keri's 3-day

and i've been neglecting this post.

there has been no walking on my part for the past few days. the weather was crappy again (still?) last week.

i had some friends over to help paint parts of my house on saturday. we didn't get as much accomplished as i overly optimistically thought we might. but we got a fair amount done. i forgot how long taping all the woodwork takes. we got the foyer and part of the staircase primed, and ruthanne primed one wall of the dining room in red primer. the powder room is finally painted, so now I can put up the light fixture, the mirror, the towel bar, the tp holder, etc. it will actually be mostly done, except for some trim work and a new window, in time for my housewarming party. yay!

on sunday, i played with Mad Dawgs Woof in a Men's C- tournament at CCRI-Lincoln. It was a fun team even though we didn't do very well (2-7). At least we didn't have to work the playoffs, because we didn't finish last. there's always a ray of sunshine somewhere...

newest donors to the cause:
Steve Sylven from Vollmer Boston and,
(although I can't include them in the map at the bottom of the blog since it only shows the States),
my Aunt Lynn, Uncle Rich, Christine and Justin Alexandre from South Porcupine, Ontario, CANADA.
Thanks!

If anybody looks on a map, South Porcupine is WAY up north in Ontario, near Timmins, the home of Shania Twain.

i walked yesterday (1.5 miles or so). a few steps in the right direction when it comes to the training.

now it's snowing again. the weather people are predicting 6"-10" by morning. ugh! thus, there was no walking today. i've already shoveled the steps once though.

new donation: thanks to Darkling Rameau from Vollmer Boston for her contribution.

no news to report on the total ducats from the tournament yet. watch this space for details.

the BVA charity tournament was an unqualified success (imho). visit this spot tomorrow to find out the final total. thanks to my super-talented and super-fun teammates: Brian, Glen, Bruno, Karen, and Kirsten. we went 4-2 in pool play, despite being the lowest ranked team (by points) at -1 in the CR C+.

Congrats to Team Miklaus (winners of the CR C+) and to Team Smith (the winners of the CR C-)! all the participants got nifty BVA/AWBC tournament t-shirts (also donated).

the raffle that took place during the tournament was also a huge success. the accounting's not done yet, but i think the raffle alone may have raised close to $200. Jen Tramontozzi did a stellar job of getting great raffle prizes, including 2 Celtics tix, 2 Bruins tix, dinner for 2 at Meritage, a haircut at a hip salon in Newton Center, a $25 gc to Union Street in Newton Center, and other great prizes.

thanks again to Bruno Tramontozzi and Ben Taubman (are you guys tired of hearing this yet?) for donating their time and energy to organizing the tournament!

New personal donations:
Thanks to John Brown and Teresa Riordan, who work with Linda Malenfant at Boston College, for their donations.
and thanks to Andrew Gardner, the only South African volleyball player I know.

my volleyball league is on hiatus for a couple of weeks, so i will have no excuse for not training for the walk during that time. here's hoping the weather cooperates...

we'll be right back after a few words from your local station.

it snowed again today. not enough to really stick, but enough for old man winter to say, "hi. i'm not done yet." argh! someone remind me again why i live in the northeast!?!?!

no walking or vball in the past couple days. i've been a slug. tomorrow the slugdom ends.

tomorrow is the BVA charity vb tournament, which should be a ton of fun and will hopefully raise a ton of cash for a great cause.

thanks to Bill Rollins in Vollmer's Concord, NH office and to Bob Fisher, another vb nut, for donating to the cause. Keep those donations coming, folks! at this rate, i may DOUBLE the amount required! wouldn't that be an awesome feat!

check the bottom of the blog to see the states from which I've received donations. six degrees of Kevin Bacon phenomenon strikes again! not that this is a bad thing!

i walked today...and it was still light out. :) ok, so it was only a mile and a half. one small step in the training. with any luck, it will continue to get warmer so i can walk outside. here's hoping we have seen the backside of winter.

now on to my daily (or near enough) thank yous. the donations keep rolling in...

Thanks to:
Ken Stigner and Carolyn Maichin from Vollmer HQ in NYC
Jeff Ashworth, the Branch Manager of Vollmer Boston
Brian Paik, fellow volleyball fanatic and setter extraordinaire

and finally, thanks to Stu Lerner, Partner-in-Charge of Vollmer's Boston office and the Partners for the generous Vollmer corporate donation!

on a more somber note, my condolences to liz (lowe) oltman and the Lowe family on the passing of her brother, Justin. liz, my thoughts are with you and your family.

67 days til the walk.
stay tuned for more messages from your local KBS station.

68 days til the walk. it's snowing (ugh!) in Boston, so i foresee no walking tonite.

Over the weekend, I played in a Men's C volleyball tournament at Lincoln-Sudbury HS on Saturday. My team didn't do very well: 2-6, which was (clearly) not good enough to make the playoffs. But we had fun and ended on a high note - winning our last game. Plus, I had Zak in the front row with me drawing triple blocks so I had no blocker in front of me. it's much easier for me to hit on the men's net with no block. :P for those of you unfamiliar with Yankee volleyball tournaments: women can play in men's tournaments, but men can't play in women's tournaments. inequality of the sexes in reverse.

sunday, my regular coed team (Sets & Candy) won the playoffs after a hard fought match in the finals against another candy team, Eye Candy. yay, us! the next season starts next week, so we are right back at it again.

next Saturday, March 13, is the BVA tournament in support of my walk. I found out last night that Bruno's wife Jen has organized a raffle to take place during the tournament. She's got Celtics tix, Bruins tix, a haircut from Bruno's mom's salon in Newton, and other great prizes. So there will be more money going to a great cause. A great big thank you again to Ben and Bruno for organizing the tournament, and to Jen and Liz for taking the initiative to organize a raffle - icing on the cake! I'm overwhelmed by the support! Feel the love!

new contributor as of the last post: Adel Foz from Vollmer Boston. Thanks for your support!

and now back to your regularly scheduled monday.
more news later on this KBS station.

i haven't updated the blog in over a week. what can i say - i've been busy.

last saturday, i played in a Yankee volleyball women's scramble tournament. They take individual signups and make teams from them. My team won the scramble!!! several of my cohorts from BVA also participated in the scramble, although we were not on the same teams. It was a fun day, capped off by getting to relax in the hot tub that my friend, Joyce Wegrzyn, had rented for her husband Scott's birthday. i've never felt that good after a tournament. it makes me want to put a hot tub in my backyard permanently! the worst part was getting out into the 35-40 degree ambient temp.

sunday, i worked in the afternoon, then subbed on Think Fast and practiced. Monday, it was back to work, followed by 4 hours of vb again - my regular coed match plus subbing with Team Glen for the CR, which was a blast! of course, i could barely move on Tuesday. The usual price to pay for 4 hours of intense vb.

i had planned to walk, but it was raining when i left the office. i draw the line at training in the rain.

yesterday, i spent the day in NH at meetings for work. so again, there was no walking. (notice a theme here?) the summary is - there was a lot of volleyball and not so much walking over the last week. i will try to do better. although i have it from a source who did the walk a few years ago that not training doesn't necessarily mean i will have trouble finishing. i am in reasonably good shape because of volleyball. it may just mean i have really sore feet and legs afterwards. not that this is an excuse to not walk. :)

tonite, there will again be no walking, since i am being treated to seeing the bruins/rangers game tonite at the fleet center. i will walk from the office to the fleet center, but it's not that far - maybe a mile if i stretch it. thanks to Vito for providing the tickets. GO BRUINS!!!! beat the evil Rangers!!! maybe we will get to see the newest Bruin, Sergei Gonchar, recently acquired from the Caps, play tonite.

now on to the most important item of the blog: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

thanks to Nancy Gavin, a good friend of Rose's, for her donation. Thanks also to Karl Rubenacker and Steve Enzel from Vollmer's corporate office in NYC for their generous donations. The avonwalk website reports that i am about 40% to the fundraising goal. it's actually more than that because it doesn't reflect the checks i've mailed in over the last week or so. i would guess that i am close to 50% by this point. those that gave me checks, look for your names to show up on my personal avon walk page's fundraising honor roll shortly.

finally, there are 72 days left until it's time to walk from Southie to Melrose. and back again. (sounds kinda like a hobbit's tale, only in boston.)

stay tuned to KBS for updates.