Royal Mail

I had to do an emergency post today- Guess what came in the mail today! My official bookmark with Robin McKinley's two newest books on it! On one side is "Chalice," (which I'm reading now) and on the other is Dragonhaven, which came out in September 2007. About a month or so ago, I requested (along with hundreds of other R.M. fans) a bookmark of her new book on her blog. And here it is, a letter, complete with my name in her handwriting on the front of the envelope! How exciting is that? Well, maybe not for you, but just imagine your favorite author taking the time to personally address and lick an envelope to you! It even says "Royal Mail" in the top left corner. Royal Mail. To me. :) Happy, happy day! I am keeping this forever. And I am now an official member of the Klutz Klub . For which I had to write a Klutzy anecdote from something I've done in my lifetime for her blog. Not hard to do, believe me. You know you want to click on the photo to make it super big. Do it now.


Yes, this is a picture taken on my desktop at work (I sent Robin my work address, as you can see). Notice the two cuties above?

Handy(wo)man!

This was supposed to be a quick easy project, but turned into a two-day-er because I didn't have the right tools. Isn't that always the case for the "quick easy" projects? We bought the boys a little card table with 6 colorful folding chairs, all very sturdy with metal frames about 2-3 years ago. And they lasted a very long time! Some time last year, the boys, as will be boys, started to notice little holes in the top cover of their table and began picking at it and making the holes bigger. Blue duct tape does wonders for a) matching and b) fixing, but it won't last forever. Finally I looked on the bottom of the table and saw that it was attached with 12 screws to the frame, and the cover was simply stapled on. I could recover that! Easy-peasy! So getting started- I unscrewed it, ripped off the cover and stapled one whole side before I noticed that the staples were too long. Not only did they go through two layers of fabric and the plywood (and stuck out their sharp pointy ends perfect for causing little bloody fingers), but I had also stapled it to my wooden bar stool in several places! Whoops! Good thing they're little holes. You probably won't notice unless you're looking for them. So today I took a trip to Home Depot to see if there existed shorter staples (of course there were), and then finished up in under 10 minutes (with a little volunteered help from Kevin). Voila! Finished! And in a nice hunter green too (no blue at JoAnne's). Impressed? Well, thank you but you shouldn't be. I'm only blogging about this because it LOOKS so much better, and because I actually took a little initiative to do it myself and not pawn it off on my hubby.

Election Day! Vote for Sean and Ashton

In honor of election day, I saved these videos to post until today. Last week, Sean and Ashton's first grade class wrote, practiced and read their speeches in front of an audience saying why they would make a good President of the United States. I wasn't able to get off work to go see them at their school, but I did record them that night when they got home. First up is Sean:



And next is Ashton:



As their mom, I could never pick between the two. Aren't they just adorable?!

Dodge Ball!

I almost forgot I had this post sitting waiting to be edited. So here's the short, short version. I was invited to participate in a dodge ball tournament on Saturday (Nov. 1) by a fellow band member, Johnathan, and his girlfriend Misty who works for the American Cancer Society, who was sponsoring this fund-raising event. (Yes, I ran a 5K then played in a dodge ball tournament. :) I have never played before, so I was a little apprehensive that I would drag our team down the hole. Not so! We won our first two rounds (best of 5), I think lost the third one, won the 4th (and 5th? I can't remember how many teams we played now) and made it into the final winning bracket against the UNR team. They were awesome! It was a double elimination, and best of 7 games. We won the first round (the first they had been beaten all day!), but lost the second. I learned some quick strategy about staying out of the way of the ball, and passing them off to the guys who could throw on my team instead of trying to get people out myself (I totally throw like a girl since my shoulder operation a few years ago). I did manage to get a few people out, but my best talent was "dodging the ball." Ha ha! In fact, I think the last 4 games I was the last one up, but had no chance of staying in long (5 against 1 isn't fair odds, not to mention the previously stated condition of throwing like a girl). Our team placed second, and the American Cancer Society provided some pretty sweet prizes for the winning teams. I had a TON of fun, even if I was sore for 3 days straight! Here we are in all our glory:

Spark-A-Delic 5K

Today marked the day of Scheels first annual Spark-A-Delic 5K run. This was a nice flat-ish course around the Sparks Marina area. I made myself a goal to run a 5k in under 25 minutes, and since this was a pretty flat course, and not too many people to crowd the start to a walk, I figured this was my best chance. And to help me do this was my friend Turi and his little friend Lumpy- his Garmin watch with a pace setter! We jogged about a half mile to warm up, then Turi set Lumpy for 8:00 min. miles, and we had a fantastic start! Much faster than I'm used to- I like to include my warm up at the beginning of my run, and gradually get faster with whatever my body's got to give me. This technique has always worked for me (yeah, the whole "listen to your body" thing sounds a little New Age, but hey), so that's how I train. I know that you shouldn't try something new on a race day, but I wasn't sure if I went slow at first that I'd be able to make up the time at the end. I should work on that. We managed to keep about 2-3 seconds ahead of Lumpy, and at one point we were even 10 seconds ahead! Which was a good cushion to have: I think the wind was blowing in a NNE direction, and after we made the first turn to head towards the Marina, we found out that we had been running with a pretty decent tail wind. It was actually blowing hard enough that I could feel my bib pushing against my stomach, and I had to keep my head down so my hat wouldn't blow off my head. At around mile 2 I was feeling our pace and I had to adjust my breathing from every 3 strides in and out, to two, and by 2.5 I could feel the beginnings of a stitch in my right side. I caved and told Turi I had to back off a little (I wasn't risking walking because of a stupid stitch!). I think he felt bad like he wasn't motivating me enough (and believe me, he did an awesome job trying!), but I would have slowed down WAY before then without him pacing me (and me trying to impress him like I always run at this pace, no problem!). I glanced at my watch as it hit the 23 minute mark, and my spirits fell as I realized there was no way I was going to finish in under 25. I didn't slow down any more however, and as I rounded the last sharp turn through the gate, I could see the clock- it said 24:30 or so, and if I sprinted I might just still make it...

24:46!!!! AAAAAaaaaahhhhhh!

Well, that's the official time posted on the board, but both Turi and I stopped our watches at about 24:55. (That's quite time difference!) But who cares? They both say that I finished in under 25 minutes! WHOO-HOO! Turi, always the gentleman, let me run through the chute first, and I came in 50th overall (out of 350ish, I'm guessing). While I was running, and after I finished, I thought, is it worth it to run for time, and push myself this hard? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for testing and stretching limits and making new goals and pushing hard. But I would have enjoyed the run so much more if I hadn't set a time goal for myself, and that's what I do these races for: getting good exercise, enjoying the fresh air and the scenery around me, running with others and sharing a good run, and maybe even a little competition if there is someone running at about my same pace (when they're not pacing me) that I can try to keep up with or even pass. I decided that I probably won't be setting such a specific goal in the near future (although the memory of the tiredness of my lungs is already fading), and that I should stick to finishing without stopping, and maybe a general time goal to fit the course (finish this half marathon in under 2 hours 30, or something like that).

And then I looked at the overall ranking by age group.

I came in 2nd! HOLY COW! I never expected that I'd place! And the first place runner was only 30 seconds in front of me- if only I hadn't slowed down, maybe I could have caught her! Well, I might not have lost 30 seconds because we didn't slow down that much, but who knows? If I'd seen her, maybe I could have pushed a little harder to make a last second pass... Not only did they call my name out during awards and put a medal around my neck, but I also won a $25 gift card to Scheels! That made me rethink my position on setting time goals. Winning stuff totally rocks! That was almost better than making my time goal. :)

Here is a picture of Turi and me post-race.

Did I mention that it was 70's themed run? They gave out a prize for best costume, but I think Turi got gypped. The woman who won didn't have that great a costume- she just had a fro the size of a beach ball, and that's why she got the big shiny trophy. Turi wore a cummerbund and matching bow tie for goodness sake! Here's a pre-race shot just as the sun was starting to peep through~

I think Turi nailed it when he said that it pays off to run in small races, especially when they break down the age groups into small brackets to maximize on medals given out. Thank you Turi for being my pacer man and helping me meet my race time! Even though I can be whiny at times, I had a great time, and absolutely utterly and entirely appreciate you running with me. :)