Tasting Notes

I've blatently stolen the title of this blog from one of my new favorites to read called "Eat, Drink, and Be Married." Whenever I have pretentions of being a foodie, Suzanne reminds me that I'm only a novice (but never in a condesending way). As she is a blogger as well as a food and wine lover in Seattle, maybe we'll meet if I ever get up the nerve to go to a blogger meet-up event.

Anyway, the real purpose for this entry is to rave about some of my wine tasting fav's from the weekend. I had a lovely jaunt down to San Fransisco last weekend, and spent Saturday in Sonoma County. Jeff and I rented bikes and visited about 5 vineyards for tasting (and buying). It's amazing some of the smells and tastes that are in different wines. Of course there are the typical jammy merlots, but we tasted one that smelled/tasted like olives, one like oysters, and one like jalapenos. The olive and jalapeno smells I had to be prompted for ("this smells like a savory snack, but I can't place it") but vineyard staff had never heard oyster as a flavor in that particular wine. It wasn't one that we particularly liked, but felt that we had to buy for a second opinion.

At least I'm familiar with this position...



Take the What Sex Position Are You? test by Ley Ley

... as opposed to "the Cartwheel" (which was the answer of Brigita and how I found the quiz).

I'm so weak.

I didn't keep away from the intenet today. I'm going to be here forever, and not for a lack of real work today. I've done a lot. And there is so much left to do! I really don't like writing appraisals.

I'm not being spendy with words today

I absolutely, positively have to finish my appraisals today, in addition to preparing to present these people to my peers for our "ratings cross-calibration" tomorrow. So, no more internet today until I'm done.

I did, however, have one burning question for anyone who might be reading. What is the origin of the word (not a real word, but the slang term) "spendy." Meaning expensive. I read somewhere that it might be Seattle-specific, but I think it's a pretty common term these days. Any thoughts?

Upate: 10/03

Thanks to Kris for her link and thanks to those of you who responded. I've added the link that prompted my thought and you can check out Brigita's links. The concensus seems to be that it's a Pac NW word (Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon). Much preferable to New England's "wicked awesome."

Purple Haze

I think that I've finally reconciled myself to the new purple M&M's. (I have a lovely little purple, orange, and green design going on right now). The real problem isn't the purple (although if aqua or pink had been chosen, I would have had serious issues). The problem is that there are now 7 colors, not six. Six is a great number, divisible by both 2 and 3, perfect for the consumer who likes to make geometrical designs with her colored snacks. Seven just doesn't work. Now I have to decide whether to throw out a color completely in my patterns, or to try to make do. Since I don't like to descriminate based on color, I end up making more grid-like and pyramidal patterns with 7 colors, rather than my previous circular, flower-like patterns.

Can you tell I'm still "working" on appraisals?

Friday Five

1. What are your favorite ways to relax and unwind? Read, run, spend time outside walking or biking, have a beer or glass of wine

2. What do you do the moment you get home from work/school/errands? First thing is usually to dash into the bathroom (I probably drank a pint of water in the car), then I feed and pet the cat, put everything away, mobile phone and palm in their cradels, hang up purse, etc, then change clothes (if I'm coming from work).

3. What are your favorite aromatherapeutic smells? Lavender and eucalyptus

4. Do you feel more relaxed with a group of friends or hanging out by yourself? As much as I like spending time with friends, I'm more relaxed alone. This is a recent realization, and the reason I don't like going out to lunch durning work. I find that I return from having "done lunch" needing a break. I prefer to eat at my desk and surf the internet, or eat with a book, or go for a walk or run (and then eat at my desk and read/write on the internet). Too much time alone, however, can help a slide into depression.

5. What is something that you feel is relaxing but most people don't? Logic problems. I just took the GRE and used the Kaplan program with CD to prepare. As the intro to the analytical reasoning section, the guy on the CD said something about how no one does logic problems for fun. I heard that and skipped to the next section. I have many books of logic problems. I used to do them on the ship while we were at sea if I had a some free time, but not enough time for a nap. I think they're fun. I did pretty well on that part of the test, by the way. :)

A peppy themesong...

... is all I need to make my life fun and exciting. It worked for Mary Tyler Moore, didn't it?

Oh, no. I just realized that I'm turning into Ally McBeal.

Procrastination, continued

This performance management stuff is dragging on and on... First, the feedback for everyone you've ever worked with (and some you haven't), then the self-appraisal, and finally, the appraisals. I have 5 to write. And these are important ones because they determine people's raises and bonuses. Bright spot is that I just found out that we have yet another reorganization and my team is getting smaller still, so perhaps in a month I'll only have 2 people reporting directly to me, and thus only 2 appraisals to write (if I'm still employed in 6 months.)

So, I procrastinate.

I had a dream last night where someone looked me up and down and said "so, Tricia, I thought you said that you were going to lose weight before the marathon."

Not much interpretation necessary for that one. I've managed to slowly lose about 5 pounds over the summer, through no changes in eating habits, just based on the milage I've been running. I've managed to gain a couple of those pounds back the last couple of weeks, and now that I'm tapering my running (2 1/2 weeks to go!), I'm at serious risk of gaining more. So, I'm stressed out about this, but the more stressed I get and angry at myself about this, the harder it gets to take care of myself, eat well, and turn this tide.

Ah, the vicious cycle...

It's all happening at the zoo...

Brigita's recent post about the goings-on at her local zoo took me back to some of my favorite zoo's and zoo experiences..

One of my first, very fuzzy memories was going to the Bronx Zoo with my great-grandparents while they still lived in NYC.

I went to the National Zoo several times growing up. I loved that they had painted animal footprints leading to the various exhibits (there are now no longer in use so you can just see the faded prints leading nowhere). I also loved the signs everywhere asking you to join "FONZ" or Friends of the National Zoo. When I was a little kid, The Fonz was the epitome of cool.

One summer as a midshipman I was based in San Diego for my summer training. At the time, the San Diego Zoo offered free admission to service members in uniform, so a huge group of us doned uniforms and went to the zoo. All of the ladies changed into "civies" as soon as we were passed the gates, while the guys kept their uniforms on and collected admiring looks for the rest of the day. One of the best zoos ever, and certainly the best in the US.

On my second deployment I visited the Singapore Zoo, which I've heard to be one of the best in the world. I had breakfast with an orangatang (sp?) and volunteered at one of those reptile shows, where I had snakes draped all over me.

I went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle a few years ago, which is a very nice one. I meant to go last year, when we had a baby elephant, but I haven't made it back. I run by it occasionally, which is fun in itself.

I've gone to the National Zoo a few times in the last few years; my sister lives within walking distance of it. Last time we went, we witnessed Panda Love. For those who are curious, the usually quiet pandas make very interesting, loud noises.

Now that song is stuck in my head and I want to go out and rent the Graduate (another great zoo connection).

I went to the animal fair
the birds and the bees were there
the big baboon by the light of the moon
was coming his auburn hair....

Saturday afternoon I ventured out of King County and headed south to the Puyallup Fair. This is the Western Washington State Fair (eastern and western Washington are separated by the Cascade Mountain range and are as different socio-economically and climatically as can be). Being a city girl (well, suburban), seeing cows up close is pretty exciting. I rode the ferris wheel (scary; I have a fear of hights) and old wooden roller coaster (fun), ate plenty of fair food (bbq, curly fries, and kettle corn), and looked at lots of crafts and livestock. I didn't ride any rides that went upside down, didn't eat elephant ears, fried twinkies, or scones (they were selling faster than they could make 'em), and didn't get to milk a cow. The people watching was very entertaining.

While I'm not planning on making this an annual pilgrimage, I'm glad that this year I did "do the Puyallup."

Trail Note

Saturday was my last big run, perhaps my longest (duration, not distance) run ever. I was on the trail for 4:15, but walked at least 15 minutes of that time, so figured that I ran close to 26 miles. It was a picture perfect day, around 60 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, with a crisp breeze coming off of the lake. For the first half of the run I ran along Lake Washington, where I could see the sailboats and seaplanes taking passengers on fun rides. Then I turned inland and made my way to Green Lake to see the World Famous Seattle Animal Shelter Dog Parade (where my hopes of getting a ride home and shortening my run were crushed). On the final stretch, I ran through the Center of the Universe, which was celebrating Oktoberfest (why they hold it in September is beyond me).

All in all, it was a great run. I felt pretty good, excepting my knees, up until the last 3 or so miles. The Galloway Theory about your body being able to do more easily what it's done before seems to be holding true.

Notes: Now that I'm looking at links, I realized that Jeff blogged a very similar note about his run. The similarity in reports was unintentional. I also am now kicking myself for not spending any time at the Oktoberfest. There was a brew fest less than 1/2 mile from my house on a beautiful fall weekend, and my contact was limited to the run-by and hearing the bands echo into my windows. (I didn't realize that it was a brew fest until I read the site; I thought that it was just a standard beer garden.) Next year.

If I'm so good at math, how come I can't put 2 and 2 together?

I've been spending my lunch hour eating a turkey salad sandwitch (a little odd) and figuring out how to re-format my page. I've been suffering from "Error 503: Unable to find template" all week which has prevented my posts from publishing. It's an error I've encountered before that usually fixes itself after a few days. This time, however, I got fed up and saw from a threaded conversation that other bloggers have fixed the problem themselves by switching to a new template and then going back to the original template. Some were frustrated because they had done a lot of work modifying their templates, but since I have no idea what I'm doing, there was nothing for me to lose.

Or so I thought...

I had forgotten that when I first set this page up, I had to make changes to add the commenting feature. I didn't remember this until I switched templates, found my entries published, but w/o the ability to comment.

Back to the drawing board.

While in the process of adding the html to my template to allow for comments and troubleshooting to figure out how to get the right alignment, spacing, font size, etc. (not a problem I remember from the first time around), I realized that I was really enjoying the process. It's really not that difficult, and amazingly like those programming classes I took in high school (turbo Pascal) and college (Fortran). I really enjoyed the programming, debugging, etc.

The lightbulb flashed on. This is another programming language. This is what all of those computer programmers do. This isn't that mysterious. I could do this. Although considering the fact that it has taken me 10 years to figure this out, maybe not.

Now I'm really looking forward to my winter project of learning how to do stuff on the computer.

This is a test

I had to change templates and lost my commenting feature, so I'm testing it out.

Friday Five

1. Would you say that you're good at keeping in touch with people? Not really.

2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why? Annual cards with a newsletter and handwritten note. Phone calls to my family. Occasional emails to old friends. Meeting in person when possible, if friends are local. I'm not a big fan of the phone, unless there are no other options.

3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it? I use Yahoo messenger very rarely, with one old friend. I used to IM him with AOL, but he's gotten rid of it, and I need to any day now. When I was in a long distance relationship we used to IM with yahoo occasionally. I seemed to use it a bunch when I lived in Virginia with several different people, but almost never now.

4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away? Far away. Guess that's what comes with moving around so much and settling down on the Left Coast.

5. Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" person, or do you believe that "distance makes the heart grow fonder"? A little bit of both. I don't forget about people far away; they are certainly in my thoughts frequently, but it's hard to remain an active part of each others' lives when you're far away.

Wonder Twin Powers, Activate!

Form of ... a movie?
Shape of ... horrible flashbacks of my roommates' Halloween costumes from last year.

Any wonder why their sexuality is a subject of debate?

(link courtesy of scrubbles)

Fuhgedaboudit

My mob nickname is "thinks-he's-so-smart." "Knows-she's-so-smart" is more like it. (Yeah, should be "she-should-know-better"...)

Thanks to Brigita and bonnyblog for the link.

If my life was a sitcom, it would be in syndication

A couple people are blogging about the hilarity that would ensue if the cameras were focused on themselves and their lives (grammar?). My sitcom? Two guys and a girl move into a house together. No one can figure out who's with whom (my gay co-workers are sure my male roommates play on their team, while my mother has been fantasizing about a future between one of them and me for years). We start crazy projects that take more time, money, and equipment than expected and have mysterious and unpleasant smells that permeate the house.

I think the fact that the 3 of us spend less time in the house together in one week than the Friends gang spend together in the coffee shop in one episode would keep us out of the running.

If your life was a sitcom, what would your premise be?

And I still think I can run for 26.2 miles?

I just ran across this site, where I've learned that I've been suffering from ITB and frequently eat copious amounts of 7 of the 10 worst foods you can eat!

It's amazing that I can still function.

The Medium is the Message

As I've been desperately looking for distraction in my favorite blogs these past few days (I'm still procrastinating while trying to write my self-appraisal), I've been lamenting the recent scarcity of postings. Having not posted myself since Saturday, I'm quite the hypocrite. Of course, like everyone else, I've been busy, haven't had anything particularly insightful or interesting or new to say, etc, but I think there's something bigger than this at play.

I'm getting self-conscious about my lack of knowledge of html and whatever other stuff I would need to know to make this site a little more interesting, both from a visual and a content perspective. I love other blogs that have little pictures and photos and most recent comments, etc., and would be more interested in this site myself if I had them, too. It's a sad thing that I'm getting a little bored with my own site.

I guess I have a new winter project.

I have RSVP'd yes to the blog meet-up tonight, but might not go for any of the following reasons:
1) Aforementioned self-consciousness about the pure Blogger template
2) Basic shy-ness about walking into a group of strangers
3) Self-appraisal, still unwritten, due tonight

Update: Or I could just blame lack of entries on Blogger and "Error 503: Unable to load template file. We're working on this. Please try back later."

Even without cartoons...

there is nothing like early Saturday morning. It dawns with the entire weekend stretched out before me; endless possibilities of fun and leisure. It calls out for reading in bed, or a run, while it's still cool and empty on the streets, or a latte and croissant, not to go, in a favorite coffee shop. Or, like this morning, all three. Ahh....

Friday Five!

1. What was/is your favorite subject in school? Why? Math, probably differential equations, calculus, or algebra. Why? Because it's all about problem solving and figuring stuff out. Calculus is one of the most practical subjects I've ever taken; I find it useful in day to day life all of the time. I don't understand why people say that it doesn't matter if you don't get math as a kid; it's extremely important. Did I mention that I'm a geek and math is the thing in life that I'm absolutely best at?

2. Who was your favorite teacher? Why? Ms. Depew, 10th grade English. While math was my favorite subject, high school English was my favorite class, and 10th grade is when I had a great teacher (Mr. Bullet in 8th grade was great, too, but we had much better class dynamics in 10th). She challenged us to think about literature and about life. I also participated in public speaking in 10th and 11th grades, and she sponsored that.

3. What is your favorite memory of school? I seem to remember that I had a "perfect day" in 6th grade. I don't remember the details of it now, but I can't remember a time in life when I was that happy. Except for the junior high years, I always liked school.

4. What was your favorite recess game? I don't know; I liked most of them. I did love to do gymnastics during recess: windmills and penny drops on the pull-up bars.

5. What did you hate most about school? People who picked on me: Laura Hickey (that was her real name) in 5th grade; Beavis and Butthead in 7th grade gym (those were not their real names, but when I first saw the cartoon years later I recognized them). Random aside, the aforementioned Mr. Bullet was also featured in Beavis and Butthead as the peacenik teacher. Mr. Bullet wanted to BE John Lennon.

Self Discovery

As I sit here with my peanut M&M's arranged in a color-coded pattern next to me I have realized something very significant about myself.

I like food that comes in bite sized pieces.

My favorite candy is peanut M&M's (mostly for the ritualistic aspect of them), my favorite snack is popcorn, eaten one piece at a time, and despite the fact that the taste is far inferior to the original, I actually like pizza rolls (my very healthy dinner last night). Bagles and sandwiches must be cut into several smaller pieces to be acceptable. I like those party-sized sandwiches, too. H'orderves are great, because they're usually bite-sized (mini-quiches rock!).

It's amazing the clarity that comes to me sometimes...

Procrastination

The first time my sister visited her future college was during the middle of mid-terms. She said she had a lot of fun visiting then because everyone was having "study break parties" to relieve the stress.

Today is "No Meeting Day" in the office so that we can devote it to "finishing up" our feedback for one another and our self-appraisals as part of our end-of-year performance management cycle. I, of course, saved all of my requests for feedback until today, so I'm tasked with writing meaningful feedback for 11 people, not to mention write the self-appraisal which will probably end up being very close to my actual end of year appraisal.

Let the procrastination begin!

It's 3:15 and I've written 6, all of which will probably need to be edited extensively. I have not begun my self-appraisal. I've done a lot of eating, cleaned my desk, blown out my keyboard (now I know where my eyelashes go to die), made several work phone calls, made a haircut appointment, and done more than a little surfing.

I think it's time for another snack.

I'm a quitter.

I quit the cabbage soup thing at 8 pm on Tuesday. I wish I could say that I broke the diet with a very healthy, lo-fat, lo-carb meal, but if I did I'd be lying. I'm back to trying to follow the Weight Watcher program. If I would just write everything down, that would be a great start...

The date is title enough.

I've been wondering whether to post about this date. I've been ambivalent about all of the observances going on today, but now that it's here I think what we all want is to tell our stories to share the experience of last September 11th so that we can move on.

So here's mine.

I'd moved back to Seattle from Virginia in late August, and moved into a house with 2 friends on September 8th. My household goods arrived on the 8th, but the others' were coming the following weekend. Monday, Jeff and Dennis flew out on their respective business trips (San Jose and Boston), and I was to spend the week moving out of my temporary apartment and unpacking. I hadn't set up any TV, radio, etc in the house on Tuesday morning, so I was in the car when I heard about what was going on. My radio had been tuned to a music station, so when I first heard something about planes hitting buildings, I was thinking it was a joke and quickly turned to NPR for news. When I figured out what was going on, and that it was true, I was parking the car (I had been driving a few blocks to Starbucks for breakfast). I first grabbed my cell phone, and sure enough there was a voicemail from my mom telling me that she had heard from my dad, who was okay, and how I could reach her at school. Then began the process of trying to reach her, my sister, and close friends. I think I bought coffee on automatic, and then it sat in my car, untouched for the rest of the day.

My dad is senior military officer who works in Washington D.C. and is frequently in the Pentagon for meetings (he had been there the afternoon before). On the 11th, he was actually in the air, flying from D.C. to New London, Connecticut on a small military plane. When my mom spoke to him, I guess he had only time to say a few short words. Since he made the trip on a military plane, he was able to fly home on the 12th and spoke about how surreal it was to be the only ones in the skies except for the fighter aircraft. My mom was really angry at him when he returned hom because he never called her back after the initial call.

My mom dealt with the situation of having a schoolfull of children, many of whom had family working in the Pentagon. It's no wonder it took so long for me to get through to her.

My sister works in downtown Washington D.C. and spent the next month afraid that she'd walk by the next target on her way to work. Her office is right next to a firestation, so she spoke of how unnerving it was listening to the constant sound of the firetrucks leaving the station that day.

My roommate Dennis turned out to be not in Boston that day, but driving out of Manhattan, wondering what the smoke was that he saw in his rearview mirror.

When I got to work, I couldn't believe how calm everyone was. Of course no work was getting done; everyone was quietly talking, searching the internet for news, and sharing updates as we heard them. While everyone was deeply affected, no one seemed as personally touched as I felt. I guess having been in the military, and having gone to school with many past and future New Yorkers, I knew that there were sure to be people that I knew in the WTC's and the Pentagon, hopefully none of whom were killed that day. Seattle just felt so distant from everything. Especially for most of the folks here whose families are in WA, went to school in WA, and their friends are in Washington. Anyway, the company sent out several mass emails and voicemails encouraging people to take care of themselves and their loved ones, and set up a projection TV in a common area for people to watch. I went with a few co-workers to try to give blood, but everywhere was packed with people. I didn't end up getting an appointment until October.

I had my first appointment with my new doctor that day. I felt ridiculous for going, but also had no real reason not to go. As my cell phone battery was dying, at least I was able to use their phone to finally speak with my sister. It was strange to notice a few weeks ago that my allergy medication prescription expired on September 11th.

Driving home, I caught up on the latest with NPR (and spent the first of many commutes that month driving down the road with tears streaming down my face). The city of Seattle was so quiet and so peaceful. It was a beautiful late summer day and the mountains were out, unobscured by smoke and ash and destruction.

I felt very far away that week. Those 3000 miles to the East Coast, home to my family and most of my friends, has never seemed quite that large before. My big house was a little spooky, strange and big and full of boxes. The only thing I unpacked and set up that week was the TV and a chair.

I was fairly sure that I wouldn't see my roommates that weekend, stranded in distant cities, but Dennis caught a early morning flight from La Guardia Saturday (I don't ask how) and Jeff rented a car to drive back from California. They returned, Jeff's parents arrived with his furniture, and life seemed to start again.

Not the same, of course.

Here are some things that have changed for me:
- I listen to a lot more news
- I'm more pissed off at our government's violence abroad than I am at the terrorists' past violence at home
- I value my civil liberties more than my safety
- I hang an American flag outside my house
- I don't hang flags from my car, window, office cube, etc
- I always arrive at the airport 2 hours early
- I actually thought about going into the Navy reserve

Here are some things that haven't changed:
- I fly as often as I have time and money
- I value my family and friends
- I can criticize our government and leadership and still consider myself a patriot
- I'm proud that I served my country for 5 years
- I give blood when my iron levels allow

Post Friday Five gross-outs and pet peeves....

This doesn't meet my definition of pet peeve, being that it's completely rational and based on rudness of others, but I hate it when dog owners don't pick up their pets' poop. I'm tired of having to look where I step and having bad smells on my runs through pastural(sp?) parks.

As far as gross-outs, after telling Kris about how my cat doesn't have a gag-reflex problem, I was awoken at 2 am last night to the sounds of my cat retching and coughing. Paranoid that she was going to cough up a hairball in my sheets, I was forced to evacuate my bed (I tried to remove the cat, but she didn't get it, and I couldn't shut her out of my bedroom, considering that it's her primary home). Upon returning this morning, I discovered that she wasn't sick, but I'm buying those anti-hairball treats tomorrow.

I also had a crazy dream last night that I was getting married and didn't have time to plan it correctly and everything was rushed and not as I wanted. My dress, the bridesmade dresses, and overall ceremony and reception were nothing like I had planned, and didn't express me and my personality. I didn't even know the guests. This dream was based partly in a conversation with my male roommates who don't understand the need that most women have to plan every detail of future matrimonials, regardless of relationshipe status. The primary root of the subconscious overdrive, however, was my quick car-buying experience. I've felt a lot of pressure with the quick process and need to decide right away the color and details of my future car, which feels like a long-term decision to me. I'm also bothered by the fact that I'm buying a car that half of Seattle already has, so my car won't represent me so much as the general population of my city. I'm planning on spending a lot of time in this car, so it bugs my personal choice so mirrors everyone elses'.

I told my roomie about the dream, and he commented that I must have at least been happy about getting married to the man of my dreams. Funny thing is that the groom never figured into my dream (except for the fact that I figured in the dream that the reason I didn't know the guests because they were friends of the groom). My answer to said roommate was that the groom never mattered, because the whole experience (dream) was about me. The reason that women obsess so much about the wedding day, I think, is because it is The Day that is All About ME. I don't get those days very often, so I can't help but think about the party where I will be the center of it all....

At the end of the day, dream, etc., however, I'm happy with the blue Jetta. It's Duke Blue, by the way. I'll have to dig out the Duke Alumi sticker to individualize somewhat. Not too many Dukies out here. Thankfully???

I love cabbage soup. I love cabbage soup. I love cabbage soup.

If I keep saying it, maybe I'll believe it. At least for 3 days.

After half-heartedly (more like tenth-heartedly) dieting all year, I find myself 5 weeks and at least 10 pounds from my goal weight for my marathon. I'm fairly confident that these 10 pounds could be the difference between a Boston qualifying time of 3:40 and a personal record time (beating my first effort of 3:55). I also just want to look and feel better. To that end, I'm embarking on a 3 day cabbage soup diet. This includes smoothies for breakfast (to keep me interested), cabbage soup for lunch and dinner, and as many other veggies in between as I need to keep my stomach from growling. I'm not even halfway through day 1, and am already craving carbs: popcorn, bread, salt 'n vinegar potato chips... By Wednesday, even melba toast will be looking good.

I've tried this cabbage soup thing about 1/2 dozen times, about half of which I stuck through 'till the end, and it's good for at least a 3 pound quick drop. Roll it into a more sensible, low-carb diet in the following days, and I could be 5 lbs lighter in a week. I'm just asking for criticizm of the short-term fix with no long term implications, but I think this will be the kick-in-the-pants to get me moving on doing the longer term habit changing stuff. The point is to break me away from my usual patterns (croissant for breakfast, chips at lunch, beer after work, etc) and give me some confidence that I can do this. Plus, I'm in a time crunch.

So, for the next 3 days, I love cabbage soup!

Trail Note

Yesterday was an almost 23 mile run. I'm supposed to by up to 24-25 according to the Galloway Plan, but I've been ramping up 2 miles every 2 weeks, so here I am. There was a lot of moaning before and during the run, but it helped to have a running companion along to keep me going. The weather worked in our favor, being cloudy and cool for the entire 3 hr 40 min that we were running, with some sprinkles the last hour or so. The pace averaged about 9.5 min miles, which isn't too bad. I also experimented with GU, which I liked. I'll have to pack some up for the trip to Chicago, which is now LESS THAN 5 WEEKS AWAY!

Fahrvergnuegen

I will soon be the owner of a brand new car!!!!

I just returned from the dealership, and after applying for financing through my bank (which gets me an even better deal at the dealership) and doing some loan calculations, I'm getting a pretty great deal. Throw in my trade in and I'll be paying about the same as I payed for my Saturn in 1994!

I'm getting the diesel engine, which means gas milage of over 40 miles / gallon on the freeway!!! I never thought I'd be buying a diesel.

The only down side is that I'll have a hard time picking my Jetta out of the crowds. Everyone in Seattle has a German car, and most of those are VW Jettas, and most of those are blue...

Kitty on the screen and I wanna touch it...

Jeff's posted some pix of my cat on his site. I had to duplicate the title he used, because I'm the one who can't see Eowyn without the Presidents of the U.S.A. song running through my head.

Friday Five

1. What is your biggest pet peeve? Why? I've been having the hardest time thinking of one. I get annoyed at typical rude, insensitive, or hurtful things that people do (talking in shows, driving too close to the car in front of you, presidents who get us involved in wars where we will alienate the rest of the world, etc), but I think a pet peeve has to have a little of the irrational to it. Like the instructor I had once who couldn't stand people opening coke cans in class. Or my work-buddy who hates it when people say "guestimate." Talking about this at work, I started thinking about my penchant for clean sheets, untouched by "street clothes" and realized that I really hate seeing other people's unmade beds. It just seems too intimate.

2. What irritating habits do you have? Cracking knucles, knees, back, ankles (you get the picture); cracking my gum, frequent pee syndrom (I always have to sit on the aisle in theatres and airplanes), asking lots of questions, my know-it-all-ness, singing loudly along with the radio... I'll just stop here.

3. Have you tried to change the irritating habits or just let them be? I just let them be.

4. What grosses you out more than anything else? Why? Vomit. I'm practically phobic about it.

5. What one thing can you never see yourself doing that other people do? ??? What does this question mean, really? Right now I can't see myself having children, but that could change. I can't seem to stick to a diet, but that's not unusual. I can't get used to wearing lipstick, but neither does about half the population. I don't think of myself doing what everyone else does, but I guess I'm not really as different as I think I am. And I like to think I'll try a lot of different things, even if I don't want to adopt something as a lifestyle.

Trail Note

It's been a long time since I've had one of these... I'm still on track to run the Chicago Marathon in October (less than 6 weeks away!), although I'm doubtful that I'll reach my goal of a Boston-qualifying time of 3:40. Yesterday I ran my first half-marathon race since the Vancouver half in February. I finished at around 1:52 (the official time, although I think I was closer to 1:50; I was just entering the port-o-let as the race officially began). Double that time, and I'm right at 3:40, but I don't feel like I have two of those in me at that pace. I had a fairly consistent pace throughout, right around 8:30, which felt great for the first 5 miles, tiring for the second five (I kept expecting goo or gatoraid on the course for a little glucose rush; didn't happen), and painful/pushing it for the last 3. The last 0.1 felt great, though. Maybe if I really lose those 10 - 15 pounds I've been talking about losing all year (I'm down 5) that would help.

Missing the 3:40 goal in Chicago wouldn't be that bad, although if I missed it by 1 minute or less I'd be pretty frustrated.

Weekend's over. Summer's over. It's raining in Seattle....

Sigh.

It is a cloudy rainy day today, but we should have at least another month of sunshine before the real rains begin. As fall is my favorite season, so I'm not too bummed out. It was quite dark getting ready for work this morning, though, and it was dark walking home from dinner at 8:30 last night, so summer really is over.

Maybe fall means that I can slow down a bit. Last weekend was another good, but busy one. We painted our upstairs hallway, spent 3 days at Bumbershoot, and ran a half-marathon. My new kitty is no longer hiding in the closet, and seems to have a habit of wanting to sleep on your head, face, or neck at night. Very loving, but not too condusive to sleeping.

Only 4 days until next weekend!