Trapped in a Snow Globe Recap

Friday night we went to my company's holiday party and stayed just long enough for drinks and dinner before making a dash for the door.
Spent Saturday watching movies including Up, Inglorious Bastards, and Marley and Me. Loved Up, except for that it made me cry in the first 5 minutes, Inglorious Bastards was a dud because Steve accidentally got the original from RedBox instead of the new version with Brad Pitt, and Marley and Me was kinda slow but it was either that or channel surfing.

Also finished up a hat I was knitting for my bro. I was a little disappointed in how it turned out because the swirls on top aren't as pronounced as I expected them to be (click here to see what I mean). I probably screwed up somewhere but didn't want to undo it since Christmas is just a few days away.


Oh well. I do like the color.

After a pancake and eggs breakfast on Sunday, we shoveled and shoveled. Then we shoveled a path to the mailbox. Then we decided to shovel our neighbor's car out since he just had neck surgery. (That's my good deed for the year; no more.)

Ornament Hat

I've been wanting to knit this Christmas ornament hat for years and finally got my act together early enough this year to knit a few. I made one for my Dad and one for my friend Bubba since they're probably the only two people I know who are goofy enough to wear this out in public.

Dad has worn his a few times since I gave it to him on Turkey Day, and it seems that Bubba likes his too.

My pony...

tail hat and favorite pattern right now. The front looks like a normal cap.

The back has a gap for your ponytail. Such an easy pattern and the bulky yarn makes it so quick to knit. I think it took me about 6 hours to knit up each of these three hats..

Christmas Tunes

Some of my favorite Christmas tunes, in no particular order. Click on the name for a listen. Enjoy!

* Last Christmas (Wham): That's right and I'm not ashamed. I'm talking about George Michael and that other guy whose name no one can remember without the help of Google.

* Baby It's Cold Outside (Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan): Okay, it’s not really a Christmas song, but I only seem to think of this song during the holidays and wonder why I don't listen to it more often.

* Christmas Wrapping (The Waitresses): Perfectly cheesy from the '80s.

* All I Want for Christmas is You (Mariah Carey): She reminds me of an oversized chipmunk, but this song puts me in a good mood.

I know I said these weren't in any particular order, but my absolute favorite is U2's Baby Please Come Home. I could listen to this song all day long.

No PR, but I did get a cheesesteak...

The weather for yesterday's race was perfect: low 40s at the start, going up to the 50s, and sunny skies. Despite this and 6 months of training, I still wasn't able to beat my 3:59:50 marathon PR. No 9:00/mile average. No negative split.

Things were going pretty well for me until about mile 16. I was going through a water stop and just about to toss my Dixie cup in the trash when my right foot stepped on a cup on the ground, twisted, and landed the wrong way. One of the volunteers saw me and said exactly what was going through my head: "Oh sh*t!" I've never had to stop to walk during a marathon but my ankle was screaming and I didn't have a choice but to stop. The medical tent just happened to be next to the aid station but I knew that if I went in, it would be the end of my race. Decisions, decisions. I hobbled along for about 30' to see how much weight the ankle could tolerate. My hobble turned into a Quasimodo-like jog and I decided to give it a try for a little further to see if the pain subsided or got worst. Fortunately, the pain went away so I decided to press on even though my confidence was pretty shaken. The last 10 miles were slower since I was being more cautious for fear that I'd twist it again. I managed to finish in 4:06 and some odd seconds. Not a PR but such is life.

On the upside, we had yummy Philly cheesesteaks at Sonny's Cafe, checked out Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and wrapped up the evening with beers with some friends from the running group. In case you're wondering, the ankle I twisted feels pretty good today but the opposite ankle is super-tight. Maybe I ended up putting more weight on the non-twisted ankle to compensate? Who knows. Pass the turkey.

My Latest Addiction

Brussel sprouts. You heard me right and I'm not ashamed. I can't stop eating these little suckers that are hated by most people I know. Now I admit that my first encounter with them in October was not so pleasant. I made the mistake of steaming them and they stunk up my house and tasted like bitter, mini cabbages.

After filing a complaint with Al who raved about them, she suggested I toss them with olive oil and garlic salt and brown them in a pan. Voila! the love affair began. If I'm feeling lazy I toss them in the broiler for about 15-20 minutes like I did tonight. Mmmm mmm.

How bad is this addiction? Well, if I had to choose between brussel sprouts and chocolate right now, I'm afraid the sprouts would win.

Cheesesteaks, Soft Pretzels, and a Race

It’s tapering time. After an extraordinarily long training cycle (24 weeks) that started in June, the Philly Marathon is this Sunday. If all goes well, my goal is to beat my last PR of 3:59:50 AND not feel like a heart attack victim those last few miles. My stretch-goal would be to average a 9:00/mile pace which would bring me in around 3:55. My super-stretch-goal would be to have a negative split. A negative split is where you run the second half of the race faster than the first half; I’ve yet to pull this off during a marathon because I usually poop out and slow down between miles 20-26. A few of our other friends are also running Philly so it should be fun. No matter how the race goes, we’ll be celebrating with cheesesteaks and beer afterwards. This is why I run.

Fingerless Gloves: Part II

After several failed attempts to follow the directions exactly, I decided to throw caution to the wind. Since I didn't have the number of stitches to pick up as specified by the pattern, I just picked up whatever number of stitches I had across the glove. I then had to cast on the same number of stitches to make the finger hoodie.

"Why didn't I do this earlier?" you ask. Because I'm a law-abiding citizen that feels wreckless when she doesn't follow directions exactly as written. In addition, it might be because I get annoyed when someone asks my how to do something in an application that I've written an user manual for. RTFM.

This was a pretty easy pattern to make and while I do love this style of glove/mitten, I'm not sure I'll make it again. Why? (1) I find having to stop knitting to put stitches on hold rather annoying. (2) I find weaving in the yarn ends cumbersome when there's one end. With this I have to weave in the ends for all the finger holes, plus the hoodie, plus anywhere I had to re-join the yarn. (3) There are way too many patterns I want to try to make this one again.

Another Slouchy Hat

This one's done using seed stitch.

Fingerless Gloves: Part I

I think fingerless gloves with a mitten flip-top are the best. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a pic:



They keep your hands warm, but let you easily expose your fingers when you need them. Perfect for when you're feeling around your coat pocket for change, trying to get an eyelash out of your eye, or any other task that requires skin-to-object touching. I decided to try knitting the glittens (gloves + mittens) above and have managed to finish the fingerless gloves portion of the pattern.


Now all I need to do is knit the flip-top mitten. Unfortunately it requires picking up stitches: a task I absolutely hate and suck at. I think I whined about having to pick up stitches when I knitted the cable cap a few weeks ago. Completing this project is going to require some serious motivation and patience on my part so it may sit in the "hibernating" projects pile for a little longer.

Halloween Past and Present

After yesterday's 22-miler I told my running pal Mandy that I was going to take today off from running and go to the gym instead. Well, it's cold and raining AGAIN so I've decided to skip the gym and enjoy some Sunday morning laziness.

I have managed to accomplish one thing while slummin' in my jammies. A few days ago, my friend Bubba asked me about a picture that was taken of us years ago at Halloween so I spent some time digging it up from our backup files. Here it's is: I'm Bo Peep and he's the big, scary creature.

This year, Steve and I decided to take the low effort approach for our costumes. Can you guess what we are?

Points to anyone who guessed Fish & Chips and The Jello Shooter.

Meat Hand

Creative, edible, gross, and just in time for Halloween: http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/10/27/meat-hand/

Shortest giraffe

Shortest giraffe
Originally uploaded by cherrydg

Halloween costume day at work

Farewell summer...

Hello fall. I'm not a big fan of autumn and winter, but it was a pretty run along the C&O Canal with Steve and Mandy this morning.

Stormy Stars Hat

I can't remember the last time I crocheted (or "crotch-eted" as Steve would say) anything so I decided to pick up my hooks and make this hat. I made it for my sister's upcoming birthday, but I like it so much that I think I'll make myself one too.

Pattern details: I followed the pattern for the "slouchy" version of the hat. The star stitch is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I did three rounds of the border since two didn't seem like enough. I used a size K hook for the main part of the hat and a G for the border. The yarn (Caron's Simply Soft), while being cheap and acrylic, actually looks pretty good and has a nice drape.

My "ride" after 20 miles

After running 20 miles in the cold rain my feet are raw, clammy, tender, and in serious need of some TLC.

At least all 10 toenails are still attached.

Turning Japanese

Both Steve and I got into the Tokyo Marathon! I didn't think we'd both get in since there were 272,000+ applicants, and they were only taking 32,000 runners. Even better, our friends Kim and Steve who are stationed in Japan got in to. Woohoo!!

Race date: February 28, 2010.

Meet Ula

This is Ula the ulo (head in Tagalog). Her original name was Beyonce, but I think Ula is more appropriate. She will be serving as my hat model so that my goofy mug doesn't have to be in the pics. She doesn't blink at the wrong time. She doesn't care what her hair looks like. She doesn't have the oily skin that camera flashes draw attention to. She'll keep me from critiquing every mole, pore, and wrinkle on my face.

Yes, I know she's a little creepy. Steve reminded me of this this morning when he came down for breakfast and she scared the sh*t out of him because I left her on the dining room table.

Good run Hon

Steve and I ran the Baltimore half-marathon yesterday. We headed up Friday afternoon to pick up our packets then went to Hotel DeGuzman to spend the night. My parents have been through our pre-race ritual enough times to know that we usually eat pasta the night before a race and were nice enough to cook us a pasta dinner. Thanks Mom & Dad!

Race morning we slept in until 6:30 since our race didn't start until 9:45. After breakfast we took the light rail into the city. One of the nice things about the Baltimore Running Festival is that they open up the Ravens' Stadium so that people can use the restrooms - much nicer than the port-o-stinkies.

We made our way to the Inner Harbor where the race starts and were on our way at 9:45. Steve and I ran the first mile or so together before I told him to scurry along so that I didn't hold him back. The first three miles are always the hardest for me since it takes me a while to get into a rhythm. I was finally warmed up by mile 3 and not breathing like I needed a respirator. Well, I think it was mile 3 anyway; I missed mile markers 2-5 so it was somewhere around there. Having missed so many mile markers it was hard to tell how fast I was running. After finally seeing a marker, I did some bad math in my head and concluded I was running an 8-something/mile pace. I freaked out a little bit since I wasn't sure I could keep this up for another 6-7 miles. I kept on running and at each mile marker I'd look at my watch and find I was maintaining between an 8:10 and 8:20 pace. Cool.

After seeing the guy in a tiger suit dancing on top of a car to Eye of the Tiger, I decided to grab a handful of Gummi Bears from the Gummi Bear Guy. This was a risky move since my stomach isn't used to gummi bears during a run so I'm not sure why I did it. I have to admit that those were the best damn gummies I've ever had even though it was a little tough to run and chew at the same time.

The last mile of the race runs between Camden Yards and the football stadium. People are lined up along both sides of the course cheering so it makes for a great finish. I ended up finishing in 1:50:55 - my new personal record for the half-marathon. Funny enough, my last half-marathon PR was at the 2006 Baltimore Half. It was great to FINALLY beat my last PR of 1:56:58. I was even more excited to find out I finished 38 out of 652 in my division (females 35-39) which puts me in the top 5-6% for my age group. Yay me!

Steve finished a few minutes before me in 1:46:26. We celebrated with steamed crabs and beer at my parents.

English-Tagalog Dictionary's TOC

On page XXVIII you can find gymnastic commands. The dictionary has a copyright date of 1966. I'm sure they've added an entire section for karaoke terms by now.

Holiday Scarflette

This is the same keyhole bowtie scarf pattern as the aqua one I made a few weeks ago. I saw the el cheapo Lion Brand yarn in the traditional Christmas colors and decided on a whim to give it a go. The yarn is bulkier than the last one I used so I only casted on 16 stitches (instead of 30). It knit up quickly since the bulkier yarn required fewer rows.

Arm Warmers

Cyclist have been wearing arm warmers for years, and it's just recently that runners have started using them as well. "Why not just wear a long-sleeved shirt?" you ask. Besides the fact that I love trying out new gear, there are some practical reasons.

During a race you don’t have to worry about transferring your bib number from your LS shirt to the T or tank you have on underneath. Also, despite having mastered walking and chewing gum at the same time, taking a LS shirt off without losing my fuel belt (that holster looking thingy that holds my hydration and gels) and keeping my hat and sunglasses on can present a challenge – especially if it’s during a race with 30,000 other people. The sleeves are kind of like windows. If I get too warm I roll them down to my wrist for more ventilation. If I start getting cold I just pull them back up. No flailing arms. No dropped hats and sunglasses. No having to apologize to all the people I elbow.

I couldn’t decide between the giraffe and tattoo print so I got both pairs.

Cabled Cap Complete

I finished the Coronet cabled cap the other night. The cables were pretty easy to knit once I got the hang of it and the main cap is all knit stitches. Besides knitting cables for the first time, I also had to learn how to do the kitchener stitch to attach the two ends of the cable band together; also not too difficult once you get the hang of it.

For me, the biggest challenge is having to pick up stitches prior to knitting the main cap. The picked up stitches should be fairly evenly distributed around the cap but I was either not picking stitches up often enough or picking too many up. It took me about 3 tries to finally get the right number of stitches on the needles. Even though the cap is fairly easy to knit, having to pick up stitches might be enough to dissuade me from using this pattern again (unless I find some trick to make the task easier).

First Cables

I'm attempting to make this cap from knitty.com which involves knitting some cables.
So far, so good.

Diagonal Keyhole Scarf

Yarn stash busting continues. Easy keyhole scarf pattern from Knit Simple. Next time I make it I think I'll make it a tad shorter.

Twisted Curiosity

I did it. I signed up for my first ultra-marathon – the Capon Valley 50K (31 mile) trail race in Yellow Spring, WV.

What is wrong with you? Why would you want to do this?

After finishing a handful of marathons, I suppose I wanted a new challenge. Sure, I could just try to improve my marathon time and I do still plan to work on that. A trail ultra has a raw appeal to it that’s akin to hugging a lion. No, it can’t kill me unless I fall off the mountain, but there’s definitely something intimidating about it that stirs up feelings of anxiety. Maybe it’s the longer distance. Maybe it’s having to run through forests and streams and up mountains. Maybe it’s not having the convenience of the port-o-potty every five miles and encountering a bear when nature does call. Even though it’s only 5 more miles than a marathon, there’s a possibility that I won’t finish within the 8 hour time limit.

Many of the ultra race reports I’ve read talk about the highs and lows that runners feel during a race. A lot of people say that ultras stir up all your self doubts and cause them to bubble up to the surface. I believe it. But they also say that the sense of accomplishment knowing that you gave it their physical, mental, and emotional all is unmatched. I suppose it’s my twisted curiosity to find out if they’re right that makes me want to give it a try.

The race isn’t until May 8th, 2010 but I’ve paid my registration fee and even have reservations at the B&B that is at the start/finish area. Now all I have to do is train.

Savageman Hat

I knitted this hat this weekend while traveling to/from Deep Creek Lake and while hanging around the campground. The pattern is called "Felicity" and is easy and quick to knit.

Savageman Weekend Recap

A mid-week weekend recap...

Saturday – Had to do my run solo since I needed to start earlier than the rest of the group so that Esteban and I could head out to Deep Creek Lake for the Savageman tri. We got on the road around 11:30pm and had our temporary “grasshut” up and furnished by 3:00pm. Steve’s tri buddy Joe was kind enough to let us borrow some cots and sleeping pads – not exactly what most would call “roughing it” but I didn’t mind.


I spent the rest of the afternoon knitting a hat in the great outdoors while Steve and Joe picked up their race packets and checked in their bikes. After the pre-race pasta dinner we stopped for coffee (hot chocolate for me) to warm up since it was getting a tad nippy. Sat around the campfire for a bit while the boys mixed up their drinks for the race then hit the sack.

Sunday – Since the race didn’t start until 8:30am and since we were within walking distance to the start, we actually got to sleep in until about 6:00am. (Most of the other triathlons required us to get up around 4:00am.) Savageman has only been around for about 3 years but they certainly seemed to have their act together. They even had a shuttle to a section of the bike course called the Westernport “wall.”

“The wall” is this street in the town of Westernport that has an average grade of 25%, max of 31%. The last section of the street is in horrible condition – lots of ruts and potholes. Any triathlete who makes it up the street on their bike gets a brick with their name engraved placed in Westernport. Both Steve and Joe made it up, but I watched plenty of others topple over. (They only get once chance. Video from last year here. I didn't have the heart to video tape anyone who fell in front of me.) Here's a pic of a random guy; his face pretty much sums it up.


The hilly course took its toll on the guys so I watched them hobble around for a while after the race. (The silly things we do for fun.) After some much needed showers, we headed over to Uno’s for dinner then spent the rest of the evening around the campfire.

Monday – I had originally planned to go for a run, but breakfast and coffee around the fire won me over. We packed up camp so that we could hit the road only to find out that the U.S.S. Grassi wouldn’t start. DOH! Joe and Steve went into town to pick up a new battery and we were finally homeward bound 3 hours later.

In a New York Minute

Saturday - After the trail race, I quickly showered, ate lunch, and packed before heading up to MD to pick up my brother, sister, and BIL. We were meeting our cousin Ollie from Belgium and his friends in NYC. They were visiting NYC for the week and Saturday night was the only time all of us could meet up. So up the NJ Turkpike we went. We checked into our hotel room in NJ, hopped on the bus to NYC, and met Ollie and his friend Joris in front of Toys R Us in Times Square at 8:00pm.

We only had a few hours to spend with them so we ventured over to the Hard Rock Cafe for some chow and Stella Artoise in honor of our Belgian guests. Ollie's lady friends joined us a few hours after they had gotten their fill of Macy's (5 hours worth!). They don't have big department stores in Belgium so the gals had a great time shopping American-style. An exhausting day, but worth it to see Ollie and company.

VA Happy Trails Women's Half-Marathon

On Saturday morning, my running pal Mandy and I ran the Virginia Happy Trails Women's half-marathon at Fountainhead Park. Even though we had run the course a few weeks ago for practice, it was our first official trail race. The race kicked off at 8:30 with the guys from the Happy Trails Club singing what else but "Happy Trails".

The first mile or two of the course was a bit crowded making it difficult to pass anyone since it was single track. Passing on the trail requires a little more planning since you have to make sure there isn't a tree or some other obstacle when you go around the person in front of you. I found the course was a little easier than the first time I ran it and managed to pass people fairly easily on the uphills. (Guess I have my elephant-sized quads to thank for that.) I finished in 2 hours 20 minutes which is about 25 minutes slower than my road time but I'll take it. Mandy finished about 9 minutes after me. The post-race spread included pita chips, hummus, fruit, and brownies.

Cardigan Gone Bad

Remember that cardigan I started waaay back in May? Well, I've continued to work on it off and on even though I'm actually really bored with the pattern. Even though it's not done, the other day I finally got to a point where I could sort of try on the cardigan.

The front is meh. It's too big for me even though I thought I got the gauge down before I started. I'm disappointed in how it hangs; not very flattering at all. I've been really frustrated with this pattern because it doesn't include any pictures at all for how the piece is supposed to come together. There are a few people on raverly who are knitting this same cardi, but they haven't posted any pics to show their progress so I've been winging it. (Maybe they were bored with the pattern too?)


The deal-breaker for this patter was when I saw the back. Something has gone awfully wrong. I realize I'm not done with the piece yet, but something tells me that nothing I do is going to take care of that gaping hole in the middle of the back.

Part of me would like to make this right and frog (rip it) the offending section of the cardigan. I've spent a lot of time on this sucker to abandon it now. BUT, the pattern is soooo boring, the instructions are so not helpful, and even if I do manage to fix it, it's still going to be too big for me. So for now, this project will go into hibernation. Nighty night.

Keyhole Bow-Tie Scarflette

This super-easy keyhole bow-tie scarflette's pattern is from the Knit Simple magazine's Fall 2009 issue. It's made using Naturally Caron's Spa yarn in Ocean Spray. Next time I think I'll make it a bit shorter and also keep better track of my rows in the bow-ties so that they're a little more even.

Hubby Hubby

Ben & Jerry's renamed flavor. Click the image for details.

Trail Lessons

Yesterday, a few of us did a practice run for a women's trail half-marathon at Fountainhead Park. It was tough and the humidity and late (8:30am) start didn't help. Even though it was hard, I learned/confirmed a few things about trail running.

1. I'm a lot slower on trails. On the road, I can average between a 9:30-10:00 minute/mile pace. That's about 6 miles/hour. On yesterday's trail run, we were running between a 12-15 minute/mile pace (4-5 miles/hour). I attribute this to the heat and humidity, and lesson #2.

2. Flats don't exist on trails. There is no such thing as a flat stretch of trail. You're either going uphill or downhill. If you think you're running on flat ground, you're likely going down a gradual incline which will eventually come back to kick you in the a$$ when you have to run back up.

3. Pick up your feet or risk a face plant. When you're running on the road you can easily get away with barely picking up your feet. If you attempt to run this way on the trail, you're probably going to end up kissing Mother Earth. Tree roots, logs, and rocks are just waiting to make a fool out of you. The longer you're out on the trail, the harder this gets since your legs tend to get heavier the more tired they are. Picking up your feet can be particular hard when you let gravity take control on the downhills. Although it's nice to just kinda roll down the hill, you still need to watch out for those speedbumps. One stumble could send you airborne.

4. Bring a lot more fluids and nutrition. Running slower, means a longer run. There are no water fountains or 7-Elevens.

5. Pack dry clothes and towels. Yesterday we were out for almost 3 hours. All of us were completely drenched in sweat. My shorts were dripping sweat down my legs into my shoes. Halfway through, I knotted my soaked ponytail to keep it from dripping any more sweat down into my waterlogged top and to minimize my splash zone so that poor Mandy who was behind me didn't feel like she was running through a sprinkler. I usually have a few towels to cover the car seat so that was part of my usual routine. Fortunately, I brought an entire set of dry clothes to change into for the ride home so that I didn't feel like I was sitting in my swimsuit.

Topless Hairstylists?

As seen in Craigslist:

We are currently looking for licensed cosmotologist/hair stylist to interview for a new high end mens salon/club opening soon. The themed salon will be around real stylist whom are dressed either in lingerie or topless depending on the service chosen by the customer. This will be a classy enviroment with upscale pricing and a 50/50 split with huge tip potential. You must be attractive, skilled, engaging, and willing to make every cut a memorable experience. There were be very strict policies in place with an emphasis of providing a extremely safe and pleasant working enviroment. We are only hiring the best 10 candidates so get your application in. Please email us your resume and a photo. We will be scheduling in person interviews based on the applicates qualifications and over all presentation. All resumes and inquires will be strictly confidential and not released or shared with anyone outside the HR department of the company.

August 26

Women's Equality Day + National Dog Day = A woman's life is a b*itch.

Amish Friendship Bread

0825090858.jpg
Originally uploaded by cherrydg

From my cube-neighbor Matt. :-)