Space Coast Marathon



It's official! I'm registered for my first FULL marathon! I'll be running 26.2 miles on Sunday, 25 November 2012 in Cocoa, Florida for the Space Coast Marathon!

I think this is perfect timing because I'll be running 26 miles at age 26! = )

My best half marathon time is 1:56'56", so I'm hoping to finish this full marathon just over double my half marathon time: somewhere around 4:15'00". However, my real goal is just to finish and have fun along the way.

Over the next few weeks I'll switch gears from sprint triathlon training to the Jeff Galloway marathon training plan (I have been reading his book called "Marathon: You Can Do It!"). 99 days until the big day!!!Be sure to let me know if you'll be at the race - I'd love to meet up with you at some point during the event!

If you're interested in participating in the full or half marathon, register here and be sure to apply one of the following

registration discount codes:

SCMDAYTONA - $10.00 off Marathon registration
SCHDAYTONA - $5.00 off Half Marathon registration

Getting Back to the TSRS

Okay! 2012 has made it's entrance, and the next Track Shack Running Series 2011-2012 event is just 2 weekends away! At last check, I'm sitting in 6th place. My goal is to finish in the Top 10 by the end of the series; in fact, it's one of my 2012 New Year's Resolutions.

Wish me luck at the Seasons 52 5.2K!

Previous TSRS 2011-2012 race blogs:

4/7 - missed due to back injury = (

3/7 - UCF U Can Finish 5 Miler

2/7 - Autumn Rock 'N Run 5K

1/7 - Celebration of Running 5K

Thankful, Day 30

Well, this entry concludes my November goal of posting something I'm thankful for per day of the month.

On this final day of November I'm thankful for my next rotation at work. I start it tomorrow, the first of December. I'll be working with a Lockheed Martin Fellow and for a new company (IS&GS versus EBS). It will be fresh, new, challenging and a great learning experience.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Okay, now let Christmastime commence! = )

Thankful, Day 29

I'm thankful for Fitocracy. Oh, you haven't heard of it before? It's a website which has turned working out into a video-game. What? Yeah, you do physical activity to level up. *it starts to sink in. Yeah, it's brilliant. It's changed people's lives - big time. The Fitocracy Team sends out short success stories of folks who've lost hundreds of pounds because Fitocracy helped them make working out fun again. It's a game!

http://www.fitocracy.com

Let me know if you want an invitation and I can figure out how to do that for ya.

Game on.

Thankful, Day 28

Today I'm thankful that I had the pleasure of joining my leadership development program managers and a few other program participants at Gators Dockside for lunch today. I had a delicious reuben on swirled rye and some potato salad.

Thankful, Day 27

I posted this on Facebook in the wee hours last night:

Day 27. I'm thankful for my mom and my daddy. And how much they love each other. They are my heroes in a million ways.

Thankful, Day 26

I'm thankful to have a wonderful friend named Sam who is joining me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in a few weeks! What? You don't know who the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is? They play classical-metal music. I know, kinda interesting, huh? Here's a snippet of some of their holiday work:

Reindeer Run 5K

I know that for the vast majority of the population it is entirely too early to be thinking about the holidays. But I don't care. I LOVE the holidays, and I'm super excited because I finally found a December race to partake in this year!

When I signed up for the Track Shack Running Series I noted that there isn't a series race in December. Wanting to fill in the gap and do something outside of the series, I searched around. I looked for an Orlando Jingle Dash, Kris Kringle Run, Rudolph Race, Elf 5K - NOTHING turned up.

Until yesterday when my Track Shack Event Guide arrived in the mail. Enter the Vanessa Welch Reindeer Run 5K!

Distance: 5 K/ 3.1 Miles
Date: Saturday, 10 December 2011
Time: 7:30 AM EST
Location: Sea World
Cost: $24 (through 3 December 2011)

I'm definitely signing up. Let me know if you're interested, and we can meet up, carpool and cheer each other on!

Palm Trees for Mountains

If you haven't heard the news yet, I'm moving to Denver in T-minus 31 days. I'm trading in the palm trees for the mountains.

I will certainly miss Orlando. Florida has grown on me so much. I have enjoyed the easy access to the beach, rooting myself for a time, starting the book club and making so many friends.

But I've always wanted to live in Colorado, and now is the right time for me to make the move. I love mountains - the hiking, the camping, the skiing. I can hardly wait for the the weather. I'm good on the sweltering, sticky summers and am craving a real winter. Did you know that Denver has more sunny days per year than Orlando? Mhmm!

I have a base of friends in Denver already (some from Purdue, some who've moved from Orlando to Denver and some from work), so that'll be nice. I am excited to move to a more dog-friendly and outdoorsy area!

Yes, I'm still going to be working for Lockheed Martin. I've been getting that one a lot.

I'm super excited that my dad is able to help me with the move. My grandpa might be helping, too! I'm so lucky to have them!

I started packing today. Ya gotta start on that early to keep the stress levels low.

That's all for now. Check back soon!

Cheers,

Amanda

Resolution Check - Feb 1/2

Status report:

• spend less time surfing Facebook - I've been hopping on Facebook a bit more than I'd like, but the good side is that the time I spend on Facebook per session is minimal. I'd like to hop on less, though.
• pay of a significant chunk of my student loans - I took on a roommate which is bringing in $700 each month for March, April and May, plus $400 for the remainder of February. This extra income is allowing me to pay off a credit card, a personal loan and a student loan by April! I've been kicking myself for paying full rent by myself for the last couple years! Roommates are my friends, haha! Plus, Elise is great!
• run 525 miles by Saturday, 31 December 2011: 429.8 miles to go! Today marks my victory of achieving a Nike+ goal I set to run 4 times per week between 14 January and 14 February! Check it out:

• earn B or better in all my PSU master's courses (2 this semester, 1 over the summer, and another 1-2 in the fall): still no grades to really see how I've been doing, but I'm feeling better about my difficult class and have actually enjoyed the lab work so far. I'm up to speed in my Java class, too.
• read the Bible (or at least several books; will be difficult with all the master's work): no status change: I haven't had time to do any reading for fun with all the master's homework. = ( This one isn't looking too good.
• catch up and keep up with my scrapbook for Heidi (I'm behind by about 12 months, heh): I've determined where I left off on photos of Heidi that I've printed. Next step: choose photos to print, order prints. In the meantime, I have some pages ready to be put together. Going to Miami this weekend, but maybe Sunday night I can relax and work on this a bit.

Hope you're reaching your goals this year, too!

Paws in the Park 2011

Yesterday I walked around Lake Eola for the Paws in the Park 2011, a Central Florida SPCA fundraiser for which I raised $155. Thank you to all who donated funds to help the local pets and shelters! Heidi and I had a blast at the walk, and Heidi had WAY too many Milk Bones as we passed by all of the vendor booths. Favorite item collected: a clip/1 cup scoop thing for Heidi's dog food bag to keep the food fresh; now I can use my 1 cup scoop for baking purposes again!

Heidi and I taking a photo mid-way through the walk around the lake. Isn't she cute in her cheerleader outfit?! Everyone LOVED it! Go Purdue!

Here is Heidi sitting pretty after the walk:

And my new favorite photo with my girl:

January in Review

Before February gets going, I'm gonna be all over it and do a photo-review blog for what went down in my corner of the world in January 2011.

Rang in the new year with some friends who've become close over the last few months: Sam, Alex & Julie, as well as a couple of old book club friends, Casey and Ryan. We celebrated at an indie, dinner-movie theatre called The Enzian during their James Bond theme party. Casey, Julie and I got all dressed up in sparkling formal-wear, and the men all looked snazzy in their suits and ties!

Just 2 days into 2011 I had the pleasure of hosting my best friend from Down Under, Tamara! We had a blast together all week, catching up, playing with Heidi and Ashes, dining out, having PB&Js, playing Euchre and discussing our cultural and language differences. That weekend my Mom flew in town to run the Walt Disney World Half Marathon. I was supposed to run it with her, but I had to back out due to knee injury... She ran it, had fun, and Tamara and I supported her. The next day we all enjoyed ourselves at Universal's Islands of Adventure. We were blown away by the feature Wizarding World of Harry Potter ride inside the Hogwarts Castle!

During the Tamara visit I had to deal with Heidi having caught some gastro-intestinal parasites. Got her all treated for that, and she's doing MUCH better now. Still hanging around 55#, but she's already healthier.

Through the month I hosted a couple of euchre nights. I taught my new Euchre playing friends how to play bid-Euchre so we could have 6 or 8 people playing one big game instead of breaking into 2 smaller games. It's a lot of fun. I'm really glad I can get that taste of the Midwest down here through Euchre.

The Spring 2011 semester at PSU started on Monday, 10 January 2011. I'm taking 2 classes this semester: IST 552 Data Management and IST 411 Distributed Object-Oriented Programming. I LOVE 411 and am doing well there so far, but I'm praying to pass 552. The class overestimates the students' background knowledge and is very accellerated in pace...

I had a lovely Skype date with Miss Kristin! When I Skyped with her she announced that her and her husband, Aric, were getting a puppy - a Cocka-Poo! They've sinced picked him up from the breeder and named him Hiro, from the main character in the shoe Heroes. I've seen a photo, and he's just adorable! Can't wait to Skype with her again soon to hear all about their transition into puppy parenthood!

On Tuesday, 11 January 2011 my brother, Chucky, turned 22! I sent him a card, a book he requested ("The Art of War"), and a gift card to Target. I wish I could have celebrated with him in person, but when you're on opposite coasts of the country, it's kinda tricky and we make do. Happy birthday, Chuggy! Here's a favorite photo of the two of us, taken at Lana & Geof's wedding back in September 2009:

Last weekend I got to go skiing with a bunch of great friends from work; they are all in the IS Leadershpi Development Program with me. We had a blast! We stayed in an awesome, 5-bedroom cabin, tucked away in the woods, and we had 2 full days of skiing! Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

My parents bought me Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" for Christmas. I have sinced read it all the way through and am working to have my own Total Money Makeover. With all the student debt I have, this just made perfect sense. In fact, tonight I'm finalizing my Allocated Spending Plan for February 2011. It'll be interesting to see where my bad spending habits reside (I'm thinking eating out and groceries are my bane, aside from my car loan payment). Anyway, I like being organized and I like budgeting, so to implement his plan has been fun for me so far.

Last Saturday was my first Hackathon, hosted at Sam's house. He made a super cool white board, DIY-style that I got to use while Joel taught me how to do dynamic programming tables (part of my first IST 552 homework assignment). It was a lot of fun boucing ideas off one another for different programming projects and hanging out with like-minded career/student/developer friends. I'm excited for the next one and hope it goes from monthly to bi-weekly! Here's a photo of Sam displaying my dynamic programming table on his home-made white board:

The last big thing I did in January was epic! My friend Alex and I participated in our first Warrior Dash! On top of that, it was his first 5K! He picked a great one! We ran through mud rivers, crawled through mud pits (I'm talking several feet deep pits full of sloshy/suctiony/smooshy mud), climbed rope nettings, scaled balance beams, leaped over fire and swam through a muddy trough with barbed wire just over our heads! It was so adventurous and challenging and fun! I haven't seen my official chip time yet, but my watch clocked me at approximately 35 minutes. That's 5 minutes less than what my goal was!

17th Annual Paws in the Park

The 17th Annual Paws in the Park walk is on Saturday, 12 February 2011 at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando, Florida. Last year Heidi and I raised $70 more than my original goal! This year my goal is $100, and I’m hoping to surpass it, too!

Above is a photo the Mutts on a Mission Pack Leader, Kurt Bouwman, sent me recently – it’s a photo of me and Heidi back in February of this year at the 16th Annual Paws in the Park walk. = ) She was so teeny and fluffy! If you want to read about last year’s event and see photos, check out this blog post.

I hope you consider making a donation to make a difference in the lives of thousands of animals by sponsoring or participating in the SPCA of Central Florida's Annual "Paws In The Park.” If you can’t give, but know someone who can, please pass this on to them - it can’t hurt to ask!

To Sponsor My Fundraising:

1. Please visit my Personal Fundraising Page and consider helping me by making a secure online donation now by clicking here
2. Click "Sponsor Me"
3. Continue with donation
4. Return to my sponsor page
5. Leave a message on my fundraising wall = )
6. When you make an online donation, I will be notified by email of your support and you will automatically receive an e-tax receipt from the SPCA of Central Florida.

To Participate with My Pack in Fundraising and the Walk:

1. Navigate to this website
2. Click "Sign Up"
3. Accept the waiver
4. Join as a pack member
5. Search for the pack name "Mutts on a Mission"
6. Select "Mutts on a Mission" team name
7. Click "Join this Team"
8. Continue with registration

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you for your support!

It's Officially Christmas Season!

It's Black Friday, and that means that Christmas Season is officially here! I have Ella Fitzgerald Holiday playing on my Pandora radio, and I just brought all the Christmas decorations in from my storage closet.

So, today is dedicated to getting my apartment all dec'd out for the holidays. I'm also going to work on my 2010 Christmas Letter and maybe wander out into the shopping madness for some Christmas cards. I'm also going to work on some blogs that I've been meaning to put together. Lots of photo work to be done, too. Lastly, I plan to end my evening with a cup of marshmallows with hot chocolate, a slice of pumpkin cake, and watching The Blindside and/or reading on my book.

Happy Black Friday!

amara | 86 HBC Mission Statement

Okay. This is my last task for Etsy's Holiday Boot Camp (HBC) Week 1: write a mission statement.

Thoughts: I love to be make crafts. As in sewing projects, I enjoy the process of seeing the many pieces come together. I want to share my passion with people, and don't mind making a few bucks while I'm at it! Last year I got the hang of things but my Etsy shop, amara | 86, fell to the wayside when I got Heidi. Now that she's a bit older, I can start investing time into my shop. I have a few new ideas for projects up my sleeve, too! So here's my mission statement:

Through my passion of creating hand-made goods, specifically with yarn, thread, and fabric, I will fill my Etsy shop, amara | 86, with new items for others around the world to enjoy. I will map out my days between now and 31 December 2010 to set aside time to work on my creations. I will be inventive and run with fresh ideas. I will stick to Danielle's HBC weekly check lists. I will be an Etsy Success!

Etsy Holiday Boot Camp

Holidays are nearing, and I want to make some cool creations to bring in a some extra money. To keep me focused, I'm taking the Etsy Holiday Boot Camp Pledge:

I, Amanda Bennett, pledge to participate in the Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp to the best of my abilities. I vow to check in every week, do my homework and support my fellow Holiday Boot Campers. I will read the weekly newsletters and blog posts, check in on the weekly forum thread, read the weekly blog post, check off the checklists and salute the mascot. I promise to share what I've learned with those who need it, support my fellow Etsy indiepreneurs and, most of all, have a positive and persistent attitude. I understand that together we can spread the word about our handmade and vintage goods, making this holiday season a more unique and meaningful one to gift givers and give-ees everywhere! 

February 2010

I always say, "wow, that was a busy month," but when I say "wow, February was a busy month," I mean it in a way that surpasses any way I've ever said it before. Note: life + owning puppy = life on fast-forward! Here's the run-down for what I trouble I was getting into back in February:

Heidi 72-hour vet check - healthy pup minus the minor ear infection that cleared up in a week's time

Volunteer with BC - first time to volunteer as an adult; it was good.

Euchre Night with BC - first time to host a card night; much fun and more Euchre Nights to come!

Phone Dates with Kristin - started having a weekly phone date with Kristin to work through our devotionals

Bonfire at Joel's - even with the Florida Hospital Lady Track Shack 5K the next morning I still went to Joel's, hung out, met some folks and enjoyed the perfect s'more!

BC Movie Night (I Am Legend) - a favorite movie of mine (also partial inspiration for getting a German Shepherd Dog), and lovely company

Super Bowl Party with Matt - my plans fell through but Matt and company provided for a great group of people with whom to celebrate the event. Sad that the Colts lost but at least a Boilermaker took the championship!

Avatar + Pizza with Matt - loved the movie, discovered a cool pizza joint, great friend with whom to enjoy both

Paws in the Park Walk with Matt - Heidi's first socialization opportunity; Matt joined us for the fun (despite the cold weather!)

The Bling Thing with BC - downtown night! First time to the underground bar (can't think of the name of the place). Loved hanging out in the red, Clue room!

Puppy Valentine's Day Party at Joel's - adorable! Cooked out and made several new puppy friends!

2-week vet check - all healthy!!!

Sunshine movie with Matt - I was right on in knowing that Matt would love that movie! Nice evening and discovered my new favorite white wine!

Sam's Senior State Wrestling Tournament - amazing weekend with family and friends to celebrate Sam's big victory!

Chucky's 21st birthday celebration - belated but brilliant! Can't wait to go out with him again!

Puppy Class 1/8 - so much fun! Heidi loves playing with the other pups, and we both love learning!

Waffles with Matt - we decided my Belgian waffle maker needed to be put to good use. Matt brought fresh strawberries! Yum!

Dinner with Darin - Darin was in town! He got to meet Heidi, see my place, and then he treated me to dinner at Amigo's! I love hanging out with Darin; we always have nice conversation!

Pie & Away We Go movie with Matt - another nice evening in with Matt; we both loved the movie, and I made him a pumpkin pie for helping me get to and from the airport the previous weekend.

BC Movie Night (I Am Legend) - even though I watched the movie recently, it was lovely to host another book club movie night!

Church - finally settled into a schedule with Heidi and figured out how to escape the house for a couple hours to get my spiritual fill

Bonfire at Matt's - wrapped up the month with a great evening at Matt's bonfire! I brought Heidi! Everyone loved her and the cucumber salad I brought. S'mores were amazing!

January 2010

Being the list-lover that I am, I've decided to start listing the high-lights of each month. Bonus: this will make it easy for me to recap things at the end of the year. Ta da!

January 2010

Christmas & New Year's Break - long visit home with family and friends; NYE brought in with parents and grandparents over Oliver wine. Took on a second role at work just prior to vacation!

Retro Game Night with BC - first book club social of the year!

Running a lot - training for a marathon (this was a pre-Heidi 2010 resolution that has since been tweaked from "run a full marathon by the end of the year" to "run a full marathon within the next 15 months" - spring is a great time for marathons in Florida)

Bowling with BC - I did terribly but had a ton of fun anyway because of the cool folks in company

Big Daddy's & Pub Crawl with BC - even though we didn't get to do karaoke (fail!), this was still my favorite night out in Florida yet! "I feel wine!"

Ingeborg's Visit -  Norway Night, Hue and BC, Lake Eola, lunches and dinners, Joel's birthday at the Citrus Club, Dear John pre-screening, Girls' Night!

Heidi - she's my girl! Lots to be learned about being a puppy momma, but totally worth it in every way!

-Amanda

Paws in the Park

Another belated blog post. Please forgive me! Here it is:

From the Lockheed Martin article:

"With biting wind, overcast skies, and temperatures hovering around 40, Saturday, February 13 went to the dogs…literally! The spirit of the 16th annual Paws in the Park Pet Walk at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando was not shuttered by the wind or cold temperatures. Over 2000 people turned out for the event to raise money for the Central Florida SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

The 45+ person Mutts on a Mission team comprised of Lockheed Martin employees from STS and MFC and their family members (furry and not) raised over $9,000, putting the “pack” in the third highest fundraising team. The entire event raised more than $160,000."



Kurt Bouwman with Cassie and Julie Bolyard display the Lockheed Martin banner during the Paws in the Park fundraiser. The Mutts on a Mission “pack” included over 45 Lockheed Martin employees and their family members.



LM Mutts on a Mission group shot

First of all, thank you to everyone who sponsored me and Heidi to participate! We thoroughly enjoyed it and are happy you joined us in helping the animals in the central Florida area through this event!

My friend, Matt, joined me and Heidi for the walk, and it was a ton of fun! When me and Heidi first arrived she was very shy and huddled around my legs at the sight and sound of so many other dogs, many of them larger than her. I had parked on the far side of the lake from where the LM group was meeting, so I had to go .3 miles with Heidi, and it would have taken ages had I not decided to just carry her!

Matt arrived just in time for the group photo and for the walk to being. Heidi did wonderfully after the photo! She observed the other dogs, then all she wanted to do was play! This walk banished her fear of the larger dogs, and she got some great puppy socialization! Everyone thought she was super cute, and, of course, she is! I thought she'd tire out and force me to carry her after walking half way around the lake, but she was full of energy and didn't pass out until we returned to the car! I'm so proud of my Heidi Jo!

Here are some more photos from the walk:



Heidi and an adult German Shepherd




Heidi conked out on the ride home after the morning's excitement




Matt, Heidi & I with a German Shepherd and their owner




Matt walking Heidi




Heidi & I

Inga Visits!

I had the great pleasure of hosting one of my most dear friends last week! Ingeborg made a stop in Orlando on her backpacking trip along the southern US states on her way to Phoenix! It was amazing to see a friend from Australia (we were flat mates over there in Spring 2008 during our study abroad trips; she's from Norway). Of course we had kept in touch, but we hadn't seen one another in the flesh in 18 months! It was amazing to catch up with her in person. Here is the link to the full photo album.

We had something fun to do every day of her stay. Here's the run-down on our little adventure together:

Friday night: Inga arrives; we stay up way too late talking about EVERYTHING; we eat lemon poppy seed muffins with butter and jam; I unwrap all the little presents she brought me from Norway; we gorge on all the candies included in said presents; we have fun speaking "Norway-English," haha; we agree to sleep in the next morning.



Saturday: we slept in; she blogged about her travel to the US while I went for a run; we had pot pies for lunch (her first time having one; she's a fan); she made great friends with Ashes; and we went out for NORWAY NIGHT!



Several of my good friends from the book club joined us in showing Inga Downtown Orlando! We hit Latitudes (to get started), The Lodge (Inga's favorite), and Eye Spy (heaps of dancing); then we capped the evening with some good ole Jimmy John's (another first for Inga).



Sunday: met some folks from the book club for brunch at Hue, downtown. It was quite tasty, but took longer than anticipated, and so we were running behind time to get to the book club at Stardust. I was able to inform Inga of the book we were reading for January in time that she could read it, so she had fun taking part in the discussion with us. We had several new faces at both the brunch and the book club, but Inga was dubbed the "honorary, global book clubber," haha! After the book club we strolled around Lake Eola.



Monday: I had to work; Inga had a nice, lazy day. That evening we were originally planning to go to my Orlando Camera Club meeting to learn about HDR, but we got sucked into a shopping mode and hit Ulta and Ross that evening. We got a little crazy with our nail polish selections! So many to choose from! For dinner I took Inga to Panera.

Tuesday: I worked again, and Inga had another relaxing day. That evening I took a nap while she read, then we went to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. After CPK we went downtown, in formal-wear, mind you, to celebrate Joel's birthday at The Citrus Club on the top floor of the BB&T building downtown. It was really elegant, and we had fun chit chatting with Joel and his friend, Dennis. Happy birthday, Joel!



Wednesday: Again, work for me; Inga had a lazy morning; I brought home Jersey Mike's Subs for lunch, then she went to Waterford and I went back to work. That evening we lounged for a bit before going to Urban Flats for some flat bread, live music and she had some wine (as I was driving). Afterwards we went to Borders where I picked up the February book club book and she found a cool iPod case.

At one point through the week I took Inga to The Marble Slab. She was blown away by the concept, haha! She had a crazy concoction, but it really wasn't too bad, less the York Peppermint Patties, haha!



Thursday: after work Inga and I went to Amigo's for dinner where I ate entirely too much, too quickly, haha. Inga picked up heaps of goodies for the pre-screening of the movie "Dear John" that Joel got us tickets for. Ryan met up with us, too, and we camped out for an hour to get excellent seats in the theatre. I didn't cry, though my eyes got a little dewy. Inga cried, I'm pretty sure. We felt the movie was okay, and preferred "The Notebook." Fun time, nonetheless!

Friday: I took the day off to spend a full day with Inga. Ryan hooked us up with some good deals to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventures. Ryan was a great "guide" to the parks. We hit up all the good rides and the longest wait, with one exception (the new roller coaster where they play your song during the ride), was 15 minutes! It was unheard of, I tell ya!



After much walking around, snacking, riding and chatting we got back to my apartment just in time for a quick power nap and prep for the Girls' Night I had planned as the last big to-do before Inga left Orlando. I had a few girls from the book club over, and Tiffany. We chatted, snacked on fruit and fondue, drank wine and had a lovely time painting our nails. I have a feeling there will be more Girls' Nights in the future.



Saturday morning we packed up and drove to Gainesville as it was her next stop and it was on my way to Atlanta to pick up Heidi. So we got a couple extra hours together. She DJ'd for me with the iPods. When we got to her hostel we said our goodbye's quickly to avoid bawling. I sure will miss that girl!

Thank you so much, Inga, for visiting! I loved having you in my home and company! Travel safely as you journey to Phoenix!

-Amanda

PS - Here is the link to Inga's travel blog if you're interested in reading (the second half of each post is in English) about her travels in the US.