we’re through, Pandora.

I about had it out with Pandora today. She keeps doing this thing where she cuts out a song right in the middle to go to a commercial. Ok, that’s fine, if it’s a song I don’t like. I don’t pay for it, so there have to be ads.

But today I had this in front of me:

So I was pumping my jam while folding laundry. Really, what else can one enjoy while folding laundry? (If you have other ideas, do tell.)

Here’s my jam. (Previously thumbs-up’d so it would ideally play more often.) She finally got to it after about 10 back-to-back Pit Bull and Usher songs. She dangled it in front of me and then BAM! Commercial. Didn’t even get to the bridge… Before you came into my life I missed you so bad. (Such good logic.)

I got mad and yelled at her (waking the bunny) and told her we’re through. Then she responded with this:

Really Pandora? Trying to butter me up with your wily devices?

Fine.

We’re not broken up anymore.

meh

Today has been a blah-feeling sort of day. It took a while for me to get my butt moving and go for a run this morning. I used Lola as an excuse for a while, letting her out to play for an hour. She was being extra cute. She even tried to escape and ended up jumping into a big box and startling herself. I had a good laugh.

She often gives me this look, like she’s waiting for me to bring her a dried apricot or banana (her favorite treats) and/or bring her Bribri so she can do the love dance around his feet. I often respond by reminding her that I own her and her box that she lives in.

But she just did a lot of this after she realized she couldn’t escape the den.

And I imagine this is what she was thinking.

Anyway, I eventually got my butt in gear and went out for an easy 30 minute run: 5 min blue, 20 min green, 5 min blue. About 7 minutes into it, at the bottom of the giant hill, I was hit with a wall of mist. It kind of unnerved me at first (thank you Hunger Games), but it also felt nice (once I realized it wasn’t coming from a living being nor poisonous), like running through the mist machines at Coke World. It did that a few more times on my run, but never actually rained on me. Good thing, too, because there’s no way I could sprint back up that hill and make it to safety before my iPhone got destroyed by a downpour.

There is an intersection along the route that I ran today and I always choose a different way to go. Well, being in the funk that I was, I still hadn’t decided which way I wanted to run (it’s a giant loop, so really it doesn’t matter) when I arrived. But then I saw something run by and I had to follow to make sure I actually saw what I thought I saw.

It took me a few minutes to catch up while maintaining my green zone so I really wasn’t sure what I saw. Yup! It was a gray-haired lady running! (Yes, I’m creepy, but I had to take a quick pic for proof.) I was so impressed and inspired, it made it worth the run today!

And, as you can see, my heart rate monitor flat-lined me again! I don’t think the hr monitor reconnected after I paused the app to take the picture… I’m going to email Adidas about this. And I actually expect a prompt and helpful response. Brimuscle has had great experiences with their tech support over the past couple of years so I’m not too worried.

When I was headed home and back up the hill, this nice girl ran by me, headed up the hill too. At this point I was just jogging, not necessarily trying to get home quickly. But she was going faster and made it look easy. So I thought I’d try to keep pace with her. Oh boy. She was running a sub-9:30 min/mile UP the hill. I’m doing good when I keep it around 12:00. I made it about half way before I thought I was going to pass out. It was fun, though, being secretly competitive. And when I got to the straight-away where the road leveled out, I booked it (she was long gone at this point).

See that 6:13? That’s how fast I was running. Sub 7:00min/mile! Granted it was only for about 30 seconds. And see that 185? That was my heart rate. Pretty sure it was a few beats away from exploding. It’s surprising how I can maintain a 179-180 bpm, but jumping to 183-185 bmp is killer. (Definitely hyperbolically, probably literally.)

You know what is a self-esteem booster? When you walk in the door from running and your husband asks if it was raining. Nope.

the weekend, part 2

I got up early again on Sunday (I know! What was I thinking?) to run before the heat set in. I wanted to try running on an empty stomach. Since I knew it was a fairly short run, without too much intensity, I thought I’d give it a try.

My legs felt heavy and I had an unusually hard time getting my heart rate up at the beginning. I know your heart rate is lowest first thing in the morning and thought that may have had something to do with it. But I felt like I was working hard and hadn’t even made it into the blue zone! (Blue = 3 out of 10 effort.) I also wet the sensor, thinking maybe somehow it wasn’t registering properly. Even though I had a hard go at the beginning, eventually my legs woke up and I felt better.

In the graph above, you can see I even managed to keep my bpm steady(ish) while climbing the last hill up to my house. I had to really pay attention to do that…

I was so glad I got my run out of the way early because that left me the rest of the day to get on with my next project!

Taping a giant canvas! Seriously, though, I was so sick of it I nearly didn’t finish. I spent at least 6 hours just taping. (I followed the instructions here. And apparently we had similar thoughts on colors!)

At this point, after I had painted several coats, I found myself a little nervous to peel the tape…

And when I started to peel, my fears were confirmed.

Fortunately (for me) you can’t see the details in this and how the paint leaked under the tape. Lesson learned: when using a canvas with deep texture, invest in better tape (like frog tape). Also fortunately, acetone nail polish remover helped me clean up the bad spots and I tried not to be such a perfectionist about the rest. I left it to dry overnight so I could hang it today.

When I got up this morning and checked on my plants, I found this little guy blooming! I really need to move this zucchini to its own box…

After getting some work done and going to the travel clinic this morning, I got my lift on with this little bad girl.

This is still one of my favorite stretches:

A few minutes into the stretches, my workout buddy had given up…

After dinner, we got the canvas hung on the wall! Since we’ve been married, we haven’t ever gotten real bedroom furniture, that money was always allocated to furnishing other parts of the house. So, in lieu of buying a bed frame with a headboard, I painted one. 🙂

Pardon the white balance, the iPhone can only do so much. Even though it took forever, I’m glad I did it. One step closer to a grown-up bedroom! 🙂

And here’s a view with the rest of the room:

The bed skirt, curtains, and painting are much closer in color than they appear here. Blame the tungsten light. Now I want some big fluffy yellow throw pillows and a chaise lounge. And some legit night stands. And a gentleman’s chest. 🙂

Happy New Year!

Well, it wouldn’t be New Year’s Day for us if we weren’t traveling. We’re headed out to Vancouver this afternoon for a week of meetings and friendly visits.

I’m a little ashamed, but not too much, that our Christmas decorations are all still up.

But, it’s 2 hours before our ride to the airport gets here and I’m ready to go! So no complaining here!

And yes, I packed my rain coat and umbrella, but no rain boots. Last year it did not stop raining the entire week of these meetings… I’m hoping this year will be a little different. Yep, that looks about right.Anyway, here are some pics from our last few weeks. 🙂

You must buy this. Even if you don’t like coffee. It doesn’t taste like coffee. It tastes like heaven. Seriously.

We got to hang out with our friends here a couple of times. It was a nice treat. Look at those cheeks! I love her.

My seester got a Build-a-Bear for Christmas from her bf and Lola actually really liked the box. Plus, what’s cuter than a bunny popping out of a box?

My Grandma really liked Lola. And I think Lola liked her, too. 🙂 And don’t worry, the back brace looks worse than it is. It’s mostly to keep her from twisting and moving in ways that she’s not supposed to. She’s recovering from her fall quite nicely.

B-Money took me out on a date for my birthday. 🙂 It was delicious. We went to Phoenix Asian Cuisine. They offer many different varieties of Asian dishes from Japanese to Chinese to Korean. And of course fortune cookies.

Peace out!

Lola’s Halloween

This year we didn’t do much for Halloween. But we did dress up our bunny. 🙂

http://vimeo.com/31441634

Competition

If you knew any of the people I’ve worked with for the past 5 and a half years, you might begin to think I was starting in on a sermon. Those folks could talk forever about the theology of competition and the integration of faith and sport. While I do find some of it interesting, believe it or not, that’s not what I’m here to share today.

 

Today, to make your Monday less Monday-ish, I wanted to share another sort of competition with you. Rabbit Hopping to be exact. Check out this video from the Canadian Rabbit Hopping Club.

I think my favorites are Coco and Popcorn. And after watching it, if you feel so inclined to join us bunny lovers and buy your very own Netherland Dwarf or Lion Head, I’ll start a club with you! Even if it’s just The Watch Your Rabbit Lick Its Paws And Then Eat Its Poop Club. Because sometimes it seems that that’s about the only thing my rabbit does. 😉

also

My runners were disgusting after our trip to Panama. So naturally I scrubbed them with a toothbrush, sprayed them with some oxy-clean and then tossed them in the washer. They were beautiful and so white they reached glow-in-the-dark status. I had them on for 5 minutes and somehow managed to kick over a grape slushy that was hiding on the sidewalk behind a fern. Purple stickiness from knee to toe. Someone else’s purple stickiness.

 

A few minutes later I met a super cute bunny named Macchiato. He looks just like Lola but dark brown. And he loves me. 🙂 (Do a google image search for netherland dwarf rabbits. It’ll make your day.)

 

Also, I let a big fat buzzy fly into my house.

 

P.S. I updated my blogroll. If you’re looking for a chuckle, may I recommend City Girl Meets Country Boy. My friend worked her butt off for years to become a large animal vet. She married a bovine farmer (and I’m sure he does lots of other stuff too) and moved to a small town in NC. And she’s a really good story teller.

 

Why am I only inspired to blog once a week?

first and last

I had lunch today with 3 of my favorite ladies in Vancouver. They were my first friends here. And if I’m honest they’re my first real Asian friends (unless you count Stanley Yuen from elementary school) (and by real I mean ‘real friends’ not ‘real Asians’). We had some fantastically priced and flavored sushi and bubble tea. It seemed appropriate since they were there when I first tried sushi many years ago. And bubble tea! The conversations ran the gamut and I’m pretty sure we could’ve kept going for a few more days.

 

I know I never really put down roots out here, per se, but the thought of leaving them pulls at my heart. Perhaps the picture I had of me growing roots into Canadian soil wasn’t quite right. Maybe we don’t put down roots at all. If I’m honest, no house has really felt like home since I moved out of my parents’ place. But maybe we don’t actually do the growing of vertical roots, down into the earth. Maybe horizontal roots stretch out to us and wrap around our hearts as we grow with and mutually love those around us. Hm. Perhaps that’s why they say “Home is where the heart is.” It’s not the Canadian soil. It’s the Canadians. And to be honest again, if you had once told me that I would move to Canada and come to love it with a glowing heart, I would have laughed at you.

 

I haven’t cried yet about moving. I still find myself smiling as I talk about it. Living so close to family and friends will be amazing. And weird. I honestly had a moment of revelation yesterday where I realized I’m going to have to invite my mom and dad over to my our place. Not just once every 5 years. But once a month! I literally thought, “Wait. I’ll have to invite them over to stuff. Weird.” But I’ll be saying goodbye to some really awesome people. I’m thankful for skype and facebook and all that; it’s kept me in touch with the east coast for 5.5 years. But it’s not the same. I guess I’m just wondering when my first set of tears will come.

 

Well, I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer. So I won’t end on that note. (And is it just me or is it weird that I was serious for more than one paragraph?) So here’s an oldie but a goodie…

Lola in the snow

Here’s another video of my cute (Canadian) bunny. This was taken on (American) Thanksgiving. If you get bored, just skip to the end and enjoy her binky! 🙂

Forgive me for the poor video quality, Blackberries aren’t the best.

lola eats a treat

I tricked Lola into eating a raisin in front of the webcam. 🙂