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By kilax, January 31, 2009 5:52 pm

Our Denver Ski trip is official! We bought our flight tickets last weekend (for mid February) and visited the Columbia Outlet Store today to get our jackets and pants.

I’m getting more and more excited as the details get squared away. It will be fun to try skiing, and possibly, some other winter sports. I wonder if we’ll get hooked on skiing and it will become an annual activity?

It will also be fun to spend time with friends! We are going with one of Steven’s high school friends and his wife. And we are staying with the friend’s parents, who live in the foothills of the mountains just outside of Denver.

All of my memories of these friends and the parents are of good conversation and good times. They’re the kind of intellectual people who listen, have a lot to add to the conversation, but know when it’s time to have fun and not be serious.

We had lunch with the friends today before going to the store. We were telling them about our fitness goals and half marathon training. Sometimes people brush this off or make a joke about how inactive they were, but they listened to us, and showed enthusiasm for our goals, and shared a few of their own. It turns out Steven’s friend is training for a half marathon as well! We all even talked about running the Disney World half marathon next January. After reading Laura’s Disney Marathon Race Report, I really think that half (or full?!) marathon would be loads of fun.

It’s too bad we don’t see these friends more often. They also live in the suburbs, but… the Chicago suburbs can be very far apart. And ours are. Add in all of our busy schedules, and it’s not often the four of us can meet up. Even more reason to look forward to the trip!

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By kilax, January 30, 2009 12:05 pm

What personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble?

Those traits would be being loud, a bit outspoken, and a habit to say the wrong thing at the wrong time – not a good combination.

When I was young, my best friend stopped inviting me over as much as she used to. I asked her why and she said, “My parents don’t like it when you come over because you’re too loud.”

Ouch.

I unfortunately haven’t gotten much better, although I am more conscious of it now. I just… express excitement and happiness very exuberantly.

And I am not even going to go into all of my tales of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Chances are, if you know me in person, you can remember a few of those moments!

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By kilax, January 29, 2009 6:06 am

Every morning, Data likes to sit on the back of the toilet in the bathroom and watch Steven blow dry his hair. He’s not looking at Steven, he’s looking at the blow dryer.

This morning, I had to get up earlier than Steven, and Data sat near the sink the whole time, watching me using the hair straightener.

I think he has a hidden desire to become a hair stylist! Data – my advice is to keep watching Steven. He knows what he’s doing. I do not.

Steven and I use the same hairstylist. When she was on maternity leave for 3 months, Steven and I didn’t get our hair cut for 3 months. When she came back, and we went in for an appointment together, she only needed to trim Steven’s hair! She didn’t even charge him for a cut! She raved about how soft and nice his hair was.

Then she got to me.

And cut off about 3 inches. And asked Steven to teach me how to blow dry my hair instead of use the straightener. Apparently the straightener is not supposed to be used every day? I obviously didn’t learn my lesson, but I have cut back quite a bit. I’ll see if she notices when I go in for (hopefully just) a trim on Friday.

Oops, I’ve become a bit sidetracked. I wanted to say, I do realize the only reason Data pays attention to what either of us are doing in the morning is because he hopes to catch our attention and be fed early. But I still appreciate having him there, keeping me company as I get ready at 4:30 in the morning.

That is, until I move on to makeup and he starts attacking the brushes and mascara wand!

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By kilax, January 26, 2009 10:34 pm

“When you swim, you’re gonna get water up your nose. When you ski, you’re gonna fall down. When you fence, you’re gonna get stabbed.”

That’s one of the first things our fencing instructor told us tonight. He was being humorous, explaining the different pieces of clothing you wear to protect your body (I remembered the chest protection, Kyra!).

Are you intimidated? Or at least laughing?

The first night of class was a lot of fun. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, since I have a nasty cold, but moving about seemed to lift my spirits.

We covered equipment, basic footwork and a few positions (if that’s what they’re called?). I can tell this is going to be another sport that adds definition to my already rock hard quads. There is a lot of lunging, and footwork that involves balancing your body weight on slightly bent knees (so much for focusing on different muscle groups on my “cross-training” night).

I am looking forward to when I actually get to fence with Steven. We are already prancing around the house with wooden spoons, practicing our moves (okay, I had a wooden spoon – he was holding Data). I have a feeling this is going to take a lot of practice, since I am a naturally uncoordinated, and this requires a lot of… coordination! But I think it will be a fun diversion from our normal day.

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By kilax, January 25, 2009 9:32 am

I just finished reading The Nonrunner’s Marthon Guide for Women by Dawn Dais. I read a description of it a few years ago in Women’s Health Magazine and thought, “That sounds like a good book, but I’ll never run a marathon! Ha!”

Yeah – I never thought I would run more than a 5K.

Anyway, when we decided to run a half marathon, I remembered the book and ordered a copy, anxiously awaiting its arrival…

Unfortunately, the book wasn’t all I had made it up to be in my mind*.  The book was set up well – organized into chapters on training, accessories, the mentality of running, etc. It just didn’t have the full technical background I was hoping for. Dais was very clever and witty with her writing – the book is filled with jokes that made me laugh. And I loved the journal entries from the author’s marathon training – I could actually read a whole book of her journal entries!

But in the end, it was just a light read that gave me a few helpful pointers, but didn’t cover everything I was hoping it would. And that’s okay. I shouldn’t have expected it to!

Any recommendations for other books?

Training Update: I will complete my first FULL WEEK of half marathon training today. That means my schedule has been so off-wack since since the beginning of December that I only now can do a full week of training. And I am behind.

I am about to complete Week 4 of training. Steven is about to complete Week 6 or 7! He chose to stay up late and run during December and the beginning of January, while I chose to sleep, or eat too much food then not feel like running.

I am not only behind in weeks though, I am behind on speed. I had to slow down my speed big time, to accommodate the weeks of not training so much, and uh, the few extra pounds I put on during the holidays. Right now, all of these 4-miles runs are killing me. And I get a 5-miler on Thursday. Yay…

I know the extra weight will come off and I will get back to my normal speed soon. I am just worried that Steven will be so far ahead of me that we won’t be able to stick together during the half marathon. I don’t think he is going to want to slow down for me. And I don’t want him to have to… but I don’t want to run the whole damn thing by myself!

*I have to remember to approach things (books, movies, games, etc. – NOT PEOPLE) with lowered expectations. If you approach something with too high of expectations, it never lives up to your standards. I’ve become much better about doing this with movies, but apparently not with books.

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By kilax, January 24, 2009 9:03 am

There are three townhomes in the photo below, and one “residential brokerage”  (aka “for sale”) sign. Which house does the sign look like it is in front of – the one on the left, middle or right?

Maybe the photo is a bit too skewed. Here is a more straight-on photo.

Guess which house is ours.

And not for sale.

Last Saturday, after opening the shades so Data could sit on my desk and look out the window, I went into the bedroom and said to Steven, “Guess what? Our house is for sale!”

He didn’t find it as amusing as I did until he actually looked out the window, and saw where the sign was (I think he thought I was exaggerating in my description of it). We haven’t had any next-door neighbors for quite some time (hurrah!) and we were wondering if the house was going to go on the market.

He called the number on the sign, and left a polite message inquiring about the price of the home and told them that they put the sign in front of our house by mistake.

He didn’t actually talk to the real estate agent until this Thursday. She told Steven that she has to remove the sign anyway (it is against our townhome association code to put them up) and that the house is going for about 20-25% less than its original cost.

Yikes. I told Steven, “I guess that means we’re stuck here for awhile!”

We aren’t planning on moving anytime SOON, but we definitely aren’t going to move if the market is so bad. I suppose we’ll have to wait it out a few more years…

Comments (18)

By kilax, January 23, 2009 4:53 pm

When you are reading someone else’s blog, do you read ALL of the comments that were left before you got to it? Or do you just skip to the end to leave your comment?

Guilty as charged. I have a hard enough time finding time to read blogs, that I sometimes do skip to the end of the comments if there are a TON of them. If there are only a few, I usually read them. But most of the blogs I read get a lot of comments, so if any comment left by me seems similar to what someone else said, that’s probably why.

It’s a bad habit. And I know I am missing out on a lot of the conversation, by skipping to the end, but I just… keep doing it. Unless it’s a really juicy post. Then I usually read them all. Ha!

Now, please tell me I am not the only one who does this!

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By kilax, January 22, 2009 5:55 pm

For a few weeks in December, I worked in the same building as Barack Obama. The office I work for was actually in charge of his transition! Of course, I wasn’t one of the lucky people that got to meet him (My mom kept saying to me, “If you run into him, tell him I said hi!” To which I responded, “Mom. You voted Republican.” Her response: “That’s okay! Tell him hello anyway!” Ha.).

Today we were allowed to tour his transition office. I felt kind of dorky going up there, but knew I would regret it if I didn’t.

His office layout is very similar to the layout of the floor I work on. Actually, the only difference is the color of the chairs and columns, and a few different office configurations. It was exciting though, to know which office was Obama’s, his wife’s, Biden’s, Jarrett’s, Emanuel’s, etc.

I’m not sure if this guy is moving in now or what. I think that most of the excitement is in the past now though.

Me at Obama’s old desk

Obama’s conference room

Obama’s private bathroom… built just for him!

Comments (19)

By kilax, January 21, 2009 5:57 pm

Last November, when I was offered a new job, I decided to ask my boss out for “coffee” (I don’t drink coffee) to discuss the situation. I wanted to give him a heads up of what was going on, as well as ask his opinion on what I should do. I felt like he was a mentor, as well as a boss, and his opinion was (still is) highly important to me.

Of course… he thought I shouldn’t take it, that I would hate it, and it would ruin my career. Oh well. You’ll have that.

Anyway, we started to discuss my performance in the office. He had a lot of very nice things to say about me, but did mention one thing that bothered him – that I didn’t seem to be doing much research on my own about our profession outside of the office. That I wasn’t reading the trade magazines or coming up to him saying, “Did you read about that project at such and such location? What did you think about the glazing system they used? Blah blah blah.”

He was/is right. I’ve received an issue of Architectural Record every month since I’ve graduated. I never finish reading an issue. Sometimes, I don’t even open it! And I feel kind of guilty. And I feel kind of… not guilty.

I was so burned out at that job that I didn’t feel like devoting any extra time to personal, self-enriching career-related research. I often worked through my lunch break so that I would only have to work an 9-hour day. The last thing I wanted to do was spend what little free time I had thinking about work-related topics.

I kind of asked him when he expected me to be doing this research… because if he wanted me to sit around at work looking at trade magazines and websites, I would be more than happy to. But that wasn’t the case. I explained to him that I got home around 7:30 each night, ate dinner, exercised then went to bed. And yes, I do spend almost 3 hours on the train, but a lot of the time I am sleeping, because I only get 6 hours of sleep a night. So… wah. Wah wah wah.

I didn’t say it to him, but the thing is, I don’t want my career to define who I am. I want it to be a part of me, and I want to discuss it with people, and I want to love what I do (which I DO), but I don’t want to be… THAT architect. The one who lives for architecture. The one who devotes ALL OF THEIR TIME to being an architect. That’s just not me. I have too many other interests in my life that I want to devote my time to: travel, running, bowling, volunteering, restoring the Datsun (are you reading, Steven?), spending time with family and friends… you get the idea.

The funny thing is, now that I have a new job, and don’t feel so overwhelmed all the time, I think I COULD find time to read those trade magazines. And maybe I will.

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By kilax, January 20, 2009 1:01 pm

Someone in my office is organizing a 12-week biggest loser (weight loss) challenge. You buy in for $12.  You weigh in each week by Wednesday afternoon (I’ll weigh in on Tuesdays). You pay $2 for each pound gained a week, and $2 if you miss a weigh-in without advance warning. To buy out of the competition, you have to pay out $2 for each week remaining. The cash prize is split between the top 3 losers in the end (55%, 25% and 20% – the winner is calculated by percentage lost, not total pounds).

This has “bad idea” written ALL over it, right?

Of course, I signed up.

I don’t think the idea of winning money will motivate me to lose weight. Or the idea of having to pay money for weight gained. And I don’t even think having someone holding me accountable will make me work any harder either. It might make me feel guilty if I gain weight, but that’s about it.

I think I just thought, “What the hell – I am training for a half marathon and pretty soon I will be putting in between 20-25 miles a week on the treadmill. I might end up losing some weight naturally.” We’ll see what comes of that.

Would you participate in something like this? It seems a bit too private to take to work, but because I’ve just started at this office, and barely know anyone, I don’t care if one person knows what my weight is from week to week.

Revealing it on this blog though, feels impossible. It’s not that I am embarrassed by it; it’s just information I would prefer not to share with family. They already know enough about me and my food struggles as it is, reading this crap. I feel like a number makes my problems even more tangible.