Running Chick

Hello!  It’s been a couple o’ weeks since I last blagged.  How was your Christmas?  Mine was good.  I got the camera I’ve been lusting after for a while now, the Canon Rebel XS. Very cool!

I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to learn all the photography terminology (ISO, aperture, shutter speed) and taking tons of pictures.  Some are pretty good, some not so much. Here are a few of the okay shots.

I am happy to announce that come January, Running Chick will refocus to running!  Yep, training will start up again after a three month hiatus.  So, be prepared for major bitching about how out of shape I’ve become, slow mile splits and various aches and pains.  Honestly, though, I can’t wait to get back to a fitness routine.  My shoes are lonely and in the fall I bought a swanky Brooks running jacket that is just begging for me to take it out for a spin.  That baby’s supposed to be hurricane/tsunami/avalanche-proof and I’m anxious to test it out.  I can report that it stands up to beer spills just fine. 

Happy twenty-ten all!

We almost made it to Christmas without having any snow. Almost.

Then, last weekend, it started to snow. And snow. AND SNOW. And it didn't stop for seven days straight. Each day we got 4-8" of light, fluffy lake effect snow, and each day cleaning up my yard took at least 90 minutes. 

Damn you, Lake Superior! *shakes fist*

In total, I figure I tallied about 12-13 hours of snow removal last week.  That’s a part-time job!  Too bad I don’t get paid for it.

Anyway, the snow’s tapered off enough for me to start thinking about taking some snowshoe hikes or renting classic skis.  My skate skis can stay in their ski bag, I’m still pissed at them from our little disagreement two years ago.

Hopefully this week (and the next two since I’m on vacation for that long after this Friday w00t! ) I’ll be able to actually enjoy some fun snow-related activities.  I’m also hoping **fingers crossed** to stay healthy over vacation.  Last year, I was super sick the entire time and finally felt better the day before heading back to work.  Suck.

It’s time to start thinking about what I want to accomplish with running in 2010.  Goals, and such, ya know.  I would really like to move up to a marathon, but I’m not sure how my legs are going to handle the mileage.  Heck, I can barely make it through training for a HM before something breaks.  Right now, I don’t think I’m going to sign up for anything.  I’ll start running in January and see how things turn out with my (hopefully healed) tendinitis. 

Know what I really wish?  That by some miracle from the running gods, I will have finally achieved the right combination of shoes and orthotics that I run injury-free.  I didn’t get that over the summer, because I couldn’t rest enough for the tendinitis to make a recovery.  All I was doing was running one week and cross training the next.  That was no fun.  Actually, it was depressing, frustrating, and defeating all rolled into one.  No fun, indeed.  I have no idea how long tendinitis takes to go away.  I haven’t run a step since mid-September and I hope that’s enough.

Guess I’ll find out soon enough.  Ciao.

And just like that, vacation is over and it's back to the daily grind. I finished up painting on mid-week (looks great!) and then when I was removing the tape from the trim, half of the paint came off with it. Noooooo! I think it was because the original paint on the trim was oil-based and I used latex. Anyway, I quickly realized that all the trim had to be scraped, sanded and primed before I could do any repainting. Damn you, oil-based paint! **shakes fist** I pouted for a couple of days, then started scraping. And scraping. And scraping. It's a good arm workout, but since I'm only using my right hand, I'm going to have a right arm like Popeye and a left arm like Olive Oyle. I finally finished up tonight. Tomorrow is another trip to the paint sore for primer then taping and priming. If all goes well, I should be done with all painting by Sunday and I can move everything back and stop living out of three rooms. We had several friends over for a post-Thanksgiving Thangsgiving over the weekend and it was our first time brining a turkey. It turned out really, really well and brining will probably be the standard for turkeys cooked at my house from now on. Behold the pictures. Yes, that it a cat litter bucket that you see. It worked great!