Happy Halloween!!

Wallace wore the same costume as last year tonight. We went on a walk and saw two little kids dressed up as "Where's Wallace?". How did they know?! 👻🎃

Master Jedi

Dick dressed up for Halloween for work this year!! I certainly hope Master Jedi has a good day!

Happy Birthday Bear!!!

Grant pulled off the best surprise for Sheri's Birthday today. 3-1/2 hours of tapas and fun.

Happy Birthday, Bear!!

The 2017 Immediate Impact Walk

The 2017 Immediate Impact Walk Route

The 2017 Immediate Impact Walk was on Sunday, October 22nd. I'm just now getting to write the blog post with photos.

We had a truly wonderful day. After delaying our event for a week because of poor air quality due to the nearby wildfires, we were relieved that the day was beautiful and clear. It even got much warmer than expected, and got into the mid-70s - nice and sunny!

Unfortunately, we had two walkers who weren't able to work the change of date into their busy schedule, so we had 12 walkers instead of 14 on the actual event date. Frankly, I'm amazed that we were able to have 12 of us, given everyone's busy calendars. We also had one walker who wouldn't have been able to make it on the original date join us for a few miles and for our celebratory lunch after. Yay!

I'm so proud of our group. 14 walkers, and Susan, who worked hard all day as our route-support. We raised over $82,000. (almost $13,000 came from Sharla's Memorial Fund, which will all go to our beneficiary, Metavivor.)


We raised over $82,000!!!

We walked an enormous, 20-mile circle around San Francisco. We began and ended in the Presidio, having a celebratory lunch at the Presidio Social Club. Some of the highlights (and high peaks!) included the Batteries to Bluffs Trail, the Lands End Trails, along the Great Highway, through Golden Gate Park, UP to the very top of Twin Peaks (the highest elevation of the day, and where we took a group photo), down through the Castro (with a bathroom break at Dolores Park), through the Mission, and up into Potrero Hill, into Mission Bay, through the Union Square and the Financial District, UP California Street, a quick break at Lafayette Park, and into the Marina on our way back to the Presidio.

Recap:

We met at 6:00am, wrote names on our memory ribbons (We each write the names of those for whom we are walking, and tie them each to a pole that we carry throughout the entire walk), and circled up. Linda had us each speak the names on each other's ribbons before attaching them to the pole.


Group Shot


Fun group shot


Circled up. Here are our shoes that will take us 20 miles!

We left the Transit Cafe at 6:45 to start our walk. As you can see, it's still dark out.
The sun started to rise by the time we got to the Batteries to Bluffs Trail. It was beautiful!


Starting down the Batteries to Bluffs Trail




Carol and I have been friends for almost 27 years! She's also the one who first got me started in Breast Cancer Walks, and we've been walking together for 8 years.




Climbing up the other side of the Batteries to Bluffs Trail


It was such a beautiful and clear day. Here's the Golden Gate Bridge


View from the Lands End Trail


First bathroom/snack break! Thank you, Susan, for being our route support for the day!


Judy's newly applied temporary tattoo


Here I am after having had my temporary tattoo applied to my enormous calf


Sandy and Trina walking towards Ocean Beach and the Cliff House


one of the many flights of stairs we climbed - this one is probably going up towards Twin Peaks


View of a clear day on our way to the top of Twin Peaks




Climbing up to the top of Twin Peaks


Here I am at the top of Twin Peaks!


Group Shot at the top of Twin Peaks!


Climbing down....

When I looked at our map at the beginning of the day, I saw that we'd have a short bathroom break at Dolores Park around mile 13. I texted Dick to see if he and Wallace wanted to meet us there for a quick visit.


Here's Wallace running towards me after he and Dick had just arrived to Dolores Park. It was certainly a highlight of my day!


Yay, Wallace!


Family photo at Dolores Park


some friendly police officers who took a photo with us near AT&T Park


Irene, Charisse, and Trina


We made it to our Celebratory Lunch!!


Celebratory Lunch! So beautiful, and so good!


Group shot from the opposite side of the table


My cheese burger. It was very good and satisfying


Linda enjoying some cocktails at the end of the day


My Walkmeter Stats


My fitbit stats

Dine and Donate Marin

I had a fab lunch with "The -inas" at San Rafael Joe's today. Supporting Tina's amazing fundraiser "Dine and Donate Marin", benefitting the North Bay Fire Relief Fund. So proud of Tina and all of her hard work.

I put together a little website for them last week, and we've been adding new restaurants to it every day. There are a total of 48 businesses participating, most of them donating 20% - 100% of their proceeds from the day!

https://dineanddonatemarin.com

Back to painting!!

After a one month hiatus, I went back to painting today!

Slowly but surely, it's coming along.
As my instructor, Dean, says, "The last 10% takes 90% of the time".

Today, I tried to focus on putting thicker layers of paint on. I like the general composition of the painting and the colors, but it looked flat. I added a lot more paint on the street and sidewalks, and applied these areas with a palette knife. I also added more color into these areas. I worked on some of the trees, and also added more paint to the sky. I changed the car in the foreground to be a little higher up, and also changed the color.

Immediate Impact Walk Summery coming soon!

I need to write my summery blog post for yesterday's walk of the Immediate Breast Cancer Walk. It was fantastic.

My computer crashed and died last week (right in the midst of a time-sensitive web project!). I brought it in for a new logic board, and just picked it up tonight.

Walk blog post coming soon! Hopefully tomorrow.

Fun in the sun!!!

Wallace and Kayak had a great morning playing at the beach this morning. It was a beautiful day!

🎶Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for me!🎶

There are some pretty impressive Halloween decorations up around our neighborhood!! 🎃☠️👻

Sent from my iPhone- please ignore any inadvertent  autocorrect typos. :)