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).