Day 264: Happy Birthday Papa Joe

What a perfect day for a golf game, and what a perfect way to celebrate Papa Joe's Birthday! Hubby Brian, and teenagers Harrison & Spencer met Dad at Penmar golf course this morning for a round of golf.

Check out how damn cute they are Harrison, Dad, and Spencer

Afterwards college boy Brandon, niece Zoe, and I met them all for lunch. We went to a FABULOUS BBQ joint in Venice. It's called Baby Blues BBQ and if you are ever in Venice on Lincoln Boulevard you must visit this delicious southern home cooked BBQ place. What a yummy lunch we had and a fabulous celebration.

Seems like we just celebrated Papa Joe's 80th Birthday one year ago -- how fast the year has passed. It has been a year full of great happiness and some sorrow. We lost Papa Nat last March, hard to believe we are coming up on one year for that. The kids have all grown and are happy and healthy. Life keeps tickin'.

Pictured here are Spencer, Me, Dad, Zoe, Harrison and Brandon.

Make sure you make an effort to see the one's you love and care about, because someday we'll all be gone.

Preparing for the Race

Crazy weekend ahead. Hubby Brian is out of town stumping for his new business ACN. He's in San Diego attending a conference with his ACN colleagues. Go ACN TEAM! I'm in total prep mode for tomorrow morning's 10k Santa Monica Venice Christmas Race.

The teenagers play football after school in the Palisades on most Friday's so I headed out there late today to round one of them up while the other one spent the night at a friend's house. They both have to leave very early Saturday morning to head to Palmdale (more then an hour away) where they each have double-header baseball games.

So today was a lot of prep, coordinating and juggling schedules so everyone gets where they need to be in the morning. Especially because I too was leaving at 6 a.m. and the big man Brian is out of town. So what happens with these races, and games and plans becomes much more then the day of as we have a lot of moving parts with family members all traveling in different directions. I'm exhausted from all the planning.

Got to get to bed so I can get up before the sun and start all over again!

Day 187: Fighting for Her Baby

Just when you think stories can not be any more heart wrenching, along comes a report that just breaks my heart.

How many of you caught the story this week on the nightly news about the would be purse snatcher in Venice? This thug attacked a woman from behind in the hopes of stealing her handbag. He was in for the fight of his life because there was no way this woman was going to give up her purse.

Now many of you are saying, "why the hell not, just give the thug your bag, and save your life," but some things are worth dying for.

Turns out the woman had in her bag a phone with a recorded message of her baby who had died the year before. The baby was saying "mama" and "cooing" ... it was the only memory left of her baby and she was willing to die to hold on to that special voice, that beautiful cooing, all she had left of her baby.

This thug messed with the wrong mother... she already lost a child, she'd be willing to die to hold on to the small memory left, and guess what, so would I ... how about you?

Click on the link below to see the violent attack. It will make you sick.

VENICE, Calif. ( KTLA) -- The victim of a violent purse-snatching attempt in Venice is speaking out exclusively to KTLA about why she would not let go of her bag, even when the suspect dragged her by it down the street.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-venice-purse-snatching-victim-speaks,0,6926679.story

Day 186: Still Recovering

Ran 12 miles today in the rain. Yep, there we were at 6:30 a.m. this morning running through Venice Beach in the rain. We watched the homeless wake up, the storefronts open up, and countless other dedicated runners out there hitting the pavement.

What a kick I got out of looking over at a fellow runner and being so surprised to see it was Congresswoman Jane Harmon! I mean there she was a United States Congresswoman out running by herself. No security detail. Rep. Harmon represents Venice so it was refreshing to see her out in her 'hood!


When we were finished we had clocked 12 miles. No wonder I'm sitting on ice packs with aching legs tonight. This is madness, that's for sure ... of course until next week when we'll do it all over again and probably add miles. Run Robyn Run!