Sunday afternoon we spent some time in Barnes & Noble. I was looking for a copy of a French cookbook that I borrowed from the library a while back.

I didn't find it, but between a Japanese book and that of another exotic cuisine I did see a book on Dutch cooking.

This morning Sasha and I competed in the competitive 5k run during the Race for the Cure event in Raleigh.

This was Sasha's first race, and she did great! Her time was 31:19 minutes. I think she's caught the bug so she'll be doing more races in the future. I was happy with my time too, around 26 minutes. I think I improved with about 10 seconds compared to my first 5k, but I'll have to wait for the official results to be sure.

It was an impressive and emotionally charged event. It's an important fund raiser for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, to support research and prevention of breast cancer. There were a total of 30,000 people running and walking (2,600 in the competitive race), and a large number of women in pink survivor shirts. It was clearly not just a race for time, it was a race for a cause. The organization was superb, with clocks at each mile, two water stands at the course and at the finish, and tons of people cheering for the participants.

We saw Petra and her friend Allison during the race, and we spend the rest of the morning together.

To the start.

The finish line.

Balloons.

Cheering for the other participants.

Cheering.

A familiar face in the crowd! Petra and her friend Allison.

The start of the recreational race at 9.00 am. The people on this picture wouldn't cross the actual start line for another 10 minutes or so.

When Petra and Allison complete their race, we went to explore the event together.

The smoke has largely disappeared so it was sunny again today. It still smelled a little bit of smoke, but the air is a lot better so tomorrow's race will be fine. Which is good, since it is an event for a great cause, and some 30,000 people are expected to be there for the races and other activities.

I went to Meredith College after work to pick up some things, and the preparations were well under way. This is easily going to be the largest race I've ever ran in, which is cool. We'll meet Petra tomorrow as well, that will be nice.

I haven't seen today's game against France yet, but the last 30 minutes or so I heard on the Dutch radio. Pretty amazing! Sasha recorded the game so I'll see it this weekend. I'm looking forward to the Tuesday game against Romania, but even more so to the quarter finals since they'll be on a Saturday so I'll be able to see the game live.

The finish line, being build up.

Registrations.

When I left home in the morning I smelled something burned or burning, and I was worried about fire. Luckily there was nothing and I left for work. Then when I arrived in Raleigh, 30 miles further, it still smelled of smoke.

It turns out there are 3 large wildfires near the coast, and the smog and ash from those fires is blown across the Triangle and even as far as Greensboro. There's a serious health advisory in effect, strongly recommending against outdoors exercise. Let's hope the 5k race on Saturday won't be impacted.

Jean-Paul was right. I bought a new phone, and it's a indeed smartphone, the BlackBerry Pearl.

I looked at perhaps switching over to AT&T, but their plans were more expensive than Verizon, and Verizon gave me a sizable credit towards a new handset -- after the mail-in rebate the phone is free.

I thought data plans were around $70, but prices have come down quite a bit and I bought a $30 data plan that provides virtually unlimited data usage (5 GB monthly). The phone has full internet access, and I've connected my hotmail account to it. I installed Google maps as well, which is really quite useful on a handset.

Today Hillary Clinton gave the closing speech of her primary campaign.

An impressive speech, that makes you realize what an historic race this has been and will be in the next 5 months.

Barack Obama will be in Raleigh, North Carolina on Monday on the State Fair grounds.

It's hot outside! Today's temperature will reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit, around 37 degrees Celsius.

A good weekend for some pool time, but it's hard to find a good time to run. Yesterday I was on my way to work around 7.00 am, and it was already getting pretty warm.

Tonight Barack Obama officially secured the nomination for the Democratic Party, in a remarkable evening.

Five long months of primaries are now over, and it's on to the official elections.