Catching Up

I never blog at work, because, well, I'm at work. But our work email has been down since Wednesday night, so I'm sitting here bored and I feel like posting. :) Yes, I do have a few things I could do, but I don't want to. I already cleaned off my whole desk yesterday.

So, things have just been pretty busy. My life is definitely not boring these days. :) D keeps me busy, with various dinners, wine tastings, concerts, etc. I'm actually a little too busy - I love the occasional day with nothing planned! Last weekend, we took a great mini trip to Yellow Springs and Springfield (OH). We had lunch at the Winds Cafe in Yellow Springs and walked around the little town. Then we stopped for ice cream at Young's, and drove to Springfield where we toured the Westcott House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The building had undergone a significant and careful renovation and it was a great little gem in an area where you wouldn't expect it. I STILL have not been to Fallingwater or Kentuck Knob in Pennsylvania, so we hope to tour those when we have time for an overnight.

Work is pretty busy right now, as we're gearing up for a bunch of fall shows. We're doing 6 mini projects/shows instead of one big one, which should be fun. We're just working very last minute, which makes it difficult for everyone.

Running is going ok. I've been keeping up my training (usually running 4 days a week, with a speed workout on Wednesdays and a long run of 12ish miles on Saturdays) but it has been SO hot and humid that I feel really slow. It doesn't help that I gained back almost 10 of the pounds I lost. So I'm on the fence about which race to run in October - the full or the half. I know I can train for and finish a full, but I don't think I'll probably PR and it might be a bad race. But I'm not sure how fast I'd be in a half either. I'm just really torn because I feel like my training is so crappy. I really wanted to break 4 hours and then take a long marathon break, but I don't know when I'm going to be able to break that time. Decisions, decisions...

Misc

Sorry, I still suck at posting. :)

A few exciting events:
-I got to meet Jack Johnson last week!
-I made a delicious Green Goddess dressing last weekend!
-I'm still running and working out but I eat and drink too much and have gained back almost all the weight I lost! (SUCK!)
-I'm hanging out with some girlfriends tonight - I need to do that more often!!
-Donnie and I are planning a daycation this weekend! And a road trip for Labor Day!

Ok, that's enough. :) It's almost 5:30, so I want to hit the road!

Here's a pic of us with Jack:

on my droid

I completely forgot that I downloaded an app for blogger! Maybe this will help me post more now.

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Trying to Keep Up

Not much new to report today. Just enjoying a rather quiet and relaxing evening at home, and doing some work I've been meaning to do. I've had a killer headache all day, but it seems to be subsiding now (finally!). Work is pretty crazy right now too. I'm planning to get up early tomorrow and do my speed workout before work, as D and I are having date night tomorrow night. :) I'm really looking forward to it - we're doing the bistro menu at the Refectory! He's so sweet - he sent me a dozen roses at work today!!! What a great guy I've got. :)

End of June already?

Wow, I'm so sorry I've been so bad at keeping up with the blog. I've been busy and went on a FABULOUS vacation in California at the beginning of the month. I'll post more about it (including pictures) soon.

The summer is in full swing with some major freaking heat, and I have to admit that I'm having a really hard time motivating myself to work out and run in this weather. Last night's run was horribly brutal. I'd so much rather sit and drink with my awesome boyfriend than go to bed early so I can get up to exercise. :) As my clothes get tighter and tighter though, I am starting to see a little bit of motivation. :)

I'll try to post more soon!

sorry :)

Hello! I'm so sorry that I've been so remiss in updating my blog. I've been a little busy these last two months because I have a new boyfriend. :) Yeah, that's my exciting news. He's pretty awesome and we spend just about every second together, so I haven't been spending much time updating the ole blog. I'll try to be better, but I can't promise anything! :)

Other than that, not too much has gone on. I did run the marathon and finished it, despite some issues. It wasn't a PR but I was very proud of how I did. Full race report to come. Work has been very busy lately. The installation was fairly crazed and things haven't really slowed down much sense. So I'm really just trying to get back in the swing of things back and work and in my life.

I have a nice relaxing long weekend planned. I have a long run tomorrow morning with my group, and BBQs on Sunday and Monday with various friends. And other than that, nothing except what I feel like doing! It's my kind of weekend. :)

And then next Friday, I leave for VACATION!!!!! woohoo!!!! I'm SO excited. D and two sets of couples were already planning this trip to Napa, and I get to tag along. Yes, he invited me on a trip after we'd only been dating for a little while. But in my defense, we've known each other for a while and had been friends. So it's not like I'm going on vacation with a stranger. :) So we'll be renting a house in Napa for the first 4 days and then staying on a vineyard in Amador county for the last two days. And I'm starting out the trip by flying to the LA area for my friend JJ's wedding. It will be fun seeing my old Granville friends! Kimberly and I are flying out together and staying in the hotel together, so I'm sure all sorts of craziness will ensue. :)

Ok, time to get my relaxing evening going. I'll try to be better from now on (especially if I can figure out a way to blog from my new Android phone - anyone??) and I'll definitely be updating my food blog (colYUMbus.blogspot.com) more soon as my CSA is supposed to start soon!

Taper!!

I had a reallllly great 22 mile run this morning. Probably the best long training run I've ever had. Weather was good, we ran on a flat trail for once (we usually add hills in, not that I mind), had a lot of water stops, my legs felt great, and my stomach even cooperated!! My stomach barely hurts even now, and it normally hurts all day after my long runs. You know what I changed? No bread or pasta yesterday, or after my run. I did have several Ezekiel English muffin halves, which are made from sprouted grain and are flourless. And for dinner last night, I had lentils, quinoa, shrimp and feta. And a salad, and one small piece of pizza that had very little bread or cheese or anything like that. So I guess I did have a little bit of bread. And right after my run, I had some vanilla 2% milk for recovery.

Anyway, I feel pretty ready for this race and am kind of a little excited about it!

Now it's a gorgeous day and I can't decide what to do. Go shopping? Be productive in the apartment? Get food? All of the above? I do have dinner plans around 7 so I don't really have all day. That's the problem with the long run - it eats up your day! I think I'm going to go get some food and go from there.

Beautiful spring!

Spring is here and it is gorgeous!! We had record breaking highs in the 80s this week and today it topped off in the 70s before a cold front came in and brought us down to a sunny 65ish. I am loving it!

Everything is going so well right now. I've been having a lot of fun hanging out with new friends and old friends and have been staying up too late and drinking too much. :) I'm working on that! We had a shorter run today, and after next weekend's 22, it's officially taper time until the race May 2. Work is going to get crazy starting next week, but that's ok. We've got a great show coming up and I like the craziness of installation. In the middle of it, I'll head to STL for my college reunion and then the next weekend to Cincy to run my marathon. And then it will be May! I've got a wedding coming up at the end of May, and lots of other fun stuff.

I might have something exciting brewing, but it's too soon to talk about it. Let's just say things are good. :)

Tomorrow I'm heading up to my brother Dave's house for Easter dinner with the family. I'm excited that my sister Laura will be here, up from NC, for the weekend. It should be a good time!

Happy Easter to those of you to celebrate it, Happy Passover to those of you who celebrated that, and happy spring to everyone!

20 miles, check!

The twenty miler went really well this morning. Stayed on pace the whole time, the weather was gorgeous, and I dressed completely appropriately for once. I usually overdress but I fought my desires and stuck with what I knew would work. Which, by the way, includes the most awesome jacket in the world, which my awesome mom gave me for Christmas. The Nike Convertible jacket. Once it started to warm up, I zipped off the sleeves and handily stashed them into one of the many pockets. Perfection. Anyway, I am definitely feeling pretty good about this race! Not sure I'm going to break 4 like I'm hoping, given the hills and all, but I think it will be a good run, and fun.

My stomach is freaking killing me now though. But, I felt great on the run, and really, that's all I care about.

So, the clean eating thing. I recently read Rachel Cosgrove's new book, The Female Body Breakthrough. It's awesome, and I'm super fired up to do the workouts in it. (Her husband did the workouts for the book The New Rules of Lifting for Women. I just finished these workouts and have noticed a huge change in my body in the past 5 months or so.) The book really encourages you to lift heavy weights and eat clean 90% of the time. Since I am now a full believer of the importance of weight lifting (I guess I should try to do some before and after pics to make you a believer too!), I thought I'd try out the other component. I eat pretty clean already, but I could definitely do better. I've gotten pretty lax about a piece of candy here, a cookie there, a pop with dinner. Eating clean involves eating as close to the natural food source as possible, without additives or processing. So, no white sugar. Also no bread, even whole wheat. Ezekiel bread, made with sprouted grains, is considered ok though, and I am now fully obsessed with the Ezekiel English muffins. So good. She also wants you to eat 5-6 mini meals, and every meal should have a vegetable or fruit, and a protein.

So, as of Tuesday or Wednesday, I've pretty much completely cut out sugar, refined flours, processed food, and alcohol. Alcohol is the biggie and will certainly factor into the 10% splurges I'm allowed to have per week. (I've actually been splurging about once per day, instead of 3-4 times per week, as I ease into it. But they're been mostly good splurges - a piece of whole wheat bread, some low fat microwave popcorn, etc. Nothing horrific if you ignore Thursday night. :P) I have to say, I'm feeling pretty terrific. I think it had a lot to do with my lack of Diet Coke craving. And I haven't been craving sugar either. (I did have some DC and a little bit of candy after my run today, as I know I burned off a gazillion calories.) I have a lot of stomach problems, and I felt really good through my run today.

So, I consider this a big experiment. At least for the next 4 weeks, until my reunion, I'm going to try to eat like this very consistently. I might decide at that point that it's not worth the trouble and extra expense, but so far, it's not a huge shift from my regular eating and I'm interested to see how big of an impact it has on me. I've been reading other things about the negative impact of additives and chemicals on the body functions (especially metabolism), and it kind of makes a lot of sense when I really think about it. So, stay tuned.

diet coke

many of you may know that i've fought my whole life against my diet coke addiction. i finally really cut back a few months ago and I only drink maybe one a week, a treat after my long runs. as i was getting ready for today's 20 miler, I realized I'd need to stop and purchase one for my daily treat today. and then it dawned on me that I haven't even thought about or craved a diet coke all week. before, I would at least crave it a few times a week. not this week! guess this clean eating thing is really working for me! (more about that soon, have to go get dressed for this insane run! the annoying thing is that it's 26 degrees now and will be almost 50 by the time we're done. makes it hard to dress!!)

trying to figure out a quicker way to post photos

i finally have a new camera but it's kind of a pain to upload photos all the time... trying to figure out easier ways. since i don't have an iphone, i can take a photo with my phone and email it to myself...not sure if that's any easier though.

anyway, these are the pretty tulips I bought myself at Whole Foods the other day. :)

From The (anti-)Boring Blog

:)

I only post when I have something good to say. :) well, not really, but it kinda seems that way!

My running group had a time trial today. 3 miles, or close to it. (my Garmin said we were a little shy, less than a tenth of a mile) my time was 22:55. Even with the shortage, that's still under 8 minute miles the whole time. For reference, I ran a 5k (3.1 miles) last June in 25 and change. I wa hungover but I have clearly gotten much faster!!!

In weight news, I had my last weight watchers meeting today, and I lost 7.8 lbs in 10 weeks! I didn't actually follow the program because it didn't work for me, but it did help me re-focus and make weight loss a priority. Now I just have 2 more weigh-ins for my biggest loser contest at work and I can officially not care about the scale. :) more about that later! I need to get to bed because I need to run in the morning since tonight's run was fairly short. I've been having a helluva time getting up in the mornings. :)


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um, YAY me.

basement organization? CHECK.



And if I had time to organize the basement, you know everything else is looking pretty good. :) Everything is not perfect, for sure, but I know where everything is and everything is pretty well organized. I definitely need to do another pass at the organization and also get rid of more stuff, but I feel like I'm in great shape.

Wow, I had the tv on in the background, and they just broke in with a special report about the health care reform bill passing. Kind of amazing. For everyone, I hope it ends up being as great as the people passing it hope it is. :)

Yay!!

Got my wireless up and running at the new place! Woohoo!!! I think I might be a little addicted though...


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Back from the dead :)

Hello faithful readers! I'm sorry it has been so long but I've had some stuff going on.

As some of you already know, Todd and I just broke up. I spent the weekend moving out, and I know have a cute apartment in Grandview. I got the internet hooked up so I'm blogging from it right now. :) This has been a long time in coming though, and I've been really dwelling on this, hence why I haven't been posting much. Hopefully I can get back into the habit though!

On a slightly related note, I LOVE the new Liberty line at Target. All of it. Since I've been spending some quality time there lately getting stuff for the move, I've been able to view (and purchase) several things. For the apartment, I got a great lamp for my bedroom. Although now I'm looking for a second one so I can put them on my bedside tables, and the Targets around here are totally sold out. For me, I've gotten 2 dresses and a shirt. I've really had to restrain myself. :)

I think I'm going to go back to unpacking and organizing now. I'm trying to spend some time thinking and reflecting on my life and all of that sort of stuff, so I'll try to post more often. Thanks for sticking around, those of you who did! :)

Still here

I'm still alive. Work kicked my butt last week and all last month and I'm still trying to recover. Not really feeling bloggy. :)


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ahhh, relaxation.

the shows are open! yay, i can finally relax a bit. (not too much, because next week starts the saga of a bunch of artwork arriving to be photographed for a book, so I've got two more crazy weeks ahead of me)

It's a gorgeous (but freezing!) sunny day today and all is well. I had a great (hilly!! and cold!!) 11 mile run this morning, topped off by breakfast with some of my running gal pals. We all ordered healthy and it was a great start to the day. Now I'm trying to decide the best way to spend the next few hours! I sort of want a nap but I think I'm going to pass for now so I can get some stuff done. I'm sort of in a cleaning/organizing kind of mood. Plus a run to the grocery and Target is in store as well.

Happy weekend!

Sitting at an artist's talk at work and I'm starving!!! People keep leaving though so I don't feel like I can sneak out yet.

I'm so excited that we open tomorrow. We are in great shape but have a few little issues to work out.

Thinking about what to eat tonight.... So hungry.

Happy thursday! :)



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Back to the Buckeye State

I'm back from Michigan, thanks for the well wishes! It was nice to visit with my mom and see my grandparents. But I was surprised at how weak my grandpa was. :( And my grandmother was as expected - she has alzheimers and can't really be left alone at all. She can still talk and converse with us, but repeats everything and can't remember who anyone is or that sort of thing. My poor mother just seems exhausted and stressed. Unfortunately, both of my grandparents are going to be moving into some of home in the near future, and my mom will have to stay with my grandmother until that transition is made. So I'm sure I'll be back up there again quite a bit in the next few weeks/months (we don't really know how long this will take). Alzheimers is such an awful disease - I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I think it's the worst for the loved ones. I'm not sure how my grandfather took care of my grandmother for a long as he did.

Anyhoo, on to happier things. Work will be busy this week, we have an opening on Friday! Two new shows, Hard Targets and Cyprien Gaillard. They're very different, so there's something for everyone! :) www.wexarts.org for more info. :)

I am pretty exhausted (my mom and I stayed up late talking and then I woke up at the crack of dawn) so I think I'm going to start winding down. Maybe read for a bit. Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

off to michigan

i'm off to michigan in the morning to visit my grandparents and my mom, who is up there taking care of my grandma. i'll be in the car from 8 am until about 1:30-2 pm, so feel free to call me. I'll be bored. :) my grandparents aren't doing too well and it sounds like mom is pretty exhausted from taking care of my grandma, so hopefully i can provide a bit of relief. i'm so lucky that work made it able for me to go this weekend (i thought I'd have to work).

have a great weekend!

oh, and for anyone who might wonder about my run, i got up at 5 am this morning and did 11 miles on the treadmill. it actually went just fine and wasn't bad at all. good to know! :)

good workout!

I went to the gym today and not only did weights but also swam! I love swimming and am SO glad that my new gym has a pool. I got a new swimsuit and goggles last week, so I put them to the test, and I'm happy to announce that both passed. I have a bit of a cold, so this was the perfect workout for today. I had to go to my running store to pick up some shoes I'd ordered and I picked up a copy of Triathlete magazine there. I'm really hoping to do a tri this year, so hopefully this will help me get started.

I actually think I'm going to lie down and read pretty soon. My head is killing me and I'm exhausted. I hung out with Mary for her birthday last night (Happy Birthday Mary!!!!) and didn't get home until somewhat late. It was fun though!

Sorry!

Sorry, I know I've been horrible about blogging lately. I'm just brooding on some stuff right now and haven't felt like it. Plus work has been very busy. I joined weight watchers this week to try to get an extra oomph to lose these last 10ish pounds, and I gotta tell ya, I am starving! All the time!!! It sucks.

I'll try to blog more soon, I promise. :)


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Happy New Year!

Wow, 2010 already! Happy New Year to everyone! One of these days I'll do a nice insightful post, but today isn't going to be the day. :)

I hope this new decade is off to a fabulous start, and I wish you all the best!!