eliza page named one of 50-best stores in Texas!
Baylor bud... Elizabeth Gibson Serrato's jewelry & accessories store in downtown Austin, eliza page... was named on of Lucky's 50-best stores in TX in this months issue -- Yippee E!!
Have holiday shopping to do? Visit eliza page online for something perfect!

Turkey in Texas :: Thanksgiving 2007
Here is the Oakes Family-Boerne clan. Boerne is a town 45-min outside San Antonio and 1.5 hr outside Austin. Pictured below, from left to right: Stina, Finn (16-months), me, Jesse (6'4" behind me), little Merete (5 yrs) in front, then Matt, my Dad/Mike and his wife, Chris holding little Lonestar.
Here is my brother Matt, with Finn and Fred the dog. Fred is a 150(ish) pound Great Pyrenees doggie with the nicest deep bark. Good dog. Jesse and Merete, playing in the hose after we'd just given Fred the dog a bath (which he really, really needed).

An afternoon at the river in my dad's neighborhood... Naked baby Finn and Miss. Merete got in with both Matt & Jesse while Dad, Chris, Stina and I enjoyed watching them from the shore. It was a nice hot-but-comfy Texas day, but the water was coooolllddddd (although, not as cold as the PACIFIC!).

Jess, my Dad, Merete and Labradoodles Biscotti (rust color) and Cowboy (black) -and- little Lonestar (gray) doggies all joined them in the tent we got Jess for his birthday.

Auntie Liz & Merete snap >>

This is such a fun photo! "All the kids" on the couch... Jesse, me, Stina & Matt all cuddle (not) elbow-to-elbow on the couch together one evening... you won't catch us like this too often! ; )

Nikki my dear old buddy from grammar school (say... 27+ yrs friends) with her sister, Beth and Beth's son Caleb, came for a visit from nearby Austin. Caleb enjoyed the tire horse swing my Dad put up for Merete & Finn!

Merete got plenty of riding time in too...

Last, but not least, here I am with my #1 Nephew, handsome 16-month old FINN!

Calabasas Classic 2007
benefiting the Talbert Family Foundation
111107. Each year, for four years now, I've trekked to Calabasas in Nov. to help staff this wonderful event. This year, we drew 1,506 entrants and we keep getting bigger, and better. Here are our race directors, Julie and Lloyd Talbert flanking Sean Astin who came out for the 10k.
We had a wig vendor in the expo, and they loaned me this lovely long/dark wig so I could walk around and wow-everyone! It was really a hoot!! (yes, I said HOOT!). I've always wanted to experiment with dark hair...

The 5k start... I was standing smack dab in the middle of the race course... That's the fun thing about being "staff", you can make the rules!! I think this shot was worth it!

Although, I did almost get run down a number of times. LATCer, Joe here, is aiming for me though. Joe finished #2 in his Age Group...

We gave the 5k and 10k overall winners, Overalls! Ha. Funny, right? They all wore them when they picked them up. It started to get chilly and rainy at the end of the event... so, the more clothing, the better too! LATC in the house, right behind.

I had to snap this Proud Pug who also finished the race. All the canines who crossed the finish lines with their owners earned metals too, of course. There were many! This race is great for families (we have a family fun-run too) strollers welcome, doggies, and adults of all ages!

Next years dates has been set >> Mark your calendars for November 9, 2008. See you there!

TriFIT + TruYOGA
Yoga or Spin + Wine & Cheese social
110907. 70 or so LA Tri Clubbers headed to TriFIT last Friday for an evening of either indoor cycling followed by a wine & cheese social, or yoga followed by the social. I opted for the yoga, thinking I would be less sweaty afterwards.... but, boy, I was wrong! "Rudy the warrior" worked us harder than I've been worked in a looong time! I brought my camera into the class to capture a few snaps (below), which gave me an excuse for breaks during the session. Rudy ROCKS! I can't wait to go back and work with him again.
Thanks TriFIT for an awesome offering!!
Lori, looking graceful.

Rudy walking around as he leads the class:

Elix-r Entertainment presents Nobody Famous & dj iPizzle at the Temple Bar
110807. Last night I trekked to Temple Bar for Damon's birfday bash and performance. We saw some awesome artists before our guys went on as final headliners. Here is Jonas with V and his hot-dancer-girlfriend, looking all happy & sh*t. ; )
When I'm out on the town, past 8 or 9pm, Jeanette is usually in tow!

DJ iPizzle doing his thing, while Nobody Famous does his. Great job boys!!

Jeanette, flanked by her boys:

New York City Marathon - A Race Report, by Summer Bond
While I've never done the New York City Marathon, I have completed four 26.2's myself.
Reading Summer's Race Report here, I totally related on some points, I couldn't relate at all on several points, and, I laughed out loud a bunch. So, I'm re-publishing here, to share with you.
Congratulations to everyone who completed the 2007 New York City Marathon... to name a few: Summer Bond, Brian Morel, Monica Morant, Clara Palmer... (I know, I know, I'm missing many)... I hope you will enjoy her account as much as I did!

From: Summer Bond
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 8:15 AM
Subject: I went to New York and all I got was......

my ass handed to me! As most of you know I have been training diligently (somewhat) for the NY marathon. Finally, the training had come to an end and we were ready to go kick some butt on the streets of NYC.

We arrived on Thursday morning after a sleepless redeye flight. Hit the ground running literally—many things to do to get ready for race day. As you also may know if you are NY you are most likely on your feet walking (more on this later). We headed over the convention center to p/u our race entry materials. This is when I realized not only what a production this race is but how huge this race is (roughly 38,500 participants) that is like a freaking small city. I felt like all 38,500 of the participants were at the convention center—we bobbed and weaved and finally made our way through the packet p/u labyrinth. Even after we were inundated with information it was still unclear to me how we were getting to the start (Staten Island). Normally when you register you have the option to purchase a bus pass to the start which we did. Since our registration (months ago) there has been a construction development that directly impacted the transportation to the start. This meant that all of these people where now going to be re routed to the ferry either by bus or train (stay tuned).

That night we participated in a Team for Kids (charity that I did fundraising for) run in Central Park. We had to take the train and then walk a couple blocks to the meeting location (are you kidding me?? You have to take a train to run in this city—what the eff?!?! We are so lucky). We got to our meeting place and the a gentle reminder that we were no longer in Kansas Toto came dressed in gusting winds and 40’ temperatures brrrrr. The run was nice and it gave us a taste of some of the hills that we would experience on race day. After what has seemed like an already long day we had dinner plans with friends and so we went. Disobeying all pre-race day rules, get lost of rest, stay off your feet, don’t drink…….

Friday morning we were determined to try to stay off of our feet. So off we went walking miles and miles around the city in search of all of our last minute race items. Blankets, disposable cameras, more clothing etc. I’m finally feeling prepared with the amount of clothing and materials I have to sustain me race morning before the race starts. Why not hit a night club?? We journeyed over to a club at hotel Dream. Here’s were we deviated again, slightly from the pre-race preparation (sorry coach Muoto). We proceeded to booze it and dance the night away until about 2:00 a.m. I think we violated a couple rules no drinking, dancing, and definitely not resting. We had a blast—fortunately we’re not pros so we don’t have to be quite as rigid (or do we??).

Finally Sunday morning had arrived. We wake up at 5:30 a.m. and get our layers of clothes on while stuffing ourselves with coffee, bagels, Gatorade, water and positive thoughts (I think I can. I think can. I know I can.). After packing up all of our gear we head to the subway. The train is filled with marathoners sizing up one another and second guessing everything. Hmmm what kind of shoes are those, maybe I should have got those shoes? Is that the newest Garmin? I wonder if I will beat her. Once we arrived at our stop we waited for a friend (Monica Freaking Throw the Hammer Down Morant/ PR 4:30) and fellow racer who was joining us from another location in the city. She was a life saver the night before when we were panicking on the logistics of getting to the race start. The website was an enigma wrapped in a riddle and absolutely not helpful with the race day changes. She talked us off the ledge and gave us the details and reassurance we needed to stop hyperventilating the night before the big event (she is a veteran having done this race 2 other times—why would you do that?!?!?)

7:15 a.m. we make our way to the ferry terminal once inside the building we are swimming in a sea of people waiting to get on the next ferry or the next ferry or the next ferry. Hopefully New Yorkers got the memo not to take the ferry on this morning. The ferry ride over made me forget what I was on my way to do—as we floated by lady liberty on our way to the island I thought to myself ahhhh what a great morning.

Once the ferry made it to Staten Island we were herded into holding areas where buses would transport us to the race start. Monica had coined the phrase earlier, “there are two events—getting to the race and then racing” amen sister! We finally made it to the race start at 9:15 a.m. 3 hours and 15 minutes later geeez?!?! Once we arrived we realized that we only had about 30 minutes to slam down some more food, bathroom (insane lines) and check our post race clothes bags. This is where I made fatal mistake. I had eaten a bagel earlier around 6:30 a.m. I didn’t calculate all of the wait time and didn’t have any more FOOD. I started to take inventory of my race food. I kind of started to panic. At this point we all had to be separated into different starting locations spread out all over the park.

I was alone, surrounded by thousands and thousands of people but all alone. I started looking on the ground around me for food remnants and or water. The ground was now covered in unwanted layers of clothing, left over food and beverages. I spotted a couple of items but felt like an animal picking up someone else’s unwanted food and couldn't bring myself to do it. I walked to my starting corral which was back 28,000 people from the start.

The race started at 10:00 but I didn’t actually reach the start until 10:20 b/c there were so many people in front of me. The race starts on a friendly incline and so it began…..I am going to run a 4:45 marathon. No wait there goes the 4:15 group, I can do that! Mile 2, I feel good--wait what happens if I start to bonk at mile 18 and I can’t finish? OMG this guy has change in his pocket (jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle). I need to get away from him—but I can’t--there are too many people--no place to move. Who runs a race with change in there pocket—what a jerk!! Finally, I got away from the piggy bank now I am next to the spitting snot blowing woman, help!! I am hungry—no wait, quick--use a Jedi mind trick—no it’s just nerves, yeah maybe that’s it. Cool, mile 3 only 23.2 more to go yipeee!! Where is the 4:30 pace group? Maybe that’s what I should do. Wow, the crowd is insane I can’t believe there are so many people out cheering for us--I feel like a rock star! I have to go to the bathroom. Damn the lines are so long. I don’t want to jeopardize my finish time (it will go away—think about something else).

Mile 8, wow it is all going by so fast I am totally preoccupied with all of the people on the side lines. I am really hungry and need to figure out a food plan. I have a bar and 2 gels which would normally get me through a long run if I didn’t start out hungry. I ate half of the bar and thought that I would use one of my gels at mile 12 and next at mile 16 knowing that the race was providing one and only gel station at mile 18.

Here I am now at mile 10 the wheels are starting to come off a bit. I am now officially starving--not nervous but very, very hungry. I decided to apply my pink lip gloss (thanks Stella Tong) and smile at all of the people cheering us on (I read somewhere if you smile it will actually make you feel happy) let’s give it a try. Huh it’s kind of working at least it is distracting me from my hunger pains. Mile 12, little angels were scattered all along the streets handing out candy. Aha--that’s it!! I will eat a piece of candy every mile and keep a constant sugar drip infusing my system. I get the candy, Sweet Tarts, great I love Sweet Tarts. I think these Sweet Tarts are circa 1980. The exterior surface was no longer smooth but rather pitted and stale. I didn’t care--shit an hour ago I was going to eat food off the ground. And so, the glucose and Gatorade cocktail began……bring it on Survivor Man!!!

Okay, I have officially dropped off the 4:30 pace group. Ummmm screw times I just want to finish this biatch!! I am never coming back to New York again. I hate Brooklyn and Queens too!! Damn, why are there so many freaking hills?!?! I should have trained more on hills (San Vicente is a hill right?!?!)

Here comes 1st avenue—wow—it’s everything I was told. More people than you can even imagine cheering us on. At this point I am starting to get annoyed with the, “come on you can do it! “You’re almost there!” All I can think is, “screw you!”, “how do you know?”, “if you’re so sure why don’t you come and do it?!”

Mile 19, I am approaching an aide station, I moved to the side like you do when you are racing only to be bulldozed by this man yelling, “Gatorade-Gatorade”. In his frantic sprint through the aide station he proceeded to ram me into the table and get Gatorade all over me. I made some snarky comment like, “dude don’t be such a dick it’s not like your going to win, you’re in the middle of the pack” he continued to shout “move!!” to which, I kindly moved and launched full cup of Gatorade at his head. Ha--I was feeling really good until I felt a retaliation cup pummeled at me. I had to laugh—here I am fighting with a 50 year old man in the middle of the race. Ah well, that gave me the necessary adrenaline rush I need to get me to mile 20. Are you kidding me with these hills?!? Nobody told me that last part of the race is a giant hill. For those of you that have done this race before and think I am exaggerating—I hate you!

Mile 24, that’s it, I don’t think I am going to be able to finish. 2.2 more miles at 12:34 pace I feel like I’m crawling at this pace it will take me 26 more minutes NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Need more lip gloss try the smile trick again? That didn’t work in fact, I almost started to cry. I want my mommy!! I hate everyone!! I am never running again--this is so dumb and I hate everyone that is running by me right now—jerks!!

Oh, look at that guy on the side of the road sitting, at least I am not sitting down, there I feel better. Oh geez he is rubbing ointment on his amputated leg. Gosh, I really suck—I need more candy!

400 meters--now I’m starting to cry—shit I can’t believe I finally made it in 4 hours and 41 minutes and 3 seconds. Damn, that was difficult and I am really hungry! Where’s Brian? How am I ever going to find him here with all of these people?!? Every body MOVE!!!!!

Muddy Buddy 2007
It's hard to totally capture Muddy Buddy... we're talking about 1,000 teams of two, a 6-mile course littered with obstacles on a trail, running & riding, and then crawling through a mud-pit to the finish line. For the LA installment there is a special costume contest. This year, LATC took top honors for the second year in a row with LATCers Jamie Silber and Jen Kramer dressed as an old man and his nurse.

LATCers, Richard Simmons & Jane Fonda >>

Below, here I am, dressed as LATC Pit Crew, with Muddy Buddy creator, Mr. Bob Babbitt himself, dressed as a FROG (his annual get-up):

LATC was out in force! Most folks dressed for the occassion. In the center here are the Costum Contest winners, Jen & Jamie:

Yeah. Nice view. The Muddy Buddy "showers"...

Lori and Michelle, post-event:

Katie & Rachel, fresh from the finish line:

Post-Finish! Muddy & Proud >>

4th in their age-group, and freshly hosed off: Robert & Joe:

Mo & Tina also placed (2nd?) -- Here they are celebrating on the podium:

I'm looking forward to next year, when my partner, Paul, will be back & we can give these guys a run for their money!

The sweetest Finn & Merete!
Ah, it's painful to see photos like these... I miss my brother and the family so much! Here are little FINN as a Turtle, and MERETE as a fairy princess. They are growing wayyyyy too fast.

Stina hugging Finn close here. Look how beautiful they are!! Check out Finn's perfect little bow mouth...

I guess the Turtle pace was too slow for the rest of the family, so the hard-shell guy hitched a ride with Dad here. My bro, Mattie!

Ready for candy collection!