dreaming of snow...

All you folks back in the states have had the good fortune (or displeasure so it seems per many blogs I've been stalking recently) of experiencing "Snowpocalypse 2010".  Let me tell you, I am jealous!  Snow is an unheard of, never been seen before, fairytale kind of thing to those of us living in the hot hell hole that is the Middle East (edit: actually the weather is flippin LOVELY right now, perfect for poolside lounging..minus the occasional sandstorm).  But not to worry... I will be reunited with the white heavenly goodness that is snow in about 2 weeks time.  Also, at the same time I will be fullfilling one of my "long-term goals": ski the Alps.  In the words of my guilty pleasure hero Perez Hilton... its going to be "amazeballs".

Hopefully it will look something like this when I go:

Chances are I will end up looking something more like this:

But either way, it should be sweet.  We are headed to a place called St. Anton in Austria and are staying in this little family run B&B:

Oh man, I am getting snow-fever just thinking about it.  Anyway, that is pretty much all of the big news for right now.  I have lots of other stuff to re-cap on, but our internet in our accomodations does not quite work and I have been unable to upload recent photos to the internet to share. (Also have not quite been able to call home either because of it.. Hi Mom & Dad!)  But I will just give you a quick mini-highlight right now:

• Travelled to St. Thomas to celebrate Christmas at my brother's place with the family.
• Ran (& completed) the Dubai Marathon on January 22nd in 5 hours and 15 seconds.
• Vowed to NEVER run another marathon ever again.
• Changed my mind and vowed to run the NYC marathon before I turn 30.
• Visited the tallest building in the world, the Burj in Dubai and am headed back there this weekend for a "ladies shopping getaway"
• Rode in part of the final stage of Le Tour de Qatar and got the chance to meet a bunch of the pro-cylcists.  One of the guys from Team Livestrong (Ben King..also the blog writer for the Teams webpage) was a fellow Hokie!! Go VT.
• Finally picked out our "save-the-dates" and got the wheels in motion on that.
• Found out my brother and my beautiful sister-in-law are going to have their first baby!!
• Promptly decided I am going to be the most awesome aunt ever and I am going to buy that child all sorts of wonderfully LOUD and annoying toys to play with (that is sisterly love right there!)

That's about it for now.

Ciao friends!