Ch-ch-ch-changes… January 5, 2010

Hi there!

I haven’t forgotten about this place, and have been itching to write a post.  However, my crazy busy (really, I have to wonder with what…) life is getting in the way of making an actual post.  The first ‘real’ post of the new year has to be one that reflects on the year past and looks forward to the year ahead.  This is not that post, so just pretend that it doesn’t exist.  :)

I’m going to change the direction of my blog a little (changes are a comin…) and I’m actually going to change my layout.  I’ve found that it’s a little difficult to read, although I really do enjoy it, the search is on.

Ok – that’s all for now.  I should be back tomorrow, I think that all I need to do tomorrow night is a MERE 7 mile run.  As well as dinner, cleanup, etc, etc.  Anyway, see you tomorrow…

You cannot be serious… December 29, 2009

You know, just when you think that you have life somewhat figured out and make a plan, the universe laughs and shows you who is really in charge.  Remember that nice 6miler that Todd and I were going to do Christmas Day?  Well, it never happened (more on why it didn’t happen, later).  And now, 4 days later, I still haven’t run.  Could I have run on the 26th? Yes, but but was snowing quite hard.  Coud I have ran on the 27th?  Yes, but I just didn’t feel like it.  Could I have run on the 28th? Yes, but felt terrible nad didn’t want to exert myself too much.  And what about today?  Well, today was my first day back to work since Christmas Eve and I am exhausted.  So of course, no running today.  So if you’re keeping track (and you know I am), my last run was EIGHT days ago!!!  What!?!?  How did this happen?  And now my 10k is in 3 days and by then I’ll have gone a week and a half without running.  If nothing, I guess my legs will be fresh!  But seriously, the fact hasn’t escaped me that I 1)signed up for the half, and 2)had a bad run, and I haven’t been running since.  Self sabotage?  Or just a busy schedule?

Now, why didn’t I run on Christmas Day (because I was looking forward to it A LOT – more on why later)?  Because it was one of the worst mornings I think I’ve ever had and it contained no less than the following things:

The furnace stopped working

My oven locked itself and wouldn’t open.  Todd had to reef on the door and use a pair of vise grips to ‘fix’ it.  And                 this was after it started malfunctioning and threated not to work at all.  Did I mention that we hosted Christmas?

I accidentally stabbed my self in the hand

I accidentally stabbed Todd in the hand.  Well more like a prick…

The turkey was still frozen when we went to stuff it

I had a dozen or so onions fall on my head – one, by, one.  At this one, I declared: “Where’s the camera?  Seriously,            are you kidding me???”

Sadly this isn’t everything that happened, but I need to stop the pity party and the evening ended up pretty ok.  It would have been better if we could have taken that run though.  Now why did I want to run so much?  Well, because Todd and I got matching Christmas presents:

Introducing my new Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS!!!  It does sooooo much!!!  Here’s the Garmin website description, because I don’t think that I can remember everything!  To see all of the functions, check out the Specs tab.  https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=349 So now you see why I was itching to go for a run.  But it’s still in the box and I still haven’t run.  Hard to believe.

I just decided that the Garmin needs a name.  Suggestions?

Run all the way to Florida December 21, 2009

Well, Windsor finally got snow.  I love it.  I hate it.  If it’s going to be cold, we might as well have snow!  On the other hand, I’ve now had a taste of what running in the snow is really like.  Ya, it’s certainly not wonderful.  Let me put it this way:  It took me almost 6 minutes longer than normal to run 3 miles. THREE MILES!  Last week I ran 6 miles 4 minutes slower (in the rain – which I love, not snow) than I had the time before and was devastated; so 6 minutes slower for a mere 3 miles?  Wow, this snow thing is gonna take a little bit to get used to.  On the upside, the amount of effort that it took to run those 3 miles must have burned twice as much calories as normal!

Speaking of running….  I did it.  I registered for a half marathon!  OMG!  Part of me can’t believe that I’ve registered, and by March 7th (the date of the race) I should be sufficiently ready for the race, and part of me is absolutely terrified!  I guess this is good incentive to stick to my training schedule.  And speaking of training schedule, this time of year is sooooo busy.  I’m glad I’ve been able to schedule as much running as I have.  Sadly though, my next run won’t be until Christmas day.  Todd and I are going to do a nice 6 mile mid-morning run that day.  Merry Christmas!  There might be running related Christmas presents to be had….  I’m just sayin, maybe there’ll be something

In completely unrelated news, it sounds like Todd’s Grandma’s house may have finally sold.  It’s been on the market for 2 years.  It’s conditional on inspection though (I think, I’m just listening to his end of the conversation – he’s on the phone with his Mom right now) and I PRAY they find nothing majorly wrong with it.  It’ll be such a relief for everyone once the house is sold.

OK, a Diners, Drive Ins and Dives special is on right now…

Check ya later!

btw – told you I’d be back with another post soon!

Turn the beat around… December 18, 2009

Have you ever noticed that when I exclaim that I need to blog more often, that I disappear for months on end.  Weird.  I plan to blog more often.

*POOF*

Just kidding.

But I do want to make it more of a priority than I have been.  Since I wrote that last post, a lot has happened.  Where to start.  How about close to home…

My parents live a mere 1/2 hour drive from me now!  Imagine that.  They haven’t been part of my daily life in 12 years – this is a nice change.  Getting together for a few hours on a Monday night has been impossible until now.  Don’t take your family being close by for granted!

So November came and went, and so did NaNoWriMo.  I had no desire to participate this year, until November 3rd.  2 days late and an itch that needed to be scratched.  I wrote my heart out that night (long hand…not easy to get to use that puter…) and felt great – drained – but great.  I really do love to write.  It may not be eloquent or dynamic prose (which is evident right here…) but it always feels great to do it.  So did I finish NaNo? No.  In fact, I didn’t write after that night.  I wanted to, but I decided to leave it for now.  As great as I found the process, it was too much for right then.  I was only in my second week of a 16 week running training program.  The amount of focus and concentration it took me to write that one day really made an effect on the mental part of my running that day and the next.  Better to concentrate one HUGE project at a time.

Speaking of running, I’ve become an addict!  Of course there are days when I *really* don’t feel like going out, but the difference now is that 98% of the time I go anyway!  As I mentioned, I started a training program.  By the end of the 16-week (now 17-week – I hurt my back at the end of Oct and was in a lot of pain until the beginning of December.  It was difficult to move, let alone run, and one week there was no way I could keep to the schedule, so I added an extra week) program, I should be able to run a half marathon. Eek!  In fact, I’ve already selected one to do – the Chilly Half in Burlington on March 7 – Double Eek!  I’m up to six miles (continuous running) and I do 7 miles this Saturday (the half Marathon is 13.1miles), so I’m well on my way and I’m only on Week 7 (or 8 if you add in the extra week….) of the program.  It’s really good because it lays out exactly what you should run, when.  I have the schedule posted on my fridge and there’s no ignoring it.  Actually, I have each training session scheduled right into my calendar – much easier to plan for a run when it’s already planned and appointed into a time slot.

Since my last post, I’ve run two 5K races – and each were a Personal Record.  I also have a 10K (OMG) race planned for January 1st.  The January 1st race has become a little bit of a debacle, but I’ll talk about that whole situation in another post.  Speaking of January, it’s in a mere two weeks.  Wow.  Where did this year go?  It’s been a year of growth and a year of spinning my wheels.  Oxymoron much?  This is also a topic for the not-so-distant-future.

So if I keep planning all of my future posts, does that mean that I 1)am going to be around more?  2) going to actually talk about anything today?  The answers are yes and yes.  Thrilling, I know.

Today I want to talk about changes that will be happening here at flybynyght (I have that name for a reason you know…).  Before you move to the edge of your seat; you probably won’t even notice them.  I plan to talk more about my life, rather than what I’ve done (heh?  Makes sense to me…).  I also plan to incorporate more pictures!  I love reading blogs with pics, but rarely incorporate them myself.  Bad Becky!  I also think I’ll make a few more teensy changes and update a few sections that I’ve had for quite a while – I have been blogging for nearly 8 years now you know…

Laters!

Peek-A-Boo! October 2, 2009

I’ve been trying to write a new entry all week and it just hasn’t materialized.  On the *rare* occassion that I’ve had possession of the laptop for more than 5 minutes (Todd’s on days…) I’ve had other things to do.  It’s actually been quite a busy week thus far.  We’ve done A LOT.  We’ve re-arranged/ re-organized/ re-imagined the livingroom/ den / dining room which has  been a lot of work and isn’t completed.  I’m hoping to finish tomorrow – all of the extra stuff and things that need new homes are just hanging out in the spare room right now. 

We also went and visited a friend in the hospital one night.  I’m really not a fan of being at the hospital (ohhhh that smelllll) but I was glad to be able to visit.  She had a gorgeous room though – she was in the cancer ward (she doesn’t have cancer, that’s just where there was an empty bed) and it had just been redone.  There was nice flooring that looked like wood, an LCD tv on the wall and decorative glass over all of the lights.  Hard to remember you were in a hospital.  OK, not that hard.

And rounding out our busy week were two weekday runs.  Since we’ve gotten back from Vegas, it’s been hard to get back on track with fitness.  I feel that I’m back in the groove now though.  Wednesday we were actually able to run outside, down by the river because it was so beautiful out.  14 degrees, but beautiful.  Todd has his half marathon in *gasp* 2 weeks!!!!

Today is Friday (thank goodness…) and my parents are coming over for dinner – ah, the joys of having them closer, can’t wait until it’s official.  So it’ll be a low key Friday night – especailly since Todd has to work Saturday now (figure that one out…can’t get 40 hrs, now working Saturday?  Let’s hope that this means the return of the 40 hour workweek).  That’ll be good though, because Saturday evening (we were planning on Saturday afternoon before we knew Todd had to work) we’re going to Lawrence’s in Ingersol for his birthday party.  It’s a 70’s theme and we’re actually borrowing some clothes from someone who’s on the way to Lawrence’s (sidenote – the person who we’re borrowing the clothes from also has to work on Saturday and unless she’s going to her cottage right after work, we won’t be able to borrow the outfits now…boo.) and I hope that everyone participates.  I’m sure we’ll be up mega late that night and feeling *wonderful* the next day.  I hope to take lots of pictures….

Until then.

Buffalo Lockjaw September 25, 2009

I’m part of a small online bookclub and we just finished a book called ‘Buffalo Lockjaw’ which is written by Greg Ames.  I had never heard of this book before it was selected and I really like the fact that I’m being exposed to new-to-me authors and *hopefully* fantastic literary fiction.  Our October book has yet to be announced (which is just fine as I’m currently reading two others – see the sidebar).  I haven’t suggested a book myself this time, but I eagerly await the decision.  Below is what I added to our bookclub forum as my short review/critique of  the book.  I think that everything I say is obtuse enough that you won’t know anything you shouldn’t if you want to read the book yourself.  This includes the last line – it’s probably not what you think.

Buffalo Lockjaw – Greg Ames

Finished the book! I enjoyed it. Can I say that I *really* enjoyed it and that I’m going to read his entire body of work? Hmmm… not sure, but I can say that it kept me turning the pages, wondering what was happening and where this premise would lead to next. In fact, the first 4 or 5 pages confused the hell out of me! I couldn’t figure out who the narrator was, or what page 1 had to do with page 3. That’s right, the interviews threw me for a loop and after re-reading *ahem* 3 times, I realized the premise. One thing that I really enjoyed was the fact that I wasn’t completely sure until the very end, whether *James* was going to complete the act or not. However, I did feel that there was some foreshadowing to the outcome, in Rodney’s responses/reactions to James’ queries about euthanasia and Ellen. Given this, I wasn’t completely surprised at the ending, but I liked it. I found it sad, of course, but satisfying. Often at the end of a book I find myself looking for 3 or four more chapters. With this book, I felt as though we just saw a small snippet of their lives, and once the book was over, their lives went on…well most of them.

Can’t wait for the next book!

This post brought to you by the letters O, M and G. September 21, 2009

Had a great birthday weekend.

Went out for dinner at this great little Italian restaurant downtown.  I had linguini alfredo with chicken and artichoke hearts and a great glass of shiraz, while Todd had Linguini with chicken in creamy pesto. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

After dinner we walked to a little bar that we like to go to for a couple of drinks.  While we were sitting at the front window, a man came in and you could guess that he was homeless, but he was clean, polite and smiling.  He brought a travel mug in with him and the bartender asked “more water?”  And then I was sure that he was homeless.  He got his water and left the bar.  Through the side window I coud see him sit down at a picnic table and drink some of his water and pull some food out of the bag he was carrying.  I was glad to see that he had food.  I was trying not to stare, and to let him eat his meal without my curious eyes interrupting him.  Then I noticed what he was eating.  He was eating a loaf of bread.  A loaf of bread and water.  And not slices of bread, a loaf  where he had to tear chucks off.  And then I noticed that he had no fingers on one hand.  This broke my heart.  Here, I had just gone out for a big dinner and drinks and really didn’t appreciate the fact that I had the means to do that, not to mention no impairments that would prevent me from working to get said means. Most of the time, when Todd and I encounter a homeless person, we give them the change that we have in our pocket.  A dollar or two mean A LOT more to him/her than it does to me.  We had a five dollar bill sitting on the table.  I decided that $5 could really mean a lot to him.  I asked Todd if he minded if I gave it to him.  He had some trepidations, as he wasn’t asking for money.  I said that, that was part of the reason why I wanted him to have it.  He watched as I walked outside and approached the man.  I said, “Hi!  I was just wondering if this would help you out?”  He looked at the money and then looked at the money, saying in a thick German accent “Were you in the bar?” I nodded and he reached out for the money and hugged me and kised my cheek.  I was a little taken aback – but not nearly as much as I was after the next thing he said: “Can I buy YOU a beer?”  Seriously, you want to thank me by spending your money on me?  Wow.  There is hope for humanity.  I replied, “No! But I hope you’ll have one if that’s what you want!”  I waved and headed back into the bar.  He packed his stuff up and followed me into the bar.  Now some people might think that giving a homeless man money outside of a bar isn’t a good thing and spending found money on alcohol isn’t beneficial.  However, I don’t agree.  I gave him that money to give him a hand up and to hopefully give him a feeling of normalcy for a short time.  While he was at the bar he had 2 beers and bought 2 cigarettes off of another patron.  I have never seen someone smoke a cigarette in such a thorough, urgent and non-wasteful way.  I let that man fee like a normal man sitting in a bar on a Saturday night – if only for a half hour or so.  I don’t have a lot, but many people have less than I do, and I must give if I can, when I can.

*breathe*

On Sunday, Todd and I went shopping in the States for our usual Stateside staples.  We were also on the hunt for new running shoes.  We each found a pair – Todd opted for Saucony (he’s been loyal to Adidas for a long time!) and I expected to buy a pair or Asics, but found the most comfortable and light shoes, which were a pair of Adidas Supernova Glides.  Oh, and did I mention they were cute?  Here they are, check them out! I’ll wait.

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3204064&cp=2367438.2367454.2866814.2866816.2879033#1

Cute eh?  They fit fantastically too.

Once we got home, Todd’s parents dropped by for a bit.  After they left, we watched the race and sat around enjoying the beautiful day.  We had a great evening with the tube and just enjoyed our Sunday.

Great birthday weekend!

There was one point where the weekend coud have been blown.  On Saturday evening we were leaving Amherstburg on the way back to Windsor after a day of laying flooring at my parents’ new condo.  On our way out of a 50 into a 70, a car flew by us and Todd said “Wow he must have been doing 100!”  The car then went through a traffic light and we stopped as it turned yellow.  When the light turned green, blue and red lights flashed on behind us. Ummm…. WTF?  The cop came to the window and took Todd’s licence and asked, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”  A clueless Todd said, “no idea!” The officer was all too happy to oblige, “I got you doing 101 coming out of a 50!” Immediately Todd exclaimed, “Wasn’t me!”  To which I chimed in, “A blue Calibre flew past us back there.”  OMG, is this actually happening?  What happens now? The cop responded, ”Lucky for him, shitty night for me then isn’t it?” OMG, I always wondered what would happen in that stuation.  And the scary part – that was 51 over.  Stunt Driving.  Licence yanked, vehicle impounded, huge-ass fine.  Once again,  OMG.  I thinked the Lord right there on the spot.

*breath out*

The tribe has spoken. September 17, 2009

I decided that I’m not going to watch this edition of Survivor.  I have watched nearly every episode of every edition of Survivor.  So why am I not going to watch it?  Well, the finale episode of the last edition (last May-ish), was on at a time when I was unable to watch it and due to my non-PVR house, I set my VCR (you remember VCR’s, they use these things called cassettes…) to tape it.  Of course I set it incorrectly and it didn’t tape.  So I didn’t see the last episode.  And I didn’t learn who won.  And I still haven’t seen the last episode.  And I still haven’t found out who won!  WTF?  How could that be possible, you say?  I have no flippin idea.  I absolutely did not try to keep from hearing in hopes that I would see the episode – and in fact, celebrity gossip and hollywood info is a part of my everyday life (shame on me, I know)!  So without actively seeking out the name of the winner, I never found out who won that million dollars.  The fact that I wasn’t eager enough to find the answer (duh, all I’d have to do is google it…), meant to me that I had had enough of Survivor.  And that’s why I decided that I’m not watching Survivor anymore.

So what am I doing right now?  Why, I’m watching Survivor of course!

I can’t quit you Jeff Probst…

Technical terms, not for the feint of heart… September 16, 2009

There.  Done.  Did a little bit of spring cleaning (errr…. fall cleaning?) to the ole bloggy.  What do you think?  Not a complete overhaul (I still like the layout), but I rearraaged a bunch of things and did a wack of updating.  Wack, that’s a technical term. 

Not much new in my world today – except that my back is feeling better!!!  Yay!!!  I’d say that I’m at about 85% (normal is only 90%ish) but with a little sciatica on my left. ick. 

Funny thing happened to me today.  All of a sudden I remembered having a conversation with Todd and it had to do with going to his parents’ house on Sunday.  However, I absolutely couldn’t remember where or when this conversation took place and I could just barely remember that it actually occured.  It took me quite a bit of mind digging, but I finally remembered us talking!  Now, how  could I have forgotten?  Well, it was near midnight and Todd woke me up to say goodnight when he got home from work.  And then we chatted.  Apparently.  Probably not the best time to schedule events.  Which, btw, we’re not going on Sunday.  This makes me happy – not exactly the way I want to spend my Sunday.  No, I’m not evil – did I mention that Sunday is my birthday?!??!  Yay me!

Ok, ANTM is on…

Laters!

D-I-V-O-R-C-E …Farmtown and I that is. September 15, 2009

Well, my love affair with Farmtown is over.  Oh, I still love it – but I’ve made the decision to leave the farm and rejoin reality.  Of course my farm won’t go anywhere, and I could move back in at anytime, but I think that I need to spend less time doing mindless clicking… especially when I could be doing only slightly-less-mindless typing 

Random thoughts:

- Currently reading an interesting and thought provoking book  ’Buffalo Lockjaw’ by Greg Ames

- Huge fan of cauliflower right now

- I have to stay up 2 hours past my bedtime tonight – Damn you 2 hr Biggest Loser and 2 hr Big Brother!!!

- I’m ready to kick it up a notch….bam!

- I think Kanye needs to check himself.

- I am more than a number

- I love watching my doggie sleep….which she does 22 hrs a day… at least!

- I am a huge fan of high fashion and the asthetics of such, but to look at me, you’d never know it!!!

- I haven’t had coffee since Friday.  Huh.  Not on purpose.

The end.