It's Wednesday already!

Wow this staycation is zooming right along. I've been sleeping in and knitting for myself. I got a good hour plus in on the Frost Flowers Stole yesterday before I had to have a nap. I also have been putting in a few hours on the new Wii games I got for Christmas. The Sports Resort is so much fun plus Mr. M bought me a Rayman's Raving Rabids game, which is just silliness but fun to play with a group. Maybe we can do that New Year's Eve. I'm just having a few people over for dinner - nothing fancy and at least we don't have to babysit, like we did last year.

Besides knitting on the stole I started another trellis hat so that I can give the other one to my friend who looks much better in oranges than I do. I hadn't realized that the Kureyon I used for that hat did have so much orange but that's the beauty of it. It's always a surprise. The colorway I'm using now has greens and ... well we'll have to see what else. It looks like blues but there always seems to be some sort of brown in there no matter how closely you look at the swatches.

With all this extra, luxurious sleeping I've been doing I've been having some crazy dreams. Much better than nightmares. Those come with stress and I am stress free!

Staycation Day 1

Ah ... I can see that I still need to work on blogging with my iPhone. The picture of my airport cocktail did not come through. I guess I need to send it with messaging rather than email if I want a picture attached.

ANYway ....my sister and I had a wonderful wonderful time together. Time goes too quickly when we're together yapping and shopping and visiting with the boys. Her boyfriend is building a new back lot for Disney and we got to go to the office and see the plans and models. Very cool. But before we knew it Tuesday evening rolled around and we headed for the airport. It had been blowing quite a bit all day but I checked and the flight was listed as on time, so away we went. She got me to the airport in plenty of time, which was good since they were asking for volunteers to take a later flights. Come to find out that later meant the 26th because there were no seats available until then in any airport around the LA area. This was Tuesday night the 22nd, and I was sitting in the airport bar when I got a text from Alaska Airlines saying the plane was delayed until 7:45, having been originally scheduled to go out at 6:50pm. Well to make a very long story a bit shorter, our plane from Seattle couldn't land in Burbank and so it went to LAX and rather than strand us all there we were put on various shuttles and busses and shipped to LAX where a plane was waiting for us. I got home around 12:30 am. Ghastly.

I had been feverishly knitting while with Kelli and got most everything done. Wednesday and Thursday were spent wrapping. We had a family party on Christmas Eve and another party with friends so it was very festive. Thankfully our Christmas dinner was not scheduled until later so I got a somewhat less than hectic Christmas day. Santa was good to me - brought me a new Wii game, the Wii Sports Resort. It is SO much fun. My right arm is sore from playing it. I particularly like the sword games.

The weather has been mild and sunny and so yesterday I got out into the garden and raked up the last of the leaves and I'm glad I did because it is supposed to be raining later this week. I need to get my picture taken for my passport application. I had to do an entire new one for this name change since it had been more than a year. Perhaps tomorrow I'll go out and get a decent picture taken. The last one was hideous!

Also I have just a few more inches to go on Sophia's scarf (not finished for Christmas although the hat was) and then I am going to knit for myself exclusively for a while. I can maybe even put in time on the Frost Flower stole!

And now to browse the yarn sales on line. yeah ....

One last trip to the mall

My sister and I are having a great time! Today we finish up the shopping. The sunshine is much appreciated even though it is not so "seasonal" as Seattle.

I have managed some decent knitting time but it gets cut a bit short since it is always prudent to put the needles aside when the second champagne cork pops. This is experience talking.

Preflight

Aaahhhhhhh



Shelley

Sleep walking

That's what I feel like this morning. The fall that I took on Monday continues to plague me with new aches and pains. Yesterday my back got into the act and I can't lift my right leg without intense pain. This I found out when I was walking downstairs to knitting yesterday at noon. I couldn't rest it however because I had a hair appointment, then dashed home and got the dish ready for the party, changed my clothes while it was baking and off we went. We got home at a decent hour and I got out my heating pad and managed to fall asleep a short while after 10. Unfortunately Tink had some sort of gastrointestinal thing going on. I could hear her tummy gurgling and she needed to go out so she woke me up at 12:45. I took her downstairs and let her out for a while, back up we went and I probably just fell asleep when she woke me again. This time it was 1:45 and she needed to out again. Same routine, back up in bed and once again she woke me up! I know she really needed to go eat grass because I could hear that poor little tummy. That time I got back to bed a little after 3 am. Mr. M's alarm was set to go off at 3:45. He left the house at 5 and so I did manage to sleep a bit between 5 and 6:30, but I am just wiped out! I have so much left to do before I leave. So I'd better get on it!!

I am beyond tired

Exhausted. Worn out. Knackered. All those things. I don't know how long the radio was playing this morning before I woke up enough to hit the snooze button and I kept on hitting it until Mr. M's alarm went off at 7 am!! I won't be able to relax until I get through the security line at the airport on Friday and sit down for my pre-flight cocktail.

I stopped on my way home last night and got some ribbon and paper and boxes and started wrapping gifts when I got home. I wanted to make sure I had a good start on it before I leave or I'll never be able to finish up before Christmas. And while I cooked dinner I also got a start on the dish I need to make for our department party tonight. And then after dinner I worked on the latest hat, this one with a deep reversible cable brim. I am about 15 rows in, but realized last night that something had gone terribly wrong. I either added some stitches or lost some .... whatever I did the cables aren't matching up so I'm going to have to rip it all out and start over! I can do it at noon knitting today. If I can stay awake.

Have I mentioned how excited I am about going to visit my sister? Her boyfriend came home with tons of wine yesterday, because I'm visiting. Kelli was counting -- 14 bottles of champagne in the rack and one in the fridge. She told me not to bring any champagne. I had gotten six bottles of Nicolas Feuillate and was going to bring one down but I guess I'll just save it.

Finally! Some good football news.

Since the Seahawks are a total bust this season, the Huskies have provided the only bright spots in my sports world lately. Jake Locker has decided to return for his senior year. That is HUGE news. As well as the Huskies did this year under the new coach and with Jake healthy, they are going to be quite a team next year. As for the Seahawks --- who knows what's going to happen there. The general manager is gone. Mike Holmgren is being interviewed by the Browns. It sure would be nice if he managed the Seahawks. A perfect fit. I haven't been reading the sports page lately, so I wonder what is up with that. There were rumors going around after the other manager was fired that Mike Holmgren was being considered.

Boy am I ever sore today from my fall yesterday morning. In odd little places, besides my behind. My neck - I guess I must have really clenched up when I fell. My shoulder a little bit too. Again, I am very very grateful that I didn't really hurt myself.

It has really warmed up, although there was snow in the north this morning. I'd be happy if it stayed like this for the rest of the winter. It's perfect biking weather actually. Just misting a bit, and not too cold. Too bad I have to drive in the rest of the week.

Thank goodness for the padded backside

The weather has warmed up. Not by much but it's above freezing, for a welcome change. On Sunday it even snowed a bit in the morning, but it didn't stick. It had gotten down below freezing last night however and therefore it was too slick to ride my bike, so it was public transportation once again (although the LAST time this year). Mr. M cautioned me that the driveway was very very icy and slick so I said I'd be careful and walk across the lawn. There are 3 flagstone steps onto the lawn and then another 4 or 5 down from the edge of the lawn to the roadway. What I didn't take into account is that the flagstones might be slick. I took one step and my feet went out from underneath me and I landed smack on my bottom! It was jarring. Thankfully I seem to have escaped serious injury. My right arm is a bit sore, so I guess I must instinctively put my hand out to keep from landing too hard. It was hard enough though. I went back into the house to collect myself and then got an escort to the street. I made it to the bus stop okay but even though I had started out early, having to collect myself meant that I didn't catch the early bus as I was intending to do. Unfortunately there was something going on because the usual one didn't arrive and the following bus on the schedule was a smaller than usual bus, which meant I had to stand all the way in and half way there the bus quit stopping for additional passengers because we were packed in there like sardines. Like I said - LAST TIME. Unless it freezes again, I am back on the bike when vacation is over.

It was a busy busy weekend. Friday I was just beat when I got home, so we went out for sushi and then watched a silly movie. I slept like a log and slept in on Saturday. Ahhh it was so nice! First on the agenda Saturday was the tree. Unfortunately, Mr. M was in some sort of mood and pronounced the second tree we looked at to be the one. It wasn't until we got it in the stand that it became evident that the tree had some serious issues. Think of a banana - it is very arched. I got it decorated while he was off at his shop and when he got back I had him turn it and push it into the corner so that when you walk into the room it doesn't look bent. But when I am sitting in my comfy chair it is painfully obvious. Ah well .... it's up and done and looks pretty.

Saturday night was a good rehearsal. Doug wants us to be ready to work in early March. We should be able to do that. We've got plenty of material, we just need to get it in shape.

Yesterday was another full day -- shopping, grooming, cards and of course plenty of knitting. Friday night I finished up my sister's cashmere set and worked on the last tassel hat. And yesterday I made a hat for Sophie. Tonight I shall start the matching scarf. Then it's just as many boy beanies as I can get done, I guess.

I woke up early early -- must have been about 4 am -- sorting through all I have to get done this week before I take off. Logistics. It's almost sorted. It's going to be a great week.

I made a Christmas miracle

One of my very oldest friends is not the best at gift buying and he has always come to me for advice about it. His wife knows that and so as long as they've been married she drops "hints" from time to time and I pass them on. Well, she wants for Christmas a certain designer accessory that happens to be one of the hottest accessories this Christmas season. As far as I could find, not a store in the greater Seattle area had one. I contacted the NY headquarters through the web site and they informed me that the item was not sold on line and I had to find a store. I started looking for store locations and that's when I found that we don't have one of them in Washington, so I went to California. I called the LA store yesterday and managed to get the LAST one of these. The woman at the store was so sweet and offered to UPS it up here for $5! Wow. My friend's wife thinks that he's going to have to back order it so she's going to be super surprised on Christmas morning. And I get a bottle of champagne for my trouble. Win win win win.

One more week and I'll be on my way to California! My sister called me last night. She's so excited about me coming down and I am too! I finished up her cashmere cowl last night. I won't be able to wrap her gifts because I'm taking them in my luggage, but I am all done with her now and need to concentrate on a couple of other last minute things. I started the last (I hope) tassel hat last night and then this weekend need to do Sophia's hat and at least start on the scarf. I am going to be SO busy next week, I don't know when I'll have time to knit.

Tomorrow we're going to get our tree and I'll need to get the cards done, if not tonight then tomorrow before rehearsal. On Sunday I've got to set aside some time to wrap the gifts that I already have so that when I get home on the night of the 22nd I don't have to a huge backlog of things to do. It's going to be bad enough getting ready for Christmas. But oh, I wouldn't miss visiting my sister and nephews for anything!!

Still freakishly cold - 18 degrees this morning when I got up. It is supposed to warm up considerably and maybe snow on Sunday. boooooo

Getting into the holiday spirit

Yesterday I took the afternoon off and went shopping. I have been wanting to go to Costco just to look around. In other words, I didn't have anything in mind present-wise, but I wanted to look and I absolutely cannot stand to go on the weekends. It's just too crammed full of humanity for me. Anyway, I had a great time! I founds lots of gifts and even a few things for myself, like a wonderful running/bike top and some slippers and 2 dozen red roses (*very* Christmas-y). Since I'm going to be in California for 4 days I'm going to do my shopping for my nephews down there so I don't have to bring it with me, but I got well over half of the gifts for people up here taken care of yesterday! I need to get organized though. I have to finish Kelli's cowl, which I can do tonight. Then I have one more striped tassel hat to make and a hat and scarf out of chunky yarn. That will fulfill the gift knitting and if I happen to have more time after finishing those things then that'll be bonus. I think I'm in pretty good shape, actually.

Next week is going to be SO busy. I am going to have to be super organized. I think it's going to call for lists and lists and more lists. As long as it doesn't snow, things should run smoothly. It is 15 degrees this morning but still forecasting a warming up tomorrow. Unfortunately it is also forecasting some precipitation on Sunday. Fingers crossed it's not snow!

Woooohooo!

Looks like I get a reprieve! The son isn't going to be arriving until the 18th - when I will be on a plane or even actually touched down in sunny California. Great! He and his dad can have a nice piggy weekend and they'll have Monday and Tuesday to make sure the house is picked up before I get home Tuesday night. Ahhhhhhh .....

Christmas knitting is getting a little frantic. I have to finish the cashmere cowl -- I finished one ball of yarn and have brought it to noon knitting so I can get some opinions on how big it should be. My nephew wants me to knit a scarf and hat for Sophia, and I've got one more tassel hat to do for the little girls. I'm going to use the left overs from Kelli's coat to make Sophie's hat and scarf because it's chunky yarn and it'll go quickly. Plus I can try out the reversible cable technique I read about. I have tons of bits and bobs to make a stripey tassel hat, which should be nice. I am coming to regret the crochet striped scarf I made. It's just too stiff. I should have used a larger hook. I am going to wash and block it and hope it softens up. If not it'll go to a man.

Cold again this morning. I drove in and saw on the sign at University Village that it was 15 degrees. Thank goodness it's dry. Oh but SO dry. It just sucks the moisture out of my skin by the end of the day. And when I run- even worse. Today is a run day. I am looking forward to it. It's nice and sunny even though it's cold.

Talking about jumping into winter

And it's not even officially winter yet!! Another very VERY cold morning. The temperature at my house read 19 degrees this morning so no riding for me. It is forecast to warm up by Friday. Until then I am riding the bus or driving. Today was another bus day since I have no errands to run and I ran yesterday. Yes! I ran! It wasn't very fast or far, but 30 minutes solid. I bundled up and while I did cough a little bit yesterday evening, I feel just fine today so I must be cured. Hoorah!!

I found out Mr. M's son is having his last final Thursday and will descent upon us Friday for yet another 3 weeks. Heaven help me. I pulled out a sweater from the closet in the guest bedroom this morning and found an empty, molding juice bottle on top of my sweaters. Oh ... yes, there is a waste basket in the room. No, this isn't an adolescent I'm talking about but a man about to turn 24 years old this week. I guess I'm going to have to bring out the house rules again and go over them AGAIN when he gets here.

I don't mean to sound like the quintessential evil step-mother but really I have ZERO privacy. Yes, this is a big house, and yes he has his own bathroom. But the guest bedroom is directly across the hall from the master suite and I have to make sure I'm dressed whenever I walk between my dressing room and the master, when I am used to just walking around in whatever stage of undressing I am in. And I like my quiet. And I like to know when I put something down it's going to be there and not ... oh, I don't know ... under the bed in the guest room. Oh well ..... what can I do?

I started a cowl for my sister last night out of the same cashmere I used for her mitts. It is going to be nice. She's in NYC for a couple days. I'll bet she could use it now.

The big chill

Good lord -- the outdoor temperature at my house this morning was 18 degrees! According to the weather folks there is cold air from the north trapped and that's what's causing this deep freeze. Whatever the reason it is just plain too cold for me to ride, no matter that it's nice and sunny and dry. The wind chill going from my house down to the lake is brutal, even with a mask. No thank you. I learned my lesson last year. I do not like arriving at work in tears from pain. Oh ... well I don't like arriving at work in tears from anything ... of course not.

It was a pretty average weekend. Mr. M was busy and out of my hair, so I had plenty of time to work on Christmas gifts, watch silly TV and rehearse. I am amassing quite a pile of as yet unassigned gifts. As of last night I have 4 neck warmer hats, 2 tassel hats, and two scarves. The cashmere mitts, finished on Friday night, are going to be for my sister. I've also decided to make a cowl to match the mitts in a slightly bigger needle size. I'll do the 4x1 ribs around using maybe a size 8 needle and when it's done I'll crochet the picot edging on top and bottom. I guess that means I should also put in a few cable rows so they'll echo more closely the pattern of the Fetching mitts.

I bought some lights for the little Nobel fir in the front garden and put them on yesterday afternoon. Blue. They look nice. Mr. M still has to put up the lights on the eaves but he's pretty busy this week so it'll most likely have to wait until next week. I guess that's when we'll get the tree as well since I'm leaving on the 18th to go down to visit my sister for a few days. I want to have all the decorating done before I leave so I don't come home to some hideous decorating scheme Mr. M might dream up.

Looking forward to a nice run this afternoon. My cough is almost all gone. At rehearsal on Saturday I got a little hoarse after a couple hours, but no real coughing fits. Fingers crossed I am cured!!

Finally

I got back on the bike today! Finally!! It was cold this morning - 31 degrees - but clear and beautiful so I togged up, put a scarf on my face to protect from the wind chill and set out. I've been here for an hour now and still my legs are a bit cold, but otherwise I feel great! No ache in the chest. No coughing. Gosh, maybe I'm well.

I didn't run yesterday because of knitting but Tinkerbell got a nice long walk when I got home. I have to steel myself and get back out there and run. I believe that since I was so sick for the last ... what ... month? ... I was training, that I should feel like I have wings on my feet when I get back out there. I think I'll sign up for the 5K on February 13 - the day before we leave to go on our cruise. Maybe I can beat my time from last year. Believe it or not, that is the last race I ran! The Love 'em or Leave 'em last February. I was going to run in March but a) it was snowing and b) I'd had a cold. Ah well ...

I did finish up the cashmere mitts last night and instead of starting on a beret to match I pulled out some other yarn and started on another hat with tassels. It's great TV knitting and I was watching some recorded stuff and didn't want to mess with an unknown pattern.

It's pretty nice today, but since it's still clear it's cold. There was ice on some of the puddles next to the trail this morning. I sure hope we don't get another winter like last year.

Maybe not across the universe ...

but pretty far away --- I want to send happy birthday wishes and thoughts out there and hope they stick. Tu me manques.

You should have seen the moon yesterday! It is dark when I leave work and because I'm still working up to biking and running -- maybe going to have a run today, actually -- I drove in and so on my way to the parking garage I looked up and actually gasped. You know how sometimes the full moon is just so big and bright. That's how it was last night. It's very clear here these past couple days so it was extremely bright. And in the morning it was still hanging there in the sky. Just gorgeous!

Clear skies of course means that it's colder. Because Mr. M had to leave before 7:30 and won't be home until nearly midnight, that means that Tink will be alone all day until I get home. I just couldn't ride my bike in today and leave her for that extra hour or so. Plus it was frosty! I need to get another pair of glove liners since the ones I used last year got worn through a few of the fingers. I do believe it's going to cloud up here soon though and that will warm it up a bit.

I walked for over an hour yesterday at lunchtime and felt pretty good! Not much coughing at all. And my shortness of breath is all but gone. I mean ... for a while there I couldn't even climb the stairs in my house without stopping at the top, panting. It was pretty scary. I'd guess by the end of the week I'll be 100%. And I can't wait. I am SO tired of being sick.

I got the second cashmere mitt cast on and half way knit last night. Hopefully I'll get them all finished up between noon knitting and this evening. The cashmere is knitting up beautifully. I may do a couple more.

Vacation day

Ah ... I should say "vacation" day since I've been working all morning. I'm taking the rest of the day off though - no working, no more emails to work. I've finished all the carpet cleaning I'm going to do today and the rest of the day is dedicated to knitting and relaxing.

It wasn't a bad holiday, considering the son was staying with us for a few days. Thursday we went out for Thanksgiving dinner, just the two of us. The dinner was fabulous and it was great not to have to cook for a bunch of ungrateful people, like last year. I even ended up with enough left overs to have a sandwich the next day. I did work on the Frost Flowers Stole as well and got lots of it done. However because of the way I have been sitting in the chair and the fact that the lace yarn is on a cone, I have to pull up each time I need more yarn and after a couple days of doing that for a few hours each time, my shoulder is hurting! So I made another hat, just to keep my knitting chops up and get another gift on the pile.

Friday we went to see the new Christmas Carol in 3-D at the Imax theatre. It was astonishing! Just enchanting. The 3-D is so realistic and the movie itself is lovely and very true to the original story.

Mr. M was working all of Saturday and Sunday, getting up each morning between 3:30 and 4 am. He did the children's 1/2 marathon and 5K on Saturday and the regular marathon and 1/2 marathon (the one I was supposed to run) on Sunday, then both days afterwards to set up another huge show in Tacoma. So I had plenty of time alone to feel sorry for myself and other such useless pastimes. I was so blue yesterday I couldn't even knit. Lucky for my state of mine, we had a rehearsal and I went. First time in a month! The boys were very happy to see me and I did okay, considering. I was coughing quite a bit after a couple of songs and was wishing I had brought my inhaler but I kept on and made it for 3 hours.

And now I think I'll cast on for a pair of cashmere fingerless mitts for my sister.

No whinging -- just the facts

Okay - here's how it went down. On Sunday the 18th I did the Cougar Mountain 8 mile run. It was tough but I just figured it was because the trail was hilly and full of roots and slippery. But the following Tuesday I had the flu and was sick for the entire week and therefore skipped the October 25 9.5 mile run. On November 1st I did the 10 mile run from Madison Park to REI and back, also a very difficult run but I felt okay until the 3rd when I woke up with a bad cold, so I skipped the 12.5 mile run on the 8th because I was coughing, etc. I was still in the running, so to speak and so on the 15th of November I did 5 miles even though I hadn't run but one day during the week and I still had the cold. Bad idea my friends because it made my cough MUCH worse so that last Monday, the 16th, I went to see my doctor. I have an infection in my lungs. Nice. He told me not to run and gave me some antibiotics and an inhaler. Actually I wasn't buying it and told him it was a fund raiser. I think he was just being nice telling me that okay, I could run*if* I would agree not to ride my bike to work and only run at the gym until the race. I couldn't get myself to the gym or do anything last week. I got worse before I started feeling better and today I am still coughing and not 100%.

I am profoundly disappointed still, one week later. I have been training since August for this race! And the people who donated ..... again, thank you all. At least it's for a good cause and all that but I feel like I'm letting people down. I know that I just have to let my body heal and I can run again soon. It was just something that I never thought I'd be able to do, and then to get to the point where I could actually run 10 miles without falling over and not be able to do the race ..... it's just so annoying! Probably I'll be glad. Most likely it'll be raining or sleeting and very cold on race day and I'll be glad to be out of it. But for now, not so much. And that's the end of that.

I had an entire weekend with no obligations. The first one in a long time. I did some of my Saturday errands on the way home from work on Friday so that I could spend Saturday morning finishing up Kelli's coat and get it in the mail. Which I did. I took pictures but I forgot to bring my camera. I'll post them tomorrow. Saturday evening was a little party for Mr. M's eldest daughter. Because I've been sick we took the party to her house. I had baked a cake and some cup cakes in the morning and we got pizza. I hadn't eaten all day so I ate pizza with abandon.

And yesterday I tried to keep my mind off running. I bought myself a new toy -- a beautiful new carpet cleaner. Our carpet is beige and I can't keep up with the spots. It's really making me crazy, so now I've got a lovely new machine and this long weekend I can do a room or two a day. (I think I'm cracking. A carpet cleaner - the bright spot of my weekend. *sigh*)

We only have to work 3 days this week and then I'm taking next Monday off so I'll have a 5 day weekend. I worked a bit on the Frost Flowers Stole yesterday afternoon for the first time in a few weeks. Maybe for the long weekend I can get it finished - or near.

Reason number 100,000,001 why I hate the bus

It is very windy and rainy today and so I decided to take the bus rather than ride in and get soaked again, especially since I am still coughing. Because of the complicated lights at the intersection it takes for ever to get across Lake City Way. As I was standing there my bus pulled up to the stop just as the light turned green. I ran across the street but no one on the bus saw me so just as I rounded the end of the bus and started for the door, it pulled away. *sigh* I freaking hate the bus.

I am going to call the doctor today. It's been more than two weeks since I started coughing and it just won't go away. I ran on Sunday (in the rain) and had such a hard time breathing even though I've been really laying low. I could have bronchitis and if I do I would like to get it taken care of before the race so I can have a decent time.

I mostly worked on Kelli's coat this weekend. I was supposed to rehearse but Doug didn't call me until almost 3:30. That is just too late. If I don't hear from him by Friday I assume that we're not rehearsing and I'm onto something else. Oh I will be so happy to get my Sundays back. Not that I'm regretting doing the 1/2 marathon training, it just takes such a bite out of my free time.

But the Huskies and the Seahawks were pathetic this weekend. Thankfully I had been away getting my hair done on Saturday so I had the entire game recorded. When we got to half time I just started fast forwarding and saved myself the horror of watching them get humiliated. Or rather I at least didn't have to watch it in real time. The Seahawks were up 14 to 0 and then got killed. Dang. That means I won't be going to Las Vegas.

Here's a new one

First of all, thank you SO much for the support Mr. ....ish. Very generous of you.

Today is the first really miserable ride of the year. It was blowing and raining and cold for the entire ride. I got to work soaked to the bone. I wish I had thought to bring a second pair of socks and I hope my pants and gloves dry out before it's time to go home because putting on damp clothes and going out in the cold is not fun. But all that pales in comparison to what I found when I took my clothes out of the pannier -- or rather what I didn't find. Stockings. I remember taking them out of the dresser but I must have left them on the floor in my dressing room because they are NOT in the pannier. And now I'm sitting here bare legged in a skirt. I am cold and very uncomfortable. There's a small chance the hospital gift store has stockings so I'll go down after I finish my tea.

I did run yesterday and it was difficult. I still have a bit of a cough and it was hard to breathe. My shoes seem to be working out. The laces are still not quite right -- a bit too tight on the left foot -- but otherwise they feel pretty good. We're only doing 5 miles this Sunday and I'll wear them again. We're going to be running on part of the course. Hopefully not a hilly part of the course.

Okay, I can't stand it any more. I'm going to search out some stockings. Keep your fingers crossed.

WIP-tacular

I have had a bad case of start-itis lately. Tuesday when I got home I just couldn't help myself. I have been wanting to make something with the two gorgeous balls of Tilli Tomas Beaded Lace I got from Little Knits a few months ago and I finally found a pattern on Ravelry that I thought might work. Problem is that I only bought two balls ... well, even on sale it is very expensive. Every pattern I found called for at least 3, until I found Enchanting, a scarf with a tilting blocks pattern. I got the yarn wound and cast on and got a few rows in when there was a knock on the door -- this had to be aboutyarn for my sister's coat, the Long Coat with Chevron Lace, from Fitted Knits. I promised her that I would put all other projects aside when her yarn came and get to work on that coat, so since yesterday was a holiday, that's just what I did. I slept in, went shopping at Trader Joe's and then settled in for a long afternoon of knitting. This is "big ass" knitting (as my friend Peggy calls it) -- large needles and bulky yarn. I haven't worked with big yarn for a long time now. The better I get at knitting the smaller the needles I seem to want to us 6:30 pm. It was the e. But the thing about big needles and yarn - instant gratification. I got the sleeves on holders and all of the shaping done and now I am working on the body of the coat! If I can keep up the pace I should be able to finish this before Thanksgiving.

Also on the WIP list is a modified Simple Knitted Bodice in white angora and the stripped crochet scarf. Instead of lace I'm doing a ribbing with a twisted stitch that looks like a little cable.

I ended up not running on Tuesday but I HAVE to do it today and I can breathe a lot better. This cold is hanging on but my cough is nearly gone and I am pretty sure a run will do me good.

Wow ... it's finally going away!

I did NOT wake myself up coughing last night! What a wonderful things that is. A nice, restful night. And I'm going to run at lunchtime today. I brought my new shoes in with me. I used them on that 10 mile run a couple weekends ago and I wasn't thrilled with them, but since I was breaking them in on a really long run, I thought I'd give them another try before I consider returning them. They are really pretty. I must say though, I am looking forward to this run being done. I can't wear high heels with all this running I'm doing and I miss them!

No knitting last night. I have tomorrow off so I am planning on doing a few hours on the Frost Flowers Stole. And pictures ... I'll take some. I would also like to spend a little time in the garden, weather permitting, and plant some spring bulbs. The weather is sure to turn soon, so I've got to get them in ASAP.

And the cough lingers ....

I came to work Friday still hacking, but feeling a little less under the weather. Still optimistic that I could run on Sunday. The weather was just beastly Friday but the rain stopped around 4 for a while. However, by the time I stopped at the store and got home it was coming down like crazy. I opened the door to let Tink out and just as she stepped onto the deck the sky lit up and a big clap of thunder roared and she turned right around and wanted in. Poor little thing was so freaked out. She couldn't get close enough to me.

I know I said I wasn't going to start another project but I didn't feel like knitting on the angora sweater so I picked up a crochet hook and a few random balls of yarn and started a stripped scarf. I have seen some very cute ones here and thought I'd see if I could replicate it. It's looking kind of mannish so I shall gift it.

Saturday I was STILL coughing and so no rehearsing for me. Besides, Mr. M came home at 8. Thankfully the rain had stopped. I sure wasn't looking forward to driving to the airport in a rain storm. The Huskies lost a heart breaker on Saturday to UCLA. That was mostly my day - watching the game and working on the scarf. And even though we had a couple margaritas with some awesome mescal Mr. M brought back from his trip I still had insomnia. I finally got up at about midnight and sat downstairs and watched TV and worked on the scarf until 3:30!

Sunday I really wanted to run but I was still so congested and coughing so, discretion being the better part of valor, I passed and spent a quiet day. And the Seahawks won, finally. That was nice. And again bedtime came and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. I finally went up around midnight and slept for a few hours until my coughing woke me. But I'm coughing LESS, which is good. I rode my bike in. Hopefully I will be able to run tomorrow. We are getting close -- only 3 weeks until the race.

I give up

Next Tuesday the UW is having a seasonal flu clinic at the medical center. I don't usually get flu shots, but considering what I've already been through and that I do NOT want to get sick again, I am going to be first in line! Thankfully this go 'round seems to be just(!) a simple cold and sore throat, nevertheless I'm working from home again just to make sure it doesn't get any worse.

I had a pretty busy day yesterday, got lots of work done. At lunchtime rather than walk Tinkerbell I had a quick little snooze, which helped me finish out the day strong. I sure wish I could have a little nap at work sometimes! I remember one guy used to keep a futon in his office and have a little lay down every day after lunch.

My training schedule is all off track this week. I haven't been able to run since the 10 miles on Sunday and this coming Sunday we're set for 12.5 miles! I am hoping I'll feel good enough tomorrow to at least do a slow 30 minutes so the Sunday run doesn't kill me.

Still puttering along on the angora sweater. I should really cast on for some socks or fingerless mitts but I am actually waiting for the yarn my sister ordered for her coat. When that comes I'm going to have to concentrate on that so I can have it finished for her birthday. Until then ... no new projects.

How could this happen again?

Well of course that is a rhetorical question, since I have been listening to medical students hacking and coughing and sneezing nonstop. I am practically paranoid about washing my hands, not touching doorhandles, etc. but with the amount of people and germs around work it's tough. So yesterday I started getting a cold. I had been planning on working from home today anyway since Mr. M is still out of town and there are people coming to work here today, so I've got plenty to do. Now if I can just manage to kick this cold to the curb as well as get my work done, I'll be happy.

No running yesterday of course. It was a gorgeous day, too. As it is today. This is such a nice autumn we're having. Let's hope we don't get the kind of winter we had last year again.

Look at my widget!

I sent out a big mailing yesterday to my Facebook friends and others on my email contacts list. I had to get serious about fund raising since we are less than a month away from the race. And last night two people made donations! I am SO grateful to them for getting the ball rolling and for supporting me. I am going to copy the letter I sent out yesterday here onto my blog because I know there are some of you out there reading this who aren't on my email list nor friends on Facebook. I would be very thankful if you could sponsor me in this endeavor. Today I'm just doing a 30 minute training run and it is going to be a cakewalk compared to last Sunday. Plus which it's another gorgeous fall day.

Now another cup of tea and back to work!
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear everybody,

I am writing today to ask for your support. On Sunday, November 29, I am participating in the Gilda's Club 1/2 Marathon Fundraiser, a run to support people touched by cancer. I’ve been running 5K races for a few years but I have never before challenged myself to run a half marathon and let me tell you, it has been a challenge! I have been training with a group since August, running on my own 3 days a week and meeting up on Sundays for a big run. Yesterday I ran 10 miles, so I am confident now that I can finish the half marathon. I won’t be setting any speed records, but I expect to finish it in 3 hours, depending upon how many hills are in the course.

This is my way to honor the memory of my mother and my sister Rebecca (whom some of you may remember) who were both taken from us at an early age from cancer, and to do something positive by supporting Gilda’s Club. One out of every three women and one out of every two men will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. When that happens, it is devastating and confusing. People living with cancer, their family members and friends need a community to which they can turn, an environment where they can both give and get support and understanding. That’s what Gilda’s Club offers. Its mission is to provide a place where everyone touched by cancer can join with others to build social, emotional and educational support. All programs and services at Gilda’s Club are FREE of charge. It is open six days a week and offers support and networking groups, lectures, workshops and social events in a nonresidential home-like setting.

I would be so very grateful if you could donate to support my fundraising efforts for this wonderful organization. I have set up an account on my Facebook homepage where you can click and donate easily and securely. Or you can go directly to Gilda’s Club page (http://www.gildasclubseattle.org/) and scroll down to the link “Support an Athlete”, search for my name and donate from there.

I thank you very very much!

Shelley (Nopp) Golard Midkiff

Racking up the miles

Thursday I did indeed have another great run, an hour and just under 5 miles. Obviously, I'm not setting any speed records but hey, I'm not walking. We had a wonderful dinner Thursday night - cassoulet. It was great.

And Friday I got Mr. M to the airport WAY early. He was just so sure that we were going to run into Friday afternoon traffic that he made me take him extra early. It ended up to be good for me because I was home before 3 and didn't run into any traffic at all! I had knitting goals and I set to right then. My first goal was to move the markers on the Frost Flowers stole, so I set out to finish up rows 29 and 30, which was enough for one sitting. Then I moved on to my white angora sweater ... the modified Simple Knitted Bodice. Instead of the lace portion under the bust I decided to do a little 2x2 ribbing to pull it in a bit, and also to add a twisted stitch - like a 2 stitch cable . So I worked on that until I was tired and that was my Friday.

Saturday I was expecting to be rehearsing in the evening so I got up and out early so I could go shopping for new running shoes. I got them, got to the grocery store and gave Tinkerbell her walk all before 2:30. So I settled in to do some good time on the Frost Flowers Stole. I should put up some WIP pictures. It's starting to look like something. While I was knitting along Doug called and canceled the rehearsal. I had been thinking about making some candles lately so I took the opportunity to do so, since I had a free evening. I filled 3 on Saturday night and Sunday, after my run, I did 4 large ones and 2 smaller ones. Different scents Saturday and Sunday since I'm using my old supplies and don't have more than 1 oz of any one scent except lavender. They look pretty good so far. I've got to let them cure for a couple more days and then I can burn them.

Ah ... and so yesterday was my big training run. And I wanted to break in my new shoes. The weather was just perfect. We met at the Madison Park Starbucks and ran from there down to the REI on Eastlake and back again. Round trip -- 10 miles. Ten HILLY ... very very hilly .... miles. I thought I was going to expire. There is a HUGE difference between running on the flat and running hills. It took me nearly 2 1/2 hours to run 10 miles, mostly because I was walking up the larger hills. When I got home I filled up that tub and just let the jets work their magic. I don't feel too bad today either. I rode my bike in. My knees are a little bit achy, but other than that ... not so bad. The route for the 1/2 marathon is indeed quite hilly so I don't expect to finish it in under 3 hours. And then I'm taking a day off and doing a spa day. I am going to be happy to have my Sundays back too. Even though I did get some candles made yesterday, it really takes a bite out of the weekend, especially if I have to rehearse. [and now I will quit complaining].

Today is my Friday

Yay! I'm taking Friday off this week -- tomorrow -- to make good and sure Mr. M gets to the airport on time. If I could, I'd walk him to the plane and see that he actually gets on it, but no ... we're not allowed to do that any more. So I will get him to the curb and trust that he gets on that plane. And then .... ahhhhhhh .... nine days of Shelley time. And to celebrate, tonight we're going to Maximillians for dinner. That cute little French restaurant in the market. I love that place. Unfortunately it's going to be dark and we won't be able to enjoy the view, but the food is SO good.

Yesterday was my half yearly dental cleaning and check up where I got the fabulous news that I need to have a crown. I know it's better to take care of these things before a) the tooth breaks or b) one is writhing in pain, but I sure hate them. It's the 2 1/2 hours in the chair that gets to me. I don't like being numb. I always think ... what would happen if it stayed that way? Silly, I know.

Today is a 60 minute run at lunchtime and it's raining now, and cold. I don't mind too much, actually. I like running in the rain. I just hope I have another great run like Tuesday.

Yesterday at noon knitting I just ripped out the Pomatomous fingerless mitts. I realized that the reason I don't knit on them any time but on Wednesdays is that it's a fiddle-y pattern and the combination of yarn and needles makes it nearly impossible to do. Fingerless mitts should be easy -- TV knitting. So I'm going to start over and do an easier pattern. I meant to work on the angora sweater last night but I never got around to picking it up. Maybe tonight after we get back from the restaurant, since I don't have to get up early tomorrow.

A super run

I had SUCH a great run yesterday! I wasn't sure that I'd even be able to finish but it was like I had wings on my feet. That's what a nice long recovery does for me. I'm a bit nervous about this weekend run, having missed last week. Even though the run last week was long, it was on a nice flat route. This coming 12.5 miles is, I believe, on part of the marathon course and it quite hilly. I don't like running hills. It makes my Achilles hurt.

I worked for a bit on the angora sweater last night, after going through the new Interweave Knits Weekend Knits magazine. Lots of nice things in there but all of the sweaters are pieced! Why why why??? I have too many projects lined up right now anyway. Plus I promised my sister I would knit her a coat and she's quite keen on that happening right now, so no more new projects until I get a few things finished.

Wednesday -- noon knitting day. I brought the fingerless mitts again. Seems like I only knit on those when I bring them to work. I could knock those out in a good day or two if I concentrated. It's just that it's not TV knitting so I've got to take up a weekend day, when I would much rather knit on the Frost Flowers Stole. So -- again, not enough time, is there?

It's cold today

It is definitely autumn. Cold and dark. It's also a running day so I didn't ride my bike in and I'm thankful for that. I'm a bit nervous about going out running since I've been off for an entire week. I'll just take it easy. I'm sure I'll be fine. This weekend we're scheduled to run 11 miles, and then the following week 12.5 which is basically the half marathon. I mean, if you can run 12.5 miles what's one more? I must get myself some new running shoes this week. I think I'll do that after I take Mr. M to the airport Friday afternoon. I can stop on my way home. Then I'll have them for the long run this weekend. I have found that my foot hurts after about 5 or 6 miles and the trainer showed me how my shoes are most likely causing that by being a bit too rigid and not letting my foot roll in more.

It was a busy day yesterday and I was tired when I got home. I was going to work on my angora sweater but I got a new catalog in the mail. You know how sometimes it's just nice to sit with a cocktail and look at new clothes and shoes. No? You don't do that??? That was my evening. Maybe tonight I'll work on that sweater. I have the perfect skirt for it.

Taking another run at it

Okay so .... here it is Monday and I'm going to give the week another try. Do over. I lost an entire week. I did manage to do a few things but most of the week is a blur. I had to come into the office on Friday to do a couple things I cannot do from home. Truly, I would not have been able to do it on Thursday. I didn't do much on the weekend either. Mr. M worked all day Saturday and I washed the puppy and did some knitting (finally). It's funny - when I'm sick I just can't knit, which is a shame considering all the spare time one has when one is not working. hah ... aaaaanyway .. I got the sleeves on holders and the fronts joined on the white angora sweater I'm making. I am using the Simple Knitted Bodice as a jumping off point. Rather than do the lace under the bust line I'm going to do some ribbing and then make it plain after that, and do some flared sleeves and then a ruffle around the low neckline. I think it'll be cute.

My sister wants a coat and I believe I've found the perfect pattern for it. Chunky yarn so it won't take forever to make. And something that's washable as well. I'm not keen on using yarn with acrylic in it, but I might have to bend my rules a bit here and do it for the sake of washability.

I'm going to be very busy this week. I've got tons of work to do here, plus I've got to start running again tomorrow since I missed a whole week of training, obviously. I couldn't run yesterday after being sick all week. It does explain why my run the previous Sunday was so hard though, doesn't it? I was coming down with that flu. I am hoping that after a week of rest I will be very strong tomorrow. It is nice after a week off that nothing hurts! I had gotten used to that. No wonder I'm so crabby all the time.

Mr. M is heading off to Arizona for ten days on Friday and I've got to get him to the airport so I figured I'd just take a vacation day. Then it'll be just little Tinkerbell and me rattling around in that big house. I'll most likely have rehearsal on Saturday evening -- I hope, anyway. I don't want to have to deal with Trick-or-Treat so if I am home I'll just turn off the lights and hang out upstairs.

Where did the week go?

I'll tell you where ..... nowhere. I've got some bug -- I really don't think it's the swine flu because I don't have any of the upper respiratory systems associated with it. Just a little cough, but major major body aches and a headache that has been with me since Tuesday morning. I haven't been knitting. Just doing a little readiing from time to time in between naps. I truly expected to feel much better than I do today. I have work to do! So I am propped up in bed with my laptop. At least I have a view here.

Probably a mistake

I woke up at 4 am. I ached all over but just figured it was that Sunday run through the trails catching up with me. I tried and tried to get back to sleep but finally gave up and got ready for work. But I realized while I was getting ready that I didn't feel very well, and that perhaps the aches were more than sore muscles. Sure enough, I'm sitting here now at work and feeling terrible. I had a cup of tea hoping it would make me feel better but .... not. I'm going to get a few things together here and head back home.

Fingers crossed this is nothing more than a little 24 hour bug.

Stolen day

Friday was indeed intense, but I managed to solve my programming program and got it up and running for the students again. Alas, Sunday evening I got yet another little problem pointed out but hopefully I can get that handled today.

I managed to get Tinkerbell a walk on Friday afternoon when it was simply raining and not pouring. And Friday evening was quiet with pizza left overs and knitting while Mr. M was out working. I did not get a phone call from Doug, the band leader, leading me to believe that we would not be getting together Saturday. Fine with me.

It rained hard all Friday night and Saturday it was so dark and stormy! I had to run a few errands -- Tink was out of food and I needed groceries as well. It was just nasty and wet out there! I did give Tink a walk when I got back, a little before noon, because she needed a bath. And guess who called around 12:30? Right -- Doug. I didn't pick up the phone. At that point, after noon, I was all set to have a little Shelley time, so I ignored his call, washed Tink and settled in the comfy chair for some knitting on the Frost Flowers Stole. I got over 3 hours in on it while doing laundry. I am making progress, slowly but surely. Doug tried again around 3 o'clock but again I didn't pick up. I did try to call him on Sunday but there was no answer. I've got to try again today. I need to make it clear to him that I cannot be called mere hours before he wants to get together. I have such little free time these days then when there is even the possibility of a few hours to myself I latch onto it.

Thank goodness yesterday the rain had stopped, because we were doing 8 miles in the trails at Cougar Mountain. It was brutal, to say the least. I was figuring it would take me 2 hours to do it but wasn't taking into account the terrain, which was hilly and slippery and full of roots and rocks. It actually took more like 2:20 and I was wiped out. I did manage to run a good bit, but going down the hills really hurt my knees so I ended up walking about the last 2 miles with another woman. At least I didn't get lost like last time we ran trails. I was very uncomfortable though - I was so afraid I was going to twist my ankle or trip, which I did a number of times but didn't fall. It was a long drive out there as well and we didn't meet up until noon so I wasn't home until after 3. Oh ... and to make matters worse I didn't eat enough breakfast so I had less than zero energy. I wasn't really very hungry when I got up so I just had half an orange and half a bagel with a little lox. Not nearly enough. Oh well, live and learn. Next Saturday it's 9.5 miles around Greenlake which at least will be flat. I'm going to get new shoes this week so my foot won't hurt (fingers crossed).

Working in my PJs

Oh I love working from home! And I chose the perfect day, too. It is just nasty outside. Raining and blowing and chilly. I was hoping for a light day but as luck would have it ...... it's shaping up to be a rather intense day. I have been working on a program for one of the teachers. He needed an application for the students to enter questions into a data bank and also upload images for the questions if they needed. I had an application that I had been working on that I re-purposed for him and we finally got it ready to go and up on the web site yesterday afternoon. I hadn't even made it to the parking garage yesterday when I got an email saying it wasn't working properly. I have it set up so that when a student chooses a category for which to write a question, all of the questions that have been previously written for that category are listed so that they can avoid duplication. For some reason that was not working for all of the categories. I unlinked the application and now today I have to figure out why. It could be as simple as a misspelling somewhere or ..... ????

I had a SUPER awesome 45 minute run yesterday. Completely makes up for that terrible one on Tuesday. I sure hope it's not a muddy mess for our 8 miles this Sunday. I was going to get new shoes this weekend but I am thinking I'll wait until after that run, even though once I hit 5 miles my foot has been hurting.

Mr. M had a couple of guys over for a business dinner meeting last night so I just watched a little TV and knit on the TV knitting project, another Simple Knitted Bodice with as-yet-undecided modifications. I went up to bed to read at about 9 and fell asleep before 10. Unfortunately I woke up at 1:30 am and my mind went straight to the programming problem. Not good. One hour later I was still awake and took my iPhone out of the cradle and read email and played word games until I felt sleepy. For some reason I cannot make myself get out of bed when I have insomnia. But you know what? I am going to try that next time. I can go downstairs, turn on the fireplace and maybe read or knit for a while. I'll bet that would put me back to sleep faster than tossing and turning. I'll try it next time.

And now ....... another cup of coffee and on to the program puzzle.

It's that the way it goes?

Two days ago, right after I finally registered to run and paid my money (which is non-refundable, by the way) I changed and went out for my usual Tuesday "easy" run. Feeling a bit cocky after running 5 miles on Sunday without any trouble, I took off. One mile into the run my knees and thighs were hurting so badly I had to stop! My legs felt like they were made of lead. NOT good. I wasn't unusually winded or anything like that, it was just white hot pain. I got back to work, popped a couple of Naproxen and iced my knees and ankles that evening. Now I know that I should not be taking Naproxen any more until after I am done with the hard training. (But that's another story). I am a bit concerned but in retrospect I believe it was the fact that I was wearing super high heels that day that caused the major problem. No more high high heels until I'm done with training. There is too much stress on my knees and no amount of stretching is going to make that go away. I hope. We will find out in a couple hours. I have to go 45 minutes today. At least it's not raining.

Things are calming down a bit here at work. I have a fun programming project to work on. That makes the time zoom by, especially if it's all working well. I have another hard part to iron out and maybe I'll start on that this afternoon.

Yesterday at noon knitting I did a few more rows on the Pomatomous fingerless mitts. The pattern is finally showing up. It's a rather fiddle-y pattern and I'm regretting it somewhat, although the finished product is going to be quite nice so I will just keep plugging away. I would dearly love to spend a few hours on the Frost Flowers Stole this weekend, but as usual my weekend is jammed. If we don't rehearse Friday night then I can maybe do a bit then if I'm not too tired. I probably will be. It is SO complicated that I have to be on top of it every second. My guess is that we'll rehearse on Saturday and what with having to take Mr. M down to the hotel at noon for a gala, then the football game starting at 12:30 .... that's not going to leave me any quality knitting time. Just TV knitting when one is watching football. Which leaves Sunday. Ah Sunday -- which is pretty much eaten up with my run. We are going to meet up at Cougar Mountain at noon for an 8 mile run on the trails. My best guess is that it's going to take the major portion of 2 hours for me to run 8 miles. I'll be luck to be home by 3. Well maybe then after I get cleaned up I can take a couple hours. I certainly won't want to do anything strenuous.

No backing out now!

It's official. I just registered to run the Seattle Half Marathon on November 29. I've been doing fine with my training runs so I am feeling confident that I can do this. This Sunday our training run is 8 miles, and I've already done 6 1/2 and last Sunday was 5 and that was no sweat. Well .... I mean it wasn't easy mind you, but I wasn't gasping and crying at the end of it.

So now this means that I am seriously starting my fund raising campaign because I am running this not only as a personal goal but to help support Gilda's Club. This is a wonderful organization run entirely by volunteers and contributions, started by the brother of Gilda Radner (who died of ovarian cancer). You can read more about Gilda's Club by clicking that link. You can also contribute to support my fund raising effort by clicking on the "Support an Athlete" on that page, or you can conveniently click from this blog -- look to the right.

Thank you thank you thank you!
And now I'm going to change and do my little run.

It flew by

As I predicted, it was a SUPER busy weekend. It started out Friday with a rehearsal. I was just exhausted but it was better to get it out of the way. Then by the time I got home at around 10:30 I was wired so I ended up having some wine and watching TV until Mr. M got home, around midnight.

Saturday it was gorgeous outside - as it was all weekend, actually. I had so many errands to run and chores to do. I got Tink washed, did a little shopping, hair, nails and grocery shopping. I didn't get home until after 5. Thankfully the Husky football game didn't start until 7 or so. I set it to record and we went out to dinner. I saw the photo exhibit of my old high school Anthropology teacher. Lovely photos. We had a great Italian meal and then went home and watched the football game. Huskies won. It was a very exciting game.

And Sunday was another huge day. We had our 11 am training run. This time 5 miles. Next Sunday it will be 8+ ... Anyway, after I got home from the run I just had to get out into the garden and clean out the vegetable beds. The weather is supposed to turn in a couple days and that was really my only opportunity. By the time I finished with that and had a shower it was after 2 pm and I hadn't had anything to eat since a very small breakfast at 9:30. I shouldn't have waited so long because I was feeling terrible! I thought I was coming down with something - headache, nausea - but in retrospect I think it was just that I had gotten too dehydrated and tired. I felt fine by around 6. Especially since the Seahawks were beating the tar out of the Jags. Another great football game!

And now it's Monday and the start of another huge week. Thankfully I haven't gotten sick like I usually do at some time during the Anatomy course. Today is the final, tomorrow starts Histology. Hopefully things will start to slow down later this week.

I started another project yesterday evening. I needed a TV knitting project and I also need a white sweater for a particular blue skirt I have. With some white Angora Soft that I've had in my stash for a couple years I started another Simple Knitted Bodice. The one I had made in black I accidentally put into the dryer(!!) so it's way too short now plus it never really fit me that well. I will not do the lace on this one and perhaps put a ruffle around that deep neckline.

Oh what fun!!

Yesterday after work I had to stop at Macy's to pick up some Clinique stuff. I had had the foresight to pop a couple discount cards into my bag just in case I felt like shopping. Guess what? I DID feel like shopping! I have been needing some new work clothes for so long and now that the weather is changing and I can't wear my summer clothes it is really very apparent that my wardrobe needs new blood. So I just started findings things I liked and went to work in the dressing room. As luck would have it, most of the clothes were just right! I bought a brown skirt with flirty pleats, three tops, a most awesome dress and, my favorite, a long-ish brown coat-type thing and matching leggings. I wear a black tunic (also new) with silver metal beads and short, high heeled boots with it. When I got home with my booty I gave a little fashion show and then went to town on my closet, throwing out the old worn and unwearable stuff and moving the summer things to the guest closet. I'll have to go through that as well, but not now. At least my work closet is sorted and color coordinated and everything is clean and wearable. Now I'm going to have to do the same for my dressers and my shoes. Baby steps.

That didn't leave any time for knitting but no matter. I am just happy to have that done! Tonight Mr. M is working and I am rehearsing so that my weekend is free! Tomorrow I've got a hair appointment at 1 but before that I hope to get in the garden and clean out my vegetable beds, at least. I'd also like to plant some bulbs but that might have to wait to next week. I also need to bathe Tinkerbell and get a mani-pedi. Out to dinner and maybe a movie on Saturday night and Sunday will be running and groceries and chores. Somewhere in there I'm also going to have to fit in two football games and some knitting. I am kind of wishing I hadn't started those arm warmers because now I have no TV knitting. Both projects I have on the needles are not conducive to TV or moving watching. Oh well ... guess I'll just have to cast on something else.

I'm getting faster!

I had a great run yesterday. After running 6.5 miles on Sunday, running for a mere 30 minutes didn't seem much of a chore, so I started out at a pretty good pace. And I managed to keep it up for most of the run. I ended up going at least 1/4 mile further in 30 minutes than I usually do. And my foot was fine. I am going to need to get some new shoes here pretty soon. Those longer runs - over 5 miles - are harder on my feet, obviously.

It was Tinkerbell's annual exam time yesterday so I didn't get finished with chores until 6:30. I was pretty tired so we didn't do much. I ate some YUMMY ribs made by my friend's husband who indeed makes the best ribs I've ever had, bar none. I'm afraid to ask for the recipe because I might just go on an all rib diet if I knew how to do it. Got caught up on a couple TV shows I had recorded and headed up to bed early. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow, which is what I love. It was actually a decent night's sleep. Tink woke me up snoring, but it was nearly time for the alarm to go off anyway.

I haven't done any knitting the past couple nights, but I brought my newest project in today for Wednesday noon knitting. I cast on a pair of Fingerless Pomatomus Gloves on Saturday. I had found a couple balls of lavender sock yarn at Weaving Works in the clearance bin. I had one ball in green that I used for a pair of socks and loved the yarn -- it's kind of stretchy. I can't remember the name of it though and I threw away the ball bands. Anyway I am just about ready to start the pattern part and thought they'd be a good project to bring to work - small and portable, like socks. [It is just killing me that I can't remember the name of that yarn!!!]

A well deserved rest

I had such a nice weekend. Saturday was wonderful, even though I did have to resort to telling a lie to get an entire day to myself. Doug, the bandleader, called Friday evening but I didn't pick up the phone. Saturday morning I had to run out to get some gas in the car before I took Mr. M downtown and while I was out I called him and told him I was sick with a sore throat and couldn't rehearse that evening. I know .... I should have just told him I wanted the night off but I did it anyway.

Got Mr. M down to the hotel in plenty of time to get myself out to the spa. In fact I was early, which was a good thing because there was a convention going on at the convention center which, coincidentally, shares a parking lot with not only the spa but a Chuck-E-Cheese, a fabric store and a bunch of other businesses. There were no spots. The spa had a sign saying parking arranged at the front desk so on my 3rd cruise around I drove up there and as luck would have it someone was leaving, so I followed her and took her spot.

Ahhhhh ... then I had a luxurious hour long soak in the hot tubs and visited the steam room as well. Next, the body scrub and finally a body moisturizing which was too decadent! Slathered all over, head to toe, with warm olive oil and other natural oils, and a facial that is ended by covering the face with a cucumber mixture that smelled very much like that sweet cucumber side dish one gets at Japanese restaurants. I walked out of there feeling like a million bucks and then .... my car wouldn't start. I was in such a rush I had left my lights on and drained the battery. Normally this would never happen but a couple days ago my dashboard lights went out and the fuse that runs them also runs the beeper for the lights. AAA was there in just a few minutes though, so it was no big deal.

I had the Husky football game taping and was looking forward to watching that. I settled in and finished up a bunch of knitting projects - socks and a neck warmer/hat - and watched the Huskies play valiantly against Notre Dame. They lost in overtime. Oh dear ... it was so sad. And right in the middle of the game my phone rings - my friend's husband who was watching the game live. I stopped him from telling me what was up but I knew then it wasn't good. I still watched it all but fast forwarded a lot. The Seahawks didn't do much better on Sunday - in fact they got beat up by the Colts.

Sunday was a 6.5 mile run - twice around the outside track at Greenlake. I did it all. My foot was pretty darned sore when I was done though and my Achilles is sore today. I iced both last night and I'll do it again this evening. It took me 1 hour and 22 minutes to run 6.5 miles. A half marathon is 13 and some tenths ... can't remember ... so basically I ran half of what I will be running on November 29. I could definitely have gone further if my foot hadn't started hurting so badly. I need to get another pair of shoes.

I thought I'd be sore today

After running for an hour, I was sure I'd be a bit sore today and I'm not! My Achilles is a little sore, but that's how it usually is anyway. I'm really happy about that.

I was awfully tired yesterday evening though, so I didn't do much of anything. Mr. M was up at his brother's open house for the business. I wanted to go -- it was a big party -- but it was all the way up near Mukilteo and would have taken at least an hour to get there during rush hour. Since it was slated to end at 7:30 it just wasn't worth it for me to go. Plus which, alone time has been all too rare lately. So Tink and I had a nice quiet evening and I turned in super early. I didn't even knit! [I know!!] But I have big plans for knitting this weekend. I am going to finish that last neck warmer/hat thing and also cast off the socks I have on the needles and then I'll wind the Noro sock yarn and start on a pair of fingerless mitts. On Sunday I'm going to spend a couple hours on the Frost Flowers Stole after my run.

I am SO looking forward to my perfect Saturday. I'm going to sleep in, take Mr. M to the Sheraton downtown, then I'm off to the spa for 3 hours of bliss. After that maybe I'll stop by Tuesday Morning, then home to watch the Husky/Notre Dame football game, which I will tape since it's supposed to start at 12:30. I have to think up some reason for not going to rehearsal -- that's the tough part. I'll think of something .....

A new record

I can't believe it did it, but this afternoon I ran for one hour. It's the first time I've done that. Unfortunately I didn't have my Garmin with me, but I know from running last Sunday that it was more than 4 miles. Probably very close to 5. The first 30 minutes were tough but actually the second 30 wasn't bad. I'm looking forward to Sunday when we're running 6.5 miles around Greenlake.

I got a nice little windfall yesterday. I overpaid somehow for that little surgery I had on my leg a few months ago. I got a check in the mail and today I made an appointment for some serious pampering on Saturday. I have to take Mr. M downtown in the morning for a gig, then I'm heading to the spa. Ahhhhhhhh AND I'm going to cancel rehearsal for Saturday. I feel like I haven't had a minute to relax or a minute to myself for weeks and weeks. Nobody but Tinkerbell and me all day long and all evening long. I am going to get pampered, do a little shopping, then walk the dog and knit and knit and knit ... oh, and watch football. I cannot wait.

MMS comes to iPhone

I updated my iPhone software. Let's see if this works. And video as
well! Say hi to Tinkerbell.

Shelley

Ah ... uh ...

ermmmm ..... [insert warm glowing smile here]

Yesterday it poured rain and the temperatures have dropped significantly. Lucky for me it hadn't really started when I went out for my run yesterday which, by the way, was not good at all. I just can't figure out why some days are better than others. I know it should be a relatively easy thing to figure out -- what I had to eat the night before, or drink, or what I had to eat for breakfast, all of those things. But truly, there doesn't seem to be much of a correlation that I can count on. Monday night we had dinner with friends, I drank very moderately -- 2 glasses of wine -- and got to bed not too late. I did have a restless night but much better than the night before. And I just couldn't get it going. I mean, I did the entire 30 minutes and my pace was off a bit and I was only off about 2/10 short of my normal distance. But it was just like running through mud or something. SO hard! Sunday, after the first mile, I felt as if I had wings on my feet. I never got to that point yesterday. Still eight weeks to go. Maybe I'll have a big break through this weekend.

It was a very busy day yesterday and by the time I got home, after stopping at Trader Joe's (which is the best place to buy cheap French wine, I have found. They have a cremant de bourgogne that is really good. Even my sister's wine snob of a boyfriend who lived in Paris while they were shooting that film ... oh what's it called .. ah! Ronin .... even he loves it). Anyway, it was pouring down rain, and by the time I got the groceries put away I was so exhausted I felt like crying. You know that feeling? When it feels like you have no reserves left and walking upstairs to change my clothes seemed like a huge effort. So I didn't do anything but watch TV and knit a bit. Of course, I woke up at 4 am .. again. No voices this time though. That's okay - that was a bit weird. Nice, but weird. Maybe I should start trying lucid dreaming again.

Did you hear that??

SO strange .... Monday morning, very early as in about 4 or 4:30 am, I woke up. What woke me is that I heard someone say "Hullo". I recognized the voice. It was some sort of aural hallucination because, obviously, no one was in my bedroom saying "Hullo" to me. But that did it for the sleeping for a few hours. I drifted off a couple times around 6 or so but needless to say, I was a zombie yesterday. And yesterday evening we had a dinner party to go to, so I I couldn't wait to get into bed. I read for about half an hour and I was off to dreamland. I am feeling pretty good today, thank goodness, because it's a real bitch of a week.

Last Friday was a good run, considering I had ridden my bike in. I had a busy weekend too. I did a few errands in the morning and then rehearsal in the evening. I was able to knit on the Frost Flowers Stole for about an hour or an hour and a half before I had to head over to Doug's for rehearsal. Now that we have a bass player Doug is very keen on getting some set lists together and starting to rehearse sets so we can gig. While at rehearsal I used another cool iPhone app to find out what was happening with the Husky/Stanford game. Huskies lost, but they fought well.

Mr. M's son was busy getting ready to head back to school on Sunday morning when I returned home Saturday night. I was, unfortunately, in very bad humor because he had left the door to the house unlocked when he left while we were out running errands earlier that day. I was VERY angry and let it out on him when I got back from rehearsal. He swore he locked it, but he is a notorious liar and I didn't believe him. It is very difficult to give a pathological liar the benefit of the doubt, like his father does. I am, quite frankly, thrilled that he is back at school and dreading his return at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And, as you might imagine, his father and I had some sharp words about it on Sunday. I don't think it's too much to ask that someone maintain some normal level of hygiene, for example. Mr. M thinks my standards are too high. (!!) Good heavens. Well, I'm not going to go down that road - it just gets me steamed up again.

Sunday morning I went out for my weekly training run with the other Gilda's Gang runners. [Speaking of that .... now would be a fine time to donate. Click on the box above and support me and my fund raising efforts for Gilda's Club.] The weather was perfect for running - not too hot, sunny, a little breeze. We did 4.25 miles. I must say, I was feeling pretty darned good. Not sore at all! This coming weekend it's 6.5 miles. My nephew has completely dropped out because he seriously hurt his knee. I am little bummed about that, but I'm not going to quit.

After my run I was worn out, as usual. I still had all the laundry to do, cleaning up of the boy's mess, grocery shopping, dog washing .... etc. etc. I did manage to get another few rows done on the stole after the Seahawks stunk up the place and lost. I need some serious time off but I've been looking at my work schedule and I don't know when I'll be able to do it until November. I will get somewhat of a rest when Mr. M goes away for 9 days, the first week of November. If my sister can come up I may take a long weekend with her. I have plenty of vacation, just no time to use it!

I love it when I'm right

I had a fabulous run yesterday! Laying off on Tuesday was just the right thing to do. I wasn't sore yesterday, I had a lot of stamina and I ended my run strong. Today's going to be tough though - it's a biking and running day. And then on Sunday it's five miles. But this time I won't be getting lost, since we'll be on the trail.

I sent my unfinished hat off yesterday to a woman in New York. She will finish it up and send it on to Tahoe Terror (whoever she is). I learned something with this competition - I do not like to knit when I am obliged. It just sucks all the fun out of it. I was happy to knit on my fourth (!) neck warmer hat last night. I must stop knitting those. I have lovely cashmere to make my sister a hat, I have some Noro sock yarn that I want to use to make some fingerless mitts, not to mention the Frost Flowers Stole that I haven't been able to touch for weeks. Maybe this Saturday? Oh I hope so. With my training on Sundays my weekends have gotten very short. Saturday I have to do all my errands, and I really should work some in the garden. If I have to rehearse as well it's almost like a work day.

Pushing 90

No, not me. The temperature. Today is the first day of autumn and the weather forecast is sunny and 87 degrees. It is a schedule running day but .... guess who forgot her shoes today? I had five packages to mail, and packed my running clothes but since I am not yet in the habit of bringing my shoes home for the weekend, left them! My calf muscles are even more sore today than they were yesterday, plus my knee is a bit twinge-y so maybe it's not so bad after all. I'll take a nice long walk and call it good.

I wanted to work on my Hat Wars hat yesterday evening but we had to go to the in-laws for dinner and it was not a conducive atmosphere for doing knitting that required any type of concentration. So rather than do a bunch of work I'd have to take out, I just played Scrabble on my iPhone. When we got home I poured myself a much needed cocktail and started working on getting all that yarn I had sold on eBay wound up and packaged up. Then I got on the Ravelry Hat Wars forum to see what was up and found a message from a woman wanting to know if I was Tink the Avenger. Good sleuthing!! I found her blog where she details the lineage of a kill and who gets the WIP. It is very confusing. But then she says that so-and-so had killed me. Well no ... I got no hat in the mail yesterday. I sent her a message and she explained that someone had finished and mailed off my hat and my death is imminent. Kind of lets me off the hook to finish this hat since I'm out of the competition and I'm not in love with knitting it. If I don't get killed today I'll work some more on it tonight so whoever gets it won't have that much more to do.

What else ..... work takes up so much of my energy this time of year. Add to that the training on Sundays which effectively wipes out the day since I'm so wiped out by the time I get home. That leaves me Saturday to do my errands, grooming, yard work and relaxing. Oh .. and there's rehearsing in there too. I can't seem to get enough sleep.

Lost in Discovery Park

Yesterday was our third training run. We all met at Discovery Park took off on the trails for a 5 mile run. Our group is essentially 3 groups -- the fast runners, the slow runners, and the walkers. I am in the slow runners group. The fast runners took off with the trainer who told the rest of us that he'd leave markers for us to follow. He said he'd make the mark of an arrow in the dirt or leave ferns or branches pointing the way. This is a VERY hilly park, by the way, and most of the trail is in the woods. Long story short, I was following a woman and there was another runner behind me. We missed a crucial turn and when we arrived at the top of the bluff we realized we were lost. So we turned back and started running to the spot where we understood there were steps leading down to the beach. And we ran into the walkers who had also made the same wrong turn. We ran to the stairs and started going down and who did we meet but the trainer and the others runners. The trainer berated us for not seeing his signs and told us that had never happened before. As if we're all dumber than anything for not seeing his grass arrows. We ended up just doing the run in reverse, running along the beach trail and up the steep stairs they had come down. It messed up the mileage and I ended up doing less than 5 miles, but more than four, so that's good. Plus the elevation .... holy cow. My calf muscles are SO sore today. It was so hard. I am hoping for a breakthrough soon. And by the way, look to the right at the top and you'll see a little widget for supporting my run by donating to Gilda's Club. It only takes a second.

The Hat Wars started on Friday, unbeknownst to me. I had to get on the Ravelry group to find the pattern. And of course I chose the hardest one. I worked on it Friday night, and Saturday realized that I had misread the pattern and had to take out the whole cuff, 3 inches, and four rows of the cable pattern that I was doing wrong. I got it started again and after knitting on it yesterday I'm 4 rows into the second 16 row repeat. I am kicking myself for choosing that pattern. Not that it's not pretty, but it needs a cable needle for nearly every row! I hope my target likes it.

The Huskies played their hears out on Saturday and it was a HUGE upset! It was bedlam in the stadium. I was watching it on TV, needless to say, and it was nuts! And today their Huskies are ranked #24 - Ranked for the first time in 6 years. Pretty special.

I love love love my new iPhone

I do! I've been working on transferring all my iTunes songs and videos from my laptop to my external hard drive and it's been a time consuming chore, I can tell you that! My goal is to get all of my person stuff off my broken lap top and onto the external hard drive so I can bring my work laptop home and use that for work. I've been using my personal computer for work forever and now that it's broken, I'm going to use my work computer for work. Yeah. I don't sit around at home and play on my computer or do personal stuff on it, except manage my iTunes, so it won't be hard to keep it just for work. They're very fussy about that kind of stuff, being a state institution.

Anyway, last night I synced up my iPhone and got all my music (except the holiday songs) on there and I've still got more than 17 gigs available! Right now I've got 1,631 songs, 2 music videos, 12 episodes (6 hours) of "Extras", 5 audio books (short ones though - the Ricky Gervais "Guide to .." series), 164 photos and 27 applications. I need to get more apps.

My new favorite app is called Checkbook. When we were coming home from Fort Flagler and getting on the ferry Mr. M remarked that the ferry system won't be accepting checks as of sometime soon. And I said that nobody uses check anymore. And I got to thinking - the only checks I write are twice a month to the housekeeper. If I paid her cash I wouldn't need my checkbook. I use the register to reconcile my debit card use with my account and I pay all my bills electronically and keep track of them on the register. There must be an app for that, I thought and sure enough, there is! It's great too. Way better than the check book register. I just have to be super conscientious about entering every transaction. Pretty soon it will be automatic.

I am working on the fourth neck warmer hat and when that's done I'm putting them aside for a while. First of all because Hat Wars is due to start Saturday (I think). Plus which I've got to work on the Frost Flowers Shawl when I'm not knitting for Hat Wars. I am SO looking forward to Saturday. Mr. M is going to be gone working, the son is going to be gone visiting and I've got the whole house to myself! I am going to sleep in - I am still not caught up from the weekend - and get my nails done and be home by 12:30 to watch the Huskies play USC, and knit and knit and knit and knit. Sunday I'm running 5 miles in Discovery Park so Saturday I'm not doing a thing!

From the coffee room

It was a lovely lovely lazy evening. Having written out an eight point "House Rules" for the stepson, (who, despite numerous assurances that he had his school vacation housing settled has ended up at our house for the whole month!!) I had a quiet home in which to rest. Work was again crazy and I was still a little sleep deprived from the weekend. I knew I had to get that kid under control and his dad was not about to do it, but was oh so willing to let me write out the rules and go through them with the man/boy, making me out to be the bad guy. I am totally fine with that. Perpetuating the stereotype - Wicked, Evil Stepmother. They aren't tough rules, just common sense and housekeeping.He chose the first and walked from our house to Gas Works Park and back, which I estimate to be around 10 miles each way. If he keeps that up he might even lose a little weight, besides going back to school with clean clothes that are really clean. Okay -- enough of that.

So besides some sparking wine and Mario Kart, I had silly TV and knitting. Mr. M wanted scifi, so he took himself up to his "man cave" and watched some odd movie. I hopped in bed at a decent time, read a chapter or two and was out. It was a good sleep. Our irrigation system starts at 3 am and usually I wake up when one of the back portions start, but I didn't last night. I feel rested today. I hope I can get a good run in. My ankle is bothering me a bit, which I suspect might have something to do with all the hills on Saturday. I'll take it easy.

The weekend from hell

First off - if you like camping then you probably shouldn't read this post. I HATE camping and this past weekend just made me remember why and how much.

The weekend actually started off nicely. I had a busy week at work, got everything done I wanted to get done and caught a cab down to the ferry dock. There happened to be a boat waiting so I hopped on. It was a gorgeous day. Mr. M wasn't expecting to pick me up until around 6, so I walked into the town and found a lovely little bar and settled in with a martini and sports on the TV. He picked me up and we drove off towards the campground, stopping at a wonderful restaurant for dinner on the way. GREAT dinner. I love that restaurant. And while we were eating people at the campsite, his son I guess, set up our tent. Pretty much everything was fine when we got there. People drinking and chatting around the fires. We found our tent and put our stuff in there and Mr. M began starting to get the air mattress pumped up. But the pump was missing a crucial part so he had to go in search of another one. He got it pumped up, I got ready for bed, having found the facilities to be just as disgusting as I had imagined they would be. Unfortunately, the new air mattress had leaks. Lots of them. It was like trying to sleep on a water bed, but one that was not filled up. And then there were the drunk people, hollering and talking and making noise. And the not drunk people shouting at them. Oh, and the guy in the tent next to me -- so close next to me that when he started snoring I just about lost it. As my ass was sinking slowly and inexorably to the hard and rocky ground, I sandwiched my head between two towels and cried myself to sleep.

Saturday morning I woke up on the hard, very hard, ground. I was NOT a happy camper in any sense of the word. I had to run 4 miles on Saturday because I wasn't going to make the training session Sunday, obviously, and we were going to the Seahawks game so I just wouldn't have time. I figured I'd get up, get my running clothes on, have a little breakfast and then go. But breakfast was not happening in a timely fashion so I swallowed a cup of coffee that was about 25% grounds, and had some juice and took off for my run. Oh it was a hilly run. But I made the entire four miles in less than an hour. Unfortunately my new iPhone arm band was chaffing me something fierce. It still hurts like crazy. I'm going to have to find some way to pad it.

I was feeling not entirely bad when I got back, had a nice little breakfast and then headed to the shower. Oh my good heavens .... I'll try to be as delicate as I can ... there I was lathering up with some super wonderful smelling soap and someone else was in there stinking the place up. It pretty much doesn't get much worse than that. Ick ick ick ick

Still ... it was a lovely day. And Tink was having the time of her life - all the smells and the kids and the other dogs to play with. We took her for a little walk down to the water, I was hungry again so I had a little lunch and then thought I'd have a nap since I hadn't been able to sleep the night before and Mr. M had patched the air mattress. Unfortunately, he missed a hole and the tent was as hot as an oven. There was no sleeping, although I tried for about an hour until I was too hot to even pretend to nap. That evening was planned a big shrimp boil and since the teenagers had gone through all of our beer(!) I took the opportunity to escape that particular hell and drove 10 miles into town to get more beer and pop. As luck would have it the Husky football game was on and they were beating the tar out of the Idaho Vandals. It was SWEEEET! Finally, a win!

By the time I got back the preparations for dinner were going strong so I packed up some knitting and made myself comfy and did a little knitting and tried to get my blood pressure down. The dinner was nice. We got to bed at a decent hour and the mattress held up. I was anxious to get up, even though we had to get up at 7:30. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I hated every second of it and will now have a full year to figure out how I can get out it when it rolls around again.

The Seahawks took almost a full quarter to get their motors going, but beat the Rams 28 to nothing. Sacked the QB 3 times. It was a good game. And I slept like a rock in my own soft bed.

And now to work!!

Technology has got it in for me

It was a very nice and looong vacation weekend. Yesterday school started and I didn't have a second to breath let alone rant. I don't have to be in class first thing this morning so I'm indulging myself.

My weekend was wet. I did not attend Bumbershoot, needless to say. Saturday was errands and an evening of Husky football. They didn't win, but it was a great game and they really played well. And considering they were playing a highly ranked team on national television, it was awesome. They scored on their first drive, even. It wasn't a blow out, it was a good game to the end. Everyone is very optimistic.

Sunday was the first group training run. My nephew called at 10 am asking me if I was going to be there. I guess because it was raining so hard, he thought I might opt out. No way! Truly, I don't mind at all running in the rain and in fact quite like it. Picture though - this is not plinky-plunky rain. It was dumping! I got all togged up - I had bought new running shorts on Saturday but it was too wet for them - I had my long running pants and a short sleeved wicking T-shirt and a zip hoodie made of the same type of material. My nephew was not thinking straight and showed up with a cotton T-shirt and a sweatshirt hoodie. Off we went with the trainer, everyone but me just zipping along. Me, I know how to pace myself. I ran the entire 3 miles at a very good, almost race pace. The trainer took the other group 4 miles rather than 3 but they stopped at 2 miles and regrouped. I caught up to a poor woman who had not been pacing herself and run out of steam, plus was cramping. We ran the last 1 1/2 miles back to the start together. I was so mad at myself for not thinking to bring dry clothes, although I also wasn't intending to do anything other than drive right back home, but my nephew wanted to go eat, so I stopped and bought a Husky sweatshirt before we got to the restaurant because I was soaked to the skin and getting cold.

I'm going to have to miss the Sunday run because -- hold your breath -- it's Family Camping Weekend. O.M.G. Can you even imagine how much I am NOT looking forward to this? The first year we had just started dating plus I had Seahawks tickets, so it was easy to get out of. Last year Mr. M didn't want to go for some reason ... I think because his friend wasn't going to be there to make the big dinner or something. But this year -- no way out. On the plus side, my FIL gave us his Seahawks tickets so we get to leave bright and early Sunday morning. That means I'm going to have to do my four miles on Saturday, but I think it'll just give me a good excuse to get away from the chaos.

Now for the technology woes. My iPhone had been acting up a little bit for a few months. Sometimes when I would put it in the iHome dock it would light up and say something along the lines of this accessory is not made for iPhone and do you want to turn on Airport Mode. Since the accessory was indeed made for iPhone, I just ignored the warning. But Saturday night I received a call from my sister, everything normal. Next call I got I couldn't pick it up. And by Sunday is was not letting me make or received calls and that message was coming up all the time. I made an appointment to go to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store and, long story short, my iPhone was just broken. And since it was over 18 months old ... WELL over the warranty .. there was nothing they could do. I went home and thought about it and made an appointment to get a new one, which I picked up yesterday. A 32 gig version! Well, why not? Double the memory for $100 - it's a no brainer.

I was setting it to synching last night and when I came up to check on it, guess what. My lap top screen was shot. I rebooted and it was the same. Mr. M hooked up an external monitor for it and now I'm going to have to figure out what to do about that. Having just bought a new iPhone I really can't see buying a new laptop. Thank goodness I have that huge external hard drive and everything is backed up. Since I only use it for work, I might just start taking my work laptop home. That makes the most sense, but it's the lugging it back and forth that it tough. It needs more thought.

On Sunday I also got to meet our new bass player. The verdict it still out. He's okay, but I didn't exactly warm up to him. Partly I think because he and Doug, the leader, had to argue about a bass line. It made me uncomfortable. We rehearsed for 3 1/2 hours. I had no voice when I left.

Ahhh .. and Monday. Blissfully quiet, chores done, Tinkerbell and I hung out and I knitted on the Shawl for a while. This is a real time sink. Now up to row 21.