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By kilax, June 22, 2012 6:03 am

Do you know how to type? How did you learn? Are you good at it?

Do they still teach typing to kids today? (what, when they are three or something?)

I never took a formal typing class. In high school, when it was offered, I was worried I would be bad at it, and not get an A, and ruin my straight-A record. So I never learned in a formal setting!

I think in my last two years of high school some of our essays were starting to be required to be typed, so I started typing more then, but really became proficient at it my first year of college. I am a fast typist, but definitely not the fastest! I don’t look at the keyboard when I type, and usually I am looking at a different screen (which Steven said is bad for my eyes… could that explain all those headaches?!??!!!). 

It was funny when I lived in Rome and their keyboards were a little bit different! Recently, I saw a keyboard where you could have it set up QWERTY style or you could have all the letters in alphabetical order!

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By kilax, June 21, 2012 6:23 am

• I sure am glad to be a runner… when I get to the train station and the train is already there, like yesterday morning!
• Steven and I have been doing so many fun summer-y things and summer just officially started yesterday! We’ve done a few picnics, gone on a bike ride, went to the first Independence Grove concert this Tuesday and are going camping this weekend! Our first ever camping trip!

• I get to see my parents today for a short bit. They are driving out here to get a new Datsun chassis for Steven and bring it to our house. Red Robin may be in order for dinner. Do I like Red Robin? Hmmm…

• I have noticed lately that I have gotten much better at filtering myself. Not in person unfortunately, but in emails and comments. I think before I hit send/reply.
• I was looking at an two -year-old post to reference the name of a drug I used to take and I took a glance at the comments… and wow. A lot of those people no longer blog or we no longer comment on each other’s blogs anymore. Craziness. Have you ever looked back at an old post and thought “What happened to so-and-so”? (or, “Who was so-and-so, that name sounds familiar?” ha ha)?
• There is no such thing as a “mute point.” SIGH. Do you know anyone who says mute point instead of moot point?
• I miss my long thumbnails. I cut them short because one was peeling at a really low spot and now I think they look stupid. As a side note, I liked the Cherry Berry Chiller from McDonald’s. Sigh, where was it last year when that was all I wanted after my long runs with Erin? WHERE WAS IT THEN!?!?!?

Other Random Thoughts Thursday Posts: XVII, XVI, XV, XIV, XIII, XII, XI, X, IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II, I.

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By kilax, June 20, 2012 9:07 pm

Sometimes things just fall in to place…

Last week I was asking Abbi for advice on trail shoes. I am thinking about doing a 50K on 9/15 and Abbi is my go-to gal with all my ultra questions! We talked about it and decided I should try some trails with my regular shoes and see if I need more support. Okay. I decided to wait on trail shoes. 

But then Michel contacted me on Thursday and asked if I had heard of the Mizuno Mezamashii Run Project. I was all… huh?! She explained it to me – mezamashii is the Japanese word for brilliant or eye-opening, and Mizuno thinks it describes that fantastic run. They are using this project to put shoes on people’s feet so they can experience that brilliant run – that is how confident they are in their shoes!

I think they are giving away something like 600 pairs, and Michel had a code and signed me up (I think you can still apply on their website). Thanks Michel! I talked to a rep on Friday and my shoes arrived today!

What did I get?

The Men’s Wave Ascend 6 Trail Shoe*!

I can’t wait to try them out. I put them on to walk Data and they feel so “grip-y!” And these came just in time – we are going to check out the site of the potential 50K this Sunday!

It is really cool that Mizuno is doing this. I asked about it on the phone, and the guy said they just want to get people out there in their shoes instead of pay a bunch of money on advertising. Cool idea. 

Have you ever tried trail shoes? 

*My feet are too big for Women’s sizing. 

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By kilax, June 20, 2012 6:35 am

I’ve been particularly aware of how sunny it’s been this year. I think it’s because I started running in shorts and a tank in March and immediately had a ridiculous tan (most noticeable on my legs).

Sno-Kone!

I am not as good as I used to be about remembering to wear sunscreen. And I don’t wear a moisturiser each day that has sun protection in it. Couple those two facts with me getting a lot darker than I ever do in the summer (and a lot sooner) and I have been thinking about seeing a dermatologist, just to be on the safe side. Ideally, the dermatologist would look at my skin and tell me if I have any moles to watch for changes… and maybe they would even do one of those cool scan things that shows how much you have damaged your skin by being an idiot and running for hours in the sun without sunscreen on?

Knowing me, I won’t go. I could at least start wearing sunscreen though.

Have you ever been to a dermatologist? Are you getting particularly dark this year too?

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By kilax, June 19, 2012 5:16 am

I created a Facebook page for my blog about a week ago. 

This is something I never thought I would do for two reasons:

1. I am not trying to create a brand or make money off my blog. ilaxSTUDIO is just a (creative?) outlet for me and a good way for me to meet people. 
2. I didn’t think I would have time for it. I tried Twitter a few summers ago and felt too overwhelmed. I had been feeling overwhelmed with keeping up with blogs lately. 

So why did I? Well, in short, because I am a sell-out. 

The long story is that someone contacted me about maybe being a race ambassador for a half marathon I have wanted to do for a few years (but it never worked with my marathon schedule). They asked about Facebook and Twitter and I said I had neither and asked if that reduced my chances of getting the ambassador position. They said it may.* So I thought about it for a few days and decided to see how difficult it was to set up a page for my blog. Then I started to play with it and decided to give it a try, that maybe it would be fun…

And immediately I decided it was a lot of fun… and that I might stick with it. We’ll see. 

It’s funny, I feel like with a Facebook page for my blog I can be more obnoxious on that about running and exercise and whatever else in real life than I can on normal Facebook. I don’t think that is the mindset I am supposed to have behind having a page for my blog, but I just feel I can be more myself there than on my Facebook wall. I think that because people voluntarily like it after knowing my blog**, they know what to expect… so I can be me. Hard to explain. And maybe in a few weeks I will decide I am not that in to it anymore.

Anyway, right now I am just posting my posts with intros and some other pictures (that sometimes are related to posts but are mostly just random) and enjoying it. I do think posting there may actually drive traffic away from my blog***, but we’ll see how that pans out. 

Do you have a Facebook page for your blog? Why or why not?  

*I still do not know if I will be a race ambassador for this race. 
**I realize this does not even make sense since the people who “like” the page are all Facebook friends anyway. 
***Because people see it on Facebook and comment there, which actually creates another place for dialogue, so that is neat!

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By kilax, June 18, 2012 4:16 pm

Steven and I are flying from Kansas City to Chicago today. Our plane arrived at the gate, all the peeps got off, then they announced that we have an hour and a half (so far, ha ha) delay because of high winds in Chicago. They know in advance we cannot land when we are supposed to, so they aren’t putting us on the plane. 

Fine with me. I have a lot to keep me entertained:

(one of these photos is more entertaining than the other)

Of course, some people seem to be freakin’ the eff out. Sigh. 

What is your best flight delay story?

On Steven’s birthday (December 22) in 2007, we had a flight to Kansas City to see his family for the holidays. We got to the airport early, and our flight kept getting more and more delayed (because of snow?). The airport was super crowded, and we did not want to lose our seats… but they were unfortunately next to a garbage can that was full of approximately 3782 dirty diapers. Gross. So we sat all day, for about eight hours, until the flight was finally canceled. We couldn’t get on another flight to get to Kansas City, or get a rental car, so we stayed in Chicagoland for the holidays, by ourselves. We hadn’t planned on having it be the two of us, so we had to go buy gifts to give each other the next day. Ha ha. 

That story isn’t even that bad! It was kind of a bummer we could not be with family for the holidays, but it was our first married Christmas together and we ended up enjoying it just being the two of us. 

In other news, I finally got to see my sister’s new place in Lenexa, KS this weekend! She moved there in the beginning of May for an internship. It was a lot of fun to see her place and check out the stuff around her home. I particularly enjoyed the T-Rex Cafe (store and restaurant). I found something even better than the Sipper-Saurus to bring back for my fave coworker.

I also really liked having my sister and her fiancé hang out with me and Steven’s family. It feels more acceptable to act as goofy as I would like to with my sister there acting goofy as well. Thanks, snister!

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By kilax, June 17, 2012 9:05 am

Highlight of the Week: Watching my brother-in-law do a triathlon in Topeka, KS!

Monday | June 11, 2012: rest
Tuesday | June 12, 2012: rest
Wednesday | June 13, 2012: strength class
Strength: Kettlebells and steps, Difficulty: easy
Thursday | June 14, 2012: 6.5 m run (last 3.5 with GRCers) + 6 m run
Loc: Rollins Savanna FP, Temp: 49°/54°, Time: 1:02:29, Pace: 9:37 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy 
Loc: Millennium Trail to Round Lake and back, Temp: 81°/78°, Time: 1:09:07, Pace: 11:31 avg, Difficulty: medium
Friday | June 15, 2012: 8 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail to Nippersink FP to Round Lake and back, Temp: 89°/87°, Time: 1:32:53, Pace: 11:36, Difficulty: medium
Saturday | June 16, 2012: rest
Sunday | June 17, 2012: rest

Lessons learned:

• Slow down for those hot runs and watch your heart rate! My heart started to beat pretty hard at the end of my Friday run so I took a few walks breaks. 

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By kilax, June 16, 2012 11:33 am

Dangit, watching my brother-in-law, Andrew, do a triathlon today made me really want to do one. I think I just get over-excited when I see people working out when I am not.

Andrew did really well and we had a lot of fun spectating. I love spectating races! We stood about .3 miles from the finish to cheer people on. A lot of people were out of it and asked where the finish was. A lot thanked us for cheering. One guy saw me and my sister screwing around and making an arch and asked us to make one for him. We gladly did. Ha ha.

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By kilax, June 15, 2012 7:22 am

Do you like filling out surveys? Or do you usually skip them?

Last week I was telling Steven how fun I think filling out surveys is (I think I like the idea that someone cares about my opinion). Steven said he thinks that might be an odd trait. So of course, I said “I will ask my blog readers and they will prove you wrong!”

Then I thought about it. Anyone who answers the Friday Question probably has a tendency to like filling out surveys and answering things. Because you are already answering the silly questions I ask you. Humor me anyway.

I really like post-race surveys. But I will fill out the ones restaurants send me in email or even the ones the they say “keep your receipt and fill out the survey.” I answer them at work (except for when they are something I know NOTHING about), even when it’s not anonymous. Ha ha ha. When someone links to a random survey on Facebook and says “Help my friend by answering this survey for their dissertation!” I fill those out too.

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By kilax, June 14, 2012 6:32 am

Classic car owners really seem to love their custom plates. Maybe it’s a code of honor that you get one if you own a classic?

Dad… quick… name all these car models and years! I won’t be able to tell you if you are right or not, but it could be a fun exercise.

My personal fave is the last one. Ha ha.

What is the most memorable custom license plate you’ve seen? Bonus points if you say KIMBOT!

A few years ago at Target, I saw a plate that said MEXICAN. For some reason that cracked me up big time!

We saw these custom plates and quite a few more at a local car show we attended last night. There are a ton of car shows out here in the summer and I think I would like to start attending more of them. Steven is really in to cars, and I am in to cars in the sense that I am like “Ooo! That one’s pretty!” and “I like that one because it is orange.” Ha ha. There’s just a fun vibe at these shows. And lots of dreaming involved on our ends… “when we have our mansion and 20 car garage let’s get one of those!!!”

Also, going to car shows is very nostalgic for me, because my family went to a lot when I was growing up. And yet… I learned nothing about cars… FAIL KIM FAIL.