Week in Review

So I'm alive. I just haven't run.
I ran 8 miles on Saturday, and forgot to write about it.

On Monday, I got up at 530AM to meet a invisi-friend who had a layover at the airport. Yay, she is no longer an invisi-friend. However, while sitting on the couch, my back started spasming. I thought it was that one where you just move your back to get it feeling good again...nope. By the time I got to the airport, my back hurt. After visiting with friend, I went to the grocery. At Kroger, I had to get employees to help me shop because I couldn't bend over and I couldn't lift my arms.
(Aldi savings in $91+ to date). So to make my back feel better, I fell asleep on the couch Monday night. By Tuesday, I couldn't walk. I felt stupid for hurting my back by sitting on the couch. So besides walking SB and G-dog individually on Tuesday and Wednesday, laying in bed is about all I did.
Thursday, SB decided that at 2AM he needed a walk. At 5 when D left for work, he whined. So I walked him at 6, 7 and 8. Nada. Still whined. At 10 I tried to get more sleep than the 3 hours from 2-5. No, SB had to check the bed, scratch the door, go outside, come back in, go out, come in, whine. 11 and 2 I walked him again. Nothing. At 3 he went on the deck. I was officially done with him.

Today we baked. Well, I baked and SB caught stuff on the floor. We made cookies, scones and cupcakes. SB did trip me when I was carrying iced cupcakes. One fell on the floor. He got it before I did.

So that was the exciting week.

Have a good Memorial Day Weekend, and take a second to give thanks to those troops that gave you the freedom to think the way you do (if you are American)!

We now Resume from Technical Difficulties

So I was all ready to run yesterday. It was 730am. I was dressed up and out the door.

I parked by Freedom Park intent to do my LSR on the Freedom Parkway Trail. I got out of the car, and turned on the iPod that I had charged before going to bed and before D got on the computer. It was completely dead, as in it wouldn't turn on. I left him a nice text. I next went to turn on the Garmin that I charged before going to bed. Completely dead. I couldn't blame D. WTF? Ok, I can just run the mile markers, except I only know of 3. Whatever, I start running (see start and go to mile 5). I get to the first mile, and I'm ticked off, hot, and wondering if the mile markers are really correct. I decide to turn around. Some guy said while passing me, "And I thought I ran slow." I corrected his grammar. So I got back to the start and got in the car. The only thing the run had accomplished was pissing me off. I tried to be cool about things but as someone who can run anywhere between 12 minute and 17 minute miles, I can't just run without a plan or a Garmin. So pissed off, I went home.

7-Mile Run through Freedom Park and surround

So I came home and took it out on the bushes in the front of our house. We now have stubs. Every single one is chopped, and with no money to replace or fix, we will just continue to be "that" house.

I plugged in the iPod and watched it charge, set it on the table, watched it turn on by itself (which it always does) and turned it off and locked it (now I know how the charge died). I plugged the Garmin into the wall and nothing happened. Plugged it into the computer and nothing happened. You have to be fucking me. What the fuck? So after an hour of even more being pissed off, I looked up Garmin 305 not working. Well, after reading about soft reboots and doing one, it started working.

So ff to today. Back at Freedom Parkway. Just in case nothing worked today, I planned out the run. But everything worked. So I decided to go away from Old 4th Ward (I usually start my run in that direction), and went through the park to get the hills out of the way. Mile 1 was slow but steady. It was 70 degrees and felt a little humid. I got to Ponce de Leon and decided to run toward Decatur. I'm not sure why I deviated from plan but I did. Again deviating, I decided I wanted to run through Lake Claire so up Lakeshore. Could I have picked a hillier (all up) road? I got to McClendon and decided to run back toward Little 5 Points (where Freedom Park is). Except there was a hill in my way. Wait, PATH sign, I'll follow that back to the path. Bad decision. I had to run on sidewalk. Anyway, I got up to Flying Biscuit (a total waste of a restaurant for me, since I'm allergic to turkey and can't be sure if turkey has touched the other food, but the rest of Atlanta seems to adore it), and turned. What was I complaining about hills. This seemed to be up hill. I passed some blue flowers/plant things. I should get some. PATH sign down Clifton Terrace. Huge downhill. I walked down, because my feet kept sliding (after mile 3 on picture).

Again, I SHOULD run back on the path, but instead I ran back to Ponce de Leon. This time I ran toward Virginia Highlands. Except I immediately turned off Ponce. I ran down some street with huge houses and lots of Subarus. I got honked at to run on the sidewalk. Eh. I turned on Oakdale and then finally got back to the path. At my car, I thought about calling it, but I was already so slow, what was another 5 hours going to be? So a quick calculation let me know I had to run 1.2 miles in this direction. I saw a lot of women walking (but not all together). Gathering from shirts, I'm thinking people are training for the Atlanta 3 day or 2 day (we have both). Or they are just getting in shape. But all the women were walking with determination, not socially. I got up to Highland Bakery, went under the tunnel and turned around.

The last 1.2 miles were relatively quick. And I wasn't ticked off.

The dogs got new scarves from the vets' open house. Me and Guinness.

Scuttlebutt in his new scarf

Epitaxial Layers, Cookies and Febrezed Junk

Another interview...another attacking the man across the table. No, not really. But I wanted to. They asked me about epitaxial layer examination on chips and I asked if they had a clean room. They said no. I said that I didn't see how they could examine an epitaxial layer then, and I couldn't see how it would be cost advantageous to do so. The interview went quickly downhill with the primadonna engineer asking me absurd questions on the physics of chip manufacturing, that I finally asked if we could move onto another subject, since it was obvious I didn't know the answers that he kept asking (it was obvious by then I wasn't going to get the job since he had crumpled my resume into a ball...nice and professional, huh?).

My friend B (who is a great friend, that I met in the industry) informed me I was not insane and my friend S said it sounded like they had an internal candidate who was foreign (primadonna engineer) and they didn't want to get rid of him but had to justify his H1B1 visa. So that's what I'm going with. I mean seriously...epitaxial layers?

I ran my 5 miles today. I was excited I lost .9 pounds but at the gym I felt like I had gained 90. From the hips down, I felt so heavy. I could barely run 4.3 mph. The last 20 minutes were at 4.1 mph. I got it done, but I was miserable.

In other news, I made Breakfast Cookies. If you ever had Baker's Breakfast Cookies, these are pretty good.

And finally, I bought Tide Febreze Sport. I like WIN (which I purchased) better. So did D. I was going to buy WIN (send me coupons), but Tide sent me a coupon, and Kroger had it on sale, so I got the $8.99 bottle for $3.99. So I washed our sports clothes. Like WIN, the crotch smell came out clean. Like WIN the neck smell came out clean. But unlike WIN, the Febreze smell knocked us over. D is sure after making adjustments, his junk had been Febrezed. After 2 days the smell is almost out, but we still can smell it. So unless I get a great deal, I'll go back to WIN (send me coupons). Although I will continue to use regular Tide as the normal detergent (they sent me coupons).

Talking about Carly

So Carly posted the annoying asshat rant. If you run, of course you have heard something along those lines or those in her comments section.

Can I say how annoying it is? Was I this way, I wonder? Probably. More so for the triathlon, because I thought there was only one length in triathlons before I started getting friends who were getting into them and stuff.

But intelligent Americans who are getting 10Ks and 10miles mixed up (because we embraced the metric system so well, here). Or the "how long is this marathon you are running?" Do you correct the person or no? I don't know. If the person is your grandmother and she is 85 then probably not, but if it is a co-worker, isn't it your job to help them make themselves less stupid so they are better to work with (unless you want them fired...then sabotage!)?

In other news, the only motivation I have to run is because I spent the money for the gym, so I should use the membership. But I didn't achieve a long run last week, moreso because I got way too drunk from nervous drinking (going to a party and knowing I had to see someone I did not want to see (BFF's XFH)). Also BFF's XFH brought beer, so there was question on whether I would drink HIS beer (not from BFF). Of course! I figured out he was drinking Guinness so I drank 2 to his every 1, so he would have to switch to the crap he bought (he brought crap and 8 Guinness). Soooo, D had to drive me home. We decided to go see our friend and the drive home involved a cab. Sunday was not pretty for the first few hours I was awake. :)

Shopping at Aldi netted another $11 save ($67.82 total). While at Kroger, someone called for a job interview. Yay.

So last week, I got 13 miles run and 3 miles walked. So far I got my 5 miler in.

D and I are talking about races. We think a 10K in June, a tri in Aug or a 5K (same day, and we annually do the 5K), the tri in Sept, and maybe a half in Sept. I think it depends on the job front.
The Aug Tri and Sept Tri would require hotels.

Oh and my friend told me her MIL sent her husband a check for 10K. I, for the life of me, couldn't figure out why the MIL would support her husband running (you have to know the MIL...piece of work). Friend had to tell me 10K=$10K. Everyone else who read what she wrote, immediately understood it was money. So I guess running is always on my mind. Money isn't.

May the 4th be with You

So I finished up running on my rest week and went back to my regular routine.

5 miles today. I ran at a 4.5mph pace for 9 minutes/1 minute walk. I really had to dig in on the last 18 minutes. I wanted to slow down the treadmill. But I kept it up.

Nothing else is new. I made pretzels.

I saved $14.50 by shopping at Aldi yesterday ($56.82 savings so far).

Oh and I won't be on Hoarders any time soon. I cleaned the mail/catalog/magazines and cleaned the living room.

I also thought about a new tattoo. But I couldn't find the one of Yoda or Darth Vader I wanted. But while looking, I did find this gem--work safe. (How Google led me to this, I have no clue).