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Friday, July 3, 2009

Skippy the bush kangaroo. Lovely photo from the Powerhouse archives.

Another one for my sister's "carbolicious" bakery: Spaghetti and Meatballs Cake. I'D EAT THAT.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

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Stash Enhancement: This and this just arrived at the house yesterday. Sooooo pretty. Ailsa is a fantastic dyer, but she's even better at photographing the yarn pr0n.

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RunningBlog: RunKeeper Pro Review
I know I've mentioned this before, but if you have an iPhone and you run/walk/cycle/ski/hike outdoors, you should get RunKeeper NOW. It's so good. It uses GPS to track your distance and speed, and it's a lot more accurate than Nike+. (You also don't need special shoes or attachment hacks.) I downloaded the free version in February, but not long after I paid the $10 to get the Pro version. Every release has brought welcome new features, including voice prompts during the run and the ability to edit your run data afterwards. Yesterday the highly-anticipated interval workout functionality finally dropped. Nike+ can't do this at all! I've been so frustrated with all the training plans that suggest running intervals laps at a track, because running tracks are very, very rare in Sydney. I've done them by looking at the RunKeeper distance as I go, but I'd much prefer to keep my eyes on the road. So I was really waiting for this one!

When you open the app, there's a new button at the bottom of the main screen labelled "Training." Clicking it brings up a menu of your saved training workouts. (They give you a couple of them as a examples.) You can edit an existing workout or add a new one. Each interval consists of "slow," "steady," or "fast" and an appropriate duration (which can be time OR distance!). You can set the intervals to repeat, and you can also tack on a 5:00 warmup and cooldown if you want. This morning I was meant to do an easy 30 minutes with 6 x 100m "strides." Since the shortest distance interval you can set is 250m, I instead changed it to 45 seconds (which is way longer than it takes me to run 100m, but it seemed like a good compromise.) So I started off with the 5:00 warmup, then did 10 minutes "steady." Each time period is announced with a chime and a voice prompt telling you what to do next. I did my 6 intervals of 45 seconds "fast" interspersed with 1:30 "slow," then finished with another 8:00 of "steady" and a 5:00 cooldown. The system worked PERFECTLY, not a single glitch. Something like this could make a huge difference to amateurs' training.

I'm also happy to report that I had ZERO leg/shin pain this morning. Yay! New shoes and rest seems to have done the trick. I'm really looking forward to my long run this weekend to see if my fitness has held up.

[3]

Jungle Cats at the Watering Hole
This is quite possibly the most boring YouTube video in the history of the world. It's Petey playing in his water fountain and trying to dunk Amy in the water. The amazing part is that I filmed it on my new iPhone, and then I edited and uploaded it to YouTube FROM THE BUS on the way to work this morning. Hello, the Future!

Bubble Dress tutorial for little girls. Man, there's so much cuter stuff to make for girls than boys.

USA Today writes about how the economy is taking its toll on the Amish in the area where I grew up.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Utegate as told by lolcats. Heh. I thought it started out really funny but went on way too long.

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Preserving Australia - preserving, canning, and cheese making at home. SWEEEEET. The Snook and I haven't been able to find any Mason jars, but that site just pointed me to Redback Trading, who imports them. And they've also got stoneware (for sauerkraut and kimchee), cast iron cookware, and smokers? I am in PIONEER WOMAN HEAVEN.

Edited to add: Ooh, maybe I could make my own cheese curd for poutine!

RunningBlog: Another light week thanks to the virus that laid me low on Friday.

This week: 9.5km (6mi)
Last week: 8.4km (5.25mi)

I'm happy to report though that I finally made it out for a run this morning, and I felt pretty good. My shin didn't bother me at all. I had some tightness in my calves and hamstrings, but I guess that could partially be attributed to me basically lying prone for 72 hours straight on the weekend and not stretching or exercising in any way. I'm eager to get back into my training plan if I can. This was meant to be a recovery week anyway, so I've got some breathing room. I'm just annoyed at missing three long runs due to the double-whammy of shin splints and sickness!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

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I really need to make the Snook a Persian Love Cake. Looks like something he'd like!

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There, I Fixed It. Ha! It's like CraftFail but for DIY and home repair.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

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Sick. Ugh. I felt kind of crappy and tired last weekend, but it never turned into anything so I figured I fought it off. Turns out that wasn't quite the case. Friday morning at work I suddenly became aware of a telltale tingling in my lip. Cold sore! Again! This is my second one this year, which is way more frequent than usual. I guess I was more sick and/or stressed than I thought last week. The problem is that as I've gotten older, my reaction to the virus has gotten more and more extreme. Having a blister is the least of my worries. The lymph nodes under that side of my jaw swell up and get painful and tender. If it's really bad, I get shooting pains (neuralgia) all the way up the side of my face. That leads to a headache. It's really pretty awful, and it can take more than a week to heal. Anyway, after my last one Dr. Chin gave me a prescription for an antiviral. The key, he said, was that I had to take it IMMEDIATELY when I noticed the symptoms. Of course, the prescription was at home and I was at work. I went to a drugstore at lunch to get some Zovirax and ask the chemist how long the window was for taking the antiviral. He said I could still take it that night when I got home, but the sooner the better. I finished up what work I could and then left early at 4pm. I grabbed the script at home and went straight to get it filled ($28 for three pills!). By then my lip was getting puffier and I was feeling more and more crappy. I took the antiviral, then doped up with lysine, vitamin C, and paracetamol. I basically spent all day yesterday in bed, which is pretty unusual for me. (I rarely nap.) The good news is that I think the antivirals have helped. The blister started disappearing yesterday and is now nearly gone. My glands are tender, but it's manageable with painkillers. And I never got the shooting neuralgia pains, which is a big relief. I still feel dizzy and tired, and I'm annoyed that I'm going to miss my long run for the third week in a row. Still, it feels like this is going to be a much shorter recovery time. Back to bed, I guess...

Friday, June 26, 2009

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New iPhone
Yes, I'm a bit of a Mac fangirl, but you have to believe this wasn't my idea. The Snook started thinking about getting an iPhone a few months ago. (It was all due to wurdle, really, which he played whenever I set my phone down.) I told him he should just get one of the old 3G ones, because they'd be cheaper when the new ones came in. Except they aren't. They've discontinued the 16GB (which is the one he wanted), and none of them have come down in price in Australia. So he started crunching numbers on plans, and he worked out that it was only a little bit more expensive to get a 3GS. Then, since he didn't really care about video and a better camera, he'd swap with me! I got my phone unlocked last week so it would work with his Exetel SIM. The Snook is at the extreme low end in phone usage, so the original plan was just to get the Optus $19 Cap Plan (which actually had a lower TCO than buying the pre-paid iPhone from Vodafone and unlocking). We ordered it on Optus's website last night. BUT - this morning I learned on Twitter (in between all the Michael Jackson craziness) that the Apple Store was selling them outright for $200 less than Vodafone's pre-paid! I called Optus to cancel the offer while the Snook ran down to the George Street store. They have plenty in stock. He got the phone, and tonight we did the big switch. It worked perfectly! Expect more mobile video in the future, kids.

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welcome

I'm Kris Howard, a thirtyish Hoosier living in Sydney, Australia. I work as a business analyst at an IT company specialising in mobile solutions. I knit and run and have crazy adventures. This is my weblog and personal site.

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