Comments (4)

By kilax, April 12, 2018 12:29 pm

• I know you guys are DYING to see which Grease OPI nail polish color I got! I went with “You’re The Shade That I Want.” I think I am going to get “Tell Me About It Stud” on my toes. (Don’t worry, I will NOT be sharing a photo of my toes, ha!)

• I finished Immortal Life and am now reading First Ladies of Running. I felt like I was on the wire to Immortal Life the day before it was due! Oopsie! First Ladies of Running is a much faster read. I want to read Deena Kastor’s new book, but doubt I will be able to get it from the library any time soon!

• I was looking at the race director’s Facebook page for some information the day after the race, and came across the post that announced cash prizes, and it showed that I liked it! Huh, so why was I so surprised when I won a cash prize? That would be because of the part of the post I highlighted in yellow. I did more than 15 to 17 minutes of work, ha! Anyway, thanks, Ermin!

• We have so much (fun stuff!) going on in May and June… eek. I am already feeling a bit overwhelmed, and making sure I am planning out quiet time, too! Summer will be here and over before we know it!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 174

Comments (14)

By kilax, April 9, 2018 12:42 pm

The 5K I did this weekend was in my hometown, so I got to see my parents, my brothers and their families, my grandma, my aunt, AND! my snister and her family because they came up from Kansas City for the weekend! Woo hoo!

We rented a house with Snis and her family (it was our first time doing that in our hometown), and it worked out well!

Us with Snis and fam

FRIDAY!

We got in around 6:00 pm on Friday and hung at the rental house with Snis, Will, William, and Mom and Dad. Christina (Snis) gave me this beautiful painting she had done of Snow. I’m looking forward to finding the purrfect spot to hang it.

Artwork by dimdi

She gave it to me at the same time I got a text from Bobbi, who was checking in on the cats for us, saying how strange it was not to see Snow at the house. Aww, sad face. It IS strange and we miss him so much. I still get choked up about him being gone, from time to time. Mostly now though, it’s just stories and me saying I miss him. I’ll really love having this painting of him to remind me of him each day. It’s such a thoughtful gesture from Christina and her family.

On Friday we began our culinary tour for the weekend, ha! Half of us got Thai food, and half of us got pizza. And Christina and I enjoyed vegan cupcakes Dad had picked up for us during the day!

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies & Cream from Scratch Cupcakery

SATURDAY!

Saturday was the race, but more importantly, it was my sister-in-law Alyssa’s birthday! I was pumped we were going to be in town to celebrate with her! After the race, we all hung out at Grandma’s and the kids did an Easter egg hunt, then we went out for lunch. Ha, again, it was a half and half split of pizza and Asian food (half went to The Other Place, and half went to HuHot).

There was a basket for us!

We came back to Grandma’s and had MOAR cupcakes!!!!

Christina, Alyssa, and me

And hung out together for a lot of the day.

Christina taught me a dance move I’ve been wanting to learn

We finished the night by going out for drinks (and bar food!) for Alyssa’s birthday, at a bar my uncle owns in town. Another aunt of mine was there working, so we got to see her too, yay!

SUNDAY!

On Sunday I ran with Dad,

William still doesn’t know what to think of my running outfits

then we packed up to go home! We stopped by Grandma’s and a few of us went out for Mexican food,

then we hit the road. My hometown was supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow, and the storm started while we were at lunch, so we wanted get ahead of it. We did, thankfully, but staying ahead of the storm meant we had to cancel meeting up with my other grandma. Bummer. Maybe next time I try to meet up with her in April there won’t be a snow storm?!?!!??!?!?!?!??!?! WTF.

The drive home is about five hours. We stopped at Aldi and I used the new Aldi keychain (that holds a quarter) my snis gave me. Love it!

Then we got home, I got a few cat cuddles, then immediately unpacked and did laundry, because I love that part of returning home.

So yeah, that was my weekend. Lots of driving, hanging out, and eating (and a little bit of running) – exactly what I expect from a weekend with the fam! And while we didn’t do much, I was worn out when we got back, so I am glad I took a half day today and could chill in the morning!

I could have used a million more William cuddles this weekend!!!

Comments (18)

By kilax, April 5, 2018 5:53 am

• AHHHHH the Grease OPI line!!!! I’m definitely choosing my next nail color from there!

Christina had sent this pic of me listening to the Grease album a few days before I saw the new colors! Ha! 

• I saw those colors when I was at the salon getting at touch-up on my 5K nails. I hope it’s not an omen that one peeled so early!!! Eek! (At this rate, it seems I’ll have gloves on for the race anyway – my mom said it’s supposed to be really cold there.)
• I finished reading The French Girl, and started reading Immortal Life. Immortal Life is a sci-fi novel set in the future, about a 127 year old man who is transferring his consciousness to a younger host, because his original body is so decayed, and he wants to live forever. It’s interesting, but the writing style is difficult for me to read – long descriptions with lots of “fancy” (read: “I’m going to show off my vocabulary”) words. Eh. I will keep at it, and keep using my dictionary.com app.

• I confirmed at my local Starbucks Tuesday that they are phasing out the “You Are Here” mugs. But the “Been There” mugs sign says they will have a mug for all fifty states (and some destinations) so that’s cool – Iowa never had one before, and now it will! Woot!

• And now for some super random ish:
  • I like it when an e-commerce site uses Amazon Pay and I don’t have to re-enter all my info to order – I just log in to my Amazon account and the site grabs it from there. It’s especially convenient when I am ordering from my phone. This will probably bite me in the a$$, as I bet Amazon Pay gives those sites more info than they need. But man, it’s so convenient.
  • I’ve recently started adding raisins to my salads (ha, after Steven’s been suggesting it for a year) and WHOA does it make a world of difference! Yum! (A few people suggested cranberries, when I told them I like raisins. I tried them and didn’t care for them as much. Shrug.)
  • I bought this eucalyptus mint soap to try and the scent of it takes me and Steven back to when we first moved in to our home, two years ago. Neither of us remembers why we had this scent at the house before though (it’s not one of the usual scents we use), and it’s making me crazy that I can’t recall (since one of my jobs at home is sentiment/scent manager). But at the same time, each time I use it, I’m like “aww, we’ve lived here two years!”

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 173

Comments (21)

By kilax, April 3, 2018 6:23 am

THE ONE* THING!!!

My snister text me and Mom these pics on Saturday, which say that Starbucks is getting rid of the “You Are Here” mug collection to introduce the new “Been There” series.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Ha. I kind of collect the “You Are Here” Starbucks mugs. I like to buy one when I travel to a new city/state. The new mugs are the same size, so they’d “fit” with the ones I have, but the designs are a completely different style! Of course, change is hard, and I like the old ones better.

But… do I need any more mugs? No. Not. At. All. I had to clear mugs out from in front of my Starbucks ones to take the picture above, and I have lots of mugs in storage in the basement, AND a few “You Are Here” mugs that are still in the box, because they are from cities/states I haven’t visited yet (I don’t use them until I’ve been there). Then there’s the fact that I don’t drink coffee, and only use mugs for hot drinks in the cold season, which is ending soon…

So, this is a good thing.

But I am trying to decide if now is the time to buy the Illinois, Chicago, and Wisconsin “You Are Here” mugs before they are gone…

NO! NO MORE MUGS!!! Hee hee.

*Not counting the Star Wars Hallmark ornaments I used to collect much more seriously.
*Also not counting race bibs or medals.

Comments (18)

By kilax, April 2, 2018 6:23 am

Thanks for reading these long arse weekend recaps! I enjoy writing them and appreciate you reading them!

There was no reason for last week to feel as long as it did. I was glad when it was finally Friday night!

FRIDAY!

We kicked the weekend off by going out for MOD Pizza. MOD’s a build-your-own-pizza place (think Subway or Chipotle style) with unlimited toppings! And they have vegan cheese!

MOD’s one of the very few places I like to get pizza out. I prefer Steven’s homemade pizza, or no pizza at all – I’m actually not a much of a pizza fan! But MOD… drool.

We ran an errand after dinner and picked up Pitch Perfect 3 to watch. It was silly, but entertained us a lot more than other movies we’ve rented lately!

SATURDAY!

On Saturday I got my run in before the wicked winds hit (25 mph winds with 40 mph gusts, no thanks), did an indoor bike ride, then taught a fitness boxing class. The class had an egg hunt theme – I put the workouts on little slips of paper in the eggs, and the students “hunted” for them to find out what workout we’d do!

It was fun for me since I had no idea what order the workout would be in. It ended up being a high intensity class, and the students liked it, yay!

I handed out goodie bags too. I had goodie bags for twelve, but I had two cancellations an hour before class, and three no-shows. I typically have a cancellation (and sometimes a no show) for every single class I teach, but when it’s a big number like that, it makes me a bit frustrated/disappointed. Oh well. That meant I had leftover goodie bags for my boss’s kids!

I ran errands after teaching – Aldi and Walmart pickup. This pickup did not go as well as the last one. It  took a long time, and the employee seemed overworked and was rude to me (about being there “early,” when I had received a notification my order was ready…?!). Hopefully the next time I try it, it goes better. I did have a good reality check NOT to be too upset about this FREE service while I was there, when I saw another customer who’d been waiting since before I arrived, leave, in her car, without her pickup, with her window down, screaming at the employee. Eek.

After food prep for the week, and lunch, we ran MOAR errands – Target and Kohl. Why so many errands on Saturday? Because I’ve been burned before, leaving shopping for Sunday, only to have everything closed because it’s Easter.

I wonder if everyone else had the same idea, or it was just normal Saturday shopping, but GAH there were too many people out and it made me anxious and stabby. Sigh. I needed more of this on Saturday:

and less people.

Happily, Saturday night was quiet. We made tacos, watched The Beguiled, and I read a bit before bed.

SUNDAY!

When we saw on Holey Moley Doughnuts’s social media page that they were going to be open on Easter, we knew it was a sign we had to go. Three months after making it a goal to get there, we finally did!

It was overwhelming when I got there, and saw they had THIRTEEN (not an April Fool’s joke!!!) different vegan donuts I could try. AHHH!!!!!

We got seven flavors (including one we’d had before and knew we like). Clockwise from top left: chocolate cake with vanilla glaze, cinnamon sugar (have had before), banana bread, s’mores, raspberry, samoa, and apple fritter (under chocolate cake with vanilla glaze).

We didn’t try: blood orange, chai, maple pecan, passionfruit coconut, peanut butter, or grasshopper.

These are all cake donuts, and the flavors are phenomenal. We both liked samoa the best, and couldn’t get over how the banana bread donut tasted just like banana bread. Yum.

I like these a lot, but they sit a bit heavy (um, could that be because I ate about three of them…?! nah), which just reminds me yeast donuts are my favorite! Which is why they only have 3.5 drooling faces below.

State	Date	Name	Flavor(s)	Rating (0-4)	Photo
Kansas	1/15/18	Mud Pie	Cake Chocolate Frosted
Illinois	2/7/18	Do-Rite	Chai Maple
Illinois	2/17/18	Holcomb Hollow	Lemon Vanilla
Ohio	3/23/18	Holey Toledough	Blackberry Hibiscus & Cinnamon Roll
Wisconsin	4/1/18	Holey Moley Coffee + Doughnuts	Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Glaze, Cinnamon Sugar, Banana Bread, S’mores, Raspberry, Samoa, and Apple Fritter

The rest of my Sunday was just as amazing as the morning. I took a nap when we got home (less than six hours of sleep both weekend nights had me yawning and rubbing my eyes all morning), we ate lunch and played with the cats with the toy the Easter Bunny left them,

Ha, I had to include this one first cause it makes us laugh so hard!

Data played a little, but mostly watched

then I did my donut fueled long run, and we made our Easter dinner!

Now, to recover from the weekend…

(I usually don’t mention what Steven is up to during the weekends when I am exercising and doing errands without him. This weekend he was working and installing a security camera at the house. He’s usually working a bit, and doing some sort of project!)

Comments (4)

By kilax, March 31, 2018 12:49 pm

Who else is having a hard time processing that April begins tomorrow? And who is planning on playing an April Fool’s joke?! (not me!)

Here’s my list of what I am looking forward to in April!

• Cooking a fun (read: indulgent) meal with Steven on Easter
• Getting a pre-race massage
• Running the Fools 5K!
• Seeing my family!
• Taking Bobbi out for her birthday!
• ALL the April birthday celebrations (there’s a lot of them!)
• A trip to Texas to see Gina & fam, and maybe eating a vegan donut there?!
• Anne running the half marathon she’s been training for!
• My monthly run date with Rachel
• Finishing one last month of “focused” training (now, for the half marathon)
• Maybe riding my bike outside?
• Starting to see leaves, flowers, plants, and baby animals outside!

What’s on your list?

Comments (16)

By kilax, March 29, 2018 6:25 am

• It came to my attention yesterday when chatting with some coworkers, that my experience of searching for a hidden Easter basket, left by the Easter Bunny, may be a bit of an anomaly. Most people I talked to said their basket was left out in plain sight! The Easter Bunny always hid ours. How about you (if you got one)? Poll below!

 Loading ...

Last year’s basket

• I finished Hanna Who Fell from the Sky. Man, the whole second half of the book, I was just dying to know whether or not she was going to leave that horrible town! It definitely kept my interest! There was an interesting story at the end, from the author, about writing the book. He got the idea for it back in 2004 and wrote out a draft. Many years later, he got a concussion and couldn’t speak or read for almost a year. When he finally could again, he would work on the book, for an hour or so each day, as much as his head could handle, until he finished it (it was published in late 2017). The author is fully recovered now. And he was so inspired by Hanna’s character, he named his daughter Hanna – well before the book was published!
• Now I’m reading The French Girl. Yep, definitely addicted to going to the library. I love having something to read. It feels like such an indulgent treat!

• Cape Horn Illustrations made us some note cards and envelope labels with our house illustration on them! I love stuff like this and can’t wait to use them!

• I feel like I’ve just been going through the motions at work for some time, and subsequently, that feeling is leaking over to the rest of life. Blah. My silly 5K training is giving me something to focus on and work toward outside of work, but I need more than that. I’m working on it!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 172

Comments (14)

By kilax, March 27, 2018 6:27 am

Ughhhhhh, I was up at 3:00 am today with a bad headache. Again. This happened to me Friday night, and a few other times in the past month.

My first thought was, “NO! I have tickets to Pacific Rim Uprising tonight! This headache HAS to go away!” Ha. Priorities.

I took medicine and laid in bed with my ice pack, and it got worse. I did some soothing self talk to get through the pain (I know, I’m being so dramatic!): “you feel fine, Kim,” “it’s going to go away,” “you’ll get to workout today, and go to the movies!” Ha. Ha ha.

I finally fell asleep and woke up feeling better. But today is definitely going to be a day of avoiding headache irritants: scents (hence the title*), bright lights, noise (uh, minus the movie?), sugar, and too much screen time (not sure how that one works with working…).

When I was talking to Steven about it this morning, he said he bet my headache was from a pressure change, and that he had one too, before going to bed. He pulled up a pressure map from our weather station and asked what dates I had headaches on, to see if they corresponded to pressure changes.

Headaches on February 26, March 6, March 23, and March 27

Gosh, it sure looks like they do to me! The headache on February 26th was after a pressure increase (and a drink the night before), the one on March 6th was after a pressure drop (and hormonal), and then today’s was after a drop. The March 23rd one seems more random.

I don’t know why it feels so satisfactory to have this confirmed on a chart, when I’ve been aware of this pressure/headache correlation for some time. But maybe now that it is, I will GET BETTER about paying attention to upcoming weather changes and make sure to hydrate super well the day before and take medicine when I go to bed that evening. I knew it was going to be warmer and rainy today – I should have thought about this! Duh!

(However better I get about the weather portion of this, I am going to keep tracking my headaches, to watch their patterns and figure out other ways to avoid them.)

*I have a candle going 99% of the time when I work from home! I’ll burn one scent for a few hours, then blow that one out and burn another, then go back and forth like that all day!

Comments (22)

By kilax, March 26, 2018 6:16 am

Well, my weekend started out AMAZING, because SEE TITLE ^^^

I was already stoked Anne was in town (for a Sunday race in the city) and we’d get to hang out Friday night, but then she shows up at our house with these beauties?!?!

OMG YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

They’re vegan donuts from Holey Toledough, in Toledo, OH. Anne stopped on her drive in to get them for me! Isn’t that sweet? (pun not intended, ha)

The flavors were cinnamon roll and blackberry hibiscus. Hands down, these are best donuts I’ve had this year. They’re yeast donuts (my preference over cake), and they got everything right – they were light and airy/fluffy, with great flavor, and the perfect amount of icing. I’ll be thinking about these donuts for some time to come. Yum.

State	Date	Name	Flavor	Rating (0-4)	Photo
Kansas	1/15/18	Mud Pie	Cake Chocolate Frosted
Illinois	2/7/18	Do-Rite	Chai Maple
Illinois	2/17/18	Holcomb Hollow	Lemon Vanilla
Ohio	3/23/18	Holey Toledough	Blackberry Hibiscus & Cinnamon Roll

And that was my entire weekend! Ha ha ha, I kid.

Before we indulged in donuts, Anne and I did her weekly long run together, yay! I stupidly dressed too cold, and the wind made me feel even worse. I don’t know what I was thinking. But I loved having all of that time to chat!!! <— duh, broken record, any time I get to run with a friend.

After our run (and donuts!), we made enchiladas for dinner,

then tried to watch Downsized. We almost made it to the end! What a neat idea for a movie. Too bad it never went anywhere.

Anne is one of Data’s favorite people to sit on

The weekend could only go downhill after that awesome Friday, right?

Ha, it kind of did. I woke up a little before 3:00 on Saturday with a headache, and could NOT fall back asleep. So I got up.

I worked on blog posts, rode my bike, read a little, tried to nap… then hung out with Anne when she got up, and left to teach fitness boxing (and go to Aldi) shortly thereafter.

When I returned home, I had to take a nap since I got less than four hours of sleep. I LOVE naps but I wanted to work on something for Steven and was not happy I was too exhausted to do so. Sigh.

While Anne was here, she told me about the Walmart Grocery app and I decided to give it a try for Sunday pickup, when I’d be near a Walmart. Imagine my surprise when I got a text during my run that my order was ready. On Saturday. Doh, I had requested the wrong date! I sped up and hurried home so I could go get the order during the window I asked for. I’m not sure if that matters or not, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way!

Pickup was hella easy, and I was impressed by the service (it’s free!). I will definitely use it again. I don’t like to shop, and really don’t like wandering around in (ANY) big box stores.

And they gave me a goodie bag with samples! Thanks to my lovely assistant for modeling it on the dining room table. Eyeroll. (He’s not supposed to be on the table, or counters, for that matter.)

Steven asked me why I hadn’t used it before – if I didn’t know about it. I did! I saw someone talking about it online, but all that person does is promote stuff, which makes me not see them as a valid source for reviews (seems insincere when every post is “this product/service is THE BEST EVER!”). I had to hear it from Anne. Sorry, internet marketing – I still use legit word of mouth.

Saturday night was chill! We watched a show and a movie and made dinner (pasta with sauce and meat-a-balls-a! <— have to say it that way).

I took NyQuil so that I would be able to fall back asleep whenever I woke up during the night, Saturday, and it worked! Hurrah!!!!

On Sunday I did my long run and was able to work on the thing I wanted to help Steven with. Yay!

I also got my manicure. Thank you to everyone who voted on the color. I did stick with blue, since it matches my singlet, but went a bit lighter, with “Gelato On My Mind.”

We felt like going out Sunday night (who are we?!) so we met Jen, Troy, and the kids for bowling. I was surprised at how busy the lanes were for a Sunday night. It was hectic! I felt like I couldn’t focus and my bowling was all over the place, but I still had fun.

Picture in which it does not look busy at all, ha

And we were still home and in bed by 9:20 pm! Win win! Ha.

I’ve been reading at night to help me fall asleep, and right now, I am reading Hanna Who Fell from the Sky, a novel about a young woman who lives in a polygamous town that she’s never left, and is about to turn eighteen and be married (to a man who has several wives and many children). Before her wedding, she meets a stranger who makes her think more seriously about things she’s been subconsciously questioning about the way of life in her community. I am curious to see how it ends! And I have just over a week before it’s due back at the library to do so! Ha.

Comments (13)

By kilax, March 22, 2018 6:28 am

• I hate talking about material things (ick), but I have to mention, I got a new phone this week and it’s made a world of difference. Mine was three years old, slooooooooooooow AF, and not reliable as a phone anymore. So, yay for the upgrade, and no longer wondering if my phone is going to work (at all), or randomly die.

• This is the tenth year of the Wisconsin Marathon and Half Marathon, and will be my tenth year running the half! The race is commemorating ten year runners by giving them “a special, Wisconsin Marathon blanket” (in quotes because I pulled that from an email they sent last week, ha). Neat!
• I don’t know what my goal (if any) will be for the Wisconsin Half Marathon. It’s four weeks after my 5K, so I’ll see how I feel post 5K and decide.
• Did anyone read the Outside Magazine article Why Caffeine Might Not Make You Faster (pdf here)? Apparently what version (AA, AC, or CC) you have of the gene CYP1A2 affects how your body metabolizes caffeine. Generally, if you metabolize it faster (AA), you go faster. If you metabolize it slower (CC), you go slower. Interesting stuff! I get my caffeine from tea and chocolate, and wonder what a cup of coffee would do for me!
• Also from Outside Magazine, did anyone read the article about elite marathoner Jordan Hasay (pdf here)? I love getting a glimpse of how elites train, and I have to say, her typical day (circled in red below, with yellow highlights of the things that sound extra fantastic) sounds awesome to me!

• This post needs more cat pictures!

Ha, I brought my laptop in to the kitchen to work standing for a while and Khali wasn’t sure about me disturbing her slumber! Such RBF. So cute. Very sleep.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 171