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By kilax, October 6, 2016 6:43 am

• I ordered the invites for my snister’s baby shower! I hope they turn out good (mostly, that I understood the bleed guidelines correctly).

• I “decorated” for Halloween again. Can you find it in the picture? Ha!

• As part of the work trip I am on, we checked out a bit of ArtPrize (a large international art competition spread across town and open to public and expert jury vote for top prizes) in Grand Rapids, MI. There were a lot of cool pieces! I really liked “Victory (huge figures made out of chairs), “The Smoke” painting (a neat painting of smoke with seven women hidden in it, which was supposed to have an actual smoke machine with it), and all of the beautiful Michigan sunset over the lake photographs. I love that there is a such a huge variety of mediums and styles – it really makes it so there is something to interest everyone.

• I was worried this work trip would be exhausting from being “on” and around people for two days. Luckily, I can be myself around my coworkers! So, it’s not exhausting in that sense, thankfully!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 110

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By kilax, October 5, 2016 10:25 am

Every time I travel (or even bring my gym bag to work) I forget one thing, despite making lists and keeping my travel stuff together. The game is “what will it be this time?!” Ha.

This trip? A lint roller!

Eek! I didn’t even think of it! 

I look like this because I’m knitting in the car.

The lint is worth it. I haven’t had time to work on the baby blanket at all and can get a lot done during the drive!

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By kilax, October 4, 2016 7:04 pm

Like bad things?

Because today was a “three good things” sort of day. In lame, adult, fashion:

Good thing #1: We accidentally washed and dried a white blanket and some stains we didn’t know about set on it. But they came out! WOOT!

(Not this blanket but you get the idea)

Good thing #2: The deed transfer at our old townhome is official. You know, the one we sold in December? Err… after the “sale” Steven would sometimes say he didn’t feel like it was official. Well, he was right, somewhat! We got the tax bill for our old place at the new one and were a bit “huh?!” Researching this led us to find out the deed transfer got messed up, but it’s fixed as of today! We don’t have to pay property taxes in two places, ha (we never really would have, you just worry when you see these things!).

Good thing #3: And speaking of property taxes, we successfuly got our home accessed at what we paid for it so ours will be going down! This is huge, as our taxes are well, HUGE! We were pretty sure we’d have to have a hearing but apparently the evidence we submitted was sufficient! Yay!

And that concludes my list of lame things to be excited about, ha!

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By kilax, October 3, 2016 6:12 am

What more could a mother ask for?

(Steven is mixing up different batches of mortar to try to match the one on the house so he can do some brick work, and he was kind enough to make this for me! Ha!)

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By kilax, October 2, 2016 9:50 pm

Highlight of the Week: Look at most of those run photos! The highlight was a week of overcast, cooler, “I could run in this forever” weather! Another highlight was running with friends after class!

Monday | September 26, 2016: 5 m run + 1,365 yd swim + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 62°/64°, Time: 48:50, Pace: 9:46 avg, Difficulty:easy, Felt: great!
Loc: FitNation, Moving time: 31:54, Pace: 2:20 min/100 yd avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Strength: Body Bars and Soft Balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | September 27, 2016: rest
Wednesday | September 28, 2016: 4 m run (incl. 10×1:00)
Loc: Lakefront Trail, Temp: 56°/57°, Time: 37:55, Pace: 9:29 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: decent-ish
Thursday | September 29, 2016: 6 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 62°/62°, Time: 1:00:35, Pace: 10:06 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but so tired (not sleeping well)
Friday | September 30, 2016: teaching strength class + 1,071 yd swim + 5 m run + 4 m run
Strength: Body Bars and Soft Balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Moving Time: 26:40, Pace: 2:29 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 61°/62°, Time: 49:02, Pace: 9:48, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Lake Andrea, Temp: 63°/62°, Time: 37:31, Pace: 9:22 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: surprisingly good
Saturday | October 1, 2016: 7 m ride + teaching fitness boxing + 3 m run (w/Anne & Emily)
Indoor Ride Time: 29:39, Pace: 14.2 mpg avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: boxing and core, Difficulty: easy (mostly observing), Felt: good
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 61°/61°, Time: 40:09, Pace: 13:23 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Sunday | October 2, 2016: 13 m run
Loc: Outlet Mall loop, Temp: 58°/62°, Time: 2:18:03, Pace: 10:37 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good, better than I thought I would!

Notes:

• On Monday I braved it and went out for a five mile ruu sans water bottle and… wasn’t miserable! Yay! I can’t wait to get back to not carrying it on every run!
• Swimming at 5:00 pm this Monday was quite different from swimming at 5:00 am last Monday! There were so many more people at the gym! And half of the pool was being used for children’s swim lessons, so there was an audience of parents. But I somehow still had a lane to myself, and didn’t mind all the commotion – it made it a more lively!
• Swimming then doing another activity (running, or as it was this Monday – teaching class) feels so weird. Even after a shower, my sweat is all weird and chlorine-y.
• We’ve had a new-to-boxing student at my last three classes, which is awesome! But, I am also struggling to teach someone how to box while also teaching the entire class. I came up with something new to try this week to help with that, and it didn’t work very well. Back to the drawing board (or, really, back to the basics, for everyone!).
• We’ve had rain all week, so I did my long run on the roads to avoid squishy trails. I didn’t wear gaiters, but still somehow got tons of rocks in my shoes (from running in the shoulder) and had to stop so many times to empty them! I learned my lesson – wear gaiters on the roads after it rains!
• September recap! September was a great month! I ran 174 miles (67 more than August), cycled 57.5 miles (4 indoor rides, 1 outdoor ride) and swam laps 7 times. For cross training, I think I may enjoy swimming more than cycling! My coldest outdoor run was 54°F and my warmest was 88°F. I taught 9 strength classes, and did zero (eek!) strength sessions at home. I taught 2 fitness boxing classes and had a blast at them.

Link to Training Week 362

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By kilax, October 1, 2016 5:54 am

I went outside after my run yesterday to say hello to CK (who we are now also calling Callie) and … wait a minute! That’s not CK!

Who’s this guy?!

He was VERY friendly.

But now I feel super stressed about having two strays outside. I hope this guy being so friendly means he was just visiting from another house!