Me: Oh. My. God. Eileen just coined the term “PILF” on her blog. Where “P” stands for “Priest.”
Snook: Whaaaaat?
Me: Apparently the Pope’s assistant is pretty hot.
Snook: What’s Eileen doing helping the Pope?!
Me: She’s not on the Pope’s STAFF, you ding dong. She just saw his picture.
Snook: Oh. I wondered.
Month: April 2008 (page 4 of 8)
I know it’s petty, but it was almost worth letting someone goad me into a stupid, frustrating non-argument today for the secret glee of standing before him in a T-shirt which read “You are Dumb” in binary. Almost. (Thanks again to Ma Snook for the awesome shirt.)
Ahhh, VICTORY!
Karen and I pulled off a very satisfying 10-2 win this afternoon in the losers’ bracket of the foosball tournament. We now get to play for 5th or 6th place!
Later: AND AGAIN! We won our second match! We had to play two guys that beat us 10-2 before, but this time we kicked their butts 10-5 in front of, like, half the company. It was soooo tense, but I was just on fire today! And then Karen got the last goal on a fluke shot from the goalie, and then we screamed and hugged and jumped in a circle. It was AWESOME. Best fifth place finish ever.
This is for my brother-in-law, Dan Carbo. Maybe my Mom can make it into a quilt or something for him.
Snookums pointed out to me last night that Google Maps has been updated with super high-res pictures of Sydney. Check it out. They obviously flew over before we moved last November, because that’s our picnic table in the backyard of the old place!
The Need for Speed
In spite of my ongoing ulcer issues, I’ve still managed a couple good runs this week. I went out Tuesday morning for a “recovery” run, aiming to run at a nice slow pace for 40 minutes without stopping. I ended up doing over 6km, and it felt surprisingly easy the whole way. I didn’t even start to get winded til the very last bit. To my utter astonishment, I averaged 6:46 per kilometer, which works out to a 34:00 5K time! And I wasn’t even trying! This is well within the pace I need to keep for the half-marathon next month. I decided to build upon this with some “cadence drills” this morning. I got these from Jeff Galloway, and it’s basically an easy form of interval training. I started by walking and jogging 10 minutes to warm up. Then I ran at a normal pace and timed myself for 30 seconds, counting each time my left foot touched the ground. I think it was 34 this first time. Then each subsequent repetition, you try to increase that number a bit. So I alternated with 30 seconds of sprinting (and counting my steps) with a minute or so of walking to recover. I did this for about a mile and managed to get my count up to 50! I felt a bit silly, like the Road Runner with my legs flying in a blur. But I also felt pretty fast! Then I finished by jogging the last fifteen minutes home.
Also – I got a shoutout on the latest episode of the Brandon’s Marathon podcast! That was fun.
Libby Stock has a righteous rant in the SMH today about women taking their husband’s surnames. I just find it interesting. I didn’t really have any big political issue with the practice – like I did with marriage in general – but in the end, I just found it too weird to contemplate changing my name. It’s too much a part of who I am.
The 10 Most Badass Geeks in Film/TV. I agree with most of the items on that list, but I have a few quibbles. Was Donnie Darko really a geek? Other than that whole Smurf speech, I can’t think of anything he did that was particularly geeky. I’d probably replace him with Willow from Buffy, especially in her rare evil incarnations. (That also solves the issue of there being NO female representation in the list.) But man, I really hate Anakin Skywalker being in there. I can what they’re getting at, but I feel that the prequels just sucked out any sense of malice Darth Vader had. (Link courtesy of Bex.)
Still Sick
My stomach continues to defy medical analysis. My duodenitis (aka ulcer) flared up two weeks ago, but after one bad day it seemed to settle down. It didn’t go away completely, but it was manageable and I was able to keep exercising. My doctor’s tests didn’t show any underlying infection so I chalked it up to the stress of starting the new job. Then, yesterday, it came back with a vengeance. I don’t know what set it off, but by 4:00 I was in agony. I rang the doctor and left work early. I honestly don’t know how I managed to get home without puking. It was that bad. My regular doc was booked out so I had to see somebody new, which meant he had to get the whole two-year-long saga of the diagnosis. Yes, I have been tested for h.pylori. No, multiple tests for it have been negative. Yes, I know that’s really weird, because I have every symptom of a classic ulcer EXCEPT for the bacteria. I was nearly in tears telling him about it. It’s just so frustrating, because there doesn’t seem to be anything I can *do*. If I tested positive for the h.pylori then they could treat me for it, but without that, all I can do is take more Nexium (which doesn’t seem to help much).
So the upshot of all of it is, he wants me to have another endoscopy and another round of blood tests. Oh, and no more caffeine and alcohol. Joy.
“Arrested” alumni reunite for Fox pilot. I’d give any show that Mitch Hurwitz is involved with a try, but with Bateman, Arnett, and Winkler involved? I’d like to pre-order the DVD, please. (That said, the Snook and I can’t figure out what the hell the “Australian” show is that it’s supposed to be based on. We’ve never seen it.)