October 2005 Archives

As seen everywhere.

Sherri's back in town, and RPM is back from hiatus.

1. What's for breakfast today? Coffee and cinnamon raisin toast.
2. When is the last time you left your state/country? The last time I left the state was in May to go to weddings, one in Ohio and one in New York. The last time I left the country was in April to go to a wedding in the Virgin Islands.
3. When is the last time you lied to someone? Last week. That's all the information you get.
4. If you celebrate Christmas, what is the day typically like for you? Christmas Eve there's a big party at my parents' house with my mom's family and associated friends. Christmas morning my family all rolls out of bed about 11:00. We sit around in our pajamas drinking coffee and opening presents. Have a prime rib dinner. Then we used to go to my dad's parents after that, before they died. This year I have no idea what Christmas will be like, as I'm not going home for the first time ever.
5. Describe the last time you felt truly content. Numerous times in the last few weeks, watching tv and cuddling with Fly Girl.
6. Would you rather stand upright for 7 days straight or lie flat on your back for 7 days? Lying on my back would be absolutely horrendous, but I'm not sure it's even possible (for me) to stand upright for 7 days, so I guess I'll lay down for a week.
7. What is your favorite fruit? Oranges.
8. How many keys are on your keychain? Six. One key plus fob for my car, one for my locker at work, one for my bike lock, one for my garage, one for the house front door, and one for my apartment door.
9. Brag about something. I really do have a cute butt. Seriously. My girlfriend says so. And I have the cutest girlfriend ever, so she knows the cute.
10. Ask me something. If you had the opportunity, would you live in London?

Apparently now we're calling artificial Xmas trees "permanent trees."

This weekend's Saturday Night Live wasn't all that funny, but did anyone catch the sketch with the Indigo Girls and Sheryl Crow? When they were naming all their dogs and the dogs had names like Georgia O'Keefe and Sheryl Swoopes? Heh.

I never watch Cold Case, but since Desperate Housewives was a rerun and the awful Lucy Lawless made-for-tv movie Vampire Bats wasn't on yet, I watched the second half of it.

Best I can tell, the episode was about some guys who murdered a black guy back in the day and are now being prosecuted for it. Most of it was in flashback as some sort of assistant/transcriptionist in the police department relayed her account of the story.

It was bad enough watching the police ridicule a young black girl try to tell the story of how she got raped. It was worse watching the lynching scene at the end. To top it all off, they played Strange Fruit (incidentally, that was the name of the episode).

It's not surprising that all that would be upsetting, but it really caught me off guard. Choked me all up, whatnot. I can't believe people used to do that back in the day.

I'm trying to. I've been drinking half caf at home. Two or three cups in the morning. I don't drink coffee at work. I drink one can of Diet Coke with Lime for one of my snacks at work every day. I let the DCWL run out and haven't bought anymore. I'll need to buy coffee in a week or so and I'll buy decaf.

Fly Girl and I went to Panera to hang out. I was looking for apartments. She was working on school stuff. I ordered a cup of coffee. The smallest one they had (the "tall") was 12 oz. I had to fill my own cup, and I wasn't thinking and filled it with regular coffee and was practically flipping out by the time I drank half of it.

My heart rate is way up (twice my normal resting rate) and I'm just standing here. My hands are shaking. I want to crawl out of my skin here. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my afternoon and I can't concentrate for shit.

*shakes*

Yay for Mr. Sulu!

Not really a surprise.

(via AfterElton, via AfterEllen)

...at the Y. I look silly in my ID picture, but that's okay.

Although the weather's been so nice this week, I haven't felt a need to go inside yet. But I'm going to want to go all the time to feel like I'm getting my money's worth. It's only a couple miles away, so I can ride my bike over there.

Having never done the health club thing, there's some inertia involved. I don't know what to do when I get in there. So I'm sure the first few visits will involve a lot of wandering around.

I had a bit of a temper tantrum yesterday. I try to keep those down to one every four months or so, but I couldn't help it. Stupid, lazy people piss me off. When I get pissed off (at work), I yell and throw things. Soft things, like paper. I try to stay away from the tools and equipment. I might bang on the wall a little bit.

It's not as bad as it sounds. Really.

I'm so ready for this week to be over. I have a week of vacation left, and it looks like there are about six non-holiday weeks left in the year, so there are a bunch of three-day weekends in my future. I think Mondays rather than Fridays.

My landlord is still a creepy asshole. I really hope my clothes are drying right now because he was here "fixing" the dryer yesterday.

Although the creepy assholitry is unrelated to the moving. Well, it is a little, but it's way down the list. There are a multitude of reasons. But basically it all boils down to, "It's time."

I've never been in a situation where I didn't move with my roommates (i.e., all involved parties didn't mutually agree to move at the same time), so that's proving to be logistically "interesting." I have faith it'll work out, though.

I've never lived by myself. I'm kind of a loner. Several people have expressed concern about my living alone on account of this fact. I'm not the sort of person that likes to have people around all the time. I know folks think I'll disappear if I go off by myself, but the fact of the matter is that I likely won't be seeing most people any less than I do now.

That's the biggest driver for the move. I want my space to be my space and my space only. It's time.

I *ahem* procured a Tyvek jumpsuit from work somewhere, so I will be going as a senate mailroom worker. Pictures to follow.

Publicly, anyway. She's been out for a while. Yay, Sheryl!

$100 says you don't see a word about this on WNBA.com. Oh, wait, it's there, in teeny tiny print, in the section of aggregated news headlines from other media sources.

This looks to be the text of the story from ESPN The Magazine. She's signed an endorsement deal with Olivia Cruises. Which is exciting, too, because she's not just a famous lesbian, she's a famous black lesbian.

I object to Sports Illustrated's use of the term "lesbianism." I also object to WNBA President Donna Orender's calling it a "lifestyle choice." But, hey, the news is out there and it's in the mainstream sports media.

UPDATE:

• Interestingly, on the ESPN.com main page, the Sheryl Swoopes story is headlined "This Is Who I Am" which is the WNBA's little theme thing they use in their promos.


• Mechelle Voepel weighs in.


• AfterEllen reports that Sheryl will be in an upcoming issue of The Advocate, that there's no danger of Sheryl losing her Nike deal, and also names her partner whom everyone "in the know" already knows is former Houston Comets assistant Alisa Scott. And they discuss Donna Orender's choice of words.


• Lots of ongoing coverage at Women's Hoops Blog.


• Sheryl's gonna be on Good Morning America tomorrow. (This is more of a reminder for myself.)

UPDATE #2:

• Deadspin gives it a mention because they're obligated as a sports blog.


• Outsports has a roundup of reactions from the sports media and calls Sheryl "the new Martina."


• MSNBC got a comment from Sue Wicks* and from Sheryl's ex-husband. (*One of two other WNBA players to publicly come out, (Michelle van Gorp being the other) but Sue didn't until after she retired.)


• Pam Spaulding (read the comments, too)

So, I already started swapping out my clothes on account of the cool weather. Saturday night, Fly Girl requested an extra blanket on the bed. So I threw a velour velux blanket on between the top sheet and the down comforter.

In spite of the fact that it was in the mid-30s overnight and our house is old and the leaky windows don't have plastic on them yet, I was totally sweating all night long. Hopefully it was just because there were two of us. Body heat and all that jazz. It was way too hot under the covers. But it was just cold enough in the room that I couldn't comfortably stick a foot or a shoulder out to regulate my temperature.

The blanket's still on the bed so maybe by myself tonight it'll be just right.

I had an "Aha!" moment last week.

I've read in numerous places that the most efficient running cadence is 180 footfalls per minute. So the way to increase your speed is to increase your stride length. Thus far, I haven't been too worried about increasing my speed. I haven't really even been sticking to the 180 steps/min thing. I just naturally fell into a longer stride/slower cadence on my long slow runs.

So then an episode of Run Cast Weekly I was listening to talked about running posture. They explained the cadence thing (heard that). They pointed out that your foot should be landing directly underneath you, already moving backward, so you don't land on your heel and thus slow yourself down with every step (got that, in principle). Then they stated that you should sort of be leaning forwards from your ankle, and an increase in stride length comes from kicking your legs out behind you.

Now, that seems obvious, but I didn't really get it until I heard it on RCW. So that's what I've been practicing. The leaning forward actually helps with the cadence because you have no choice but to move your feet to catch yourself. So I tried that on a few 3 to 4 mile runs. My legs didn't feel like I was working much harder, but my heart rate was up a little and I did those shorter runs at about a 9:30 pace, so I guess I was going faster.

How many of her eggs does a girl have to sell to get a Roasted Garlic Triscuit in this town?

The last three times I've gone to the grocery store they've been out.

My company's offering a paltry sum to be applied to health club memberships. Winter here sucks and I can't imagine I'll be outside running through the whole entire thing, so I figured I'd sign up.

There are no Life Time Fitness centers anywhere convenient to me, so that's out. Which is too bad, because it's one of the nicest places in town. I checked out the one Bally's that's anywhere near me and the YWCA.

I liked the idea of the Y better just because of the whole community involvement thing. Bally's had a little bit more to offer, but it just didn't "feel" good when I was walking around the place.

Bally's seemed to be cheaper, but I found out it's only cheaper if you sign an 18-month contract. Otherwise, it's the same price as the Y, so I'll be signing up at the Y. The Y is month-to-month no matter what. Plus I get access to all three locations in town. With Bally's I'd only have access to the one club, not that there are any other locations that are even remotely convenient.

And the Uptown Y is the closest to where I live. Close enough to bike to as long as it's not too cold out. The Midtown Y is the largest YWCA in the country (and has a bigger track, so if I need to do some long running inside, I'll be going there).

I only wish I had one of the local insurance providers because the Y has a sweet discount deal with them where they knock $20 off your monthly membership ($46 for me) if you go more than eight times a month. But my insurance company does no such thing.

So I'm excited. I'll be able to get some variety in my workouts. And take classes. I'm excited to take classes.

Ooh, and have access to a hot tub. And the Midtown Y has a steam room. Mmmm... steam room.... *not thinking about germs*

I gave in. I put all my shorts away and got my sweaters and cool weather shirts out.

We all have some level of competitiveness in us. I, myself, have a competitive streak. And everyone has the occasion to talk a little smack here and there. Mostly it's tolerable it as long as it's good-natured.

People who are so competitive that they talk smack and have fun only as long as they're winning, but get all grumpy and pissy when they're not are no fun. Makes you not want to play with them at all.

On Tuesday.

1. Are you mad at me for not posting these yesterday? Nope. I still love ya.
2. If you could script tonight's dream, what would it be like? I'd definitely be accomplishing/achieving something in it. I need a little boost for some things coming up.
3. Do you consider yourself impulsive? Not as a rule, but I've definitely had my moments.
4. Which would you rather be forced to eat in 1 minute: a dozen raw eggs or a habanero (world's hottest pepper)? Eggs. *gag*
5. What color is your underwear? Blue.
6. What's the most embarrassing thing your parents ever did to you? I hold my mom completely responsible for some of my grade school fashion choices.
7. If you were forced to undergo a cosmetic surgery procedure, which one would you choose? Does laser hair removal count? I want that.
8. What is the last thing you purchased? Movie ticket on Saturday night.
9. Freestyle: do whatever you want with #9. I'm doing this dance.
10. Ask me something. What was the last thing you baked?

I love the fall, and I kind of like that there's a holiday of sorts at the end of October, but the whole costume and candy thing really doesn't do it for me.

Too much sleep is almost as bad as not enough sleep.

I caught the last freaking 10 minutes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and I had a damn tear in my eye.

I had my most enjoyable run in my six-month history of running last Tuesday. I went out with a mind to do 45 to 60 minutes. Whatever felt good. So I went up the unpaved trail on the east side of Cedar Lake and holy shit it was fantastic! You'd never know you were in the middle of the city. It was so green and so fresh. I found Hidden Beach, a fire pit around the north side, a number of benches and places to sit around and do camp-y things, and a rock with a poem inscribed in it. All these hidden gems that most people will never find.

Further proof that girls driving Jeeps rock.

Good lawd, this stuff cracks me up.

• Less-Threatening Islamist Groups
• Places You Might Find Jesus
• Not-So-Good Names for Murder Mysteries
• Methods Other Than Song by Which One Can Be Killed Softly
• Fruit-Drink Flavors That Never Took Off
• As Yet Unrecognized by Microsoft Windows

It's self-evaluation time of the year at work. I'm trying to figure out tactful ways to say that I want my boss's job. Not at all related to the quality of my boss's job performance. I just want it in principle. A little birdie told me that that very idea was suggested to my director by someone other than myself and apparently that didn't fly.

We don't do any kind of career development planning in my department. Not for us monkies. So when it comes time to do these self-evaluations, nobody has any idea what to say. I don't think most folks I work with are even used to putting their job performance in these terms.

How does one come up with what their objectives for the last year were when their job description doesn't really have any? "I want to be the best Tablet Monkey I can be" isn't ringing my bell. There's really no room for advancement for the average monkey.

Of course my situation's a little different. Which is why I made copies of the job descriptions for everyone in my department from monkey up to supervisor, as well a few associate engineer spots. I was also kicking around the idea of suggesting some extra duties for myself or possibly even a new position centered around training (our training around here is inconsistent at best). Except that I don't really want that job.

I've got 18 hours to finish it and turn it in. Meh.

Fly Girl and I are doing pub trivia on Saturday night and we need a team name. All I could come up with is 2 Hot Chix. I'm not really wild about it.

Any ideas?

I got notification that my pictures from the TC10 are available. I don't really need them framed to hang on the wall or anything, but I'll gladly put 'em on the internet. (click to embiggen)

I think this is on East River Parkway, just before turning onto Summit Ave. I was feeling much better than my facial expression seems to imply. And I would just like to say look at those guns!

Ta daaaaa! I put my bib up on my door next to my bib from the first race I ever ran.

Is today. Talk About It.

It was still Monday when I read the questions.

1. What's the most embarrassing thing in your bedroom? Nothing really. Maybe a pair or two of underwear that I really should get rid of. Or maybe a few pictures of me from high school.
2. What was the first concert you ever attended? New Kids on the Block (Sans Donnie Wahlberg. I still feel ripped off.)
3. Have you ever had food poisoning? From what? Never had it, thank gawd.
4. Describe your favorite pair of jeans. Old Navy. Bootcut. Stretch. Short. Dark blue.
5. What's your favorite daytime TV show to watch? I don't really watch daytime tv anymore. My obsessions with The View and Ellen are over. No soaps. No Oprah. What else is on?
6. Do you own a drill? No, but I wish I did. Not that I would use it much.
7. What is your favorite meal to eat? Steak and mashed potatoes with some kind of cheese in them.
8. What is your favorite meal to prepare? I hate preparing meals.
9. When was the last time you grinned from ear to ear? Why? Sunday, numerous times. Something cute Fly Girl said or did.
10. Ask me something. What are you looking forward to this week?

Thank you, sweet jeebus, for the recovery jog. I was pretty sore on Monday and after a whole day of ibuprofen and stretching, I still felt like crap on Tuesday. So I went out for a slow easy three miles which turned into four miles and on Wednesday I felt just fine.

Whose legs are these? Not that I'm particularly buff, but hot damn.

I had no cold weather running gear, so I skipped Thursday and went out not quite properly dressed on Friday and Saturday. I have plenty of lightweight fleece and I have a jacket, but I didn't have a wicking layer to put on underneath it all. I was checking out what I saw people wearing over the last few days. I picked up a pair of tights, a couple long-sleeved zip-neck shirts, and an earband. Tried one of the new shirts on a bike ride on Sunday and it was perfect.

Got new shoes, too, since I had a coupon. Saucony Grid Trigon 3s. Not sure how I feel about 'em, but I couldn't tell in the store if I wasn't sure just because they felt different than the Asics Gel 1100s I have now. We'll see.

Gmap Pedometer has its own domain now: gmap-pedometer.com. And I don't know how long this feature has been there, but the "Complete there and back route" option is quite handy.

I seem to be hitting a 10:00 min/mile pace on pretty much all my shorter runs now. By shorter I mean three to five miles. My next goal is to focus on a longer distance, but I sure will be happy if I start to consistently break that 10:00 barrier on my shorter distances.

I know there are some half marathons coming up in the next couple months in Minnesota, but I'm not particularly jazzed about any of them. I might consider the Frozen Half in February, although I gotta say the idea of running a race outside in the coldest part of the year isn't all that appealing. Maybe I am ready to settle into winter maintenance mode.

Swag. (ARZT? Whassat?)
Yum.
Television Without Pity
4 8 15 16 23 42
Oceanic Flight 815 (click the barcode at the bottom and type in "theislandiswaiting" for a possible spoiler)

You are Franklin!

Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

(via Dee)

I never watched Grey's Anatomy last season, but Fly Girl really likes it, so I've taken it up for this season. It's easy; it's on right after Desperate Housewives.

Did anybody see it last weekend with the guy that swallowed all the Judy doll heads? When they pulled the Black Judy head (complete with 'fro) out of his intestines, I died laughing.

(as reminded by Dee)

But not the people that love them.

My informal survey shows that people who don't like board games — myself included — all seem to like (and be reasonably good at) Trivial Pursuit.

The other day I had to explain to Fly Girl what a cameltoe was. We flipped through, like, every page on that website.

28 years old and she doesn't know the toe. *shakes head*

Swiped from KathyHowe.

Give a shout in the comments and...

1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll try to say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST.

I, too, shall pass on #8. And I, too, shall answer in the comments.

I have an issue with the word "delight."

When I worked for a Giant Food Company, some marketing schmuck put that word in the company's vision/mission statement. You know what? No one finds pre-packaged, processed food items to be "delightful" no matter how convenient they are.

Seriously. They totally ruined that word for me.

The TC10 results have been updated. I actually placed:

• 2471 out of 4087 runners
• 1280 out of 2493 women
• 340 out of 686 females aged 22 to 29

My chip time was 1:39:45. The average finish time was 1:37:36.

Back on the wagon.

1. What is one goal you've set for yourself this week? There's a particular phone call I need to make that I've been putting off.
2. What's the riskiest thing you've ever done? Physically risky? I'd say skydiving. Otherwise, I'd say quitting my job so I could fart around on my severance pay with no real plan as to what to do afterward.
3. Have you ever served on a jury? Nope.
4. When is the last time you consumed alcohol? Uhhhh... last week or maybe the week before. I put some rum in the 7-Up I was having with my dinner. I haven't partaken in recreational drinking in a while.
5. Do you usually remember your dreams? No.
6. Are you good at remembering people's names? Yes.
7. If forced to choose, would you rather go 3 months without brushing your teeth, or 6 months without bathing? I'd rather skip the toothbrushing. There's still gum and mouthwash and floss and stuff. It's easier to mask bad breath than B.O.
8. If you could win a lifetime supply of a product you currently use, what would it be? Gasoline.
9. Brag about something. :-) I ran ten miles this weekend and did it better than I thought I could. :-)
10. Ask me something. Why'd you start with the karate lessons?

So, the race was a whole lot of excitement for one weekend. But my fantastic weekend actually started on Friday. Fly Girl had the weekend off from class, I took a day off work, and we spent Friday night in Stillwater. Stillwater is only 30 minutes from St. Paul, but this was my first time there.

We had a lot of errands to run before we got out of town, so we didn't get there until mid-evening. I personally didn't intend to do anything but spend Friday night in our room, so that didn't worry me so much. We checked in, had dinner, took a little walk through town, and then retired for the evening. Had a really good talk.

Saturday we had brunch, checked out, hit up a couple outdoor outfitters in town, and then headed over to the river. Saw the lift bridge (under construction). Wandered through the Jazz & Art Festival. Then left town to drive up and down the St. Croix River. On the way back into town, we stopped at the Eddie Bauer outlet. Grabbed some lunch, then back to my house. I camped out at Lake Calhoun while Fly Girl went for a bike ride. I wanted to go because it was so nice out and I didn't want to waste such a gorgeous day, but I was supposed to be resting for the race and I was really quite pooped at that point.

We had some dinner, watched a terrible movie, then went to bed early.

So lots of pleasant time with my girl. Getting out and seeing stuff, good talks, having fun, and she was super supportive of my participating in the race. I needed a weekend like that.

My longest ever training run was last weekend. Minnehaha Parkway from Lake Harriet to Lake Nokomis and back. 8.8 miles. I had biked through there before, but you see so much more of it on foot. It was so green and gorgeous. And that was it before the race.

So, yeah. The TC10. I have an account of it up at the Mpls Metblog.

I was not thrilled to get up at 5:30 in the morning. I was a little worried about my bottom system intake and output. But everything worked out okay. Fly Girl very kindly dropped me off at the Metrodome, then just made it home to her house in St. Paul before they closed off the roads. She was waiting for me at about Mile 8 on Summit Ave. She was on her bike, so I saw her again at about Mile 9, once more coming down the chute towards the capitol, and then she was waiting for me in the family meeting area at the end. At which point she promptly informed me that I was completely encrusted in my own salt. After that we doubled back to Summit Ave and watched the marathoners start to come in.

The results are already up. As of right now, they only have our clock times listed. Not our chip times. Chip times are included in the marathon results, but not ours. Meh.

Overall, I placed:

• 2412 out of 4085 runners
• 1231 out of 2492 women
• 328 out of 686 females aged 22 to 29

I'm pretty proud of myself.

I was totally wowed by the whole thing. The race route is fantastic. The organization of the whole thing was amazing. This was my first "real" race. It was so easy to navigate the starting area and the finish area. The weather was great. About 65°. A little humid, but the sun wasn't out at and there was a pretty good breeze. Getting up on the Franklin Ave bridge going over the Mississippi River was so refreshing.

I'm pretty sore today. Besides running faster and longer than usual, there was a fair bit of up- and downhill, so the pounding on my legs was harder than I'm used to. I woke up a few times in the middle of the night last night and could barely move my legs. I can walk, though. I'm not incapacitated or anything.

So I don't know what to do with myself now. I want to go on to a half marathon. Like, now. There's a small possibility that I may be doing one in a month or so, but that's completely up in the air. Otherwise, I may just hunker down for the winter, although it's a little early in the year for that. It's not that cold yet. I might pick up this winter training program which looks like it'd be easier on a track since it's all based on time. Which reminds me I'm supposed to be looking for a gym. I really need to get on that.