Favorite Thing Friday

I love celebrity gossip.  
Thankfully, I am not the only one I know who loves it.  My three best friends love it, my sister loves it and my cousins Mandy & Laura love it.
When I was hanging out with Leah & Andrew last month, Andrew told Leah & I that when we talk about celebrity gossip, we act like we know these people.  Uh, duh... like who doesn't act like that when discussing all things celebrity?! :)
I have had a long standing subscription to US Weekly for years now.  I do enjoy this magazine and it takes me exactly 1.5 hours to get through an issue cover to cover.  Is this something to brag about?No, probably not, but it is enjoyable.

When I get together with Jamie, Leah & Annette for our annual girls weekend, there is always a plethora of magazines to choose from.  People, In Style, Life & Style... you get the picture.  On our weekends away we make gossiping our job.  It is good for the soul.
One thing I have learned from my travels is that the U.S. gossip magazines simply pale in comparison to British tabloids.  Hello! & Ok! are two of the most amazing celeb gossip magazines ever!  Luckily I can find them here in Miami, either at the airport or at News Cafe in South Beach, for the bargain price of $7 a pop!  Wow.  

$7 for a magazine is a bit rich for my blood, so do not think I buy these often... I am not that crazy for celebrity gossip. I did indulge in the latest issues of both though after that little Royal wedding.  Also, to be clear I buy the original British versions of Hello! & Ok!  Not the knock-of U.S. versions.  You can tell the difference by the size of the magazine.  The Brits print them much larger.

When my nose it not buried in my US Weekly, where do I go for my daily dose of celebrity gossip?  

www.DailyMail.co.uk

What a great freaking website.  Check it out.

Yoga Showed Me Who's Boss

Last night I did yoga for the first time in months.  Wow, yoga can really kick you in the ass... and your core and your legs. 
I have a Gaiam brand DVD called A.M. Yoga that I bought at Target about a year ago.  There are 5 different 20-minute segments.  Last night I did twists and hip openers.

Even though I haven't done yoga in awhile, I didn't realize how much I actually needed to do yoga.

My hamstrings have felt tight lately, but otherwise I have felt great, strong even... and I haven't had any pain in my left hip, which usually starts to get irritated as I up my running mileage. 

I could definitely feel every one of those twists in the first 20-minute segment.  Could really feel my core muscles stretching out, especially when I did Up Dog near the end.  After sitting at a computer every day at work all hunched over, it felt great to pull the muscles the other way. 

The Down Dogs and Forward Bends worked wonders on the backside of my legs.  After barely getting through the two segments and getting over the shock of how tight my body was I was relaxed and ready for bed!  Need to make sure I keep up this yoga thing.

Marathon Training

I am all signed up for Marathon Training with TeamFootworks!

It is a 26 week training program for either the Disney Marathon on January 8th (me!) or the ING Miami Marathon on January 29th.  On the 29th I will run the half marathon since it is only two weeks after Disney, but it is also the most beautiful course ever and I do not want to miss out.

TeamFootworks is based out of South Miami and trains hundreds of people a year to run a half or full marathon.  They are expecting 800 people over the course of the fall.  Included in the program are pace groups and team leaders for the Saturday long runs, water stations along the course for our longer runs, clinics on various running topics and the hospitality tent with our own bag check, free massages and food & drink on the day of the ING Miami Marathon & Half Marathon.  They are even planning on running the Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon as a group, which is perfect because I was planning on running that with my co-worker (Trish we need to sign up!). 

I knew I wanted to join a running group this fall as I train for 26.2 miles.  Motivation will be needed to get through the 18, 20 and 22 mile runs.

I attended the info session last Thursday night and it was endearing to hear the concerns of people in attendance who are running their first half marathon.  Several wanted to make sure they were in the slowest pace groups to ensure they could keep up (you know they are gonna), some wanted to know how to figure out their pace, some had no idea what a singlet was (we get one as part of the group) and some didn't even know you get medals (um, it's all about the medal).  Remember that feeling when you first started running and had absolutely no idea about anything?  It is so sweet... to be that naive again!  It will be nice to see people accomplish something on race day that they never thought was attainable.

Training starts August 6th, but I will be out of town on vacation for the first two weeks of the program.  No worries though, I know I will keep up with my running over vacation because I have the Beach to Beacon 10K and a long run in Maine all planned out for that week.

Can't wait for my first group run on August 20th though... let's get this party started... 26.2 miles I am coming for ya!
P.S. 40 days until the Disneyland Half Marathon... yup I am THAT girl!

Let's Hug It Out Bitch

Who watched the season premiere of 'Entourage' last night?
I definitely did. Love... that... show.
My best friend Jamie had given me Season One for Christmas some years back and I have been hooked ever since.  She figured I would enjoy 'Entourage' since I loved visiting her in L.A., seeing all the touristy L.A. landmarks and was always on the lookout for celebrity sightings (never happened).  

If you have never seen the show, it is about a celebrity, Vincent Chase, and his entourage (manager, agent, driver and hanger-on washed up actor brother).  Also in the show, L.A. and all its famous and/or 'of the moment' locations are practically additional characters.  'Entourage' was created by Mark Wahlberg and is loosely based on his own life and his entourage.
In addition to a great core cast - Vince, Drama, E, Turtle, Ari, Lloyd, Mrs. Ari and Shauna; there have been so many cameos made over the last 7 seasons.  Tom Brady, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Ali Larter, Martin Scorsese, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Aaron Sorkin, Jerry Jones, Gus Van Sant, Malin Akerman, Jessica Simpson, Lamar Odom, Eminem etc.  Goes on and on.  Can't wait to see who makes appearances this season.
This season will also be its last.  It was cancelled by HBO, did you know that?
I did not.  I heard it on 'The Today Show' last week when they were interviewing the guys.
I am going to miss this show.  I will surely miss Ari, Vince's loud mouth, offensive agent, and all his snarky (yet hilarious) comments.  You can actually read through them all at: www.arigoldquotes.com .  My 3 favorites are "F*cked", "Get Drama a Job" and "Fired at Last".  Perhaps just reading these quotes are not as funny as actually seeing them on the show, but I sure did get a kick out of them!
Before you click the link, please know Ari holds nothing back and bad words and offensive comments are his thing.  Just letting you know in case you don't like that sort of thing.
Did you know, supposedly Ari is based on real-life Hollywood agent Ari Emmanuel, brother of former Obama Chief-of-Staff and now Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emmanuel?  True story.

If you watch the show, who are your favorite characters?
Ari for sure.  Even though he acts like a total asshole, he works hard and is a true family man.  
Also, Eric (E) because he is always trying to do the right thing, which I imagine would be hard in Hollywood, and Turtle, because he is quick witted, just super funny.
What do you think of Johnny Drama?
Most ridiculous person ever!  Kevin Dillon (who plays Drama) is fantastic in this part!
What was your favorite season or episode?  Worst season or episode?
I loved Seasons One, Five & Six.  Least favorite episodes was anything involving 'Medellin'... I know my sister agrees with me on this one :)

A video I just found on YouTube with Ari's best moments (my 3 favs are all in here).
Remember what I mentioned above...