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[May. 1st, 2012|02:26 pm] |
This week's flowers. |
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[Apr. 26th, 2012|01:24 pm] |
 This week's bouquet.
 I really like the strawflowers. The petals are so crisp and brittle, but the middle is velvety soft. I keep petting the flower.
 Also, I got a chocolate bee. I haven't eaten it yet; I'm getting more enjoyment out of looking at it than I would out of eating it. Because you can't have your bee and eat it too. |
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[Apr. 25th, 2012|05:22 pm] |
On Saturday, we geocached. And we (unexpectedly) got to do one of our favorite things: walk down drainage tunnels!
The cache description was very coy about what to expect, merely saying that we were looking for three "urban waterfalls."
 Those would be the ones.
( Read more... )
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| I would walk 500 miles |
[Apr. 7th, 2012|10:23 am] |
During a long day of shopping and walking yesterday, I officially hit 500 miles for the year. I've had a Fitbit (fancy digital pedometer) since October, but early this year I thought it would be interesting to track my mileage more closely. I've only forgotten to wear it one day this year, so the measurement is probably fairly accurate. I've never calibrated it to my stride, but a little casual spot-checking with known distances showed it slightly underestimating, which is acceptable to me. It sometimes over-counts steps, especially if I'm walking back and forth across a small room, and it will often log a couple hundred steps during a car or bus ride. I partially offset this by taking it off when I get home from work, so it doesn't record anything for the last few hours of my day (during which I'm probably up and down the steps a dozen times, among other things).
About 120 of those miles are from the two-mile walk I take every weekday at lunch. Quite a few of the rest are from geocaching and shopping on weekends. But a lot of them are just from going about my day. The last week has been higher than average because I've taken the bus to work every morning, and I have to walk around back to get in the building that early. I sometimes discount the value of walking I would've done anyway, like it only counts if I sectioned it off and declared it exercise. But that sort of general lifestyle walking is what they tell you to strive for. Park farther away at the mall, take the stairs instead of the elevator (I've taken the stairs in the parking garage to meet Ken every night after work since January 2011).
Of course, I also hear stuff like "walking is not exercise" and "walking won't make you lose weight." But the chance of me joining a gym is absolutely zero, and I'm pretty sure walking is better than not walking. I'm in better shape than I would be in if I didn't do it. Which enables me to walk more and farther. Which makes me happy.
My lowest day so far this year was 3588 steps/1.89 miles, the day we bought our new TV in January. All we did was stand around Best Buy and then come home and unpack electronics. My highest day was 21191 steps/9.45 miles, yesterday. (I did a lot of shopping.)
At the start of the year, I idly thought I might try to get 2000 miles, or 2012. Looking at my averages, that isn't likely. But I could strive for 1900, which I'm currently on track for (I usually run a little under, but it's been a busy week).
My lunch walk is probably the best habit I ever forcibly ingrained in myself. I started slowly, just looping around the back of the library on my way back from lunch. There's a pretty canyon back there. When that didn't feel like enough, I added a hill at the end (I was always out of breath at the top). Then I added a loop to make it a mile (and let myself cool down). Then I added another loop to make it 1.5 miles. Then I added another hill. Then I added a last loop to make it two miles. Then I changed one part of the route to make the hill steeper. I considered that the asskicking alternate version; now I do it every day. It's no longer challenging, but I only have two miles to play with because my lunch hour is not infinite. I could try to go faster, which would enable me to sneak in a little more distance, but I am reluctant for various reasons -- I don't really enjoy walking 4mph, for one thing, and I don't want to be sweaty when I get back to work, because I don't have time to shower. (I will not run; I've seen a lot of Couch to 5k injuries, and I'm sure my form is terrible. Running's a whole nother game. I will only run if a bear is chasing me or if I'm about to miss a bus.)
Anyway, my lunch walk has become something I enjoy a lot; it's my time to relax in the middle of the workday. The route has become so familiar that my feet just do it without me, and I spend the time thinking about stuff or listening to music. It's almost meditative. It's the farthest thing from a chore, and even if I feel a little sluggish at the beginning (which I do sometimes) it's fun by the time I hit the turnaround point. I'd miss it if I couldn't do it, but I always do it. It's a habit. And I really like it that way. |
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| Happy birthday, Moly |
[Apr. 1st, 2012|06:20 pm] |
It's this little kitty's 15th birthday today. She is getting petting, and maybe a Pounce later. |
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[Mar. 29th, 2012|04:27 pm] |
I'm wearing what Ken calls my "iPod shirt" today -- it has a circular design on the front, with a smaller circle inside it. He thinks it looks sort of like a click wheel.
It occurred to me that this shirt predates iPods, and now it's just about outlived the click wheel (they only make one iPod with a click wheel anymore, and it's probably on the verge of being discontinued. Too bad, because I really like the click wheel). Soon, the reference will be meaningless.
It also occurred to me that this is a really old shirt. I think I got it during my first years in Madison, so it's pushing 20 years. It's too big, but it's one of the too-big shirts I think still looks okay because it's fairly drapey. Also, I haven't done laundry lately, so I was running out of options.
What's the oldest piece of clothing you still wear? |
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[Mar. 22nd, 2012|01:25 pm] |
I'm not a meteorologist, but... |
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| It's a lovely morning |
[Mar. 10th, 2012|11:20 am] |
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| Things seen at the grocery store |
[Feb. 27th, 2012|11:59 am] |
 Gum that tastes like Mardi Gras!
 As opposed to gum that tastes like sour babies. |
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[Feb. 27th, 2012|11:08 am] |
I looked through about 3000 fan-made Doctor Who T-shirts on redbubble this weekend.
These were the scariest.
And, especially for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6) karenor and missperkigoth...
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| PSA |
[Feb. 21st, 2012|03:01 pm] |
If you have not done this before, stop and do it right now:
Write your contact information on a piece of paper.
PUT IT IN YOUR WALLET.
Make sure it's somewhere prominent.
For the second time in a year, I found a wallet but couldn't easily contact its owner. It looked like he was a mechanic at LAX who regularly rode the FlyAway bus from Union Station, and he could have had all those very official IDs back right away if he'd just left a phone number. As it is, I wasted half an hour getting it to a Lost and Found he may never check. With Amtrak and Metro and FlyAway all right there, I didn't know where to start, and for once security guards were scarce. I ended up leaving it with Amtrak, since they seemed to be the biggest presence at the station, but I also left a note with FlyAway because I thought he might check there first. They probably thought I was crazy. But I tried.
I lost my wallet in the closing hours of Comic-Con a couple of years ago, and thoroughly freaked out. That had a happy ending, but I still didn't put my phone number in my wallet. Until now. |
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[Jan. 27th, 2012|11:09 am] |
This challenge to send a letter (or some other form of mail) every day for the month of February sounds kind of appealing. I don't think I could actually do it, but I wish I could.
I used to have pen pals, back in the pre-internet days. It was always so exciting to get letters in the mail. I had a years-long correspondence with a guy in England, twenty-page letters every month or two that started out about music but turned into chronicles of the rest of our (very different) lives. (That sounds like the plot of a syrupy romantic movie, I know, but it wasn't like that. We just both liked writing.) We fell out of touch when I was in college, when I started talking to people on the internet. My attention span got progressively shorter, I guess, and writing a substantial letter takes considerable time and effort.
I've been neglecting LJ lately, so maybe it's best to start small. I'll try to write more here in the coming month. I won't say daily, necessarily, but I'll try to be a bit more present. Let's see how that goes. |
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[Jan. 27th, 2012|10:10 am] |
I've been trying to locate a copy of Where's the Doctor for a while, to no avail. Bookdepository keeps running out of stock thirty seconds after it comes in, and I don't trust/believe the few Amazon sellers who've come up.
The used price keeps bouncing up to $7777.00, which I assume is someone's competitive pricing algorithm gone wild. (And that's from the same seller who supposedly had copies for $28.13. I did not believe them.)
 HOW CAN I RESIST SUCH A BARGAIN?
Also, the second search result was rather amusing.
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[Jan. 8th, 2012|11:45 pm] |
Today was lovely. It was warm and sunny, and we went geocaching in a pleasant neighborhood with quiet tree-lined streets. We had lunch at Oggi's (pizza/sports bar), where I ordered a delicious meatball sandwich, and when I went to wash up I passed this:
 A vending machine. Full of ducks.
( Look at my ducks! )
So I was delighted with that, and lunch was excellent, and then we found fourteen more geocaches, for a total of thirty for the day. We found every cache we tried today, with zero failures. We're now up to 56 caches for the month, and it's only January 8th.
When we came home I logged the caches and gloated over my ducks, and later on I made pancakes for dinner. My parents sent us a breakfast basket with really good pancake mix for Christmas, and it came with equally good maple syrup, both of which we have now finished.
So that was a very good day. Now I've got Sherlock to watch, but I'm sleepy and I think it's bedtime. It'll be something to look forward to tomorrow, then. Good night! |
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| A Picture A Day(ish): October 14 |
[Oct. 21st, 2011|03:28 pm] |
 A fire in the fireplace at the UW-Madison Rathskeller.
( A few more. ) |
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| A Picture A Day(ish): October 13 |
[Oct. 21st, 2011|10:19 am] |
Miss me? I've got some pictures to catch up on...
 Wet leaves by the Plaza, where my mom and I had lunch in Madison last Thursday.
( Pretty leaves and Madison. ) |
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| A Picture a Day(ish): October 12 |
[Oct. 12th, 2011|09:58 pm] |
I am in Wisconsin. It was hard to muster any energy for photography today, so here's a quick shot from Kopp's, where we got hamburgers and ate outside. Outside! In Wisconsin! In October! Don't worry, the weather will suck tomorrow. |
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| A Picture a Day(ish): October 11 |
[Oct. 11th, 2011|10:21 pm] |
 Library ravens to the rescue, again. I had no good picture ideas until he showed up.
In other news:
 This is the sort of thing I have to deal with while I'm trying to work on pictures to post for you. Toeffe's getting between me and the keyboard right now. He's purring.
 This is the image I was working on when I took the previous picture. It's posted on someone's door at work. I am deathly afraid that whoever made it did not think it was completely absurd.
Toeffe is now curled up against my chest, half-lying on my wrists, purring his head off. I really need to go to sleep, because I'm flying to Wisconsin in the morning, but I'll indulge him a few moments longer. |
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[Oct. 10th, 2011|08:37 pm] |
Penny likes my WhoNA bag. |
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| A Picture a Day(ish): October 10 |
[Oct. 10th, 2011|08:34 pm] |
Thank goodness I saw this on the way to the car after work, because up till that point I didn't have crap for today's photo. I grabbed my camera, nearly dropped it, took three quick shots and completely missed the raven flying away. (I probably would have caught it at an awkward angle anyway -- my bird-in-flight shots never come out -- but in my head, that picture would have been awesome.) |
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