LIBGYRL

Gin fairy

2012-01-18T19:36:00.001-06:00

Whoa, this new blogger interface may be more than my little brain can handle. It doesn't help that I am also watching another episode of the original Hawaii Five-0 (from season 11; gotta say seasons 1, ca. 4-7 are my favorite).Last week I ordered a copy of the first three years of this blog from some "print my blog" thing. Well, let me tell you, oh the typos! I knew they would be there, but when printed on paper there is no going into correct them. One of these days I should really edit these posts. Today isn't going to be that day though. Look out.Anyway, trying to get back into it again; "it" being writing and running and the like. In the meanwhile I have a cold and have gotten back to the year old tonic water (and gin) tests. I tell you: if quinine can cure malaria, then it can help my sore throat and sniffles. Right?With the unfortunate handicap of cold hampered senses of scent and smell, I recommend previously recommended Q tonic with half a shot of St. Germain elderflower liqueur and half a shot of No. 209 gin. I'm sure it would be good with a bit of lemon or lime, but I'm out of fresh citrus. Speaking of out, I used the last little bottle of Q this afternoon. When getting vegetable juice and popsicles for the throat, Schweppes tonic was on sale. Thus I can attest that the bitters in the Q nicely cut the sweetness of the St. Germain in a way Schweppes just isn't.Things are heating up on Hawaii Five-0, so I'll be off. Apologies for the unsuccessful mobile blog post. You can take a libgyrl out of the early 2000s but you can't make her successful with smart phones.2012 will be the year that this blog really comes back or officially closes down. Cheerio..

Mobile blogging

2012-01-05T05:56:00.001-06:00

On tuesday I ran in my vibram shoes. Typing on the phone still makes me write real dumb. Sorry. The end.

Don’t know much about numerology

2012-01-01T18:44:00.000-06:00

I was born on the 12th day of a month in an even numbered year. This being the case, I am assuming the year of 2012 will have to be good. Or am I presuming? Is it presumptuous, on this but the first night of the new year, to assume the goodness of what will come? Call it positive thinking or self manifestation or hubris, but I shan’t have another year like 2011.

Sure, my neighbors’ son made it to his 1st birthday. My dog turned 2 years old. I ran 3 marathons (in three Sundays consecutive). 4 children came healthfully into the lives of friends. But numbers alone do not inherently a good year make, and I am not even hinting at the market value of my house (though I did lock in a 5% refinance rate last spring, you know before the rates dropped even lower).

Ah, I’ve looked it up and definitely the verb for above is PREsume. Not nearly as amusing as ASSuming with its “accepting without proof” but more accurate in its “unjustified boldness” and “taking beforehand-ness.”

No, I don’t know anything about numerology and never even took a statistics class. I did master music theory, though, and MARC cataloging. I am no dummy and 2012, look out, I am going to dominate you. Or at least work cooperatively. I suppose I could submit politely as well, but really let’s just not repeat the mass misery of the last 365 days. Please?

[Also I miss pretending that I can write via the medium of this blog. I am going to get some home internet so that we can share in this little “plus” (uff, FAIL of a math joke attempt, minus 10 for me) of digitally negotiated social interaction again on a regular schedule]

18 miles, served cold

2011-08-29T16:52:00.004-05:00

Sure, I would buy that revenge is best served cold...but I am talking about my eggplant-makhani-feta experiment. Out of the fridge it was good. As a bed for a cooked pre-marinated tilapia filet it was yummy. The eggplant skin even dyed some of the cheese purple, which I found amusing.

Saturday BC and I ran about 18 miles in about 3 hours 20 minutes. While it felt slow it also felt good. Even though my hip and hamstring became quite unhappy, they were less painful by the end than in the middle. I have been trying to keep my heart rate as close to 150 beats per minute as possible for a long run. I averaged 158. Phew.

Turns out that for the last year or two I have surely been training all of my runs with a heart rate much too high. A resting rate for me is maybe 50. The first 14 I did this year was at 174 or so. No wonder I had been getting slower and fatter.

It has been about a month or so of the lower heart rate training. In the super July heat I was walking SO much of the time. But, when seeing BC for the first time in about a month he remarked (without prompting or financial/sexual repayment) "you have lost weight." Boom. It worked. Of course it would work more if I weren't treating stress with wine, cheese, and sugar tonight. Ah...ha.

So lesson is, don't push as hard has you can all of the time.

or

Too much stress is not a good thing.

or

Wine and cheese and sugar in moderation is okay, as long as I run tomorrow morning too.

Inspiration in an eggplant

2011-08-24T21:14:00.004-05:00

Just jumping back into it, this the world of my blog, I made some delicious eggplant tonight. Admittedly, my expectations were low for both the plant and myself. A tasty food when others prepare it, my attempts have never been particularly edible.

Maybe it was week four of the Yasso 800 repeats that made all the difference. I am up to 6 of them, though was hoping to do 8 by this week. My goal time has been 3:33 and my repeats have ranged from 3:13-3:44. I am trying to be proud that most have been under 3:30. This might mean I'll have a shot at a PR in Berlin in another month.

Shit. The Berlin marathon is just a month away.

Anyway, the eggplant. True I should have refueled with more protein, but the CSA delivers and I abide, though in this case the eggplant was a week old.

Pre-workout, slice and salt eggplant and leave in a colander in a bowl in the (off) oven. If you don't have cats who will get into it I am sure you can leave it out the oven part and just use your counter or table.

Post-workout, eat some a kashi bar in the car. Arrive home and heat some ghee to nicely hot in a wok like pan (I really like this one Le Creuset pot i have with the slopped sides).

Cube eggplant and toss in the hot ghee. Stir around. Wonder what if the leek from 2 weeks ago in the CSA is still good. Chop leek and rinse. Yes. Good. Add to eggplant and toss.

Add more ghee if pan looks to dry and eggplant is sticking too much. Sprinkle in some makhani spice blend. I dunno maybe a generous teaspoon for a medium eggplant and a small leek. My makhani masala came from India via the post and Michele (hi, M!). The label has a rainbow shiny font. I think that is why it tastes so good on everything.

Toss. Deglaze the pan with a splash (2, 3 tablespoons) old red wine from the little dripped and left a ring jar in the fridge. Stir. Lower heat, or if you have the sexy french cast iron Le Creuset just shut off the heat. Cover, let steam a little.

Crumble in a good 2" x 1" x 2" cube of Union Star feta in warm eggplant. I am sure another feta of your choice will work too. But damn, for 5 bucks a pound the WI stuff is plenty tasty for me. PS, I am very bad at distance estimations. Enjoy.

I am assuming this will be tasty warm or cold. I'll let you know after tomorrow when I don't bother the heat up the leftovers.

To Yasso and Aubergine.

Huh, should be a band name.

Listing listy list list list

2011-06-12T16:05:00.005-05:00

I skipped a triathlon this morning. It was a sprint length (.5 mi swim, 13 mi bike, 3.1 mi run) and I didn't even go even after going out of my way yesterday to pick up the packet. You see, I have ridden my bike outside only twice this year, have not done any open water swimming, haven't even had my wetsuit out of the drawer yet. I'd have swum without a wetsuit, but the season has been cold. The race directors sent a message suggesting athletes use wetsuits for the cool water. Even with the plan to participate purely has a training outing, it seemed less than optimal to race.

As I sat outside on my little patio last night, dining with my neighbors and their two boys until nearly 9pm I knew that I *ought* to have been inside lining up my gear. The company was too good, the setting sun too comfortably warm and relaxing. It was much more important to stay in that moment than freak out about proper placement of the stickers with my race number. Alas, early starts being what they are there was no chance I'd have pulled that off this morning before heading to the event site.

So the one 2011 triathlon is off the list. Signing up for a second one was contingent on having fun at this one. Seems only a little disappointing. I just can't do everything.

I'm a list maker, perhaps thanks to coming into the world with a birth sign of Virgo. Lists litter the backs of my notebooks. Scratch pieces of paper are strewn about piles of papers. I write them during meetings, waiting for food in restaurants, before bed many nights. They help me pack for journeys as well as organize round-the-town trips of errands.

Used to be that putting the todos on the back of an envelope or in an email sent to self would help me not carry them around in my busy brain. Seems to be that this isn't working anymore. My paper lists become jumbled sources of anxiety when at any given moment I know that I need to:

write cover letters
study for gre
do the dishes
wash the laundry
clean the cat boxes out
mulch the garden
put in a french drain
put in a fence
replace the grass on the front hill with low-grow-no-mow ground cover
swim
bike
run
clean bike to sell bike
paint
remodel the bathroom
call grandma
call mom
call dad
write the blog (woo, check!)
send fundraising emails
organize the kitchen cupboards
cook food for the week
knit 3 more baby hats
walk the dog
sign up for more dog obedience classes
sell all those books i don't need any more
call JB to overhaul bassoon
start yoga again
balance my budget
get the files off the old computer that is broken
get ride of the even older computer
back up the files on the current computer
and so on

Ah, what was my point and why am I just sitting here with so much to do?! Oh yeah, no more lists for me. Well. I get one per day. It can only be written the day of and can only include things that I can reasonably accomplish and lots of room to do some of the things that I want to do or to not do somethings when I don't want to.

So yesterday, once the race was timed, friend was picked up, eaten with (thumbs up for Little Szechuan), and let off at the airport....nap was had, yard work opted for, and then dinner with friends was what I wanted to do. Surely if I had been ready, even if only in mind, for the triathlon I would have wanted to get ready for that. Not this time.

Running and mental health

2011-06-06T05:59:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the wonder of blogger stats, I know that sometime since May 2009 whence the stats began someone found my fine words searching for mental health and running. This causes me to consider that while this blog is heavily about mental health and has a lot of running related content I don't think that I have explicitly written about the two. So here goes:

Running helps my mental health.

Running Day?

2011-06-01T21:14:00.003-05:00

There was a running holiday today. It is unclear to me at the moment whether I am proud or ashamed to not have participated. Either way, it just is. I forgot both running and swimming gear this morning when I departed from home. By the time I returned from cat-sitting, job-sitting, lunch-going-outing, car-driving-parking-busing-driving the urge to do yard work was too great.

So I raked up the seeds and leaves fallen from the neighbor's silver maple tree for national running day. Then I edited the online dating profile. Then I sent my resume to a dude asking for an informational interview. Now I am here in blogger-land. Again, not entirely sure if I am proud or ashamed of my day. In theory, my health depends upon me more often not bothering to assess myself or my actions in terms of ego and humility. I think there is something about that in one of the books on Buddhism that I own. Probably a book I should be reading.

Instead I started a book on metadata today. Nerd party of one. No pride. No shame. Here's the deal about being an adult that I don't think I have ever really been willing to accept. If it is my profession, I'm gonna have to read about it and probably I am not in a position to have a profession based on what I like to read. Not without getting a PhD anyway or whipping this blog into shape such that I suddenly have tons of followers and someone wants to pay me for commentary and analysis on arts, history, community, information, and pop culture. oh and literature too..and food...and maybe a little about sporty things too.

In the meantime, I know about metadata. I'm pretty good with it. I generally find it interesting, remember you are in the nerd party now. Thus I think to have the chance to maybe land a better job in metadata, I will start reading about it. If I start writing about it, will you still love me?

Madness men

2011-05-29T19:39:00.003-05:00

It is the Sunday of a classically rainy Memorial Day weekend. In years past this would be a time to hunker down at my grandparents' cabin and lament that it wasn't nice enough out to be swimming or skiing. Sometimes the rainy evenings were the best. As long as there were no bolts of lightening and not too much wind, the lake would be empty of jet skis and joy riders. We could make passes on our slalom skis to our hearts content, alternating the roles of skiier, spotter, and driver. Or at least until the sun dropped below the tree line. Then the water would feel so warm as the boat and the ropes and the toys of the day were hauled into the boat house. But for the gnats it was the perfect end to a Long Lake day.

Both of my grandparents are gone now. I still often wonder where they are. Now would be a time for a strong faith in heaven. Sometimes I think for their sake I had better believe.

Sometime last summer I started watching borrowed DVDs of Mad Men. The dresses remind me of those Grandma had in her closet and wore in the photos of her at parties. They weren't Manhattan professionals, but the did work hard to achieve a level of comfort and had a distinct appreciation for a good party. After dinner at my aunt and uncle's just now I grabbed the fourth season. By the conclusion of the third season, I was pretty well over the program but for the nagging interest in knowing what would happen next. Sure the costumes and styling is remarkable, but I don't really much like it and yet I've managed to waste another hour and half engrossed in the first three episodes of the new set.

This was a long day. Cat sitting and swimming. I'll have you know my 100 IMs are now usually 1:50 or 1:51 and the 100 freestyles still come in at 1:33 or so, even after 10 days of no swimming. Some chores and then a date. Yes, a date. I think I'd rather not report that it was rather fun lest I jinx my chances that the fellow will be keen to get together again. Now begins the wondering of whether I email next or wait and for how long. No pressure , right? There is another date this week and few other emails for which I still need to craft responses.

Ah, well so with a full family dinner digesting and the sneaking sense of pending panic, I might just return to the maddening ad men. It is a holiday and the cleaning can wait until tomorrow. Of course if I keep watching the show I might just take up whiskey drinking and smoking.

Oh good lord, I think the bulldogge just passed some gas. Maybe it is time for a walkies.

Not really TNT

2011-05-25T20:42:00.005-05:00

Instead of enjoying the setting sun, running or biking, I am sitting on the couch, eating and watching the television. It has been one of those days after two of those days.

Instead of attending the Tuesday Night Time trial, I went on the first proper date I've been on in maybe two years. Alas there were hardly any sparks. It wasn't even the kind of not-so-great-date that makes a good story.

So instead of finding a job or studying for the GRE or riding my bike or working on my house or going for a run or raising money for my charity I spent 45 minutes drinking tea with a fellow that I today I had to reply to the next date ask with the "i'm not really feeling it." It seemed the only honorable thing to do, after paying so much attention and not getting a word in edgewise.

I know it isn't the right attitude to have, but it is a sure fire way to successfully be single for most of one's adult life: be so busy with important things that spending time auditioning strangers for a starring role in your life feels like a colossal loss relative to what you could be doing. Somehow I haven't managed to turn this same perspective onto evenings of sipping wine and consuming too much bread and cheese sitting on the futon in front of a screen.

To lift my mood, the other fellows that I was actually interested in emailing, all but one have ceased replies. I can only wonder how bad that date will be next Tuesday night.

Right, wrong attitude.

Maybe tomorrow we try to improve my profile add to lure in new ass.

Continuous quality improvement, or learning as we go

2011-05-23T21:03:00.004-05:00

True dat, TriGuy, the sample profile of the other day probably frightened off the riff raff. For what it is worth, I am not using that particular self description at present. I only used it briefly in the past. I do think it yielded some ass, but with a fellow nicknamed "can't take him out in public." True dat, also, I probably could use some marketing assistance even still, lest again I end up on a date with a fellow who begins discussing scoliosis with family standing behind us in the line for beer.

Even in my olden days, the golden days of yore, I enjoyed a good personal ad. For a while online profiles were equally entertaining, a sneak peek into some other person's inner desires and sense of self. Alas, as of late most are utilitarian and every one is "laid back." While not helpful to the pursuit of ass, in answer to this online dating theme I'd like to point out that I am "uptight as hell" and "a cute bundle of nerves."

So there you have it, another dribble of some inner anger. I guess it might just boil down to my age old technique of "show 'em up front why not to like me as to prevent rejection later." Why oh why can no super hot guy or gal who is self sufficient see through my bravado and want to cure me with their swell love making?

It seems various dating services like to tout there matching algorithms. I am confused why the people I am usually matched to are so rarely the same ones that I'd pick out myself. I am the one who entered the "about my date" criteria, so why this disconnect between what I think I want and what the computer in its infinite brilliance wants for me. Maybe, much like ice cream, what I think I want isn't what is best for me?

Probably.

So we will see. Date #1 is tomorrow. In the meantime, I am desperately seeking GRE preparation material suggestions as the downloadable Powerprep II is not available for Mac. Please do not be surprised it libgyrl land devolves into a serious of quantitative comparisons and sentence equivalences.

Heart rate and heart throb

2011-05-22T09:05:00.002-05:00

Ah, I hear the familiar pitter-patter of raindrops starting again. I am instantly validated in my choice to run early this morning. The present drizzle might not make for poor running, though my shoes are still soaked through from yesterday. With the persistent high humidity on the back porch, I suspect they will start growing mushrooms shortly. Staying dry this morning was preferred.

My heart rate continues to click along quite high will running; 180 is easily achieved. I have no sense as to whether this means I need to train slower and get stronger or push harder, well, to also get stronger. Sitting with my fingertips connected to the internet you'd think I could find out, eh?

Instead I am distracted by the flurry of attention my dating profile has gotten. Please note I say distracted not enthralled. I am practicing being patient and open and attempting to not be disheartened that mostly the hits I have aren't from the peeps I'd hit on...and those don't reply, usually.

Is it intimacy avoidance? Is it that I'm only attracted to people who are "out of my league"? Does dating just suck most of the time?

Perhaps in the coming weeks I'll find the answers to these burning questions and devise some amusing way to write about them. In the meantime, I'm going to go take advantage of being the new profile on the block before the novelty wears off and even the bad spellers don't want to write to me.

PS: the count of profiles that I am certain I have seen some time in past profile life is above 5. One fellow I am sure I had met once, but he doesn't remember me...

71 dollars and i better get laid

2011-05-19T10:02:00.002-05:00

So I did it. match.com. Turns out they saved my information from 3 or 4 years ago. I'll have to remember to delete such thinks in 3 months when I remember to cancel my subscription as to not be charged another 71 dollars.

I've already spotted one fellow I remember from a past stint in the online dating realm. What I can't recall is if he and I ever met or even emailed. Getting old sucks.

In any event, I'm home "sick" to work on a couple of job applications. One is done, the other pending a cover letter reviewer. I suspect that now is not the time to be lost in a see of anxiety about why dating is SO hard for me. I need to kick my butt in gear to go into the office for the afternoon and then to the Bolder annual dinner from there. At least I got a good speed work out run done first thing this morning. Hamstring still hurts and heart rates stays so high, but at least I made it out and the mood is up.

For your reading pleasure the "letting it all hang out" "about me" section I left on match.com. I remembered the context when I noticed the saved headline:

Three weeks left and nothing to loose

polymorphously perverse ambisexual bibliophile bottom switch-potential gal enjoys long lectures, dimly lit libraries, reading academic journals naked, and polysyllabic words whispered coily, if you can manage or just coyly if you can't. seeking safe clean sane partner for all forms of deconstructionist deviance and postmodern pleasure.

also keen to meet other over-achievers interested in marathon training, recreational cycling, knitting, haute cuisine and down home cookin', sexy cars and environmental protection, social justice, cross-cultural exploration, beer, trains, existential crises, and bad jokes including puns.

TC 1 Mile, 2011

2011-05-17T19:56:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday while blogger was on the mend I ran the TC 1 mile race in 6:59.1, the third slowest time of the three times I have run it. This year the course was down hill...so really the third slowest by far (6:48 in 2007, 6:43 in 2008). It isn't surprising: two years of ironman training definitely slowed my overall running pace.

Attempting (with all my might I should add) to be positive (and I should add I am not really disappointed with the time), I was 21st among my division, I made it to the start when I was tempted to skip it entirely, I ran into some good ole running friends, AND (worst of all) I now know what pace I need to base my track interval workouts.

Really, no excuses. Next week the track workouts begin.

Why

2011-05-10T20:31:00.005-05:00

While indulging in some Blue Franc wine and too much pasta from a neighborhood restaurant in response to a terribly stressful work day during which I learned my boss has been promoted into a new position starting the end of the month (important as it is generally agreed that our team will struggle more in her absence and I will terribly miss her as a safe open understanding person in my otherwise forcibly saccharine workplace), I watched a bit of a programme (as I am wont to spell this term when) on the PBS (in reference to public broadcasting) about
youth social entrepreneurship.

[again run-on sentence FTW]

Somewhere between overfull, slightly tipsy, inspired, and jealous, I take this moment to risk self identification in the name of good causes.

In 2008 I began mentoring a young man through a local program called Bolder Options (my hyperlink key is malfunctioning: http://bolderoptions.org/). It was a pretty amazing partnership: for all our demographic differences, the 11-year old young man and I had an awful lot in common. By the time we graduated (a bit belatedly thanks to his b-ball team loosing in the finals in double overtime), we'd run three 5-K races, visited countless museums, and eaten a lot of donuts. Though alike in many regards, he like raised and I am soundly in the cake donut camp.

At graduation we each had to share a few words. Mind you, this young man got into the program for being a little too smart for his own good. Despite a very supportive family, he had mental and physical energy to burn and was getting into a bit of trouble. I proclaimed him wise beyond his years, funny, talented, and intuitive. He had the nerve to describe me as being positive and outgoing!

I tell you, if this program (or maybe just that kid, but I wouldn't have met him if not for Bolder Options) can bring out the optimist social butterfly in me, well it is doing something right. That alone might keep me among their active supporters, but the great work they do with so many young people is the real magic.

In 2008 I raised $3,200 and ran the Athens Marathon for Bolder Options. Last year I raised $4,000 (a bunch of it my own, I'll have you know, thank you very much great recession). This year I'm off to a goal of $3,500 and a 3:33 marathon in Berlin. That will bring my total raised to over $10,000. Sheesh.

Though I've run into my mentee in the time since we graduated, he is a "very busy" (his words) high school student now. No other kid could take his place, but next year I'm going back to mentoring rather than fundraising. Both are worthy causes, but I'm tired of asking:

Can you make a contribution to my Bolder Options campaign? It is tax deductible. Every large and small donation makes a big difference in helping to build leaders among our youth. Pretty please?

500 for real this time

2011-05-09T21:11:00.001-05:00

Six years to reach 500 posts. Seems like a reason to make it a good post. Maybe a bit retrospective.

Six years ago I was in the middle of my masters program and took a gig in Colorado. To keep in touch and to practice being a good 21st-century librarian I launched the blog. I was training for my second triathlon and looking for my first boy shag. There was only one cat in my life, who stayed home at my apartment.

Within these last six years, I finished that masters degree and for a short while was indeed a modern librarian with xml duties and papers to develop. Three national PCA/ACA conference presentations later, the blog rolls along on the waves of marathons and 2 ironman triathlons.

One cat begat a second: not literally of course. The apartment fit well for several of these last six years, but it then begat a house: not literally of course. Now the bulldogge snores next to me, having tried to engage both cats in the a bit of play. I in turn had try to engage the dogge in a bit of a run earlier.

So where to go from 500 posts? At some point I thought perhaps these bits of writing would launch some more serious authorship. Swimming-biking-running still entertain, but reporting on workouts has lost some luster - actually in some cases the workouts are a bit less enthralling than they had been. Alas, that is what brought so much acclaim to little libgyrl-land.

Last year on my birthday I did a little thing known as the Ironman Madison. This year on my birthday I am taking the GRE. Let it be known that I know how to party. Two weeks later I’ll run the Berlin Marathon, 3:33 for my 33rd year. I need to put in a fence at the house and perhaps beget a rain garden.

Maybe I’ll even go back in pursuit of ass.

Post 499, again, or at Aster before Marimbas

2011-05-04T19:46:00.002-05:00

It makes me a little sad that I have only posted about the film fest once before. I have seen so many great films at it over the years, though I must pause to wonder if the hiatus I took from rabid attendance coincided with the beginning years of this blog. Did you know in just five more weeks it will be 6 years old?! Where has the time gone?

Anyone reading a year ago will remember that I completely missed the 5-year anniversary! I'll still accept wood gifts as I have enough silverware and in 2008 I hardly posted at all, thus sort of making this year the 5th. I suppose perennially single I'll get my own gift, thank you very much. Actually last weekend I bought myself a repurposed Jim Beam aging barrel. What once held delicious depressant will now contain my rain water!

Oops, movie friend has arrived.

ttyl with movie review of Marimbas from Hell

Count down to 500

2011-05-02T21:29:00.003-05:00

This is post 498. That means one more and I reach 500. Stellar math skills, eh?

I am a bit overfull on Weston cider, fried pickles, and later night Korean food. What can I say, sometimes after a couple of days of feel the extra crazies overeating with friends is necessitated?

Between outings I submitted about the worst application ever. Tired and edgy I just couldn't pull together the words to convey my interest, skills, eminently employable nature (perhaps I should have reused one of these). We all know resumes do not stand well autonomously. Increasingly neither do I.

Yesterday I headed off to the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Fest, alone. With my 2-for-1 ticket in hand I was prepared to buy a stranger a pass, or consider the extra paid my donation to the organization being as I've never managed to be a proper member. Maybe it was the crack in my voice, the glint of a tear in my eye, or maybe despair emits a special pheromone, but the ticket fellow traded me a comp for my empty seat.

The shows I really wanted to see had past or were late, so in part I just picked the time Sunday afternoon when I needed out of the house away from the voices in my head. Young Goethe in Love was a bit randomly selected. Goethe! (as the German title is) indeed had a bit of Forman's Amadeus: sort of gritty, sort of flashy, sort of true, surely artistically embellished. Somehow in my program skimming, I did not note that this movie too would speak to my inner turmoil: The rejecting father, the search to find one's place as a dreamer in a world of realities, the suicides of the roommate and threat thereof by the main character.

Ah, well, all in all I rather enjoyed the flick. Seems I should really read some Goethe one of these days. Plus now I have another ticket to use and only two more nights of films and on one of which I have a fundraising meeting and the other my triumphant return to masters swimming.

MN Ironman Ride, take 3

2011-05-01T18:39:00.003-05:00

It was maybe 2003 when I first ventured to Lakeville, MN for the Ironman bike ride. To that date I had not ever ridden probably more than 15 miles, maybe 20. Ms. Sal and I signed up for the 30 mile route, the shortest option at the time. I rode my hybrid, she was on an I don't remember. I lost my chain climbing a hill. By the rest stop we were wet from sleet. The headwind on the final leg back to the high school was brutal.

I did not bother with the event again until last year. A team I formed. Half rode 100 miles, the rest the never-seeming-ending 60-something miles. Oh look I already wrote about that. Looks like last year I thought my first Ironman ride was 2004. Who knows. Details. Details.

2011 marks the 45th anniversary of the ride. I learned my pops did it in the 1980s when it was around the city lakes...if his memory is correct. Rather, i am sure he did a long ride around the lakes, but was it the MIBR? I don't have the energy to find out. Brownie points for anyone who does.

This year they added a timed Gran Fondo. I don't need to pay extra to know how slow I am this time of year. I'll stick with the ride thanks. Additionally, a 17-mile option was added. I am proud to day that I have now under my bike belt 3 of the 4 distances: 68, 30, 17. Yes, with finger tips numb from only getting the bike off the car, then the 30 mph winds and the little ice pellets in my face, I made first the first right turn for 17/30 routes and then the second for the 17 only. No shame. It was cold.

Alas I believe fate then dictates I ride the century route in 2012. To ensure this happens I am presently asking Santa Claus to bring me some proper winter biking gear: gloves, those booties for the shoes, long pants, maybe a handlebar mounting heater. In return I promise to get outside on the road on my bike at least once before arriving at the event. Heh, when trying to mount to ride to registration I had to try three times to get rolling. Who says you can't forget how to ride a bike?!

Tweed and the hip joint

2011-04-30T13:55:00.002-05:00

Magda was a high school swim star. When she and I met post college both working in a library, she was still a super swimmer. At the YWCA she was a regular at the masters swim practices. While I had done some at another location in the morning, where the vibe was cordial but limited (most everyone had to get to work, no dwadling after the cool down), from Magda I learned her group was very social. They would go get beer and socialize. She even managed a date from the team.

He was a doctor, or a medical student, or a medical rep. To protect the innocent I'm feigning a bad memory. Anyway, after a few dinners with drinks and movie outings in addition to regular pool time with the team, he presented my friend with a gift. A token, you will, of his budding affections. [Sadly by that time her interest was waning, such a classic tale of modern romance]. It wasn't a ring or a necklace. Not even simple flowers or chocolate. Nope, Magda got a replacement hip joint. I am sure her response was much more measured and polite than my inclination (well from the distant vantage where I wouldn't be hurting anyone's feelings) would be to giggle.

I wonder if he hoped they'd be together so long that she would someday use his replacement hip. Maybe he fantasized that after the honeymoon and the children and the move into the mature living center that Magda would fall. He'd have just the thing as she was rushed to the hospital. "Honey, remember when we were just 23 and I gave ...?"

I hit up the masters swim again this morning. Different coach, different workout (thank goodness only 25 of fly today!):

200 warm up
100 kick
oh dear I think I have already forgotten some of the details
5 x 100 on 1:45
2 x 3 x 100 with 20 seconds rest after each 100: first 100 moderate, second 50 non-free stroke + 50 free, third 100 sprint
3 x 100 IM (though our lane only did 1 of those as to catch up with the faster lanes)
600 free build and descend
2 x 50 slow as cool down

We did something like 2600 in our lane, so clearly I missed something in the recap. Oh well.

More fly than my whole life

2011-04-28T06:17:00.003-05:00

A brief one, because I am running late this morning already.

Masters swim (first session of this that I've done since 2004 or so)
400 Back (because some master wrote on the white board, swim coach retribution hasn't changed I learned)
4 x 100 MI (reverse order IM so free, breast, back, fly - extra hard for many of us as the fly is last not first)
200 "broken" fly (so we could stop at the ends of the pool as much as we wanted, but no cheating on the stroke while swimming)
6 x 100 of: 25 fly, 25 underwater, 50 strong kick
600 "roller coaster" - our lane made this into (no stops) 75 easy, 50 strong, 25 sprint repeat for times (no stops, got it).
2 x same patten with 10 sec after each section, but all section a little bit stronger
100 cool down

[i was early so did an extra 250 warm up]

450 of fly in that work out! I've barely done more than that in my life to date!

And now because of the sniffles, sore core and shoulders, and slight residual effect of sleeping aid, I'd rather be in bed but I must hustle on to the dreary day.

Stalling, but raunchy style

2011-04-26T20:27:00.006-05:00

and by raunchy I mean it is time to bring on more bad romance. Do beware that there will be some cussing in what follows, possibly even excessive cussing.

I haven't many exes, possibly only 2. I count them by the relationship lasting more than 4 dates. Nearly 2 years for the one, only about 9 months on the other. The first, after a respectable period of non-speaking, is still a dear friend. The second was supposed to be a friend.

But I ask you, does a friend reply to the "hey you poked me on fb and i see you are engaged congrats" message with "oh that was a slip of the finger, technology is dumb?" Excuse me?! This after about the last of our interaction was you proposing a booty call, then changing your mind and making other plans before I even had a chance to reply (with no of course)?! No, technology isn't dumb, you are.

(wow, i haven't let loose with one fucker! yet. the pre-composition of this post on the bus ride home was much more virulent. or do i mean violent? either way, fucker)

Furthermore, I never let it slide that remember early in the action (oh but there had been action) you came to my work cube to offhandedly mention that you were maybe getting back together with your previous gf? Bad form! Fuck off, man.

So I suppose truth be told graciousness was never the attraction. Style. Good looking. Way way smart. Never particularly gracious. Like the time I ran my first marathon and you couldn't be bothered to oh see me on the course, come to the celebration buffet, and in fact made me come visit your stank ass apartment and then complained my blisters were gross? Fucker. FUCKER!

Um, yeah, blog yelling feels okay in this case. Let us be honest with a little self analysis too. Am I so mad at him? Naw. Just pissed that I opened the door for exactly the kind of response I knew as much to expect (but it has been like 2 years, thought maybe someone would have grown up). He's engaged and can't even say hey thanks and I'm the one sitting alone again in some nervous spin stalling from writing a cover letter or making a business plan or getting me some ass. Damn. Fuck me.

P.S. This is probably a good time to remind everyone that in this blog I sometimes exaggerate for effect or for whatever other reason strikes my fancy. Sometimes I spin stories (lie, write fiction however you best understand). Sometimes I do state the truth. I come from a time when the internet was more about persona then person, so just in case you were wondering and just cuz I want you to remember. Cheerio~

Sneezing fit

2011-04-26T05:58:00.002-05:00

It was the middle of the night. Wakened as I was by, I could not help be laugh at, the bulldogge sneezing fit. Mirth gave way to some concern as she sneezed so hard as to bang into the wall.

Then the insomnia set in again, perhaps as a reminder. Don't get too comfortable, friend, trusting in the last week of decent sleep (thank you reluctantly accepted pills) - the restlessness can return any time, I believe is the lesson to be taken to heart.

After deep breathing and progressive relaxation proved futile and the internet of little solace, I tried just reading. Did I mention I have been pleasantly enthralled by Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain? I think I did.

Much like Pop Culture Lab signifies one end of what I feel like I ought to be doing (creative, intelligent, educational), Cold Mountain has been feeding the opposite. No, I am not saying I want to live during the Civil War, or directly in any war. Yes, I know that it is easy to gloss over the inevitable stench and points of pain to be had in subsistence living. But still when Ada writes to a cousin, she explains what I crave:

Working in the fields, there are brief times when I go totally without thought. Not one idea crosses my mind, though my senses are alert to all around me. ...I suspect it is somehow akin to contentment. (p.326-327)

Surely some of this can be achieved in modern living: endurance training, for example, pushes the mind to the side of other physical senses. But, it is really just entertainment.

Oh, I don't know. I suppose what I long for is to be closer to the means of my sustenance and the natural world. Need food? Go to the big box warehouse, or, plant it and tend it and pick it and preserve it.

Well and thanks to the modern world (which provides us this exiting blog based relationship), I see that my writing time is up for today in favor of hours of meetings and superficial chatter. Yea.

Stalling

2011-04-25T06:07:00.004-05:00

It is 6-oh-8 am and I'm stalling. Options? Run, Bike, Do the Dishes, Apply for a job. True, I did pay 2 bills just now and this counts as productive. Otherwise though, I've fallen into a clean out email spiral of just plan avoidance.

This does mean that I discovered a new and brilliant piece of work at Pop Chart Lab. As much as I admire the grand taxonomy of beer and the new omnibus of super powers, the Migratory Patterns of Fresh Princes is perhaps my favorite. No, I am not partial to fresh princes, but I do love maps and nature documentaries. The former is on the poster with good detail. The later often talk about migration.

A colleague at work sent the link to the rap names taxonomy a couple of months ago. She thought it was funny. I think it is amazing. While sent as a piece of small distraction, it has become a sign post of what I should be doing rather than what I am. I ought to be using my intelligence and creativity and knowledge of both pop and un-pop to produce something that engages and inspires, or at least entertains, and maybe even enlightens.

Instead I'm selling out my powers for good to a giant organization that says it wants what I have, but then denies the conditions for it to foster. More frustrating still, when faced with best practices or options opts to maintain the status quo. Why'd 'ya hire me then?

Lacking the power to up and quit, to join a doctoral program, or find some smart, savvy, responsible small company to join, I acquiesce to the corporate beast. My stomach hurts.

Go look at the posters. They are more fun than this.

i scream you scream

2011-04-21T20:39:00.006-05:00

Damn I am cold. P-dawg and I ran this evening, which was good. Then I ate two pieces of pita (one would really have been enough, but it was warm): one with kasseri cheese, avocado, and ajvar and the second just dipped in Holyland spinach hummus. The post run sweaty chill set in shortly there after. No huddling under the covers has yet ended it.

Vites fell into my trap of sweets suspense: Volun-tiramisu was the Ben and Jerry's I bought the yesterday. It is only available at Target (which I believe per a social media policy I am supposed to disclose is currently my employer). Maybe six months ago I tried the Volun-berry, also a tgt exclusive. In that period I've succumb to the call of the Boston Cream Pie and some limited edition sports star endorsed maple flavor, which I am too ambivalent about to look up the proper name. Search ambivalence aside, the latter was the best of the four.

Gotta say, B&J hasn't been winning me over lately. The base flavor of the tiramisu ice cream is good, but the nuggets of rum-cocoa-ladyfingers are just weird. By weird I mean the texture is too tough and the taste unremarkable. As I mentioned last post, I only buy not-previously-tasted kinds of ice cream. With only ne spoonful of the boston cream pie, the unpleasantness reminded me that I had tried it before, but apparently repressed the metallic yet bland flavor (thumbs up on the sparse yet rich chocolate bits, to be fair).

My curious mind wanted to know, how many times has libgyrl reflected on frozen dairy desserts. Any guesses? 17 posts according to the google search for "ice cream" spanning WIBA 2009 to yesterday. I am not surprised. Actually, including today, 18/491 is 3.67% of my blog. Sort of seems low to me, if I am going to be honest.

Last year I cleverly inserted the google analytics into this blog, just before blogger rolled out the stats tab. Since then I've been pretty entertained by seeing what the internet is reading of libgyrl. 3.67% ice cream. Wonder how often "existentialism" or "run intervals" show up? Not that these are the WWW search terms that bring the world here. Nope, over the last month the keywords to find me are: “‘chicago marathon’ qualifying times 2011,” “debauch handjob,” “fargo marathon race report,” and “handjob in my car.”

On this proud note, I am going to finally try to warm up in bed.

490th post: typing from under the cat

2011-04-20T11:40:00.003-05:00

My bulldogge is snoring in the other room; my cat is purring in my lap. As much as I have lately been feeling trapped by my animals (why can't i just take a teaching gig in brazil for a year?!), I cannot imagine life without them. Or at least without their added body heat and sonorous contributions to my home landscape. Of course, if I were in Brazil I probably would not need the body heat and I could always make a mix-tape of bully snorts, kitty howls, and the thumping of any of the them running around.

Monday is the day I should have stayed home sick. Yesterday I coughed through the day; my boss's boss even asking "who is in [her] cube? such a manly cough." Today the throat is still sore and the cough persists. I slept until nine and then went to buy cough drops.

I stared at the other over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines. So expensive! Until recently when everyone at work as been regularly down with a cold (can we say stress comprimised immune systems?), the idea of dayquil or nyquil or anything other than a cough drop never crossed my mind. Got a cold? Sleep, drink tea, consume broth and tomato juice and orange juice and zinc tablets, sleep some more and if the throat is sore maybe indulge in a frozen treat.

I bought more cough drops and some orange juice and a new ben and jerry's flavor (i'm only allowed to get flavors i've never tried before, a small game to keep my ice cream consumption within reason).

Now I'm going to go back to sleep. Next to the noisy bulldogge. Dream of Brazil.

I dunno, but this isn't it

2011-04-16T15:26:00.003-05:00

The morning was to begin with a run, but in the night my slightly sore throat became a very sore throat with a stuffed up nose. I slept in.

Taking cats to the vet is frequently a challenge. Today was no different. Scratches and howling and sweating and swearing. We get to the vet. Rex pees in fear while sitting in my lap. Poor cat. Poor my pants.

My marathon training plan calls for a long run today. My training friends are busy and I have a cold, so instead I'm at the coffee shop in my 'hood surrounded by cute couples trying to jump start my personal reinvention.

Another week, another 20% loss in the value of my house

2011-03-04T06:29:00.003-06:00

Work has been hard this week. By hard I mean overwhelming, stressful, annoying, frustrating, and completely unsatisfying. It has made my head hurt and my stomach ache. I have not been exercising, though I know it would likely make me feel better. I think you might agree that the prospect of running in the twilight over icy sidewalks is even less appealing when you feel woozy. At least it has been for me.

But one day of the work week remains so fingers crossed this is the beginning of the end and thus the beginning of the beginning...

Oye, clearly it is time for the weekend. In the meantime I give you this "cake-based" link (they usually write about bikes too):
http://www.troisv.cc/2011/03/interruption-to-our-usual-programming.html

Bah.

Oh, ps: I signed up to run the TCM 1 mile race in May. I've run it twice before...should look up those times and start training to beat them, eh?

Also, I nearly entered the Kona Ironman lottery. Luckily, after much searching (seriously race website designers, please don't make me hunt and resort to google searching for your event date when i'm already on your event site), realized it is the weekend of Chicago Marathon. Whew, knowing my luck I'd have my spot for Chi-town and then win a spot for Kona. Incidentally for those who care, Chicago registration is full in a record 31 days. What the hell? Where have the days gone when only a few of us nut cases ran marathons?

5 workouts forward, 2 back

2011-02-27T10:44:00.004-06:00

Two weeks ago I was on a roll. 5 workouts. I think some regular posting.

Last week I was back in the rut: 2 workouts, 3 if we count the heavy snow shoveling between Sunday and Monday, and but 1 lonely sad post.

I did however cook my work chicken, vegetables, and brown rice to eat for most of the week. So now, if I can only combine the regular training and the proper home cooking and a little more writing...well I believe that will be the proverbial spot to hit.

So Sunday is starting pretty well. Apple and a swig of low fat chocolate milk (diluted with nonfat plain cow milk) before heading to the pool Emu has left the Twin Cities, but Coach P. was back after a few weeks away thanks to moving and having many family visitors. It was especially good for Coach to be there as this was the week my 10 x 50 repeats landed on the 50 second mark. Without him expecting and encouraging I'd have quit at 6.

Let me explain a bit more. See it usually takes me 42-45 seconds to swim a 50 meter lap. When the interval is at 60 seconds, I then earn myself 15-18 seconds of rest. 55 second intervals felt pretty reasonable, but tough. Less rest at some point equates to a slower lap. By the 4th or 5th repeat today, I had only enough time at the end of my lap to touch the wall with a hand, look up at the clock, hear Pete say "5 more" and take off again. Ouch.

But I did it! Woo. Somehow, I need to translate my willingness and dare I admit enjoyment of swim intervals to run intervals. If I took anything away from GWU two weeks ago, it is the strong reminder that to run faster I (really anyone) need to do run interval workouts. Do note I did get more out of the sessions, but this was my a number one "learning" (at my current job we always talk about "learnings" as in "what did we learn" when did it go out of vogue to use the ACTUAL GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT noun LESSON? pardon this small vent of work place stress steam.).

So with our 10 x 50s on 50 seconds done, and my missing contact found in my goggle (thank goodness, note to self: carry spare glasses in your gym bag just in case you ever really lose a contact in the pool and have to drive home looking out of only one eye), we did an easy 50, then a 500, then upped the 100 repeats to 9 on 2 minutes. Cool down. Coach hadn't been in the pool for nearly a month. I was toasted from the 10 50s and the big (last of the) gin and tonic from the night before. We cooled down and that was that.

As I bought a new tri bike last fall** and my swimming is improving, I need to spend a little precious internet time looking for a cheap triathlon or two to do this year. It would be a shame to only run two marathons.

**goodness, I thought for sure I had a post from last fall about this indulgence to which I could hyperlink refer you, but it appears not. Guess my assignment for tomorrow is an ode to my new bicycle.

Smells like ennui

2011-02-20T15:29:00.000-06:00

It is Sunday and I smell of chlorine even though the uptown pool as a fancy new filtration system that reduces the amount of chemicals required for safe public swimming. I have always been fond of the smell of chlorine. Only in the last year or so have a I really equated the slight wave of comfort that passes through me thanks to the smell of a rag accidentally over bleached in the wash or the scent of the back of my hand even hours after a pool swim.

My parents, who were 24 at the time, put me in infant swimming lessons when I was I suppose 6 months old. Someday I’ll have to get the photos to copy or scan. Mom with her dark hair and svelte postpartum first child body in a yellow bikini sitting on the side of the pool. Dad’s hair looking red. I think maybe even my maternal grandmother was on the side lines, dressed in blue trousers and a plaid shirt. Like my paternal grandmother, I think she never learned to swim.

There is a photo of me, like my mom, in a yellow suit but a one piece big enough to cover my baby diaper, crossing the space between my parents in the water. As I try to recreate it in my mind, there must be a couple of photos in the a series. Me under water. Me smiling after breaking the surface. I wonder if I can remember then or if now I simply create the sense of peace and trust in my folks that I want to have had then.

And now as some tears of longing spill, they raise the calming aroma of chlorine from my cheeks. Ahhh. Bittersweet.

That first baby swim class and most of my subsequent childhood swim lessons were in the pool at the hospital where I was born. I do not recall my dad ever being there later. Mom and eventually my siblings and I would head downtown and park at a meter or in the ramp across the street. Stepping into the pool area was always overwhelming with heat and humidity. The tiling was all yellow in the viewing area over looking the pool. We’d turn right and then left down the still yellow tiled hall. A few stairs down toward the locker rooms. Why do I think we got away once or twice with throwing a bouncy ball against the wall to see it ricochet off the tile, surely threatening the health of nearby eyeballs?

Sometimes we would get food in the hospital cafeteria. I remember trays and the temptation of parfait glasses with jello or pistachio pudding and whipped cream. Sometimes, it must have been when we parked the car or van in the ramp, we would traipse across the skyway into the office building. In the lobby there was (or still is?) a card, gift, convenience shop. We could pick candy. I liked the Chuckles, except not the black ones. My mom would eat those. She liked black licorice. I wonder if she still does.

Some time or place between my first swimming lessons the void between my parents grew much wider. Infinitely wider. I have long since ceased to break the surface between them smiling.

After my swim this morning, with no cafeteria style pistachio pudding in sight, I grabbed a coffee in a paper to go cup and a day old peanut butter cookie. If I am ever to loose my winter weight I really must remember to pack a healthy protein snack. Zeli and I took a walk and the snow began to fall. I’ve spent this Sunday on the couch with the animals, knitting and watching Hawaii Five-0 (season 9 is getting a bit ridiculous), and reading Stephen Elliott’s The Adderall Diaries. The later has likely responsible for plucking the somber chord which is still reverberating in my living room as I write.

But more on that some other time. Snow has been falling for several hours and I want to make a pass at shoveling the walkways before it is dark.

Music to spin by

2011-02-17T19:12:00.006-06:00

The above is a picture from about my favorite CD for solo indoor biking, though I am pretty sure the tune is not actually on this album. Oh well, if your foot is tapping rapidly by now, as it should be, you can guess why this band is both impressive and great for getting your bike cadence up, up, up!

I had a professor in college who was from Bosnia. Her class in Balkan music introduced me to Romani music and I've loved it more and more with every hearing. Minja has since passed away. I rather miss her, though we hadn't had much contact in the last year or two of her (kept secret) illness. It was at the Ivo Papasov show at the Cedar Riverside that I saw her with husband and two toddlers.

On of the aspects of Balkan music with which I fell in love was the experimentation and combination of traditional or folk music with popular new elements.

This appears to be a relatively recent self satirizing example:

Anyway, while I lament not being a good dancer enjoy a couple other youtube examples of Fanfare Ciocarlia.

With images by Dutch(?) students:

One of my favorite tunes:

Live!

Going back to school

2011-02-16T19:45:00.002-06:00

On Sunday I attended the 4th annual Gear West University. It felt a bit silly to be going. In the time between registering and now I had more or less decided that tris would be out of the budget for the year. Consoling myself with the thought that I can always train and pretend that I am racing, I headed out to Long Lake for some serious schoolin'.

By the middle of the first session or likely even earlier I was pretty stoked again to get my rear back in gear. Motivation has been lacking for sometime now, so this was a nice feeling.

While most of the participants ate, mingled, and did some yoga, 5 of us went for a nice 5K jaunt. The weather was so warm I had to take my coat off! [Insert, you know you are from Minnesota when it is 40 in February and you run around with short sleeves and no coat].

Including Sunday, I have logged 1.5 hours of biking or running this week. While this is utterly unimpressive compared to recent training accomplishments, given my malaise of late the total is extra ordinary.

So spin class in the morning, back in the saddle as it were. Still no clear financial support for any more race entries for the year, d'oh. At least training has its own merits.

In case you are wondering

2011-02-14T18:02:00.004-06:00

In case you are wondering how I am spending my valentine's day evening, I will tell you.

Here I sit in my office/junk room, borrowing the neighbor's internet. I am missing beer release with BillyP and the golden birthday of my friend's now 14 year old son, to whom i used to be "favorite babysitter." Thank you, migraine.

As water, vitamins, juice, coffee, advil, warm food, more water, more advil, have not soothed the aching, throbbing right side of my head (only on the right side today, just for fun), hell I'm having a strong gin and tonic and some left over chocolate cake. Can't bleeping hurt...the head, maybe my expanding arse.

Anyway, I return to the reviews of the Gins and the Tonics. Hands down, the Q tonic wins when coupled with the Rogue Spruce Gin. Q has this nice slight sweetness and a little spice. I looked at the ingredients tonight: it does include bitters (with the organic agave and quinine). With the extra piney-ness of the Spruce Gin, the bitter is perfection.

TriGuy's Canada Dry tonic held up well. Distinctly less sweet than Market Pantry Diet. Fever Tree was about on par with Canada Dry for sweetness and level of carbonation. It is however sweetened with sugar rather than corn syrup (as is C.D.) and my palate appreciates that subtle flavor difference. For one G&T I'd splurge for Fever Tree over Canada Dry. For a full night (or preferrably sunny summer afternoon) of sipping, the price difference might lend me to pick up the cheaper tonic in the plastic liter over Fever Trees more spendy but charming single serving glass bottles.

More about Gin next time, but suffice it to say, if you like the pine in gin which I know many of you do not.... but for those of us who DO, Rogue's Spruce Gin is as they say da'bomb.

This brief spin down food stuffs blogolane has reminded me how much I really love the culinary arts. Not to fret, I attended Gear West University to learn how to tri to tri better (punny, ha!). Sporty fans, you need not hold your breath for long (actually practice that, it is good to have that control), I'll write about getting inspired again to train and race too.

Happy Thanks For Rubbing Your Happy Coupled Lovey Dovey Shit in My Face Day!

;0)

Dobrou Chut', Zeli

2011-02-12T06:49:00.002-06:00

Today I am beginning yet another somewhat non sequitur life adventure. Seriously, I've been from babysitter to bassoon player to academic music librarian to ethnomusicologist to orchestra librarian to cafe cook to just find me a job librarian to still babysitter to tea seller to running shoe seller to academic cataloger to corporate taxonomist. You'd suspect I might be tired.

I've also wanted to be a teacher, a marine biologist, an archaeologist, a psychologist, an author, and a kept wife.

But today, I begin an experiment in dog treat maker. Maybe this will blossom into a thriving small business of wholesaling gourmet treats and a retail shop offering both dogge delicacies and human yum-yums that has wifi and allows people and canines to, in the parlance of our time, hang out (but in because in MN there are a lotta months when hanging out at the outdoor dog park has some serious limits).

Wish me luck. Good news is I am a rather successful baker. If I can make a mean lemon souffle, how hard can some dog biscuits be?

Oh and cat lovers, I intend to pamper my felines too. Rex will help himself to the first batch unless I send him to the upstairs during preparation (likely exactly what I will do... you have no idea how aggressive that little dude is. Yesterday while reaching for vitamins he stole my peanut butter toast! cute little f%cker)

Off to find dessicated liver...and go to the gym. Too many hobbies!

Complimentary Burger Consulting

2011-02-09T05:44:00.006-06:00

My #BoM (burger of the month) suggestions for @myburgerusa (thank you Twitter for launching my complimentary burger consulting career):

Patty's Patty (for March, no doubt) - a burger topped with slices of corned beef and a cabbage slaw
PopEi! - a burger topped with spinach (sauteed in olive oyl!) and a fried egg
The 2 Ring Circus - a burger crowned with a grilled pineapple ring and an onion ring, with pepper jack cheese and a cherry on the top
Go West, Buckaroo! - a burger with scoop of cowboy caviar and (a side of?) baked beans
Go East! - veggie burger covered in korma sauce and one hot pepper
The Libgyrl 1 - a turkey burger with a roasted sweet potato slice and a cranberry chutney (would probably work on beef, oh and some cotswold cheese too)
The Libgyrl 2 - a bison burger with blue cheese, fried onions, roasted tomato, and garlic aioli
Dobrou Chut', Zeli* - a burger adorned with sauerkraut, bacon, and horseradish mustrad (*translates to Bon Appetit, Zeli (my doggge) so this could be called: The Czech Burger)

Now I am hungry! If you are downtown Minneapolis and in the skyway be sure to check out MyBurger and see if they take my suggestions.

A small pause to honor peanut butter

2011-02-07T19:34:00.002-06:00

In the last 46 or so hours I have eaten the following instances of peanut butter:

1) Parker's peanut butter on toast
2) Isles Buns vegan peanut butter and chocolate chip scone
3) A handful of Planters dry roasted nuts
4) Peanut butter M&Ms in rice krispie treats (made by libgyrl herself)
5) Elvis Freshly at MyBurger: bananas, bacon, and yes, peanut butter on a burger (the PB that dripped on the fries was a very pleasant surprise
6) A small leftover krispie with PB MM (at the neighbors...I know better than to keep these in the house with me!).

If I disappear, please look for a large peanut...I likely will have turned into it.

MMMMM

Solo Sunday Swimday; PB Scone; Greatest Toy Ever

2011-02-06T10:29:00.006-06:00

200 warm up
200 side kick, no board
100 "get on your side" drill
50 regular, implement what you just drilled
10 x 50 on 55 seconds...except at 8 I realized they were SO easy because instead of subtracting 5 seconds on the clock I was adding. d'oh!
500 - 8:20 a wee bit faster
8 x 100 on 1:55 (okay number six was on the 2 min): 1:32!; 1:34, 1:36, 1:37, 1:38 (why I gave myself 5 extra seconds rest), 1:36!, 1:37, 1:36
200 cool down

totals: 2500 yards; 55 minutes; heart rate average 155; 497 calories.

Without Emu and with many things to do today I thought I'd could find the will to skip the siren call of Isles Buns. No such luck, and boy am I glad. They have never disappointed me, but today there was an extra special scone: peanut butter chocolate chip. There would have been a time that I would have been also extra extra excited that it was vegan. Ah, it was still slightly warm and perfect with my small cafe au lait.

Sadly, Zeli and I will miss TriGuy and his pack running. After this, I must register for the Chicago Marathon. There are too many tax papers to collocate for tax processing. Then there is treat making for Super Bowl parties. Then there is pre-party babysitting for the neighbors. Whew and then there are three parties at which to make appearances.

Z-dogge did get some running in yesterday while we checked out the ice biking and skijoring at the City of Lakes Loppet. Today's dogge exercise consisted of 2 x 20 minute sets (one before and one after swimming) of the following:

As for the Super Bowl:

Go, Pack, Go!

2011, one month gone

2011-01-30T15:00:00.002-06:00

January 2011 has been unnecessarily challenging. Seriously, as if cold and dark weren't enough of a challenge, there was work stress and family stress and more work stress and then more cold and dark. Many folks 'round these parts have been adding snow to the stress list. Personally, the snow has served as a slight pick me up. What can I say? I like it. It brightens things up. Shoveling is a nature provided workout. Granted the ice dams on my house are a small source of stress, but "raking" the roof is kind of fun too.

So the Packers are in the SuperBowl next weekend. Valentine's day is approaching. I just paid $2,200 to repair my car. February is definitely has a lot to offer this 2011.

Emu and I swam this morning. I built a nice 2300 yard swim. Neither of us were really "feeling it" as they say. During dry land core work we decided that 4 weeks of progressive swim workout increases warranted a week of active recovery. So before heading off for breakfast at Common Roots (I had some delicious apple latkes with perfectly over medium eggs, a white cheddar bernaise sauce, and a side of greens), we did this :
200 warm up
200 kick
150 sides drill
10 x 50 on 55 seconds - this interval is getting a bit tougher!!
50 easy
250 moderate
2 x 25 super spin your arms - rapid arm turn over drill to try and get my slow twitch muscles to at least pretend to have fast twitch cousins
2 x 25 no breath
100 cool down

1550 yards - 45 or so minutes - 400 some calories

Having an easier swim was nice. I then had energy to take Zeli dogge to Lake Calhoun for a run a few hours later. This has been my plan for the last 3 weeks. Usually too tired from swimming and with the weather colder than today we end up at the nearby dog park. Today we ran. At first she trailed behind me. Then we chased down some walkers. Then she insisted we not get too far ahead of them. About half way around the lake a group of four runners came by. Boom! Just what we needed. Zeli was ON. She kept me with them the remainder of the way. 8:15 miles was the pace according to the one fellow. Thankfully they didn't mind us joining along. We came upon the car location and I was glad to stop (what? I am not in prime running shape!). Zeli was VERY sad not to carry on with her new found running friends.

Then we stopped at Yum! Their plain scone is okay. Why I didn't get the coconut cake, the item I wanted to try and the justification for stopping, I do not know. Probably I wanted to spend less and eat in the car. A scone fits these requirements better.

Here's to month number 2 in 2011. More running is in store. Less stressing is the plan. Ah, and the Packers winning that big game next weekend. ;)

Home spinning

2011-01-27T06:14:00.002-06:00

Finally! I set up my new tri bike on the trainer at home over the weekend. The monumental effort of changing out one small piece on the rear tire set up took months, partly because for some of those months I had no intention of riding on the trainer.

Last night I managed 4 songs on the Queen Greatest Hits album before sit bone irritation and boredom drove me to eat dinner and then knit. I should be riding now or at the Y for masters swim session, but some lingering issues from the course I taught in the fall have taken over the morning time. Ahhh, breathing, soon my connection to _______ course at ______ college will be officially over. At which point I will probably wish I was still teaching (I do rather like it and if my course evaluations are any indication I am pretty good too). The grass is always greener, they say, on the other side.

So, new bike set up, new blog font, it is a new day!

Insomnia, Insomnia, Hurray for Insomnia

2011-01-26T00:15:00.003-06:00

Anyone who pays attention to the posting times on my posts (which is surely all of you, duh), will know that it is very odd for me to post at 12:am.

Thank you over active mind which will not stop fretting long enough for me to fall asleep and escape the fretting mind.

Thank you $2200 car repair for having tipped the general level of stress and life malaise into acute existential crisis and despair.

As to some kind reader comments of the last month or two that I haven't express addressed, here goes:

Anonymous - why yes I am growing my hair longer, though at present it is still short by most standards yet is already making me a little batty (let us pause momentarily to reflect on is it my hair that maketh me nuts or was nuts a preexisting condition. ah i think we all know the answer to that)

Anonymous (the same? who knows it is the beauty of anonymous) - why haven't I posted any bad dates recently? first let me thank you for ASSuming that it is because I have regular good dates. secondly let me correct you to know that I haven't had ANY dates lately (can we say part of existential crises? all together now: "ex-is-ten-tial"). I did run into a bad date the other day in the skyway. This encounter reminded me that I haven't shared *that* particular tale. So, you might be in for a new installment of Bad Dates from the Past.

Rokupic - I hope you are appreciating some increased focus on food in libgyrl-land. I know I am! Plenty more is planned for living to eat segments, like a review of recently consumed frozen pizzas. There have been a few too many of those lately, thank you very much ennui.

TriGuy - Canada Dry regular will be added to the 70% review. Pert near the time you posted the recommendation I was thinking that I should have a non-diet non-specialty tonic in the trials. Considering present malaise I might lay off the gin for a while...or maybe I just need more!

Folks, thanks for sharing the last 10 minutes of insomnia time with me. I'll be off now to attempt to not think about not thinking as to not stress about how I am still thinking but really don't want to think ....

70%, part two

2011-01-24T18:38:00.003-06:00

A few days ago, I began telling the tale of Gin and Tonic. They are really the best of friends...except when Gin runs off with Vermouth. Eek.

At least for now Gin and Tonic are on good terms. Martini & Rossi have been relegated to the top cabinet. Being short it is hard for me to aide in an illicit interactions without calling upon the sturdy reliable step stool.

In my efforts to confirm the anticipated superiority of the specialty tonic waters:
Q
Fever Free*
I purchased some "regular" tonic for comparison.

Whilst at a common differentiated discount retailer, I was able to only locate a "lite" version. And so, with contact cleaner, tissues, and a 99-cent thank you card in my basket too, I purchased the Market Pantry Diet Tonic Water.

First, I should begin with the Gin, but I am building suspense (can't you tell?!) on that topic. It is a special new kind of Gin which I have not had before. I am also waiting to tell *my* tale of Gin. It involves dearly departed loved ones, so you might want to stock up on some "hankies" or facial tissue.

In the meantime and as my cat is climbing half onto my lap and the rest on to my laptop, I have this to report:
Diet Tonic Water (of the variety listed above) = way too sweet. I might even say it was a bit saccharine. Turns out the sweetener is saccharin!

Sure if the Gin is strong and flowing and the lime is plentiful, maybe an overly sweet tonic isn't too bad. In comparison though to the spritely flavor palate provided by Q and Fever Tree, it was really disappointing. Any finer qualities of the Gin were lost to the heavy level of carbonation and faux-sugar.

So there you have it. 70% part 2. Expect at least part 3...and 30% too.

*Ha! This is actually called Fever Tree. Whoops. I think that is the Gin talking ;)

Sunday Funday Swimday, no way!

2011-01-23T11:18:00.002-06:00

It was -7 degrees Fahrenheit this morning when I went to pick up Emu and his girl. It should be 11 by 2pm. This is good because in addition to the killer swim work this morning I am going to run today. Run not so much as a work out, but as a get the bulldogge outta the house and burning some energy outing. We both have been inside too much. Bless her bully heart, she isn't naughty when not getting enough exercise, but I feel that we are pushing the limits of this after another week of limited walkies and park trips.

Ah, but to what has been accomplished:

Dry land work = 30 seconds of each below in succession (thank you watch timer!), 2 times through the list: Butt lifts; Bicycles; Back Plank; Left Side Plank; Left Side Lifts (using abs not quads); Front Plank; Child's Pose; Right Side Plank; Right Side Lifts.

In da' pool =
200 warm up
200 kick
2 x [100 IM, 2 x 50 drill]
10 x 50 free on 60 seconds
50 easy
1 x 500, which turned into 550 because I counted lap 3 twice = 9:13
50 easy
7 x 100 on 2 minutes [1:35, 1:36, :136, 1:39, 1:37, 1:38, 1:37]
50 easy
2 x 25 no breathing
cool down.

1:20 total time. HRM average 152. 616 calories burned.

Then we went to Isles Buns. The multiberry coffee cake was to beautiful to resist. I ate half...there and the rest just a few minutes ago! It has blackberries, blueberries, and fresh sliced cranberries (with walnuts). The zing of the cranberry was really perfect.

Spin class on Tuesday.
Masters swim on Thursday.

Gotta get running....

Bolder Takes Berlin

2011-01-20T06:15:00.003-06:00

It is official! My favorite non-profit organization, Bolder Options, is going to Berlin!!

To be clear, the adults who commit to raising enough money to put 1 youth through the program for 1 year go to Berlin and run the marathon.

In 2008 I raised over $3,200 and ran in Athens.

Last year I raised $4,000 and biked 200 miles on the Big Island of Hawaii and ran the Honolulu marathon.

While my money base might prefer a year of rest and recovery, for Berlin I will be at it again. Time to get even more creative for how to encourage small and large contributions to a mentoring program that helps so many young people.

Brunch for Bolder (I make yummy food, you come eat and have fun, make a donation sometime)
Babysitting for Bolder (I tend carefully to your next generation, you go out and have fun, donate)
Mercedes will do a couple of Premier Design parties for Bolder

Hmmmm.....what else?

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Oh I am so so excited.

Ah, the running goal. Over the last 2 years my marathons have gotten progressively slower. Blame it on Ironman training. Honest. The training for an Ironman is not the same as it is for a FAST marathon.

On September 25th, in Berlin (eek!), I will be 33. I am going to run a 3:33. Boom. Speed workouts here I come.

PS: to view me staying up over 24 hours to run three legs of a 190 mile relay..including the last in the August heat (six miles and did I mention no sleep) Click here:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=193193467363420&oid=271168402316&comments&ref=mf

I do a little Dancing Queen too.

Seems all I can do is swim

2011-01-17T18:05:00.002-06:00

and shovel. There have been many snow shovel based workouts lately. I'm not complaining. I enjoy having my exercise planned out ahead for me.

Sunday Swimday 2:
8 minutes of alternating front plank, side plank, bicycles, back plank, other side plank, bicycles, repeat.
200 warm up
200 kick
2 x 100 IM
10 x 50 on 65 seconds
1 x 500 (8:23)
6 x 100 on 2 minutes (almost all were 1:37...apparently that is my 100 time just now)
50 easy
2 x 25 no breath
50 cool down
2350 total - 500 calories - tiredness

Work gave us all a pedometer and are on one of those 10,000 steps wellness kicks that the U did a couple years ago. I must give the credit to dog walking, snow shovel, and roof snow raking for getting me above 13K over the last three days.

Now to take my tired self to the sofa and pay some bills.

Fried Steak, yup fried steak

2011-01-15T09:06:00.004-06:00

Once before I tried country fried steak. Or is it chicken fried steak? The first time was at the now burned down and rebuilt elsewhere Blackbird restaurant. I had gone for a 10 mile run before meeting Amy for brunch. In that instance breaded fried red meat with fried potatoes and gravy and toast AND eggs might have been justified (on average 1 mile burns 100 calories). This morning I shoveled and played with the dog. BUT boy was I hungry, given that everything on my plate (save 5/6 of the slice of toast and 1/8 of the steak) was gone by the time one of the brother owners of Hazel's Northeast came by to clear my table.

Hazel's takes the place of Pop! on the corner of 29th Ave and Johnson Street. The basic layout of the restaurant is the same, but gone are the bright pop art inspired colors. The new wainscoting and muted colors are really nicely done. There are contrasting bright pieces of local art on the wall that subtly give some edge to what might other wise be a almost too calming decor. A+

The brunch menu, in addition to the aforementioned artery clogging hip widening meal of deliciousness, includes classic eggs + meat + potatoes + toast, pancakes, french toast, a biscuits and gravy, brisket hash, and even some very nice sounding black bean cakes with eggs. Some lunch sandwiches and burgers are also available. Do note that the house potatoes are chunked American fries with green peppers and onions. Not as single soggy or under cooked one, so good show on the taters Hazel! Sold B+ for food.

Service on the other hand. Well the gal who sat me and took my coffee order was attentive and friendly. My main server though had to be asked to bring me water, to refill my coffee, both which came with a bit of attitude. So sorry dear, to have put you out. I'm sitting here with my computer, moved my plate out of the way and she brings my check without asking if I want anything else and nudges it on the to crowded table without removing the dirty plate. Not the worst service I have ever encountered and the low point of this visit. C

[Of course as I type that a different server walks by cheerfully peering over to my cup and offering more coffee!]

Now to work off my rich breakfast with more Saturday chores.

January 2011 first swim

2011-01-09T10:23:00.005-06:00

Yea! for being back in the pool. This morning in the shower at the YWCA a elder woman asked if I swam competitively ever, because "you are so fast and do those [insert hand motion for flip turn]." I replied that only long ago, though now I sort of wish I had tried harder then (and stuck with it longer too). Ah, well, no regrets...or few...or not giving the regrets undue import.

Today's triumph:

200 warm up free
200 warm up kick: flutter 50, dolphin 25, breaststroke kick 25, repeat
10 x 50 on 70 seconds*
1 x 500 (done in 8:24)
1 x 100 backstroke active recovery
5 x 100 on 2 minutes** (times, of which I am VERY proud at the moment: 1:37, 1:38, 1:37, 1:36 (boom!), 1:39)
200 cool down

Totals: 2100 yards, ~45 minutes, ~400 calories, 153 average heart rate

*again for those less in the pool, this means swim 50 (1 lap) and 70 seconds later start again. The faster I swim the 50 the more rest I get. For those in the pool who are wondering why 70 seconds [oh oven is ready for pizza, brb - okay, 10-12 minutes to finish this post]: one swimming goal that i have set is to get to 10 x 50 on 45. Usually my 50 repeats (say 6 on 60) end up 40-45 seconds, so 10 at 45 will be tough. My plan is each week to take 5 seconds off the time for the 10 repetitions. Today I did the last 3 on 65, as 70 was probably a little overly generous.

** same premise as above...swim 100 (2 laps) and 2 minutes later start the next 100. I wonder if I ca actually gun for 10 x 100 on the 1:45 as I think Coach P wanted me to do last year??!?

70% tonic

2011-01-08T08:47:00.002-06:00

There is a place. It is on my bus route home. It is so easy to pop off, shop, catch the bus home. Even in the cold snowing winter.

Now that I write this, there are really two places. But the one is the main one. It has become a good/bad new year habit already. I have 4 bottles of fine tonic water in my refrigerator to prove it.

To keep those company, I ordered and received yesterday from a place that thank budget protecting and waist line attending gods is no where near my bus route, 8 more bottles (single serving mind you) of another kind of specialty tonic water.

The fancy bottle of gin needs their companionship too. As one brand pointed out: a gin and tonic is 70% tonic. Shouldn't your tonic be as good as your favorite gin?

Huh

2011-01-05T06:20:00.003-06:00

So what should this blog be about? What has it been about: sports, books, whining, bad dates, vocabulary? But what is the theme the focus the raison d'etre?!

Libgyrl needs a kick in the pants for 2011 blogging...what will make this interesting for you, dear reader, so that it will be interesting for me, oh writer.

For the new year, 2011

2011-01-02T07:21:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I had no cause to note that it was 1111 (1.1.11, or even 11.01.01). I can hardly wait until it is 1234 (1.2.34...hmm I'll be 66 then which makes it seem less far away).

Tentatively libgyrl's racing schedule for this year includes:

Gear West's Tuesday Night Time trial series (yup the whole thing, every other Tuesday for the summer...how else am I going to learn to bike FAST?!) - summer
Point to La Pointe 2 mile Lake Superior open water swim (I think wait until 2012 so that J and Coach P can go along to swim too) - August
Bolder Options does Berlin! (if the rumors are true that the Bolder Options fundraising marathon is to Berlin) - September
Chicago Marathon (even if my brother changes his mind about running this as his first marathon, I seriously wonder if he and I want to stay together for the race who will be chasing whom!) - October

You may have noted that there are no triathlons on this list. Suggestions? I am thinking maybe Lifetime Olympic distance and one half ironman (Chisago, Racine, or Square Lake).

But first, the new year's cleaning continues. Laundry here I come!

NYE count down to a cold?

2010-12-31T11:24:00.005-06:00

Oh the sniffles! Ach, the sneezes!! Normally I spend NYE babysitting or going to bed early. This year I was maybe actually going to go to a small party and now I am showing the signs of sickness.

I've canceled my reservation for dinner for one and instead am sipping coffee and eating chicken soup at the coffee shop. Chicken soup do your best!

Back to the decade+1 in review.

In 2000 I was in Prague. My hair was long. I'd never been kissed. I had no college degrees, no furry critters at home, no racing history.

In 2010 I am in Minneapolis with my own house, short hair, 9 piercings, 3 pets, 2 degrees, and a raging migraine.

Races I've raced, can I remember them all? I've had a several moments of consideration for how to best record these: chronologically? by distance? location? speed? I think distance. Sorry I don't remember all the times, nor care to look them up. [uff I am starting to have a hard time recalling which happened in 07 vs. 08) Yes, I used to have a chart of them, but it is locked on my old computer. This reminds me that I need to work on transfer the files.

Sprint Triathlons:
Lake Minnetonka Tri - MN (2004)
Aspen High Country Tri - CO (2005)

5Ks:
Race for Justice - MN (2005)
St. Patrick's Day 5K - MN (2006)
Gopher to Badger 5K - MN (2006, 2007)
Bolder Dash - MN (2007)
Resolution Run - MN (2007)
Monster Dash - MN (2007, 2008)
Polar Dash - MN (2008)
Valentine's Day 5K - MN (2008)
Irish for a Day - MN (2008)
Polish Na Zdrowie (2010)

5 Milers:
Boogies 5 mile - CO (2005)

10Ks:
St. Patrick's Day 10K - MN (2007)
Crescent City Classic - LA (2009)
Twin Cities Marathon 10K - MN (2010)

10 Milers:
Twin Cities 10 Mile - MN (2007)

Half Marathons:
Garry Bjorkland - MN (2006)
New York City - NY (2006)
Med-City Half Marathon - MN (2007)

20 Milers:
Rock 'n Roll - MN (2006)

25Ks:
Surf the Murph - MN (2010)

Marathon Relays:
Med-City -MN (2008)

Marathons:
Twin Cities - MN (2006, 2008)
Grandma's - MN (2007)
New York City - NY (2007)
Boston - MA (2008)
Athens - Greece (2008)
Fargo - ND (2009)
Whistlestop - WI (2009)
La Crosse - WI (2010)
Honolulu - HI (2010)

Ironman Tris:
Madison - WI (2009, 2010)

Damn...that is a lot of races....miles... minutes... hours... shoes... dollars....

Headache is not willing to abate. Noise in coffee shop is not helping. Ciao Ciao.

Decade+ in review

2010-12-29T19:32:00.002-06:00

It is time to report a year in review. I'm sure that if I looked back in the archive I'd see that I did not do a very good review last year. My hazy recollection is that it began well and like so many efforts petered off. While contemplating my past and future failings, I thought, "my goodness it has been a whole decade in the 2000s!" Not only did I think this and about all the changes between libgyrl in 2000 (she didn't really exist even) and now AND that I might be more excited to review a decade, but then I began evaluating the conundrum of is it a decade in review or 11 years?

Count with me: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. Looks like 11 years to me.

I suppose I could begin the review in 2001, but we all know that was a rough year. Plus I like 2000-2010, the zeros at the end are so nice and round.

Damn, mom is on the phone. Ta-ta-for-now.

Flannel sheets and dryer fresh covers

2010-12-26T07:38:00.003-06:00

Once in high school I wrote a little essay, we had to write one each week, on the pleasures of freshly vacuumed carpet. At the time I had very thick plush dark blue-green in my room. It looked so spectacular free of any bits of lint; it felt somehow nicer on my bare feet, perhaps the pile really did stand taller and refreshed thanks to the suction of the vacuum.

Today's post is in honor of the pleasure of freshly vacuumed carpet. If I were a poet, and I am not as you know if you've ever read any of my boredom haiku (haiku written in work day moments of boredom that is), it would be an ode to clean sheets.

Emu and I were briefly discussing this last Sunday on the way home from swimming, so I know that I am not alone in my appreciation of fresh bed linen. I suppose I have been spoiled by my dad's mother who insisted well into the 2000s and her 80s that sheets must be ironed. Hers is now my standard for what qualifies as Crisp Linen. Mind you, I haven't an iron in my house. While I dishonor Grandma's memory with unironed sheets, I hope she lets it slide. I still abide by her mantra "clean your plate so it is a nice day tomorrow," this being a much higher honor in my view.

Yesterday, being Christmas, I changed my bed sheets. I had indulged Zeli, and myself, after having been away, with many nights of in the bed sleeping. In addition to some killer snoring, the bedding is always dirtier with a dogge sleeper. It was time for clean sheets. And yes, as I write this pup is sleeping at my feet...on top of the just-washed quilt.

Smelling pure and feeling fine my flannel sheets are pleasing. After 2 holiday celebrations I returned to my 60 degree house at 9pm. The comforter and quilt were still in the basement. In a moment of brilliance as I do say so myself, I ran the dryer for a bit. Boom! New high: clean flannel sheets in the winter, topped with dryer hot blankets. Climb on in with a book, let the pup enjoy her kennel kennel for the night...it is a night for no pajamas!

PS: just so you know, I am now wearing jammies....purely clean and proper here at libgyrl.

Honolulu recovery

2010-12-21T21:17:00.006-06:00

Yesterday we were let out of work early thanks to "snownami 3.0." I am fairly certain in my belief that I was the only person in Minnesota excited for more snow. What can I say, but that I love snow and I missed both the other storms this month?

Shoveling is a great recovery activity: it gets my heart rate up without requiring any pressure on the joints. I don't even need to get my slightly blistered toes into running shoes.

Truly more useful as a means to loosening up the body though was Sunday's swim. Sheesh, 2 weeks out of the pool and even the 200 swim + 200 kick warm up has me winded. Fortunately for my ego, P and JM had also not been in the pool since I left. While I was biking 200+ miles and running a marathon, they were shoveling! Well, P was. JM was visiting a dame in Chicago. Now that is a work out, ahem.

I am contemplating spin class for Thursday morning. Though I could easily and probably wisely stay out of the bike saddle for a bit longer, keeping up the routine has its merits. Additionally I am eating a lot of indulgent food a the moment.

Coming soon to LIBGYRL - 2010 in recap and plans for 2011. Also, your recent questions answered....send in those comments. :P

Hawaii, and so it goes

2010-12-13T10:54:00.003-06:00

It is Monday morning. Here in Oahu I sit on the balcony in shorts and short sleeved pajamas. My roommates are still sleeping at 6:30am. At home it is 10:30 and rumor has it there is snow. Just a little, ahem.

Honolulu was marathon number 12 for me, including the 2 in Madison Ironmans, and all since October 2006. I am tired. My body hurts. I do not recall working this hard for (only) at 3:52 (the same time as my first marathon). Guessing that doing 200+ miles of biking the week before isn't the best way to ensure racing success...and I know for to ever break my 3:35 PR, I need to train for speed in a marathon.

Just the same I am proud to have pushed through. Mile 1 was slow (9:20!), but I must have been distracted by the fireworks!

Mile 2 I picked up the pace. It was not yet 5:30am...dark...and I was already sweating. Eek.

Round mile 3 or 4 I ran next to a fellow and somehow ended up chatting. Turns out I'd met him before, ca. 2007 at the Uptown Running Room. Tim is a Mizuno rep and did a PK (product knowledge) session there. He was gunning for sub-4 hour this day so I latched on to him until about mile 7. I felt good and picked up my pace.

The "hill" up to Diamond Head was a welcome change in terrain. Tim had a plan to get as far as he could be for the sun came up. On to this I latched as well. Feel loose and strong my speed crept up. It was fun.

My half split time was 1:51. Not bad. Maybe I could do a BQ (Boston qualifier) after all. The out and back portion appeared and the first wheeler passed us, then the group of men, and then the first woman oddly with very strong looking man by her side (this point becomes important later). Then the way cute pro who was staying at our hotel...etc etc.

Round about mile 16 I am hurting. The quads are just sore and thus my knees are starting to ache. Ah, the biking. Shelly catches me and passes. She looks great (and goes on to a 3:39). I lag for a few miles but push on, trying keep the hips forward, lean a little, and make as much use of my big old butt (glut muscles) as I can. Some pain eases.

I rally for awhile, it gets easier...if I can pull off just around 50 minutes for the last 10K I still might BQ (no PR today though, it was clear). The left calf cramps. The right foot pings.

I dropped my mile marker 30 second walk breaks at mile 20, because now walking makes for more quad pain. Some sections I still push ahead, but then I slow. The sun is up now, but the course is mostly shaded where I am. Mahalo!

The hill back down Diamond Head hurts so much I can't let go and use gravity. A doubly sad point.

Shortly there after we enter the park. The finish line is in view. I heard "GO BOLDER OPTIONS" and see Lori's mom screaming "GO GO GO" to me. I push a little more. Knees are screaming too.

The announcer is calling out numbers. He reads the one in front of me. I look at my number and make eye contact with him and so he calls out my digits. I "hang loose" signal him and smile. "I like the way you finish girl," he says as I step across the last timing mat for this season, "Marie, finishes, from Minneapolis Minnesota, but she is glad to be here, there is a lotta snow up there right now."

I was very very glad to be there at that moment.

Mahalo.

Oahu - Marathon in less than 24 hours

2010-12-11T14:32:00.002-06:00

Arrived in Honolulu this morning and transferred to the Bolder Options marathon group hotel in Waikiki. What a drastic change from Kona! So busy and high energy. There are runners everywhere and true to the stats, most appear to be Japanese.

My arm is still sore and the sun is shining. Off to check out the beach and rest. I still must make a race plan!

Hawaii, fun sun surf pinched nerve

2010-12-09T20:46:00.002-06:00

Arm is still in pain, too much for typing.

Black sand beach. Turtles. Swimming in strong surf.

Another post lunch from ocean climb.

Now chatting with innkeeper about beaches and tsunamis.

Hilo to Volcano

2010-12-08T22:00:00.000-06:00

I had a rather wonderful time in Hilo with my Auntie Lily and Uncle Bob, aka "Steamy." Before I forget it I will have to write more. Sadly I am having significant trouble with my left arm today. I had to sag (ride in the van) for 10 of today's miles. My shoulder is pinching a nerve and the forearm muscle [the same one once requiring physical therapy from bassoon playing] is so sore and weak that I ceased being able to change the front gears. Even now typing is a bit painful. Guess I'll grab my camera to upload pictures instead.

Hawaii travel news belated unedited

2010-12-08T17:42:00.001-06:00

Still 12.06.10, but hours later. I thought to take my camera, alas did not. I wish I had because then I could show you the most amazing burger I have had in possibly ever: Hawaii Rancher’s Beef. This masterpiece of sandwich making featured local beef, cuts both of brisket and chuck, on a fire-grilled brioche roll (much like the Hawaiian sweat bread). I skipped the mayonnaise in favor of the awala (?) chipotle goat cheese, also local I’ll have you know.

While waiting in this strip-mall store front just off the food court, of all places, I read the wall. In distance order, nearest to farthest with mileage included, were listed the local food sources. A glint in the reflection of glass (even here at 6pm it is dark outside) and I turned my head. A butcher! In the mall food court? Yup, the Village Burger, Kamela, has their very own in house butcher. She sharpened the knife and deftly turned some very large piece of bright red beef into smaller portions.

Above her station, just a few feet from the grill, were three chalk boards on the wall. From left to right hand writing proclaimed “Support Local Agriculture” “Supporting our local ranchers one hamburger at a time” and “Quote of the day, Holo I’a ka papa, kau ia e ka manu, Where there is food, people gather. Hawaiian proverb.”

Shortly my burger arrived. Simple. Stunning. So large I opt to cut out a quarter. I nibble the beef alone. Perfection. Medium red on the inside, just the hint of the fire grill char on the outside. They must have let it rest; no juices are lost on my tray (it is the food court after all). The roll, golden brown, well risen is almost too much for the beef. For my second half I remove the top layer, and then the bottom: now I am tasting just the beef and spiced goat cheese. Really really delicious.

Often after a big sporting day, a marathon or a long ride, my hunger comes in waves. A bit bloated, my stomach is presently mingling macadamia nut ice cream (local) and brilliant burger. I wonder though if I will wake up tomorrow just as hungry as this morning....just 12 hours after a similarly overstuffed (on not nearly as good food mind you) evening.

Waimea is a place I could imagine living. It was (is?) the home to Parker Ranch, the (formerly?) largest single ranch in the world. There are pine(like?) trees that smell so pleasantly like home, but they commingle with fragrant tropical flowers. There are these round edged boxy hills towering over the town with an oddly wild continental Western feel.

Do not mistake me, I like the ocean. Though my hair, even as short as it is, curls in the humidity and a swim is always at hand, the heat can be so oppressive. What can I do? I am a northerner and the coolness pleases me. Does it warrant mention, that at home though there is more than 6 inches of snow while here the Christmas decorations have only lush green back drops?

The last couple of nights were accompanied by the rolling crashing roar of the sea. After my snorkeling adventure, I could feel the waves even as I lay in the solid bed. Tonight I think my auditory partner will be the incessant car and truck traffic on highway 19...both that which is passing by the Waimea Country Lodge at this very moment but more so the memory of the passing vehicles on the road today. Were it not for the comforting burst of air they brought, the large loud semi truck trailers would have been plain terror. To be sure though, the vision of one approaching with wreath or pair of giant fake candy canes in the grill was also some what cheering.

The sun was constant today. From Kona to Hapuna, the head wind slowed but cooled. After lunch and some swimming at the state park beach, and with the turn in toward the center of the island, the view of the ocean and aging fields of lava were replaced with stillness and dryness and the occasional cactus even. The climb was hard, but what was more difficult was the sun. I stopped to let my heart rate drop twice in rare spots of shade. I could claim these were to take documenting photographs, but really that was a side effect. A third stop was made at the SAG wagon (conversion van) for water and a brief sit in some air conditioning. In all, while I think it took 2 hours 15 minutes to get from the hotel to Hapuna (some 39 miles), I needed 1 hour 48 minutes to triumph over the 10 miles from Hapuna up to Waimea. Did I mention 2500 feet up? Sea level to 2500 ft, 10 miles, sun, sun, 2500.

For the technically inclined or interested, my ride is a Scott, Speedster Contessa. It feels very small, but I am getting more used to it.

Bolder Kona to Waimea via Hapuna Beach

2010-12-06T20:38:00.005-06:00

The sleek cool laptop edge is surprisingly soothing on my tender palms. At home I bike with aero bars allowing my hands, wrists, and forearms relative ease. Because they can be tricky to remove, attach, adjust I left them at home. It wasn’t more than 45 minutes into the ride for me to know that my forearms, wrists, and hands were going to be feeling this event.

Waimea made ice cream! Double: Coconut Creme and Macadamia Nut + A Dark Roast coffee. This is the perfect post 2500 ft ascent over 8 miles bike ride in the Hawaiian 1-3pm full sun heat.

49 miles biking. 2500 calories burned. 1 surface dive off a 4 foot lava "cliff."

Slippery indeed

2010-12-05T18:24:00.007-06:00

Slippery indeed
Originally uploaded by libgyrl

Shortly after taking this photo Saturday morning, I slipped and nearly landed on a hard lava rock in the water on my bum. I then proceeded to walk barefoot. Later in the day at a different shore location I was reminded just how hot black lava rock can become in the midday sun. Many thanks to the tide for washing in cooling splashes.

Sign
Originally uploaded by libgyrl

This sign clearly indicates that I have previously (aka yesterday) erroneously identified the rectangles of rocks as pools. They are temples. Very different. Pre-Christian gods, please accept this blog post as a token of my appreciation of your long lasting works and eternal benevolence toward the ignorant white folk.

Inserting the pictures from Flickr and formatting them is time consuming. Though I am recovering from a bout of ocean motion sickness and haven't much else to do, I really don't want to spend anymore time editing HTML code. SO pictures at the end.

Saturday included fun beach outing with Nick and Laura. There was some Lychee Ice Cream Mochi (capitalized because it was just that yummy). Then we went to the Kona open air market. Instead of just observing, I bought two $2 bags of fruit. For $4 I got nearly 10 rambuntan and 8 passion fruit!! Later I had to strong arm the bartender to loan me his knife so as to eat some of them.

We ate lunch at 2pm, conveniently in happy hour. I had my first Mai Tai. Tasty, though best I liked the super ripe pineapple wedge. We got sliders (I the Waimea Pig pulled pork on Hawaiian bread), tacos, calamari (like the slab of real calamari, drooooling yum), and nachos. We also saw a gecko or some lizard thing.

Then came a little souvenir shopping including my purchase of some Vibram 5-finger shoes for beach combing. Expensive yes, but a) I HATE flipflops...especially wearing them, and b) I have wanted to try the toesy-shoes for running anyway. Today is the second day of using them an I kind of like my gray and pink Hobbit feet.

This morning some gals and I ran. Breakfast buffet at hotel (where you must guard your pancakes and portuguese sausage from the birds..luckily the papaya seems less to their taste). Snorkeling trip! Spinning dolphins were by our boat. I saw real flying fish flying. In the sea their were the national fish (Hunahunana....gotta look up the name) and coral and parrot fish and urchins, and salt. I got a little too much in my empty (by then) stomach. At the end of the 60 or so minutes of swimming I was feeling a bit naseaous. Unfortunately getting on the boat and drinking and eating a little didn't help. Somewhat fortunately someone else was even more sick. They drove us in to shore. Even now I can feel the rocking of the waves.

This afternoon we are fitted for our bikes. There is a group welcome meal. Tomorrow morning the biking begins. I've been warned it is tough. Beautiful, but tough. I'm just going to spin it in a low gear at least the first day. Sheesh, especially if I still have my sea legs!

AFN (Aloha, for now)

Aloha - Hawai'i travelogue, part 1

2010-12-04T13:21:00.005-06:00

Greetings from sunny Kona. I am sitting in my room, at a charming little desk. The lanai glass door is open, letting in the sea air. The sliding shuttered (?) door is cracked just enough that I can see the tide rising to the breakwater pool, but closed enough to prevent the sun from sending too much heat into my room.

Laura and I ran this morning. 42 minutes at a really easy pace. She is slower than I, but I haven't been running much. We headed south along Ali'i which also meant for hills. Turns out that I forgot to pack any running shirts (other than my race day singlet). The sun was low enough and I've already seen bigger jigglier bare bellies than mine, so I braved it.

The hotel breakfast buffet featured rice, but no beans. I suppose some folks like rice with their eggs and sausage...I do too, but mostly when there are also beans! By the pancakes, which I will taste test tomorrow, there were two tubs of syrup. One brown and suspiciously mapley, the other whitish. I put a drizzle on my plate to taste: mmmm coconut syrup! The main treat was the fresh papaya and pineapple. Very nice with fresh lime and the very slightly sweetened yogurt.

Food and sport shall probably be the most recurring themes in libgyrl land for the next 2 weeks. Last night after arriving in the Kona airport to be met by Nick, checking into the hotel, and a quick face wash and shirt change, we found dinner at Rapanui Island Cafe. The guide book description caught my eye: not a place for people with nut allergies as almost everything has nuts in it. That is a place for me!

We park the tour conversion van where I think I was parked with family in 1997 in Kona. The Banyan shopping court seems suspiciously familiar too, but different enough. I remember my last Kona meal in a more red than green and a longer dining area. It has been 13+ years...either my memory is bad, it has changed, or it isn’t the same. Though tempted by curried catch of the day, I opt for the Toru combination plate. I pick the guide book recommend beef sate, pair with with the vegetable curry and the moa chicken. Delicious. I had let purple sweet potatoes slip from memory. yum.

Nick and Laura have invited me to go to a beach with them while we await the arrival of other bikers, I wonder if I might need to make for some solo time. This adventure is going to be all extroversion all the time for little old libgyrl.

[apologies for the crummy photo layouts...will spend more time tweaking in the future, but for now I want to get outside!]

2 days after Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T13:37:00.002-06:00

This afternoon I am grateful for the sunshine and chickpeas. In Minnesota winters, the sun can be elusive, hiding behind snow laden clouds and gracing the southern hemisphere with more hours. I am sitting in it now, the sun, at my aunt's house, scooping hummus with chunks a three day old bagel. My jaw hurts from the chewing effort, but the creamy bean spread is too tasty and I am too lazy to get up for crackers instead.

Kitty Grandma is in the other room. I should join them, she and my aunt. For these inspirational women I am also thankful, though the pain of our growing disconnect is severe. Each encounter cements another layer of missed opportunity on top of so many years of distance.

Boom!

2010-11-21T12:20:00.003-06:00

It is veritable ice rink around Minneapolis today. I am trying to catch up with grading for Tuesday's class. What is worse than 1 assignment due? Reviewing 25 of them!

Recommendations, in the place of a more proper post:

(also at the following with transcript: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec10/allthedevils_11-18.html)

VERY interesting.

And an essay which I can hardly believe is fully available on google books?! Go buy a copy anyway...at least borrow it from your LIBRARY.

"The Three Faces of Bill Gates" by Slavoj Žižek .

Maybe there will be commentary later...maybe not. In the meantime I need to take a shower and go babysitting.

Maybe not meant to

2010-11-08T06:06:00.004-06:00

Maybe I am not meant to write a novel. Not cut out for it. At least not now, while trying to winterize the house and yard, care for 2 cats and 1 dog, manage a new and suddenly busy job, teach a college course, raise money for a charity, train for charity trip, nurse wounded foot....

After cleaning, swimming, mowing, dog parking, yesterday I could have spent time writing. Instead I watched an episode of Hawaii Five-0 (season 7), and then fell asleep on the sofa.

I'll keep trying, but either I really am no budding author...or I am just over committed and tired.

Mo NaNoWriMo

2010-11-06T20:25:00.000-05:00

The swift winds made sure the perspiration had long since dried on their shirts and vests. Just as they swept the storm clouds over the prairie. The beer knocked over hours ago, staining and dampening William’s lap, had made the car ride ripe. Now as the band stood round the stalled out car, it failed to remind of the evening’s earlier festivities. Scents of approaching rain and manure, the hint of pine and wild flowers swirled around them and then the drops fell. Large and warm. Intermittent enough for the brave musicians to barely flinch.

Maybe now we like to think that the boys of the 1930s big bands were rowdy go-for-nothings. Hoodlums to be cheered on from the stage but avoided by day light. Not suitable to bring home to Mother. Some were no doubt.

This band was the talk of the county. Swinging. Singing. Bringing life and love to dance halls and bars on weekends. Some week nights. Special occasions.

As the rain thickened the banker, on trumpet and clarinet, climbed into the back seat. Florian had a wife and three kids. He was an Elk and one of the few bankers to be surviving the chaos in the wake of the Great Crash.

Another Great Crash and a streak of lightening. The air tingled and the men were on the ground, faces in moistened dust, without knowing how they had gotten there. Florian peered from the car. Frank, William, Joe, and Bucky (a nickname of course, even men of business and industry have such things) rose and shook themselves off. Startled. What a tune this might make.

Charles did not move.

The band went on without the Postmaster. His sassy sax playing, towering physique, witty comments between numbers were missed. Through sleet or rain or snow and even accidental electrocution by lightening the mail was still delivered.

Your chances are less than being struck by lightening. I wonder if Grandma ever pointed out that her father was struck by lightening. Makes me feeling like those aren’t such comforting odds after all. She never said much about the past.

Day 3

2010-11-03T06:07:00.002-05:00

Pretty sure, Grandma never slept in. Pretty sure, she never said to herself that this dishes will wait until tomorrow to be washed. The laundry can sit until the weekend. Just five more minutes of lounging. No that does not sound like her.

I wonder from where her energy came. According to the stuttering priest with the missing front tooth at the funeral, it was her faith. Maybe Jesus didn't make her do it, but God gave her the strength. At least this is what Father claimed.

Her church going was regular and prayers were never skipped before meals. The rosary and prayer booklets weighed down the wobbly TV tray. Wheel of Fortune and some psalms.

Take 1

2010-11-01T06:14:00.002-05:00

My grandmother was a valedictorian and I wondered why I did not learn this until her funeral. I was a valedictorian. It seems a point of family history that would have been mentioned.

She was the worker, he was the dreamer. Cousin Billy took on the challenge of eulogy. Of course he is Bill now, but he will always be Billy to me. Put that simple way, my grandparents' marriage suddenly made so much more sense. Not that it hadn't before. Maybe it is the nature of the grandparent-grandchild relationship that until the church pews are filled with sobs and sniffles, to not know each other as whole people. Then, it might just be in my family where we work, not talk. Help and care, but not share much in the way feelings, inner selves.

He wrote from the South Pacific "find us some lake property." She replied "I am too busy with two children and the beauty salon."

He said "Sit down, Mother," from the head of the table." "In a minute, Dear," she snapped from the kitchen. How can one sit and serve the champagne brunch to grandkids and neighbors at the same time.

My mother gave me the impression her in-laws did not like us. Now I see it was really her way of distancing herself. Why take me down with her? Of the few things I did know surely, before the funeral, is that her family was everything to my grandmother.

Surfin' Safari, MN style

2010-10-31T07:36:00.001-05:00

FUCK! LOST POST.

SO MAD.

40 minutes of good writing.

FUCK.

In the name of sporty

2010-10-27T06:16:00.002-05:00

Lest anyone fear after yesterday's digression into civic duties that this blog is going to become political...though if the personal is political, a mantra to which I have long subscribed, and this blog is (perhaps slight too) personal, then it has been political all along. Bo-yah.

On Saturday next I'm participating in my first 25K race. A friend, we'll call him Joe, was heartily encouraging me to sign up for a 50 mile (yes mile) trail race that same day. His plan was to qualify for the Western States 100 (yes 100, yes miles, yes running) and insisted I could do the same. Joe is now injured and I wisely feared jumping from IronMan to 50 mile running race.

Someday I would very much like to do the Leadville 100. As you will likely not recall, this blog began its life not far from Leadville in Aspen. After two summers out there I'm rather fond of the area - though still a bit terrified of driving over The Pass (Independence Pass). I met some cyclists who would ride over The Pass and back in a single day. [insert long pause] I am still rather speechless about that. Awesome or stupid?

Ah but that is probably a great question about endurance athletes in general. Are we Awesome or Stupid? Meh, I am not so sure.

Digression is in the air I guess. Gale force winds are battering my house and thus maybe my brain too.

[Can we give a shout out to my neighbor's wifi for supporting yesterday's and today's blog postings?!]

So no 50 miler this weekend. I didn't even really have the stomach to commit to the 50K race. 25K is a goodly amount (16.something miles) and just right to fit into the final weeks before the Honolulu Marathon.

In case you are concerned about the loss of fun formatting, pictures, or video...I lost my little add on widget that made it so easy. Please anticipate the return of such features in a future re-launch stage (aka, prolly next week, but no promises, let's just keep the writing momentum going first and fore most. foremost. formosa is the old name of taiwan and is still used to label tea from the island. ah digressions...

Dear Bruther, oh brother

2010-10-25T18:27:00.005-05:00

Pedogocial - when smarty pants uses social media to make a point, or when she forgets a few letters and messes some around without noticing that she has misspelled pedagogical.

Dur.

Perhaps my interest in pedagogy is because I have spent most of my life bored out of my gourd in classes. The courses in museum teaching and learning and popular culture in education supplied some formal means of understanding pedagogy. Last month I began teaching a community college course (wherein one student is a former cafe coworker of mine and another is a grade school classmate!).

Honestly, I also just really like the word PEDAGOGY. Say it with me, Ped-ah-go-GEEEEEE! Hurrah!

Before I get all hot and bothered about the near existential (another favorite word) import of learning and consequently of teaching, I need to take a shower and do the dishes. The city assessor is on her way to evaluate my home interior. Fingers crossed for no new taxes....

EXCEPT, that

(ready or not here comes the soap box)

School funding is tied to property taxes (a truly inane system). I love pedagogy. Therefore I love paying property taxes. Sort of anyway. As one of the few the proud the I really get excited about election day (even primary ones), I see being able to contribute to the well being of my community through paying taxes as a civic duty. A right. A privilege. Even an honor. The ability to do well (aka make moola and have a nice house) is something for which I am grateful. Though I achieved this, I am aware of the vast contributions of the community around me.

It is my privilege to pass on opportunities for privilege to the youth via high quality public schools.

It is my honor to help pay for the buses that drive on the roads that take me to work and old folks to the doctor and hipsters to the coffee shop even.

Meh, 10 more minute of blabbing and i still haven't taken a shower.

What you have to understand is...

2010-10-25T12:15:00.003-05:00

What you have to understand is really that I am not obliged to understand anything. Seriously, you can advise that my life would be better if I recognized certain facts. You can suggest that my work might be more efficient if I acknowledge selected criteria. I say, you can even implore that I comprehend some nuanced theory as a means to saving the world...but by golly do not demand that I "have to understand."

I know it is just a turn of phrase. I know many people that use it an some pedogocial technique. Many times it is meant to be helpful, enlightening even. Alas, let us all pause and recognize that it frequently translates quiet differently.

Wise-guy says: "You see, what you have to understand is that if you wear mittens your skin won't be so chapped in the winter"

Wise-guy means: "Gosh I so empathize with the dry skin you are describing. I used to use a whole bottle of lotion each week in the winter. Then I started wearing gloves. They made such a difference. Have you tried them?"

Dry Hands hears: "You fucking moron, listen to what I am saying because clearly you have no idea how to dress yourself in the winter time. You are bleeding from those nasty knuckles. Just wear some damn mittens, dipshit."

What Dry Hands actually replies depends upon too many factors and personal qualities and mental health indicators to fully examine here. Me, I just go dead inside a little. And a(nother) seed is planted in my inner forest of misanthropy.

I should really remember to get my mittens out though. I hear it might snow on Wednesday.

[please note 2 posts in 2 days! relaunch might actually stick!]

Relaunch!

2010-10-24T18:21:00.002-05:00

MJS, you asked and now ye shall receive provided my neighbor's wireless signal does not fail.

Readers you may have noticed the title has changed. It is a test in a way. Was this blog really ever much about being a librarian? Has my identity every really strongly been aligned with my profession? Now that I am neither a professionally employed librarian or even working in a library would I be perpetrating some travesty of false advertising? In the sacred realm of blogging, there shall be no mis-truths or half-lies, right?

And so, with Scarface on the TV, a bulldogge snoring at my side, and 2 cats napping on the back of the futon, I relaunch:

LIBGYRL

Liberated Intelligent Bossy Glutton Yummy Rad Lass

Wish me luck!

Post IMWI 2010

2010-09-23T11:09:00.002-05:00

Let me quote local pro Cathy Ynedsted:
"Going into this race I knew one thing with 100% confidence- I was NOT overtrained. I desperately wanted to believe this was a good thing, but deep down I knew the harsh reality."

I'll fill you in more. The reasons that I wasn't overtrained for IMoo are the same reasons I haven't been blogging: job loss, job finding, break, start teaching 1 job, grandma sickness, start new day job, grandma passes...so much transition, so much major life changes.

An interesting listen in the meantime:
http://www.radiolab.org/2010/apr/05/

Peak peek

2010-07-26T07:43:00.002-05:00

Hey! Libgyrl apologizes for dropping off the face of the internet for the last bit. It has been the peak of training, peak of job hunting, early onset for the season allergy time, and all around summer busyness and malaise.

The plan? Re-launch in August. After 5 hours of bike run bike run yesterday and a 2ish mile open water swim on Saturday, I'm pooped out. Must conserve energy for job offer negotiations which I hope are immanent this week!

Le Tour

2010-07-08T08:10:00.003-05:00

Image by Hodowca via Flickr

The Tour de France is underway. It wasn't until last year that I cared a whit about this race or really any cycling event. Between riding more myself and the EuroSport live streaming while I work, I've rather become a bit obsessed.

IronMarie is a little behind on her training, but I am catching up!

Mowing + running on Tuesday in the heat and humidity.
2000 yard pool swim on Wednesday. It was also heat and humid: 84.8 degrees in the lap pool. Ugh.
Biking tonight with a possible open water swim.

Over the weekend will be a 75 mile bike ride + a 5.7 mile run. Wish me luck.

Trying to get inspired again to blog more too.

Three times a loser

2010-07-07T08:01:00.003-05:00

Naw, it isn't that bad, but in addition to preparing for my Ironman Swim-Bike-Run triathlon I feel like I am participating in a life triathlon.

Looking for jobs
Looking for a lover
Looking for funds for Bolder Options

In all three endeavors I have success. In all three there has been mostly rejection. It has made me tired.

Rainy return

2010-07-06T08:15:00.002-05:00

Once an email announcement reached my inbox. It claimed that using cruise control while driving in the rain increased the risk of hydroplaning. Maybe the message came with some actual reliable references. Maybe it just seemed sensible or logical or vaguely mechanically sound. Usually I don't use the cruise control when it is raining.

Making the 4 hour (give or take 30 minutes...usually give come to think of it) journey between "the Lake" and home without cruise control is tiring. I am already prone to the road hypnosis or whatever it is called when you put yourself to sleep behind the wheel from staring at the road. Add the repetitions of the windshield wipers and there is a recipe for car smash ala ditch. As long as the road had no standing water, I used the cruise control.

I also drank 2 coffee beverages and 3/4 of a 2-serving bottle of Mello Yello in the heroic effort to stay awake. Half a bag (2-3-4? serving size bag) of Fritos supplied sufficient salt and crunch to provide distracting stimulation. If you don't suffer from Car-Lulling-Syndrome, consider yourself lucky. It is pretty terrifying...the urge to just close my eyes....just for a moment. Just a little rest....Staying awake pulls vital energy causing even more fatigue.

Driving at 60 miles per hour (give or take 5 mph) in the rain does eliminate the coating of bug carcasses that usually result from the journey though WI countryside.

Feeling better

2010-06-25T08:24:00.004-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Just a quick uninspired note to well note that I am mostly feeling better. Running on my hip last night (well not literally ON the hip) was good and rough. 14.5 miles in in 2 hours of heat and humidity was nice...and a good reminder to ice and stretch well at home while watching a sad and inspiring Nature program on PBS about "retired" chimpanzees.

This morning, though having for once in a week slept well through the night, I'm a bit achy and slow. Really I would like to be having eggs, vegies, and hashbrowns out on some patio rather than sitting at my desk. Perhaps the desk is really the source of the fatigue.

Big weekend of bricks ahead....

Everything hurts

2010-06-23T08:37:00.002-05:00

Head, shoulder, hip and knees, hip and knee. Head, shoulder, hip 'n knee hip 'n knee. And now my allergies have hit my nose....head shoulders knees and toes knees and toes!

Feeling better, but still nursing aches and pains. Took the bike to the Bicycle Chain (great guys there) to deal with the cranky rear derailer. I read some in a book about adjusting it myself. But this the third sentence including a tool I didn't own and the photo diagrams made little sense to me, I decided to prevent further bike or self damage and a flood of cuss words to let the pros handle the repair. I retrieve the bike (I think I might name it Bettie) tonight after swimming.

In the meanwhile, I am SO freakin' stressed about job hunting that my stomach is always upset, alternating between no appetite and constant eating to try and sooth the rumbles. Boo.

Whine whine whine.

Swim bark run

2010-06-21T08:17:00.003-05:00

My puppy isn't quite an iron dog yet. She is a little too dense to swim far, unless scared she doesn't bark much, and her running....well we are still in a stage of developing some endurance and pacing. Sometimes her little sprints across the yard or dog park have the sound a thoroughbred racing horse!

Over the weekend we went to an art fair. She got a snazzy bandanna and was remarkably calm for all the people, noise, and activity. I am starting to think that giving her fish oil capsules really is making her calmer (and now I remember to take mine too!).

Referal

2010-06-18T09:19:00.003-05:00

Image by ilgiovaneWalter (Sobchak) via Flickr

Sometimes Friday is a write 2 blog posts day. today it is not. I refer you to "the other" libgyrl. How many of us could there be?!

http://libgyrl.posterous.com/doing-my-part-55

Have great weekends. Go swim, bike, run. Go look at some art.

A break, in the weather, in the training

2010-06-16T08:10:00.004-05:00

Image by Anduze traveller via Flickr

If I am devoutly following my training plan, which I mostly am, this is Active Recovery week. In theory it lets my body and mind rest a little. I've already over trained relative to the prescribed routine. Whatcha gonna do?!

Monday night D_U agreed to meet for a probably raining open water swim. As long as there is no lightening, might was well swim in the rain. You are already wet. Plus the beaches are usually much less busy. Three cheers for having the lake nearly all to oneself. Instead of a rainy swim we had an overcast and rather chilly swim. Lucky for me my wetsuit has full legs and sleeves. D's is sleeveless. Additionally, I have more, ah how you say, natural insulation from the cold water. We did just over a mile. The lake was so clean from all the recent rain. It won't be that nice for the rest of the season, I'd betcha.

Tuesday Coach P and J and I met at the downtown Y for a pool swim. On the training plan: 600 yards. Even with a warm up and cool down that makes for barely a 15 minute swim (and that would be with a long warm up and cool down). 600 is a veritable waste of a trip to the pool.

Instead we swam in meters (it is meter pool, not a yard pool...generally quieter than the others, but sometimes SO hot in the water.):
200 swim + 200 kick warm up
5 x 300 with 45 seconds rest, goal for me was under 5:30. I did 5:23, 5:21, 6:16 (ahem, an extra lap in that one!), 5:26, 5:22.
100 easy recovery swim
2 x 25 all out (23 seconds in the meter pool over the 21 in the yard pool)
1 x 50 all out (48 seconds)
1 x 25 all out (guess what, 23 seconds again!)
cool down

The rainy weather broke yesterday afternoon. Early this morning (6ish) puppy and I went for a long walk. She was thrilled and I was jealous of the people out running, especially the one guy with the fabulous quads. If only I had put on running gear, but then Z (puppy) doesn't really run very far...yet. So tonight, after mowing the lawn I'll log the 60 minute active recovery run. I'll need to sneak in a bike of equal time before "competitive phase" begins....

Singing the Sakatah Blues

2010-06-14T08:02:00.003-05:00

Ironman training progresses. Weekends as of late are mostly scheduled as a 1.25-2 mile open water swim on one day and an increasing length bike ride + 3 mile run.

D_U had located a paved state trail, the Sakatah Singing Hills, traversing 39 miles each way through southeast MN between Faribault and Mankato.

We started about 2pm on an overcast slightly rain threatening Saturday afternoon, both bikers having had to work in the morning. Departing from the trail head in Faribault, it was quickly noted that this is not the smoothest trail. Fret not potential riders, it is not the most unlevel either. Despite mostly following highway 60, most of the ride is quite and rolls through only a couple small towns.

I would recommend beginning on the Mankato end, though. There is a nice slight descent though the most scenic (woods, a chattering creek [hah, the term I was looking for was Babbling Brook which came to me only at the start of the next paragraph, oh aging mind whatever will I do with you?], some hills) couple of miles. Far better to end 80 miles there than the meanderings through sprawlish Faribault. On the other hand, there is a conveniently located Dairy Queen near the trail head in F and you might prefer to aim for Ice Cream! instead.

We were cruising along nicely. I was comfortably pushing to keep up with D_U. He later reported we were above 18mph in many early sections. This is unheard of for me. We traversed the gravel detour. Safely crossed a set of railroad tracks. Made it to Mankato. Stop, eat, turn around (it is a slightly anticlimactic turning point). Perhaps there was some manly peeing by a tree while I checked the voice mail I had.

All the while I had the chorus of some (then) unknown pop tune in my head. The only words I remember were "daisy dukes, bikinis on top." Evocative. Catchy. After 40 (even 10) miles on a bike, highly irritating. By turn around I was hungry enough to have shifted the lyrics to "ice cream sundae, a cherry on the top."

Then, in a moment of wondering if I was actually going TOO slowly over the rails, front tire (tyre) slipped and over I went. Considerably shaken, I plopped down in the mud to inspect my instantly egg shaped knees bruise and ancillary bloody scrapes. D_U kindly made sure my rims weren't bent. Boo.

I was able to tackle the gravel again (directly after the spill, thank you very much) and most of the remaining miles. Alas the freakin' feed lot farm smell did me in. My hip hurt from the fall and I was tensing my back too much too compensate for hip-knee discomfort. Bonk. I hit the wall and puttered in the last 8 or 10 miles, sending D along ahead. I played my "not today" card and skipped running.

A partial clean up and change of clothes, we chowed down on the high protein pretzels I packed. A truck stop diner was closed (I figured their eggs would be a better choice than the Hardee's options across the highway), so we bought what convenience snacks could be found. The cashier gave both of us the stink eye, as if we were gonna knife him and rob the place. May he just thought we were untrustworthy big city folk. Whatever, it proved for some good laughs back in the car.

Thank goodness that D_U conceded to drive and his car had seat heaters. The warmth on my lower back was about the best sensation. EVER.

Oh, here are the Daisy Dukes and Bikinis on top:

Another bad date of yore, or, I left my Ritalin in your car

2010-06-11T07:45:00.003-05:00

This tale has been told on a number of occasions, including at a dinner party last night. Thank goodness the round robin question changed from "when did you lose your virginity" to "worst date ever." There are many things I am more than happy to share with a room of strangers. Gory details of late (for contemporary standards) blooming aren't among them.

The nature of the stories shared naturally suggested categories that might be applied to the Worst Date Ever genre:

misleading information about date discovered (aka the "she used pictures from 10 years ago on her advert profile AND has 2 kids")
just bad bad conversation starters especially in contradictory context (date is late, then says "oh I was stood up here once" or date suggests meeting at the mall and the proceeds to say "ugh I HATE this mall")
bad things I've done on a date (my favorite directly from last night ... first date at orchestra concert, drink before, listen to music, intermission, she says "is that it" and he says ... "yup" I think I was more offended that he cut off the orchestra, having worked there, than mislead the gal!)
bad follow up ("I don't think I'm interested, but thanks for a nice time" reply from older man admitting to preference for younger ladies, cuz they are more fun "well if you had a little more maturity...")
the basic two ships passing in the night...all night long...only one ships navigator seems to have noticed the divergent trajectories.

This last category is the one into which the outing in question falls. We were both polite and timely and clean. We had nothing in common, despite what previous emails indicated. I had no level of physical, mental, or emotional attraction. No spark. Period. It is just easier when both parties notice this early on...before medication is forgotten in the trunk of my car.

The first point I was reminded of at the dinner party is that first date carpooling is usually best avoided. Oh I know that now. At the time though, L and I had been introduced by a mutual friend/acquaintance, we had emailed, briefly phone chatted. I was not in fear of safety, so I forgot that discomfort might ensue instead from opting for the environmentally sound car sharing option.

I should also note here, having neglected to last night, that the title of this tale is in no way meant to pick on those taking medication of any kind. I take my happy pills each morning. Many, naw probably most of my good friends do to. No disrespect to the adults on Ritalin. Seriously folks, mental health is as important as physical. Equally seriously, never should we travel short or long distances with our total prescription. Always have a back up people, withdrawl is is the rusty nail in the foot of a bad day. Or something like that.

Since I live north of L and our 2 destinations are north of me, he comes to my apartment. Because he spent the afternoon doing "technical driving," I drove.

"I'm the blue Corolla over there."

"A Corolla? well that is a practical car." (says the man buying a used Mustang, his dream car)

Now there is a tone of voice in which I would say "a Corolla? Well that is a practical car" and it would imply the following meaning: What good taste you have a fuel efficiency and longevity. When it comes to cars (daily use ones anyway), function over form! I approve.

His tone of voice conveyed: Boring. You must be Boring.

This after having emailed me that I was 96% of what he was looking for in a woman. Dude, what is the other 4%?! I mean, I'm no A- gal. I learned that practicality must be included that other 4%.

Off we go to the art gallery for the CD release party of Venus de Mars of All the Pretty Horses. I try to make interested conversation and ask about the car racing. Quickly I am corrected that he does "technical driving;" it isn't racing. Fair enough. After the dig at my practical car, I'm feeling a little vulnerable. Maybe he didn't snip about this distinction. I'm starting to dread the rest of the night.

Any art I think is interesting he doesn't like. The pieces that catch his eye I think are shit. (I mean, I can't understand the artists message). He is 6'4'' and I'm 5'4'', he easily has 100 pounds on me. For some women this dynamic is a turn on. It is not for me. He gestures or leans in and I flinch fearing he might touch a painting or knock over a sculpture in the small gallery.

The music stage is set up and Venus appears radiant in a corset and large black wings. The din of conversation subsides and then...

"I'm feeling some gender confusion" L whispers loudly. In my mind's eye I am pulling a Bugs Bunny inspired palm to face move. "I shout (in my mind's eye) DUH, I thought you said you knew this band. She's trans."

To L's credit this was not said with judgment or malice.

We listen to a couple songs and move on to the club. He hasn't cash for admission and I only brought enough for my entry. I'm tired and my head hurts, so I wait at the bar while he runs to the ATM around the block. The show is delayed. More "ships passing" conversation. I hint that I've a migraine coming on...because I do. It is probably more from staying up later than usual than anything. I'm hungry. He smokes. We leave.

In the morning the call.

"Um, I left my Ritalin in your car."

Sigh.

I live north and he lives south. We meet in a parking lot by the thrift store and bargain car lot. I feel badly for being annoyed. I am pretty sure I'm grade is no longer at 96%.

About 4 months later through some other mutual acquaintances I learned that L is engaged and then quickly married. Good for him. Really.

Feeling like the queen of hearts

2010-06-09T08:52:00.005-05:00

I feel a bit like the queen of hearts
(if only I were so cute as Helena Bonham Carter!)
worrying so about my crusts of tarts
they are on the porch so they can cool
and so my cats don't eat them
smart hungry felines are no fools
whats with me and this urge to rhyme
perhaps I've been indulging in too much hip-hop radio time.

Break it down:

(the actual music video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVyC2YAmq6E&feature)

I am fairly sure I promised to talk about sublimation ... I mean training.

From forthcoming to most distant:

Wednesday - Coach P promises to work me over with tonight's 3000 yard pool swim.
Tuesday - 70 minutes of bike intervals on the trainer. How is one supposed to do single leg drills? They never seem correct...or maybe I'm just that weak. Definitely the left leg needs attention; I have been suspicious on a couple of recent long rides that I favor/rely upon the right leg a bit extra.
Monday - lawn mowing
Sunday - 2800 yards in pool main set ladder (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 400, 200) based on 1:45 100s - all times beat! P promises that I am now officially on a base of 1:40. Doh! In afternoon 28 minute run around Lake Calhoun with D_U. He had biked a lot and I still pushed to keep up. Appreciate the pushing!
Saturday - ca. 1 mile open water swim with D_U in smelly cloudy Lake Nokomis and RAIN! I believe I might have called out across the buoys "I just love swimming" which I do. Being out in a lake, even with jumping fish or dead floating fish, is one of my all time favorite sensations.

Mmmm, pastries... who has some? Off with their heads (and hand me their treats).

Speed dating results

2010-06-08T07:48:00.006-05:00

Today's word of the day** is the one which I oh so needed to describe the speed dating event from a week ago. There was an obstreperous** din that was for me quite distracting.

At the moment, we, dear reader, are experiencing a situation that can be described as "disappointed again, but what, really, was I really expecting." Yes, the results are in.

Of the 40 some available men, I vaguely recall checking "yes" on 15-20. In retrospect, I was mostly answering "yes, this was a pleasant enough exchange" rather than "yes, I want to spend more than 90 seconds with this person." Oh well, consider me open minded.

In case you are unfamiliar, if any of my "yes" men checked "yes" for me, we get the other person's contact information. Any bets on how many of 15-20 also picked me....

1. Yup, just one. And one that I waivered on the selection of Y vs. N at the time and probably really don't want to meet again. Maybe I'm just being avoidant, which I know isn't really a word. Maybe I'm just creating more of a moment for a pity party.

Oh well. Tomorrow I promise this blog will return to discussing sporty training and other ways to successfully sublimate my raging sexual energy.

**obstreperous
\ub-STREP-uh-rus\
adjective
1 : marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness : clamorous
*2 : stubbornly resistant to control : unruly

Are you trying to be asexual?, more tales from bad dates past

2010-06-07T14:30:00.004-05:00

It wasn't a very nice thing to say. By the time it came across the ocean via email I wasn't surprised that the "friend" asked as much. At the time it read "I'm challenging your sexuality and then maybe you'll sleep with me." This was a stupid move because insults hardly make me want to get naked and well, I was across the ocean at the time.

FC had a job that I wanted. He was kinda cute. Mostly though I lusted after his success. I am aware that often my attractions are confused between "I want to be LIKE you" and "I want to be WITH you." Is that common?

He was new to town and so I suggested that I could play tour guide. I've lived here nearly forever. I enjoy touring about too.

Last night, a local TV channel was broadcasting High Fidelity. We saw it together. FC's choice. I enjoyed it more than I expected to and much more than his second movie pick with Ralph Fienne's and that awful Julianne actress. Blech.

FC liked to razz me about being a feminist. He invited me across town at 10:30 at night to watch a movie. "You can stay here" he offered when I pointed the late hour and the long commute, "No funny business of course."

Right. No funny business. I stayed home.

It wasn't so much the calling out of my frigid seeming nature that offended me. So what if I were asexual? Some people are. It is just another way to be. But I'm not and wasn't and I certainly was not "trying" to be.

Meh, FC is now married with a kid. He votes Republican.

I am not even covetous of his job anymore.

Certainly not, but just in case

2010-06-04T08:28:00.004-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

I am certainly not anemic** in the actual pathological sense, but I have been

**lacking power, vigor, vitality, or colorfulness; listless; weak: an anemic effort; anemic tones (thanks dictionary.com) .

Just to be sure I think I will have red meat for lunch today. Some roast beef or perhaps a burger. I cannot actually recall the last time I ate any animal protein that wasn't some form of dairy. Oh, yeah, the yummy turkey pastrami the Joel made on Monday. I did not take a very big piece, though by now I wish I had.

Coach P and J have been on vacation this week, so no pool swimming. Instead I've been pushing my otherwise fatigued and achy limbs through some extra hill running and biking. The swimming I miss with all its fun gliding through the water and accidental snorting of chlorinated water up the nose. We may just make the leap into open water swimming on Sunday, if the weather holds. Wetsuit here I come!

Yeah, so just in case I've secretly succumb low iron red meat for lunch and spinach with dinner. It might just be time to invest in a multivitamin again. For all the health benefits of regular exercise, endurance training can drain from the body.

Tonight: easy bike + Breaking Away viewing
Tomorrow: work 5K run/walk, then bike and maybe run
Sunday: probable open water swim, likely more biking and running, maybe Minneapolis Marathon spectating

Yeah, yeah, and I promise to rest some too.

Now that is a work out

2010-06-03T08:12:00.004-05:00

Over 3 hours of speed dating. Frankly, I'm still speechless. And exhausted.

As frequently seems to be the case in social settings (that I am in anyway) the ladies out numbered the men: 64 to 45. Thanks to the 5 guys who didn't show up, the ratio was really 64 to 40. Maybe there were some female no-shows, but since the fellas had sat at the tables all night, it was easy to know who was missing.

At first I thought: what? I have to stand around during breaks (to make up for the uneven numbers), but thank the patron saint of introverts for those breaks. If I had had to talk all night (with 2 ten minute breaks for the gents), I'd have been a quibbling drained mess. As it was I left Stella's so over stimulated and over tired that I started to call a nearby friend to see if he wanted to get a drink. Hell I was out, awake, and wearing fucking heels in Uptown...why not make the most of it. I hung up when I realized it was nearly ten and that I'd be asleep in my beer as soon as the adrenaline wore off.

90 seconds was all we had for recording our "dates" name, number, and yes or no on the last person. Then chat, move, rate, record, chat, rate record chat record rate move chat move rate move record...sigh. If it hadn't been for all the ambient noise (I found myself shouting more than I care to) and activity, I might have enjoyed it more. In the end it was mostly a fun time. I doubt though I met any true prospects; I did mark more yeses than initially anticipated.

Sadly, I forgot to ask anyone if they had ever seen a real live (ahem) dead person or if they had been to the ER lately. I practiced some interview skills since most men kept asking about my job (I don't want to talk about work!) and then just started telling about training for the Ironman in response to "what do you do?"

One guy, Matthew perhaps, started with "tell me one wonderful thing about you" which I thought was nice and open ended and terribly difficult for a naturally self deprecating gal to answer.

Another, Balaji, used a scrap of paper to list his nickname, degree, and offer for "1 high 5" for every question he hadn't heard before. Bless his practical heart.

The best, and by best I mean worst, was the guy who wrote on his table tag "VIP" (clever) but was 60 seconds late for our 90 second "date" offering a less than half (maybe 15%) hearted apology and then lamented having once been stood up at the restaurant we were in. I don't think he even bothered to write down my name let alone give me an exuberant NO, which is what I gave him.

I was completely embarrassed by the you're not all that yourself, honey gal who exclaimed loudly on a break time "where are all the cute guys?!" Several other ladies who were openly critiquing men around the room...and not nicely. No wonder women get a reputation for being catty, bitchy, and high maintenance.

Oh well. There you have it. I should know next week if I have any interested parties.

In the meantime, long live the single libgyrl!

Calling all questions

2010-06-01T09:14:00.003-05:00

I nearly forgot. I'm testing out speed dating tomorrow night. I have just been advised by a representative of the organizer to:

Make sure you think about what questions are most important to ask before the event so you can maximize your time…you’ll only get a few minutes with each person so it’s good to think about what you’re looking for ahead of time

What should I ask?!

Eek.

It is gonna sound cliche

2010-06-01T08:09:00.004-05:00

Morning after holiday and how many times are we all going to say or hear
"Uff, I could use a day off after my day off"
??

Here goes once:
I could really use a day off after the long weekend.
(slight variation for literary measure)

I am so tired and sore I can barely sit in my uncomfortable office chair and type this. This is why:

Saturday -
wash dishes, take out dog, go to YWCA, arrive early and walk through farmers market
SWIM
(200 swim, 200 kick, 4 x [100, 200, 300], because of sore shoulder complete only 3 of those and finish with 200 kick HARD)
home, dog out, snack, change
RUN
(2 hours in the hot hot humid sunshine. distance unknown, mostly we stopped to feed my cousin's guinea pigs, ran by S's mural, and chased the shady blocks all the way home)
home, eat some cherries, shower, await aunt & uncle
YARD WORK
in same hot humid sun scale grass on big hill, transplant turtle head plants, slide down hill while planting plants, uncle uses weed whacker on weeds, hang hooks + pole + string for morning glories to climb [are you tired yet, cuz I am], clean gutters
WALK DOG
sit on couch, watch bad movie

Sunday -
dishes, pack brick workout gear, go to J & P's
BIKE
(80 miles turned into 50, but that was good as my left shoulder musculature was burning)
RUN
(down to and around Lake Harriet)
cool off in sprinkler
home, shower, eats, walk dog, race to bank before close, go to bed at 7pm

Monday - [seriously, I need a nap now]
water transplanted plants.
sweep kitchen, scrub kitchen floor, 1 load laundry, clean 1 litter box, vacuum office and bedroom, sweep stairs, sweep bathroom, front room, and dining room, vacuum living room, fold laundry, sweep basement.
take dog to dog park after visiting with neighbors over pancakes.
pick up dog poo, rake helicopter seeds, mow lawn.
cook eggs for deviled eggs.
do dishes.
make deviled eggs (yummy!).
run to store for non-alcoholic beverage for possible book club gal who is with child as they say.
PARTY at neighbors, play much badminton barefoot in my yard, then book club.
clean up.
sleep.

Yeah, that is why my hips and back and arms and legs and feet hurt today. Good reasons.

My wrath will descend upon you happily

2010-05-28T08:26:00.003-05:00

Hilarious and awful. I simply can't believe that this wasn't tongue-in-check at the time, though it was probably intended and received with plenty of "hell, yeah, man, tell it like it is."

"...wait intelligently until I come up so we can have it out properly..."

No twitch muscles!

2010-05-27T07:46:00.004-05:00

I once again demonstrated that endurance is my skill, not sprinting. I have mentioned my 100 y pace increasing. Interestingly enough, last night is was more solid for 400 y repeats than the alternating 200 and 300 sets of the weekend. I have also noted that my 25 y (1 length in the YW pools I access) best is still 21 seconds.

Last night after the main endurance portion of my swim workout, P. had 4 x 25 all out with lots of rest (50-60 seconds) after each 25. Usually he reminds me to turn over my arms really fast. Flail! Actually he hasn't ever suggested flailing in the water, but that it what fast turn over feels like for me. 22 sec. 22 sec. 22 sec. P. suggests that for the last one I try long and strong, but still sprinting.

Bam! 21 seconds. He laughs. "That's what I thought"

Apparently I really don't have any fast twitch muscles!

We'll still work on them, but for me endurance speed still is probably all about strength and efficiency. The more of those I gain and with which I am consistent , the faster I'll go. Already I can pull off 3000 yards at a relatively easy 1:42ish pace.

Warm up - 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull
Main set - 6 x 400, 1 minute rest, goal paces 7:15, 7:10, 7:00, 6:50, 6:40, 6:40 ; actual paces 6:50, 6:47, 6:44, 6:44 (this is when P. decided my last two needed to be 6:40s and not the originally planned 6:50s), 6:46, 6:49 (I was trying so hard and I think that is part of why it was slower)
Sprint set - 4 x 25
Cool down (100 or 150?)

Total 3300 y - just over 1 hour - HR average 138

108 days and 23 hours

2010-05-26T07:57:00.005-05:00

Yup, Ironman Wisconsin is only 108 days, 23 hours, and ever shrinking minutes away. I am thrilled. I am not ready, yet, but I feel fairly confident at this point in the training season.

Image via Wikipedia

Where things stand:

*I'm a bit distracted by job hunting. My temporary contract concludes August 1st and with possible unemployment looming, it is taking a goodly amount of energy to get through a day balancing current duties and sorting through not nearly enough job postings.

*Swimming with P & J has been super fabulous wonderful. At the very minimum, they have guest passes that have saved me pool access expenditures. More importantly, knowing they are waiting for me at the YWCA means no "I'm tired, just gonna rest on the couch for 15 minutes turned to 2 hours" missed swims. (See above and sadly some runs or bike rides have fallen victim of this phenomenon that could be called "the magnetism of sitting on the futon after work" effect. I believe it might also be more concisely known as inertia.

Oh, I nearly tagented away from the best part of swimming with P & J: I am getting to be a stronger swimmer. After all these years, P's workouts and gentle pushing are kicking up my pool performances. Oh, oh, wait THE best part is that it is fun.

*Over the last month or so, DU and I have been hitting the trails, with our running shoes and bike wheels. He is also prepping for IMWI. I have to push to keep up with him, but this is very good. It becomes clearer and clearer that I don't really know my own potential. That and, especially when pleasant outside, I like to look around and smile and people and think about big issues calmly. This does not lead to just going faster.

*Because I never really commit to serious weight training, I'm just using the things at home and moments between loads of laundry or before bed to do some sorry excuse for strength training. Ditto core exercises. A few every morning and/or night are better than a bunch once every other week, right? Gotta be.

Tonight I swim with P. The training plan says 1525 y....though I bet "coach" will come up with ca. 2000 which is a-okay by me. He seems to think I have drop close to 6-8 minutes from my IMWI 09 swim time. Bring it!

Sunday's swim for those interested:

Warm up (200 swim, 200 kick)
200 goal time 3:40
300
200 goal time 3:30
300
200 goal time 3:20
300 goal time 5:20 (?? Bummer, i can't remember the 300 goal times...oh well I met them all! and if you are doing this you have to figure out your own times. Main point is each 300 and 200 is getting faster. Oh and 30 seconds rest between each distance)
10 x 50 "on 1 minute" (that means look at the clock, start, swim 50 y, look at clock, rest until end of the 1 minute, go again. my first few were 40-45 sec, middle several 45-50, final 2 back under 45!)
Cool down.

Can't trust this day

2010-05-24T07:45:00.007-05:00

I've a "case of the Mondays" - or at minimum a case of the it is very humid and warm and my brain has perhaps melted a little.

I dressed for cool comfort this morning. Got to work early so that I can go home early and prepare for book club at my house. Look at calendar, oh I have an interview this morning.

Shit.

Having forgotten to dress for success, I've also forgotten my 2 forms of ID (or passport) for the planned trip to HR after meeting with the dean of a local community college. The department has hired me to teach a couple of sections in the fall, the dean must approve of me. My shirt dress is faded and missing the top button (don't worry I'm wearing a camisole under it).

Shit.

So for once I really am going to go home and start today over. The question is, do I plan to come back to work after interview or can I conclude that the afternoon won't be any better and preemptively place "sick" on the work calender?

In sporty news, I'm swimming stronger and faster than ever. More workout plans to follow.

Training buddy D and I tackled the 7.4 miles of hills in NE in 60 minutes.

I biked 4 loops of http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3751824 in the drizzle and humidity. There is a tough hill climb and little traffic to make it a convenient quick challenge.

Oh goodness I hear a cranky co-worker ranting about the Bushes (Georges and Barbara). At 7:53am? Do we really need to start on that already?

Yes, starting this Monday over in T-5 minutes.

Image by PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE via Flickr

Uff.

Da.

Update:
Went home and retrieved passports. Did dishes in preparation for hosting book club tonight. Decided missing button on not that faded dress is hardly noticeable unless one is staring at my not that luscious** (in this context) cleavage.

Put on cute Fluevog heels instead of frumpy comfy Birkie sandals. Rocked the interview. Completed HR paperwork. Return to work, slightly fretting about cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming in the heat in time before book club.

Check email...everyone is bailing on book club.

Shit.

Glad I hung out with A. and toddler and then Aunt yesterday rather than cleaning for guests.

Happy Monday!

**luscious
\LUSH-us\
adjective
*1 : having a delicious sweet taste or smell
2 : sexually attractive
3 a : richly luxurious or appealing to the senses b : excessively ornate

Swimming the ladder

2010-05-20T08:04:00.003-05:00

Another fabulous swim work out courtesy of Coach! We are in an "endurance" phase, though P still wants me to be getting faster. I want to be getting faster too.

Image by infomatique via Flickr

Warm up (200y swim, 200y kick)
The ladder, 30 seconds rest between each rung:
100 (goal time 1:45, actual 1:37)
200 (I don't remember the others consistently)
300 (but the times were based on 1:45 hundreds)
400 (which I was swimming under)
500
400 (until here where I was to speed up to 1:40 hundreds)
300 (and being tired I was swimming over)
200 (but)
100 (goal time 1:40, actual 1:42, I managed to speed up a little)
25 float
25 sprint (21 seconds is still the time to beat)
Cool down (150-200 swim)

Then I went home, refreshed but tired.
Feed animals.
Contemplate watching the recap of ANTM while eating Pumphouse Creamery Spiced Banana ice cream.
Eat ice cream.
Mow lawn.
Walk dogge.
Brush teeth.

Sleep.

Oh and Coach P seems to think I should be able to swim my IM at 1:40-42. Last year my time equated to a 1:57 (I think), so I might actually be able to come in at 1 hour! That would be a fabulous way to start my 2nd IMoo.

I'm not a goth Anna

2010-05-19T08:19:00.009-05:00

Polly's Puddin' :) let me know if you make any test batches!

That is what Anna wrote on the instructions. We were having a horrible time with stale bread in the cafe and I suggested the night cook (me) make bread pudding with it. Eggs, milk, sugar, butter were already in stock. The manager approved and Anna brought in the recipe of her mom, Polly.

Maybe I had a little crush on her or maybe it was that she wasn't in on the staff clique, but working with Anna was the best. Her skin was so white especially in contrast to her black lipstick and dyed hair. She rocked striped socks and clunky boots. She also liked the shop as clean as I did.

"No, I'm not a goth."

A customer actually asked that once. Someone should really write a book about the strange social norms between baristas and their customers. The things each will say! Eek, the things I have said (sorry Quinn!).

Anna had a cute boyfriend and a serious love of cats. She reported regularly picking up dead cats off of the road and crying over them. I believed her, felt her pain, and I was a bit grossed out. When I first got my kitten, Eva, Anna cat sat being that we were neighbors too until she moved out of her folks place a couple blocks away.

Naughty nuggets was her nick name for my cat because each of her little toes varied in color from the last.

Some band on the CD changer sounded a bit like the Violent Femmes, I had remarked one night. Our next shift on together and Anna had great news: the Femmes were playing First Ave! I had never been. Never seen them live. We made plans, she bought the tickets.

Her dream car was a 1970s Ford 150, or some model number. She found one used and bought it. Enormous, all steel, and bright orange, it was the best mode of transport to the concert. Dark hair in pig tails and wearing overalls, Anna was the picture of cool and uncool combined. Best yet she wasn't bothered by my social discomfort.

Anyway, I wonder where Anna is. She broke up with the New Orleans boyfriend whose name I can't remember but is on the tip of my tongue. I left the coffee shop. Later I heard she had a new beau and was moving to Buffalo, NY with him. Wonder if they took the orange Ford.

Marvelous Monday

2010-05-17T07:56:00.004-05:00

What? That title? Who replaced libgyrl?

Weekend was something like this:

Time IT for Autism Race at Lake Calhoun - lovely morning, good race. If you've never volunteered at at event, do it! One gets a whole new appreciation for the totality of a sports endeavor.

Home, mow over grown lawn (I have dandelions up to my knees, I'm so not kidding and the manual push mower does not do well with tall things), swim 2400 yards with J & P (21 secs is the new time to beat for a length of the Midtown Y pool), coffee from Cake Eater (yes, and a "Freedom (French) Toast" cupcake - maple cake, cream cheese frosting, specks of bacon - extraordinary), walk dog (run into ex gf, oye it is a small town), date.

And by "date" I mean: babysitting neighbor 3 year old!! He really is the best though. No adult boy is going to be sure to check my breathing with his Fisher Price stethoscope or push me on the swings in the park on a Saturday night (or will one of you?!?)

Highlights of the night:

"M, next time we have dinner can you wear your running shoes?" (we went for a walk to the park via Johnstock and I had to run to keep up with E on his little Hot Rock bike, apparently I was too slow in my regular shoes and he is going to be my new coach)

"If you need to go potty, you can just go in our bathroom" (said from the toilet no less)

"Bon appetit" (well, that is a long story, but just try teaching a smart kiddo about French happy eating and enjoy the antics to follow!)

Sunday:

Image by Chodaboy via Flickr

Laundry, dogge walk, bike 2 hours, run 45 minutes, walk around art-a-whirl, talk to photographer for half an hour (www.osamaesid.com) get picture taken in art fair event, walk dogge, sleep.

So I'm feeling good this morning. Amazing, I know. Any bets on how long this feeling will survive the workplace?

Punk rock Friday

2010-05-14T08:06:00.004-05:00

Image by Wisconsin Historical Images via Flickr

My therapist thinks I should meditate to help adjust my happy quotient (the later being my term not hers, she really is a very good therapist and would probably never use the phrase "happy quotient"). Blah blah it takes as much energy to be miserable as it does to be happy. As the one with some serious dysthymia, I beg to differ. Though I can see her point. It reminds me of some damn poster in my Wisconsin high school: it takes more muscles to frown than smile. Great. Just what an shy, smart, anorexic, liberal teen in a conservative community wants to be reminded. My friend Amy (we'll call her), perpetually happy (though hiding bulimia) would quip "just be happy to feel happy." She also sang in the choir and musicals. Maybe there are sad teen choir singers but I recall thinking they were all bloody delusional drama queens.

I do have several books on Buddhism and meditation so at L's suggestion I'll give it a go. Sure maybe I am most happy when miserable, but I'd rather save that for endurance sports, kink, and body art. In the meantime, I am wearing my cat-eye eyeglasses and knee socks that are black and white stripes with a line of purple stars up the back. The socks make me feel a little bit punk rock. This sense perhaps enabled by the book I've been reading: Petal Pusher, by Laurie Lindeen.

In this memoir of her rock-n-roll days as founder of Zuzu's Petals (at least the one from Minneapolis, turns out in the late 1980s early 1990s there were several bands by this name), there are many descriptions of the band members' wardrobes. Mostly their attire doesn't match. Though my socks have horizontal stripes and my turtleneck has a vertical stripe to the knit, my level of clash is sub-par for true punk. (and what is punk about a turtleneck?!) There is a bit of stiching on my black shoes, it clashes with the socks too, but I'm not wearing any accessories and my hair is clearly freshly washed.

Just the same, the socks make me think punk rock: do-it-myself, clashing, nonconforming ... oddly happy.

[more on the book later, perhaps, with a possible chance to teach intro to pop culture in the fall I'm toying with developing a curriculum around this text. uff, nerdy is as nerdy does, i'm sure you are as excited about that as I am, wink]

Probably just excuses

2010-05-12T08:45:00.002-05:00

The last couple of nights I've had great ideas for little writing assignments (aka blog posts). I've been excited and ready to create with words. My computer is broken and when I try writing by hand the inspiration slips away. Maybe I should try harder, but usually more effort removes the fun and then I'd rather sleep.

Sadly, I can't seem to snag the impulse in the morning at work. Perhaps the afternoon will prove more ideal.

I might be just looking for an excuse to repair/replace the laptop. Alas, until I have a new job lined up I think I need to find my motivation to write during business hours.