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By kilax, January 21, 2016 6:23 am

• Hmm, so much for a no chip manicure. My thumbnail chipped on the fourth day. It has a crack in it though, so maybe that’s why? The other nails are still doing great.

• Ha ha, I am such a liar!!! I wanted to give the MBP bracelet to Mom or Christina when I saw them last weekend, but I didn’t want them to suspect it, so I asked Bobbi to text me when she was checking in on Data that she saw him playing with the bracelet at the house. Only, I sent her that photo and actually had the bracelet with me the whole time. Ha! My mom and snis were totally tricked when I showed them the text from Bobbi, and I laughed really hard when I got a text from my snister when she found the bracelet in her purse on Monday at work. Buah ha ha. Ha. Ha.

• Still no close date on the house! It’s all dependent on when the appraisal comes back, if it requires any repairs, the seller signing some clause, then a request for clear to close. And all those timelines are up in the air. I kind of feel like we’re just going to get an email that says “Your close date is tomorrow!” and I am going to respond with “I can’t go tomorrow, I’m in training/with a client!” Sigh. But we’re moving forward with some stuff, like deciding on appliances. And getting quotes from movers. Whatever. I am chill about it. It is what it is.

• This tiny little pink hat didn’t even fit Bobbi’s youngest daughter’s head! Gosh, I really messed that hat up. Bobbi’s daughter said she’d like a hat, in purple, if possible, so I made her one, in hopefully the right size. Look how fun the yarn pattern turned out!

• The super awesome thing about our new house is that it’s 5 miles/a 10 minute drive from Bobbi’s house. We’re practically neighbors!!! YAY!
• Did you guys see this article (pdf here) about the new Mio trackers that will track your steps, as well as your heart rate and give you a combined score they call PAI – Personal Activity Intelligence? The idea is that people need more than a goal of 10,000 steps a day (did you know that goal is from a campaign from Japan… from the 1960s?!) – they need to focus on getting their heart rate up, too. So these Mio wearables track both and give you the PAI score, which you want to keep above 100. It’s cool that you’ll actually get credit for things that don’t include steps (like riding a bike). I am not surprised to see something new from the wearable/trackable industry. I see so many people wearing these things, it makes me wonder when the bubble is going to burst, and people will lose interest. Gotta come up with something new to track, to keep people engaged!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 82

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By kilax, January 20, 2016 6:47 am

I love the sentiment behind this image my friend Pete posted to Facebook last week (and I am so happy I stopped to read it – I usually skim by the pretty pictures with words on top images, ha!):

Facebook image source

This image spoke to me because I consider being able to be happy for others (and also, sad, mad, and so on, for them) a very important personality trait – I distance myself from those people who can’t appreciate someone else’s joy or be empathetic. Life’s too short to deal with that!

Someone’s happiness shouldn’t make you miserable, just as their misfortune shouldn’t make you happy. Think about it this way – being happy for others means MORE happiness in your life. It’s a win/win situation! (And, er, being really close with your friends and family mean their pains are your pains too, but it all evens out, I swear!!!).

We all know people who can’t seem to be happy for anyone, so I won’t get in to examples (though, wouldn’t that be fun?!). I’m lucky enough to have a core group of friends and family who have my best interests (and happiness!) in mind. I hope you do too. Find those people, if not. And be that person!!!

Comments (32)

By kilax, January 19, 2016 6:05 am

Schweet, I found another use for my knitting row counter:

Counting laps at the track!

It was -11°F (with a -29°F “real feel”) yesterday when I wanted to do my run, so I decided to go to an indoor track I’ve heard my friends talk about before.

14 laps to a mile?! Eek!

Since I was going to be inside on a flat track, I decided to do my speed work: 7 x 400 m. Only, the lap count was odd for that, so I ran 7 x 4 laps, which equated to 457 m intervals.

The run went by surprisingly fast. That usually happens with speed work though. Here’s what I’m planning for speed work for my 5K course PR training (with some tempos and hills thrown in):

Week 1: 6×400
Week 2: 3×800, 4×1:00
Week 3 (this week): 7×400 (7×457)
Week 4: 4×800, 6×1:00
Week 5: 8×400
Week 6: 5×800, 8×1:00
Week 7: 9×400
Week 8 (race week): 6×1:00

The only bad part about running on the track was the tight corners. I think my right hip will be feeling that today.

Okay, also, the dude who was walking in the run lap most of the time. But, oh well.

Everyone else there was walking, and they were all super nice to me. One lady told me I look really tan and asked if I just got back from a vacation. Ha, I should’ve told her I just got back from Iowa! I had a nice conversation with her.

The next lady asked how far I was going and told me I was inspiring. That made me feel great! And the last guy I talked to also asked how far I went, and told me he admired my pace. I had a nice convo with him too! Talking all those nice people made me want to go back! I’m sure I will. I bet we’ll have a few more days where the temperature and wind chill are cold enough to make me run inside, ha!

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By kilax, January 18, 2016 8:39 am

Just finishing up a little holiday gift knitting on the car ride to see my family for Christmas, no biggie d…

Ha ha! I ended up liking the yarn I used so much to make this hat, that I got a few more skeins in different colors to gift them to family members for our Christmas celebration this past weekend.

I got the yarn on the 8th and gave myself seven days to finish three hats before we left on the 15th. Accomplished! (with a little work in the car, ha)

I’ve used the same pattern for six hats now. I asked my snister to bring the other two hats I’ve made so I could get a photo of everyone with their hats together.

Aunt Sue, Snister, Grandma Tiger, SiL Amber, (Future!) SiL Alyssa, Mamba

I’m going to make two more hats with this pattern and yarn then move on to something else (hopefully, if I have time with the move!).

It was great to see my family this weekend! It’s rare that I get to spend time with all of my siblings and their partners together, so it’s a treat when it happens. I hope it happens again before we all go to Alaska in June!

My snis, my older bro, me and my younger bro

Us with James

My nephews

Matching scarves! (We needed those scarves! The high on Sunday was -4°F!!! My family said the hats are VERY warm. Ha ha, good!)

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By kilax, January 17, 2016 3:37 pm

Highlight of the Week: Cycling with Tina/feeling awesome on my long run!

Monday | January 11, 2016: 8 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 11°/12°, Time: 1:10:49, Pace: 8:51 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but stomach was crampy
Strength: medicine balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but low on energy – had to drink a Vitamin Water
Tuesday | January 12, 2016: 11 m ride (w/Tina)
Bike Time: 43:43, Pace: 15.1 mph avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good to do some intervals!
Wednesday | January 13, 2016: 10 m run + 20 mins strength
Loc: hood-ish, Temp: -1°/-1°, Time: 1:30:58, Pace: 9:06 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, frustrated my phone died (but my fault)
Thursday | January 14, 2016: 5 m run (incl. 3×800, 4×1:00) + 6.5 m ride (w/Steven)
Loc: hood, Temp: 34°/38°, Time: 41:44, Pace: 8:21 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good
Indoor Ride Time: 24:41, Pace: 15.8 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Friday | January 15, 2016: teaching strength class + 18.5 m run
Strength: medicine balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Gages Lake/Gurnee, Temp: 38°/40°, Time: 2:52:30, Pace: 9:19, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, after mile 5
Saturday | January 16, 2016: 3 m run
Loc: Cedar Falls, Temp: 5°/5°, Time: 25:57, Pace: 8:39 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, warm!
Sunday | January 17, 2016: rest

Notes:

• A few people asked if I would talk about my 5K course PR focused workouts, so I’ll highlight them each week until the race. My plan this week was hills on Wednesday, and speedwork on Thursday (no tempo this week because I was traveling – hopefully next week!).
  • The hills only partially happened, because I got out on the route and my phone died (due to low temps), and I didn’t feel safe at that time of day without it, so I ran back to the house to grab another phone. Ha. But I did get some hills in!
  • Thursday I ran 3×800 and 4×1:00, with no goal pace, on a hilly course. Challenging, but good for me!
• This week Steven asked me why I am running so much – if I was training for something. Just that 5K course PR. But yeah, I know I don’t need to run this much. I told him why I am though – it’s the only thing keeping me sane while dealing with the house and work stress. I do foresee less running at the end of the month and beginning of February when commuting for work and moving will take up more of my time.
• A new student tried out one of my strength classes this week! Our classes have regular enrollment (students sign up for the month), so you typically work out with the same people month after month, and year after year. It’s fun to have your core workout group like that, but I think it’s good when new people come from time to time – it mixes things up AND makes it more challenging for me, as the instructor, to adjust workouts as I learn the new person’s capabilities.
• This week was my first run of the year in a different state – Iowa! I didn’t get to run with my dad though – it was a bit too cold out to be riding a bike, ha! Hopefully next time I see him he can ride with me!

Link to Training Week 325

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By kilax, January 16, 2016 8:38 am

My mom’s mom is a sweetie and always makes me a vegan dessert when I’ll be at her home. When she has the time, she makes chocolate cake. When she wants to whip something up quick, she makes chocolate pudding (and apologizes that it’s not more elaborate! oh, Grandma! I don’t care – it’s delicious!).

I got the recipe from her a few years ago, and holy cow, is it ever quick and easy to make! Seriously, it takes less than 10 minutes!

Here’s the recipe so you can try it!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cup soymilk (we use vanilla almond milk)
• 1/4 cup honey or agave nectar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Combine cocoa powder, corn starch, salt, soymilk and honey in a 1 quart saucepan, add just enough milk to make smooth paste. Gradually stir in remaining milk and honey.
2. Cook over med heat, stirring constantly until mixture begins to thicken.
3. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.
4. Pour in to serving dishes (4) and chill (or eat hot, if you can’t wait)

This is my go to pudding for chocolate pudding pie – it holds up well enough to be cut. I usually make the pie with a graham cracker pie crust, then put sliced bananas on the crust, then pour the pudding over them. At Christmas though, we went nutso with that peppermint Oreo crust (basically 28 oreos with 5 tablespoons margarine… yeah…) and skipped the bananas. We didn’t want anything resembling healthy in there. Ha!

Comments (23)

By kilax, January 15, 2016 6:34 am

Er… I mean, train.

So CHILL the eff out.

Stock train photo from riding in November with my mom – on another day with crazy delays!

When it gets really cold out here, as it has this week, the commuter train switches start to fail and the trains are late. It’s been like this for years. I’ve come to expect it.

So a few times before I commuted on Wednesday, I told Steven that my train home would probably be late (because, you know, it’s always on time GOING to work, ha!).

I get to Union Station after work on Wednesday and it’s a mad house. All of the switches are out going north, nothing is coming in or going. People are everywhere, pushing and shoving.

Okay, be calm, Kim. You expected this.

The train I wanted to take isn’t even there yet. But I see a train going to a different area by our rental house, that was supposed to leave before I got to the station, is still there, sitting on the tracks, with the doors closed.

I talk to a conductor on the train next to it, and he sees if the train with the closed doors will open for me, since we’re all sitting and waiting anyway. I appreciate his help. It doesn’t work immediately, but eventually, the conductor opens the doors and a few people get on.

I expect the train to be full and to maybe have to stand. I don’t care – I just wanted to get out of the cold and on to a train.

But luckily, I see lots of seats with only one person in them!

One person, and their FRICKIN’ bag taking the seat next to them.

Sigh. I hate it when people do that. But sure, the doors were closed, they thought that was everyone that was going to be on the train, give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they waited and put their bag on the seat after the doors closed (riiiiiiiiiiiight).

I find a seat and ask the woman if she minds moving her bags so I can sit.

She snaps. “You know this train isn’t going anywhere, RIGHT?!?!”

I almost lose it. “Yep! I just want to get out of the cold and sit down.”

Geesh. AYFKM?! Whether or not this train moves, I obviously want to sit down. So move your sh*t.

The train sits there for quite some time. After it gets going, she makes lot of comments (she seems to know the other people on the car) about being worried the train will make extra stops because of “the extra people that got let on it,” and stupid crap like that (the train stuck to its original schedule, so GFY and STFU). She complains about how ticket prices go up and the switches still fail. And so on. Whiney whine whine (I guess like I am, now?).

Every time the trains are delayed due to cold, I am always surprised that regular commuters are, well, so surprised. This is what happens when it’s hella cold. It sucks. Deal.

Now, I AM lucky I don’t have to commute every day like some people. If this happened to me day after day, I would be much more frustrated. But still. I wouldn’t be a jerk to someone who wanted a seat, then make nasty comments the entire ride home. You’re just making it worse for yourself.

That lady and I were both going to the last stops. I think hers was one out from mine. The car cleared out as we rode, and there were lots of open seats, but I stayed next to her the whole time. Yeah, I can be passive aggressive, too, biznatch.

Ha! Talking about trains reminds me how unreliable/unpredictable they were in Italy. I wonder how these people would deal with that! Sometimes you just have to go with the flow, folks. Prepare. Bring your drinks and snacks. Bring the book you’re reading and the thing you are knitting. Make sure your phone is charged. Use the toilets on the train. BE NICE TO PEOPLE. It’s all gonna be okay. We all just want to get where we need to be. Let’s cooperate.

And this train ride was not all bad. I got a lot of knitting done. As we got close to my stop, I got up to stand in the vestibule and then we were stuck in place for about 10 minutes, during which I had a very nice conversation with a stranger. 

Also, I wrote this post early yesterday morning. Mid afternoon, Metra actually sent out an apology letter about the situation (you can read it here). Wow!

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By kilax, January 14, 2016 6:51 pm

And that folks, is why the nail technician thinks I should have kids.

I don’t normally go around asking people why they think I should or should not have kids, but she asked me so many times during the pedicure and manicure why I don’t, that I figured I should just ask her the reason she thinks I should.

Ha ha.

Sigh.

My nails and toes look nice though.

And man, I thought deciding on insurance was hard… look at all these colors! Ha!

I was talking to someone the other day (I can’t remember who! Ack!) and they mentioned that they always get asked why they don’t have kids when they go to a nail salon. Funny that it happened to me.

Comments (29)

By kilax, January 14, 2016 6:23 am

• Last night was our first time playing Powerball! We didn’t win. Ha ha. But it was fun to get a ticket and watch the numbers (which I struggled to stay awake for).
• I’ve been posting much more frequently. Why? It gives me something to look forward to first thing in the morning (hitting publish!) and throughout the day (receiving comments and responding). Writing makes me happy. I hope I can keep it up.
• I get to see my newest nephew this weekend! The last time I saw him was November 1!

My hair only looks nice because Christina did it for the family photo

• I’m redeeming a Groupon for a no-chip manicure tonight! It’s my first time getting one. I hope it actually does NOT chip. I am constantly repainting my nails because they get so chipped doing strength training (and other things). On Sunday, the side of one of my thumbnails started to break. I’ve been trying to keep it from breaking more and I hope the no-chip helps it stay together.
• When I switch up my diet (to eat healthier) it can mess with my sleep. So a few times in the past couple of weeks I’ve been awake for an hour or two in the middle of the night. Blah – makes for some tired afternoons! But it will all even out soon (it has before).
• Ha. So, it turns out “Netflix and chill” doesn’t mean what I thought it did… good thing I looked it up on urban dictionary.
• We’ve been forwarding mail from our old townhome to our rental address. Since we’re only at the rental for a short period of time, we decided we didn’t want to change anything officially to that address – we want to wait until we’re at the final address. But many places have figured out the rental address and changed our information to it. It kind of creeps me out when I log in to things and see the rental address show up. Anyway… now we’ll have to forward mail from two addresses when we move, I suppose.
• We don’t have a garage at our rental house. No biggie D, but I have to remember to leave time to clean off the car and warm it up before going places… which I’ve obviously forgotten to do, several times. Ha.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 81

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By kilax, January 13, 2016 3:17 am

Steven and I did some major adulting last year, and actually took the time, during open season, to switch our health insurance coverage.

It was intimidating and overwhelming to me. I’ll be honest – I didn’t want to put in the work to review it (even though the website makes comparing plans somewhat simple).

But then I heard how the premium was going WAY up on the carrier we use, and decided to look in to it.

Sigh. Turns out, I should have done this MUCH sooner.

When I first started working for the government, and got to choose from 30+ providers (yes, that many!) I just went with the big name I knew. And apparently I signed up for a premium plan. Then didn’t look in to it for, yeah, seven years?

Bad, Kim. Bad.

I was paying out the wazoo and hardly using our benefits at all (I mean, they were good ones, but we didn’t use them). I am NOT thinking about all the money I could have saved with a smaller plan with a different carrier FOR SEVEN YEARS.

That’s what we’re doing now – we switched to a simpler (less expensive) plan with a different carrier, and so far, so good! I was able to easily transfer a prescription… let’s hope things go as well at the doctor and dentist offices!