I just can’t turn down a challenge June 14, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Arts and Crafts, Fanfiction, Personal Finance, Running, The Guys, Trixie, Trixie Friends.2 comments
This one’s a doozy, too. I just signed up to write at least 500 words a day for 30 days. They have to be fanfiction, which means any writing toward my book doesn’t count (nor does writing for work).
So now I have to find two hours each morning to run (slog), about 30 minutes each day to write fanfiction, at least that much time to write my book, plus find time to clean my apartment. Can somebody invent a 30-hour day?
In other news, I took a break from running over the weekend, which ends tomorrow. I had blisters on the bottoms of both feet from my old orthotics and while they weren’t painful and they weren’t getting worse, they also weren’t getting any better. Since I walk around in bare feet a lot, there was a decent chance I could step on something and pop one. With Mal coming in for the weekend and the associated walking in DC, I figured it was a good time to take a break. The good news is they seem to have finally healed, so I can start running again.
I started designing Christmas cards last night, and I’m going to figure out what I need for each and assemble a mock-up during the weekend. I know I need ribbon, but I’m not sure what else I need that I don’t already have.
For those who don’t read my other blog, my quest to kill my credit card debt by the end of the year is on track. That means come Jan. 1, I can start saving for a house and a new(er) car. The house is top priority, but I’m still going to be putting a decent amount away for the car in case mine starts falling apart. Fortunately, I’m putting so much to debt now that once it can go into savings, the money will start piling up pretty quickly.
As I mentioned before, Mal came to DC over the weekend and I got to meet her, plus see the Jix Chix. Aleta and Mary are the only ones I’d seen lately. We had a blast! My sister’s stuffed animals are now jealous because we got our picture taken with the Swedish Chef at the American History museum in their muppet exhibit.
The good, the bad and the ugly May 31, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Running, The Guys, Work madness.2 comments
Today was one heck of a day. It started when I actually got up at 7 to go running, only to realize it was raining outside. So I waited about an hour to get up, which meant it was almost 9 when I finally headed out. It was nice when I started, but got very hot and muggy by the end of my five-mile run. (Well, slog really. It was a little too slow to be called a run.)
So I headed home, showered, lay in bed with the fan going and made a strawberry soy protein smoothie in a vain attempt to cool down before work.
I got to work, started working on the inside pages of our weekly entertainment section, and discovered that instead of fairly basic pages, the desk guys left me with a two-page non-linear feature. Now, I’ve done stuff like that once or twice before, but I generally have plenty of time to think, plus it’s in a news section where it doesn’t have to be too feature-y to look cool. So I headed out for a walk to chill out. I was smart enough to fill my now-empty smoothie squeeze bottle with cold water first. By the time I got back, I was calmer, but back to being all hot and sweaty. *sigh* Fortunately, EE was back from lunch and promised to help me when he was done with the cover story design. Just knowing that helped, so when I finished everything else, I started playing around, figuring he could help me rip it apart and build it new again better than starting from scratch. By the time he had time, I had pulled together a rough layout that he actually liked. He made some suggestions to police it, mostly regarding evening out the white space, but that was about it.
Meanwhile, my sister and WG have been bickering via e-mail – my e-mail. She sent a comment today I knew would get a great reaction from him, so I called him at home tonight to fill him in and get his response. My end of the conversation was necessarily restricted because I was in the middle of the mostly empty newsroom, but his wasn’t. I had to bite my tongue a few times because the smart-ass response would have either revealed who I was talking to or not been appropriate for work. But it was a funny interlude in the night.
Little else new here, but my annual review should be either Friday or Monday, so expect another post then with either a rant or rejoicing.
She lives! May 23, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Running, Trixie Friends, Work madness.1 comment so far
No, I haven’t died. I’ve just been busy.
Quick hit update:
* My trip to Richmond ended a day early after Aleta got a bug. Not wanting to get germs, I headed home. She was very understanding.
* I did, however, see the Maggie L. Walker house. She was not only the first female bank president, but the first black female bank president. It was a cool tour, and well worth the time. I only went because it was in the area where I parked and was free, but I’m glad I did.
* I ended up taking about a week off from running for various reasons, but actually didn’t lose any ground in terms of distance. I ran 2.5 miles Monday – my first day back – and could easily have done three. After the first mile, I got into a groove.
* Unfortunately, it was also the first really warm day since I’ve been running, so I didn’t think to put sunscreen on even though I wasn’t wearing the hoodie over my tank top. My shoulders are very red right now. *sigh* I’ll remember from now on; it was a painful lesson.
* I came up with the best cover design at work for our annual graduation section, but my boss didn’t decide to use it until it was too late to actually do it. So we’re saving the idea for next year. On the plus side, this means I get at least part of the award for the design contest he was running to come up with a cover.
* Our food section for tomorrow has a recipe for homemade microwave popcorn, which I’m going to have to try. 
* I’m getting new running sneakers on Saturday! There’s nothing better than hitting the road in new sneakers – they always feel so comfortable compared to the old ones.
* Unfortunately, my holiday weekend will be spent at the office, including my birthday. But I do have some plans in mind so it won’t be all bad – and working Monday means I can take a four-day weekend next month without using vacation time.
Still running May 10, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Healthy Living, Running.add a comment
My iPod rocks! I tweaked my running playlist and managed to run for almost 30 minutes today – 2.25 miles total. (.85R/.25W/1.4R) Yes, I actually almost made it 1.5 miles in one stretch. I probably could have, but I ran out of tunes.
I’m going to tweak it again in the morning so the first and second sections aren’t so lopsided. Anyway, I’m thinking I can hit 7 or 8 miles total this week, which puts me easily on track for 10 during the last week of the month. (If, of course, I run the rest of this week.)
I can feel myself getting in shape though. My muscles are rarely sore in the afternoons anymore, and I don’t huff and puff nearly as much. Once I can build up a milage base, I’ll be in good shape, since tired muscles are what’s holding me back now.
Next week’s goal is to keep the same playlist as tomorrow, but try and cover more ground than I did this week. Then I’ll tweak the playlist for the last full week to add in more running time, probably enough to keep me going through June.
This week’s goal: 7 miles total
Next week’s goal: 9 miles total
May goal: 10 miles a week
June goal: 15 miles a week
July goal: Maintain 15 mile weekly total and race in July 4th 5K
Running success! April 26, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Healthy Living, Running.1 comment so far
I’m up to Day 7, and the whole 21-day rule has been great. I had a couple of days where I crunched for time, but found myself getting out there just so I could avoid starting over. Yay me!
Today was the first day I actually ran this week, thanks to some craziness. But I made it 1.5 miles. Not only that, but instead of my “run .75/walk 1.5/run .75″ plan, I did .75/.5/.75, which cut some time off the total workout and means I’m in better shape than I thought I would be.
Running with music is making a huge difference. It’s a lot easier to just tune out and let the music carry me forward. All those years of marching band training me to move in time are paying off in a completely unexpected way.
Last week I ran 4.4 miles total, which means $4.40 for my savings pocket. If I can run the same distance Friday and Saturday (my healthy eating class is tomorrow morning, so running then is out), I’ll have 4.5 miles for the week, and will have met my April goal.
My goal next week is to run the 1.5 miles at least four days. I also want to try and run a 1-mile time trial at the high school track to give me a base to measure progress from. I figure a sub-15:00 mile is good for now. That gives me 7 miles for the week.
My goal for May is to build to 10 miles a week, with one run of at least 3 miles during the week. That puts me on track (no pun intended) to run the July 4th 5K at the park. I’ll also repeat the time trial at the end of May to measure progress. Since I found my nice watch with the stopwatch function, it will be easy. (Once I get a new battery, of course.)
Day 2 April 21, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Healthy Living, Running, Uncategorized.add a comment
With nine days left in the month, I managed to run two chunks today for a total of 1.05 miles. (.6 and .45) Go me! The iPod’s battery didn’t die this time, and I decided I should have started running to music a long time ago. It’s just enough of a distraction and energizer to keep me going.
