Black Friday 2007 was a "Buy Nothing Day" for me. No shopping as a means of quietly expressing my frustration with the overly consumeristic overtones of the holiday season. I had the same intentions for Black Friday 2008. Except that...
* I drove back from East Bay to San Francisco, resulting in paying $4 to cross the Bay Bridge
* I bought two albums on iTunes^
Yep. Purchased the right to be on the bridge and music. Even though really, I think the day is ridiculous. My mom, who works at a department store, had to be at work at 3AM. If nothing else, I should buy nothing on behalf of the retail employees who have to be at work at insane hours the day after Thanksgiving... and even more so for the WalMart worker who was killed during the stampede to get into a store in NY.
^Music purchased in preparation for "Not So Silent Night 2008" - Death Cab for Cutie and Franz Ferdinand. So far, good stuff (even Death Cab, MW).
30 November 2008
21 November 2008
Tootle your horn
Swiped from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition listserv...
This is from an English-language instruction booklet given out by a car-rental agency in Japan:
This is from an English-language instruction booklet given out by a car-rental agency in Japan:
"When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor."
I love this advice, and think it can have many applications. In fact, I think it could be easily applied to dealing with obnoxious drivers.
"Let's have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle."
- Earl Blumenauer
Clearly, I need a horn. So I can tootle it. Or trumpet it. I wonder if that requires a bi-modal horn. Hmm...
Clearly, I need a horn. So I can tootle it. Or trumpet it. I wonder if that requires a bi-modal horn. Hmm...
12 November 2008
List of 10 things
1 awesome new president
2 times i almost got hit today. stupid effing cars.
3 types of leafy greens in my CSA box last week - cabbage, kale and chard. some of the kale and chard were used as a side to a chicken dish that EA and i made on sunday night, the rest was made into a lovely soup.*
4 more nights that you can go see Tenaya Rocks: A Sexy Geological Cabaret. i'm hoping to go either friday or next weekend, depending on EA and GM's schedules
5 approximate miles i ride, roundtrip to get to/from work, assuming no other stops
6 pounds i need to lose (assuming i have not gained anymore since last time i stepped on that sonofabitch scale)
7 weeks left in 2008
8 a hateful proposition that passed in california. i am torn - i regret not volunteering to help the no on 8 campaign, but i also do not regret the time i spent volunteering for obama.
9 days i will be home for christmas - 12/20 - 12/28! (actually, i get in at like 12:30am on 12/20 and fly out 7am on 12/29)
10 number of toes that i am looking forward to getting pedicured and pampered once i lose three pounds
*lovely soup, made of stuff from my fridge & cupboard (ok, i bought the broth):
get a big soup pot
chop up 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 a red onion
turn on burner, put pot on burner
coat the bottom with olive oil
put in garlic & onion, stir
while that's heating up, chop up a bunch of carrots
add to pot: 1 large can, 1 small can of diced tomatoes
add carrots
cut 3-4 hot red peppers in half (horizontally), chop off the tops, add to pot. you'll eventually take these out.
add some rosemary
add a carton of vegetable broth
cut tofurkey brand italian sausages into half-circle shapes and add them. i added all four, or an entire package.
add a can of sweet corn (just the corn kernels, but maybe you could add the corn juice too)
chop up the greens - 1.5 small heads of napa cabbage, .5 bunch of chard, .5 bunch of kale, throw in pot
cover, turn heat down a little.
stir occasionally.
take out the red peppers.
enjoy.
2 times i almost got hit today. stupid effing cars.
3 types of leafy greens in my CSA box last week - cabbage, kale and chard. some of the kale and chard were used as a side to a chicken dish that EA and i made on sunday night, the rest was made into a lovely soup.*
4 more nights that you can go see Tenaya Rocks: A Sexy Geological Cabaret. i'm hoping to go either friday or next weekend, depending on EA and GM's schedules
5 approximate miles i ride, roundtrip to get to/from work, assuming no other stops
6 pounds i need to lose (assuming i have not gained anymore since last time i stepped on that sonofabitch scale)
7 weeks left in 2008
8 a hateful proposition that passed in california. i am torn - i regret not volunteering to help the no on 8 campaign, but i also do not regret the time i spent volunteering for obama.
9 days i will be home for christmas - 12/20 - 12/28! (actually, i get in at like 12:30am on 12/20 and fly out 7am on 12/29)
10 number of toes that i am looking forward to getting pedicured and pampered once i lose three pounds
*lovely soup, made of stuff from my fridge & cupboard (ok, i bought the broth):
get a big soup pot
chop up 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 a red onion
turn on burner, put pot on burner
coat the bottom with olive oil
put in garlic & onion, stir
while that's heating up, chop up a bunch of carrots
add to pot: 1 large can, 1 small can of diced tomatoes
add carrots
cut 3-4 hot red peppers in half (horizontally), chop off the tops, add to pot. you'll eventually take these out.
add some rosemary
add a carton of vegetable broth
cut tofurkey brand italian sausages into half-circle shapes and add them. i added all four, or an entire package.
add a can of sweet corn (just the corn kernels, but maybe you could add the corn juice too)
chop up the greens - 1.5 small heads of napa cabbage, .5 bunch of chard, .5 bunch of kale, throw in pot
cover, turn heat down a little.
stir occasionally.
take out the red peppers.
enjoy.
04 November 2008
02 November 2008
VOTE VOTE VOTE
Srsly ppl.
Vote on Tuesday.
Obama.
No on 8 (for you Californians).
I'm going to be phone banking again tomorrow evening, either for 8 or Obama. If you want to come meet me, just give me a call. I went with HW and CP today and it was more fun than going alone.
Vote on Tuesday.
Obama.
No on 8 (for you Californians).
I'm going to be phone banking again tomorrow evening, either for 8 or Obama. If you want to come meet me, just give me a call. I went with HW and CP today and it was more fun than going alone.
Nike Women's Marathon: Race Report
Finally, two weeks later, I'll attempt to write up some semblance of a race report for you, my lovely readers.
Night before:
Dinner, around 6:30pm. Tri-colored rigatoni with tomato sauce and turkey meatballs. Generic green salad. Water. Pretty much the same thing I ate before both my 22 milers. I figured it was safe.
Also, confirmed that I had a ride to the race. Sweeeeeet! Thank you to DN and JK!
Morning of:
Peanut butter & jelly. Bathroom. Water. My wonderful race shirt and the promises of weather that is overcast and 60 degrees. I love San Francisco.
JK overslept and they're going to be late to get me. Uh-oh. Usually I spend a good amount of time waiting in line to use the port-a-potties multiple times. This wasn't going to happen today.
I'm waiting out in the street and I get C3PO, my Garmin all connected to the GPS satellites. I was very excited to be using my new toy for the race. C3PO is set up to give me: average pace, instantaneous pace, time and distance.
Get to the race start, drop off sweats, hit the bathroom one last time. Find my tri club friends - we all trained together with the 9:00 min/mile group and are going to start off together.
The race:
The gun goes off and we shuffle off to the starting line. Then weave our way through the crowds. My friends knew that I'd start off a wee bit on the fast side, but I did manage to keep it to a decent 8:30min/mile-ish pace. My friend AM started off a little earlier than me and she was the first one to cheer me on, once we got to the Embarcadero!
Eventually, the whole group was all together again and we stuck together for a while. Somewhere in the outer Richmond, I had cheerleaders BF and HW find me :) Apparently, my Obama shirt was a nice tip-off to them that I was nearby. My ears weren't burning, but I guess my shirt was getting a lot of comments from the crowd!
Around mile 10 I could feel my right hip freezing up. Then my left calf... and right quad and left quad. OUCH!!!!! The next 16 miles were pretty freaking painful. DN stuck with me and was just super chatty. I told him he could go ahead, but he said he needed someone to talk to. Thank goodness he didn't need conversation - because I would have only been able to let loose with a long line of expletives and whining about how much pain I was in. Seriously, my leg muscles were in knots (even two weeks + a massage later, I'm still not 100% recovered) and I had to do butt-kicks every so often to keep my knees from locking up. Good times. (This is where I promised to do yoga if I ever train for another marathon)
Hydration and food went well. I did Gatorade for the most part, but some water near the end. Two (3?) mini Luna Bars, three (one at the start) caffienated Clif Shots and a few Luna Moons.
Other cheerleaders included MW and MS - who commented on how happy I was at mile 18 - I shouted a big hello to them... and how not happy I was at mile 24 (I was in robot-speed-mode). BF caught up with me again towards the end, as did HW and EH. I was delighted to have so many friends come out - especially in the craptastic (for non-runners) weather!
While we were around mile 20 or so, DN and I had this other runner who would kind of latch on behind us, then walk through the rest stops, then find us again and stick with us. It was, to be honest, a little annoying. By the end, neither of us wanted him to beat us (because we were running the whole time!). It was good to have a partner who was like-minded in that one, especially when we took off after the last aid station at a <8:00 min mile pace and cruised on in to the finish together. Eventually, I found AM again at the finish chute and nearly lost it, I was so drained - physically, as well as mentally and emotionally. I was so happy to see her - I'm glad she survived my bone-crushing hug.
I finished in 3 hours and 48 minutes. (Oh - and 32nd in my age group, out of 830!) That's an average pace of 8:42 per mile. To compare, my pace for a 10k at the Wildflower Triathlon in May and my (flat) half marathon at the Kaiser half in February was 7:46min/mile. The fact that my marathon pace is a minute slower is kind of mind-blowing. I learned that I really need to respect the distance.
Would I do another one? Well, I'm only 8 minutes off from qualifying for Boston. Sounds doable, but that's another 20 seconds faster per mile. A possibility if it was a flatter course... and perhaps a challenge I'd like to take on. Again, only if I do yoga at the same time (my poor, poor legs). And get regular massages.
If you made it through my crappy writing all the way to the end, you can click here to see the route, elevation and pacing information from C3PO. (I forgot to stop my watch at the end, so disregard the 3:55 time, as well as the last bit of pace information)
Night before:
Dinner, around 6:30pm. Tri-colored rigatoni with tomato sauce and turkey meatballs. Generic green salad. Water. Pretty much the same thing I ate before both my 22 milers. I figured it was safe.
Also, confirmed that I had a ride to the race. Sweeeeeet! Thank you to DN and JK!
Morning of:
Peanut butter & jelly. Bathroom. Water. My wonderful race shirt and the promises of weather that is overcast and 60 degrees. I love San Francisco.
JK overslept and they're going to be late to get me. Uh-oh. Usually I spend a good amount of time waiting in line to use the port-a-potties multiple times. This wasn't going to happen today.
I'm waiting out in the street and I get C3PO, my Garmin all connected to the GPS satellites. I was very excited to be using my new toy for the race. C3PO is set up to give me: average pace, instantaneous pace, time and distance.
Get to the race start, drop off sweats, hit the bathroom one last time. Find my tri club friends - we all trained together with the 9:00 min/mile group and are going to start off together.
The race:
The gun goes off and we shuffle off to the starting line. Then weave our way through the crowds. My friends knew that I'd start off a wee bit on the fast side, but I did manage to keep it to a decent 8:30min/mile-ish pace. My friend AM started off a little earlier than me and she was the first one to cheer me on, once we got to the Embarcadero!
Eventually, the whole group was all together again and we stuck together for a while. Somewhere in the outer Richmond, I had cheerleaders BF and HW find me :) Apparently, my Obama shirt was a nice tip-off to them that I was nearby. My ears weren't burning, but I guess my shirt was getting a lot of comments from the crowd!
Around mile 10 I could feel my right hip freezing up. Then my left calf... and right quad and left quad. OUCH!!!!! The next 16 miles were pretty freaking painful. DN stuck with me and was just super chatty. I told him he could go ahead, but he said he needed someone to talk to. Thank goodness he didn't need conversation - because I would have only been able to let loose with a long line of expletives and whining about how much pain I was in. Seriously, my leg muscles were in knots (even two weeks + a massage later, I'm still not 100% recovered) and I had to do butt-kicks every so often to keep my knees from locking up. Good times. (This is where I promised to do yoga if I ever train for another marathon)
Hydration and food went well. I did Gatorade for the most part, but some water near the end. Two (3?) mini Luna Bars, three (one at the start) caffienated Clif Shots and a few Luna Moons.
Other cheerleaders included MW and MS - who commented on how happy I was at mile 18 - I shouted a big hello to them... and how not happy I was at mile 24 (I was in robot-speed-mode). BF caught up with me again towards the end, as did HW and EH. I was delighted to have so many friends come out - especially in the craptastic (for non-runners) weather!
While we were around mile 20 or so, DN and I had this other runner who would kind of latch on behind us, then walk through the rest stops, then find us again and stick with us. It was, to be honest, a little annoying. By the end, neither of us wanted him to beat us (because we were running the whole time!). It was good to have a partner who was like-minded in that one, especially when we took off after the last aid station at a <8:00 min mile pace and cruised on in to the finish together. Eventually, I found AM again at the finish chute and nearly lost it, I was so drained - physically, as well as mentally and emotionally. I was so happy to see her - I'm glad she survived my bone-crushing hug.
I finished in 3 hours and 48 minutes. (Oh - and 32nd in my age group, out of 830!) That's an average pace of 8:42 per mile. To compare, my pace for a 10k at the Wildflower Triathlon in May and my (flat) half marathon at the Kaiser half in February was 7:46min/mile. The fact that my marathon pace is a minute slower is kind of mind-blowing. I learned that I really need to respect the distance.
Would I do another one? Well, I'm only 8 minutes off from qualifying for Boston. Sounds doable, but that's another 20 seconds faster per mile. A possibility if it was a flatter course... and perhaps a challenge I'd like to take on. Again, only if I do yoga at the same time (my poor, poor legs). And get regular massages.
If you made it through my crappy writing all the way to the end, you can click here to see the route, elevation and pacing information from C3PO. (I forgot to stop my watch at the end, so disregard the 3:55 time, as well as the last bit of pace information)
18 October 2008
16 October 2008
Marathon is two days away...
And I need to iron my name on my shirt!
Lots of runners put their name on their shirt so that they can get random spectators to cheer for them. Given that I picked up some nervousness along with my race number this evening, I'm looking for all the help I can get (Can someone please remind the weather gods that this is San Francisco? Where the eff is my fog?)!
The back of my shirt is purely open real estate. Some thoughts:
1. 30 year old marathon virgin
2. marathon virgin (if i can't get some letters to look like a 3 and a 0)
3. VOTE ON NOV 4
4. Vote for Obama
5. Vote for Barack Obama
6. Obama | Biden 08
7. Cheer for me please
8. Am I there yet?
9. Any other ideas?
Lots of runners put their name on their shirt so that they can get random spectators to cheer for them. Given that I picked up some nervousness along with my race number this evening, I'm looking for all the help I can get (Can someone please remind the weather gods that this is San Francisco? Where the eff is my fog?)!
The back of my shirt is purely open real estate. Some thoughts:
1. 30 year old marathon virgin
2. marathon virgin (if i can't get some letters to look like a 3 and a 0)
3. VOTE ON NOV 4
4. Vote for Obama
5. Vote for Barack Obama
6. Obama | Biden 08
7. Cheer for me please
8. Am I there yet?
9. Any other ideas?
Audrey tagged me...
And so I'm supposed to share 6 random things about me...
Hmm. So these are random, but not necessarily unknown things about me? Let's see if I can think of six things that you wouldn't have already gotten from my blog so far.
1. I have a mole/beauty mark in the shape of a heart on the right side of my face, near my eyebrow
2. I really want my mom to get a dog.
3. I did not play sports growing up. I was in dance until fifth grade, but I didn't do any sports until I was an alternate to the JV badminton team my junior year of high school. Given that I still wasn't ready for Varsity my senior year, I couldn't play my senior year. One of my good friends was the captain of the distance group for track and got me to join. Running's been part of my life since then.
4. I feel really uncomfortable in Asia. I don't like being so obviously - 1. a tourist and 2. different from everyone else. I'm also uncomfortable with this part about myself - I feel like it's really immature of me.
5. I have recently broken a multi-year addiction to perezhilton.com/
6. I'm volunteering for Barack Obama by doing phone banking, even though I hate getting calls from political candidates. You should go volunteer too!
Hmm. So these are random, but not necessarily unknown things about me? Let's see if I can think of six things that you wouldn't have already gotten from my blog so far.
1. I have a mole/beauty mark in the shape of a heart on the right side of my face, near my eyebrow
2. I really want my mom to get a dog.
3. I did not play sports growing up. I was in dance until fifth grade, but I didn't do any sports until I was an alternate to the JV badminton team my junior year of high school. Given that I still wasn't ready for Varsity my senior year, I couldn't play my senior year. One of my good friends was the captain of the distance group for track and got me to join. Running's been part of my life since then.
4. I feel really uncomfortable in Asia. I don't like being so obviously - 1. a tourist and 2. different from everyone else. I'm also uncomfortable with this part about myself - I feel like it's really immature of me.
5. I have recently broken a multi-year addiction to perezhilton.com/
6. I'm volunteering for Barack Obama by doing phone banking, even though I hate getting calls from political candidates. You should go volunteer too!
13 October 2008
Urban Dictionary: WOTD
October 13: imaginary bluetooth
An imaginary telephone device popular with riders of public transport, those having manic episodes, paranoid schizophrenics, and just common talk to yourself out loud types.
a. Whoa, dude on the escalator is yakking away to no one and there's no bluetooth in his ear.
b. Imaginary bluetooth in action. Probably on his way to the bus.
An imaginary telephone device popular with riders of public transport, those having manic episodes, paranoid schizophrenics, and just common talk to yourself out loud types.
a. Whoa, dude on the escalator is yakking away to no one and there's no bluetooth in his ear.
b. Imaginary bluetooth in action. Probably on his way to the bus.
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