Angry workout music. This could come in handy when I finish the Couch-to-5K podcasts…
Month: January 2008 (page 3 of 8)
Thanks to Ma Snook, I now have a genuine vintage pinafore apron! I pulled it over my head tonight and immediately set to work making cookies. I AM SO RETRO CUTE IT HURTS.
I have issues with small animals.
I was just updating some of my Ravelry projects when I heard a commotion behind me. I turned around to see what the cat was playing with. With a shock, I saw something dark scuttling along the edge of the carpet. I ran to the phone.
Me: AHHH! There’s a CREATURE in here!
Snookums: (on the bus, by the sound of it) There’s a what now?
Me: A skink! I think it’s a SKINK! She’s chasing it around and she’s going to EAT IT! WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Him: Well, get her off it! Then pick it up–
Me: WHAT?!
Him: Okay, cover it with a jar and then use a piece of paper to take it outside.
Me: Okay.
So I got a jar and went back to the office… and the skink was gone. There sat the stupid cat, mewing and sniffing around the base of my office chair.
Me: What– DID YOU LOSE IT? HOW COULD YOU LOSE IT? You’re a cat, damn you! Where did it go?! DID YOU EAT IT?
I can’t find any trace of it. Either she ate it… or it crawled into some part of my office chair for safety, and it’s going to wait until I’m sitting here late one night surfing before it crawls out and gives me a heart attack.
Whoa. In case you missed the link in the comments from M-H: Heath Ledger is dead. Man. His poor little girl! And I know it’s morbid, but I wonder what this is going to do to the upcoming Batman movie…
Well, this year’s Oscar nominees have been announced… which means that my Sixth Annual Oscar Contest will start this weekend! As usual, the prize will be a fabulous, one-of-a-kind hand-crafted sock monkey. (Have I got a brilliant one for you this year…)
Thing-a-Day. It’s a challenge for the month of February to create some new thing every single day. “knit cook draw paint tape solder write install destroy invent document.” I like that.
Today was the start of my fifth week of training. I’ve now been running regularly (as in, 3 times a week) for more than a month now, and I think I’ve turned a corner.* Running makes me feel good. It made me feel good before, but only in the “I’ve done something I hate and now I’m all tired but at least I feel kinda virtuous” way. But this morning, after another 25 minute non-stop jog with hills, I actually felt MORE energized at the end of the run than I did at the beginning. I felt like I could’ve kept going. I was actually happy, you know, in my head. It was seriously weird.
I finished reading Jeff Galloway’s Women’s Guide to Running last night. Quite a lot of the book is devoted to pointing out WHY you should run, which was wasted on me (since I’m “already there,” so to speak). I bought it for the practical information, and I found a few tips in there that I think are going to make an immediate impact. One of them is the recommendation that you have a cup of coffee about an hour before you run. THIS IS GENIUS. I feel so much more “peppy” and alert with a little caffeine. Another mindblowing idea for me is the admonition to take smaller steps. I’m tall, so my natural inclination is to take bigger strides when I try to speed up. This is a bad idea, and it often leads to injuries. (This is how I hurt my hamstring last year.) But by taking smaller, faster steps, I can speed up without overstriding and hurting myself! I’ve also stopped feeling guilty about not stretching religiously. Galloway says he thinks stretching tends to hurt more than it helps, so unless you’ve got a specific injury that requires it, you don’t really need to do it. I like that.
Oh! And I recorded a new “personal best” in the mile on Saturday. I broke eleven minutes! I know that’s not fast for most of you (and my teenage self would’ve laughed), but I felt really proud of that. I’ve been trying to run a ten-minute mile for more than five years now and I haven’t reached it yet. This time, I really think I’m going to get there.
* This morning’s euphoria may have been partially due to it being a much cooler and less humid run than I’ve had in the past month. I think it’ll only get better as we head into Autumn…
Oooh, the SMH site has a bit of a teaser article about the new flagship Apple Store opening in Sydney soon (about 50 meters from my shop!). I can’t wait to see the glass front start to take shape…
Pssst! There’s a new section on the TC website today… but be quick! The Ravelers were already tipped off this afternoon by Bex so stocks are dwindling fast. (Somebody ordered forty-four balls of Feathers. FORTY-FOUR.)
Having a bad day? I was. Then I watched dolphins blowing bubble rings. That is amazing. I gasped when they started manipulating them around like lassos. So pretty.