Sunday, September 26, 2010

My First 5k!


So I started thinking about this last year as my walking was not getting me the intensity I wanted. I didn't commit to something last fall and to tell the truth I don't have any good excuses why.

But I'm changing that. I've booked my first 5k run for November. I've got a heart rate monitor coming so that I can keep track of my heart rate/intensity levels since I know once I get going I am much more about endurance than I am about speed. I've proven that with my walking - if I don't stop I can walk 10 miles without stopping. Now I just need to take that walking and increase the intensity and do the interval training.

A few good friends have encouraged cross training to help prevent injury and I definitely agree with that. I'm trying to see what my options are as summer winds down and the nearest pool options are gyms and I am facing both costs from running shoes, as well as possible gym/race fees. One thing at a time.

But most of all I feel excited about getting out the door again. That is what has been missing from my time outside this year and I can definitely tell the difference. I walk quite a bit just from lack of personal vehicle, but nowhere near what I was walking at this time last year. It's time to change that. I've cancelled my cable, cancelled my internet. I spend too much time sitting. I'm ready to enjoy every part of the day, including the running pains and the side aches and the blisters. It all means I'm doing something productive.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Loki!


So I gave him a name... he responds to it.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Hanging out in Mexico

It's that time again ... where I rather abruptly cut off many physical ties with places I know and am familiar with, and put myself someplace else.

Last year was north of the border... this year south of the border.

I've been to Mexico many many times. Having grown up in a border state, I've been on both east and west coasts of mexico, in the resort towns and in the rural stretches.

I'm in a place I've been before, but this time I'm without the more spanish fluent counterpart. I've been able to interact with the people around me today, and thankful my brain loves to hang onto pieces of information for forever.

I was in the pool lounging and reading my book, and watching the storm clouds get closer. I didn't want to get out unless it actually started to rain since there seem to be a lot of fast moving storms, but they are pretty random in their dumping spots. I looked up and saw and upside down rainbow. I've never seen one of those before, and I wonder if I ever will again. I thought maybe it was just my sunglasses or the sun glare but nope. Pretty sure it was real.

After doing the evening dog sitting duties, I decided to head towards the pier and stretch a bit. There's some stray dogs out that were left by their Mexican owners when they left to go home earlier last month. We've been putting out some food for them, and they were very quick to make the association in the care for their wellbeing.

one in particular is a medium sized dog, with a gentle face and happy wag. He was chilling outside on the sand nearby when I left the house and he was pretty excited to see me. Knowing these are pretty much wild dogs, I've not made any attempt to interact, pet, etc as you just don't know what will happen, especially when I am dropping bowls of food for them.

This dog walked ALL the way to the pier - about a 2 mile walk. at first there were 2 following me but 1 got bored and decided to investigate elsewhere.
pretty soon it was evident that he was "with me". As we got closer to the pier there were people out on the beach and their dogs were quite aggressive of their territory. Most just met almost halfway and threatened each other. When I saw that lightening was starting to come and that it was getting dark, I turned to head back. The dog was still right there with me. I stopped moving and put my hand out - he came right up and licked my hand, then did the whole head rub on your knee thing that dogs are good at. Pretty friendly guy.

On our way back a group of dogs were a little more forward in their aggressiveness and 3 of them ganged up on him for a minute. They got in a good warning nip or 2 and he raced back to me, then turned around to face them and growled. Wow. I've only known this dog for 4 days and he's being protective of me.

We keep walking..... all the way back to the house. I wanted to at least get a little more people interaction so i kept going until I got to the street that takes me to the bodega. The little bugger stayed right on me, crossing the street with me and then finally losing interest when I went into the bodega and came out and he was gone.

Friday, September 17, 2010

I Passed my LEED Green Associate Exam!

with so much going on I hadn't updated this. Passed with a 181, and you need a 170 in order to pass.

I knew where my weaknesses were and sure enough that is where I scored the lowest when I reviewed my breakdown of categories. BUT. I am LEED Green Associate!

I don't have to take the test again - just Continuing Education requirements that restart every 2 years.

I looked myself up in the Professional Directory on the gbci.org website and there I was. That was pretty cool.

Bliss

Vacation.

On It.

Plans? Nada. Other than making sure I have a good supply of coffee for the week, and a stop to Costco to stock up on groceries. I'd say things are going pretty well.


Monday, September 6, 2010

Why I am smiling right now


I love when you can find those people in your life that you have a good time with, no matter what you are doing or if things are going as planned.

I got a pasta maker from Goodwill a few weeks ago, and with Sam in town this weekend I wanted to try it out.

we failed. MISERABLY. and I haven't laughed or smiled so much since I set his cake on fire in July. I had mishaps with the dough and had to make 2 batches, and then when we got past the dough creation stage we just did not have any luck getting the texture/consistency we needed.

I asked him on the way to O'hare what his favorite memory from the weekend was, and he said it was the pasta escapade.

We are back to our "real" lives with him on a plane back to AZ at the moment. I keep finding little notes that say "i Love you!" all over the house. I tried to track down some on purpose but I don't find them then. So far I have found 3. I don't even know how he was able to be this sneaky, unless it was while I was taking Dusty outside before we left.

But it makes me smile, and we all need more reasons to do that these days.

 
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