Running Attempt Number X

Since I completed the Marine Corp Marathon (going on 4 years ago now), I've had many and repeated failed attempts to pick up a running program again. I've started and stopped more times than I want to count. My goal now is to start running, regularly, and not stop. I want to pick up a running regiment that includes 3 days of running a week, and stick with it.

I really enjoy running, despite all those times I've stopped. I just have an inertia problem (the resting bit, not the motion part).

This weekend I heard two people discussing the Couch Potato to 5k program. I've been reading Binkle's blog for a bit, she has a lot of good information on running, and she had used the program successfully. The discussion was between her and another friend who had started it. I thought, "What a good time to be a sheep."

Today I started that program. It's been a long time since I ran (though recently I have somewhat regularly been using our stationary bike), so it was uncomfortable. Not enough to make me want to quit though.

My absolute favorite distance, among those I've run, is 10-milers. I believe they are the perfect distance for an event. During my training for the marathon, I did the Army 10-miler (that year it turned out to be the 11-miler, but that's besides the point) and felt fantastic. I would be ecstatic to get back to that point.

Some day I may strive for another marathon, but I can't think that way now. Baby steps first, then we'll see what happens.

This morning I sit on the deck with a bowl of oatmeal with strawberries. There's a ton of pollen on the table, but don't worry I cleaned the half that I'm eating from. Pollen is sticky stuff, I think that I can only get part of the mess off. This state has a terrible pollen problem, when your car goes from black to yellow, you know anyone will have allergies.

Monkey Off My Back

So being the slowest knitter EVER! Most projects take me a long time. I have a few projects on the needles and I knit on them intermittently. Most of my knitting is for me, as there's not a ton of people who request things.

So, it is with great pleasure that I announce the completion of The Monkey Socks! *applause applause applause*



Ok, maybe not as exciting for you as they are for me. According to the previous year's resolution, I started these puppies in April (yes, that's April 2008). The date I recorded completion, 3/31/2009. See, I told you I was slow.

These were for my mom, I say were for a very specific needles. I followed the pattern and did the exact number of repeats between sock one and two (I know, I counted a ton of times). I triumphantly held up the finished socks! Only to find out one was BIGGER than the other. Holy crap, who knew?! I had read about this mysterious gauge problem before, but thought that it could never happen to me. Boy was I wrong.

So, one sock bigger, might not have been so bad except that both socks were way too big for my mom! She has smaller feet than mine. Bonus though, the small one fit me great, the big one, was, well, big.

This has prompted me to learn how to knit two socks at once, toe-up. This may help improve my sock knitting. Though, I guess, not having a year in between start and finish might do the trick also....

In other news....

Last night, while running errands, I dropped into the local Dressbarn (saying that is weird because where I grew up, the only things local were cows). I pop in there once in a while, because they have my size and slightly dressier stuff. Usually I find, maybe one thing. This time, they had a ton of stuff! I ended up buying a bunch of tops. Some of these will translate to the cruise, all of them will translate to work!

These are a step up from my button down collar shirts. Don't get me wrong I like those too, but these are great.

And We're....Done!

I have had a week that felt like it lasted a month. I don't really know why, it was pretty good and kind of fun. I've just been walking around looking at things here like it's been a really long time. Kind of weird.

Onto my week! Sunday, I left and headed to San Jose, CA. The whole week before this trip I kept humming, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" by Dion Warwick. It was actually kind of cold the first day. Unfortunately, my mom got a little lost trying to find the hotel.



Monday thru Thursday I attended the Embedded Systems Conference. This conference was really interesting! Yeah, yeah, I'm a manager now, but I remember some of my EE background. I can do technical. I'm in a dilemma at the moment. Not sure where to go with my job. Technical, stay in managerial? I don't know. That's probably a blog for another time. Though if anyone wants to tell me what to do next. I might just try that. I learned lots at the conference and think I'd recommend it to others.

After the conference mom and I went to Carmel/Monterey area. The drive down was nice, we saw a lot of Artichokes and Strawberry fields. A lot of agriculture in that part of CA. It was really pretty there. We drove the 17-mile drive and saw seals and birds and ocean and really expensive houses and all sorts of nice things. This is one of my favorite pictures.



We then decided to take a "quick jaunt" up to the Redwood Forest area. Unfortunately, I misread the GPS and it took over an hour to get up there. It was impressively uphill and very windy roads. Always good when it takes over 30 min to go 10 miles. We finally arrived at the Big Basin Redwoods State Park and asked where we could find the big ones. Unfortunately, the forest was closed (yeah, I didn't know that was possible). I assume there was a lot of rain or something and they were cleaning the trails. Though I did get to see this example of a large Redwood.



Check out when this started...



and ended....



After that, we were beat! We drove back to the hotel and slept. The next day we took the train to San Francisco. It was sunny and warm and I got a nice sunburn. I went to San Francisco back in college and it has changed a lot. I was surprised at how different it was from my memory. Though, it was still nice. The cab ride back to the train station took us through the hilly areas and such. I guess we got our $12 worth!

I just love the arrow!



Sunday was a relaxing day, we hung around San Jose and went to The Tech. This museum was a museum about technology. It had lots of cool experiments. I was even able to experience a simulated earthquake. First, it was a 6 something that occurred in California and then an 8.3, I think that was in Japan. My facts could be wrong.... Definitely they would've thrown me off my feet!

Anywho, please take a look at the pictures to see what we did! They are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/smilingkid/California#