Comments (24)

By kilax, June 19, 2009 7:53 am

What foods are on your “will not eat” list?

I don’t want to encourage picky eating (says the vegetarian/vegan), but I am curious to find out what foods do not appeal to other people.

Besides not eating meat, dairy and eggs, I also do not eat tree nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, etc.). They give me severe headaches, so I avoid them altogether. Sometimes even the smell of them is enough to make me sick.

I avoid olives, mushrooms, and seeds, because I do not care for their taste. I will still try dishes that have these foods in them, but I am probably not going to like it if they are the main ingredient!

And brussel sprouts. We tried. We really did. I think this requires another go-around.

Side Note: Why are all of my Friday Questions about FOOD? I had two other questions in mind that were NOT food related. Hmm.

Comments (22)

By kilax, June 18, 2009 6:20 am

The other day, I was trying to describe a characteristic of someone who was (is) driving me nuts to Steven. But I couldn’t quite get it right. Of course, when listening to Jillian Michael’s 6/14 podcast yesterday, she explained it precisely. She said:

Surround yourself with positive people. Hang out with people that are focusing on a solution, not a problem. Hang out with people that are proactive, NOT victims.

Jillian was talking about this in the context of health, how hanging around people like this can discourage you from reaching your own health goals, but it is amazing how it applies to so many other aspects of life.

It’s the whole “focusing on a solution, not a problem” part. I am totally one for bitching and letting out steam, but it seems some people have a hard time getting past that point and getting things DONE. These people tend to dwell in how “bad” things are, and just get themselves more and more worked up, making it harder to get closer to a solution.

From time to time, we all dwell in a problem, for maybe a bit longer than we should. We wallow in it, and let the frustration/anger/sadness/what have you build up until we’ve reached a point of mental exhaustion, and either do something about it, or let it go.

But what I am learning is that some people approach every issue/challenge/problem this way. Yikes. That amount of daily stress cannot be healthy! Do you know anyone like this?

Comments (24)

By kilax, June 17, 2009 5:46 am

This lady took up an entire seat on a crowded train, for food for her and her friends. What the heck?!

I saw this chair during one of the NeoCon classes I attended on Monday. What the heck?!

Dato Potato was meowing outside at a turtle on Sunday, but when I took him outside to see him, he got all scared. What the heck?!*

My sunburn is barely visible anymore but it still hurts big time. What the heck?!

This “June” weather. Seriously. What the heck?!

Have you said, “what the heck?!” about anything lately?

*Grow a pair Data! LOL, just kidding, mean joke.

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By kilax, June 16, 2009 4:58 pm

Yay yay yay – my marathon training started yesterday! I will be following Hal Higdon’s Intermediate I training schedule. It’s an 18-week long program that has you running 5 days a week, and cross training one day (Monday). It starts with a 24 mile week and builds up to a 43 mile week in the 13th and 15th weeks. Woo hoo!

Can you tell I am pumped?

I created a new category, “Marathon Training,” to keep track of all posts marathon training (duh) related. My plan is to write a weekly recap of my training on Sundays, but knowing me, a few details may slip in to other posts before I get to the end of the week… like today!

I got to do my first training run with Erin today during lunch. It was 1000x better than my lame-o lunch run last week. We met up in the loop, in front of her office, then started running when we got to Michigan and Jackson. We ran a fast pace to Navy Pier and looped back – 3.07 miles in 26:42 (I will provide a link to the Garmin stats on Sunday’s recap). According to my training plan, I was actually supposed to make this a “comfortable” run and not “push the pace.” Oops. I’ll work on that. I think we just got so caught up in talking that we didn’t realize how fast we were going until it was too late… then I didn’t really want to slow down, of course, even though I knew I should.

This was actually my first time meeting Erin. I was super excited to meet her and was not disappointed. She is fun to talk to, an interesting person and a good listener. I can’t wait to run with her more! Because I had someone to talk to, I didn’t stress out about work or getting back in time at all. It actually helped me relax during the middle of the day, and I felt great when I got back to my office. I was a bit hungrier than I expected to be though!

Since I got my run done during lunch, I have a free evening. I never have a free evening. I am so excited to go home and relax! Okay, I do have to review my second quarterly panel report, but I can easily do that on the couch. Maybe I can even go to bed early. Yay!

Comments (24)

By kilax, June 14, 2009 6:35 pm

Fresh out of the shower. Scary!!!

I said I wouldn’t let it happen again, but it did. We went on an hour or so walk with Steven’s parents right after noon. I didn’t have my sunscreen with me, and thought, “what the hell, I’ll get a nice tan.”

Uh, no. I’ll get a nice burn.

I now know. I don’t tan. I burn. No one else is red like me.

Does anyone else immediately burn? This sucks.

(Lame-o post, I know. But what I really wanted to write about is how much I wanted to be running while we were at the park, and we all know there are more than enough running posts here, with more to come…)

Comments (20)

By kilax, June 13, 2009 8:40 am

My neighbor (Fritz) and I saw this HUGE turtle during our 5-mile run this morning!

When we were doing our warm-up walk we saw him hear the wooded “swamp” area, but when we were nearing the end, he had moved across the street to a tree in front of a house.

I’ve never seen a turtle that big in our neighborhood, so I was pretty excited. Does that make me a huge dork?

Scary half-asleep photo!

I got up at 5:45 today so I could met Fritz at 6:00 for our run. Steven’s parents are in town, and I wanted to get it done before everyone woke up so I wouldn’t have to disappear in the middle of the day to go running. I don’t want to miss out on the fun!

I LOVE running first thing in the morning. But wow, the night before a morning run, I cannot sleep AT ALL. I am too excited to get up and run, and I’ll actually have dreams about my morning run. And of course, last night, I was awake all night worrying about the rain (it stopped raining for one hour during our run – yay!).

I haven’t been getting quality sleep lately, at all. I keep waking up around 3:00 each night. And since I get up at 4:30, that is really messing with my sleep cycle during the week. Maybe I can fit a nap in this weekend!

Comments (31)

By kilax, June 12, 2009 5:21 am

Are you a breakfast eater? If yes, what is your typical breakfast?

What a weird question, right? It came to mind because I was with my sister last week and she told me that she doesn’t eat breakfast, because it makes her feel sick.

I am the exact opposite. I HAVE to eat breakfast, everyday. Even if I ate my weight in food the night before, I will still be hungry in the morning.

My typical breakfast is Quaker Old Fashioned Oats and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar. I have been eating that almost everyday for a few months and haven’t gotten sick of it yet. I love oatmeal!

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By kilax, June 11, 2009 1:07 pm

I have an appointment tonight, as well as guests in town, so I decided to get my run in during lunch, in the office gym. I was really looking forward to it all morning, hoping that it would break up the monotony of the day and get me energized for the afternoon.

But instead of having a carefree, relaxing run like I usually do, I ended up stressing out about work issues and watching the clock the entire time. I had to rush to get 3 miles in, then shower and get ready to go back to my desk (in one hour).

It feels good to have the run out of the way, but it wasn’t the quality I wanted it to be. I didn’t get to de-stress at all.

My marathon training schedule starts next Monday, and I think I am going to have to fit lunch time runs in a couple of times a week. Maybe next time it will be sunny and NOT raining*, so I can get outside and enjoy the run more.

Warning: exercise seems to be one of the only things I feel like writing about right now, so you’ll probably get a lot of that.

*This is June, right?

Comments (34)

By kilax, June 9, 2009 5:06 am

Today is my mom’s 50th Birthday! Happy Birthday Mamu!!!

Do you think I look like my mom at all?

My siblings and Steven and I threw my mom a surprise party this Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa. When my dad turned 50, we threw him a surprise party as well, so I was sure my mother would be expecting it. I sent her a “fake” birthday gift last week (I am not sure why I am calling it “fake” – it was actually two tangible gifts) to throw her off.

My grandma (her mother) who lives out of town told my mom that she was coming to town to watch her grandkids and wanted to know if my mom wanted to meet her for dinner. My grandma even called my mom during the day and said something like, “The kids are behaving so nicely!” Ha. She wasn’t even in town yet.

We held the party at my uncle’s bar. The bar has a main area, an extended seating area, and a partitioned off room with a bar. We set up the food in the room with the bar, and crammed back there to yell “surprise!” when she arrived. I think we succeeded in surprising her. I wish I had a photo of her reaction. Hopefully someone got one.

I also wish I had a photo of the setup. My sister and Steven and I worked really hard all day at preparing the food and decorations. We had cold cut sandwiches, fresh veggies and dip, a wonderful fresh fruit salad (grapes, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple and strawberries), chips, pea salad and rye bread cucumber sandwiches that my grandma insisted on making, cookies (photo below!), two cakes and soda and water. We decorated with balloons and streamers and posters I made (I will update them to the photo page later in the week).

A lot of people came to the party -about 35 adults and 4 kids. We had everyone sign a frame with birthday wishes on it, the same thing we did for my dad’s party.

Our big gift for my mom was a purple 8GB iPod Nano (if that’s what it’s called). We put her favorite video – I’m on a Boat – on it. When I showed her the video, she turned to her friends and said, “Did you know these things have video?!” It was pretty cute. I bet she’ll use about 20% of it’s capability in her lifetime. The night before the party, we set up the iPod and named it “Forever 39,” so when we found a “39 Forever” button at the party shop the next day, we had to buy it for her!

Steven and I also bought my mom a big can of beans. Ha.

The party was a whirlwind. I was honestly a lot more worn out than I would have liked to be. Fitting party planning in with my already hectic schedule really exhausted me. I felt pretty edgy on Sunday because of my lack of sleep. I hope I get to catch up… someday. A full six hours of sleep in one night would be nice!

Of course, it was totally worth it. Even though I was totally exhausted, I still was having fun being goofy. My mom and sister are pretty good at bringing it out of me.

Trying to eat ice cream cupcakes…

It would be my honor, to be your new stepfather.

And I have to share this photo of my parents looking pretty bad ass back in the day. Steven really likes this photo for some reason, and we got them to “re-pose.” Ha. When explaining the photo, my mom said they had attitude, before there was attitude. Riiight…

And how is my mom spending her actual birthday? In class all day! She has a three hour math class (with a test!) in the morning, and a three hour speech class in the evening. Boo! I hope she still gets to do something fun today!

More photos…

Me and Steven.

My younger brother, Anthony, and my mom.

My sister, me, my grandma and my mom.

Comments (16)

By kilax, June 5, 2009 6:01 pm

When you’re driving, and your lane ends (because of construction or a natural merge) do you get over into the new lane as soon as possible, or do you ride in your lane until you’re forced to merge?

Of course, this question was brought on by travel. We traveled through Rockford, IL, for Memorial Day weekend, and the highway merged to one lane because of construction.* It seems like in Chicago, when you have to merge, most people wait until they absolutely have to merge. If you don’t, you just end up sitting in the lane watching everyone pass you.

So, that’s is what we normally do – don’t merge until the lane ends.

But in Rockford, when we tried to do this, there was only one car in the lane in front of us, and we didn’t merge for another mile. And instead of driving to the front of the lane, the driver was a big pansy and just stayed next to the same car the whole time, then merged in front of it when the lane finally ended.

In Chicago, people would be honking at this car, but almost everyone was in the merge lane already… which weirded me out. It just made traffic all backed up. I think this is more common in small towns (even though Rockford isn’t that small).

*The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is really great and all, but it is affecting 50% or more of the roads we take with construction. It’s wasting so much time.