Kristin’s Playground

A couple of accomplishments for the day - I had my 7th day of earning both my green check marks, meaning I stayed within my calorie goals for the day, and I had 30 minutes of some sort of exercise. One-third of the way done with item 78.

I also got a pleasant surprise that will let me go see my dad play a gig back in my hometown on Thursday. I’d been planning on going back over the weekend for a reunion, but I’m happy to get to go a little early and spend some quality time with my folks. And I’m extra-happy that I won’t have to drive! (Thanks, Dad!)

I spent this evening baking. It was a little more complicated than things I normally make, so I was nervous, but it looks like it’ll turn out. It’s a surprise for now, but I’ll have pictures later, fear not! Also, I have my picture of the day for you. I had an idea kicking around in my head because Utata has an “Iron Photographer” challenge. It needed to involve a curved piece of wood, something white, and it had to look old. This is what I came up with given my baking evening:

It’s been a busy weekend. Yesterday I went and donated blood when I got up. There’s a real need in the area for donations, and they’ve been calling me every other day to make an appointment. I last donated back in February I think, so it was long past time. I was pleasantly surprised at how it went. My past experiences at the local donor center were less than pleasant - waiting too long, etc, but this time went really well - hardly any wait, the nurse found my vein right away, no problems, etc. They even have comfy new chairs!

On my way back I had an interesting spread of gas prices. I saw regular gas for everything from 3.75 to 4.09. Crazy what less than 8 miles can do. Also, I bought myself a tart pan. I’ve got plans for it too in the next few days!

Saw WALL-E in the afternoon with Kelly. It was great. I didn’t really know what to expect from the previews, but the story was wonderful. We grabbed some dinner, I mowed the lawn, and then I went over to Kelly’s to try out a Wii-fit. I hadn’t been too impressed by the trailer (although its parody was quite funny), but it was actually a lot of fun. Turns out my fitness age is 29. Who knew? Now that I’ve played with one, I kind of actually want one. Not sure if it would actually help get/stay in shape or not, but it was fun. And it has charts and graphs! I love charts and graphs.

Today is a day for catching up on chores and things, although Kelly, Beth, and I did go running. We went about 2.2 miles in around 25 minutes. It was hot and painful. But don’t we look happy about it?

And, so as not to disappoint, here is my photo of the day. When I was experimenting with my “make the photo look old” bit, I learned that one way to do things like that is with textures in photoshop. And then I found ghostbones on flickr who has a lot of good textures to share. So, naturally, I want to experiment with them. Today, my photo was a broken hanger from the front hall closet. I guess my winter jacket was too much for it. Anyway, it was fun to play with. Forgive me for overusing textures in the next little while, but their novelty will probably take awhile to wear off.

Hi all!

It’s been a busy day - you’ll hear more about it later, but for now, I wanted to give you all a heads up: my friend Linda is participating in the Day of Blogs this year. That means she’ll be posting every half hour for 24 hours straight to benefit the Christian Children’s Fund. She starts at 10 EST tonight, so go visit her and cheer her on. There will likely be contests and things, and it’s always great fun.

I’ll be back later, but for now I’ll leave you with my picture of the day. Both of my sunflowers have flowered! Hooray!

However good I felt about going on a run yesterday was fully made up for it by how sore I was today. Oof. I’ll have to do more stretching and I’ll probably have to run more often if I don’t want to hurt like that each time I get the idea to go for a jog. On top of being sore, my alarm didn’t go off this morning, so I had to rush off to work. At least it’s a Friday.

I just finished watching the 1983 Best Picture, Terms of Endearment. Such a sad movie! My friend Kelly had warned me, but I still cried. ::sniff:: Amadeus is the next Best Picture if I go chronologically. I think I’ve seen it before - or at least parts of it, but I’ll watch it again to be sure.

In other news, my first quest for a week of green check marks continues. I think today’s exercise will consist of some yoga before bed; the waking up late and the hurting made biking to work seem like a bad idea.

My photo of the day comes to you from the diag; I saw these flowers hanging from a chain by the sidewalk. They seemed like an odd pairing, so I had to stop to take some photos. When I starting looking at it in photoshop, something about it reminded me of an old, grainy photo of a bouquet someone had hung up to dry, so I ran with it. There’s a photo challenge over at Utata that involves a photo appearing old, so I thought it’d be good practice too. What do you think?

Tomorrow I’ve got an appointment for giving blood, and plans to finally go see WALL-E. Should be fun.

I came home from work today - a beautiful summer evening - and realized I still needed to do 30 minutes of exercise to earn both my green check marks today (today would be the third day in a row - I’m going to make a week!). So I went running. Me. Running? Okay, so me running is really more like most people walking quickly, but still. I changed, dug my gym shoes out of the corner of the closet and took off. I think I’m a little nervous for my upcoming 5k. I told my friend, Kelly about my 101 list, and she asked if she could do the 5k and the 10k with me. It’s a great idea, and now I really have to be committed to doing it. We’ve even picked a 5k: the Big House, Big Heart run in September. So, I should probably do a little training before that day comes if I don’t want to embarrass myself.

I was actually pleased with how far I went before I stopping jogging and started walking. I jogged for almost 10 minutes to get to the park and the river. In all, the google maps pedometer tells me I went around 2.5 miles, and it took me about 30 minutes with my running/walking. I’m pleasantly surprised, and quite proud of myself for getting off my butt and doing it. Maybe the 5k won’t be as painful as I thought.

And, to keep up with another daily task, here’s my photo of the day from my “run”:

Huzzah! A pic a day - and I’m caught up. Think I can keep it up for a week?

21 July 2008:

I was jealously glancing at the Brie section of Trader Joe’s when this caught my eye. Light brie? Couldn’t be! So, I had to try it. While it’s tasty, it’s not the delectable creamy goodness I have come to associate with the word “brie” in my head. Ah well. Thought it had to be too good to be true.

22 July 2008:

There are a bunch of these plants near the physics building, and they contain masses of spider webs. These webs are often dewy, even in mid-afternoon!

23 July 2008 (ie, today!):

The sunflower is opening! Hooray! The color! The happiness!

Definitely getting closer…

16 July 2008:

Whenever the weather gets a little iffy, you can find Anya-bear in the bathroom, hiding. She’s fond of the mat in front of the tub, and I think the lack of windows comforts her.

17 July 2008:

Look! I cooked something! Roasted potatoes with spicy carmelized onions. Logan had a couple of friends over for dinner, and I was in charge of the potato dish. It turned out quite tastily, I think… Here’s the recipe if you have a subscription to cooksillustrated.com.

18 July 2008:

Camping! Complete with a campfire for marshmallows. My camera was having a hard time with the automatic white balance; there are some amusing purple fires that it took, but this white balance is a little more realistic.

19 July 2008:

The camping gear in the kitchen. This needs to get aired/dryed out.

20 July 2008:

Eee! There’s yellow hiding in there! That means it’ll fully open soon, right? I’m quite excited about my sunflower.

La la la - getting caught up! Unfortunately, I missed a day in this section, so no July 11th picture for you. That morning I sliced my thumb and my pinky open while washing a sharp knife, and we also were driving to Wisconsin, so it was a somewhat hectic day. Ah well.

12 July 2008:

To celebrate Logan and his brothers birthdays, we had homemade pizza. The boys made dough, and we could top our own however we wanted it. This was mine, complete with pineapple, green pepper, red onion, and some breakfast sausage. It was really tasty.

13 July 2008:

This is my sliced hand, all band-aided up. Thankfully the knife was sharp so the cuts were clean and I didn’t need any stitches. The slices are still noticeable today, but they’re slowly healing.

14 July 2008:

The sunflower grows! I think we’ll have an open flower soon!

15 July 2008:

Delta responded to my letter. Note to whom it’s addressed: “Mr. Kristin ___”

6 July 2008:

Logan makes a tasty appletini.

7 July 2008:

I got new shoes! Needed some every-day type sandals.

8 July 2008:

We replaced our non-stick skillets. After 5 years, the coating had gotten some scratches and was wearing down a little bit. This is one of the replacements!

9 July 2008:

Dominick’s, a local bar/restaurant, has this amusing little sign up inside claiming to be the first condemned building in North America. Apparently, there’s one just like it in Plymouth, MA.

10 July 2008:

The tomatoes are still growing.

Still working on the catching up. July!

1 July 2008:

The initial pair of “jalapeños” have grown into bell peppers. Still not ready to eat yet, but they’re getting bigger!

2 July 2008:

I have this expanding ball toy that my niece was very amused by when she visited.

3 July 2008:

The tomatoes are growing too. There are a lot of them now, none of them are turning colors yet though.

4 July 2008:

I slept through the parade, but one of the floats supporting the local skate park ended up in the neighborhood. Happy 4th of July!

5 July 2008:

I biked to Saline on the 5th, and stopped at the Saline Depot Museum. They had some currency from a time capsule from 1872. It was fascinating to see 25 cent and 50 cent bills, bills from the Bank of Saline and the confederacy.