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By kilax, September 30, 2009 7:32 am

Data has decided to honor me by sleeping with me the last 4 or 5 nights.

What this really means is that I wake up a few times in the middle of the night because I want to roll over, but I don’t, because he is sleeping so peacefully between my legs/next to me/on my feet. And I would never dream of interrupting his slumber (in the middle of the night)! I mean, he wouldn’t do that to me!

Oh, wait. He does. Every time I try to sleep in past 5:30 a.m.

Data sleeping between my legs. It’s kind of hard to tell, but I am under the covers! Like my cat blanket? HA!

The things we do for our pets. Does anyone else have this half-conscious, “I shouldn’t interrupt the sleeping pet” mentality in the middle of the night?

Ha. On a somewhat related note, Steven and I watched The Cat from Outer Space Monday night on DVD. If you like cats and cheesy old movies (released in 1978*), you have to watch this. I was laughing out loud for much of it, just because it was so ridiculous. It’s definitely going on my holiday wishlist.

*For some reason, I expect movies that were released after Star Wars (1977) to have similar quality graphics (The Cat from Outer Space, The Last Starfighter, Robocop)… they don’t. And why would they? I guess that just shows how ahead of his time (crazy) Lucas was.

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By kilax, September 29, 2009 7:01 pm

… I just want to go to bed.

I’m not sure if I am ready for another dark and cold season. Each year I try to come up with a new way to deal with it, but I always feel a little crummy overall. I suppose last year’s method of keeping myself purposefully busy helped somewhat. I’ll try that again.

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By kilax, September 28, 2009 6:00 pm

I ran a half of a mile yesterday. In 5 minutes. And my shin doesn’t hurt today! Woo-hoo!

Of course, I felt that the 10:00 min per mile pace was too fast, my breath was all out of wack, and my left heel still hurts every morning but…

Who cares! My shin isn’t killing me today!!!

I am going to start trying to run 3 days a week with Steven (hopefully), so we can get ready for the Disney Half Marathon in January.  If we end up going to the race*, we aren’t going to try to PR. In fact, we (okay, mostly I) plan on stopping to take photos with the Disney characters. So this will be a good race to ease into, and I can even walk parts of it if I want.

*Disney Half Marathon = Muchos Expensive Trip.

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By kilax, September 26, 2009 7:50 am

They’re alive!!!

Our very own, home grown alfalfa sprouts!

Steven’s parents set us a sprouter for our anniversary, and four different seeds to try – (from left to right below) mung bean, 5 part salad mix, bean salad, and alfalfa. We decided to try alfalfa first, since it is the sprout with which we are most familiar.

The kit has 5 containers – a basin on the bottom for collecting water, 3 trays in the middle for growing sprouts, and a container on top for putting water in. You can use the three trays in the middle all at once – to grow three different kinds of seeds, a bunch of the same kinds of seeds, or seeds at different stages (so you’ll always have fresh ones!) – or you can just use one or two trays. Since this is our first try, we just used one tray, and decided to see how it went.

Day 1:

You take the top container off, and put a tablespoon of seeds in the seed container, then put water in the top container until it is filled 1/2″ to the edge of the top. You put the top container on, and the water in it drips down into the seed container. The little white cap in the seed container siphons the water into the bottom basin. You empty the bottom basin when all the water has gone through the seed container.

You repeat this “rinsing” process 2 times a day until the sprouts are ready. The instructions said it would take 3-5 days, but it took us a bit longer.

Day 3:

I thought they looked kind of wormy on day 3.

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

It was so fun to come home each day and see how much the sprouts had grown!

I rinsed them off yesterday, dried them, and put them in a little baggie in the fridge. They taste just like the ones from Jimmy John’s!

We’ll probably eat them on a sandwich today! And I already started some more last night!

The finished product!

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By kilax, September 25, 2009 8:45 am

What reality show/game show do you want to be on?

Definitely TLC’s What Not to Wear. Whenever I happen to catch that show, I always wonder what they would make me throw out of my closet. I do hold on to all of my race shirts, but I only wear them for exercise and sleeping in. I try not to wear too many t-shirts. But, my work wardrobe is admittedly plain – nice slacks and a blouse every day.

And I would LOVE to do a shopping spree in NYC! And to get a hair and make-up makeover. I am so lost with my hair… I don’t know how to style it. I am doomed to be a frizzy fluffy head.

Maybe Steven should enter me as a contestant. He keeps asking me to enter him on Overhaulin’…

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By kilax, September 23, 2009 5:55 am

Which stores send you weekly (and sometimes daily) ad and coupon emails? Please let me know who is sending out great deals that I am missing out on!

I get emails from New York & Company, Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works, Borders, Barnes & Noble, and White House | Black Market (WHBM).

Damn WHBM and their marketing campaign. For the last two Thursdays they have sent me pictures of women modeling their dresses, while holding a cat. Apparently, all it takes to pique my interest in a product is a picture of a cat,* because I have visited their site after both emails. Is it more sad that I am admitting this, or that I am hoping one of you can relate (it doesn’t have to be a cat – anything cute and cuddly!)?

*Especially a GRAY cat!!!

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By kilax, September 22, 2009 5:55 pm

My mom and dad both sent me separate emails asking what was going on (after reading my last post). Nothing! Oops. So I did exactly what I try not to do by writing that – make someone think I am withholding info. I’m not. Especially from them! Ha! I call them and blabber blabber blabber away.*

Thank you for your awesome comments. That was one of those posts where I thought, “hmm, maybe I shouldn’t have written that.” But I’d had it on my mind for about a year, and wanted to let it out. It’s older info. But sometimes, when I am trying to fall asleep at night, all of these thoughts fill my head and I have to get them out. So, here it comes, another weird thought:

Do you ever quit reading a blog because you feel like it’s bad for you?

A while ago, I subscribed to A LOT of health (i.e. “weight loss”) blogs. Some of them just contained news tidbits, but a lot of them were personal blogs of people struggling with weight loss. I was very much in the same boat (Ha! You probably remember those posts.) so I enjoyed reading them because I related so much.

But after awhile, especially when I focused more on running, I felt like some of the blogs became toxic to me. Reading someone’s constant, daily struggles with weight made me feel really weird. It made me feel bad. It was almost like I was feeling their daily anguish and frustration and disappointment, and it just made me feel… hopeless. It was strange. I had to put all of those blogs in a special folder in my google reader, and for now, I just mark them as “read” everyday until I am ready to look at them again.

It’s like they wore me out. It was too much of the same old thing. Which is ironic, because I get on those kicks all the time – health, bowling, running, travel… I talk in patterns. I think we all do a bit.

So I was just wondering if anyone else has had this happen. I’ve definitely stopped reading other blogs because I didn’t enjoy their style (which of course, is personal preference, and subjective), but this… was something different.

*oh, thanks for listening about my dentist bill, dad. I got it straightened away. They are covering the entire expense now.

Comments (16)

By kilax, September 21, 2009 6:43 pm

Not really sure where this is coming from… but it’s been on my mind for awhile.

Have you ever had someone withhold important information from you, and later found out, either because they finally told you, or you heard it somewhere else*? They aren’t lying, but when you find out, your first reaction almost always ends up being “why didn’t you tell me sooner (or when it happened)?” and you’re not really able to process the information as you naturally would, because you feel somewhat betrayed.

I think part of this may be a personality thing, but it just baffles me, because I have the type of personality where I will talk to almost anyone about almost anything. Not much is taboo with me. As long as the person is non-judgmental, I’m an open book. I like to share.

BUT. I learned something new about myself last year – there are people in my life I don’t feel comfortable sharing my full self with, because of their judgment. It only takes so many ill reactions to teach me to be a different version of myself around certain people. And I find myself doing the thing I most despise – not sharing important details and news, because I don’t want to deal with a reaction to it. Or maybe still presenting the details and news, but in a manner different than I would with someone I feel more comfortable around.

Doing this makes you feel secretive and protective of your personal information. You become defensive of everything you think, say or do. You feel uncomfortable and on edge. Yuck.

So. Could I be any more vague? Basically, I feel really upset when someone feels like they can’t tell me something important, and I often think it is just because they are an inconsiderate person. But here I am, doing it on purpose. I’ve tried to make these instances two separate things in my head, to justify what I am doing, but I can’t. It’s the same thing. It happens so infrequently that I rarely think about it, but it’s still there.

So yeah. I have nothing to say (And I didn’t even get into wanting to share information but having to withhold it because it’s not yours to share. Ugh.).

In this instance, I am talking about your personal life, but I know it happens at work too.

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By kilax, September 19, 2009 11:23 pm

Warning: Picture Heavy Post!

On Friday and Saturday I finally got to do some touristy DC things – visit the monuments and some of the museums. We were lucky in that we had gorgeous blue skies both days… and uh, some gorgeous high temps. I got super hot walking around in jeans on Friday. I had to go back to the hotel and take a shower at 4:00 in the afternoon!

Why does this lion have such an unsure look on his face?

It’s funny how you cannot see the capstone of the Washington Monument when you are below it!

Steven picked up (free!) Washington Monument tour tickets for us and my coworker while we were in class on Friday morning. I loved going to the top of the monument! It’s always neat to get that bird’s eye perspective. And I love seeing how the roads are laid out from above.

View of the Mall and Capitol. I didn’t expect the Mall lawn to be in such bad shape.

View of the WWII Memorial and Lincoln Memorial.

In the top of the Monument.

After the Washington Monument tour, we visited the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. I wish I could have seen more, but I was feeling MISERABLE in the hot sun! Plus, I didn’t want to be too gross because…

World War II Memorial.

Steven is growing a flag out of his head!

I wish that was ME running.

… I was meeting Alice at a coffee shop! I was bummed when I found out Alice was in town for BlogHer and I didn’t get to meet up with her (okay, even though I was out of town that weekend!), so I had to when I was in DC! I am happy she was able to fit me into her Friday night schedule. She is so charismatic and a great story-teller. I wish I could have chatted with her longer.

Kim and Alice at Bourbon Cafe.

Steven and I went to Café DC for Greek food (ah, twice in one week!) for dinner. Nom nom nom. I want to re-create some of this food at home, especially the salad with chickpeas. We got an appetizer sampler, and falafel pitas.

We walked around a bit more in Georgetown after dinner. It was pretty happening – lots of people out and about. I even met a new friend, who made me miss Data!

New cat friend.

We toured the Capitol Saturday morning, which actually turned out to be very neat and educational! It actually made me want to learn more about our nation. Hmm, I wonder if that was intentional.

I found the history of the Capitol’s architecture very interesting. I didn’t know (or recall, I guess) until a few weeks ago, that the Capitol was burned down in 1812. The Exhibition Hall had neat models showing how the construction of the Capitol progressed over the years, and how the landscape around it changed.

The rotunda inside the Capitol.

The “frieze” inside the rotunda.

After that we had time to visit the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, and walk by the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian. And that was it. We were really pressed for time. And we actually thought our flight left an hour later than it did, so when we checked on it, we basically had to head back to the hotel to grab our bags. I am happy Steven got to walk around during the week and see things. There is a lot I wanted to see and didn’t – I guess I will have to on the next trip.

It’s so nice that the museums are free. I was surprised that they were not too crowded. I am so used to only visiting the Chicago museums when they have a special exhibit, and I feel like I am being herded and trampled on just trying to go through. It was not as bad as I thought it would be.

I really enjoyed the Mammal exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. If I had the energy, I would probably post all of the pictures of the neat animals, but I don’t, so you’re lucky.

On the walk to the National Museum of American History from the Capitol, we passed a little squirrel that was sort of begging tourists for food. I had a granola bar, so I sat down to give him a piece. Apparently, I didn’t move fast enough, because he stood up, put his paws on my hand, and started grabbing at the wrapper! I gave him a piece and he scurried away to chow it down.

My little squirrel friend.

It’s so nice to be home, and have my laundry almost done, and not have to think about whether or not I can find a place that myself, my coworker, and Steven all want to eat at. Oh gosh, and MY bed. I cannot wait to fall asleep tonight. With Data (and Steven).

I think there is a lot more I want to say about DC, but who knows if it will come out cohesively. We’ll see over the next few weeks, I suppose.

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By kilax, September 18, 2009 7:02 am

What is your favorite flavor of juice (or juice-inspired drink)? How often do you drink juice?

My favorite flavor of juice is orange juice, freshly squeezed. I hardly ever drink it, because, as you all know, I prefer to eat all of my fruit.

But since I’ve been in DC this week, I have been drinking a lot more juice, either because I don’t have access to fresh fruit, or because I have a per diem and can afford to get it.

Yesterday, I grabbed a Strawberry Banana Naked Juice. Whoa. Have you ever had one of these? They are FILLING. I wondered why I felt so full after drinking it, then looked at the back of it and realized it had a DAY’S worth of fruit inside.

It’s actually a pretty convenient way to eat your fruit for the day, especially since they don’t have any added sugar! It got me thinking about the juicer we have at home. It would be fun to experiment with making my own fruit concoctions. But I wonder if a blender would be a better appliance to do that in, and we definitely don’t have one of those.