My Quest For a Smaller Chest

Productivity: It's What's For the Weekend.

2012-01-23T12:26:00.000-08:00

It is amazing what a good night's sleep or two can do.

Last Friday I had my annual at the doctor's and we went over all the exciting life events I've had over the past few months. Long story short, I got a new prescription sleep aid. It apparently began as an antidepressant with a muscle relaxer component but it sucked because it made people too sleepy to function. Doctors have been prescribing it as an off-label remedy for insomnia and now it's been re-released specifically for insomnia.

You learn something new every time here at CilleyLand, don't you?

Anyhow, it works fabulously when I don't have to go to work the next day. When I do have to go to work -- i.e., as when my stress level rises because of unresolved issues at the office -- not so much. It gets me about halfway there but I still need something extra to fall asleep.

But finally being able to sleep Friday and Saturday nights left me full of productivity. Just look at what I accomplished this weekend:

Ran a 5K race.
Had a post-race breakfast with friends.
Got my car serviced (long overdue, it's a very happy car now).
Went to the library.
Returned my recyclables ($12.50 back in bottle deposits!).
Did the grocery shopping.
Did all the laundry (and put it away that same day, a bonus).
Cleaned the kitchen.
Made pulled pork in the crock pot.
Recycled all the newspapers.
Sorted through all of the miscellaneous papers, the stuff you get in race packets and swag bags, recipes, etc., piled up on the kitchen table.
Made deviled eggs (and sadly used a little too much mayo/mustard so they weren't very good).
Made my lunch for Monday.
Repotted all the houseplants.
Figured out why my jasmine plant keeps drowning (didn't punch out the drainage holes in the pot), fixed the pot and repotted the plant.
Cleaned the deck.
And let's not forget I watched some TV.

Doesn't that make you exhausted? It does me!

We lucked out on weather for Saturday's Resolution Run 5K. After being flooded out of the original venue and moving the race to Cook Park -- my nemesis course, as you all well know -- Saturday morning was (mostly) dry and beautiful. Still overcast and I got rained on a teensy bit about two minutes from the finish, but otherwise perfect running weather. And despite it being my nemesis course, and with a wicked case of PMS (which meant sore boobies at the start of the run), I finished in 0:43:04. Not bad considering I've run once since the end of October. My fastest 5K time in 2011 was 0:40:22 and my 5K PR is from April 2010 at 0:37:09. In January 2011 my 5K time was 0:41:46 (coming off probably a two month running hiatus) and in January 2010 it was 0:39:49.

Hey! Just learned that I placed in second in my age/gender group for this race. Out of four other women my age. I think I should've gotten a medal for that. By the way, did I mention earlier that everyone who participated in this race got a medal just for doing it? (Actually, just for picking up your packet but we'll downplay that part.) I need to get a medal hanger soon....

They got a great photo of me at Saturday's race. And I'm going to post it here because it's a great photo of a horrible me.

I believe my ferret has turned into a young anaconda. I weighed in this morning at 204.4 lbs, which is the most I have ever seen on the scale. Compare this photo to this one taken in August 2009:

Or this one from August 2010:

Since then, however, I have swelled. It is sad. Perhaps the young anaconda ate the ferret?

I do have a plan in place to turn the anaconda back into a ferret (ooh, regurgitated ferret) and then into a field mouse. Stay tuned...

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

The Stank of Confusion

2012-01-18T13:35:00.000-08:00

I must confess, I am confused.

Being that I frequent many runner and exerciser blogs, I read a lot about the stank issue. Namely, that people are stanky after they run/exercise and that the stank does not always come out in the wash.

I don't get it. I have never had a stank problem. Well, let me rephrase: I have never had a stank problem except with the ballcap I have worn for runs over the past three years and it only developed a stank issue after about two years. Then I washed it and it ceased to stank.

Anyhow. With that exception, I have never had a stank problem And hey, my friends can chime in here about how they've been around me after I've run and I did do the stank. But I don't think I did. After I run, I smell like my deodorant and body wash is working. That's it. And it's not because I'm not working up a sweat even if I am slow. Because I am.

I'm wondering if it's because of another thing that baffles me, namely, that not everybody showers every day or, alternatively, that not everybody washes their hair every day. Like I do. I've read literally a hundred magazine articles that all talk about how to perk up your hair on the days between showers or that this style or that style works better with dirty hair. Um, yuck?

Maybe that is the reason for the stank versus the non-stank. If so, my suggestion is: Shower! I'm not even going to get into the whole shower at night versus shower in the morning thing. For me, it's hands-down shower in the morning. If you're horrifically dirty after the day then shower at night too. That could be why my grandmother comes down on the side of shower in the evening, now that I think about it; she grew up on a farm.

But shower! Wash your hair while you are in there! By the way, if you don't, please don't take public transportation. Or walk past me in the grocery store. I can't count the number of times I've nearly upchucked on the broccoli because people can't be bothered to hop in the rain locker (as my grandpa calls it). And I'm not talking about the "I just worked out" stank on these people. It's clearly the "I haven't showered in at least a day" stank. You can just tell. Hell, don't even go out in public.

So, inquiring noses want to know: Am I the only person who wonders why everyone else is so stanky post-workout? Or do they just think they are stanky?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

First miles of 2012 are in the bag!

2012-01-15T20:18:00.000-08:00

Did my first run of 2012 yesterday with Jules. Not all that long -- 3.88 miles -- and not terribly fast -- 0:56:49 -- but pretty good considering (1) it's the first time I've put sneaks to the pavement since the Runaway Half Pumpkin and (2) it was damn cold and raining. It felt really good; as I told Julie, I was definitely well rested. Tight legs for the first half mile or so then loose. A little soreness in my quads today but otherwise all good. We probably could've done a bit better on the pace but we were chatting a lot; first time we've been able to hang out for several months. We also held true to form in that our pace had increased by at least a minute per mile by the end of the run.

According to DailyMile I logged 341.6 miles in 2011. A lot less than I had been hoping to do but there were also three full months in the year where I didn't run a step: one month for recovery from the stress fracture, and two months getting over the sinus infection from hell and my year end work deadline. I hadn't set a goal for miles last year but I had my eye on 600. I'm hoping to do 600 this year, training for the Rock 'n Roll Portland half in May and hopefully Marine Corps or another marathon in October.

This coming weekend will kick off my 2012 racing calendar with the Resolution Run 2012.
Where everybody gets a medal! Nice to start the year with some bling, eh?

Thanks to everyone for their comments regarding my recent losses. I felt a lot better after writing down how I was feeling. While some days are better than others, I'm still making it one day at a time.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues

2012-01-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

One of the interesting things about depression -- whether you have had it or are being treated for it -- is that you become hyperfocused on your moods. At least, I am. I'm always checking: Am I too angry? Am I too sad? Have I felt this feeling for too long? Because -- again, for me -- that was one of the main symptoms of depression, having a feeling get wildly and inappropriately out of control. Kind of like the difference between (A) tossing off a curse word at the driver who just cut you off and then getting on with you day and (B) being absolutely furious at that driver for the rest of the day, yelling at everybody around you as a result, etc.

Being on meds, I watch for the signs of the meds not working and depression returning. If I think I'm stuck in a feeling -- which, with depression, tends to end up in a blue or black feeling -- then I first make a conscious effort to get past it and if that doesn't work I call my doctor.

Important caveat here: I don't want to characterize depression as something you should just snap out of. It's not. My effort to get past it is more like analyzing whether I've got a reason to feel whatever I'm feeling, or determining the depth of the feeling. For example, I'm broke. What seems like all the damn time. That is legitimately stressful. A "meh" mood as a result is justified. Thinking about taking a dirt nap as a consequence is not.

Which leads me to my point. It's odd to realize that I have a reason to be legitimately depressed these days. In the last three months I've lost my two dogs and a long-time coworker (the latter was fired unexpectedly, she didn't die). I'm still broke -- and I recently realized that not having a raise for five years means that I've effectively taken about a 15% pay cut over the years, meanwhile taking on the work of 2.5 other people plus now that other person who just got fired. Of course I'm depressed!!

The trick will be, how long to be depressed. I don't have an answer for that question. It is a factor of not only how long but how depressed I am. Right now? Fairly depressed. Mostly I just want to sleep or hold down my sofa and read or watch TV. I feel as if I'm mourning Maggie all over again, in addition to mourning Ginger. As I mentioned previously, this is the first time I've lived literally alone in my entire life. I've been thinking about getting a fish just to have somebody there.

So. I know I'll be okay but that it's valid and appropriate to not be okay for a while. That's just how it will be.

Maybe I will get a fish. And I will name him Steve.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Goodbye, my sweet girl

2012-01-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

I know she's off chasing the waves somewhere, happy and full of joy. I will miss her.

--the CilleGirl

Weirdness

2012-01-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

If you've been a long time reader, you know that the new year never starts for me until after my big work deadline comes to a close. This year, that deadline was January 3. So, January 4: Happy new year!

But, there is weirdness. After putting in 91.5 hours at the office between December 26 and January 4, I kind of dropped. Not in the bad way or anything. Just woke up Thursday morning and could not get past the exhaustion and the throbbing headache so I took the day off and slept. Until 3:00 p.m. I wish I could've stayed home today too but I guess I'm too responsible or something.

Anyhow. Somewhere between Wednesday night and the wee hours of Thursday, I came to the realization that it is time to let my Gigi bear go. She's been in a slow, steady decline for years, mostly because of a back/hip injury she sustained when she was less than a year old. Since we lost Maggie in October, that decline has sped up. In a way, it was easier with Maggie; it was so clear she needed me to let her go. With Ginger, it's a lot harder to tell when it's time. And we have been together for eight years now. But she crossed a line about two weeks ago and has been markedly worse the past few days. It's time.

So. I was going to work on catching up with things here this weekend but now my plans have changed. After Saturday, this will be the first time since I was 20 that I won't have a pet to come home to. It's going to be a big adjustment.

I'll be back some time next week.

--the CilleyGirl

Either incredibly boring, or incredibly illuminating. Or neither!

2011-12-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Perhaps you're wondering just why the CilleyGirl vanishes from the face of the earth twice a year, most notably during the month of December. Perhaps you're not! Oh well, you can please all of the people some of the time or some of the people all of the time or tickle ferrets with your toes.

So anyhow, I thought I'd try to convey an idea of what it's like around here.

First, the big deadline at this time of the year is designated by statute as December 31. Given how the weekend and the New Year's holiday falls this year, that is extended to January 3, 2012.

In mid October, I start thinking about year end.

At the beginning of November, I start pointing out that I am thinking about year end.

By Thanksgiving, we really need to get our asses in gear.

Hopefully by December 1 we are ready to start preparing for the year end deadline.

All around and through this, my boss is talking about how he wants to do things differently this year, implement some grand new scheme, blah blah blah. To sum up: He wants to fix what's not broke and take as long as possible to perhaps notice that.

This year we started prepping around December 15. In other words: Really fucking late. Plus the other full time employee in my office was fired. Yippee!! (those are sarcastic explanation points).

Moving along. I have a spreadsheet with every active file in the state listed. For 2011, there are currently 942. For each of those files, here's pretty much what needs to be done.

Pull current year assessment data. We may already have this on file, or it needs to be looked up online or we have to call to get it.
Compare the current year to the prior year.
Summarize the most recent year's appeal with the outcome.
Summarize the number of units or square footage and the vacancy. Track down the information in filing if we have it, otherwise request from client.
Calculate income and expenses. Ditto on tracking down the paperwork.
Cap the income to determine a value.
Compare against any appraisals or sales. Ditto on tracking down the paperwork.
Give it the sniff test.
Make the call whether to appeal, to not appeal, or to pass it up to my boss for his call either way.
If appealing, draft the petition. Some times this means a trip to the copier.
Note the outcome on the master spreadsheet and route the filing back wherever it now needs to be.

942 times, I do this. The shortest time to do this is probably 10 minutes. On something new and/or complicated, it can take an hour or longer. Most fall into the 20 to 30 minute category. Thankfully each file does not take an hour because that would mean it would take more than 23 weeks to do this.

And I really can't stay awake for that long.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: After the review and preparing of any petitions, they have to be re-reviewed for completeness (i.e., are they signed) and then they are copied, logged, and sent out the door.

I really need a day off!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Poetry Monster

2011-12-28T14:00:00.000-08:00

I don’t want to be

Soft and flabby.

I want to be strong and lean.

I don’t want to be seen

As no lazy girl.

I don’t want to be lumpy, bumpy, or frumpy;

I want to be seen.

I want to scream

That I gleam

With good health

And a complete sense of self.

The way I should.

That’s how I want to be.

Where did December go?

2011-12-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

I tend to have a loose grip on the concept of time throughout the year thanks to my job and by the month of December all bets are off. I'm so focused on my year-end deadline -- officially December 31 but your mileage may vary due to how the holiday/weekend falls -- that I forget about every other date in December. Mainly, Christmas. Or Hanukkah, if you swing that way. Or whatever.

Anyhow. The fallout from the recent personnel change at work has not been so bad, at least from my perspective. Which is really the only perspective that counts, right? Seriously though. Do you work with -- or are you -- someone who, if they had to replace you, it would take more than one person to fill their shoes? Or, conversely, do you work with someone where you have a sneaking suspicion that their job could be done by a hamster on crack with ADD? So far, we've fallen somewhere in between.

I've found out about a few "WTF?? Why would you do things like that???" things where clearly the time, she was a'being wasted. I don't know if resulted from her taking over a convoluted process that she never changed to make more efficient or maybe she just liked reinventing the wheel on a regular basis, but there are some things..... I'm all about not wasting time, mainly because I am inherently lazy. I've got better things to do with myself. If I can do it faster, better, stronger, I will. Because I am the Six Million Dollar Woman. And because why on earth wouldn't you?

Maybe it's a consequence of the results-oriented work environment we have in this country. Where keeping your ass in your chair for forty hours a week is all that really matters. If TPTB were to find out it only took you 20 hours a week to do your job, you would't exactly advertise that. If you took you 60 hours a week to do your job, you would do things faster, right? If you had to fit it all into 40 hours, I mean. Is this making any sense? Long story short (too late!), my uninformed opinion is that about 20 hours worth of work a week was being stretched into an average of 45. I still don't know where or how we're going to squish that extra 20 into the rest of our work lives but it is better than 60.

It still leaves me shaking my head, though.

Well, as I said I'm focused on getting through to January 3. Odds are not looking good that I will make the January 1 resolution runs. So far, I'm not sad about that either. It's been fairly chilly here in the PNW lately. I'd rather catch up on my sleep under a nice, toasty down comforter :)

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Whatta Monday

2011-12-12T16:41:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to stay awake through my last hour or so at work so I thought I'd pop in here. I'm sleepy because of the benedryl, and I took benedryl because we got our office Christmas tree (or winter solstice bush, if you prefer) yesterday and I am allergic to evergreens. Good thing I live in the Pacific Northwest, you're saying? Yeah, outside trees don't bug me (except in high pollen season) unless I rub one all over me. Then that's bad. But inside there's a lot less air and too much pollen/tree/mold/whatever. Around 3:00 I started wheezing and I don't have my inhaler with me (note to self: bring inhaler to work tomorrow) so I dug some little pink pills.

And now I'm not as wheezy or snorfelly (that's a word, really) but I'm ready to pass out on my keyboarrrrrrrrrrrrrdrfsdasfdasdflkaoie ,mna,mncliux,kanlkldlkja.

Friday we had a lovely shakeup at work. This is a really small office. My boss, another attorney who works part time, me doing legal work full time, an office manager full time, a part time bookkeeper, and a secretary/data entry/file clerk/receptionist who is a temp and works a little less than full time.

Ten minute after getting here on Friday morning, I am now the only full time employee. We no longer have a business manager. The plan to divide up her job duties? There isn't one. "We're just all going to pitch in a little." Because, you know, she didn't do anything actually important and vital that we might want to make sure keeps getting done on a regular basis or anything.

And no, I still have yet to sit down with my boss to discuss being compensated for the last three people that left and I absorbed a big chunk of their jobs. Now there's four. Bah.

And being the type of person who prefers to have all the trains run on time, I'm stepping up to herd the various cats around. I guess I don't have to; I'm not obligated and I could just let it all blow up to hell. But I know that that would cause me infinitely more stress in the long run. Better to be my responsible self and try to make sense of this all.

But I WILL get paid for this. Dammit.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Awesome Body Plan update!

2011-12-07T13:58:00.000-08:00

Here's the plan so far....

~~1. Make appointment with allergist to get the good drugs to make the sinus problems all better.~~

This one is all done! I went to the allergist's office today and we talked about exactly what symptoms I've been having. I'll be on a course of antibiotics but also on a heavier round of prednisone. I'm having less problems with mucous and more with inflammation and the prednisone targets the inflammation. Probably going to get a CT scan in 2012 to figure out if there is more than can be done -- maybe surgery -- to stop these sinus infections!

2. Make appointment to visit prospective gym(s).

Not yet, but I got a call out of the blue while I was at the allergist's today from my former gym. They're offering me $29.99 per month for a year to come back -- I was paying $65 a month before. It'd be $39.99 per month after that on a month to month. I do like having the indoor track, it's a convenient distance from the house and office, and I doubt I could beat the price at the other places I was looking at. The other places are much nicer but ideally my old gym will someday finish that remodel.... I may just end up going back to these guys.

3. Tour prospective gym(s).

See above.

4. Sign up with gym.

I'm going to pull the trigger on the old gym by next Friday. Then I can cross three things off my list!

5. Rid kitchen of grains, legumes, and processed sugar.

I threw out the leftover brownies last night. I have peanut butter but I never really eat peanut butter anyhow; maybe I'll bring that in to the office for somebody else to eat it. That leaves just one hamburger bun (to be eaten tonight) and a few english muffins (this weekend's breakfast). Then I think I'm all purged...

6. Create workout plan to build base mileage back up.

7. Decide if I want to do marathon or half marathon training for the first half of 2012.

I am signed up for the Portland Rock 'n Roll Half next May. I still hope to do the Marine Corps Marathon in October 2012. Starting to lean towards signing up for the half marathon training....

8. Sign up for either marathon or half marathon training for the first half of 2012.

9. Implement base mileage plan.

10. Start marathon or half marathon training.

11. Take Vitamin D and fish oil supplements.

I started doing this again this week. I really think it helps my mood to be a little sunnier...

Stay tuned!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

The CilleyGirl with the CilleyPlan

2011-12-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

I thought I should start writing down the steps I need to take to accomplish my 2012 Awesome Body Plan. Let's see....

1. Collect underpants.
2. ???
3. Profit.

Oh wait, that's the underpants gnomes' business plan. I need an Awesome Body Plan.

Okay, let's try this....

1. Make appointment with allergist to get the good drugs to make the sinus problems all better.

This one is all done! I go in tomorrow at lunch time. Gimme prednisone baby, yeah!

2. Make appointment to visit prospective gym(s).

3. Tour prospective gym(s).

4. Sign up with gym.

5. Rid kitchen of grains, legumes, and processed sugar.

6. Create workout plan to build base mileage back up.

7. Decide if I want to do marathon or half marathon training for the first half of 2012.

8. Sign up for either marathon or half marathon training for the first half of 2012.

9. Implement base mileage plan.

10. Start marathon or half marathon training.

That's all I got so far. What do you think?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

She stirs, she scores!

2011-12-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

I made turkey broth from Ollie's carcass and then cream of turkey soup yesterday. Absolute home run on both!

Can you see the specks of soup between her eyes and on her nose?

Gigi says "Yum!"

I ended up not using a recipe so much as a formula. The basic formula is four parts broth to one part heavy cream; I used half and half. Before adding the liquid, melt four tablespoons of butter and mix in four tablespoons of flour. If you want a thicker, richer soup, add three beaten egg yolks to the butter/flour mixture. This I didn't do. Salt/pepper/spice to taste; I added kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, parsley, garlic salt, and chicken bouillon granules. Except for the pepper, it was about three tablespoons of each. I tripled this recipe, so adjust your quantities accordingly or to your taste. It also wasn't as thick as I wanted -- I wanted it to coat the spoon but not stick to the spoon -- I added about six additional tablespoons of flour mixed with some water. That came out to the perfect consistency for me. Oh, and I added about three cups of chopped turkey, both dark and light meat, once the soup was the consistency I wanted. Overall, extremely tasty although maybe just a tiny tad too salty -- I think I could've done with a tablespoon or two less bouillon -- but I would definitely make this again. And I made so much soup and broth that I can freeze a good portion of it. Yippee!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Fondling Ollie

2011-12-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

So. Thanksgiving.

Ollie turned out fine but I did not like the sugar and spice rub I tried. The cloves, the nutmeg -- just the wrong tastes in my mind.

Here is naked Ollie. Sadly, he came with his own bondage gear so I didn't get to tie him up myself.

This is the sugar/salt/spice rub that I rubbed into a naked Ollie. While not so good on turkey, it'd be find on say dessert.

Ollie, after he's been rubbed down and wrapped in saran. I kept walking around all morning, saying "He's dead, wrapped in plastic" in that Twin Peaks accent. Remember that? Pretty hard to avoid Twin Peaks when you live in the Pacific Northwest.

He may not have tasted like I expect a turkey to taste, but he sure came out pretty. And he was moist. Today I took his stripped down carcass and made broth. And that smelled like turkey should. Tomorrow I make cream of turkey soup from scratch. Yum!

Gigi is doing better. The night I wrote about how she was in mourning, we took a walk to the mailbox and then we went for a long car ride. She sat in the back seat with a huge doggy grin on her face the whole ride. Even when I left her in the car for about 20 minutes while I got some sushi, she was so happy just to be out and looking around with new sights and new smells. We've had a few digging incidents this week but not every night and not as bad. Today we've been hanging out and petting each other. She's keeping my toes warm right now.

I've been thinking about goals for the new year. I'll do a formal recap in January but I know that I sucked at meeting my goals for 2011. And I'm finally starting to get the running bug again. I haven't had it since the marathon, and when I realized that Gigi was sad about Maggie being gone I also realized that I've been very sad too. It was the day after the marathon that she crossed the bridge, so the timing makes sense. While I don't want to be out in the cold and wet right now -- I've got a wicked squared to infinity sinus infection again, almost enough to send me to urgent care today -- I'm starting to plan for 2012. I'm leaning heavily towards signing up with a marathon training program through Fit Right Northwest, a local running store. It's a great bargain in my opinion, $120 for 20 weeks, two in person training sessions per week. It would run from the end of January to the middle of June, culminating in the Vancouver USA Marathon.

In conjunction with that, I'm planning to sign up with a gym again by the middle of this month. I would need to back into running three times a week by the end of January, in order to avoid a recurrance of a stress fracture. The gym I'm looking at also has a nice selection of group classes, with ones that I would want to take at the times I would want to take them -- in other words, at o'dark thirty.

I know I say this every year, but I am really sick of being fat. I know the goals I have in mind for my body. I want to to be lean and strong and muscular. I want to have control over what I can do. I'm not going to do that by doing nothing, or even doing a little. I've got to make what is likely to be a big change; the little ones that build on each other don't work for me. I tend to forget why I'm doing what I'm doing. I need to go cold turkey on my life in order to make a new one.

But more on that later.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Woof. And gobble.

2011-11-29T14:45:00.000-08:00

Did you know that pets can mourn?

I knew this but have never experienced it until now. It's been about six weeks since we lost Maggie and today I finally realized that my poor Gigi bear is in mourning.

I didn't notice for a while because at first she didn't seem to realize Maggie was gone. Or if she realized it, she didn't seem to care. She ate a little less but I figured that was because she didn't need to chow down right away lest somebody else eat it for her. And she didn't have somebody else's bowl of food to chow down on either if they hadn't finished it all right away.

Not long after Maggie was gone, Gigi discovered how lovely her singing voice is in the wee hours of the morning. Yes, eight o'clock is wee! I realized today -- at around 3:00 a.m. when she woke me up -- that she's gradually starting singing earlier and earlier.

She's also been tearing up the area rugs into a pile. First it was just one time, now it's several times during the night. The past few nights I've had to come down and lay on the couch with her in the early hours to settle her down. It's now escalated into the same behavior as when fireworks go off. This morning I found her waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, then she made like she was ready to head out the front door with me, wherever I was going.

I thought about all that and realized: My doggie is in mourning.

So now what? There are actually several sites with some good recommendations on dealing with a mourning pet. Thankfully they all say don't go out and get a new pet to replace the lost one. I'm just not ready for that.

One thing I noticed in the recommendations is to change up your dog's routine, like taking them for more walks or walks to new places. Unfortunately, Gigi can't go very far any more but I did realize that whereas I had been taking her on daily walks to the mailbox every day I'd stopped doing that about two or three weeks ago when the weather turned crappy. After that was right about the time her behavior started to deteriorate. I think we'll do some car rides too, just to be out doing something different.

In other news, I do have a thanksgiving recap planned but there are pictures and I haven't downloaded them yet. Soon. I know you're all dying to hear about the Ollie fondling.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Gobbledygook

2011-11-21T11:53:00.000-08:00

Howdy everyone! Did you have a fabulous weekend filled with fun stuff?

Yeah, me neither. Laundry, bills, grocery shopping.

Yep, yesterday I pilgrimaged to the store to find a bird to sacrifice to the gods of haute cuisine. Or, in my case, hot cuisine.

Ha ha! I crack myself up sometimes.

Sometimes? Who am I kidding? All the times.

Anyhow, my fridge now holds a 12ish pound free range turkey. Not so free anymore though, are ya? In more ways than one: Ollie was a $1.99 a pound.

Why Ollie? Because everyone names their turkey Tom. And Ollie lends itself so well to post-feast rhymes. Like "Goodness gracious golly, delicious was ol' Ollie!" And, um, "We've eaten Ollie, now let's put up some holly!"

Whatever. I'm much better with limericks.

I'm flying solo this holiday and am looking forward to it. You know, with family you get (hopefully) good food but all the attendant drama. If you go to friends you tend to get better company but the food may not be right. Like if they only serve stuffing, no mashed potatoes. Or no black olives with which to decorate your fingers. Or other weird stuff; everybody's got their Thanksgiving quirk. Plus, you get their drama.

So, on my own.

I'm usually pretty basic with the bird -- garlic, butter, sage -- but I think this year I will try a sugar-and-spice-cured turkey recipe that I found. It means I'll have to get up a normal hour (i.e., before noon) to feel up the bird with various sugar and spices but then I can have breakfast and still be hungry for dinner. As you may have suspected, my holiday weekend shopping included the fixin's for eggs benedict. Because I can.

My other Thanksgiving staples are mashed potatoes with giblet gravy and rolls. That's it. I've never been into stuffing since my parents always put in the evil onions and celery (ugh!). My stepdad hates cranberry sauce so while we'd usually have that jelly kind straight out of the can for my mom, I never got into that either. Sometimes there would be one of those green bean casseroles, but usually we just had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and rolls. I'm not even doing a pumpkin pie this year; I've had a craving for apple and you can get away with having that for breakfast (or pre-breakfast, as the case may be) so I don't feel horribly guilty if I eat the whole pie over the course of the long weekend.

I've decided not to do a Thanksgiving run this year. The weather forecast is for SUCK and I'm pretty sure my sinuses are rotting from the inside out. Being out in the cold and wet holds no appeal for me right now. I've been mainlining Vitamin C, trying to hold on to whatever level of health I'm at right now.

Any turkey day plans out there you want to share?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Wednesday Ramblings

2011-11-16T15:53:00.000-08:00

I HATE - Snorfling. I am so tired of sniffing and sneezing and being stuffed up. I had that flu thingy which of course turned into a sinus infection as they always do, but now I seem to be getting a cold on top of it all. Do I really need sinuses?

I HATE - People who copy or print the same damn thing over and over and over. Our office motto is "Death to trees!"

I LOVE - That I am obligated to sing along and dance whenever "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" comes on the radio. I can't not do it. I also picture that cat food commercial that used that song in my head.

I HATE - The fact that I have a cellular phone that is great for everything but making and receiving phone calls.

I LOVE - That my college boyfriend calls me every year on my birthday to wish me a happy one.

I HATE - That my stupid cell phone never lets me pick up his call to talk to him. I will defeat you, cell phone, just you wait.

I LOVE - That any Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, or Lindsey Buckingham song could be all about the relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. They aren't all about them. But they could be.

I HATE - Spending a whole bunch of time to find some useless piece of useless information and then, after conveying said information, am asked "What about the prior year?" Well, if you had asked me to find that out for the prior year I would have but you didn't. And it's a useless piece of useless information so who really gives a fuck?

I LOVE - Being able to indulge a bad mood. I'm being (fairly) nice and all on the outside, but inside my head is a different story. Muwahahahahaha!

I HATE - People who don't know how to do their jobs. I don't mean people who do things differently than I think they should be done, but those who have actual rules and stuff to their job that they either do not know about or don't feel like following. I work with a lot of government entities where there are laws about how they do things. Way too many couldn't care less about that, or that they are breaking the law. Although...

I LOVE -- Being able to point out that if they don't do their job I'm going to institute proceedings to have them fined a few thousand dollars for each incident of dereliction of duty. It's not often that I get to that, but there's no better way than to bring down some of these bitchy little power mongers in these tiny little counties.

I HATE - That feeling sick is making me so damn grumpy. And the weather isn't helping.

I LOVE - That David Bowie's "Changes" remind me of ninth grade homecoming and cute boys in gray tuxes with pink ties and cummerbunds. Good times.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

A Facebook Experiment

2011-11-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

Hello my cilley friends!

I'm doing an experiment through Facebook and would love to have your help. Yesterday I created one of those posts that has you list X number of people on your profile list. I want to see how far it travels. So if you see a post that starts "You are in a fairy tale" and then lists the seven dwarfs, Snow White, Prince Charming, and the Evil Queen, please leave me a comment saying when you saw it and how many times you saw it. I'm just curious to see how long it lasts and how many people pick it up.

Thanks!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Thursday Thirteen

2011-11-10T12:53:00.000-08:00

Haven't done one of these in a while...

1. Today I am wearing slacks that I haven't worn in several months because I figured they'd be too snug. They're the skinniest slacks I have and my other ones weren't fitting well so these would've had to be off the menu as well. Today they're a little loose, so yay, although I haven't really lost any weight. But I have noticed my clothes fitting better since I stopped marathon training. What's up with that?

2. The radio station I usually listen to at work started playing Christmas music yesterday. Bleah! No Christmas until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Heck, in my family it's typically no Christmas until December 17, this being because my Dad's birthday is December 16 and the habit kind of stuck out of deference to him. So I popped out the Pandora, looking for something peppy, something snappy. I was hoping for some classic rock, but somehow whenever I start out with that on Pandora it inevitably morphs into emo rock, like Creed and crap. Which Creed is fine and rocks and all but in an emo way. I decided to start instead with my boys, the Monkees, and go from there. MUCH better! Everybody's so happy in those songs and singing about it in three part harmony. Right now is a live version of "Here Comes the Sun." And it has, y'all. It has.

3. I don't think I'm going to do the Turkey Trot at the Zoo this year. For one thing, I just went to the zoo. For the other, packet pickup is such a hassle -- it's only on Wednesday and I have to try to fight my way over to the zoo and back during my lunch hour to do it. I do still want to run on Thanksgiving though so I may do the one in Tigard that morning instead. For that race, first 300 to register get a pie! And it's also only $25 and starts at 9:30. It's chip timed too. AND it's on my nemesis course in Cook Park. Hmmm....

4. I'm going to shill for Swagbucks again. Since I joined at the end of May, I have earned enough points for $50 worth of Amazon gift cards. That's free money people! I earn most of my points by using Swagbucks as my web search engine (it's hooked up with Google) and by surveys. It's so easy and you don't get flooded with spam, etc. for doing it. If you sign up, tell them cilleygirl (at) comcast (dot) net sent you.

5. I'm still pondering what I'm going to do for Thanksgiving itself. Been thinking about going up to the ranch, but it's a six hour drive each way and there may be snow in the pass. I'm checking with my bestie from high school who lives up that way to see if she'll be in town for the holiday weekend. If she won't be, then I probably won't go up there. The drive is really draining, especially if the weather is bad.

6. I love my job. Still working on a raise, but I do love my job. And I'm good at it.

7. Did you hear that couples are flocking to Vegas so they can get married on 11-11-11?

8. Students are rioting to protest the firing of Joe Paterno? I had no idea so many students were for facilitating child rape. Have they read the allegations? One of the assistant coaches reported he actually witnessed Sandusky assaulting a 10 year old kid IN THE PENN STATE SHOWERS. TEN YEARS OLD. You know what tips the scales on the rape of a child, is more worthy? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING. Least of all football. Get some perspective, you dumbfucks.

9. Sorry, but the whole failure to report sexual assaults on college campuses really pisses me off. Particularly since I have a vagina on me at all times.

10. And there is Herman Cain. Enough said. I'm still annoyed over the whole Clarence Thomas thing. I don't care about what anyone does legally with a consenting adult. But other than that. Sexual harrassment means this guy believes that women are worth less than men. Yes, please, I want that as my president. Gah.

11. Take a deep breath now. Okay, I'm trying to get back to your regularly scheduled programming. Here, check out this photo of child star Jonathan Lipnicki. Yowza! Reminds of Jerry O'Connell's transformation a decade or so ago. And that of Anthony Michael Hall. Remember when he turned up all buff in Edward Scissorhands?

12. The Muppets are coming!!! There, that makes me happier. I may have to go see that movie on Thanksgiving weekend.

13. Ambien also makes you run marathons. I speak from personal experience on that one.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Recap: The Big Day

2011-11-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

My 41st birthday was fabulous.

It was a perfect fall day. Temperature around 50 degrees, bright blue sky and sunshine.

I love fall.

It went exactly as I had planned. I slept in til almost noon then had my favorite breakfast, eggs benedict. Then I was off to the zoo!

With the temperature weather, just about everybody was out and about. Including at my very favorite exhibit at the Oregon Zoo, the otter!

I spent a good thirty minutes with this little guy. He was taking advantage of the sun to give himself a bath. He was scrubbing with his little paws and at the same time his little feet flippers were scrubbing away too.

Then he would wriggle around on his back for a while...

Then he would do flips, side to side and back to front. But don't take my word for it, see for yourself:

You'll notice that front to back flips apparently afford the best opportunity to clean the southerly regions. (Let me know if the video link doesn't work, this is my first time using YouTube.)

This guy is also known as the horny otter.

The polar bears were enjoying the sun.

As were the tigers.

It's always great when the animals are all out.

This was the first time I've ever seen this guy awake.

I can't decide if I like this shot or not. I was trying to get the giraffe's reflection in the pond but he's so damn tall it was tough to get it all until he obligingly bent down.

Now this shot I do like. This year's Christmas card!

I almost never take pictures of people that I don't know but the circumstances cracked me up. I was trying to get some pics of the goats and then this little girl comes running up to this goat yelling "Rawrrrr!" with her arms up. Her mom immediately chastised her (I was laughing) so the kid gets down to the goat and I took the shot. What makes the picture for me is knowing immediately what came before it.

The hippos were very obliging and I immediately felt the urge to diet.

I saw this little guy on my way out. It's a beaver, in case you can't tell.

The reason it may be hard to tell is because he has smashed his little nose and teeth right up against the glass of his tank as he's swimming for all he's worth. It was the funniest site. He'd do that for several minutes then he'd do a flip then smash back up against the glass and start swimming all over again. Not sure where he was trying to go but he was giving it all he had.

Now for the best part of the day.

My second favorite exhibit at the zoo is the lorikeets. That's a lorikeet I have for my profile picture here on Blogger. Here's a better look from an earlier visit:

The lorikeets live in an aviary that is open to people, meaning you go in and they're flying around. You can also buy a cup or two of nectar and feed the lorikeets. Normally you get two or three landing on you for the nectar. There weren't that many people in the exhibit and the guy who gave me the nectar said they were unusually hungry that day. He was not kidding.

On my birthday, I had at least twelve on me. At the same time.

It was fun at first and then it started to get a bit like a Hitchcock movie. Particularly when one landed on my shoulder and took a liking to the sapphire stud earring I was wearing. He decided he wanted it for himself and starts tugging at it. With his beak. Meanwhile I'm holding two little paper cups of nectar, one in each hand, with two to three birds sitting on each hand plus they're sitting on my forearms, shoulder, on top of my head, and on my chest. So I head over to the keeper inside the exhibit for some assistance before I lose part of my ear.

We get most of them off but one lorikeet -- dubbed Mr. Orange, I learned later -- got so excited by everything that he started making his way from my elbow up to my hand. With his beak. That rapidly began to resemble a pair of pliers pinching my bare skin. Luckily I was still with the keeper and she noticed my "ow.... Ow. OW!" and pulled up my sleeve and got him off me.

This is post-massacre. As you can see, I brought my boobs with me to the zoo. They split their own admission ticket.

Once I was all out of nectar and no longer the subject of birdie attentions, I noticed that my arm hurt quite a bit. I went back over to the keeper where we discovered that Mr. Orange -- the keeper told me "he's a little shit" -- had actually broken the skin in three spots. So off we went to get the first aid kit. One of the bites bubbled up quite nicely from the hydrogen peroxide. Eeek. This isn't the greatest picture, but here's the damage:

I had three spots where the skin was broken -- look for the red spots, the brown spots are moles -- two really good ones, and they all bruised up to the size of silver dollars. They've all scarred and the one closest to my wrist is still sensitive because he got the tendon and nerves right along the radius. It twinges every time I use the mouse.

I have to keep telling my mom that no, I'm not suing the zoo. Despite the wounds, I had a blast.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

The good news is, I don't completely have the flu.

2011-11-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

The bad news is, I don't completely have the flu.

My boss I'm sure was not thrilled that I followed up two days of birthday vacation almost immediately with two days of sick leave, but what can you do. Sore throat, wicked sinus headache, fever, chills, and aches. I won't come in with stuff like that, in part because I hate it when other people do and then I catch whatever they've got.

I'm starting to feel better although my sinuses keep choking me. Very happy tomorrow is the weekend so I can sleep another 20-plus hours. Overall, I guess it's a good thing I was healthy enough thanks to running that whatever bugs have been stalking me never fully got a grip.

Once I feel up to it, I'll be posting about my fabulous birthday and the not so fabulous (for me, at least) Runaway Pumpkin Half. I never wanted to drop out in the middle of a race so badly in my life and it was not the way I wanted to end my 2011 race career. Not sure what I'll do about the latter, I need to get healthy again first.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

I'd like to thank the Academy...

2011-10-31T13:33:00.000-07:00

I've been nominated!

I would like to thank the fabulous Ms. Kim at (Just) Trying is for Little Girls for nominating me for this bloggy award. It's been awhile since I've gotten an award so I was very happy to be a recipient. Even if I do think it's mostly out of revenge because I pointed out that she went to a crappy undergraduate institution that drools and is much too fond of sheep. (But I like her a lot anyway.)

The rules of this nomination are:
I get to tell you seven random things about myself as well as pass on the award to seven other great bloggers.

Nominees, in order to accept this award you must:

-Thank and link back to the person who awarded you
-Write seven random things about yourself.
-Award seven other awesome and inspiring bloggers.

Without further ado then, here we go.

1. My hair is naturally curly but when I was growing up straight hair was in and I hated it. (Both my hair and that straight hair was in.) I even got it permed once. Bad stylist for letting me do that. It turned out horribly. I went back to blow drying my hair straight and then curling it with a curling iron. What was I thinking? I've had a fabulous stylist for years now and my hair takes about three minutes to fix. I just blow it dry and it falls exactly into place.

2. I can't eat cream puffs due to a cream puff incident when I was a teenager. Being a latchkey kid and thus home alone for several hours every afternoon, I taught myself how to cook. First just food and then things like bread and so forth. One day I decided to make cream puffs. We had this Mexican vanilla that apparently was waaaaay stronger than normal vanilla. As in something like four times stronger. Which I didn't know. So I used too much and between the tasting of the filing and then eating some of the cream puffs I got soooooo sick. I've never had a cream puff since and just the idea of them turns my stomach.

3. I also did not know there was a difference between sugar and powdered sugar. Hey, I was about 12. My stepdad very bravely had a piece of the cake and frosting I'd made from scratch. He proclaimed it good, but crunchy. We tossed the rest.

4. I seem to be on a theme now. I also made cornbread from scratch. It was good but extremely dense. Like you couldn't swallow the piece in your mouth dense. It sat for a few days with only one piece gone and then we tossed the rest out of out to the dogs. And by tossed I mean threw out the kitchen window onto the deck about five feet below and 12 feet over. It bounced, with no pieces falling off. Our dog Katie picked up the whole thing (from an 8x8 pan) and then carried it around the backyard for about a half an hour, criss crossing her path to hide her scent, before finally burying it to save for later. We were in tears, we were laughing so hard.

5. And last but definitely not least, I never could master making biscuits. I think I kneeded the dough too much because no matter what I did they always turned out to be the consistency of hockey pucks. Which is what my stepdad started calling them right away -- "Hey, you made hockey pucks!" -- as I tried for a couple of months to get them to come out right. He would toss one down on the kitchen lineolum for the dog and she'd bat it back and forth across the floor until knocking it down the stairs, at which point she'd eat it. The dogs always loved it when I cooked.

6. Might as well stay with the food theme. I refused to eat cheesecake for years just on general principle. Is it cheese? Is it cake? Tell me! I finally agreed to try some when visiting family in New Mexico when I was about 15 and now it's one of my favorite things. My brother had the same objections and the same reaction when I talked him into trying some.

7. I have a rule about birthday cake: If it is your birthday, you must have cake. I don't mean that literally. I won't force you to eat cake or anything. But I think you should have your favorite treat on your birthday. If you want baby peas, have baby peas. If you want chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and no filling unless it's chocolate, that's the kind of cake you should have. Nothing is worse than someone getting you a crappy birthday cake. So this should mean that as I head off to my office birthday lunch, there should be chocolate cake. With chocolate frosting. And no filling. Unless it's chocolate.

Now to pass on the fun. BUT since it was just my birthday and I am still of course the Empress I am changing it up a bit: If nominated, you have to list seven silly things about yourself. (Please note that if I've seen you do this already I won't nominate you again here, there were lots of folks that I find inspiring but that had already done this. Though if you want to tell me seven silly things about yourself....)

Ready, Set, Go!

- Heather at Will Run for Coffee
- Julie at Running on Purpose
- Michelle at Runn Princess Runn
- Julie D. at The Finish Line Diaries
- Meredith at Therapeutic Runnings of a Mom
- One Crazy Penguin!
- and... Michel at Baby Weight My Fat Ass

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Planning a Birth Day

2011-10-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

I might have mentioned that my birthday is this week. Did I mention it? Are you sure? Well, in case you missed it earlier, my birthday is this week. Thursday, to be specific. I'm a Scorpio to the core.

And in case I didn't mention it, my birthday is in two more days.

I've been planning out what to do on the day of my birth. I was born very early in the morning, and hopefully my mother will not be making good on her long-standing threat to phone me at the specific time, a la City Slickers. She's been saying she would since 1991 when the movie came out. So far, she's always fallen asleep before the golden hour.

Fun fact: Jayne Meadows was the voice of Mitch's mother in that movie. Did you know she was also married to Steven Allen?

I took Thursday and Friday off from work. Growing up, big tests were always scheduled right around my birthday. In college, it was always semi-finals. A few years ago I decided I never wanted to get up early on my birthday again so now I always take the day off. (It goes without saying that I also don't want to work on my birthday.) Last year when I turned 40 I took the whole week off.

The plan for my birthday is to sleep in. Then I'm going to get up and indulge in a big ol' plate of eggs benedict. I make an excellent eggs benedict.

Next I may go to the zoo. I was definitely going to go to the zoo, then I found out that the Annual Squishing of the Squash is on Friday. Except that (a) it's at 10:30 a.m., (b) there will likely be lots of ~~rugrats~~ children there as a consequence, and (c) it's supposed to rain on Friday. Thursday's weather is supposed to be nice (as it should be -- did I mention it's my birthday on Thursday?). So Thursday sounds like the better option, even if I miss the squishing of the squash. Unless I sleep in really, really late (totally possible), I think a trip to the zoo is on for Thursday.

Zoo grounds are open until 5:00 p.m. so getting there in the afternoon would perfect for the next part of the agenda: Sushi!! I realized I could again go to one of my favorite sushi places over in Beaverton for my birthday dinner. This will probably be solo; I tend to like solitude on my birthday. I ponder what I will do with myself for the next year, much more so than I do for New Year's Eve. My work schedule has made New Year's pretty much a null holiday for me. Besides, it makes more sense to contemplate your life on the anniversary of your birth, rather than on New Year's. Unless your birthday is on New Year's.

Speaking of birthdays, mine is this Thursday!

Likely I will take my sushi home with me to keep me company while I watch my latest DVD of Midsomer Murders. I do love a good death to counteract a birthday.

What is your must-do on your birthday?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Dreams of a Sub-Three Half

2011-10-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

Shh, don't tell, but my secret wish is for a sub-three hour half this Saturday.

It may remain a dream, at least for 2011.

Sunday Julie and I went out for a longish run. It was kind of a toss up as to how far we were going to go; five miles, six miles, and seven miles had all been bandied about. It would depend on the route we ran and how we felt. For me, this was the first run post-marathon.

We intended to go torture ourselves on Terwilliger. I only live a few minutes away so I was going to get to the meeting place first. Imagine my surprise when confronted with this.

It was Run Like Hell! Which I had not only completely forgotten was on Sunday but also that it would come that far up onto Barbur.* They didn't look exactly like this when I saw them but they did look awfully rough. That could be partly due to zombie costumes but I'm betting it was more to do with the fact that I saw them right about at mile eight after climbing up the long Barbur hill. It was also just shy of two hours into the race, so I was likely seeing a lot of runners like me.

I texted Julie of the problem and to meet me at the nearby Freddy's where we decided they probably wouldn't let us bandit even a small part of the race course, so we headed off to Sellwood Park to run the Springwater Corridor Trail. Where I really was not feeling it at all. Still with the pinched nerve issue in the hip, and fresh twinges in the latest suspected stress fracture site. The hip seems to sort itself out after about four or five miles and it was something I could run through this weekend (just didn't feel like putting myself through it for a training run). The potential fracture site is a tad more worrisome. I hadn't been having much of a problem with it for several days until I started to run. It works itself out after a short while, but afterwards was (and still is) fairly sore. My grand plan to do a few more races and to get a sub-three half before the end of the year may not materialize.

Well, if that's the case then so be it. It was a beautiful day to run on Sunday with a gorgeous view and great company. And a couple of guys -- completely not together -- who were running with their arms mostly down by their sides, palms just over their thighs. Who runs like that?

Maybe they were leftover zombies.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

*True story: At first I couldn't figure out what race would be coming that far up Barbur that I didn't know about. So I'm searching my brain (BRAAAAINNNSSS), saying to myself "What the hell?" And then it hits me -- it was Run Like Hell!

I don't wanna run but I do wanna RACE!

2011-10-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

I'm a little burnt out on actual training but I still want to run.

Well, maybe the first part isn't entirely accurate. I'm a little burnt out on getting up at the butt crack of dawn to run. It's dark and it's early. Really, really early. Times like this I wish I lived where it stayed light up super late all the time.

But then I'd probably have snow as a trade off.

Anyhow. While training is imperative in order to run a marathon -- so, you know, you don't get a stress fracture or anything -- it's a lot less important for shorter distances. Like 5Ks. Even kinda half marathons. At least when you're like me and slow as dirt and pretty much okay with that.

Yet I do want to race. In 2009, the first year I started running I ran something like 30 races. It was a lot. It was also expensive. I didn't run as many in 2010, only 15 races, partly because I had a lot less disposable income and partly because I was marathon training. And partly because I more or less quit running after the Eugene Marathon.

It's my story, I get to have three partys if I want to!

I also ran more races in 2010 than I might have otherwise because I was part of a running league (and I won my division so neener!) and they counted as points. This year, I haven't done many races at all, again due mainly to money and marathon training. As the long runs get longer, I find it hard to race at the same time. My good intentions to race say 3.1 miles and then finish out the balance of the run afterwards never work out.

Now that training is done, and given the fun I had at the Portland Marathon, I've got the racing bug again. Still no money but we've all got challenges to overcome. So, piggybank permitting, I'm thinking about finishing out my year with some of these:

Nov 24 - ORCC Turkey Trot 4 miler

Nov 26 - Winter Wonderland of Lights

Nov 28 - Hot Buttered Run 5K

Dec 3 - Ridgefield Holiday Fun Run 5K

Dec 4 - Jingle Bell Run 5K

Dec 11 - Holiday Half

Out of these, I definitely will be doing the Turkey Trot at the Zoo. The rest, I may just flip a coin. I looked at doing the Ridgefield Holiday Fun Run last year, I did their Fourth of July run in 2009 and it had a great atmosphere. Plus it's seriously cheap -- $15 with a canned food donation. I think that includes a shirt.

Anything coming up on your race calendar I should know about?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

I Am a Crazy Person

2011-10-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I learned about the Runaway Pumpkin Half. I thought it looked like a lot of fun and all the cool kids were doing it but money has been a huge issue in recent weeks plus I started having potential stress fracture thingies (technical term) a couple days after the Portland Marathon so I put the race out of my mind.

As it turns out, completely out of my mind. Last night I was texting with the Fruit Fly about my birthday dinner and she reminded me that she was running the half that same day. I had forgotten about that race until she mentioned it, and then a little voice in the back of my mind said "you should run it." So after a couple of hours, I checked out how far the drive was to the race (about 90 minutes) and how much it was ($65). I was still thinking I'd pull the trigger a few days before the race, then I saw on the website that not only did registration close on October 25 but that you had to register by October 20 -- you know, that day -- to be guaranteed a shirt and a goodie bag.

I'm all about the shirt and the swag. Why else would I run a race?

So now I'm signed up. And so is the Fruit Fly and Kim (and her famous boobies!) and then Julie (who fixed her blog - yay!) texted me this morning to say she was in too. Rumor has it that 2012 will be the year of the half so I would say we're in a good position to do that...

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

The Birthday Countdown!

2011-10-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

In exactly one week it will be my birthday!

For the first time in a very long time, I am planning a birthday dinner for myself for next weekend. Usually my friend S just drags me out to buy me dinner.

It's somewhat of a challenge to arrange this dinner as some of my potential guests have different dietary needs/desires. Sushi appears to be definitely out. At least two are vegetarian so that precludes a juicy steak dinner. At least one is a dedicated carnivore like myself, although he's fairly strictly meat and potatoes whereas I'm slightly more adventurous. And then of course there is me, the birthday girl. Having my own dietary quirks I am sensitive to those in others. But I'm still going to eat at a place where I really want to eat.

Dinner is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October 29 at the Raccoon Lodge in Beaverton. If there are any readers in the area who want to come help me celebrate let me know and I will send you an invite when I firm up my plans.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Monday's Musings

2011-10-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

1. After a long, long week it was an uneventful weekend. I again slept a phenomenal amount on Saturday, getting up around 2:30 p.m. Ah, sleep, my favorite ~~avoidance~~ coping mechanism. It is getting more normal around the house, the Bear and I are settling into our own routine without the crazy dog. Bear has been moving around better, probably because a crazy dog isn't walking over her or knocking her down several times a day. We even played Tug of War, which is interesting with an old, somewhat crippled dog. It involves mostly her head and a lot of snarling and growling at each other. Ever arm wrestle a small child? It's a lot like that. But with more sound effects.

2. I'm wearing jeans today that I haven't been able to wear in several months. Yay for depression coupled with a lack of money and appetite.

3. I surfed some recipes yesterday trying to get myself interested in cooking (and eating) again. Made my very first tater tot casserole last night. It was very tasty. Not healthy, but tasty. Next weekend I'm going to make BBQ wings and drums. Perhaps with tater tot casserole.

4. I finally put some new bumper stickers on my car. One is the Run Oregon sticker from Foot Traffic that I've had for months and months. The others were ones I got at the marathon expo from One More Mile. I now have "26.2 Been There, Run That" and "Running is a mental game and we are all insane." Love that last one.

5. I'd like to run a half marathon between now and the end of the year but I don't want to actually train for one. Since I (a) am broke, (b) need to spend more time at the office as we get closer to December 31, and (c) I strongly suspect that I've developed a new stress fracture in my other leg I think I'm just going to have to go with the "It's good to want things" position and take some time off. Still planning to do the Turkey Trot and the First Run stuff though.

6. Now I feel really slow. Maybe I should race with a turban.

7. But not the beard.

8. Every once in a rare while I feel the need to peruse the blog of my ex-boyfriend's wife. Just to make sure I'm still winning. I am! One of his complaints about his first two marriages (we weren't married, FYI and thank god) was that his wives were all wrapped up in doing their own thing and he was on his own all the time, blah blah blah. If you read his current wife's blog you'd be hard-pressed to figure out that she actually has a husband what with all the activities and shit she does. Oh, and as time goes by the kid gets less cute. The universe, she has a sense of humor and I am laughing along with her. Sadly I just learned the wife was volunteering at one of the water stops during the marathon, under the Morrison Bridge. Damn, I could've accidentally thrown up on her or something. Then again, it's not her fault she's married to a dickhead.

9. Now I'm looking for blogs that celebrate singledom. Hmm, are there any? I'm thinking maybe not -- I mean, look at this article. It's all "Don't slit your wrists quite yet -- he's still out there waiting for you!!" What if you're not frustrated? What if you could give a shit about whether he's out there waiting? I wasn't born lacking. I am complete as I am. Ooh, this is good. Maybe I'm just a quirkyalone.

10. Yeah, I think that's it.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Running is FUN. Running a marathon is even FUNNER!!

2011-10-12T16:56:00.000-07:00

At first, I felt like I had to keep defending my marathon time. Yes, it was much slower than my Eugene time. I was pacing a friend, that's why.

As if I needed to justify my time.

You know what? I don't.

I had lost sight of the fact that when I signed up for the Portland Marathon, it was because I made a promise to a very bestest friend: I will help you beat your 2010 time.

And that's exactly what I did.

Know what else I did?

I had an abso-fucking-lutely fabulous time doing it.

I realized this morning that I couldn't remember the last time that running had been fun.

Once we got started -- and don't get me started about how they put us in the walkers' corral. I love people walking a marathon. I totally do. I just don't want to dodge and weave around them for the first two miles, which added almost a half a mile to our race distance -- it was fun. I felt great. (If we ignore the whole Ultima drink debacle.) My first time running pain free in WEEKS.

There were portapotty stops. Just look at my Garmin stats:

Average Pace Per Mile: 16:10.
Average Moving Pace Per Mile: 14:44.

If we hadn't had to make all those potty stops -- almost 45 minutes worth of time. Our last three miles were faster than our first three miles. Isn't that awesome?

There were lots of bands on the course and neither of us was running with music. Which meant I sang. A lot. Particularly from after the St. John's Bridge, meaning in the last eight miles I was being completely silly. One band started playing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" as we went by. I sang almost the entire thing. Even though we couldn't hear the band anymore. I did YMCA with arm movements. I made up lyrics; Wheels on the Bus is an immortal classic the way I sing it. We even did the Jaws theme at one point. It seemed appropriate at the time.

And above all, I had fun which is how it should be. And Julie got her PR, which is how that should be. Next year I'm still aiming for the Marine Corps marathon and maybe I'll do Vancouver USA in June since I had to sit it out this year. Those races, I can have my own time goal.

But it's almost better to run for your friend's goal.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

From the Highest High to the Lowest Low

2011-10-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

I ran the Portland Marathon on Sunday. Despite getting sick from the course's electrolyte drink and not figuring that out until around mile 15, I had a great time. And I invented ten new refrains to the song Wheels on the Bus.

I came home from the race to learn that my dog had relapsed. Monday morning, my sweet baby crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

I love you, Maggie.

T Minus 1 and Counting

2011-10-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

Got my bib, shirt, etc. One More Mile was there are the expo, I picked up a new tech tee that I might end up wearing tomorrow. On the front it says something like "I'm the reason you have someone to pass" and on the back it says "If you can read this I'm not last."

I think that sums it all up for me.

Saw Jeff Galloway and Frank Shorter there but didn't stick around for their talks.

RainWatch 2011: There is an 88% chance of rain at 5:00 a.m. that drops abruptly to only a 32% chance at 6:00 a.m. Overall they expect less than a tenth of an inch of rain so if luck holds we'll only get sprinkled on. They are forecasting 50 degrees at 6:00 a.m. and up to 60 by 2:00 p.m. but mostly cloudy. I am definitely wearing a short sleeve shirt tomorrow and probably will not wear the wrist gaiters. Sounds like the perfect running weather to me!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

The Marathon is Coming! The Marathon is Coming!

2011-10-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

Less than two days before the big event!! Who's excited? Are you excited? I'm excited!

RainWatch 2011. We're now up to a 70% chance of rain for Sunday. Oh wait, it's dropped to 60% since this morning! And only a 50% chance of rain by the afternoon. Since I will still be out on the course by the afternoon. Sounds like it will mainly rain in the morning. Just enough to soak us all by the start, I'm sure.

With that in mind, I stopped by the running store at lunch to try to pick up a small stick of BodyGlide. Which they don't carry, only the size I already have. Guess I'll be packing that along with me! I did pick up some blister sticker thingies, "for the prevention and treatment of blisters." I haven't opened the package yet so I don't know if I'll use them preemptively or not -- Don't want to put on something untested on marathon that might actually cause blisters. But if I knock on wood do develop them during the race, it will be nice to have them available.

I think I've figured out how to get to the race. I live in the perfect spot to zip downtown -- except for downtown races when they block off the streets between here and there. Looks like I should (a) be early enough that I'll be through there before they block the streets and (b) be able to go around the block if I need to. Then I just need to find parking in relation to the start. Parking is free on Sundays until 1:00 p.m. At which time I will still be out on the course.

At least 1:00 p.m. is better than the post-race party. Know what time that starts? 11:30. Guess where I will be at that time? Somewhere around mile 18. These people, they make-a me laugh.

I am too broke to do a pre-race dinner but it looks like I will be at the expo on Saturday around 11:30 and thereafter. If anyone wants to meet up then, email me at cilleygirl (at) comcast (dot) net and we can arrange to text. Or you can always tweet me at cilleygirlpdx. I usually see tweets in a somewhat timely fashion.

If you want to follow my progress, my bib number is 3608. The Portland Marathon site has a live tracking link. And did you hear? The Occupy Portland protestors have camped out in the parks where the race starts and ends. Political machinations are working overtime in Portland to solve the problems arising from that. One of the activists said that the protest is way more important than the marathon. Not to the marathoners it's not. The day after, sure. But not on Sunday.

So, goals. The A-plus-deluxe goal is to finish at 5:59:59. I'm....optimistic. That was what I hoped for when I signed up to run Vancouver in June. The B goal, at least for me, is to beat my Eugene finishing time of 6:26. Barring blisters and heat stroke, I can do that. The C goal is to finish in under seven hours. Barring decapitation and/or amputation, no problem! There is also something called "swinging the gate" that happens at 1:30 p.m. where they foist you onto an alternate route. I'd like to avoid that.

Let's call this the D goal...

All in all, to quote Julie today, we're going to do our best. Otherwise, popcorn.

Still with me? Good for you!

I never obsess -- unlike some flies I know *snerk* -- about my outfit for a race. If I were photogenic in the slighest, maybe I'd care. But I don't. Temperature regulation and prevention of pain, that's what I'm all about. I'm tempted to wear long sleeves because it will be in the 50s on Sunday but I always end up regretting that. So I'm sticking with my Eugene Women's Half marathon short sleeve and adding my wrist gaiters. We are supposed to have some wind on Sunday and I'm thinking in particular about the bridges and running next to the river. I hate having frozen hands during a race. My regular capris, shoes and socks and smelly hat will round it out.

And really, what more do you need?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Doggy Update

2011-10-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

We think she had a stroke some time between Monday night and Tuesday morning. She was worse last night when I got home, had a hard time keeping her feet under her and just basically zoned out. She was a little better this morning mobility-wise and when I checked on her at lunch she's gotten a tiny bit more of her personality back. But overall, it's like about 90% of my dog is just gone. She goes through the motions like she knows she's supposed to be doing this things -- eating, expelling waste, sleeping -- but she doesn't remember why. Hopefully she will continue to improve but unless it's a dramatic improvement I won't leave her like that with no quality of life.

Some hard decisions to make in the next several days.

--the CilleyGirl

On Alaska, Rain Watch 2011, Krab, and My Dog Plays (?) Dead

2011-10-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

So.

Alaska. I keep having this urge to move. Not like move into a new place here in Portland. More like move to Alaska. I have no idea why. Okay, I do have an idea why, right now: Northern Lights was on TV recently and now I'm re-reading the book. If you have actual literary taste and don't know what I'm talking about, Northern Lights is a book by Nora Roberts that takes place in a tiny Alaska bush town called Lunacy. I try to catch it when it's on TV because, as I mentioned recently, I'll watch Eddie Cibrian read the phone book. Plus this was the movie where they met and had they affair and now country music fans think she's the Antichrist. Or Antichristess. I get those mixed up.

Anyhow. Alaska.

I've always wanted to move to a small town somewhere. Not necessarily Alaska. Remember that Julia Roberts' movie where she's the battered wife and she fakes her death to get away and then moves to a small town in somewhere like Iowa? When I saw that movie, I wanted to move there. Just something about that small-town atmosphere -- at least how it's portrayed in stage and screen -- appeals to me. It could be that the town is so small that people HAVE to be friends with me. Because in a town with lots of people to choose from.....

Rain Watch 2011. It's on like Donkey Kong. Thank you so much, Portland weather, for deciding to be fall THIS week. So far, Sunday calls for a 50% chance of showers. I don't mind the rain except for how that's the only time I've gotten blisters from running. I think I'll just BodyGlide the entire inside of my shoes. And maybe pray. Because there are no atheists with blisters. Or something like that.

Krab. I've been trying to get away from the dreaded carbs for breakfast. Stupid bagels. I thought to go back to shrimp in the mornings but turns out the bag of shrimp I had had freezer burn and no longer tasted anything like shrimp. More like water soaked curlicues of flesh. Not even cocktail sauce could save it. I'm on such a miniscule budget right now that I was writing down what I was spending for each item on my shopping list. The big thing of fake crab? Less than $7.00 and enough for five days worth of breakfasts. Provided I don't nibble on it in the evenings. Mmm, fake crab, just like my caveman ancestors used to eat. If they had a surimi plant and Red Dye No. 5.

My Dog Plays (?) Dead. In the long process of waking up this morning, I noticed my dog wasn't in bed with me. I figured she was downstairs doing some sort of mischief. Found out when hitting the snooze alarm for the first time that she was laying on top of the hope chest (she jumps on that to get into the bed). She woke up but just lay there all while I was getting ready. She came downstairs shortly after I did but got up on the couch and just lay there too. Not even coming in for canned dog food. Her nose was wet and cold so beats me what's up. Maybe I'll have a dead dog when I get home. Yes I'm morbid but sheesh she's nearly 16 1/2 now. She's had a good life. Every day is like a bonus.

And on that note.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

You may be tired of the police blotters...

2011-09-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

But this one is the "best of" from the town in which I work. Favorite entry: "4/28/10 7:57 p.m. An angry looking crowd of people and dogs were seen heading up Country Club Road in apparent hot pursuit of somebody. They turned out to be a runners club."

See? Actual running content!!

The rest is pure Lake Oswego.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be

2011-09-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

That represents the only song I ever learned to play on a piano with both hands.

More fun news stuff (Because I got nothing else. Except for the tale about the big chunks I ripped out of my fingers yesterday that are now getting fairly ookily infected. And who wants to hear about that?):

"For a fish, it's a pretty big deal." Favorite quote: "We don't spend that much time underwater observing fishes." Liar!!

Did you know people are all anxious to immigrate to states like Alabama, Indiana, and Utah? I get the first if you're really into football, the second if you're really into basketball, and the third if you're Mormon. But otherwise? Really?

Sadly we can't pass laws about U.S. citizens all wanting to move to Portland. Go away! We're trying to stay weird here.

Is this pissing anybody else off?

"He says he has no hard feelings about the shark..." Favorite quote (other than that one): “I have a 5 year old son who is already dealing with the fears of shark attacks and seeing this ad will only add fuel to the fire." Gotta hope she doesn't see the link above about fish using tools ("Mommy! I dreamt that Nemo was coming after me with a chainsaw!")

Ooh, it's after five o'clock!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Smoked Salmon Schmear

2011-09-28T16:11:00.000-07:00

Say that ten times fast!

Yes, my meals today have all been fully paleo. If my caveman ancestors lived in a strip mall with a Starbucks, a McDonald's, and a Noah's Bagels, that is.

I was up early this morning to drive down to Salem to a court proceeding (for our office, not me personally -- I am pure as the driven snow ya know), in the car by 7:30 a.m. Shut up, it's early for me; I work four minutes from my office and often get up a little after 8:00 to be in the office around 8:30. Anyhow, I made it all the way to downtown Salem.... at which time I got a call from my boss that our motion to postpone the trial had been granted. I hung a U-turn and drove all the way back to L.O. Yippee.

(Kim -- I saw a hot air balloon outside of Keizer and thought of you. Did you see me waving at you all the way from Salem?)

To get completely random, I've got a question for you all. Around here, there is much talk about who should foot the bill when search and rescue efforts are sent out for people who get lost or into trouble climbing Mt. Hood. Usually in the winter and much too often after ignoring weather reports. Many people think there should be some sort of reimbursement or else mandate GPS tracking devices, etc. Anyhow, the news about the release of the American hikers jailed in Iran got me wondering if there is a corollary there. As in, if you hike in or near a place like Iran, do we have to spend tax dollars to get your ass freed? I mean, I had sympathy for their being imprisoned and all but they couldn't have picked somewhere else to hike? Really?

Just so you don't think I'm totally heartless, here are some touchy-feeling news stories for you.

Family owned businesses thriving in Beaverton.

Stay in school, yo. And put sex education back in the curriculum. With the actual facts.

Snip snip kitty!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Or, caveat emptor.

Who was shooting the video for YouTube?

(okay, so those last two weren't all that touchy-feely)

I want to be a police officer in Alaska.

And even better, there's an article about the officer who writes the Unalaska police blotter.

Now I must go read the back issues of the Unalaska police blotter. It's been a long day.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Bits 'n Pieces of Monday

2011-09-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

I was going to call this "Bits 'n Pieces o'Monday" but that seemed way too damn cutesy.

So. How was your weekend? Most of my weekend was spent in a post-long run hangover with touches of migraine. Meaning the first part of my weekend was spent running 18 miles.

I'll use the phrase "running" loosely. The first six miles was more of a limping lurch as my right leg just did not want to get with the program. I wanted to quit every single second of those first six miles. Thankfully Julie was there and she kept me from quitting, because right at end of that first loop everything literally fell into place and the pain went away. Well, the piercing, shooting pain from the back/hip issues went away. I still had the "I'm running 18 miles" issues to deal with. Despite that and the sun emerging from the lovely fog -- we loved the fog, it had that cool wet breeze on your face thing going on -- we were running the last few miles about four minutes faster than the first few.

After all of that joy plus a nap, I spent the rest of the weekend holding down my couch and catching up on television. Some interesting stuff in the new season:

- Prime Suspect. This U.S. remake was really good. I love British crime dramas and Helen Mirren but the one episode I watched of the British version I didn't like. The U.S. one held my interest. Definitely going to keep watching this.

- The Playboy Club. I was bored and it was On Demand. Plus I'm a sucker for Eddie Cibrian. I'd watch him read the phone book. Particularly if he were shirtless. I was so sad when they killed off his character rather than that fuckwad Eric Delko on CSI: Miami. Anyhow. The representation of the era was nifty and it was pretty cool to see the guy die by bunny stiletto. Heel, that is. Oh, and the secret lesbian bunny is portrayed as a seriously girlie girl and it was good they bucked that stereotype. But on the whole? I'd watch it if there were nothing else on. For Eddie Cibrian, mainly.

- Supernatural. I'd heard they were killing off Castiel this season and SPOILER ALERT they did. Sort of. I keep thinking I should stop watching this show and I never do. I have a feeling that TPTB might be thinking the same thing and that this might be its last season.

- CSI: The Mothership. I absolutely love the casting of Ted Danson. I didn't think I didn't like Laurence Fishburne on CSI last season, but after seeing Ted Danson I realized I did. I really did mind. Glad he's gone.

- CSI: Miami: Please please please KILL ERIC DELKO. Beat him to death with Tony DiNozzo if you have to, but HE MUST DIE.

- Glee. It was meh. There may be sharks underfoot.

- The Good Wife. I've never watched this one before. I liked it.

- Harry's Law. Still an awesome show. Just hope it doesn't spiral downward into WTF??ness like every other David E. Kelley show I've ever seen.

- The Mentalist. SPOILER ALERT. Red John lives! Can't say I was terribly surprised. Still hoping that what's his name -- the guy who started out heading up the CBI, who was the slimy President on 24 -- turns out to be Red John. Gregory Itzin, that's his name.

I think I'm done for now. Anything good on your TV that I'm not watching? Anybody like this season's Biggest Loser?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Thirteen Things Thursday

2011-09-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

1. I'm knocking on wood as I write this but I've been able to walk normally this afternoon for the first time in weeks. Seriously, I was thinking of becoming a professional John Wayne impersonator, the limp and lurch was just that bad. I hope this is the end of that mess. At least until after the Portland marathon.

2. Which is in 16 days.

3. I know I haven't trained enough for this race but considering that just two months ago I was still rehabbing a stress fracture I'm okay with that. Still hoping to beat my Eugene time of 6:26 and barring catastrophe (again, knock on wood) it's definitely doable.

4. After the Eugene Women's Half, I told Julie we needed a code word for really meaning it if one of us tells the other to go on ahead. Without the code word, the other person gets to drag, beat, and otherwise cajole your ass forward without mercy. I think the word will be "popcorn" because why else would you say that during a marathon?

5. I knew I was taking the day after the marathon off but had forgotten until this morning that I'm also taking the day after that off as well. Yay for foresight!

6. Migraines SUCK. The Excedrin Migraine worked for about an hour but now the headache is back again. I'd really rather be in a darkened room right now. Stupid sunny day and stupid office with lots and lots of windows and a view.

7. I really wish I had a way to notify all of the taxpayers of a particular county that their county counsel is wasting tons of their money just fucking with us. I swear she's doing is so that she can justify her continued employment. For example, in the court we work in you can't do formal discovery requests until discovery has been asked for and ordered. And she knows this. Yet she just served us with 30+ formal discovery requests, without an order of discovery. Bitch.

8. She also doesn't believe a trust can own property. That's going to come as quite a surprise to the zillion people who have set up trusts and transferred ownership of their property to them. Dumbass bitch.

9. I've never watched Portlandia. Should I?

10. I can't believe the fall TV season has already started. I used to start preparing weeks in advance, even making a spreadsheet so I'd know what shows to watch when, what shows to tape, etc. Back in the VCR days you had to coordinate in order to tape stuff. I did watch the reboot of Two and a Half Men. I didn't think it was any better or any worse than with Charlie Sheen -- I do like Chuck Lorre's stuff as it is. The Dharma and Greg cameo (a Chuck Lorre show) did make the whole episode worth watching though. The Charlie Sheen roast was pretty good. Mike Tyson was fabulous in it, and there's a phrase I never thought I'd say. I mean, the man even made an Iliad/Homer joke. And it was funny.

11. I was just talking with our bookkeeper about whether I needed to take a vacation day for my jury service or if I would get paid. I came across this in my research. I admire the responder's self-control; my response would have started with "You are an idiot, sir." And I was just commenting on how sometimes courts do run out of jurors. Imagine just walking down the street and being summoned for jury duty.

12. Back to television. I did watch The New Girl. I found it kind of meh. The singing to herself thing got real old real quick. I also caught most of 2 Broke Girls which I liked a lot better. As I've mentioned before, I typically cannot stand sitcoms so when I actually like one good for them. I may still not actually watch that one though; the only sitcom I watch with any regularity (that's not in syndication and on when I'm making dinner) is The Big Bang Theory and that's only been in the past year. I think it's because most sitcoms involve somewhat mundane situations where it would be resolved in two seconds if only people would talk to each other. The more absurd situations -- the Murphy Brown turkey episode comes to mind as well as anything Sheldon ever does -- are the ones I'll bother to watch.

13. Folks are talking about the Run Away Pumpkin Half Marathon on October 28. Hmmmm......

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Whimsical Wednesday: Alive and Tap Dancing

2011-09-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

Because I'm just not quite kicking but I got the rhythm in me.

Or something like that.

Anyhow. Hi! It's been a somewhat sucky and busy several days. Let's recap.

Saturday I slogged through a painful run. Still had the pinched nerve issue. I'd run a couple of miles and then it either went numb or the nerve pain went away and then I could run fine for a couple of miles. Then my whole right buttcheek would turn into one big muscle cramp. The nerve pain was tolerable, the muscle cramp not so much. So we'd walk for a while until it released then the nerve pain started again. Lather, rinse, repeat. After the third round of this I didn't think the cramp was going to quit so we walked for a while as I debated whether or not I was done for the day.

Which is when I noticed the searing pain in my left foot. See, all of the foregoing was in the rain. Which on the whole I don't really mind, because there is always a point where you're not going to get any wetter so who cares? Except that it was wet enough to get my shoes wet and I didn't think it was going to rain in the morning so I hadn't put any Bodyglide between my toes. If you've been following me for a while, you know that I've only had blisters once while running and that was when my shoes got wet. My big toe gets all up close and personal with my second toe and I get a blister in between the toes there. Not fun.

Shortly after I noticed the searing pain in my left foot, I realized it was likely because whatever blister had already popped. You just know when a body part feels like so much raw meat because it is. Ironically, the muscle cramp in my ass had let up by then so I felt like I could've finished out the 18 miles except for the whole hamburger-in-a-shoe thing I had going on. Y'all, it hurt even to operate the clutch in my car.

It was great trepidation that I took off that shoe and pulled down my sock to assess the damage. To my disgusted fascination, I found I had a balled up piece of skin the size of a pea hanging by a thread from my toe; that's what was pressing into the area of raw meat it came from and causing the searing pain. It was gross. I had developed a blister about a half inch long and at least a 1/16th of an inch deep. And the skin just isn't all that thick right there to start with so shudder. It pretty much recontoured my toe right there.

I skipped Monday's run to let my foot heal a bit. Monday was also my return visit to the chiropractor. I told him we had to take care of this, dammit. So after my adjustment I got to take a spin on the decompression table. Yippee!

If you're not familiar with decompression, it's basically like treating your spine like a slinky. Cervical decompression is where you lay down on a table and stick your head into a vise. There are also straps across your forehead. Then the machine tries to pop off your head. It's interesting. For spinal decompression, you lay on a table that has a break in the middle; the break lines up with your waist. They really strap you in for this one, pecs to hips, like you're Scarlett O'Hara getting ready for a BBQ. Then the machine tries to pull off your lower body. This is the kind I had done and again, it's interesting. If your pants are a little loose, you spend the whole time waiting for them to be pulled off. I can't imagine what it's like for men since they have no hips.

The whole idea is to increase the spaces between the vertrebrae and unpinch the nerves.
I have to say it did a fairly effective job. I felt like a slinky and the nerve pain subsided for the most part. So, bonus! It does a number on the muscles though since they've been treated a lot like taffy during the decompression process, and those were feeling a bit abused. But achy and stiff muscles I can handle. Drugs work for those, and so does ice and heat.

Complicating things a tad was that I got to exercise my most important aspect of my United States citizenship and serve jury duty yesterday. After more than 20 years of registered votership and over 15 years in the legal profession, I'd still never been called. And yes, lawyers can serve jury duty; lots of my friends asked me that, I think seriously, which surprised me. Anyhow, I was looking forward to to the experience. My boss, not so much. He never said yay or nay, so after looking at the calendar for the next twelve months I just scheduled myself a vacation day and really freaking early on Tuesday headed downtown to the courthouse.

In my county, service is one day or one trial. You show up by 8:00 a.m., you're going to be there until 5:00 p.m. unless they dismiss you (i.e., no more trials are scheduled for that day so no more need for potential jurors) or you get selected for a trial and that trial concludes. Could be 30 minutes, could be all day. When a judge calls down that they've got a trial going forward, they select 40 potential jurors from the batch that showed up that day; I'd guess there were around 160 of us when we started. I'm guessing they allocated 40 potential jurors per trial scheduled that day. If they had all settled by the end of the previous day, we wouldn't have needed to come in.

After the orientation stuff, a group got called up right after. A second group got called up around 10:00 a.m. Not long after eleven, the coordinators were telling us they were hoping to release us for good before noon. But nope. Shortly before lunch my name was finally called -- in what they call a holding pool. Meaning they kept back about 50 of us in the event the last trial on that day's schedule went forward. So I had to come back after lunch. Thankfully the chairs were comfy -- seriously comfy, actually -- but sitting for so long was doing a number on my hip. Just stiff, though, not the shooting pain I've been having.

After lunch they're still talking about potentially releasing us all. And then, at 3:30, the judge calls down and wants a pool of jurors. I get called and we make our way to a teeny weeny courtroom on the seventh floor. Like, 20 people in the room would've seemed kinda crowded and we had more than twice that what with the sheriff's deputies, counsel, the clerk, etc. We get a brief introduction to what's going on and then the judge reads the indictment. All fifteen counts of it. Kidnapping, multiple counts of assault, harassment, identity theft, mail theft, forgery -- all in a domestic situation.

Then we get to go through the voir dire process. They don't show this too much on television, but it's been in a few movies. The John Grisham/John Cusack movie The Runaway Jury is a good one for this. A really fascinating look at a part of the process that usually isn't that big of a deal in most trials. Anyhow, the judge and then the lawyers ask the potential jurors questions. The first big one was right after the reading of the charges, whether what anyone had heard made them concerned they couldn't be fair and impartial. About a dozen people pegged on this one, what with the domestic violence aspect. The judge questioned each one so you got to hear their stories. Fairly personal stuff too. Most, but not everyone out of that group, got dismissed by the judge right away.

We went next into the do you know anyone involved in this case. Which includes the responding police officers. Lastly they have you answer six or eight questions: your name, what do you do, where do you live, with whom do you live and what do they do, hobbies -- I told them I run marathons for fun, have you ever been involved in court proceedings, been the victim of a crime. The final question was interesting: who would you say knows you best and what would they say about you? My first thought was my mom but then I started thinking that I wouldn't necessarily say my mother knows me best. But I didn't want to explain my thinking behind that one -- I was on a court bench, not a shrink's couch -- so I did say my mom and that I was honest to the point of being obnoxious and that I'm not always as funny as I think I am.

Ooh, forgot one part (if you're still reading this!). The judge said the trial was expected to take three days. We got to say if we had a hardship with that. I did raise my hand, not so much on my behalf -- I thought the case sounded very interesting and I really wanted to serve -- but on my boss's. Figured if I did get picked I could at least tell him that I tried to get out of it. The judge understood but said if I did get selected he'd call my boss and explain things to him. Snerk. Sadly, they filled the jury before they had to get to me.

Overall, I loved the experience. Even just hanging out in the jury room all day -- I read two books and watched a lot of CNN yesterday -- was pretty nifty because I was there, ready to go if I was needed. As they point out in the orientation and in the courtroom, many people have died fighting for our right to a trial by jury. It was so important that it was included in the Declaration of Independence, not just in the Constitution. Yeah, it's a pain because we all have obligations but it is a necessary and integral part of our legal system. I don't know anyone who has actually served on a jury and regretted it. If you get called, make the best out of it you can. Read, write, browse the 'net. Nap if you can get comfortable enough. One person brought a pillow. I rarely get downtown anymore so during my lunch break I went down to the mall food court where I used to go all the time and ate while I people watched. I would've tracked down my favorite food cart but I didn't have cash and didn't want to limp all around downtown looking for it.

So, that's been my week. How about yours? Has anyone actually served on a jury?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Hip Chick

2011-09-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

I was a good girl and went to see my chiropractor on Monday. He confirmed my initial diagnosis that my back was all fucked up (but in nice, technical medical terms). Since I couldn't find a pretty diagram to show what the problem is (in my hip at least -- can't diagram my general psychoses) I thought I'd draw it out for you.

Not that I can actually draw, but oh well. That's what captions are for.

So here is a lovely view of someone's backside. Told you I can't draw! The green triangle pointing towards the booty crack is that center part of your pelvis that is shaped like, well, a triangle. I mean, I can't draw but work with me here. See how it's nice and (more or less) straight across the top? That's how it should be.

But on me?

It's a helluva lot more like this. Not only is the top no longer parallel to the ground, it's also kind of rotated on its axis. Since I can't draw, you'll have to take my word for it.

Now what this does is pinch on all the lovely nerves that are in and coming out of your pelvis and lower vertrebrae. The green lines are nice, happy, non-pinched nerves. The red ones are all pinched. Makes walking feel like kind of a hit or miss prospect. Will my right leg stay under me with this step? How about this one? Let's go for three!

Not fun.

My chiro did a good job of moving the bony bits mostly back where they should be. But they (a) have shifted a little bit since Monday and (b) are surrounded by swollen, inflamed, unhappy muscle and connective tissue. There is a big pinch still in my low back and another one in the right hip flexor. They tend not to hurt both at the same time though. No, they are nice enough to trade off. So that one hurts a whole bunch only while I am sitting and then the other one hurts a whole bunch while I am trying to walk around.

And I can't get back in until Monday. Should be a fun 18-miler on Saturday.

So, um. Anyone know where I can score some vicodin?

(I'm ~~mostly~~ kidding with that one.)

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

T minus 26 and counting

2011-09-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

Less than 30 days until the Portland marathon!

We're now into the lonnnnng long runs. Sixteen miles on Saturday at 4:00:05. Given that I am working on an abbreviated training schedule I was good with that; training for the Eugene marathon I ran my second 16 miler in 3:55:43. A little disappointed in my shorter runs though; training for Eugene they were almost all in the low to mid 12:00 minute miles and they've been much higher than that this time around. But Julie and I have been trading off in troubles over the past several weeks -- my back and hip and that cold that turned into a sinus infection, she's been having some breathing issues of late. Time enough for speeding up next year; we've already started to plan next year's training. Plus I've been feeling better with these runs, not so sore afterwards or for as long and so forth. I've been getting smarter about fuel and hydration and even with Saturday's high temps felt great during and after Saturday's run.

Now we're just hoping for good running weather on October 9!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Never Forget

2011-09-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

I will never forget September 11 but on the tenth anniversary I could not re-watch those scenes.

I did not know anyone who lost their life in the attacks, but like so many others I knew someone who knew someone. 9/11 was the saddest exercise of Six Degrees of Separation ever.

My mother woke me up around 6:00 a.m. Pacific time that day, telling me that people were flying planes into buildings in New York. I didn't believe it could be true: Who would fly a plane into a building? I turned on the news in time to see the endless replays of the second plane hitting the tower. Not long after, the third plane hit the Pentagon. By 7:00 a.m. my time, the first tower fell.

I watched the coverage until I had to go into work. I was one of the first people in. The crazy asswipes I worked for had laid off four people for financial reasons just the day before and told them to take September 11 off. Shortly thereafter, my bosses all bought new cars but that's a different story. People slowly started to trickle in to work and we were glued to the TV news coverage. Until one of the crazy asswipes showed up. We turned off the coverage then. Not because we couldn't watch any longer. Because our boss threatened to fire anyone who was watching the news.

Good to know some people have their priorities.

I made my first trip to the east coast in September 2004 and my first (and only so far) visit to New York City on the third anniversary of September 11.

Our timing was such that the family ceremonies were still in process. On the whole, the site at that time was in reality just a big pit. Seeing the families there brought it all home.

For me, on this coast during the attacks, it was harder to relate. We saw it all on television but we've all seen a lot on television. To a large extent, we've become inured. Even with pictures of horrific events -- the naked child screaming down the road in Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped, the Viet Cong executing a man with the picture snapped as the bullet is passing through the man's head -- most of still never really seems real.

But still, we never forget.

Friday Fantabulousness

2011-09-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

I am feeling soooo much better today, you cannot imagine. Which is good because here's the title of the document I just drafted: Plaintiff's Reply to Defendant's Reply to Plaintiff's Response to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss.

Gack! And technically it was Plaintiff's Reply to Defendant's Reply to Plaintiff's Response to Defendant's Motion to Take Judicial Notice and Motion to Dismiss. But that's too damn wordy, even for a lawyer. Even more fun was the document I wrote just before that, where we are the defendant instead of the plaintiff like 99.9% of the time. So writing it goes like this: "Plaintiff -- oh fuck! Defendant asserts that Plai-- fuck!! Defendant has met all of the statutory requirements...."

Thankfully that document was only three pages.

So anyhow, took my first dose of prednisone and antibiotics last night and a second one this morning. Started feeling better within an hour of the first dose. It's funny, you -- or at least I -- just don't realize how lousy you feel with this kind of thing. Not only can I breathe through my nose again, I can think since the constant headache I've had for three weeks is nearly gone.

Of course, I'd be feeling a lot better if it wasn't that TOM. And I'd be feeling a LOT better if I could just read a fucking calendar. Then I wouldn't have Mother Nature's lovely little red footprints all over my unmentionables because I'm out of feminine hygiene products at the office.

Dramatic re-enactment

Just kidding -- partly -- on that last one. But it's a great visual, isn't it? Muwahahahahaha!! Seriously though, I would feel a lot better without cramps. Should make tomorrow's 16-miler just LOADS of fun. I'm packing the Advil now.

Side note: I was laughing because I could search the website for "red footprints" and get this. So then I searched for "craziest web searches ever" which came up with, among other things, the craziest commercials ever. Which talked about a Cuban gynecologist and now I'm not so sure I want to play anymore. But which does remind me that I'm due for my annual.

Well now. Hopefully I have thoroughly squicked you out or made you spit coffee all over your monitor. My work here, she is done.

Happy weekend!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Thirteen Things Thursday: On Being a Big Girl

2011-09-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

1. I finally decided I should be an adult and instead of whining how I'm still sick, actually go to the doctor about it. Technically I am no longer sick, it's become a sinus infection. Which happens every single time I get a cold. I went to the allergist on my lunch hour and now have prescriptions for prednisone and antibiotics to get filled after work. If past practice holds, I'll be feeling a zillion times better by tomorrow morning. Which is good because I'm supposed to run four miles at o'dark thirty.

2. I also need to stop whining about my back/hips and go see the chiropractor. I'm going to ask for the bare bones treatment so hopefully I can keep the cost under $100. And hopefully one visit will do the trick.

3. This wasn't going to be about literally being a big girl, rather about metaphorically being a big girl and doing the stuff I need to do, but then I saw the pictures from the Eugene Women's Half. *shudder* I look like I ate one of the runners. And you know how most people picture themselves as larger than they are? I do the opposite, so it's not until I see irrefutable photographic evidence that I realize I'm fat. I think it has a lot to do with my breasts being so gigantic that they make me think my stomach is small and/or relatively flat. That would be an incorrect perception.

4. So what am I going to do about it? I'm still ruminating.

5. Speaking of a lot ("Alot more dangerous, baby less dangerous"), what the heck happened to Hyperbole and a Half? I guess we're just supposed to buy the book.

6. Speaking of boobs, my right breast is larger than my left breast.

7. Just thought you should know that.

8. In case you are wondering how I know this, it's because the underwire on the right side doesn't lay flat and instead pokes me in the arm all day. It doesn't lay flat because dun dun dun! the right breast is larger.

9. And my left pinky toe is shorter than my right pinky toe.

10. All stuff you figure out about yourself when waiting for the allergist to come in. I also have many identical moles in pairs that look like vampire bites.

11. The long run fun really starts this weekend with a 16 miler. Yes, 16 miles. All in a row. I think we're going to try the Vancouver trail again, which is conveniently eight miles in its entire length. And if the bathrooms are closed and the water fountains turned off this time, somebody will pay. Given that it is supposed to get up to 95 degrees on Saturday, that somebody will probably be Julie and me.

12. I estimate it will take us at least four hours to run the 16 miles, what with bathroom breaks, water stops, coronary incidents, etc. It will be around an hour travel time there and back, plus about an hour to eat after the run. So the bulk of our Saturday will be either spent in a masochistic pursuit or recovering from one.

13. I never knew I was a masochist until I started running. Huh. I thought the outfits would be cooler.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Eugene Women's Half Recap

2011-09-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the Eugene Women's Half Marathon.

Okay, maybe it wasn't the worst of times. More like the fair to middling of times. Here's how it played out.

The Good:

On the injury front, no problems at all from the stress fracture, old or potentially new. My back didn't give me any grief for a change.

I got a fairly good night's sleep before the race. Woke up a lot thinking I'd overslept -- not entirely positive I had set the motel alarm clock correctly -- plus with the A/C on it got too cold, got too warm without it, yadda yadda yadda. The bed and pillows were good for a budget motel. Then I got the idea of bedbugs in my head and kept thinking things were crawling over me. But overall, I went to bed early enough that I got enough sleep despite it all.

I managed to eat before the race, a turkey sausage egg mcmuffin thing that I was very happy to have brought with me since nothing at the motel's continental breakfast appealed to me. I probably could've managed a bagel with cream cheese eventually but the turkey sausage thing was much better. I felt a big difference in my energy at the start of the race.

I stayed fairly well hydrated. I had my fuel belt with the two 10 ounce bottles, one with water and one with gatorade. They had gatorade and water at the aid stations and at the first few stations I took both plus topped off my bottles. I switched to straight water at the second half of the race but used a Nuun tablet at that point; the gatorade at the aid stations was the neon yellow kind and VERY strong. During the race, I'd estimate I consumed around 32 ounces of gatorade, 20 ounces of nuun, and maybe 40 ounces of water. I also had four electrolyte capsules over the first couple of hours; I think Hammer makes them.

I had some Advil with me. In the event my leg or back acted up I had dropped a couple of Advil in my fuel belt. My leg and back were fine but my right ankle and hip did start to ache. I started debating whether I should take it around mile six and around mile seven -- it was at the aid station by the mall -- I finally did and was almost immediately glad as it took the aches down to a whisper. I'm going to do this for the marathon too.

I was dressed appropriately. I knew it would be warm so I wore a short sleeved white tech tee. I wore a fleece shirt over it until we got to the start so I knew my clothing would be temp appropriate.

The Bad:

Fucking SUN. It was around 60 when we started and 72 when I finished. In the shade it was perfect. In the full sun -- also known as mile nine on -- it felt like 90. My internal temperature gauge flipped around mile 12 -- always a little disturbing to be shivering with cold when you know you should be hot -- but that only lasted a short while. With more shade I could've done a lot better over the last two miles.

I had some tummy troubles. Say it with me: no Taco Bell any time prior to the start of a race! I actually was fairly ill the night before the race, suddenly got very nauseated for no apparent reason. Must pack pepto next time.

And I'm still sick. I took dayquil before the race which did a good job on keeping my sinuses clear but left me with a bad case of cotton mouth. In retrospect, it probably did a lot in keeping my hydrated since it kept me drinking.

There was a train! Shortly before the first mile, the entire race got stopped by a passing train. The leaders tried to go up and over the pedestrian overpass but were turned back. They ended up adjusting the race clock by I think eight minutes. That was nice because in Portland they usually will not do that.

The Overall:

A decent race. I finished in 3:16:59 (I'm taking that extra second, dammit!), slower than I had hoped but we did stop at all the water stops to refill plus at least twice at the potties. Julie and I figured that took about ten minutes total. And I finished strong, running at a an 11 minute mile pace in the last tenth mile across the finish line. If only there'd been a little more shade...

My Garmin came up around 0.15 miles over 13.1. I think it was all the dodging and weaving we had to do around the walkers. We had finally settled in to a pace when we got stopped by the train so then we had to do it all over again.

They closed the massage area down AGAIN. And no mimosas by the time I finished. I didn't really want a mimosa but a massage would've been nice.

I got to meet some other bloggers!

There was Kim at (Just) Trying is for Little Girls, Laurie at The (Mis)Adventures of a Jogging Stroller Mom (who ran the half in something like five seconds, she is amazing!), Julie D at The Finish Line Diaries, Meredith at the Therapeutic Runnings of a Mom, and Ashley at Inspired Miles of a Mom. In reading their blogs you'll notice they all have some thing in common besides being really freaking fast: they all do this while raising kids!!

I am so in awe.

Plus I found a new blogger whom I did not get to meet but did see here this morning: Michelle at Runn Princess Runn. Hi Michelle!

I am stealing one of Kim's pictures here:

Me, Meredith, Kim, Julie, Julie D., and Ashley

And from the finish, courtesy of Julie's husband and sherpa extraordinaire, Charles.

Yesterday I had absolutely nothing pressing to do so I did nothing but catch up on laundry (mainly running clothes) and TV. It was fabulous. You should try it.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Whimsical Wednesday, aka What I've Been Doing Since Obviously I Haven't Been Here

2011-08-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

1. Hanging with my momma. We ate chinese food, we went to bed at absurdly early hours, we had breakfast with Julie, we bought more plants. We did something about which I am forbidden, on pain of death, to write about here. Mom is NO fun :( But I did tell Julie and she cracked up. We think our moms should meet.

2. We also saw Huey Lewis and da News! The zoo was packed and the weather was hot. I think they oversold the show. The guy who opened was kinda bluesy and while the music was decent it was putting us to sleep as he played about a 45 minute set. Huey and the band still sound great but half of their 10-12 song set list was from their new album Soulsville. Which again, good music but not quite what I wanted. And they had two women in their band. Women! Sacrilege!! Huey is all about the boys in the band. But then..... Chris Hayes played the encore!!! Wait, that's not enough exclamation points: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you are a hard core Huey fan like me, then this would also be a big deal to you. For those who aren't, Chris Hayes is the band's original guitarist. Not only is he a great musician, he also wrote or co-wrote many of the band's hits. He left around 2004 to focus on his family and the band's sound hasn't been quite right (to me) since he left. It's about 95% of the way there, but just a little off. So I practically hyperventilated when they announced Chris was there. I did get one good picture of the band on stage (we were waaay in the "I will crush your head" back of the audience) that I will post later.

3. I also ran. We did eleven of our planned 12 miles on Saturday. I was not feeling it, and neither was Julie, so we cut it short. Later I figured out that my sicky bug is back.

4. I figured this out when I fell asleep on my couch after my mom left Monday morning and slept nearly nine hours on my day off, this after I'd already gotten at least nine hours of sleep in already. I've mentioned this before: I NEVER sleep on the couch, unless I am sick. I know a lot of people who nod off while watching whatever, but I just do not. I also slept in until 1:30 in the afternoon on Friday, getting up not long before my mom arrived. I still feel like I could sleep a week, plus I'm "ahem'ing" so much from the frog in my throat that everyone thinks I'm trying to interrupt them all the time.

5. I saw a coyote Tuesday morning, just around the corner from my house as I headed in to work. And not a roadkill coyote. An "excuse me, have you seen any cats or perhaps small dogs outside" coyote. And granted, I live in the suburbs and Portland has a lot of green space but it's still rather urban where I am. It was a surprising encounter, and I was glad I was in my car when it happened. We ran this morning and noticed every rustle of the bushes around us, particularly as we walked past the little wilderness park at the end of my street.

6. Yoga and I continue to have an uneasy relationship. Everyone says that it will help strengthen my back to continue with it, but it's tough to go do something you know will cause serious pain. Last night through many of the positions my limbs were twitching uncontrollably as my back spasmed. I almost couldn't get into my car because of a back spasm, and I couldn't get back out either. Then some of the yoga positions that don't bother my back I can't do because I've got ten pounds of breastage. Like cobra? Ahahahahahahahahaha! Not going to happen. Not without a pneumatic lift. Do they make a bra like that?

7. It is supposed to be back up to almost 90 for the women's half marathon this weekend. Yippee.

8. I've gotten hooked on a show that is actually no longer on the air but runs in syndication: The Unit. Ever see it? It is a fictionalized account of a military group like Delta Force and their families. Absolutely fascinating. And the men in it are hot. And there's only so much Law & Order a girl can watch.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Thirteen Things Thursday

2011-08-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

1. I swear 90% of my time at the office is spent repeating things to people.

2. I said, I swear 90% of my time at the office is spent repeating things to people.

3. Seriously. Ninety percent. And if it's not repeating things, it's re-sending things. Over and over and over. It's like Groundhog Day but infinitely more annoying because you know the people you're dealing with don't have that whole supernatural amnesia thing as an excuse. They just weren't paying attention the first twelve times.

4. Then I get asked why this task or that task hasn't been completed. And the answer is always something like "Because you forgot the conversation we had three weeks ago where we decided it wasn't necessary for me to print out 3,000 pages of documents that you won't even bother to review, but today -- the last day before I take a long weekend -- you decided you do want me to print out 3,000 pages of documents. That you haven't bothered to review yet."

5. I've taken the past two days off of running due to some stress fracture related -- and maybe not related -- issues. Tuesday that leg was hurting a lot, even if I wasn't putting any weight on it, so Julie and I talked and I decided to take Wednesday's six miler off. My leg felt okay when I got up Wednesday morning but then a few minutes later in the shower I took a step and something went "SPROING!" in that leg. It was very weird, particularly since it seemed to be about five inches away from where the stress fracture point is. Maybe a muscle cramp/charley horse? We did some calf stretches at yoga Tuesday night, I thought I might have strained a muscle then. Yesterday I wore my compression socks AND my aircast. So I also took today off.

6. Today my leg feels okay. No complaints from the site of the healing stress fracture. However.... dun dun dun! I have a different spot about four inches below the original stress fracture that is awfully tender along the tibia. Hmmm. We are cutting back the weekly mileage for a couple of weeks to see if that helps things.

7. My mom comes to town tomorrow for a long weekend. I really need the time away from the office before my head explodes. The stress level at work has been much higher than normal thanks to extended vacations (not mine) over the past six weeks plus the raise issue (no answer yet) plus dealing with my dogs at home. In other words, just no place to have nice, peaceful down time.

8. I am about ready to swear off carrots. At least, the raw baby carrots ones that are mass produced from carrot remnants and taste like nothing. Have you had an actual carrot lately? One from the farmer's market or your own garden, I mean. The taste is soooo much better, it's like carrots on steroids. But they involve actual prep time of peeling and slicing so I don't eat them. Interestingly, if you take the time to cut up the baby carrots they taste a lot better. Still, time is a factor. I have to work this out before I stop eating veggies all together.

9. The reason the baby carrots taste like nothing is because you can't find a bag of baby carrots that aren't swimming in water. Then they sit and develop an outler layer of tasteless mush. Have you noticed this? I look at ten or twelve bags of baby carrots in the market, trying to determine which one has been marinated in the least amount of water. Surely we can develop a bag that keeps our carrots from drying out without drowning them.

10. After the siding repair at my apartment, during which I learned the original construction did not have a sheet of plywood over the studs between them and the siding, my place retains heat like crazy. This should be fabulous in the winter. Right now, it sucks. Granted it hasn't been cooling down all that much in the evenings here over the past week but my apartment was still at 73 degrees this morning. Having a window fan blow on me all night long leads to odd dreams. I won't even try to explain the one I had last night.

11. Have I mentioned how absolutely thrilled I am to have a four day weekend?

12. And..... boss is not likely coming back to the office from lunch. I need my own business.

13. But since I work for da man I guess I ought to go finish that work.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Mirteen Mings Monday

2011-08-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

1. Because it's my blog, dammit, and I can do what I want. Plus that cold I've been fighting finally caught up with me and I've barely been on a computer for the past four days so I didn't get to do my planned TTT last week. Not that I'm doing it today, I'm just still not feeling all that fabulous and numbers are easier.

2. So, being sick. No fun. Slogged through Thursday's run, left work early Thursday and Friday because I was staring off into space from the cold meds. Which weren't stopping me from coughing for two hours straight. Might as well do that at home (staring and coughing).

3. I did do the scheduled 11 miler on Saturday. Where the temp was already pushing 70 at 6:00 a.m. and climbed ten degrees by the time we were done. Julie kept telling me it was burning the germs right out of me.

4. Had the slowest service at breakfast post-run. The manager got annoyed that the waitress still hadn't taken our order and the people across from us so he came to take the other people's order. Who proceeded to take about ten minutes to order. One of those "well, I can't decide between these two things, what do you recommend?" AND the husband still didn't know what he wanted. So then he didn't take our order. Gah. Once the waitress did finally come, it took us 30 seconds.

5. I've been tracking some of our split times on our runs. We start out slow, around 14:30 and then speed up. By a half mile we're going about two minutes per mile faster. On many days at the end of our track workouts we're in the low 11s to finish out the run. Last Saturday we ran our second five miles only a minute slower than the first five (ten mile run total). This Saturday our second four miles were a full minute faster than our first four. I think. I was on cold meds and I haven't downloaded my Garmin yet. I also need to set up my Garmin to automatically lap at each mile so I don't have to remember to do it.

6. Today's run sucked. You can't even call it a run. I think we ran 0.60 miles total. Except for Saturday's run, since around 2:00 p.m. Friday afternoon all I've done is hold down my couch. Most strenuous thing I did was carry the laundry hamper down stairs. As a result, I was very stiff today, particularly my right leg from the low back down. I definitely know I have a healing stress fracture. The worst is that my right piriformis muscle and the right side of my sacrum are all mucked up. I rolled my left ankle Saturday morning which didn't have much of an effect on the ankle but jolted my back pretty good. Either the piriformis is pulling the sacrum out or vice versa, but either way it's radiating down my leg.

7. I find it amusing how well runners and athletes in general have a good working knowledge of the human body. Plus I started with chiropractic in high school (my mom managed and I later worked at a chiro clinic) and for a long time I wanted to be a veterinarian so I do know my body parts. Used to know the name of every bone in the body except for the specific finger and toe bones that have names beyond phalanges.

8. Phalanges, phalanges, phalanges.

9. I also knew all of the muscles. It was a good way to hit on guys. "Poor baby, do you want me to rub your sartorius muscle?"

10. I actually did that in 11th grade to this guy who sat in front of me in math class. He wasn't in anatomy class, but the guy who sat next to us was and he was cracking up. Neither of us would tell the third guy what the sartorius muscle was. The third guy (my crush) did let me practice memorizing the names of all the muscles in his back and shoulders. He had great shoulders. Le sigh.

11. It's T minus four until my Mom gets here on Friday for a long weekend. I'm taking her to see Huey Lewis & the News play at the zoo as an early birthday present. This is I think the fourth time we've seen them; let's see, Puyallup Fair twice, Chinook Winds once, then the zoo. Yep, four. We loves us some Huey. Still missing Chris Hayes from the lineup though, it's about 90% the same sound with his replacement but just not all the way there.

12. Yes, I am a freak. I've also seen Barry Manilow at least three times. With my Mom it's Huey, with my Dad it's Barry. Last time he got us fifth row tickets, this was when Barry toured with a full orchestra. It was awesome.

13. Tired now. Lunch time. Boobies!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

13.

Whimsical Wednesday

2011-08-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

True story. I'm driving home from yoga last night and I'm tired and cranky, the latter because I haven't had dinner yet. I hit a red light and sit flipping through radio stations trying to find decent music. I land on the soft rock station -- which I almost never listen to -- and the John Tesh show is on. John Tesh tells me "Well, it's official: A recent study has concluded that people these days are more self-absorbed." I immediately stab the next radio station button exclaiming "Oh, who really cares!"

Then it sinks in what he just said versus my reaction. I cracked up. Point taken, John. Point taken.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Run 0 Miles. Lose Three Pounds.

2011-08-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

Now this is a completely what the fuck.

The stress fracture leg was bothering me yesterday so at o'dark thirty I texted Julie to bail on our planned run. It's much better today but for the rest of training I'm going to need a rest day following our long run -- We had actually planned that we might not run yesterday just for this reason plus Julie had some hip flexor/glutes issues.

On top of the leg issue, that summer cold that is going is trying to get its hooks into me yet again. I was on cold medicine yesterday, absolutely dragging by late afternoon, and in bed with a NyQuil chaser by 8:30. I've got a nagging sinus headache today but so far that all seems to be better too.

I ended yesterday with just over the 1,500 calories MyFitnessPal recommended for me. (I think I'm going to bump that up to around 1,750 but that's another story.) Went to bed early as I said.... and hopped on the scale this morning to find myself back down to 197.6 and a three pound loss over yesterday. Again, WTF?

Apparently, exercise makes you fat. Or perhaps I should say, exercise makes ME fat.

Whatever.

In other news, as you know Friday was the CATnip 5K. I was just looking back at last year's race recap. I had started to think I may have been exaggerating how hot it was this time last year, but nope. It was 95 degrees for last year's race. This year it was only around 85 but the heat was still brutal. I took my handheld filled with gatorade with me this year and it made all the difference. Last year I ran in 0:42:04, this year it was 0:40:22. Not bad! In both races I felt like I could've PRd but that heat just sucks everything out of you. Plus there is this short but STEEP hill right at 2.75 miles. That's just mean.

After the race they do a fast street mile (the Mouse Miler). Julie's son Nicholas ran it this year. We were both too tired to try to run a fast mile -- we both finished the 5K shortly before the mile began -- but luckily a friend volunteered to run it with him. We were waiting for them to come down the last stretch and saw the front runners come through, these two twin men (38 years old) who finished in 4:25. That's four MINUTES and twenty-five seconds, people. I can run a quarter mile in four minutes. And get this: a FIVE year old ran it in 13:01. I feel so slow.

I borrowed this from the CATnip website. Julie and I and her family are circled. I'm the one in red with the arrows pointing at me; Julie is next to me in gray. It's a low key race but still well done. I even managed to grab a slice of the pizza this year!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Run 21 Miles. Gain Three Pounds.

2011-08-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Clearly I'm doing something wrong.

So. I ran 21 miles last week, including one 5K race and yesterday's ten miler. And I did an hour of yoga. This morning I get all nekkid and hop on the scale, expecting to see at least a little nudge dowards from last week's 197.8 lbs.

Instead I see: 200.8.

What the fuck?

Clearly I'm doing something wrong.

I didn't feel as though I was eating any differently once I started running again versus when I was sidelined with the stress fracture. During the ten weeks or so I was out, I gained about five pounds. Now I'm up another three? Man.

I just kicked Aunt Flo's ass to the curb so it shouldn't be the monthly gift of gain. I've been taking in plenty of fluids so it shouldn't be water retainage ("That woman saved everything!"). I've been eating....

Well, let's look at that. I thought I hadn't been eating more, but in retrospect I've been adding a little extra and having a few smaller things here and there. Several office coffee runs over the past several weeks get me some mochas. Making the hamburger patties bigger. Extra tater tots. Going out to lunch more frequently. A couple of post-run breakfasts that were bigger than they should have been even though I never have a lunch on weekends, only breakfast and dinner. You should've seen the cinnamon roll Julie and I split yesterday. Although the eggs benedict and hashbrowns I had with it were stingy with a capital S. So it shouldn't count.

But it does. At least in the long run. My ass tells me so. Hell, my breasts tell me so. I am NOT buying yet another bigger bra.

Today I started keeping a food diary again. I loathe tracking my food with the heat of a thousand suns. This time around I'm tracking through MyFitnessPal; my doctor recommended it and it's one I haven't tried yet so I'm giving it a go. You can find me there as CilleyGirl or cilleygirl (at) comcast (dot) net. And why do we spell all that out, anyhow?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Thirteen Things Thursday

2011-08-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

1. I'm feeling much better today. Yay!

2. I found out yesterday that the author of my favorite comic strip, Pearls Before Swine, is coming on tour to Portland on my birthday. Yay! (okay, no kitty this time) I'm hoping that since it will be my birthday, he'll do a particular Pig drawing for me. My favorite Pig of all time is Pig with wings and a wand and he's joyously sprinkling fairy dust. I haven't been able to find it in a postable format to show you here, but this is what I plan to get for my next tattoo. I'm thinking I'll put it on my hip. So it will look like he's sprinkling fairy dust on my hoo ha.

Pig, in more innocent times.

3. Do a little dance. Make a little love. Get down tonight. That is all.

4. That issue with my hip -- well, more of a feeling like a knife was being plunged into my hip every time I moved than an "issue" -- was almost completely resolved once I managed to pop my back last night. Apparently something was out of whack. Once it popped, about 80% of the pain went away instantly and the rest worked itself out in this morning's three miler.

5. We ran the entire three miler this morning with only one stop midway for water. Nicely to finally be feeling back in the groove. Only took four and a half weeks.

6. Got my hotel and all that set up for the Eugene Women's Half on September 4. If any readers are doing this race and want to meet up, send me an e-mail at cilleygirl (at) comcast (dot) net. Sounds like we'll be rolling into town around 3:00 on Saturday, we'll hit the Saturday market for packet pick up and maybe a little shopping, and then we'll be off to a carb friendly dinner. If you're familiar with Eugene and can recommend a good place for dinner, let me know. I have no clue. Mazzi's looks really good... No vegetarian, please, that's just cruel.

7. The scale FINALLY started moving dowards. From 199.0 last week to 197.8 this week. That's even in anticipation of TOM so I could even be lighter.

8. Of course, I celebrated by buying lots of frozen hashbrowns and sausage gravy. Okay, not really. I didn't buy any gravy.

9. I was chatting this week with one of my best friends whom I've known since 10th grade. I consider her my sister (we're both sort of only children, did a lot of our own raising, yadda yadda yadda) and you'll hear me refer to her kids as my nephew (actually my godson) and nieces. Anyhow, her middle child who is secretly my favorite just turned 11 this month. My friend said she got her a book on body changes for her birthday, to which I responded that I had COMPLETELY forgot about that aspect of them growing up. Which I had. I can picture them as starting to drive and stuff, just never really thought about the middle part of it all. That's got to be weird for a parent.

10. All of that also made me realize that I'm pretty sure I remember the exact date on which I had my first period. Not necessarily because of that, but because it was the same day I met my stepmother-to-be for the first time. I was a little bitchy that day. I found out why when I got home.

11. This morning I have had a hummingbird and a big yellow and black butterfly outside my office window. I'm a lucky girl.

12. Very sad to hear that Eureka is officially cancelled. Rumour has it that it is too expensive to produce so it's being cut for the bottom line -- just like what happened with Farscape. Great, fuck quality entertainment, we need another gold-plated Ferrari! I fear for the intelligence of the human race, I truly do.

13. Lots of actually sad things going on in the world right now. It would depress me to name them so I won't. I do feel obligated, however, to say this to you: Boobies.

My work here is done. Happy Thursday everyone :)

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Whimsical Wednesday

2011-08-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

This was obviously supposed to have been posted yesterday, but Blogger went to read-only status right when I went to post it. I forgot to put it up later on in the evening since I went to bed so early. Feeling a lot better today!

Howdy all! Sorry I've been a bit MIA, the demands of work and the siren call of sleep continue to battle for dominance in my life.
Training continues to go well, knock on wood. Saturday's eight mile run was great and while I was happy to finish I felt as though I could've gone a little faster, a little longer. But the third lure in my life -- food -- won out over everything. It was a great post-run omelette too. Today's five miler was even better, despite getting up at o'dark thirty to do it. Yawn. Except for a persistently sore hip flexor and a few twinges at the stress fracture site, I felt fantastic for this run. Even with the addition of this killer hill. We ran it twice during our run, first time we made it about halfway up before walking and the second time we made it about three-quarters of the way up. Funny how a hill like that can make running on that flat seem so easy afterwards!

Summer colds have been going around -- Jules had a touch of one last week and now my office mates are starting to fall. I thought it was going to pass me by, but heading on towards noon my throat started to get scratchy and here at the end of the work day I'm feeling feverish and headachy. Time to add Nyquil to tonight's grocery list. Hopefully a big slug of that and an early night (tomorrow's run is only three miles, don't have to get up so early for that one) will knock it out. We adjusted the schedule this week so that we're running four days in a row, including a Friday evening race, the CATnip 5K. I ran it (and melted during it) last year and it was a well organized race with a nice tech tee, plus it's for a good cause. And Saturday's (now Sunday's, we changed things up again since Julie's son is going for his green belt on Saturday. Yay Nicholas!) long run is ten miles.

Off to slog through the last few minutes at the office, then home to rest.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Whimsical Wednesday: Ten tons of shit in a five-pound bag

2011-08-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that right.

Ugh, this office remodel SUCKS. The guy whose bright idea all of this was is getting a little torked off at me because I basically keep telling him that it (and, by extension, he) sucks. Apparently I forgot the "passive" part of my passive-aggressive wardrobe this week.

Am I being too hard on this guy, too unreasonable? Well, let me put it this way. If you are remodeling an office building and you remove all of the office parts of it to replace them with nonfunctional crap, are you successful in the office remodeling business? Because I'm going to go with NO.

Imagine that you have an average sized house. Say, 2,000 square feet. Imagine that someone comes to you and says, I will make you most beautiful kitchen in the world. Would you then expect that kitchen to have more than one drawer and one cupboard and more than twelve inches of counterspace?

It's like he got a checklist of what we needed and responded as follows:

Us: We need more file storage space.
Him: Let me cut your existing file storage space by at least half.

Us: We need more light to work by.
Him: Let me paint the walls an extremely dark color and replace all the light fixtures with much smaller ones that have less wattage.

Us: We need this remodel to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Him: Let me make sure the workers show up at random times when no one is ready for them. Let me also make sure they do stuff like cover all the electrical outlets with baseboard so that you can no longer plug anything in. Let me also make sure it will all take more than twice as long to do all this so that you can't really work while it's going on.

My boss: Great!
Us: Assholes!!!

You may think that I am exaggerating and I'm really not. The work for my own office space was supposed to take two days. That was a week ago. Still not done.

The remodel guy was just in here. "We're almost done!" He won't talk to me anymore. So at least one thing is going right ;)

I should sic the kitty on him....

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Thirteen Things Thursday

2011-07-28T17:47:00.000-07:00

1. Because you knew it was coming:

2. I'm so sick of construction. Today is supposed to be the last day of repairs at my apartment. There's still another week to go at the office. Earlier the Russian workers here were fighting. At least, we think they were fighting; it was all in Russian.

3. Got a new pair of Nike Lunarglides last night. My feet and legs were a lot happier after this morning's run than they have been. The new ones are still dark gray, but with light gray accents instead of neon pink.

4. I also got my first pair of compression socks and nearly dislocated several joints getting them on. I got one and a half socks on last night before I noticed they were labeled L and R. After nearly dislocating several joints getting them off, I finally got both socks on. And, totally worth the beaucoup bucks those socks cost as all my aches and pains -- well, except for the joints I nearly dislocated -- disappeared instantly.

5. Last night and tonight at the office they are installing the granite countertops. Don't ask me why we're getting granite countertops in an office. We have no fucking clue. Anyhow, the glue they use is quite potent. You could huff quite effectively in the men's room (the only fully working bathroom we had today).

6. I have a guest post lined up over the next few days. I didn't see my guest poster this morning so I hope that means he is busy putting it together. Should be up by Wednesday.

7. I have to come back to the office around 9:00 p.m. to lock up after the workers. They damn well better be done by 9:00 because I'm going to want to go to bed early.

8. Julie and I had three miles on the agenda this morning and we ran all but two laps of the track of it. Today was the first day we didn't count the half-mile walk to the track so that we could get a better idea of how our pace is progressing. We walked a lap, ran 1.25 miles, walked another lap, then ran the last 1.25 miles. All on very tired legs.

9. We've been giving nicknames to all the other folks who show up at the track. There is this one little Asian guy that shows up right after us. He looks to be in his 50s and he is just a machine. I think he does five miles a day, at maybe a steady 10 minute mile pace. I call him the Asian Rocky -- or Locky, if you like. Our goal is to one day keep pace with Locky. We also have Push Up Guy and Kind of Creepy Other Asian Guy.

10. I think I'm going to wait to take any more vacation days until my boss is back from his vacation. Let him feel the pain.

11. We're also going to leave his office all disassembled. We had to reorganize and redo the entire rest of the building to accommodate this bizarre remodel. The new microwave? You could cook a turkey in that thing, it's that huge. And they're installing a cook-top. In a kitchen that's roughly five feet by five feet. We have no idea who is going to be cooking on it. But apparently we needed one.

12. I'm about three-quarters of the way through the new Harry Dresden. It is absolutely excellent. And so far Harry has quoted not only Star Wars (he does that in probably every book) but also Princess Bride and -- best of all -- one of my very favorite movies, Big Trouble in Little China. I have to confess, I did skip ahead to the ending so I know who murdered Harry (he died at the end of the last book before this one -- or did he?) and it was a great twist. There was also a lot of resolution in this book to many, many things from the whole series, but in a way that sets up the next book in a fabulous way for new beginnings but also without leaving everything else behind. If that makes sense.

13. My tummy is beginning to growl, so it is time to go home now. Ciao!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Weekend Whatever

2011-07-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize it had been ten days since I last posted. Yikes!

I last posted on a Thursday. That Friday, I went to Bend to visit friends for the weekend. We had a great time. Saw the new house, did a great hike, tasted some great beer, had some great food. Monday I was back in the office, the only full time employee not on vacation and dealing with a boss on vacation in Europe who still had internet access. It was going on week two at home of repairs and at the office they started the remodel.

On Wednesday we staged a coup and made plans to get a storage unit. Thursday and Friday I logged, labeled, and moved over 300 file boxes to the new storage unit. We nearly filled a 9.5' x 30' storage unit. I wish I'd been wearing a pedometer because I swear I walked at least six miles each day in the office, lugging those boxes around. My legs were exhausted.

Yesterday we did our six mile run. My ankle was sore and swollen from the office moving so I had to walk most of the run but we did it. When I got home I RICEd my ankle, which helped tremendously, then napped. Today I've been trying to catch up on sleep and laundry and TV and to clean up the yard from the repair work. Which reminds me, I forgot to set a timer while I'm watering the lawn. Better go make sure it's not flooding!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Thirteen Things Thursday

2011-07-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

1. This is my 400th post. I never seem to shut up, do I? Thanks for being here for the ride :)

2. I'm starting to think that the hardest thing about marathon training isn't the mileage, it's that nearly every thing you do starts to become about the marathon. Should I watch this TV show? No, it's already 10:00 p.m. and I should be heading off to bed. Should I make this for dinner? No, it's kind of a heavy meal and it's already later than I normally eat dinner, better not because I have to run tomorrow. What should I take for lunch today? Better add an extra snack because I'm going to be really hungry by mid-afternoon. Wear these shoes? My feet are tired from running this morning. It gets to be more exhausting than running 15 miles a week.

3. Wednesday night I made sweet chili shrimp quesadillas. I had no idea what to have for dinner. Well, not true; I wanted sausage and hash browns with gravy, but since I'm almost up to 200 lbs right now I really need to stop eating stuff like that. At least, only eat it maybe once a month rather than at least twice a week. So I pulled some peel and eat shrimp out of the freezer and once defrosted sauteed it with garlic salt, onion powder, chili powder, and chili garlic sauce. Once it started to sizzle I turned down the heat and let it simmer for around ten minutes. Then in a big skillet with some non-stick cooking spray I put a flour tortilla and topped half of it with shredded cheese and the shrimp. I then topped the shrimp with Frank's Sweet Hot Chili Sauce. Once the cheese melts, fold over the tortilla, let it cook for a few seconds so it sticks all together, then cut it into quarters and top with sour cream. Yum! It's the first time I've tried that sweet hot chili sauce (picked it up last week with a coupon!) and I really liked it. It would be excellent with coconut shrimp.

4. My place looks like a war zone with the siding repair. They told me yesterday they will be done by Saturday. Yay!

5. Like you didn't know that was coming.

6. Lots of other bloggers do a Three Things Thursday. Three just never seems like enough to me.

7. But then sometimes coming up with 13 is hard. Mainly because I make them tooooo lonnnnnnggggggg.

8. Successfully completed our third run of the week this morning, but we were definitely feeling that it was the third in four days. We did count only the half mile walk to the track in our mileage today -- normally one mile total of our runs is walking there and back -- and then finished the mileage on the track. Then I forgot to turn off my Garmin at 3.0 miles and we walked fairly slowly back to the house so it doesn't show an improvement in our pace. I think we ended up with an average pace of under 17 minutes for the three miles.

9. Yay!

10. I'm kind of running out of things to say.

11. I have the worst cough right now. It's irritation resulting from a combination of post-nasal drip from allergies together with acid reflux. So, I'm destroying my throat lining both coming and going. I sound horrible, but I'm not coughing for the normal reasons; when I cough it's mainly to try to itch my throat. Speaking of coughs, did you hear that whooping cough is going around? There was a PSA on TV the other night. And apparently TB is also making a comeback. What's next, polio?

12. I just joined Google+. You can find me under Cilley Girl. No idea what Google+ even is, but feel free to add me.

13. Happy Bastille Day! If you can keep your head when all others around you are losing theirs, then you're probably a peasant. Or Robespierre.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Whimsical Wednesday

2011-07-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

'Nuff said!

Although I do have a few things while I"m thinking about it. Anyone having problems commenting? Jules mentioned this morning that she has problems with Blogger recognizing her when she tries to comment here; I'm trying to figure out if the problem is with my site or what.

We did not make it to yoga last night -- although we are set up for next Tuesday night -- but we did make the four miler this morning. I think we ran a total of five laps over the four miles, including two laps (half mile) at once. Still a very slow pace overall, primarily because of our walk to and from the track, but we kept a steady mid-13 minute pace during the runs. Julie was feeling a little draggy so we didn't walk as quickly overall -- usually she sets the walking pace because she walks a little faster than I do, and I usually set the running pace along those same lines. Tomorrow is another three miler and we're planning to drop back to only running three laps so as not to push it.

I was planning to wear my aircast today for the compression but then there was this whole dog-poop-on-the-running-shoes thing (I had to apologize to the dog I blamed for tracking crap into the house earlier; it was me) and I got my shoe all wet while trying to clean it. Since those are the only shoes that really work with the aircast, I had to bag it for today. If my shoe is dry at lunchtime I'll probably put the cast on then. Just a little soreness in the leg this morning but otherwise not bad. Yay!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

It's a Take Back My Rack Tuesday!!

2011-07-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Now introducing Take Back My Rack Tuesdays!! Aren't you excited?!?!?

I knew you were!!

And what do we write about on Take Back My Rack Tuesdays? We write about what we (I) am doing to take back my rack. As in running. Yay!!!!

I love that picture.

Yes, I had my first run in about nine weeks, since the advent of the stress fracture. I think my last run was May 3rd or 4th. So, about nine weeks.

How did it go? Guess!

Julie and I got together on Sunday and mapped out our Portland Marathon training schedule. The goal was to get ourselves ready without dying. Or developing a stress fracture. Kind of tough to do when the race is in less than 90 days but we tweaked and tweaked and ended up with a workable plan. Which began yesterday with a three mile run that was more walking than running. We're both starting from Square One and, you know, stress fracture. Out of the three miles, we ran a total of three quarters of a mile.

For being out of shape, we didn't do too bad on the running, maybe 1:30 pace per mile slower than where we were at when I had to drop out of training for Vancouver. Overall, we were running at more or less marathon pace; all we have to do is do that for 26.2 miles.

My leg felt good during the three miles and still feels good today. A little calf tenderness behind and below the spot of the stress fracture but otherwise fine. I want to continue to ease into things for the first few weeks since going from zero to 15 miles in a week is a big adjustment. We're also adding in yoga, which hopefully will start tonight. Very glad to be starting up with training again as I got on the scale this morning and my weight was waaaaay up there. Although it is almost that TOM so that could be part of it.

Bite me, kitty!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Training starts tomorrow!

2011-07-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

Marathon training with Jules starts tomorrow!

I've signed up for the Eugene Women's Half on September 4!

Ack!!!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Whimsical Wednesday: I'd like to thank...

2011-06-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

I'd like to thank the makers of Diet Coke, Hot Pockets, and Pringles for keeping me alive this week. And my allergist for prescribing the lovely antihistamines that help me to fall asleep easily and to keep breathing through the night.

I'd also like to thank my dog for not peeing (much) inside the house. And my other dog for snuggles and loves when I need them.

I'm sure there's someone or something I'm leaving out but I can't keep my eyes open for another second.

I will be MIA for the next few days. First making it through Friday and this big deadline, and second from sleeping and not touching a computer for at least 24 hours.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Money Matters Mondays: Rite Aid and I need a spare husband and kids

2011-06-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

I did my part to save money this past week: I couponed, I bought lunch on my office credit card, and I worked over 50 hours.

I am so tired.

So, a quick little example of how you too can save big moolah by using coupons. Here's my Sunday Rite Aid trip:

2 Excedrin PM at $1.99/each
-used 2 $1.00/1 coupons

2 Stayfree MaxiPads at $2.50/each
- used 1 BOGO coupon (if you have a Y chromosome, that means buy one get one free)
- used 1 $1.00/1 coupon

2 Xtra laundry detergents at $1.99/each
- used 1 $1.00/2 coupon

The retail total was $11.46, $6.46 after coupons. I used $6.00 in +Up rewards from last week; +Up rewards are money off your next purchase that you get for buying certain products. That brought the total out of pocket to $0.46 plus $4.00 in new +Up rewards -- and I still had $2.00 in +Up rewards leftover from last week. The trick is to combine coupons with the products where you'll get +Up rewards. I'm running low on night time moisturizer so I may use my +Up rewards soon to knock down the price on that (something you'll never get for under $1.00).

I should have 17+ hours of overtime on Friday's paycheck. Hopefully I'll have enough extra to get me comfortably through the month on cash only.

With all of the printing of the coupons, I was out of ink at home. I saw that Staples had a promo where you could get a free eco bag -- you know, the reusable shopping bag. Usually you have to buy the bag. Everything that you put in the bag -- and I think this is always, not just for this promo -- you got 15% off. Plus there was a second promo where you got $4.00 per ink cartridge and 20% rewards back when you bought $50.00 or more in HP ink. And guess what kind of printer I have? Let's just say I went digging through my wastebasket to pull out the used cartridges. I recycled six cartridges and I bought around $70.00 in HP ink (I paid around $60 out of pocket after the 15% bag discount). That should give me $24.00 back on the cartridges and around $14.00 for the rewards. That means Staples is going to be sending me a check in about a month for $38.00!! And the program is free! Why aren't more people doing this?

I have had people kind of be negative about couponing in general -- that you're taking money from the stores. But that is absolutely not true. Look at a coupon: the store gets reimbursed for the coupon amount plus a handling fee, usually around $0.08. So one, the store is making money. Two, roughly 3% of all coupons issued are ever actually redeemed. It might be a little higher now with the recent coupon publicity but still. Three, people are in shopping. That's helping the economy. And lastly, and most important, YOU are saving your hard-earned money.

You should really look into this if you have a family. There are a gazillion coupons out there for cereal and for diapers. I don't eat grains (usually, ahem) and don't have kids, in diapers or otherwise. Yogurt is another big one I see, but I don't eat yogurt any more either. You can get toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, body wash, toothpaste -- all for pennies or even for free. I've had to rein in buying certain things, because as I've mentioned previously a couple of bottles of shampoo will last me a couple of years. But if you have other people in your household? Cut a few coupons, read up on a few coupon-matching sites (they do 95% of the work for you), and then GO SAVE.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Free Form Friday: The Premiere Edition

2011-06-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the premiere edition of Free Form Friday! Where I'll throw out whatever. Again, pretty much what I do all the time but with a catchy title.

The sun peaked out this afternoon so I took some pics of my garden.

In this corner, we have the butter lettuce run amok, French lavender which is doing really well, jasmine which is doing well despite the fact that I have yet to re-pot it, and the cucumber bush.

On the patio table for now is the romaine, which I thought would be bigger by now. I found some extra pots under the deck that I had forgotten about so I may transplant these into one bigger pot that I can hang off the deck. Like I did with the carnations.

Isn't the color on these gorgeous? And can you see there are a dozen more buds getting ready to burst open? When I bought these, I thought they were in a six pack that I could break up and spread out but they are kind of one big clump. There's lots of room left over in the pot; I think I will get a couple of something like pansies or Sweet Williams to put on either side and balance it out. I also have strawberries getting ready to bloom.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture. Strawberry starts were two for $1.00 at Fred Meyer so I got six into this pot. There are three different varieties in here. One will have pink blooms and there is one that should bloom in a couple of days. When I read it would be pink, I thought some light girlie pink but the blossom I've got is magenta. If more pop up that will be spectacular!

So when you have lettuce run amok, you need to eat it or it will stop growing. Here's a recipe for quick and easy chicken caesar salad wraps.

First, harvest the lettuce. Can you believe this growth is from the past several days? I cut it back pretty good but by Monday it'll be ready to pick again.

Next, get out the chicken that you grilled up last week. This is part of the 20 lbs of chicken from the Zaycon Foods deal I did. The flavor is amazing. Makes you wonder what they do to the chicken you get in the store.

For wraps, you need, well, wraps. A couple of 10" tortillas will do the job.

By the way, can you tell I'm not a professional food photographer?

Chop up the chicken and then get your favorite caesar dressing. My personal favorite is Safeway's Eating Right brand of fresh garlic caesar. It's a perfect consistency -- I hate gloppy, thick dressing -- and best of all it's low cal so you can use enough not to have a dry wrap without adding a ton of calories. I think this is 40 calories per two tablespoons.

Mix up the lettuce and the chicken with enough dressing to coat everything thoroughly but not so much that there is a lot of dressing sitting in the bottom of the bowl. While it sits, heat up your tortillas in the microwave between damp paper towels. I do about 45 seconds for two tortillas. The warmth and the damp helps them to be more malleable and not tear.

As I mentioned, without enough dressing your wrap will be dry and tasteless. Too much dressing and the flavor is overwhelming plus the tortillas tend to get too wet and tear. With lettuce and chicken for two wraps, I used about four tablespoons of a moderately thin consistency dressing. I then lay down a line of about a tablespoon of dressing on each tortilla before putting on the lettuce and chicken. I then topped with a couple of pinches of shredded parmesan. You can mix your parmesan in with the lettuce and chicken but I find that the parmesan tends to clump all together and then stick to the bowl. This way you get an even layer of cheese.

Now wrap and enjoy! Total time to make: 15 minutes, including time to dodge hungry dogs.

I have to work this weekend but I've got time for one last picture of my new baby:

Isn't it beautiful?? To give you an idea of the size, the entertainment center is 46" wide. I didn't think to measure the height inside before I got the TV so I was very lucky that it just cleared it. I have maybe an inch and a half of space at the top. I'm thinking of taking July 5th off so I can have a four day orgy of television. It's the little things in life, right?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Thirteen Things Thursday

2011-06-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a few bloggers that I follow, I am dubbing this "Thirteen Things Thursday" where I list 13 more or less random items. Which is pretty much what I do anyways.

1. I learn about the oddest things in the course of my job. Today I learned there is a company called "Lice Knowing You" in the Seattle area. They specialize in, as you might guess, lice removal.

2. My older dog, CBS, took a tumble down a flight of stairs around 4:00 a.m. this morning. Since she was on her way out for a potty break, hitting the landing caused her bladder to release. So I was up at 4:00 a.m. cleaning up pee and coaxing her outside just in case there was anything left. Poor puppy.

3. This week I started a container of strawberries (so far I've whacked my head on it once in the first three days) and a cucumber bush. Both are growing nicely but if we don't get some sun soon it will all be just pretty little leaves. Case in point: the butter lettuce is growing like crazy. Salad is again on the dinner menu for tonight.

4. I should have my Directv installed Sunday, just in time for the season premiere of True Blood. Yay!! The package I got not only has the typical movie channels (Turner Classic Movies, AMC, Lifetime Movie Network that kind of stuff) but Encore, the Movie Channel, and Fox Movie Channel and for three months I also get HBO, Showtime, Starz, and Cinemax for free. I may never leave the house again. And on top of all that, this satellite TV package is $40 less per month than what I paying at Comcast.

5. That should all help with my efforts to go to an all-cash budget. I did get a LivingSocial deal recently for two movie tickets (Julie -- we need to go see a movie!) but otherwise with the satellite TV and Netflix I don't need to pay for a movie for ever.

6. I am also switching my internet provider to DSL and getting a land line again for the first time in about a dozen years. Bundled with Directv I'm saving $45 per month overall for TV and internet, plus I'll have a land line. I probably won't keep the land line once the promo rate expires (it's six or twelve months, I forget) but in the meantime my mother will be happy that I'll have a phone I can actually hear ring.

7. Recently I bought some Pringles as a snack after not having any for several years. I just ate half a can for lunch and brought a new can back to the office to snack on. They're like crack, man.

8. Ever hear of Swagbucks? You sign up and get points for searching the web with their toolbar instead of, say, Google. There are other chances to get points by doing directed web searches (i.e., go to this website and tell us what you think the company's message is), playing games, watching videos, answering a daily poll, and a lot of other things. You can redeem your swagbucks for actual stuff like a $5.00 Amazon gift card. It's kind of like playing roulette (so fun when it pops up to tell you you've earned swagbucks!) and in the first week of doing this I have 393 swagbucks (I need 450 to get the Amazon gift card). If you sign up, please tell them the CilleyGirl referred you (cilleygirl at gmail dot com).

9. The original Disapproving Rabbit Cinnamon passed away recently. Goodbye Cinnamon, it was an honor to be disapproved by you.

10. Best of luck this weekend to the Little Fruit Fly who is running the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Half. Have fun and don't worry about muggers! Oh, and a city block in downtown Seattle is about twice the length of a Portland city block. So if someone tells you "it's just four blocks down", hop on a free Metro bus instead. Trust me on this. Best of luck to Tall Mom who is also running it this weekend.

11. And speaking of Tall Mom, she and Tricia were both chosen to be on Nuun's Hood to Coast team. Yay for them!! My boss has run HtC three times and he has some great stories about it. Prepare to be both exhilirated and exhausted :)

12. It's kitten season! A kitten fostering blog I follow out of Tacoma is doing their annual Dog-a-Thon FUNdraiser for the Tacoma Humane Society. However, all of the money raised by the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee goes to the cats. In the first year they did this, their goal was to raise three squillion and they raised $23 squillion! Last year the bar was raised to $40 squillion and they raised $48 squillion. This year, the goal is $50 squillion and they are over 1/5th of the way there. If you can give, please do so; my beautiful cat Sammi, who I lost to kidney disease three years ago this August, was adopted from Tacoma Humane. We had 14 wonderful years together and I donated in her memory. Even if you can just send good vibes to these adorable kitties -- look at the page, they are SO cute -- that would be great.

13. I have to work again this weekend, so by July 1 I will have worked every day since June 14. I keep thinking about the overtime. I tend to skip meals during big appeal seasons and it does not help me to keep a positive attitude. I didn't take a lunch at all yesterday and man oh man was I snarly. Today I went home for lunch to let the pups out -- landlord is coming today to look at replacing the siding and hopefully rebuilding my rotting deck so I had to leave them in -- and it was nice to be able to get away and just not work for an hour. I'm trying to watch everything left in my DVR before the satellite guy comes on Sunday so I haven't been going to bed early as I probably should. Last night I watched the last three episodes of this season's Supernatural. I liked this season better than the last and am interested to see what they do for the next (and likely the last) season.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Money Matters Monday!

2011-06-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

Hidey ho everyone! Did you survive Father's Day? I was stressed that I would forget to call my dad and he would be pissed and then I call and he doesn't even realize it's Father's Day. Figures. We had a nice, albeit short, chat, and then I called my grandfather next door (to my dad) to wish him a happy Father's Day. Which took less than a minute then I chatted with my grandmother for about a half hour. Completely reflects my family life.

I'm trying out a few things to prompt myself back into writing here on a more regular basis. I recently came across a cool blog called Never Niche where the name stems from the fact that her blog is about a conglomeration of interests that just don't fit into a specific spot in the blogosphere. And neither do mine. I try but then after a short period of time I tend to write about anything shiny that catches my eye. After all, I am all about the whimsy.

Rather than change my blog name yet again (and "Never Niche" is taken), I thought I'd start alliteratively allocating certain days of the week to certain topics. So today is (for now) "Money Matters Monday." Where I'll gather up all my debt-busting related stuff in one spot.

I'm continuing to coupon but I'm kind of broke so my spending threshold is fairly low. As in, I'll buy something if (a) I need/stockpile it and (b) it's generally couponed down to $1.00 or less. This past week I did a fun deal at Rite Aid after finally figuring out how the Up+ rewards works. Here's what went into it.

On Wednesday, I bought the new Bayer Advanced Aspirin. I only bought just that because everything else I was looking for wasn't in stock. It was on sale for $3.99 plus a $1.99 Up+ reward. (Up+ rewards are like cash off your next purchase when you buy the qualifying item.) I had a $2.00 off one coupon, bringing the total down to $1.99 and then I got the Up+ reward, making it free. On Friday I went out to see if I could find the rest of the stuff I had been looking for. Again at Rite Aid, I got two Arm & Hammer toothpastes ($3.99 each with a $3.00 each Up+ reward, and I had two $1.00/1 coupons, making them free), two Oral-B toothbrushes $2.99 each with a $1.00 each Up+ reward and I had a buy one get one coupon, meaning I paid $0.99 for two toothbrushes), and then I bought another Bayer Advanced Aspirin because I found out it works well on headaches. Hmm, I had a coupon but it didn't ring up... Anyhow, together with the previous $1.99 Up+ reward I paid $10.97 out of pocket but got $8.00 back in Up+ rewards for my next purchase -- meaning that total spent was only $2.97.

I have told myself that I must stop buying toothpaste now. I'm set for a while.

I'm looking into ditching my cable in favor of satellite TV. For the TV portion of my cable bill, I pay about $90 per month. If I switch to Directv, I'll pay about $40 per month for the first year; I think it goes to $55 in the second year. That's a savings of $600 in the first year just on TV. I'm looking at switching my internet provider as well; currently I pay about $55 a month for broadband. I should be able to get it for a lot less than that.

Of course, as part of the anticipated switch to satellite -- where they have tons of free HD programming -- I had to purchase a new TV. Yep, I've finally gone flat screen and high def. It's huge. I'm in love. I may never leave the house again.

Anyone have any money saving tips or suggestions that I can do? Particularly about satellite TV and internet service? I'm a little wary of switching car insurance, anyone actually switched to Geico or Allstate with good results? Horrible results? Bueller?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Peeking in

2011-06-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive!

My mom was finally able to come down for a visit this past weekend so I took a four day weekend. Amidst all of that, work is ramping up for our second biggest deadline on July 1; it's looking like I'll be working every day between yesterday and July 1 to get it all done since I've had more than my average of vacation days over the past few months. Which has been nice but there's lots to do.

I still haven't talked with my boss about a raise but I've been preparing for it. I read this fabulous book last night about women and knowing their worth. Which along with the couponing (still doing it -- saved about 85% on the items for which I had coupons last night, throwing in other non-coupon items still had me saving 50% overall) has me back to the horrific conclusion that (a) I have a shitload of debt and (b) I need to get out of that shitload of debt. Ergo, I'm going to be reading Dave Ramsey and a Suze Orman book directed towards women (I read part of it a year or two ago, but now I'm getting my own copy). Funny how trying to save money means you're buying books on saving money. Right? I did go to Powells for the Suze Orman book, so I'm only paying about 25% of retail on that -- and I found another money/debt book (name escapes me at the moment) for only $0.95 that normally retails for about $18! Dave Ramsey I got for the Kindle, which was cheaper than any of the used ones out there. Yes, I know I could get these through the library -- which I did previously with Suze Orman -- but I go through books like these slowly and never manage to finish within the three week checkout period. Plus I like to refer back and highlight stuff, which you can't do with a library book. At least, you shouldn't be doing it with a library book!

In other related news, I'm looking into some container gardening. I planted some butter lettuce and romaine starts a couple of weeks ago and Monday night I had my first home-grown salad. My mom and I looked at a lot of plants this weekend (farmer's market in Beaverton plus Wal-Mart's garden section) and even though I don't like a lot of veggies there are several which I do like that I could grow myself. I'm extremely interested in a cucumber bush plant for saving space. I think I could do broccoli and cantaloupes. Maybe even carrots for next year; I think it's too late for this year. I'm going to hit up some thrift stores and freecycle to find pots for all this plus the plants my mom bought for me -- a beautiful star jasmine, some lavender, and carnations. If I really get into gardening, there's a spot in my yard that I think would be perfect for a raised bed next year -- it seems to get good sun and I can't get grass to grow there anyways.

Let's see, what else? Still no running and I haven't gone to the gym to do other things either. Boo me. Self, if you're not going to use that gym membership then you need to cancel it. One way or the other, do it! I'm picking up 40 lbs of fresh, never-frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts tomorrow that I got for $1.64/lb through Zaycon Foods. My co-worker is buying one ten pound bag, I'm poking at Julie to see if she wants one too, and I'm hoping that I can manage the freezer space for 20 to 30 lbs of chicken! Happy that I recently got a good deal on quart sized freezer bags and a whole lotta marinade too!

That's about it from my corner of the world. I've got some pics and details about my mom's visit to post eventually. Oh, and today is my dog Cute But Stupid's 16th birthday! The past year has been hard on her so I was glad that she made it to her 16th birthday. I have a feeling that this may be her last and I've been preparing for that eventuality for some time now as our other setters made it to 17 and 15. This September will mark ten years we've been together. I'm ready to let her go when it comes to that, and otherwise we just enjoy every day we have together until then.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Topsy turvy scurvy update

2011-06-08T16:55:00.000-07:00

Went to store last night to buy fruits and veggies -- Yes! I felt so virtuous. I bought hearts of romaine (to supplement the fresh lettuce currently growing on my deck), strawberries, bananas, and carrots. And sweet pickle relish and tater tots. And baked beans, which are technically a legume and I shouldn't be eating with paleo but I've had myself a hankering for beans and weenies.

Ate fruits and/or veggies last night -- Yes! I had sweet pickle relish and tater tots with ketchup. Don't judge; Reagan said ketchup was a vegetable. I meant to have a nice bowl of freshly sliced/lightly sugared strawberries but my mom called and by the time I got back to finishing the making of the potato salad it was too late in the evening for me to eat something that acidic. I also took all my vitamins last night and felt a lot less tired this morning than I normally do.

Ate fruits and/or veggies today -- Yes! The strawberries meant for dessert last night went into today's lunch bag. They were more syrupier than I like but still tasty. I brought a banana but so far have not eaten it. Dinner tonight will have potato salad which not only has potatoes but sweet pickles. Yum!

Ooh, random thought: I bet dumping a couple of cans of baked beans and some weenies into the crockpot tomorrow morning would be soooo yummy by the time I get home tomorrow. Mmmmmm.

I think I'm going out for pizza for lunch tomorrow so I'll be certain to nab some slices with pineapple, black olives, and mushrooms to continue my anti-scurvy campaign. If my mom wasn't coming to visit this weekend (and I wasn't taking Friday and Monday off work), I would've gotten fresh pineapple at the store and maybe peaches and mushrooms too. But that much produce would've just gone bad by the time work rolled around again next Tuesday. And I also have a Tuscan cantaloupe that I sliced up last night too; need to eat that up too (Mom likes cantaloupe, at least she used to).

I'm still feeling odd. Like if someone punched me in the stomach something important would rupture like a cheap water balloon. Maybe it's mono. Or maybe it's a TOO-MUR. Or maybe it's a ventricular aneurysm waiting to pop; my grandmother had that (the ventricular aneyrusm part, not the it popped part) and it's a hereditary thing. I don't know; anyone want to suggest some dire disease for me to have? C'mon, it's fun!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Ahoy, ye scurvy curs!

2011-06-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

So the other day I'm hanging out, thinking about my diet, and I realize: I can't think of the last time I had a fruit or a vegetable. Hmmm.

And then I'm thinking I'm coming down with scurvy.

Is anybody else familiar with scurvy? Not like up close and personal, but did you learn about it and other wacko diseases in not-college-level-school? I remember learning all about things like scurvy and rickets, beriberi and pellagra, and cowpox and anthrax -- and let's not forget bubonic plague! -- in as early as junior high. Why? I mean, granted, anthrax because extremely relevant in recent years but otherwise? Was this some kind of a "so you better eat your veggies, kids!" kind of brainwashing?

There were pictures and everything!

I'm guessing that in addition to putting the fear of god into kids to eat healthy and wash their hands on a regular basis -- and what a way to go about it -- that it was also a "look how awesome the human race is!" kind of thing. We've cured all these things, go us! But surprisingly no mention of relevant things. Like cancer. Emphysema. Cirrhosis of the liver. I was well into college before I figured out exactly what cancer was, and it was long after that when I learned that bits of cancer can break off and go to other parts of your body and make more new and different cancers. Sadly, I learned this in conjunction with the illness and eventual passing of a friend's husband from cancer that at the end had spread everywhere.

You know, I meant for this to be more amusing. Boobies! How's that?

Back to my lack of fruit and veg. I'm starting to suspect (in addition to catching scurvy) that as a consequence of sinus/allergy problems I've lost my sense of taste to a certain extent. I just have little interest in eating these days and when I do eat it's not very satisfying. Even things like ice cream aren't doing it for me. What's up with my body?

I do know what's up with at least one body part, namely my right lower leg. I saw the orthopedist yesterday, who really has a good case of the cutes, and I'm still not cleared for running for at least four more weeks. My leg has not gotten worse and he believes I am healing well. I am cleared for non-impact activities such as the elliptical and the recumbent bike. If I feel strong enough I can maybe do some walking in two to three weeks but he advised against it.

That means that I better get my scurvy ass to the gym tout suite if I want to have a chance of getting back into training at the end of the next four weeks. I'll be looking at only a 12 week training period for Portland. That suddenly does not sound like a good idea, and sounds a lot like a second stress fracture waiting to happen. I may need to rethink my running goals for this year. I may need to drop to only the half marathon for Portland. Hmmm.

I'm off to dash out a few more work tasks before heading home to make potato sald. Pickles are vegetables, right?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

You might be a penguin.

2011-06-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

As a truly slow runner, I do get annoyed when I see people whining about how slooooowwww they are. With their nine minute miles. So I thought I would make up a handy little chart that let's you know whether you are truly a slow runner. Or whether you should go fuck yourself AND the horse you rode in on. Because clearly there was a horse involved in getting your oh-so-slow nine minute mile.

If you consistently run a seven minute mile or faster, congratulations! You are a cheetah. You enjoy a healthy slice of massive pain in all your runs, and occasionally it would be more convenient (and less messy) if you ran in an adult diaper. You are nuts, or quite possibly Kenyan. Luckily you can often be found on the ground in agony shortly after a race or else we'd never catch up long enough to put a medal on you.

You can't catch m--- ow!!! My hamstring!!!

If you consistently run over a seven minute mile but below an eight, congratulations! You are a pronghorn antelope. You also enjoy a healthy slice of pain in all your runs, but not to the point where you crap in your pants. Be careful those age group medals don't get tangled up in your horns.

I'm ready for my medal now, Mr. DeMille.

If you consistently run an eight or nine minute mile, congratulations! You are a lion, a Thomson's gazelle (all other gazelles out of luck apparently), a wildebeest or a springbok. Take your pick! There are many of you out there. You often medal in your age group, and on a particularly good day (and age) you get the first place spot. Great job! Tthe rest of us like and admire you. Except when you whine about being slow. Then we hope a crocodile gets you at an aid station.

I am a springbok. Don't judge me.

If you consistently run over a nine minute mile but not quite a ten, congratulations! You are a thoroughbred. Told you there was a horse involved! You constantly push yourself to do better and as a consequence those fragile little legs can suffer injury. Take it easy on yourself! Remember that most of you will not get to hump all the mares you can handle in your post-race career. Many of you will end up gelded instead. But there's still a lot to do in the world other than mares, so keep yourself healthy enough to do it without bionic parts.

I'm a wildebeest, and I am born to run. Literally. Google it.

(Like you didn't know what a thoroughbred already looked like.)

If you consistently run a ten or eleven minute mile, you are a Cape Hunting Dog or an elk. Yeah, I didn't know what a Cape Hunting Dog was either but they're cute little suckers and apparently rather speedy. So congratulations! You're smack dab in the middle of the pack -- appropriate for a Cape Hunting Dog or an elk -- and make up the bulk of any race. The true penguins aspire to your achievements. You probably want to be faster, and we wish the best of luck to you on that. We'll miss you, as you were the closest runners we could actually see way up ahead there.

We are Cape Hunting Dogs. We're very cute, meaning we'll probably eat you.

Are there still runners behind me? Are there???

If you consistently run between a 12 minute mile but under a 15 minute mile, congratulations! You actually are a penguin! On land, you are slow. If you were in the water, you'd be one fast mother, able to swim up to 40 miles per hour, but clearly you chose the wrong sport. But that's okay! We penguins run for the love of running. Because we are nuts. And quite definitely not Kenyan. There'd be more of us, but they're all annoyed by the others whining about how slow they are. While they're a mile or so ahead of us in the race.

I will kick your ass in the water. Just don't ask me to run to get there!

If you consistently run a 15 minute mile or slower, congratulations! I'm thrilled to see you out there. You're behind me, but you're out there, and both of those things make me happy! You are a sloth. It's not as bad as it sounds. The sloth moves slowly not because it is lazy but because one of its main predator is the eagle. By moving slowly it avoids being killed and eaten. So good job you! Also, you're cuter than those Cape Hunting Dogs.

I'm slow so that the photographers have enough time to always get my good side.

And now, courtesy of the TeamPenguin website: You might be a penguin if...

...you have to politely (for the third time) tell the men in the police car moving behind you that no you do not wish for a ride.

...you wear your jog bra on top of your singlet. This is especially true if you are male.

...during a race, you keep turning around to see if there is still anybody behind you.

...the rest of the pack is out of sight before you have run 100 yards.

...you meet both the hare and the tortoise running back towards you doing their cool-down after a race

...the only reason you don't drop out of a race is that you are embarrassed that the police in the car behind you (closing the course) will see you.

...as you are rounding the corner onto Main Street and the finish line, you overhear the announcer on a microphone to the crowd of 500 saying "We are assured the young lady is coming in!" (Oh well, at least I was young).

...you recognize all the regular runners on your favorite route from behind.

...you get passed on the uphill by a runner pushing a double baby jog stroller.

...you shoot a 24-shot roll of film during a marathon.

...you make arrangements for a late checkout at the hotel.

...you are more worried about the porta-potty lines than the start line.

...your support crew talks about meeting you for supper, not lunch.

...you have to memorize the route because you know that you will lose the back of the pack.

...the truck picking up the cones is pressing on your behind. (Don't laugh - this actually happened to me!)

...as you pass a course volunteer they ask you, "How many are behind you yet?" and you say "Behind me? Behind? Gosh... I think two... Unless they turned around!"

...the awards ceremony is over before you cross the finish line.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

I'm knot into yoga

2011-05-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

I picked that up as a bumper sticker several years ago and it's true. Ironic, then, that yesterday I scored a Living Social deal for 20 yoga or mat pilates sessions for $20.

Does anyone else hate yoga? Wait, let me rephrase: Does anyone who currently has ovaries and/or for whom ovaries were a standard option on their particular make and model hate yoga? Because it seems to be a chick thing that ovaries and yoga go together. I do like the idea of yoga, but the actual execution has never been my thing. I like a lot more violence in my sports. Like football. And running.

Not that yoga can't be violent. Every time I have tried yoga in a formal class-type situation, I've pulled the shit out of one shoulder or the other. I'm guessing it's a combination of it looks easier than it really is and having shoulders that like to separate from my body.

But I'm going to give it a shot. My orthopedist wants me to do some cross training in this next marathon phase. And I'd like to regain some of my childhood flexibility. When I could do stuff like this:

The gal on the right? No joke, when I was about 8 to 10 or so I could do that. (I probably could've done like the gal on the left too but I never tried.) Then the boob fairy came and I couldn't do that no more.

So, wish me luck that I'm knot going to dislocate a shoulder or a hip or anything.

Cheers,

the CilleyGirl

Learning to drive

2011-05-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Growing up, we never had normal cars. When I was little, before my parents split up, we had what were actually considered to be cool cars. A Dodge Charger.

Like this but brown and without the hood thingy.

A Ford Maverick.

Ours was blue but otherwise identical.

An Opel Kadet. I don't remember that one so I can't post a pic. I think it was around a '68 or '69.

Later, we had cars with quirks. Most of that was due to having ten year old cars (a '70s vintage Cadillac, one of those boat sized station wagons, a 1973 Ford pickup) with no fuel injection. So you had to warm them up. For about an hour before you could go anywhere. If ever you had to get going before the car was warmed up, you had to keep one foot on the gas and use your other foot for the brake.

The 1973 Ford F-series pickup -- we called it Old Blue -- was the first car I ever tried to learn to drive in. It was an automatic and I'd never driven a stick so I didn't have that right foot/left foot coordination thing going on like you have with a stick shift.

Ours was a slightly lighter shade of blue.

I say "tried to learn to drive in" because one day we had to go to the grocery store and since it was close my mom said I could drive. I had my learner's permit and I'd done some driving at that point without incident.

All in a fully warmed up truck.

For some reason we couldn't wait for the truck to warm up fully. Mom said no problem, just keep your foot on the gas and use your left foot to brake. Okey dokey.

All went relatively well until we had to make a right turn. Remember, this is a gigantic full size 1973 Ford pickup. It's made of steel. Gravity works. And did I mention that there was no gas pedal? You had the metal prong thingy there, but no actual pedal covering it.

So, I've got one foot on the gas non-pedal and one foot on the brake. And we need to slow down to make this right turn. My mom's yelling at me to slow down and I'm pushing down hard on the brake. Except my braking foot is currently on the gas. So we're actually going faster with every second. Towards this poor guy in his car who is waiting to pull out of the street I'm trying to turn on to. He's in a little Honda or Toyota. I'm in this steel tank and approaching ramming speed.

His eyes got SO BIG.

I managed to make the turn at about 35 mph, fish tailing the back end, the whole nine yards. Miraculously missed that poor guy who probably was now sitting in a wet seat. I immediately come to a stop at the curb and I turned to my mom and yelled "I told you I couldn't drive with my foot on the gas the whole time!"

My mom switched places with me.

That was in early 1986 and we still laugh about it until we cry to this day. In fact, we just talked about it last month. Most of their cars now, you get in them and you drive away. However, they do have a truck -- sadly, not Old Blue, it retired many moons ago, but not before it blew out a rod one day while I was driving on the freeway to high school -- that has starter or solenoid problems, necessitating one person behind the wheel while another is under the hood using a screwdriver to get it started. Last month my stepdad skipped the person behind the wheel part, which resulted in the truck flying backwards and taking out their garage door. And luckily not him or the many highly flammable and/or expensive to replace items in the garage.

That incident with Old Blue was also when I wouldn't let my mom teach me how to drive anymore. She's a little high strung and hysterical shrieking while hanging on to the oh shit handle and slamming on the imaginary brake does not lend itself well to a learning envirnoment. My stepdad was out of the question -- one of us would end up dead -- so the task fell to my dad.

My dad was the most awesome driving instructor. He took me out in his 1984 full-sized Ford Bronco. (Tanks are good cars in which to learn how to drive.) I loved that Bronco. I didn't want to destroy it. But he said I wouldn't and so off we went.

Dad's was dark brown with stripes down the side. I loved that SUV.

Through no fault of the Bronco, those with stick shifts had a what is known as a granny gear. Meaning you don't use first gear unless you're in four wheel drive and hauling something the size of a T-Rex. A little odd but you get used to it.

The first time he took me out, somehow I had problems negotiating a turn (I was an excellent driver on the straightaways) and ended up bonking into a low stone wall and sort of in a ditch. I was prepared for all sorts of yelling and screaming about how I was the village idiot, but my dad? Just said to put the car in reverse and back up. So I did. A reminder that we needed to start in second gear and off we went. So mellow. I think I could've blown the car up and he just would've shrugged and said it was just a car.

And that's how I learned to drive.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Keeping a'breast of the situation

2011-05-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hidey ho my Cilley fwends! I hope your weekend was spectacular. I loafed and I shopped. I'm going to have to just say no to shopping until this Saturday. When I make a Target run. And buy some soda.

But that is not why I am here! I was chatting on facebook with a friend who is rather amply endowed in the chestal region. I found out today that she's had a bit of poundage creep of late and most of it has found a home in her boobies. Leaving her extremely well endowed on an otherwise tiny frame.

Her daughter has been helping her do a little running and being me I pointed out that she needs to have (a) good shoes and (b) a good bra. I wanted to pass along some of my tips to her to you.

Pretty bras: Pretty bras are hard to find if you are a DD or up. Usually your color choices are white, beige, or black and your style choices are laughably flimsy to steel-belted industrial grade with nothing in between. But if you are willing to mortgage your home and/or your first born, Nordstrom's is the place to shop for jumbo bras.

In most stores, the full-figured bra area is tucked away in the side and there's one rack with the aforementioned blah choices. If you can call it a choice. Bland or ugly are your choices. You're usually looking at a range of sizes from A (mosquito bites) to DD (cantaloupes). At Nordstrom's the full-figured area is smack dab in the middle AND it's just for the bigger ta-tas. It starts at DD and goes up into J and K. I'm somewhat of a tit sling connoisseur and even I'd never seen bras this big before outside of an industrial setting. In fact, I had problems finding ones SMALL enough for me.

Basically, Nordstrom's has the next step up from the "regular" bras. Kind of like having the entire juniors department replicated in the plus size department. Which never happens, right? But for Nordstrom's it does. At least for bras. So you've got all the colors and styles that the teeny titties get. Just without the five square yards of padding in each cup. And best of all, prices aren't that bad. My friend was telling me she was getting hers for $120 at a specialty shop. I found her one at Nordstrom's online that had been marked down to about $60. Most are around $80 and a lot are of French or UK manufacture. People who recognize that the boobs, they are a bigger.

Sports bras: Title Nine has the best selection I've found of sports bras that actually do what they are supposed to be. No uniboob. Unless you're into that kind of thing. Sports bras with underwire. Sports bras with clasps -- in the back, only baby boobies get front clasps -- of typically four to five hooks. Adjustable straps. Colors! In the past I've also found larger sports bras at Nordstrom's but Title IX has a much wider selection and they're all tested and rated by women with actual breasts.

In case you're wondering -- and I know you are -- I wear Moving Comfort's Maia bra. They advertise it as the 2-in-1 bra and that is exactly what it is. It is as if you are wearing a regular underwire bra underneath one of those evil one-piece tank bras. Except without the dislocated shoulder getting it off. My favorite Title Nine bra is the Last Resort bra. Looks like a flak jacket, doesn't it? I've actually tried this one on and I couldn't get myself squished into it in under five minutes. Too many hooks! I couldn't commit that much time to my breasts every day so I stick with my Maia. Lately I've been wearing it as my daily bra, it's just that comfortable.

Now I just have to find a decent swimsuit where I don't become my own flotation device.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Those who can't run, coupon!

2011-05-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, my new hobby is couponing.

It takes time and organization but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Just like running, it is completely addicting. Saving 50% or more off your grocery bill? Awesome!

Of course, all this saving means I have been spending more. I can't keep doing that. The spending part, I mean. The saving, bring it on.

Actually, in retrospect most of the spending is because I broke two of the cardinal rules of grocery shopping: (1) Don't shop hungry, and (2) stick to the list. There were a lot of things that weren't on my list, weren't on sale and for which I didn't have a coupon that I tossed into my cart because I was both hungry and thirsty. Those impulse buys equated to nearly a third of my total purchases.

Some of the deals I scored:

If you "like" Walgreens on Facebook you can get a $5.00 off coupon good for Nature's Made calcium (100-130 ct). I was able to print two, although you can only use one per customer -- I'm going to go back and see if it works again because this was a great deal. The calcium/magnesium/zinc 120 ct was $5.49, meaning I got this for $0.49. I've heard some other shoppers finding it on sale for $4.99 making it free. Can't beat that!

Pedigree canned dog food -- the stuff my dogs threaten to slit my throat for if I don't feed it to them twice a day -- was on sale 10 for $7, making it $0.70 a can. It's on sale at PetSmart right now for $1.00 a can and regularly $1.10 a can but I have seen this as high as $1.69 per can. With a combination of coupons I was able to buy 22 cans for $8.80 or $0.40 per can. Plus this was one of Albertson's summer promo items; each marked item gets you one playing card containing four playing pieces plus a coupon. The playing pieces go on a board, kind of like McDonald's monopoly game, and if you get all the pieces per prize you get that prize. Grand prize is $250,000. I got 22 playing cards just from the dog food.

I also got a different brand of canned dog food at Target. Between sale prices and coupons, I got 22 cans for $15.25. Not as good of a deal as at Alberton's but I figure I'm set for canned dog food for close to a year.

I found hair color on clearance at Albertson's. Three were normally $9.99 and one was normally $8.99. They were marked down to $6.50 and $5.75, respectively. I had 3 $2 off coupons plus one $1 off coupon. Total retail price usually $38.96 and I got them for $18.25 for a savings of 53%. I'll either give them all to my mom or use one myself.

At Target, between the sale price and a coupon I got 40 lbs of Pedigree dry dog food for $16.99. I just checked PetSmart's website and right now you can get a 20 lb bag for $12.99.

The challenge is a blast. There are plenty of couponing blogs that do much of the work for you to match up coupons to sales. I got Nivea lotion for $1.54 down from $4.54. Sure deodorant for $0.50. Colgate pro whitening toothpaste plus a toothbrush for $1.24. Sally Hansen nail polish for $1.14 each. Four of those big bottles of shampoo -- a good brand too - for $1.84 each after you factor in the $5.00 Target gift card I got for buying them. In my first two weeks of couponing I've saved $196 and had a lot of fun. Try it, you might like it!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

I've got happy feet

2011-05-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

... but a slightly sad soul. The good news is that the leg is doing great. Yay! The bad news is my mom won't be able to come visit this weekend as planned. Boo!

Mom phoned this morning that she was at the hospital for suspected appendicitis. It turned out not to be her appendix, which was good, but she does have colitis. She'll be doped to the gills for the next several days and just not feeling well in general for about a week so no get-away weekend for us. I'm hoping I can get a refund on her surprise excursion; I'm a little tired of giving up money these days. Curse my organized, planning-ahead little self! We're hoping she'll be able to come down in a couple of weeks. Since I don't need time off for the Vancouver marathon anymore, I've got plenty of vacation time to use. (I'm still probably taking this Friday and the Friday of the marathon weekend off though.)

In other news, I did a shopping trip on Sunday and got about $320 worth of groceries for only $160. It literally pays to pay attention to the sales! I filled up a whole shopping cart to the brim -- I don't think I've ever purchased that many groceries in my life. Most of it was sports drinks. Powerade, Fuse, Propel Fitness Water and Vitamin Water were all on sale 10 for $10, and if you bought ten of any of that combination you got an instant $5 off, making them 50 cents a piece! I bought ten of each and now have a pantry stocked full of healthy beverages. My bladder and kidneys seem a little grumpy lately so it's nice to have plenty of electrolyte drinks handy. I also found the Gatorade G2 powder again; it comes in these great 20 oz serving size pouches. Saves on space and plastic. I also scored a great deal on pre-marinated pork tenderloin filets: at $10.99 each they were buy one get one free, I had two $1 off 1 coupons that I then doubled. Bottom line: Two yummy pork tenderloins for $3.50 each.

Since my mom won't be here this weekend, I'm tentatively planning to go to the gym to try my leg out on a recumbent bike. Bike riding is not my favorite thing as an adult but the recumbent bikes do circumvent my main complaint -- that the bike seat makes my ass hurt -- so maybe I'll rediscover my childhood love of cycling. I don't want to lose too much fitness because of the stress fracture. Swimming will have to wait until I get a swimsuit that I am able to swim in. All mine are for being in a pool, not for actual swimming. And it's tough to find one that thoroughly fits the girls. My mom hates the suit I wear most often, she doesn't like how low cut it is. I wear it anyway; it's not like I'm doing cleavage on purpose, I swear.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Friday the 13th will be bad... but Saturday the 14th will be worse!

2011-05-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

Anyone ever see that movie? Extremely cheesy but very funny. Wonder if it's on Netflix?

I've been busy trying to get my boss out of town for a few days. Of course, his being gone coincided with our last huge deadline until the end of June, so that was fun. Yesterday involved several phones repeating the same information. Yes, we filed on that one. Yes, that one. We talk about something else, then.... Yes, we filed on that one. Go away, go play golf and drink tequila and STOP CALLING ME.

But now I've just learned that Blogger went boom yesterday so even if I'd had time to write it would have disappeared into the ether.

The leg is doing very well, knock on wood. The aircast is fabulous. I want to marry the makers of the aircast. Only one tiny flaw that I have discovered -- which may only be particular to me, who knows -- is that because it holds in the sweat and it is compressing a thick sock to my leg for hours at a time, my skin was starting to slough off. I took off the cast last night when I got home and scratched my leg and the skin parted under my nails like tissue paper. It was one of the more fascinatingly gross things I've encountered in a while. I decided to give it a go without the cast today so that my skin could get a breather (literally). And so far, so good! I've been able to get around without any pain. It's only now at the end of the workday that the muscle over the actual fracture is starting to itch. I'm going to try the weekend without the cast so long as I am home; I'll wear it when I run errands. I've heard it is going to start raining again tomorrow; I won't have to worry about coordinating a cast with shorts and sandals.

In other good news, I can get a partial refund for the Vancouver USA marathon. Yay! I have the option of turning it into a credit for next year's race but that's just too far out to plan for me so I will go with the moolah. Ideally I'll be able to put it towards a new pair of running shoes.

Speaking of moolah, since I can't run my new preoccupation has been couponing. If you haven't seen the TLC show Extreme Couponers, check it out. Absolutely fascinating. My goal is to save enough money to finance a ten day trip back east next fall for the Marine Corps Marathon. I figure I'll need at least $1,500 to $2,000 to do everything I want to do: fly to and see D.C., see Rhode Island (and maybe drive up there from D.C.), visit New York City again and spend more than six hours there. I'd love to tour the White House, see the Smithsonian, see as much as the Atlantic Ocean as I can, hit as many states as I can, eat lobster for a week straight. And this would be at the end of October so the fall colors will all be out, right? That would be cool to visit some of those funky New England towns and go leaf peeping. Maybe I'll even write my congressman and see about a tour of Congress. The possibilities are endless!

Plus there's also the Marine Corps Marathon. Actual marines! Just watch, the Marine who gives me my medal will be a chick.

And if I can really do well at couponing (or just saving money, period) then I can go visit RG in Amsterdam! Woo hoo!!!!

Happy weekend!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Get a leg up

2011-05-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

It's official: tibial stress fracture. Boo!

I had to miss the Cinco de Mayo half, so that translates into an $80 shirt for a race I didn't run. Hopefully it's a tech tee (I think so) that fits well (they're mailing it to me). At least then I can incorporate it into my running wardrobe.

I got a confirmation from the Vancouver USA marathon that I am entered. I checked to see if they did have a refund policy -- they do! Yay! But the last date to get a partial refund for any reason was May 4. I was diagnosed May 6. Boo! But.... now that I read that again, I'm wondering if the distinction "for any reason" means that they'll take pity on me. I'd like to get some of my money back; that's another $80 race.

As I mentioned earlier, yesterday was the day to see the orthopedist. He was a nice guy, despite his "I only run when chased" crack. He confirmed the stress fracture; official diagnosis is tibial stress fracture. I'm off running for at least four weeks, when I go back in to be re-x-rayed. I'm supposed to be totally off the leg for as long as I have pain. One day of crutches really really really sucked. I'm constantly getting up to make copies, take stuff to people, pick stuff up from people -- particularly heavy files. I couldn't carry anything with the crutches, so I started to wheel myself around the office in my office chair. Lots of fun on the tiled floor, not so fun on the carpet.

Thankfully, the medical supply rep got me set up with an aircast Monday night and I'm able to walk on that for short periods of time without any pain. So nice!! It's a really cool device. There are three plastic plates to it -- a lot like shin guards -- that are lined with plastic air pockets. Two go on either side of the lower leg, all the way down to the floor, then the third goes on your shin. You strap the whole thing tightly to your leg with velcro straps and off you go. The idea is that the plastic supports and the compression transfers the stress that is normally put on your tibia and fibula to the surrounding soft tissue. I don't have to sleep in it, which is good because that would be uncomfortable. I have a terry cloth sock that I wear on my leg; you can do a bare leg but it doesn't breathe well so I found it uncomfortable to do it that way as it every time you move it feels like you're sitting in bare skin on a vinyl restaurant booth seat. I can fit a sneaker around it and I think a pair of sandals; if I do a bare leg I could wear flip flops.

Isn't it sexy?

I am so happy to not need the crutches since I learned very quickly that they are not compatible with either (a) big boobs or (b) big boobs and an underwire bra. I told that to the orthopedics nurse, a skinny little minnie, and she said "oh, a good excuse to wear a sports bra!" To which I'm looking at her name tag and responding "yeah, my sports bras also have underwire, Miss Perky Tits." Miss Perky Tits wasn't really her name, by the way. It was Perky Tits, R.N. I think she prefers to be called Sarah though.

But still, four weeks off. What I need to do is take this time to get my diet back on track. I can't keep eating like I am training for a marathon when I can't even walk for more than short periods of time. I knew that to be the case when I wasn't really do the marathon training either. Hence the five pounds I've gained and the clothes that are feeling a bit snug. I am cleared to swim, and if I don't have pain while in the aircast I can use a recumbent bike and then an elliptical. Once I can don't have pain without the aircast, same activities. No running until I'm re-checked by the doc.

Now I just need to learn how to swim. Or maybe buy some water wings.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Update on the leg.

2011-05-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

Saw the regular doctor today. They took x-rays and there is a suspicious spot in the area where I am having the pain. The next step is for the radiologist to officially read the x-rays and I have an appointment with an orthopedist on Monday to get the verdict. The doctor did recommend that I stay off the leg altogether so I've got a prescription for crutches to fill this weekend. Except for playing around with other people's crutches when I was a kid, I've never had to have them before; this will be interesting.

And the half marathon is definitely out for this weekend. Oh well, it was supposed to rain on Sunday anyway. Plus a 7:30 a.m. race start is much too earlier. Now I get to sleep in! (I'm trying to stay positive...)

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Holding my breath and icing my leg.

2011-05-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

I've been debating on if/when to write about this. I don't like to borrow trouble; why worry about something that may not even be? But there has been enough to where I've become fairly certain that I have developed a stress fracture.

You may remember from a couple of weeks ago that I was having some calf pain after a run. It felt like a deep muscle strain. I happened to be at my doctor's office about three days after that started. Because I was flying on a plane the following day, she checked it out as she was concerned it could be deep vein thrombosis.

Another three days or so after that, that pain went away and I forgot about it. Until this week. Saturday I had a great long run, 14 miles. As I've mentioned, I have been working on my form so that my legs would have more even usage. This was because lately I was only having achy quads while my hamstrings and glutes felt absolutely fine. After Saturday's run, I had some aches in all three muscles groups, with the achiness being less in my quads.

Sunday my legs were tight, particularly the right. By Monday, the left leg was about the same, maybe a little better, but the right leg was much tighter -- particularly the inside of my right leg around the calf. Tuesday wasn't much of an improvement but I intended to run five miles, planning to stretch well beforehand and figuring that my legs would loosen up as I ran. And as I started to run that turned out to be true except for my right leg below the knee. There, the muscles felt a little looser but a deep, throbbing ache started up instead, focusing on a spot right below my calf muscle. I stopped several times to stretch and make sure it wasn't swollen or warm (it wasn't) but the ache never got any better. It seemed to reach a threshold where I could have kept running if I absolutely had to -- the ache was relentless though I thought if I had some more Advil (I'd taken two about two hours before that) that it would have helped it -- but I decided to cut the run short at three miles.

Walking back into the gym almost hurt more than when I'd been running. In the locker room, I put the leg up on the bench while I started gathering my stuff together to leave. I palpated my leg and from that angle the inside shin bone was very prominent -- I just about squealed when I pushed on the bone right underneath my calf muscle. By the time I left the gym, the ache had decreased a little bit but I still could feel it every time I put weight on that leg. Same after I got home and RICEd it.

Wednesday it continued to feel a little better, particularly after I switched to Aleve instead of Advil, but again it seems to have reached a certain threshold where it's not hurting more but it's not hurting less either. And still, even just when I'm walking. The longer I'm on that leg, the more it starts to ache. There's even a small achiness when I'm not on it at all.

So, after consulting Dr. Google and comparing it to every other muscle strain I've had before, I think my lack of base miles is finally catching up with me. As well it should. I know that increasing mileage too quickly is a recipe for injury. Yet I did it anyway.

I'm going to try to get into my doctor tomorrow to get her opinion (and she is also a runner, so she gets it) or at least talk with the advice nurse to see if I should skip my primary care physician and go straight to a specialist. And while I don't want anyone to say that I do have a stress fracture, I'm hoping that if they're gonna that they can skip the pricey scans and just stick me in a boot or whatever. This also means that I'm not going to be able to run my (extremely expensive) half marathon race this weekend, and probably that Vancouver is out too. Another reason I'd rather not make this any more expensive than it has to.

If you have them to spare, please send healthy leg/no stress fracture/win a small lottery prize vibes my way :) I'll be on the couch, icing my leg.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Can you run 10,000 miles in your lifetime?

2011-05-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

I was browsing around the Marine Corps Marathon page this afternoon -- this is my number one destination marathon -- and saw a little link at the bottom from Aetna that asked "Can you run 10,000 miles in your lifetime?" At first glance, that seems like a lot but then I did the math. If you ran 500 miles per year for 20 years, you would run 10,000 miles. If you're one of those crazy people who run 1,000 miles per year (or are one of those people who actually do the miles your marathon training plan calls for ahem), then you'd reach that goal in ten years. Anyhow, I think 10,000 miles in my lifetime is a pretty cool goal so I think I will put together a sidebar widget that tracks that for me. Once I figure out how many miles I've actually ran to date. I think it's something like 20, but whatever.

Yes, I've been a bad, bad CilleyGirl, pulling out long runs without the base miles to back them up. Shame on me. And my sore foot is reminding me just why the base miles are important. I am going to the gym after work today, I swear.

Back to the Marine Corps Marathon. As I said, this is my number one destination marathon. I admit with some reluctance that a large part of that is that it's probably the only marathon that would actually impress my stepdad, but there is a real coolness factor in that actual Marines put your medal on you. And I found out today that they give an actual award -- the Penguin Award -- to the official last place finisher. Totally worth aiming for that one. Oh, and while I would want to run this in under six hours, the course does have a seven hour limit. I've messaged a friend of mine who lives in D.C. about invading her house next year (2011 is sold out) for this. We've been friends for about 18 years now online, but have never gotten to meet in person. I've also never been to D.C. so it would be so great to finally get to meet her, do the marathon, and see D.C. Plus I have other online friends on the east coast, one in Rhode Island (I've never been there either) and one in New York City (where I have been, but only for about five hours), that I've known just as long and also never had the opportunity to meet in person. If I could manage the finances, I'd love to be able to spend a week back east, sightseeing with long time friends. Hmm, Dear Santa....

Almost gym time!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Awww, weekend over

2011-05-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend!

First, Portlandia had some SUN. And I was able to get out there and enjoy it!

Saturday, Julie and I did our long run. The schedule called for 16 miles but we didn't think it was a good idea to make a big mileage jump and risk injury so we planned to do 14 instead. Having been out sick from work for a good part of the week, that worked out very well for me.

This was a great run for me. We got a somewhat earlier start than usual, although the sun did catch up with us by the end of it. I hadn't thought the clouds would burn off until much later so I foolishly did not wear any sunscreen. My left arm got pretty crispy from a inch below my elbow to an inch above my wrist, and I'm well on my way to that fabulous running capri tan on my legs.

We did the Burnt Bridge Creek trail over in Vancouver. I ran this once before last year and except for the calf injury I came away with, I liked the trail. This year, no calf injury! I feel like my overall cardio fitness is much better than at this point last year, as well as the best it's been all year.

Unfortunately, Julie wasn't feeling the same. A suspected combination of dehydration and too-tight shoelaces left her with horrible leg cramps for the last four miles. Because I was still feeling good and I have my half marathon next weekend, I ended up running ahead in the last two miles or so. Our original aim was to finish 14 miles as close to three hours as possible; I was hoping to hit the 13.1 mile distance in that as well. We weren't able to make that, but I was able to run out the half distance at 3:14:35 so I am hoping that bodes well for a time close to -- or maybe even under! -- three hours for the Cinco de Mayo half next weekend. With a goal of getting under six hours at Vancouver, this is where I would need to be at at the halfway mark.

I worked on my form during the run and was happy to have much less fatigue in my legs, not only during the run itself but afterwards. I focused on keeping myself over my sit bones and what felt to me like slumping my shoulders forward but in actuality was my not pulling them back tensely. (Did that make sense?) I also had a bagel and a half and 20 oz of gatorade about 45 minutes before our run, and drank 20 oz of gatorade during the run. I still had a post-run headache, but nothing like what I usually have. I was able to function afterwards, which typically I have trouble doing. Today, my legs are tired and a little sore but I can move around pretty well.

It probably helped that I did several hours of yard work today. It got up to about 67 degrees today, and I took advantage of that (and of how well I was feeling) to mow what lawn I have as well as re-edge the area and then lay down bark over where the grass won't grow.

Here is a picture mid-project. The grass has been mown and I've re-edged the area.

As you can see, there are only a few clumps of grass in this area plus a whole lot of moss. What you can't see is the area up against the deck where nothing ever grows. It's basically a big mud pit all the time, and the favorite place of my dogs to dig up rocks and grubs and dirt and then eat it. In the bottom right corner is the ramp I got for my dogs to get up the stairs more easily, with the help of RR's CSN giveaway.

Here's how it looks now:

Much better! Well, except for the part where now I need to re-bark the rest of the yard so it doesn't look so dingy. I found out that you can buy broken open bags of bark at the home improvement store for 50% off. That meant that of the eight bags of bark I bought today, four of them were only $2.07 each. Score! I would have bought more but (a) I bought all the marked down bags of bark they had today and (b) more probably would not have fit into my car. Once I return those aluminum cans you can see at the top of the picture (I have about eight bags in all, plus one in my office), I'll have some more cash to put towards this project. Since I rent this doesn't add any value to the house that I'll get any benefit from so I don't want to spend too much money. At the same time, it is nice to have a nice yard. I'm hoping that Ginger will want to hang out in the newly barked area; when I put the ramp in, it went in over her favorite spot to lay in the yard. This should be a much better alternative for her.

Now I just need the grass to grow. I bought some grass seed today that is guaranteed to grow anywhere in any conditions, even on concrete. We'll see. My yard gets more sun and water now that I had the landlord trim the trees way back last year but there are parts where it never seems to take. The whole area I want to have as grass is only about 400 square feet. The whole yard isn't even 900 square feet. Not much bigger than my apartment, actually. I have a garden weasel-type tool that I'll use to aerate the bare spots then I'll lay down the seed and see what happens. It is supposed to be nice again after Monday so I can work on it in the evenings. And keep those legs limber! I also want to get lettuce going in some pots and maybe some basil and some flowers. Which reminds me -- has anyone grown broccoli before? I saw some plants and wondered what it's like when the broccoli grows. It is more like fruit on a tree or more like cucumbers on the ground?

When downloading the yard pics, I found the ones I took at my grandparents'. I didn't take very many, but I did get some cute shots of their basset hound Happy and the kitty. I'm also posting one of the CBS dog of how she splays her legs when eating a bone. No wonder she has problems with her hips!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Warm for your form.

2011-04-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

Following a long run, I've noticed that I've switched from a more all over soreness in my legs to just soreness in my quads. Being the inquisitive CilleyGirl that I am, I decided to find out why.

Based on my research, I believe I may be leaning too far backwards during my runs. I was sure I was leaning too far forwards -- gravity being what it is and my gigantic breasts being as they are -- but then I found this article here.

Under the Posture heading, the articles suggests you stand in place and lean to get a feeling of how you only feel balanced when your posture is straight. Duh, I know, but then it says to walk forwards, leaning slightly forwards as you do so. When I did that, it was the first time I've walked without quad pain in two days.

Interestingly enough, this all seems to stem from the girls. I always put my shoulders back and relaxed when this gets the boobies up and out there. Mainly so I don't slouch and they eventually droop to my knees. (Plus there's just no camouflaging them so I might as well get them out there for all to see.) That is all well and fine, but what I realized this morning is that in doing so I'm actually also arching my back. Which is not all well and fine. In fact, when I do it to a slightly greater extreme, it immediately aggravages a chronic sore spot in my mid-back. Which explains that.

If I relax my shoulders and tuck in my core, I get a less dramatic "Hey! Ta-tas!" effect and more of a "Hey! I have fantastic breasts" look. And my back doesn't hurt.

Overall, I think I lean with the right amount of angle, I'm just overdoing it with my upper back which pulls the rest out of alignment and in turn makes my quads work much too hard. I've also had some knee pain or strain in that area during my long runs that I've never had before; I think this is the source of that problem as well. I know I tend to swayback when I get tired, which bothers my low back. I think working on form will help correct all of these issues. One mental cue I use that I will continue to incorporate into this is what I call "running flippy." To get an idea of what I mean, hold your hands out flat in front of you, palms down. Now lift the fingers of one hand, flexing back through the wrist towards your arm. Do that with the other hand as you flip your other hand back down flat. It's kind of like the forwards moonwalk. It's not precisely the action my feet are taking but it feels that way, and it makes me have crisper steps without raising my knees too much or dragging my feet. It also gets me into a good one-two one-two rhythm that makes a pace feel easier to hold.

Hydration will also help. I drank more water on Saturday than I have for just about any long run and felt a lot better physically after the run. Still had a post-run headache but not as intense as I usually do. Plus I think running up and down the stairs to the bathroom every 30 minutes the afternoon after my run helped with post-run stiffness.

Anyone ever figure out something about their stride was totally off? Share!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Hoppy Easter!

2011-04-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

This was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time.

On Saturday, the sun and warmer temperatures made a long-awaited appearance in Portland. Because Sunday was Easter, Jules and I made plans to do our long run on Saturday instead. The plan was to run at least ten with an eye towards twelve; I was secretly hoping to sneak in the 14 miles that was on my training schedule.

We ended up doing 10.63 miles. I think we could've done more except we were getting much too warm and I had kinda sorta forgotten to eat anything beforehand. It was one of the best runs I've had ever. I think the change in blood pressure meds really made the difference. Friday, it was as though a light was turned on inside of me. Suddenly I wanted to cook dinner, and cook something healthy; I ended up making baked tilapia and brussel sprouts with bacon with a pint of fresh sliced strawberries for desssert. When I was still a little hungry about an hour later, I had a banana rather than the brownies still sitting in my kitchen. I was excited that I was going to run tomorrow, and I woke up early on Saturday still excited.

We ran the Fanno Creek trail from the Denney trailhead in Beaverton down to the Tigard library and back. I wished we'd started earlier in the day because we were both feeling so great. Thankfully we ran through a park with a working drinking fountain so that we could re-fill our water bottles; I must have drank at least 80 oz on that run. I burned through the 50 SPF I was wearing and through my white tech tee. Jules and I have decided; next long run we start early!

Sunday I planned to bake up hamzilla. I looked up recipes for mashed sweet potatoes and for a cucumber salad; I had to make a trip to the pharmacy so I decided I might as well pick up what I would need to make these recipes as well instead of just doing the usual. Around 1:00 p.m. I checked my phone for the first time and had a message from my friend S who moved to Bend last fall; she and her husband were on their way up to Portland for a few days and did I want to do dinner? I called back and we quickly made plans for them to come over here with another friend and I'd cook Easter dinner. It was great! I so rarely get to cook for anyone but myself. We added in some roasted garlic bread for those among us who eat grains (I did have one piece) and then for dessert we had brownies (the rest are out in the trash, yay!) and fresh sliced strawberries. Yum!

My blood pressure had been great. I've been taking it at night, usually after hanging out on the couch for a couple of hours. A few nights, it was so low I was tapping my wrist saying "Is this thing on?" i mean, 111/55 is EXTREMELY low for me. Tonight I took it shortly after company left, to see how it was after normal activity, and it was still good, 131/71. The headaches have almost stopped. It's been easier to wake up in the mornings and I've had much more energy. Work will pick back up again in a couple of weeks, so I am hopeful I'll still feel this good when it does.

I hope you all had a hoppy easter!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

And.... I jinxed it.

2011-04-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well, no run for me this evening. I should've known not to post my plans, being all virtuous and that. First, the clouds immediately rolled in. It's sunny again now and about 49 degrees but Aunt Flo just came to visit. Well, not so much as came to visit as slapped me upside the head and then began kicking me in the stomach. So now I have cramps and the beginning of a migraine.

I also forgot to mention in my earlier catsup post that I saw my doctor the day before I left for vacation to go over last fall's blood pressure med changes/statin drug added in stuff. My triglycerides are back down to normal, below the "oh my god" number they were last fall so the statin is working in that respect. My bad cholester is good (heh) but my good cholester is low. And my blood sugar is still inching its way up each year (105 now, I think she said, below 100 is what you want). Consequences of metabolic syndrome, says my doc, since given the (relatively) healthy way I eat and the (relatively) high amount of exercise I'm getting I should have great stats. But I don't.

We talked about how draggy I've been, particularly at the beginning of runs, and she decided perhaps a beta blocker (which slows your heart rate) wasn't the best thing for me anymore. Long story short (too late!), I'm in the process of weaning off the beta blocker and adding in more lisinopril. Which has meant return of the dreaded thump-thump-thump headaches. Before my blood pressure was stabilized beyond a certain point, on a daily basis I could feel the blood pulsing in my head. It sucks. Particularly when you are trying to sleep and you have thump-thump-thump at your temples. On top of that, the increased lisinopril has resulted in a somewhat constant feeling of I'm going to yak. I almost got to get up close and personal with my grandmother's commode is what I'm saying. Thankfully, she is an excellent housekeeper.

So I had that going on all during my vacation: not eating enough, not sleeping enough, inhaling carcinogens for hours at a time -- I believe the French coined the term "malaise" expressly for this kind of thing.

Oh, and my jaw spontaneously went out of whack so I've been clenching my teeth too much and sometimes it hurts when I chew.

And now I want chocolate. Bleargh.

Fuck it, I'm going to bed.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Everybody's still here!

2011-04-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

Here I thought I'd been gone so long that nobody would still be hanging around, but not only did you all stick around -- there's even one more of you!

Where to start? When last we left our intrepid, big breasted CilleyGirl, she had just run a 5K race..... I don't know why, but that race did me in. Headache for the rest of the day, sore calf, no Sunday long run. My training has been off kilter this go-round. Last year I didn't have the work schedule that I've had this year. It has slowed down for about another week then it will be go-go-go again until I don't know when. 2015, I think.

I just go back from five days in southeastern Idaho visiting my grandparents and my dad. I'm glad I got to go. My grandpa turned 80 earlier this year, he has had Alzheimer's for about four or five years now. Thankfully he didn't seem any worse than when I saw him about three years ago (I think it was three. Two? Eh.); the meds are doing a good job of slowing the progression of the disease. He actually seemed more stable physically in some ways, so that was good. My grandma turns 80 in June, she's as she ever was. When she, my dad, and I are in the same room together you can tell we're all related. *grin* Dad, however, who is hmmm 62 now I believe continues to deteriorate physically. He has peripheral artery disease -- you see commercials about it a lot these days -- so of course he still smokes a zillion cigarettes a day. Because when you have a disease that causes your arteries and veins to shrink in your limbs, you should continue a habit that also causes your arteries and veins to shrink in your limbs. Long story short, he gets a lot of pain in his legs.

Which made my recent bout of persistent calf pain a little nerve wracking, I'll tell you.

But anyhow. Good flights there and back, a snazzy new Ford Escape to drive around in while I was there (they live 90 miles outside of Boise, the closest major airport), trip down to Jackpot, Nevada, to lose some money and wreck my lungs even further. Difficult to explain to my grandma that I don't eat grains anymore and no, they're not always good for you. I didn't eat much at grandma's house, particularly after I got so sick from the granola cereal I had on the first morning I was there. Good incentive to go crawling back to paleo, begging it to give me another chance. I got a run in, but a tremendous sidewind cut it short.

So that's what I'm working on now. Food that is good for me and running. Vancouver is a shockingly 58 or so days away and this is when the long long runs begin. Last year I was worried more that I wouldn't have the mental fitness to complete the marathon; this year it's more the physical fitness I'm worried about. I thought I'd lost the mental mojo but it's been coming back to me. I really really really want to finish Vancouver in under six hours. Sounds simple to a lot of runners, I know, but I'm never going to be fast. I'm built for distance, not for speed. A 100 mile race does not sound impossible to me. A seven minute mile does.

I hope everyone is doing well, and congrats to all those that ran Boston! I watched the race and it helped to perk up my motivation a bit. Most of it is still MIA but I am looking! I am slowly catching up on blogs so it may be a while before I start commenting on them again. Six miles on the schedule for after work and I am hoping that this weather lasts so that I can run it outside instead of on the tiny, stuffy indoor track at the gym. Six miles = 72 laps on that sucker. Yark!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Spring Burst 5K Recap

2011-04-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today I ran the Spring Burst 5K that is put on by Reason to Run. I really enjoy their races and they have great shirts. And this year I finally got one that fit over my enormous breasts! Of course, it's kind of like a dress for the rest of me, but yay for small victories.

This race is in Cook Park in Tigard and I've always considered Cook Park my running nemesis. Today I felt like I almost conquered that. Not entirely -- I could've done better -- but I was > < this close today. It was still mostly a mental battle.

We had beautiful weather for this run although it was still chilly. That's always been part of my problem with this park; Fanno Creek runs through it and there are a lot of marshy spots so it's always damp (even in summer, it's very muggy in the wooded areas) and worse when it's chilly. This always triggers my asthma, and as I found out the hard way my inhaler was nearly empty. While I was plenty warm, my breathing was very ragged for the first half mile (through the marshes) and then in the top part of the second mile (through the marshy wooded area).

I also had a lovely wardrobe malfunction by way of my pants. I wore my running tights and unlike the other two times I've worn these pants the front kept sliding down under my belly chub. Which (a) makes you feel like your guts are going to spill out and (b) makes you feel like your big fat guts are going to spill out. I spent a good part of the first mile yanking my pants back up. This is where it came in handy that getting a big shirt to fit my breasts into meant that it came down really low past my hips so I didn't flash anybody.

After the first mile I finally got my pants where they wouldn't fall down anymore. After the second mile I got mostly back into a groove, and then I reached the point where I was just going to run. I ended up kicking the last .1 mile at a ten minute mile pace. My A goal for this race was under 40 minutes; my B goal was under 42 minutes and my C goal was under 45. My Garmin time was 0:42:28 and while I want to check the chip time (it took a while to get to the mat) I think it's still within five or ten seconds (I think the chip time would be a little lower).

This is my third year running the Spring Burst 5K; 2009 was Reason to Run's first year and this was their inaugural race. Here's how I've done over the years:

2009: 0:45:18. I'd been running sporadically for only three months at this time.

2010: 0:41:09. I was almost three months into marathon training when I did this race last year. It didn't feel like I did this well though; it's why I want to check my chip time for this year.

2011: 0:42:28. I felt a lot better than last year mentally but I wasn't in the physical shape I was then. This is the first week all year I've run this much: I ran Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and then today. 21.1 miles over those four runs.

I'm really sleepy.

I had some calf twinges today, I'll pay particular attention to that in my run tomorrow. Jules and I both raced today -- Jules did a 10K, yay for her! -- so we're aiming for only eight tomorrow as I had an 11 mile run on my training schedule. The calf was still tight later today so I RICEd it and it feels a little better. I'll roll it out before I go to bed. Which should be soon, I thought about napping all day today but just couldn't manage to doze off.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Putting my breast foot forward

2011-04-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about my blog and I've been thinking about my boobs. When I last changed things up (with the blog, not my boobs), I had wanted to focus on getting my sexy back. The plan was to pursue things that would work towards that. But lately I realized that that hasn't been my focus, and that I'm okay with that. I already think I'm pretty damn sexy.

I did realize that I want smaller breasts. Well, not realize that right this minute. After about age 12, I've pretty much always wanted smaller breasts. While there are many parts of me I want to get smaller through running and a healthy diet, to be honest if someone told me that I could instantly perfect any part of my body (excepting the face), I would choose the girls. Because I've been able to lose weight everywhere but my breasts. And they're really freaking damn big.

Plus, it's fun to talk about boobs. And haven't you always been curious as to how a top heavy woman can also be a runner? Yeah, me too. I can explain why most sports bras don't work. Why the uniboob is a bad thing. Why women's sizes in tech tees are just a bad idea overall.

So I've made the change.

I hope you enjoy it. Plus, boobs.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl (and the Girls)

Battling with the bulge

2011-04-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

After a relatively healthy weekend of plenty of sleep, a ten mile run, and looking at lots of pictures of healthy vegetables and fruits, I'm ready to get back into my serious paleo eating.

Except that there is this little voice in my head (or maybe it's in my tummy) that keeps whispering for apple pie and eggs benedict. Just once, then it's out of our system. The whisper, she is seductive.

It's also been going on for at least a week. What's up with that?

I'm thinking I may need to have a couple of cheat meals to satisfy these cravings. Otherwise they feel like they have the potential to transform into a "hey, eating an entire large five-meat stuffed pizza in one sitting sounds like a good idea!" kind of a thing. Ever have those kind of cravings? Where you ruthlessly stuff them down until they explode into something wildly different from the original, somewhat innocent craving? "Oh, if only I'd had that M&M, instead of the entire chocolate mousse pie!"

So after the gym tonight I may be getting a slice of pie and some hollandaise sauce. Along with fresh raspberries, some halibut, brussels sprouts, and bacon. Nom nom nom nom nom!!

Before I forget, I want to send out good vibes to my long time friend Sandy who is having heart surgery this week, and also to another long time friend Tiffany who is in Paris for her first marathon. Bonne chance mon amie!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

I got my boobs on, I keep 'em on all night long

2011-04-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

Ever see that show Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime? Yeah, not me either, really. I did catch part of one episode though where the main character -- beautiful model wannabe dies but comes back in the body of a plus-sized lawyer -- had a dream sequence to this song by Hello Stranger called "Big Boots." Great song, if you Google it you can find it all over for a free download, but when I first heard it I thought it was "Big Boobs." Which with the lyrics doesn't make much sense:

I got my boobs on,
I keep 'em on all night long.

I'm blanking on the rest because The Byrds are on the radio. The lyrics are more fun my way.

Which brings me to the rest of the story. When I turned 40 last fall, I got a generous gift card to Nordstrom's from the office. Nordstrom's is typically out of my price range, but when I either have money to burn or a generous gift card I'll go there to shop for bras. I'm sure in other highfalutin stores in big cities like New York and L.A. there are regular department stores where you can find fancy bras for the big boob'd among us. Here, Nordstrom's is pretty much it if you are larger than a D cup and you want more than the basic industrial strength foundation garment in anything other than white or beige. Again, though, pricey. Those with the small ta-tas can spend $5 on a bra and it works. Heck, it's not like a lot of them actually need bras. For those who need feats of engineering prowess to keep the girls in line, a decent bra is always at least $50. For one bra. And then you have to retire it out of sheer exhaustion within months.

But I digress.

I've mentioned before that in last year's marathon training, I didn't lose a single inch off my chest. My bras fit better since things got toned up, but there was zero change in size. Now I'm training (sort of, but that's another story) for TWO marathons. And?

The damn things got BIGGER.

WTF????

While I've lost some of last year's fitness and become a tad squishier, I haven't exactly gained any weight overall. I've definitely been five or ten pounds heavier than I am right now, without a corresponding breast change. How in the heck did my boobs get bigger now? I even got a second opinion on the matter; I had the salesgirl do an official fitting. She confirmed; the band size hasn't changed but I've gone up a cup size.

Did you know that DDD was even a size? Nordstrom's even goes up to the Js and Ks. First time I was having difficulty finding bras that were small enough for me.

I swear, one of these days I'm just going to tip over from the effects of gravity. (Should you see me on the ground, please pause my Garmin.)

Had a great run on Sunday with Jules. We did part of the Banks-Vernonia State Trail, which is a beautiful 21-mile trail that runs between -- can you guess? -- Banks and Vernonia. Takes about 30 minute to get there from Julie's, maybe 45 minutes from my place. I like to start from the Buxton trailhead, because there is a bathroom there. Heading towards Vernonia from there, it's all a gradual uphill. My Garmin said it was an overall 800 foot elevation gain, which we did over the first five miles. Standing in one spot, you wouldn't really notice the uphill versus downhill but when you're running you do notice it. The five miles coming back, though, you feel like you're flying. It's a great route for training.

And it didn't rain!

After the run, we went for lunch at a Greek cafe in Vernonia, the Blue House Cafe. This place is OMG good, and worth the drive out there. It was the second time ever Julie had had Greek food so we went all out -- the meditteranean sampler plate with hummus, pomegranate sauce, roasted red pepper dip and baba ganoush, some dolmathes which exploded with flavor and bits of dolmathes down your chin, and a gyro platter. Even the coffee was great. I still haven't tried their beer (they brew their own) or their desserts. I really wanted some of those desserts by the evening. A reason to go back!!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

How do they do it?

2011-03-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

I am in awe of any single woman who can handle a full time job and raise kids and run. If you have a partner, sorry, just not all that impressed. But a single, working, running mom? Absolutely in awe.

This is all the running that's getting done around here lately:

And it's only in pictures. Monday was a migraine, Tuesday was a repeat of the migraine and I didn't get out of work until 7:00 p.m., Wednesday I still feel like I have steel spikes shoved in my shoulders and I got out of work even later.... I need to burn off some of this stress but I'm so exhausted. Blah.

In other news, I got my trip to my grandparents' booked today. Yay! It will be nice to get out of town for a few days. Planning to get some runs in while I'm there, there should be a track at the high school at the next town over. And maybe it won't even be raining!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

And now, by popular demand, it's Cooking with Lorena Bobbitt!

2011-03-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

Based on this post by the Little Fruit Fly, how could I not post this story?

So, I like pork. The other white meat -- get your minds out of the gutter! I've come to like it better than chicken and I usually have it every week. Despite the high, high, high sodium, I really like the Hormel pre-marinated pork tenderloins. In their natural state, they look like this:

Yes, I too was amazed that they had this picture on their website.

These are great (except for the sodium content) because they're very flavorfull, easy to toss into a pan and cook up, and they're a lot like the chinese BBQ pork except for the red dye no. 5.

One night I cooked one of these up. As I said, they're easy to cook: You open the package. You put the meat into a pan. You put it into the oven. Cook it. Cut and serve.

Now, it is a pork tenderloin. That's a somewhat cylindrical tube of meat. Ignoring the obvious joke, no big deal. Except for that night.... this is what it looked like when it came out of the oven:

No joke. At first, as I first grabbed the pan, I thought it was just my dirty mind. Then I sat the pan down and looked at it, and nope! Not just me. To be sure, let's get just a little bit closer, shall we?

I swear I am not making this up. I could show you that pan, I cook with it all the time. I had to take a picture, emailed it to several of my friends, asking for a second opinion as to whether it was just me. My mom couldn't stop laughing. She went into detail about how lifelike it was with the veins.... Stop it mommy, stop it!!

It made a really tasty dinner.

Hey, has anybody heard from my ex-boyfriend lately?

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

Spontaneously Exploding Achilles Tendon

2011-03-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right -- I'm on prednisone again! I think (really really really really hope) that the reason I've felt so lousy over the past several weeks is a wicked sinus infection. I'm so used to having sinus problems (and lately so busy) that I tend to not really pay attention to the symptoms until it gets to the point where I bend over at the waist and it feels like my head is going to pop off from the pressure. Finally today I called my allergist and lucked out that he had a lunch hour appointment. I like my allergist, he's always cracking me up. He was asking about stress in my life and after I confirmed that work was pretty crazy I also added that I'm training for two marathons. He immediately says "you know the first marathon runner died, right?" Yes, I have heard that one before.

So it's a short round of antibiotics and prednisone. Prednisone has one of the most amusing side effects I've ever seen: your Achilles tendon can spontaneously explode. Not necessarily while you're running or anything. You can be a complete couch muffin and still have it happen. Of course, it's not the actual exploding part that amuses me; it's that somewhere there was a study done of a bunch of people whose Achilles tendons exploded and they narrowed down the cause to prednisone. It's also not like the number one side effect or anything; it's one of those "in rare cases...." side effects.

I've forgotten most of the Shamrock race by now, but here's my race report. It all started the day before at packet pickup. When, incidentally, I was accidentally taking Ambien in the mornings. To my dismay, some how my registration for the race never went through and I ended up in the "please please please let me run this" line. They took pity on me and let me sign up for the race even though it was officially sold out.

Saturday night I had a lovely carb loading dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory with Jules and the Little Fruit Fly and her potential (at the time, now he's official) new boyfriend Biker Boy. I hadn't eaten all day (and I was coming off of the Ambien) so the cheese bread and crab ravioli were extra yummy.

Sunday, it was raining. It was cold. It was wet. Soon I was cold and I was wet. I met up with Jules and found the Little Fruit Fly and we huddled under the bridge with 30,000+ other racers to wait for the start of the race. They started the other races then we joined the pack for the 15K start. It took us ten minutes to get to the start from the gun.

Then it was uphill for about five miles. In the cold. And the wet. Did I mention it was raining? The rain was lighter than from earlier that morning, but 9.3 miles in the rain will still get you wet. Since my only blister has come from running in wet shoes, I had been sure to use BodyGlide and it did its job, no blisters. My feet were thoroughly wet and squishy by the time I was finished but with my SmartWool socks my feet stayed at least nice and warm. I finished in 2:17:02 according to my Garmin Big Red, which was exactly my chip time.

As a side note, I just realized my Garmin has been in my car's glove box all week. Which explains why I didn't have any data on my last run.

The Fruit Fly had brought us shamrock necklaces and head bobbers, here's us in all our glory after the race:

The medals were again bottle top openers, this year they were gold in the shape of a pilsner. The tech tees were really nice, this year they had long sleeved shirts in white. I'm probaby going to wear it to work tomorrow. Because I can.

I have to add this. I've been a long time fan of the Fruit Fly's blog and have always been envious of how photogenic she is. Part of that is because she's really pretty, but I found out at Shamrock that part of it is that she has this pose that snaps into place as soon as someone raises a camera. Point in fact, I pulled out my camera after the race and turned it on to check that the wet hadn't damaged it. As soon as I had it up near my face, pointing in her direction but not intending to take a picture, she immediately -- and I mean immediately -- went into this pose:

I had to take the picture just because it was so perfect!! I wish I could figure out how to pose for the camera, all my pictures are usually some variation of "don't take my picture, I always look horrible!" I'm so jealous.

This past Sunday, Jules and I planned to redeem our Shamrock performance by doing a 15K without the hills or the rain. Unfortunately, we did not plan on a freezing headwind for the first 4.5 miles! Seriously, at points it was like we were mimes, running into the wind but not getting anywhere. We both had legs of lead and while we did do nine miles we walked most of it. A shorter distance, but it took longer. That wind, though, it was a killer. When it stopped blowing, it was the perfect weather for a run.

Well, I can feel the drugs doing their thing; I'm rapidly losing what little energy I had left today. I plan to take the weekend off; I can't keep up with this pace without some sort of a break. It's starting to look like I might take a week off in April before the next big push starts. I'm hoping by Friday the drugs will have done enough magic that I'll be up for a run, at least get some mileage in this week. And of course Sunday is the Sunday Run Club. We have eight miles on the agenda, and if the weather is decent we'll try for a run along the Columbia. But if there's any hint of a headwind, we are outta there!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

ABCs of Me

2011-03-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of feeling like I'm the one who does ALL of the work at my office -- a gripe for another post -- so I thought I'd cheat and do this meme. Never sure if it's pronounced to rhyme with Jem, but for this one I'll go with "mee mee".

(A) Age: 40.

(B) Bed: Queen. A good thing since I share it with a big dog who never stays completely on her side of the bed.

(C) Chore You Really Dislike: It's a toss up between mopping and dusting. Dusting because you always knock the shit over you're trying to dust and it turns into a big production. Mopping because it seems like it should be a lot easier than it is.

(D) Dogs: Two.

(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: Diet coke.

(F) Favorite Color: The bluish-purple of twilight.

(G) Gold or Silver? Silver or white gold.

(H) Height: 5'8".

(I) Instruments You Play: I can muddle my way through a smidge of clarinet, flute, piano, and guitar. But just a smidge.

(J) Job Title: The One Who's Always Here, Doing the Actual Work, While the Clueless People Who Make Way More Money than I Do Are Off On Vacation A-FUCKING-GAIN.

(K) Kids: Only in observation.

(L) Live: Portlandia, Orygun.

(M) Mom's Name: It's not "Mom"?

(N) Nicknames: A shortened version of my first name. Also, SandraDee, Micky, HoneyBunny, and now the CilleyGirl.

(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? Other than maybe when I was a day old, none.

(P) Pet Peeve: Clueless people who make way more money than I do who are always taking time off when there is work that needed to be done yesterday.

(Q) Quote from a Movie: "I killed the President of Paraguay with a fork. How've you been?"

(R) Right or Left Handed? Right. I am the least ambidextrous person ever.

(S) Siblings: I have a half brother. He clearly takes after the family that is not related to me.

(T) Time You Wake Up? Any time after the snooze alarm has been doing for about an hour.

(U) Underwear: Under there!

(V) Vegetable You Dislike: Onion, green peppers, actual tomatos (sauce is good). Many, many others I regard with suspicious. Like eggplant. It seems confused.

(W) What Makes You Run Late: Going to work. I'm on time for every thing but the office. Freud would probably have something to say about that.

(X) X-Rays: Pretty much all of me at one point or another.

(Y) Yummy Food You Make: Eggs benedict.

(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Sea otters.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl