Lenore_Happenstance's Xanga

Holiday Decorating Ideas

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:49:45 GMT

WHATEVER

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:49:39 GMT

My dog knocked down the baby gate penning him to one room and he had a kitty litter war with the cats (I'm going to assume this is what happened) while I was at work. My daughter said he smells like a tuna can in a dirty diaper.

When I bitched about it on Twitter, I got subbed by Poo Bags Direct.

Okay, week. You win.

Week End: The Last Jog Blog of 2009

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:16 GMT

Okay, technically tomorrow is the last training run then next will be the last Race Blog of 2009. Then I'm respecting rest. Honoring rest. Making a false idol of rest. Putting rest on a pedestal.

Not resting. Just not running.

I love this quote and it sums up training for this race. "The mind remembers, 'This is really hard' and does everything it can to avoid it in the future by turning the word hard into impossible." It took all my mental faculties to make 20 not seem impossible. In fact, if I can, I'm turning the pace indicator off of my Garmin off so I see only overall time (for walk/run breaks) and completed distance. The pace depresses me, just a constant reminder of where I was just 4 months ago and how I'm not there today. So what to do? Get rid of it. Forget it. Let it go. And it's okay. I'll finish in my own time and in this as-is body, brain.

Some people compare running a marathon to giving birth. If that's true, then my dad will drop me off at the hospital/starting line, tell me "Oh, you probably won't give birth until after we get back from church", I'll watch "Better Off Dead", puke for 14 hours and watch my family eat take out TGI Fridays while telling me they hope I'm done before the Superbowl starts. Oh, and there would be an offer of body numbing drugs. This time, I'd probably take them.

Tomorrow is also the first group run starting in my new neighborhood! Joining me is my swimming buddy who finished Chicago a few weeks ago, a newbie runner from Russia who just graduated and my two mates joining me in San Antonio. Flat flat flat and more flat. The morning weather will be cooler than Texas race day by at least 15-20 degrees so I guess the way to adapt to that is to bitch about it a lot. Yeah. That's it.

The new house has plenty of room for stretching. I'll lead a quickie 6 yoga pose session and stretching. Afterwards, I'll be hostessing an after 8 miler coffee, juice and expert donut-box-breaking-into.

I officially tendered my current gym membership resignation on Monday. I'll be over 25 minutes away from it now. To give them credit, the place was always clean, the trainers, staff and owner always treated me nicely and they wanted to take pictures of me last year to put on their webpage as a "Success and Determination" story since I lost all that weight last year after joining and trained for my first and second half-marathons there. I'll miss them all. If they open a club close by, I said I'll be the first to join - they almost did but the location fell through last winter.

Where I swim, there's a full gym and a .75 mile outdoor circle I could run. It's just 3 minutes from work. I've said hello to fellow exercisers there but no bonding, no story swapping. It's just a place to exercise right now.

However, my silly little ray of sunshine unnerving ball of positivity talked with one of the lifeguards who used to ride my TARC bus to work a few years ago. He was an IT guy laid off last year and now he works full-time at the pool. It's a fun job but . . . you can guess the salary restraints. Still, he said he's 100 times happier than working for Big Evil HMO and hopefully being poorer makes his kids chances at getting financial aid for college better since scholarships are more competitive. He's a big reader so we're gonna swap books soon. He has a really neat sewing machine and in his spare time, he designs patches. Cool hobby!

There's always hope, even at the end of a trying week.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:21:44 GMT

My uncle, Tito Caloy, lost his battle with cancer last night. Caloy was the husband of my dad's sister Yoya (short for Aurora) also pictured here. He was a very soft spoken, kind man. I was very lucky he got to come to the states before he became very ill. He gave us the news of his colon cancer just weeks after this picture was taken, one year ago. I will miss him, his gentle spirit.

http://facilitators.franklincoveyphilippines.com/2009/07/carlos-jaime-bulatao.html

House Pics!

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:20:16 GMT

There's a lot to do but I don't think it'll be too bad. The biggest is the cellar which has a bunch of stuff piled up around the entrance. I need to organize it this weekend.

I have a screened porch! I have to clean out all the toys in it but I love the lantern lights.

The overgrown garden needs to be cleaned up, too. Alison couldn't deal with it - it was her late husband's garden. I'll try to do good by it and by this Spring get the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers going.

There is not a spice to be found in this kitchen. She doesn't cook and said the oven's only been used maybe 15 times since she bought it last year. But I'm thrilled about a dishwasher. I haven't had one of those in a decade!

And here's the living room. It's warm and earthy with all the woodwork which you can't really see with this pic. There's a large glass display cabinet which I'll use as a bookshelf but otherwise, the only bookshelf is in the baby's room. She's a Kindle user so she got rid of almost everything bookwise! It's freaking me out.

Here's the detail of the bedroom ceilings. I've never seen a tin ceiling before and although I think she'd like to redo the dining room with this style, the person who did it is no longer in the area. I'll have to do some research, see if I can find a business or DYI method.

Big bathtub. I took a soak last night but couldn't really relax with all the dog and cat chasing around the tub.

Animal territory.

Calmed Down

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:21:30 GMT

This morning about 6am, I packed my car with 6 boxes and two suitcases so I could go ahead and transport closet and shelf stuff to the house since giving a cat an insulin shot only takes a minute. My plan was to get there, use my new handy dandy collapsible dolly to move my boxes and at least get them in the right rooms before grabbing a cup of coffee, the first I'd make in the house, and running off to work. I'd be so proud of myself, I'd have time to get a short run in during lunch.

Except not.

I did get the first part done, packing the car with boxes making about 8 trips total up and down the stairs. I started the car, let it warm up while I used the ice scraper on the first real frost this fall for me. Then I backed up the car and put it in drive and . . . waited for it to get in drive. Then put it in reverse. Then drive. Then managed to push the car myself back into the parking space. Oh mofo of the mofo mofo-ing world. I pop the hood. No transmission fluid. It's not like it wasn't there two weeks ago so I know it's a leak. Oh, crap, it's getting close to kitty insulin time. Time to freakin' unload the car.

I called AAA and they got me to my mechanic who'd just opened shop. Turns out I had not one leak, but three! I get a gold medal.

I need hoses. Lots of hoses.

They didn't quite remember I'd had my car towed there and said I was lucky I caught this problem in time or else I might've had some major transmission damage. Well, I didn't catch it. It just didn't go so I didn't really have a choice but to send it there. They also said my seatbelt was faulty. Now, that? Huh. They fixed that for free. Cool. I wasn't planning on being thrown through a windshield anytime soon. Right now, I'm driving a loaner Highlander SUV from my dad. It's huge compared to my tiny clown car. The mpg is ridiculous. I've already run over my dad's draining tray. Ugh.

Unpacking the car before it was towed. I'm counting that as cross training.

Power Hobbling King: A friend of mine finished the New York Marathon in 6 hours and 45 minutes. This was his 7th and, in his words, most glorious and painful. A feast for the eyes but not for his heel spur. He's usually a 4:50 marathoner but he was hurting at 15. Said it felt like a pair of scissors trying to cut itself out of his heel from the inside. Oooooooof!!! So sharing the pain, it's calmed me down. People live through moves and they live through marathons. It'll be fine.

Jog Blog: Panic Running and Packing

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:35:43 GMT

12 miles which KILLED MY LEG. That was pretty stupid. I got to thinking about the move and kept running, forgot about my walk breaks and the next thing I knew, fwomp-step-fwomp-step and I'm limping back to my car. Those articles saying if I finish in over 5 hours I didn't run the marathon - I power hobble and I will rip off a person's tricep and force feed him the drained sweat squeezed from my ponytail if somebody suggests that wasn't a real workout.

I purposely parked at the hardware store so I could pick up a collapsible hand truck and weather stripping for the move. I'm seriously panicked about the lack of storage space. If at all possible, I want to avoid having to rent a separate storage unit so I've got to get creative with the cellar which is so musty, I fear for the life of what's to be stored. I've spent the weekend re-boxing books and cd's. I'm more fearful of the books which I've put in large ziplocs and those into plastic bins.

My second go around with the cds was cathartic. I kept only the independents and some jazz, kept way too much classical. The rest I gave to my daughter to sell. There's a big box of cds I collected with an ex-boyfriend full of blues and jazz. From another, Esquivel, Xavier Cugat, Cuban and lots of music from his Chicago punk days in the 80's. I was gonna scream if I saw another Joe Pass cd. Jazz plays all day Sunday on public radio. I donate so I'll enjoy it there. I feel like I can do another go around with classical but . . . no. I already got rid of Heifetz, Horowitz and Yo-Yo Ma. Okay, maybe I can do another go around.

The dvd's weren't so bad. I got rid of some old exercise dvd's and some kiddie movies we never watch anymore. I think the majority was sold earlier in the summer. Most of what I have left is Buffy and Angel full seasons. Good stuff. Won't be getting rid of those.

I've eaten my last meal on my everyday dishes and they're now packed for Goodwill. My flatware still needs to be packed.

Hanging clothes will go tomorrow to the new place since I don't wear those as much. Shoes. A tupperware of dog food and treats and the small dog bed will go.

The only things I haven't finished yet are some pictures, another go around with the desk items and my running gear.

I guess the best thing about moving is I'm not thinking so much about the marathon. I think the best thing about the marathon is it helps keep me thinking too much about moving.

Screw it. I'm going to bed.

Pock Lobster

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:08:24 GMT

Perfect with butter and lemon.
Happy Halloween!

And for gore and guts, have a German training video. It makes me want a forklift. It's 10 minutes long but stick with it. It gets more fun and there's a lesson! I think the lesson is I want a forklift for Christmas. Subtitled. Blood and guts. Trust me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:44:12 GMT

This week stop by Naomi's site: http://shahrazad1973.xanga.com/ or Patti's site: http://buyit.xanga.com/ or Anita's site: http://scifiknitter.xanga.com/ and wish them happy birthdays! My sister's and dad's birthdays are next week so I guess I need to get a move on with presents, too. Did I forget anyone else?

Non-Jog Blog

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:33:19 GMT

Poor Kiddo. After her wisdom teeth extraction, she's been eating much of the mushy or liquid foodstuffs. Consequently, her jaw gets spasms and she has to exercise it to regain mobility so she can chew again. My other dependent, the dog, is now jumping and barking as he was before his ear infection and knows well enough to run when he suspects I may be holding or hiding a dose of his antibiotic pill. To be fair, even the half pill he's supposed to take seems unreasonably large. No, to be more fair, take the damned pill already!!

Yesterday, my swimming friend Ginger was held up by a meeting and was 45 minutes late so I ended up sharing a lane with strangers. There aren't any 'getting to know you' opportunities in lane swimming unless people stop which kind of sucks since everyone standing has to huddle somewhat close so there's enough room for people who don't stop to do their flip turns. At my age, not everyone looks that hot in the bathing suit areas including myself and fortunately, that's a great equalizer. Big or small, I can't really judge who's a natural fish and who's struggling until I see them swim. I put myself, rightly, in the slow lane.

Unlike running, unless there's a guarantee I can have a lane to myself, a waterproof mp3 player has no place in this exercise. Sharing lanes with strangers requires me to be aware of hearing oncomers from all sides in case someone needs to pass or if a less experienced swimmier is heading unintentionally towards me in a head on collision. My school's practice pool had an underwater sound system, though. I didn't mind that as long as I could hear everything else around me.

I used to be a sprinter for the 50, 100 freestyle, the 100 fly and 100 and 200 im. Twenty years later, it's not really like riding a bike. I have to redevelop technique. My arm turnover rate is slow but that will change with practice. Flip turns will come back but right now, it's an effort. Oh, and the terrible sight of my backfat through the keyhole opening in my swimsuit back panel. And I don't have saddlebags, I have inner thigh equivalent. Please send me to the old lady "modest" section, please?

What I like is that my left side breathing is much easier than what I remember and that pull buoys aren't as uncomfortable as they were back in the 80's.

Swimming doesn't give me the good, well worn feelings of a good workout of running but it is easier on the bones. The good thing about swimming with strangers were there weren't many stop-start moments. I kept going and even after Ginger arrived, managed to get in about 2300 meters. More than I intended but the best swim workout so far. But unlike running, I have no intention of swimming for 4+ hours continuously. Without music. Or beer. Or in open water.