Hooray! Veronica Mars has been renewed for a third season. Now at least we’ll get to find out what the McGuffin in Kendall’s briefcase was…
Month: May 2006 (page 4 of 8)
Just found a nice photo tutorial on wheel throwing, which should be helpful for me at my second pottery class tonight. We did all that stuff in the first class but it’s hard to really see the hand positions when everything’s moving around. I especially like the pictures where they’ve cut the pot in half so you can see exactly what you should be doing to pull the sides up.
DietBlog: I’m doin’ the dance of joy! I lost another 400g to take me back down to 78.1kg. That means I’ve fully recovered from the setbacks of the past month and I’m once again within my healthy BMI range. (And I successfully made up for the burrito!) My official total loss now stands at 22kg. (I’m only about 1.5lb shy of 50lbs lost, which is going to be a big milestone.) I’d still ultimately like to get down to about 75kg, and I think I’d also like to get into a size 12. As it is the 14 is a little roomy, so I’d rather not end up stuck in between. And since it surprised my sister the other day, I’ll just add that Australian sizes seem to run bigger than American ones, and I’m pretty sure I’m a 12 already in the U.S. At any rate, the size 14 jeans my Mom brought me from Old Navy are wicked loose on me. So yay! (Okay, I’ll stop bragging.)
Our meeting tonight was a lot of fun, mostly because I sat next to an awesome new girl named Roberta. She lost 2kg in her first week! Her enthusiasm and excitement just took me back to my first week, and it really fired me up to see this journey right through to the end. It’s also funny to see how nothing has really changed since that first week for me. I’m still talking up a storm in the meeting and happily collecting my Bravo Stars for my accomplishments. (Tonight’s was for the Race. My little Star Corral is getting full!) Only two more weeks til I get the “Key” charm for my keychain and get to become a Lifetime Member. I’m nearly there…
Hmm. I just went to my Recent Documents list and saw… this.
See the problem? It looks like my little sign didn’t stop the abuse…
The Race results are now available! Snookums and I finished 916th and 917th out of 1060 runners. In my gender/age group I was 139th out of 161, and he was 60th out of 62. Amongst all females, I was 592nd out of 711 and he was 325th out of 348. You know, that makes our performance sound a lot crappier than it was. I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that the 8K run is pretty self-selecting, and most of the people who go for it are the “serious” runners. Everybody who was really unfit or just out for a laugh did one of the 4K events. So I refuse to let my feelings of accomplishment be diminished!
Addendum: The Snook would like it to be known if the race had taken place two months later (i.e. after his 30th birthday), his standing within his age group would have been much better.
Why is Canberra so much cooler than the rest of Australia? Fireworks… porn… civil unions… Why can’t we get us some of that in New South Wales?
Apparently my brother Anthony, like, graduated from university today. (Nice of the fam to let me know!) Congrats, brother. Welcome to the work force!
We finally watched the film version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Man, that suuuuucked. It really looks like Connery’s going to pull a Brando in his final years: getting fat, phoning it in, and cashing in on his reputation. And what’s up with Saddam Hussein playing Nemo?
Happy Mothers Day!
Yes, today was the day of our big race. It really crept up on us! The Snook and I got up at the butt-crack of dawn so we could be down in the Domain in time for the 7:30am start of the 8K run event. It was cold but the sun was shining and I felt cautiously optimistic for our performance. I haven’t been able to do much training in the past few weeks – what with my Mom’s visit and my hamstring injury – so I told the Snook my only goal was to finish in under an hour. We strapped on our ankle timers and, after a fair amount of warming up and stretching, we joined a thousand or so other people at the starting line. Soon we were off. To my delight, my legs felt great. People were passing us, of course, but I think we did a pretty good job of running at our own pace. (The only person to lap us was the race leader, who was clearly a running cyborg from the future.) The clock was ticking past 25:00 as we started our second and final lap. We actually made it to the 5K mark before needing a walk break. That’s when I started to hurt. It wasn’t my leg; it was my lungs. I was gasping for breath and I had a stitch threatening the whole time. We shuffled onwards and with every step my body felt heavier and heavier. My brain was saying “I can’t do this” and I had to fight to keep from walking. I can honestly say that it was only Snookums that got me through the last two kilometers. If I’d been on my own, I’d have walked that whole way. As it was, I just tried to ignore all the pain and focus on keeping up with him for a few more feet. Soon the Finish Line was in sight and getting over that mat and STOPPING became the one and only objective in my life. And then it was over. The final times are yet to be released, but it was roughly around the 53:00 mark. Success! I was never so glad to be done with a run in my life. Here are a few pics:
The first three are us before the race. Yeah, I’m rockin’ the terry wristband again. Good grief, I look skinny. Compare with me four years ago. I can’t get over that. Snookums still can’t get over the fact that I talked him into running a race. And he hadn’t had any coffee, which is why he looks cranky in all the pictures. The last one is us after the race, which is why I look so dazed and vacant. My only thought was to force down a Powerbar before I yuked. Fun times! Hopefully the official race photographs will be up in a few days. I think they got at least a few good ones of us.
The aftermath: Yeah, we’re both wicked sore. The hamstring’s good though. I guess the time off really helped with the injury, but at the same time I took a real hit in terms of overall fitness. I’m looking forward to getting back into shape. Only a few months til the City 2 Surf!
Long-Sleeved Cotton Polo
At last, a Finished Object to report! I’ve been working on this jumper for the Snook for well over six months. It’s based on a Wendy pattern (#5101) which I converted to be knit in the round. To tell you the truth, it was pretty boring through most of the body and the sleeves and only really got exciting once I finally got everything together on one needle. The raglan shaping and vee neck took a little brainpower; I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the decreases. The collar was supposed to be knitted separately and sewn on. As if. I just picked up around the neck and knitted it on. I have to say, I’m really, really pleased with how this turned out. The yarn (Jo Sharp’s Soho Summer DK Cotton) was an absolute beeyotch to knit with, but the finished garment is so soft and warm that I’m already planning one for myself. All that’s left is to get some appropriate buttons for the placket neck and she’s finished!