Kristin’s Playground

I’m behind on a number of celebrations:

• On August 13, Markeroni celebrated it’s 5th anniversary! Hooray!
• On August 16, Logan and I celebrated our 5th anniversary!

and…

• Yesterday, my sister celebrated her birthday!

Hooray for all of these things! Every year, I’ve been taking a photo of Logan and me on our anniversary. I think it’ll be a lot of fun to look back through as the years rack up - where we’ve been, what we’ve been doing, etc. I thought I’d share with you the first 5 years of anniversary photos.

0th Anniversary:

This photo I didn’t actually take; we had a lot of photos of us taken that day. This one was kindly provided by Logan’s brother in the limo on the way to the reception.

1st Anniversary:

Our bedroom in our first apartment in Madison. We’d only recently received that painting by Jake Leick. We found his work at an art fair back home, and as a wedding present we got him to paint the dust clouds of Orion. We made sure to ask the photographer permission, and I think he ended up getting a painting done too.

2nd Anniversary:

We’d moved to Michigan in July and didn’t have much to do before we started grad school in the fall. We also didn’t have jobs, so we took a cheap vacation camping for our anniversary. We’d only had Anya for a month and a half or so, and we learned that she didn’t like cold so much. She was shivering at night in the tent at 60 degrees or so. Our poor Oklahoman dog. Then again, she likes snow. Go figure.

3rd Anniversary:

Still in our first Ann Arbor aparment with a papasan chair we inherited from Jana. Anya didn’t particularly want to cooperate and look at the camera.

4th Anniversary:

I had just gotten the backdrop for my birthday, I think, and was starting to set up a studio in the basement of “our” house in Ann Arbor. I didn’t really know what I was doing in trying out a more formal portrait style (and a year later, I’m still just trying to learn!), but I had to try. Note Logan’s new glasses.

5th Anniversary:

A beautiful day in the backyard of our house. Hard to believe it’s been 5 years, huh?

I forgot to take a photo one day last week, and I decided to take a break for a few days from it. I may still owe you a few back-logged PotD, but I’m starting over as of yesterday. I’ve been keeping busy, so here are a few updates:

Hundred Pushup Challenge
I’ve been going strong on my challenge. The first day of week 3 was ridiculously hard, as I mentioned, but I got through day 2 reasonably well, with only minor sacrifices in form, and I did day 3 on Saturday. This time, with the extra waiting time before sets, I even managed more than the minimum on the last set, where you have to max out. I did 84 pushups on Saturday! Today I started week 4, and that meant my rest time went back down to 60 seconds. That makes it so much harder. I made it through the day, but only barely, and there were only 69 pushups on my list today. I don’t think I’ll have too much problem with the rest of the week (thanks to the extra rest time), but I worry about week 5. During week 5, the waiting time decreases throughout the week. At that point, you’re getting closer to doing 100 pushups in a reasonably short time period, so weeks 5 and 6 are all about reducing the rest so you can do it consecutively. It scares me. We’ll just have to keep trucking along and see how it goes. I think this program will take me more than the 6 weeks, but I don’t think I’m going to give up easily.

Running/Knees
On Thursday I went to an injury prevention/evaluation clinic sponsored by Running Fit. (They’re also the sponsors of the 5k I signed up for, which is how I found out about it.) I wanted to go talk to them about my knees before they got too bad. As it was, I had taken about a week off from running because they were hurting. They confirmed what I basically thought, and what had made me stop running many years ago. I have some patellar tracking issues - basically, my kneecap doesn’t slide smoothly in it’s groove - the outsides of my quadriceps are stronger than the inner part, which pulls the kneecap slightly out of alignment. If I don’t fix this, it can eventually wear away the cartilage and start to grind against my femur. Ow. Basically, I need to take it easy and strengthen my other muscles so the imbalance gets fixed. I’ll do the exercises the physical therapist recommended, and I’ll cut back on the running - probably only once a week, and not a lot of hills. Hopefully this gets better soon, and I can keep running. I actually like it (as surprising as that is to hear me say).

Raspberries!
On Sunday, Kelly and Jana and I went raspberry picking. Best shown through photos:






Tasty. Simple recipe too.
1) Pick raspberries.
2) Combine 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup oats. Mix in 1/4 cup of butter cubed. Just work it in with your hands until the chunks are all pretty small and you could describe the mixture as crumbly.
3) Add raspberries into an individual ramekin (or 9×9 glass pan). Sprinkle generously with sugar, and remember - the raspberries will bake down, don’t be afraid to smush them a bit. (I made that mistake with my first couple.)
4) Bake for about 30 minutes at 350º.
5) Let cool and eat. Tasty! (Probably even better with ice cream, but we ran out.)

Quick post with some photos for ya.

11 August 2008: I snapped this photo while biking back from Dexter on the AABTS’ “Civilized Ride.” Nice looking night.

12 August 2008: I found this fruit ice treat at whole foods and I had to get it. I’m a sucker for frozen things. What frozen ice do you know that has real coconut milk in it? (2.5 grams of fat in one of those triangles, yet only 50 calories. Coconut milk is tasty….)

13 August 2008: There’s a bird’s nest right above eye level on the way to the bus. I took a photo of it on my way in.

14 August 2008: The end of my two-week coffee-shop hiatus, and a diptych for a project on Utata. Coffee Break!

15 August 2008: On our way to go dancing on Friday! Hooray!

::Waves:: Remember me? Yeah, I’m a bit behind in posting a bunch of things. As is normal. I’ve had a couple of late nights at work as we are trying to get “the perfect data,” but I’ve also had some non-work-related fun in the last week too. Went out dancing with friends on Friday night. Had dinner with my hubby on our 5th anniversary on Saturday. Took most of the week off in terms of biking or running to be nice to my knee; started again this morning with 3 loops of the mile-long course around my house (still no 10 minute mile, but I think I’m closer). Been keeping up with my pushups, but I’m not sure I can claim complete victory today. This was the start of the dreaded Week 3. I’d completed 20 pushups in my exhaustion test on Sunday, and they expected me to do 64 pushups (albeit with breaks) today. Ow. I made it through the first three sets alright, but on the 4th pushup on the set of 10 I couldn’t come back up. I paused and tried again. Made the 4th, but then failed on the 5th. Paused a little longer and I could finish the 10, though I’m sure my form was not up to par. After that, I was supposed to do as many pushups as I could, as long as it was more than 15. I waited longer than the 60 seconds to start them, and still had to stop and start a couple of times. I eventually got to 15, but after the awful-form last pushups I could hardly move my arms. Ow. I’m going to push ahead with the rest of week 3 and we’ll see how it goes, but I imagine I’m going to be repeating this. It’s definitely making me build up some muscle though.

With the running and the late day at work, and the pushups, I’m tired, so I’m going to bed early today. But, before I go, I’ll post some overdue photos-of-the-day, and hopefully I’ll catch up on some of my other posts soon.

6 August 2008: My adorable mp3 player I told you about. The silly putty egg is for a size reference. This thing is tiny.

7 August 2008: There are tires filled with concrete and posts to hold up fencing for a construction area on campus. They’re ridiculously bright orange, and I had to take a photo of one.

8 August 2008: Oh no! It’s bedtime and I haven’t taken a photo yet today! Good thing Anya’s cute.

9 August 2008: All I wanted to do was jump into bed. Fresh sheets, made bed, and a sleepy Kristin who still needed a photo for the day.

10 August 2008: Last Sunday I went kayaking with some friends. Right by the canoe livery there is a shopping cart that has clearly spent a long time underwater and was covered in mussels.

Okay - bedtime now. ‘Night!

I went out last night to see the perseids after all. Not too long, just out on my deck. I saw a number of meteors; there was one that went across nearly the whole sky and even left a faint visible trail. It was pretty cool. But the coolest thing of all? I caught one. On camera! I brought out my camera, not really expecting to get anything (after all, the field of view is pretty small for my lens, and you have to expose correctly to not let too much ambient in, but you have to have your ISO high enough and your aperture wide enough that a quick little streak will even show up on the camera. Anyway, I’m quite pleased that one of my frames found a meteor.

Before too long, though, some clouds started coming in and I decided I really needed to go to bed. Not soon enough though - I’m tired this morning!

It’s been a busy day. Lots of biking. Over lunch, we watched the finale of American Gladiators on hulu and did day 1 of week 2 for the pushup challenge. The men’s finals were pretty amazing, and one of the contenders was going into the eliminator with multiple sets of stitches and some pretty impressive bruises. Ow. Hardcore.

Speaking of hardcore, how about the relay swimmers? (And boo to NBC for not letting non-intel macs in on the olympic video action! Some of us don’t watch TV, and we rely on the intartubes for our video goodness. Support older macs! I had to watch it with Chinese commentary on some youtube video.)

Between the kayaking yesterday and the pushups Saturday and today, my shoulders and neck were awfully tight today, so I decided I needed a massage. Thankfully, there’s a place nearby that has walk-in seated massage, so I got 20 minutes. They found knots in muscles I didn’t even know I had! Guess I need to go more often. Shucks.

Then I biked over to Beth’s, and we went for a “Civilized Ride” with the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society. There weren’t too many riders, but Beth and Nathan and I pulled up the rear, by a lot. The leader of the ride stayed back with us, but we quickly lost sight of the rest of the crew. Thankfully, it’s a ride to a Dairy Queen! Saved by a caramel sundae in the middle!

Still. A lot of biking today. Total for the day: 27.3 miles in 2 hours and 34 minutes. And now, I’m tired. I’d like to see some perseids, but I don’t think it’s going to happen tonight.

Well, once again I’ve been remiss in updating. Whoever would have predicted that, eh? It’s been a busy, yet nice week, complete with working, a couple of runs with friends, a frustrating mile-long run by myself, tasty ice cream, some movies, kayaking in the rain, completing the first week of the hundred push-up challenge, and more - all without the help of a coffeeshop. When my friend and coffee-buddy moved out to Oregon almost a week and a half ago, I decided it was a good time to try my two weeks without buying things from a coffee-shop. It’s been working well so far - I just have a couple more days to go. Shouldn’t be a problem. I miss my friend though.

Life goes on, and I’ve somehow fallen into a running fad. (I tend to go through phases in my exercising, and right now, it’s the running phase.) I find myself browsing Runner’s World, using their training log, trying to map out routes of varying lengths around my house, etc. I got myself a cute little flash-based mp3 player to run with too. It’s tiny. And it has a radio. It’s pretty great. Don’t get me wrong, I love my big ipod that holds all of my music and more, but it’s a bit bulky for running. I find myself eyeing the gps watches too. My exercise fads make me want things. It’s bad. But good for me. Hmm. This better last at least until the 5k. There’s a 10k in November that I’m wondering if I can train for. I’m not at all fast, but I’m gaining endurance. I tried doing a mile loop around my house for time, and it was still over 10 minutes. Admittedly, I started too quickly, so I couldn’t run the whole thing, and my lungs didn’t like me either, so I need to be sure to use my inhaler before I try it again. We’ll see if things pick up. Running with my friends helps push me. Thanks guys.

The first week of the Hundred Pushup Challenge is now behind me. It wasn’t so bad, and I think I’ll survive week 2 as well. Bit concerned about the transition to week three - it looks like quite a jump.

Anyway, I’m not going to update my photos today, since it’s bedtime, but I’ll be back another time. I’m alive, just busy.

Well, it’s been a busy weekend. Way too early on Thursday I flew back to Wisconsin. There were a lot of small planes at the airport for the EAA’s annual air show:

I left so early so that I could see my dad play in the park with Levi Douma. I’ve been meaning to go see him for quite awhile, so I was really quite happy to make it back for that. They sounded great - good music for the park, and there was a respectable crowd there too. Yay, Dad!

That afternoon my mother and I threw together a photo studio in the living room in order to take senior photos for my neighbor. I brought down my umbrella, lightstand and reflector (all quite portable - no checked baggage!) and all of my camera gear. I threw together a quick gel holder for my flash, and when Erin came over, we spent a lot of time shooting - some indoor in our makeshift studio for the yearbook, and the rest outdoor. More on this later.

Friday, my dad took me to go get running shoes. I’m prone to hurting myself - I’ve had plenty of sprained ankles, and the last time I ran, my knee decided I shouldn’t really be doing that. So, if I’m to run, I need a good shoe that will help keep me in a good running position so I don’t strain things that shouldn’t be strained. After running around the parking lot in a number of different shoes and learning more about what a good stride should be, we settled on these:

That night we also went to the opening of a Chinese art exhibit at the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum. There were some incredible pieces there, and a local dance group performed some ancient Chinese dances. What the Chinese were accomplishing a thousand years ago is truly amazing, and that some of it is still preserved today is great.

Saturday we went to a family reunion for my mother’s family. It was nice to see a bunch of family members I’ve only met once or twice - some not at all! Of course, I got to see my grandpa and aunts and uncles, too. My grandpa has done a ton of research into our family tree on that side, so I spent some time poring through his printouts, and everyone brought out old family pictures and scrapbooks. I’m hoping to get copies of some of them. Even the frogs came out to the pond in the backyard:

Sunday, Dad and I went running around the block twice (3 miles!), and I spent some time deeply engaged in photoshop - trying to finish up the pictures for Erin before I left. Had dinner with the ‘rents and in-laws, saw their new waterfall/pond that they’d just finished putting in. Good stuff. Chai played with a pencil:

Monday was another ridiculously early flight, coupled with not much sleep due to a storm passing through. Unfortunately, the storm made its way to Chicago before my plane did. I spent about 5 hours on the plane (on the ground) waiting for clearance to take off. Oof. I eventually made it home, but it was a long day.

Today was a Tuesday. Worked. Did day 1 of the Hundred Pushups Challenge. I did about 4 1/2 pushups during my test a couple days ago, so there is a lot of progress to make. In other news, one of our tomatoes has turned red in my absence! Anyone know what I can do wih one tiny red tomato?

Oof. And now, it’s bedtime.