Health + Fitness, Rants, Work + Design

By kilax, July 17, 2018 10:35 am

I’m having a great summer. But I’m human. I need to complain:

1. Why do manufacturers assume I want my paper towels and toilet paper to be BIGGER?! I do not! I have the feeling they do this to charge more for less, not give us more for less. And it’s definitely not for the environment (less waste and all that). (This annoys me because the bigger ones don’t fit in our holders well.)
2. Am I really helping someone with a project at work by doing a role I have no idea how to do if I have to ask them what to do about everything? Or is it only making me frustrated and less confident?
3. Why do the dentist fees on my explanation of benefits (EOB) not match the bill I was given at the dentist? Why are EOBs so damn hard to understand? Why did my dentist eff up my last appointment so much (I could write a whole post about that but I’m still too annoyed to. Hopefully I just forget all the details and don’t ever talk about it again.).
4. Why wouldn’t Kohl’s let me exchange something via mail and insist I go to the store, even when I told customer support I couldn’t find that item in the store on my own? Why do they think I ordered it online?!?! BECAUSE I COULD NOT FIND IT IN THE STORE AND HATE SHOPPING.
5. These deer fly bites. Ouch.

And some good things!

1. We’ve been putting pumpkin in Data’s food and it seems to be helping with his poo! Yay!
2. I got to do actual design work at work last week and this week.
3. I have five days in a row off work coming up.
4. At some point, there will be kittens in our home (probably August 1st or 2nd).
5. We figured out who Beanzie is.
6. I’m not running my fastest, but I feel acclimated to the summer heat and high humidity and dew point. It’s not completely wearing me out (yet).
7. I’m the smallest I’ve been as an adult (after college) in the summer. Which is actually heavier than earlier this year, but I struggle the most with my eating in the summer, so I’ll take it! The goal is to maintain my weight and focus on losing again in the fall.
8. I feel overwhelmed by everything on my personal (and work, sigh) calendar, but grateful for all the love and fun activities!

Thanks for listening/reading!

Life, Recipes + Food, Running + Training

By kilax, July 16, 2018 6:21 am

FRIDAY!

Friday started out awesome because I finally visited Bobbi’s pool for the first this season! Woo hoo! I didn’t run over, but hopefully I’ll be able to later this summer (I have a pool bag there with my suit in it and everything!).

After that refreshing dip (it was in the 90s!), Steven and I went to visit the kittens. We talked with a technician more and it turns out they want the females to weigh five pounds before spaying them. Safety first! They think that may be this week, but who knows! Mama cat got spayed that day… but she can’t go home until all the kittens do.

We ran a Kohl’s errand after, then made a late dinner and watched part of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. We had just watched the original the week before, so we were keeping the series going! The original is more subtle with the animal violence compared to the second one, and especially when compared to Jurassic World. We thought Jurassic World was so violent and disturbing, there’s no way we’re seeing the one that’s out now. (Keep in mind, we’re vegan and vegetarian for animal rights reasons, so we don’t stomach violence, even against dinosaurs, well.)

SATURDAY!

I woke up to rain Saturday morning but was determined to do my tempo run, so I went to the trail, which would slow me down, but shield me from some of the rain.

That morning, I prepped veggies for the week, and made this banana cake from an account instagram suggested to me. It turned out SO GOOD (I had to use a different cream cheese recipe due to not having Tofutti at home – I won’t use it again).

We finished The Lost World at lunch, then I took a 1.5 hour nap. WINNING! After my nap, I ran some errands (where I ran in to Bobbi & fam, ha), watched part of Spirit of the Marathon II, made dinner with Steven, and spent a lot of time prepping for a bike ride Sunday.

Gosh, rides are SO. MUCH. WORK. to prep for. Especially when you are traveling to ride/not riding from your house. Preparing for this ride was like preparing for RAGBRAI, since I was also driving quite a ways to ride, then riding a similar distance, and needing to make sure I packed everything (thing I almost forgot and remembered in the morning – Body Glide)!

SUNDAY!

But the prep (and early morning!) was worth it for the fun day we had! I picked xaarlin up at 6:00 am and we headed to DeKalb for the Biking with Beanzie event. It’s an organized (and supported!) ride offering several distances – 25, 46, 64, 80, and 101. Xaarlin is training for an Ironman, and I have a 70+ mile ride at RAGBRAI, so I suggested we ride together as a late birthday celebration for her!

We arrived after 7:00, signed up (and got a fun tie-dye shirt), set up our bikes, and got on our way. The long drive out there meant we were out of Chicagoland and most of our ride would be on country roads where it was safe for us to ride next to one another and chat (I wear a mirror so we can watch for cars and move over well before they got near… said mirror broke as I put it on in the morning but I rigged it on my glasses for the day).

I wonder if the sky inspired the color for the shirt?

So that’s what we did! Pedaled and chatted and stopped at the aid stations every ten to fifteen miles. And the ride flew by (we rode 67 miles)! I usually bonk or get annoyed with the noise from the wind in the last part of my rides, but that didn’t happen with xaarlin – I think because I was eating and drinking a lot more due to the event being supported, and our chatting distracted me from the wind noise. Yay!

I picked this event because it was on a date that worked for both of us, and had NO idea who Beanzie was or what the event was about! We kept seeing funny “Beanzie” directional signs on the course (which was very well marked) – Beanzie in different movie posters, or famous scenes, or as a famous person. And we kept wondering “WHO IS BEANZIE?!”

And guess what? I still don’t really know – it’s hard to find the origin story online. There was a printed recent article from a newspaper at the event that mentioned Beanzie is a guy’s nickname who liked to ride in DeKalb with friends and they had the idea to start this ride to benefit the Kiwanis Mission. So… there ya go?! Updated to add: xaarlin sent me some more info and I was able to find this! The group wanted a unique name for their ride so they used one of the founder’s nicknames.  

It’s definitely well done though! We both said we’d do it again. And I LOVED that we got to use the high school showers to clean off after the ride. I felt like a new person (and realized I did a REALLY bad job applying sunscreen, sigh)!

After we cleaned up, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant, then drove back to the city, then I drove home! It was a long day, but a lot of fun!

When I got home, Steven helped me unpack and put everything away, which took almost as much time as packing! Then we did some chores, ate dinner, watched part of Jurassic Park III (we’re on a roll) and called it a night.

I definitely feel ready for RAGBRAI after doing this long ride! Yay!

Running + Training

By kilax, July 15, 2018 6:59 pm

Highlight of the Week: Doing a long ride with xaarlin, and having fun and feeling great!

Monday | July 9, 2018: 4 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 73°/78°, Time: 39:44, Pace: 9:55 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, tired (sleepy)
Strength: Leberts and dumbbells, Felt: good, sweaty
Tuesday | July 10, 2018: 11 m run
Loc: DPRT, Temp: 83°/80°, Time: 1:48:41, Pace: 9:53 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: SO GOOD
Wednesday | July 11, 2018: rest
Thursday | July 12, 2018: 5 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 87°/87°, Time: 45:40, Pace: 9:08 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good, speedy
Friday | July 13, 2018: 1,008 yd swim + 8 m run + 15 m ride
Loc: FitNation, Time: 20:11, Pace: 2:00 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, a bit out of breath
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 76°/79°, Time: 1:23:14, Pace: 10:24, Difficulty: medium, Felt: hot, tired legs
Indoor Ride Time: 1:01:01, Pace: 14.8 mph, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, sore butt
Saturday | July 14, 2018: 14 m run (incl. 2×2 tempo)
Loc: DPRT, Temp: 71°/71°, Time: 2:18:32, Pace: 9:54 avg, Difficulty: easy/hard, Felt: decent
Sunday | July 15, 2018: 66.7 m ride (w/xaarlin)
Loc: DeKalb, Temp: 72°/82°, Time: 4:31:02, Pace: 14.8 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: pretty great, just sore toes at the end!

Notes:

• Oh my gosh, Tuesday’s run! It was in the low 80s, but the humidity and dew point were hella low, I ran mostly in the shade, and there was a slight breeze, so it felt amazing out! Yay!
• There are no classes where I teach for a week starting Thursday, so I had Friday off. Which meant I got to swim without sore arms (because I usually go right after class)! I felt really fast… at first. Ha ha.
• My RAGBRAI packet came this week. Yay! Less than two weeks until the day we ride (and one week until it all kicks off!).
• I’m glad I was able to do most of my tempo workout despite Saturday’s high humidity (100%), high dew point (71°), and rain. I am not sure how much my body liked it – I had “speed work” stomach for several hours after.
• I had such an excellent ride with xaarlin on Sunday! Gosh, it’s so much less boring to ride WITH someone (duh). More about the ride tomorrow!

Link to Training Week 455

Life

By kilax, July 14, 2018 10:51 am

We still suck at using Redbox. This movie probably wasn’t worth watching once, let alone having it for ten days. 

Well, it’s been long enough that this happened that I now laugh about it, so I am ready to share it as a PSA!

As you know, Redbox charges you by day, for how long you have their movies. So ideally, you pick it up one day, and return it the next. It’s a pita to go pick up a movie (and return it!), but we watch a lot of movies, and so many of them are BAD that I’d rather spend less money to watch a disk, then pay $5+ to watch on demand (or pay less but watch with commercials, yuck). Anyway.

So, on April 29th we rented The Commuter. We put it in the car to return on April 30th. We also turned in the car to the dealership for work on April 30th, and did not get it back until May 8th. On May 9th, when I got home, and was taking things out of the trunk, I decided to throw out the trash bag the dealership left in my car, then realized it had a few of my things in it… including The Commuter.

W
T
F

We never returned it on the 30th. It slipped through the seat of the car and we forgot, only for it to be found when they were working on my car, and held hostage in the car for nine days at the dealership (I kind of wished they would have called me and told me…).

So when I finally returned it on May 9th, we paid $20 total for renting it – $2 for each day, because you know, we had upgraded to the blu-ray. That $20 kind of stung, but hey, at least I looked in that garbage bag and didn’t just throw it away!

So! Don’t make the same mistake as me!

This turned us off Redbox for a while, and we finally started using it again. And almost forgot to return our disk this week within the one day time frame. What is wrong with us?! Ha ha ha.

Books, Life, Work + Design

By kilax, July 12, 2018 6:30 am

• So, it turns out the female kittens are NOT getting spayed this week, because they don’t weigh enough. I feel stupid for getting so excited about them coming home this week. That’ll teach me!
• Last week, Steven heard a mention of an office I designed for a public figure on NPR! I thought that was cool! NPR didn’t mention me, or where I work, but it’s awesome that the office is getting recognition at all.
• We were invited to a semi-formal event next weekend! I’m looking forward to dressing up and even made an appointment for my hair!

I should probably wear something I already own. So far I am looking at these two black dresses, which seem appropriate, but are too big, or these two colored dresses, which I am not sure about, but fit.

• I finished Let Your Mind Run last week, and Final Girls (per Stephany’s recommendation!) yesterday. I’ll definitely be reading Let Your Mind Run again, and highlighting and taking more away from it. I enjoyed Final Girls (except the gory parts), especially when it picked up pace at the end. It kept me engaged in the last third, with its twists and turns, and revealing more of the main character’s history.

• Now I have four non-fiction books from the library to pick my next read!
• I was so excited when I saw this sign Monday night! I love raspberries! How did I only buy six containers?!

• Khali was super in to A Quiet Place. I think it’s because she sat right by the speaker, and the movie was mostly quiet, until it wasn’t. Ha.

• It blows my mind that I still have panicked dreams about packing up and leaving Rome, despite not having lived there in twelve years!

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 186

Life

By kilax, July 11, 2018 12:53 pm

… I have all my weekends planned out through August.

… I’m tired every day because I’m so busy and staying up later/waking up earlier. I JUST WANT TO NAP.

… An 80 degree day with a breeze and low dew point feels heavenly.

… I’m only wearing skirts and dresses to work.

… I’m already looking forward to fall!

… I fantasize about cycling when I’m running (and running while I’m cycling).

… My tan lines are SO ridiculous.

… Reading a book in the hammock sounds lovely.

… I CRAVE the beach/pool.

… An ice cold lemonade sounds so good.

… As does a hot dog.

… Grilling still feels like a treat!

… I’m covered in mosquito bites. NOT! We had our yard professionally sprayed so I don’t have as many bites as usual. Woot!

… I’m feeling like it’s flying by too fast!

… Making a list form blog post is very appealing…

Just your typical summer (except the grilling – that’s new to this year)!

Life

By kilax, July 10, 2018 12:11 pm

Data came rushing down the stairs when he heard me messing around with a bag of cat food. Sorry bud, that’s for THE KITTENS!

And now that we have kitten food, we’re “ready” for them to come home! The male got neutered yesterday, and the female is getting spayed today. The vet called me today to ask what names I want on their microchip registration so yeah… this is really happening. Ahhh!

(With our work schedules, the earliest we could pick them up would be Thursday. They haven’t called to say we can yet, and we definitely want them to convalesce there!)

Life

By kilax, July 9, 2018 11:40 am

We had a productive and social weekend!

FRIDAY!

On Friday I did the exciting task of cleaning the house. Ahh, I really enjoy those five minutes after cleaning the floors that I can walk around with bare feet and not have any litter get stuck to them. I’m sure that will only be worse when we have two more cats!

SATURDAY!

I was excited to wake up early on Saturday and enjoy our mid 50s weather! I went on a long run, did a short ride, then taught Fitness Boxing.

Anne came home with me after, but first, we made a pit stop so she could meet the kittens!

We are adopting the one sleeping on the other one

Then we cleaned up at our house, and went to HuHot with the boys (Terry had dropped Anne off then driven to our house to hang with Steven).

And then we went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire! It was my first time going to a renaissance faire! And this one is so close to our house – I run by it regularly on one of my long run routes.

I didn’t know what to expect, except fun people watching. At first it seemed like it was all shops and food for sale, but as we got in farther, we saw more entertainment type stuff. We played games, and seemed to catch the middle or end of a lot of performances. I laughed so hard my face hurt at the “Vegetable Stand” – it was a guy with his head and arms sticking out of holes in a huge platform, and you could pay to throw tomatoes at him, but he insults you (and the audience) the whole time. It got pretty raunchy/inappropriate, which I loved.

We all tried their “high striker” and Steven rang the bell so he got to go back at later and compete with all the other people who had as well! It was impressive to see him and the competitors hit it so many times in a row.

It was fun to check the faire out. We were all glad it was affordable – a few bucks here and there for games and drinks. It would add up, but it’s nothing like amusement park prices. And we had lovely weather for it – in the 70s and not humid. I was glad it wasn’t like the weekend before – in the 90s and miserable! Blah, no thank you.

It was great to spend the day with Anne and Terry. They were only in town for a short while, and we appreciate them fitting us in to their family visits. We miss our monthly dates with them!

SUNDAY!

I slept in until 6:00 on Sunday! Then I did the reverse of Saturday’s workouts – a short run and a long ride.

After that, I “helped” Steven with the sump pump project. And really, that means I stayed in the basement with him and grabbed him things he needed, acted as a second set of arms, helped clean up some messes, went to Menards once, etc. He gets all the credit for the actual work! I’m just the assistant!

Ha, funny Menards story. I was trying to be quick, so I grabbed the first employee I could find when I got in and brought up a picture on my phone of what I needed and asked “where can I find this?” Then I looked at my phone and it was a picture of my toe. Oops. Wrong picture! Ha!!!

We finished up* in the basement around 5:30 and met Bobbi and John for dinner at The Shanty at 7:00. The restaurant has been expanding since late last year and part of it opened and we were all anxious to dine in the new space! It’s gorgeous!

I didn’t take any (good) pictures, but here is their picture of the amazing mojito I had!

Catching up with Bobbi and John was fun. They’d worked on a project for the past four days, which of course, we always love hearing about. And I tried not to talk too much about how our kittens (and their cat!) are coming home this week! BUT IT’S HARD NOT TO!!!!

And that was our weekend! I’m exhausted. I need to find a way to fit in working out, productive time, social time, AND DOWNTIME. I think doing that involves dropping one of those things though. Productive time? Ha.

*Finished enough to safely stop – not finished with the project!

Running + Training

By kilax, July 8, 2018 6:04 pm

Highlight of the Week: The return of intervals! And lovely July running weather to go along with them!

Monday | July 2, 2018: 7 m run + 15 m bike + teaching strength class
Loc: Rev. VP Woods Loop, Temp: 66°/65°, Time: 1:10:25, Pace: 10:03 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: pretty good!
Indoor Ride Time: 54:59, Pace: 16.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, sore butt!
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Felt: good, challenged
Tuesday | July 3, 2018: 2.5 m walk
Wednesday | July 4, 2018: 12 m run + 17 m bike
Loc: DPRT/Kilbourne Loop, Temp: 68°/74°, Time: 2:02:39, Pace: 10:13 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Loc: Kilbourne/Hunt Club Loop, Temp: 78°/82°, Time: 1:02:18, Pace: 16.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Thursday | July 5, 2018: 4 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 73°/73°, Time: 39:57, Pace: 9:59 avg, Difficulty: easy-ish, Felt: good, just sweaty!
Friday | July 6, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,008 yd swim + 5 m run
Strength: body bars and soft balls, Felt: good, challenged
Loc: FitNation, Time: 21:43, Pace: 2:09 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 72°/71°, Time: 49:13, Pace: 9:50, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, enjoyed the breeze
Saturday | July 7, 2018: 13 m run (incl. 6×4:00) + 10 m bike + teaching fitness boxing
Loc: Lake Andrea/Outlet Mall Loop, Temp: 56°/62°, Time: 2:08:32, Pace: 9:53 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: great!
Indoor Ride Time: 38:48, Pace: 15.5 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, sweaty
Sunday | July 8, 2018: 3 m run + 42.2 m bike
Loc: hood, Temp: 57°, Time: 29:18, Pace: 9:45 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Hunt Club/MB/88th Loop, Temp: 64°/77°, Time: 2:39:53, Pace: 15.8 mph avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good, but frustrated with the bumps

Notes:

• Last weekend, I stubbed my right foot against our weight station, and now my big toe is really tender to the touch. And a bit swollen. And red. If that doesn’t go down soon, I am going to see the doctor and ask them to remove the toenail or a drill a hole in to it or something. It’s not bugging me enough that I can’t work out, but the pressure on it during my swim was not pleasant! Edited: after I published this, I was able to drain it myself. YAY, sweet relief! And now, for the toenail to fall off…
• It’s been humid on my runs, and on the longer ones, I am coming back with wet socks and wrinkled toes, eww! Steven asked me a few times what smells in the garage – that would be the shoes from that run!
• Running has been feeling harder, probably because of the higher heat and humidity, and I’m out there feeling like I am going so much slower, but when I look at my watch when I am done, I really haven’t been – low 10:00s is great for me in the summer! I hope I can keep that up. And something I realized – it will be much easier to if I listen to music and not podcasts. I love podcasts but they make me run a bit slower.
• I haven’t run intervals since April! I’ve been doing tempos instead. I finally got back to some intervals this week and we had wonderful weather for them in July (56°)! Woot!
• My strength classes made me sore this week, yay! We used soft balls (filled with sand) this week and they really work your hands and lower arms. Then my students beat the crap out of me at boxing! I could really feel it Sunday morning when I woke up!
• Anne was in town this weekend and came to my boxing class! I miss having her as a student.
• Ha, I rode my bike more this week than I did last month. And the month of April. And almost the month of May. I’ve been putting more time in on the Saddle to get my butt ready for our 70 mile ride on Day 7 of RAGRABI!

Link to Training Week 454

Life

By kilax, July 6, 2018 6:57 am

These two trouble makers!

We visited them yesterday* and the vet said they’re probably going to get fixed on Monday. If everything goes well, we can bring them home late next week. Eek!

I’m excited but worried. And I am NOT a worrier, so this feels very strange. I know it’s pointless to worry, but I am concerned about the kittens’ safety in our home – with our house layout/possessions, and with Data and Khali (I don’t think we should have any issues, but you never know!).

Luckily, we work from home, so we can watch and see what they get in to (everything) and what we need to put away (everything?). And if they need to be put in a separate room for a while, we can do that.

Eeeeek!!!! Soooooooooooooooooooooon! I need to research kitten food!

*Every time we see them, they are more and more active/playful! It’s so fun!