Mother’s Day Classic

RACE!
All this training finally has a point… I’ve officially registered to run the Mother’s Day Classic in five weeks. I’ve opted for the 8K run, and what’s more – Snookums is going to run it with me! I have no idea what kind of time we’ll do together, but I’m just so stoked to be doing something like this with him. I know we can do it. The event is to raise money for breast cancer research, so if you’d like to help out you’re more than welcome to sponsor us. (We don’t have to raise any set amount so I’m not going to give you the hard sell. Just let me know if you’re interested.) The course is actually the same one I ran as a 5K a few years ago, down through the Domain and around Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. Anyone have any preparation tips for us?

Busy Weekend

We’ve had a very busy weekend.

Saturday…

  • I went to the Inner City Knitter’s Guild meeting.
  • Snookums got the final component for his kegerator and hooked it all up. He then dumped out about 90% of his bottled homebrew stock, reckoning that quality is better than quantity.
  • I cleaned out our fridge, pantry, and cupboards, throwing out everything out-of-date and wiping them down.
  • We did at least half a dozen loads of laundry.
  • We finally organized our office, unearthing carpet for the first time in a year.
  • We took two massive suitcases of clothing up to the Salvation Army store. All the fat clothes are gone now!
  • We made about a dozen trips out to the recycling center, dropping off hundreds of beer bottles, cardboard boxes, and other assorted junk. As the Snook put it, “we could’ve filled a dumpster.”
  • We went out to dinner at Mylos Greek restaurant in Glebe. Yum!

Sunday…

  • I went for an hour-long jog. Felt pretty slow though. (Must’ve been the Greek food.)
  • Amy came over to serve as Cat Taxi. Dr. Amy Jones got her annual injection and had her mystery bald spot inspected. Unfortunately the vet was stumped. It doesn’t seem serious though.
  • All four of us went out to Rhodes to the big IKEA. The Snook and I had planned to get a cheap futon… but Amy talked us into this. (We actually got a denim cover. DENIM! It’s so wonderfully daggy.) We also got four shelving units and a shoe rack.
  • While the boys took the furniture home, Amy and I went shopping. She got a new dress and I got two pairs of SIZE FOURTEEN jeans. *dance of joy* I also got some Easter supplies for my little brother’s visit.
  • We came home and assembled all the furniture.
  • I spent some time trying to finagle the angle of CouchCam so you can see both couches, but it’s just not happening with this crappy little camera.
  • We made a lovely chicken pot pie for dinner.
  • We registered for a RACE! (More on that in a minute.)

So I think we’re pretty much set for the Royal Visit. The Garbericks are getting here in… holy crap… like five days!

Annette Rocks

I know you’re all on tenterhooks waiting to hear how our new cleaner is working out (after the whole Nurgul debacle). I’m happy to report that Annette ROCKS. Our kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms have never been more hygienic. Last night I had the happy experience of repeatedly finding secret, non-obvious places that she’s cleaned that I didn’t expect (like under the sink, and around the silverware drawer, and on top of the water heater). I feel like Jerry Seinfeld (except that Annette hasn’t stolen any tchotchkes). The only slight weirdness is that we get the feeling she’s trying to, uh, correct certain things that we do. Like, we normally keep the eggs out on the counter. Yet when Annette first came, she put them in the fridge. Okay, we’ll keep the eggs in the fridge. She moved our rubbish bin in the kitchen; I guess she thought the new place was better for it. (We’re lazy so we left it there.) Yesterday’s discovery was that she’d switched off a bunch of the power outlets in the house. (Australian outlets all have a little switch next to them. I have no idea why; it’s probably some safety thing.) The kettle, the toaster, the microwave, my hair dryer… all switched off. I guess she thinks we’re a fire risk. And lastly, I went to heat up some chili in the microwave last night, and I suddenly realized that the bread was missing. We usually keep our loaves of homemade bread in the microwave as a soft of poor man’s bread box. I searched every cupboard in the kitchen til I found it, carefully wrapped up in clingfilm, sitting in the fridge. She must keep everything in the fridge at her house.

So overall she’s working out awesome. (She also says that Dr. Amy is a fine cat, and that Nurgul was talking out her ass.) And I can live with the little idiosyncracies. I like to think that she’s giving us subtle life lessons. Sort us out, Annette! We can use all the help we can get.

Trail Note

I headed off to the track again last night despite some misgivings about the warm, humid weather (it was, like, 85 yesterday!) and my level of congestion. I didn’t do too badly though. I remembered my pedometer/timer this time so I can state with confidence that I ran eight kilometers (twenty laps) in 53 minutes. That equates to a speed of about 9km/hr, and a 10K time of 66:15. Not bad! My 5K split was 32 minutes, so I did slow down a bit towards the end. (I don’t think my speed dropped; it’s just that I started taking walk breaks.) I’d say that this was actually a pretty comfortable pace for me. Is that a good thing though? I keep remembering The Biggest Loser a few nights ago when Bob kept telling the contestants that he wanted to push them OUT of their comfort zones. But without the trappings of race day (or a running partner with a faster pace), I find it difficult to push myself to that degree. As it was, I considered continuing on for the 10K, but my legs were dead and my left shin started feeling sore, so I decided not to kill myself racking up the miles. It’ll happen.

DietBlog

I did have a loss! A teensy one. 100g. Which means I basically stayed the same for the second week in a row. I’m actually really positive about that. I mean, I’m so close to goal anyway, and the ultimate objective is not to lose weight for the rest of my life, right? It’s to get to my desired weight and then STOP. So the fact that I’m discovering how to balance my lifestyle can only be a good thing. I would still like to lose another kilo this month (only so I can enter the Slimmer of the Year competition) but I’m trying hard not to get caught up in how long this process takes.

Phil!

Me: Noooo! Phil from The Amazing Race was in Sydney today signing books and I missed it!
Snook: He wrote a book?
Me: Yeah. It looks like some kind of self-help thing.
Snook: Skivvies for Fun and Profit?
Me: BWA HA HA!

Note to Americans: Down here “skivvies” refer to turtlenecks, not underpants. That confused me for a long time.

Wool Arrival!

Breaking Wool News: Because I love my w-g readers more than our normal customers, you guys are the first to know. Our big winter shipment of Noro and Debbie Bliss just arrived! We’re now stocked with Kureyon, Silk Garden, Iro, Kochoran, Blossom, and a new one called “Aurora.” We’ve also got Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky (along with the Baby Cashmerino), Louisa Harding Sari Ribbon, more Eki Riva Superbaby Alpaca, Natal, and Casual, and a few other surprises as well. Crap, I should get to work putting these up on the site…