But the thing that stuck out most to me was the commentary on the lone Afghani woman who was supposed to be there.  Apparently because of death threats on her life from fundamentalists, she disappeared recently and is seeking asylum in Norway.  That makes me sad on multiple levels.

I don't know what else to say about that, so on a more superficial note, the second thing that sticks out to me is how many countries I've never heard of and how varied the fashion is in the world.  I liked the classic Brits, and French, quadrennial favorites (I'd say perennial but it's every four years) and the Kazakhs rocking the turquoise and orange, fave colors of mine.  Here's to great competition and drama over the next few weeks (and to clean air in China, and female Chinese babies, and stopping human traficking and media censorship, freeing Tibet, and saving Darfur, etc.)

Bungy-Jumping in Corinth Canal, Greece

What a way to celebrate our independence day half a world away, hucking oneself off a 240 foot bridge?! This canal was started by the Roman Emperor Nero (sound familiar?) and then was worked on by 6000 Jewish slaves (it's 90 meters tall and 4 miles long, connecting the Ionian and Aegean Seas. It was finally finished just over 100 years ago. After seeing ancient Corinth, we opted not to go to Cenchraea in favor of bungy-jumping. 6 members of the group did it, I wish I could have too. Maybe in South Africa?! It was voted best bungy jump on The Amazing Race.

Amber modeling the shirts Zulu Bungy sold

Becky's perfect jump; she went waist-deep in the water, no one else did.

Los getting ready to go



I love this photo. You should've heard him laughing, it echoed throughout the canyon like the wicked witch of the west. If I could figure out how to attach the video, I'd put it on.


Christina caught us smooching after he finished, I was so proud, vicariously living through him.

Los, Becky, Emily, Amber, Susan and Tyler exulting post-jump.

Wimbledon

I'll piece together our trip slowly, but surely. After a series of misfortunate events, we started off by barely making our plane (in typical fashion, sad to say, we got to the airport 50 minutes before our London flight) The flight was uneventful, as Carlos says, "one take-off, one landing, equals a good flight." After arriving in London, we tubed to our great neighborhood Kensington, dumped our stuff in the hotel, and then headed to Wimbledon. Carlos was as giddy as a child on Christmas day. After queueing for an hour or two we got in; and saw a ton of matches. One of these photos from Court 2 shows how many courts you could watch at a time. There was so much stimulation there, adrenaline, heartbreak, victory, defeat, it was better than a Shakespearean drama. We want to come back some year and rent a cottage in the neighborhood, so as to be closer and see more.
So cool to be so close, aside from the Brazilian soccer game, I have never seen such beauty and perfection.

John McEnroe, pretty fun to watch an oldie but goody:)


Strawberries and Cream, I'm excited!

Our friends went back the day of the final to watch Nadal slay King Federer from Henman Hill- wish we could have too, but our flight from London left that afternoon. What a great fortnight of competition.

ANGLOPHILIA! We heart England...

Just a quick update- we have to come back to this place, it's so amazing. We had such a fun time at Wimbledon, I was 1 foot from John McEnroe! And 4 feet from Venus and Serena Williams' dad. Too cool. We loved watching tennis with spectators from 100 other countries, so fun. I love eastern European females, they are hard core. Such competition and drama, more to come about this when we have more computer access. We've had fun living right off of Hyde Park, have seen a lot and went to a performance of Wicked last night, which was fabulous, I'm so glad we finally saw it. My favorite memory so far, apart from the tennis, is sitting outside the Princess Diana Memorial Playground, watching and listening to moms and little kids speak in tons of different languages, so cute, and on the tube, listening to Italian and Japanese teens speak to eachother in broken English.
We're exploring some more today and flying a red-eye to Athens, so we'll try to update you from there; our experiences will probably be quite different, seeing sports, gardens and culture here, and history and islands there:) Such a great trip so far!

London is Tube-ular...

Off we go to our next adventure.

Let's hope navigating that map is a piece of cake and that the queues at Wimbledon aren't that long. I can't wait to see Roddick, Nadal and Federer, oh my! I will give them a pound or a head nod on behalf of you all.

Not so sure about my internet access while we're in London and Greece/Turkey, but I'll be sure to write upon our return:)

World Cup 2010- South Africa

Maybe one of our next adventures? Who's coming with us?

NYC Marathon

Maybe next year babe...

From: marathonmailer@nyrr.org [mailto:marathonmailer@nyrr.org]
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 14:53
To: Evans, Carlos J LT (VQ-1)
Subject: ING New York City Marathon 2008


Entry Number: 292990

Dear carlos evans,

Thank you for applying to the ING New York City Marathon 2008. We're
sorry to inform you that you were not selected in the random lottery
drawing. Although we wish everyone could be accepted, we have to limit
the size of the field to ensure the best experience for each of our
runners.



WHATEVER!

Brazilian Soccer- the beautiful game

For our date night Saturday, we went to maybe my favorite sporting event ever thus far (other than the Olympics in '02), the Brazil-Canada World Cup 2010 qualifier. I've been outside the Rose Bowl, and the 2004 (big deal- Sox won) Yankees-Red Sox ALCS, but never coughed up the dough for the tickets. This was $200 well spent, it was SO EXCITING. I still love soccer, even though I haven't played in years now. I mark my life by World Cups and can tell you exactly where I was for the past few (2006- Canadian pubs in Vancouver, 2002- in Seattle, right before moving to Berkeley, 1998- Amsterdam pub and Kyrgyzstan, watching anywhere with a tv! 1994 and 1990- in California on the floor at my mom's house).

Canadian Fashion (or lack thereof!)

Brazilian Fashion (she was wearing 5 inch wedge heels too!)


Sitting in the 5th row, even near the goal line, was so cool. You could hear the players and see their fancy footwork up close. I have never seen such flawless passing in my life. Corner kicks (which I used to take and love) were 5 yards away from me, amazing! Of course with our sub-par camera, I couldn't capture the action, but I tried. Within the first 3 minutes of the game Brazil scored right in front of my face, and 7 minutes later, on an amazing header, Canada scored the equalizer. The end score was 3-2, with 2 goals taken away for offsides and many near misses; it was so action-packed we were hoarse and breathless.



Doing the wave with people from all over the world was so fun. I had no idea there were that many Brazilians in the Northwest! The sea of obnoxious yellow even beat out the Seattle uniform (Black North Face). The people-watching was fantastic, as many of the 47,000 fans came decked out in hilarious outfits and a bunch of Brazilians did Capoeira (this awesome Brazilian 'fight' dance I always love to watch- check out the video if you don't know what I'm talking about) outside the stadium to the pulsing rhythm of the drums they beat for three hours before, during and after the game. Such a fun night!

My sentiments exactly:)

Netherlands

So my little brother decided last week to up and move to Amsterdam to play baseball for the summer.



I know it's not quite as enticing as asking ya'll to come visit us in South Texas (psych), but if you are in his new hood, go say hi!

Going For It- Urban Assault and Fremont Market

Making memories with the weekends we have... Here's a pic from the Fremont Market

We've been talking about getting Burly a sister, and I thought a black Frenchie would be fun. Until I heard how much this one snorts like a pig. (her tutu didn't help either) I guess we'll go with a black Pug after all.

Some pics from Seattle's Urban Assault after-party

It was a team cycling obstacle course/scavenger hunt all around Seattle

A bunch of Pi Kapps did it, and our squadron-mate J-Dub as well

Gotta love lesbians with punk rock mohawks, I saw my fair share of tattoos there too (notice the Texas flag tat on the gal to the right)

Good morning!

10 on 10

If pictures are worth a thousand words, I'd need far too many words here, since we didn't take any pics; but a recap of our day:
1. 9am- Woke up and went to the doctor to get blood drawn (always a great way to start the day, or not!) Ever since I went off b.c. my body has been a little screwed up. At the risk of TMI, here's a poem I composed- (p.s. guys can skip to #2 for testosterone)
Dear Aunt Flo,
where did you go?
We want you to know,
we miss you so.

2. 10am- Carlos and Justin went on a 20+ mile bike ride to Big Lake and got to chat along the way, a good "man-time."

3. 11am- I pulled weeds in our glorious garden. I'm pretty sure we have more weeds per-square-inch than the rest of humanity.

4. 12- Burly played incessantly with Gwen and Miss Parker, neighbor dogs. He had so much fun that he didn't even know he was missing Pugmania in Seattle. Phew...

5.1pm- Pastrami and Provolone melts for lunch

6. 2pm- instead of planting my vegetable garden we watched a movie in bed, one of those things we're grateful for, knowing that when we're parents those lazy afternoons will be few and far between:)

7. 5pm- Ran some errands to Home Depot and AT+T, where we contemplated getting iPhones yet again.

8. 6pm- We went with our favorite friends Nick and Lindsay to our favorite restaurant, Seeds. Once there, they told us their exciting news, they're MOVING TO AFRICA! To Malawi, where Lindsay's parents have been doing Young Life. Their pay will actually increase at this private school, crazy. We can't WAIT to visit them, and to do other stuff in Africa like climb Kilamanjaro (Los) and rest on Zanzibar (me).

9.8pm- Instead of paying high prices for dessert, we went to Haggen and bought ice cream then went back to our house.

10. 9pm- We played Settlers and chatted for hours. Nick won. Big shocker.

Good day...

Ole (o-lay), ole ole ole, ole ole!!!

We are SO going to the BRAZIL-CANADA soccer game on May 31, at Qwest Field. Fifth row!! Los is gonna wear his Kaka jersey (thanks Patton!) and it's going to be awesome... The beautiful game in person, sweet.

Flippin the Turns

And p.s. Carlos and I were in the pool for 45 minutes last night, and we can now officially check #20 off the list. Ah yeah!