The Dreaded Peeps
Amazingly, our new home has remained Peep-free for nearly five months. I don’t know how I escaped Easter, but I did! However, this weekend I found myself playing cultural anthropologist for the knitters over at Ravelry. Many of the non-Americans were confused by the sudden appearance of what appeared to be a canary-yellow swirl of poo over the Ravelry logo in the corner. (The site often adds holiday-appropriate flair to the logo.) I was able to step in and explain, “No, it isn’t poo; it’s a disgusting, vaguely bird-shaped piece of marshmallow that most Americans dislike but somehow got really trendy on the Internet in the past few years. They’re made of Evil.” There was much gratitude for clearing that up.
Month: March 2008 (page 3 of 9)
How Not to Diet: We baked this cake last night. Oh, except we substituted pecans for the walnuts, so really our version is a “Caramel Pecan Upside-Down Banana Cake.” ZOMG. It is delicious. The recipe suggests that the caramel is too sweet though, and you may prefer the cake without it. I think that’s rubbish. Personally, the next time we make this, I’m going to leave the cake out and just make a cookie sheet of caramel-coated pecans. They were that good.
Earlier this week I managed to catch my friend Nat (husband to Staci) on IM, and we chatted briefly about our training programs. (He’s doing a half-marathon about the same time as I am.) After hearing about his most recent “long run,” I felt inspired to push even farther myself. Yesterday I headed out on my longest run since last year’s City to Surf. I headed up Cleveland Street all the way to the end, then past Fox Studios, down to Centennial Park, around an entire lap of the park, then all the way home again. It was just over 10K (about six miles). I was feeling a little achy in my lower back (I saw my physio again on Thursday) so I decided to take it easy. I started doing 5:1 intervals (five minutes running, 1 minute walking), but switched to 4:1 about halfway through. The interesting thing is, I still managed to keep a really good average pace. I’m not far off what I need to do to make the time cutoff in the race. I did the 10K in 77 minutes, and for the race I need to do 11K in that time. That includes probably ten minutes of warm up and cool down walking too, so without those I’d have been even faster. And what’s even more remarkable: I didn’t get any side stitches! I think the run-walk breaks are helping with that a lot. My friend Susi lent me a copy of John Bingham’s No Need for Speed, and I love the idea that you don’t need to go fast to be a “real runner.” I’m starting to feel more confident about this race!
Of course, I’m pretty sore today. I think we might head over to the pool later for a recovery swim…
I’ve been stumbling across some wacky knitting-related links lately. First, Rob over at cockeyed has been magnifying knitting wool with this funny magnifying thing he got at a toy store. There’s a closeup view of some Noro in there! The second fun thing is this Design Exhibit in Norway, which features (down at the very bottom of the page) a knitting machine built into a hanging lamp, so when it’s switched on, it knits its own lampshade. Very neat.
Wow! It appears that Miss Fee and the Sock Victim are officially engaged. Congratulations you guys! It’s going to be one hell of a party…
I went to the Easter Show today with Bex, Emily, Fin, and several of their friends. We saw my award-winning jumper, and marvelled at the usual array of great big pumpkins. We tried to see the ducks dressed in human clothes, but the crowds were too big. We watched some woodchopping and ate some crap food. The knitters in the group were disappointed in the sad lack of yarn to buy. We finished the day at the “Psycho Sideshow,” where I had a minor freakout at the sight of a guy lifting a car battery with his nipple piercings. (*shudder*) So all in all, another fun year at the Show!
“‘Healthier hearts’ for cat owners.” According to this BBC article, the Snook and I are lowering our changes of a heart attack simply by having Dr. Amy Jones in the house.
Job Search: The Aftermath
Well, in the end I had one positive and one negative result. Hey, at least that makes the decision easy, right? Looks like I’ll be starting on the 31st of March. The company is called Mobile Messenger, and it’s definitely a straight IT coding role (as opposed to what I do here). Everyone there is really friendly, and I’m looking forward to getting in on their foosball tournament. (Little do they know, Eileen and I actually had a foosball in our dorm room for a year. MWA HA HA!) I’ll admit I’m a little hesitant about stepping out of my comfort zone. The role is highly technical and I’ve got some big gaps in my programming knowledge. On the plus side though, the company knows this (thanks to a series of tests and interviews) and they still want me anyway. So that’s a big compliment, right?
And you all have to boycott SBS for a while, okay? 🙁
Crap. I just found out from MetaFilter that March 20 is supposed to be “Sweater Day” in honor of Mr. Rogers, and that Mr. McFeely wants everyone to wear their favorite sweater on that day. The first problem, of course, is that it’s already March 20th here. So I missed out. And secondly… IT’S NOT WINTER HERE. Stupid Northern Hemispherists.
Sometimes the Snook and I share a brain, and it’s scary. The other night I went to the grocery store (by myself), and while I waited in line I had an epiphany. I rushed home to tell him.
Me: I think I’m going to get my hair cut short again. And I know exactly how I want it to look.
Him: Like how?
Me: Well… like Katie Holmes–
Him: On IN STYLE magazine??
Me: Actually… Yes. Exactly. HOW ON EARTH DID YOU KNOW THAT?