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The winner of the Under Armour ColdGear top is Molly. Molly, please email me your mailing address and I will send the top your way!
Thanks to everyone who entered! Hopefully I will be able to host another giveaway in the future.
And thank you for your well wishes on my presentation yesterday! It went well and I am happy it’s over! Now I am just waiting for the week to be over so I can catch up on some much needed rest.
Thank you for your interesting feedback on yesterday’s post! It seems most people don’t care what other people spend their money on… until they are bragging about it or complaining about how “poor” they are.
At work, I’m in a trainee program which requires periodic presentations of my work/progress for a two year period. Today is the end of that two-year period and my final presentation. If all goes well, I will be on my way to ending the trainee program and receiving a raise.
For each presentation (this is the last of 6), I’ve had to write a report detailing my projects and progress over the previous period of work. Theoretically, your audience reviews your report prior to the presentation, and you spend the presentation talking about the report and answering any questions they have.
You don’t need all of that detail. All I have wanted to say is that I am so happy the presentation is today. It’s been looming on the back of my mind, causing me to feel anxious and restless. I just want to get it over with.
I don’t get really nervous about presentations – but I don’t look forward to them. Does that make sense? My strategy for these has been to create a powerpoint with snippets from my report then expand on the snippets during my presentation. I rehearse a bit in my head, before the presentation, but kind of wing it.
How do you prepare for presentations? Do you like to present?
At least I have a cute outfit to wear!
My mom bought me this sweater ($11!) and scarf ($6!) she said, as a “repayment for the gas money for driving her around all weekend.” Thanks mom!
I realized something about myself this weekend, while shopping with my mom and sister – I am a bit of a clothing tomboy. My outfit is more likely to be like the one below than the one above:
Me and Mom at Red Robin… ymmmmmmmmmm!!!
While shopping this weekend, I only seemed to be interested in workout clothing. My mom and sister were the ones who wanted to look at pants, tops, sweaters, etc. We went in to the store where my mom picked out this sweater, and I just sat on a bench in the shoe section of the store, while my sister tried on a bunch of cute outfits. I didn’t look at the clothing for myself – my mom brought me this sweater to try on. And then she had to convince me it looked nice. It’s like I have to be prompted to look at “nice” (or work-appropriate) clothing. Anyway.
My sister ended up buying quite a few camisoles (“camis”) at that store for $4 each. She said she likes to wear them under most of her shirts. I was reading Stephany’s blog yesterday, and she said the same thing! Her favorite clothing accessory is undershirts (camis) because she doesn’t like to wear shirts with nothing else next to her skin – it makes her uncomfortable.
I usually don’t wear a cami, unless it’s necessary under a sweater or something sheer but I know Steven wears an undershirt under EVERYTHING except his pajamas and workout clothes. So maybe this is more common than I think?
Do you wear an undershirt/cami under most of your tops? If not, when do you wear them?
Oops. This got a bit long and side-tracked. Wish me luck on my presentation. It’s at 10:00!
I was getting ready to recycle some old magazines when I ran across this quote I had dog-eared from the August issue of SELF:
I remember reading that quote in August, and thinking, “I totally agree with that.” Earlier in the year, someone I knew (not a blogger or family member) had purchased a Nikon DSLR camera, a Macintosh laptop and an iPhone – all within the span of a month or so. To me, her purchases seemed frivolous. Why did she buy all of those fancy things? She didn’t need them.
And the funny thing is, I know this person loves to spend time with her family and friends, take photos, travel, and have fun. She is not someone who is emotionally invested in things. But her purchasing all those “big ticket” items one after another made me feel weird. It made me think she was shallow, even though I know she is not. It was just a gut reaction.
Of course, Steven and I were on a pretty tight budget during that time – and still are. So any time someone makes a “big” purchase, it stands out to me. And not as jealously or judgment – just as me thinking about how people handle their money. Some are more careful, and some are more carefree.
The person who bought the camera, laptop and iPhone didn’t receive some money they were expecting, so they were not able to take a photography class they planned on, and have been on a super tight budget since making those purchases. I feel bad for her.
Do you like someone less if they habitually shell out for “fancy” brands? Do you notice when people make a bunch of “big ticket” purchases? What does it make you think about them?
This post makes me sound really rotten, but I want to stress that I felt that way about that person because they bought all of that stuff within a short time frame, and to me, that seemed irresponsible. In the begining, when she had just bought the camera, I was super excited for her and kept asking her to show me her photos (I still do). But when she bought everything else, I had the “Oh, really?” reaction. It just seemed like SO MUCH. Does that make sense? It is the “habitual” part of the equation, even though it wasn’t even really habitual for her!
And yes, I know, her finances are NONE of my business. NONE whatsoever.
NOTE: This has nothing to do with going shopping with my mom and sister this weekend. Holiday shopping at the outlet malls is a bit different than purchasing expensive items for yourself.
For a moment on Friday I thought we were going to become a two cat household!
While I was at the outlet mall with my mom and sister I received the photo above in a text from Steven. And this one too:
He said “All cats love the Datsun!”
Steven said the cat showed up at our garage, with no collar/tags. The cat hung out with Steven and my dad for a few hours while they worked on the car.
When I came home, it was still there! I figured after a few hours, someone would go looking for their lost cat, right? I held him for awhile, but then went to ask the neighbors if it was theirs. The cat followed me. The first neighbor said no, but the second neighbor said “Hey, that’s my cat!” while the cat ran in to the house. Uh… duh? It was so bizarre.
Of course, those are the neighbors that frequently have the cops come by to visit, so who knows what is going on in their house. Maybe the cat would have been better off in ours!
Have you ever found a stray pet and tried to find its home? Have you ever “lost” your pet?
I think one of our cats ran away. Maybe two of them did.
Not to be outdone, Data was helping in the garage too, but not at the same time:
My next race is the Clear Water Outdoor’s 6th Annual Turkey Trot: 10K on November 20.
Day 386 | November 8, 2010: rest
Day 387 | November 9, 2010: 5.7 m run
Steven and I ran/biked at the Rollins Savanna – we ran 1.9 miles together, then he got on the bike and we completed 5.7 miles.
It surely didn’t feel like November weather – it was in the 50s!
The Rollins Savanna is one giant loop with no shade. It’s perfect for days like this when it’s a bit cooler and sunny, but not (too) windy.
We usually see deer and other wildlife when we run there:
Click to see larger
Click to see larger – I wonder what kind of birds those are!
This run felt really slow to me, but like I was working hard. I wonder if running on crushed limestone slows me down (compared to running on the sidewalk). Have you noticed that you are a faster runner on certain surfaces?
Distance: 5.7 | Start Temp: 59° | End Temp: 56° | Time: 57:48 | Avg Pace: 10:08 | 1: 10:10 | 2: 10:12 | 3: 10:23 | 4: 10:14 | 5: 10:05 | 6: 6:43
Day 388 | November 10, 2010: cross + yoga
Again, I had to force myself to do yoga, but it felt so good!
Recumbent Bike Time: 45:00 | Distance: 7.33 | Average Speed: 9.78 mph | Set on “Forest Ride”
Day 389 | November 11, 2010: 3.8 m run
Wow. This run was challenging.
Originally I had plans to do a long run, but Steven suggested I check out the Volo Bog, which is only 10 minutes from our house. Great idea! I wasn’t sure how far I’d be able to run there though – the website said they had a 2.75 mile trail, but that it was for hiking – I had no idea how rough the terrain would be.
Before my run, I checked out a .5 mile trail, mostly on raised platforms over water! I can’t wait to go back.
I got on to the trail, and sure enough, it was dirt and grass. Very beautiful, but uneven terrain, and difficult to run on (for this novice trail runner!). And I was too hot! (I wonder if it was more humid by the water?) I decided to cut the run short to just the 2.75 mile loop.
But then I accidentally got on to another loop that was a mile long. The trail signage was kind of confusing, and it turned out the 2.75 mile loop didn’t connect! So I ran on the road for the last quarter of a mile.
Most of the view looked like this though:
Very beautiful!
Distance: 5.7 | Start Temp: 59° | End Temp: 61° | Time: 38:41 | Avg Pace: 10:10 | 1: 10:29 | 2: 10:24 | 3: 10:15 | 4: 7:32
Day 390 | November 12, 2010: 5 m temp run
I ran a quick four miles around my neighborhood, followed by a cool-down mile. I was definitely pushing it for this run, but felt pretty good (except for the wind!).
Distance: 5.0 | Start Temp: 50° | End Temp: 50° | Time: 46:04 | Avg Pace: 9:12 | 1: 9:18 | 2: 9:01 | 3: 8:48 | 4: 8:38 | 5: 10:15
Day 391 | November 13, 2010: cross
My mom, dad, and I walked 1.7 miles on the new trail by our house. At 9:00 pm. In the dark. That wasn’t exactly how I wanted to show them the trail, but it worked! Unfortunately, it had rained that day and the trail was covered in mud! we couldn’t see it in the dark and were kind of slipping around.
Day 392 | November 14, 2010: 4 m run
I noticed that more of the trail by our house had been covered in black top so I ran back there to check it out. The trail doesn’t open for a year and I feel kind of bad using it. Would you use the trail if you lived near it? Do you think I should stay off of it?
It kind of looks like they want us to stay off of it, but I’ve seen plenty of other people on it. Hmm. Anyway – all of the trail is covered in black top now and some more work has been done on the bridge:
This run felt easy in the beginning, but toward the end, I felt my Red Robin lunch coming up and the hills were getting to me.
Stupid hills.
I should mention that I wore my muddy Adrenalines, because I thought the trail might still be covered in mud.
Distance: 4.0 | Start Temp: 46° | End Temp: 43° | Time: 38:08 | Avg Pace: 9:31 | 1: 9:31 | 2: 9:17 | 3: 9:23 | 4: 9:54
Week Summary: 18.5 miles
Let’s just call this a rest week and start over next week. I started this week off on a bad foot and never got back in to the swing of things.
Good thing I mentioned how we “don’t buy much” in my “green” post yesterday. Yeah. Because I spent yesterday afternoon at the outlet mall with my mom and sister and totally made that statement in to a lie.
Only a few of those bags are mine, but still, that’s a lot!
I rarely buy things for myself, but there were quite a few good deals out there – the main one being Under Armour ColdGear Compression Tops for $16.
Yes! $16! These things are normally $50 each! I love using them in the cold season as a base layer to keep my core warm. In the photo below, Steven and I have Under Armour ColdGear tops (mine is pink, his is black) on for the Thanksgiving Day 5K we ran last year – it had snowed that morning and it was in the low 30s – and we stayed warm!
The Under Armour outlet only had size large and extra-large for this price, but I grabbed a size large to giveaway! Here it is:
It’s a nice soft pink color!
Here are the details:
I think the top is an “older” model, which is why it was on sale. Works for me. And maybe, for you! See the giveaway details at the bottom of the post!
Do you like running in cold weather? I actually prefer it – I perform a lot better in the cold. Now that the temps have dropped, my pace has gotten faster!
I saw a great article in the November issue of Health on how to “Winter-Proof Your Run” (you can read the article here). The main tips in the article were:
A few of my tips regarding winter running:
What are YOUR cold weather running tips?
Under Armour ColdGear Top Giveaway Rules:
What do you do to live a “green” (environmentally-friendly) lifestyle? Is being “green” important to you?
Just so you know, I dislike the term “green,” but, so many people are using it now. Might as well get with the times.
Here are a few of the things Steven and I do:
Not these, but aren’t they cute?!
A peek at all of the food storage containers in our fridge
I know there is a lot we could do to improve. But I have to admit, being “green” isn’t always the first thing on my mind.
As I mentioned in my last “Garden Project” post, we kept track of the cost of the garden, so we could add it all up when we were done, compare it to what we got out of the garden (and our time there) and see if it was all worth it. Here it is:
The total cost of the project was $150.45. We will receive $10 of that back (our garden deposit) and interestingly, about $71.85 of it was in investment supplies.
It’s hard to guesstimate how much time we spent at the garden. I blogged about it nearly every time we went there, so I am going to guess that total, between the two of us, we spent between 50-60 hours at the garden (that does count some times when there were two people there at once).
It’s a little bit easier to keep track of the produce we got, because I took pictures (it would have been easier to keep track of it as I was going along though – note for future):
July 11 – 2 cucumbers, green beans, 2 zucchini, onions and lettuce
July 16 – more cucumbers
July 24 – 1o cucumbers, 1 LARGE zucchini, a few green beans
July 29 – a zillion more cucumbers
August 13 – 4 zillion cucumbers, 1 zucchini, a bunch of onions, and our first TOMATOES!
August 22– MORE TOMATOES!, cucumbers, a few green beans, 1 zucchini, and some onions
September 13 – our ONLY pepper, cucumber, lots of tomatoes!
November 6 – a bunch of sweet potatoes
Wow. Looking at all of the pictures, I feel that the money, time and effort we put in was well worth it. And of course, you can’t even calculate the worth of the quality time I got to spend with Steven (barf).
Comparing the cost versus the produce we picked – do you think the Garden Project was worth it?
I think we could have picked a lot more if we hadn’t been gone so much in August and September.
Despite the fact that I sometimes post pictures of the food we make at home, like Vegan Chicken Alfredo Pizza:
(Vegan Alfredo sauce, spinach, potato, onion, tomato and boca chicken topped with spices)
Acorn Squash fries (so so good):
and Kim’s (girl evolving) Meatless Meatballs:
I am not a foodie.
It’s hard to find a good description of a foodie online – I think because it means different things to different people. But this description gets kind of close:
a person having an enthusiastic interest in the preparation and consumption of good food
And that is NOT me.
I like to eat. I look forward to meals. I get excited about certain ones. But I do NOT enjoy cooking. I don’t find it relaxing. I find it stressful – I don’t know what I am doing. I look at recipes and feel overwhelmed. So, all of the food above? Made by Steven, except for the acorn squash fries – I could at least handle those.
Do you consider yourself to be a foodie?
Not related, but I had to post this funny picture of Data!
I love it when cats have their tongue stuck out – too cute!
We decided to play Lego Star Wars for the Wii last night, and guess what? I really stink at it. It’s a game meant for 10 year-olds, and I can’t even figure it out. I had to go online and find instructions on where to go in some of the levels.
Video game playing FAIL. I guess I will just stick to Rock Band (and believe me, I am not even that good at that!).
Are you good at playing video games? Which game system and games do you like?
It’s funny, I was being a whiny baby last night told Steven I was sick of watching movies – that I didn’t find it relaxing – and wanted to do something different, so we played wii. That kind of seems like a regressive movement to me. Ha. At least it’s something different and requires some movement! We rarely play our Wii – we mostly use it to watch Netflix movies.
Hi! I'm Kim, a 34-year-old living in Chicagoland with my husband, Steven, and our cats, Khali, Apollo, and Starbuck. I work in the design industry (architecture), follow a vegan lifestyle, am addicted to running, and am an ACE certified personal trainer (working at Essential Fitness, LLC ("Efit"))! I write about a variety of topics, and consider this a "life" blog - a place I can share anything that's on my mind. Please visit the "About" page to get a better idea of who I am! :-)
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